The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I (A.D. 180-476) [1/2, Complete and Unabridged]

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THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE >»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»M^ BY

EDWARD GIBBON

VOLUME (a. D.

I

180-476)

»»»»»»»»»»»»»>»»»»»»>»»»»»>>»»»»»»M»»M» BENNETT

A.

CERE

•

DONALD

S.

KLOPFBR

THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORK

THE MODERN LIBRARY 18

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—

CONTENTS PACK

CBAP. I.

II.

III.

IV.

The Extent and Military Force of the Empire, IN THE Age of the Antonines

i

Of the Union and Internal F*rospeeity of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines

25

Of the Constitution of the Roman Empire in THE Age of the Antonines (96-180 a.d.)

52

The

Cruelty, Follies, and Murder of Commodus

—Election of Pertinax— Attempts to reAssassination by the form THE State— ^H is

^H is

Praetorian Guards (180-193 V.

a.d.)

73

Public Sale of the Empirb to Didius Julianus by THE PiLETORIAN GUARDS ClODIUS ALBINUS IN Britain, Pescennius Niger in Syria, and SepTIMIUS SeVERUS in PaNNONIA, declare AGAINST the Murderers of Pertinax Civil Wars and Victory of Severus over his three Riva£s Relaxation of Discipline ^New Maxims of Government (193-197 a.d.)

— —

VT.

—

The Death

of Severus Tyranny of Cahacalla Usurpation of Macrinus Follies of ElagabALus Virtues of Alexander Severus ^Licentiousness of the Army General State of the Roman Finances (208-235 a.d.)

—

VII.

— —

90

—

iio

—

The Elevation and Tyranny of Maximin Rebellion IN Africa and Italy, under the Authority of the Senate Civil Wars and Seditions Violent Deaths of Maximin and his Son, OF \XIMUS AND BaLBINUS, AND OF THE ThREE Goroians Usurpation and Secular Games of Philip (235-248 a.d.) V

—

—

M

—

145

—

—

CONTENTS

vi

*’*6*

CHAP.

Vni. Of the State of Persia after the Restoration of THE Monarchy by Artaxerxes (165-240 a.d.) IX.

169

State of Germany till the Invasion of the Barbarians, in the Time of the Emperor

The

186

Decius

X. The Emperors Decius, Gallus, ^milianus, Valerian, and Gallienus The General Irruption of the Barbarians The Thirty Tyrants

— —

(248-268

206

A.D.)

—

—

Defeat of the Goths ^VicTriumph, and Death of Aurelian

XI. Reign of Claudius tories, .

XII.

XIII.

(268-275

245

A.D.)

Conduct of the Army and Senate after the Death of Aurflian Reigns of Tacitus, PhoBus, Cahus, and his Sons (275-285 a.d.)

—

274

The Reign

of Diocletian and his three AssociMaximian, Galerius, and Constantius General Re-establishment of Order and Tranquillity The Persian War, Victory and ates,

— —^The new Form of Administration

Triumph

—^Abdication and Retirement of AND Maximian (285-313

Diocletian 303

a.d.)

XIV. Troubles after the Abdication of Diocletian Death of Constantius Elevation of Constantine AND Maxentius Six Emperors at THE same Time Death of Maximian and Galerius Victories of Constantine over Maxentius and Licinius Re-union of the Empire under the Authority of Constantine

—

—

(305-324

—

—

a.d,)

341

—

XV. The Progress of the Christian Religion Sentiments, Manners, Numbers, and Conditions of THE Primitive Christians

382

XVI. The Conduct of the Roman Government towards THE Christians, from the Reign of Nero to THAT of Constantine (180-313 a.d.)

444

—

—

CONTENTS eSBAP.

Tuat

— —

XVII, Foundation of Constantinople Political System OF Constantine and his Successors ^Military The Finances Discipline The Palace

—

•

(300-500

—

505

A.D.)

— —

—

XVIII. Character of Constantine Gothic War Death OF Constantine ^Division of the Empire AMONG HIS THREE SONS PERSIAN WAR TRAGIC Deaths of Constantine the Younger and Const ans Usurpation of Magnentius Civil War Victory of Constantius (342-353 a.d.)

—

—

—

—

—

and Emperor Elevation XIX. Constantius sole Death of Gallus Danger and Elevation of Julian Sarmatian and Persian Wars ^Vio TORIES OF Julian in Gaul (351-360 a.d.)

—

—

XX. The Motives,

560

—

Progress, and Effects of the Conversion OF Constantine ^Legal Establishment AND Constitution of the Christian or Catholic Church (306-438 a.d.)

598

—

634

—

XXI. Persecution of Heresy ^The Schism of the DonATISTS THE ArIAN CONTROVERSY AtHANASIUS Distracted State of the Church and Empire UNDER Constantine and his Sons Toler-

—

—

ation of Paganism (312-362

671

a.d.)

declared Emperor by the Legions of ^H is March and Success The Death of Constantius Civil Administration op Julian (360-361 aj),)

XXII. Julian

is

Gaul

XXIII.

The

—

—

—

727

—

Religion of Julian ^Universal Toleration attempts to restore and reform the Pagan Worship ^To rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem His artful Persecution of the Christians Mutual Zeal and Injustice (351-363 a.d.)

He

—

—

—

XXTV. Residence of Julian at Antioch

^His

—

successful

—Passage of

Expedition against the Persians the Tigris The Retreat and

Death of

756

—

—

— —

CONTENTS

vSi CHAP.

Roman Ahmy 390

PAGE

—

—Election

Julian

of Jovian He saves the by a disgraceful Treaty (314-

A.D.)

•

797

—

XXV. The Government and Death of Jovian Election OF Valentinian, who associates his Brother Valens, and makes the final Division of the Eastern and Western Empires Revolt of

— —Civil and Ecclesiastical Adminis— Germany — Britain — Africa — The East—^The Danube—Death of Valentinian—His two Sons, Gratian and ValentiProcopius tration

nian

II.,

succeed to the Western Empire 841

(343-384 a.d.)

— —

XXVI. Manners of the Pastoral Nations Progress of THE Huns from China to Europe Flight of THE Goths Dfpeat and Death of Valens Gratian invests Theodosius with the Eastern Empire Peace and Settlement of the

— —

Goths (365-395

a.d.)

899

XXVII. Death of Gratian

Rihn 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 (340-397

—

a.d.)

xxvni. Final Destruction of Paganism

956

—^Introduction of

the Worship of Saints and Relics among the Christians (378-420

XXIX. Final

a.d.)

1002

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 (386-398

XXX.

a.d.)

1027

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 f^iSGRACE and Death of Stilicho (395-408 a.d.) 1047

—

h

CONTENTS CBAF.

XXXL

—

Invasion of Italy by Alabic Rome is thsice be> SIEGED, AND AT LENGTH PILLAGED, BY THE GOTHS Death op Alamo ^The Goths evacuate Gaul and Fall of Constantine Italy Spain occupied by the Babbabians ^Independence OF BbITAIN (408-449 A.D.)

—

—

—

— —

—

XXXII. Abcadius Emperor of the East ^Administration Revolt of AND Disgrace of Eutropius Gainas Persecution of St. John Chrysostom Theodosius II. Emperor of the East The Persian War, and Division of Armenia

— —

(39S-I4S3

—

1150

a.d.)

—

XXXIII. Death of Honorius ^Valentinian III. Emperor of the West ^Administration of his Mother Placidia ^Aetius and Boniface Conquest of Africa by the Vandals (423-455 a.d.) 1181

— —

—

XXXIV. 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 (376-453 a.d.) 1199

XXXV.

—

Invasion of Gaul by Attila ^He is repulsed by Aetius and the Visigoths ^Attila invades AND EVACUATES ITALY ^THE DeATHS OF ATTILA,

—

Aetius,

—

and Valentinian the Third (419-455 1335

A.D.)

XXXVI. Sack of Rome by Genseric—^His Naval Depreda-

—

Succession of the last Emperors of THE West, Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, SevERUS, Anthemius, Olvbrius, Glycemus, Nepos, Augustulus ^Total Extinction of the Western Empire Reign of Odoacer, the first Barbarian King of Italy (439-490 a.d.) 1355 tions

— —

THE

HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE CHAPTER The Extent and

I

Military Force of the Empire in the

Age

of the Antonines

In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome com* prehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was

preserved with decent reverence; the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period (a.d. 98-180) of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth. The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of die senate, the active emulation of the consuls, and the martial enthusia^n of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public coimcils. Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in bar present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the I

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

8

of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more (Ufficult, the event more doubtful, and The experience the possession more precarious, and lest beneficial. of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and effectually convinced him that, by the prudent vigour of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable Barbarians. Instead of exposing his person and his lemons to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtain^, by an honourable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus.^ His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of .Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles .in{ounds them here. The former was under the south-eastern extremity of the Acropolis, the latter under the southwestern extremity. The Odeum served for the rehearsal of new comedies as well as tragedies. They were read or repeated before representation without music or decorations. No piece could be represented in the theatre if it had not been previously approved by judges for this purpose. The King of Cappadocia, who restored the Odeum which had been burned by Sylb, was Ariobarzaribs. Cf. Martini, Dissertat. on Odeons of AncientSf Upsic, 1767.— O. S.] ** Philostrat. 1 ii. p. 548, 560 Pausanias, 1 i. and vii. 10. The Life of Herodes, in the xxxth volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions.

” [The Odeum of

different structures.

.

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

4a

destined to the public use; ” nor was this republican spirit totally It was extinguished by the introduction of wealth and monarchy. in works of national honour and benefit, that the most virtuous of the emperors affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero excited a just indignation, but the vast extent of ground which had been usurped by his selfish luxury, was more nobly filled under the succeeding reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and the temples dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the These monuments of architecture, the property genius of Rome.'® of the Roman people, were adorned with the most beautiful productions of Grecian painting and sculpture; and in^the temple of Peace

At a very curious library was open to the curiosity of the learned. a small distance from thence was situated the Forum of Trajan. It was surrounded with a lofty portico, in the form of a quadrangle, into which four tri u mphal arches opened a noble and spacious entrance: in the centre arose a column of marble, whose height, of one hundred and ten feet, denoted thh elevation of the hill that had been cut away. This column, which still subsists in its ancient beauty, exhibited an exact representation of the Dacian victories of its founder. The veteran soldier contemplated the story of his own campaigns, and by an easy illusion of national vanity, ^e peaceful citizen associated himself to the honours of the triumph. All the other quarters of the capital, and all the pro^dnces of the empire, were embellished by the same liberal spirit of public magnificence, and were filled with amphitheatres, theatres, temples, porticos, triumphal arches, baths, and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, the devotion, and the pleasures of the meanest citizen. The last mentioned of those edifices deserve our peculiar attention. The boldness of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, and the uses to which they were subservient, rank the aqueducts among the noblest monuments of Roman genius and power. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just pre-eminence; but the curious traveller, who, without the light of history, should examine those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Segovia, would very naturally conclude that those provincial towns had formerly been the residence of some potent "It

is

remarked of Athens by Dicxarchus, de Statu Geographos Minores, edit. Hudson.

particularly

p. 8, inter

Grsecise,

"Donatus de Roma Vetere, 1 . Hi. c. 4, 5, 6. Nardim Roma Antica, 1 iii. 13, and a MS. description of ancient Rome, by Bernardus Oricellarius, or Rucellai, of which 1 obtained a copy from the library of the Canon Ricardi at Florence. Two celebrated pictures of Timanthes and of Protogenes are mentioned by Pliny, as in the Temple of Peace: and the Laocoon was found in the baths of Titus. [It was the Emperor Vespasian who caused the Temple of Peace to be built, and who ordered to be transported to it the greatest part of the pictures, statues, and other works of art which had esi&ped the civil tumults. It was Acre that every day the artists and the literati of Rome assembled, and on its site many antiques have been dug up. Cf. Notes of Reimarus on Dion Cassius, Ixvi. c. 15.— O. S.] .

II, 12

THE ROMAN EMPIRE monarch.

The

4^

and Africa were once covered with whose populousness, and even whose existence, Uras

solitudes of Asia

flourishing cities,

derived from such

artificial

supplies of a perennial stream of fresh

water.'^’

We have computed the inhabitants and contemplated the public works of the Roman empire. The observation of the number and greatness of its cities will serve to confirm the former, and to multi^dy It may not be unpleasing to collect a few scattered inthe latter. stances relative to that subject, without forgetting, however, that from the vanity of nations and the poverty of language, the vague appellation of city has been indifferently bestowed on Rome and upon Laurentum. Ancient Italy is said to have contained eleven hundred and ninety-seven cities; and for whatsoever era of antiquity the expression might be intended,’* there is not any reason to believe the country less populous in the age of the Antonines than in that of Romulus. The petty states of Latium were contained within the metropolis of the empire, by whose superior influence they had been attracted. Those parts of Italy which have so long languished under the lazy tyranny of priests and viceroys, had been afflicted only by the more tolerable calamities of war; and the first symptoms of decay which they experienced were amply compensated by the rapid improvements of the Cisalpine Gaul. The splendour of Verona may be traced in its remains: yet Verona was less celebrated than Aquileia or Padua, Milan or Ravenna. II. The spirit of improvement had passed the Alps, and been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gradually cleared away to open a free space for convenient and elegant habitations. York was the seat of government; London was already enriched by commerce; and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal waters. Gaul could boast of her twelve hundred cities; ’* and though, in the northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris itself, were little more than the rude and imperfect townships of a rising people; the southern provinces imitated the wealth and elegance of Many were the cities of Gaul, Marseilles, Arles, Nismes, NarItaly.*® bonne, Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Autim, Vienna, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose ancient condition might sustain an equal, and perhaps advan^geous comparison with their present state. With regard to Spain, that country flourished as a province, and has declined as a kingdom. Exhausted by the abuse of her strength, by America, and ”Montfaucon I’Antiquite Expliquw, tom. iv. p. 2, 1 i. c. 9. Fabretti has composed a very learned treatise on the aqueducts of Rome. " JElian. Hist. Var. 1 ix. c. 16. He lived in the time of Alexander Sevcrui. .

.

See Fabricius, Biblioth. Grseca, 1 iv. c. 21. "Joseph, de Bell. Jud. ii. 16. The number, however, should be received with a degree of latitude. "Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. .

is

mentioned, and

;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

44

tiy superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we zequ^ such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Plin^ has exhibited under the reign of Vespasian.*^ ni. Three hundred African cities had once acknowledged the authority of Carthage,®* nor is it likely that their numbers diminished rmder the administration of the emperors; Carthage itself rose with new splendour from its ashes; and that capital, as well as Capua and Corinth, soon recovered all the advantages which can be separated from independent sovereignty. IV.

provinces of the east present the contrast of Roman magnificence The ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed, by ignorance, to the power of magic,

The

with Turkish barbarism.

scarcely afford a shelter to the oppressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign of the Csesars, the proper Asia alone contained five

hundred populous cities,®* enri^ed with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had once disputed the honour of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their reFour of them were spective merits were examined by the senate.®* immediately rejected as unequal to the burden; and among these was Laodicea, whose splendour is still displayed in its ruins.®* Laodicea collected a very considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, celebrated for the fineness of their wool, and had received, a little before the contest, a legacy of above four hundred thousand pounds by the testament of a generous citizen.*® If such was the poverty of Laodicea, What must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Fergamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long disputed with each other over the titular primacy of Asia.*'' The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a still superior rank in the em~ “Plln. Hist. Natur. iii. 3, 4, iv. 35. The list seems authentic and accurate: die division of the provinces, and the different conditon of the cities, are

minutely distinguished. “Strabon. Geograph. 1 "Joseph, de Bell. Jud. .

xvii. p. 1189. ii.

16.

Fhilostrat.

in

Vit.

Sophist.

I.

ii.

p.

548,

edit. Clear.

"Tacit. Annal. iv. 55. I have taken some pains in consulting and comparing modern travellers, with regard to the fate of those eleven cities of Asia; seven or eight are totally destroyed, Hypsepe, Tralles, Laodicea, Ilium, Halicarnassus, Miletus, Ephesus, and we may add Sardis. Of the remaining three, Fergamus is a straggling village of two or three thousand inhabitants Magnesia, under the name of Guzel-hissar, a town of some consequence, and Smyrna, a great city, peopled by an hundred thousand souls. But even at Smyrna, while the Franks have maintained commerce, the Turks have ruined the arts. "See a very exact and pleasing description of the ruins of Laodicea, in Chandler’s Travels through Asia Minor, p. 225, etc.

" Strabo, 1 xii. p. 866. He had studied at 'Tralles. " Dissertation of M. de Boze, Mem. de 1 Academic,* tom. xviii. Aristides pronounced an oration which is still extant, to recommend concord to the .

’

rival cities.

taS ROMfAK EMPIRE

4S
c. 43). places behind the Marcomanni and Quadi (Tacit. German, great, and improbability of an i.solated Gallic people in this district is very that they spoke the Galician. Cf. Lathams it has therefore been conjectured (jermania of Tacitus. O. S.] . .u . u . of “ [According to Dr. Keating the giant Partholanus who was the the son of Framant, of son the Sru. of son Seara the son of Esra, the the Fathaclan. the son of Magog, the son of Japhet, 8 May, in the year of ^the world the coast of Munster, the 14 day of loose behaviour of his Though he was successful in his great enterprise, the wife rendered his domestic life very 'IheTeameTL^ nis Ke Icilled her favourite greyhound. This* as the leameQ °*^'[The Gothini.

—

W

tenc|bserv«.warthe

first

instance

.

female falsehood and infidelity ever

Abulghazi Bahudar, ''"‘TGeneabgfcal Hfeto^ of the Tartars by

Khan.—

'

ffis

Bayle has PV™ work, entitled Atlantica, is uncommonly scarce. Republique des Lettres Janvier ct Fevner, 1685. it.

most curious extracts from

—

THE DECLINE AND FALt OF

i$6

(for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the Atlantis of Plato, the country of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Elysian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect transcripts. A clime so profusely favoured by Nature could not long remain desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand persons. He then disperses them into small colonies to replenish the earth and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment (which marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command of Askenaz, the son of Corner, the son of Japhet) distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in the prosecution of this great work. The northern hive cast its swarms over the greatest part of Europe, Africa, and Asia; and (to use the author’s metaphor) the Mood circulated from the extremities to the heart.

But all this well-laboured system of German antiquites is annihilated by a single fact, too well attested to admit of any doubt, and of too The Germans, in the decisive a nature to leave room for any reply. and the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters; is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilised people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection.

use of letters

Without that

artificial help,

the

human memory soon

dissipates or cor-

rupts the ideas intrusted to her charge; and the nobler faculties of the

mind, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually

for-

get their powers; the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic, the im-

Fully to apprehend this important truth, us attempt, in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The former, hy reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, and lives in distant ages and remote countries; whilst the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years of exi.stence, surpasses, but very little, his fellow-labourer the t)x in the exercise of his mental faculties. The same, and even a greater, difference will be found between nations than between individuals; and we may safely i)ronounce that, without some species of writing, no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history, ever made any considerable progress in the abstract agination languid or irregular. let

Germ.

I.itcraru'n sccrcta viri paritcr a- fccmlmc iirnorant. with this decisive authority, without entering into the obscure disputes concerning the antiquity of the Runic character.s. The learned Celsius, a Swede, a b. holar, and a iihilosophcr, was of opinion, that they were nothing more than (he Roman letters, with the curies changed into straight lines for the case of engraving. See Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtcs,

"‘Tacit.

We may

rest

ii.

lo.

ronteiitecl

We

1. ii. c. ti. Dictionnairc Diplomatique, tom. i. p. SJ.J, may add, that the oldest Runic inscriptions are supposed to he of the third century, and the most ancient writer who mentions the Runic characters is Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. vii. i8), who lived towards the end of the sixth century Barbara fraxineis pingatur Runa tabellis.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

i|^

any tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life. Of these arts, the ancient Germans were wretchedly destitute. They passed their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simModern Germany is said to contain about two thousand three plicity. sciences, or ever possessed, in

hundred walled towns.” In a much wider extent of country, the geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than ninety places, which he decorates with the name of cities; though, according to our ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications, constructed in the centre of the

and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion.^® But Tacitus asserts, as a well-known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities;-" and that they affected to despise the works of Homan industry as places of confinement rather than of security.®^ Their ediwood.s,

were not even contiguous, or formed into regular villas; ““ each barbarian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water had induced him to give the preference. is either stone, nor brick, nor tiles, were employed in these slight habitations.-' They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the North clothed themselves in furs; and the women manufactured for their own use a fices

" Keiliorchcs autliiir (if

lli.il

I'liilusdphiiiucs

\cry

(.iirinus

sur

work

is.

Ics

.Americains, tom. iii p. am not misinformed, a

if T

228. The German by

liirtli.

[The Iviiiiic (-Iiamctcrs h;oc exercised the Icarninp: of Scandinavian scholars 'I luce theories ha\c l>een mooted, the first, by Schlozcr, as to their orip.n. that tl'.e lO Uuiiic letters are corruptions of the Koinan alphabet, post-Christian in date; the si eoiid, that by I'redervk Schiedel, that these characters were left by the I’lifenicans, preserved by the priestly castes and employed for purposes of masic; the last theory .supposes them to he Indo-Tcutonic. brought from the Jfast ages before our era. Cf. Fori'iijit Quarterly Review, vol. ix. p.

4 JS.- O. S. ’*

1

Alevaiulriaii Geographer is often criticised by the accurate Cluverius. Sec C'.vsar, and Whit.ikcr’s History of Manchester, vol. i.

The

”

“Tacit. Germ.

15.

Germans eommanded the Uhii of Cologne to cast off the Roman >-oke, and with their new freedom to resume their ancient manners, they insisted on the immediate elemolition of the w^H® of the col()ny. etiam “ Postulamus a \ohis, muros coloniie, mummenla servitii detrahatis

“When

the

;

^

Tacit. Hist. iv. 64. animalia, si clausa (eneas, virtutis oblivisciintur.” “The straggling villages of Silesia .are several miles in length. Cluver. 1

fera

.

1.

c.

13.

“One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more regular structures were erected near the Rhine and Danube. Herodian, 1 vii. p. 234* .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

i«*

coarse MnH of linen.^* The game of various sorts, tHth which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants with food and exercise.^’ Their monstrous herds of cattle, less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility,^* formed the principal object of their wealth. A small quantity of com was the only produce exacted from the earth: the use of orchards or artificial meadows was unknown to the Germans; nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people whose property every year experienced a general change by a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that strange opera* tion, avoided. disputes by suffering a great part of their territory to lie waste and without tillage.^^ Gold, silver, aqd iron were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally rewarded the attention of Sweden, which now supplies the princes of Brunswick and Saxony. Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its own riches; and the appearance of the arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed the noblest use of that metal. The various transactions of peace and war had introduced some Roman coins (chiefly silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube; but the more distant tribes were absolutely unacquainted with the use of money, carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, and prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal vtdue with the silver vases, the presents of Rome to their princes and ambassadors.^* To a mind capable of reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction than a tedious detail of subordinate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent. The use of gold and silver is in a great measure fictitious; but it would be impossible to enumerate the important and various services which agriculture, and all the arts, have received from iron, when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire and the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the most universal incitement, iron the most powerful instrument, of human industry; and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people, neither actuated by the one nor seconded by the other, could emerge from the grossest barbarism.*’ **

Tacit Germ.

17.

“C**ar de Bell. “ Tacit Germ. 6. “It

is

Gall. vi. 21.

said that the

“Tacit Germ. "Tacit Germ.

5.

26.

Caesar, vi.

az

Mexicans and Peruvians, without the use of either

money or iron, had made a very great progrress in the arts. Those arts, and the monuments they produced, have been strangely magnified. Recherchea sur

les

Americains, tom.

ii.

p. 153, etc.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

i«3

If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe, a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their general character. In a civilised state, every faculty of man is expanded and exercised; and the great chain of mutual dependence connects and embraces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and uaful labour. The select few, placed by fortune above that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory, by the improvement of their estate or of their understanding, by the duties, the pleasures, and even the follies of social life. The Germans were not p>ossessed of their varied resources. The care of the house and family, the management of the land and cattle, were delegated to the old and the infirm, to women and slaves. The lazy warrior, destitute of every art that might employ his leisure hours, consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifications of sleep and food. And yet, by a wonderful diversity of Nature (according to the remark of a writer who had pierced into its darkest recesses) the same barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind. They delight in sloth, they detest tranquillity.*® The languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required some new and powerful sensation; and war and danger were the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper. The sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an active pursuit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and violent emotions of the mind, restored him to a more lively sense of his existence. In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians were immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking; both of which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by extinguishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They gloried in passing whole days and nights at table; and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies.** Their debts of honour (for in that light they have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate gamester, who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision of fortune, and suffered himself to be bound, chastised, and ,

sold into remote slavery,

by

his

weaker but more lucky antagonist.®*

Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes of German debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy,

and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of intoxication. They attempted not, however (as has since been executed with Tacit. Germ. 22. 23. “Tacit. Germ. IS. , “Tacit. Gcmi. 24. The Germans might borrow the arts of play from Romans, but the passion is wonderfully inherent in the human species.

th.

,

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

much success) to naturalise the vine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; nor did they endeavour to procure by industry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To solicit by labour what might be ravished by arms was esteemed unworthy of the German spirit.®® The SO

intemperate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations attracted them into Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions of a happier climate.®* And in the same manner the German auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of the sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of plenteous quarters in the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy.®® Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most dangerous, of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less civilised state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war, or a revolution. The climate of ancient

Germany has been mollified, and the soil ferby the labour of ten centuries from the time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at present maintains, in ease afid plenty, a million of husbandmen and artificers, was unable to supply an hundred thousand lazy warriors with the simple necessaries of life.®® The Germans abandoned their immense forests to the exercise of hunting, employed in pasturage the most considerable part of their lands, bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country that refused to tilised,

maintain the multitude of its inhabitants. When the return of famine severely admonished them of the importance of the arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigration of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part of their youth.*^ The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilised people to an improved But the Germans, who carried with them what they most country.

valued, their arms, their cattle, and their women, cheerfully abandoned the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest. The innumerable swarms that issued, or seemed to issue, from the great storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of the vanquished and by the credulity of succeeding ages. And from facts thus “Tacit. Germ.

“

14,

Plutarch, in Camillo.

T. Liv. v. 33. Hist, dc la Monar. Frang., i. p. 193. "The Hehctian nation, which issued from the country called Switzerland, contained, of every age and sex, 368,000 jiersons (Caisar de Bell. Gall. i. 29). At present, the number of people in the Pays de Vaud (a small district on the banks of the Leman Lake, much more distinguished for politeness than for industry) amounts to 112,591. See an excellent tract of M. Muret, in the

“Dubo').

Memoircs dc

la

Societe de Bern.

"Paul Diaconus,

c.

i,

2,

3.

Machiavel, Davila, and the rest of Paul’s much as regular and concerted

followers, represent these emigrations too

measures.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

SM

ex^gerated, an opinion was gradually established, and has been supported by writers of distingui^ed reputation, that, in the age of Csesar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the North were far more numerous than they are in our days.®* A more serious inquiry into the causes of population seems to have convinced modem philosophers of the falsehood,

and ^indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names of Mariana and of Machiavel,®® we can oppose the equal names of Robertson and Hume.“ A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the 'enjoy-s ment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism. “ Among the Suiones (says Tacitus), riches are held in honour. They are therefore subject to an absolute monarch, who, instead of intrusting his people with the free use of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germanj , commits them to the safe custody not of a citizen, or even of a freedman, but of a slave. The neighbours of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below servitude; they obey a woman.” In the mention of these exceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the general theory of government. are only at a loss to conceive by what means riches and despotism could penetrate into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the generous flame that blazed with such fierceness on

We

the frontier of the

Roman provinces:

and Norwegians,

so distinguished in latter ages

or

how the

ancestors of those

by

their

Danes

unconquered

could thus tamely resign the great character of German liberty.*® however, on the coast of the Baltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men;*® but in the far greater part of Germany, the form of government was a democracy tempered indeed, and controlled, not so much by general and spirit,

Some

tribes,

“Sir William Temple and Montesquieu have indulged, or this subject, the usual liveliness of their fancy. *Machia\eI Hist, di Firenze, 1. i. Mariana Hist. Hispan. 1. v. c. l. "Robertson's Charles V. Hume's Political Essays. [It is a wise observation of Malthus that these nations were not populous in proportion to the land they occupied, but to the food they produced. They were prolific from their pure morals, but their institutions were not calculated O. S.] to produce food. “ Tacit, German. 44, 45. Frenshemius (who dedicated his supplement to Livy to Christina of Swede. i) thinks proper to be very angry with the Roman who expressed so very little reverence for Northern queens. "May we not suspect that superstition was the parent of despotism? The descendants of Odin (whose race was not extinct till the year 1060) are said

—

The temple of^ TJpsal to have reipned in Sweden above a thousand years. was the ancient seat of religion and empire. In the year ii53 ^ find a singular law, prohibiting the use and profession of arms to any except the king’s guards. old Is it not proliahle that it was coloured by the pretence of reviving an xlv. institution? Dalling’s History of Sweden in the Bibliothecpie Raisonnee, xl.

"

'Tacit.

Germ.

c.

43.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

tg6

by the occasional ascendant of birth or valour, of elo« queuce or superstition.*^ Civil governments, in their first institutions, are voluntary associa* To obtain the desired end, it is absolutely tions for mutual defence. necessary that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private opinion and actions to the judgment of the greater number of his associates. The German tribes were contented with this rude but As soon as a youth, born of free liberal outline of political society. parents, had attained the age of manhood, he was introduced into the general council of his countrymen, solemnly invested with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and worthy member of the military commonwealth. The assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons or on sudden emergencies. The trial of public offences, the election of magistrates, and the great business of peace and war, were determined by its independent voice. Sometimes, indeed, these important questions were previously considered and prepared in a more select council of the principal chieftains.** The magistrates might deliberate and persuade, the people only could resolve and execute; and the resolutions of the Germans were for the most part hasty and violent. Barbarians accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the present passion, and their courage in overlooking all future consequences, turned away with indignant contempt from the remonstrance of justice and policy, and it was the practice to ^gnify by a hollow murmur their disBut whenever a more popular orator prolike of such timid counsels. posed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon his fellow-countrymen to assert the national honour, or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans always met in arms, and it was constantly to be dreaded lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and positive laws, as

strong liquors, should use those arms to enforce, as well as to declare, their furious resolves. may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood, and the more numerous party has been

We

compelled to yield to the more violent and seditious.**

A

was elected on occasions of danger; and, if was pressing and extensive, several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general. The bravest warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field, by his example rather than by his commands. But this power, however limited, was still invidious. It expired with the war, and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any general of the tribe

the danger

“Tacit. Germ.

c.

ii, 12, 13, etc.

“ Grotius changes an expression of Tacitus, pertractaniur The correction is equally just and ingenious.

into pratractantur.

“Even in our ancient parliament, the barons often carried a question, not much by the number of votes, as by that of their armed followers.

so

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

19)

supreme

chief.*^ Princes were, however, appointed in the general assembly, to administer justice, or rather to compose differences,** in rhwr re^)ective districts. In the choice of these magistrates as much regard was shown to birth as to merit.'** To each was assigned, by the public, a guard and a council of an hundred persons; and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a pre-eminence of rank and honour which sometimes tempted the Romans to compliment him with the regal title.** The compiarative view of the p>owers of the magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of German manners. The disposal of the landed property within their district was absolutely vested in their hands, and they distributed it every year according to a new division.** At the same time they were not authorised to punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike, a private citizen.*^ A people thus jealous of their persons, and careless of their

must have been totally destitute of industry and the arts, but animated with a high sense of honour and independence. The Germans respected only those duties which they imposed on themThe most obscure soldier resisted with disdain the authority selves. of the magistrates. “ The noblest youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful companions of some renowned chief, to whom they devoted their arms and service. A noble emulation prevailed among the companions to obtain the first place in the esteem of their chief amongst the chiefs, to acquire the greatest number of valiant companions. To be ever surrounded by a band of select youths was the pride and strength of the chiefs, their ornament in peace, their defence in war. The glory of such distinguished heroes diffused itself beyond the narrow limits of possessions,

;

own tribe. Presents and embassies solicited their friendship, and the fame of their arms often ensured victory to the party which they espoused. In the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief to be surpassed in valour by his companions; shameful for the companions not to equal the valour of their chief. To survive his fall in battle was To protect his person and to adorn his glory with indelible infamy. the trophies of their own exploits were the most sacred of their duties. The chiefs combated for victory, the companions for the chief. The noblest warriors, whenever their native country was sunk in the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous bands in some distant scene of

their

action, to exercise their restless spirit and to acquire renown by volunGifts worthy of soldiers, the warlike steed, the bloody tary dangers.

victorious lance, were the rewards which the companions claimed from the liberality of their chief. The rude plenty of his

and ever

" Cxsar de Bell. Gall. vi. 23. . j "Minuunt controversias is a very happy expression of Caesars. Germ. 7. “Reges ex nobilitatc, duces ex virtute sumunt. Tacit. .

"Cluver. Germ. Ant. **

Caesar, vi. 22.

1.

Tacit.

i.

c.

Germ.

38.

26.

Tacit.

Germ. 7-

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

198

hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow or they woidd accept. War, rapine, and the free-will offerings of his friends, supplied This institution, however it the materials of this munificence.” might accidentally weaken the several republics, invigorated the general

character of the Germans, and even ripened amongst them all the virtues of which barbarians are susceptible; the faith and valour, the hospitality and the courtesy, so conspicuous long afterwards in the ages of chivalry. The honourable gifts, bestowed by the chief on his brave companions, have been supposed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudiments of the fiefs, distributed, after the conquest of the Roman provinces, by the barbarian lords among their vassals, with a similar duty of homage and military service.®* These conditions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient Germans, who delighted in mutual presents; but without either imposing, or accepting, the weight of obligations.®® “ In the days of chivalry, or

were brave, and

all

the

more properly of romance, all the men chaste;” and notwithstanding the acquired and preserved with much more dif-

women were

latter of these virtues is

than the former, it is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives of the ancient Germans. Polygamy was not in use, except among the princes, and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alDivorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws. liances. Adulteries were punished as rare and inexpiable crimes; nor was seducficulty

by example and fashion.®® We may easily discover that Tacitus indulges an honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue with the dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies: yet there are some striking circumstances that give an air of truth, or at least of probability, to the conjugal faith and chastity of the Germans. Although the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, disguised by sentimental The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a passion. lustre to beauty, and Inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxtion justified

urious entertainments, midnight dances,

“ Tacit. Germ. “ Esprit

cles

and

licentious spectacles, pre-

13, 14.

Loix,

1.

xxx.

c.

5.

The

brilliant

imagination of Montesquieu

corrected, however, by the dry cold reason of the Abl)e de Mably. tions sur I’Histoire dc J''ranre, tom. i. p. 356. is

(Observa-

“ Gaudent munenbus, sed nec data imputant, ncc acceptis obligantur. Tacit. Germ. c. 21. “The adulteress was whipped through the village. Neither wealth nor beauty could inspire compassion, or procure her a second husband. Germ, c. 18, 19.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE sent at once temitotion and opportunity to female fraUty.®^ From da^ers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. The German huts, open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian harem. To this reason, another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human. Some of these interpreters of fate, such as Velleda, in the Batavian war, governed, in the name of the deity, the fiercest nations of Germany.®** The rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, were respected as the free and equal companions of soldiers; associated even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of danger, and of glory,®* In their great invasions, the camps of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women, who remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms, the various forms of destruction, and the honourable wounds of their sons and husbands.*" Fainting armies of Germans have more than once been driven back upon the enemy by the generous despair of the women who dreaded death much less than servitude. If the day was irrecoverably lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their own hands, from an insulting victor.*' Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration; but they were most assuredly Whilst they affected to neither lovely, nor very susceptible of love. emulate the stern virtues of vian, they must have resigned that attracContive softness in which principally consists the charm of woman. scious pride taught the German females to suppress every tender emotion that stood in competition with honour, and the first honour of the sex has ever been that of chastity. The sentiments and conduct of these high-spirited matrons may, at once, be considered as a cause, as an

Female effect, and as a proof of the general character of the nation. courage, however it may be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly valour that distinguishes the age- or countrj* in which it may be found. The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and "Ovitl

the best adapted to collect the beauties of into tenderness and sensuality.

consitler.s the theatre as

Rome, and

to tnelt

them

“Tacit. Hist. iv. 6i, 65. _ , “ The marriage present was yoke of oxen, horses, and arms. Germ. c. 18. .subject. Tacitus is sonicv\hat too florid on the “The change of cxinerf into cxugcre is a most excellent correction. “ Tacit Germ c 7 Plutarch in Mario. Before the wives of the Teutones had offered to surrender on destroyed themselves and their children they slaves of the vestal virgins. condition that they should be received as the

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

soo

thwr ignorance.*^ /They adored the great visible objects and agents of nature, the Sun and the Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion, entertained by that people, of the Deity, whom they neither confined within the walls of a temple, nor represented by any human figure; but when we recollect that the Germans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquainted with the art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason of a scruple which arose not so much from a superiority of reason as from a want of ingeThe only temples in Germany were dark and ancient groves, nuity. consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship, impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror; and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest. The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws, exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of superstition. The German priests, improving this favourable temper of their countrymen, had assumed a jurisdiction, even in temporal concerns, which the magistrate could not venture to exercise; and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it was inflicted, not by any human power, but by the immediate order of the god of war."* The defects of civil policy were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was constantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the popular assemblies; and was sometimes extended to a more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A solemn procession was occasionally celebrated in the present countries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The unknown symbol of the Earth, covered with a thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows; and in this manner the goddess, whose common residence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adjacent tribes of her worshippers. During her progress the sound of war was “ Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluverius one hundred and twentyfour pages, on this obscure subject. The former discovers in Germany the gods of Greece and Rome. The latter is positive, that under the emblems of the sun, the moon, and the fire, his pious ancestors worshipped the Trinity in unity.

“The

sacred wood, described with such sublime horror by Lucan, was in were many of the same kind in

the neighbourhood of Marseilles; but there

Germany. “Tacit. Germania,

c. 7.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

m

hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity of tasting the blessings of peace and harmony.®* The truce of God, so often and so ineSectually proclaimed by the clergy of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom. ®® But the influence of religion was far more powerful to inflame than to moderate the fierce passions of the Germans. Interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The consecrated standards, long revered in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle; and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder.** In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of ans. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities; the wretch, who had lost his shield, alike banished from the religious and the civil assemblies of his cotmtrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration,*® others imagined a gross paradise of immortal

was

All agreed that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death were the best preparations for a happy futurity either in this

drunkenness.^® in battle,

or in another world. The immortality so vainly promised by the priests was in some degree conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquiTheir genius ties of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. and character, as well as the reverence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm of arms and glory, which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people, a taste for poetry And is rather an amusement of the fancy than a passion of the soul. yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It was in the hour

of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains who “Tacit. Germania, c. 40. “ Robertson’s Hist, of Charles V. vol. i. note 10. " Tacit. Germ. c. 7. These standards were only the heads of wild beasts. "Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. •Caesar, Diodorus, and Lucan seem to ascribe this doctrine to the Gauls, but M. Pelloutier (Histoire des Celtes, 1 iii. c. 18) labours to reduce their expressions to a more orthodox sense. "Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see Fable xx. in the curious version of that book, published by M. Mallet, in his Introduction to the History of Denmark. .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

8QS

listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song; and the

passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame and the contempt of death, were the habitual sentiments of a German mind.^^ Such was the situation, and such were the manners, of the ancient Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honour, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet we find that, during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barbarians made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their progress was checked by their

want

of

arms and

and Germany.

discipline,

divisions of ancient

their fury

was diverted by the

intestine

I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and not without truth, that But the command of iron soon gives a nation the command of gold. the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the possession of the one as well as the other. The face of a German army displayed their povertj' of iron. Swords, and the longer kind of lances,

they could seldom use. Their framem (as they called them in their own language) were long spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, and which, as occasion required, they either darted from a distance or pushed in close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their cavalry with incredible force, was contented. A multitude of darts, scattered were an additional resource of the infantry. Their military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a loose mantle. A variety of Few colours was the only ornament of their wooden or osier shields. of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor practised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman manege, several of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but. in general, the principal "Tacit. Germ, c. 3. Diodor. Sicul. I. v. Stral)n, I, iv. p uj/. The ciris.sical reader may remember tlie rank of Dcmodocus in the I’hseacian court, and the ardour infused by Tyrucus into the faintini' Spartans. Vet there is little probability that the Greeks and the Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be spared if our antiijuarians would condescend to reflect, that similar manners will naturally be produceil by similar situations. [Besides tbc.se battle-songs, the Germans sang at their festal banquets and around the Iiodies 01 their slain heroes. King Theorloric, of the tribe of the Goths, killed in a battle against Attila, was honoured by song while he was being borne from the field. The same honour was paid to Attila’s remains. The Germans had songs also at their weddings, but this was not so common, for their marriages were only purchases. O. S.) "Missilia spargnnt. Tacit. Germ. c. 6. Either that historian used a vague expression, or he meant that they were thrown at random.

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

M3

itrength of the Germatis consisted in their infantry,” irhich was drawn several deep columns, according to the distinction of tribes and up Impatient of fatigue or delay, these half-armed warriors families. rushed to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks; and sometimes, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the Roman mercenaries. But as the barbarians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to rally or to retire. -A repulse was a sure defeat; and a defeat was most commonly total destruction. When we recollect the complete armour of the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evolutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it appears a just matter of surprise how the naked and unassisted valour of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field the strength of the legions, and the various troops of the auxiliaries which seconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, till the introduction of luxury had enervated the vigour, and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline, of the Roman armies. The introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies was a measure attended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war and of policy. Although they were admitted in small numbers and with the strictest precaution, the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans that the danger was not imaginary, and that their precautions were not always sufficient.’* During the civil wars that followed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and Sertorius,’* formed a great design of freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, renowned in the wars of Britain and Italy, repaired to his standard. He introduced an army of Germans into Gaul, prevailed on the powerful cities of Treves and Langres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions, destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Romans the military knowledge which he had acquired in their When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to service. the power of the empire, Civilis secured himself and his country by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine,”’ the allies not the servants of the Roman monarchy. JI. The strength of ancient Germany appears formidable when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The Wide extent of country might very possibly contain .a million of

m

"It

wa.s

their

principal

distinction

from

the

Sarmatians,

who

generally

fought on horseback. ”The relation of this enterprise occupies a great part of the fourth and fifth books of the History of T.acitus, and is more lemarkable for its eloquence than perspicuity. Sir Henry Saville has obser\ed several inaccuracies. "Tacit. Hist. iv. 13: like them he had lost an eye. "It was contained between the two branches of the old Rhine, as they changed by art and nature. subsisted before the face of the country was Cluver. Germ. Antiq.

1.

iii.

c.

30, 37.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

tai

who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or executing any plan of national greatness, was agitated by various and often Germany was divided into more than forty indehostile intentions. pendent states; and even in each state the union of the several tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians were easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive an injury, much less an insult; The casual disputes their resentments were bloody and implaoable. that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defollowers and allies. The most formidable states of fencdess, were alike causes of war. Germany affected to encompass their territories with a wide frontier The awful distance preserved by their of solitude and devastation. neighbours attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions.'' “ The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who now speaks) were totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes,’® provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies ot Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity,” and have Qothing left to demand of Fortune, except the discord of these barbarians.” •* These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honour nor advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany and every art of seduction was used with dignity to conciliate those nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of distinction, or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dissensions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections with the governors of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome; warriors, as all

1

;

"Csesiar de Bell. Gall. 1 vi. 23. "They are mentioned however in the fourth and fifth centuries by Nazarius, Ammianus, Claudian, etc., as a tribe of Franks. Cluver. Germ. Antiq. 1 .

.

iii.

c.

xiii.

” Urgentibus

MSS. **

is the common reading, but declare for Vergentibus.

Tacit.

Germania,

c. 33.

Tacitus, talks of the devil

good

sense,

Lipsius,

and some

The pious Abbe de la Bleterie is very angry with who was a murderer from the beginning, etc., etc.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

*es

aad every plan of union and public good was defeated by tbe stronger Idas of private jealousy and interest.*^

The

general conspiracy which terrified the Romans under the reign Marcus Antoninus comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Dan-

of

It federation

impossible for us to determine whether this hasty connecessity, by reason, or by passion; but we may rest assured that the barbarians were neither allured by the indolence, nor provoked by the ambition, of the Roman monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus, He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most important province on the Uj^r Danube. After a long and doubtful conflict, the ^irit of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni,^^ who had taken the lead in the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were commanded to retire five miles from their own banks of the Danube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where they might be secure as hostages, and useful as soldiers.^* On the frequent reMlions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated emperor resolved to reduce their country into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the Imperial history, was entirely dissipated, without leaving any traces behind in Germany. In the course of this introductory chapter, we have confined oiurselves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various trib% which filled the great country in the time of Cxsar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes successively present themselves in the

'ihe.**

is

was formed by

series of this history, we shall concisely situation, and their particular character.

mention their

Modern

origin,

their

nations are fixed

traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus and Dion : and be inferred from die principles of human nature. “Hist. August, p. 31. Ammian. Marcellin. 1 xxxi. c. 5. Aurel. Victor, The emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture of the palace,

“

Many

many more may

.

and to enlist slaves and robbers. . “ The Marcomanni, a colony, who, from the banks of the Rhine, occupied monarchy formidable and great erected a once Bohemia and Moravia, had .

under

their

Strabo, L

king Maroboduus.

vii.

Veil, Pat.

ii.

105.

Tacit. Anna!.

[Morc-D-wiOMni—the men of the marches— a name given to different trites of the on the different marches of Germany, and not to have been the n^e Ariovistus that fought Saeve people There were Marcomanni in the army of could not be the same as against Cassar (Dc Bello Gallico. i. 51). and they O. S.l Germania.— Latham, those. See

“Wotton

(Hist, of

Rome.

166) increases the prohibitiM to ten specious, but not conclusive. Five miles

p.

the distance. His reasoning sufficient for a fortified barrier. is

“Dion.

1.

Ixxi.

and

Ixxii.

timw were

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

2U

and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The &rman tribes were voluntary and fiuctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten appellation. victorious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favourite leader; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave*a common denomination to the The distinctions of the ferocious invaders were mixed multitude perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished,

A

subjects of the Roman empire.®" Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the principal subjects of history; but the number of persons interested in these busy scenes is very different according to the different condition of mankind. In great monarchies, millions of obedient subjects pursue their useful occupations in peace and obscurity. The attention of the writer, as well as of the reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular districts wh'ch happen to be the occasional scene of But a state of freedom and barbarism, the seamilitary operations. son of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics,''^ raises almost every member of the community into action, and consequently The irregular divisions, and the restless motions, of the into notice.

army, and the

people of

numbers.

Germany dazzle our imagination and seem to multiply their The profuse enumeration of kings and warriors of armies

inclines us to forget that the same objects arc continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable

and nations

objects.

CHAPTER X The Emperors Dcchts,

From

the great secular

Barbarians

" See an

excellent dissertation

Mem.

de

I’.Xc.id.

'1

and GaUienus

— The gen-

he thirty Tyrants

games celebrated by Philip

emperor GaUienus there elapsed

in the

—

Callus, .hmihanus. Valerian,

eral Irruption oj the

di-s

(a.d.

to the death of the 248-268) twenty years of shame

on the origin and migrations of nations, torn, xviii. p. 48-71. It is seldom that

Iiii.cript.

the antiquarian and the pliilosophcr are so happily blended. " Should we suspect that Athens contained only 21,000 citizens, no more than 30.000? See Hume and Wallace on the number of ancient and modern times.

and Sparta mankind in

THE HOMAN EMPIRE

-W?

and misfortune. During that calamitous period every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, passions, might, materials.

and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained on some occasions, supply the want of historical

There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving that the sucmurders of so many emperors had loosened all the ties of allegiance between the prince and people; that all the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master; and that the caprice of armies, long since habituated to frequent and violent revolutions, might any day raise to the throne the most obscure of their History can only add that the rebellion against the fellow-soldiers. emperor Philip broke out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of Maesia; and that a subaltern officer,^ cessive

named Marinus, was

the object of their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the treason of the Maesian army should prove the first spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger, he communicated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of disaffection till at length Decius, one of the assembly, assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction, ventured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip’s rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor: and Decivs appeared to him the only person capable of restoring peace and discipline to an armjr whose tumultuous spirit did not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius who long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the The legion of hlaesia forced their judge to become (a.d. 249) event. They left him only the alternative of death or the their accomplice. His subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, was purple. :

'The expression used by Zosimus and Zonaras may commanded a centenary, a cohort, or a legion.

signify that

Marinus

the decline and FALL OF

m8 unavoidable.

He

conducted or followed his army to the confines of

Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the formidable

he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The Im> were superior in number; but the rebels formed an army Philip of veterans, commanded by an able and experienced leader,® was either killed in the battle or put to death a few days afterwards His son and associate in the empire was massacred at at Verona. Rome by the Praetorian guards; and the victorious Decius, with more favourable circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip, by a private message, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting that, on his arrival in Italy, he would resign the imperial ornaments and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere. But in the situation where fortune had placed him it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven.® The emperor Decius had employed a few months in the works of peace and the administration of justice, when (a.d. 250) he was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the Goths. This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the Western empire that the name of Goths is frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism. In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the conquest of competitor

whom

perial troops

I

Italy, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to posterity their own achievements. The principal minister of the court

of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now

reduced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes.* These writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valour, and adorned the triumph with ’His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia (Eutrop. ix. Victor. in Cssarib. et epitom.) seems to contradict, unless it was merely accidental, his supposed descent from the Decii. Six hundred years had bestowed nobility on the Decii; but at the commencement of that period they were only Plebeians of merit, and among the first who .shared the consulship with the haughty Patricians. Plebeise Deciorum animae, etc. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 254. See the spirited speech of Decius, in Livy, x. 9, 10. *

Zosimus, 1 i. [c. 22] p. 20. Zonaras, 1 xii. p. 624. Prefaces of Cassiodorus and Jornandes it is surprising that the latter should be omitted in the excellent edition published by Grotius, of the Gothic writers. [Jordanes, not Jornandes, is now the recognised spelling. O. S.] .

.

*

;

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

^

many A^atic Scythia. On

trophies that more properly belonged to the people of the faith of ancient songs, the uncertain, but the only, memorials of barbarians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island, or peninsula, of Scandinavia.” That extreme country of the north was not unknown to the conquerors of Italy: the ties of ancient consanguinity bad been strengthened by recent offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness that he might pass the remainder of his days in the peaceful

Many vestiges, which cannot be of Ravenna.” ascribed to the arts of popular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation, and polished court

and a

large territory is even at present divided into east and west During die middle ages (from the ninth to the twelfth century), whilst Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the north, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct and some-

Gothland.

*

On

the authority of Ablavius, Jornandes quotes some old Gothic chronicles

in verse.

De

Reb. Geticis,

c. 4.

[The alleged Scandinavian origin of the Goths has given rise to much discussion, and has been denied by several eminent modern scholars. The only reasons in favour of their Scandinavian origin are the testimony of Jordanes (not Jornandes as the name is oftentimes incorrectly spelt) and the existence of the name Gothland in Sweden. But the testimony of Jordanes contains at best only the tradition of the people respecting their origin, which (as Dr. William Smith says) is never of much value, and the mere fact of the existence of the name Gothland in Sweden is not sufficient to prove that this country was the aboriginal abode of the people. For example, Scotland, though named after the Scots, was not their original home, When the Romans first saw the Goths for they migrated from Ireland. in the reign of Caracalla, they dwelt in the land of the Get*, and Jordanes, Procopius, and others thought the Goths to be the same as the (^t® of the earlier historians. But the Get® are now admitted to have been Thracians. There are two theories on this subject, both trying to explain the singular circumstance that a people named Gofiii should have migrated from Germany and settled among the Get®. The first hypothesis is that of Grimm, who supposes that there was no migration of Goths, but that they had been

Rut against this we have settled on the Lower Danube from the beginning. the objection of the early writers that the Get® were Thracians, and the Thracians were certainly not Germans. The other hypothesis is that of Latham, who argues that the name Get or Goth was the general name given by the Slavonic nations to the Lithuanians. According to this theory, the Gothones at the mouth of the Vistula, mentioned by Tacitus and Ptolemy, are Lithuanians, and the Get® belong to the same nation. In Morris’s English Accidence the name of Gothic is regarded as the oldest and most primitive of the Teutonic dialects, being spoken by the Eastern and Western Goths, who originally lived near the Vistula, but migrated neightourhood of the almut the third century of the Christian era to the Danube and the Black Sea, and afterwards over-ran all the countries of

—

Southern Europe. O. 'Jornandes, c. 3.

S.J

1

THP DECLINE AND FALL OF The latter of these tiBies. hostile members of the same monarchy.'^ t#o names has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms, have in every age claimed the kindred glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors who had already subdued the mistress of the world.® Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated temple subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable to^m of the Swedes and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three pr.n.cipal deities, the god of war, the goddess of generation, and the god of thunder. In the general festival that was solemnised every ninth year, nine animals of every species (without excepting the sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple.® The only traces that now subsist of this barbaric superstition are contained in the Edda, a system of mythology compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden as the most valuable remains of their ancient traditions. Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of Odin, the god The latter, the Maof war, and the great legislator of Scandinavia. homet of the north, instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his persuasive eloquence, and by the lame, which he acquired, of a most skilful magician. The faith that he had propagated during a long and prosperous life he confirmed by a voluntaiy death. Apprehensive of the ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he resolved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn assembly of the bwedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in the palace of the god of war.'" The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of that name with

human) were

'The Prolegomena of Grotius has some large extracts from Bremen and Saxo Grammaticus. The former wrote in the year

Adam

of

1077, the

about the year 1200. "Voltaire, Hist, de Charles XII. 1 . iii. When the Austrians desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolphus, they always represented that conqueror as the lineal successor of Alarm, Harte’s Hist, of Gustavus,

latter flourished

vol.

li.

p. 123.

"Adam

of Bremen in Grotii Prolegomenis, p. 104. The temple of Upsal was destroyed by Ingo king of Sweden, who began his reign in the year 107s, and about fourscore years afterwards a Christian cathedral was erected on its ruins. Dalin’s Hist, of Sweden, in Bibliotheque Raisonn^e. "Mallet, Introd. a I’Hist. du Dannemarc.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

'

M»

As*burg, or As-of

words of a similar signification, bas ^'ren rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Matois, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey menaced the north with servitude. That Odin, yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great des^ of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people which, in some remote age, might be subservient to his immortal revenge; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in

Polar

numerous swarms from the neighbourhood of the

circle, to chastise

the oppressors of mankind.^^

many

successive generations of Goths were capable of preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians, any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic was an easy and natural attempt. The inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large v'cssels, with oars,’ ’ and the distance is little more than one hundred miles from Carlscrona to the nearest ports of If so

Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian era,” and as late as the age of the Antonines,’"' the Goths were established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Dantzic were long afterwards founded.'" Westward of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. .X striking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion, and language, seemed to indicate that the Vandals and the ” Mallet,

55 has collected from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, cstiges of such a city and people.

c. iv. p.

Byzantinus, the

i

and Stephanas

“ This wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducing the enmity of and Konians from so memorable a cause, might supply the noble groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely be received as authentic hisAccording to the obvious sense of the Edda, and the interpretation of tory. the most skilful critics, As-gard, instead of denoting a real city of the Asiatic

the Goths

the fictitious appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the the prophet was supposed to descend the Gothic nations, who were already seated in the southern parts of Sweden. ” Tacit. Germ. c. 44. “Tacit. Annal. ii. 62. If we could yield a firm assent to the navigations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow that the Goths had passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ.

Sarmatia,

is

Olympus of Scandinavia: from whence when he announced his new religion to

“ Ptolemy, 1 ii. “By the German .

colonics

The conquest and conversion in the thirteenth century.

the arms of the Teutonic knights. of Prussia were completed by those adventurers

who followed

m

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

•

Goths were oiigiiially one great people.^^ The latter appear to have .heen subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepids.^* The distinction among the Vandals was more strongly marked by the independent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded themselves into powerful monarchies. In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were still seated in Prussia. About the reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads." In this interval, therefore, of about seventy years, we must place the second migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the conduct of unsettled barbarians. Either a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods or the eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the south. Besides the influence of a martial religion, the numbers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most dan” Pliny (Hist. Natur. in this opinion.

14) and Procopius (in Bell. Vandal. 1 j. c. 1) agree lived in distant ages, and possessed different means the truth.

of investigating [This statement

iv.

.

They

may

be questioned, notwithstanding the authority of these

which that of Tacitus may be added. But Tacitus and others included many nations under the name “Germans” that were not Germans, and the name " Vandals ” is a strong presumption that they were a Sclavonic ” and not a Germanic people. The Germans have always called them " Wends or “ V'ends,” and it is not improbable the Vandals may have been Slavonian Servians from Saxony and Silesia. O. S.J *' The Ostro and Visi, the eastern and western Goths, obtained those denominations from their original seats in Scandinavia. In all their future marches and settlements they preserved, with their names, the same relative situation When they first departed from Sweden, the infant colony was contained in three vessels. The third being a heavy sailer lagged behind, and the crew, which afterwards swelled into a nation, received from that circumstance the appellation of Gepidie or Loiterers. Jornandcs, c. 17. [The statement regarding the Ostro- and the Visi-goths, which rests solely on the authority of Jordanes, cannot be admitted, though we do not know when they got the names, probably not till they were settled on the shores of the Black Sea. The earliest trace of the name Visigoths is in Sidonius Apollinaris, who uses Vesus as a simple name; in Cassiodorus we find Vuisigothi, and in Jordanes Wesegothic and Wesigothae. The name of the Ostrogoths occurs earlier, first in the form Austrogothi (PoIIio Claud, c. 6) and writers,

to

—

afterwards in that of Ostrogothi (Claudian in Eutrop. ii. 153). Neither of these names occurs in Zosimus or Ammianus Marcellinus, both of whom, however, make frequent mention of the Grutungi or Greutungi, and the Thervingi or Tervingi: it is probable (says Dr. W. Smith) that the Grutungi were the most illustrious tribe among the Ostrogoths, and that the Thervingi occupied the same rank among the Visigoths. As to the Gepidse, it is uncertain whether they were Goths at all. Their seat was the middle Danube in Dacia. The close political connection of the Gepidx with the (Joths may have led to their being regarded as a branch of the latter people. O. S.] "Fragment of Peter Patridus in the Excerpta Legationum ; and with regard to its probable date, Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iii, p. 346.

—

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

.

asj

gttous adventures. The use of round bucklers and short swords ren> dered Utem formidable in a dose engagement; the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings gave uncommon union and sta> bility to their councils; and the renowned Amala, the hero of age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of personal merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anses, or demigods of the Gothic nation.*^

The fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors from aD the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common standard of the Goths.” The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of the Piypec, a river universally conedved by the ancients to be the southern branch of the Borysthenes.^^ The windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle, lliey followed the unknown course of the river, confident in their valour, and card^ of whatever power might oiqx)se The Bastarnse and the Venedi were the first who their progress. presented themselves; and the flower of their youth, either from choice or compulsion, increased the Gothic army. The Bastarna dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian mountains; the immense tract of land that separated the Bastarna from the savages of Finland was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi; “ we have some reason to believe that the first of these nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war,^° and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, etc., derived its origin from the Germans. With better authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the middle ages.” But the confusion of blood and manners on that doubtAs the ful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers.*’ Goths advanced near the Euxine Sea, they encountered a purer race of gentium insigne, rotunda scuta, breves gladii, et er^ The Goths probably acquired their c. 43.

"Omnium harum

reges obsequium. Tacit. Germania, iron by the commerce of amber.

"Jomandes,

c.

13,

i4"

Heruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are particularly mentioned. passage in the Augustan History, Mascou’s History of the Germans, I v, great emigration. The Marcomannic war was p. 28, seems to allude to this partly occasioned by the pressure of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of more northern barbarians. "D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, and the third part of his incomparable

"The

A

map

of Europe. "Tacit. Germ

c.

“ Cluver. Germ.

46.

Antiq.

I.

iii.

c. 43-

...

.

Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, were the three great tribes of the • same people. Jornandes, c. 24. . " Tacitus most assuredly deserves that title, and even his cautious suspense

"The

is

a proof of his diligent

...

inquiries.

the decline and fall of

314

and the Roxolani; and they vrere Germans who saw the mouth of the Borysthenes and If we inquire into the characteristic matks of the of the Tanais. people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a close dress of flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and above all by the use of the Teutonic or of the Sclavonian language the last of which has been diffused by conquest from the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan. The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with navigable Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alam,

probably the

first

which, from either side, discharge themselves i '.to the Borysand interspersed with large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of gore and fi h, the innumerable bee-h’ves, dqju>led in the hollows of n d trees, and in the cavities of roc’is, and fc'rr'.ing, even in the that rude age, a va’uabic branch of commerce, the s ee of the rr.Hl temperature of the air. the aptness of the so l for cve"y species of grain, and the liixudancy of the vegetation, ail d.s•'l.^yed Ihe I'ber-'lity of Nature, and templed the industry of mm.-'' But the Gotlis withstood all these tcmpictions, end still aiih.-red to a life of idleness, of poverty, rivers,

thenes;

and of

r."ipir.e.

(rdc?, which, l-nvarci: t.he cast, bordered on the new settlements oi the t'.oths, piesentrd ni»tlih!g to the r arm^ except the B'.it Ih’ prospect of the doubtful chance of .an unprofitable victory.

The Scyth'an h

Roman territories was far more alluring; and the fields of Dacia 'n'ere covered with rich har\-ests, sown by the hr.c.ds of an iiiclastrious, and exposed to Ijc gathered by those (.f a warlike, people. It is probable that the conquests of Trajan maintained by h's succc'’sors, less for any real advantage than for ideal dignity, h'ld contributed to weaken The new an.l unsettled province of Dacia the empire on that side. was neither strong enough to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the barbarians. As Ion" as the remote ban' s of the Dniester were considered as the boundary of the Toman power, the fortifications of the Lower Danube w-re more c.orele sly guarded, and the inhabitants of Idaesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance fnmi any barliarian invaders. The irruptions of the Goths, under the reign of Philip, fatafiy convinced them of their mistake. The king, or leader, of that fierce nation traversed with contempt the province of Dacia, and passed both the Dniester and the Danube without encountering any opposition capable “Genealogical History of the Tartars, p 59.S. Bell (vol. ii. p. 370) traversed the Ukraine in his journey from Tetersburgh to Constantinople. The modem face of the country is a just representation of the ancient, since, in the hands of the Cossacks, it still remains in a state of nature.

"

tits:'

HTOirAN

EMPIRE

'

ns

of fetarding liis' progress. The 'relaxed discipline' of the Roman troops betrayed the most important posts where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved punishment induced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians appeared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at that time the capital of the second Msesia.®* The inhabitants consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of money, and the invaders retreated back into their deserts, animated, rather than satisfied, with success of their arms against an opulent but feeble country. was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the Danube a second time, with more considerable forces; that his numerous detachments scattered devastation over the province of 'Mmsia, whilst the main body of the army,

the

first

Intelligence

consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarmatians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his military power.

the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, on of Trajan’s victories.’*" On his approach they raised the siege, but with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot of mount Hsemus.*" Decius followed them through a difficult country, and by forced marches; but when he imagined himself at a considerable distance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned with rapid fury on The camp of the Romans was surprised and pillaged, his pursuers. and, for the first time, their emperor fled in disorder before a troop of half-armed barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippopolis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm. A hundred thou.sand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city.®** Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of the late emperor Philip, blushed not

Decius found

(a.d.

the Jatrus, one of the

250)

many monuments

assume the purple under the protection of the barbarous enemies The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and recruit the to

of Rome.**-*

”In

the sixteenth chapter of Jornaiides, instead of sccundo M.Tsiam, vre venture to sultstitute sreundam, the scc19

obeyed, the decree of the senate, which regulated the succession to the From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was (a.d. 251, Dec.) conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, was granted to Callus, whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and the distressed empire."" The firs.t care of the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the intolerable weight of the victorious Coths. He (a.d. 25 ;) consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp with eve-j' convcniency thrt could assuage their a.igry spirits, or facilitate their so much vvished-for departure; and he even promised to pay them annua'K’ a large sum of go'd, on coudilion they .should never afterwards infest the Roman territories by theh- incursions."' In the age of the Scipins, the most opulent kings of the earth, who courted '.he pnitect'en of the vicb.rioiis commonwealth, v/ere gratified with such triilin.T [iri-.-^onts as could only derive a value from the hand that iKfti wed Ihcni; an original letter. Hist August p. 244. [Vopisc Firtnus, c. 5.J

who

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

373

ing in battle with the veteran legions of the Danube, which, under the conduct of a martial sovereign, had achieved the conquest of the West

and of the East. Whatever was the cause or the object of this rebellion, imputed with so little probability to the workmen of the mint, Aurelian used his victory with unrelenting rigour.®^ He was naturally of a severe disposition. A peasant and a soldier, his nerves yielded not easily to the impressions of sympathy, and he could sustain without emotion the sight of tortures and death. Trained from his earliest youth in the exercise of arms, he set too small a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by military execution the slightest offences, and transferred the stern discipline of the camp into the civil administration of the laws. His love of justice often became a blind and furious passion; and, whenever he deemed his own or the public safety endangered, he disregarded the

rules of evidence and the proportion of punishments. The unprovoked rebellion with which the Romans rewarded his services exasperated his haughty spirit. The noblest families of the capital were involved in the guilt or suspicion of this dark conspiracy. hasty spirit of revenge urged the bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the

A

nephews of the emperor. The executioners (if we may ust the repression of a contemporary poet) were fatigued, the prisons were crowded, and the unhappy senate lamented the death or absence erf its most illustrious members.®® Nor was the pride of Aurelian less offensive to that assembly than his cruelty. Ignorant or impatient of the restraints of civil institutions, he disdained to hold his power by

any other title than that of the sword, and governed by right of conquest an empire which he had saved and subdued.®^ It was observed by one of the most sagacious of the Roman princes, that the talents of his predecessor Aurelian were better suited to the command of an army than to the government of an empire.®® Conscious of the character in which nature and experience had enabled him to excel, he again took the field a few months after his triumph. It was expedient to exercise the restless temper of the legions in some foreign war, and the Persian monarch, exulting in the shame of Valerian, still braved with impunity the offended majesty of Rome. At the head of an drmy, less formidable by its numbers than by its discipline and valour, the emperor advanced as far as the Straits which divide

" Vopiscus

in

Hist.

August,

p.

[Aurel.

222.

Zosimus (L

c.

39.]

The two

£u-

Victors.

43) mentions only three senators, and places their death before the eastern war. “Nulla catenati feralis pompa senatus Carniheum lassabit opus; nec carcere pleno Calpurn. Eclog. i. 60. infelix raros numcrabit curia Patres. “According to the younger Victor [Epitome, c. 35], he .sometimes wore the diadem. Deus and Dominus appear on his medals. "It was the observation of Diocletian. See Vopiscus in Hist. August [Aurel. c. 44.] p. 224.

Euttdpius,

ix.

14

[9].

i.

p.

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

*74

lope from Asia. He there experienced that the most absolute power He had threatened is a weak defence against the effects of despair. one of his secretaries who was accused of extortion, and it was known that he seldom threatened in vain. The last hope which remained for the criminal was to involve some of the principal officers of the army in his danger, or at least in his fears. ter's hand, he showed them, in a long

Artfully counterfeiting his mas*

list, their own names Without suspecting or examining the fraud, they resolved to secure their lives by the murder of the emperor. On his march, between Bysantium and Heraclea, Aurelian was suddenly at* tacked by the conspirators, whose stations gave them a right to surround his person, and, after a short resistance, fell by th^e hand of Mucapor, a general whom he had always loved and trusted. He died regretted by the army, detested by the senate, but universally acknowledged as a warlike and fortunate prince, the useful though severe reformer of a degenerate state.*’*’

and bloody

devoted to death.

/

CHAPTER Conduct of the

Army and

XII

Senate after the Death of Aurelian Tacitus, Probus, Cams and his Sons

—Reigns

of

Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder. The death of Aurelian, however, is remarkable by its extraordinary consequences. The legions admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious chief. The artifice of his perfidious secretary was discovered and punished. The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their injured sovereign with sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submitted to the unanimous resolution of the military order, which was signified by the following epistle: “The brave and fortunate armies to the senate and people of Rome. ^The crime of one man, and the error of many, have deprived us of the late emperor Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and fathers! to place him in the number of the gods, and to appoiiit a successor whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Iinperial pmrplel None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our loss shall ever reign over us.” * The Roman senators

—

“Vopiscus

August, p. 221. [Aurel. c. 35, «9.] Zosimus, I. i. Eutrop. ix. 15 [9]. The two Victors. ‘Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 222. [Aurel. c. 41.] Aurelius Victor mentions a formal deputation from the troops to the senate. ic.

62] p, 57.

in Hist.

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

375

beard, without surprise, that another en^ror had been assassinated in his camp; they secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; but the modest and dutiful address of the legions, when it was communicated in full assem* bly by the consul, diffused the most pleasing astonishment. Such honours as fear and perhaps esteem could extort they liberally poured forth on the memory of their deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could inspire they returned to the kithful armies of the republic, who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority of the senate in the choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithsta nding this flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly declined exposing their safety and dignity to ^e caprice of an armed multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, a pledge of their sincerity, since those who may command are seldom reduced to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be expected that a hasty repentance would corShould the soldiers rect the inveterate habits of fourscore years? relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty of the senate and prove fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these dictated a decree by which the election of a new emperor was referred to the suffrage of the military order. The contention that ensued is one of the best attested but most improbable events in the history of mankind.^ The troops, as if satiated with the exercise of power, again conjured the senate to invest one of The senate still persisted in its its own body with the Imperial purple. refusal; the army in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the other, eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without an usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary functions; and it is observed that a proconsul of .Asia was the only considerable person removed from his office in the whole course of the interregnum. An event somewhat similar but much less authentic is supposed to *Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome sixteen years only after the death of Aurelian and, besides the recent notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the Journals of the Senate and the original papers of the Ulpian library. Zosimus and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in general of the Roman constitution. [The date given in Vopiscus is "HI. Non Febr." (Aurel. c. 41) but as_ it is in opposition to the statements of other authorities, which make the interregnum between the death of Aurelian and the elevation of Tacitus only “ III. Non. six months, not eight as Gibbon says, Qinton proposed to read Apr.” in place of “HI. Non. Febr.,” which would place the death of Aurelian Tacitus was elected on 2Sth September, and during at the end of March. the interregnum Severina, the widow of Aurelian, was acknowledged as empress at Alexandria, sinceuher Alexandrian coins bear only the years 6 and 7, and Aurelian died in the sixth year of his reign. O. S.j ;

_

;

:

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and diar* some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant durit^ twelve months till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public peace was guarded in the same manner by the union of the several But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the orders of the state. arms of the people were controlled by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community.^ The decline of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was attended with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital, a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still restrained l)Ave

acter, bore

the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the fatal ambition of their The flower of the legions maintained their stations on the leaders. banks of the Bosphorus, and the Imperial standard awed the less powA generous though tranerful camps of Rome and of the provinces. sient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the senate as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigour. On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the empire. He slightly insinuated that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour and of every accident but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any farther delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and occupied some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum were exposed to foreign and domestic arms; and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul then, addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators,^ required his opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate for the vacant throne. If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we shall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of kings. He ;

Dionys. Halicarn, 1 . ii. [c. 57] p. rts. Plutarch in Numa first of these writers relates the story like an orator, the second like a lawyer, and the third like a moralist, and none of them probably without some intermixture of fable. ‘Vopiscus (m Hist. August, p. 227 [Tacit, c. 4] calls him “primae sententise consulans;” and soon afterwards Priiiccps senatus. It is natural to ^ppose that the monarchs of Rome, disdainiag that humble title, resigned it .to the most ancient of the senators. •Liv.

i.

17.

[c. 2], p. 60.

The

THE ROMAN EMPIRE daimed

his descent

from the philosophic historian whose writings

37^ will

instruct the last generations of maidiind.° The senator Tadtus was then seventy-five years of age.® The long period of his innocent life

He had twice been invested with the consular dignity,^ and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between two and three millions sterling.® The experience of so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigour of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptaFrom the assiduous study of his imtions of their sublime station. mortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution and of human nature.® The voice of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae, when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with his counsels on this important occasion. He arose to speak, when, from every quarter of the house, he was saluted with the names of Augustus and Emperor. “ Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee! we choose thee for our sovereign, to thy care we intrust the republic and the world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners.” As soon as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the dangerous honour, and to express his wonder that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigour of Aurelian. “ Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain the weight of armour, or to practise the exercises of the camp? The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life, woidd soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by the most My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to tender management.

was adorned with wealth and honours.

'The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian was named But under the Lower Empire surnames Cornelius, the emperor Claudius. were extremely various and uncertain. 'Zonaras, 1 xii. [c. 28] p. 637 [cd. Paris; p. 608, ed. Bonn], The .Alexandrian Chronicle, by an obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian. ' In the year 273 he was ordinary consul. But he must have been Suffectus many years before, and most probably under Valerian. ‘Bis millics octingcnties. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 229. [Tacit, c. 10.] This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus the coin had lost much of its weight .

and

purity.

'After his accession he gave orders that ten copies of the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valuable part of Taciljis was preserved in a single MS., and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Tacite, and Lipsius ad Annal. if. 9.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

*r8

discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient would it prove to Can you hope that the the arduous labours of war and government! legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can you desire that I should ever ” find reason to regret the favourable opinion of the senate? The reluctance of Tacitus, and it might possibly be sincere, was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of life; that the mind, not Ihe body, a sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice; and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his wisdom the These pressing though tumultuary instances valour of the legions. were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and experienced senator, and with a manly, though perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the republic. The

The ems;:eech of Falconius was enforced by a general acclamation. peror elect submitted to the authority of his country, and received the voluntary homage of his equals. The judgment of the senate was confirmed by the consent of the Roman people and of the Praetorian guards.^'

The

administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life and A grateful servant of the senate, he considered that national council as the author, and himself as the subject, of the laws.’He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence had inflicted on the constitution, and to restore, at principles.

image of the ancient republic as it had been preserved by the and the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines- It may not be useless to recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the senate appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus.” I. To invest one of their body, under the title of emperor, with the general command of the armies and the government of the frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then styled, least, the

policy of Augustus

’“Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 227. [Tacit, c. 4.] “Hist. August, p. 328 [16. c. 7]. Tacitus addressed the Prsetorians by the appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the people by that of sacratissimi Quirites.

“In

manumissions he never exceeded the number of an hundred, as by the Caninian law, which was enacted under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubon ad locum Vopisci. “ See the Lives of Tacitus, Florianus, and Probus, in the Augustan History; we may be well assured that whatever the soldier gave the senator had his

limited

already given.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

S79

die College of Consuls. ThQr were twdve in number, who, in succesave pairs, each during the space of two months, fiftetMhe year, and resented the dignity of that ancient office. The authority of the sraate, in the nomination of the consuls, was exercised wi^ such independent freedom, that no regard was paid to an irregular request of the emperor in favour of his brother Florianus. “ The senate,” exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, “ imderstand

r^

the character of a prince whom they have chosen.” 3. To appoint the proconsuls and presidents of the provinces, and to confer on all the magistrates their civil jurisdiction. 4. To receive appeals through the intermediate office of the prxfect of the city from all the tribunals of the empire. 5. To give force and validity, by their decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor’s edicts. 6. To these several branches of authority we may add some inspection over the finances, since, even in the stern reign of Aurelian, it was in their power to divert a part of the revenue from the public service.^* Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the principal cities of the empire Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalonica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage to claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revolution which had restored the Roman senate to its ancient dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant. We likewise possess two very angular fragments of the private correspondence of the senators on this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy and the most unbounded hopes. “ Cast away your indolence,” it is thus that one of the senators addresses his friend, “ emerge

—

—

from your retirements of Bais and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, Rome flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly Roman, at length we have recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires. We hear appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors; perhaps, too, we may restrain them These lofty expectato the wise a word is sufficient.” tions were, however, soon disappointed; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch the unsupported to the senate.

—

fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extin-

guished for ever. All that had yet passed at

was

Rome was no more

than a theatrical

by

the more substantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp, and was there, representation, unless

it

ratified

**Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. [Aurel. c. 20.] The passage is perfectly clear, yet both Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it.

"Vopiscus

in Hist.

August,

p. 250, 232, 233.

[Florian.

c.

5

and

6.]

The

senators celebrated the happy restoration with hecatombs and public rejoicings.

THE DECLINE AND TALL OF

Mi

tbe Prtetorian prefect, presented to the assembled troops as tibe prince whom they themselves had demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. As soon as the prefect was silent the emperor addressed himself to the soldiers with eloquence and propriety. He gratified their avarice by a liberal distribution of treasure under the names of pay and donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration that, although his age might disable him from the performance of military exploits, his counsels ^ould never be unworthy of a Roman general, the successor of the brave Aurelian.*" Whilst the deceased emperor was making preparations for a second expedition into the East, he had negotiated with the Alani, a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the neighborhood of the lake Maetis. Those barbarians, allured by presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia with a numerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to their engagements; but when they arrived on the Roman frontier Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian war was at least su^ended, and the generals who, during the interregnum, exercised a doubtful authority, were unprepared either to receive or to oppose them. Provoked by such treatment, which they considered as trifling and perfidious, the Alani had recourse to their own valour for their payment and revenge; and as they moved with the usual swiftness of Tartars, they had soon spread themselves over the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Galatia. The legions who, from the opposite shores of the Bosphorus, could almost distinguish the flames of the dties and villages, impatiently urged their general to lead them against the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to his age and station. He convinced the barbarians of the faith, as well as of the power, of the empire. Great numbers of the Alani, appeased by the punctual discharge of the engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them,

by

relinquished their booty

own

and

captives,

and quietly retreated

to their

Against the remainder, who refused peace, the Roman emperor waged, in person, a successful war. Seconded by an army of brave and experienced veterans, in a few weeks he delivered the provinces of Asia from the terror of the Scythian deserts beyond the Phasis.

invasion.’^

But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration. Transported in the depth of winter from the soft retirement of Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the unaccustom^ hard”Hist August "Vopiscus

p. 228.

in Hist.

[Vopisc. Tacit

August,

c. 8.]

[Tacit

c. 13.] Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 63] Zonaras, 1 xii. [c. 28] p. 637 [ed. Paris; p. 608, ed. Bonn]. Two passages in the Life of Probus (p. 236, 238 [Vopisc. Probiis, c. 8 and 12]) convince me that these Sc3rthian invaders of Pontus were Alani. If we may believe Zosimus (1. i. [c. 64] p. 58), Florianus pursued them as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus. But he had scarcely time for so long and diiliailt

p.

57.

an expedition.

.

p. 230.

7 B£ ROMAN EMPIRE

aSi

ships of a militaty life. The fatigues of the body were aggravated the cares of the mind. For a while the angry and sdiish passions of the soldiers had been su^ended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with redouble violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable char* acter served only to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent prince.^ ^ It is certain that their insolence was the cause of his death. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of only six months and about twenty days.’* The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed before his brother Florianus showed himself imworthy to reign by the hasty usurpation of the purple, without expecting the approbation of the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitution, which yet influenced the camp and the provinces, was sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the general of the East, the heroic Probus, boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate. The contest, however, was still unequal; nor could &e most able leader, at the head of the effeminate troops of Egypt and Syria, encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe, whose irresistible strength appeared to support the brother of Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over every obstacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to cold climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of Cilicia, where the summtf proved remarkably unwholesome. Their numbers were diminished by frequent desertion, the passes of the mountains were feebly defended; Tarsus opened its gates; and the soldiers of Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the Imperial title about three months, delivered the empire from civil war by the easy sacrifice of a prince whom they despised.**

"Eutropius [9, c. 10] and .Aurelius Victor [c. 36] only say that he died; Victor Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus [i. 63, p. 55] and Zonaras [xii. c. 28] aflirm that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus [Tacit, c. 13] mentions both accounts, and seems to hesitate. Yet surely these jarring opinions are easily reconciled. “According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly two hundred days. Zosimus, 1 . i. [c. 64, [Vopiscus, Florian. c. i.] “Hist. August, p. 231. Zonaras, 1 xii. [c. 29, p. 609] p. 637. Aurelius Victor [de P- 56] p. 58, 59. Caesar, c, 37] says that Probus assumed the empire in Illyricum; an opinion which (though adopted by a very learned man) would throw that period of .

history into inextricable confusion.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

a«>

The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly erased every notion of hereditary right, that the family of an unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the Jealousy of his successors. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were permitted to descend into a private station, and to mingle with the general mass of the p^ple. Their poverty indeed became an additional safeguard to their innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the senate he resigned his ample patrimony to the public service, an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which evidently disclosed his intention of transmitting the empire to his descendants. The only consolation of their fallen state was the remembrance of transient greatness, and a distant hope, the child of a flattering prophecy, that, at the end of a thousand years, a monarch of the race of Tacitus should arise, the protector of the senate, the restorer of Rome, and the conqueror of the whole earth.““ The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius and Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to glory in the elevation of Probus.*^ Above twenty years before, the emperor Valerian, with his usual penetration, had discovered the rising merit of the young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank of tribune long before the age prescribed by the military regulations. The tribune soon justified his choice by a victory over a great body of Sarmatians, in which he saved the life of a near relation of Valerian; and deserved to receive from the emperor’s hand the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the mural and the civic crown, and all the honourable rewards reserved by The third, and afterwards the ancient Rome for successful valour. tenth, legion were intrusted to the command of Probus, who, in every step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the station which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the most splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and his conduct in war. Aurelian was indebted to him for the conquest of Egypt, and still more indebted for the honest courage with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Tacitus, who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply his

of

deficiency of military talents, named him commander-in-^ef the eastern provinces, with five times the usual salary, the prom-

own all

ise of the consulship, and the hope of a triumph. When Probus ascended the Imperial throne he was about forty-four years of age;’** in

“ Hist. August, p. 2^. [ Vopisc. Tacit c. lo.] “He was to send judges to the Parthians, Persians, and Sarmatians. a president to Taprobana, and a proconsul to the Roman island (supposed by Casaubon and Salmasius to mean Britain). Such a history as mine (says Vopiscus with proper modesty) will not subsist a thousand years to expose or justify the prediction. "For the private life of Probus, see Vopiscus in Hist August, p. 234-237. [Probus,

c. 3,

“According death.

to the Alexandrian chronicle, he

was

fifty at the

time of his

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

m

the full possession of his fame, of the love of the anny, and of a mature vigour of mind and body. His acknowledged merit, and the success of his arms against FloriYet, If we may anus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. credit his own professions, very far from being desirous of the empire, he had accepted it with the most sincere reluctance. “ But it is no longer in my power,” says Probus in a private letter, “ to lay down a I must continue to personate the title so full of envy and of danger. His dutiful character which the soldiers have imposed upon me.” address to the senate displayed the sentiments, or at least the language,

Roman

“When you

elected one of your order, conscript emperor Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world, and the power which you derive from your ancestors will descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been if Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of Us brother, like a private inheritance, had expected what your majesty might determine, either in his favour, or in that of any other person. The prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have offered the title of Augustus; but I submit to your clemency my pretensions and my merits.” When this respectful epistle was read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their satisfaction that Probus should condescend thus humbly to solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the eastern armies, and to confer on their chief

of a

patriot:

fathers! to succeed the

the several branches of the Imperial dignity: the names of Caesar and Augustus, the title of Father of his country, the right of making in the same day three motions in the senate,®^ the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian power, and the proconsular command; a mode of investiture which, though it seemed to multiply the authority all

of the emperor, expressed the constitution of the ancient republic. The reign of Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted to direct the civil administration of the empire. Their faithful general asserted the honour of the Roman arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories.®® Yet, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must

“The letter was addressed to the Praetorian praefect, whom (on condition of his good behaviour) he promised to continue in his great office. See Hist. August, p. 237. [Vopisc. Probus, c. 10.] "Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 237 [in Probo, c. ii]. The date of the letter Instead of Non. Februar. we may read Non. August. is assuredly faulty. ” Hist. August, p. 238. [Vopisc. ib. c. 12.] It is odd that the senate shotdd That prince had retreat Probus less favourably than Marcus Antoninus. See Capitolin. ceived, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintee relationis. in Hist. August, p. 24 [in M. Anton, c. 6]. “See the dutiful letter of Probus to ffie senate after his German victories. [Vopisc. Prob. c. 15.] Hist. August, p. 239.

THE DECLINE AND PALL OF

M4

«ecretly have despised their indolence and weakness. Thom^ it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallifflus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employments. They soon experienced that

who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre. The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side

those

the enemies of

Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the active vigour of Probus, who, in a short reign of about six years, equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every province of the Roman world. The dangerous frontier of Rhstia he so firmly secured that he left it without the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering power of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms compelled those barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation He attacked the courted the alliance of so warlike an emperor.®® Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took several of their strongest castles,®® and flattered himself that he had for ever suppressed a domestic foe whose independence so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos, fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have alarmed the court of Persia,®® and the Great King sued in vain for the friendship of Most of the exploits which distinguished his reign were Probus. achieved by the personal valour and conduct of the emperor, insomuch

some amazement how, in so short a time, a single man could be present in so many distant wars. The remaining actions he intrusted to the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his glory. Cams, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantins, Galerius, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the throne, were trained to arms in the severe school of Aurelian and that the writer of his Life expresses

Probus.®®

“The

date and duration of the reign of Probus are very correctly ascerby Cardinal Noris in his learned work, De Epochis Syro-Macedonum, 96-105. A passage of Eusebius connects the second year of Probus with

tained

.

the eras of several of the Syrian

"Vopiacus

cities.

Hist. August, p. 239. [Prob c. 16.] “Zosimus (/. i. /c. 69, sqq.\ p. 62-65) tells us a very long of Lyaius the Isaunan robber.

“Zosim. I. I 7-] But

in

and

fc. 7] p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239 seems incredible that the defeat of the savages could affect the Persian monarch. “Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are named (Hist August p. 241 [Prob. c. 22]), whose actions have not Uaoviedge.

.

i.

it

trifling story

240. [Prob. of iEthiopia

by Vopiscus reached our

•

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

sas

But the most important service which Probus rendered to' the repubwas the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flouri^ing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of Aurdian, had ravaged that great province with impunity Among lic

the various multitude of those fierce invaders, we may dis tinguish , with some degree of clearness, three great armies, or rather nations, succes-

He

drove back the Franks

into their morasses; a descriptive circumstance

from whence we may

by the valour

sively vanquished

infer that the confederacy

of Probus.

known by

the manly appellation of Free maritime country, intersected and almost

already occupied the flat overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people of the Vandalic race. They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteem^ themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their booty, the permis-

an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article Their punishment was immediate and terrible.®'* But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silesia. '® In the Lygian nation the Arii held the first rank by their numbers and fierceness. “ The Arii ” (it is thus that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) “ study to improve by art and cirsion of

of the treaty.

cumstances the innate terrors of their barbarism. black, their bodies are painted black.

They choose

Their shields are for the

combat the

darkest hour of the night.

Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade;” nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustaining so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the Yet the arms and discipline eyes are the first vanquished in battle.”

"See the Cxsars of Julian Vopisc. Prob. c. 13, c. 18, sqq, "Zosimus, 1 i. But the 14.] .

13,

[c.

[p. 314],

and Hist. August,

p. 238,

240, 241.

Hist August, p. 238. [Vopisc. Probus, c. supposes the punishment inflicted with the consent

68] p. 62.

latter

of their kings if so, it was partial, like the offence. "See Clurer. Germania Antiqua, 1 . iii. Ptolemy places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia. [In all probability the Burgundians were a German people, whereas the 'Vandals were of Slavonic extraction. The Lyggi or Lygu seems to have They are thought to the generic name of the Slavonians on the Vistula. be the same people as those called Lekhs by Nestor, the Russian chronicler of the twelfth century. The I.ckhs or Letts are the ancestors of the Poles, the Lettic division of the great Slavonic family comprehending the Lithuanian, the Old Prussian, and the Lettish, the language of Courland and Livonia. :

-O.

S.j

^Feralis umbra is the expression of Tacitus; it is surely a very bold one. [The words of Tacitus are "umbra feralis exercitus terrorem inferunt.” Gibbon is here mistaken, "umbra" being in the ablative case.—O. S.]

"Tacit Germania

(c.

43)

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

phantoms. The Lygii a general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honourable capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their native country. But the losses which they suffered in the march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the nation: nor is the Lygian of the

Romans

were defeated

easily discomfited these horrid

in

name ever repeated in the history either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thousand of the invaders; a work of labour to the Romans, and of ejqwnse to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every barbarian.^" But' as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Probus. Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had confined a defensive war against the nations of Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed He his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Neckar. was fully convinced that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they experienced in their own country the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the last Nine of the most conemigration, was astonished by his presence. siderable princes repaired to his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly received by the Germans as it pleased the conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and their ambition to

had carried away from the provinces; and obliged magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who preconsiderable tribute of corn, to detain any part of the spoil.

captives which they their

own

sumed

A

was reserved for the use of the garrisons which Probus established on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust their differences

cattle,

and

horses, the only wealth of barbarians,

Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was indeed rather of specious than solid utility.'*® Had Germany been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with to the justice, their safety to the power, of

immense labour and expense, would have acquired only a more exten" Vopiscus

August,

238 [Prob. c. 14.] [Vopisc. Probus, c. 14, J99.] Vopiscus quotes a letter [c. 15] from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design of reducing Germany into a province. in Hist.

“Hist. August,

p. 238, 239.

p.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

aSf

sive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians of Sqrthia. Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants.^^ The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possesion, and acknowledged, by the payment of ti^es, the majesty of the empire.^^ To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Neustadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles.‘® This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country.** An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must in the end discover some feeble spot, or some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed ‘to

“Strabo,

1.

iii.

According to Velleius Paterculus

[p. 390].

vii.

Maroboduus “ These

settlers,

Tacit. Germania,

c.

108, 109),

29.

“ See notes de I'Abbe de account of the wall

is

See Recherches sur

les

a la Germanie de Tacite, p. 183. His borrowed (as he says himself) from the Alsatia

la Bleterie

chiefly Illustraia of Schoepflin. **

(ii.

Marcomanni into Bohemia: Cluverius (German. Antiq. was from Swabia. from the payment of tithes, were denominated Decumates.

led his 8) proves that it

Chinois et

les

Egyptiens, tom.

ii.

p. 81-102.

The

anonymous author is well acquainted with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he seems to confound the wall of Probus, designed i^inst the Alemanni, with the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed neighbourhood of Frankfort against the Catti.

in

the

ill'’

THE D-KCLFME AND

PAX.X.

OF

Ike povrer of the Dsemcm, now servt only to excite the weodet of Ike S^i^ian peasant. Anwng the useful conditions of peace imposed by Probus on the Yanquished nations of Germany was the obligation of suppl}dng the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dispersed them through all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous reinforcement, in small bands of fifty or sixty each, among the national troops; judiciously observing that the aid which the republic derived from the barbarians should be Their aid was now become necessary. The feeble felt but not seen.^® elegance of Italy and the internal provinces could no longer support the weight of arms. The hardy frontier of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to the labours of the camp; but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of agriculture, affected the principles of population, and not only destroyed the strength of the The wisdom present, but intercepted the hope of future generations. of Probus embraced a great and beneficial pimi of replenishing the exhausted frontiers by new colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, cattle, instruments of husbandry, and every encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the service of the republic. Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, ‘® he transported a considerable body of Vandals. The impossibility of an escape reconciled them to their situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island they approved themselves the most faithful servants of the state.®' Great numbers of Franks and Gepids were settled on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. An hundred thousand Bastarnae, expelled from their own country, cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace, and soon imbibed the manners and sentiments of Roman subjects.®® But the expectations of Probus were too often disappointed. The impatience and idleness of the barbarians could ill brook the slow labours of agriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, rising against despotism, provoked them into hasty rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces,®* nor could these artificial supplies, however repeated by succeeding emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and Illyricum to its ancient and native vigour.

“He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a Numerus, as it was then called, a corps with whose established number we are not exactly acquainted. “Camden’s Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he speaks from a very doubtful conjecture. ®’Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 68] p. 62. According to Vopiscus, another body of Vandals was less faithful “Hist. August, p. 240. [Vopisc. Probus, c 18.] pelled by the Goths. Zosim. 1 i [c. 71] p. 66. “ Hist. August p. 240 [Vopisc. 1 c.j .

.

They were probably ex-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

989

'

Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements, and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number returned to For a ^ort season they might wander in arms their own country. through the empire, but in the end they were surely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended, however, with such memorable consequences that it ought not to be passed unnoticed. They had been established by Probus on the sea-coast of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed in one of the harbours of the Euxine fell into the hands of the Franks; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and, cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa. The opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the navies of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful of barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the trembling inhabitants. From ^e island of Sicily the Franks proceeded to the Columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to the ocean, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and, steering their triumphant course through the British Channel, at length finished their surprising voyage by landing in safety on the Batavian or Frisian shores.®* The example of their success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages and to despise the dangers of the sea, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and glory. Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience every part of The barbarians who broke their chains his wide-extended dominions. had seized the favourable opportunity of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the command of the East on Saturninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by the absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian people, the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears; but from the moment of his elevation he never entertained a hope of empire or even of life. “ Alas! he said, ‘‘ the republic has lost a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the the misery of services of many years. You know not,” continued he, ’

‘

sovereign power: a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition, nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of The only consolation which remains cares, and to an untimely fate.

“ Panegyr.

^’et. v. 18.

Zosimus, L L

[c.

71] p. 66.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

ago

But as the former put the assurance that I shall not fall alone.” of his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save the unhappy Satuminus from the fury of the soldiers. is

He had more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign who so highly esteemed his character that he had punished as a malicious informer the first who Satuminus might related the improbable news of his defection.'*^' perhaps have embraced the generous offer had he not been restrained by the obstinate distrust of his adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sa ng u ine, than those of their experienced leader. The revolt of Satuminus was scarcely extinguished in the East before new troubles were excited in the West by the rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus in Gaul. The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus,““ yet neither of them were destitute of courage and capacity, and both sustained with honour the august character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of Probus. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well as the lives of their innocent families.’’^ The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady administration confirmed the re-establi^ment of the public tranquillity; nor was there left in the provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It was time that the emperor should reviat Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The triumph due

to the valour of Probus was conducted with a magand the people, who had so lately

nificence suitable to his fortune;

admired the trophies of Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic successor.’’’ We cannot on this occasion forget the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdain"Vopiscus in Hist. August, p, 245, 246 [in Saturnino, c. 10]. The unfortunate orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage and was therefore more probably a Moor (Zosim. 1 . i. [c. 66J p. 60) than a Gaul, as Vopiscus calls him. “ Zonaras, 1 xii. [c. 29] p. 638 [ed. Par. ; p. 609, cd. lionn.] very surprising instance is recorded of the jtrowess of Proculus. He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins. The rest of the story he must relate in his own language; Ex his una nocte dccem inivi; omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulicres intra dies quindecim reddidi. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 246 [in Proculo, 12]. “ Proculus, who was a native of Albengue on the Genoese coast, armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches were great, but they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards a saying of his family, sibi non placere esse vel principes vel latrones. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 247 [in Proculo, ;

.

"A

13]-

“Hist.

Aiiyxist. p. 240.

[Vopisc. in Probo,

c.

19.]

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

,

391

ing to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the place of their confinement, and filled the After an obstinate resiststreets of Rome with blood and confuaon. ance, they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the regular forces; but they obtained at least an honourable dea^, and the satisfaction of a just revenge.'® The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Frobus was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by employing the legions in constant and useful labours. When Probus commanded in Egypt, he executed many considerable works for the splendour and benefit of that rich country. The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improved; and temples, bridges, porticoes, and palaces, were constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and as husbandmen.®^ It was reported of Hannibal that, in order to preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations of idleness, he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive-trees along the coast of Africa.'® From a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia,

and two considerable spots are described which were entirely dug and planted by military labour.'® One of these, known under the name of Mount Alma, was situated near Sirmium, the country where Probus ^.as born, for which he ever retained a partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavoured to secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the most useful as well as the bravest portion of

Roman

subjects.

But, in the prosecution of a favourite scheme, the best of men, with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds of moderation; nor did Probus himself sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce legionaries.®® The dangers of the military profession seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idleness; but if the duties of the soldier are incessantly satisfied

" Zosim. 1 i. [c. 71 p. 66. " Hist. August, p. 236. [Vopisc. .

]

in Probo, c. 9.] “Aurel. Victor, in Prob. [De Csesar. c. 37.] But the policy of Hannibal, unnoticed by any more ancient writer, is irreconcilable with the history of his life. He left Africa when he was nine years old, returned to it when he was forty-five, and immediately lost his army in the decisive battle of Zama. Livius, XXX. 3 S. “ Hist. August, p. 240. [Vopisc. Probus, c. 18.] Eutrop. ix. 17 [7]. Aurel. Victor, in Prob. Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of Domitian, and granted a general permission of planting vines to the Gauls, the Britons, and the Pannonians. Julian [Qesares, p. 314] bestows a severe, and indeed excessive, censure on the rigour of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost deserved his fate.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

a«3

aggravated by the labours of the peasant, he will at last sink under the intolerable burden or shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind than to those of the army, he expressed the vain hope that, by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon abolish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force.”^ The unguarded expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome labour of draining the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out into a furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger, took refuge in a lofty tower constructed for the purpose of surveying the progress of the work.®- The tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. rage of the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor whom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honourable monument, the memory of his virtues and victories.®' When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his Praetorian praefect, the most deserving of the Imperial throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen; and affected to compare the purity of his blood with the foreign, and even barbarous, origin of the preceding emperors; yet the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa.®* Though a soldier, he had received a learned education; though a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an age when the civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were united in the person of Cams. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exercised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favour and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his elevation, an acknowledged character of virtue and

The

“Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 241 fin Probo, c. 20]. He lavishes on this hope a large stock of very foolish eloquence. “Turris ferrata. It seems to have been a movable tower, and cased with

idle

iron.

“[Hie] Probus, et vere probus bararum: victor etiam tyrannorura.

situs est;

Victor

(Vopisc. Prob.

c.

omnium gentium Bar21]

“Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at Narbonne in Illyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more famous city of that name in Gaul. His father might be an African, and his mother a noble Roman. Carus himself was educated in the capital See Scaliger, Animadversion, ad Euseb. Chron.

p. 241.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

an

abilities; **

but his austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants.** When Carus assumed the purple he was about sixty years of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, had already attained the season of manhood.*^

The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard for the civil power which they had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne.*® A behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no favourable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs.*® The voice of congratulation and flattery was not however silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue which was composed on the accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity had described, in prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who, receiving on his Moulders the sinking weight of the Roman world, shall extinguish war and faction, and once again restore the innocence and security of the golden age.^* It is more than probable that these elegant trifles never reached the ears of a veteran general who, with the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute the long-suspended design of the Persian war. Before his departure for this distant expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Cssar, and, investing the former with almost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed the young prince first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome, and to "Frobus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompense of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 249 [in Caro, c. 6]. "'^opiscus in Hisf August, p. 242, 249 [in Probo, c. 24; in Caro, c. 3]. Julian excludes the emperor Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Caesars. "John Malala, tom. i. p. 401 [ed. Oxon.; p. 129, ed. Ven.; p. 303, ed. Bonn]. But the authority of that ignorant Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus the city ot Carrhae and the province of Caria, the latter of which is mentioned by Homer. Carus congratulated the [Vopisc. Carus, c. 5.] “Hist. August, p. 249. senate that one of their own order was made emperor. “ Hist. August, p. 242. [Vopisc. Probus, c. 24.] "See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is preferred by See tom. iii. p. 148. Fontenelle to that of Virgil’s Pollio.

the decline AND FALL OF

*94

assume the government of the Western provinces.’^ The safe^ of Ill}rricum was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians; sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand. The old emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory, pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son Numerian, arrived on There, encamping on the the confines of the Persian monarchy. summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out to his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they were about to invade. The successor of Artaxerxes, Varanes, or Bahram, though he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations of Upper Asia,^* was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, and endeavoured to retard their progress by a negotiation of peace. His ambassadors entered the camp about sunset, at the time when the troops were satisfying their hunger with a frugal repast. The Persians expressed their desire of being introduced to the presence of the Roman emperor. They were at length conducted to a soldier who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon and a few hard peas composed his supper. A coarse woollen garment of purple was ^e only circumstance that announced his dignity. The conference was conducted with the same disregard of Cams, taking ofi a cap which he wore to conceal courtly elegance. his baldness, assured the ambassadors that, unless their master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily render Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of hair.^^ Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, we may discover in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe simplicity which the martial princes who succeeded Gallienus had already restored in the Roman camps. The ministers of the Great King trembled and retired. The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon (which seem to have surrendered without resistance), and carried bis victorious arms beyond the Tigris.''* He had seized the favourable moment for an invasion. The Persian councils were distracted by domestic factions, and the "Hist. August,

p.

250.

[Vopisc. Carus,

c.

7.]

Eutropius,

ix.

i8

[12].

Pagi, Annal.

"Agathias, 1 . iv. p. 135 (ed. Paris; p. 94, ed. Ven.; c. 24, p. 261, ed. Bonn]. find one of his sayings in the Bibliotheque Orientale of M. d’Herbelot. “The definition of humanity includes all other virtues." [Gibbon here is in error, for Varanes or Bahram was not the successor of Artaxerxes. Three monarchs had intervened, Sapor (Shahpour), Hormisdas (Hormooz), Varanes or Baharam the First. O. S.] " Synesius tells this story of Carinus and it is much more natural to ; understand it of Carus than (as Petavius and Tillemont choose to do) of Probus. "Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. [Vopisc. Carus, c. 8.] Eutropius,

We

—

ix.

18 [i2j.

The two

Victors.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE greater part of their forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and the East received with transport the news of such important advantages. Flattery and hope painted in the most lively colours the fall of Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian nations.'^'’ But the reign of Cams was destined to expose the vanity of predictions. They were scarcely uttered before they were contradicted by his death; an event attended with such ambiguous circumstances that it may be related in a letter from his own secretary to the prsfect of the city. “ Cams,” says he, “ our dearest emperor, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the camp. The darkness which o^'erspread the sky was so thick that we could no longer distinguish each other; and the incessant dashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion. Immediately

most violent clap of thunder we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it soon appeared that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal pavilion, a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Cams was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to investigate the truth, his death was the natural after the

effect of his disorder.”

The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked by their mutual and young Numerian, with his absent brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman emperors. The public expected that the successor of Carus would ^rsue his father’s footsteps, and, without allowing the Persians to recover from their consternation, would advance sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana.^^ But the legions, however strong in numbers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to disguise the manner of the late emperor’s death, it was found impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and Places or persons struck with the power of opinion is irresistible. lightning were considered by the ancients with pious horror, as singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven.’* An oracle was remembered fears;

"To

the Persian victory of Carus, I refer the dialogue of the Philopatris,

which has .so long been an object of dispute among the learned. But to explain and justify my opinion would require a dissertation. [Niebuhr in vol. xi, of the Byzantine Historians has assigned the Philopatris to the tenth century and to the reign of Nicephorus Phocas. Milman thinks that this occurrence took place in the devastation of the island by the Gothic pirates during the reign of Claudius. O. S.] "Hist. August, p. 250. [Vopisc. Carus, c. 8.] ifet Eutropius, Festus Rufusr, the two Victors, Jerome, Sidonius, Apollinaris, Syncellus, and Zonaras, all ascribe the death of Carus to lightning. " See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71, etc. "See Festus and his commentators, on the word Scribonianum. Places struck by lightning were surrounded with a wall; things were buried with mysterious ceremony.

—

the decline and fall of

10

which marked the river Tigris as the fatal boundary oi the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with the fate of Carus and with their own danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this inauspicious scene of war. The feeble emperor was unable to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy.’'” The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome; and the senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the accession of the sons of Carus.

These fortunate youths were strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth or of merit, which can alone render the posBorn and educated session of a throne easy, and as it were natural. in a private station, the election of their father raised them at once to the rank of princes; and his death, which happened about sixteen months afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast empire. To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of virtue and prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the brothIn the ers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities. Gallic war he discovered some degree of personal courage; “ but from the moment of his arrival at Rome he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and, though exquisitely susIn the course of ceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public esteem. a few months he successively married and divorced nine wives, most

whom he left pregnant; and, notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to indulge such a variety of irregular appetites as brought dishonour on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld with inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He banished or put to death the friends and counsellors whom bis father had placed about him to guide his inexperienced youth; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his schoolfellows and companions who had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor. With the senators Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanour, frequently declaring that he designed to distribute their estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that populace he select^ his favourites, and even his ministers. The palace, and even the Imperial table, was filled with of

singers, dancers, prostitutes, folly.

One

and

of his doorkeepers

**

all the various retinue of vice and he intrusted with the government of

"Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. [Carus, c. 9] to believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat.

Aurelius Victor seems

v. 69. He was a contemporary, but a poet. Cancellarius. This word, so humble in its origin, has by a singular fortune risen into the title of the first great office of state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon and Salmasius, ad Hist. August, p. 253. [Vopisc.

"Nemesian. Cynegetioon,

“

Carinus,

c. 15.]

THE ROMAN EMPIRE the dty. In the room of the Prstorian prsfect, whom he put to death, Carinus subsituted one of the ministers of his looser pleasures. Another, who possessed the same or even a more infamous title to favour, was invested with the consulship. confidential secretary, who had acquired uncomnwn skiU in the art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own consent, from the irksome duty of signing his

A

name.

When the emperor Cams undertook the Persian war, he was induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes of his family by leaving in the hands of his eldest son the armies and provinces of the West.

conduct of Carinus

The intelligence which he soon received of the him with shame and regret; nor had he conof satisfying the republic by a severe act of jus-

filled

cealed his resolution tice, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of Constantius was for a while deferred; and as soon as the father’s death had released Cminus from the control of fear or decency, he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian.*-

The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendour with which, in his own and his brother’s name, he exhibited the Roman games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre. More than twenty years afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, he

acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a reign of But this vain prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by pleasure.*"*

the

Roman

people.

The

oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spec-

pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus.®* The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated by the tacles of former days, the triumphal

observation of some particulars which history has condescended to reIf we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor since the time of the Romans so much art and late concerning those of his predecessors.

c. 15, 16]. Eutropius, ix. in Hist. August, p. 253, 254 [W. Victor Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long and prosperous, that it must have been very unfa\ curable to the reputation of Carinus. "Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 255 [in Carino, 19]. He calls him Carus, but the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were often confounded. ** See Calphurnius, Eclog. viL 43. We may observe that the spectacles of Probus were still recent, and that the poet is seconded by the historian.

"Vopiscus

19

[13].

:

408

;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the people.** By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, tom up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand fallow-deer, and a thousand wild boars; and all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day consisted in the massacre of an hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred The collection prepared by the leopards, and three hundred bears.®" younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his successor exhibited in the secular games, was less remarkable by the number than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman people.®' Ten elks, and as many camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander over the plain of Sarmatia and Ethiopia, were contrasted with thirty African hysenas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which Nature has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile,** and a majestic troop of twenty-two While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the elephants.®* splendid show, the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties of so many different species, transported from every part of the ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit which science might derive from folly is surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first Punic war in which the senate wisely connected this amusement of the multitude with the interest of the state. A considerable number of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Carthaginian army, were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins."* The useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to encounter them in the ranks of war. The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the masters of the

“The

philosopher Montaigne (Essais, 1 . iii. 6) gives a very just and lively Roman magnificence in these spectacles. “Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 240. [Probus, c. 19.] "They are called Onagri; but the number is too inconsiderable for mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis Exercitat. ii. 7) has proved from Oppian, Dion, and an anonymous Greek, that zebras had been seen at Rome. They were brought from some island of the ocean, perhaps Madagascar. "Carinus gave an hippopotamus (see Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 66). In the Matter spectacles I do not recollect any crocodiles, of which Augustus once exhibited thirty-six. Dion Cassius, L Iv. [c. 10] p. 781. “Capitolin. in Hist. August, p. 164, 165. [Gordian. III. c. 33.] arc not acquainted with the animals which he calls archelcontes some read argoleontes, others agrioleontes both corrections are very nugatory. "Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 6, from the annals of Piso.

view of

We

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

299

world; nor was the edifice appropriated to that entertainment less expensive of Roman greatness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus, who so well deserved It was a building of an elliptic figure, five the epithet of Colossal."^

hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixtyseven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet.®“ The outside of the edifice was encnisted with marble and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease above four-score thousand spectators."’ Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exqtiisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion.®* Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and They were protected from the sun and pleasure of the spectators. rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monIn the decoration of these scenes the Roman emsters of the deep.®’

perors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either

“ See Maffei, Verona

“ Maffei,

Illustrata, p. iv.

1 . i. c. 2.

height was very much exaggerated by the ancients. It reached almost to the heavens, according to Calphurnius (Eclog. vii. 23 ); and surpassed the ken of human sight, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi 10). Yet how trifling to the great pyramid of Egypt, which rises 500 [The height was 157 feet. See Smith’s Diet, of Antiq. feet perpendicular 1.

ii.

c. 2.

The

1

p.

86.— S.] “According

to different copies of Victor, we read 77, 000 or 87,000 spectators; but Maffei ( 1 . ii. c. 12) finds room on the open seats for no more than 34,000. The remainder were contained in the upper covered galleries. “Sec Maffei, 1. ii. c. S-12. He treats the very difficult subject with all possible clearness, and like an architect as well as an antiquarian. “ Calphurn. Eclog. vii. O4-73. These lines are curious, and the whole eclogue has been of infinite use to Maffei. Calphurnius, as well as Martial (see his first book), was a poet; but when they described the amphitheatre, they both wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans.

;

300

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

of ^Iver, or of gold, or of amber.*® The poet who describes the g&mes of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire; that the porticoes were gilded; and that the belt or circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones.*' In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his perIn the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles son.®* from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus.*®

The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father’s death. The arrangements which their new situation required were probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome, where a tridecreed to the young emperors for the glorious success of It is uncertain whether they intended to divide the Persian war.’"" between them the administration or the provinces of the empire; but it is very unlikely that their union would have proved of any long duraThe jealousy of power must have been infiamed by the opposition. In the most corrupt of times Carinus was untion of characters. worthy to live: Numerian deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and affections of the public. He possessed the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero as on that of the modern declaimers; but in an age very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority of his genius.’"’ But the

umph was

“Consult

Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. i6, xxxvii. n. haltcus cn gemmis, en inlita porticos auro Certatim radiant, etc. Calphurn. vii. [v. 47.]

"Et Martis vultus ct Apoltinis esse putavi, says Calphurnius [Eel. vii. 83] but John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p. 403. " With regard to the time when these Roman games were celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper have given themselves a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject. ’“Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon [v. 80, sqq.]) seems to anticipate in his fancy that auspicious day. ’“He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Carus, with a very ambiguous inscription, “ To the most powerful of orators." See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 251 [Numerian. c. ii.]

tHE ROMAN EMPIRE

|0)l

talents of Numerian mre rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his father’s elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his ten^r nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies, ffis constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war; and he had contracted, from ^e heat of the climate,^"’’ such a weakness in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the Prstorian praefcct, who, to the power of his important office, added the honour of being fatherin-law to Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by bis most trusty adherents; and during many days Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign.^®® It was not till eight months after the death of Carus that the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heradea, on the European side But a report soon circulated through the camp, of the Propontis.’"* at first in secret whispers, and at length in loud clamours, of the emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers could not long support a

With rude curiosity they broke into the imperial and discovered only the corpse of Numerian.’"® The gradual decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his death was natural; but the concealment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper had taken to secure his election became the immediate occasion of bis ruin. Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly discipline had been re-established by the martial successors of Gallienus. A general assembly of the army was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in A vacant tribunal was erected chains, as a prisoner and a criminal. in the midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great military council. They soon announced to the multitude that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics or bodystate of suspense. tent,

’"A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vopiscus (Hist August, p. 251 [Numerian. c. 12] ), incessantly weeping for his father’s death. In the Persian war Aper was suspected of a design to betray Carus. August

[Vopiscuj, Carus, c. 8.] p. 250. are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274, for the knowledgte of the time and place where Diocletian was elected emperor. Eutrop. ix. 88 [c. 12]. [Vopisc. Numer. c. 12.] ’“Hist. August, p. 251. Hieronym. in Chron. According to these judicious writers, the death of Numerian was discovered by the stench of his dead body. Could no aromatics be found in the Imperial household? Hist.

’“We

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

36s

guards, as the person the most capable of revenging and succeeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour. Conscious that the station which he had filled exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and, raising his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of that all-

Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, seeing Deity he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. “ This man,” said he, “ is the murderer of Numerian;” and without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew A his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate praefect. charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations, acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian.*®^ Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, it will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to support his legal title to But his personal vices overbalanced every advantage of the empire. birth and situation. The most faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arrogance of the son. The hearts of the people were engaged in favour of his rival, and even the senate was inclined to prefer an usurper to a tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general discontent and the winter was employed in secret In the spring the intrigues and open preparations for a civil war. forces of the East and of the West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city of Mssia, in the neighbourhood of the Danube.*®* The troops, so lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expense of health and numbers, nor were they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life. But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the valour of his soldiers he quickly lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow extinguished civil discord ;

in the

blo^

of the adulterer.*®®

^

“*Aurcl. Victor. [De Csesar. c. 39.] Eutropius, ix. 20 [c. 13]. Hieronym. Chron. _*”Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 252. [Numer. c. 13.] The reason why Diocletian killed /ifier (a wild boar) was founded on a prophecy and a pun, as foolish as they are well known. [Vopisc. 1 c.] '“Eutropius [lib. ix. c. 13] marks its situation very accurately; it was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d’Anville (Geographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria. Hist. August, p. 254. [Vopisc. C^rin. c. 17.] Eutropius, ix. 20 [13]. Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome.. in

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE CHAPTER

XIII

his Three Associates, Maximum, Calerius, and Constantins General Re-establishment of Order and Tranquillity The Persian War, Victory, and Triumph The new Form of Administration Abdication and Retirement of Diocletian and Maximian

The Reign of Diocletian and

—

—

—

—

As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator; nor was he himself distinguished by any other name than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother deduced her origin.^ It is, however, probable that his father obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons Favourable oracles, or rather the consciousness of of his condition.^ superior merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and the hopes of fortune; and it would be extremely curious t.> observe the graduation of arts and accidents which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the government of Mzesia, the honours of the consulship, and the important command of the guards of the palace. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian war; and after the death of Numerian, the slave, by the confession and judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the Imperial throne. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns the savage

Maximian, has affected to cast suspicion on It would not be the personal courage of the emperor Diocletian.® easy to persuade us of the cowardice of a soldier of fortune who acquired and preserved the esteem of the legions, as well as the favour of so many warlike princes. Yet even calunmy is sagacious enough to fierceness of his colleague

* Fntrop. ix. 19 [ijl. Victor in Epitome fc. 39]. The town seems to have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of Illyrian.s (see Cellarius, Geograph. Antiqua, tom. i. p. 393) ; and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docks ; he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diodes, and at length to the Roman majesty of Diocletianus. He likewise assumed the Patrician name of \'alcrias, and it is usually given him by Aurelius Victor. * See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of Horace. Cornel. Nepos, in Vit. Eumen. c. i. * Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little treatise Dc Mortibus Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity in two places, c. 7, 8. In chap 9 ht says of him, “erat in omni tumuitu meticulosus et animi disjectus.”

—

the decline AND FALL OF

'3«4

discover and to attack the most vulnerable part. The valour of Diowas never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly chalHis abilities were useful rather lenges the allegiance of his equals. than splendid a. vigorous mind improved by the experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in business; a judicious mixcletian

ture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigour; profound disamulation under the disguise of military frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. Like the adopted son of Cxsar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than as a warrior; nor did either of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose could be effected by policy. The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singular mildness. A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and confiscation were inflicted with any degree of temper and equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment, a civil war, the flames of which were extinguished in the field Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the of battle. principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives, the fortunes, and the dignity of his adversaries, and even continued in their

number of the servants of Carinus.^ It not improbable that motives of prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalmatian: of these servants, many had purchased his favour by secret treachery; in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate master. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of Probus, and of Carus, had filled the several departments of the state and army with officers of approved merit, whose removal would have injured the public service, without promoting the interest of the successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Roman world the fairest prospect of the new reign, and the emperor affected to confirm

respective stations the greater is

this favourable prepossession

of his predecessors,

by declaring

that,

among

all

the virtues

he was the most ambitious of imitating the humane

philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.®

The

first

considerable action of his reign seemed to evince his sinAfter the example of Marcus, he

cerity as well as his moderation.

*In this enconiutn Aurelius Victor seems to convey a just, though indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantins. It appears from the Fasti that Aristobolus remained prsefect of the city, and that he ended with Diocletian the consulship which he had commenced with Carinus. Victor styles Diocletian “ Parentem potius quam Dominum." rr! [De Csesar. 39.] See Hist August, p. 30. [Capitol. M. Anton. Phil. c. 19.]

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

303

gave himself a colleague in the person of Mazimian, on whom he bestowed at first the title of Cssar, and afterwards that of Augustus.*' But the motives of his conduct, as well as the object of his choice, were of a very different nature from the three c.xprcssivins of Eutropius [i-x. 13]. Aurelius Victor [de Caesar. " vilissime natus,” “Batavi* alumnus,” and “Menapiae 39I, and Eumenius, civis,” gives us a very doubtful account of the birth of Carausius. Dr. Stukely however (Hist, of Carausius. p. 6e), chooses to make him a native of St David’s and a prince of the blood royal of Britain. The former idea he had found in Richard of Cirencester, p. 44[Carausius was of German origin, and when planning his rising appears to have ihoug^ht it likely that he would receive assistance from the Germans already settled in Britain. Cf. Kemble, the Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 12. See Clinton, stated by Gibbon. not 294 Oarausius was slain in a.d. Fasti Romani, vol. i. p. .334- O. S.l , . j "Panegyr. v. 12. Britain at this time was secure, and slightly guarded.

—

,

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

}XO

of the revenue of Britain, whilst they confessed that such a province During well deserved to become the seat of an independent monarchy the space of seven years it was possessed by Carausius; and forttme continued propitious to a rebellion supported with courage and ability. The British emperor defended the frontiers of his dominions against

the Caledonians of the North, invited from the continent a great number of skilful artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins that are still extant, his taste and opulence. Born on the confines of the Franks, he

courted the friendship of that formidable people by the flattering imitation of their dress and manners. The bravest of their youths he enlisted among his land or sea forces; and, in return for their useful alliance, he communicated to the barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military

and naval

arts.

Carausius

still

preserved the possession of Boulogne and

the adjacent country. His fleets rode triumphant in the channel, commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the Columns of Hercules the terror of his

name.

Under

his

command,

Britain, destined in a future age to

obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed station of a maritime power.**

its

natural and respectable

seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his master of means of pursuit and revenge. And when, after a vast expense of time and labour, a new armament was launched into the water,” the Imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element, were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran sailors of the usurper. This disappointed effort was soon productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned to him the sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious servant to a participation of the Imperial honours.** But the adoption

By

the

"Panegyr. Vet. v. ii, vii. 9. The orator Eumentus wished to exalt the glory of the hero (Constantins) with tiie importance of the conquest. Notwithstanding our laudable partiality for our native country, it is difficult to conceive that, in the beginning of the fourth century, England deserved all these commendations. A century and a half before it hardly paid its own See Appian in Prooem. a great number of medals of Carausius are still preserved, he is become a very favourite object of antiquarian curiosity, and every circumstance of his life and actions has been investigated with sagacious accuracy. Dr. Stukely in particular has devoted a large volume to the British emperor. I have used his materials, and rejected most of his fanciful conjectures. “When Mamertinus pronounced his first panegyric the naval preparations of^ Maximian were completed ; and the orator presaged an assured victory. His silence in the second panegyric might alone inform us that the expedition had not succeeded. “Aurelius Victor, E.utropius, and the medals (Pax AugnT*). inform us of this temporary reconciliation; though I will not presume (as Dr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of (Carausius, p. 86, etc.) to insert the identical establishment.

“As

articles of the treaty.

THE ROUAN' E'MPIRE

'

$tz

z^e

of'thd two Caesars restored new vigour to the Roman arms; amd the Rhine guarded by the presence of Maximian, his brave associate

Constantius assumed the conduct of the British war. His first enteiprise was against the important place of Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the entrance of the harbour, intercepted all hopes of relief. The town surrendered after an obstinate defence; and a considerable part of the naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the beaegers. During the three years which Constantius employed in preparing a

adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured the coast of Gaul, invaded the countiy of the Franks, and deprived the usurper of the assistance of those powerful allies. Before the preparations were finished, Constantius received the infleet

and it was considered as a sure presage of the approaching victory. The servants of Carausius imitated the example of treason which he had given. He was murdered by his first minister Allectus, and the assassin succeeded to his power and to his telligence of the tyrant’s death,

danger. But he possessed not equal abilities either to exercise the one or to repel the other. He beheld with anxious terror the opposite shores of the continent, already filled with arms, with troops, and with vessds; for Constantius had very prudently divided his forces, that he mifj^t likewise divide the attention and resistance of the enemy. The att^ g was at length made by the principal squadron, which, under the command of the praefect Asclepiodotus, an officer of distinguished merit, had been assembled in the mouth of the Seine. So imperfect in those times was the art of navigation, that orators have celebrated the daring courage of the Romans, who ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day. The weather proved favourable to their enterprise. Under the cover of a thick fog they escaped the fleet of Allectus, which had been stationed oS the I^e of Wight to receive them, landed in safety on some part of the western coast, and convinced the Britons that a superiority of naval strength will not always protect their country from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodotus had no sooner disembarked the imperial troops than he set fire to his ships; and, as the expedition proved •

fortunate, his heroic conduct was universally admired. The usurper had posted himself near London, to expect the formidable attack of Constantius, who commanded in person the fleet of Boulogne; but the descent of a new enemy required his immediate presence in the West. He performed this long inarch in so precipitate a manner that he encountered the whole force ot the prefect with a small body of harassed and disheartened troops. Tlie engagement was soon terminated by the total defeat and death of Allectus; a single battle, as it has often happened, decided the fate of this great island; and when Constantius landed on the shores of Kent, he found them covered with obedient subjects. Their acclamations were loud and unanimous; and the virtues of

the conqueror

may

induce us to believe that they sincerely rejoiced in

313

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

a revolution urhich, after a separation of ten years, restored Britain to the body of the Ronuin empire.*^ Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread; and as long as the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops their discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of Scotland or Ireland could never materially affect the safety of the province. The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal rivers which bounded the empire, were objects of far greater difficulty and importance. The policy of Diocletian, which inspired the councils of his associates, provided for the public tranquillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissen»on among the barbarians,

and by strengthening the fortifications of the Roman limit. In the East a line of camps from Egypt to the Persian dominions, and, for he every camp, he instituted an adequate number of stationary troops, '-.ommanded by their respective officers, and supplied with every kind of arms, from the new arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus.°’‘ Nor was the precaution of the emperor less watchful against the well-known valour of the barbarians of Europe. From the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and citadel were diligently re-established, and, in the most exposed places, new ones were skilfully constructed; the strictest vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and every expedient wa ; practised that could render the long chain of fortifications firm and imbarrier so respectable was seldom violated, and the barpenetrable.*®

A

barians often turned against each other their disappointed rage. The Goths, the Vandals, the Gepidse, the Burgundians, the AJemanni, wasted each other’s strength by destructive hostilities: and whosoever van-

Rome. The subjects of Diocleand congratulated each other that war were now experienced only by the bar-

quished, they vanquished the enemies of tian enjoyed the bloody spectacle,

the mischiefs of civil barians.**

Notwithstanding the policy of Diocletian, it was impossible to mainan equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign of twenty years, and along a frontier of many hundred miles. Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic animosities, and the relaxed vigilance tain

“With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a few hints from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius. “John Malala, in Chron. Antiochen. tom. i. p. 408, 409 led. Oxon.; p. 132, ed. Ven.; p. ed. Bonn]. ** 2 osiin. 1. i. p. 3 It. ii. c. 34]. That partial historian seems to celebrate the vigilance of Diocletian, with a design of exposing the negligence of Constantme; we may, however, listen to an orator: “Nam quid ego alarum Stum ” Pre^*‘ “Ruunt omnes in sanguinem suum popuU, quibus non cnntimt ^stimt^ue feritntis pmnas nunc sp^te Svun” Pan^r

limfte

o _

THE ROMAN EMPIRE of the garrisons sometimes gave

^13

a passage to their strength or dexterity.

Whenever the provinces were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity which he always affected or possessed; reserved his presence for such occasions as were worthy of his interpo^tion, never

exposed his person or reputation to any unnecessary danger, ensured by every means that prudence could suggest, and displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he employed the rough valour of Maximian; and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and auspicious influence of his benefactor. But after the adoption of the two Csesars, the emperors, themselves retiring to a less laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius was never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of barbarians on the Roman territory.‘° The brave and active Constantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Alemanni and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear to have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, in the general conhis success

;

j

5

open their gates, and the wounded drawn up the wall by the means of a rope. But, on the news

sternation, the citizens refused to

prince was

of his distress, the

Roman

troops hastened from all sides to his relief, satisfied his honour and revenge by the

and before the evening he had

slaughter of six thousand Alemanni."” From the monuments of those times the obscure traces of several other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might possibly be collected; but the tedious search would not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction. The conduct which the emperor Probus had adopted in the disposal of the vanquished was imitated by Diocletian and his associates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned to those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais, Cambray, Treves, Langres, and Troyes, are particularly specified)"' which had been depopulated by the calamities of war. They were usefully employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but were denied the exercise of arms, except when it was found expedient to enrol them in the military service. Kor did the emperors refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome. They granted a settk**

He

complaincJ, though not with the strictest truth, “Jsni Saxisse SBBOS in quibus, in Illyrico. ad ripam Uanubii relegatus cum gentibus

quindecim

-

thousand, a number wbmH I of Jerome, Orostus. Eutropius, and h« to Ihe sixty thousand have Greek translator Pseanius.

p«fcS

" Panegyr.

Vet.

vii.

21 .

y

—

THE DECLINE AND PALL OF

}t4

the Carpi, the Bastarnse, and the Sarina* by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners and independence.''* Among the provincials it was a subject of flattering exultation that the barbarian, so ittent to several colonies of

tians; and,

lately an object of terror^ now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighbouring fair, and contributed by his labour to the They congratulated their masters on the powerful public plenty.

accession of subjects and soldiers; but they forgot to observe that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favour, or desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire."* Wiile the Csesars exercised their valour on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, the presence of the emperors was required on the southern confines of the

Roman world. From the Nile to Mount Atlas

Africa was

A confederacy of five Moorish nations issued

from their deserts to invade the peaceful provinces.^® Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage.*' Achilleus at Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes, renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any drcumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa; but it appears, by the event, that the progress of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and Diocletian, of his side, opened the campaign in Egypt by violence.*" the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters in arms.

of the Nile into every quarter of that

camp impregnable

immense

city,*"

and, rendering his

he pushed his and vigour. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the conqueror, but it experienced the full extent of his to the sallies of the besieged multitude,

reiterated attacks with caution

"There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the neighbourhood of Treves, which seems to have been deserted by those lazy barbarians Ausonius speaks of them in his Mosella [v. S, Unde iter ingrediens nemorosa per avia solum, £t nulla human! spectans vestigia cultus; ;

:

Arvaque Sauromatum nuper metata culonis. There was a town of the Carpi in the Lower Mscsia. "See the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius. Panegyr. vii. 9. "Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243) decides, in his usual manner, that the Quinquegentiani, or five African nations, were the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the inoffensive province of Cyrenc. “After his defeat Julian stabbed himself with a dagger, and immediately leaped into the fiames. 'Victor in Epitome [c. 39]. *Tu ferocis'imos Mauritania; populos inaccessis montium jugis et natural! a uiitionc fidentes, expugnasti, recepisti, transtulisti. Panegyr. 'Vet. vi. 8. “See the description of Alexandria in Hirtius de Bell. Alexandrin, c. S.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

3tj|

Many

thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at least of exile.*^ The fate of Busiris and of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria; those proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by severity.

the arms and

by the severe order of

Diocletian.^®

The character

of the

Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive rigour. The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages

The number Meroe and the Red

of .Ethiopia. island of

of the Blemmyes, scattered between the Sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposi-

tion was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive.'*® Yet in the public disorders these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome.*^ Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatae,

or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipula-

deserts of Libya,

tion that they should ever respect

The

treaty long subsisted ; and

till

and guard the

frontier of the empire.

the establishment of Christianity in-

troduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually ratified sacrifice in the isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers

by a solemn

of the universe.*"

At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in Chron. Antioch, ix. 24 [15]. 410 led. Oxon. p. 132, ed. Yen.; p. 309, ed. Bonn]. Yet Eumenius assures us that Egypt was pacified by the clemency of Diocletian. “Eusebius (in Chron. [An. CCXCIII.]) places their de-.truction several years sooner, and at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion

“Eutrop.

p. 409,

:

against the Romans.

“Strabo, “ Intra,

Blemmyes, " Ausus

“See

1.

xvii. p. 819.

credere

si

ct

‘

libet,

Satyri.’

Pomponius Mela, 1 i. c. 4. Ills words are curious: vix homines magisque semiferi; .£gipanes, ct .

”

sese inserere fortunae et provocare arna Procopius de Bell. Persic. 1 i. c. IQ.

Romana.

fin the island of Philie (Elephantina) the rites of Paganism continued to down to the sixth century, when the edict of Theodosius was

be practised

— O.

promulgated.

S

]

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

316

wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns.^® One very remarkable edict which he published, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made “ for all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold and silver, and without pity committed them to the flames; apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against the But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that empire.” valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the Iwnefit of the public revenue. It is likely that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of preserving the rea-

much more

son and fortunes of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked that these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the abuse of diemistry. In that immense register, where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals; and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in the history of alchymy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the

human

heart,

it

was studied

in

China as

in

Europe, with equal eagerness and with equal success. The darkness of the middle ages ensured a favourable reception to every tale of wonder, and the revival of learning gave new vigour to hope, and suggested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of

commerce and

industry.”

‘

was immediately followed by the Persian war. was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to vanquish that powerful nation, and to extort a confession from the successors of Artaxerxes of

The

reduction of Egypt

It

the superior majesty of the Roman empire. We have observed, under the reign of Valerian, that Armenia was subdued by the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and that, after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, the infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of bis friends, and educated under the protection of the emperors. Tiridates derived from his exile such

advantages as he could never have obtained on the throne of Armenia;

"He

fixed the public allowance of com for the people of Alexandria at millions of medimni; about four hundred thousand quarters. Chron. Paschal, p. 276. Procop. Hist Arcan. c. 26.

two

" John Antioch,

in Excerp. Valesian, p. 834. Suidas in Diocletian. See a short history and confutation of Alchymy, in the works of that philosophical compiler, La Mothe le Vayer, tom. i. p. 327-353. _

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

317

the early knowledge of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman disHe signalised his youth by deeds of valour, and displayed a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and even in the less honourable contests of the Olympian games.®* Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his benefactor Licinius.®* That officer, in the sedition which occasioned the death of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his tent when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards to his restoration. Licinius was in every station the friend and companion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he was raised to the dignity of Cssar, had been known and esteemed by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor’s reign, Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The justice of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian monarch an important territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had been always granted under the protection of the empire to a younger branch of the house of Arsaces.®® I\Tien Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, he was received with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. During twenty-six years the country had experienced the real and imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs adorned their new conquest with cipline.

magnificent buildings; but those monuments had been erected at the expense of the people, and were abhorred as badges of slavery. The apprehension of a revolt had inspired the most rigorous precautions: oppression had been aggravated by insult, and the consciousness of the public hatred had been productive of every measure that could render We have already remarked the intolerant spirit it still more implacable. of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broke in pieces by the zeal of the conqueror and the perpetual fire of Ormuzd was kindled and preserved upon an altar erected on the summit of Mount Bagavan.®® ” See the education and strength of Tiridates in the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene, 1 ii. c. 76. He could seize two wild bulls by the horns and break them off with his hands. “If we give credit to the younger Victor [Epit. 41I, who supposes that in the year 323 Licinius was only sixty years of age, he could scarcely be the same person as the patron of Tiridates; but we know from much better authority (Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1 x. c. 8) that Licinius was at that time .

.

sixteen years before, he is represented with grey hairs and as the contemporary of Galerius. See Lactant. c. 32. Lucinius was probably born about the year 250. “ See the sixty-second and sixty-third books of Dion Cassius [I. Ixiii. c. 5]. “Moses of Chorene, Hist. Armen. 1 . ii. c. 74. The statues had been erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia about 130 years before Christ, and was the first king of the family of Arsaces (see Moses, Hist. Armen, I. if. by Justin (xli. 5) and 3). The deification of the Arsacides is mentioned in the last period of old age;

2,

by Ammianus Marcellinus

(xxiii. 6).

—

pS

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

It was'natural that a people exasperated by so many injuries should arm with zeal in the cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditary sovereign. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian garrisons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit, offering their future service, and soliciting from the new king those honours and rewards from which they had been excluded with disdain under the foreign government.”® The command of the army was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous action. The brother of Artavasdes obtained the government of a province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who presented to the king his sister,®’ and a considerable treasure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally whose fortunes are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was Mamgo, his origin was Scythian, and the horde which acknowledged his authority had encamped a very few years before on the skirts of the Chinese empire,®* which at that time extended as far as the neighbourhood of Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, Sogdiana.®®

“The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful. Moses mentions many families which were distinguished under the reign of Valarsaccs ( ii. 7), and which still subsisted in his own time, about the middle of the fifth 1.

century.

See the preface of his editors.

" She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the os palttlum like other ii. c. I do not understand the expression. women. (Hist. Armen. 79.) “In the Armenian History ( ii. 78), as well as in the Geography (p. 367), 1.

1.

China is called Zenia, or Zenastan. It is characterised by the production of silk, by the opulence of the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the other nations of the earth. [Mamgo belonged to the Imperial race of lion, which had filled the throne of China for 400 years. Dethroned by the usurping race of Wei, Mamgo found a hospitable reception in Persia in the reign of Ardeschir. The emperor of China having demanded the surrender of the fugitue and his partisans, Sapor, then king, threatened with war both by Rome and China, counselled Mamgo to retire into Armenia. To the Chinese ambassador he “1 have expelled him from my dominions, I have banished him to said: the extremity of the earth, where the sun sets. I have dismissed him to certain death.”— O. S.] “ Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty, who then reigned in China, had political transactions with Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and is said to have received a Roman embassy (Histoire dcs Huns, tom. i. p. 38). In those ages the Chinese kept a garrison at Kashgar, and one of their generals, about the time 01 Trajan, marched as far as the Caspian Sea. With regard to the intercourse between China and the western countries, a curious memoir of M. de Guignes may be consulted, in the Academic des Inscriptions, tom. xxii. p. 355.

[The Chinese annals mention, under the ninth year of Yan-hi (ad, 166), an embassy which arrived from Ta-thsin, being .sent by a prince named Anthun, who can be no other than Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who then ruled in Rome. The embassy came by Jynan or Tonquin. O. S.]

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

319

irith bis followers, retired to the

banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war by the promise that he would banidi Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the West, a punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile, and a large district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another, according to the different seasons of the year. They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had received from the Persian

The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect ; and, by admitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed very efmonarch, resolved to abandon his party.

fectually to his restoration."

For a while fortune appeared to favour the enterprising valour of TirK He not only expelled the enemies of his family and country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the prosecution of his revenge he dates.

carried his arms, or at least his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The who has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, cele-

historian

brates, with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess; and,

romance, describes the giants and the elebeneath his invincible arm. It is from other information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers; and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the Caspian Sea.”* The civil war was, however, soon terminated, in the true spirit ot eastern

phants that

fell

by a victory or by a reconciliation; and Narses, who was univeracknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too uneqtiaP. nor was the valour of the hero able to withstand the power of the monarch. Tiridates, a second time expelled from the throne of Armenia, once more took refuge in the court of the emperors. Narses soon re-established his au-

either sally

thority over the revolted province; and, loudly complaining of the pro**Scc Hist. Armen. 1 ii. c. 81. ** Ipsos Pcrs.is ipsumque Regcm ascitis Sacis, et Rufiis, ct Gellis, petit fratcr Ormics. Panegyric. Vet. lii. [li.] 17. The Sac® were a nation of wandering Scythians, who encamped towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gclli were the inhabitants of Ghilan, along the Caspian Sea, and who so long, under the name of Dilemites, infested the Persian monarchy. See D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale. .

,

3

M

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

tection afforded by the Romans to rebels and fugitives, a^ired to the conquest of the E^t.”‘ Neither prudence nor honour could permit the emperors to forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed the military operations." The conduct of the legions was intrusted to the intrepid valour of Galerius, who, for that important purpose, was removed from the banks of the Danube The armies soon encountered each other in to those of the Euphrates. the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and doubtful success: but the third engagement was of a more decisive nature; and the Roman army received a total overthrow, which is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, with an inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumerable host of the Persians."* But the consideration of the country that was the scene of action may suggest another reason for his defeat. The same ground on which Galerius was vanquished had been rendered memorable by the death of Crassus and the slaughter of ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhs to the Euphrates; a smooth and barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without a spring of fresh water.®* The steady infantry of the Romans, fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks without exposing themselves to the most imminent danger. In this situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior numbers, harassed by the rapid evolutions and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry. The king of Armenia had signalis^ his valour in the battle, and acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. He was pursued as far as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared impossible for him to escape the victorious enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him; he dismounted and plunged into the stream. His armour was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile in breadth;®* yet **110868 of Chorene takes no notice of this second revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage of .Ammianus Marcelltntis (1. xxiii. c. s)Lactantius speaks of the ambition of Narses; “Concitatus domesticis exemplis avi sui Sapuris ad occupandum orientcm magnis ropiis inhiabat.” De Mort. Perserut. c. 9. **We may readily believe that Lactantius ascribes to cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration, says that he remained with all the forces of the empire ; a very hyperbolical expression.

“Our

Eutropius, Festus, the two Victors, and Orosius, the last and great battle; but Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former. “The nature of the country is finely described by Plutarch, in the Life of Cmsus; and by Xenophon, in the first book of the Anabasis. See^ Foster’s Dissertation in the second volume of the translation of the Anafosis by Spelman; which I will venture to recommend aa one of the best vernons extant. all relate

five abbreviators,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

sat

such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in safety the oppodte bank.”^ With regard to the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor’s chariot above a mile on foot, and to exliibit, before the whole court, the spectacle of his disgrace.®* As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to the submissive entreaties of the Caesar, and jjermitted him to retrieve his own honour, as well ais that of the Romam arms. In the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably served in the first expedition, a second army was drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the Imperial pay."® At the head of a chosen army of twenty-five thousand men Galerius again passed the Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the mountains of Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause, and the country as favourable to the operations of infantry as it was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry.^" Adversity had confirmed the Roman discipline, while the barbarians, elated by success, were become so negligent and remiss that, in the moment when they least expected it, they were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, who, attended only by two horsemen, had with his own eyes secretly examined the state and position of their camp. A surprise, especially in the night-time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian army. ‘‘ Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent their running away; and if an alarm happened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corselet On this occasion the impetuous to put on, before he could mount.” attack of Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp of the barbarians. A slight resistance was followed by a dreadful carnage, and in the general confusion the wounded monarch (for Narses commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and an incident is mentioned which proves the rustic but mar-

" Hi.st. Armen. 1 ii. c. 76. from an imaginary defeat to * Ammian. Marcellin. 1 xiv.

I have transferred this exp'oit of Tiridates the real one of Galerius. The mile, in the hands of Eutropius [c. ii.] (ix. 24 [isl), of Fcstus (c. 2S), and of Orosius (vii. 25), easily increased to .

.

several

mileii.

"Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. "Aurelius Victor [de Caisar. c. 391 says, “ Per Armeniam in hostcs contenditf quse ferme sola, seu facilior vinccndi via est,” He followed the conduct of Trajan and the idea of Julius Csesar. "Xenophon’s Anabasis, 1. iii. [c. 4 § 35-] For that reason the Persian cavalry encamped sixty stadia from the enemy. .

THE DECiLINE AND FALL OF ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of gMning leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier; he threw away its contents, judging he carefully preserved the bag, possibly be of any value.'* The could not of no use was whatever that principal loss of Narses was of a much more affecting nature. Several of his wives, his sisters, and children, who had attended the army, were made captives in the defeat. But though the character of Galerius had in general very little affinity with that of Alexander, he imitated, after his victory, the amiable behaviour of the Macedonian towards the family of Darius. The wives and children of Narses were protected from violence and rapine, conveyed to a place of safety, and treated with every mark of respect and tenderness that was due from a generous enemy to their age, their sex, and their royal dignity.'® ^ While the East anxiously expected the decision of this great contest, the emperor Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a strong army of observation, displayed from a distance the resources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for any future emergency of the war. On the intelligence of the victory he condescended to advance towards the frontier, with a view of moderating, by his presence and counsels, the pride of Galerius. The interview of the Roman princes at Nisibis was accompanied with every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem on the other. It was in that city that they soon afterwards gave audience to the ambassador of the Great King.'* The power, or at least the spirit, of Narses had been broken by his last defeat; and he considered an immediate peace as the only means that could stop the progress of the Roman arms. He despatched Apharban, a servant who possessed his favour and confidence, vnth a commission to negotiate a treaty, or rather to receive whatever conditions the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the conference by expressing his master’s gratitude for the generous treatment of his family, and by soliciting the liberty of those illustrious captives. He tial

W

celebrated the valour of Galerius, without degrading the reputation of

Narses, and thought

no dishonor to confess the superiority of the vicmonarch who bad surpassed in glory all the princes of bis race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian cause, he was empowered to submit the present differences to the decision of the emperors themselves; convinced as he was that, in the midst of prosperity, it

torious Cassar over a

"The

story

is

told by

Ammianus,

1.

xxii.

Instead of saccum some read

tcutum.

"The

Persians confessed the Roman superiority in morals as well as in Eutrop. ix. 24. P.ut this respect and gratitude of enemies is very seldom to be found in their own accounts. "The account of the negotiation is taken from the fragments of Peter the Patrician, the Excerpta Legationum published in the Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under Justinian; but it is very evident, by the nature of his materials, that they are drawn from the most authentic and respectable

arms.

m

writers.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

.333

vould not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban concluded his discourse in the style of Eastern allegory, by observing that the Roman and Persian monarchies were the two eyes of the world, which would remain imperfect and mutilated if either of them should be put out. “ It well becomes the Persians,” replied Galerius, with a transport of fury which seemed to convulse his whole frame, “ it well becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes of fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of moderation. Let them remember their own moderation towards the unhappy Valerian. They vanquidied him by fraud, they treated him with indignity. They detained him till the last moment of his life in shameful captivity, and after his death they exposed his body to perpetual ignominy.” Softening, however, his tone, Galerius insinuated to the ambassador that it had never been the practice of the Romans to trample on a prostrate enemy; and that, on this occasion, they should consult their own dignity rather than the Persian merit. He dismissed Apharban with a hope that Narses would soon be informed on what conditions he might obtain, from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace and the restoration of his wives and dildren. In this conference we may discover the herce passions of Galerius, as well as his deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian. The ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the East, and

had proposed to reduce Persia into the state of a province. The prudence of the latter, who adhered to the moderate policy of Augustus and the Antonines, embraced the favourable opportunity of terminating a successful war by an honourable and advantageous peace.''* In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint the Persian court with their final resolution. As the minister of peace, he was received with every mark of politeness and friendship; but, under the pretence of allowing him the necessary repose after so long a journey, the audience of Probus was deferred from day to day, and he attended the slow motions of the king, till at length he was admitted to his presence, near the river Asprudus, in Media. The secret motive of Narses in this delay had been to collect such a military force as might enable him, though sincerely deThree sirous of peace, to negotiate with the greater weight and dignity. persons only assisted at this important conference, the minister Apharban, the praefect of the guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian frontier.'" The first condition proposed by the ambassador is c. 39]) ut ni Valerius, cujus nutu abnuissct, Romani fasces in provinciara novam ferrentur. pars terrarum tanicn nobis utilior quxsita. had been governor of Sumium (Pet. Patricius in Excerpt. Legat.

”Adeo

Victor (says Aurelius [de Caesar,

omnia gercbantur,

Verum

"He

This province seems [ed. Paris; p. 21, ed. Vcn.; p. 135. ed. Bonn]. to be mentioned by Moses of Chorene ((Jeograph. p. 360), and lay to the cast of Mount Ararat p. 30)

3t4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

intelligible nature; that the city of Ni»bis might be established for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of trade, between the two empires. There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves with such restrictions as it depended on their own authority to establish. As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conditions of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of her wars having either been terminated by abso-

not at present of a very

waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between the two monarchies.’^ That river, which rose near the Tigris, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier town which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly fortified.’* Mesopotamia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to that great province. II. They relinquished to the Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris.’® Their situation formed lute conquest, or I.

The Aboras,

or, as

"By

an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position of Singara is rethe Aboras to the Tigris, which may have produced the mistake of Peter in assigning the latter river for the boundary instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, but never followed, the course

moved from

of the Tigris. [Dr. William Smith indicates several errors in this note. The course of the Aboras or Aborrhas, the Araxes of Xenophon (Anab. i. 4, 19), more usually called Chaboras, the Habor or Chebar of the Samaritan captivity, and the modern Khabar was traced by Layard, and was found to rise not near the Tigris, but far to the West, in the direction of Harran, at a place called Ras-al-Ain (the head of the spring). Thence it flows in a general south-easterly direction to the hill Koukab, where it receives the Mydonius, now called the Jerujer, upon which Nisibis was situated, and which rises near the Tigris. After its union with the Mygdonius, the Chaboras flows in a southerly direction and falls into the Euphrates at Circesium. O. S.] " Procopius de ^dificiis, 1 . ii. c. 6. "Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two, Peter (in Excerpt Leg. p. 30) inserts Rehimene and Sophene. I have preferred Ammianus (1. xxv. 7),

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

315

a veiy useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable extent ^Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene; but on the east of the Tigris the empire acquired the large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom

—

in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand Greeks traversed their country after a painful march, or rather engage-

ment, of seven days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the Carduchians than from the p>ower of the Great King.*® Their posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or manner% acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne of his fathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia were extended as far as the forests of Sintha in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the Farthians from the crown of Armenia ;*‘ and when the Romans acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern Tauris, was frequently honoured with the residence of Tiridates^ and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes.** IV. The country of Iberia was barren,

its

inhabitants rude and savage.

But they

might be proved that Sophene was never in the hands of the Perbefore the reign of Diocletian or after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those of M. d’Anville, almost all the moderns, with Tillemont and Valesius at their head, have imagined that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that the five provinces were situate beyond

because

it

sians, either

the Tigris.

[On this point where Gibbon is notoriously in error, Milman says these provinces do not appear to have ever been an integral part of the Roman empire. Roman garrisons replaced those of Persia, but the sovereigpity remained in the hands of the feudatory princes of Armenia. Prof. Bury adds “ Intilene and Moxoene are the same. Peter gives Intelene and in loc: Sophene, Ammianu.s Moxoene and Rehimene. Thus the question is between Rehimene and Sophene.”— O. S.] “Xenophon’s Anabasis, 1 iv. [c. 3 init.] Their bows were three cubits in length, their arrows two ; they rolled down stones that were each a waggonload. The Greeks found a great many villages in that rude country. "According to Eutropius (vi. 9. as the text is represented by the tet MSS.), the city of Tigranocerta was in Arzanene. The names and situation .

of the other three may be faintly traced. "Compare Herodotus, 1 i. c. 98, with Moses Chorenens. and the map of Armenia given by his editors. L iL c. .

^

Hist

Armca

$»6

THE HECLIKE

AITD

FAXt OF

were accustomed to the use of arms, and they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The barrow defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in their choice either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climates of the South.^’ The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to the strength and security of the Roman power in Asia.** The East enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years; and the treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with different views and different passions, succeeded to the government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a long and memorable war against the princes of the house of Constantine. The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by a succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that memorable era, as well as the success of his arms, by the pomp of a Roman triumph.®* Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Caesars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according to the rigour of ancient maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors.*® The triumph of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; but the most distinguished ornament was of a more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important conquest. The representations of rivers, mountains, and provinces were carried before the Imperial car. The images of the captive wives, the sisters, and the chil^en of the Great King afforded a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people.®’ In the eyes “Hiberj, locorum potentes, Caspia via Sannatam in Armenios raptim efTacit. Annal. vi. 33. See Strabon. Gcograph. I. xi. p. 500. “Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30 [cd. Paris; p. 21, ed. Ven. ; p. 13s, ed. Bonn]} is the only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the

fundunt.

treaty.

“ Euseb. in Chron. Pa^ ad annum. Till the discovery of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that the triumph and the Vicennalia were celebrated at the same time. [Clinton, on the authority of Hieronymus and Prosjier, places the triumph in A.D. 302, the year before the Vicennalia; though on the other hand, as Bury points out, Preuss agrees with Gibbon. Though the Vicennalia were

celebrated Nov. 20, that day was not the anniversary of the accession of Diocletian, for he began to reign Sept. 17, a.d. 284. O. S.] “At the time of the Vicennalia, Galerius seems to have kept his station on the Danube. See Lactant de M. P. c. 38. "Eutropius (ix. 27 [16I) mentions them as a part of the triumph. As the persons had been restored to Narses, nothing more than their images could be exhibited.

—

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

3*7

ot posterity this triumph is remarkable by a distinction of a less honourable kind. It was the last that Rome ever beheld. Soon after this period the emperors ceased to vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire. The spot on which Rome was founded had been consecrated by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence of some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate every part of the city, and the empire of the world had been promised to the Capitol.** The native Romans felt and confessed the power of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest habits of life, and was protected, in some measure, by the opinion of

The form and the seat of government were intimately blended together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport the one without destroying the other.*® But the sovereignty of the capital was grad{political utility.

ually annihilated in the extent of conquest; the provinces rose to the same level, and the vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges,

without imbibing the partial affections, of Romans During a long period, however, the remains of the ancient constitution and the influence of custom preserved the dignity of Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction, resjjected their adopted country as the seat of their power and the centre of their extensive dominions The emergencies of war very frequently required their presence on the frontiers; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the provinces; and their conduct, however it might be suggested by private motives, was justified by very specious considerations of policy. The court of the emperor of the SVest was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendour of an Imperial city. The houses are described as numerous and well built; the manners of the people as polished and liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore the name of their founder Maximian; porticoes adorned with statues, and a double circumference of walls, contributed to ihe beauty of the new capital nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome.®® To rival the majesty of Rome was ;

gives us a speech of CamiUus on that subject (v. _5t-54)i full of sensibility, in opposition to a design of removing the seat of government from Rome to the neighbouring city of Veii. •Julius Cjesar was reproached with the intention of removing the empire According to the See Sucton. in Ca'sar c. 70 to Ilium or Ale\andria. book ingenious conjecture of Le Fevre and Dacier, the third ode of the third_ intended to divert Augustus from the execution of a similar

"Livy

eloquence and

of Horace was design.

l -u Victor [de Csesar. c. 39l. who likewise mentions the buildwar. Moorish the during probably ings erected by Maximian at Carthage, shall insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar. Urb. v.

"See Aurelius

We

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

SaS

die ambition likewise of Diocletian, who employed his leisure and the wealth of the East in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a dty placed on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an equal distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the people, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of magnificence which might appear to have required the labour of ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch in extent or populousness.*'^ The life of Diocletian and Maximian was a and a considerable portion of it was spent in camps, or

life of action,

in their long and frequent marches; but whenever the public business allowed them any relaxation, they seemed to have retired with pleasure to their favourite residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentieth year of his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it is extremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient capital of the empire. Even on that memorable occasion his stay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the licentious familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with precipitation thirteen days before it was expected that he should have appeared in the senate invested with the ensigns of the consular dignity The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome and Roman freedom was not the effect of momentary caprice, but the result of the most artful policy. The crafty prince had framed a new s}^tem of Imperial government, which was afterwards completed by the family of Constantine; and as the image of the old constitution was religiously preserved in the senate, he resolved to deprive that order of its small remains of power and consideration. We may recollect, about eight years before the elevation of Diocletian, the transient greatness and the ambitious hopes of the Roman senate. As long as that enthusiasm prevailed, many of the nobles imprudently displayed their zeal in the cause of freedom; and after the successors of Frobus had withdrawn their countenance

£t Mediolani mira omnia: copia rerum; Innumerae cultaeque domus; facunda virorum Ingenia, et

mores

Iseti

:

turn duplice

muro

Amplificata loci species; populique voluptas Circus; et inclusi moles cuneata Theatri; Templa, Palatinseque arces, opulensque Moneta, Et regio Herculei Celebris sub honore lavacri. Conctaque marmoreis ornata Pcristyla signis;

Mceniaque in valli formam circumdata labro, quae magnis operum velut aemula formis Excellunt: nec juncta premit vicinia Romae.

Omnia

“Lactant. de M. P.

c.

17.

Libanius, Orat.

vi.

p.

203 [ed. Morell. Paris,

1637].

”

Lacta.nt. de M. P. c. 17. On a similar occasion, Ammianus mentions the dicacitas plebis as not very agreeable to an Imperial ear. (See 1 xvi. c. lO.) [Gibbon here falls into serious error. Ammianus just says the opposite to what is here represented, the precise words beuig—he is speaking of .

_

Constantins

—

“ dicacitate plebis

oblectabatur."— O. 5,1

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

329

from the r^ublican party, the senators were unable to disguise their impotent resentment. As the sovereign of Italy, Maximian was intrusted with the care of extinguishing this troublesome rather than dangerous spirit, and the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The most

members of the senate, whom Diocletian always affected to esteem, were involved, by his colleague, in the accusation of imaginary plots; and the possession of an elegant villa, or a well-cultivated estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence of guilt.®’ The camp of the Pnetorians, which had so long oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of Rome; and as those haughty troops were conscious of the decline of their power, they were naturally disposed to unite their strength with the authority of the senate. By the prudent measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Prsetorians were insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished,®* and their place supplied by two faithful legions of Iliyricum, who, under the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to illustrious

perform the service of the Imperial guards.®’ But the most fatal though secret wound which the senate received from the hands of Diocletian inflicted by the inevitable operation of their absence. the emperors resided at Rome, that assembly might be oppressed, but it could scarcely be neglected. The successors of Augustus exercised the power of dictating whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest; but those laws were ratified by the sanction of the senate.

and Maximian was

As long as

of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations and deprinces, who respected the prejudices of the Roman people, were in some measure obliged to assume the language and behaviour suitable to the general and first magistrate of the republic. In

The model crees;

and wise

di^layed the dignity of monarchs; a distance from the capital, they Augustus had recommended which dissimulation for ever laid aside the as well as the execulegislative of the exercise In the successors. to his of consulttive power, the sovereign advised with his ministers, instead was mensenate of the name The the great council of the nation.

the armies and and when they

in the provinces they

fixed their residence at

ing tioned with honour

members was

still

till

the last period of the empire; the vanity of its honorary distinctions;®® but the as-

flattered with

sembly which had so long been the source, and so long the instrument lumina "Lactantius accuses Maximian of destroying fictis criminationibus doubtfully of the very speaks Victor Aurelius 8 P. ). c. (de M. senatus faith of Diocletian towards his friends. armis "Truncate vires iirbis, inimiiiuto pritoriarum cohortuim atque m Lactantius attributes to vulgi numero. Aurelius Victor [de Ca:sar. c. 39].

.

Galerius the prosecution of the same plan (c. 26). ^ * " They were old corps stationed in Iliyricum and, according to the ancient squired had They men. establishment, they each consisted of six thousand with Irad. Mcn much reputation by the use of the plumbatw. or darts loaded from a considerable distance darted he which these, five of carried soldier with great strength and dexterity. See \ egetius, 1. y. Godefroys commentary. the Theodosian Code, 1 . vi. tit. ii. with ;

"Sm

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

390

of power, was respectfully suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate of Rome, losing all connection with the Imperial court and the actual constitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity

on the Capitoline

When

hill.

Roman

princes had lost sight of the senate and of their ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature of their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of proconsul, of censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it had been formed, betrayed to the people the

Those modest titles were laid aside; and distingui^ed their high station by the appellation of Em-> peror, or Imperatos, that word was understood in a new and more dignified sense, and no longer denoted the general of the Roman armies, but the sovereign of the Roman world. The name of Emperor, which was at first of a military nature, was associated with another of a more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or Lord, in its primitive signification, was expressive not of the authority of a prince over his subjects, or of a commander over his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a master over his domestic slaves."^ Viewing it in that odious light, it had been rejected with abhorrence by the first Casars. Their resistance insennbly became more feeble, and the name less odious; till at length the style of our Lord and Emperor was not only bestowed by flattery, but was Such lofty regularly admitted into the laws and public monuments. epithets were sufficient to elate and satisfy the most excessive vanity; and if the successors of Diocletian still declined the title of King, it seems to have been the effect not so much of their moderation as of their delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use (and it was the language of government throu^out the empire), the Imperial title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more respectable idea than the name of king, which they must have shared with an hundred barbarian chieftains; or which, at the best, they could derive only from Romulus, or from Tarquin. But the sentiments of the East were very different from those of the West. I'rom the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language by the title of Basileus, or King; and since it was considered as the first distinction among men, it was soon employed by the servile provincials of the East in their humble addresses to the Roman throne.®® Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of the Divinity were usurped by Diocleits if

republican extraction.

they

still

” Sec the 1 2th dissertation in Spanheim’s excellent work de Usu Numismatum. From medals, inscriptions, and historians, he examines every title separately, and traces it from Augustus to the moment of its disappearing. “ Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3, 55, etc.) speaks of Dominus with execration, as synonymous to Tyrant, and opposite to Prince. And the same Pliny regularly gives that title (in the tenth book of the epistles) to his friend rather than master, the virtuous Trajan. This strange contradiction puzzles the commentators who think, and the translators who can write. ” Synesius de Kegno, edit. Petav. p. 15. I am indebted for this quotation to the

Abb6 de

la Bleterie,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE to a succesfflon of Christian Such extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their .»'»l "tan the ear in once aeenstomed -"iitoence an vague ttough e»n»sl„

emi^or^

rS?l.SLTf

From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Roman princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their fellow-citizens, were saluted only with me same respect that was usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal distinction was the Imperial or military robe of purple; whilst the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the ^uestnan by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honourable colour. TIjo pnde, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, engaged that artful prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court of Persia.*®^ He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the use of which had been considered as the most desperate act of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad white fillet set with j»arls, which encircled the emperor’s head. The sumptuous robes of Diocletian and his successors were of silk and gold; and it is remarked with indignation that even their shoes were studded with the most precious gems. The access to their sacred person was every day rendered more difficult by the institution of new forms and ceremonies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded by the various schools, as they began to be called, of domestic officers. The

interior

apartments were intrusted to the jealous vigilance of the

See Van Dale de Consecratione, p. 354, etc. It was customary for the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws) their numen, sacred majesty, According to Tillcmont, Gregory Nazianzen complains divine oracles, etc. most bitterly of the profanation, especially when it was practised by an Arian emperor. [In the time of the republic (says Milman, quoting Hegewisch) when the consuls, the praetors, and the other magistrates appeared in public to perform the functions of their office, their dignity was announced both by the symbols which use had consecrated and the brilliant cortege by which they were accompanied. But this dignity belonged to the office, not to the inThe dividual, the pomp belonged to the magistrate, not to the man. . consul, followed in the comitia by all the senate, the pr.-etors, the aediles, the Victors, the apparitors, and the heralds, on re-entering his house was served only by his freedmen and his slaves. The first emperors went no farther. Tiberius had, for his personal attendance, only a moderate number of slaves and a few freedmen (Tacit. Aiinal iv. 7). But in proportion as the the republican forms disappeared one after another, the inclination of emperors to envelope themselves with personal pomp displayed itself more and more. The magnificence and the ceremonial of the East were entirely Imintroduced by Diocletian, and were consecrated by Constantine to the Thenceforth the palace, the court, the table, all the personal perial use. more than his attendance, distinguished the emperor from his subjects still his new court superior dignity. The organisation which Diocletian gave to_ honour and distinction to rank than to services performed .

attached

less

—

towards the members of the Imperial family. O. _S.] 1® See Spanheim de Usu Numismat. Dissert, xii.

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

$$a

eunuchs; die increase of whose numbers and influence was the most

When a subject was infallible symptom of the progress of despotism. at length admitted to the Imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever mi^t be bis rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master.'**^ Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as well as public life, had formed a just estimate both of himself and of mankind: nor is it easy to conceive that in substituting the manners of Persia to those of Rome he was seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered himself that an ostentation of splendour and luxury would subdue the imagination of the multitude; that the monarch would be less exposed to the rude licence of the people and the soldiers, as his person was secluded from the public view; and that habits of submission would insensibly be productive of sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty affected by Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical representation; but it must be confessed that, of the two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world. Ostentation was the first principle of the new system instituted by The second was division. He divided the empire, the Diocletian. provinces, and every branch of the civil as well as military administration. He multiplied the wheels of the machine of government, and renoperations less rapid but more secure. Whatever advantages defects might attend these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very great degree to the first inventor; but as tbe new frame of policy was gradually improved and completed by succeeding princes, it will be more satisfactory to delay the consideration of it till the season of its full maturity and perfection.^"* Reserving, therefore, for the reign of Constantine a more exact picture of the new empire, we shall content ourselves with describing the principal and decisive

dered

its

and whatever

outline, as

it

was traced by the hand of Diocletian.

He had

associated

three colleagues in the exercise of the supreme power; and as he was convinced that the abilities of a single man were inadequate to the public defence, he considered the joint administration of four princes

not as a temporary expedient, but as a fundamental law of the constitution. It was his intention that the two elder princes should be distinguished by the use of the diadem and the title of Augusti; that, as affection or esteem might direct their choice, they should regularly caU

“Aurelius Victor. Eutropius, ix. 26 [16]. It appears by the Panegyrists Romans were soon reconciled to the name ceremony of adoration. “ The innovations introduced by Diocletian areand chiefly deduced, ist, from some very strong passages in Lactantius; and, secondly, from the new and various offices which, in the Theodosian code, appear already established in

that the

the beginning of the reign of Constantine.

THE RO^AN EMPIRE

333

to thdr assistance two subordinate colleagues; and that the Ctesars, rising in their turn to the first rank, should supply an uninterrupted succession of emperors. The empire was divided into four parts. The East and Italy were the most honourable, the Danube and the Rhine the most

laborious stations. The former claimed the presence of the Augusti, the latter were intrusted to the administration of the Cssars. The strength of the legions was in the hands of the four partners of sovereignty, and the despair of successively vanquishing four formidable

might intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general. In their government the emperors were supposed to exercise the undivided power of the monarch, and their edicts, inscribed with their joint names, were received in all the provinces as promulgated by their mutual councils and authority. Notwithstanding these precautions, the political union of the Roman world was gradually dissolved, and a principle of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned the perpetual separation of the eastern and western empires. The system of Diocletian was accompanied with another very material disadvantage, which cannot even at present be totally overlooked; a more expensive establishment, and consequently an increase of taxes, and the oppression of the people. Instead of a modest family of slaves and freedmen, such as had contented the simple greatness of Augustus and Trajan, three or four magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the empire, and as nuiny Roman kings contended with each other and with the Persian monarch for the vain superiority of rivals civil

pomp and and

The number of ministers, of magistrates, of offiixrs, who filled the different departments of the state, was beyond the example of former times; and (if we may borrow luxury.

of servants,

multiplied

warm expression of a contemporary), “ when the proportion of those who received exceeded the proportion of those who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight of tributes.” ’®* From this

the

period to the extinction of the empire, it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamours and complaints. According to his religion and situation, each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives; but they unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public impositions, and particularly the land-tax and capitation, as the intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, will be inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse, and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices than to the uniform system of their administration. The emperor Diocletian was indeed the author of that system; but during his reign the growing evil was confined within the bounds of modesty

and

discretion,

and he deserves the reproach of establishing pernicious

'“Lactant de M. P.

c. 7.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

334

than of exercising actual oppression.^** It may be added, that his revenues were managed with prudent economy; and that, after all the current expenses were discbar^, there still remained in the Imperial treasury an ample provision either for judicious liberality or for any emergency of the state. It was in the twenty-first year of his reign that Diocletian executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the empire; an action more naturally to have been expected from the elder or the younger Antoninus than from a prince who had never practised the lessons of philosophy Diocletian either in the attainment or in the use of supreme power. acquired the glory of giving to the world the first example of a resigns* tion '*"’ which has not been very frequently imitated by succeeding mon* archs. The parallel of Charles the Fifth, however, will naturally offer itself to our mind, not only since the eloquence of a modem historian has rendered that name so familiar to an English reader, but from the very striking resemblance between the characters of the two emperors, whose {xrecedents, rather

political abilities were superior to their military genius, and whose specious virtues were much less the effect of nature than of art. The abdication of Charles appears to have been hastened by the vicissitude of for-

tune; and the disappointment of his favourite schemes urged him to rea power which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the reign of Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success; nor

linquish

he had vanquished all his enemies, and accomplished all he seems to have entertained any serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither Charles nor Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced period of life; since the one was only fifty-five, and the other was no more than fifty-nine years of age but the active life of those princes, their wars and journeys, the cares of royalty, and their applica-

was

it till

after

bis designs, that

;

** Indicta lex nova quae sane iUorum temporum modestia tolerabilis, in pernicjem processit. Aurel. Victor [dc Csesar. c. 3g] ; who has treated the character of Diocletian with good sense, though in bad I.atin. [The most curious document which has come to light since the publication of Gibbon’s History is the edict of Diocletian published from an inscription found at Eskihissar (Stratoniceia), by Col. Leake. This edict, according to Milman, was issued in the name of the four Cxsars, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantins, and Galerius. It fixed a maximum of prices throughout the empire for all the necessaries and commodities of life. The preamble insists with great vehemence on the extortion and inhumanity of the merchants and vendors. Among the articles of which the maximum value is assessed are oil, salt, honey, butcher’s meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, fruit, the wages of labourers and artisans, schoolmasters and orators, clothes, skins, boots and shoes, harness, timber, corn, wine, and beer (zythus). 'The depreciation in the value of money or the rise in the price of commodities had been so great during the last century that butcher’s meat, which in the SKond century was two denarii the pound, was now fixed at a maximum of eight. An excellent edition of the edict has been published with a commentary

by Mommsen, who shows that

it was issued in ad. 301. Cf. Finlay’s Hist, of Greece, vol. i. Appendix i. O. S.] Solus omnium, post conditum Romanum Imperium, qui ex tanto fastigio sponte ad privatse vitse statum civilitatemque remearet. Eutrop. ix. 28 [16].

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE tion to business, had already impaired their constitution, the infirmities of a premature old age.^°^

335

and brought on

Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy winter, Diocletian left Italy soon after the ceremony of his triumph, and began his progress towards the East round the circuit of the Illyrian provinces. From the inclemency of the weather and the fatigue of the journey, he soon contracted a slow illness; and though he made easy marches, and was generally carried in a close litter, his disorder, before he arrived at Nicomedia, about the end of the summer, was become very serious and alarming. During the whole winter he was confined to his palace; his danger inspired a general and unaffected concern but the people could only judge of the various alterations of his health from the joy or consternation which they discovered in the countenances and behaviour of his attendants. The rumour of his death was for some time universally believed, and it was supposed to be concealed with a view to prevent the troubles that might have happened during the absence of the Cssar Galerius. At length, however, on the first of March, Diocletian once more appeared in public, but so pale and emaciated that he could scarcely have been recognised by those to whom his person was the most familiar. It was time to put an end to the painful struggle, which he had sustained during more than a year, between the care of his health and that of bis dignity. The former required indulgence and relaxation, the latter compelled him to direct, from the bed of sickness, the administration of a great empire. He resolved to pass the remainder of his days in honourable repose, to place his glory beyond the reach of fortune, and to relinquish the theatre of the world to his younger and ;

more acUve associates.^®* The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacious plain, about three miles from Nicomedia. The emperor ascended a lofty throne, and, in a speech full of reason and dignity, declared his inten-< tion, both to the people and to the soldiers who were assembled on this extraordinary occasion. As soon as he had divested himself of the purple, he withdrew from the gazing multitude, and, traversing the city in a covered chariot, proceeded without delay to the favourite retirement which he had dosen in his native country of Dalmatia. On the same day, which was the first of May,^®“ Maximian, as it had been “•The (c. 17),

and illness are taken from Lactantius be admitted as an evidence of public facts, thougrh

particulars of the journey

who may sometimes

very seldom of private anecdotes. '“Aurelius Victor [de Caesar, c. 39] ascribes the abdication, which had been so variously accounted for, to two causes first, Diocletian’s contempt of ambition; and secondly. His apprehension of impending troubles. One of the panegyrists (vi. [v.J 9) mentions the age and infirmities of Diocletian as a very natural reason for his retirement. “The difficulties as well as mistakes attending the dates both of the year and of the day of Diocletian’s abdication are perfectly cleared up by Tilleniont. Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 525, note 19, and by Pagfi ad annum. :

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

336

previously concerted, made his resignation of the Imperial dignity at Milan. Even in the ^lendour of the Roman triumph, Diocletian had meditated his design of abdicating the government. As he wished to secure the obedience of Maximian, he exacted from him either a general assurance that he would submit his actions to the authority of his bene* factor, or a particular promise that he would descend from the throne

whenever he should receive the advice and the example. This engageit was confirmed by the solemnity of an oath before the altar of the Capitoline Jupiter,**® would have proved a feeble restraint on the herce temper of Maximian, whose passion was the love of power, ment, though

and who neither desired present tranquillity nor future reputation. But he yielded, however reluctantly, to the ascendant which his wiser colleague had acquired over him, and retired immediately after his abdication to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost impossible that such an impatient spirit could find any lasting tranquillity. Diocletian, who, from a servile origin, had raised himself to the throne, passed the nine last years of his life in a private condition. Reason- had dictated, and content seems to have accompanied, his retreat, in which he enjoyed for a long time the respect of those princes to whom he had It is seldom that minds long resigned the possession of the world.*** exercised in business have formed any habits of converring with themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the want of occuThe amusements of letters and of devotion, which a^ord so pation. many resources in solitude, were incapable of fixing the attention of Diocletian; but he had preserved, or at least he soon recovered, a taste for the most innocent as well as natural pleasures, and his leisure hours were sufficiently employed in building, planting, and gardening. His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to reassume the reins of government and the Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing that, if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power.”* In his conversations with his friends he frequently acknowledged that of all arts the most difficult was the art of reigning; and he expressed himself on that favourite topic with a degree of warmth which could be the result only of experience.

“

How

often,”

was he accustomed to say, “ is it the incombine together to deceive their sov-

terest of four or five ministers to

““See Panegyr.

Veter,

vi.

[v.]

9.

The

oration

was pronounced

after

Maximian had reassumed the purple. “Eumenius pays him a very fine compliment:

“At enim divinum ilium virum, qui primus imperium et participavit et posuit, consilii et facti sui non poenitet nee amisisse se putat quod spontc transcripsit. I'clix heatusque vere quern vestra, tantorum principum, colunt obsequia privatum.” Panegyr. ;

Vet.

vii.

*“We

[vi.]

15.

are obliged to the younger Victor [Epit. c. 39] for thi.s celebrated bon mot. Eutropius [1. ix. c. 16] mentions the thing in a more general manner.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

337

Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge; he can see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces the most virtuous and de serving among his subjects. By such infamous arts,” added Diocletian, “ the best and wisest princes are hold to the venal corruption of their courtiers.’”'* A just estimate of greatness, and the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish for the pleasures of retirement; but the Roman emperor had filled too important a character in the world to enjoy without alloy the comforts and security of a private condition. It was impossible that he could remain ignorant of the troubles which afiiicted the empire after his abdication. It was impossible that he could be indifferent to their consequences. Fear, sorrow, and discontent sometimes pursued him into the solitude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and daughter; and the last moments of Diocletian were embittered by some affronts, which Licinius and Constantine might have spared the father of so many emperors, and the first author of their own fortune. A report, though of a very doubtful nature, has reached our times that he prudently withdrew himself from their power by a voluntary death."* Before we dismiss the consideration of the life and character of Diocletian, we may for a moment direct our view to the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal city of his native province of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman miles (according to the measurement of the public highways) from Aquileia and the confines of Italy, and about two hundred and seventy from Sirinium, the usual residence of the emperors whenever they visited the Illyrian frontier."® A miserable village still preserves the name of Salona; but so late as the sixteenth century the remains of a theatre, and a confused prospect of broken arches and marble columns, continued to attest its ancient splendour."* About six or seven miles from the city Diocletian constructed a magnificent palace, and we may infer, from the greatness of the work, how long he had meditated his design of abdicating the empire. The choice of a spot which united all that could contribute either to health or to luxury did not require the partiality of a native. “ The soil was dry ereigni

and

fertile,

the air

is

pure and wholesome, and, though extremely hot

’“Hist. August, p. 223, 224

[Vopisc. Aurel.

c.

43.]

Vopiscus had learned

from

his father. ‘"The younger Victor [Epit. c. 39] slightly mentions the report. But as Diocletian had disobliged a powerful and successiul party, his memory has been loaded with every crime and misfortune. It has been affirmed that he died raving mad, that he was condemned as a criminal by the Roman sen-

this conversation

ate, etc.

See the

Itiner. p. 269, 272, edit. Wessel. . . , ^ Fortis, in his Viaggio in Delmazia, p. 43 (printed at Vemce of account quotes a MS. quarto) in volumes small , I774i in two

'“The Abate in the year antiquities

t!ie

of Salona, composed by Giambattista Giustiniani about the

middle of the sixteenth century.

THE DECLINE AND FALX OF

53*

during the sununer months, this country seldom feels those sultry and noxious winds to which the coasts of Istria and some parts of Italy are exposed. The views from the palace are no less beautiful than the soil and climate were inviting. Towards the west lies the fertile shore that stretches along the Adriatic, in which a number of small islands are scattered in such a manner as to give this part of the sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north side lies the bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona; and the country beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that more extensive prospect of water which the Adriatic presents both to the south and to the east. Towards the north the view is terminated by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper distance, and in many places covered with villages, woods,

and vineyards.”

Though Constantine, from a very obvious prejudice, affects to mention the palace of Diocletian with contempt,*** yet one of their succes-

who could only see it in a neglected and mutilated state, celebrates magnificence in terms of the highest admiration.**® It covered an extent of ground consisting of between nine and ten English acres. The form was quadrangular, flanked with sixteen towers. Two of the sides were near six hundred, and the other two near seven hundred, feet The whole was constructed of a beautiful free-stone, exin length. tracted from the neighbouring quarries of Trau, or Tragutium, and Four streets, intersecting each very little inferior to marble itself. other at right angles, divided the several parts of this great edifice, and the approach to the principal apartment was from a very stately entrance, which is still denominated the Golden Gate. The approach was terminated by a peristylium of granite columns, on one side of which we discover the square temple of iEsculapius, on the other the octagon temple of Jupiter. The latter of those deities Diocletian revered as the patron of his fortunes, the former as the protector of his health. By comparing the present remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the building, the baths, bedchamber, the atrium, the basisors, its

and the Cyzicene, Corinthian, and Egyptian halls have been desome degree of precision, or at least of probability. Their torms were various, their proportions just, but they were all attended

lica,

scribed with

*”

Adam’s

Antiquities of Diocletian’s Palace at Spalatro, p.

6.

We may

add a circumstance or two from the Abate Fortis the little stream of the Hyader, mentioned by Lucan, produces most exquisite trout, which a sagacious writer, perhaps a monk, supposes to have been one of the principal reasons that determined Diocletian in the choice of his retirement. Fortis, The same author (p. 38) observes that a taste for agriculture is rep. 45. viving at Spalatro; and that an experimental farm has lately been established near the city by a society of gentlemen. Constantin. Orat. ad Coetum Sanct. c. 25. In this sermon, the emperor, or the bishop who composed it for him, affects to relate the miserable end of ;

all

the persecutors of the church. Constantin. Porphyr. de Statu Imper. p. 86 [ed. Paris; vol.

**•

ed.

Bonn].

iii.

p. 12$,

TH£ ROMAN EMPIRE

339

with two imperfections, very repugnant to our modem notions of and convenience. These stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from the top (for the building seems to have consisted of no more than one story), and they received their heat le the help of pipes that were conveyed along the walls. The range of principal apartments was protected towards the south-west by a portico five hundred and seventeen feet long, which must have formed a very noble and delightful walk, when the beauties of painting and sculpture were added to those of the prospect. Had this magnificent edifice remained in a solitary country, it would have been exposed to the ravages of time; but it might, perhaps, have escaped the rapacious industry of man. The village of Aspalathus,**® and, long afterwards, the provincial town of Spalatro, have grown out of its ruins. The Golden Gate now opens into the market-place. St. John the Baptist has usurped the honours of ^sculapius; and the temple of Jupiter, under the protection of the Virgin, is converted into the cathedral church. For this account of Diocletian’s palace we are principally indebted to an ingenious artist of our own time and country, whom a very liberal curiosity carried into the heart of Dalmatia.'®’ But there is room to suspect that the elegance of his designs and engraving has somewhat flattered the objects which it was their purpose to represent. We are informed by a more recent and very judicious traveller that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not less expressive of the decline of the arts than of the greatness of the Roman empire in the time of Diocletian.’®® If such was indeed the state of architectme, we must naturally believe that painting and sculpture had experienced a still more sensible decay. The practice of architecture is directed by a few general and even mechanical rules. But sculpture, and, above all, painting, propose to themselves the imitation not only of the forms of nature, but of the characters and passions of the human soul. In those sublime arts the dexterity of the hand is of little avail unless it is animated by fancy and guided by the most correct taste and observation.

It is almost unnecessary to remark that the dvil distractions of the empire, the licence of the soldiers, the inroads of the barbarians, and the progress of despotism, had proved very unfavourable to genius, and even to learning. The succession of Illyrian princes restored the empire without restoring the sciences. Their military education was “• D’Anville,

Geographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 162. Adam and Clerisseau, attended by two draughtsmen, visited Spalatro in the month of July, I75T- The magnificent work which their journey produced was published in London seven years afterwards. “I shall quote the words of the Abate Fortis. “ E’bastevolmente note agli amatori dell’ Architettura, e dell’ Antichita, I’opera del Signor Adams, che a donate molto a que’ superbi vestigi coll’ abituale eleganza del suo ‘"Messieurs

toccalapis e del bulino. In generale la rozzezza del scalpello, e’l cattivo ^sto See Viaggio in del secolo vi i^reggiano colla magwificenza del fabricato.’

Dalmazia, p.

4a

340

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

not calculated to in^ire them with the love of letters; and even the mind of Diocletian, however active and capacious in business, was The professions of law totally uninformed by study or speculation. and physic are of such common use and certain profit that tiiey wi". always secure a sufficient number of practitioners endowed with a reasonable degree of abilities and knowledge; but it does not ai^ar that the students in those two faculties appeal to any celebrated masters who have flourished within that period. The voice of poetry was silent. History was reduced to dry and confused abridgments, alike destitute of amusement and instruction. A languid and affected eloquence was still retained in the pay and service of the emperors, who encouraged not any arts except those which contributed to the gratification of their “ pride or the defence of their power.* The declining age of learning and of mankind is marked, however, by the rise and rapid progress of the new Platonists. The school of Alexandria silenced those of Athens; and the ancient sects enrolled themselves under the banners of the more fashionable teachers, whi. recommended their system by the novelty of their method and the Several of these masters Ammonius, austerity of their manners. were men of profound thought Plotinus, Amelius, and Porphyry*** and intense application; but, by mistaking the true object of philosophy, theii labours contributed much less to improve than to corrupt the human understanding. The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to explore the secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato, on subjects of which both these philosophers were

—

—

as ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in these deep but unsubstantial meditations, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that they possessed the secret of disengaging the soul from its corporeal prison; claimed a familiar intercourse with daemons and spirits; and, by a very singular revolution, converted the study of philosophy into that of magic. The ancient sages had derided the popular superstition after disguising its extravagance by the thin pretence of allegory, the disciples of Plotinus and Porphyry became its most zealous defenders. As they agreed with ;

“The orator Eumenius was secretary to the emperors Maximian and Coustantius, and Professor of Rhetoric in the college of Autun. His salary was six hundred thousand sesterces, which, according to the lowest computation of that age, must have exceeded three thousand pounds a year He generously requested the permission of employing it in rebuilding the college. See his Oration De Restaurandis Scholis [c. ii] ; which, though not exempt from vanity, may atone for his panegyrics. “Porphyry died about the time of Diocletian’s abdication. The life of his master Plotinus, which he composed, will give us the most complete idea of the genius of the sect and the manners of its professors. This very curious piece is inserted in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Grjeca. tom. jv. p.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE the Christians

b

a few mysterious points of

341

thqr the the fury of civil war. The new Platonists would scarcely deserve a place in the history of science, but in that of the church the mention of them will very frequently occur.

remainder of their theological system with

faith,

all

CHAPTER XIV

—

Troubles after the Abdication of Diocletian Death of Constantins—Elevation of Constantine and Maxentius—Six Emperors at the same Time—Death of Maxtmian and Galcrius Victories of Constantine over Maxentius and Licinius—Reunion of the Empire under the Authority of Constantine

—

,

The balance of power establiriied by Diocletian subsisted no longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous hand of the "'ounder. It required such a fortunate mixture of different tempers and .bilities as could scarcely be found, or even expected, a second time; two emperors without jealousy, two Csesars without ambition and the same general interest invariably pursued by four independent princes.

The abdication of Diocletian and Maximian was succeeded by eighteen years of discord and confusion. The empire was afflicted by five civil wars; and the remainder of the time was not so much a state of tranquillity as a suspension of arms between several hostile monarchs, who, viewing each other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to increase their respective forces at the expense of their subjects. As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple, their station, according to the rules of the new constitution, was filled by the two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, who immediately assumed the The honours of seniority and precedence were altitle of Augustus.^ lowed to the former of those princes, and he continued under a new appellation to administer his ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and The government of those ample provinces was sufficient to Britain. exercise his talents and to satisfy his ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation distinguished the amiable character of Constantius, and his fortunate subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, and even with the arts of Diocletian.’^ Instead of imitating their eastern pride and magnificence, Constantius preserved the modesty of a Roman prince. He declared, with unaffected sincerity, that his most valued treasure ‘ M. de Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. 17) supposes, on the authority of Orosius and Eusebius, ftiat, on this occasion, the empire, for the first time, was really divided into two parts. It is difficult, however, to discover in what respect the plan of Galerius>

from that of Diocletian. *Hic non modo amabilis, sed etiam

differed

venerabilis Gallis fuit ; prgecipue quod Diocletiani suspectam prudentiam, et Maximian! sanguinariam violentiam imperio ejus evaserant Eutrop. Breviar. x. L ,

$4»

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

in the hearts of his people; and that, whenever the dignity of the throne or the danger of the state required any extraordinary supply, he could depend with confidence on their gratitude and liberality.* The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his worth, and of their own happines, reflected with anxiety on the declining health of the emperor Constantins, and the tender age of his niunerous family, the issue of his second marriage with the daughter of Maximian. The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different mould; and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in arms, and, above all, the success of the Persian war, had elated his haughty mind, which was If it were naturally impatient of a superior, or even of an equal. possible to rely on the partial testimony of an injudicious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the particulars of a private conversation between the two princes, in which the former discovered as much pusillanimity as the But these obscure aneclatter displayed ingratitude and arrogance.* dotes are sufficiently refuted by an impartial view of the character and conduct of Diocletian Whatever might otherwise have been his intentions, if he had apprehended any danger from the violence of Galerius, his good sense would have instructed him to prevent the ignominious contest; and as he had held the sceptre with glory, he would have resigned it without disgrace. After the elevation of Constantius and Galerius to the rank of Au~ gusti, two new Cmsars were required to supply their place, and to comDiocletian was sinplete the system of. the Imperial government. cerely desirous of withdrawing himself from the world; he considered Galerius, who had married his daughter, as the firmest support of his family and of the empire; and he consented, without reluctance, that his successor should assume the merit as well as the envy of the im-

was

'Divitiis

Provincialiurn

(mcl.

promneiarum) ac privatorum studens,

fisci

commoda non admodum affectans; ducensque melius puhlicas opes a privatis haberi, quam Jntra unnm claustrum reservari. Id. ibid. He carried this maxim so far, that, whenever he gave an entertainment, he was obliged to borrow a service of

plate.

'Lactantius de Mort. Persecutor, c. i8. Were the particulars of this conference more consistent with truth and decency, we might still ask how they came to the knowledge of an obscure rhetorician? But there are many historians who put us in mind of the admirable saying of the great Conde to Cardinal dc Ketz : “ Ccs cuquins nous font parler ct agir comme ils auroient fait eux-memes a notre place” [This attack upon Lactantius (as Guizot says) is quite unfounded. Lactantius was .so far from having been an obscure rhetorician, that he had taught rhetonc publicly and with the greatest success first in Africa and afterwards in Nicomedia. His reputation obtained him the esteem of Constantine, who invited him to his court, and entrusted to him the education of his son Crispus. Further on. Dr. W. Smith adds it ought to be borne in mind that the audiorship of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum is uncertain, and cannot be ascribed without grave doubts to Lactantius. O. S.]

—

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE portant nonoination.

It

was

343

fixed without consulting the interest or Each of them had a son who

inclination of the princes of the West. was arrived at the age of manhood, and

who might have been deemed

the most natural candidates for the vacant honour. But the impotent resentment of Maximian was no longer to be dreaded; and the moderate Constantins, though he might despise the dangers, was humanely apprehensive of the calamities, of civil war. The two persons whom Galerius promoted to the rank of Caesar were much better suited to serve the views of his ambition; and their principal recommendation seems to have consisted in the want of merit or The first of these was Daza, or, as he was personal consequence. afterwards called, Maximin, whose mother was the sister of Galerius.* The inexperienced youth still betrayed by his manners and language his rustic education, when, to his own astonishment, as well as that of the world, he was invested by Diocletian with the purple, exalted to the dignity of Csesar, and intrusted with the sovereign command of Egypt and Syria.® At the same time Severus, a faithful servant, addicted to pleasure but not incapable of business, was sent to Milan to receive from the reluctant hands of Maximian the Csesarian ornaments and the possession of Italy and Africa.^ According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the western emperor; but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to himself the intermediate countries from the confines of Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power over three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence that the approaching death of Constantius would leave him sole master of the Roman world, we are assured that he had arranged in his mind a long succession of future princes, and that he meditated bis own retreat from public life after he should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty years.® But, within less than eighteen months, two unexpected revolutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius. The hopes of uniting

'The following persons

table

shows the connection between the above-mentioned

:

Diocletian

Valeria=Galerius

Soror 1

Maximin Daza. See Clinton, Fast. Horn. \ol. ii. p. 7a. ' Sublatus nuiier a pecoribus et silvis (says Lactantius de M. P.

c. 19) continuo Protector, mox Tnbunus, postndie Caesar, accepit giving him the whole portion Aurelius Victor is too liberal

statini Scutarius,

m

Orientem. of Diocletian. ’

His diligence and

c. 18.

fidelity

are acknowledged even by Lactantius, de

M.

P.

.

'These schemes, however, rest only on the very doubtful authority of Lactantius de M. P. c. ao.

; :

344

the decline AND FALL OF

the western provinces to his empire were disappointed by the elevation of Constantine; whilst Italy and Africa were lost by the successful revolt of Maxentius. I, The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity attentive to the most minute circumstances of his life and actions. The place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother Helena, have been the subject not only of literary but of national disputes. Notwithstanding the recent tradition which assigns for her father a British king,® we are obliged to confess that Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper; but at the samp time we may defend the legality of her marriage against those who have represented her as the concubine of Constantius.“ The great Constantine was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia;" and it is not surprising that, in a family and province distinguished only by the profession of arms, the youth should discover very little inclination to improve his mind by the acquisition of knowledge." He «ras about eighteen years of age when bis father was promoted to the rank of Csesar; but that fortunate event was attended with his mother’s divorce; and Uie splendour of an Imperial alliance reduced the son of ‘This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, was invented in the darkness of monasteries, was embellished by Jeffrey of Monmouth and the writers of the twelfth century, has been defended by our antiquarians of the last age, and is seriously related in the ponderous History of England compiled by Mr. Carte (vol. i. p. 147). He transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, the imaginary father of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus. "Eutropius (x. 2) expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and the occasion of die error, “ex obscMrwri matrimonio ejus filius.” Zosimus (1. ii. [c. 8] p. 78) eagerly seized the most unfavourable report, and is followed by Orosius (vii. 25), whose authority is oddly enough overlooked by the indefatigable but partial Tillemont. By insisting on the divorce of Helena, Diocletian acknowledged her marriage. “There are three opinions with regard to the place of Constantine's birth. I. Our English antiquarians were used to dwell with rapture on the words of his panegyrist, “ Britannias illic oriendo nobiles fecisti.” But this celebrated passage may be referred with as much propriety to the accession as to the nativity of Constantine. 2. Some of the modern Greeks have ascrilied the honour of his birth to Drepanum, a town on the gulf of Nicomedia (Cellarius, tom. ii. p. 174), which Constantine digniffed with the name of Helenopolis, and Justinian adorned with many splendid buildings (Procop. de Edificiis, v. 2). It is indeed probable enough that Helena’s father kept an inn at Drepanum, and that Constantius might lodge there when he returned from a Persian embassy in the reign of Aurelian. But in the wandering life of a soldier, the place of his marriage, and the places where his children are born, have very little connection with each other. 3. The claim of Naissus is supported by the anonymous writer, published at the end of Ammianus, p. 710 fvol. ii. p. 29s, ed. Bip.], and who in general copied very good materials and it is confirmed by Julius Firmicus (de Astrologia, 1. i. c. 4), who flourished under the reign of Constantine himself. Some objections have been raised against the integrity of the text, and the application of the passage, of Firmicus but the former is established by the best MSS., and the latter is very ably defended by Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, 1. iv. c. ii, et Supplement. “Literis minus instructus. Anonym, ad Ammian. 0. 7iO.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

MS

Helena to a state of disgrace and humiliation. Constantius in the West, he remmned in the service of Diodetian, ugnalising his valour in the wars of Egypt and Persia, and gradually Instead of following

rose to the honourable station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of Constantine was tall and majestic; he was dexterous in all his exercises, intrepid in war, affable in peace; in his whole conduct the active spirit of youth was tempered by habitual prudence; and while his mind was engrossed by ambition, he appeared cold and insensible to the allurements of pleasure. The favour of the people soldiers, who had named him as a worthy candidate for the rank of Cssar, served only to exasperate the jealousy of Galerius; and though prudence might restrain him from exercising any open violence, an absolute monarch is seldom at a loss how to execute a sure and secret revenge.” Every hour increased the danger of Constantine and the anxiety of his father, who, by repeated letters, expressed the warmest desire of embracing his son. For some time the policy of Galerius supplied him with delays and excuses, but it was impossible long to refuse so natural a request of his associate without maintaining his

and

The permission of the journey was reluctantly refusal by arms. granted, and, whatever precautions the emperor might have taken to intercept a return, the consequences of which he with so much reason apprehended, they were effectually disappointed by the incredible diligence of Constantine.'* Leaving the palace of Nicomedia in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, Dacia, Pannonia, Italy, and, amidst the joyful acclamations of the people, reached the port of Boulogne in the very moment when his father was preparing to embark for Britain.” The British expedition, and an easy victory over the barbarians of Caledonia, were the last exploits of the reign of Constantius. He ended his life in the Imperial palace of York, fifteen months after he had received the title of Augustus, and almost fourteen years and a half after he had been promoted to the rank of Cxsar. His death was immediately succeeded by the elevation of Constantine. The ideas of inheritance and succession are so very familiar that the generality of mankind consider them as founded not only in reason but in nature itself. Our imagination readily transfers the same principles from ‘’Galerius, or perhaps his own courage, exposed him to single combat with a Sarmatian (Anonym, p. 710), and with a monstrous lion. See Praxagoras apud Photium, p. 63. Praxagoras, an Athenian philosopher, had written a life of Constantine in two books, which are now lost. He was a contemporary. “Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 8] p. 78, 79. Lactantius de M. P. c. 24, The former tells a very foolish story, that Constantine caused all the imst-horses which he had used to be hamstrung. Such a bloody execution, without preventing a pursuit, would have scattered suspicions, and might have stopped his journey. “Anonym, p. 710. Panegyr. Veter, vii. 7. But Zosimus, 1 . ii. [c. 9] p. 79, Eusebius de Vit. Constant. 1 . i. c. 21, and Lactantius de M. P. c. 24, suppose, with less accuracy, that he found his father on bis death-bed. .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

346

private property to public dominion: and whenever a virtuous father leaves behind him a son whose merit seems to justify the esteem, or even the hopes, of the people, the joint influence of prejudice and of The flower of the western affection operates with irresistible weight. armies had followed Constantins into Britain, and the national troops were reinforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains.^” The opinion of their own importance, and the assurance that Britain, Gaul, and Spain would acquiesce in their nomination, were diligently inculcated to the The soldiers were asked legions by the adherents of Constantine. whether they could hesitate a moment between the honour of placing at their he^d the worthy son of their beloved emperor and the ignominy of tamely expecting the arrival of some obscure stranger, on whom it might please the sovereign of Asia to bestow the armies and provinces of the West? It was insinuated to them that gratitude and liberality held a distinguished place among the virtues of Constantine; nor did that artful prince show himself to the troops till they were prepared to salute him with the names of Augustus and Emperor. The throne was the object of his desires; and had he been less actuated by ambition, it was his only means of safety. He was well acquainted wiUi the character and sentiments of Galerius, and sufficiently apprised that, if he wished to live, he must determine to reign. The decent, and' even obstinate, resistance which he chose to affect ” was contrived to justify his usurpation; nor did he yield to the acclamations of the army which he till he had provided the proper materials for a letter, Constantine immediately despatched to the emperor of the East. informed him of the melancholy event of his father’s death, modestly asserted his natural claim to the succession, and respectfully lamented that the affectionate violence of his troops had not permitted him to solicit the Imperial purple in the regular and constitutional manner. The first emotions of Galerius were those of surprise, disappointment, and rage; and, as he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly threatened that he would commit to the flames both the letter and the messenger. But his resentment insensibly subsided; and when he recollected the doubtful chance of war, when he had weighed the character and strength of his adversary, he consented to embrace the honourable accommodation which the prudence of Constantine had left open to him. Without either condemning or ratifying the choice of the British army, Galerius accepted the son of his deceased colleague as “Cunctis qui aderant annitentibus, sed prascipiie Croco (.alii Eroco) [Erich Pl Alemannorum Rege, auxilii gratia Constantium comitato, imperium capit. Victor Junior, c. 41. This is perhaps the first instance of a barbarian king who assisted the Roman arms with an independent body of his own subjects.

”His

The

practice

grew

familiar,

and

at last

became

fatal.

panegyrist Eumcnius (vii. 8) ventures to affirm, in the presence of Constantine, that he put spurs to his horse, and tried, but in vain, to escape from the hands of his soldiers.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

S43

the sovereign of the provinces beyond the Alps; but he gave him only the title of Caesar, and the fourth rank among the Roman princes, whilst he conferred the vacant place of Augustus on his favourite Severus. The apparent harmony of the empire was still preserved, and Constantine, who already possessed the substance, expect^, without im-> patience, an opportunity of obtaining the honours of supreme power.^* The children of Constantius by his second marriage were six in number, three of either sex, and whose Imperial descent might have solicited a preference over the meaner extraction of the son of Helena. But Constantine was in the thirty-second year of his age, in the full vigour both of mind and body, at the time when the eldest of his His brothers could not possibly be more than thirteen years old. claim of superior merit had been allowed and ratified by the dying emperor.'" In his last moments Constantius bequeathed to his eldest son the care of the safety, as well as greatness, of the family; conjuring him to assume both the authority and the sentiments of a father Their liberal education, with regard to the children of Theodora. advantageous marriages, the secure dignity of their lives, and the first honours of the state with which they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine; and, as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and fortune."® II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces before the unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as well as power in a still more sensible part. The long absence of the emperors bad filled Rome with discontent and indignation; and the people gradually discovered that the preference given to Nicomedia and Milan was not to be ascribed to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to the permanent form of government which he had instituted. It was in vain that,

a few months after his abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, those magnificent baths whose ruins still supply the ground as well as the materials for so many churches and convents."' The tran'* Lactantius de M. P. c. 25. Eumenius (vii. 8) gives a rhetorical turn to the whole transaction. "The choice of Constantine by his dying father, which is warranted b> reason, and insinuated by Eumenius, seems to be confirmed by the most unexceptionable authuiity, the concurring evidence' of Lactantius (de M. P. c. 24) and of Libanius (Oratio i.), of Eusebius (in Vit. Constantin. 1 . i. c. 21) and of Julian (Oratio i. [p. 7]). ”Of the three sisters of Constantine, Constantia married the emperor Licinius, Anastasia the Cxsar Eassianus, and Euiropia the consul Nepotianus. The three brothers were, Dalmatius, Julius Constantius, and Annibalianus, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. “See Gruter Inscrip, p. 178. The six princes are all mentioned, Diocletion and Maximian as the senior Augusti, and fathers of the emperors. They jointly dedicate, for the use of Ihetr own Romans, this magnificent edific^ The architects have delineated the ruins of these Thermee; and the antiquarians, particularly Donatus and Nardini, have ascertained the ground

34«

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

and luxuiy was disturbed by the impatient murmurs of the Romans, and a report was insensibly

jquillity of those elegant recesses of ease

circulated that the sums expended in erecting those buildings would soon be required at their hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps the exigencies of the state, had induced him to makfii a very strict and rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects for the purpose of a general toation, both on their lands and on A very minute survey appears to have been taken of their persons. their real estates; and, wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal wealth.-- The privileges which had exalted Italy above the rank of the provinces were no longer regarded: and the officers of the revenue already began to number the Roman people, and to settle the proportion of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had been utterly extinguished, the tamest subjects have sometimes ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion of their property; but on this occasion the injury was aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private interest was quickened by that of national honour. The conquest of Macedonia, as we have already observed, had delivered the Roman people from the weight of personal taxes. Though they had experienced every form of de^tism, they had now enjoyed that exemption near five hundred years; nor could they patiently brook the

insolence of an Illyrian peasant, who, from his distant residence in Asia, presumed to number Rome among the tributary cities of hfe empire.^* The rising fury of the people was encouraged by the authority, or at least the connivance, of the senate; and the feeble remains

who had reason to apprehend their own embraced so honourable a pretence, and declared their readiness to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed country. It was the wish, and it soon became the hope, of every citizen that, after expelling from Italy their foreign tyrants, they should elect a prince who, by the place of his residence, and by his maxims of government, might once more deserve the title of Roman emperor. The name, as well as the situation of Maxentius, determined in his favour the of the Praetorian guards,

dissolution,

popular enthusiasm.

Maxentius was the son of the emperor Maximian, and he had married the daughter of Galerius. His birth and alliance seemed to offer him which they covered. One of the great rooms is now the Carthusian church; and even one of the porter’s lodges is sufficient to form another church, which belongs to the Feuillans. ” See Lactantius de M. P. c. 26, 31. “ [Notwithstanding the discontent of the people, the system of taxation which had prevailed in the provinces was now permanently established in Xome and all throughout Italy. There was, therefore, according to Aurelius Victor (De Csesar c. 39), one uniform system of taxation throughout the Roman empire, the only Mceptions being those towns which had the /us Italicum, this name continuing to be employed, although no longer appropriate, since Italy had ceased to possess any special rights. O. S.]

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

349

the fairest promise of succeeding to the empire; but his vices and incapacity procured him the same exclusion from the dignity of Caesar which Constantine had deserved by a dangerous superiority of merit. The policy of Galerius preferred su^ associates as would never disgrace the choice, nor dispute the commands, of their benefactor. An obscure stranger was therefore raised to the throne of Italy, and the son of the late emperor of the West was left to enjoy the luxury of a private fortune in a villa a few miles distant from the capital. The gloomy passions of his soul, shame, vexation, and rage, were inflamed by envy on the news of Constantine’s success; but the hopes of Maxentius revived with the public discontent, and he was easily persuaded to unite his personal injury and pretensions with the cause of the Roman people. Two Praetorian tribunes and a commissary of provisions undertook the management of the conspiracy ; and, as every order of men was actuated by the same spirit, the immediate event was neither doubtful nor difficult. The praefect of the city and a few magistrates, who maintained their fidelity to Severus, were massacred by the guards; and Maxentius, invested with the Imperial ornaments, was acknowledged, by the applauding senate and people, as the protector of the Roman freedom and dignity. It is uncertain whether Maximian was previously acquainted with the con^iracy; but as soon as the standard of rebellion was erected at Rome, the old emperor broke from the retirement where the authority of Diocletian had condemned him to pass a life of melancholy solitude, and concealed his returning ambition under the disguise of paternal tenderness. At the request of his son and of the senate he condescended to reassume the purple. His ancient dignity, his experience, and his fame in arms added strength as well as reputation to the party of Maxentius.** According to the advice, or rather the orders, of his colleague, the emperor Severus immediately hastened to Rome, in the full confidence that, by his unexpected celerity, he should easily suppress the tumult of an unwarlike populace, commanded by a licentious youth. But he found on his arrival the gates of the city shut against him, the walls filled with men and arms, an experienced general at the head of the A large body rebels, and his own troops without spirit or affection. of Moors deserted to the enemy, allured by the promise of a large donative; and, if it be true that they bad been levied by Maximian in his African war, preferring the natural feelings of gratitude to the Anulinus, the Praetorian praefect, declared artificial ties of allegiance. himself in favour of Maixentius, and drew after him the most considerRome, able part of the troops accustomed to obey his commands. according to the expression of an orator, recalled her armies; and the Panegj'ric represents the conduct of Maximian in the most and the ambiguous expression of Aurelius Victor [de Caesar, c. 40], “ retractante diu,” may signify either that he contrived, or that he opposed, the conspiracy. See Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 9] p. 79, and Lactantius de M. P. c. 26.

"The

sixth

favourable light

;

.

$Sa

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

dnfwtunate Severas, destitute of force and of counsel,

retired, ot rather

Hed, with precipitation to Ravenna. Here he might for some time have been safe. The fortifications of Ravenna were able to resist the attempts, and the morasses that surrounded the town were sufficient to prevent the approach, of the Italian army. Thesea, which Severus commanded with a powerful fleet, secured him an inexhaustible supply of provisions, and gave a free entrance to the legions which, on the return of spring, would advance to his assistance from Illyricum and Maximian, who conducted the siege in person, was soon the East. convinced that he might waste his time and his army in the fruitless enterprise, and that he had nothing to hope either from force or famine. With an art more suitable to the character of Diocletian than to his own, he directed his attack not so much against the walls of Ravenna as against the mind of Severus. The treachery which he had experienced

di^osed that unhappy prince to distrust the most sincere of his friends and adherents. The emissaries of Maximian easily persuaded his credulity that a con^iracy was formed to betray the town, and prevailed upon his fears not to expose himself to the discretion of an irritated conqueror, but to accept the faith of an honourable capitulation. He was at first received with humanity and treated with respect. Maximian conducted the captive emperor to Rome, and gave him the most solemn assurances that he had secured his life by the resignaBut Severus could obtain only an easy death and tion of the purple. an Imperial funeral. When the sentence was signified to him, the manner of executing it was left to his own choice; he preferred the favourite mode of the ancients, that of opening his veins; and, as soon as he expired, his body was carried to the sepulchre which had been constructed for the family of Gallienus.^° Though the characters of Constantine and Maxentius bad very little affinity with each other, their situation and interest were the same, and prudence seemed to require that they should unite their forces against the common enemy. Notwithstanding the superiority of his age and dignity, the indefatigable Maximian passed the Alps, and, courting a personal interview with the sovereign of Gaul, carried With him his daughter Fausta as the pledge of the new alliance. The marriage was celebrated at Arles with every circumstance of magnificence; and the ancient colleague of Diocletian, who again asserted his claim to the Western empire, conferred on his son-in-law and ally the title of Augustus. By consenting to receive that honour from Maximian, Constantine seemed to embrace the cause of Rome and of the senate; but his professions were ambiguous, and bis assistance slow and ineffectual. He considered with attention the approaching contest between the masters of Italy and the emperor of the East, and was

“The

circumstances of this war, and the death of Severus, are very doubt-

and variously told in our ancient frag^ments (see Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. part. i. p. 555). 1 have endeavoured to extract from them a consistent and probable narration. fully

'

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Isl

prepared to consult his own safety or ambition in the event of the war.^* The importance of the occasion called for the presence and abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army collected from Illyricum and the East, he entered Italy, 'resolved to revenge the death of Severus and to chastise the rebellious Romans; or, as he expressed his intentions, in the furious language of a barbarian, to extirpate the senate, and to destroy the people by the sword. But the skill of Maximian had concerted a prudent system of defence. The invader found every place hostile, fortified, and inaccessible; and though be forced his way as far as Nami, within sixty miles of Rome, his dominion in Italy was confined to the narrow limits of his camp. Sensible of the increasing difficulties of his enterprise, the haughty Galerius made the first advances towards a reconciliation, and despatched two of his most considerable officers to tempt the Roman princes by the offer of a conference, and the declaration of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who might obtain much more from his liberality than he could hope from the doubtful chance of war."*' The offers of Galerius were rejected with firmness, his perfidious friendship rfused with contempt, and it was not long before he discovered that unless he provided for his safety by a timely retreat, he had some reason to apprehend the fate of Severus. The wealth which the Romans defended against his rapacious tyranny they freely contributed for his destruction. The name of Maximian, the popular arts of his son, the secret distribution of large sums, and the promise of still more liberal rewards, checked the ardour and corrupted the fidelity of the Illyrian legions; and when Galerius at length gave the signal of the retreat, it was with some difficulty that he could prevail on his veterans not to desert a banner conwhich had so often conducted them to victory and honour. temporary writer assigns two other causes for the failure of the expedition but they are both of such a nature that a cautious historian We are told that Galerius, who will scarcely venture to adopt them. had formed a very imperfect notion of the greatness of Rome by the cities of the East with which he was acquainted, found his forces inadequate to the siege of that immense capital. But the extent of a Rome had city serves only to render it more accessible to the enemy: long since been accustomed to submit on the approach of a conqueror; nor could the temporary enthusiasm of the people have long contended against the discipline and valour of the legions. We are likewise informed that the legions themselves were struck with horror and remorse,

A

;

“The

sixth Panegyric was nronounced to celebrate the elevation of Conbut the prudent orator avoids the mention either of Galerius or of Maxentius. He introduces only one slight allusion to the actual troubles, and to the majesty of Rome. ” With regard to this negotiation, sec the fragments of an anonymous historian, published by Valesius at the end of his edition of Ammianus MarThese fragments have furnished us with several curious, cellinus, p. 71 1. and, as it should seem, authentic anecdotes. stantine;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

35*

and that those pious sons of the republic refused to violate the sanctity But when we recollect with how much of their venerable parent.*® ease, in the more ancient civil wars, the zeal of party and the habits of mili tary obedience had converted the native citizens of Rome into her most implacable enemies, we ^all be inclined to distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians who had never beheld Had they not been Italy till they entered it in a hostile manner. restrained by motives of a more interested nature, they would probably have answered Galerius in the words of Caesar’s veterans: “ If our general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tiber, we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engines: nor shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself.” These are indeed the expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been distingui shed, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the truth of history.*® The legions of Galerius exhibited

^

a very melancholy proof of their disposition by the ravages which they committed in their retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered, they drove away the flocks and herds of the Italians; they burnt the villages through which they passed, and they endeavoured to destroy the country which it had not been in their power to subdue. During the whole march Maxentius hung on their rear, but he very prudently declined a general engagement with those brave and desperate veterans. His father had undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with the hope of persuading Constantine, who had assembled an army on the frontier, to join the pursuit, and But the actions of Constantine were guided to complete the victory. by reason, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise resolution of maintaining a balance of power in the divided empire, and he no longer hated Galerius when that aspiring prince had ceased to be an object of

terror.’*®

The mind

of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner passions, was not, however, incapable of a sincere and lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as well as character were not unlike his own, seems to have engaged both his affection and esteem. Their intimacy had commenced in the happier period, perhaps, of their youth and

but

it

“Lactantius de M. P. c. 'Virgil's Shepherd:

from

putavi, etc.”

27.

The former of

“Illam

.

.

.

these reasons

is

probably taken

ego huic nostrx similcm, Meliboee,

Lactantius delights in these poetical allusions.

“ Castra super Tusci si ponere Tybridis undas (;ttbeas) Hesperios audax veniam metator in agros. Tu quoscunque voles in planum effundere muros, His aries actus disperget saxa lacertis; Ilia licet penitus tolli

Koma

quam

jusseris

urbem

Lucan. Pharsal. i. 381. Lactantius de M. P. c. 27. Zosim. 1 . ii. [c. 10] p. 8a. The latter insinuates that Constantine, in his interview with Maximian, had promised to declare war against Galerius. **

sit.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

353

obscurity. It had been cemented by the freedom and dangers of a military life; they had advanced almost by equal steps through the successive honours of the service; and as soon as Galerius was invested with the Imperial dignity, he seems to have conceived the design of raising his companion to the same rank with himself. During the short period of his prosperity, he considered the rank of Cxsar as unworthy of the age and merit of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for him the place of Constantins, and the empire of the West. While

the emperor was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his friend with the defence of the Danube; and immediately after his retmn from that unfortunate expedition he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum.“‘ The news of his promotion was no sooner carried into the East, than Maximin, who governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Caesar, and, notwithstanding the prayers as well as arguments of Galerius, exacted, almost by violence, the equal

For the first, and indeed for the last time, the world was administered by six emperors. In the West, Constantine and Maxentius affected to reverence their father Maximian. In the East, Licinius and Maximin honoured with more real consideratitle

of Augustus.’-

Roman

The opposition of interest, and the tion their benefactor Galerius. memory of a recent war, divided the empire into two great hostile powers; but their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to the views and passions of their surviving associates. When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the venal orators of the times applauded his philosophic moderation.

When

his

ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him from the public service.” But it was impossible that minds like those of Maximian and his son could long possess in harmony an undivided power. Maxentius considered himself as the legal sovereign of Italy, elected by the

Roman

” M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Fmpereurs, tom. iv. part. i. p. 559) has proved that Licinius, without passing throtigh the intermediate rank of Csesar, was declared Augustus, the iiih of November, a.d. 307, after the return of Galerius

from Italy. " Lactantius de M. P.

c.

32.

When

Galerius declared Licinius Augustus

with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger associates, by Inventing for Constantine and Maximin (not Maxentius. .see Baluze, p. 81) the new title llut when Maximin acquainted him that he had of sons of the Augusti. been saluted Augustus by the army, Galerius was obliged to acknowledge him, as well as Constantine, as equal associates in the Imperial dignity. *®See Panegyr. Vet. vi. [v.] g. Audi doloris nostri liberam vocem, etc. The whole passage is imagined with artful flattery, and expressed with an easy flow of eloquence. _

3J4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Mnate and people; nor would he endure the control of his father, who arrogantly declar^ that by his name and abSities the rash youth had been established on the throne. The cause was solemnly pleaded before the PrzBtorian guards; and those troops, who dreaded the severity of The life and the old emperor, espoused the party of Maxentius.®* freedom of Maximian were, however, respected, and he retired from Italy into Illyricum, affecting to lament his past conduct, and secretly contriving new misdiiefs. But Galerius, who was well acquainted with his character, soon obliged him to leave his dominions, and the last refuge of the disappointed Maximian was the court of his son-in-law Constantine.®® He was received with respect by that artful prince, and with the appearance of filial tenderness by the empress Fausta. That he might remove every suspicion, he resigned the Imperial purple a second time,®® professing himself at length convinced of the vanity of greatness and ambition. Had he persevered in this resolution, he might have ended his life with less dignity, indeed, than in his first retirement, yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But the near prospect of a throne brought back to his remembrance the state from whence he was fallen, and he* resolved, by a deaerate effort, either to reign or to perish. An incursion of the Franks had summoned Constantine, with a part of his army, to the banks of the Rhine; the remainder of the troops were stationed in the southern provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enterprises of the Italian emperor, and a considerable treasure was deposited in the city of Arles. Maximian either craftily invented, or hastily credited, a vain report of the death of Constantine. Without hesitation he ascended the throne, seized the treasure, and, scattering it with his accustomed profusion among the soldiers, endeavoured to awake in their minds the memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before he could establish his authority, or finish the negotiation which he appears to have entered into with his son Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine defeated all his hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and ingratitude, that prince returned by rapid marches from the Rhine to the Saone, embarked on the last-mentioned river at Chalons, and, at Lyons trusting himself to the rapidity of the Rhone, arrived at the gates of Arles with a military force which it was impossible for Maximian to resist, and which scarcely permitted him to take refuge in the neighbouring city of Marseilles. The narrow neck of land which joined that place to the continent was fortified

A

“Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. Zosim. 1 ii. [c. 11] p. 82. report was spread that Maxentius was the son of some obscure Sj’rian, and had been substituted by the wife of Maximian as her own child. See Aurelius Victor [Epit. 40], Anonym. Valesian. I§i2j, and Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3, 4. "Ab urbe pulsum, ab Italia fugatum, ab Illyrico repudiatum, tuis provinciis, tnis copiis, tuo palatio recepisti. Eumen. in Panegyr. Vet. vii. [vi.] 14. "Lactantius de M. P. c. 29. Yet after the resignation of the purple, Constentine still continued to Maximian the pomp and honours of the Imperial dignity; and on all public occasions gave the right-hand place to his fatherin-law. Panegyr. Vet. viii. 15. .

,

'

THB ROMAN EMPIRES against the besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, or for the succours of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honourable pretence of defending a distressed, or, as he might allege, an injured father. Apprehensive of the fatal consequences of delay, Constantine gave orders for an immediate assault; but the scaling-ladders were found too short for the height of the walls, and Marseilles might have sustained as long a siege as it formerly did against the arms of Caesar, if the garrison, conscious either of their fault or of their danger, had not purchased their pardon by delivering up the city and the person of Maximian. A secret but irrevocable sentence of death was pronoimced against the usurper; he obtained only the same favour which he had indulged to Severus, and it was published to the world that, oppressed by the remorse of his repeated crimes, he strangled himself with his own hands. After he had lost the assistance, and disdained the moderate counsels, of Diocletian, the second period of his active life was a series of public calamities and personal mortifications, which were terminated, in about three years, by an ignominious death. He deserved his fate; but we should find more reason to applaud the humanity of Constantine if he had spared an old man, the benefactor of his father and the father of his wife. During the of this melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta sacrificed the sentiments of nature to her conjugal duties.®” The last years of Galerius were less shameful and unfortunate; and though he had filled with more glory the subordinate station of Cesar than the superior rank of Augustus, be preserved, till the moment of his death, the first place among the princes of the Roman world. He survived his retreat from Italy about four years; and, wisely relinquishing his views of universal empire, he devoted the remainder of his life to the enjoyment of pleasure and to the execution of some works of public utility, among which we may distinguish the discharging into the Danube the superfluous waters of the lake Pelso, and the cutting down the immense forests that encompassed it: an operation worthy oi a monarch, since it gave an extensive country to the agriculture of his Pannonian subjects.®'^ His death was occasioned by a very painful and

wMe

Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. vii. 16-21. The ii. 1 [c. ii] p. 82. of these has undoubtedly represented the whole affair in the most favourable light for his sovereign. Yet even from this paitial narrative we may conclude that the repeated clemency of Constantine, and the reiterated treasons of Maximian, as they are described by Lactantius (de M. P. c. 2g, 30), and copied by the moderns, are destitute of any historical foundation. “Aurelius Victor, c. 40. But that lake was situated on the upper Pannonia, near the borders of Noricum; and the province of Valeria (a name which the wife of Galerius gave to the drained country) undoubtedly lay between the Drave and the Danube (Sextus Rufus, c. 8). I should therefore suspect tluit Victor has confounded the lake Pelso with the Volocean marshes, It is placed in the heart of or, as they are now called, the lake Sabaton. Valeria, and its present extent is not less than twelve Hungarian miles (about See Severini Pannonia, seventy English) in length, and two in breadth. "Zosim.

lat^'T

1. i.

c. g.

.

S««

THE 'DECLINE AND FALL OF

His body, swelled by an intemperate course of !iagering disorder. life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects who have given their name to a most loathsome disease;''* but as Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful party among his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible effects of divine justice." He had no sooner expired in his palace of Nicomedia than the two emperors, who were indebt^ for their purple to his favour, began to collect their forces, with the intention either of disputing or of dividing the dominions which he had left without a master. They were persuaded, however, to desist from the former design, and to agree in the latter. The provinces of Asia fell to the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thracian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the banks of those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman world, were covered with soldiers, with arms, and with fortifications. The deaths of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors to four. The sense of their true interest soon connected Licinius and Constantine; a secret alliance was concluded between Maximin and Maxentius, and their unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody consequences of their inevitable dissensions, which were no longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they had entertained for Galerius.^* Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the passions of the Roman princes, there is some pleasure in discovering a single action which may be ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth year of

Autun, and generously remitted the arrears of tribute, reducing at the same time the proportion of their assessment from twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to the real and personal capitation.^- Yet even this indulgence affords his reign Constantine visited the city of

the most unquestionable proof of the pubiic misery. This tax was so extremely oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that, whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was dimini^ed by despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was left uncultivated; and great numbers of the provincials rather chose to live as exiles and outlaws than to support the weight of civil society. It is but too probable that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial “Lactantius (de M. P.

symptoms and progress of

c.

33)

and Eusebius

(I.

viii.

c.

iG)

describe the

with singular accuracy and apparent pleasure. [See Merivalc, note on page 261 O. S.] "If any (like the late Dr. Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 307-356) still delight in recording the wonderful deaths of the persecutors, I would recommend to their perusal an admirable passage of Grotius (Hist. 1. vii. p. 332) concerning the last illness of Philip II. of Spain. “See Eusebius, 1. ix. 6, 10. Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. Zosimus is less exact, and evidently confounds Maximian with Maximin. “ See ^e eighth Panegyr., in which Eumenius displays, in the presence of Constantine, the misery and the gratitude of the city of Autun. _

his disorder

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

351

act of liberality, one among the many evils which he had caused by his general maxims of administration. But even those maxims were less the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we except the death of Maximian, the reign of Constantine in Gaul seems to have been the most innocent and even virtuous period of his life. The provinces were protected by his presence from the inroads of the barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced his active valour. After a signal victory over the Pranks and Alemanni, several of their princes were exposed by his order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves, and the people seem to have enjoyed the spectacle, without discovering, in such a treatment of royal captives, anything that was repugnant to the laws of nations or of humanity The virtues of Constantine were rendered more illustrious by the Whilst the Gallic provinces enjoyed as much vices of Maxentius. happiness as the condition of the times was capable of receiving, Italy and Africa groaned under the dominion of a tyrant as contemptible as he was odious. The zeal of flattery and faction has indeed too frequently sacrificed the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their successful rivals; but even those writers who have revealed, with the most freedom and pleasure, the faults of Constantine, unanimously confess that Maxentius was cruel, rapacious, and profligate.** He had the good fortune to suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. The governor and a few adherents had been guilty; the province suffered for their crime. The flourishing cities of Ciriha and Carthage, and the whole

The extent of that fertile country, were wasted by fire and sword. abuse of victory was followed by the abuse of law and justice. A formidable army of sycophants and delators invaded Africa; the rich and the noble were easily convicted of a connection with the rebels; and those among them who experienced the emperor’s clemency were only punished by the confiscation of their estates.*® So signal a victory was celebrated by a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the eyes of the people the spoils and captives of a Roman province. The state of the capital was no less deserving of compassion than that The wealth of Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund for of Africa. his vain and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his revenue were skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under his reign that the method of exacting a free gift from the senators was first invented; and as the sum was insensibly increased, the pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an Imperial consulship, were proportionately mul-

A

"Eutropius, X. 2. Panegy.'. Veter, vii. lo, n, 12. great number of the Frencli youth were likewise exposed to the same cruel and ignominious death. "Julian excludes Maxentius from the banquet of the Cxsars with abhorrence and contempt; and Zosimus (I. ii. [c. 14] p. 85) accuses him of every kind of cruelty and profligacy. “Zosimus, 1 ii. [c 14] p. 83-85. Aurelius Victor. [Csesar. 40.] .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF tiplied." Maxentius had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the senate which had characterised most of the former tj^ants of Rome; nor was it possible for his ungrateful temper to forgive the generous fidelity which had raised him to the throne and supported him against The lives of the senators were exposed to his jealous all his enemies. suspicions, the dishonour of their wives and daughters heightened the It may be presumed that an gratification of his sensual passions.^^ Imperial lover was seldom reduced to sigh in vain; but whenever persuasion proved ineffectual, he had recourse to violence; and there remains one memorable example of a noble matron who preserved her chastity by a voluntary death. The soldiers were the only order of men whom he appeared to resp)ect, or studied to please. He filled Rome and Italy with armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered them with impunity to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless and indulging them in the same licentiousness which their people emperor enjoyed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military favourites the splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a senator. A prince, of such a character, alike incapable of governing either in peace or in war, might purchase the support, but he could never obtain the esteem, of the army. Yet his pride was equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent life, either within the walls of his palace or in the neighboring gardens of Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare that he alone was emperor, and that the other princes were no more than his lieutenants, on whom he had devolved the defence of the frontier provinces, that he might enjoy without interruption the elegant luxury Rome, which had so long regretted the absence, of the capital. lamented, during the six years of his reign, the presence of her sovereign.*"

Though Constantine might view the conduct of Maxentius with abhorrence, and the situation of the Romans with compassion, we have no reason to presume that he would have taken up arms to punish the one or to relieve the other. But the tyrant of Italy rashly ventured to •The

passage of Aurelius Victor [L

c.]

should be read in the following

manner: Primus instituto pessimo, tnMncrwm specie, Patrcs Oraioresgue pecuniam ronferre prodigenti sibi cogeret. "Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3 Euscb. Hist. Ecclcs. viii. 14, ct in Vit Constant, i. Rufinus, c. 17. The virtuous matron, who stabbed herself to escape 33, 34the violence of Maxentius, was a Christian, wife to the praefect of the city, and her name was Sophronia. It still remains a question among the casuists. Whether, on such occasions, suicide is justifiable? “ Praetoriams cxdem vulgi quondam annuerit, is the vague expression of Aurelius Victor, [Caesar. 40.] See more particular, though somewhat different, accounts of a tumult and massacre which happened at Rome, in

Eusebius

"See

(1, viii. c.

in the

14),

and

in

Zosimus

(1.

ii.

[c. 13] p.

^).

Panegyrics fix. 14) a lively description of the indolence and vain pride of Maxentius. In another place [t’h. c. 3] the orator observes that the riches which Rome had accumulated in a period of 1060 years were lavished by the tyrant on his mercenary bands; redemptis ad civile latrocinium

manibus ingesserat.

TB(E ROliiAN

EMPIRE

359.

provdce a formidable enemy whose ambition had been hitherto re^ strained by considerations of prudence rather than by principles of justice.*^ After the death of Maximian, his titles, according to the established custom, had been erased, and his statues thrown down with ignominy. His son, who had persecuted and deserted him when alive, affected to display the most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a similar treatment should be immediately inflicted on all the statues that had been erected in Italy and Africa to the honour of Constantine. That wise prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, with the difficulty and imimrtance of which he was sufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, and sought for redress by the milder expedients of negotiation, till he was convinced that the hostile and ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it necessary for him to arm in his own defence. Maxentius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole monarchy of the West, had already prepared a very considerable force to invade the Gallic provinces on the side of Rhaftia; and though he could not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the hope that the legions of Ill 3n'icum, allured by his presents and promises, would desert the standard of that prince, and unanimously declare themselves his soldiers and subjects.®* Constantine no longer hesitated. He had deliberated with caution, be acted with vigour. He gave a private audience to the ambassadors who, in the name of the senate and people, conjured him to deliver Rome from a detested tyrant; and, without regarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he resolved to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into the heart of Italy .®The enterprise was as full of danger as of glory; and the unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops, who revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those wars the party of his son, and were now restrained by a sense of honour, as well as of interest, from

entertaining an idea of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the Praetorian guards as the firmest defence of his throne, had increased them to their ancient establishment; and they composed, including

"After the victory of Constantine it was universally allowed that the motive of delivering the republic from a detested tyrant would, at any timev have justified his expedition into Italy. Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. 1. i. c. 2& Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. " Zosimus, 1. ii. [c. 14] p. Nazarius in Panegyr. x. 7-13. 85. " See Panegyr. Vet. ix. [viii.l 2. Omnibus fere tuis Comitibus et Ducibus non solum tacite mussantibus, sed etiam aperte timentibus; contra consilia bominuni. cojitra Haruspicum inonita, ipse per temet liberand* urbis tempos venissc sentires. The embassy of the Romans is mentioned only by Zonaras (I. xiii. [c. l]), and by Cedrenus (in Compend. Hist. p. 270 [ed. Paris; volbut those modem Greeks had the opportunity of coni. p. 474, ed. Bonn] ) sulting many writers which have since been lost, among which we may reckon Photius (p. 63) has made a short the Life of Constantine by Praxagoras. extract from that historical work. ;

'360

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

the rest of the Italians

who were

enlisted into his service, a formidable

of fourscore thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and CarthaEven Sicily ginians had been raised since the reduction of Africa. furnished its proportion of troops; and the armies of Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot and eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war; and the adjacent provinces were exhausted to form immense magazines of corn and every other kind of provisions. The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety thousand foot

body

and as the defence of the Rhine required and eight thousand horse an extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half his troops in the Italian expediAt tion, unless he sacrificed the public safety to his private quarrel.®* the head of about forty thousand soldiers, he marched to encounter an enemy whose numbers were at least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Rome, placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and were chiefly composed of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war. The hardy legions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the empire against the barbarians of the North; and in the performance of that laborious service their valour was exercised and their discipline conThere appeared the same difference between the leaders as firmed. between the armies. Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the The habits of pleasure and the consciousness of his inexperience. intrepid mind of Constantine had been trained from his earliest youth

and to military command. Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was obliged first to discover and then to open a way over mountains, and through savage nations that had never yielded a passage to a regular army.®® The Alps to war, to action,

When

“Zosimus (I. ii. [c. 15J p. 80 ^ has given us this curious account of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any naval armaments, though we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25) that the war was carried on by sea as well as by land; and that the fleet of Constantine took possession of Sardinia, Corsica, and the ports of Italy. “Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the orator should diminish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the conquest of Italy; but it appears somewhat singular that he should esteem the tyrant’s army at no more’ than 100,000 men. “The three principal passages of the Alps between Gaul and Italy are those of Mount St. Bernard, Mount Cenis, and Mount Genevre. Tradition, and a resemblance of names {Alpes Pennine), had assigned the first of these for the march of Hannibal (see Simler de Alpihus). The Chevalier de Folard (Polyb. tom. iv.) and M, d’Anville have led him over Mount Genevre. But notwith.standing the authority of an experienced officer and a learned geographer, the pretensions of Mount Cenis are supported in a specious, not to say a convincing manner, by M. Grosley, Observations sur I’ltalie, tom. i.

p. 40, etc.

THE R'OMAN EMPIRE

361 f

were then guarded by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels, constructed with no less skill than labour and expense, command every avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies of the king of Sardinia.'® But in the course of the intermediate period, the generals who have attempted the passage have seldom experienced any difficulty or resistance. In the age of Constantine the peasants of the mountains were civilised and obedient subjects; the country was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the stupendous highways which the Romans had carried over the Alps opened several communications between Gaul and Italy Constantine preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of Mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active diligence, that he descended into the plain of Piedmont before the court of Maxentius had received any certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated at the foot of Mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided with a garrison sufficiently numerous to check the progress of an invader; but the impatience of Constantine’s troops disdained the tedious forms of a siege. The same day that they appeared before Susa they applied fire to the gates and ladders to the walls; and mounting to the assault amidst a shower of stones and arrows, they entered the place sword in hand, and cut in pieces the greatest part of the garrison. The flames were extinguished by the care of Constantine, and the remains of Susa preserved from total destruction. About forty miles from thence a more severe contest numerous army of Italians was assembled, under the awaited him. lieutenants of IVIaxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its principal strength consisted in a species of heavy cavalry, which the Romans, since the decline of their discipline, had borrowed from the nations of the East. The horses, as well as the men, were clothed in complete armour, the joints of which were artfully adapted to the motions of their bodies. The aspect of this cavalry was formidable, their weight almost irresistible; and as, on this occasion, their generals had drawn them up in

A

a compact column or wedge, with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they flattered themselves that they should easily break and trample down the army of Constantine. They might, perhaps, have succeeded in their design, had not their experienced adversary embraced the same method of defence which in similar circumstances had been practised

by

Aurelian.

The

skilful evolutions of

Constantine divided

massy column of cavalry. The troops of Maxentius fled in confusion towards Turin; and as the gates of the city were shut against them, very few escaped the sword of the victorious pursuers. By this important service Turin deserved to experience the clemency and even favour of the conqueror. He made his entry into the Imperial

and

baffled this

“ La Brunette near Suse, Demont, Exiles, Fenestrelles, Coni, etc. "See Ammian. Marcellin. xv. 10. His description of the roads over the Alps

is clear, lively,

and

accurate.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

3(»»

palace of Milan, and almost all the cities of Italy betweoi the Alps and the Po not only acknowledged the power, but embraced with zeal the party of Constantine.®® From Milan to Rome, the .£milian and Flaminian highways offered an easy march of about four Hundred miles; but though Constantine was impatient to encounter the tyrant, he prudently directed his operations against another army of Italians, who, by their strength and position, might either oppose his progress, or, in case of a misfortune, Ruricius Pompeianus, a general dismight intercept his retreat. tinguished by his valour and ability, had under his command the city of Verona, and all the troops that were stationed in the province of Venetia. As soon as he was informed that Constantine was advancing towards him, he detached a large body of cavalry, which was defeated in an engagement near Brescia, and pursued by the Gallic legions as The necessity, the importance, and the far as the gates of Verona. difficulties of the siege of Verona, immediately presented themselves to the sagacious mind of Constantine.®® The city was accessible only by a narrow peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides were surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river, which covered the province of Venetia, from whence the besieged derived an inexhaustible supply of men and provisions. It was not without great difficulty, and after several fruitless attempts, that Constantine found means to pass the river at some distance above the city, and in a place where the torrent was less violent. He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, pushed his attacks with prudent vigour, and repelled a desperate sally of Pompeianus. That intrepid general, when he had used every means of defence that the strength of the place or that of the garrison could afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for his own but for the public safety. With indefatigable diligence he soon collected an army sufficient either to meet Constantine in the field, or to attack him if he obstinately remained within his lines. The emperor, attentive to the motions, and informed of the approach of so formidable an enemy, left a part of his legions to continue the operations of the

head of those troops on whose valour and fidelity he more particularly depended, he advanced in person to engage the general of Maxentius. The army of Gaul was drawn up in two lines, according to the usual practice of war; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, siege, whilst, at the

“ Zosimus as well as Eusebius hasten from the passage of the Alps to the decisive action near Rome. must apply to the two Panegyrics for the intermediate actions of Constantine.

We

“The Marquis Maffci has examined the siege and battle of Verona with that degree of attention and accuracy which was due to a memorable action that happened in his native country. The fortifications of that city, constructed by Gallienus, were less extensive than the modern walls, and the amphitheatre was not included within their circumference. lustrata, part.

i.

p. 142, 150.

See Verona

II-

^

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

suddenly changed his disposition, and, reducing the second, extended the front of his first line to a just proportion with that of Ihe enemy. Such evolutions, which only veteran troops can execute without con> fusion in a moment of danger, commonly prove decisive; but as this engagement began towards the close of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy during the whole night, there was less room for the conduct of the generals than for the courage of the soldiers. The return of light displayed the victory of Constantine, and a field of carnage covered with many thousands of the vanquished Italians. Their general, Pompeianus, was found among the slain; Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the garrison was made prisoners of war.*® When the officers of the victorious army congratulated their master on this iqiportant success, they ventured to add some respectful complaints, of such a nature, however, as the most jealous monarchs will listen to without displeasure. They represented to Constantine that, not contented with performing all the duties of a commander, he had exposed his own person with an excess of valour which almost degenerated into rashness; and they conjured him for the future to pay more regard to the preservation of a life in which the safety of Rome and of the empire was involved.®* While Constantine signalised his conduct and valour in the field, the sovereign of Italy appeared insensible of the calamities and danger of a civil war which raged in the heart of his dominions. Pleasure was Concealing, or at least attempting still the only business of Maxentius. to conceal, from the public knowledge the misfortunes of his arms,®* he indulged himself in a vain confidence, which deferred the remedies of the approaching evil without deferring the evil itself.®* The rapid was scarcely sufficient to awaken him from progress of Constantine this fatal security; he flattered himself that his well-known liberality and the majesty of the Roman name, which had already delivered him from two invasions, would dissipate with the same facility the rebellious

army

of Gaul.

The

officers of experience

and

ability

who had

served

under the banners of Maximian were at length compelled to inform his effeminate son of the imminent danger to which he was reduced; and, with a freedom that at once surprised and convinced him, to urge the necessity of preventing his ruin by a vigorous exertion of his reThe resources of Maxentius, both of men and money,

maining power.

“They wanted chains for so great a multitude of captives; and the whole council was at a loss but the sagacious conqueror imagined the happy expedient of conserting into fetters the swords of the vanquished. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 0. •* Panegyr. Vet. ix. lo. “Literas calaniitatum suarum indices supprimebat. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 15. ** Remedia malorum potius quam mala differebat, is the fine censure which Tacitus passes on the supine indolence of Vitellius. “The Marquis MaflFei has made it extremely probable that Constantine was the memorable era still at Verona, the ist of September, a.d. 312, and that of the Indictions was dated from bis conquest of the Cisalpint Gaul. ;

_

_

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

3«4

The Praetorian guards felt how strongly their considerable. and safety were connected with his cause; and a third anny was soon collected, more numerous than those which had been lost in the battles of Turin and Verona. It was far from the intention of the were

own

still

interest

emperor to lead his troops in person. A stranger to the exercises of war, he trembled at the apprehension of so dangerous a contest; and, as fear is commonly superstitious, he listened with melancholy attention to the rumours of omens and presages which seemed to menace his life and empire. Shame at length supplied the place of courage, and forced him to take the held. He was unable to sustain the contempt of the Roman people. The circus resounded with their indignant clamours, and they tumultuously besieged the gates of the palace, reproaching the pusi ll animity of their indolent sovereign, ^nd celebrating the heroic Before Maxentius left Rome he consulted the spirit of Constantine.®-’ The guardians of these ancient oracles were as well Sibylline books. versed in the arts of this world as they were ignorant of the secrets of fate; and they returned him a very prudent answer, which might adapt itselif to the event, and secure their reputation, whatever should be the chance of arms.®®

The celerity of Constantine's march has been compared to the rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the C*sars; nor is the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days elapsed between the surrender of Verona and the final decision of the war. Constantine had always apprehended that the tyrant would consult the dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence; and that, instead of risking his last hopes in a general engagement, he would shut himself up within the walls of Rome. His ample magazines secured him against the danger of famine; and as the situation of Constantine admitted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the sad necessity of destroying with fire and sword the Imperial city, the noblest reward of his victory, and the deliverance of which had been the motive, or rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war.®^ It was with equal surprise and pleasure that, on his arrival at a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome,"® he discovered the army of Maxentius “See Panegyr.

Vet. xi. i6 [ix. 14?]. Lactantius de M. P. c. 44. “Illo die hostem Itomanorum esse periturum. [Lact. 1 c.] The vanquished prince became of course the enemy of Rome. " See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 16, x. 27. The former of these orators magnifies the hoards of corn which Maxentius had collected from Africa and the islands. And yet, if there is any truth in the scarcity mentioned by Eusebius (in Vit. Constantin. 1 i. c. 36), the Imperial granaries must have been open only to the soldiers. “Maxentius tandem urbe in Saxa Rubra, millia ferme novem agerrime progressus. Aurelius Victor, [dc Caisar. 40.] See Cellarius Gcograph. Antiq.. tom. i. p. 463. Saxa Rubra was in the neighbourhood of the Cremera, a trifling rivulet, illustrated by the valour and glorious death of the three .

.

.

hundred

Fabir.

.

.

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

3«$

prep&red to give him battle.** Their long front filled a very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to the banks of the Tiber, which covered their rear, and forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may believe, that Constantine disposed his troops with consummate skill, and that he chose for himself the post of honour and danger. Distinguished by the splendour of his arms, he charged in person the cavalry of his rival; and his irresistible attack determined the fortune of the day. The cavalry of Maxentius was principally composed either of unwieldy cuirassiers or of light Moors and Numidians. Thqr yielded to the vigour of the Gallic horse, which possessed more activity than the one, more firmness than the other. The defeat of the two wings left the infantry without any protection on its flanks, and the undisciplined Italians fled without reluctance from the standard of a tyrant whom they had always hated, and whom they no longer feared. The Praetorians, conscious that their offences were beyond the reach of mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Notwithstanding their repeated efforts, those brave veterans were unable to recover the victory; they obtained, however, an honourable death; and it was observed that their bodies covered the same ground which had been occupied by their ranks.^® The confusion then became general, and the dismayed troops of IMaxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy, rushed by thousands into the deep and rapid stream of the Tiber. The emperor himself attempted to escape back into the city over the Milvian bridge, but the crowds which pressed together through that narrow passage forced him into the river, where he was immediHis body, which had ately drowned by the weight of his armour.’* sunk very deep into the mud, was found with some difficulty the next day. The sight of his head, when it was exposed to the eyes of the people, convinced them of their deliverance, and admonished them to receive with acclamations of loyalty and gratitude the fortunate Cons-

“The post which Ma.xentius had taken, with the Tiber in his rear, is very clearly described by the two Panegj'rists, ix. i6, x. 28. '* Hxceptis latrocinii illius primis auctoribus, qui desperata venia, locum quern pugnae sumpserant texere corporibus. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 17. ’* very idle rumour soon prevailed, that Maxentius, who had not taken any precaution for his own retreat, had contrived a very artful snare to destroy the army of tlie pursuers; but that the wooden bridge, which was

A

to have been loosened on the approach of Constantine, unluckily broke down under the weight of the flying Italians. M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. ])art i. p. 576) very seriously examines whether, in contradiction to common sense, the testimony of Eusebius and Zosimus ought to prevail over

Lactantius, Nazarius, and the anonymous but contemporary the ninth Paneg>Tic. [Manso (Beylage vi.) examines the question, and adduces two manifest allusions to the bridge from the Life of Constantine by Praxagoras, and from Libanius. Is it not very probable, he asks, that the bridge in question was thrown over the river to facilitate the advance and to secure the retreat of Maxentius. In case of defeat orders were given for destroying it to che«* destroyed, the pursuit; it broke down accidentally, or in the confusion was has not infrequently been the case, before the proper time. O. S.] the silence of

orator

as

who composed

THE DECLINE AND FALL 6P

gU

tnitine, who thus achieved by his valour and ibility the most sfdeadtd enterprise of his life.’* In the use of victory Constantine neither deserved the praise of clemency nor incurred the censure of immoderate rigour.’* He inflicted the same treatment to which a defeat would have exposed his own person and family, put to death the two sons of the tyrant, and

carefully extirpated his whole race. The most distinguished adherents of Maxentius must have expected to share his fate, as they had shared

his prosperity and his crimes; but when the Roman people loudly demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror resisted, wiA firmness and humanity, those servile clamours, which were dictated by

Informers were punished and disflattery as well as by resentment. couraged; the innocent who had suffered under the late tyranny were A general act of recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. oblivion quieted the minds and settled the property of the people both The first time that Constantine honoured in Italy and in Africa.’* the senate with his presence he recapitulated his own services and exploits in a modest oration, assured that illustrious order of his sincere regard, and promised to re-establish its ancient dignity and privileges. The grateful senate repaid these unmeaning professions by the empty titles of honour which it was yet in their power to bestow; and, without presuming to ratify the authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to assign him the first rank among the three Augusii who govGames and festivals were instituted to erned the Roman world.’* preserve the fame of his victory, and several edifices, raised at the expense of Maxentius, were dedicated to the honour of his successful The triumphal arch of Constantine still remains a melancholy rival. proof of the decline of the arts, and a singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As it was not possible to find in the capital of the empire a sculptor who was capable of adorning that public monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect either for his memory or for the rules of propriety, was stripped of its most elegant figures. The difference of times and persons, of actions and characters, was totally disregarded. ”Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 15, jg.] p. 86-88, and the two Panegyrics, the former of which was pronounced a few months afterwards, afford the clearest notion of this great battle. Lactantius, Eusebius, and even the Epitomes, supply sev.

eral useful hints. “Zosimus, the enemy of Constantine, allows ( 1 ii. [c. 17] p. 88) that only a few of the friends of Maxentius were put to death; but we may remark .

the expressive passage of Nazarius (Panegyr. Vet. x. 6) Omnibus qui labefactari statum ejus poterant cum stirpe deletis. The other orator (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21) contents himself with observing that Constantine, when he entered Home, did not imitate the cruel massacres of Cinna. of Marius, or :

of^^Sylla. ’* See the two Panegyrics, and the laws of this and the ensuing year, in the Theodosian Code. " Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20. Lactantius de M. P. c. Maximtn, who was 44. confessedly the eldest Csesar, claimed, with some show of reason, the first rank among the Augusti.

TBS ROMAN EMPIRE

3«7

The

Parthian captives ai^pear prostrate at the feet of a prince who never carried his arms beyond the Euj^rates; and curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which it was necessary to introduce between the vacancies of ancient sculpture are executed in the rudest and most unskilful manner.^**

The final abolition of the Prxtorian guards was a measure of prudence as well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, whose numbers and privileges had been restored, and even augmented, by Maxentius, were for ever suppressed by Constantine. Their fortifi^ camp was destroyed, and the few Prxtorians who had escaped the fury of the sw-^d were dispersed among the legions and bani^ed to the frontiers of the empire, where they might be serviceable without again becoming dangerous.’^ By suppressing the troops which were usually stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow to the dignity of the senate and people, and the disarmed capital was exposed, without

We

protection, to the insults or neglect of its distant master. may observe that, in this last effort to preserve their expiring freedom, the

Romans, from the apprehension of a

tribute,

had raised Maxentius to

He

exacted that tribute from the senate under the name of a free gift. They implored the assistance of Constantine. He vanquished the tyrant, and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to the declaration which was required of their property, were divided into several classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and those whose poverty might have claimed an exemption were assessed, however, at seven pieces of gold. Besides the regular members of the senate, their sons, their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain privileges and supported the heavy burdens of the senatorial order; nor will it any longer excite our surprise that Constantine should be attentive to increase the number of persons who were included under so useful a description.'® After the defeat of Maxentius the victorious emperor passed no more than two or three months in Rome, which he visited twice during the remainder of his

the throne.

” Adhuc cuncta opera quse niagnifice construxerat, urbis fanum, atque basilicam, Flavil mentis patres sacravere. .^melius Victor, [de Caesar. 40.] With regard to the theft of Trajan’s trophies, consult Flaminius Vacca, apud Montiaucon, Diarium Italicum, p. 250, and I’Antiquite Expliquee of the latter,

tom.

iv. p.

171.

"

Praetoriic legiones ac subsidia factionibus aptiora quam urbi Romae, sublata penitus; simul arma atque usus indumenti militaris. Aurelius Victor. [ 1 . c.] Zosimus 1 . ii. [c. 17] p. 89) mentions this fact as an historian, and it is very (

pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegyric. ” Ex omnibus provinciis optimates \iros Curiae tine pi^eraveris; ut Senatus Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. dignitas ... ex totius Orbis flore consisterat. X. [ix.] 35. The word pigneraveris might almost seem maliciously chosen. ii. [c. 38] p. 115; the second Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosimus, title of the sixth book of the Theodosian Code, with Godefroys Commentary; and Memoires de I’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 726. 1.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

368

to celebrate the solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in motion, to exercise the legions or to inspect the state of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus, and Thessalonica were the occasional places of his residence till he founded a new Rome on the life

confines of Europe

and

Asia.'"

Before Constantine marched into Italy he had secured the friendHe ship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Illyrian emperor. had promised his sister Constantia in marriage to that prince; but the celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the conclusion of the war, and the interview of the two emperors at Milan, which was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their families and interests.®® In the midst of the public festivity they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each other. An inroad of the Franks summoned Constantine to the Rhine, and the hostile approach of the sovereign of Asia demanded the immediate presence of Licinius. Maximin had been the secret ally of Maxentius, and, without being discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try the fortune of a civil war. He moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of Bithynia, in the depth of winter. The season was severe and tempestuous; great numbers of men as well as horses perished in the snow; and as the roads were broken up by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave behind him a considerable part of the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow By this extraordinary effort of the rapidity of his forced marches. diligence, he arrived, with a harassed but formidable army, on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus before the lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile intentions. Byzantium surrendered to the power of Maximin after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days under the walls of Heraclea; and he had no sooner taken possession of that city than he was alarmed by the intelligence that Licinius had pitched his camp at the distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless negotiation, in which the two princes attempted to seduce the fidelity of each other’s adherents, they had recourse to arms. The emperor of the East commanded a disciplined and veteran army of above seventy thousand men; and Licinius, who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, was at first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. His military skill and the firmness of his troops restored the day and obtained a decisive victory. The incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than his prowess in the

’•From the Theodosian Code we may the emperors; but the dates both of time tered by the carelessness of transcribers.

now

begin to trace the motions of

and place have frequently been

al-

“Zosimus ( 1 ii. [c. 17] p. 89) observes, that before the war the sister of Constantine had been betrothed to Licinius. According to the younger Victor [Epit. c. 39], Diocletian was invited to the nuptials; but having ventured to plead his age and infirmities, he received a second letter filled with reproaches for his supposed partiality to the cause of Maxentius and Maximin, .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

36^

Twenty-four hours, afterwards he was seen pale, trembling, his Imperial ornaments, at Nicomedia, one hundred and sixty miles from the place of his defeat. The wealth of Aaa was yet unexhausted; and though the flower of his veterans had fallen in the late action, he had still power, if he could obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria and Egypt. But he survived his misfortune only three or four months. His death, which happened at

battle.

and without

Tarsus, was variously ascribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine

As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of virtue, he was lamented neither by the people nor by the soldiers. The provinces

justice.

of the East, delivered from the terrors of edged the authority of Licinius.*‘

civil

war, cheerfully acknowl-

The vanquished emperor left behind him two children, a boy of about eight, and a girl of about seven, years old. Their inoffensive age might have excited compassion; but the compassion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, nor did it restrain him from extinguishing the

name and memory

of his adversary.

The death

of Severianus will

was dictated neither by revenge nor by policy. The conqueror had never received any injury from the father of that unhappy youth, and the short and obscure reign of Severus, in a distant part of the empire, was already forgotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blackest cruelty and ingratitude, he was the natural son of Galerius, the friend and benefactor of Licinius. The prudent father had judged him too young to sustain the weight of a diadem; but he hoped that, under the protection of princes who were indebted to his favour for the Imperial purple, Candidianus might pass a secure and honourable life. He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his age, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported either by merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous mind of Licinius."" To these innocent and illustrious victims of his tyranny we must add the wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Cssar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled and even surpassed the duties of a wife. As she h.’d not any children herself, she condescended to adopt the illegitimate son of her husband, and invariably displayed towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her ample possessions provoked the avarice, and admit of

less excuse,

as

it

“Zosimus mentions the defeat and death of Maximin as ordinary events; but Lactantius expatiates on them (de M, P. c. 45-50), ascribing them to the miraculous interposition of Heaven. Licinius at that time was one of the protectors of the church. "Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurelius Victor touches on the different conduct of Licinius, and of Constantine, in the use of victory.

THE DECLINE AND

lla

F,ALL

OF

Constantine had lately given his sister authority of his colleague. Anastasia in marriage to Bassiantis, a man of a considerable family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinsman to the rank of Csesar.

According to the system of government instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perhaps Africa, were designed for his department in the empire. But the performance of the promised favour was either attended with so much delay, or accompanied with so many unequal conditions, that the fidelity of Bassianus was alienated rather than secured by the honourable distinction which he had obtained. His nomination had been ratified by the consent of Licinius; and that artful prince, by the means of his emissaries, soon contrived to enter into a secret and dangerous correspondence with the new Csesar, to irritate his discontents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of extorting by violence what he might in vain solicit from the justice of Constantine. But the vigilant emperor discovered the conspiracy before it was ripe for execution; and, after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassianus, despoiled him of the purple, and inflicted the deserved punishment on his treason

and

ingratitude.

The haughty

refusal of Licinius,

when he was

re-

quired to deliver up the criminals who had taken refuge in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions already entertained of his perfidy; and the indiguities offered at iSmona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the statues of Constantine, became the signal of discord between the two princes.** The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city of Pannonia, situated on the river Save, about fifty miles above Sirmium.*® From the inconsiderable forces which in this important contest two such powerful monarchs brought into the field, it may be inferred that the one was sud-

denly provoked, and that the other was unexpectedly surprised. The emperor of the West had only twenty thousand, and the sovereign of the East no more thjn five-and-thirty thousand, men. The iqferiority of number was, however, compensated by the advantage of the ground. Constantine had taken post in a defile about half a mile in breadth, between a steep hill and a deep morass, and in that situation he steadily expected and repulsed the first attack of the enemy. He pursued his success and advanced into the plain. But the veteran legions of Illyricum rallied under the standard of a leader who had been trained to arms in the school of Probus and Diocletian. The missile weapons on both sides were soon exhausted; the two armies, with equal valour,

"The situation of .^mona, or, as it is now called, Laybach, in Carniola (d’Anville, Gfographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 187), may suggest a conjecture. As it lay to the north-east of the Julian Alps, that important territory became a natural object of dispute between the sovereigns of Italy and of lllyricum. "Cibalis or Cibalx (whose name is still preserved in the obscure ruins of was situated about fifty miles from Sirmium, the capital of lllyricum, and about one hundred from Taurunum, or Belgrade, and the conflux of the Danube and the Save. The Roman garrisons and cities on those rivers are finely illustrated by M. d’Anvillc, in a memoir inserted in I’Academie des nscriptions, tom. xxviti. Swilei)

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

373

to a closer engagement of swords and spears, and the doubtful contest had already lasted from the dawn of Ae day to a late hour of the evening, when the right wing, which Constantine led in

rushed

person, made a vigorous and decisive charge. The judicious retreat of Licinius saved the remainder of his troops from a total defeat; but when he computed his loss, which amounted to more than twenty thousand

men, he thought it unsafe to pass the night in the presence of an active and victorious enemy. Abandoning his camp and magazines, be marched away with secrecy and diligence at the head of the greatest part of his cavalry, and was soon removed beyond the danger of a pursuit. His diligence preserved his wife, his son, and his treasures, which he had deposited at Sirmium. Licinius passed through that city, and, breaking down the bridge on the Save, hastened to collect a new army in Dada and Thrace. In his flight he bestowed the precarious title of Casar on Valens, his general of the Illyrian frontier.®* The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second battle no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The troops on both sides displayed the same valour and disdpline; and the victory was once more decided by the superior abilities of Constantine, who directed a body of five thousand men to gain an advantageous height, from whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked the rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable slaughter. The troops of Licinius, however, presenting a double front, still maintained their ground till the approach of night put an end to the combat, and secured their retreat towards the mountains of Macedonia.®^ The loss of two battles, and of his bravest veterans, reduced the fierce spirit of Licinius to sue for peace. His ambassador, Mistrianus, was admitted to the audience of Constantine: be expatiated on the common topics of moderation and humanity, which are so familiar to the eloquence of the vanquished; represented in the most insinuating language that the event of the war was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable calamities were alike pernicious to both the contending parties; and declared that he was authorised to propose a lasting and honourable peace in the name of the two emperors his masters. Constantine received the mention of Valens with indignation and contempt. “ It was not for such a purpose,” he sternly replied, " that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean in an uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for jur colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of the treaty.” ®® It was neces-

" Zosimus (1. ii. [c. 18] p 90, 91) gives a very particular account of this battle; but the descriptions of Zosimus are rhetorical rather than military. “ Zosimus, 1. ii. [c. 19] p. 92, 93. Anonym. Valesiaii. p. 7i3- The Epitomes furnish some circumstances: but they frequently confound the two wars between Licinius and Constantine. , „ ^ cd. Ven. “Petrus Patricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 27 fed. Pans; Psignifies more propyi/iPpos that thought should be it If p. 139, ed. Bonn]. erly a son-in-law, we might conjecture that Constantine, assuming the name as .

.

m

THE' DECLINE

aaiy to accept this

humiliating

AND PALL OF

condition;

and the unhai^ Valens,

a reign of a few da}^, was deprived of the purple and of his life. As soon as this obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman world was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, but they had displayed his courage and abilities. His situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of despair are sometimes formidable, and the good sense of Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to a third trial of the chance of arms. He consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the possesion of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; but the provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece were yielded to the Western empire, and the dominions of Constantine now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Peloafter

ponnesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty that three royal youths, the sons of the emperors, should be called to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the young Constantine were soon afterwards declared Cae^rs in the West, while the younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East. In this double proportion of honours, the conqueror asserted the superiority of his arms and power.** The reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius, though it was embit-

by resentment and jealousy, by the remembrance of recent inand by the apprehension of future dangers, maintained, however, above eight years, the tranquillity of the Roman world. As a very regular series of the Imperial laws commences about this period, it would not be difficult to transcribe the civil regulations which employed the leisure of Constantine. But the most important of his institutions are intimately connected with the new system of policy and religion, which was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful years of his reign. There are many of his laws which, as far as they concern the rights of property of individuals, and the practice of the bar, are more properly referred to the private than to the public jurisprudence of the empire; and he published many edicts of so local and temporary a nature that they would ill deserve the notice of a general history. Two tered

juries,

laws, however,

may be

portance, the other for

selected its

from the crowd; the one for its imthe former for its remarkable

singularity;

well as the duties of a father, had adopted his younger brothers and sisters, the children of Theodora. But in the best authors yiiiPpos sometimes signifies a husband, sometimes a father-in-law, and sometimes a kinsman in general. See Spanheim Observat. ad Julian. Orat. i. p. 72. "Zosimus, 1 ii. fc. 20] p. 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. 713. Eutropius, x. 4. Aurelius Victor, Euseb. in Chron. [An. CCCXVIII.] Sozomen, 1 i. c. 2. Four of these writers affirm that the promotion of the Caesars was an article of the treaty. It is however certain that the younger Constantine and Licinius were not yet born; and it is highly probable that the promotion was made the 1st of March, a.d. 317. The treaty had probably stipulated that the two Caesars might be created by the western, and one only by the eastern emperor; but each of them reserved to himself the choice of &e persons. .

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

375

benevolence, the latter for its excessive severity, i. The horrid practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing or murdering their new-born infants, was becoming every day more frequent in the provinces, and especially in Italy. It was the effect of distress; and the distress was principally occasioned by the intolerable burden of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of mankind, instead of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed if an act of paternal tenderness to release their children from the impending miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support. The humanity of Constantine, moved, perhaps, by some recent and extraordinary instances of despair, engaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and afterwards of Africa, directing immediate and sufficient relief to be given to those parents who should produce before the magistrates the children whom their own poverty would not allow them to educate. But the promise was too liberal, and the provision too vague, to effect any general or permanent benefit.”® The law, though it may merit some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate the public distress. It still remains an authentic monument to contradict and confound those venal orators who were too well satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or misery under the government 2. The laws of Constantine against rapes of a generous sovereign.'"' were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the age “ The successful of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents. ravisher was punished with death; and as if simple death was inadequate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, or tom in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin’s declaration that she had been carried away with her own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The duty of a public prosecution was intrusted to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid; and if the sentiments of nature prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honour of their family, they were

themselves punished by exile and confiscation. The slaves, whether male or female, who were convicted of having been accessary to the rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to death by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity of melted lead. As the crime was of a public kind, the accusation was permitted even to strangers. The commencement of the action was not limited to any

“Codex tions.

Theodosian, 1. xi. tit. 37, tom, See likewise, 1. v. tit. 7, 8.

“Omnia

iv. p. 188,

with Godefroy’s observa-

foris placida, domi prospera, annonse ubertate, fructuura copia, Panegyr. Vet. x. 38. This oration of Nazarius was pronounced on the day of the Quinquennalia of the Caesars, the ist of March, a.d. 321.

etc.

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

tenn of years, and the consequences of the sentence were extended to But whenever the the innocent offspring of sudi an irregular union.” offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal lant The most is obliged to give way to the common feelings of maiikind. odious parts of this edict were softened or repealed in the subsequent reigns; ** and even Constantine himself very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of his general institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humour of that emperor, who showed himself as indulgent, and even remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the character of the prince, or in the constitution of the government.®* The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the military defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most amiable character, who had received with the title of Caesar the command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct as well as valour in several victories over the Franks and Alemanni, and taught the barbarians of that frontier to dread the eldest son of Constantine, and the grandson of Constantins.'®® The emperor himself had assumed the more difficult and important province of the Danube. The Goths, who in the time of Claudius and Aurelian had felt the weight of the Roman arms, respected the power of the empire, even in the midst of its intestine divisions. But the strength of that warlike nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years; a new generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the misfortunes of ancient days: the Sarmatians of the lake Miotis followed the Gothic standard either as subjects or as allies, and their united force was ywured upon the countries of Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Bononia, appear to have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and battles; '®* " See the edict of Constantine, addressed to the Roman people, in the Theodosian Code, I. ix. tit. 24, tom. iii. p. 189. “His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the repeal. “ Ne sub specie atrocioris judicii aliqua in ulciscendo crimine dilatio nascerelur." Cod. Theod. tom.

iii.

p. 193.

" Eusebius

Vita Constant. 1 . iii. c. i ) chooses to affirm that in the sword of justice hung idle in the hands of the magistrates. Eusebius himself ( 1 iv. c. 29, 54) and the Theodosian Code will inform us that this excessive lenity was not owing to the want either of atrocious criminals or of penal laws. “"Nazarius in Panegyr. \'et. x. (36.] The victory of Crispus over the Alemanni is expressed on some medals. [Other medals are extant, the scripts on which commemorate the success of Constantine over the Sarmatians and other barbirous nations, Sarmatia (

in

reign of this hero the

.

Devicia,

Victoria

Omnium

Gentium.

Golhica,

— O.

DebcUatori

Gentium

Barbararum,

Exuperator

S.]

‘"See Zosiinus, 1 ii. [c. 21] p. 93, 94; though the narrative of that historian neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of Optatianus (c. 32) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians with the Carpi and Getas, and points out several fields of battle. It is supposed that the Sarmatian g^mes, celebrated in the month of November, derived their origin from the success of .

is

^

this

war

TJ9 S

ROHAN EMPIRE

377

and tboTigh Constantine encountered a very obstinate resistance, he prevailed at length in the contest, and the Goths were compelled to purchase an ignominious retreat by restoring the booty and prisoners which they had taken. Nor was this advantage sufficient to satisfy the indignation

He resolved to chastise as well as to repulse the insolent barbarians who had dared to invade the territories of Rome. At the head of his legions he passed the Danube, after repairing the bridge which had been constructed by Trajan, penetrated into the strongest recesses of Dacia, and, when he had inflicted a severe revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant Goths, on condition that, as often as they were required, they should supply his armies with a b^y o*' forty thousand soldiers.’"® Exploits like these were no doubt honourable to Constantine and beneficial to the state; but it may surely be questioned whether they can justify the exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that ALL Scythia, as far as the extremity of the North, divided as it was into so many names and nations of the most various and sav£^ manners, had been added by his victorious arms to the Roman empire.®** In this exalted state of glory it was impossible that Constantine should any longer endure a partner in the empire. Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power, he determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices seemed to offer a very easy conquest.®"* But the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the expectations of his friends as well as of his enemies. Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had deserved the friendship of Galerius and the Imperial purple, he prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the Straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army conof the emperor.

sisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse; and as the cavalry was drawn, for the most part, from Phrygia and Cappadocia, we may conceive a more favourable opinion of the beauty of the horses than of the courage and dexterity of their riders. The fleet

’“In the Ca'sars of Julian fp. 329. Coramcntaire de Spanheim, p. 252). Constantine boasts that he had recovered the province (Dacia) which Trajan had subdued. But it is insinuated by Silenus that the conquests of Constantine were like the gardens of Adonis, which fade and wither almost the moment they appear.

’“Jornandes de Kebus Geticis, c. 21. I know not whether we may entirely depend tin his authority. Such an alliance has a very recent air, and scarcely is suited to the ma.xims of the beginning of the fourth century. “ Eusebius in Vit. Constants. 1 i. c. 8. This passage, however, is taken from a general declamation on the greatness of Constantine, and not from any jiarticular account of the Gothic war. '* Constantinus tanien, vir ingens, et omnia efficere nitens quse animo pr^ .

simul principatum totius orbis affectans, Licinio bellum intulit. Eutropius, X. 5 [4I. Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. i&] p. 89. The reasons which they have assigpicd for the first civil war may, with more propriety, be applied to the second. parasset,

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

378

of three hundred and fifty galle}% of three ranks of oars. himdred and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt and the adjacent coast of Africa. An hundred and ten sailed from the ports of Phoenicia and the isle of Cyprus; and the maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria were likewise obliged to provide an hundred and ten galleys. The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica; they amounted to above an hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot.*®® Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that of The legions of Constantine were levied in the his eastern competitor. warlike provinces of Europe; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an honourable dismission by a

was composed

An

last effort of their valour.*®*

But the naval preparations of Constantine

were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated harbour of Pirxus and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels; a very feeble armament, if it is compared with those formidable fleets which were equipped and maintained by the republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian war.’"® Since Italy was no longer the seat of government, the naval establishments of Misenum and Ravenna had been gradually neglected; and as the shipping and mariners of the empire were supported by commerce rather than by war, it was natural that they should the most abound in the industrious provinces of Egypt and Asia. It is only surprising that the eastern emperor, who possessed so great a superiority at sea, should have neglected the opportunity of carrying an offensive war into the centre of his rival’s dominions. Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might have changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Licinius expected the

approach of his rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he had fortified with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehension of the event. Constantine directed his march from Thes.salonica towards that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from the river to the city of Hadrianople. ""Zosimus, 1 ii. fc. 22J p. 94, 95. ""Constantine was very attentive to the privileges and comforts of his fellow-veterans (Conveterani), as he now began to style them. See the Theodosian Code, 1 . vtt. tit. to, tom. ii. p. 419, 429. 'Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the sea, their fleet consisted of three, and^ afterwards of four, hundred galleys of three ranks of ws, all completely eriuipped and ready for immediate service. The arsenal Ae port of Piraeus had cost the republic a thousand talents, about two hundred and sixteen thousand pounds. See Thucydides de Bel. Pelopon. 1. u. c. 13; and Meursius de Fortuna Attica, c. 19. .

m

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

377

Many days

were spent in doubtful and distant skirmishes; but at length the obstacles of the passage and of the attack were removed by the intrepid conduct of Constantine. In this place we might relate a wonderful exploit of Constantine, which, though it can scarcely be paralleled either in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a venal orator devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, the partial enemy of his fame. We are assured that the valiant emperor threw himself into the river Hebrus accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that by the effort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke, slaughtered, and put to flight a host of an hundred and fifty thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus prevailed so strongly over his passion that, among the events of the memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected and embellished, not the most important, but the most mirvellous. The valour and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight wound which he received in the thigh; but it may be discovered, even from an imperfect

and perhaps a corrupted text, that the victory was obtained by the conduct of the general than by the courage of the hero; that a body of five thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the construction of a bridge; and that Lucinius, perplexed by so many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous po-'t The contest was no longer to combat on equal ground in the plain. equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the experienced veterans of the West. Thirty-four thousand men are reported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by assault the evening of the battle; the greater part of the fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no narration,

no

less

confined himself within the walls of Byzantium.”* Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by Constantine, was attended with great labour and uncertainty. In the

longer keep the

The

siege

field,

of

late civil wars, the fortifications of that place, so justly considered as the key of Europe and .Asia, had been repaired and strengthened; and as long as Licinius remained master of the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of famine than the army of the besiegers. The naval commanders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, and received his positive orders to force the passage of the Hellespont, as the fleet of Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying

their feeble

enemy, continued inactive

in those

narrow

straits,

where

’“Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 22] p. 95, g6. This great battle is described in the Valesian fragment (p. 714I [ad fin. Amm. Marcell. vol. ii. p. 300, ed. Bip.] “ Licinius vero cirAini Hadrianopolin in a clear though concise manner. maximo exercitu latera ardui mentis impleverat illuc toto agmine Constantinus inflexit. Cum bellum terra marique traheretur, quamvis per arduutn .suis nitentibus, attamen disciplina militari et felicitate, Constantinus Licinii confusum et sine ordine agentera vicit exercitum; leviter femore sauciatus. .

;

the decline AND FALL OF

38q

Crispus, the its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage. emperor’s eldest son, was intrusted with the execution of this daring enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and success, that be deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the jealousy, of his father. The engagement lasted two days; and in the evening of the first, the contending fleets, after a conaderable and mutual loss, reThe second tired into their respective harbours of Europe and Asia. sprang up, which carried the day about noon a strong south wind vessels of Crispus against the enemy; and as the casual advantage was improved by his skilful intrepidity, he soon obtained a complete victory. An hundred and thirty vessels were destroyed, five thousand men were dain, and Amandus, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped with the utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon as the Hellespont was open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed into the camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of earth of an equal height with the The lofty towers which were erected on ramparts of Byzantium. that foundation galled the besieged with large stones and darts from the military engines, and the battering rams had shaken the walls in several places. If Licinius persisted much longer in the defence, he eiqx)sed himself to be involved in the ruin of the place. Before he was surrounded, he prudently removed his person and treasures to Chalcedon in Asia; and as he was always desirous of associating companions to the hopes and dangers of his fortune, he now bestowed the title of Cxsar on Martinianus, who exercised one of the most important offices of the empire.'*^ Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of Licinius that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the activity of Constantine was

employed

in the siege of

however, neglect the

Byzantium.

The

vigilant

last struggles of his antagonist.

emperor did not,

A

considerable

army was transported over the Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon after their landing on the heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined, made head against their conquerors with fruitless part of his victorious

but desperate valour, till a total defeat, and the slaughter of five-andtwenty thousand men, irretrievably determined the fate of their “Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 24] p. 97, 98. The current always sets out of the Hellespont; and when it is assisted by a north wind, no vessel can attempt the passage. A south wind renders the force of the current almost imperceptible. See Tourgefort’s Voyage au Levant. Let. xi. “Aurelius Victor. [de_ Caesar, c. 41.] Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 25] p. 93. According to the latter, Martinianus was Magister Ofiiciorum (he uses the Latin appellation in Greek). Some medals seem to intimate that during his short reign he received the title of Augustus. .

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE leader.^^*

He

s$t

retired to Nicomedia, rather with the

view of gaining

some time

for negotiation than with the hope of any effectual Hnfmire Constantin, his wife, and the sister of Constantine, interceded with her brother in favour of her husband, and obtained from bis policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Licinius himself should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in peace and affluence. The behaviour of Constantia, and her relation to the contending parties, naturally recalls the remembrance of that virtuous matron who was the sister of Augustus and the wife of Antony. But the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honour and independence. Licinius solicited and accepted the pardon of his offences, laid himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, was raised from the ground with insulting pity, was admitted the same day to the imperial banquet, and soon afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, which had been chosen for the place of his confinement.'^* His confinement was soon terminated by death, and it is doubtful whether a tumult of the soldiers, or a decree of the senate, was suggested as the motive for his execution. According to the rules of tyranny, he was accused of forming a conspiracy, and of holding a treasonable correspondence with the barbarians; but as he was never convicted, either by his own conduct or by any legal evidence, we may perhaps be allowed, from his weakness, to presume his innocence."* The memory of Licinius was branded with infamy, his statues were thrown down, and by a hasty edict, of such mischievous tendency that it was almost immediately corrected, all bis lan^ and all the judicial proceedings of his reign were at once abolished."' By this victory of Constantine the Roman world was again united under the authority of one emperor, r

thirty-seven years after Diocletian

had divided

his

power and provinces

with his associate Maximian.

The

successive steps of the elevation of Constantine, from his

first

Eu.sebius (in Vita Constantin. I. ii. c. i6, 17) ascribes this decisive victory to the pious prayers of the emperor. The Valesian fragment (p._ 714) [Amm. Marcell. vol. li. p. 301, ed. Bip.] mentions a body of Gothic auxiliaries, under their chief Aliquaca, who adhered to the party of Licinius. '“Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 28] p. 102. Victor Junior in Epitome, [c. 41.] Anonym. Valesian, p. 714. “‘Contra religionem sacramenti Thessalonic® privatus occisus est. Eutropius, X. 6 [4] ; and his evidence is confirmed by Jerome (in Chronic.), as well as by Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 28] p. 102. The Valesian writer is the only one who mentions the soldiers, and it is Zonaras alone whe calls in the assistance of the senate. Eusebius prudently slides over this delicate transaction. But Sozomcn, a century afterwards, ventures to assert the y'easonable practices .

.

of Licinius. See the Theodosian Code, 1 . xv. tit. 15, tom. v. p. 404, 405. These edicts of Constantine betray a degree of passion and precipitancy very unbecoming the character of a lawgiver.

”

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

383

assuming the puiple at York, to the resignation of Lidnius at Nicomedia, have bran related with some minuteness and predsion, not only as the events are in themselves both interesting and important, but still more as they contributed to the decline of die empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase, as well of

The foundation of Conthe taxes as of the military establishment. and the establishment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution.

stantinople,

CHAPTER XV The Progress of

the Christian Religion, and the Sentiments, Manners, and Condition of the Primitive Christians

Num-

bers,

A

CANDID but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment may be considered as a very essential part of the hisWhile that great body was invaded by tory of the Roman empire. open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol. Nor of Christianity

was the

influence of Christianity confined to the period or to the limits

of the

Roman

turies,

that religion is

After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen cenprofessed by the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of human kind in arts and learning as well By the industry and zeal of the Europeans it has been as in arms. empire.

still

widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa; and by the

means

to Chili, in

of their colonies has been firmly established

from Canada

a world unknown to the ancients.

But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials of ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the

first

age of the church.

The

great law of impartiality too

often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of the Gospel; and, to a careless observer, their faults

may seem

to cast a shade on tlie faith which they professed. But the scandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious triumph of the Infidel, should cease as soon as they recollect not only by whom, but likewise to whom, the Divine Revelation was given. The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from

Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

SM

and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon among a weak and degenerate race of beings.^ Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remar^ble a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author. But as truth and reason seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of Providence frequently condescends to use the passions of the human heart, and the general circumstances of mankind, as instruments to execute its purpose, we may still be permitted, though with becoming submission, to ask, not indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth It will, perhaps, appear that it was most of the Christian church? effectually favoured and assisted by the five following causes: i. The error

earth,

—

we may use

the expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth. III. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church. IV. The pure and austere morals of the Christians. V. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and Increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire. I. have already described the religious harmony of the ancient world, and the facility with which the most different and even hostile inflexible,

and,

if

We

A

nations embraced, or at least respected, each other’s superstitions. common intercourse of mankind. The Jews, who, under the Assyrian and Persian monarchies, had languished for many ages the most despised portion of their daves,* single people refused to join in the

’[Sir James Mackintosh, in his “Life," says of these famous chapters xv. xvi. that they might be endorsed by a Christian writer, and the causes assigned for the diffusion of Christianity be safely accepted by any Christian author with some change in the language and manner. Milman says that the art of Gibbon, or at least the unfair impression produced by those two memorable chapters consists in confounding together in one indistinguishable mass the origin and apostolic propagation of the Christian religion with its later progress. The main question, the divine origin of the religion, is dexterously eluded or speciously conceded, his plan enabling him to commence his account in most parts below apostolic times, and it is only' by the strength of the dark colouring with which he has brought out the failings and the follies of succeeding ages, that a shadow of doubt or suspicion is Divest this whole thrown back on the primitive period of Christianity. passage of the latent sarcasm betrayed by the subsequent tone of the whole disquisition, and it might commence a Qiristian history, written in the most

and

—

Christian spirit of candour. O. S.] *Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque, et Persas Oriens fq’^ despectissima pars servientium. Tacit, Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited Asia whilst it obeyed •

_

THE DECLINE A'ND FALL OF

M

fttnn obscurity under the successors of Aleiander; and they multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and afterwards in the West, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of other nations.* The sullen obstinacy with which they maintained their peculiar rites and unsocial manners seemed to mark them out a distinct species of men, who boldly professed, or who faintly disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of human-kind.^ Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent nations, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of Moses According to the maxims of the elegant mythology of the Greeks.® universal toleration, the Romans protected a superstition which they despised." The polite Augustus condescended to give orders that sac^ rifices should be offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem; while the meanest of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid the same homage to the Jupiter of the Capitol, would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices

oaAged

the last of those empires, slightly mentions the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See 1 ii. c. 104. "Diodorus Siculus, I. xl. [Eclog. i, vol. ii. p. 542, ed. Wesseling.] Dion Cassius, 1 xxxvii. [c. 16] p. 121. Tacit. Hist. v. 1-9. Justin, xxxvi. 2, 3. "Tradidit arcano (luax'unque voluminc Moses: Non monstrare vias eadein nisi sacra colenti, Qua:situm ad fontem solos deducerc vcrpos. .

.

[Juvenal, Sat. xiv. 102.] of this law is not to be found in the present volume of Moses. But the wise, the humane Maimonides openly teaches that, if an idolater fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from instant death. See Basnage, Histoire dcs Juifs, 1. vi. c. 28 [1. v. c. 24]. [It is diametrically opposed to its spirit and to its letter; see among other loveth the stranger in giving him food passages, Deut. x. 18, 19, “ God . and raiment: love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Juvenal is a satirist, whose strong expression ran hardly be received as historic evidence, and he wrote after the horrible cruelties of the Romans which, during and after the war, might give some cause for the complete isolation of the Jew from the rest of the world. The Jew was a bigot, but his religion was not the only source of his bigotry. After how many centuries of mutual wrong and hatred, which had still further estranged the Jew from mankind, did Maimonides write? O. S.] ®A Jewish sect, which indulged themselves in a sort of occasional conformity, derived from Herod, by whose example and authority they had been seduced, the name of Herodians. But their numbers were so inconsiderable, and their duration so short, that Josephus has not thought them worthy of his notice. See Prideaux’s Connection, vol. ii. p. 285. [The Herodians were probably more of a political party than a religious sect, though Gibbon is most likely right as to their usual conformity. O. S.j ‘Cicero pro Flacco, c. 28. ’ Philo de Legatione. Augustus left a foundation for a perpetual sacrifice. Yet he approved o' the neglect which his grandson Caius expressed towards the temple of Jerussl'-m. See Sueton. in August, c 93, and Casaubon’s notes on tliat passage.

The

letter

.

.

—

—

THX of their subjects,

KOvU^ll

38s

^0

irete alarsa)^ and scandalised st the ensigns of paganism, urhich necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman prov*

The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded death much less than such an idolatrous profanation.® Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to their detestaince.*

tion of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent. This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among the Jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was given in thunder from Mount Sinai; when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were suspended for the convenience of the Israelites; and when temporal rewards and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disob^ience, they perpetually relapsed into rebellion against the visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the Arabs, or in the cities of Phosnicia.*" As the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigour and purity. The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference the most amazing miracles. Under the pressure of every calamity, the belief of those miracles has preserved the Jews of a later period from the universal contagion of idolatry; and in contradiction to every known principle of the human mind, that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the traditions of their remote ancestors than to the

evidence of their

i.

own

senses.”

and De Bell. Judaic, xvii. 6, xviii. 3 and ii. 9, edit. Havercamp. [This was (luring the governorship of Pontius Pilate (Hist, of Jews, ii.

*

See in particular, Joseph. Antiquit.

;

33,

156 1 Probably, in part to avoid this collision, the Roman governor in general resided at Caesarea. O. S.] ’Jussi a Caio Cesare, effgiem ejus in templo locare, arma potius sumpsere. Tacit. Hist. v. 9. Philo and Josephus give a very circumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this transaction, which exceedingly perplexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous proposal king Agrippa fainted away, and did not recover his senses until the third day. ” For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be obseived that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very beautiful lines the two large and learned syntagmas which Selden had composed on that

—

abstruse subject.

““How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which 1 have shown among them?" (Num-

386

THE DECLIUtry^D

ur

The Jewish religion was admira^^ fitted for defence, but it was never designed for conquest; and it seems probable that the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of apostates. The divine promises were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a single family. When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth they received a system of laws and ceremonies, declared himself the proper and as it were the national God of Israel; and with the most jealous care separated his favourite people from the Test of mankind. The conquest of the land of Canaan was accompanied with so many wonderful and with so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with They had been commanded to extirpate some of all their neighbours. the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the Divine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity. With the other nations they were forbidden to contract any marriages or alliances; and the prohibition of receiving them into the congregation, which in some cases was perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses had never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews inclined to impose it on themselves as a voluntary duty. In the admission of new citizens that unsocial people was actuated by the selfish vanity of the Greeks rather than by the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham were flattered by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the value of their inheritance by sharing it too A larger acquaintance with easily with the strangers of the earth. mankind extended their knowledge without correcting their prejudices; and whenever the God of Israel acquired any new votaries, he was much more indebted to the inconstant humour of polytheism than to bers xiv. ii ) It would be easy, but it would be unbecoming, to justify the complaint of the Deity from the whole tenor ot the Mosaic history [In regard to this, Milman says that among a rude and barbarous people religious impressions are easily made and as soon effaced The ignorance which multiplies imaginary wonders would weaken or destroy the effect of real miracle. At the period of Jewish history referred to in the passage in Numbers their fear predominated over their faith— the fears of an unwarlike people just rescued from debasing slavery, and commanded to attack a fierce, well-armed, gigantic, and far more numerous race the inhabitants of Canaan. As to the frequent apostacy of the Jews, for many centuries subsequent to their departure from Egypt their religion was at that time beyond their state of civilisation. Nor is it uncommon for a people to cling with passionate attachment to that of which, at first, they did not understand the value. Patriotism and natural pride will contend even to death for political rights which at first were forced on a reluctant people. The Christian may with justice retort that the great sign of his religion, the Resurrection of Jesus, was most ardently believed and most resolutely asserted by the eye-witnesses of the fact. O. S.]

—

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

387

the active zeal of his own misaonaries.^^ The religion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular country as well as for a single nation; and if a strict obedience had been paid to the order that every male, three times in the year, should present himself before the Lord Jehovah, it would have been impossible that the Jews could ever have spread themselves beyond the narrow limits of the promised land.” That obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem; but the most considerable part of the Jewish religion was involved in its destruction; and the Pagans, who had long wondered at the strange report of an empty sanctuary,” were at a loss to discover what could be the object, or what could be the instruments, of a worship which was destitute of temples and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead of courting, the society of They still insisted with inflexible rigour on those parts of strangers. the law which it was in their power to practise. Their peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome observances, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were diametrically opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.** Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself to the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and delivered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth of religion and the unity of God was as carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient system: and whatever was now revealed to mankind concerning the nature and designs of the Supreme Being was fitted to increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. The divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, as the firmest From the beginning of the world an uninterbasis of Christianity. rupted series of predictions had announced and prepared the longexpected coming of the Messiah, who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of the Jews, had been more frequently represented under the character of a King and Conqueror, than under that of a Prophet, a Martyr, and the Son of God. By his expiatory sacrifice the imperfect

“All that relates to the Jewish proselytes has been very ably treated by Basnage, Hi.st. des Juifs, 1 v. c. 6, 7. “ See F.xod. xxxiv. 23, Dcut. xvi 16, the commentators, and a very sensible note in the Universal History, vol. i. p. 603, ed't. fol. “Vt hen Pompey, using or abusing the right of conquest, entered into the Holy of Holies, it was observed with amazement, “ Nulla intus Deum effigie, vacuam sedem et inania arcana.” Tacit. Hist. v. 9. It was a popular saying, with regard to the Jews, Nil prseter nubes et coeli numen adorant. “A second kind of circumcision was inflicted on a Samaritan or Eg3rptian proselyte. The sullen indifference of the Talmudists, with respect to tlw conversion of strangers, may be seen in Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1 . v. c. 6. .

the decline and fall of were at on skilful hands of Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant t}q)es, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious to an imenlighten^ Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls,^** were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumbersome

and brittle armour. But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations Under the reign in the moral or physical government of the world. "•If the famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks had been alleged to a philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of Cicero, “ Qtue tandem ista auguratio est, annorum potius quam aut mensium aut dierum?" De Divinationc, ii. 30. Observe with what irreverence Lucian (in Alexandro, c. 13), and his friend Celsus, .np. Origen ( 1 . vii. [c. 14] p. 327). express themselves concerning the Hebrew prophets. The philosophers, who derided the more ancient predictions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewi.sh and Christian forgeries, which have been so triumphantly quoted by the fathers, from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they, like the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The Christian Sibyl had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year 195, A. U. C. 948.

Roman

the decline AND FALL OF

444

or at least a celebrated province of the of Tiberius, the whole earth, Roman empire,^'”' was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without It happened during the notice in an age of science and history.’*® lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses,

which his indefatigable curiosity could collect.’*" Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe. A is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary distinct chapter of Pliny nature and unusual duration; but he contents himself with describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Caesar, when, during the greatest part of a year, the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets **’ and historians of that memorable age.®*®

CHAPTER XVI The Conduct of

If

we

Roman Government towards the Christians, from the Reign of Nero to that of Constantine

the

seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion, the sancmoral precepts, and the innocent as well as austere lives of

tity of its

the greater

numl^r

faith of the Gospel,

who during the first ages embraced the should naturally suppose that so benevolent a

of those

we

Dom

""The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Calmet (Dissertations sur la Uible, tom. iii. p. 295-308), seem to rover the whole earth with darkness, in which they are followed by most of the moderns. Origen ad Matth. c. 27, and a few modern critics. Beza, Le Clcrc, Lardner, etc., are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea. ”*The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned. When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of the prodigy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vc.stris (see his Apology, c. 21), he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in the words of the Gospel. ”• Seneca Qusest. Natur. 1 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1 ii. i. 15, vi. i, vii. 17. .

*"Plm. Hist. Natur.

ii.

.

30.

“Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, ii. 5, 75. Ovid. Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 535. The last of these poets places this prodigy before the civil war. “See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph. Antiquit. xiv. 12 [§ 3]. Plutarch in Caesar, [c. 69] p. 471. Appian. Bell. Civil. 1 iv. Dion Cassius, 1 xlv. [c. T7] p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c. 128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy’s prodigies. .

.

THE JROMAN EMPIRE

445

doctrine would have been received with due reverence even by the unbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they might deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues of the new sect; and that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an order of men who yielded the most pasrive obedience to the laws, though they declined the active cares of war and government. If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects who had chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensive mode of faith and worship. The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a more stern and intolerant character to oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were puni^ed with death by the sentence of a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and according to the laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom and justice of his general administration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled with the most pathetic complaints that the Christians, who obeyed the dictates and solicited the liberty of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman empire, excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government. The deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded

with care; and from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme power, the governors of the church have been no less diligently employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well as interesting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present chapter.

The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards the primitive Christians, which may appear the more specious and probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of Polytheism. It has already been observed that the religious

THE DECLINE ANT FALL OF

4*6

concord of the world was principally supported by the implicit assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for their reIt might therefore be e:q)ected spective traditions and ceremonies. that they would unite with indignation against any sect or people which should separate itself from the communion of mankind, and, claiming the exclusive possession of divine knowledge, should disdain every form of worship except its own as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by mutual indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates

how far these speculations are justified by facts, us to discover the true causes of the persecution of

will serve to explain

and

will lead

Christianity.

Without repeating what has been already mentioned of the reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe that the destruction of the temple and city was accompanied and followed by every circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorise religious persecutions by the most specious arguments of political justice and the public safety. From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke Humanity is out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives;^ and we are tempted to applaud ^e severe retaliation which was exercised by the

a race of fanatics whose dire and credulous seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but of human kind.° The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the opinion that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master, and by the flattering promise which they derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest the favourites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of Israel, that the arms

of the legions against

superstition

* In Cyrene they massacred 220,000 Greeks ; in Cyprus, 240,000 ; in Egypt a very great multitude. Many of these unhappy victims were sawn asunder, accordmg to a precedent to which David had given the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails like a girdle round their bodies. See Dion Cassius, 1,

Ixviii.

[c.

32] p. 1145.

‘Without repeating the well-known narratives of Josephus, we may learn from Dion ( 1 Ixix. [c. 14] p. 1162), that in Hadrian’s war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by fire. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

41^

famous Batchochebas collected a formidable army, with whkh he reasted during two years the power of the emperor Hadrian.’ Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of the princes expired after the victory, nor were their apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general in' dulgence of Polytheism, and by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising dieir children, with the easy restraint that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race.* The numerous remains of that people, though they were still excluded from the precincts of Jeru!>alem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipal honours, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was instituted by the vanquished

Roman

The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was emsect. powered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution.” New synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law or enjoin^ by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner.” Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stem temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of peaceable and industrious subTheir irreconcilable hatred of mankind, instead of darning out jects. in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in trade, and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against Uie haughty kingdom of Edom.^ ‘For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1 i. c. 17; for the characters of the Messiah, according to the Rabbis, 1 v. c._ii, ra, [Hist, of Jews,^ iii. ns, 13; for the actions of Barchochebas, 1 . vii. c. 12. .

.

— M.]

etc.

*It is to Modcstinus, a Roman lawyer (I. vi. regular.), that we are indebted for a distinct knowledge of the edict of Antoninus. See Casaubon ad Hist. August, p. 27. 'See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, I. iii. c. 2, 3. The office of Patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the younger. *We need only mention the I’urim, or deliverance of the Jews from the rage of Haman, which, till the reign of Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous intemperance. Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, 1 , vi. c. 17, ’

1.

viii. c.

6.

Tsepho, the grandson of Esau, conducted of jEneas, king of Carthage. Another colony of Idufrom the sword of David, took refuge in the dominions of

According to the

into Italy the mwans,’ flying

army

false Josephus,

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

448

Since the Jews, their sovereign

who

rejected with abhorrence the deities adored by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed, however, the

and by

free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some other cause which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious, but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, The Jews were a nation, the Chrisit was of the highest importance. tians were a sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbours, it was incumbent on them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimously enforced By their lofty claim of superior sanctity the this national obligation. Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd; yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind, and it was universally acknowledged that they had a right But to practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded not any favour or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith of the Gospel the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural

and unpardonable

offence.

They dissolved ^e

sacred ties of custom and

education, violated the religious institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostacy (if we may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Chris-

who withdrew

tian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city,

The whole body of Christians unanimously refused any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the in?ilienable rights of conscience and private judgment. Though his situaand

his province.

to hold

tion might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their apprehensions it was no less a matter of surprise that

any

individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the

established

Romulus.

mode

For

of worship than if they

these,

had conceived a sudden ab-

or for other reasons of equal weight, the name of

to the Roman empire. a forger and fabulist of comparatively modem legends he tells may be of ancient date. Milman that some of the stories in the Talmud may be history in a figurative disguise. The Jews may dare to say many things of Rome, under the significant appellation of Edom, which they feared to utter publicly.-O. S.I

Edom was

applied by the [The false Josephus is times, though some of the throws out the suggestion ^

Jews

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

449

horrence to the manners, the dress, or the lan giiaga of their native country,* The surprise of the Pagans \ras soon succeeded by resentment, and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most daring atta^ on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. They had separated themselves

(they gloried in the confession) from every

mode

of superstition

which

was received in any part of the globe by the various temper of Polytheism: but it was not altogether so evident what deity, or what form of wor^ip, they had substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude, who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was neither represented under any corporeal figure or visible symbol, nor was adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices." The sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their minds to the contemplation of the existence and attributes of the First Cause, were induced by reason or by vanity to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the privilege of this philosophical devotion.^® They were far from admitting the prejudices of mankind as the standard of truth, but they considered them as flowing from the original disposition of human nature; and they supposed that any popular mode of faith and worship which presumed to disclaim the assistance of the it receded from superstition, find itself incapable of restraining the wonderings of the fancy and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which men of wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian revelation served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade them that the principle, which they might have revered, of the Divine Unity, was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airy speculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated dialogue, which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious subject of the Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own ignorance of the

senses would, in proportion as

the arguments of Celsus, as they are represented and refuted by v. [c. 59] p. 247-259), we may clearly discover the distinction that was made between the Jewish people and the Christian sect. See in fte Dialogue of Minucius Felix (p. 5, 6) a fair and not inelegant description of the popular sentiments with regard to the desertion of the established worship. *Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla? nulla nota simulacra? , . . Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus unicus, solitarius, destitutus? Minucius Felix, p. 10. The Pagan interlocutor goes on to make a distinction in favour of the Jews, who had once a temple, altars, victims, etc. '* It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and dangerous to publish, the knowledge of the true God. See the Thwlogie des Philosophes, in the Abbe d’Olivet’s French translation of Tully de Natura Deorum, tom. i. p. 275. *

From

Origen

(

1.

—

THE OeCLXNE ^rddcness of

homan

reasoa,

AKt>

FALL OF

and of the inscrutable nature of the

]>iidne

perfections.^^

It might appear less surprising that the founder of Qiiistianity should not only be revered by his disciples as a sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored as a God. The Polytheists were disposed to adopt every article of faith which seemed to offer any resemblance, however distant or imperfect, with the popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of Hercules, and of ^sctdapius had, in some measure, prepared their imagination for the appearance of the Son of God under a human But they were astonished that the Christians should abandon form.^’^ the temples of those ancient heroes who, in the infancy of the world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the tyrants or monsters

who infested

the earth ; in order to choose for the exclusive object of an obscure teacher, who, in a recent age, and barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of

their religious worship

among a his own countrymen,

or to the jealousy of the

Pagan multitude, reserving

Roman

government.

The

their gratitude for temporal benefits alone,

and immortality which was ofmankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success; and whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they rejected the inestimable present of life

fered to

misrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering

and ignominious death,

life,

Author of Christianity.** The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted, in thus preferring his private sentiment to the national religion, was aggravated in a very high degree by the number and union of the criminals. It is well

”The

of the divine

author of the Philopatris perpetually treats the

Christians

as a

company of dreaming enthusiasts, 8aiit6not alfftpioi, atOt/nfiarowm, depofitrevurts, etc.; and in one place manifestly alludes to the vision in which St. Paul was transported to the third heaven. In another place, Triephon,

who

personates a Kristian, after deriding the gods of Paganism, proposes

a mysterious oath: 'T^ilUdoura tfeir, itiyar, i/iPporov, oipartuya, Tlii’ rarpdj, rMeVpa ix varpit ixiroptvbpMrov,

Ms

rpla. ’Ey Ik rpiay, koI 'KptOpUiv pe StSdpKas (is the profane answer of Critias), Kal tpxos ^ iptOpriTuci oix olSa yip ri \iyeis if rpla, rpla I “According to Justin MartjT (Apolog. Major, c. 70-85), the daemon, who had gained some imperfect knowledge of the prophecies, purposely contrived this resemblance, which might deter, though by different means, both the people and the philosophers from embracing the faith of Christ. “In the first and second books of Origen, Celsus treats the birth and character of our Saviour with the most impious contempt. The orator Litonius praises Porphyry and Julian for confuting the folly of a sect which style a dead man of Palestine, God, wid the Son of (^d. Socrates Hist

h

Ecclesiast.

’

iii.

23.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

451

known, and has been already observed, that Roituin policy viewed widl the utmost jealousy and distrust any association among its subjects; and that the privileges of private corporations, thou^ formed for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing The religious assemblies of the Christians, who had separated themsdves from the public worship, appeared of a much less ianoceot nature: th^ were illegal in their principle, and in their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the emp)erors conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when, for the peace of society, they pro* hibited those secret and sometimes nocturnal meetings/** The pious disobedience of the Christians made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, hand.^*

a much more serious and criminal light; and the Roman who might perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by

in

princes,

a ready submission, deeming their honour concerned in the execution of their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous punishments, to subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged an authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it every day more deserving of his animadversion. We have already seen that the active and successful zeal of the Christians had insensibly diffused them through every prov' ince and almost every city of the empire. The new converts seemed to renounce their family and country, that they might connect themsdves in an indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, which everywhere assumed a different character from the rest of mankind. Thdr gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the common business and pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions of impending calamities,'* inspired the Pagans with the apprehension of some danger which would arise from the new sect, the more alarming as it was the more obscure. “ Whatever,” says Pliny, “ may be the principle of their conduct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment.”” The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the offices of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity; but thqr were continued from choice. By imitating the awful secrecy whidi reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred institutions more respectable

“The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a company of 150 firemen He disliked all associations. See for the use of the city of Nicomedia. Plin. Epist. X. 42, 43.

>

•

had published a general edict against unlawful meetthe Christians suspended their A^p*; but it was omit the exercise of public worship. of the Antichrist, approaching conflagration, eta, provoked those Pagans whom they did not convert, they were mentioned with caution and reserve and the Montanists were censured for disclosing too See Mosheim, p. 413. freely the dangerous secret. ” Neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset quod faterentur (such are words of Pliny) pervicaciam certe et inflexibilem obstinationem debere punirL

“The

proconsul Pliny ings. The prudence of impossible for them to “As the prophecies ;

^

,

fEpist. X. 97.]

451

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

in the eyes of the Pagan World.^* But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtile policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was concluded that they only concealed what they would have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of human kind, who practised in their dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who solicited the favour of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was asserted, “ that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to the knife of the -'•'ri wound proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a secret on the innocent victim of his error; that as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness of guilt. It was as confidently aflirmed that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment, in which intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust; till, at the appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame was banished, nature was forgotten and, as accident might direct, the darkness of the ;

night was polluted by the incestuous of sons and of mothers.”

commerce of

sisters

and brothers,

But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to remove even the slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adversary. The Christians, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal from the voice of rumour to the equity of the magistrates. They acknowledge that, if any proof can be produced of the crimes which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and they challenge the proof. At the same time they urge, with equal truth and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid of probability than it is destitute of evidence; they ask whether any one can seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the Gospel, which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful enjoyments, should inculcate die practice of the most abominable crimes; that a large society should resolve to di^onour itself in the eyes of its own members; and that a great number of persons, of either sex, and every age and character, insensible to the fear of death or infamy, should consent to violate those principles which nature and education had imprinted most deeply in

" See Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. marques sur les Cesars dc Julien, p. 4W, etc. “See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35 [c. 27? ed. Ben.].

Athenagoras, in Legation,

i.

p.

loi,

and Spanheim, Re-

ed. Ben.], ii. 14 [c. 12, p. 97, Tertullian, Apolog. c. 7, 8, 9. 27. last of these writers relates the accu-

c.

Minucius Felix, p. 9, 10, 30, 31. The sation in the most elegant and circumstantial manner. tullian is the boldest and most vigorous.

The answer of Tcr-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

45j

Nothing, it should seem, could vreaken the force or des* troy the effect of so unanswerable a justification, unless it were the in> ju(hcious conduct of the apologists themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion, to gratify their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of the church. It was sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals, which were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they might deviate into the paths of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of men, and still governed by the precepts of Christianity.** Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the church by the schismatics who had departed from its communion,** and it was confessed on all sides that the most scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers of those who affected the name of Christians. A Fagan magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation, of the first Christians, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded wih more temper and moderation than is usually consistent with religious zeal, and that they their ininds.^

reported, as the impartial result of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries who had deserted the established worship appeared to them sincere

and blameless in their manners, however they might absurd and excessive superstition, the censure of the

in their professions

incur,

by

their

laws.**

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the

" In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile slaves were compelled, by the The church of L^ns, fear of tortures, to accuse their Christian master. writing to their brethren of Asia, treat the horrid charge with proper indignation and contempt. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. i. ” See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35 [c. 27? ed. Ben.]. Irenaeus adv. Haeres. Clemens Alexandrin. Stromat. 1 iii. p. 438 [c. 2, p 514, ed. Oxon. Euseb. iv. 8. It would be tedious and disgusting to relate all that the succeeding writers have imagined, all that Epiphanius has received, amd M. de Beausobre (Hist, du Manicheisme, all that Tillemont has copied. 1 ix. c. 8, 9) has exposed, with great spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin and Pope Leo I. "When Tertu Ilian became a Montanist, he aspersed the morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended. " Sed majoris est Agap^ quia per hanc adolescentes tui cum sororibus dormiunt. Appendices scilicet gulx De Jejuniis, c. 17. The 35th canon of the council of lascivia et luxuria.” Illiberis provides against the scandals which too often polluted the vigils of the church, and disgraced the Christian name in the eyes of unbelievers. "Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2) expatiates on the fair and honourable testimony of Pliny, with much reason, and some declamation. i.

24.

1715].

.

.

4^4

THE HECJLINE AND FALL OF

maxiiiis of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged that the conduct of the emperors who appeared the least favourable to the primitive church is by no means so criminal as that of modem sovereigns who have employed the arm of violence and terror against the religious opinions of any part of their subjects. From their reflections, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Louis XIV. might have acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience, of the obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the princes and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to those principles which inspired and authorised the inflexible obstinacy of the Christians in the cause of truth, nor could thqr themselves discover in their own breasts any motives which would have prompted them to refuse a legal, and as it were a natural, submission to the sacred institutions of their country. The same reason which contributes to alleviate the guilt, must have tended to abate the rigour, of their persecutions. As they were actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the temperate policy of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and humanity must frequently have suspended, the execution of those laws which they enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ. From the general view of their character and motives we might naturally conclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before they considered the new sectaries as an object deserving of the attention of government. II. That in the conviction of any of their subjects who were accused of so very singular a crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III. liiat they were moderate in the use of punishments; and IV. That the afflicted church enjoyed many intervals of peace and tranquillity. Notwithstanding the cardess indifference which Ae most copious and the most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to the affairs of the Christians,** it may still be in our power to confirm each of these probable suppositions by the evidence of authentic facts. I. By the wise dispensation of Providence a mysterious veil was cast over the infancy of the church, which, till the faith of the Christians was matured, and their numbers were multiplied, served to protect them not only from the malice but even from the knowledge of the Pagan world. The slow and gradual abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe

and innocent disguise to the more early proselytes of the Gospel. As they were for the greater part of the race of Abraham, they were distinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their devotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and received both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations of the Deity. The **

In the various compilation of the Augustan History (a part of which the reign of Constantine) there are not six lines which relate to the Christians; nor has the diligence of Xiphilin discovered their name in the large history of Dion Cassius. [The greater part of the Augustan History is dedicated to Diocletian. This may account for the silence of its authors concerning Christianity. O. S.J

was composed under

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

^5

Gentile converts who by a spiritual adoption had been mMinrigf«nt to the hope of Israel, were likewise confounded under the garb and of Jews; *• and as the Pol3rtheists paid less regard to articles of faith than to the external wordiip, the new sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly announced, its future greatness and ambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general toleration which was granted to an ancient and celebrated people in the Roman empire. It was not long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves, animated with a fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradual separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of the synagogue: and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresy in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven had already disarmed their malice; and though they might sometimes exert the licentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed the administration of criminal justice; nor did they find it easy to infuse into the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancour of their own zeal and prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but as soon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously to discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious people. The innocence of the first Christians was protected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan magistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury of the synagogue.®® If, indeed, we were disposed to adopt the traditions of a too credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant peregrinations, the wonderful achievements, and the various deaths of the twelve apostles: but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt whether any of those persons who had been witnesses to the miracles of Christ were permitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood the truth of their testimony.®^ From the ordinary term of human life, it may very naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased before the discontent of the Jews broke out into that furious war which was terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period, from the death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover any traces of Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden, the transient, but

“An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud, c. 25) may seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and (Christians of Rome were confounded with each other. “See, in the eighteenth and twenty-fifth chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the behaviour of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and of Festus, procurator of Judxa. " In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria the glory of martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James. It was gradually bestowed on the rest of the apostles by the more recent Greeks, who prudently selected for the theatre of their preaching and sufferings some remote country beyond the limits of the Roman empire. See Mosheim, p. 81 : and Tillemont, Memoires ^clesiastiques, tom.

i.

part.

iii.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

456

the cruel persecution, which was exercised by Nero against the Christians of the capital, thirty-five years after the former, and only two years before the latter, of those great events. The character of the philosophic historian, to whom we are principally indebted for the knowledge of this singular transaction, would alone be sufficient to recommend it to our

most attentive consideration. In the tenth year of the reign of Nero the capital of the empire was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example of former ages.^^ The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the most splendid palaces were involved in one conunon destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quarters into which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire, three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven, which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government appears not to have neglected any of the precautions which might alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial gardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude, temporary buildings were erected for their accommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions was distributed at a very moderate price.“ The most generous policy seemed to have dictated the edicts which regulated the disposition of the streets and the construction of private houses; and, as it usually happens in an age of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the course of a few years, produced a new city, more regular and more beautiful than the former. But all the prudence and humanity affected by Nero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from the popular suspicion. Every crime might be imputed to the assassin of his wife and mother nor could the prince who prostituted his person and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of the most extravagant folly. The voice of rumour accused the emperor as the incendiary of his own capital; and, as the most incredible stories are the best adapted to the genius of an enraged people, it was gravely reported, and firmly believed, that Nero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself with singing to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy.®® To divert a suspicion which the power of despotism was unable to suppress, the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some fictitious criminals. “ With this view (continues Tacitus) he inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men who, under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already branded with deserved infamy. They derived their name and origin from Christ, ;

"Tacit. Annal. xv. 38-44. Sueton. in Neron. c. 38. Dion Cassius, 1 Ixii. Orosius, vii. 7. 16] p. 1014. "The price of wheat (probably of the modius) was reduced as low as terni Nummi; which would be equivalent to about fifteen shillings the English .

fc.

quarter.

"We

may

observe that the

rumour

is

becoming distrust and hesitation, whilst ius, and solemnly confirmed by Dion.

it

mentioned by Tacitus with a very is greedily transcribed by Sueton-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

457

who, in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered death by the si»nt of the procurator Pontius ISlate.**' For a while this dire superstition was checked, but it again burst forth; and not only spread itself over Judaea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city as for their hatred of human kind.®* They died in torments, and their torments were embittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkne® of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race, and honoured with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christians deserved indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public Those who survey with welfare as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant.” a curious eye the revolutions of manldnd may observe that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the first Christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot a temple, which far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol

has been since erected by the Christian

Pontiffs,

who, deriving their

is alone sufficient to expose the anachronism of the Jews, place the birth of Christ near a century sooner. (Basnage, Histoire des may learn from Josephus (Antiquitat. xviii. 3 Juifs, 1 V. c. 14, 15.) [c. 2, § 2, ed. Oxon. 1720]) that the procuratorship of Pilate corresponded with the last ten years of Tiberius, a.d. 27-37. As to the particular time of the death of Christ, a very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of March, a.d. 29, under the consulship of the two Gemini (Tertullian adv. Judseos, c. 8). This date, which is adopted by Pagi, Cardinal Norris, and Le Clerc, seems at least as probable as the vulgar era, which is placed (I know not from what conjectures) four years later. " Odio humani generis convicH. These words may either signify the hatred of mankind towards the Christians, or the hatred of the Christians towards mankind. 1 have preferred the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of Tacitus, and to the popular error, of which a precept of the Gospel (see Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion. interpretation is justified by the authority of Lipsius; of the Italian, the French, and the English translators of Tacitus; of Mosheim (p. 102), of Le Clerc (Historia Ecclesiast. p. 427), of Dr. Lardner (Testimonies, vol. i. p. 345), and of the Bishop of Gloucester (Divine Legation, vol. iii, p. 38). But as the word convicti does not unite very happily with the rest of the sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of conjuncti, which is authorised by the valuable MS. of Florence. "Tacit. Anna!, xv. 44. “Nardini Roma Antica, p. 487. Donatus de Roma Antigua. 1 iii. p. 449.

“This testimony

who

.

We

My

.

45S

the decline and fall of

claim of universal dominion from an hunmble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the Csesars, given laws to the barbarian con* querors of Rome, and extended thdr spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to ^e shores of the Fadfic Ocean. But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero’s persecution till we have made some observations that may serve to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed, and to throw some light on the subsequent history of the church. I. The most sceptical critidsm is obliged to respect the truth of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity of this celebrated passage of Tacitus. The former is confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius, who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the Christians, a sect of men who had embraced a new and criminal superstition.** The latter may be proved by the consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by the inimitable character of the style of Tacitus; by his reputation, which guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by the purport of his narration, which accused the first Christians of the most atrocious crimes, without insinuating that they possessed any miraculous or even magical powers above the rest of mankind.** 2. Notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus was bom some years before the fire of Rome,*’ he could derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge of an event which happened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the public he calmly waited till his genius had attained its full maturity, and he was more than forty years of age when a grateful regard for the memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early of those historical compositions which will delight and instruct the most distant posterity. After making a trial of his strength **Sueton. in Nerone, c. 16. The epithet of malefica, which some sagacious cononentators have translated magical, is considered by the more rational Mosheim as only synonymous to the c-vitiabilis of Tacitus. "The passage concerning Jesus Christ which was inserted into the text of Josephus between the time of Origen and that of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar forgery. The accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, are distinctly related. Josephus acknowledges that he was the Messiah, and hesitates whether he should call him a man. If any doubt can still remain concerning this celebrated passage, the reader may examine the pointed objections of Le Fcvre (Havercamp. Joseph, tom. ii. p. 267-273), the laboured answers of Daubuz (p. 187232), and the masterly reply (Biblioth^ue Ancienne et Moderne, tom. viL p. 237-288) of an anonymous critic, whom I believe to have been the learned Abbe de Longucrue. [The Palatine Codex of Josephus does not contain the eighteenth book of the Antiquities. It is a mistake to regard the passage as wholly spurious, and 1 am inclined to agree with Heinichen, Ewald, Bury, and others in regarding the passage as only tainted by interpolations, but not wholly spurious. Bury calls attention to another passage in which reference is made to the death of “ St. James, brother of Jesus called the Christ.” O. S.] " See the lives_ of T acitus by Lipsius and the Abbe de la Bleterie, Dictionnaire de Bayle a I'article Tacite, and Fabricius, Biblioth, Latin, tom. ii. p, 386, edit. Ernes*

—

THX ROMAN EMPIRE

igg

in die life of Agricols, and the description of Germany, he concdved, and at leng^ executed, a mcMre arduous work, the history of in thirty books, from the fall of Nero to the accesaon of Nerva. The administration of Nerva introduced an age of justice and prosperity, which Tacitus had destined for the occupation of his old age; but when he took a nearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was a more honourable or a less invidious office to record the vices of past tyrants than to celebrate the virtues of a reigning monarch, he chose rather to relate, under the form of annals, the actions of the four immediate successors of Augustus. To coUect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years in an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most lively images, was an undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest part of his life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan, whilst the victorious monarch extended the power of Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was describing, in the second and fourth books of his Armais, the tyranny of Tiberius; and the emperor Hadrian must have succe^ed to the throne before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of his work, could relate the fire of the capital and the cruelty of Nero

towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty years it was the duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of contemporaries; but it was natural for the philosopher to indulge himself in the description of the origin, the progress, and the character of the new sect, not so

much according to the knowledge or prejudices of the age of Nero, as according to those of the time cif Hadrian. 3. Tacitus very frequently trusts to the curiosity or reflection of his readers to supply those interhis extreme conciseness, he mediate circumstances and ideas which, has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore presume to imagine some probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome, whose obscurity, as well as innocence, should have shielded them from his indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews, who were numerous in the capital and oppressed in their own country, were a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emparor and of the people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke, might have recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge. But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in

m

the heart of the tyrant; his wife and mistress, the beautiful Pop^sa, favourite player of the race of Abraham, who had already employed their intercession on behalf of the obnoxious pieople.*® In their

and a

“ Principatum Divi Nervse, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem securioremque lateriam, senectuti seposui. Tacit. Hist. i. 1 "See Tacit. Annal. li. 61, iv. 4. . . t .. "The player's name was Aliturus. Through the same channel, Josephus and pardon the obtained (de Vita sua, c. 3), about two years before, had Rome release of some Jewish priests who were prisoners at .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

460

it was necessary to-offer some other victims, and it might ea^y be suggested that, although the genuine followers of Moses- were innocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them a new and pernicious sect of GALiLiEANS, which was capable of the most horrid crimes. Under the appellation of Galil^sans two distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite to each other in their manners and principles; the disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth,*^ and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite.^* The former were the friends, the latter were the enemies, of human kind; and the only resemblance between them consisted in the same indexible constancy which, in the defence of their cause, rendered them insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, who impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated name of Christians, How natural was it for diffused themselves over the Roman empire. Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt and the sufferings which he might, with far greater truth and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory was almost extingui^ed! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this conjecture (for it is no more than a conjecture), it is evident that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero’s persecution, were confined to the walls of Rome; that the. religious tenets of the Galilseans, or Christians, were never made a subject of punishment, or even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of their sufferings was, for a long time, connect^ with the idea

room

and injustice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect oppressed by a tyrant whose rage had been usually directed against virtue and innocence. It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed almost at

of cruelty

“ The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii. p. has proved that the name of Galilsans was a very ancient, and

102, 103)

perhaps the primitive, appellation of the Christians. "Joseph Antiquitat. xviii. i, 2. Tillemont, Ruine des Juifs, p. 742. The sons of Judas were crucified in the time of Claudius. His grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken, defended a strong fortress with 960 of his most desperate followers. When the battering-ram had made a breach, they turned their swords against their wives, their children, and at length against their

own

breasts They died to the last man. “ [This supposition of Gibbon’s concerning the appropriation to the Christians by Tacitus in the reign of Hadrian of the guilt and sufferings in question, is quite erroneous. It is not even possible, far less probable. Tacitus, as Guizot says, could not be deceived in attributing to the Christians of Rome the guilt and sufferings which with greater truth he might have attributed to the followers of Judas the Gaulonite. It may well be doubted whether the followers of Judas were ever known, as a sect, under the name of Galileans.

-O.

S.l

“ See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. 1 xiii. The Spanish Inscription in Gruter, p. 238, No. g, is a manifest and acknowledged forgery, contrived by that noted impostor Cyriacus of Ancona to flatter the pride and prejudices of the .

_

Spaniards

See Ferreras, Histoire d’Espagne, tom.

i.

p.

192.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE the same time the Temple of Jerusalem and thfe Capitol of Rome; •** and it appears no less singular that the tribute which devotion had destined to the former should have been converted by the power of an assaulting victor to restore and adorn the splendour of the latter.*® The emperors levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although the sum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted, were considered as an intolerable grievance.*' Since the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claim to many persons who were strangers to the blood or religion of the Jews, it was impossible that the Christians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the shade of the synagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade them to contribute to the honour of that dxmon who had assumed the character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though declining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected by the decisive test of circumcision; ** nor were the Roman magistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among the Christians who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it

seems more probable, before that of the procurator of Judsa, two persons are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction, which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. These were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brother of Jesus Christ.*® Their natural pretensions to the throne of David might

" The Capitol was burnt during the civil war between Vitcllius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, a.d. 69. On the loth of August, a.d. 70, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those of the Romans. "The new Capitol was dedicated by Domitian. Sueton. in Doraitian. c. Plutarch in Poplicola [c. 15], tom. i. p. 230, edit. Bryant. The gilding S. It was the alone cost I2,ooo talents (above two millions and a half). opinion of Martial (I. ix. Epigram 4), that, if the emperor had called in his debts, Jupiter himself, even though he had made a general auction of Olympus would have been unable to pay two shillings in the pound. *’ With regard to the tribute, see Dion Cassius, 1 Ixvi. [c. 7] p. 1082, with Reimarus’s notes; Spanheim, de Usu Numismatum, tom. ii. p. 57 *; and Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1 . vii. c. 2. “Jnietonius (in Domitian. c. 12) had seen an old man of ninety publicly examined before the procurator’s tribunal. This is what Martial calls Men.

tula tributis damnata. "This appellation was at first understood in the most obvious sense, and Joseph Jesus were the lawful issue it was supposed that the brothers devout respect ^or the virginity of the mother of God sugand Mary. gested to the (gnostics, and afterwards to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient The Latins (from the time of of bestowing a second wife on Joseph. Jerome) improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph, and justified by many similar examples the new interpretation th^ Jude, as well as Simon and James, who are styled the brothers of Jesus Christ, were See Tillemont, Mem. _&clesiast. tom. 1. part iii. ; and first-cousins. .

^

A

only his Beausobre, Hist. CritiQue du Manicheisme, U

ii.

c. 2.

THE

DS€4illtB

AMD

FAbt,

OF

attract the rejq)ect of the people, and exdte the jealousy of tibe gbvemor; but the meanness of tl^r garb and the sim^idty of their answers soon convinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable {itMliapfi

•

'

of disturbing the peace of the

and

Roman

empire.

They

frankly confessed

their near relation to the Messiah,

but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation, they showed their hands hardened with daily labour, and declared that they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres,®® and of the value of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and their royal origin,

contempt.®'

But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect them from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus,®* the elder was soon convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want of courage and ability.®® The emperor for a long time distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favour and protection, bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their father with the honours of the consulship. But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when on a slight pretence he was condemned and executed; Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on the coast of Campania; ®® and sentences either of death or of confiscation were pronounced against a great number of persons who were involved in the same accusation. The guilt "Thirty-nine ir\4epa, squares of an hundred feet each, which, if strictly But the probability of computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres. circumstances, the practice of other Greek writers, and the authority M. de Valois, incline me to believe that the ir\i9pop is used to express the Roman jugerum. “ Eusebius, iii. 20. The story is taken from Hegesippus. "See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus (Hist. iii. 74, 75). Sabinus was the elder brother, and, till the accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the principal support of the Flavian family. "Flavium Clementem patruelem suum contemptissima inertiee ... ex tenuissima suspicione interemit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 15. "The__isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Rruttius Prsesens (apud Euseb. iii. 18) banishes her to that of Pontia, which was not far distant from the other. That difference, and a mistake, either of Eusebius or of his transcribers, have given occasion to suppose two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of Clemens. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom, ii p. 224.

THB ROMAN EMPIRB iaqpatod to tlwir diarge was that of Atheism and Jewish manners; *• a singular association of ideas, which cannot with any propriety be a^^ed

except to the Christians, as they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magistrates and by the writers of that period. On the strength of so probable an interpretation, and too eagerly admitting the suspidons of a tyrant as an evidence of their honourable crime, the church has placed both Clemens and DomitiUa among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of Domitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution (if it deserves that epithet) was of no long duration. few months after the death of Clemens and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter, who had enjojTd the favour, but who had not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, assassinated the emperor in his palace.'® The memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled; and under the gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment.'^ II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny was intrusted by his friend and master with the government of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine by what rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in the execution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians, with whose name alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally uninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he had recoursj to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a favourable account of the new superstition, requesting the emperor that he would condescend to resolve his doubts and to instruct his ignorance.'® The life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the world. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the tribunals of Rome,'® filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the

A

If the Bruttius Pracscns, from whom it Ixvii. [c. 14] p. m2. 1 probable that he collected this account, was the correspondent of Pliny (Epistol. vii. 3), we may consider him as a contemporary writer. "Suet, in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit. Apollon. 1 viii. *’Dion, 1 lx viii. [c. i] p. 1118. Phn. Epistol. iv. 22 "Plin. Epistol. x. 97. The learned Mosheim expresses himself (p. 147, 232) with the highest approbation of Pliny's moderate and candid temper. Notwithstanding Dr. Lardner’s suspicions (see Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii. p. 46), I am unable to discover any bigotry in his language

"Dion,

.

is

.

.

or proceedings.

[Yet according to Milman, the humane Pliny put two female attendants, probably deaconesses, to the torture, in order to ascertain the real nature of these suspicious meetings. O. S.] * Plin. Epist. V. 8. He pleaded his first cause a.d. 81 ; the year after the famous eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, in which his uncle lost his life.

—

464

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

honours of th6 consulship, and had formed very numerous connections with every order of men, both in Italy and in die provinces. From kk ignorance therefore we may derive some useful information. We may assure ourselves that when he accepted the government of Bithynia there were no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and that, whatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magistrate. The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding age have frequently appealed, discovers as much regard for justice and humanity as could be reconciled with his mistaken notions of religious ^ policy.”'* Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of an Inquisitor, anxious to discover the most minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the number of his victims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to protect the security of the innocent than to prevent the escape of the guilty. He acknowledges the difficulty of fixing any general plan; but he lays down two salutary rules, which often afforded relief and support to the distressed Christians. Though he directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are legally convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane inconsistency, from making any inquiries concerning the supposed criminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of information. Anonymous charges the emperor rejects, as too repugnant to the equity of his government; and he strictly requires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt of Christianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and open accuser. It is likewise probable that the persons who assumed so invidious an office were obliged to declare the grounds of their suspicions, to specify (both in respect to time and place) the secret assemblies which their Christian adversary had frequented, and to disclose a great number of circumstances which were concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the eye of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were exposed to the resentment of a considerable and active party, to the censure of the more liberal portion of mankind, and to the ignominy which, in every age and country, has attended the character of an informer. If, on the contrary, they failed in their proofs, they incurred the severe and perhaps capital penalty, which, according to a law published by the emperor Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to their fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of personal or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over the most natural apprehensions of Tertullian (Apolog. c. 5) considers this rescript as a of the ancient penal laws, “quas Trajanus ex parte frustratus est:” and yet Tertullian, in another part of his Apology, exposes the inconsistency of prohibiting inquiries and enjoining punishments.

"Plin. Epist. X. 98.

relaxation

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

4nors. treason, and deserved death. And if it be true that he was a person of rank and education, those circumstances could serve only to aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rathor roasted, by a slow fire; and his executioners, zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, without

being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which, in his dying agonies, he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conduct had not been

conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervour and the excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian.'®' His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from whidi he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of Nicomedia, and even the bedchamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames; and though both times they were extinguished without any material damage, strictly

of bis zeal;

the singular repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident it had not been the effect of chance or negligence; The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. great number of persons, distingui^ed either by the offices which they hadi filled or by the favour which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison.

proof that

A

”*

Many

ages afterwards Edward I. practised, with great success, the same persecution against the clergy of England. See Hume’s History of England, vol. ii. p. 300, last 4to edition. “‘Lactantius only calls him quidam, etsi non recte, magtio tamen animo, etc., M. P. c. 13. Eusebius ( 1 viii. c. 5) adorns him with secular honours. Neither have condescended to mention his name; but the Greeks celebrate his memory under that of John. See Tillemont, Mimoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. V. part ii. p. 320.

mode of

.

49*

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as city, was polluted with many bloody executions.^^® But.as it wm found impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring that, if he delayed his departure from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to account for the fears and danger of the emperors. Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning and the divine wrath, the other affirms that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius himself.''*^ As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might not wait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the Western princes, it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy that the governors of all the provinces should have received secret instructions to publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war within their respective departments. It was at least to be expected that the convenience of the public highways and established posts would have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman world; and that they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse before the edict was published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified to the cities of Africa.^" This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the measures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experiment under his more immediate eye before he gave way to the disorders and discontent which it must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces.

At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the effusion of blood; but the use of every other severity was permitted, and even recom‘“I^ctantius de M._ P. c. 13, 14 [14, 15]. Potentissimi quondam Eunuchi per quos Palatium et ipse constabat. Eusebius ( 1 viii. c. 6) mentions the cruel executions of the eunuchs Gorgonius and Dorotheus, and of Anthimus bishop of Nicomedia; and both those writers describe, in a vague but tragical manner, the horrid scenes which were acted even in the Imperial tiecati,

.

presence.

“’See Lactantius, Eusebius, and Constantine, ad Coetum Sanctorum, c. XXV. Eusebius confesses his ignorance of the cause of this fire. [There is no instance in the history of these times of the Christians turning on their persecutors; we have therefore not the slightest reason to attribute to them the fire in the palace of Diocletian in Nicomedia. Had it been done by a Christian, says M. de Tillemont, it would probably have been a fanatic who would have gloried in the deed and published it. The fire was doubtless caused by lightning, and was fed and increased by the malice of Galerius.—O. S.] “•Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. v. part. i. p. 43.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE mended

to their zeal; nor could the Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious assemblies, or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. The curator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. The proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian praefect of Italy; and Felix, who disdained even to give

an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucainia, a plaice on which the birth of Horace has conferred fame.”'® This precedent, and perhaps some Imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of it, appeared to authorise the governors of provinces in punishing with death the refusal of the Christians to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons who embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but there were likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life by discovering and betra3nng the Holy Scripture into the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious epithet of Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present scandal and of much future discord in the African church.'®* The copies as well as the versions of Scripture were already so multiplied in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the sacrifice of those volumes which, in every congregation, were preserved for public use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily effected by the authority of the government and by the labour of the Pagans. In some provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of religious worship. In others they more literally complied with the terms of the edict; and, after taking away the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice.'*' It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should apply a very remarkable story, which is related with so

many

circumstances of variety and improbability that

it

serves rather to excite than to satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of whose name as well as situation we are left ignorant, it

See the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 353 ; those of Felix of Thibara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted than in the other editions, which afford a lively specimen of legendary licence. '**See the first book of Optatus of Milevis against the Donatists. Paris, 1^00, edit. Dupin. He lived under the reign of Valens. '“The ancient monuments, published at the end of Optatus, p. 261, etc., describe, in a very circumstantial manner, the proceedings of the governors in the destruction of churches. They made a minute in\cntory of the plate, etc., which they found in them. That of the church of Cirta, in Numidia, is still extant. It consisted of two chalices of gold and six of silver; six urns, one kettle, seven lamps, all likewise of silver; besides a large quantity of brass utensils and wearing apparel.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF should seem that the magistrates and the body of the petals had embraced the Christian faith; and as some resistance mi^t be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the church, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred edifice or of perishing in its ruins. Thqr indignantly rejected the notice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of mart3rrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their wives and children.'®^ Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate that those troubles had been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited obedience.’"'' The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian at length transported him beyond the bounds of moderation which he had hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of

abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these edicts the governors of the provinces were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesias-

and the prisons destined for the vilest criminals were soon with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general tical order;

filled

Instead of those salutary restraints which had required the direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well as the interest of the Imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to persecution.’"*

torment the most obnoxious among the

faithful.

Heavy

penalties

were

lActantius (Institut. Divin. v. li) confines the calamity to the conventiculum, with its congregation. Eusebius (viii ll) extends it to a whole city, and introduces something very like a regular siege. His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus, adds the important circumstance of the permission given to the inhabitants of retiring from thence. As Phrygia reached to the confines of Isauria, it is possible that the restless temper of those independent barbarians may have contributed to this misfortune. ’“Eusebius, 1 viii. c. 6 M. de Valois (with some probability) thinks that he ha.s discovered the Syrian rebellion in an oration of Libanius; and that it was a rash attempt of the tribune Eugenius, who with only five hundred men seized Antioch, and might perhaps allure the Christians by the promise of religious toleration. From Eusebius ( 1 ix. c. 8), as well as from Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armen. 1 ii. 77, etc.), it may be inferred that Christianity was already introduced into Armenia. •“See Mosheim, p. 938; the text of Eusebius very plainly shows that the governors, whose powers were enlarged, not restrained, by the new laws, could punish with death the most obstinate Christians as an example to their brethren. _

.

.

.

.

TH£ ROMAN RMPIRE

m"'

denounced against all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary from the just indignation of the gods and of the emperors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in concealing their friends or relations, affords an honourable proof that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds the sentiments of nature and humanity.'*’’ Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the Christians than, as if he had been desirous of committing to other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself of the Imperial purple. The character and situation of his colleagues and successors sometimes urged them to enforce, and sometimes inclined them to suspend, the execution of these rigorous laws; nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this important period of ecclesiastical history unless we separately consider the state of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire, during the space of ten years which elapsed between the first edicts of Diocletian and the final peace of the church. The mild and humane temper of Constantins was averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects. The principal offices of bis palace were exercised by Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religious principles. But as long as Constantins remained in the subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority contributed, however, to alleviate the sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented with reluctance to the ruin of the churches, but he ventured to protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the populace and from the rigour of the laws. The provinces of Gaul (under which we may probably include those of Britain) were indebted for the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed to the gentle interposition of their sovereign.'"® But Datianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors than to understand the secret intentions of Contantius; and it can scarcely be doubted that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs.'®' The elevation of Constantins to '“Athanasius, p. 833, ap. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. v. part i. p. 90. '"Eusebius, 1 viii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c. 15. Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprian, xi. 75) represents them as inconsistent with each other. But the former evidently speaks of Constantins in the station of Caesar, and the latter of the same prince in the rank of Augustus. '"Datianus is mentioned in Gruter’s Inscriptions as having determined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia and those of Ebora, both cities in the southern part of Lusitania. If we recollect the neighbourhood of those places to Cape St. Vincent, we may suspect that the celebrated deacon and martyr of that name has been inaccurately assigned by Prudentius, etc., to Saragossa or Valentia. See the pompous history of his sufferings, in the Memoires de Tillemont, tom. v. part ii. p. 58-85. Some critics are of opinion that the department of Constantius, as Czsar, did not include Spain, which still continued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian. .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

400

tbe supreme and independent dignity of Augustus gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration of which he left the precept and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of the revolution, which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, will form a very interesting and important chapter in the second volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to observe that every victory of Constantine was productive of some relief or benefit to the church. The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In the autumn of the first year of the persecution the two emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph several oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the successive honours of the palace, to the important office of treasurer of the private demesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank and distinction v/ho appears to have suffered death during the whole course of this gen;

eral persecution.

The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the churches of Italy and Africa, and the same tyrant who oppre.ssed every other class of his subjects showed himself just, humane, and even partial, towards

the afilicted Christians.

He depended on

and affection, and very naturally presumed that the injuries which they had suffered, and the dangers which they still apprehended, from his most inveterate enemy, would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their numbers and opulence.’®" Even the conduct of Maxentius towards the bisliops of Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof of his Eusebius,

It

their gratitude

vm.

c. ii. Gruter, Inscrip, p. 1171, No. 18. Rufinus has "f Adauctus, as well as the place of his martyrdom. ^.u.sebms, I. vm. c. 14. But as Maxentius was vanquished by Constantine. suited the purpose of Lactantius to place his death among those of the

persecutors.

1

*

:

THE ROMAN EMPIRR toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the former of those prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion by the severe penance which he imposed on a great number of Christians who, during the late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood of the faithful was shed by each other’s hands; and the exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome.”® The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon of that city had published a libel against the emperor. The offender took refuge in the episcopal palace, and, though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up to the officers of justice. For this treasonable resistance Mensurius was summoned to court, and, instead of receiving a legal sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short examination, to return to his diocese.'^’ Such was the happy condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius, that, whenever they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A story is related of Aglae, a Roman lady, descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate that

required the management of seventy-three stewards. Among these Boniface was the favourite of his mistress, and, as Aglae mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She intrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold and a large quantity of aromatics, and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage as far as Tarsus in Cilicia.”it

'"The epitaph of Marcellus is to be found in Gruter, Inscrip, p. 1172, No. and it contains all that we know of his history. Marcellinus and Marcellus, whose names follow in the list of popes, are supposed by many critics to be different persons but the learned Abbe de Longuerue was convinced that they were one and the same. 3,

;

Veridicus rector lapsis quia crimina here Prsedixit miseris, fuit omnibus hostis amarus, Hinc furor, hinc odium; sequitur discordia, lites, Seditio, cxdes ; solvuntur foedera pacis. Crimen ob alterius, Christum qui in pace negavit Finibus expulsus patriae est feritate Tyranni.

Haec breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre Marcelli populus meritum cognoscere posset. We may observe that Damasus was made bishop of Rome a.d. 366 ‘"Optatus contr. Donatist. 1 i. c. 17, 18. ”'The Acts of the Passion of St. Bcmiface, which abound in miracles and declamation, are published by Ruinart (p. 283-291), both in Greek and Latin, from the authority of very ancient manuscripts. .

^

THE OEC1.1NE AND FALL OF

The sanguinary temper of Galerins, the first and pnnc^al author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly be presumed that many persons of a middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, and sought a refuge in the milder dimate of the West. As long as he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of martyrs in a warlike country which had entertained the nussionaries of the Gospel with more coldness and reluctance than any other part of the empire.^'® But when Galerius had obtained the supreme power and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine,

and Eg}rpt, where Maximin

gratified his

yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern

The

commands

own

inclination

by

of his benefactor.®^*

frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience

of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length

convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, preceded in

the following manner:

“

Among

the important cares which have occupied our mind for the and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature the deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers, and, presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and opinions according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more, who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of religion, we are dispos^ utility

‘“During the four first centuries there exist few traces of either bishops or bishoprics in the western Illyricum. It has been thought probable that the primate of Milan extended his jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great province. See the Geographia Sacra of Charles de St. Paul, p. 68-76, with the observations of Lucas Holstenius. ‘"The eighth book of Eusebius, as well as the supplement concerning the martps of Palestine, principally relate to the persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general lamentations with which Lactantius opens the fifthbook of his Divine Institutions allude to their cruelty.

THi;'

ROMAN SMPIKE

499

to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them, therefore, freely to profess their private opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to the Judges and magistrates, and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the republic.” It is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos that we should search for the real character of the secret motives of princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor, his atuation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity. When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favour of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Praetorian prsfect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the proNunces, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries, and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repentance their re-admission into the bosom of the church.^’* But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the Christians of the East place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles The prophets or philosophers, whom he revered as the favourites of Heaven, were frequently raised to the government of provinces, and admitted into

most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that his

"‘Eusebius ( 1 . viii. c. 17) has given us a Greek version, and Lactantius (de M. P. c. 34) the Latin original, of this memorable edict Neither of these writers seems to recollect how directly it contradicts whatever they have just affirmed of the remorse and repentance of Galerius. ”* Eusebius, 1 ix. c. i. He inserts the epistle of the prsefect. .

goo

the.declike and fall of

the weakness of polytheism had principally Sowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from In all the great cities of the empire, the the policy of the church. temples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin, and the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these new prelates were By the carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families.

and of the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfully represented the wellknown intentions of the court as the general sense of the people solicited the emperor to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians, and humbly influence of the magistrates,

;

prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be excluded from the The answer of Maximin to the limits of their respective territories. address which he obtained from the citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by the readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an obligation. The priests as well as the magistrates were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass; and though 'll was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory Christians.”'

The Asiatic Christians had everything to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two Western emperors obliged Maximim to suspend the prosecution of his designs: the civil war which he so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat and death of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most implacable of her enemies.”® In this general view of the persecution which was

first

authorised

by

See Eusebius, 1 . viii. c. 14, I. ix. c. 2-8. Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. These writers agree in representing the arts of Maximin: but the former relates the execution of several martyrs, while the latter expressly affirms, oc-

Dei vetuit. few days before his death he published a very ample edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the severities which the Christians suffered to the judges and governors, who had misunderstood his intentions. See the

cidi servos

™A

_

edict in Eusebius,

1.

ix. c. 10.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

501

the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Cluistian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgusting pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage execuThese melancholy scenes tioners, could inffict on the human body. might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonised saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But 1 cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, EuseI ought to believe. bius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.”® Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the su^icion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity,

and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries. Of some particular occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or resentment, when the zeal of the martyrs urged them to forget the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed that every mode of torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted victims.'"® Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily men-

™ Such

the fair deduction from two remarkable passages in Eusebius, Palestin. c. 12. The prudence of the historian has exposed his own character to censure and suspicion. It was well known that he himself had been thrown into prison; and it was suggested that he had purchased his deliverance by some dishonourable compliance. The reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in his presence, at the council of Tyre. See Tillemont, Memoires Exclesiastiques, tom. viii. part i. p. 67. ““ The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the sufferings of Tarachus and his companions (Acta Sincera Ruinart, p. 419-448) is filled with strong expressions of resentment and contempt, which could not fail of irritating the magistrate. The behaviour of ^desius to Hierocles, prsefect of Egypt, was still more extraordinary, \iyois re xoi tpyon rir diKoariiv . , . rtpifiaXiir, Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 5. [The pagan historians justify in many places the details transmitted regarding the tortures endured by the Christians. Celsus, for example, reproaches the Christians with holding their assemblies in secret on account of the fear inspired by their sufferings, for he adds, " When you are arrested you are dragged to punishment, and before you are put to death you have to suffer all kinds of tortures.” Origen Contra Celsum. Libanius, also the panegyrist of Julian says, speaking of the Christians, ” Those who followed a 1.

viii. c. 2,

is

and de Martyr.

the decline and fall of Christians who itoaed, which insinuate that the general treatment of the hari been apprehended by the ofiicers of justice was less intolerable than i. The confessors who were con* it is usually imagined to have been. by the humanity or the permitted mines were in the demned to work negligence of their keepers to build chapels, and freely to profess their 2. The bishops religion in the midst of those dreary habitations.”*

were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians,

who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement would expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were actuated by the less honourable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners.*"' After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective suffering. A convenient distance of time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history. The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artful orator, that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent legendaries record whole armies and cities which were at once swept away by the imdistinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal

effusion of loose

tain the precise

and tragical invectives, without condescending to ascernumber of those persons who were permitted to seal

with their blood their belief of the Gospel. From the history of Eusebius it may however be collected that only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured, by his particular enumeration of the corrupt religion were in continual apprehensions ; they feared lest Julian should invent tortures still more refined than those to which they had been exposed before, mutilation, burning alive, etc., for the emperor had inflicted on them all these barbarities." Liban. Parent in Julian. O. S.j *“ Euseb. _de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. “Augustin. Collat. Carthagin. Dei. iii. c. 13, ap. Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part i. p. 46. The controversy with the Donatists has reflected some, though perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African church. _

—

m

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

martyrs of Palestine, that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that honourable appellation.^^* As we are imacquainted with the degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to the distribution of Roman'provinces, Palestine may be considered as the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: ’"* and since there were some governors who, from a real or affected clemency, had preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful,^** it is reasonable to believe that the country which had given birth to Christianity produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the

same proportion to the provinces

of Italy, Africa,

and

perhaps Spain, where, at the end of two or three years, the rigour of the penal laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of Diocletian than they had ever been in any former persecution, this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate the num-

“

Eusebius de Martyr. Palcstin. c. 13. He closes his narration by assuring us that these were the martyrdoms inflicted in Palestine during the whole The ninth chapter of his eighth book, which course of the persecution. relates to the province of Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our moderate computation but it will only lead us to admire the artful management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of the most exquisite cruelty the most remote and sequestered country of the Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten to one hundred persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the same day. But when he proceeds to mention his own journey into Egypt, his language insensibly b^mes more cautious and moderate. Instead of a large but definite number, he speaks of many Christians wXe/ovr), and most artfully selects two ambiguous words (.Icrop’/jiraijur and Inroiuivavrat) which may signify either what he had seen or what he had heard; either the expectation or the execution of the punishment. Having thus provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal passage to his readers and translators; justly conceiving that their piety would induce them to prefer the most favourable sense. There was perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus Metochita, that all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with the Egyptians, delighted in an obscure and intricate style. (See Valesius ad loc.) ““When Palestine was divided into three, the prsefecture of the East con;

As the ancient distinctions of nations were forty-eight provinces. long since abolished, the Romans distributed the provinces according to a general proportion of their extent and opulence. ’'‘Ut gloriari possint nullum se innocentium peremisse, nam et ipse audivi aliquos gloriantes, quia admin istratio sua, in hac parte, fuerit incruenta. Lactant. Institut. Divin. v. ii. tained

the decline and fall of

|B4

ber of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into the world. We shall conclude this chapter by a melandioly truth which obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; Uiat, even admitting, without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged that the Christians, in the course of ^eir intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal

of

infidels.

During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion

Roman

empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected, and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, assumed the popular character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by the proscriptions, wars, massacres, and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom, the Catholic princes cormected their own interest with that of the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone more than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary number is attested by Grotius,”® a man of genius and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own age and country at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of intelligence and increased the danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of Grotius, it must be allowed that the number of Protestants who were executed in a single province and a single reign far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the reformers; we shall be naturally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit can be assigned to a courtly bishop and a passionate declaimer, who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions indicted on the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded predof the

ecessors of their gracious sovereign.

”*Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, L i. p. iz, edit. fol. ”’Fra Paolo (Istona del Concilio Tridentino, 1 iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In learning and moderation Fra Paolo was not inferior to Grotius. The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the former, which he loses on the other hand by Ae distance of Venice from the Netherlands. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

SOS

CHAPTER XVII Foundation of Constantinople^PolUical System of Constantine and sors Military Discipline The Palace The Finances

—

—

The

—

Ms Succes-

unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness^ last captive who adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign the conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman empire; a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great Con> stantine and his sons is filled with important events; but the historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are connected only by the order of time. He will describe the political institutions that gave strength and stability to the empire before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions which hastened its decline. He will adopt the division unknown to the ancients of civil and eccleaastical affairs: the victory of the Christians, and their intestine discord, will supply copious and distinct materials both for edification and for scand^. After the defeat and abdication of Licinius bis victorious rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in future times the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire and religion of Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seat of government, had acquired additional weight by the example of his successors and the habits of forty years. Rome was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy; and the country of the C^esars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince, bom in the neighbourhood of the Danube, educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians, who had received Constantine as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome but they were seldom honoured with the presence of their new sovereign. During the vigour of his age Constantine, according to the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity or with active diligence along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more per> manent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignooainious treaty. With these views Diocletian had selected and embelli^ed

and the

;

$06

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

the residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was justly ab> horred by the protector of the church; and Constantine was not insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war against Licinius he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier and as a states* man, the incomparable position of Byzantium; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against an hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benehts of commercial intercourse. Many ‘ ages before Constantine, one of the most judicious historians of antiquity had described the advantages of a situation from whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea, and the honours of a flourishing and independent republic.’ If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city is bounded by the harbour, and the southern is washed by the Propontis or Sea of Marmora. The basis of the triangle is opposed to the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But the admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood. The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow with a rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of antiquity.’ A crowd of temples and of votive altars, profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Grecian navigators who, after the example of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; * and of the sylvan ’ Polybius, 1. iv. [c. 45] p. 423, edit. Casaubon. He observes that the peace of the Byzantines was frequently disturbed, and the extent of their territory contracted, by the inroads of the wild Thracians. ’The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son of Neptune, founded the pity 656 [rather 667 His followers were S.J years before the Christian era. drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was afterwards rebuilt and fortified by the Spartan general Pausanias. See Scaliger, Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducange, Constantinopolis, 1. i. part i. cap. 15, 16. With regard to^ the wars of the Byzantines against Philip, the Gauls, and the kings of Bithynia, we should trust none but the ancient writers who lived before the greatness of the Imperial city had excited a spirit of flattery and fiction. * The Bosphorus has been very minutely described by Dionysius of Byzantium, who lived in the time of Domitian (Hudson, Geograph. Minor, tom. iii.), and by Gilles or Gyllius, a French traveller of the sixteenth century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.) seems to have used his own eyes, and the learning of Gyllius. [Add Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporos, 8vo. M.] ’There are very few conjectures so happy as that of Le Clerc (Biblioth^ue Universelle, tom. i. p. 148), who supposes that the harpies were only locusts.

—

_

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

’

s*r

Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the Cestus.* The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which,

reign of

according to the description of the poets, had once floated on the face of the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity.” From the C}mnean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles,^ and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half. The new castles of Europe and II^Ksia are constructed, on either continent, upon the foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter Urius. The old casdes, a work of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where the opposite banks advance within five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses were restored and strengthened by Mahomet the Second when he meditated the siege of Constantinople: • but the Turkish conqueror was most probably ignorant that, near two thousand years before his reign, Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two continents by a bridge of boats.” At a small distance from the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, v/hich may almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and Chalcedon. The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks a few years before the former; and the blindness of its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial expression of contempt.'®

The

Syriac or Phoenician

name of

those insects, their noisy

flight,

the stench

and devastation which they occasion, and the north wind which drives them into the sea, all contribute to form the striking resemblance. 'The residence of Amycus was in Asia, between the old and the new castles, at a place called Laurus Insana That of Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and the Black Sea. See Gyllius de Bosph. 1 i^ .

Tournefort, Lettre XV. The deception was occasioned by several pointed rocks, alternatel> covered and abandoned by the waves. At present there are two small islands one towards either shore; that of Europe is distinguished by the column of c, 23.

Pompey. 'The ancients computed one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen Roman, miles. They measured only from the new castles, but they carried the straits as far as the town of Chalcedon. 'Ducas. Hist. c. 34 [p. 136, ed. Paris; p. 108, ed. Ven.; p. 242, ed. Bonn]. Leunclavius Hist. Turcica Mussulmanica, 1 xv. p. 577. Under the Gredc empire these castles were used as state prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe, or towers of oblivion. 'Darius engraved in Greek and Assjtian letters, on two marble columns, the amazing numbers of his land and the names of his subject nations, The Byzantines afterwards transported these columns into the sea forces. Herodotus, 1 iv. city, and used them for the altars of their tutelar deities. .

md

.

c. 87.

"Namque artissimo inter Europam Asiamque divortio Byzantium in extrema Europa posuere Graeci, quibus, Pythium Apollinem consulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum est, quaererent sedem ceecorum terris adversam. Ea amtege Chalcedonii monstrabantur, quod priores illuc advecti, Tacit. Annal. xii. 63. praevisa locorum utilitate pejora legissent.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

JdS

The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as ui arm of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the denomination of th^ Golden Horn. The curve which it describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it should seem, with more propriety, to that of an ox.“ The epithet of golden was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of Constantinople. The river Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek thdr retreat in that convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those seas, the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats; and it has been observed that, in many places, the largest vessels may rest their prows From the against the houses while their sterns are floating in the water. mouth of the Lycus to that of the harbour this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it to guard the port and city from the attack of an hostile navy.'^ Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe and Asia receding on either side inclose the Sea of Marmora, which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the Propontis may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and Bith3mia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows.** They leave on the left a deep 8«lf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe, is again contracted into a narrow channel. The geographers who, with the m(»t skilful accuracy, have surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about sixty miles for the wind492 [320, ed. Casaubon]. Most ot the antlers are now speak less figuratively, most of the recesses of the harbour are filled up. See Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, 1 i. c. 5. ** Procopius de ^Edificiis, 1 i. c. 5. His description is confirmed by modern travellers. See Theyenot. part i. 1 . i. c. 15. Tournefort, Lettre XII. Niebuhr, **

Strabo,

broken off;

1.

vii.

p.

or, to

.

.

Voyage d'Arabie, p. 22.' [The river Lycus really discharges itself of what follows may be said to measure mile in breadth.

— O.

“See Ducange, hardouin,

into the Propontis, in length

which

in

view

about 40 miles, by one

S.l

C. P.

1.

i.

part

i.

c.

16,

and

his

Observations sur Ville-

The chain was drawn from the Acropolis near the modern tower of Galata, and was supported at convenient distances by

p. 289.

Kiosk to the

wooden piles. “Thevenot (Voyages au Levant, part

large

i. 1 i. c. 14) contracts the measure to 125 small Greek miles. Belon (Observations, 1 ii. c. 1) gives a good description of the Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression of one and one night’s sail. When Sandys (Travels, p. 21) talks of 150 furlongs in length as well as breadth, we can only suppose some mistake of the press in the text of that judicious traveller. .

.

^y

TBte

ROMAN EMPIRE

9^

*

ing course, and sdmut three miles for the ordinary breadth, of those celebrated straits." But the narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish castles, between the cities of Sestus and Abydus. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress." It was here likewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose of transporting into Europe a hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians.^^ A sea contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of broad, which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which appeared on every ade to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea: and his fancy painted those celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river, flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and inland country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself into the .^gean or Archipelago.*® Ancient Troy,*® seated on an eminence at the

“See an admirable dissertation of M. d’Anville upon the Hellespont or Dardanelles, in the Memoires de I’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 318-346. Yet even that ingenious geographer is too fond of supposing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the purpose of rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia employed by Herodotus in the description of the Euxine, the Bosphorus, etc. (1. iv. c. 85), must undoubtedly be all of the same species; but it seems impossible to reconcile them either with truth or with each other. “The oblique distance between Sestus and Abydus was thirty stadia. The improbable tale of Hero and Leander is exposed by M. Mahudel. but is defended on the authority of poets and medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Academic des Inscriptions, tom. vii. Hist. p. 74, Mem. p. 240. [Gibbon will not admit greater width to exist between the two nearest points of the Hellespont than between those of the Bosphorus; yet (as Milman says) all the ancient writers speak of the Hellespontic strait as being broader than the other. They agree, in fact, in giving it a width of seven stadia at its narrowest point (cf. Herod, iv. c. 85; vii. c. 34; Plin. b. iv. c. 12), which would represent about 875 paces. Gibbon’s measurement is incorrect, owing to his adopting the theory of D’Anville that the ancients had a stadium of 51 toises.

— O.

"See

S.]

the seventh

book of Herodotus, who has erected an elegant trophy

The review appears to have that of his country. accuracy, but the vanity, first of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greeks, wa« interested to magnify the armament and the victory. I should much doubt whether the invaders have ever outnumbered the men of any country which they attacked. “See Wood’s Observations on Homer, p. 320. I have, with pleasure, selected this remark from an author who |n general seems to have disappointed the expectation of the public as a critic, and still more as a traveller. He had visited the banks of the Hellespont; he had read Strabo; he ought to have consulted the Roman itineraries. How _was it possible for him to confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas (Observations, p. 340, 34t)> two cities which were sixteen miles distant from each other? ** Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on thirty lines of Homer’s catalogue. The thirteenth Book of Strabo is sufficient for our curiosity.

own fame and to been made with tolerable to his

THE DECLINE

A,ND F ALS*

jj

foot ol Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which sca^celjt

received an accession of waters from the tribute of those immortal rivtilets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the shore, from the Sigean to the Rhoetean promontory; and the flanks of the army were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon. The first of those promontories was occupied by Achilles with his invincible myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was created on the ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and Hector; and the citizens of the rising town of Rhoeteiun celebrated his memory with divine honours.®" Before Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, he had conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on lliis celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which lies below ancient Troy, towards the Rhostean promontory and the tomb of Ajax, was first chosen for his new capital; and, thou^ the undertaking was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the Hellespont.®® are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of Con* stantinople, which appears to have been formed by nature for the centre and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, the Imperial city commanded, from her seven hills, ®® the opposite sWes of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile, the harbour secure and capacious, and the approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and the Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of Constantinople, and the prince who possessed those important passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and open them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates of

We

"Strabo, 1 xiii. p. 595. The disposition of the ships, which were drawn up on dry land, and the posts of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly described by Homer. See Iliad, vii. 220. ” Zosim. 1 ii. [c. 30] p. 105. Sozomen, L ii. c. 3. Theophanes, p. 18 [p. 14, .

.

«d. Yen.; vol.

i.

p. 34, ed.

Bonn].

Nicephorus

Callistus,

1.

vii. p. 48.

Zonaras

tom. ii. 1. xiii. [c. 3] p. 6 . Zosimus places the new city between Ilium and Alexandria, but this apparent difference may be reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the foundation of Constantinople, Thessalonica is mentioned by Cedrenus (p. 283) [vol. i. p. 496, ed. Bonn], and Sardica by Zonaras, as the intended capital. They both suppose, with very little probability, that the emperor, if he had not been prevented by a prodigy, would have repeated the mistake of the blind Chalcedonians. "Pocock’s Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p. 127. His plan of the seven hills is clear and accurate. That traveller is seldom so satisfactory.

ROMAN EMPIRE

,

5it

tbr^ellespont jmkI Bosphorus were shut, the c^tal still d|oyed within their apiaous endosure every production which could supply the wants ^tify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants. The seacoasts of Tlicace and Bithynia, which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit /I'^ch prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in their stated seasons, without skill, and almost without labour.’’^ But when the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of the north and south, of the Euxine and of the Mediterranean. Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia, as far as tt^soiir^kfr of the Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was mamdkctured by the skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the farthest India, were brought by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople, which, for many ages, attracted the commerce of the ancient world." The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a single ^t, *was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great cities,®' the emperor was desirous of ascribing his resolution not so much to the uncertain co un sels of human policy as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity that, in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the everlasting foundations of Constantinople;" and though he has not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine as he slept within the walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands adorned with all the s}miboIs of Imperial greatness." ” See Belon, Observations, c. 72-76. Among a variety of different species, may learn the Pelamides, a sort of Thunnies, were the most celebrated. from Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus, that the profits of the fishery constituted the principal revenue of Byzantium. “See the eloquent description of Busbequius, epistol. i. p. 64. _Est in Europa; habet in conspectu Asiam, Egyptum, Africamque a dextra: quie

We

tametsi contigux non sunt,

mans tamen

navigandique commoditate veluti

A

sinistra vero Pontus est Euxinus, etc. _ * Datur haec venia antiquitati, ut miscendo humana divinis, primordia urbioin augustiora faciat. T. Liv. in prooem. says, in one of his laws, pro commoditate Urbis quam geterno nomine,

junguntur.

"He

jubente Deo, donavimus. Cod. Theodos. 1 xiii. tit. v. leg. 7. "The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the author of the Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague and general expressions. For a moiv particular account of the vision wc arc obliged to have recourse to such Latin writers as William of Malmesbury. See Ducange, C. P. L i. p. 24, aj. .

THE HECLIME 'AND FALL OF

5X3

Hie monarch awoke, interpreted

the auspicious omen, and ob out hesitation, the will of Heaven. The day which gave birth to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had and though Constantine been ordained by a generous superstition; mi^t omit some rites which savoured too strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor 'himself led the solemn procession, and directed the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined capital, till the growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe that he had already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. “ I shall still advance,” replied Constantine, “ till Hx, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop.” “ Without presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the more humble task of describing the extent and limits of Constantinople.^" In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic; but it may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on that side beyond the modem limits of the Seraglio. The new walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient fortification, and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five of the seven hills which, to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order."' About a century after the death of the founder, the new buildings, extending cm one side up the harbour, and on the other along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and perma""See Plutarch in Romul. [c. ii] tom. i. p. 49, edit. Bryan. Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been dug for that purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each of the settlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus adopted his new country. **

Philostorgius,

1.

ii.

c.

9.

This incident, though borrowed from a sus-

pected writer, is characteristic and probable. **See in the M^moires de I’Academie, tom. xxxv. p. 747-758, a dissertation of M. d’Anville on the extent of Constantinople. He takes the plan inserted in the Imperium Orientate of Banduri as the most complete; but by a series of veiy nice observations he reduces the extravagant proportion of the scale, and, instead of 9500, determines the circumference of the city as consisting

of about 7800 French

toises.

"Codinus, Antiquitat. Const, p. 12 [p. 25, ed. Bonn]. He assigns the church of St. Anthony as the boundary on the side of the harbour. It is mentioned in Ducange, 1 iv. c. 6; but I have tried, without success, to discover the exact place where it was situated. .

tHE ROMAK EMPIRE

5x4

nent enclosure of valls.*^ From the eastern promontory to the goldm gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman miles, the circumference measured between ten and eleven, and the surface might be computed as equal to about two thousand English acres. It is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constan" tinople over the adjacent villages of the European and even of the Asiatic coast.^^ But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbour, may deserve to be considered as a part of the city;^° and this addition may perhaps authorise the measure of a By-

zantine historian, who assigns sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference of his native city.'*® Such an extent may seem not unworthy of an Imperial residence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes,®^ to ancient Rome, to London, and eveq to Paris.®®

The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an

eternal monuof the glories of his reign, could employ in the prosecution of tlut great work the wealth, the labour, and all that yet remained of the genius, of obedient millions. Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with Imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople by

ment

the allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the construction of the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts. '® The forests

“The new wall of Theodosius was constructed in the year 413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and rebuilt in three months by the diligence of the prsefect Cyrus. The suburb of the Blachernae was first taken into the city in the reign of Heraclius,

“The measurement

Ducange, Const.

1.

1.

c.

10,

11.

expressed in the Notitia by 14,075 feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were Greek feet; the proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by M. dIAnville. He compares the 180 feet with 78 Hashemite cubits, which in different writers are assigned for the heights of St. Sophia. Each of these cubits was equal to 27 French inches. “The accurate Thevenot (1. i. c. is) walked in one hour and three-quarters round two of the sides of the triangle, from the Kiosk of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D’AnviIle examines with care, and receives with confidence, this decisive testimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles. The extravagant computation of Toumefort (Lettre XI.) of thirty-four or thirty miles, without including Scutari, is a strange departure from his usual character. “The sycae, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth region, and were very much embellished by Justinian. It has since borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former is obvious; that of the latter is unknown. See Ducangc, Const. 1 i. c. 22, and Gyllius de Byzant. 1 iv. c. 10. " One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be translated into riodem Greeic miles each of seven stadia, or 6^, sometimes only 600, French toises. See D’Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 53 *'When the ancient texts, which describe the size of Babylon and Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and the measures ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled the great but not incredible circumfereni* of about twenty-five or thirty miles. Compare D’Anville, Moti. de I’Academie, tom. xxviii. p. 235, with his Description de I’Egypte, p. 201, 202. “If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal squares of 50 French toises, the former contains 850, and the latter 1160, of those divisions. “Six hundred centenaries, or sixty thousand pounds’ wei^t of gold. This sum is taken from Codinus, Antiquit. Const, p. ii [p. 23, ed. Bonn] ; but unlesti is

.

.

the decline and fall of

SM l)bat

overshadowed the shores of the Euzine, and the celebrated quarries

^ white marble in the

island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhausready to be conveyed, by the convenience of a diort water-carriage, to the harbour of Byzantium.*** A multitude of labourers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil but thtfimpatience of Constantine soon discovered that, in the decline qf the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his architects bore a very unlittle

tible stock of materials,

;

gual

proportion to the greatness of his designs.

The

magistrates of the

most distant provinces were therefore directed to institute schools, to appoint professors, and, by the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in the study and practice of architecture a sufficient number of ingenious youths who had received a liberal education.*^ The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus surpassed indeed the power of 'a Roman emperor; but the hnmortal productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments.*** The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient times, contributed to the splendid triumph of Con** stantinople; and gave occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, who observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting except the souls of the illustrious men whom these admirable monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in the city of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire, when the human mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes. During the siege of Byzantium the conqueror had pitched his tent on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To p>erpetuate the memory of his success, he chose the same advantageous position for the principtil had derived his information from some purer sources, he would probably have been unacquainted with so obsolete a mode of reckoning. "For the forests of the Black Sea, consult Tournefort, Lettre XVI.; for the marble quarries of Proconnesus, see Strabo, 1 xiii. p. 588. The latter had already furnished the materials of the stately buildings of Cyzicus. " See the Codex Theodos. 1 xiii. tit. iv. leg. i. This law is dated in the year 334, and was addressed to the prxfect of Italy, whose jurisdiction extended over Africa. The commentary of Gk)defroy on the whole title well deserves to be consulted. that contemptible author

.

.

* Constantinopolis

dedicator poene

omnium urbium

nuditate.

Hieronym.

See Codinus, p. 8, 9 [p. 16 sq. ed. Bonn]. The author of the Antiquitat. Const. 1 iii. (apud Banduri Imp, Orient, tom. i. p. 41 ) enumerates Rome. Sicily, Antioch, Athens, and a long list of other cities. The provinces of Greece and Asia Minor may be supposed to have yielded the richest booty. "Hist. Compend. p. 369 [vol. i. p. 648, ed. Bonn]. He describes the statue. Or rather bust, of Homer with a degree of taste which plainly indicates that Cedrenus copied the style of a more fortunate age. Chron.

p. 181.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE have been of a circular or rather dliptical opposite entrances formed triun^hal judies; the porticoes, which enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues, and the centre of the Forum was occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilated fragment is now degraded by the appellation of the 6urnt pUlar. This column was erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high, and was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about ten feet in height, and about thirty-three in circumference.*® On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head.*® The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building about four hundred paces in length, and one hundred in breadth.*^ The space between the two metm or goals was filled with statues and obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity, the bodies of three serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the defeat of Xerxes was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the victorious Greeks.*® The beauty of the Hippodrome has been long since defaced by

Forum/*

form.

wliidi appears to

The two

“Zosim. 1 ii. [c. 30] p. 106. Chron. Alexandria, vel Paschal, p. 284. Dncange, Const. 1 . i. c. 24. Even the last of those writers seems to confound the Forum of Constantine with the Augusteum, or court of the palace. I am not satisfied whether 1 have properly distinguished what belongs to the one and the other. * The most tolerable account of this column is given by Pocock, Description many instances perplexed of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p. 131. But it is still and unsatisfactory. “Ducange, Const. 1 i. c. 24, p. 76, and his notes ad Alexiad. p. 382. The statue of Constantine or Apollo was thrown down under the reign of Alexias .

m

.

Comuenus. [On this column Constantine with singular shamelessness placed his own He statue, to which were attributed the qualities of Apollo and Christ. substituted the nails of the Passion for the rays of the sun. On A.o. 1412 the keystone was loosened by an earthquake, and the statue fell in the reign O. S.] of Alexius Comnenus, being replaced by the Cross *' Tournefort (Lcttre XII.) computes the Atmeidan at four hundred paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet each, it was three hundred toues See d’Anville, in length, about forty more than the great circus of Rome.

—

Mesures

Itineraires, p. 73.

[According to the measurements of M, Paspates (says Professor Bury) the length was 320 yards, the breadth 79 yards. O. S.] “The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice if they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be alleged on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const, p. 668. Gyllius de Byzant. 1 ii. c. 13. i. The original consecration of the tripod and pillar in the temple of Delphi may be proved from Herodotus and Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus agrees with the three ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred ornaments of the temple of Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the Hippodrome is particularly mentioned. 3. All the European travellers

—

.

—

^

'

AND

THS

fAtlu

OF

rude hands of the Turkish conquenurs, but, under the Similar appdlation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a pl^e of ezerciK for their horses. From the throne, whence the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a

iliit

descended to ^e palace, a magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis, between the Hippodrome might likewise celebrate the baths, and the church of St. Sophia."" which still retained the name of Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched by the munificence of Constantine, with lofty columns, various marbles, and above threescore statues of bronze."^ But we should deviate from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or quarters of the city. It may be sufficient to observe that

winding staircase

•

We

whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleastue of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. particular description, composed about a century after its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses which, for their size or beauty, deserved to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian habitations.""

A

who have it

visited Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to Pocock, describe place, and almost in the same manner ; the differences between are occasioned only by the injuries which it has sustained from the

in the

them

same

Turks. Mahomet the Second broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke of his battle-axe. Thevenot, 1 i. c. ly. .

[In 1808 the Janissaries revolted against the vizier, Mustapha Baisactar, who wished to introduce a new system of military organization, besieged the uarter of the Hippodrome in which stood the palace of the viziers, and the flippodrome was consumed in the conflagration. O. S.] •The Latin name Cochlea was adopted by the Greeks, and very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history. Ducange, Const. 1 . ii. c. i, p. i(^ "There are three topographical points which indicate the situation of the palace, i. The staircase which connected it with the Hippodrome or Atsmall artificial port on the Propontis, from whence there was meidan. 2. an easy ascent, by a flight of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace. 3. The Augusteum was a spacious court, one side of which was occupied by the front of the palace, and another by the church of St. Sophia. "Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths were a part of old Byzantium. The diificuty of assigning their true situation has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to connect them with St. Sophia and the palace: but the original plan inserted in Banduri places them on the other side of the city, near the harbour. For their beauties see Chron. Paschal, p. 285, and Gyllius de Byzant. 1 . ii. c. y. Christodorus (see Antiquitat. Const. 1 vii.) composed inscriptions in verse for each of the statues. He was a Thebw poet in genius as well as in birth: Boeotum in crasso jurarcs acre natum. "See the Notitia. Rome only reckoned iy8o large houses, domus; but the word must have had a more dignified signification. No insula are mentioned at Constantinople. The old capital consisted of 424 streets, the new

—

A

.

of 322.

TBB ROMAN EMPIRE

fff

Tlw

poiMiloaaness of his favoured city was the next aad most serious object of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages whidi succeeded the translation of the empire, the remote and the immediate consequences of that memorable event were strangely confounded by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the Latins.^’ It was asserted and believed that all the noble families of Rome, the senate, and the equestrian order, with their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to the banks of the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient capital; and that the lands of Italy, long since converted into gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants.*^ In the course of this history such exaggerations will be reduced to their just value; yet, since the ^growth of Constantinople cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colony was raised at the expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Many opulent senators of Rome and of the eastern provinces were probably invited by Constantine to adopt for their country the fortunate spot which he had chosen for his own residence. The invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished from commands, and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favourites the palaces which he had built in the several quarters of the city, assigned them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity,** and alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia to grant hereditary estates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital.** But these encouragements and obligations soon became superfluous, and were graduaUy abolished. Wherever the seat of government is fixed, a considerable part of the public revenue will be expended by the prince himself, by “Liiitprand Legatio ad Imp. Nicephorum, p. 153. The modern Greeks have strangely disfigured the antiquities of Constantinople. We might excme the errors of the Turkish or Arabian writers; but it is somewhat astonishii^ that the Greeks, who had access to the authentic materials preserved in th«r own language, should prefer fiction to truth, and loose tradition to genuine history. In a single page of Codinus we may detect twelve unpardqnable mistakes: the reconciliation of Severus and Niger, the marriage of their son and daughter, the siege of Byzantium by the Macedonians, the invasion of the Gauls which recalled Severus to Rome, the sixty years which elapsed from his death to the foundation of Constantinople, etc. “ Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. 17. “Themist. Orat, iii. p, 48, edit. Hardouin. Sozomen, 1 ii. c. 3. Zosim. ii. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. If we could credit Codinus 1 [c. 31] p. 107. (p. 10) [p. 20, sq., ed. Bonn], Constantine built houses for the senators on the exact model of their Roman palaces, and_ gratified them, as well as himself, with the pleasure of an agreeable surprise; but the whole story is full .

.

of fictions and inconsistencies. **The law by which the younger Theodosius, in the year 438, abolished this tenure, may be found among the Novell® of that emperor_ at the end of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. nov. 12. M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 371) has evidently mistaken the nature of these estates. With a grant from the Imperial demesnes, the same condition was accepted as a favour, which would justly have been deemed a hardship if it had been imposed upon private property. _

—

THE DECLINE AMD EALL OF

5t«

jju ministers, by the ofiQcers of justice, and by the domestics of the palace. The most wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third and more numerous class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, who derive their subsistence from their own labour, and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a century Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the pre-eminence of riches and numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people, and the additional foundations, which on either »de were advanced into the sea, might alone have composed a very considerable city."^ The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorer citizens of Rome from the necessity of labour. The magnificence of the first Caesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople: but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people, has incurred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus, that, in the enjo5TOent of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any consideration either of public or private interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital was applied to feed a lazy and insolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province.** Some

"The

passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen, and of Agathias, and inhabitants at Constantinople, are collected and connected by Gyllius de Byzant, 1 i. c. 3. Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr, Anthem. 56, p. 279, edit. Sirmond) describes the moles that were pushed forwards into the sea; they consisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water. " Sozomen, 1 ii. c. 3. Philostorg. 1 ii. c. 9. Codin. Antiquitat. Const, p. 8 [p. 16, ed. Bonn]. It appears by Socrates, 1 ii. c. 13, that the daily allowance of the city consisted of eight myriads of vlror, which we may either translate, with Valesius, by the words modii of corn, or consider as expressive of the number of loaves of bread. [This must not be taken to mean 80,000 medimni as Naudet supposes, or It is probable the reference is to 80,000 80,000 modii as Finlay believes. In fact this is stated by the author of the Life of Paul, loaves of bread. Bishop of Constantinople, and it is_ confirmed by the fact that, from the time of Aurelian, bread was daily distributed to the people at Rome instead of corn every month as formerly. O. S.] " See Cod. Theodos. 1 xiii. and xiv. and Cod. Justinian. Edict, xii. tom. ii. p. 648, edit. Genev. See the beautiful complaint of Rome in the poem of Claudian de Bell. Gildonico, ver. 60-62: Cum subiit par Roma mihi, divisaque sumsit .£quales Aurora togas; ^^yptia rura In partem cessere novam.

which

relate to the increase of buildings

.

.

.

.

—

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

S*Q

Other regulations of this emperor are less liable to blame, but th^ are deserving of notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen regions or quarters, dignified the public council with the appellation of senate,®* communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy,®- and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, the first and most favoured daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy, which was due to her age, to her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former greatness.®® As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience of a lover, the walls, the porticoes, and the principal edifices were completed in a few years, or, according to another account, in a few months:®* but this extraordinary diligence should excite the less admira> less

“The

regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the Code of Justinian, particularly described in the Notitia of the younger Theodosius; but as the four last of them are not included within the wall of Constantine, it may be doubted whether this division of the city should be referred to the founder. “ Senatum constituit secundiordinis ; Claras vocavit. Anonym. Valesian. See a curious note p. 715. The senators of old Rome were styled Clarissivii. of Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 9. From the eleventh epistle of Julian it should seem that the place of senator was considered as a burthen rather than as an honour; but the Abbe de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 371) has shown that this epistle could not relate to Constantinople. Might we not read, instead of the celebrated name of the obscure but more probable word ? Bisanthe or Rhoedestus, now Rhodosto, was a small maritime city of Thrace. See Stephan. Byz. de Urbibus, p. 225 [ed. Lugd. B. 1694], and Cellar. Geograph, tom. i. p. 849. “Cod. Theodos. 1 . xiv. 13. [Add Cod. Just. xi. 20. S.] The commentary of Godefroy (tom. v. p. 220) is long, but perplexed; nor indeed is it easy to ascertain in what the Jus Italicum could consist after the freedom of the city had been communicated to the whole empire. [The Jus Italicum consisted in, first, the right of having a free constitution; secondly, the exemption from taxes; and thirdly, the title of the land to be regarded as Quiritarian property. Down to the time of Diocletian, Italy was free from both the land-tax and the poll-tax, but when she_ lost this exemption the privilege was still retained by many of the provincial towns, and continued to bear the name of the Jus Italicum, though no longer appropriate. This is the only way in whi^ the mention of the Jus Italicum in the code of Justinian can be accounted for at the time when the free constitution of the towns, and the institution of Quiritarian property had

and

—

—

been put an end to. O. S.] “Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) celebrates Constantinople as not less superior to His learned commenall other cities than she was inferior to Rome itself. tator (Spanheim, p. 75, 76) justifies this language by several parallel and contemporary instances. Zosimus, as well as Socrates and Sozomen, flourished after the division of the empire between the two sons of Theodosius, which established a perfect equality between the old and the new capital. “Codinus (Antiquitat. p. 8 [p. 17, ed. Bonn.]) affirms that the foundations of Constantinople were laid in the year of the world 5837 (a.d. 329), on the 26th of September, and that the city was dedicated the ii_th_ of May, 5838 (a.d. 330). He connects these dates with several characteristic epochs, but they contradict each other; the authority of Codinus is of little weight, and the space which he assigns must appear insufficient. The term of ten years is given us by Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) ; and Spanheim labours to establish .the truth of it (p. ^-7S), by the help of two passages from Themistius (Orat. iv. p. 58) and of Philostorgius ( 1 . ii. c. 9), which form a period from the

THE DECLINE AND

FALX. OF'

of the buildings were finished in so hasty and imperunder the succeeding reign, they were pteaavtd. with difficulty from impending niin.^'^ But while they displayed the vigour and freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the

tidn, since

fect

many

a manner,

that,

dedication of his city.®“ The games and largesses which crowned the of this memorable festival may easily be supposed; but there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as the birthday of the city

pomp

returned, the statue of Constantine, framed by his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in its right hand a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on a triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as When it was opposite to the throne it moved through the Hippodrome. of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat, and with grateful reverence adored the memory of his predecessor.®’ At the festival of the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on the city of Constantine.®® But the name of Constantinople ®° has prevailed over that honourable epithet, and after the revolution of fourteen centuries still perpetuates ^e fame of its

author.’*

The foundation

of a new capital is naturally connected with the new form of civil and military administration. The the complicated system of policy introduced by Diode-

establishment of a distinct

view of

year 324 to the year 334. Modern critics are divided concerning this point of chronology, and their different sentiments are very accurately described by Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 619-625. " Themistius, Orat. iii. p. 47. Zo.sim. 1 . ii, [c. 32] p. 108. Constantine himself, in one of his laws (Cod. Theod. 1 xv. tit. i. [leg. 23?]), betrays his .

inmatience.

Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of superstition which prevailed in their own times, assure us that Constantinople was consecrated to the virgin Mother of God. [The city was dedicated on the nth May, a.d. 330. O. S.] _

—

"The

m^ be

earliest

and most complete account of

this

extraordinary ceremony Tillemont, and the other

found in the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 285. friends of Constantine, who are offended with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a Christian prince, had a right to consider it as doubtful, but they were not authorised to omit the mention of it. " Sozomen, 1 ii. c. 3, Ducange, C. P. 1 . i. c. 6. Velut ipsius Romse filiam, v. c. 25. is the expression of Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, 1 * Eutropius, 1. X. c. 8. Julian. Orat i. p. 8. Ducange, C. P. 1. i. c. 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on the metals of Constantine. ”The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.) affects to deride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to triumph in the disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name is now lost in the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish corruption of ciied to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and, after

assumed the pride of ancient nobQity.** The Patrician on the other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled with the mass of the people.*® Very few remained who could derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even from that of the republic, when Caesar and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the senate a competent number of new Patrician families, in the hope of perpetuating an order which was still considered as honourable and sacred.** But these artificial supplies (in which the reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations.*' Little more was left when Constantine ascended the throne than a vague and imperfect tradition that the PaTo form a body of tricians had once been the first of the Romans. nobles, whose influence may restrain while it secures the authority of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with the character and policy of Constantine; but, had he seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify by an arbitrary edict an institution which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of Patkicuns, but he revived it

some

generations,

families,

as a personal, not as an hereditary distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the ** See the animated picture drawn by Sallust, in the Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honour of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit of his lieutenant Marius (c. 64). Two hundred years before, the race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the Plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of Carcilius, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles derived their origin from a sutler. “In the year of Rome 800 very few remained, not only of the old Patrician families, but even of those which had been created by Csesar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician ASmilii) was degraded so low that his father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left him only ten slaves and somewhat less than three hundred pounds sterling. (Valerius Maximus, 1 iv. c. 4, n. ii. Aurel. Victor in Scauro. [De Viris 111 . 72]). The family was saved from oblivion by the merit of the son. “Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Cassius, I. lii. [c. 42] p. 693. The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patridan by the emperor Vespasian, reflected honour on that ancient order; but his ancestors had not any claim beyond an .

Equestrian nobility.

“This failure would have been almost impossible if it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad Sueton. in Cxsar. c. 42; see Hist. August, p. 203 [Trebell. Poll. Gaud. c. 3], and Casaubon Comment, p. 220), that Vespasian created at once a thousand Patrician families. But this extravagant number is too much even for the whole Senatorial order, unless we should include all the Roman knights who were distincpiished by the permission of wearing the laticlave.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

S *7

pre-eminence over all the great officers of state, with the most fanuliar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life; and, as they were usually favourites and ministers who had grown old in the Imperial court, the true etymology of the word was perverted by ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted Fathers of the emperor and the republic.®* II.

The

fortunes of the Prastorian prxfects were essentially difierent

from those of the consuls and Patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military administration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces, were intrusted to their superintending care; and, like the vizirs of the East, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the praefects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the Praetorian bands; but, after those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian and Anally suppressed by Constantine, the praefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor’s person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Constantine of all military command as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and, at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Praetorian praefect; and after the monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he still continued to create the same number of four priEfects, and intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already administered, i. The praefect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece once acknowledged the authority of the praefect of IIl3n"icum. 3. The power of the praefect of Italy was not

confined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over the additional territory of Rhaetia as far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependent islands of ,the Mediterranean, and over that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The praefect of the Gauls comprehended

"Zosimus,

1.

ii.

[c.

40] p. 118;

and Godefroy ad G}d. Theodos.

1 . vi. tit.

vL

—

gas

THE DECEIKB AND FALL OF

denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and ^)ain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas.** After the Praetorian prefects had been dismissed from all military command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations were adequate to the ambition and abilities of ttoder that plural

the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the people; of the former, to protect the citi-

zens who are obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of their property which is required for the expenses of the state. The coin, the highwa3rs, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, whatever could interest the public prosperity, was moderated by the authority of the Prstorian prxfects. As the immediate representatives of the Imperial majesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify, the general edicts by their discretionary proclamations. They watdied over the conduct of the provincial governors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdictions an appeal in every matter of importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the prsefect: but his sentence was final and absolute; and the emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they honoured with such unbounded confidence.**® His appointments were suitable to his dignity;*®* and, if avarice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their prefects, they were attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of its duration.*®* **Zosimus, 1 . ii. [c. 33] p. 109, no. If we had not fortunately possessed this satisfactory account of the division of the power and provinces of the Prsrtorian prefects, we should frequently have been perplexed amidst the copious details of the Code, and the circumstantial minuteness of the Notitia. [The Prxfects still provided supplies for the soldiers, collected the inland revenue, and appointed as well as watched over the conduct of the provincial governors. O. S.] *" See a law of Constantine himself. praefectis autem praetorio provocare, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian. 1 vii. tit. Ixii. leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of Constantine (Heinec. Hist. Juris Romani, p. 349), who admits this law as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the Praetorian praefects to the masters of the horse of the ancient dictators. Pandect. 1 i.

A

.

.

tit.

xi.

*‘®When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the empire, instituted a Praetorian praefect for Africa, he allowed him a salary of one hundred pounds of gold- Cod. Justinian. 1 i. tit. xxvii. leg. i. “For this, and the other dignities of the empire, it may be sufficient to refer to tlic ample commentaries of Pancirolus and Godefroy, who have diligently collected and accurately digested in their proper order all the legal .

;

THE ROMAK EMPIRE From

their superior

in^rtance and

dignity,

st9*

Rome and

Coostanti>

nople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the Praetorian prse* fects. The immense size of the city, and the experience of the taurdy, ineffectual operation of the laws, had furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power."*’ Valerius Messalla was appointed the first prefect of Rome, that his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but at the end of a few days that accomplished citizen resigned his office, declaring, with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he found himself incapable of exercising a power incompatible with public freedom.’**’ As the sense of liberty became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly understood; and the praefect, who seemed to have been designed as a tqVror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble families of Rome. The praetors, annually created as the judges of law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate who was usually admitted into the confidence of the prince. Their courts were deserted; their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen,"*’ was gradually reduced to two or three; and their important functions were confined to the expensive obligation of exhibiting games for the amusement of the people. After the

From those authors Dr. Howell (History of the 24-77) has deduced a very distinct abridgment of the state of the Roman empire. ‘"Tacit. Annal. vi. ii. Euseb. in Chron. p. 155. Dion Cassius, in the ora-i tion of Maecenas ( 1 . lii. [c. 21] p. 675), describes the prerogatives of the praefect of the city as they were established his own time. The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to his merit. In the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to the friendsliip of Brutus. He followed the standard of the republic till it was broken in the fields of Philippi he then accepted and deserved the favour of the most moderate of the conquerors; and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity 111 the court of Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the conquest of Aquitain. As an orator he disputed the palm of eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla cultivated every muse, and was the patron of every man of geniu& He spent his evenings in philosophic conversation with Horace ; assumed his place at table between Delia and Tibullus; and amused his leisure by enand historical World, vol. ii.

materials. p.

m

couraging the poetical talents of young Ovid. Incivilem esse potestatem contestans, says the translator of Eusebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other words quasi nescius exercendi. *“ See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad i lib. Tacit. Annal. Heineccii Element. Juris Civilis secund. ordinem Pandect, tom. i. p. TOt See likewise Spanheim de Usu Numismatum, tom. 11. dissertat. x. p. 119, In the year 450 Marcian published a law that three citizens should be wnual^ created praetors of Constantinople by the choice of the senate, but with their own consent. Cod. Justinian. 1 i. tit. xxxix. leg. 2. "•Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad. P.U. videtur pertinere; sed et siquid intra centesimum milliariura. Ulpian in Pandect. 1 i. tit. xii. n. i. He proceeds to enumerate the various offices of the praefect, who, in the code of Justinian ( 1 i. tit. xxxix. leg 3). « declared to precede and command all city magistrates sine injuria ac detrimento honoris alieni. :

.

.

.

—

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

S30

Roman consuls had been changed into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the prefects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of diat venerable assembly. They received appeals from ^e distance of one hundred miles ; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence that

office of

all

municipal authority was derived from them

alonei^***

In the discharge

of his laborious employment the governor of Rome was assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a safeguard against fires, robberies, and

nocturnal disorders; the custody and distribution of the public allowance and provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tiber; the inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private as well as 'public works. Their vigilance ensured the three principal objects of a regular police safety, plenty, and cleanliness; and, as a proof of the attenion of government to preserve the splendour and ornaments of the capital, a particular inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years after the foundation of Constantinople a similar magistrate was created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses perfect equality was established between and wiA the same powers. the dignity of the two municipal and that of the four Praetorian prsfects.“® Those who in the Imperial hierarchy were distinguished by the title of Respectable formed an intermediate class between the illustrious prefects and the honourable magistrates of the provinces. In this class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa claimed a pre-eminence, which was yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appeal from their tribunal to that of the praefects was almost the only mark of their dependence.”® But the civil government of the empire was distributed into thirteen great dioceses, each of which equalled the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses w'as subject to the jurisdiction of the count of the East; and we may convey some idea of the importance and variety of his functions by observing that six hundred apparitors, who would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediate office.^^^ The of corn

A

Besides our usual guides, we may observe that Felix Cantelorius has written a separate treatise, De Praefecto Urbis; and that many curious details concerning the police of Rome and Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian Code. ““ Eunapius afiirms that the proconsul of Asia was independent of the praefect; which must, however, be understood with some allowance: the jurisdiction of the vice-praefect he most assuredly disclaimed. Pancirolus, p. i6l. "’'The ptoconsviV of Kfi'vca had four huniieA apparitors; and they all received largs salaries, either from the treasury or the province. See PanrimI P 26, and Cod, Justinian. 1 . xii. tit. Ivi. Ivii. *°*

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

'

S$t

place of Augustal prcefect of Egypt was no longer filled by a Roman Imight, but name was retained; and the extraordinary powers which the situation of the country and the temper of the inhabitants had once made indispensable were still continued to the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses of Asiana, Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia, or Western Illjrricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain were governed by twelve vicars or vice-prccfects^^^ whose name sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of their office. It may be added that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman armies, the military counts and dukes, who will be hereafter mentioned, were allowed the rank and title of Respectable. As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the councils of the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide the substance and to multiply the titles of power. The vast countries which the Roman conquerors had united tmder the same simple form of administration were imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments, till at length the

—

—

whole empire was distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of which supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these, three were governed by proconsuls, thirty-seven by considers, five

by

correctors, and seventy-one by presidents.^^^ The appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their dignity were curiously varied, and their situation, from accidental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable or advantageous. But they were all (excepting only the proconsuls) alike included in the class of honourable persons; and they were alike intrusted, during the pleasure of the prince, and under the authority of the prsfects or their deputies, with the administration of justice and the finances in their respective districts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects

“In Italy there was likewise the Vicar of Rome. It has been much disputed whether his jurisdiction measured one hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the ten southern provinces of Italy. [The Vicar of Rome was styled “ Vicar of the Praetorian Prefect of Italy,” and he had authority over that officer, but not over the prefect of the city (Prefectus Urbis). The Vicar of Rome governed the ten southern provinces, forwarding the income to Rome. The northern provinces were under the " Vicar of Italy.” Thus the name Italia, by a singular change, came to be specially applied (in official language at least) to those northern provinces which, in the time of the Republic, were excluded from Italy proper, being styled Gallia Cisalpina (Gaul on this side of the Alps) in contradiction to Gallia Transalpina. By the later arrangement the provinces, to which the name Italia was in republican days confined, were now excluded from it. Diocletian distributed all the provinces of the empire into twelve large vicariates or dioceses. This arrangement was subsequently enlarged to thirteen, Egypt, which was at first part of the vicariate of the east, being promoted to be a separate vicariate towards the end of the fourth century. O. S.] “'The Table on pp. 102-103, taken from Marquardt (Becker’s Handbuch der Romischen Alterthfimer, vol. iii. part i. p. 240), shows the division of the empire under the four Prxtorian prxfects. Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian there was on^ in ten hoohf

—

COacemtag the office of* a proconsQ 4 yrkose duties ia ttSe most essentia/artt'e/es were the same as those of an ordinary governor of a province.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the system of prO' vincial government, as in the space of six centuries it was improved by the wisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be sufficient for the

and salutary provisions, intended to reFor the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the provinces were armed with the sword of justice. They indicted corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences, the power of life and death. But they were not authorial to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own execution or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most honourable kind of exile. These prehistorian to select two singular strain the abuse of authority, i.

rogatives were reserved to the praefects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight of a few ounces.^*® This distinction, which seems to grant the iarger while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts of oppression, which affected only the freedom or the for-

tunes of the subject; though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, he might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may likewise be considered that exile, considerable fines, or the choice of an easy death, relate more particularly to the rich and the noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or resentment of a provincial magistrate were thus removed from his obscure persecution to the more august and impartial tribunal of the Prstorian prefect. 2. As it was reasonably apprehended that the integrity of the judge might be biassed, if his interest was concerned or his affections were engaged, the strictest regulations were established to exclude any person, without the special dispensation of the emperor, from the government of the province where he was born,'^® and to prohibit the governor or his son from contracting marriage with a native or an inhabitant;^” or from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses within the extent of his jurisdiction.”" Notwithstand-

“‘The

presidents, or consulars, could impose only two ounces; the vicethe East, and praefect of Egypt, six. ; the proconsuls, count of See Heineccii Jur. Civil, tom. i. p. 75. Pandect 1 xlviii. tit. xix. n. 8. Cod. Justinian. 1 i. tit. liv. leg. 4, 6. [The term Prsesides was adopted when Gallienus excluded senators from governorships of imperial provinces and appointed knights. O. S.] "*Ut nulli patriae suae admmistratio sine speciali principis permissu permittatur. Cod. Justinian. 1 i. tit. xli. This law was first enacted by the emperor Marcus, after the rebellion of Cassius (Dion, 1 Ixxi. [c. 31, p. 1195]). The same reg^ilation is observed in China, with equal strictness, and with prsefects, three

.

.

—

.

.

equal effect. Pandect. 1 . xxiii. tit ii. n. 38, 57, 63. “*In jure continetur, ne quis in administratione constitutus aliquid compararet. Cod. Theod. 1 viii. tit. xv. leg. i. This maxim of common law was enforced by a series of edicts (see the remainder of the title) from Constantme to Justin. From this prohibition, which is extended to the meanest officers of the governor, they except only clothes and provisions. The purchase within five years may be recovered ; after which, on information, it devolves to the treasury. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

533

ing these rigorous precautions, the emperor Constantine, after a reign of twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive administration of justice, and expresses the warmest indignation that the audience of the judge, his despatch of business, his seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were publicly sold, either by himself or by the officers of his court. The continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these crimes is attested by the repetition of impotent laws and ineffectual menaces.^^* All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law. The celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the youth of his dominions who had devoted diemselves to the study of Roman jurisprudence; and the sovereign condescends to animate their diligence by the assurance that their skill and ability would in time be rewarded by an adequate share in the government of the republic.^'*® The rudiments of this lucrative science were taught in all the considerable cities of the East and West but the most famous school was that of Berytus,‘“^ on the coast of Phoenicia, which flourished above three centuries from the time of Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an institution so advantageous to After a regular course of education, which lasted five his native country. years, the students dispersed themselves through the provinces in search of fortune and honours; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business in a great empire already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The court of the Praetorian praefect of the East could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen with a salary of sixty pounds of gold to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents by appointing them to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of r^utation, or of favour, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state.^“* In the prac;

-”*Cessent rapaces jam nunc ofhciahum manus; cessent, inquam; nam si moniti non cessaverint, gladiis prscidentur, etc Cod. Theod. 1 i. tit. vii. leg. I. Zeno enacted that all governors should remain in the province, to answer any accusations, fifty days after the expiration of their power. Cod. .

Justinian,

1.

i.

tit.

xtix. leg,

i.

Summa

igitur ope et alacri studio has leges nostras accipite ; et vosmetipsos sic eruditos ostendite, ut spes vos pulchernma foveat; toto legitimo opere perfecto, posse etiam nostram rempublicam in partibus ejus vobis cre-

dendis gubernari. Justinian, in proo^. Institutionum. “The splendour of the school of Berytus, which preserved in the East the language and jurisprudence of the Romans, may be computed to have lasted from the third to the middle of the sixth century. Heinecc. Jur. Rom. Hist. p. 351-356.

“As

in a former period 1 have traced the civil and military promotion of Pertinax, I shall here insert the civil honours of Mallius Theodorus. l. He was distinguished by his eloquence while he pleaded as an advocate in the court of the Praetorian praefect. 2. He governed one of the provinces of Africa, either as president or consular, and deserved, by his administration.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

S34

PR£FECTUS PR^TORIO GaUIARUM

I.

A. Vicarius Urbis Romce.

A. Vicarius Hispanue. 1.

2. 3.

4. 5.

6. 7.

B. 1.

2. 3.

4. S-

6

Consularis ” ”

Prseses ” ” ”

9.

Lusitaniae.

2.

”

” ”

Prseses ” ”

10.

”

II. 12.

” ”

13.

”

14.

”

15.

”

16.

”

17.

”

Consularis Campaniae. ” Tusciae et Umbrias. ” Piceni Suburbicarii.

3.

”

Tarraconensis. Carthaginiensis.

4.

Tingitaniae.

6.

Insularum Balearium.

Prseses Samnii. & ” Sardiniae. ” Corsicae. 9.

Vicarius Septem ProviKciarum.

’’

8.

1.

Consularis Viennensis. " Lugdunensis.

.

7.

B^etic^e.

Gallaeciae.

PR.®FECTUS Pr.S;TORIO ITAU.K.

II.

Germanise Germanise Belgicae

II.

I.

Alpium Maritimarum. Poeninarum et Graiarum. Maximse Sequanorum.

”

2. 3.

"

10.

B. Vicarius 1.

4. 5.

Valentise.

Prseses Britanniae I. ” Britanniae 11 . ” Flaviae Csesariensis.

(Together 29.)

Italia;.

Consularis Venetiae et Histrise.

2.

”

3.

”

.£miliae. Liguriae.

4.

”

Flaminiae et Piceni

Annonarii. 5. 6. 7.

II.

Novempopulana:. Narbonensis I. Narbonensis II. Lugdunensis II. Lugdunensis III. Lugdunensis Senoniae.

et Lucanise.

8. Valerise.

Prseses Alpium Cottiarum. ” Rhaetiae I. ” Rhati® II.

I,

Consularis Maximse Csesariensis. ”

Bruttiorum

7.

9.

Ji

|.S

cS ^R ^

C. Vicarius Britanniarum. 1.

Siciliae.

Corrector Apulise et Calabrise.

I.

fielgicse II.

Aquitanicse Aquitanicse

5.

10. j

n.

Consularis Pannoni® Corrector Savix.

Prxses Pannoni® ” Dalmati®.

II.

I.

12.

"

Noricum Medi-

13.

”

Noricum Ripense.

14.

Dux

terraneum.

Valeri® Ripensis.

C. Vicarius Africa. 1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

Consularis Byzacii. ” Numidi®. Pr®ses Tripolitan®. ” Mauritanix Sitifensis. ” Mauritanix Cxsariensis.

The proconsul of Africa was

di-

under the Emperor, and not under the Prxfectus Prxt. Ital. (Together 30.) rectly

THE ROMAN EMPIRE III.

PR.®FECrUS

PlUETOBIO

A. Directly under the Preefect. The Diocese of Dacia.

4.

Consularis Dacis Me/literranex. Praeses Mcesiae I. ” Praevalitanse. ” Dardaniae.

5.

Dux

1.

2.

3.

IV. Pr^fectus PriETORio Orientis,

IlXYBlCI.

Daciae Ripensis.

A. Comes Orientis. I.

Consularis Palaestinae

2.

Phoenices. Syriae

3t»

Cypri.

Prases Palestina (»

Under a Proconsul.

>y

8. it

Achaia. C. L.

Under

the Vicarius Macedonia:.

Consularis Macedonia:. ”

Greta:. 3. PrsEses Thessalia:.

2.

4.

”

5.

”

6.

”

A

Epiri Veteris. Epiri Novas. Macedonias Salutaris.

part of this last belonged to tht

II.

12.

it

Syrix Salutaris.

it

Osrhoenae. Mesopotamiae.

••

»

Ciliciae II.

13'4-

Comes Rei

15.

Dux B.

I.

2.

Militaris Isauriae. Arabiae.

Thebaidos.

3-

12.)

A ugustalis.

Pro:fee tus

Prseses Libyae Sup. »> Libyse Inf. y»

Diocoesis Dacia.

(Together

Euphratensis.

9-

10.

II.

Palestinae Salutaris. Phoenices Libani.

7.

B.

I.

Cilicise.

4S6.

I.

»»

.®gypti.

4»»

5-

6.

I.

2. 3-

Arcadi®. Corrector Augustamnicae. C. Vicarius Diocccseos Asiana:. Consularis Pamphyliae. » Lydi®. n Cariae.

it

Lycia.

it

Lycaonis.

it

Pisidi®.

rp

Phygi® Pacatian®. Phrygi® Salutaris.

4S6.

7. 7.

D. I.

2.

34-

56. 7-

8.

Praeses Honoriados. Galati® Salutaris.

n

Cappadoci® Cappadoeix

n it

11.

I.

II.

Helenoponti. Ponti Polemoniaci.

it

910.

Vicarius Ponticee.

Consularis Rithyniae. it Galati®. Corrector Paphlagoniae.

n

Armenix Armenia

it

I.

II.

E. Vicarius Thraciarum. I.

Consularis Europa;. tt

2.

Thraci®.

3-

Praeses Haemiraonti.

A5-

6

y*

Rhodop®.

»•

Mcesi®

*• .

II.

Scythi®.

Directly under the Emperor, the Proconsul of Asia under him, :

1.

2.

Consularis Hellesponti. Proeses Insularum.

(Together 40 .)

— S,

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF tioe of the bar these men had considered reason as the instniment of dispute; thqr interpreted the laws according to the dictates of {vivate interest; and the same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in the public administration of the state. The honour of a liberal profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern advocates,

who have filled the most important stations with pure integrity and consummate wisdom; but in the decline of Roman jurisprudence the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of freedmen and plebeians,^’’’' who, with cunning rather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpo^ of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, maintained the gravity of legal professors, by furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest truth, and with arguments to The splendid and popular colour the most unjustifiable pretensions. class was composed of the advocates, who filled the Forum with the soimd of their turgid and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they are described for the most part as ignorant and rapacious guides, who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of delay, and of disappointment; from whence, after a tedious series of years, they were at length dismissed, when their patience and fortune were almost exhausted.' III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the governors, those at least of the Imperial provinces, were invested with the full powers of the sovereign himself. Ministers of peace and war, the distribution of the honour of a brass statue. 3. He was appointed vicar, or vice-praefect of Macedonia. 4. Quaestor. 5. Count of the sacred largesses. 6. Praetorian praefect of the Gauls; whilst he might yet be represented as a young man. 7. After a retreat, perhaps a disgrace, of many years, which Mallius (confounded by some critics with the poet Manilius, see Fabricius Btbliothec. Latin edit. Ernest, tom. i. c. 18, p. 501) employed in the study of the Grecian philosophy, he was named Prastoriaui prefect of Italy, in the year 397. 8. While he still exercised that great office, he was created, in the year 399, consul for the West; and his name, on account of the infamy of his colleague, the eunuch Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fasti. 9. In the ^ar Mallius was appointed a second time Prsetorian praefect of Italy. Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian we may discover the merit of Mallius Theodorus, who, by a rare felicity, was the intimate friend both of Symmachus and of St. Augustin. See Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 1110-1114. “• Mamertinus in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 20. Asterius apud Photium, p.

^8

1500.

’”The curious passage of Ammianus ( 1 . xxx. c. 4), in which he paints the manners of contemporary lawyers, affords a strange mixture of sound sense, false rhetoric, and extravagant satire. Godefroy (Prolegom. ad Cod. Theod. c. i. p. 185) supports the historian by similar complaints and authentic facts. In the fourth century many camels might have been laden with law-books. Eunapius in Vit. JEdesii, p. 72.

THE ROMAK EMPIRE

537

rewards and punishments depended on them alone, and they successively appeared on dieir tribunal in the robes of civil magistracy, and in complete

armour at the head of the Roman legions.*^" The influence of the revenue, the authority of law, and the command of a military force, concurred to render their power supreme and absolute; and whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal province which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely sensible of any change in its political state. From the time of Commodus to the reign of Constantine near one hundred governors might be enumerated, who, with various success, erected the standard of revolt and though the innocent were too often sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimes prevented, by the suspicious cruelty of their master.*®® To secure his throne and the public tranquillity from these formidable servants, Constantine resolved to divide the military from the civil administration, and td establish, as a permanent and professional distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an occasional exThe supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Praetorian praefects pedient. over the armies of the empire was transferred to the two masters general whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry; and though each of these illustrious officers was more peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which were under his immediate ;

inspection, they

Wh indifferently commanded in the which were united

field

the several

same army.*®^' Their number was soon doubled by the division of the East and West; and as separate generals of the same rank and title were appointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the Roman empire was at length committted to eight masters general of the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military commanders were stationed in the provinces: three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper and four on the Lower Danube, in Asia eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts and dukes by which they were bodies, whether of horse or foot,

in the

,

See a very splendid example in the Life of Agricola, particularly c. 20, The lieutenant of Britain was intrusted with the same powers which Cicero, proconsul of Cilicia, had exercised in the name of the senate and

21.

people.

The Abbe Dubos, who has examined with accuracy (see Hist, de la Monarchie Francoise tom. i. p. 41-100, edit. 1742) the institutions of Augustus and of Constantine, observes that, if Otho had been put to death the day before he executed his conspiracy, Otho would now appear in history as innocent as Corbulo.

’"Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 33] p. no. Before the end of the reign of Constantius See Valesius ad Amthe magislri milituin were already increased to four. .

mian.

1.

xvi.

c. 7.

Though

the military counts and dukes are frequently mentioned, both and the codes, we must have recourse to the Notitia for the exact knowledge of their numher and stations. For the institution, rank, privileges, in history

etc.,

of the counts in general, see Cod. Theod.

commentary of Godefroy. (The position of a duke or dux and

1.

vi.

tit.

xii.-xx.

with the

a count or comes, correspond to that

;

the decline and fall of

53*

properly distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very differ* But it ent a sense that the use of them may occasion some surprise. should be recollected that the second of those appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts or companions, a title of honour, or rather of favour, which had beeen recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt was the ensign which dis tinguish ed the office of the counts and dukes; and, besides their pay,

they received a liberal allowance sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety servants and one hundred and fifty-eight horses. They were strictly prohibited from interfering in any matter which related to the administration of justice or the revenue; but the command which they exercised over the troops of their department was independent of the authority of the magistrates. About the same time that Constantine gave a legal sanction to the ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman empire the nice balance of the civil and the military powers. The emulation, and sometimes the discord, which reigned between two professions of opposite interests and incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and of pernicious consequences. It was seldom to be expected that the general and the civil governor of a province should either conspire for the disturbance, or ^ould unite for the service, of their country. While the one delayed to offer the assistance which the other disdained to solicit, the troops very frequently remained without orders or without supplies, the public safety was betrayed, and the defenceless subjects were left exposed to the fury of the barbarians. The divided administration, which had been formed by Constantine, relaxed the vigour of the state, while it secured the tranquillity of the monarch. The memory of Constantine has been deservedly censured for another innovation which corrupted military discipline, and prepared the ruin of the empire. The nineteeen years which preceded his final victory over Licinius had been a period of licence and intestine war. The rivals who contended for the possession of the Roman world had withdrawn the greatest part of their forces from the guard of the general frontier; and the principal cities which formed the boundary of their respective dominions were filled with soldiers, who considered their countrymen as their most implacable enemies. After the use of these internal garrisons had ceased with the civil war, the conqueror wanted either wi^om or firmness to revive the severe discipline of Diocletian, and to suppress a fatal indulgence which habit had endeared and almost confirmed to the military order. From the reign of Constantine a popular and even legal distinction was admitted between the Palatines and the Borderers; the of the presses or civil governor of a province. The name comes or count was (says Bury) derived from the comiter who attended the princeps when he paid his official visit to the provinces. O. S.]

—

"Zosimus,

Roman

troops

1.

ii.

is

34] p. in. The distinction between the two classes of very darkly expressed in the historians, the laws, and the [c.

THE HOMAN EMPIRE

539

troops of the court, as they -were improperly styled, and the troops of the frontier. The former, elevated by the superiority of their pay and privileges, were permitted, except in the extraordinary emergencies of war, to occupy their tranquil stations in the heart of the provinces. The most flouri^ing cities were oppressed by the intolerable weight of quarters. The soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues of their profession, and contracted only the vices of civil life. They were either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon became careless of their martial exercises, curious in their diet and apparel, and, while they inspired terror to the subjects of the empire, they trembled at the hostile approach of the barbarians.'®* The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers was no longer maintained with the same care, or defended with the same vigilance. The numbers which still remained under the name of the troops of the frontier might he suffic'ent for the ordinary defence. But their spirit was degraded by the humiliating reflection that they, who were exposed to the hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare, were rewarded only with about two-thirds of the pay and emoluments which were lavished on the troops of the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised the nearest to the level of those unworthy favourites were in some measure disgraced by the title of honour which they were allowed to assume. It was in vain that Constantine repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and sword against the Borderers who should dare to desert their colours, to connive at the inroads of the barbarians, or to participate in the spoil.'*' The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counsels are seldom removed by the application of partial severities; and though succeeding princes laboured to restore the strength and numbers of the frontier garrisons, the empire, till the last moment of its dissolution, continued to languish under the mortal wound Consult, however, the copious paraiiilon or abstract, which Godefroy has drawn up, of the seventh book, de Re Militari, of the Theodosian Code, 1 vii. tit. i. leg. 18; 1 viii. tit. i. leg. 10. [With regard to the new military organisation introduced into the empire in the epoch of Diocletian and Constantine, see Mommsen’s article \n Hermes for 1889 (vol. xxiv. p. 129) entitled Das rbmische Militdrwescn seit Diocletian, and the masterly summary of it which appears in Appendix No. 12, vol. ii. of Bury’s Gibbon. Briefly stated the points are as follow, viz. that under Diocletian the regular army was divided into two main sections, (l) the troops that accompanied the emperor as he moved throughout the empire, and The former were (2) the troops that were stationary on the frontiers. Early in Constantine’s called milites in sacro comitatu, the latter limilanei. reign the milites in sacro comiiatu were broken into two, the comitatenses and the Palatini. There were, therefore, three classes. Palatini, Comitatenses, and limilanei. O. S.] “Ferox crat in sues miles et rapax, ignavus vero in hostes et fractus. Ammian. 1 xxii. c. 4. He observes that tliey loved downy beds and houses of marble, and that their cups were heavier than their swords. Cod. Theod. 1 vii. lit. i. leg. i ; tit. xii. leg. i. See Howell’s Hist, of the World, vol. ii. p. 19. That learned historian, who is not sufficiently known, labours to justify the character and policy of Constantine. Xotitia.

.

.

—

—

.

.

^ «4iich

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF had been so rashly or so weakly

inflicted

by

the

hand of C(»>stan-

tine.

The ggnip timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting fiiat the most feeble will prove the most obedient, seems to pervade the institutions of several princes, and particularly those of Constantine. The mar tial pride of the legions, whose victorious camps had so often been the scene of rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their past exploits, and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long as they

maintained their ancient establishment of six thousand men, they subsisted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of them singly, a visible and important object in the military history of the Roman empire. A few years afterwards these gigantic bodies were shrunk to a very diminutive size; and when seven legions, with some auxiliaries, defended the city of Amida against the Persians, the total garrison, with the inhabitants of both sexes, and the peasants of the deserted country, did not exceed the number of twenty thousand persons.^®* From this fact, and from similar examples, there is reason to believe that the constitution of the legionary troops, to which they partly owed their valour and discipline, was dissolved by Constantine; and that the bands of Roman infantry, which still assumed the same names and the same honours, consisted only of one thousand or fifteen hundred men.”® The conspiracy of so many separate detachments, each of which was awed by the sense of its own weakness, could easily be checked; and the successors of Constantine might indulge their love of ostentation, by issuing their orders to one hundred and thirty-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of their numerous armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed into several hundred cohorts of infantry, and squadrons of cavalry. Their arms, and titles, and ensigns were calculated to inspire terror, and to display the variety of nations who marched under the Imperial standard. And not a vestige was left of that severe simplicity which, in the ages of freedom and victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Roman army from the confused host of an Asiatic monarch.^’’* more particular enumeration, drawn from the Notttia, might exercise the diligence of an antiquary; but the

A

historian will content himself with observing that the number of permanent stations or garrisons established on the frontiers of the empire

amounted to five hundred and eighty-three; and “Aminian, 1 xix. c. two Gallic legions were .

that,

under the successors

He

2.

like

observes (c. s) that the desperate sallies of a handful of water thrown on a great conflagra-

tion.

“

Pancirolus ad Notitiam, p 96. Memoires de I’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. XXV. p. 491. “*Romana acies unius prope formse erat et hominum et armorum genere. —Regia acies varia magis multis gentibus dissimilitudine armorum auxiliorumque crat. T. Liv. 1 xxxvii. c. 39, 40. Flaminius [Flamminus], even before the event, had compared the army of Antiochus to a supper in which the flesh of one vile animal was diversified by the skill of the coo’ s. See the Life of Flaminius [Flamininus] in Plutarch. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Mi

of Constantine, the complete force of the military establishment was cmn* puted at six hundred and forty-five thousand soldiers.”" An effort so prodigious surpassed the wants of a more ancient and the faculties of a later period.

In the various states of society armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by their love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy are animated by a sentiment of honour but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of puni^ment. The resources of the Roman treasury were exhausted by the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by the invention of new emoluments and indulgences, which, in the opinion of the provincial youth, might compensate the hardships and dangers of a military life. Yet, although the stature was lowered,^"" although slaves, at least by a tacit connivance, were indiscriminately received into the ranks, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of volunteers obliged the emperors to adopt more effectual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as the free reward of their valour, were henceforwards granted under a condition which contains the that their sons, who succeeded to first rudiments of the feudal tenures the inheritance, should devote themselves to the profession of arms as soon as they attained the age of manhood; and their cowardly refusal was punished by the loss of honour, of fortune, or even of life.”’ But as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very small proportion to the demands of the service, levies of men were frequently required from the provinces, and every proprietor was obliged either to take up arms, or ;

—

a substitute, or to purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, to which it was reduced, ascertains the exhorbitant price of volunteers, and the reluctance with which the government admitted of this alternative.’"" Such was the to procure

“Agathias,

1 . v, p. 157, edit. Louvre [c. 13, p. 305, ed. Bonn]. “* Valentinian (Cod. Theodos. L vii. tit. xiii. leg. 3) fixes the standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four inches and a half English measure. It had formerly been five feet ten inches, and in the best corps six Roman feet. Sed tunc erat amplior multitude, et plures militiam sequebantur armatam. Vegetius de Re Militari, 1 . i. c. 5.

See the two titles, De Veteranis and De Filiis Veteranorum [tit. xx. seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age_ at which their If the military service was required varied from twenty-five to sixteen. sons of the veterans appeared with a horse, they had a right to serve in the cavalry; two horses gave them some valuable privileges. “Cod. Theod. 1 . vii. tit. xiii. leg. 7. According to the historian Socrates (see Godefroy ad loc.), the same emperor Valens sometimes required eighty pieces of gold for a recruit. In the following law it is faintly expressed that slaves shall not be admitted inter optimas lectissimorum militum turmas. “ The neces[Finlay, in his excellent work, Greece under the Romans, says, sity of preventing the possibility of a falling off in the revenue_ was, in the eyes of the imperial court, of as much consequence as the maintenance of xxii.], in the

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

j4a

horror for the profession of a soldier which had affected the minds of the degenerate Romans that many of the youth of Italy and the provinces chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand to escape from being pressed into the service; and this strange expedient was so commonly practised as to deserve the severe animadversion of the laws,'®® and a peculiar name in the Latin language.'*® The introduction of barbarians into the Roman armies became every day more universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most daring of the Scythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who delighted in war, and who found it more profitable to defend than to ravage the provinces, were enrolled not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of the Palatine troops. As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire, they gradually learned to despise their manners and to imitate their arts. They abjured the implicit reverence which the pride of Rome had exacted from their ignorance, while they acquired the knowledge and possession of those advantages by which alone she supported her declining greatness. The barbarian soldiers who displayed any military talents were advanced, without exception, to the most important commands; and the names of the tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and of the generals themselves, betray a foreign origin, which they no longer condescended to disguise They were often intrusted with the conduct of a war against their countrymen; and though most of them preferred the ties of allegiance to those of blood, they did not always avoid the guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treasonable correspondence with the enemy, of inviting his inthe efficiency of the army. Proprietors of land and citizens of wealth were not allowed to enrol themselves as soldiers, lest they should escape from paying their taxes. Only those plebeians and peasants who were not subject to the land tax were received as warriors. It was the duty of the poor to serve in person, and of the rich to supply the revenues of the state.” The effect of this was that the Roman forces were often recruited with slaves, in spite of the laws passed to prevent this ; and not long after the time of Constantine, slaves were often admitted to enter the army on receiving their freedom.” Cf. Finlay’s Greece, p. 131, also History of the Bysantine Empire, p. 33— O.S.] "The person and property of a Roman knight, who had mutilated his two sons, were sold at public auction by order of Augustus. Sueton, in August, c. 24.) The moderation of that artful usurper proves that this example of severity was justified by the spirit of the times. Ammianus makes a distinction between the effeminate Italians and the hardy Gauls (1. xv. c. Yet only fifteen years afterwards, Valentinian, in a law addressed to 12), the prxfect of Gaul, is obliged to enact that these cowardly deserters shall be burnt alive. (Cod. Theod. 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 5.) Their numbers in Illyricum were so considerable that the province complained of a scarcity of recruits.

(Id. leg. 10.)

'"They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in Plautus and Festus to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who, according to Arnobius and Augustin, was under the immediate protection of the goddess Murcia. From this particular instance of cowardice murcare is used as synonymous to mutilare by the writers of the middle Latinity. See Lindenbrogius and Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin.

1.

xv.

c. 12.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE vasion, or of sparing his retreat.

543

The camps and

the palace of the son of Constantine were governed by the powerful faction of the Franks, who preserved the strictest connection with each other and with their country, and who resented every personal affront as a national indignity.“^ \\^en the tyrant Caligula was suspected of an intention to invest a very extraordinary candidate with the consular robes, the sacrilegious profanation would have scarcely excited less astonishment if, instead of a horse, the noblest chieftain of Germany or Britain had been the object of his choice. The revolution of three centuries had produced so remarkable a rVtangp' in the prejudices of the people, that, with the public approbation, Constantine showed his successors the example of bestowing the honours of the counsulship on the barbarians who, by their merit and services, had deserved to be ranked among the first of the Romans.““ But as these hardy veterans, who had been educated in the ignorance or contempt of the laws were incapable of exercising any civil offices, the powers of the human mind were contracted by the irreconcilable separation of talents as well as of professions. The accomplished citizens of the Greek and Roman republics, whose characters could adapt themselves to the bar, the senate, the camp, or the schools, had learned to write, to speak, and to act with the same spirit, and with equal abilities. IV. Besides the magistrates and generals, who at a distance from the court diffused their delegated authority over the provinces and armies, the emperor conferred the rank of Illustrious on seven of his more immediate servants, to whose fidelity he intrusted his safety, or his counsels, or his treasures, i. The private apartments of the palace were governed by a favourite eunuch, who, in the language of that age, was styled the prcspositus, or praefect of the sacred bedchamber. His duty was to attend the emperor in his hours of state or in those of amusement, and to perform about his person all those menial services which can only derive their splendour from the influence of royalty. Under a prince who deserved to reign, the great chamberlain ( for such we may call him) was an useful and humble domestic; but an artful domestic, who improves every occasion of unguarded confidence, will insensibly acquire over a feeble mind that ascendant which harsh wisdom and uncomplying virtue can seldom obtain. The degenerate grandsons of Theodosius, who were invisible to their subjects, and contemptible to their enemies, exalted the praefects of their and bedchamber above the heads of all the ministers of the palace; even his deputy, the first of the splendid train of slaves who wait^ in the

“ Malarichus—adhibitis

Francis

quorum

ea tempestate in palatio multitude

Ammian. 1 . xv. c. 5. florebat, erectius jam loquebatur tumultuabaturque. “* Barbaros omnium primus, ad usque fasces auxerat et trabeas consulares. 1 xxi. c. 10. Eusebius (in Vit. Constantin. 1 iv. c. 7) and Aurelius Victor seem to confirm the truth of this assertion; yet in the thirty-two consular Fasti of the reign of Constantine I cannot discover the name of a single barbarian. I should therefore interpret the liberality of that prince as relative to the ornaments, rather than to the office, of the consulship. ‘“Cod. Theod. 1 . vi. tit. &

Ammian.

.

.

the decline and FALL OF

M4

^vsetice, was thought worthy to rank before the respectable proconsuls acknowledged of Greece or Asia. The jurisdiction of the chamberlain by the counts, or superintendents, who regulated the two inq)ortant provinces of the magnificence of the wardrobe, and of the luxury of the Imperial table.^“ 2. The principal administration of public affairs was committed to the diligence and abilities of the master of the ofices.^*^ He

wm

was the supreme magistrate of the palace, inspected the discipline of the civil and military schools, and received appeals from all parts of the empire, in the causes which related to that numerous army of privileged persons who, as the servants of the court, had obtained for themselves and families a right to decline the authority of the ordinary judges. The correspondence between the prince and bis subjects was managed by the four scrinia, or offices of this minister of state. The first was appropriated to memorials, the second to epistles, the third to petitions, and the fourth to papers and orders of a miscellaneous kind. Each of these was directed by an inferior master of respectable dignity, and the whole business was despatched by an hundr^ and forty-ei^t secretaries, chosen for the most part from the profession of the law, on account of the variety of abstracts of reports and references which frequently occurred in the exercise of their several functions. From a condescension which in former ages would have been esteemed unworthy of the Roman majesty, a particular secretary was allowed for the Greek language; and interpreters were appointed to receive the ambassadors of the barbarians; but the department of foreign affairs, which constitutes so essential a part of modern policy, seldom diverted the attention of the master of the offices. His mind was more seriously engaged by the general direction of the posts and arsenals of the em-

There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in the East and nineteen which regular companies of workmen were perpetually employed in fabricating defensive armour, offensive weapons of all sorts, and military engines, which were deposited in the arsenals, and

pire.

in the West, in

occasionally delivered for the service of the troops. 3. In the course of nine centuries the office of qucestor had experienced a very singular revolution.

In the infancy of Rome, two inferior magistrates were anby the people, to relieve the consuls from the invidious

nually elected

‘“By a very

singular metaphor, borrowed from the military character of emperors, the steward of their household was styled the count of their camp (comes castrensis). Gissiodorus very seriously represents to him that his own fame, and that of the empire, must depend on the opinion which foreign ambassadors may conceive of the plenty and magnificence of the royal table. (Variar. 1. vi. epistol. 9.) ‘“Gutherius (de Officiis Dumus Augusts, 1. ii. c. 20 , 1. iii.) has very accurately explained the functions of the master of the offices, and the constitution of the subordinate scrinia. But he vainly attempts, on the most doubtful authority, to deduce from the time of the Antonines, or even of Nero, the origin of a magistrate who cannot be found in history before the reign of Constantine. the

first

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

'

mansg^nent

of the public treasure;

a nmilar

asiustant was granted exercised a military or provincial command; with the extent of conquest, the two quaestors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of ei^t, of twenty, and for a short time, perhaps, of forty and the noblest citizens am-

to every proconsul

and to every

praetor

who

an office which gave them a seat in the senate, and a hope of obtaining the honours of the republic. Whilst Augustus affected to maintain the freedom of election, he consented to accept the annual privilege of recommending, or rather indeed of nominating, a certain proportion of candidates; and it was his custom to select one of these distinguished youths to read his orations or epistles in the assemblies of the senate.^** The practice of Augustus was imitated by succeeding princes; the occasional commission was established as a permanent office and the favoured qusstor, assuming a new and more illustrious character, alone survived the suppression of his ancient and useless colleagues.'^* As the orations whidi he composed in the name bitiously solicited just

;

'“Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22) says that the first quaestors were elected by the people sixty- four years after the foundation of the republic; but he is of opinion that they had, long before that period, been annually appointed by the consuls, and even by the kings. But this obscure point of antiquity is contested by other writers. [Niebuhr endeavours to reconcile these conflicting statements by showing that there were in the early days of the republic tvvo different classes officers bearing this name; one called Qutestores parricidii, who were public accusers, and the other called Quastores classici, the financial officers. The former existed at Rome in the kingly period, while the latter did not exist until the time of the republic. Cf. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman

m

—

O. S.] Tacitus (Annal. xi 22) seems to consider twenty as the highest number of quaestors; and Dian ( 1 xliii. [c 47] p 374) insinuates that, if the dictator Caesar once created forty, it was only to facilitate the payment of an immense Yet the augmentation which he made of praetors subsisted debt of gratitude under the succeeding reigns. Sueton. in August, c. 65, and Torrent, ad loc. Dion Cas. p. 755. '"The youth and inexperience of the quaestors, who entered on that important office in their twenty-fifth year (Lips. Excurs. ad Tacit. 1 iii. D.), engaged Augustus to remove them from the management of the treasury; and though they were restored by Claudius, they seem to have been finally disClaud, c. 24. missed by Nero. (Tacit, Annal xiii. 29. Sueton. in Aug. c. 36, Dion, p 696 [ 1 . liii. c. 2], 961 [ 1 lx. c. 24], etc. Plin. Epistol. x. 20, et alibi.) In the provinces of the Imperial division, the place of the quaestors was more ably supplied by the procurators (Dion Cas. p. 707 [ 1 . liii. c. 15]; Tacit._in (Hist. Vit. Agricol. c. 15) ; or, as they were afterwards called, rationales. August, p. 130 [Lamprid. Alex. Sever, cc. 45, 46]).. But in the provinces of the senate we may still discover a series of quaestors till the reign of Marcus An(See the Inscriptions of Gruter, the Epistles of Pliny, and a detoninus. From cisive fact in the Augustan History, p. 64 [Spartian. Sever, c. 2].) Ulpian we may learn (Pandect. 1 i. tit. 13) that, under the government of the House of Severus, their provincial administration was abolished; and in the subsequent troubles the annual or triennial elections of quaestors must have Antiquities.

.

.

m

.

.

naturallv ceased.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

54«

of the emperor *** acquired the force, and at leng^ the form, of ab^ lute edicts, he was considered as the representative of the legislative power, the oracle of the council, and the original source of the civil jurisprudence. He was sometimes invited to take his seat in the supreme judicature of the Imperial consistory, with the Frsetorian prsfects and the master of the offices; and he was frequently requested but as he was not oppressed to resolve the doubts of inferior judges: with a variety of subordinate business, his leisure and talents were employed to cultivate that dignified style of eloquence which, in the corruption of taste and language, still preserves the majesty of the Roman laws.“^ In some respects the office of the Imperial quastor may be compared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great seal, which seems to have been adopted by the illiterate barbarians, was never introduced to attest the public acts of the emperors. 4. The extraordinary title of count of the sacred largesses was bestowed on the treasurer-general of the revenue, with the intention perhaps of inculcating that every payment flowed from the voluntary bounty of the monarch. To conceive the almost infinite detail of the annual and daily expense of the civil and military administration in every part of a great empire would exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination. The actual account employed several hundred persons, distributed into eleven different offices, which were artfully contrived to examine and control their respective operations. The multitude of these agents had a natural tendency to increase; and it was more than once thought expedient to dismiss to their native homes the useless supernumeraries, who, deserting their honest labours, had pressed with too much eagerness into the lucrative profession of the finances.’'^ Twenty-nine provincial receivers, of whom eighteen were honoured with the title of count, corresponded with the treasurer, and he extended his jurisdiction over the mines from whence the precious metals were extracted, over the mints in which they were converted into the current coin, and over the public treasuries of the most important cities, where they were deposited for the service of the state. The foreign trade of the empire was regulated by this minister, who directed likewise all the linen and woollen manufactures, in which the successive operations of spinning, *"€001 patris nomine et epistolas ipse

dictaret,

et

edicta

conscriberet,

orationesque in senatu redtaret, etiam quiestoris vice. Suelon. in Tit. c 6. The office must have acquired new dignity, which was occasionally executed by the heir apparent of the empire. Trajan intrusted the same care to

Hadrian, his quaestor and cousin. xi. p. 362-394.

See Dodwell,

“*

Praelection.

Cambden.

x.

Terris edicta daturus, Supplicibus responsa, venis. Oracula regis Eloquio crevere tuo; nec dignius unquam Majestas meminit sese Romana locutam. Oaudian in Consulat. Mall. Theodor. 33. See likewise Symmachus (Epistol. i. 17 ) and Cassiodorus (Variar. vi. 5). Cod. Theod. 1 vi. tit. 30. Cod. Justinian. 1 xii tit 24. .

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

54^

Waving, and dyeing were executed, chiefly by women of a servile condition, for the use of the palace and army. Twenty-six of these institutions are enumerated in the West, where the arts had been more recently introduced, and a still larger proportion may be allowed for the industrious provinces of the East.*'®

Besides the public revenue, to his pleasure, the emperors, in the capacity of opulent citizens, possessed a very extensive property, which was administered by the count or treasurer of the private estate. Some part had perhaps been the ancient demesnes of kings and republics; some accessions might be derived from the families which were successively invested with the purple; but the most considerable portion flowed from the impure source of confiscations and forfeitures. The Imperial estates were scattered through the provinces from Mauritania to Britain; but the rich and fertile soil of Cappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that country his fairest possessions,*" and either Constantine or his successors embraced the occasion of justifying avarice by religious zeal. They suppressed the rich temple of Comana, where the high-priest of the goddess of war supported the dignity of a sovereign prince; and they applied to their private use the consecrated lands, which were inhabited by six thousand subjects or slaves of the deity and her ministers.*’’' But these were not the plains that stretch from the foot of the valuable inhabitants: Mount Argaeus to the banks of the Sarus bred a generous race of horses, renowned above all others in the ancient world for their majestic shape and incomparable swiftness. These sacred animals, destined for the service of the palace and the Imperial games, were protected by the s-

which an absolute monarch might levy and expend according

laws from the profanation of a vulgar master.’" The demesnes of Cappadocia were important enough to require the inspection of a count; officers of an inferior rank were stationed in the other parts of the em’“In the departments of the two counts of the treasury the eastern part U may he observed that we of the Notitia happens to be very defective had a treasury chest in London, and a gyneceum or manufacture at Winliut Britain was not thought worthy either of a mint or of an chester. arsenal Gaul alone possessed three of the former and eight of the latter. ‘“Cod. Theod. 1 vi. tit. xxx leg. 2; and Godefroy ad loc The other Strabon. Geograph. 1 xii. p. 809 [p. 535, edit. Casaub]. xii. temple of Comana, in Pontus, was a colony from that of Cappadocia, .

1

.

557 cd. Casaub.]. The president Des Brosses (see his Saluste, p. 21) conjectures that the deity adored in both Coinanas was Beltis, the Venus of the East, the goddess of generation; a very different being indeed from the goddess of war.

83s tom. ii. P-

[p-

i

”*Cod Theod. 1 x. tit vi. de Grege Dominico. Godefroy has collected One every circumstance of antiquity relative to the Cappadocian horses. of the finest breeds, the Palmatian, was the forfeiture of a rebel, whose estate lay about sixteen miles from Tyana, near the great road between Constantinople and Antioch. "'Justinian (Novell. 30) subjected the province of the count of Cappadocia to the immediate authority of the favourite eunuch, who presided over the sacred bedchamber. .

the decline and fall of

’

S4B

and the deputies of the private, as wdl as those of the public treasurer, were maintained in the exercise of their independent functions, and encouraged to control the authority of the provincial magistrates."* pite;

6, 7. The chosen bands of cavalry and infantry, which guarded the person of the emperor, were under the immediate command of the two counts of the domestics. The whole number consisted of three thousand and five hundred men, divided into seven schools, or troops, of five hundred each; and in the East this honourable service was almost entirely appropriated to the Armenians. Whenever, on public ceremonies, they were drawn up in the courts and porticos of the palace, their lofty stature, silent order, and splendid arms of silver and gold, displayed a martial pomp not unworthy of the Roman majesty.^'* From the seven sdiools two companies of horse and foot were selected, of the protectors, whose advantageous station was the hope and reward of the most deserving soldiers. They mounted guard in the interior apartments, and were occasionally despatched into the provinces, to execute with celerity and vigour the orders of their master.’®® The counts of the domestics had succeeded to the office of the Prstorian praefects; like the prsfects, they aspired from the service of the palace to the command of armies. The perpetual intercourse between the court and the provinces was facilitated by the construction of roads and the institution of posts. But these beneficial establishments were accidentally connected with a pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three hundred agents or messengers were employed, under the jurisdiction of the master of the offices, to announce the names of the annual consuls, and the edicts or victories of the emperors. They insensibly assumed the licence of reporting whatever they could observe of the conduct either of magistrates or of private citizens; and were soon considered as the eyes of the monarch and the scourge of the people. Under the warm influence of a feeble reign they multiplied to the incredible number of ten thousand, disdained the mild though frequent admonitions of the laws, and exercised in the profitable management of the posts a rapacious and insolent oppression. These official spies, who regularly corresponded with the palace, were encouraged, by favour and reward, anxiously to watch the progress of eveiy treasonable design, from the faint and latent symptoms of disaffection, to the actual preparation of an open revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice was covered by

“"Cod. Theod.

1

vi.

tit.

xxx.

leg. 4, etc.

““ Pancirolus, p. 102, 136. described in the Latin poem

The appearance of these military domestics is of Corippus, De Laudibus Justin. 1 iii. 157-179, p 419, 420 of the Appendix Hist. Byzantin. Rom. 1777. "“Ammianus Marcellinus, who served so many years, obtained only the rank of a protector The first ten among these honourable soldiers were .

Clarisstmi.

“Xenophon, L i. No. metaphor

190,

Cyropaed. p.

264.

1.

viii.

[c. 2,

§§

10, ii.]

Brisson, de Regno Persico, pleasure this Persian

The emperors adopted with

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

34^

^

the consecrated mask of zeal; and they might securely thw poisoned arrows at the breast either of the guilty or the innocent, who had provoked their resentment, or refused to purchase their silence a faithful subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed -to the danger, or at least to the dread, of being dragged in chains to the court of Milan or Constantinople, to defend his life and fortune against the malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary administration was conducted by those methods which extreme necessity can alone palliate; and the defects of evidence were diligently supplied by the use of torture.^”^ The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the criminal qncBstion, as it is emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than approved, in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in the scale of justice or humanity; but they would never consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen till they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt.^““ The annals of tyranny, from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian, circumstantially relate the executions of many innocent victims; but, as long as the faintest remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom and honour, the last hours of a Roman were secure from the danger of ignominious torture.'"^ The conduct of the provincial magistrates was not, however, regulated by the practice of the city, or the strict maxims of the civilians. They found the use of torture established not only among the slaves of oriental despotism, but among the Macedonians, who obeyed a limited monarch; among the Rhodians, who flourished by the liberty of commerce; and even among the sage Athenians, who had asserted and adorned the dignity of human kind.^®' The acquiescence of the provincials encouraged their governors to acquire, or perhaps to usurp, a discretionary power of employing the rack, to extort from vagrants or plebeian criminals the confession of their guilt. ,

For the Agcntcs in Rebus, see Animian. 1 .xv. c. 3, 1 xvi. c. S, 1 xxii. c. with the curious annotations of Valcsius. Cod. Thcod. 1 vi. tit. xxvii. xxviii. xxix. Among the passages collected in the Commentary of Godefroy, the most remarkable is one from Libanius, m his discourse concerning the death of Julian. “* The Pandects (I. xlviii. tit. xviii.) contains the sentiments of the most .

.

.

.

7,

They strictly confine it to celebrated civilians on the subject of torture. slaves; and Ulpian himself is ready to acknowledge that Res est fragilis, et periculosa, et quae veritatem fallat. [§ 23.] ‘"In the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, Epicharis (libertina mulier) was It would be suthe only person tortured; the rest were iiifacfi fonncniis. perfluous to add a weaker, and it would be difficult to find a stronger, example. Tacit. Annal. xv. 57. de institutis Atheniensium, Rhodiorum, doctissimonlm Dicendum hominum, apud quos etiam (id quod acerbissimum est) liberi, civesque torWe may learn from the_ trial of quentur. Cicero, Partit. Orat. c. 34. .

.

.

Philotas the practice of the Macedonians. Q. Curt. 1 vi. c. II.)

p. 604.

.

(Diodor. Sicul.

1.

xvii.

[c.

80]

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

SSO

they insensibly proceeded to confound the distinctions of rank, and to disregard the privileges of Roman citizens. The apprehensions of the subjects urged them to solicit, and the interest of the sovereign engaged him to .grant, a variety of special exemptions, which tacitly allowed, and till

even authorised, the general use of torture. They protected all persons of illustrious or honourable rank, bishops and their presbyters, professors of the liberal arts, soldiers and their families, municipal officers, and their posterity to the third generation, and all children under the But a fatal maxim was introduced into the new age of puberty jurisprudence of the empire, that in the case of treason, which included every offence that the subtlety of lawyers could derive from an hostile intention towards the prince or republic,'®' all privileges were sus^ pended, and all conditions were reduced to the same ignominious level. As the safety of the emperor was avowedly preferred to every consid: eration of justice or humanity, the dignity of age and the tenderness of youth were alike exposed to the most cruel tortures; and the terrors of a malicious information, which might select them as the accomplices, or even as the witnesses, perhaps, of an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over the heads of the principd citizens of the Roman world.'®® These evils, however terrible they may appear, were confined to the smaller number of Roman subjects whose dangerous situation was in some degree compensated by the enjoyment of those advantages, either of nature or of fortune, which exposed them to the jealousy of the monarch. The obscure millions of a great empire have much less to dread from the cruelty than from the avarice of their masters; and their humble happiness is principally affected by the grievance of excessive taxes, which, gently pressing on the wealthy, descend with accelerated weight on the meaner and more indigent classes of society. An ingenious philosopher '®® has calculated the universal measure of the public impositions by the degrees of freedom and servitude; and ventures to assert that, according to an invariable law of nature, it must always increase with the former, and diminish in a just proportion to the latter. But this reflection, which would tend to alleviate the miseries of despotism, is contradicted at least by the history of the Roman empire; which accuses the same princes of despoiling the senate of its '“Heineccius (Element. Jur. CiviL part vii. p. 8i) has collected these exemptions into one view. '“'This definition of the sage Ulpian (Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit. iv.) seems to have been adapted to the court of Caracalla, rather than to that of Alexander Sevcrus. See the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian ad leg. Juliam majestatis.

Arcadius Charisius

the oldest lawyer quoted in the Pandects to jusbut this maxim of t3Tanny, which is admitted by Ammianus (1. xix. c. 12 ) with the most respectful terror, is enforced by several laws of the successors of Constantine. See Cod. Theod. 1. ix. tit. xxxv. In majestatis crimine omnibus sequa est conditio, [leg. 1 .] '"Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1 . xii. c. 13. _

is

tify the universal practice of torture in all cases of treason

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

5S»

authority, and the provinces of thdr wealth. Without abolishing all the various customs and duties on merchandises, which are imperceptibly discharged by the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy of Constantine and his successors preferred a simple and direct mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government.^'®

The name and use of the indictions, which serve to ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, was derived from the regular practice of the Roman tributes.”® The emperor subscribed with his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in the principal city of each diocese during two months previous to the first day of September. And, by a very easy connection of ideas, the word indiction was transferred to the measure of tribute which it prescribed, and to the annual term which it allowed for the payment. This general estimate of the supplies was proportioned to the real and imaginary wants of the state; but as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, or the revenue fell short of the computation, an additional tax, under the name of superindiction, was imposed on the people, and the most valuable attribute of sovereignty was communicated to the Prstorian prefects, who, on some occasions, were permitted to provide for the unforeseen and extraordinary exigencies of the public service. The execution of these laws (which it would be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate derail) consisted of two distinct operations: the resolving the general imposition into its constituent parts, which were assessed on ^e provinces, the cities, and the indi'”Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. i p. 389) has seen this important truth with some degree of perplexity. ’"The cycle of indictions, which may be traced as high as the reign of Constantins, or perhaps of his father Constantine, is still employed by the Papal court but the commencement of the year has been very reasonably altered to the first of January. See I’Art de verifier les Dates, p. xi. and Dictionnaire Raison, de la Diplomatique, tom. ii. p. 25 ; two accurate treatises, which come from the workshop of the Benedictines. [The indictions as a chronological era begin September i. a.d. 312 (cf. Clinton, Fasti Rom. vol. i. p. 364). The way in which the indiction was used as a chronological era in the time of Constantine and long after is worthy of note. From September i, a.d. 312, successive periods of fiftem years were reckoned. When an indiction is mentioned, it is quite uncertain which of these periods of fifteen years is meant, and it is only the number of a particular year occurring in the period that is expressed. This separate year and not the period of fifteen years is called an indiction. Thus when the seventh indiction occurs in a document, this document belongs to the seventh year of one of these periods of fifteen years, but to which of them is uncertain. This continued to be the usage of the word until the twelfth century, when it became the practice to call the period of fifteen years the indiction, and to reckon from the birth of Christ the number of indictions, Cf. Savigny Ueber die Romische Steuerveri.e. the periods of fifteen years. :

;

—

fassung, in Vermischle Schriften, vol. ii. p. 130. O. S.l ’"The first twenty-eight titles of the eleventh book of the Theodosian Code are filled with the circumstantial regulations on the important subject of tributes but they suppose a clearer knowledge of fundamental principles than it is at present in our power to attain ;

;

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

contnbu* vfduals of the Roman world; and the collectiiijf the sef^rate tions of the individuals, the cities, and the provinces, till the accumuwere poured into the Imperial treasiuies. But as the aclated count between the monarch and the subject was perpetually open, and as the renewal of the demand anticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was moved by the same hands round the circle of its yearly revolution. Whatever was honourable or important in the administration of the revenue was committed to the wisdom of the pnefects and their provincial representatives; the lucrative functions were claimed by a crowd of subordinate officers, some of whom depended on the treasurer, others on the governor of the province; and who, in the inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frequent opportunities of disputing with each other the spoils of the people. The laborious offices, which could be productive only of envy and reproach, of expense and danger, were imposed on the Decurions, who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom the severity of the Imperial laws had condemned to sustain the burthens of civil society.”® The whole landed property of the empire (without excepting the patrimonial estates of the monarch) was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new purchaser contracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate census,^''* or survey, was the only equitable mode of ascertaining the proportion which every citizen should

be obliged to contribute for the public service; and from

the well-known period of the indictions, there

is

reason to believe that

and expensive operation was repeated at the regular distance of fifteen years. The lands were measured by surveyors, who were this difficult

sent into the provinces; their nature, whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly reported; and an estimate was made of their

common

value from the average produce of five years.

The

‘"The title concerning the Decurions (1. xii. tit. i.) is the most ample in the whole Theodosian Code; since it contains not less than one hundred and ninety-two distinct laws to ascertain the duties and privileges of that useful order of citizens. [The Decuriones (also styled Curiales) were the members of the senate This senate was called Ordo Dccurionum. In the in the municipal towns. times of the republic admission into the Ordo Decurionum was an honour, but under the despotism of the empire, the position of the Decurions was most lamentable. The plebeian carefully avoided this dangerous distinction, and the Decurions themselves sought to escape from it in every way. Many became soldiers and even slaves to conceal themselves. Their miserable condition arose from the oppression of the government. The Decurions had not merely to collect the taxes, but they were responsible for their colleagues they had to take up the lands abandoned by the proprietors on account of the intolerable weight of the taxes attaching to them, and they had finally to make up all deficiencies out of their private resources. (Cf. Savigny, Ceschichte des Romischen Rcckts, vol. i. p. 40, sq.) O. S.]

—

Habemus enim Eumenius xi.

et

hominum numerum

Panegyr. Vet. viii. with Godefroy’s Commentary. in

[vii.]

6.

qui delati sunt, et

agrorum modum.

See Cod. Theod.

1.

xiii.

tit.

x.

:

THE ROMAN EMPIRE'

jj,

numbers of daves and of cattle constituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administered to the proprietors which bound to disclose the true state of their affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of the le^lator, were severely watched, and punished as a capital crime, which included the double guilt of treason and sacrilege.^^' A large portion of the tribute was paid in money; and of the current coin of the empire, gold alone could be legally accepted.*” of the taxes, according to the proportions determined by

The remainder

the annual indiction, was furnished in a manner still more direct, and According to the different nature of lands, thdr still more oppressive. real produce in the various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, was transported by the labour or at the expense of the provincials to the Imperial magazines, from whence they were occasionally distributed, for the use of the court, of the army, and of the two capiThe commissioners of the revenue tals, Rome and Constantinople. were so frequently obliged to make considerable purchases, that they were strictly prohibited from allowing any compensation, or from receiving in money the value of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive simplicity of small communities this method may be well adapted to collect the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it is

utmost latitude and of the utmost strictness, a corrupt and absolute monarchy must introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and the arts of fraud.*” The

at once susceptible of the

which

in

Roman provinces was insensibly ruined, and, in the progress of despotism, which tends to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remission of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of paying. According to the new division of Italy, the fertile and happy province of Campcinia, the scene of the early victories and of the delicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended between the sea and the Apennine from the Tiber to the Silarus. Within sixty years after the death of Constantine, and on the evidence of an actual survey, agriculture of the

sacrilegi vitem fake succiderit; aut feracium ramonim foetus quo declinct fidem Ceiisuum, ct mentiatur callide paupertatis ingenium, mox detectus capitate subibit exitium, et bona ejus in Fisci jura

Siquis

hebetaverit,

migrabunt. Cod. Theod. 1 xiii. tit. xi. leg. i. Although this law is not without its studied obscurity, it is, however, clear enough to prove the minuteness of the inquisition, and the disproportion of the penalty. ”* The astonishment of Pliny would have ceased. Equidem miror P. _R. Hist victis gentibus [in tribute] semper argentum imperitasse, non aurum. Natur. xxxiii. 15. *" Some precautions were taken (see Cod. Theod. 1 xi. tit. ii. and Cod. Justinian. 1 x. tit. xxvii. leg. i, 2, 3) to restrain the magistrates from the abuse of their authority, either in the exaction or in the purchase of cojm but those who had learning enough to read the orations of Cicero against Verres (iii. de Frumento) might instruct themselves in all the various arts .

.

.

of oppression, with regard to the weight, the price, the quality, and the carriage. The avarice of an unlettered governor would supply the ignorance of precept or precedent. _

SS4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF was granted in favour of three hundred Md

thirty thouan exemption sand English acres of desert and imcultivated land, which amounted to one-eighth of the whole surface of the province. As the footsteps of the barbarians had not yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing desolation, which is recorded in the laws, can be ascribed only to the

administration of the Roman emperors.*^" Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment seemed to unite the substance of a land-tax with the forms of a capitation.^^° The returns which were sent of every province or district expressed the number of tributary subjects, and the amount of the public impositions. The latter of these sums was divided by the former; and the estimate, that such a province contained so many capita, or heads of tribute, and that each head was rated at such a price, was universally received, not only in the popular, but even in the legal computation. The value of a

‘“Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 2, published the 24th of March, aj), by the emperor Honorius, only two months after the death of his father Theodosius. He speaks of 5^,042 Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English measure. The jugerum contained aS.Soo square Roman

39Si

feet.

'“Godefroy (Cod. Theod. tom. v. p. 116 [1. xiv. tit. x. leg. 2]) argues with weight and learning on the subject of the capitation; but while he explains the caput as a share or measure of property, he too absolutely excludes the idea of a personal assessment. [Gibbon has here fallen into serious error respecting the finances of this period of the empire, by concluding that the word capitatio had only one signification. But capitatio signified both the “ land-tax” and the “ poll-tax,” which were the two principal taxes of the period. For the purposes of the land-tax, the whole land of the empire was measured and divided into a certain number of pieces, each of which had to pay the same sum of money as a tax. Such a piece of land was called caput, sometimes jugum, whence the tax was often named capitatio and sometimes jugatio. Since each caput was of the same value and paid the same tax, its .size must of course have varied according to the nature of the land composing it. For each financial year which commenced on 1st September, the whole amount of the land-tax was fixed, and was then divided among the capita. The payment 1st of January, ist of May, and ist to be made in three instalments of September. The tribute appointed for each year was called the iiidictio, a term which (as has been shown in the note on p. 551) came to be applied to the financial year. The Poll-Tax, on the other hand, was called sometimes simply capitatio,

—

had

sometimes humana capitatio, capitalis illatio, and capitatio plebeia. The amount Every ])crson of this is unknown, the whole question being very obscure. in the empire was liable for it, with the exception of those who paid the The expression land-tax, and all persons above the rank of plebeians. plebeia capitatis shows that it was a peculiar burthen of the plebeians, but Conseif the latter possessed land it follows that they did not pay both. quently the classes from which the poll-tax was chiefly levied were ( i ) the free inhabitants of towns who possessed neither rank nor landed property; By an edict of Diocletian (2) the Colon! in the country; (3) the slaves. which, though repealed by Galerius, was renewed by Licinius, the plcbs urbana and their slaves were exempt, so that the tax ultimately fell on the Colon!

and the agricultural 3, 429, sq.—O, S.]

slaves.

Cf. Savigny

and Mommsen’s

article in

Hermes,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

555

tributary bead must have varied, according to many accidental, or at least fluctuating circumstances: but some knowledge has been preserved of a very curious fact, the more important since it relates to one of the richest provinces of the Roman empire, and which now fiourishes as the most splendid of the European kingdoms. The rapacious ministers of Constantins had exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold for the annual tribute of every head. The humane policy of his successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces.*®* moderate proportion between these opposite extremes of extraordinary' oppression and of transient indulgence may therefore be fixed at sixteen pieces of gold, or about nine pounds sterling, the common standard, perhaps, of the impositions of Gaul.*** But this calculation, or rather indeed the facts from whence it is deduced, cannot fail of suggesting two difficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once surprised by the equality and by the enormity of the capitation. An attempt to explain them may perhaps reflect some light on the interesting subject of the finances of the declining empire. I. It is obvious that, as long as the immutable constitution of human nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of property, the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of their subsistence by the equal assessment of a tax from which the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue. Such, indeed, might be the theory of the Roman capitation; but, in the practice, this unjust equality was no longer felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle of a red, not of a personal imposition. Several indigent citizens contributed to compose a single head, or share of taxation; while the wealthy provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone rq>resented several of those imaginary

A

*”Quid profucrit (Julianus) anhelantibus extrema penuria Gallis, hinc claret, quod primitus partes eas ingressus, pro capitibits singulis tributi nomine vicenos quinos aureos reperit flagitari discedens vero septenos tantum, munera uni versa complentes. Ammian. 1 xvi. c. 5. In the calculation of any sum of money under Constantine and his

maxime

;

.

successors, we need only refer to the excellent discourse of Mr. Greaves on the Denarius for the proof of the following principles i. That the ancient and modern Roman pound, containing 5256 grains of Troy weight, is about one-twelfth lighter than the English pound, which is composed of 5;'6o of the same grains. 2. That the pound of gold, which had once been divided into forty-eight aurci, was at this time coined into seventy-two smaller pieces of the same denomination. 3. That five of these aurei were the legal tender for a pound of silver, and that consequently the pound of gold was exchanged for fourteen pounds eight ounces of silver, according to the Roman, or about thirteen pounds according to the English weight. 4. That the EngFrom these elements lish pound of silver is coined into sixty-two shillings. we may compute the Roman pound of gold, the usual method of reckoning large sums, at forty pounds sterling, and we may fix the currency of the aureus at somewhat more than eleven shillings. [The aureus in the time of Constantine was equal to ten shillings English money. The capita in Gaul were not “ heads of tribute,” but pieces of land. Each piece of land had to pay before Julian’s administration twenty-five aurei or £12 10s., which the latter reduced to seven aurei or £3 10s. O. S.] :

—

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Stt

Wnga

,

In a poetical request, addressed to one of the last

md

moat

princes who reigned in Ga\il, Sidonius Apol* liaaris personifies his tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the new Hercules that he would most graciously be pleased to save his life by cutting off three of Tiig heads.^®* The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary

deserving of the

Roman

wealth of a poet; but if he had pursued the allusion, he must have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of the deadly Hydra, spreading over the face of the country, and devouring the substance of an hundred families. II. The difficulty of allowing an annual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of the capitation of Gaul, may be rendered more evident by the comparison of the present state of the same country, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people. The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which ought, perhaps to be shared among four-and-twenty millions of inhabitants.**® Seven millions of these, in the capacity of fathers, or brothers, or husbands, may discharge the obligations of the remaining multitude of women and children; yet the equal proportion of each tributary subject will scarcely rise above fifty shillings of our money, instead of a proportion almost four times as considerable, which was regularly imposed on their Gallic ancestors. The reason of this difference may be found, not so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and silver, as in the different state of society in ancient Gaul and in modern France. In a country where personal freedom is the privilege of every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied on property or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the whole body of the nation. But the far greater

“Geryones nos esse puta, monstrumque tributum, Hic capita ut vivam, tu mihi tolle Iria. Sidon. Apollinar. Carm. xiii. [v. 19.] reputation of Father Sirmond led me to expect more satisfaction than I have found in his note (p. 144) on this remarkable passage. The words, suo vcl suorum nomine, betray the perplexity of the commentator. '"This assertion, however formidable it may seem, is founded on the original registers of births, deaths, and marriages, collected by public authority, and now deposited in the Controle General at Paris. The annual average of births throughout the whole kingdom, taken in five years (from 1770 to 1774, both inclusive), is 479,649 boys and 449,269 girls, in all 928,918 children. The province of French Hainault alone furnishes 9906 births ; and we are assured, by an actual enumeration of the people, annually repeated from the year 1773 to the year 1776, that, upon an average, Hainault contains By the rules of fair analogy, we might infer that the 257,097 inhabitants. ordinary proportion of annual births to the whole people is about i to 26; and that the kingdom of France contains 24,151,868 persons of both sexes and of every age. If we content ourselves with the more moderate proportion of I to 25, the whole population will amount to 23,222,950. From the diligent researches of the French government (which are not unworthy of our own imitation) we may hope to obtain a still greater degree of certainty on this important subject.

The

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

tS7

part of the Ituuls of andent Gaul, as 'well as of the other provinces of the Roman world, were cultivated by slaves, or by peasants, whose dependent condition was a less rigid savitude.“* In such a state the poor were maintained at the expense of the masters who enjoyed the fruits of their labour; and as the rolls of tribute were filled only with the of those citizens who possessed the means of an honourable, or at of a decent subsistence, the comparative smallness of their explains and justifies the high rate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion may be illustrated by the following example: ^The .£dui, one of the most powerful and civilised tribes or cities of Gaul, occupi^ an extent of territory which now contains above five hundred thousand inhabitants, in the two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun and Nevers; and with the probable accession of those of Chalons and MaQon,^®'' the population would amount to eight hundred thousand souls. In the timi* of Constantine the territory of the .®dui afiorded no more than twentyfive thousand heads of capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince from the intolerable weight of tribute.'®’ A just analogy would seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious historian,'®® that the free and tributary citizens did not surpass the ntHnber of half a million and if, in the ordinary administration of government, their annual payments may be computed at about four mUlions and a half of our money, it would appear that, although the share of each individual was four times as considerable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the Imperial province of C^ul.

numbm

—

;

"^Cod. Theod. 1 v. tit. ix. x. xi. Cod. Justinian. 1 . xi. tit. Ixiii. Coloni appellantur qui conditionem debent genitali solo, propter agriculturam sub doRiinio possessorum. Augustin, de Civitate Dei, 1 x. c. i. ’“The ancient jurisdiction of (Augustodunum') Autun in Burgundy, the capital of the jEdui, comprehended the_ adjacent territory of (Novio dunum) Nevers. See d'Anville, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 491. The two dioceses of Autun and Nevers are now composed, the former of 610, and fhe_ latter of 160 parishes. The registers of births, taken during eleven years, in 476 parishes of the same province of Burgundy, and multiplied by the moderate proportion of 25 (see Messance, Recherches sur la Population, p. 142), may authorise us to assign an average number of 656 persons^ for each parish, which, being again multiplied by the 770 parishes of the dioceses of Nevers and Autun, will produce the sum of 505,120 persons for the extent of country which was once possessed by the JEdui. ““We might derive an additional supply of 301,750 inhabitants from the dioceses of Chalons {Cabillonum) and of Ma^on {Matisco) ; since they contain, the one 200, and the other 260 parishes. This accession of territory might be justified by very specious reasons, i. Chalons and Maqon were undoubt(See d’Anville, Notice, edly within the original jurisdiction of the 2Ed\ii. Cwtates, 2. In the Notitia of Gaul they are enumerated not as p. 187, 443.) but merely as Castra. 3. They do not appear to have been episc^al seats before the fifth and sixth centuries. Yet there is a passage in Eumenius .

.

(Panegyr. Vet. viii. [vii.] 7) which very forcibly deters me from ^tending along the beautiful the territory of the ^dui, in the reign of Constantine, banks of the navigable Saone.

’"Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet viii. [vii.] u. •“UAbbe du Bos. Hist Critique de la M.F. tom.

1.

p. lai.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

SS«

llie exactions of Constantins may be calculated at seven inQIions sterling, which were reduced to two millions by the humanity or the

vrisdom of Julian.

But

this tax or capitation

suffered a rich

and numerous

on the proprietors of land would have With the of wealth which is derived from art or

class of free citizens to escape.

view of sharing that species labour, and which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors imposed a distinct and personal tribute on the trading part of their subSome exemptions, very strictly confined both in time and jects.““ place, were allowed to the proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own estates. Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal arts; but every other branch of commercial industry was affected by the severity of the law. The honourable merchant of Alexandria, who imported the gems and spices of India for the use of the western world; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and ignominious profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain;

and the sovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the

profession, consented to share the infamous salary of public prostitutes.

upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was laments and the historian Zosimus that the approach of the fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors of tte citizens, who were often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their poverty had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the nature of this tribute, it seems reasonable to conclude that it was arbitrary in the distribution, and extremely

As

this general tax

styled the Lustral Contribution:

rigorous in the

mode

and the precarious

of collecting.

The

secret wealth of

commerce,

profits of art or labour, are susceptible only of

discretionary valuation, which

is

seldom disadvantageous

a

to the interest

and as the person of the trader supplies the want of a and permanent security, the payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land-tax, may be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by any other means than those of corporal punof the treasury; visible

ishments. attested,

The

cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state is

and was perhaps mitigated, by a very humane

See Cod. Theod. 1 xiii. tit. i. and iv. "‘Zosimus, 1 ii. fc- 38] p. iij. There

edict of

Con-

.

is probably as much passion and prejudice in the attack of Zosimus as in the elaborate defence of the memory of Constantine by the zealous Dr. Howell. Hist, of the World, vol. ii. p. 20. [The emperor Theodosius put an end by law to this disgraceful source of revenue. But before depriving himself of it, he made sure of supplying the deficit. rich patrician, Florentius, indignant at this legalised licentiousness, protested to the emperor, and actually offered his property to make up the deficit. The emperor had the baseness to accept the offer. O. S.] .

A

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Sj,

who, disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious Mid airy prison for the place of their confinement."^ These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authority of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the coronary gold still retained the name and semblance of popular consent. It was an ancient custom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety or deliverance to the success of the Roman arms, and even the cities of Italy, who admired the virtues of their victorious general, adorned the pomp of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which, after the ceremony, were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal and flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the size, of these popular donations; and the triumph of Cssar was enriched with two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold. This treasure was immediately melted down by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods: his example was imitated by his successors; and the custom was introduced of exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more acceptable present of the current gold coin of the empire."* The spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; and, instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposed to be granted by the several cities and provinces of the monarchy as often as the emperor condescended to announce his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a Caesar, a victory over the barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of The oppressed gold, or about sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. staiitine,

subjects celebrated their own felicity that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and .gratitude.*®* people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, is seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation ol The impartial historian, who discipline, and the increase of taxes. acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some favour-

A

*“ Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. vii. leg’. 3. ”’See Lipsius de Magnitud. Romana, 1. ii. c. 9. The Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius with a crown of gold of seven, and Gaul with another of nine, hundred pounds weight. I have followed the rational emendation of Lipsius. ”*Cod. Theod. 1. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were supposed to be exempt from the Aurum Coronarium; but the Auri Oblatio, which was required at their hands, was precisely of the same nature.

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

iiM ft draunstances which tended to alleviate the misery of thdr cnstantine/^ As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but important revolution, the example of the court of Autun was imitated by the provinces of the West. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged through the whole extent of the two great prsefectures of Gaiil and Italy; tity of

and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative and supply the expenses of a

civil

war.

The

martial countries of Illyricum,

from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyed the’ government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experience and services in war.” Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude to the house of Constantine, he immediately gave the strongest assurances to the only surviving son of his late master that he would expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person and his troops to inflict a just revenge on the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were secfuced, rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; their leader soon betrayed a want of firmness or a want of sincerity, and his ambition derived a specious pretence from the approbation of the princess Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had obtained from the great Constantine, her father, the rank of Augusta, placed the diadem with her own hands on the head of the Illyrian general, and seemed to expect from his victory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes of which she had been disappointed by the death of her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of Constantina that the new emperor formed a necessary, though dishonourable, alliance with the usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with her brother’s blood.''® The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply afiected the honour and safety of the Imperial house, recalled the arms of Constantins frori the inglorious prosecution of the Persian war. He recommended the care of the East to his lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousin Gallus, whom he raised from a prison to a throne, and marched towards Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope and fear, of grief and indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gave audience to the ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio.

The

first

author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus,

had bestowed the purple on "Zosimus,

1.

ii.

[c.

his

new

who

in

some measure

master, boldly accepted this dan-

42] p. 119. 12°: Zonaras, tom.

ii.

1.

xiii.

[c.

6] p. 13;

and the Abbreviators. ”Eutropius (x. 10 [6]) describes Vetranio with more temper, and probably with more truth, than either of the two Victors. Vetranio was born of obscure parents in the wildest parts of Mzsia; and so much had his education been neglected, that, after his elevation, he studied the alphabet. "The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is described by Julian in his first oration [p. 30, sqg.]. and accurately explained by Spanheim, who ^scusses the situation and behaviour of Constantina.

990

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

from the iland army. These deputies were and to alarm the fears, of ConstanThey were empowered to offer him the friendship anJ alliance of tius. of the western princes, to cement their union by a double marriage, Constantius with the daughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius him-

geroiis commission;

and

his three colleagues were selected

lustrious personages of the state instructed to soothe the resentment,

—

—

with the ambitious Constantina, ^and to acknowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence of rank which might justly be claimed by the emperor of the East. Should pride and mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, the ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which must attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the sovereigns of the West to exert their superior strength, and to employ against him that valour, those abilities, and those legions, to which the house of Constantine had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propositions and such arguments appeared to deserve the most serious attention; the answer of Constantius was deferred till the next day; and as he had reflected on the importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion of the people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with “Last night,” said he, “after I retired to real or affected credulity; rest, the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murdered brother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice awakened me to revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and assured me of the success and immortal glory which would crown the justice of my arms.” The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominious terms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; his colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, were put in irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an self

implacable

war.''^

Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the duty, of the brother of Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul. The situation and character of Vetranio admitted of milder measures; and the policy of the Eastern emperor was directed to disunite his antagonists, and to separate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It was an easy task to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who, fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honour and interest, displayed to the world the insincerity of his temper, and was insensibly engaged in the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged him as a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition that he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius, and appoint a place of interview on the frontiers of their respective provinces, where they might pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, and "See Peter the Patrician, in the cap. 14, p. 130, ed. Bonn].

Excerpta Legationum,

p.

28

[ed. Paris.;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE by common consent the future operations of the civil war. In consequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to the city of Sardica,'"* at the head of twenty thousand horse, and of a more numerous body of infantry a power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that the Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes of his rival, who, depending on the success of his private negotiations, had seduced the troops and undermined the throne of Vetranio. The chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favour a public spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the multitude.'"’ The united armies were commanded to assemble in a large plain near the city. In the centre, according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military tribunal, or rather scaflold, was erected, from whence the emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions, to harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and barbarians, with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the squadrons of regulate

;

cavalry, and the cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their arms and ensigns, formed an immense circle round the tribunal and the attentive silence which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of clamour or of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly the two emperors were called upon to explain the situation of public affairs: the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of Constantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in the arts of rhet;

oric,

he acquitted himself, under these

ness, dexterity,

and eloquence.

The

difficult

first

circumstances, with firm-

part of his oration seemed to

be pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while he tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he insinuated that none, except a brother, could claim a right to the succession of his brother. He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of his Imperial race; and recalled to the memory of the troops the valour, the triumphs, the liber-

whose sons they had engaged thdr by an oath of fidelity, which the ingratitude of his most favoured servants had tempted them to violate. The officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to act their parts in this

ality of the great Constantine, to

allegiance

extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible power of reason and eloquence, by saluting the emperor Constantius as their lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty and repentance was communicated from rank to rank, till the plain of Sardica resounded with the universal acclamaLong life and victory to tion of “Away with these upstart usurpers! alone we will fight and banners his Under the son of Constantine!

The position of Sardica, near the [c. 7] p. 15. ii. 1. xiii. city of Sophia, appears better suited to this interview than the situa-

"Zonaras, tom.

modern

tion of either Naissus of Sirmiura,

where

it is

placed by Jerom, Socrates, and

^zomen. orations of Julian, particularly p. 31 ; and Zosimus, 1. distinct narrative of the historian serves to illustrate the difiFuse but vague descriptions of the orator.

" See the two

ii.

[c.

44] p. 122.

first

The

the decline and fall of

$93

conquer.” The shout of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce dashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the courage of Vetr^o, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers, in anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge of generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate, and, taking the diadem from his head, in the view of both armies fell prostrate at the feet of his conqueror. Constantins used his victory with prudence and moderation; and raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom he affected to style by the endearing name of Father, he gave him his hand to descend from the throne. The city of Prusa was assigned for the exile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the enjoyment of ease and afBuence. He often expressed his grateful sense of the goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable amplicity, advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seek for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity of a private condition.*®

The behaviour of Constantius on this memorable occasion was celebrated with some appearance of justice; and his courtiers compared the studied orations whi a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populace of Athens with the victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armed multitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice.*'

A

The approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at the

bead of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and

Spaniards, of Franks and Saxons; of those provincials the

stren^

of the legions,

who

supplied

and of those barbarians who were dreaded

The fertile plains ** of the Lower Pannonia, between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacious theatre; and the operations of the civil war were protracted during the summer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants.** Constantius had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields of Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops

as the most formidable enemies of the republic.

“The younger

Victor assigns to his exile the emphatical appellation of [Epit. c. 41.] Socrates ( 1 ii. c. 28) is the voucher for the correspondence with the emperor, which would seem to prove that Vetranio was, indeed, prope ad stultitiam simplicissimus. “Eum Constantius facundise vi dejectum Imperio in privatum otium removit. Quae gloria post natum Imperium soli processit eloquio clementiaque, etc. Aurelius Victor [de Caesar, c. 42]. Julian and Themistius (Orat. iii. and iv.) adorn this exploit with all the artificial and gaudy colouring of their " voluptarium otium."

.

.

.

.

rhetoric.

“Busbequius (p. iia) traversed the Lower Hungary and Sclavonia at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert, by the reciprocal hostilities of the Turks and Christians. Yet he mentions with admiration the unconquera.ble fertility of the soil; and observes that the height of the grass was sufficient to conceal a loaded waggon from his sight. See likewise Browne’s Travels, in Harris’s Collection, vol. ii. p. 762, etc. “Zosimus gives a very large account of the war and the negotiation ( 1 ii. [c-. 45-54] P- 123-130). But as he neither shows himself a soldier nor a politician, his narrative must be weighed with attention, and received with caution. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

59j

by the remembrance of the victory which, on the same auspicions ground, had been obtained by the arms of his father Constantine. Yet, by the impregnable fortifications with which the emp)eror encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline rather than to invite a general engagement. It was the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish this advantageous position; and he employed with that view the various marches, evolutions, and stratagems which the knowledge of the art of war could suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the important town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of Sirmium, which lay in the rear of the Imperial camp; attempted to force a passage over the Save into the eastern provinces of Illyricum; and cut in pieces a numerous detachment which he had allured into the narrow passes of Adarne, During the greater part of the summer the tyrant of Gaul showed himself master of the field. The troops of Constantins were harassed and dispirited; his reputation declined in the eye of the world; and his pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which would have resigned to the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence of Philip the Imperial ambassador; and the council as well as the army of Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper, careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that Philip should be detained as a captive, or at least as an hostage; while he despatched an officer to reproach Constantins with the weakness of his reign, and to insult him by the promise of a pardon if he would instantly abdicate the purple. “ That he should confide in the justice of his cause, and the protection of an avenging Deity,” was the only answer which honour permitted the emperor to return. But he was so sensible of the difficulties of his situation, that he no longer dared to retaliate the indignity which had been offered to his representative. The negotiation of Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determined Sylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and reputation, to desert with a considerable body of cavalry a few days before the battle of Mursa. The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridge of boats, five miles in length, over the river Drave, and the adjacent morasses,®* has been always considered as a place of importance in the wars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mursa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had almost scaled the walls The vigilance of the garrison extinguished the flames; of the town. the approach of Constantius left him no time to continue the operations of the siege; and the emperor soon removed the only obstacle that could embarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops which had taken post in an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round Mursa was a

"This remarkable bridge, which is flanked with towers and supported on large wooden piles, was constructed, a.d. 1566. by Sultan Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies into Hungary. See Browne’s Travels, and Busching’s System of Geography,

vol.

ii.

p. 90.

the decline and FALL OF

594

naked and level plain: on this ground the army of Constantins formed, with the Drave on their right; while their left, either from the nature of their disposition, or from the superiority of their cavalry, extended far beyond the right flank of Magnentius.®' The troops on both sides remained under arms in anxious expectation during the greatest part of the morning; and the son of Constantine, after animating his soldiers by an eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance from the field of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct of this decisive day.®” They deserved his confidence by the valour and military skill which they exerted. They wisely began the action upon the left; and advancing their whole wing of cavalry in an oblique line, they suddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy, which was unprepared to But the Romans of the West resist the impetuosity of their charge. soon rallied by the habits of discipline; and the barbarians of Germany supported the renown of their national bravery. The engagement soon became general; was maintained with various and singular turns of fortune; and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night. The signal victory which Constantins obtained is attributed to the arms of his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly armour, and breaking with their ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as the legions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the second line rode sword in hand into the intervals and completed the disorder. In the meanwhile, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost naked to the dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops of those barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave.®' The number of the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and the slaughter of the conquerors was more considerable than that of the vanquished;®® a circum*' This position, and the subsequent evolutions, are clearly, though concisely, described by Julian, Orat. i. p. 36. “Sulpicius Scverus, 1 . ii. p. 405 [ed. Lugd. Bat. 1647]. The emperor passed the day in prayer with Valens, the Arian bishop of Mursa, who gained his confidence by announcing the success of the battle. M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empcreurs, tom. iv p. iiio) very properly remarks the silence of Julian with regard to the personal prowess of Constantius in the battle of Mursa. The silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and authentic evidence. "Julian. Orat i. p. 36, 37; and Orat. ii. p. 59, 60. Zonaras, tom. ii. 1 xliii. [c. 8] p. 17. Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 49-52] p. 130-133. The last of these celebrates die dexterity of the archer Menelaus, who could discharge three arrows at the same time an advantage which, according to his apprehension of military affairs, materially contributed to the victory of Constantius. "According to Zonaras [ 1 . c.], Constantius, out of 80,000 men, lost 30,000; and Magnentius lost 24,000 out of 36,000. The other articles of this account seem probable and authentic, but the numbers of the tyrant’s army must have been mistaken, either by the author or his transcribers. Magnentius had collected the whole force of the West, Romans and barbarians, into one formidable body, which cannot fairly be estimated at less than 100,000 men. Julian. Orat. i. p. 34, 35. .

.

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE stance which proves the obstinacy of the ^ntest, and justifies the observation of an ancient writer, that the forces of the emtnre were consunted in the fatal battle of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army, sufficient to defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory of Rome.®* Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, there is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own standard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayed the virtues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irrecoverably lost, and his camp in the possession of the enemy. Magnentius then consulted his safety, and, throwing away the Imperial ornaments, escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, who incessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to the foot of the

Julian Alps.*®

The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with specious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war till the ensuing, spring.

Magnentius had

^owed a seeming

fixed his residence in the city of Aquileia, and resolution to dispute the passage of the mountains and

morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetian province. The sur« prisal of a castle in the Alps by the secret march of the Imperialists could scarcely have determined him to relinquish the possession of Italy, if the inclinations of the people had supported the cause of their tyrant.®* But the memory of the cruelties exercised by bis ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deep impression of horror and resentment on the minds of the Romans. That rash youth, the son of the princess Eutropia, and the nephew of Constantine, had seen with indignation the sceptre of the West usurped by a perfidious barbuian. Arming a desperate troop of slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic tranquillity of

of the senate, and, assuming the

title

Rome, received the homage

of Augustus, precariously reigned

during a tumult of twenty-eight days. The march of some regular forces put an end to his ambitious hof)es; the rebellion was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his mother Eutropia, and of his adherents; and the proscription was extended to all who had contracted a fatal alliance " Ingentes R. I. vires ea dimicatione consumpte sunt, ad quselibet bella externa idonese, quae multum triumphorunt possent securitatisque conferre. Eutropius, X. 13 [6]. The younger Victor expresses himself to the same effect.

.

this occasion we must prefer the unsuspected testimony of Zosimus Zonaras to the flattering assertions of Julian. The younger Victor paints “ Sermonis acer, animi character of Magnentius in a singular light :

"On and

the turmidi, et immodice timidus; artifex tamen ad occultandam audaciae specie Is it most likely ttet in the battle of Mursa [Epit. c. 43.] formidinem.” I should incline for the his behaviour was governed by nature or by art?

m

Oration In that place, however, as well as i. p. 38, 39the senate, the people, and of disposition general the insinuates ii p 97 he of the emperor. ihe soldiers of Ittly, towards the party

“

Julian. Orat.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

5«6

with the name and family of Constantine.** But as soon as Constantins, after the battle of Mursa, became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, who had ventured to equip a fleet in some harbour of the. Adriatic, sought protection and revenge in his victorious camp. By their secret intelligence with their countrymen, Rome and the Italian cities were persuaded to display the banners of Constantius on their walls. The grateful veterans, enriched by the liberality of the father, The cavalry, the signalised their gratitude and loyalty to the son. legions, and the auxiliaries of Italy, renewed their oath of allegiance to Constantius; and the usurper, alarmed by the general desertion, was compelled, with the remains of his faithful troops, to retire beyond the Alps into the provinces of Gaul. The detachments, however, which were ordered either to press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius, conducted themselves with the usual imprudence of success; and allowed him, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on his pursuers, and gratifying his despair by the carnage of a useless victory." The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated misfortunes, to sue, and to sue in vain, for peace. He first despatched a senator, in whose abilities he confided, and afterwards several bishops, whose holy character might obtain a more favourable audience, with the offer of resigni n g the purple, and the promise of devoting the remainder of his But Constantius, though he granted life to the services of the emperor. fair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all who abandoned the standard of rebellion,** avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict a just punidiment on the crimes of an assassin whom he prepared to overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms. An Imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain, confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed a considerable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards Lyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius.®" The temper of the tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress to exercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul.*® ‘

"The elder Victor describes in a pathetic manner " Cujus stolidum ingenium adeo P. R. Rome

the miserable condition patribusque exitio fuit, uti passim domus, fora, vise, templaque, cruore, cadaveribusque opplerentur, bustorum modo.” [De Casar. c. 42.] Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677) deplores tlie fate of several illustrious victims, and Julian (Orat. ii. p. 58) execrates the cruelty of Marcellinus, the implacable enemy of the house of (Constantine. “Zosim. 1 ii. [c. 53] p. 133 Victor in Epitome [c. 42]. The panegyrists of Constantius, with their usual candour, forget to mention this accidental

of

r

.

-

defeat.

"Zonaras, tom.

ii.

orations, expatiates

“Zosim.

1.

"Ammian.

ii.

[c.

1.

xiii.

[c.

8| p. 17.

Julian, in several places of the to the rebels.

on the clemency of Constantius 53] p. 133. Julian. Orat i. p. 40,

ii.

two

p. 74.

XV. 6. Zosim. 1 ii. [c. 53] p. i 33 Julian, who (Orat. i. p. 40) inveighs against the cruel effects of the tyrant’s despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34) the oppressive edicts which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice. His subjects were compelled to purchase the Imperial demesnes; .

-

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

SiW

Their patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of Praetorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by shutting her gates against Decentiu^ who had been raised by his brother to the ra^ of either Caesar or of Augustus.*’ From Treves, Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where be was soon surrounded by an army of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of Constantins had introduced into the civil dissensions of Rome.** In the meantime the Imperial troops forced the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title of rebels on the party of Magnentius.** He was unable to bring another army into the field; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted; and when he appeared in public to animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout of “Long live the emperor Constantins 1” The tyrant, who perceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on his sword;’** a death more easy and more honourable than he could hope to obtain from the hands of an enemy whose revenge would have been coloured with the specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of suicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news of his brother’s death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long since disapp)eared in the battle of Mursa,’*’ and the public tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who, either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion. Paul, sumamed Catena from his

was sent to explore the latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The

supierior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny,

honest indignation expressed by Martin, vice-prafect of the island, was a doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case of a revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable usurpation. ” The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of the izvo Augusti, and of the Caesar. The Caesar was another brother named Desiderius. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 757. "Julian. Orat. i. p. 40. it. p. 74; with Spanheim, p. 263.^ His Commentary Mons Seleuci was a small place illustrates the transactions of this civil war. in the Cottian Alps, a few miles distant from Vapincum, or Gap, an episcopal city of Dauphine. See d'Anville, Notice de la Gaule, p. 464; and Longuerue, Description dc la France, p. 327.

"Zosimus, 1. ii. fc. S.t] p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. 268, 269. The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish policy of Constantins. "“Julian, Orat. i. p. 40. Zesimus, 1. ii. [c. 53I p. J34. Socrates, 1. ii. c. 32, Sozomen, 1. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor describes his death with some horrid Transfosso latere, ut erat vast! corporis, vulnere naribusque circumstances If we can give credit et ore cruorem effundens, exspiravit. jEpit. c. 42.] to Zonaras, the tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering with his own hands his mother and his brother Desiderius. ’“Julian (Orat. ii. p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to determine whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was carried by the avenging dxmons from the field of battle to his destined place of eternal tortures. :

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

$98

ioteipreted as an evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was yxg^ to the necessity of turning against his breast the sword with which le had been provoked to wound the Inqjerial minister. The most innocent subjects of the West were exp His proposals Were answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through &e heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balists. The funeral of the prince of the Chionites was celebrated according to the rites of his country; and the grief of his aged father was alleviated by the solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty city of Amida should serve as a funeral pile to expiate ^e death, and to perpetuate the memory, of his son. The ancient city of Amid or Amida,°^ which sometimes assumes the provincial appellation of Diarbekir,” is advantageously situate in a fertile plain, watered by the natural and artificial channels of the Tigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream bends in a semicircular form round the eastern part of the city. The emperor Constantins had recently conferred on Amida the honour of his own name, and the additional fortifications of strong walls and lofty towers. It was provided with an arsenal of military engines, and the ordinary garrison had been reinforced to the amount of seven legions, when the place was invested by the arms of Sapor.”’ His first and most sanguine hopes depended on the success of a general assault. To the several nations which followed his standard their respective posts were assigned; the south to the Vertae; the north to the Albanians; the east to the Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation; the west to the Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered their front with a formidable The Persians, on every side, supported line of Indian elephants.””

and required the

atonement

whid

.

"For

the description of Amida, see d’Herbelot, Bibliothique Orientale, io8; Histoire de Timur Bee, par Cherefeddin Ali, 1. iii. c. 41. Ahmed Arabsiades, tom. i. p. 331, c. 43; Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p. 301; Voyag;es d’Otter, tom. ii. p. 273 and Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 324-328. The last of these travellers, a learned and accurate Dane, has given a plan of Amida, which illustrates the operations of the siege. "Diarbekir, which is styled Amid, or Kara-Amid, in the public writings of the Turks, contains above 16,000 houses, and is the residence of a pasha with three tails. The epithet of Kara is derived from the blackness of the stone which composes the strong and ancient wall of Amida. [The city of Diarbekir (still called by the Armenians Dikranagerd, the city of Tigranes) is thought to be the same with the famous Tigranocerta, of which the situation was long more than doubtful. Faustus of Byzantium, an Armenian, and nearly contemporary, states that the Persians on becoming masters of it destroyed upwards of 40,000 houses. S.] ” The ojicrations of the siege of Amida are very minutely described by Ammianus (xix. 1-9), who acted an honourable part in the defence, and escaped with difficulty when the city was stormed by the Persians. “Of these four nations the Albanians are too well known to require any description. The Segestans [i'ocojtew^, St. Martin] inhabited a large and level country, which still preserves their name, to the south of Khorasan and the west of Hindostan. (See Geographia Nubiensis, p. 133; and d’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 797.) Notwithstanding the boasted victory of Bahrain (page 294), the Segestans, above fourscore years afterwards, appear as an independent nation, the ally of Persia. are ignorant of the situation of the Vert® and Chionites, but I am inclined to place them (at least the p.

;

0

We

.

THB ROMAN EMPIRE

0x9

and animated their courage; and the monarch himsdf, careless of his rank and safety, displayed, in the prosecution of the siege, ^e ardour of a youthful soldier. After an obstinate combat the their efforts,

barbarians were repulsed; they incessantly returned to the charge; they were again driven back with a dreadful slaughter, and two rebel legions of Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalised their undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart of the Persian camp. In one of the fiercest of these repeated assaults, Anuda was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who indicated to the barbarians a secret and neglected staircase, scooped out of the rock that hangs over the stream of the Tigris. Seventy chosen archers of the royal guard ascended in silence to the third story of a lofty tower, which commanded the precipice; they elevated on high the Persian banner, the signal of confidence to the assailants, and of dismay to the besieged; and if this devoted band could have maintained their post a few minutes longer, the reduction of the place might have been purchased by the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried, without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he had recourse to the slower but more certain operations of a regular siege, in the conduct of which he was instructed by the ^ill of the Roman deserters. The trenches were opened at a convenient distance, and the troops destined for that service advanced, under the portable cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch, and undermine the foundations of ^e walls. Wooden towers were at the same time constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, till the soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile weapons, could engage almost on level ground with the troops who defended the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in the defence of Amida, and the works of Sapor were more than once destroyed by the But the resources of a besieged city may be exfire of the Romans. The Persians repaired their losses and pushed their aphausted. proaches; a large breach was made by the battering-ram, and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the sword and by disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to escape through the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous massacre. But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces. As soon as the first transports of victory had sub»ded, Sapor was at leisure to reflect that to chastise a disobedient city he had lost the flower of his troops and the most favourable season for conquest." towards the confines of India and Scythia. See Ammian. xvi. 9. " Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by three signs, which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or with the series of the history. invaded Mesopotamia: “Cum jam stipuu I. The corn was ripe when Sapor Aleppo, wimld flavente turgerent;” a circumstance which, in the latitude of Harmer’s Observations naturally refer us to the month of April or May. See latter)

^

4^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Thirty thousand of his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida during the continuance of a siege which lasted seventy-three da}rs; and the disappointed monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph and secret mortification. It is more than probable that the inconstancy of his barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in which they had encountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the aged king of the Chionites, satiated with revenge, tum^ away with horror from a scene of action where he had been deprived of the hope of his family and nation. The strength as well as spirit of the army with which Sapor took the field in the ensuing spring was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the East, he was obliged to content himself with the reduction of two fortified cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde;*" the one situate in the midst of a sandy de^rt, the other in a small peninsula, surrounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid stream of the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the diminutive size to which they had been reduced in the age of Constantine, were made prisoners, and After sent into remote captivity on the extreme confines of Persia. dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror abandoned that solitary and sequestered place; but he carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that important post a garrison or colony of veterans, amply supplied with every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of honour and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign the arms of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or, as it was universally esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of the independent Arabs.®* The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor required, and would have exercised, the abiliti^ of the most consummate general; on Scripture, vol. i. p. 41. Shaw’s Travels, p. 333, edit. 4to. 2 The progress of Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the Euphrates, which generally happens in July and August. Flin. Hist. Nat. v. 21. Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. p. 696. 3. When Sapor had taken Amida, after a siege pf se\'enty-three days, the autumn was far advanced: “Autumno praecipiti hsedorumque improbo sidere exorto.” To reconcile these apparent contradictions, we must allow for some delay in the Persian king, some inaccuracy in the historian, and some disorder in the seasons. [Clinton, in his Fasti Romani, says there is no such difficulty as Gibbon advance. Amida was taken about October 7 (hsedorum improbo sedcre exorto, viz., October 6), and consequently the siege began about July 27. Before the siege the army of Sapor had approached the Euphrates (nivibus tabefactis inflatum) and it began to rise sole obtinente vicesimam partem Cancri, about July 8. Sapor might have consumed two months in Mesopotamia after he had crossed the Tigris in the beginning of May. O. S.] "The account of these sieges is given by Ammianus, xx. 6, 7. “For the identity of Virtha and Tecrit, see d’Anville, Geographic Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 201. For the siege of that castle by Timui' Bee, or Tamerlane, see Cherefeddin 1. iii. c. 33. The Persian biographer exaggerates the merit and difficulty of this exploit, which delivered the caravans of Bagdad from formidable a gang of robbers. .

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE and

it

seemed fortunate for the state that

tax

was the actual province

it

of

the brave Ursidnus, who alone deserved the confidence of the soldiers and people. In the hour of danger Ursidnus" was removed from his station by the intrigues of the eunuchs; and the military command of the East was bestowed, by the same influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy veteran, who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the es^rience, of age. By a second order, which issued from the same jealous and inconstant counsels, Ursicinus was again despatched to the frontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to sustain the labours of a war, the honours of which had been transferred to his unworthy Sabinian fixed his indolent station under the walls of Messa; rival. and while he amused himself* with the idle parade of military exercise, and moved to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public defence was abandoned to the boldness and diligence of the former general of the East. But whenever Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he proposed, at the head of a light and active army, to wheel round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of the enemy, to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relieve the distress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged that he was restrained by his positive orders from endangering Amida was at length taken; its bravest the safety of the troops. defenders, who had escaped the sword of the barbarians, died in the Roman camp by the hand of the executioner; and Ursicinus himself, after supporting the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his military rank. But Constantius soon experienced the truth of the prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injured lieutenant, that, as long as such maxims of government were suffered to prevail, the emperor himself would find it no easy ta^ to defend his eastern dominions from the invasion of a foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the barbarians of the Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow marches into the East; and after he had wept over the smoking ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the siege of Bezabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but it was still defended by the patient and intrepid valour of the garrison, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor to raise the siege, and ingloriously to retreat into his winter-quarters at Antioch.**

and subtle

"Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6. xi*. 3, xx. a) represents the merit and disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention which a soldier owed to his general. Some partiality may be suspected, yet the whole account is consistent and probable.

“Ammian.

,

xx.

ii.

Omisso vano

.

a

•

incepto, hiematutus Antiochiae

•

rMit in

Syriam serumnosam, perpessus et ulcerum sed et atrocia, diuque denmd^ passage; and he It is thus that James Gronovius has restored an obscure thinks that this correction alone would have deserved a new edition of his author whose sense may now be darkly perceived. I cxperted sonie additional light from the recent labours of the learned Emestus. (Lipsise, 1773*) ,•

IM

the declihe and fall of

^

of his rourtters, IPhe pride of Constantius, and the ingenuity in the wents of the panegyric for materials any discover loss to

a

Julian, to whose nulitapr Persian war; while the glory of his cousin Gaul, was proclaimed to of provinces the intrusted had command he his e^lmts. the world in the simple and concise narrative of had abandoned to Constantius discord, civil of fury In the blind still acknowlthe barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which

edged the authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by presents and promise, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they should be able to subdue.”* But the emperor, who for a temporary service had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the barbarians, soon discovered and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable allies, after they had tasted the ri^ness of Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and the Roman soil. rebellion, these undisciplined robbers treated as their natural enemies all the subjects of the empire who possessed any property which they were desirous of acquiring. Forty-hve flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strasburg, etc., besides a far greater number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and for the most part reduced to ashes. The barbarians of Germany, still faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the confinement of walls, to which they applied the odious names of prisons and sepulchres; and, fixing their independent habitations on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse, they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise, by a rude and hasty fortification of large trees, which were felled and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were established in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the island of the Batavians, together with an extensive district of Brabant, which was then known by the appellation of Toxandria,”” and may deserve to be considered as the original seat of their Gallic monarchy.*”

From the sources “The ravages of

to the

mouth

of the Rhine, the conquests of the

the Germans, and the distress of Gaul, may be collected from Julian himself. Orat. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 277. Ammian. xv. ii [8?] Libanius, Orat. x. Zosimus, 1 . iii. [c. 3] p. 140. Sozomen, 1 iii. c. i. [Mamertin. Grat. Act. c. rv.] "Ammianus (xvii. 8). This name seems to be derived from the Toxandri of Pliny, and very frequently occurs in the histories of the middle age. .

Toxandria was a country of woods and morasses, which extended from 3ie neighbourhood of Tongres to the conflux of the Vahal and the Shine. See Valesius, Notit. Galliar. p. 558. “The paradox of P. Daniel, that the Franks never obtained any permanent settlement on this side of the Rhine before the time of Clovis, is refuted with much learning and good sense by Mr. Biet, who has proved, by a chain of evidence, their uninterrupted possession of Toxandria one hundred and thirty years before the accession of Clovis. The Dissertation of M. Biet was crowned by the Academy of Soissons in the year 1736, and seems to «®ve Iwn justly preferred to the discourse of his more celebrated competitor, me Abbe le Boeuf, an antiquarian whose name was happily expressive of his talents.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

6a^S

Gennaos CKteoded above forty miles to the west of that driver, over a country peopled by colonies of their own name and nation; and the scene of their devastations was three times more extensive than that of their conquests. At a still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were deserted, and the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who trusted to their strength and vigilance, were obliged to content themselves with such supplies of corn as they could raise on the vacant land within the enclosure of their walls. The diminished legions, destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and discipline, trembled at the approach, and even at the name, of the barbarians. Under these melancholy circumstances, an inexperienced youth was appointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather, as he expresses it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial greatness. The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which he had bera more conversant with books than with arms, with the dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war and government; and when he awkwardly repeated some military exwith a ercise which it was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed ” Yet even sigh, “ O Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher too apt to d^ this speculative philosophy, which men of buaness are precepts and the spise, had filled the mind of Julian with the noblest the most ghining examples; had animated him with the love of virtue, habits of temperanra desire of fame, and the contempt of death. The severe disrecommended in the schools are stiU more essential in the nature regulated the measw cipline of a camp. The simple wants of 1

Rejecting with disdain the delicacies provided fare his appetite with the coarre and common satisfied he table, his for vigour of a the During soldiers. meanest the which was allotted to his bedchamber; and after a Gallic winter he never suffered a fire in rose in the middle of the frequently he short and interrupted slumber, the floor, to despatch any urgent busi-

of his food and sleep.

night from a carpet spread on for the pro^ng, to visit his rounds, or to steal a few moments precepts of eloquence, which he The studies.*^ favourite tion of his of declamation, were rnore had hitherto practised on fancied topics jwssions of an the assuage to or excite usefully applied to habits of conversation early his tude- and although Julian, from acquainted wife ^^ beauties of lie

ad

was more competent knowledge of the L^m Greek language he had attained a designed for the character originally not was tongue." ^SiMC Julian familiarly

literature,

“The

and the severe discipline which he orivate life of Julian in Gaul,

whiJf Tn “ T

surprise Constantine, might justly excite the a princl of the house of

But Ammianus, Sdisserendi sufficiens sermo. the language of schools of Greece, always considered on necessaor popular dialect, which he might use forrign

- Ad"eS‘^Latine quoque 1-

“ j

the Rom«“s occasions.

fia

afa

id

THE DECLINE AND FALL OP juri^rudence pf of a legislator or a judge, it is probable that the civil the ’Rnmatis had not engaged any considerable share of his attention: but he derived from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency, the knowledge of the general principles oif equity and evidence, and the faculty of patiently investigating the most intricate and tedious questions which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures of policy, and the operations of war, must submit to the various accidents of circumstance and character, and the unpractised student will often be perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But in the acquisition of this important science Julian was assisted by the active vigour of his own genius, as well as by the wisdom and experience of Sallust, an officer of rank, who soon conceived a sincere attachment for a prince so

worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptible integrity was adorned by the talent of insinuating the harshest truths without wounding the delicacy of a royal ear.®* Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan he was sent into Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter, in the hands of those ministers to

whom

Constantius had intrusted the direction of

was informed

of the siege and deliverance of That large and ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall and pusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous resolution of a few veterans, who resumed their arms for the defence of their country. In his march from Autun, through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian embraced with ardour the earliest opportunity of signalising his courage. At the head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, be preferred the shorter but the more dangerous of two roads; and sometimes eluding and sometimes resisting the attacks of the barbarians, who were masters of the field, he arrived with honour and safety at the camp near Rheims, where the Roman troops had been ordered to assemble. The aspect of their young prince revived the drooping spirit of the soldiers, and they marched from Rheims in search of the enemy with a confidence whidi had almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni, familiarised to the knowledge of the country, secretly collected their scattered forces, and, seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans. Before the inevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions were destroyed; and Julian was taught by experience that caution and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art of war. In a second and more successful action be recovered and established his military his conduct, the Csesar

Autun.

“We

are ignorant of the actual office of this excellent minister, whom Julian afterwards created prsefect of Gaul. Sallust was speedily recalled the jealousy of the emperor; and we may still read a sensible but pedantic discourse (p. 240-252), in which Julian deplores the loss of so valuable a friend, to whom he acknowledges himself indebted for his reputation. See La Bleterie, Preface a la Vie de Jovien, p. 30.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

61 $

but as the agility of the barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory was neither bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks of the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the difficulties of the war, and retreated on the approach of winter, discontented with the court, with his army, and with his own success.’® The power of the enemy was yet unbroken; and the Csesar had no sooner separated his troops, and fixed his own quarters at Sens, in the centre of Gaul, than he was surrounded and besieged by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced in this extremity to the resources of his own mind, he displayed a prudent intrepidity

which compensated for all the deficiencies of the place and garrison; and the barbarians, at the end of thirty days, were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.

The

conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword was embittered by the reflection that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to destruction, by those who were bound to assist him by every tie of honour and fidelity. Marcellus, master-general of the cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of the court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian, and had restrained the troops under his command from marching to the relief of Sens. If the Cssar had dissembled in silence so dangerous an insult, his person and authority would have been exposed to the contempt of the world; and if an action so criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor would have confirmed the suspicions which received a very specious colour from this conduct towards the princes of the Flavian family. Marcellus was reIn his room Severus called, and gently dismissed from his office.” was appointed general of the cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and fidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal; and who submitted, without reluctance, to the supreme command which Julian, by the interest of his patroness £uvery judicious sebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul.’® plan of operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, and carefully reestablished the fortifications of Saveme, in an advantageous post which for this signal deliverance,

A

"Ammianus

(xvi. 2, 3) appears

much

better satisfied with the success of

campaign than Julian himself; who very fairly owns that he did nothing of consequence, and that he fled before the enemy. "Ammian. xvi. 7. Libanius speaks rather more advantageously of the this first

military talents of Marcellus, Orat. x. p. 272. And Julian insinuates that he would not have been so easily recalled, unless he had given other reasons of offence to the court, p. 278. " Severus, non discors, non arrogans, sed longa militise frugahtate compertus; et eum recta praeeuntem secuturus, ut ductorem morigerus miles. Ammian. xvi. ii. Zosimtis, 1 . iii. [c. 2] p. 140.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Ui 110111(1

either che(^ the iocursioos or intercept the retreat of the

esemyt

At the same time Barbatio, general of the infantry, i^vanced from Milan with an army of thirty thousand men, and, passing the moun* prepared to throw a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighbourhood It was reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed on either side by the Roman arms, would soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of Gaul, and to hasten to, the defence of their native country. But the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the envy, or the secret instructions of Barbatio, who acted as if he had been the enemy of the Cxsar, and the secret ally of the barbarians. The negb'gence with which be permitted a troop of pillagers freely to pass, and to return, almost before the gates of his camp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the treasonable act of burning a tains,

of Basil.

of boats, and a superfluous stock of provisions, which would have been of the most essential service to the army of Gaul, was an

number

evidence of his hostile

and criminal

intentions.

The Germans

despised

an enemy who appeared destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them; and the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the expected support, and left him to extricate himself from a hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety, nor with honour.^* as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman youth who presum^ to dispute the possession of that country which they claimed as their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They employed three days, and as many nights, in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking the ponderous javelin whhh he had victoriously wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led retire

As soon

the van of the barbarians,

and moderated by bis experience the martial He was followed by six other regal extraction, by a long train of high-

ardour which his example inspired.^* kings,

by ten

princes of

and by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own strength was increased by the intelligence which they received from a deserter, that the Qesar, with a feeble army of thirteen thousand men, occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from their camp of Strasbufg. With this inadequate force Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the barbarian host; and the chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and uncertain operation of sepaspirited nobles,

of the tribes of

“On

the design and failure of the co-operation between Julian and BarAmmianus (xvi, ii), and Libanius, Orat. x. p. 273. "Ammianus (xvi. 12) describes with his inflated eloquence the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor proelii sperabatur immanis, equo spumante, sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidandse vastitatis, armorumque nitore conspicuus : antea strenuus et miles, et utilis prseter cseteros ductor . . . Decentium Cxsarem superavit aequo Marte congressus. batio, see

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

637

ntdy

the disperse parties of the Alemanni. The Romans in dose order, and in two columns; the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and the day was so far spent when they apsight of the enemy, that Julian I^arra was desirous of deferring the battle till the next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to the clamours of the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted them to justify by their valour the eager impatience which, in case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets of rashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of lighthorse and of light-infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers.’® The fugitives were stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian# who, careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and, urging every motive of shame and honour, led them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper; and as the barbarians who served under the standard of the empire united the respective advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle of Strasburg, so glorious to the Cssar,’® and so salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts whilst they attempted to swim Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken across the river.”

mar^^

m

“After the battle Julian ventured to revive the rigour of ancient discipline by exposing these fugitives in female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next campaign these troops nobly retrieved their honour. Zosimus,

1. iii. [c. 3] p. 142, , „ “Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279) speaks of the battle of Straslira% mI aKkeat, burg with the modesty of conscious merit; e#*oxe(rd#tiji» oix Zosimus compares it with the victory of tls vftas dtpiKero ii Toiaini itixVAlexander over Darius; and >et we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct and success of a single day. "Ammianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the number of the

But these trifling differences disappear before the slain (Orat. x. p. 274). 60,000 barbarians whom Zosimus has sacrificed to the glory of his hero ( 1 iiu might attribute this extravagant number to the careless[c. 3] p. 141). ness of transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not swelled li> army of 3S,ooo Alemanni to an innumerable multitude of barbarians, It is our own fault if this detection does not inspire srXittfoi air«poi> /3apj3dpwr. .

We

us with proper distrust on similar occasions.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

%tr,

prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had devoted them* Julian selves to follow in life or death the fate of their chieftain. received him with military pomp in the council of his officers; and expressing a generous pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward

contempt for the abject humiliation of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemanni as a grateful ^ctacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an honourable treatment: but the impatient barbarian could not long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his mdle.’^^ After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany; and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid valour, had ever Although been esteemed the most formidable of the barbarians.'" they were strongly actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of war, which they considered as the supreme honour and felicity of human nature; and their minds and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the lively expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant In the month of December which to them as the flowers of spring. followed the battle of Strasburg, Julian attacked a body of six hundred Franks who had thrown themselves into two castles on the Meuse."” In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days, till at length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the enemy in breaking the ice of the river left them no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die. The Caesar immediately sent his captives to the

court of Constantins, who, accepting them as a valuable present,"' rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic guards. The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks apprised Julian of the difficulties of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring against the whole body of the

" Ammian.

xvi. 12.

"Libanius (Orat.

Libanius. Orat. x. p. 276. p. 137) draws a very lively picture of the matuiers of

iii.

the Franks.

"Ammianus,

xvii.

2.

Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278.

The Greek

orator,

by

misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men; and, as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he compares them to the Lacedaemonians, who were besieged and taken in the island of Sphacteria. " Julian, ad S. P. Q, Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor Swpa iiy 6 iia.it, which Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118) as an honest confession, and Valesius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2) as a mean evasion, of the truth. Dom Bouquet (Historiens de France, tom. i. p. 733), by substituting another word, M/un, would suppress both the difficulty and die spirit of this passage.

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

fyg

His rapid diligence surprised and astonished the active barba* rians. Ordering his soldiers to provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in his winter-quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite or to deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success of his arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency and to obey the commands of their conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the Rhine; but the Saliarn were permitted to possess their new establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of the Roman empire.*® The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and perpetual inspectors were appointed to

lotion.

reside among the Franks, with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself, and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of tiie tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the sad perplexity of the barbarians; and their aged chief lamented, in pathetic language, that his private loss was now embittered by a sense of the public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his Arone, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Csesar addressed the assembly in the following terms: “ Behold the son, the prince, whom you wept. You bad lost him by your fault. God and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republic will avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty.” The barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest senti-

ments of gratitude and admiration.** It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces of Gaul from the barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate the glory of the first and most illustrious of the emperors; after whose example P- 146-150 (his narrative is Q. Athen. p. 280. His Julian, ad S. This expression, 6ir«5e€d/tiji* fih /AoTpav Tov XaXlur Hvovt^ Xafi&^ovs difference of treatment confirms the opinion that the Salian Franks were

“Ammian.

xvii. 8;

Zosimus,

darkened by a mixture of fable)

I.

;

iii.

[c. 4, ^9-1

and

permitted to retain the settlements in Toxandria. ^ . j it Euna“This interesting story, which Zosimus has abridged, is related Yen.; {9pius (in l^cerpt Legationum, p. 15, 16, 17 [ed. Paris; Prhetoric; cap. i. p. 41 sgq. ed. Bonn]), with all the amplifications of Grecian but the silence of Libanius, of Ammianus, and of Julian himself, renders the truth of it extremely suspicious.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF Gi^ic war.** Cssar baa which he twice passed tht assumed the title of Aueagles beyond that great river in

!be composed his own commentaries of the related, witih conscious pride, the manner in Rhine. Julian could boast that, before he

gustus, he had carried the Roman three successful expeditions,*® The consternation of the Germans after the battle of Strasburg encouraged him to the first attempt; and the

reluctance of the troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a leader who shared the fatigues and dangers which he impost on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on either side of the Main, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal houses, constructed with some imitation of Roman elegance, were consumed by the flames; and the Cssar boldly advanced about ten miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages, which threatened with secret snares and ambush every step of the assailan t. The ground was already covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle which had been erected by Trajan,

granted a truce of ten months to the submissive barbarians. At the expiration of the truce Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine, to humble the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the Alemanni,

They promised

who had been present at the battle of Strasburg. Roman captives who yet remained

to restore all the

and as the Caesar had procured an exact account from the cities Gaul of the inhabitants whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him with a degree of readiness and accuracy whid almost established the belief of his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was still more splendid and important than the two former. The Germans had collected their military powers, and moved along the opposite banks of the river, with a design of destroying the But this judibridge, and of preventing the passage of the Romans. cious plan of defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three hundred light-armed and active soldiers were detached in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in silence, and to land, at some distance from the posts of the enemy. They executed their orders with so much boldness and celerity, that they bad almost surprised the barbarian chiefs, who returned in the fearless confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal festivals. Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to observe alive;

and

villages of

that Julian dictated his

own

conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest

"Libanius, the friend of Julian, dearly insinuates (Orat. iv. p. 178) that hero had composed the history of his Gallic campaigns. But Zosimus (1. iii. [c. 2] p. 140) seems to have derived his information only from the Orations {\ 6 yot) and_ the Epistles of Julian. The discourse which is addressed to Ae Athenians contains an accurate, though general, account of his

the

war against

the

"See Ammian.

Germans.

xvii. i, 10, xviii.

P. Q. Athen. p. 280.

2; and Zosim.

1. iii.

p. 144. -rt-

Julian,

ad S.

'

THE HOMAN EMPIRE of the

^emann^

631

whom were permitted to view the severe disciphne and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by twenty thousand capUves, whom he had rescued from the chains of the barbanans, the C*ar repassed the Rhine, after terminating a war the three of

^ccess of which has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic and Cimbric victories. As soon as the valour and conduct of Julian had secured an interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, which had suffered from the inroads of the barbarians, he diligently repaired; and seven important posts, between Mentz and the mouth of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned as having been rebuilt and fortified by the order of Julian.*® The vanquished Germans had submitted to the Just but humiliating condition of preparing and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of Julian urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the spirit which he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliaries themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue, contended in the most servile labours with the diligence of the Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Cssar to provide for the subsistence as well as for the safety of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. The desertion of the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of the continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from the plenty of the adjacent island. Six hundred large barques, framed in the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of Britain; and returning from thence, laden with corn, sailed up the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and The arms of Julian had fortresses along the banks of the river.*’ restored a free and secure navigation, which Constantius had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted with a lavish and trembling hand to the barbarians. The dexterity, as well as the firmness of

"Ammian. xviii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 279, 280. Of these seven posts, four are at present towns of some consequence Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Nuyss. The other three, Tricesinise, Quadriburgium, and Castra HercuHs, or Heraclea, no longer subsist ; but there is room to believe that, on the ground of Quadriburgium, the Dutch have constructed the fort of Schenk, a name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy of Boileau. See D’Anville, Notice de J’Ancienne Gaule, p. 183; Boileau, Epitre iv. and the notes. may credit Julian himself, Orat. ad S. P. Q. Atheniensem, p. 279, Zosimus adds tq., who gives a very particular account of the transaction. two hundred vessels more, 1. iii. [c. 5 I P- *45- If we computed the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy tons each, they were capable of exporti^ 120,000 quarters (see Arbuthnot’s Weights and Measures, p. 237); and the country which could bear so large an exportation must already have attained

—

We

an improved state of agriculture.

—

Julian, t4»ited

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF put to a severe trial, whm he took the field with

a disc(»> was army, which had already served two campaigns without receiv-

ing any re^ar pay or any extraordinary donative.^* tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the administration of Julian.*® He devoted the leisure of his winter-quarters to the offices of civil government; and affected to assume with more pleasure the character of a magistrate than that of a general. Before he took the field he devolved on the provincial governors most of the public and private causes which had been referred to his tribunal; but, on his return, he carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigour of the law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves. Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness and dignity, the warmth of an advocate who prosecuted, for extortion, the president of the Narbonnese province. “Who will ever be found guilty,” ex” “ And claimed the vehement Delphidius, “ if it be enough to deny? who,” replied Julian, “ will ever be innocent, if it is sufficient to affirm? ” In the general administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested with the ensigns of royalty might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence of the inferior agents, to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the finances was more safely intrusted to Florentius, Praetorian prefect of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughty minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure tiie weakness of his own behaviour. The Csesar had rejected with abhorrence a mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new superindiction, which the prsefect had offered for his signature; and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his own conduct, he proceeds in the following terms: “ Was it possible for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects intrusted to my care? Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death, and deprived of the honours of burial.

A

"The troops once brohe out into a mutiny, immediately before the second passage of the Khine. .\mmjan. x-vii. 9. Ammian. x\i. s. xviii. i. Mamertinus in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 4.

^

THE ROMAH EMPIRE With what

pronounce kis sentence, if, in the hour of danger, 1 myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more im> portant? God has placed me in Ihis elevated post; his providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and upright conscience. Would to Heaven that I still possessed a counseller like Sallust If thqr think proper to send me a successor, I shall submit without reluctance; and had much rather improve the short opportunity of doing good, than enjoy a long and lasting impunity of evil.”*® The precarious and dependent situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed justice could I

1

his defects.

Constantins,

The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of was not permitted to reform the vices of the government;

but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people. Unless he had been able to revive the martial spirit of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes of securing the public tranquillity, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of Julian suspended for a short time the inroads of the barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Weste'-n Empire. His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had been so long exposed to the evils of dvil discord, barbarian war, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce again flourished under the protection of the laws; and the curitE, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the provinces displayed the image of national prosperity.*^ mind like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which he was the author; but he viewed with peculiar satisfaction and complacency the city of Paris, the seat of his winter residence, and the object even of his partial affection.®* That splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The

A

"Ammian.

xvii. 3.

Julian, Epistol

xvii. edit.

Spanheim.

Such a condue*

Ita illi anm spatia divisa sunt, ut aut Barbaros domitct, aut civibus jura restituat ; perpetuum profcssus, aut contra hostem, aut contra vitia, certaraen. “Libanius, Orat. Parental, in Imp. Julian, c. 38, in Fabricius Bibliothec.

almost

justifies the

encomium of Maroertinus.

Grsec. tom. vii. p. 263, 264. “See Julian, in Misopogon, p. 34°. 34 i The primitive state of Paris is illustrated by Henry Valesius (ad Ammian. xx. 4), his brother Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and M. d’Anville (in their respective Notitias of ancient Gaul), the Abbe de Longuerue (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 12, 13), and M. Bonamy (in the Mem. de I’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p.

656-691).

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF river bathed the foot of the walls; and the town was acce^ble only forest overspread the northern side of the bri a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean; and with some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and fig-tree were successBut in remarkable winters the Seine was deeply fully cultivated

and the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble which were extract^ from the quarries of Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia,”^ where the amusements of the He indignantly contrasted the theatre were unknown or despised. effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance which was the only stain of the frozen;

Celtic character.®^

If Julian could

now

revisit the capital of France,

he might converse with men of science and genius, capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation whose martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable art which softens and refines

and embellishes the intercourse of

social life.

CHAPTER XX The Motives, Progress, and Effects of the Conversion of Constantine

—Legal

Establishment and Constitution of the Christian or Catholic Church

The

public establishment of Christianity may be considered as one of the most important and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe; but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation. In the consideration of a subject which may be examined with impartiality,

“T^i.

but cannot be viewed with indifference, a

)t>l\iip

AevKtTlap.

Julian, in

Misopogon,

p. 340.

difficulty

imme-

Leucetia, or Lutetia,

was the ancient name of the city which, according to the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial appellation of Parisii. “Julian, in Misopogon. p 359, 360.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE diatdy arises of a veiy unexpected nature—that of tte

first

moments

true and only

»»v«si.a

.t

635

the

Cc«sUnS«“‘S;’S^

impatient^ to prod^m to glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul; who, in the of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the

G^.

The

learned Eusebius has ascribed the faith of

Constontme to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian exp^ition.® The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts that the emperor had imbrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son before he publicly renounced the gods of Rome and of his ancestors/ The perplexity produced by these ^scor^t authorities is derived from the behaviour of Constantine

According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the Chrtsttan emperors was unworthy of that name till the moment of his death; since it was only during his last illness that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition of hands,"* and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful.** The Christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in

himself.

* The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been accurately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions proposed, and an expedient imagined of two oriyituil editions—the former published during the persecutions of Diocletian, the latter under that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Prsefat. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. vi. p. 465-470. Lardner’s Credibility, p. V. part ii. vol.yii. p. 78-86. For my own part, I am almost convinced that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the Christians; that is, between the years 306 and 311. ’Lactant. Diyin. Institut. i. i, vii. 26. The first and most important of these passages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight manuscripts, but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative value of those manuscripts, one of goo years old, jn the king of France’s library, may be alleged in its favour; but the passage is omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de Montfaucon ascribes to the sixth or seventh century (Diarium Italic. 409). The taste of most of the editors (except Issus, see Lactant. edit. Dufresnoy,^ tom. i. p. 596) has felt the genuine style of Lactantius. • Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1 i. c. 27-32. * Zosimus, 1 ii. [c. 29] p. 104. ‘That rite was always used in making a catechumen (see Bingham’s AnChardon, Hist, des Sacremens, tom. i. p. 62), tiquities, 1 X. c. i. p. 419; and Constantine received it for the first time (Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1 iv. . 61 ) immediately before his baptism and death. From the connection of these two facts, Valcsius (ad loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted by Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 628), and opposed with feeble arguments by Mosheim (p. 968). ‘Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1 . iv. r. 61, 62, 63. 'The legend of Constantine’s baptism at Rome, thirteen years before his death, was invented in the eighth century, as a proper motive for his donation. Such has been the gradual progress of knowledge, that a story, of which Cardinal Baronius (Annal. Ecclesiast. A.D. 324, No 43-49) declared himself the unblushing advocate, is_ now feebly supported, even within the verge of the Vatican. See the Antiquitates Christiana, tom. ii. p. 232 a work published with six approbations at Rome, in the year 1751, by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican.

.

.

'

.

Dom

.

.

—

;

Ip

THE

DE'C’LINE-

AND FALX OF

lisdng the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the atonarch declared himself the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church. It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education, to acknowledge the divine power of Christ and to understand that the truth of kis revelation was incompatible with the worship of the gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the whole course of his reign, the stream of Christianity flowed with a gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction was sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by Jie accidental circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by the caprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the intentions of their master in the various language which was best adapted to their respective principles; and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year two edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday,® and the second directed the regular consultation of the ArusWhile this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the pices.® Christians and the Pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with The former the same anxiety, but with very opposite sentiments. were prompted by every motive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the marks of his favour and the evidences of his faith. The latter, till their just apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment, attempted to conceal from the world, and from themselves, that the gods of Rome could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of The same passions- and prejudices have engaged the their votaries. partial writers of the times to connect the public profession of Christianity with the most glorious or the most ignominious era of the reign of Constantine. Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discourses or actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty years of age in the practice of the established religion; and the same ’’

’ The quscstor, or secretary, who composed the law of the Theodosian Code, makes his master say with indifference, “hominibus supra dicta: religionis ” The minister of ecclesiastical affairs was allowed a ( 1 xvi. tit. li. leg. i). more devout and respectful style, rfr Miaiuiv KtU iyiarirTit Ka0oXtK^s epr/iTKetas the legal, most holy, and catholic worship. See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. .

1 . X. c. 6.

*Cod. Theodos.

1.

ii.

tit.

viii.

leg.

i.

Cod. Justinian.

1.

iii.

tit.

xii.

leg. 3.

Constantine styles the Lord’s day dtes solit, a name which could not offend the ears of his Pagan subjects. *Cod. Theodos. 1 xvi. tit. x. leg. i. Godefroy, in the character of a commentator, endeavours (tom. vi. p. 257) to excuse Constantine; but the more zealous Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 321, No. 18) censures his profane conduct with truth and asperity. “Theodoret (1. i. c 18) seems to insinuate that Helena gave her son a Christian education but we may be assured, from the superior authorits" of .

;

THB ROMAN EMPIRE

6,

conduct which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his feaa, inclination or policy of the sovereign oi 5? 1 (^ul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods; the medals which issued from his Imperial mint ate impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Constantius.i» But the devotion of Constan-

and

tine was of Greek

more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represent^ with the symbols of the God of Light and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments, seem to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the

votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity; and that, either

waking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign. The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine; and the Pagans mi^t reasonably expect that the insulted god would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favourite.'* As long as Constantine exercised a limited sovereignty over the provinces of Gaul, his Christian subjects were protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince who wisely left to the gods the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the assertion of Constantine himself, he had been an indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman soldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime.'® In the East and in the West he had seen the different effects of severity and indulgence; and as the former was rendered still more odious by the example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended to his imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The son of Constantius immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of persecution, and granted the free exercise of their religious ceremonies Eusebius (m Vit. Constant 1. in. c. 47), that she herself was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge of Christianity. , , “ See the medals of Constantine ui Ducaiige and handun. As few cities had retained the priviloge of coming, almost all the medals of that age issued from the mint under the sanction of the Imperial authority. "The panegyric of Eumeiiius (vii. [vi.] inter Panegyr. Vet), which was pronounced a few months before the Italian war, abounds with the most unexceptionable e\idence of the Pagan superstition of Constantine, and of his particular veneration for Apollo, or the Sun; to which Julian alludes (Orat See Commentaire de Spanheim sur les Cesars, ijroXelTTMi, ai). vii, p. 228 ^

^ Constantin Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 25. But it might easily be shown that the Greek translator has improved the sense of the Latin original and the aged emperor might recollect the persecution of Diocletian with a more lively abhorrence than he had actually felt in the days of his youth and Paganism. ;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

list

members of the to all those who had already professed themselves churdi. They were soon mcouraged to depend on tiie favour as well as on the justice of their sovereign, who had imbibed a secret and sincere reverence for the name of Christ, and for the God of the Christians.^*

About five months after the conquest of Italy, the emperor made a solemn and authentic declaration of his sentiments by the celebrated In the edict of Milan, which restored peace to the catholic church. personal interview of the two western princes, Constantine, by the ascendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague, Licinius; the union of their names and authority disarmed the fury of Maximin; and, after the death of the tyrant of the East, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world.^' The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution of all the civil and religious rights of which the Christians had been so unjustly derived. It was enacted that the places of worship, and public lands, which had been confiscated, should be restored to the church, without dispute, without delay, and without expense: and this severe injunction was accompanied with a gracious promise, that, if any of the purchasers had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified from the Imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the faithful are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration; and such an equality must have been interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous and honourable distinction. The two emperors proclaim to the world that they have granted a free and absolute power to the Christians, and to all others, of following the religion which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he has addicted his mind, and which be may deem the best adapted to his own use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every exception, and exact from the governors of the provinces a strict obedience to the true and simple meaning of an edict which was designed to establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims of religious liberty. They condescend to assign two weighty reasons which have induced them to allow this universal toleration: the humane intention of consulting the peace and happiness of their people; and the pious hope that by such a conduct they shall appease and propitiate the Deity, whose seat is in heaven. They gratefully acknowledge the many signal proofs which they have received of the divine favour; “See Euseb.

Hist. Eccles. j. viii, 13, 1 ix. 9; and in Vit. Const. I i. c. 16, Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. i. Caecilius de Mort. Persecut. c. 25. “Cacilius (de Mort. Persecut. c. 48) has preserved the Latin original; and Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. 1 x. c. 5) has given a Greek translation of this perpetual edict, which refers to some provisional regulations. [The issue of the edict of Milan is now regarded as, to say the least of it, a very improbable occurrence. Cf. Seeck Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 12, .

17.

.

p. 181.

—O.

S.l

THE ROMAN EMPIRE and they

639

same Providence will for ever continue to prosperity of the prince and people. From these vague

trust that the

protect the^

and indefinite expressions of piety three suppositions may be deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible nature. The min ipoita xal n/tpbv, Twv TciXai ao^uv, niv iriviis Kal KaTi)0i|s, xal iiiya ifielnov, xal iv (bSf Ptolemais, a new city, 82 miles to the westward of Cyrene, assumed the metropolitan honours of the Pentapolis, or Upper Libya, which were afterwards transferred to Sozusa. See Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 67, 68, 732. Cellarius Geograph, tom. ii. part ii. p. 72, 74. Carolus a Sto. Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, D’Anville, Geographic Ancienne, tom. iii. p. 43, 44. M6noires de p. 273. I’Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii. p. 363-391Synesius had previously represented his own disqualifications (Epist. cv. He loved profane studies and profane sports; he was incapable p. 246-250).

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF president Andronicus, vrho abused the authority of a venal ofiQce, invented new modes of rapine and torture, and aggravated the guilt of oppression by that of sacrilege.*"' After a fruitless attempt to reclaim

haughty magistrate by mild and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice,*** which devotes Andronicus, with his associates and their families, to the abhorrence of earth and heaven. The impenitent sinners, more cruel than Phalaris or Sennacherib, more destructive than war, pestilence, or a doud of locusts, are deprived of the name and privileges of Christians, of the participation of the sacraments, and of the hope of Paradise. The bishop exhorts the clergy, the magistrates, and the people to renounce all society with the enemies of Christ, to exclude them from their houses and tables, and to refuse them the common offices of life, and the decent The church of Ptolemais, obscure and contemptible as rites of burial. she may appear, addresses this declaration to all her sister churches of the world; and the profane who reject her decrees will be involved in the guilt and puni^ment of Andronicus and his impious followers. These spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine court; the trembling president implored the mercy of the church, and the descendant of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of raiang a prostrate tyrant from the ground.*** Such principles and such examples insensibly prepared the triumph of the Roman pontiffs, who have trampled on the necks of kings. VI. Every popular government has experienced the effects of rude or artificial eloquence. The coldest nature is animated, the firmest reason is moved, by the rapid communication of the prevailing impulse; and each hearer is affected by his own passions and by those of the surrounding multitude. The ruin of civil liberty had silenced the dematiie

gogues of Athens and the tribunes of Rome; the custom of preaching, which seems to constitute a considerable part of Christian devotion, had not been introduced into the temples of antiquity; and the ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence till of supporting a life of celibacy; he fused to preach fables to the people, phue at home. Theophilus, primate this extraordinary compromise. See

disbelieved the resurrection; and he reunless he might be permitted to philosoof Egypt, who knew his merit, accepted the Life of Synesius in Tillemont, Mem.

Eccles. tom. xii. p. 499-554. See the invective of Synesius, Epist. IviL p. 191-201. The promotion of Andronicus was illegal, since he was a native of Berenice, in the same province. The instruments of tortures are curiously specified the viea-rlipiov, or press, the SaKrvXijBpa, the iroJoo-rpd^jj, the pivoXo/Sis, the tfriypa, and the X*»Xo(rTp60iov, that variously pressed or distended the fingers, the feet, the nose, the ears, and the lips of the victims.

“

—

“The sentence of excommunication is expressed in a rhetorical style. (Synesius, Epist. Iviii. p. 201-203.) The method of involving whole families, though somewhat unjust, was improved into national interdicts. “See Synesius, Epist. xlvii. p. 186, 187; Epist. Ixxii. p. 218, 219; Epist. Ixxxix, p. 230, 231.

THE!

ROMAN EMPIRE

tbe pulpits of the eini»Te were

filled 'with

sacred orators,

who

possessed

some advantages unknown to thdr profane predecessors.”* The arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed, with equal arms, by skilful and resolute antagonists; and the cause of truth and reason might derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostile passions. The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter to whom he cautiously delegated the powers of preaching, harangued, without the danger of interruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds had

b^n

prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion. Such was the strict subordination of the catholic church, that the same concerted soTinds might issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt, if they were tuned by the master-hand of the Roman or Alexandrian primate. The design of this institution was laudable, but the fruits were not always salutary. The preachers recommended tbe practice of the social duties; but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue, which is painful to the individual, and useless to mankind. Their charitable exhortations betrayed a secret -wish that the clergy might be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful for the benefit of the poor. The most sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the Deity were sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerile rites, and fictitious miracles: and they expatiat^, with the most fervent seal, on the religious merit of hating ^e adversaries and obeying the ministers of the church. When the public peace was distract^ by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of discord, and perhaps of sedition. The understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery, their passions were inflamed by invectives; and they rushed from the Christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria, prepar^ either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the Latin bishops; but -the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom' have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, eloquence.^** VII. The representatives of the Christian republic were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of each year; and these synods diffused the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and legislation through the hundred and twenty provinces of the Roman world.^*® The archbish(q> *®bce Thomassm (Uiscipline de I’Eglise, tom. ii. 1 iii. c. 83, p. 1761-1770) and Bing-ham (Antiquities, voL i. 1 . xiv. c. 4, p. 688-717). Preadiing was considered as the most important office of the bishop; but this function was sometimes intrusted to such presbyters as Chrysostom^ and Augustin. “* Queen Elizabeth used this expression and practised this art whenever she wished to prepossess the minds of her people in favour of any extraordinary measure of government. The hostile effects of this music were apprehended by her successor, and severely felt by his son. “When pulpits drain .

See Heylin’s Life of Archbishop Laud, p. 153. that, as they were destitute of the gift of miracles, they endeavoured to acquire the arts of eloquence. “* The council of Nice, in the fourth, fifth,_ sixth, and seventh canons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning synods, metropolitans, and

ecclesiastic.” etc.

““Those modest orators acknowledged

«fO

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

metropolitan was empowered by the laws to summon the suffragan bishops of his province; to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to declare their faith, and to examine the merit of the candidates who were elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of the The primates of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carepiscopal' college.

'or

and afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the emperor alone. Whenever the emergencies of the chur^ required this decisive measure, he despatched a peremptory summons to the bishops or the deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses and a competent allowance for the expenses of their journey. At an early period, when Constantine was the protector rather than the proselyte of Christianity, he referred the African controversy to the council of Arles; in which the bishops of York, of Treves, of Milan, and of Carthage, met as friends and brethren, to debate in their native tongue on the common interest of the Latin or Western church.^” Eleven years afterwards, a more numerous and celebrated assembly was convened at Nice in Bithynia, to extinguish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of every rank and sect and denomination have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons;*** the Greeks appeared in person; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently honoured by the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience and spoke with modesty; and while he influenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth.**® Such profound reverence of an absolute, monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of his own subjects can only be compared to the respect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus. thage,

jurisdiction,

The Nicene canons have been variously tortured, abused, interpoor forged, according to the interest of the clergy. The Suburbicarian churches, assigned (by Rufinus) to the bishop of Rome, have been made the subject of vehement controversy. (Sec Sirmond, Opera, tom. iv. p. 1-238.) “’We have only thirty-three or forty-seven episcopal subscriptions; but Ado, a writer indeed of small account, reckons six hundred bishops in the council of Arles. Tillemont, Moti. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 422. ’“See Tillemont, tom. vi. p. 915, and Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 529. 'The narne^ of bishop, which is given by Eutychius to the 2048 ecclesiastics (Annal. tom. i. p. 440, vers. Pocock), must be extended far beyond the limits of an orthodox or even episcopal ordination See Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. L iii. c. 6-21. Tillemont. M£m. Ecclesiastiques, tom. vi. p. 669-759. primates. lated,

THE ROMAH EMRIKB

ftn

Within the qace of fifty years, a i^osophic spectator of the vidssitodes of human affairs mi^t have contenq>lated Tadtus in the senate of

Rome, and Constantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the Capitol and those of the church had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but as the bishops were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they sustained their ^gnity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed with a manly spirit wishes of their sovereign. The progress of time and superstition erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical S}mods; and the catholic world has unanimously submitted^’" to the injallible decrees of the general councils.'^^

CHAPTER XXI

—

—

PersecutioH of Heresy The Schism of the Donatists The Arim Controversy-^Athanasius Distracted State of the Church and Empire under Constantine and his Sons Toleration of Paganism

—

The

—

grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of a who indulged their passions and promoted their interest. Con-

prince,

them security, wealth, honours, and revenge; and the support of the orthodox fai^ was conadered as the most sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion. But this inestimable privilege was soon violated; with the knowledge of truth the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the catholic church were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of Christianity. Constantine easily believed that the heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinancy; and that a seasonable application of moderate severities might save those unhai^ men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation. Not a moment was lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated con-

stantine gave

igitur vicem legum obtinere, quae a quatuor Sanctis Conciliis Praedictarum enim quatuor synodorum dogexpositae sunt aut firmatae. mata sicut sanctas Scripturas et regulas sicut leges observamus. Justinian, Novell, cxxxi. Beveridge (ad Pandect, prolcg. p. 2) remarks that the emperors never made new laws in ecclesiastical matters; and Giannone observes, in a very different spirit, that they gave a legal sanction to the canons of Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 136. councils. See the article Concile in the Encyclopedie, tom. iii. p. 668-679, Edition de Lucques. The author, M. le docteur Bouchaud, has discussed, according to the principles of the (Jallican church, the principal questions which relate to the form and constitution of general, national, and provincial councils. The editors (see Preface, p. xvi ) have reason to be proud of this article.

'”Sancimus

.

.

.

Those who consult

their

immense compilation- seldom depart so well

satisfied.

^

THE DBCX^IKS

Afill>

FAEL OF

gttgations from any share of the rewards and immunities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed on the orthodox clergy. But as the jifftaries might still exist under the doud of royal disgrace, the conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict which announced their total destruction.^ After a preamble filled with passion and reproach, Constantine absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the heretics, and confiscates their public property to the use either of the revenue or of the catholic church. The sects against whom the Imperial severity was directed appear to have been the adherents of laul of Samosata; the Montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an enthusiastic succession of prophecy; the Novatians, who sternly rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance; the Marcionites and Valentinians, under whose leading banners the various Gnostics of Asia and Egypt had insensibly rallied, and perhaps the manichxans, who had recently imported from Persia a more artful composition of Oriental and Christian theology.^ The design of extirpating the name, or at least of restraining the progress, of Some these odious heretics, was prosecuted with vigour and effect. of the penal regulations were copied from the edicts of Diocletian; and this method of conversion was applauded by the same bishc^s who had felt the hand of oppression, and had pleaded for the rights of humanity. Two immaterial circumstances may serve, however, to prove that the mind of Constantine was not entirely corrupted by the spirit of zeal and bigotry. Before he condemned the Manichaeans and their kindred sects, he resolved to make an accurate inquiry into the nature of their religious principles. As if he distrusted the impartiality of his ecclesiastical counsellors, this delicate commission was intrusted to a civil magistrate, whose learning and moderation he justly esteemed, and of whose venal character he was probably ignorant.® The emperor was soon convinced that he had too hastily proscribed the orthodox faith and the exemplary morals of the Novatians, who had dissented from the church in some articles of discipline which were not perhaps essential to salvation. By a particular edict he exempted them from the general penalties of the law; * allowed them to build a church at Constantinople; *

Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. 1 . iiL c. 63, 64, 65, 66. ’After some examination of the various opinions of Tillemont, Beausobre, Lardner, etc, I am convinced that Manes did not propagate his sect, even in Persia, before the year 270. It is strange that a philosophic and foreigpi heresy should have penetrated so rapidly into the African provinces; yet I cannot easily reject the edict of Diocletian against the Manichaeans, which may be found in Baronius (Annal. EccL ad. 287.) * Constantinus enim, cum limatius superstitionum quxreret sectas, Mannichae-

orum

et similium, etc., Ammian xv. 13 Strategius, who from this commission obtained the surname of Musomanus, was a Christian of the Arian sect. He acted as one of the counts at the council of Sardica. Libanius praises

and prudence. Vales ad locum Ammian. ‘Cod. Theod 1 xvi. tit. v. leg. 2. As the general law is not inserted in the Theodosian Code, it is probable that, in the year 438, the sects which

his mildness

it

had condemned were already extinct

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

«73

respected the mirades of their saints; invited their bidiop, Acesios, to the council of Nice; and gently ridiculed the narrow tenets of his sect by a familiar jest, which from the mouth of a sovereign must have been received with applause and gratitude." The complaints and mutual accusations which assaUed the throne of Constantine, as soon as the death of Maxentius had submitted Africa to his victorious arms, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte. He learned with surprise that the provinces of that great country, from the confines of C}nrene to the Columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious discord." The source of the division was derived from a double election in the church of Carthage, the second in rank and opulence of th ecclesiastical thrones of the West. Cxcilian and Majourinus were the two rival primates of Africa; and the death of the latter soon made *.

room for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities and apparent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The advantage which Caecilian might claim from the priority of his ordination was destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste with which it had been performed, without expecting the arrival of the bishops of Numidia. The authori^ of these bishops, who, to the number of seventy, condemned Cxcilian, and consecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of some of their personal characters; and by the female intrigues, sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings, which are imputed to this Nu> midian council.'' The bishops of the contending factions maintained, with equal ardour and obstinacy, that their adversaries were degraded, or at least dishonoured, by the odious crime of delivering the Holy Scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well as from the story of this dark transaction, it may justly be inferred that the late persecution had embittered the zeal, without reforming

These historians have been Socrates, 1 . i. c. lO. "Sozotnen, 1 i. c, 22. suspected, but I think without reason, of an attachment to the Novatian doctrine. The emperor said to the bishop, “Accsius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven by yourself.” Most of the Christian sects have, by turns, borrowed the ladder of Acesius. ‘The best materials for this part of ecclesiastical history may be found Dupin, in the edition of Optatus Milevitanus, published (Paris, lyoo) by who has enriched it with critical notes, geographical discussions, original records, and an accurate abridgment of the whole controversy. M. de Tillemont has bestowed on the Uonatists the greatest part of a volume (tom vL part i.) and I am indebted to him for an ample collection of all the passages of his favourite St. Augustin which relate to those heretics. ’Schisma igitur illo tempore confuss mulieris iracundia peperit; ambitus nutrivit; avaritia roboravit. Optatus, 1 . i. c. 19. The language of Purpurius Dicitur te necasse filios sororis tuse duos. is that of a furious madman. Purpurius respondit: Putas me terreri a te . . . occidi; et occido eos qui contra me faciunt. Acta Concil. Cirtensis, ad calc. Optat. p. 274. When Csecilian was invited to an assembly of bishops, Purpurius said to his brethren, or rather to his accomplices, “Let him come hither to receive our .

M

:

imposition of hands, and 1.

i.

c.

19.

we

will

break bis head by

way

of penance.”

Opta^

the decline AND FALL OF

*74

tbe manners, of the African Christians. That divided church was incapable of affording an imprartial judicatiu-e; the controversy was solemnly tried in five successive tribu^s, which were appointed by the emperor; and the whole proceeding, from the first appeal to Ae final

A

severe inquisition, which was sentence, lasted above three years. takm by the praetorian vicar and the proconsul of Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who had been sent to Carthage, the decrees of Ae councils of Rome and of Arles, and the supreme judgment of Constantine himself in his sacred consistory, were all favourable to the cause of

and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil and ecclepowers as the true and lawful primate of Africa. The honours and estates of the church were attributed to Ais suffragan biiops, and it was not without difficulty that Constantine was satisfied with inflicting the punishment of exile on the principal leaders of the Donatist faction. As their cause was examined with attention, perhaps it was determined with justice. Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the insidious arts of his favourite Oisius. The influence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might be numbered among the transient evils of a despotic administration, which are neither felt nor remembered Caecilian;

siastical

by

posterity.

But

a place a memorable schism, which afflicted the provinces of Africa above three hundred years, and was extinguished only with Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and fanaticism animated the Donatists to refuse obedience to the usurpers, whose election they disputed, and whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from the civil and religious communion of mankind, they boldly excommunicated the rest of mankind who had embraced the impious party of Cxcilian, and of the Traditors, from whom he derived his pretended ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves

in history,

was productive

of

was interrupted; that all the bishops of Europe and Asia were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; and that the prerogatives of the catholic church were confined to the chosen portion of the African believers, who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a proselyte, even from the distant provinces of the East, they' carefully repeated th'i sacred rites of baptism “ and ordination; as they exultation, that the Apostolical succession

•The councils of Arles, of Nice, and of Trent, confirmed the wise and moderate practice of the church of Rome. The Donatists, however, had Hie advantage of raaintaming the sentiment of Cyprian, and of a considerable primitive church Vincentius Lirinensis (p. 33a. ap. Tillemont. Mem. hccles. tom. vi. p. 138) has explained why the Donatists are eternally burning with the Devil, while St. Cyprian reigns in heaven with Jesus rhr irt-

THE HOMAN EMPIRE rejected the validity of those vhich he had already recdved from the hands of heretics or schismatics. Bishops, virgins, and even ^tless infants, were subjected to the disgrace of a public penance before they could be admitted to the communion of the Donatists. If they obtmned possession of a church which had been used by their Catholic adversaries, they purified the unhallowed building with the same jealous care which a temple of idols might have required. They washed the pavement, scraped the walls, burnt the altar (which was conunonly of wood), melted the consecrated plate, and cast the Holy Eucharist to the dogs, with every circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and per-

petuate the animosity of religious factions." Notwithstanding this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who were mixed and separated in all the cities of Africa, had the same language and manners, the same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship. Proscribed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the empire, the Donatists still maintained

some provinces, particularly in Numidia, their superior numbers; and four hundred bishops acknowledged the jurisdiction of their primate. But the invincible spirit of the sect sometimes preyed on its own vitals: and the bosom of their schismatical church was torn by intestine di-

in

A

visions. fourth part of the Donatist bishops followed the independent standard of the Maximianists. The narrow and solitary path which their first leaders had marked out continued to deviate from the great society of mankind. Even the imperceptible sect of the Rogatians could affirm, without a blush, that when Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would find his true religion preserved only in a few nameless villages of the Cssarean Mauritania.^" The schism of the Donatists was confined to Africa; the more diffusive mischief of the Trinitarian controversy successively penetrated into every part of the Christian world. The former was an accidental quarrel, occasioned by the abuse of freedom; the latter was a high and From m3^terious argument, derived from the abuse of philosophy. the age of Constantine to that of Clovis and Theodoric, the temporal interests both of the Romans and barbarians were deeply involved in the theological disputes of Arianism. The historian may therefore be

^permitted respectfully to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary, and to deIduce the progress of reason and faith, of error and passion, from the school of Plato to the decline and fall of the empire. The genius of Plato, inrormed by his own meditation or by the traditional knowledge of the priests of Egypt,” had ventured to explore See the sixth book of Optatus MilcvitaniiSj p. 91-100. He laughs at Tillemont, Hem. Eicclcsiastiques, tom. vi. part i. p. 253. He revered Augustin, the great doctor of the system their partial credulity. of predestination. ” Plato jEgyptum peregravit ut a sacerdotibus barbaris numeros et calestia The Egyptians might still preserve Cicero de Finibus, v. 29. acciperet Josephus has persuaded many of the traditional creed of the patriarchs. die Christian fathers that Plato derived a part of his knowledge from the '

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF mysterious nature of the Deity. When he had elevated his mind to dte sublime contemplation of the first sdf-existent, neceffiary cause of tbe universe, the Athenian sage was incapable of conceiving how the simple unity of his essence could admit the infinite variety of distinct and successive ideas which compose the model of the intellectual world; how a Being purely incorporeal could execute that perfect model, and mould with a plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain hope of extricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever oppress the feeble powers of the human mind, might induce Plato to consider the divine nature under the threefold modification of the first cause, the reason, or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. His poetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated these metaphysical abstractions; the three archied or original principles were represented ia the Platonic system as three Gods, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation; and the Logos was particularly conridered under the more accessible character of the Son of an Eternal Father, and the Creator and Governor of the world. Such appear to have been the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the gardens of the Academy; and which, according to the more recent disciples of Plato, could not be perfectly understood till after an assiduous study of thirty years.^’ The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and Egypt the language and learning of Greece; and the theological system of Plato was taught, with less reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the celebrated school of Alexandria.” A numerous colony of Jews had been invited, by the favour of the Ptolemies, to settle in their new capWhile the bulk of the nation practised the legal ceremonies, ital.^* and pursued the lucrative occupations of commerce, a few Hebrews of a more liberal spirit devoted their lives to religious and philosophical contemplation.^’ They cultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardour, the theological system of the Athenian sage. But their national pride would have been mortified by a fair confession of their former

—

Jews; but this vain opinion cannot be reconciled with the obscure state and unsocial manners of the Jewish people, whose scriptures were not accessible to Greek curiosity til] more than one hundred years after the death of Plato. See Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 144 Le Clerc, Epistol. Critic. \ii. p. 177-194 “The modem guides who lead me to the knowledge of the Platonic system are Cudworth (Intellectual System, p. 568-620), Basnage (Hist, des Juifs, iy. c. 4, p. 53-86), Le Clerc (Epist. Crit. vii. p. 194-20Q), and Brucker 1 (Hist Philosoph. tom. i. p. 675-706). As the learning of these writers was eqaal,^ and their intention different, an inquisitive observer may derive instruction from their disputes, and certainty from their agreement. “Brucker, Hist. Philosoph. tom i. p. 1349-1357. The Alexandrian school is celebrated by Strabo ( 1 xvii. [p. 794, ed Casaub.]) and Ammianus (xxii. 16). Joseph. Antiquitat. xii. c. 1, 3. Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, 1 vii. c. 7. origin of the Jewish philosophy, see Eusebius, Prseparat Evangel, ... viii. 9, 10. According to Philo, the Therapeutse studied philosophy; and Brucker has proved (Hist. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 787) that they gave the .

.

1.

preference to that of Plato.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

6^

poverty: and they boldly marked, as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold and jewels which they had so lately stolen from their Eg5T)tian masters. One hundred years before the birth of Christ, a philosophical treatise, which manifestly betrasrs the style and sentiments of the school of Plato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews, and unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic of the inspired Wisdom of Solomon.^® A similar union of the Mosaic faith and the Grecian philosophy distinguishes the works of Philo, which were composed, for the most part, under the reign of Augustus.'* The materi^ soul of the universe '® might offend the piety of the Hebrews; but they ^plied the character of the Logos to the Jehovah of Moses and the patriarchs; and the Son of God was introduced upon earth, under a visible and even human appearance, to perform those familiar offices which seem incompatible with the nature and attributes of the Universal Cause.'® The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority of the school of Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews and Greeks, were insufficient to establish the truth of a myrsterious doctrine, which might please, but could not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet, or aposUe, inspired by the Deity, can alone exercise a lawful dominion over the faith of mankind; and the theology of Plato might have been for eve?' confounded with the philosophical visions of the Academy, the Porch, and the Lyceum, if the name and divine attributes of the iMgos had not been confirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the Evangelists.*® The Christian Revelation, which was consummated under

” See Calmet, Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. ii. p. 277. The book of the of Solomon was received by many of the fathers as the work of that monarch; and although rejected by the Protestants for want of a Hebrew

Wisdom

original, it has obtained, with the rest of the Vulgate, the sanction of the council of Trent. "The Platonism of Philo, which was famous to a proverb, is proved beyond a doubt by Le Clerc (Epist. Crit viii. p. 211*228). Basnage (Hist des Juifs, 1 iv. c. S) has clearly ascertained that the theological works of Philo were composed before the death, and most probably before the birth, of Clirist. In such a time of darkness the knowledge of Philo is more astonishing than his errors. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i. c. i p. 12. “ Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. Besides this material soul, Cudworth has discovered (p. 562) in Amelius, Porphyry, Plotinus, and, as he thinks, in Plato himself, a superior spiritual hypercosmian soul of the universe But this double soul is exploded by Brucker, Basnage, and Le Clerc, as an idle fancy of the latter Platonists. "Petav. Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. 1 viii. c. 2. 791. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i. c. i, p. 8, 13. This notion, till it was abused by the Arians, was freely adopted in the Christian theology. Tertullian (adv. Praxeam, c. 16) has a remarkable and dangerous passage. After contrasting, with indiscreet wit, the nature of God and the actions of Jehovah, he concludes: Scilicet ut hsec de filio Dei non credenda fuisse, si non scripta essent; fortasse non .

.

credenda de Patre

licet scripta.

Platonists admired the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, as containing an exact transcript of their own principles. Augustin, de Civitab

"The

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

tbe teign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret, that the Locos, who was with God from the beginning, and was God, who bad made all things, and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross. Besides the general design of^ fixing on a perpetual basis the divine honours of Christ, the most ancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the evangelic theologian a particular intention to confute two opposite heresies, which I. The faith of the disturbed the peace of the primitive church.'-^ Ebionites,®^ perhaps of the Nazarenes,®® was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural

and power. They ascribed to his person and to his future reign the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah.^'* Some of them might confess that he was bom of a virgin; but they obstinately rejected tbe preceding existence and divine perfections of the Logos, or Son of God, which are so clearly defined in the Gospel of St. John. About fifty years afterwards, the Ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by formed Justin Martyr, with less severity than they seem to deserve, a very inconsiderable portion of the Christian name. II. The Gnostics, who were distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contrary extreme; and betrayed the human, while they asserted the divine nature of Christ. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest £on, or Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward shape and visible appearances of a mortal; but they vainly pretended that virtue

all

Dei, X. 29. Amelius apud Cyril, advers Julian. 1 . viii. p. 283. But in the third and fourth centuries the Platonists of Alexandria might improve their Trinity by the secret study of the Christian theology. “ See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 377. The Gospel according to St. John is supposed to have been published about seventy years after the death of Christ. "The sentiments of the Ebionites are fairly stated by Mosheim (p. 331) and Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 535). The Clementines, published among the apostolical Fathers, are attributed by the critics to one of these sectaries. "Staunch polemics, like Bull (Judicium Ecclcs. Cathol. c. 2), insist on the orthodoxy of the Nazarenes ; which appears less pure and certain in the eyes of Mosheim (p. 330). "The humble- condition and sufferings of Jesus have always been a stumbling-block to the Jews. “Deus . . . contrariis coloribus Messiam depinxerat; futurus erat Rex, Judex, Pastor,” etc. See Limborch et Orobio Arnica Collat. p. 8, 19, 53-76, 192-234. But this objection has obliged the believing Christians to lift up their eyes to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. "Justin Martyr. Dialog, cum Tryphonte, p. 143, 144. See Le Clerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 615. Bull, and his editor Grabe (Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 7, and Appendix), attempt to distort either the sentiments or the words of Justin; but their violent correction of the text is rejected even by the Benedictine editors.

"The Arians reproached the orthodox party with borrowing their Trinity from the Valentinians and Marcionites. See Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme, L

iii.

c.

s, 7.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

67«

imperfections of matter eire incompatible with the purity of a cdestial substance. While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount Calvary, tite

the Docetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis, that, instead of issuing from the womb of the Virgin,*^ he had Hi«a-Pnd pd on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of his enemies and of his disciples; and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantnm^ who seemed to expire on the cross, and, after three days, to rise from the dead.-’ The divine sanction which the Apostle had bestowed on the fundamc'..tal principle of the theology of Plato encouraged the learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire and study the wri tings of the Athenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated one of the

most surprising discoveries of the Christian revelation. The respectable of Plato was used by the orthodox,^ and abused by the heretics,*® as the common support of truth and error: the authority of his skilful commentators and the science of dialectics were employed to justify the remote consequences of his opinions, and to supply the discreet silence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound questions concerning the nature, the generation, the distinction, and the equality of the three divine persons of the mysterious Triad, or Trinity were agitated in the philosophical and in the Christian schools of Alexandria.

name

,

"Non dignum est ex utero credere Deum, et Deum Christum non dignum est ut tanta majestas per sordes et squalores mulieris transire credatur. The Gnostics asserted the impurity of matter and of marriage and they were .

.

.

;

scandalised by the gross interpretations of the fathers, and even of Augustin himself. See Beausobre, tom. ii. p. 523. [Gibbon confounds here the Marcionites and the Docetse. The latter accepted Christ’s incarnation in the womb of the Virgin. O. S.] "Apostolis adhuc in sxculo superstitibus apud Judseam Christ! sanguine Cotelerius thinks (Patres recente, et phantasma corpus Domini asserebatur. Apostol. tom. ii. p. 24) that those who will not allow the Docetes to have arisen in the time of the Apostles may with equal reason deny that the sun shines at noonday. These Docetes, who formed the most considerable party among the Gnostics, were so called, because they granted only a seeming body to Christ. " Some proofs of the respect which the Christians entertained for the person and doctrine of Plato may be found in De la Mothe le Vayer, tom. v. p. 13S, etc., edit. 1757; and Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, tom. iv. p. 29, 79, etc. "Doleo bona fide, Platonem omnium hsereticorum condimentarium factum. Tertullian. de Aniraa, c. 23. Petavius (Dogm. Theolog. tom. iii. proleg. 2) shows that this was a general complaint. Beausobre (tom. i. 1 . iii. c. 9, 10) the has deduced the Gnostic errors from Platonic principles; and as, school of Alexandria, those principles were blended with the Oriental philosophy (Brucker, tom. i. p. 1356), the sentiment of Beausobre may be reconciM with the opinion of Mosheim (General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 37). “If Theophilus, bishop of Antioch (see Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 66), was the first who employed the word Triad, Trinity, that abstract term which was already familiar to the schools of philosophy, must have ’introduced into the theology of the Christians after the middle of the

—

m

been second century.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

««D

eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the secrets of the abyss; and the pride of the professors and of their disciples was satisfied with the science of words. But the most sagacious of the Christian theo** that, logians, the great Athanasius himself, has candidly confessed divinity of the on the whenever he forced his understan ding to meditate Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts recoiled on themselves; that the more he thought, the less he comprehended and the more he wrote, the less capable was he of expressing his thoughts. In every step of the

An

;

Inquiry we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the capacity of the human mind. We may strive to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But as soon as we presume to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual generation, as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. As these difficulties arise from the nature of the subject, they oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the philosophic and the theological disputant; but we may observe two essential and peculiar circumstances which ^scriminated the doctrines of the catholic chtuch from the opinions of the Platonic school. chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal education and I. curious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately discuss in the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria, the abstruse questions The lofty speculations, which neither conof metaphysical science. vinced the understanding nor agitated the passions of the Platonists themselves, were carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the studious part of mankind.'*'* But after the Logos had been revealed as the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and the religious worship of the Christians, the mysterious system was embraced by a numerous and increasing multitude in every province of the Roman world. Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or occupations, were the least qualified to judge, who were the least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning, aspired to contemplate the economy of the Divine Nature: and it is the boast of Tertullian that a Christian mechanic could read-

A

ily

answer such questions as had perplexed the wisest of the Grecian Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference

sages.

"Athanasius, tom._ i. p. 808. His expressions have an uncommon energy; and as he was writing to monks, there could not be any occasion for him to affect a rational language. " In a treatise which professed to explain the opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning the nature of the gods, we might expect to discover the theological Trinity of Plato. Put Cicero very honestly confessed that, though he had translated the Timaeus, he could never understand that mysterious See Hieronym. prsf. ad 1 . xii. in Isaiam, tom. v. p. 154 [tom. iv. dialogue p. 494, cd. Vallars.]. "Tertullian. in Apolog. c.

See Bayk, Dictionnaire, au mot Simonide. His remarks on the presumption of Tertullian are profound and interesting.

'

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

’

R.

^

68i

between the hipest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence. These speculations, instead of being treated as the amusement of a vacant hour, became the most serious business of the present, and the most useful preparation for a future, life. A theology which it was incumbent to believe, which it was impious to doubt, and which it might be dangerous, and even fatal, to mistake, became the familiar topii. of private meditation and ptopular discourse. The cold indifference of philosophy was inflamed by the fervent ^irit of devotion; and even the metaphors of common language suggested the fallacious prejudices of sense and experience. The Christians, who abhorred the gross and impure generation of the Greek mythology were tempted to argue from the familiar analogy of the filial and paternal relations. The character of Son seemed to imply a perpetual subordination to the voluntary author of his existence; but as the act of generation, in the most spiritual and abstracted sense, must be supposed to transmit the properties of a common nature,*^ they durst not presume to circumscribe the powers or the duration of the Son of an eternal and omnipotent Father. Fourscore years after the death of Christ, the Christians of Bithynia declared before the tribunal of Pliny that they invoked him as a god: and bis divine honours have been perpetuated in every age and country, by the various sects who assume ^e name of his disciples.®* Their tender reverence for the memory of Christ, and their horror for the profane worship of any created being, would have engaged them to assert the equal and absolute divinity of the Logos, if their rapid ascent towards the throne of heaven had not been imperceptibly checked by the apprehension of violating the unity and sole supremacy of the great Father of Christ, and of the Universe. The suspense and fluctuation produced in the minds of the Christians by these opposite tendencies may be observed in the writings of the theologians who fiomished after the end of the apostolic age and before the origin of the Arian controversy. Their suffrage is

“ Lactantius, iv. 8. Yet the Probole, or Prolalio, which the most orthodox divines borrowed without scruple from the Valentmians, and illustrated by the comparisons of a fountain and stream, the sun and its rays, etc., either meant nothing, or favoured a material idea of the divine generation. See Beausobre, tom. i. 1. iii. c. 7, p. 548. " Many of the primitive writers have frankly confessed that the Son owed his being to the will of the Father. See Clarke’s Scripture Trinity, p 280-287. On the other hand, Athanasius and his followers seem unwilling to grant what they are afraid to deny. The schoolmen extricate themselves from this Petav. difficulty by the distinction of a preceding and a concomitant will. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. vi. c. 8, p. 587-603. " See Petav. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. 1. ii. c. lO, p. 159. "Carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem. Plin. Epist. x. 97. The sense of Deus, Be6s, Elohim, in the ancient languages, is critically examined by Le Clerc (Ars Critica, p. 150-156). and the propriety of worshipping a very excellent creature is ably defended by the Socinian Emlyn (Tracts, P. 29-36, 51-145)-

6*3

THE DECLINE AND PALL OF

daimed, with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical parties; and the most inquisitive critics have fairly allow^ that, if they had the good fortune of possessing the catholic verity, they have delivered their conc^tions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes contradictoiy language.*® II. The devotion of individuals was the first drcumstance which distinguished the Christians from the Platonists; the second was the authority of the church. The disciples of philosophy asserted the rights of intellectual freedom, and their respect for the sentiments of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute which they offered to superior reason. But the Christians formed a numerous and disciplined society; and the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was strictly exercis^ over the minds of the faithful. The loose wanderings of the

the imagination were gradually confined by creeds and confessions; freedom of private judgment submitted to the public wisdom of synods; the authority of a theologian was determined by his ecclesiastical rank; and the episcopal successors of the apostles inflicted the censures of the church on those who deviated from the orthodox belief. But in an age of religious controversy every act of oppression adds new force to the elastic vigour of the mind; and the zeal or obstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes stimulated by secret motives of ambition or avarice. A metaphysical argument became the cause or pretence of political contests; the subtleties of the Platonic school were used as the badges of popular factions, and the distance which separated their respective tenets was enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute. As long as the dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabellius laboured to confound the Father with the Son*^ the orthodox party might be excused if they adhered more strictly and more earnestly to the distinction than to the eqttalUy of the divine persons. But as soon as the heat of controversy had subsided and the progress of the Sabellians was no longer an object of terror to the churches of Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt, the tide of theological opinion began to flow with a gentle but steady motion toward the con-

" See Daille, de Usu Patruin, and Lc Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. X. p. 409. To arraign the faith of the Ante-Nicene fathers was the object, or at least has been the effect, of the stupendous work of Petavius on the Trinity (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii.) ; nor has the deep impression been erased by the learned defence of Bishop Bull. “The most ancient creeds were drawn up with the greatest latitude. See Bull (Judicium Eccles. Cathol.), who tries to prevent Episcopius from deriving any advantage from this observation. [As regards creeds, it is a well-known fact that prior to the Council of Nicsea, no creed had ever been formulated which was to be regarded as a test of orthodoxy. There had been formal expression of Christian belief for the use of catechumens, as has been shown by Prof. Gwatkin, but that was

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

0$!

trary'extreme; and the most orthodox doctors allowed themselves the use of the terms and definitions which had been censured in the mouth of the sectaries/^ After the edict of toleration had restored peace and leisure to the Christians, the Trinitarian controversy was revived in the ancient seat of Platonism, the learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexandria; and the dame of religious discord was rapidly communicated from the schools to the clergy, the people, the provinces, and the East. The abstruse question of the eternity of the Logos was agitated in ecclesiastic conferences and popular sermons; and the heterodox opinions of Arius were soon made public by his own zeal and by that of his adversaries. His most implacable adversaries have a^nowledged the learning and blameless life of the eminent presbyter, who, in a former election, had declined, and perhaps generously declined, his pretensions to the episcopal throne.'*'* His competitor Alexander assumed the office of his judge. The important cause was argued before him; and if at first he seemed to hesitate, he at length pronounced his final sentence as an absolute rule of faith.*'‘ The undaunted presbyter, who presumed to resist the authority of his angry bishop, was separated from the co mmuni on of the church. But the pride of Arius was supported by the applause of a numerous party. He reckoned among his immediate followers two bi^ops of Egypt, seven presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what nctay appear almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large majority of the

bishops of Asia appeared to support or favour his cause; and their measures were conducted by Eusebius of Csesarea, the most learned of the Christian prelates; and by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had acquired the reputation of a statesman without forfeiting that of a saint. Synods in Palestine and Bithynia were opposed to the synods of Egypt. The attention of the prince and people was attracted by this theological dispute; and the decision, at the end of six years,*® was referred to the supreme authority of the general council of Nice. ** Socrates acknowledges that the heresy of Arius proceeded from his strong desire to embrace an opinion the most diametrically opposite to that of Sabellius. " The figure and manners of Arius, the character and numbers of his first proselytes, are painted in very lively colours by Epiphanius (tom. i. Haeres. Ixix. 3, p. 729 led. Paris, 1622]), and we cannot but regret that he should soon forget the historian, to assume the task of controversy.

"See Philostorgius ( 1 i. c. 3), and Godefro/s ample Commentary. Yet the credibility of Philostorgius is lessened, in the eyes of the orthodox, by his Arianism; and in those cf rational critics, by his passion, his prejudice, and his ignorance. .“Sozomen ( 1 i. c. is) represents Alexander as indifferent, and even_ igSocrates while ( 1 i. c. 5) ascribes norant, in the beginning of the controversy; the origin of the dispute to the vain curiosity of his theological speculations. Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 178) has censured, «toirTrdova. In the midst of their lamentations on his fall, the prudence of Athanasius may be distinguished from the blind and intemperate zeal of Hilary. “The confessors of the West were successively banished to the deserts of Arabia or Thebais, the lonely places of Mount Taurus, the wildest parts of Phrygia, which were in the possession of the impious Montanists, etc. When the heretic Aetius was too favourably entertained at Mopsuestia in Cilicia, the place of his exile was changed, by the advice of Acacius, to Amblada, a district inhabited by savages, and infested by war and pestilence, Philostorg. 1. v. c. 2 .See the cruel treatment and strange obstinacy of Eusebius, in his own letters, published by Baronius, a.d. 356, No. 92-102.

"

.

TH£ ROMAN EMPIRE dwived from the consciousness of

rectitude and indq)endmi^, from the the letters^ and the liberal alms of thdr adherents;^’’’ and from the satisfaction which they soon enjoyed of observing the intestine divisions of the adversaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the nice and capricious taste of the emperor Constantius, and so easily was he offended by the slightest deviation from his imaginary standard of Christian truth, that he persecuted, with equal zeal, those who defended the consubstantiality, those who asserted the similar substance, and those who denied the likeness, of the Son of God. Three bishops, degraded and banished for those adverse opinions, might possibly meet in the same place of exile; and, according to the difference cf their temper, might either pity or insult the blind enthusiasm of their antagonists, whose present sufferings would never be compensated by future happiness. The disgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of the West were designed as so many preparatory steps to the rum of Athanasius himSix-and-twenty months had elapsed, during which the Imperial self.^^° court secretly laboured, by the most insidious arts, to remove him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the allowance which supplied his popular liberality. But when the primate of Egypt, deserted and proscribed by the Latin church, was left destitute of any foreign support, Constantius despatched two of his secretaries with a verbal commission to aimounce and execute the order of his banishment. As the justice of the sentence was publicly avowed by the whole party, the only motive which could restrain Constantius from giving his messengers the sanction of a written mandate must be imputed to bis doubt of the event; and to a sense of the danger to which he might expose the second city and the most fertile province of the empire, if the people should persist in the resolution of defending, by force of arms, the innocence of their spiritual father. Such extreme caution afforded Athanasius a specious pretence respectfully to dispute the truth of 2m order which be could not reconcile either with the equity or with the former declarations of his gracious master. The civil powers of Egypt found themselves inadequate to the task of persuading or compelling the primate to abdicate his episcopal throne; and they were obliged to conclude a treaty with the popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it was stipulated that all

applause, the

visits,

satis constat, totius orbis studiis celebrates, pecuniasque affatim congestas, legationibus quoque eos plebis catholicse dx omnibus fere provinciis frequentatos. Sulp. Sever, Hist. Sacra, p. 414, Atha-

Cseterum exules

eis in

sumptum

nas. tom.

be

i.

p. 836, 840.

Ample materials for the history of this third persecution of Athanasius may found in his own works. See particularly his very able Apology to Constan-

i. p. 673 [tom. i. p. 233 sqq. ed. Bened.]), his first Apology for hia flight (p. 701 [tom. i. p. 253 sqq. ed. Bened.]), his prolix Epistle to the Solitaries

tius (tom.

(p. 808), and the original Protest of the People of Alexandria against the violences committed by S3Tianus (p. 866 [p. 311, ed. Bened.]). Sozomen (L iv. c. 9) has thrown into the narrative two or three luminous and important

circumstances.

^

^

Tto

THE I^ECLINB ANl^ FALL OF

proceedings and all hostilities should be su^nded till the emperor's pleasure had been more distinctly ascertained. By this seeming moderation the catholics were deceived into a false and fatal security; while the legions of the Upper Egypt, and of Libya, advanced, by secret orders and hasty marges, to besiege, or rather to surprise, a capital habituated to sedition, and inflamed by religious zeal.^’^ The position of Alexandria, between the sea and the lake Mareotis, facilitated the approach and landing of the troops, who were introduced into the heart of the city before any effectu^ measures could be taken, either to shut the gates, or to occupy the important posts of defence. At the hour of midnight, twenty-three days after the signature of the treaty, Syrianus, duke of Egypt, at the head of five thousand soldiers, armed and prepared for an assault, unexpectedly invested the church of St. Theonas, where the archbishop, with a part of his clergy and people, performed their nocturnal devotions. The doors of the sacred edifice yielded to the impetuosity of the attack, which was accompanied with every horrid circumstance of tumult and bloodshed; but, as the bodies of the slain, and the fragments of military weapons, remained the next day an unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the catholics, the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered as a successful irruption rather than as an absolute conquest. The other churches of the city were profaned by similar outrages; and, during at least four months,

Alexandria was exposed to the insults of a licentious army, stimulated by the ecclesiastics of an hostile faction. Many of the faithful were killed, who may deserve the name of martyrs if their deaths were neither provoked nor revenged; bishops and presbyters were treated with cruel ignominy; consecrated virgins were stripped naked, scourged, and violated; the houses of wealthy citizens were plundered; and, under the mask of religious zeal, lust, avarice, and private resentment were gratified with impunity, and even with applause. The Pagans of Alexandria, who still formed a numerous and discontented party, were easily persuaded to The hopes of some desert a bishop whom they feared and esteemed. peculiar favours, and the apprehension of being involved in the general penalties of rebellion, engaged them to promise their support to the destined successor of Athanasius, the famous George of Cappadocia. The usurper, after receiving the consecration of an Arian synod, was placed on the episcopal throne by the arms of Sebastian, who had been appointed count of Egypt for the execution of that important design. In the use, as well as in the acquisition, of power, the tyrant George disregarded the laws of religion, of justice, and of humanity; and the same scenes of violence and scandal which had been exhibited in the capital

“Athanasius had lately sent for Antony and some of his chosen monks. They descended from their mountain, announced to the Alexandrians the sanctity of Athanasius, and were honourably conducted by the archbishop as far as the gates of the city. Athanas. tom. ii. p. 491, 492 [tom. i. p. 677 sq. ed. Bened. 1777]- See likewise Kufinus, iii. 164, in Vit. Patr. p. 524.

THE ROHAN EMPIRE

jn

were repeated in more than ninety episcopal cities of Egypt. Encouraged by success, Constantius ventured to approve the conduct of his ministers. By a public and passionate 'epistle, the emperor congratulates the deliverance of Alexandria from a popular tyrant, who deluded his blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence; expatiates on the virtues and piety of the most reverend George, the elected bishop; and aspires, as the patron and benefactor of the city, to surpass the fame of Alexander himself. But he solenmly declares his unalterable resolution to pursue with fire and sword the seditious adherents of the wicked Athanasius, who, by flying from justice, has confessed his guilt, and escaped the ignominious death which he had so often deserved.”® Athanasius had indeed escaped from the most imminent dangers, and the adventures of that extraordinary man deserve and fix our attention. On the memorable night when the church of St. Theonas was invested by the troops of Syrianus, the archbishop, seated on his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid dignity, the approach of death. While the public devotion was interrupted by shouts of rage and cries of terror, he animated his trembling congregation to express their religious confidence by chanting one of the psalms of David which celebrates the triumph of the God of Israel over the haughty and impious tyrant of Egypt. The doors were at length burst open: a cloud of arrows was discharged among the people; the soldiers, with drawn swords, rushed forwards into the sanctuary; and the dreadful gleam of their armour was reflected by the holy luminaries which burnt round the altar.^®" Athanasius still rejected the pious importunity of the monks and presbyters who were attached to his person; and nobly refused to desert his episcopal station till he had dismissed in safety ^e last of the congregation. The darkness and tumult of the night favoured the retreat of the archbishop; and though he was oppressed by the waves of an agitated multitude, though he was thrown to the ground, and left without sense or motion, he still recovered his undaunted courage, and eluded the eager search of the soldiers, who were instructed by their Arian guides that the head of Athanasius would be the most acceptable present to the emperor. From that moment the primate of Egypt disappeared from the eyes of his enemies, and remained above six years concealed in impenetrable obscurity

The the

despotic power of his implacable enemy filled the whole extent of world; and the exasperated monarch had endeavoured, by a

Roman

“Athanas. tom. i. p. 694 [tom. i. p. 249, ed. Bened.]. The emperor, or his Arian secretaries, while they express their resentment, betray their fears and esteem of Athanasius. ““These minute circumstances are curious, as they arc literally transcribed from the protest which was publicly presented three days afterwards by the catholics of Alexandria. See Athanas. tom. i. p. 867 [tom. i. p. 311. ed. Bened. 1777].

“’The Jansenists have often compared Athanasius and Arnauld, and have expatiated with pleasure on the faith and zeal, the merit and exile, of those celebrated doctors. This concealed parallel is very dexterously managed by the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 130.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

713

to exclude very pressing epistle to the Christian princes of Ethiopia, Athanasius from the most remote and sequestered regions of the earth. Counts, praefects, tribunes, whole armies, were successively employed to pursue a bishop and a fugitive; the vigilance of the civil and military powers were excited by the Imperial edicts; liberal rewards were promised to the man who should produce Athanasius, either alive or dead; and the most severe penalties were denounced against those who should dare But the deserts of Thebais were now peoto protect the public enemy pled by a race of wild, yet submissive fanatics, who preferred the commands of their abbot to the laws of their sovereign. The numerous disciples of Antony and Pachomius received the fugitive primate as their father, admired the patience and humility with which he conformed to their strictest institutions, collected every word which dropped from his lips as the genuine effusions of inspired wisdom; and persuaded themselves that ^eir prayers, their fasts, and their vigils, were less meritorious than the zeal which they expressed, and the dangers which they braved, The monasteries of Egypt in the defence of truth and innocence.**® were seated in lonely and desolate places, on the summit of mountains, or in the islands of the Nile; and the sacred horn or trumpet of Tabenne was the well-known signal which assembled several thousand robust and determined monks, who, for the most part, had been the peasants of the adjacent country. When their dark retreats were invaded by a military force which it was impossible to resist, they silently stretched out their necks to the executioner; and supported their national character, that tortures could never wrest from an Egyptian the confession of a secret which he was resolved not to disclose.*** The archbishop of Alexandria, for whose safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was lost among a uniform and well-disciplined multitude; and on the nearer approach of *** [These princes were called Acizanas and Saiazanas. Athanasius (Apol. ad Constantius, vol. i. p. 313) calls them the kings of Axum (if cr ripanoi). In the superscription of his letter, Constantius gives them no title, the words being NtKiln7f KovvrirTtos lurytVTOi vi Paarot ’Atfara xai Hazard, Mr. Salt (says Milman), in his first journey in Ethiopia in 1806, discovered in the ruins of Axum a long and very interesting inscription relating to these princes. It was erected to commemorate the victory of Aeizanas over the Bougaitse. Aeizanas is styled king of the Axumites, the Homerites, of the Ethiopians, of Kaeidan, of the Sabxites, of Silea, of Tiamo, of the Bougaites, and of Kaei. At this time the king of the Ethiopians reigned over the Homerites, the inhabitants of Yemen. He was not yet a Christian, but calls himself “the son of invincible Mars.” (Salt’s Travels. Cf. De Lacy, Annales des Voyages, xii.

S3).— O. S.] Hinc jam toto orbe profugus [agitur] Athanasius, nec ullus ei tutus ad latendum supererat locus. Tribuni, Praefecti, Comites, exercitus quoque, ad pervestigandum eum moventur edictis Imperialibus praemia delatonbus proponuntur, si quis eum vivum, si id minus, caput certe Athanasii detulisset. Runn. P-

;

1.

i.

c. 18.

“•Gregor. Nazianzen. tom. i. Orat xxi. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 176-410, 820-880. ***

Et nulla tormentorum vis inveniri latroni invito elicere potuit, ut nomen Valesius ad locum.

p. 384, 385.

See Tillemont,

adhuc potuit, quae obdurato proprium dicat. Ammian.

illius

M^m.

tractus

xxii. 16,

and

THE ROHAN EMPIRE

7»3

danger, he was swiftly removed, by their officious bands, from one place of concealment to another, till he reached the formidable deserts, which thq gloomy and credulous temper of superstition had peopled with daemons and savage monsters. The retirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the life of Constantins, was spent, for the most part, in the society of the monks, who faithfully served him as guards, as secretaries, and as messengers; but the importance of maintai ning a more intimate connection with ^e catholic party tempted him, whenever the diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from the desert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to trust his person to the discretion His various adventures might have of his friends and adherents. furnished the subject of a very entertaining romance. He was once secreted in a dry cistern, which he had scarcely left before he was betrayed by the treachery of a female slave;'** and he was once concealed in a still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin, only twenty years of age, and who was celebrated in the whole city for her exquisite beauty. At the hour of midnight, as she related her story many years afterwards, she was surprised by the appearance of the archbishop in a loose undress, who, advancing with hasty steps, conjured her to afford him the protection which he had been directed by a celestial vision to seek under her hospitable roof. The pious maid accepted and preserved the sacred pledge which was intrusted to her prudence and courage Without imparting the secret to any one, she instantly conducted Athwasius into her most sacred chamber, and watched over his safety with the tenderness of a friend and the assiduity of a servant. As long as the danger continued, she regularly supplied him with books and provisions, washed his feet, managed his correspondence, and dexterously concealed from the eye of suspicion this familiar and solitary intercourse between a saint whose character required the most unblemished chastity, and a female whose charms might excite the most dangerous emotions.'** During the six years of persecution and exile, Athanasius repeated his visits to his fair and faithful companion; and the formal declaration, that he saw the councils of Rimini and Seleucia,'** forces us to believe that he was secretly present at the time and place of their convocation The advantage of personally negotiating with his friends, and of observing and improving the divisions of his enemies, might justify, in a prudent statesman, so bold and dangerous an enterprise; and Alexandria was Rufin. 1 i. c. i8. Sozomen, i. iv. c. lO. This and the following story wil' be rendered impossible if we suppose that Athanasius always inhabited the asylum which he accidentally or occasionally had used. Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. c. 136 in Vit. Patrum, p. 776 [p. 230, ed. Paris Pallad. iSSSl), the original author of this anecdote, had conversed with the damsel, who in her old age still remembered with pleasure so pious and honourable a connection. I cannot indulge the delicacy of Baronius, Valesius, Tillemont, etc., who almost reject a story so unworthy, as they deem it, of the gravity .

of ecclesiastical history.

“ Athanas. tom.

p. 869 [tom, i. p S72,_cd. Bened. 1777]. I agrree with Tille1197), that his expressions imply a personal, though perhaps secret, visit to the synods.

mont

(tom.

viii. p.

i.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

714

connected by trade and navigation with every seaport of ihe MediterranFrom the depth of his inaccessible retreat the intrepid primate waged an incessant and offensive war against the protector of the Arians; ean.

and his seasonable writings, which were diligently circulated and eagerly perused, contributed to unite and animate the orthodox party. In his public apologies, which he addressed to the emperor himself, he sometimes affected the praise of moderation; whilst at the same time, in secret and vehement invectives, he exposed Constantins as a weak and wicked prince, the executioner of his family, the tyrant of the republic, and the Antichrist of the church. In the height of his prosperity, the victorious monarch, who had chastised the rashness of Callus, and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who had taken the diadem from the head

of Vetranio,

and vanquished

in the field the legions of Magnentius,

received from an invisible hand a wound which he could neither heal nor revenge; and the son of Constantine was the first of the Christian princes who experienced the strength of those principles which, in the cause of religion, could resist the

most violent exertions of the

civil

power.^**

The persecution of Athanasius and of so many respectable bishops, who suffered for the truth of their opinions, or at least for the integrity of their conscience, was a just subject of indignation and discontent to all Christians, except those who were blindly devoted to the Arian faction. The people regretted the loss of their fai^ful pastors, whose banishment into the episcopal was usually followed by the intrusion of a stranger and loudly complained that the right of election was violated, and condemned to obey a mercenary usurper, whose person was unknown and whose principles were suspected. The catholics might prove to the world that they were not involved in the guilt and heresy chair,

that they were

of their ecclesiastical governor, totally separating themselves

by

publicly testifying their dissent, or

from his communion.

The

first

by

of these

methods was invented at Antioch, and practised with such success that was soon diffused over the Christian world. The doxology, or sacred hymn, which celebrates the glory of the Trinity, is susceptible of very nice, but material, inflections; and the substance of an orthodox or an heretical creed may be expressed by the difference of a disjunctive or a copulative particle. Alternate responses and a more regular psalmit

“•

The

public

epistle of Athanasius to the monks is filled with reproaches, which the feel to be true (vol. i. p. 8^, 856 [tom. i. p. 304, ed. Bened.] ) ; and,

must

compliment to his readers, he has introduced the comparisons of Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, etc. The boldness of Hilary was attended with less danger, if he published his invective in Gaul after the revolt of Julian; but Lucifer sent his libels to Constantius, and almost challenged the reward of martyrdom. See

in

Tillemont, tom.

vii. p.

905.

“•Athanasius (tom. i. p. 8ir) complains in general of this practice, which he afterwards exemplifies (p. 861 [tom. i. p. ,307, cd. Bened.]) in the pretended election of Felix. Three eunuchs represented the Roman people, and three prelates, who followed the court, assumed the functions of the bishops of the Suburbicarian provinces.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

7*S

ody

were introduced into the public service by Flavianus and Diodorus, two devout and active laymen, who were attached to the Nicene faith. Under their conduct a swarm of monks issued from the adjacent desert, bands of well-disciplined singers were stationed in the cathedral of Antioch, the Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost was triumphantly chanted by a full chorus of voices, and the catholics insulted, by the purity of their doctrine, the Arian prelate who had usurped the throne of the venerable Eustathius. The same zeal which inspired their songs prompted the more scruplous members of the orthodox party to form separate assembhes, which were governed by the presbyters, till the death of their exiled bishop allowed the election and cop 'ecration of a new episcopal pastor.”" The revolutions of the court

number of pretenders, and the same city was often disputed, under the reign of Constantins, by two, or three, or even four bishops, who exercised their spiritual jurisdiction over their respective followers, and alternately lost and regained the temporal possessions of The abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman govthe church. ernment new causes of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil society were torn asunder by the fury of religious factions; and the obscure citizen, who might calmly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successive emperors, imagined and experienced that his own life and fortune were connected with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example of the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, may serve to represent the state of the empire and the temper of mankind under the reign of the sons of Constantine. I. The Roman pontiff, as long as be maintained his station and his principles, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great people, and could reject with scorn the prayers, the menaces, and the oblations of an heretical prince. When the eunuchs had secretly pronounced the exile of Liberius, the well-grounded apprehension of a tumult engaged them to use the utmost precautions in the execution of the sentence. The capital naultiplied the

“"Thomassin (Discipline de I’Eglise, torn. i. 1. ii. c. 72, 73, p. 966-984) has collected many curious facts concerning the origin and progress of churchsinging, both in the East and West. [Arius seems to have been the first who availed himself of this means of impressing his doctrine on the popular ear. He composed songs for sailors, millers, and travellers, and set them to common airs, beguiling the ignorant by the sweetness of his music into the impiety of his doctrines. Arian singers used to parade the streets of Constantinople by night choristers. O. S.]

them a band of orthodox

—

until

Chrysostom arrayed against

Philostorgius, 1. iii. c. 13. Godefroy lias examined this subject with singular accuracy (p. 147, etc.). There were three heterodox forms : “ To the Father ” In the Son, and in the Holy Ghost ; “ To the Father and the Son, in the Holy Ghost " and “ To the Father in the Son and the Holy Ghost.” ;

“"After the exile of Eustathius, under the reign of Constantine, the rigid party of the orthodox formed a separation which afterwards degenerated into a schism, and lasted above fourscore years. See Tillemont, Mem. EccIm. tom. In many churches the vii. p. 3S-S4. 1137-1158, tom, viii. p. 573 63 ^, 1314- 1332Arians and Homoousians, who had renounced each other’s communion, continued for some time to join in prayer. Philostorgius, 1. iii. c. 14.

the decline AND FALL OF

7i6

tras invested on every side, and the prefect was commanded to seize the person of the bishop, either by stratagem or by open force. The order was obeyed, and Liberius, with the greatest dif&nlty, at the hour of midnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of the Roman people before their consternation was turn^ into rage. As soon as they were informed of his banishment into Thrace, a general assembly was convened, and the clergy of Rome bound themselves, by a public and solemn oath, never to desert their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper Felix, who, by the influence of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen and consecrated within the walls of a profane palace. At the end of two years their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken; and when Constantins visited Rome, he was assailed by the importunate solicitations of a people who had preserved, as the last remnant of their ancient freedom, the right of treating their sovereign with familiar insolence. The wives of many of the senators and most honourable citizens, after pressing their husbands to intercede in favour of Liberius, were advised to undertake a commission which in their hands would be less dangerous and might prove more successful. The emperor received with politeness these female deputies, whose wealth and dignity were displayed in the magnificence of their dress and ornaments; he admired their inflexible resolution of following their beloved pastor to the most distant regions of the earth, and consented that the two bishops, Liberius and Felix, should govern in peace their respective congregations. But the ideas of toleration were so repugnant to the practice, and even to the sentiments, of those times, that, when the answer of Constantins was publicly read in the Circus of Rome, so reasonable a project of accommodation was rejected with contempt and ridicule. The eager vehemence which animated the spectators on the decisive moment of a horse-race was now directed towards a different object, and the Circus resounded with the shout of thousands, who repeatedly exclaimed “ One God, One Christ, One Bishop " The zeal of the Roman people in the cause of Liberius was not .confined to words alone, and the dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited soon after the departure of Constantius determined that prince to ^cept the submission of the exiled prelate, and to restore him to the undivided dominion of the capital. After some ineffectual resistance, his rival was expelled from the city by the permission of the emperor and the power of the opposite faction; the adherents of Felix were inhumanly murdered in the streets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches; and the face of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed the horrid image of the massacres of I

Marius and the proscriptions of Sylla.^®® II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the reign of the Flavian family, “* See,

on

Rome, Alexandria, and the other great cities of the

of Rome, Ammianus, xv. 7. Athanas. [tom. i. p. 307, ed. Bened.]. Sozomcn, 1. iv. c. 13, Theodoret, 1 11. Sever. Hist. Sacra, L iL p. 413. Hieronym. Chron. Marcellin. et Faustin. Libell. p. 3, 4. Tillemont, Mim. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 336. tom. .

this ecclesiastical revolution

p. 834, 861 c. 17. Sulp. i.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

71)

empire, still contained a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, who envied the pro^rity, and ridiculed, even in thrir theatres, the theological disputes of the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed the advantage of being born and educated in the bosom of the faith. The capital of the East had never been polluted by the worship of idols, and the whole body of the people had deeply imbibed the opinions, the virtues, and the passions which distinguished the Christians of that age from the rest of mankind. After the death of Alexander the episcopal throne was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. By their zeal and abilities they both deserved the eminent station to which they aspired; and if the moral character of Macedonius was less exceptionable, his competlt V had the advantage of a prior election and a more orthodox docHis firm attachment to the Nicene creed, which has given Paul trine. a place in the calendar among saints and martyrs, exposed him to the resentment of the Arians. In the space of fourteen years he was five times driven from his throne, to which he was more frequently restored by the violence of the people than by the permission of the prince, and the power of Macedonius could be secured only by the death of his The unfortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy rival. deserts of Mesopotamia to the most desolate places of Mount Taurus,^^* confined in a dark and narrow dungeon, left six days without food, and at length strangled, by the order of Philip, one of the principal Tninisters of the emperor Constantins.^’^ The first blood which stained the new capital was spilt in this ecclesiastical contest, and many persons were slain on both sides in the furious and obstinate seditions of the people. The commission of enforcing a sentence of banishment against Paul had been intrusted to Hermogenes, the master-general of the cavalry, but the execution of it was fatal to himself. The catholics rose in the defence of their bishop; the palace of Hermogenes was consumed; the first military ofiicer of the empire was dragged by the heels through ^e streets of Constantinople, and, after he expired, his lifeless corpse was exposed to their wanton insults.”’ The fate of Hermogenes instructed Philip, the Praetorian praefect, to act with more precaution on a similar occasion. In the most gentle and honourable terms he required the attendance of Paul in the baths of 2^uxippus, which had a private com-

w^

"Cucusus was the last stage of his life and sufferings. The situation of that lonely town, on the confines of Cappadocia, Cilicia, and the Lesser Armenia, has occasioned some geographical perplexity; but we are directed to the true spot by the course of the Roman road from Caesarea to Anazarbus. See Cellarii Geogp'aph. tom. ii. p. 213 ; Wesseling, ad Itinerar. p. 179, 703. “* Athanasius (tom. i. p. 703, 813, 814 [tom. i. p. 275, ed. Bened.] ) affirms, in the most positive terms, that Paul was murdered ; and appeals, not only to common fame, but even to the unsuspicious testimony of Philagrius, one of the Arian persecutors. Yet he acknowledges that the heretics attributed to disease the death of the bishop of Constantinople. Athanasius is servilely copied by Swrates ( 1 . ii. c. 26) ; but Sozomen, who discovers a more liberal temper, presumes (1. iv. c. 2) to insinuate a prudent doubt. Ammianus (xiv. 10) refers to his own account of this tragic event. But we no longer possess that part of his histoiy.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF with the palace and the sea. A vessel, which

lay ready at munication the garden stairs, inunediately hoisted sail, and, while the peo|de were still ignorant of the meditated sacrilege, their bishop was ^ready embarked on his voyage to Thessalonica. They soon beheld, with surprise and indignation, the gates of the palace thrown open, and the usurper Macedonius seated by the side of the praefect on a lofty chariot, which was surrounded by troops of guards with drawn swords. The military procession advanced towards the cathedral; and the Arians and the catholics eagerly rushed to occupy that important post, and three thousand one hundred and fifty persons lost their lives in the confusion of the tumult. Macedonius, who was supported by a regular force, obtained a decisive victory, but his reign was disturb^ by clamour and sedition, and the causes which appeared the least connected with the subject of dispute were sufficient to nourish and to kindle the dame of civil discord. As the chapel in which the body of the great Constantine had been deposited was in a ruinous condition, the bishop transported those venerable remains into the church of St. Acacius. This prudent and even pious measure was represented as a wicked profanation by the whole party which adhered to the Homoousian doctrine. The factions immediately dew to arms, the consecrated ground was used as their field of battle, and one of the ecclesiastical historians has observed, as a real fact, not as a figure of rhetoric, that the well before the church overfiowed with a stream of blood which filled the porticoes and the adjacent courts. The writer who should impute these tumults solely to a religious principle would betray a very imperfect knowledge of human nature; yet it must be confessed that the motive which misled the sincerity of zeal, and the pretence which disguised the licentiousness of passion, suppressed the remorse which, in another cause, would have succeeded to the rage of the Christians of Constantinople.”^

The cruel and arbitrary disposition of Constantius, which did not always require the provocations of guilt and resistance, was justly exasperated by the tumults of his capital and the criminal behaviour of a faction which opposed the authority and religion of their sovereign. The ordinary punishments of death, exile, and confiscation were inflicted with partial rigour, and the Greeks still revere the holy memory of two clerks, a reader and a subdeacon, who were accused of the murder of Hermogenes, and beheaded at the gates of Constantinople. By an edict of Constantius against the catholics, which has not been judged worthy of a place in the Theodosian code, those who refused to communicate with the Arian bishops, and particularly with Macedonius, were deprived of the immunities of ecclesiastics and of the rights of Christians; they “•See Socrates,

1.

ii.

c. 6, 7,

12, 13, 15, 16, 26, 27,

38; and Sozomen, 1 . iiL of which

4, 7, 9, 1 iv. c. 2, 21. The acts of St. Paul of Constantinople, Photius has made an abstract (Phot. Biblioth. p. 1419-1430), are ferent copy of these historians; but a modern Greek, who could Life of a saint without adding fables and miracles, is entitled commendation. 3,

.

an indifwrite the to

some

THE Homan empire

719

were compelled to relinquish the possession of the churches, and were strictly prohibited from holding their assemblies within the walls of the dty. The execution of this unjust law in the provinces of Thrace and Asia Minor was committed to the zeal of Macedonius; the civil and military powers were directed to obey his commands; and the cruelties exercised by this Semi-Arian tyrant in the support of the Homoiousion exceeded the commission and disgraced the reign of Constantius. The sacraments of the church were administered to the reluctant 'dctiins, who denied the vocation and abhorred the principles of Macedonius. The rites of baptism were conferred on women and children who, for that purpose, had been tom from the arms of their friends and parents; the mouths of ‘he communicants were held open by a wooden engine while the consecrated bread was forced down their throat; the breasts of tender virgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-shells, or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy boards.^®® The Novatians of Constantinople and the adjacent country, by their firm attachment to the Homoousian standard, deserved to be confounded with the catholics themselves. Macedonius was informed that a large district of Paphlagonia was almost entirely inhabited by those sectaries. to extirpate them, and, as he distrusted

He

resolved either to convert or

on this occasion the efficacy of an ecclesiastical mission, he commanded a body of four thousand legionaries to march against the rebels, and to reduce the territory of Mantinium under his spiritual dominion. The Novatian peasants, animated by despair and religious fuiy, boldly encountered the invaders of their country, and, though many of the Paphlagonians were slain, the Roman legions were vanquished by an irregular multitude, armed only with sc}dhes and axes, and, except a few who escaped by an ignominious fii^t, four thousand soldiers were left dead on the field of battle. The successor of Constantius has expressed, in a concise but lively manner, some of the theological calamities which afflicted the empire, and more especially the East, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his own passions and of those of his eunuchs. “ Many were imprisoned, and persecuted, and driven into exile. Whole troops of those who are styled heretics were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Galatia, and in many other provinces, towns and villages were laid waste and utterly destroyed.” ”* Socrates,

1.

ii.

c. 27,

38.

Sozomen,

1 . iv,

c.

21.

The

principal assistants

of Macedonius, in the work of persecution, were the two bishops of Nicotnedia and Cyzicus, who were esteemed for their virtues, and especially for their charity. I cannot forbear reminding the reader that the difference between the Homoousion and Homoiousion is almost invisible to the nicest theological eye. *"We are ignorant of the precise situation of Mantinium. In speaking of these four bands of legionaries, Socrates, Sozomen, and the author of the Acts of St. Paul, use the indefinite terms of dptSful, ^iXayytt, riyiMra, which Nicephorus very properly translates thousands. Vales, ad. Socrat. L ii.

c.

38.

•"Julian. Epistol. liL p. 436. edit. Spanheim.

jao

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

^

While the flames of the Arlan controversy consumed the vitals of empire, the African provinces were infested by their peculiar enemies, the savage fanatics who, under the name of CircumceUions, formed the strength and scandal of the Pdnatist party.*®* The severe execution of the laws of Constantine haxl excited a spirit of discontent and resistance; fie strenuous efforts of his son Constans to restore the unity of the church exasperated the sentiments of mutual hatred which had first occasioned the separation; and the methods of force and corruption employed by the two Imperial commissioners, Paul and Macarius, furnished the schismat* ics with a specious contrast between the maxims of the apostles and the

I

conduct of their pretended successors.*®* The peasants who inhabited the villages of Numidia and Mauritania were a ferocious race, who had been imperfectly reduced under the authority of the Roman laws, who were imperfectly converted to the Christian faith, but who were actuated by a blind and furious enthusiasm in the cause of their Donatist teachers. They indignantly supported the exile of their bishops, the demolition of

and the interruption of their secret assemblies. The violence of the officers of justice, who were usually sustained by a military guard, was sometimes repelled with equal violence, and the blood of some popular ecclesiastics, which had been shed in the quarrel, inflamed their rude followers with an eager desire of revenging the death of these their churches,

holy martyrs. By their own cruelty and rashness the ministers of persecution sometimes provoked their fate, the guilt of an accidental tumult precipitated the criminals into despair and rebellion. Driven from their native villages, the Donatist peasants assembled in formidable gangs on the edge of the Gaetulian desert, and readily exchanged the habits of labour for a life of idleness and rapine, which was consecrated by the name of religion, and faintly condemned by the doctors of the sect. The leaders of the CircumceUions assumed the title of captains of the saints; their principal weapon, as they were indifferently provided with swords and spears, was a huge and weighty club, which they termed an Israelite, and the well-known sound of “ Praise be to God ” which

md

I

"*866 Optatus Milevitanus (particularly iii. 4), with the Donatist history by M. Dupin, and the originaj pieces at the end of his edition. The numerous circumstances which Augustin has mentioned, of the fury of the Circumcellions against others and_ against themselves, have been laboriously collected by Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vL p._ 147-165; and he has often, though without design, exposed the injuries which had provoked those fanatics. “*It is amusing enough to observe the language of opposite parties when they speak of the same men and things. Gratus, bishop of Carthage, begins the acclamations of an orthodox synod, “Gratias Deo omnipotenti et Christo Jesu

. . qui_ imperavit_ religiosissimo Constanti Imperatori, ut votum gereret unitatis, et mitteret ministros sancti operis famulos Dei Paulum et Macarium.”

Monument. Vet. ad Calcem

Optati, p. 313. “ Ecce subito,” (says the Donatist author of the Passion of Marculus) “ de Constantis regis tyrannies domo . . . pollutum Macarianae persecutionis murmur increpuit, et duabus bestiis ad

Africam missis, eodem scilicet Macario et Paulo, execrandum prorsus ac dirum ecclesiae certamen indictum est; ut populus Christianus ad unionem cum_ traditoribus faciendam, nudatis militum gladiis et draconum prsesentibus signis, et tubarum vocibus cogeretur.” Monument, p. 304.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

7ai

they used as their cry of war, diffused consteebation over the unarmed provinces of Africa. At first their depredations were coloured by the plea of necessity, but they soon exceeded the measure of subastence, indulged without control their intemperance and avarice, burnt the villages which they had pillaged, and reigned the licentious tyrants of the open country. The occupations of husbandry and the administration of justice were interrupted; and, as the Circumcellions pretended to restore the primitive equality of mankind, and to reform the abuses of civil society, thej' opened a secure asylum for the daves and debtors who Sorted in aovrds to their holy standard. When they were not resisted they usually contented themselves with plunder, but the lightest opposition provoked them to acts of violence and murder; and some catholic priests, who had imprudently signalised their zeal, were tortured by the fanatics with the most refin^ and wanton barbarity. The spirit of the Circumcellions was not always exerted against their defenceless enemies; they engaged, and sometimes defeated, the troops of the province, and in the bloody action of Bagai they attacked in the open field, but with unsuccessfod valour, an advanced guard of the Imperial cavalry. The Donatists who were taken in arms received, and they soon deserved, the same treatment which might have been shown to the wild beasts of the desert. The captives died, without a murmur, either by the sword, the axe, or the fire; and the measures of retaliation were multiplied in a rapid proportion, which aggravated the horrors of rebellion and excluded the hope of mutual forgiveness. In the beginning of the present century the example of the Circumcellions has been renewed in the persecution, the boldness, the crimes, and the enthusiasm of the Camisards; and if the fanatics of Languedoc surpassed those of Numidia by their military achievements, the Africans maintained their fierce independence with

more resolution and perseverance.^®® Such disorders are the natural effects of religious tyranny; but the rage of the Donatists was inflamed by a benzy of a very extraordinary kind and which, if it really prevailed among them in so extravagant a degree, cannot surely be paralleled in any country or in any age. Many of these fanatics were possessed with the horror of life, and the desire of martyrdom; and they deemed it of little moment by what means, or by what hands, they perished, if their conduct was sanctified by the intention of devoting themselves to the glory of the true faith, and the hope ;

of eternal happiness.^®'

Sometimes they rudely disturbed the

festivals,

and profaned the temples of Paganism, with the design of exciting the most zealous of the idolaters to revenge the insulted honour of their gods. They sometimes forced their way into the courts of justice, and compelled the affrighted judge to give orders for their immediate execution.

‘"The Histoire des Camisards, in 3 vols. lamo., Villefranche, 1760, may be recommended as accurate and impartial. It requires some attention to discover the religion of the author. •“The Donatist suicides alleged in their justification the example of Razias, which is related in the 14th chapter of the second book of the Maccabees.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

7M

frequently stopped travdlers on the public hi^wa)^, and obliged to inflict the stroke of niart3rrdom, by the promise of a reward if they consented, and by the threat of instant death if they refused to grant so very singular a favor. When they were disappointed of every other resource, they announced the day on which, in the presence of their

They them

and brethren, they ^ould cast themselves headlong from some roA; and many precipices were shown which had acquired fame by the number of religious suicides. In the actions of these desjierate enthusiasts, who were admired by one party as the martyrs of God, and abhorred by the other as the victims of Satan, an impartial philosopher ma y discover the influence and the last abuse of that inflexible spirit which was originally derived from the character and principals of the friends

lofty

Jewish nation. The simple narrative of the intestine divisions which distracted the peace and dishonoured the triumph of the church, will confirm the remark of a Pagan historian, and justify the complaint of a venerable bishop. The experience of Ammianus had convinced him that the enmity of the Christians towards each other surpassed the fury of savage beasts and Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically laments that against man; the kingdom of heaven was converted by discord into the image of chaos, The fierce and partial of a nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself.*““ writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and dsmons. Our calmer reason will reject such pure and perfect monsters

and will impute an equal, or at least an indiscriminate, measure of good and evil to the hostile sectaries, who assumed and bestowed the appellations of orthodox and heretics. They had been educated in the same religion and the same civil society. Their hopes and fears in the present, or in a future life, were balanced in the same pro[X)rtion. On either side the error might be innocent, the faith sincere, the practice meritorious or corrupt. Their passions were excited by similar objects; and they might alternately abuse the favour of the court, or of the people. The metaphysical opinions of the Athanasians and the Arians could not influence their moral character; and they were alike actuated by the intolerant spirit which has been extracted from the pure and simple maxims of the Gospel. A modern writer, who, with a just confidence, has prefixed to his own history the honourable epithets of political and philosophical,^"* accuses the timid prudence of Montesquieu, for neglecting to enumerate, among the causes of the decline of the empire, a law of Constantine, by which the exercise of the Pagan worship was absolutely suppressed, and a conof vice or sanctity,

siderable part of his subjects

was

left destitute of priests, of temples,

Nullas infcstas hotninibusJjestias, nt sunt

orum, expertus. Ammian. xxii. ““Gregor. Nazianzen, Oral. i.

sibi ferales plerique

Christian-

5.

p. .33.

See Tillemont, tom.

vt. p.

501, quarto

edit.

Histoire Politique et Philosophique des Etablissemens des Europeens aan« les deux Indes, tom. i. p. 9.

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

713

and of any public religion. The zeal of the philosophic historian for the rights of mankind has induced him to acquiesce in the ambiguous testi-

mony of those ecclesiastics who have too li^tly

ascribed to their favour-

hero the merit of a general persecution.*"® Instead of alleging this imaginary law, which would have blazed in the front of the Imperid codes, we may safely appeal to the original epistle which Constantine addressed to the followers of the ancient religion, at a time when he no longer disguised his converaon, nor dreaded the rivals of his throne. ite

He invites and exhorts, in the most pressing terms, the subjects of the Roman empire to imitate the example of their master; but he declares who still refuse to open their eyes to the celestial light may freely enjoy their temples and their fancied gods. report that the that those

A

ceremonies of Paganism were suppressed is formally contradicted by the emperor himself, who wisely assigns, as the principle of his moderation, the invincible force of habit, of prejudice, and of superstition.**" Without violating the sanctity of his promise, without alarming the fears of the Pagans, the artful monardi advanced, by slow and cautious steps, to undermine the irregular and decayed fabric of polytheism. The partial acts of severity which he occasionally exercised, though they were secretly prompted by a Christian zeal, were coloured by the fairest pretences of justice and the public good; and while Constantine designed to ruin the foundations, he seemed to reform the abuses, of the ancient religion. After the example of the wisest of his predecessors, he condemned, under the most rigorous penalties, the occult and impious arts of divination, which excited the vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts, of those who were discontented with their present condition. An ignominious silence was imposed on the oracles, which had been publicly convicted of fraud and falsehood; the effeminate priests of the Nile were abolished; and Constantine discharged the duties of a Roman censor, when he gave orders for the demolition of several temples of Phoenicia, in which every mode of prostitution was devoutly practised in the face of day, and to the honour of Venus.*®’ The Imperial city of Constantinople was, in some measure, raised at the expense, and was adorned with the spoils, of the opulent temples of Greece and Asia; the sacred property was confiscated; the statues of gods and heroes were ‘“According to Eusebius (in Vit. Constantin. I. ii. c. 45) the emperor prohibited, both in cities and in the country, t4 /ivirapi ... r^s cUwXoXarpe/as the abominable acts or parts of idolatry. Socrates ( 1 . i. c. 18) and Sozomm ii. c. 4, 5) have represented the conduct of Constantine with a just (1 regard to truth and history, which has been neglected by Theodoret ( 1 y. c. 21) and Orosius (vii. 28). Turn deinde (says the latter) primus Constantinus justo ordine et pio vicem vcrtit edicto; siquidem statuit citra ullam hominum ca:dem, pag;anorum templa claudi. ‘“See Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. 1 . ii. c. 56, 60. In the sermon to the assembly of saints which the emperor pronounced when he was mature in years and piety, he declares to the idolaters (c. xi.) that they are permitted to offer sacrifices and to exercise every part of their religious worship. See Eusebius, in Vit. Constantin. 1 iii. c. 54-58, and 1 iv. c. 23, 25. These acts of authority may be compared with the suppression of the Bacchanals, and the demolition of the temple of Isis, by the magistrates of Pagan Rome. .

.

.

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

7a4

transported, with rude familiarity, among a people who considered them as objects, not of adoration, but of curiosity; the goM and silver were restored to circulation; and the magistrates, the bishops, and the eunuchs, improved the fortunate occasion of gratifying, at once, their But these depredations were zeal, their avarice, and their resentment. confined to a small part of the Roman world; and the provinces had been long since accustomed to endure the same sacrilegious rapine,

from the tyranny of princes and proconsuls who could not be suspected of any design to subvert the established religion.^** The sons of Constantine trod in the footsteps of their father with more zeal and with less discretion. The pretences of rapine and oppresevery indulgence was shown to the sion were insensibly multiplied; illegal behaviour of the Christians; every doubt was explained to the disadvantage of Paganism; and the demolition of the temples was celebrated as one of the auspicious events of the reign of Constans and Constantins.^^® The name of Constantins is prefixed to a concise law, which might have superseded the necessity of any future prohibitions. “ It is our pleasure that in all places, and in all cities, the temples be imme(hately shut and carefully guarded, that none may have the power of o&ending. It is likewise our pleasure that all our subjects should abstain from sacrifices. If any one ^ould be guilty of such an act, let him feel the sword of vengeance, and, after his execution, let his property be confiscated to the public use. denounce the same penalties against the governors of the provinces, if they neglect to punish the crimiaals.” But there is the strongest reason to believe that this formid-

We

” Eusebius

1 . iii. c. 54) and Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, Gothofred.) both mention the pious sacrilege of Constantine, which they viewed in very different lights. The latter expressly declares that “he made use of the sacred money, but made no alteration in the legal worship; the temples indeed were impoverished, but the sacred rites were performed there.” Lardner’s Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol.

.

9,

iv. p.

(in Vit. Constant.

10, edit.

140.

speaks of some court eunuchs who were spoliis Libanius says (Orat. pro Tempi, p. 23) that the emperor often gave away a temple, like a dog, or a horse, or a slave, or a gold cup: but the devout philosopher takes care to observe that these sacrilegious favourites very seldom prospered. '"See Gothofred. Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 262. Liban. Orat. Parental. . X. in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. tom. vii. p. 235 [ed. Hamb. 1715]. Placuit omnibus locis atque urbibus universis claudi protinus tcmpla, et accessu vetitis omnibus licentiam delinquendi perditis abnegari. Volumus etiam cunctos a sacrificiis abstinere. Quod siquis aliquid forte hujusmodi perpetraverit, gladio [ultore] sternatur: facultitates etiam perempti fisco decernimus vindicari : et similiter adfligi rectores provinciarum si facinora vindicare neglexerint. Cod. Theodos. 1 . xvi. tit. x. leg. 4. Chronology has discovered some contradiction in the date of this extravagant law; the only one, perhaps, by which the negligence of magistrates is punished by death and confiscation. M. de la Bastie (Mem. de I’Acedemie, tom. xv. p. 98) conjectures, with a show of reason, that this was no more than the minutes of a law, the heads of an intended bill, which were found in Scriniis Memoriae, among the papers of Constantius, and afterwards inserted, as a worthy model, in the Theodosian Code.

’“Ammianus

templorum

pasti.

(xxii. 4)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

7*5

able edict either composed without being published, or was published without being executed. The evidence of facts, and the monuments which are still extant of brass and marble, continue to prove the public exercise of the Pagan worship during the whole reign of the sons of Constantine. In the East as well as in the West, in cities as well as in the country, a great number of temples were respected, or at least were spared; and the devout multitude still enjoyed the luxury of sacrifices, of festivals, and of processions, by the permission, or by the connivance, of the civil government. About four years after the supposed date of his bloody edict, Constantius visited the temples of Rome; and the decency of his behaviour is recommended by a Pagan orator as an example worthy of the imitation of succeeding princes. “ That emperor,” sajra Symmachus, “ suffered the privileges of the vestal virgins to remain inviolate; he bestowed the sacerdotal dignities on the nobles of Rome, granted the customary allowance to defray the expenses of the

public rites and sacrifices; and, though he had embraced a different religion, he never attempted to deprive the empire of the sacred worship of antiquity.” The senate still presumed to consecrate, by solemn decrees, the divine memory of their sovereigns; and Constantine himself was associated, after death, to those gods whom he had renounced and insulted during his life. The title, the ensigns, the prerogatives, of

SOVEREIGN PONTIFF, which had been instituted by Numa, and assumed by Augustus, were accepted, without hesitation, by seven Christian emperors, who were invested with a more absolute authority over the religion which they had deserted than over that'which they professed.*’* The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of Paganism; ’"Symmach.

Epistol. x. 54 [p. 289, ed. Paris, 1604]. fourth Dissertation of M. de la Bastie, sur le Souverain Pontifical des Empereurs Romains (in the Mem. de I’Acad. tom. xv. 75-144), is a very learned and judicious performance, which explains the state, and proves the toleration, of Paganism from Constantine to Gratian. The assertion of Zosimus [iv. 36], that Gratian was the first who refused the pontifical robe, is confirmed beyond a doubt; and the murmurs of bigotry on that subject are almost silenced. ”*As I have freely anticipated the use of pagans and paganism, I shall now trace the singular revolutions of those celebrated words, i. Ilir'l, >u the Doric dialect, so familiar to the Italians, signifies a fountain; and the rural neighbourhood which frequented the same fountain derived the common appellation of pagus and pagans (Festus sub voce, and Servius ad Virgil. Georgic. li. 382). 2. By an easy extension of the word, pagan and rural became almost synonymous (Plir. Hist. Natur. xxviii. 5) ; and the meaner rustics acquired that name, which has been corrupted into peasants in the modem languages of Europe. 3. The amazing increase of the military order introduced the necessity of a correlative term (Hume’s Essays, vol. i. p. 555) ; and all the people who were not enlisted in the service of the prince were branded with the contemptuous epithet of pagans (Tacit. Hist. iii. 24, 43, 77. Juvenal. Satir. 16 [v. 32]. Tertullian de Pallio, c. 4). 4- The Christians were the soldiers of C:hrist ; their adversaries who refused his sacrament, or military oath of baptism, might deserve the metaphorical name of pagans; and this popular reproach was introduced as early as the reign of Valentinian (a.R. 365) into Imperial laws (Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 18) and theological

™The

THE DECLINE AMD FALL OF

726

and the holy war against the infidels was less vigorously prosecuted by princes and bishops who were more immediately alarmed by the guilt might and danger of domestic rebellion. The extirpation of idolatry have been justified by the established principles of intolerance: but the hostile sects, which alternately reigned in the Imperial court, were mutually apprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, the minds of a powerful, though declining faction. Every motive of authority and fashion, of interest and reason, now militated on the side of Christianity; but two or three generations elapsed before Aeir victorious influence was universally felt. The religion which had so long and so lately been established in the Roman empire was still revered by a numerous people, less attached indeed to speculative opinion than to ancient custom. The honours of the state and army were indifferently bestowed on all the subjects of Constantine and Constantius; and a considerable portion of knowledge and wealth and valours was still engaged in the service of polytheism. The superstition of the senator and of the peasant, of the poet and the philosopher, was derived from very different causes, but they met with equal devotion in the temples of the gods. Their zeal was insensibly provoked by the insulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and their hopes were revived by the well-grounded confidence that the presumptive heir of the empire, a young and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the arms of the barbarians, had secretly embraced the religion of his ancestors. writings.

5.

Christianity gradually filled the cities of the empire: the old Prudentius -(advers. Symmachum, 1 i. [v. 575 sqq^

religion, in the time of ad fin.) and Orosius (in

.

Prasfat Hist), retired and languished in obscure villages and the word pagans, with its new signification, reverted to its primitive origin. 6. Since the worship of_ Jupiter and his family has expired, the vacant title of Pagans has been successively applied to all the idolaters and polytheists of the old and new world. 7. The Latin Christians bestowed it, without scruple, on their mortal enemies the Mahometans; and the purest Unitarians were branded with the unjust reproach of idolatry and paganism. See Gerard Vossius, Etymologicon Lingua: Latina:, in his works, tom. i. p. 420 ; Godefroy’s Commentary on the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. p. 350; and Ducange mediae et ;

infimae Latinitat. Glossar.

‘"In the pure language of Ionia and Athens, EiSwXo)' and Aorpei'o were ancient and familiar words. The former expressed a likeness, an apparition (Homer. Odys. xi. 602), a representation, an image, created either by fancy or art. The latter denoted any sort of service or slavery. The Jews of Egypt, who translated the Hebrew Scriptures, restrained the use of these words (Exod. XX. s) to the religious worship of an image. The peculiar idiom of the Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, has been adopted by the sacred and ecclesiastical writers; and the reproach of idolatry (BHii>\o\arpela) has stigmatised that visible and abject mode of superstition which some sects of Christianity should not hastily impute to the polytheists of Greece and Rome.

4

TUt

ftCfiKAN BliCPIRB

7 »»

CHAPTER XXII Julian

is

declared

Success

— The

Emperor by

ike

Death of Constantius

Legions

—Civil

of Gaul—His March and Administration of Julian

While

the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in every part of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius. The barbarians of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his soldiers were the companions of his victory; the grateftd provincials enjoyed the blessings of his reign; but the favourites, who had opposed his elevation, were offended by his virtues; and they justly

considered the friend of the people as the enemy of the court. As long as the fame of Julian was doubtful, die buffoons of the palace, who were skilled in the language of satire, tried the efficacy of those arts whi^ they had so often practised with success. They easily discovered that his simplicity was not exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets of an hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to the dress and person of the philosophic warrior; and his modest despatches were stigmatised as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquacious Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art of war amidst the groves of the Academy.^ The voice of malicious folly was at length silenced by the shouts of victory; the conqueror of the Franks and Alemanni could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; and the monarch himself was meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenant the honourable reward of his labours. In the letters crowned with laurel, which, according to ancient custom, were addressed to the provinces, the name of Julian was omitted. “ Constantius had made his dispositions in person; he had signalised his valour in the foremost ranks; his military conduct had secured the victory; and the captive king of the barbarians was presented to him on the field of battle,” from which he was at that time distant above forty days’ journey.® So extrav-

‘Omnes qui plus poterant in palatio, adulandi professores jam docti, recte talia sine modo consulta, prospereque completa vertebant_ in dendiculum strepentes insulse; in odium venit cum victoriis suis; capella, non homo; trt hirsutum Julianum carpentes, appellantesque loquaccm talpam, et purpuratam et his congrucntia plurima atque vernacula simiam, et litterionem Graecum principi resonantes, audire haec taliaque gestienti, virtutes ejus obruere verbis impudentibus conabantur, ut segnem incessentes et timidum et umbratilem, gestaque secus verbis comptioribus exornantem. Ammianus, xvii. ir. ’Ammian. xvi. 12 [fin.]. The orator Themistius (iv. p. 56, 57) believed whatever was contained in the Imperial letters, which were addressed to the senate of Constantinople. Aurelius Victor, who published his Abridgment in the last year of Constantius, ascribes the German victories to the wisdom of the emperor and the fortune of the Caesar. Yet the historian, soon afterwards, was indebted to the favour or esteem of Julian for the honour of a brass statue, and the important offices of consular of the second Pannonia and praefect of the city. Ammian. xxi. 10. ;

;

738

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

aga&t a fable was incapable, however, of deceiving the public credulity, or even of satisfying &e pride of the emperor himself. Secretly concious that the applause and favour of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes of Julian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the subtle poison of those artful sycophants who coloured their mischievous designs with the fairest appearances of truth and candour.” Instead of depreciating the merits of Julian, they acknowledged, and even exaggerated, his popular fame, superior talents, and important services. But they darkly insinuated that the virtues of the Csesar nught instantly be converted into the most dangerous crimes, if the inconstant multitude should prefer their inclinations to their duty; or if the general of a victorious army should be tempted from his allegiance by the hopes of revenge and independent greatness. The personal fears of Contantius were interpreted by his council as a laudable anxiety for the public safety; whilst in private, and perhaps in his own breast, he disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear, the sentiments of hatred and envy which he had secretly conceived for the inimitable virtues of Julian. The apparent tranquility of Gaul, and the imminent danger of the eastern provinces, offered a specious pretence for the design which was artfully concerted by the Imperial ministers. They resolved to disarm the Caesar; to recall those faithful troops who guarded his person and dignity; and to employ, a distant war against the Persian monarch, the hardy veterans who bad vanquished, on the banks of the Rhine, the fiercest nations of Germany. While Julian used the laborious hours of his winter quarters at Paris in the administration of power, which, in his hands, was the exercise of virtue, he was surpris^ by the hasty arrival of a tribune and a notary, with poative orders from ^e emperor, which they were directed to execute, and he was commanded not to oppose. Constantius signified his pleasure that four entire legions the Celts and Petulants, the Heruli and the Batavians should be separated from the standard of Julian, under which they had acquired their fame and discipline; that in each of the remaining bands three hundred of the bravest youths should be selected; and that this numerous detachment, the strengh of the Gallic army, should instantly begin their march, and exert their utmost diligence to arrive, before the opening of the campaign, on the frontiers of Persia.* The Caesar foresaw and lamented the consequences of this fatal mandate. Most of the auxiliaries, who engaged their voluntary service, had stipulated that they should never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public faith of Rome, and the per-

m

—

—

'Callido nocendi artiiicio, accusatoriam diritatem laudum titulis perageHse voces fuerunt ad inflammanda odia probris omnibus potentiores. . . . Sec Mamertin. in Actione Gratiarum in Vet. Panegyr. xi. 4, 5. * The minute interval which may be interposed between the hieme adulta and the primo vere of Ammianus (xx. i, 4), instead of allowing a sufficient space for a march of three thousand miles, would render the orders of Constantius as extravagant as they were unjust. The troops of Gaul could not have reached Syria till the end of autumn. The memory of Ammianus must have been inaccurate, and his language incorrect. bant.

m

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

sonal bonour of Julian, had been pledged for the observance of this condition. Such an act of treachery and oppression would destroy the confidence, and excite the resentment of the independent warriors of Germany, who considered truth as the noblest of their virtues, and freedom as the most valuable of their possessions. The legionaries, who enjoyed the title and privileges of Romans, were enlisted for the general defence of the republic; but those mercenary troops heard with cold indifference the antiquated names of the republic and of Rome. Attached, either from birth or long habit, to the climate and manners of Gaul, they loved and admired Julian; they despised, and perhaps hated, Uie emperor; they dreaded the laborious march, the Persian arrows, and the burning deserts of Asia. They claimed as their own the country which they had saved; and excused their want of spirit by pleading the sacred and more immediate duty of protecting their families and friends. The apprehensions of the Gauls were derived from the knowledge of the impending and inevitable danger. As soon as the provinces were ex-

hausted of their military strength, the Germans would violate a treaty which had been impost on their fears; and notwithstanding the abilities and valour of Julian, the general of a nominal army, to whom the public calamities would be imputed, must find himself, after a vain resistance, either a prisoner in the camp of the barbarians, or a criminal in the palace of Constantins. If Julian complied with the orders which he had received he subscribed his own detraction, and that of a people who deerved his affection. But a positive refusal was an act of rebellion and a declaration of war. The inexorable jealousy of the emperor, the peremptory, and perhaps insidious, nature of his commands, left not any room for a fair apology or candid interpretation; and the dependent station of the Cxsar scarcely allowed him to pause or to deliberate. Solitude increased the perplexity of Julian; he could no longer apply to the faithful counsels of Sallust, who had been removed from his office by the judicious malice of the eunuchs: he could not even enforce his representations by the concurrence of the ministers, who would have been afraid or ashamed to approve the ruin of Gaul. The moment had been chosen when Lupicinus,® the general of the cavalry, was despatched into Britain, to repulse the inroads of the Scots

and

Piets;

and Florentius

was occupied at Vienne by the assessment of the tribute. The latter, a crafty and corrupt statesman, declining to assume a responsible part on dangerous occasion, eluded the pressing and repeated invitations who represented to him that in every important measure the presence of the praefect was indispensable in the council of the prince. In the meanwhile the Caesar was oppressed by the rude and importunate this

of Julian,

‘Ammianus, xx.

The valour of Lupicinus and

his military skill are in his affected language, accuses the general of exalting the horns of his pride, bellowing in a tragic tone, and exciting a doubt whether he was more cruel or avaricious. The danger from the Scots and Piets was so serious, that Julian himself had some thoughts of passing over into the island. i.

acknowledged by the historian, who,

730

THE DBCXtNK AHS

FALX. OF

who presumed to suggest that, he expected the return of his ministers, he could charge himself with the guilt of the delay, and reserve for them the merit of the execution. Unable to resist, unwilling to comply, Julian expressed in the most serious terms his wish, and even his intention, of resigning the purple, which he could not preserve with honour, but which he could not abdicate with solicitations of the Imperial messengers, if

safety.

After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled to acknowledge that obedience was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and that the sovereign alone was entitled to judge of the public welfare. He issued the necessary orders for carrying into execution the commands of Constantins; a part of the troops began their march for the Alps; and the detachments from the several garrisons moved towards their respective places of assembly. They advanced with difficulty through the trembling and affrighted crowds of provincials, who attempted to excite their pity by silent despair or loud lamentations; while the wives of the soldiers, holding their infants in their arms, accused the desertion of their husin the mixed language of grief, of tenderness, and of indignation. This scene of general distress afflicted the humanity of the Caesar; he granted a sufficient number of post-waggons to transport the wives and families of the soldiers, ^ endeavoured to alleviate the hardships which he was constrained to inflict, and increased by the most laudable arts The grief his own popularity and the discontent of the exiled troops. of an armed multitude is soon converted into rage; their licentious murmurs, which every hour were communicated from tent to tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their minds for the most daring acts of sedition; and by the connivance of their tribunes a seasonable libel was secretly dispersed, which painted in lively colours the disgrace of the Caesar, the oppression of the Gallic army, and the feeble vices of the tyrant of Asia. The servants of Constantins were astonished and alarmed by the progress of this dangerous spirit. They pressed the Ca;sar to hasten the departure of the troops; but they imprudently rejected the honest and judicious advice of Julian, who proposed that they should not march through Paris, and suggested the danger and temptation of a last interview. As soon as the approach of the troops was announced, the Caesar went out to meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been erected in a plain before the gates of the city. After distinguishing the officers and soldiers who by their rank or merit deserved a peculiar attention, Julian addressed himself in a studied oration to the surrounding multitude: he celebrated their exploits with grateful applause; encouraged them to accept, with alacrity, the honour of serving under the eyes of a powerful and liberal monarch; and admonished them that the commands of Augustus required an instant and cheerful obedience. The soldiers, who

bands

‘He granted them the permission of the cursus clavularis, or clabularis. These post-waggons are often mentioned in the Code, and were supposed to carry fifteen hundred pounds weight. See Vales, ad Ammian. xx. 4.

,

TBB KOMA.N EMPTKB

;

tjt

were ai^rdbensive of offending their general by an indecent dainour, or of buying their sentiments by false and venal acclamations, maintained an obstinate silence; and, after a short pause, were dismissed to that quarters. The principal officers were entertained by the Caesar, who professed, in the warmest language of friendship, his desire and his inability to reward, according to their deserts, the brave companions of They retired from the feast full of grief and perplexity; and lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore them from their

his victories.

beloved general and their native country. The only expedient whiiffi could prevent their separation was boldly agitated and approved; the popular resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of complaint were heightened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine, as on the eve of their departure the troops were indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of midnight the impetuous multitude, with swords, and bows, and torches in their hmids, rushed into the suburbs; encompassed the palace; and, careless of future dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable words, Julum Augustus! The prince, whose anxious suspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations, secured the doors against their intrusion; and, as long as it was in his power, secluded his person and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. At the dawn of day the soldiers,

whose zeal was seized, with

irritated

by

opposition, forcibly entered the palace,

respectful violence, the object of their choice, guarded

drawn swords through the streets of Paris, placed him on the and with repeated shouts saluted him as their emperor. Pru-

Julian with tribunal,

dence as well as loyalty inculcated the propriety of resisting their treasonable designs, and of preparing for his oppressed virtue the excuse of violence. Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals, he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed his indignation; conjured them not to sully the fame of their immortal victories; ventured to promise that, if they would immediately return to their allegiance, he would undert^e to obtain from the emperor not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the revocation of the orders

’Most probably the palace of the baths {Thernmrum) of which a solid and lofty hall still subsists in the Rue dr la Harpc. The buildings covered a considerable space of the modem quarter of the university; and the gardens, under the Merovingian kings, communicated with the abbey of St Germain des Prez. By the injuries of time and the Normans this ancient palace was reduced in the twelfth century to a maze of ruins, whose dark recesses were the scene of licentious love. Explicat aula sinus montemque amplectitur alis Multiplici latebra scelerum tersura ruborera.

pereuntis sape pudoris Celatura nefas, Venerisque accommoda furtis. (These lines are quoted from the Architrenius, 1. iv. c. 8, a poetical work of John de Hauteville, or Hanville, a monk of St. Alban’s, about the year iigo. See Warton’s History of English Poetry, vol. i. dissert, ii.) Yet such thefts might be less pernicious to mankind than the theological disputes of the Sorbonne, which have been since agitated on the same ground. Bonamy, M£m. de I’Academie, tom. xv. p. 678-^2.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

7a>

whidi ]iad>»dted their resentment.

But the

soldiers,

who were

con-

scious of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude of Julian than on the clemency of the emperor. Their zeal was insensibly turned into impatience, and their impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sustain^, till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their reproaches, tfll he had been repeatedly assured must consent to- reign. He was exalted on amidst the unanimous acclamations of the troops; a rich military collar, which was offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem;* the ceremony was concluded by the promise of a moderate donative;* and the new emperor, overwhelmed with real or affected grief, retir^ into the most secret recesses of his apartment.** The grief of Julian could proceed only from his innocence; but his innocence must appear extremely doubtful ** in the eyes of those who have learned to suspect the motives and the professions of princes. His lively and active mind was susceptible of the various impressions of hope and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty and of ambition, of the love of fame and of the fear of reproach. But it is impossible for us to calculate the respective weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascertain the principles of action which might escape the observation, while they guid^, or rather impelled, the steps of Julian himself. The discontent of the troops was produced by the m^ice of his enemies; their tumult was the natural effect of interest and of passion; and if Julian had tried to conceal a deep design under Uie appearances of chance, he must have employed the most consummate artifice without necessity, and probably without success. He solemnly declares, in the presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, and of all the other deities, that t^ the close of the evening which preceded his elevation he was utterly ignorant of the designs of the soldiers; ** and it may

and

their

menaces; nor did he yield

that, if he wished to live, he a shield in the presence and

'Even in this tumultuous moment Julian attended to the forms of superstitious ceremony, and obstinately refused the inauspicious use of a female necklace, or a horse-collar, which the impatient soldiers would have employed in the

room of a diadem.

An

equal proportion of gold and silver, five pieces of the former, one pound of the latter; the whole amounting to about five pounds ten shillings of our ’

money.

"For the whole narrative of this revolt we may appeal to authentic and original materials; Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Atheniensem, p. 282, 283, 284), Libanius (Orat. Parental, c. 44-48, in Fabricius Biblioth. Grsec. tom, vii. p. 369-273). Ammianus (xx. 4), and Zosimus ( 1 iii. [c. 9], p. 151, 152, 153), who, in the reign of Julian, appears to follow the more respectable authority of Eunapius. With such guides we might neglect the abbreviators and ecclesias.

tical historians.

Eutropius, a respectable witness, uses a doubtful expression, “ consensu (x. 15 [7]). Gregory Nazianzen, whose ignorance might excuse his fanaticism, directly charges the apostate with presumption, madness, and impious rebellion, ai$i 8tia, dir 6 yotai ivipna. Orat. iii. p. 67 “Julian, ad S. _P. Q. Athen. p. 28^ The devout Abb 4 de la Bleterie (Vie de Julien, p. IS9) is almost inclined to respect the devout protestations of a

militum”

Pagan.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

7S3

seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero, and the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious confidence that Constantins yras the enemy, and that he lumself was the favourite, of the gods, mi^t prompt him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspicious moment of his reign, which was predestined to restore the ancient religion of man kind. W^en Julian had received the intelligence of the conspiracy, he resigned himself to a short slumber; and afterwards related to his friends that he had seen the Genius of the empire waiting with some impatience at his door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of spirit and ambition.^® Astonished and perplexed, he addressed his prayers to the great Jupiter, who immediately signified, by a clear and manifest omen, that he should submit to the will of heaven and of the army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary maxims of reason excites our suspicion and eludes our inquiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.

To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect the persons of his enemes,®^ to defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which were formed against his life and dignity, were the cares which employed the first days of the reign of the new emperor. Although he was firmly resolved to maintain the station which he had assumed, he was still desirous of saving his country from the calamities of civil war, of declining a contest with the superior forces of Constantins, and of preserving his own character from the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. Adorned with the designs of military and imperial pomp, Julian showed himself in the field of Mars to the soldiers, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in the cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. He recapitulated

their victories, lamented their sufferings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, and checked their impetuosity; nor did he dismiss

the assembly till he had obtained a solemn promise from the troops that, if the emperor of the East would subscribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any views of conquest, and satisfy themselves with the tranquil possession of the Gallic provinces. On this foundation he composed, in his own name, and in that of the army, a specious and moderate epistle,” which was delivered to Pentadius, his master of the offices, and

“Amtnian. xx. s» with the note of Lindenbrogius_ on the Genius of the empire. Julian himself, in a confidential letter to his friend and physician Oribasius (Epist. xvii. p. 384), mentions another dream, to which, before the event, he gave credit of a stately tree thrown to the ground, of a small plant striking a deep root into the earth. Even in his sleep the mind of the Casar must have been agitated by the hopes and fears of his fortune. Zosimus (1. iii. [c. 9] p. 155) relates a subsequent dream. “The difficult situation of the prince of a rebellious army is finely described by Tacitus (Hist. i. 80-85). But Otho had much more guilt and much ;

less abilities

"To

than Julian.

this ostensible epistle he added, says jurgatorias et mordaces, which the historian have published. Perhaps they never existed.

Ammianus, had not

private letters, obseen, and would not

M4

the decline AND FALL OF two ambassadors whom be ai^xiiiited to and observe the dispositions of Constantins. This

to bis chamberlain Eutherius; receive the answer

with the modest appellation of Cssar; but Julian a peremptory though respectful manner, the confirmation of the title of Augustus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election, while he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and violence of epistle is inscribed

solicits in

the troops which had extorted his reluctant consent. He allows the supremacy of his brother Constantius; and engages to send him an annual present of Spanish horses, to recruit his army with a select number of barbarian youths, and to accept from his choice a Praetorian praefect of fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nominaand military officers, with the troops, the revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to consult the dictates of justice; to distrust the arts of those venal flatterers who subsist only by the discord of princes; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honourable treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and to the bouse of Constantine. In this negotiation Julian claimed no more than he already possessed. The delegated authority which he had long exercised over the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was still obeyed under a name more independent and august. The soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution which was not stained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was a fugitive; Lupicinus a prisoner. The persons who were disaffected to the new government were disarmed and secured*, and the vacant offices were distributed, according to the recommendation of merit, by a prince who despised the intrigues of the palace and the clamours of the soldiers.'” The negotiations of peace were accompanied and supported by the most vigorous preparations for war. The army, which Julian held in readiness for immediate action, was recruited and augmented by the disorders of the times. The cruel persecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon from a prince whom they could trust, submitted to the restraints of military discipline, and retained only their implacable hatred to the person and government of

approved discretion and tion cf his other civil

Constantius." As soon as the season of the year permitted Julian to take the field, he appeared at the head of his legions; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cleves; and prepau’ed to chastise the perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who presumed that they might ravage with impunity the frontiers of a divided empire. The difficulty,

” See the first transactions of his reign, in Julian ad Ammianus, xx. 5, 8. Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 49,

286.

A

S. P.

Q. Athen.

p. 285,

50, p. 273-275.

strange disorder, since it con"Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 50, p. 275, 276. tinued above seven years. In the factions of the Greek republics the exiles amounted to 20,000 persons; and Isocrates assures Philip that it would be easier to raise an army from the vagabonds than from the cities. See Hume’s Essays, tom. i. p. 426, 427.

THE ROMAK EMl'lRE

73S

as wdl as glory, of this enterprise coniusted in a laborious inarch; and Julian had conquered, as soon as he could penetrate into, a country which former princes had considered as inaccessible. After he had given peace to the barbarians, the emperor carefully visited the fortifications along the Rhine from Cleves to Basel; surveyed, with pieculiar attention, the territories which he had recovered from the hands of the Alemanni; passed through Besan^on,'* which had severely suffered from their fury; and fixed his head-quarters at Vienne for the ensuing winter. The barrier of Gaul was improved and strengthened with additional fortifications; and Julian entertained some hopes that the Germans, whom he had so often vanquished, might, in his absence, be restrained by the terror of his name. Vadomair was the only prince of the Alemanni whom he esteemed or feared; and while the subtle barbarian affected to observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms threatened the state with an unseasonable and dangerous war. The policy of Julian condescended to surprise the prince of the Alemanni by his own arts: and Vadomair, who, in the character of a friend, had incautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman governors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment, and sent away prisoner into the heart of Spain. Before the barbarians were recovered from their amazement, the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river, renewed the deep impressions of terror and respect which had been already made by four preceding expeditions.*® The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to execute with the utmost diligence their important commission. But in their passage through Italy and Illjnricum they were detained by the tedious and affected delays of the provincial governors; they were conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to Cssarea in Cappadocia; and when at length were admitted to the presence of Constantins, they found that he luid already conceived, from the despatches of his own officers, the most unfavourable opinion of the conduct of Julian and of the Gallic army. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling messengers were dismissed with indignation and contempt; and the looks, the gestures, the furious language of the monarch, expressed the disorder of his soul. The domestic connection, which might have reconciled the brother and the husband of Helena, was recently dissolved by the death of that princess, whose pregnancy had been several times fruitless, and “Julian (Epist. xxxviii. p. 414I gives a short description of Vesontio, or Besangon a rocky peninsula almost encircled by the river Doubs once a magnificent city, filled with temples, etc, now reduced to a small town, emerging however from its. ruins. “Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was promoted from a barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of Phmnicia. He still retained the same artful character (Ammian. xxi. 3) ; but, under the reign of Valens, he signalised his valour in the Armenian war (xxix. i). “Ammian. xx. 10, xxi. 3, 4. Zosimus, L iii. [c. 10] p. ISS;

;

;

736

THE DECLINE AMD FALL OF

vras at last fatal to herself.’*^ The empress Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment of her life, the vrarm, and even jealous, affection which she for Julian; and her mild influence might have moderated the resentment of a prince who, ance her death, was abandoned to his own passions, and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obliged him to suspend the punishment of a private enemy; he continued his march towards the confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient to signify the conditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to the clemency of their offended sovereign. He required that the presumptuous Cxsar should expressly renounce the appellation and rank of Augustus which he had accepted from the rebels; that he should descend to his former station of a limited and dependent minister; that be should vest the powers of the state and army in the hands of those officers who were appointed by the Imperial court; and that he should

had conceived

which were announced by and one of the Arian favourites of Constantius. Several months were ineffectually consumed in a treaty which was negotiated at the distance of three thousand miles between Paris and Antioch and, as soon as Julian perceived that his moderate and respectful betrust his safety to the assurances of pardon,

Epictetus, a Gallic bishop,

haviour served only to irritate the pride of an implacable adversary, h-' boldly resolved to commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil war. He gave a public and military audience to the questor Leonas: tli? haughty epistle of Constantius was read to the attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the most flattering deference, that he was ready to resign the title of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of those whom he acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The faint proposal was impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of “Julian Augustus, continue to reign, by the authority of the army, of the people, of the republic which you have saved,” thundered at onCe from every part of the field, and terrified the pale ambassador of Constantius. A part of the letter was afterwards read, in which the emperor arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the honours of the purple; whom' he had educated with so much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan. “An orphan!” interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by indulging his pas“ sions, does the assassin of my family reproach me that I was left orphan? an He urges me to revenge those injuries which I have long studied to forget.” The assembly was dismissed; and Leonas, who with

” Her remains were sent to Rome, and Interred near those of her sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Fia Norwritana, Ammian. xxi. i. Libanius has composed a very weak apology, to justify his hero from a very absurd charge of poisoning his wife, and rewarding her physician with his mother’s jewels. (See the seventh of seventeen new orations, published at Venice 1754,

from a MS.

in St. Mark’s library, p. 117-127.) Elpidius, the Praetorian prsefect of the East, to whose evidence the accuser of Julian appeals, is arraigned by Libanius as effeminate and ungrateful; yet the religion of Elpidius is praised by Jerom (tom. i. p. 243), and his humanity by Ammianus (xxi. 6).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE some

737

had been protected from the pc^ular fury, was sent back to his master with an q>istle in which Julian expressed, in a strain of the most vehement eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of resentment, which had been suppressed and embittered by the dissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might be considered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Jdian, who some weeks before had celebrated the Christian festival of the Epiphany,®* made a public declaration that he committed the care of his safety to the Immortal cods; and thus difficulty

publicly renounced the religion as well as the friendship of Constantins.®* The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate resolution. He had discovered from intercepted letters that his adversary, sacrificing the interest of the state to that of the monarch, had again excited the barbarians to invade the provinces of the West. The position of two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the lake of Constance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to indicate the march of two armies; and the »ze of those magazines, each of which consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather flour, was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of the enemy who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial legions were still in their distant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly guarded; and if Julian could occupy, by a sidden incursion, the important provinces of Illyricum, he nught expect that a people of soldiers would resort to his standard, and that the rich mines of gold and silver would contribute to the expenses of the civil war. He proposed this bold enterprise to the assembly of the soldiers; inspired them with a just confi-

dence in their general, and in themselves; and exhorted them to maintain their reputation of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to their fellowcitizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited discourse was received with the loudest acclamations, and the same troops which had

“Feriarum

quem

mense Januario, Christian! Epiphania solemniter numine orato discessit. Ammian. xxi. 2. Zonaras observes that it was on Christmas Day, and his assertion is not inconsistent; since the churches of Egypt, Asia, and perhaps Gaul, celebrated on the same day (the 6th of January) the nativity and the baptism of their Saviour. The Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 2Sth of December, the Brumalia, or winter solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the sun. See Hingham’s Antiquities of the Christian Church, 1. xx. c. 4; and Beausobre, Hist. Critique dn Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 690-700. “The public and secret negotiations between Constantins and Julian must be extracted, with some caution, from Julian himself (Orat. ad S. P. Q. die,

dictitant, progrcssus, in

celebrantes

eorum

e(.clesiani,

Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 51, P- 276). Ammianus (xx. 9), 9] p. IS4), and even Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. [c. 10] p, 20, 21, 22), who, on this occasion, appears to have possessed and used some valuable materials. “Three hundred myriads, or three millions, of meditnni, a corn-measure familiar to the Athenians, and which contained six Roman modii. Julian explains, like a soldier and a statesmsm, the danger of his situation, and the necessity and advantages of an offensive war (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p 286, 287).

Athen.

p. 286),

Zosimus

(1. iii.

[c.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

73S

up arms against Constantins, when he summoned them to leave declared with alacrity that they would follow Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of fidelity was administered; and the soldiers, clashing their shields, and pointing their drawn swords to their throats, devoted themselves, with horrid imprecafnitan

Gaul,

now

a leader whom they celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul and the conqueror of the Germans.’^'^ This solemn engagement, which seemed to be dictated by affection rather than by duty, was singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office of Frstorian praefect. That faithful minister, alone and unassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius in the midst of an armed and angry multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen an honourable, but useless sacrifice. After losing one of his hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees of the prince whom he had offended. Julian covered the praefect with his Imperial mantle, and protecting him from the zeal of his followers, dismissed him to his own house, with less respect than was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy.““ The high office of Nebridius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces of Gaul, which were now delivered from the intolerable oppression of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable adtions, to the service of

ministration of the friend of Julian, who was permitted to practise those virtues which he had instilled into the mind of his pupil.*^

The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his troops than on the celerity of his motions. In the execution of a daring enterprise he availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence could suggest; and where prudence could no longer accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valour and to fortune. In the neighbourhood of Basel he assembled and divided his army.^* One body, which consisted of ten thousand men, was directed, under the command of Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to advance through the midland parts of Rhaetia and Noricum. A similar division of troops, imder the orders of Jovius and Jovinus, prepared to follow the oblique course of the highways through the Alps and the northern confines of Italy. The instructions to the generals were conceived with energy and precision: to hasten their march in close and compact columns, which, according to the disposition of the ground, mi^t readily be changed into any order of battle; to secure- themselves against the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards; Sec his oration, and the behaviour of the troops, in Ammian. xxi. 5 sternly refused _his hand to the suppliant prtefect, whom he sent into luscany (Ammian xxi. 5). Libanius, with savage fury, insults Nebridius, applauds the soldiers, and almost censures the humanity of ’Julian fOrat V

^

.

He

P^ent.

c. 53, p.

278).

"Ammian

xxi 8 In this promotion Julian obeyed the law which he pubimposed on himself. Neejue civilis {juisquam judex iiec militaris [militi®] rwtor^ aho quodam practer mcrita suiTragante, ad potiorem veniat gradutn. (Ammian. xx. 5.) Absence did not weaken his regard for Sallust, with whose (a.d 363) honoured the consulship. licly

Ammianus

(\\i. 8)

ascribes the same practice skilful generals.

Alexander the Great and other

and the same motive to

—

THF

ROlitAN

EMPIRE

739

to pfevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude examination by their sudden departure; to spread the opinion of their strength, and the terror of his name; and to join their sovereign under the 'walls of Sirmium. For himself Julian had reserved a more difficult and extraorffi* nary part. He selected three thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, like their leader, to cast behind them, every hope of a retreat;

at the head of this faithf'ul band he fearlessly plunged into the recesses of the Marcian, or Black Forest, which conceals the sources of the Danand, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown to the world. ube; The secrecy of his march, his diligence, and vigour, surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains and morasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pursued his direct course without reflecting whether he traversed the territory of the Romans or of the barbarians, and at length emerged, between Ratisbon and Vienna, at the place where he designed to embark his troops on the Danube. By a well-concerted stratagem he seized a fleet of light brigantines as it lay at anchor; secured a supply of coarse provisions sufficient to satisfy the indelicate, but voracious, appetite of a Gallic army; and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The labours of his mariners, who plied their oars with incessant diligence, and the steady continuance of a favourable wind, carried his fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days;** and he had already disembarked his troops at Bononia, only nineteen miles from Sirmium, before his enemies could receive any certain intelligence that he had left the banks of the Rhine. In the course of this long and rapid navigation, the mind of Julian was fixed on the object of his enterprise; and though he accepted the deputation of some cities, which hastened to claim the merit of an early submission, he passed before the hostile stations, which were placed along the river, without indulging the temptation of signalising a useless and ill-timed valour. The banks of the Danube were crowded on either side with

“This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest, which, in the time of Cajsar, stretched away from the country of the Kauraci (Basel) into the boundless regions of the North. See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, 1 iii. c. 47. " Compare Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 53, p. 278, 279, with Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 68. Even the saint admires the speed and secrecy of this march. modern divine might apply to the progress of Julian the lines which were originally designed for another apostate; .

A

So eagerly the fiend, O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies, “In that interval the Notitia places two or three fleets, the Lauriacensis (at Lauriacum, or Lorch), the Arlapensis, the Maginensis; and mentions five legions, or cohorts, of Liburnarii, who should be a sort of marines. Sect. Iviii, edit. Labb. "Zosimus alone ( 1 iii. [c. 10] p. 156) has specified this interesting circumstance. Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 6, 7, 8), who accompanied a florid and describes this voyage Jul’an, as count of the sacred largesses, picturesque manner, challenges Triptolemus and the Argonauts of Greece, etc. .

m

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

940

spectators, who gazed on the military pomp, anticipated the importance of the event, and diffused through the adjacent country the fame of a young hero, who advanced with more than mortal speed at the head of the innumerable forces of the West. Lucilian, who, with the rank of general of the cavalry commanded the military powers of Illyricum, was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful reports, which he could neither reject

nor believe.

He had

taken some slow and irresolute measures for

the purpose of collecting his troops, when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus, an active officer, whom Julian, as soon as he landed at Bononia, had pushed forward with some light infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his life or death, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and conducted to the presence of Julian, who kindly raised him from the ground, and dispelled the terror and amazement which seemed to stupefy his But Lucilian had no sooner recovered his spirits than he befaculties. trayed his want of discretion, by presuming to admonish his conqueror that he had rashly ventured, with a handful of men, to expose his person in the midst of his enemies. “ Reserve for your master Constantius these timid remonstrances,” replied Julian, with a smile of contempt; “ when I gave you my purple to kiss, I received you not as a counsellor, but as a suppliant.” Conscious that success alone could justify his attempt, and that boldness only could command success, he instantly advanced, at the head of three thousand soldiers, to attack the strongest city of the Illyrian provinces. As he entered the long suburb of Sirmium, he was received by the joyful acclamations of the army and people, who, crowned with flowers, and holding lighted tapers in their hands, conducted their acknowledged sovereign to the imperial residence. Two days were devoted to the public joy, which was celebrated by the games of the Circus; but, early on the morning of the third day, Julian marched to occupy the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Hsemus; which, almost in the midway between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former, and a gentle declivity on the side of the latter.’^ The defence of this important post was intrusted to the brave Nevitta, who, as well as the generals of the Italian division, successfully executed the plan of the march and junction which their master had so ably conceived.®^ The homage which Julian obtained from the fears or the inclination of the people extended far beyond the immediate effect of his arms.®"

and most populous

^

“The description of Aramianns, which might be supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the Augustiee Succorum, or passes of Succi. M. d’Anville, from the trifling resemblance of names, has placed them between Sartlica and Naissus. For my own justification, I am obliged to mention the only error which I have discovered in the maps or writings of that admirable geographer. “Whatever circumstances we may borrow 9,

lo)

elsewhere, Ammianus (xxi. 8, supplies the series of the narrative. xxi. 9, 10. Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. Zosimus, S4, p. 27ft 280. 10] p. 156, 157.

still

“Ammian. L

iii.

[c.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

941

The prsfectures of Italy and Illyricum were administered by Taurus and Florentius, who united that important office with the vain honours of the consulship; and, as those magistrate had retired with precipitation to the court of Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity of his temper, stigmatised their flight by adding, in all the Acts of the Year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two consuls. The provinces which had been deserted by their first magistrates acknowledged the authority of an emperor who, conciliating the qualities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was equally admired in the camps of the Danube and in the cities of Greece. From his palace, or, more properly, from his headquarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he distributed to the principal cities of the empire a laboured apology for his own conduct published the secret despatches of Constantius; and solicited the judgment of man;

whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the barbarians."*® Julian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach of ingratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as well as by arms, the superior merits of his cause; and to excel not only in the arts of war, but in those of composition. His epistle to the seems to have been dictated by an elegant senate and people of Athens enthusiasm, which prompted him to submit his actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his own times, with the same humble deference as if he had been pleading in the days of Aristides before the tribunal of the Areopagus. His application to the senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestow the titles of imperial power, was agreeable to the forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was summoned by Tertullus, praefect of the city; the epistle of Julian was read; and, as he appeared to be master of Italy, his claims were admitted without a kind between two competitors, the one of

dissenting voice.

and

His oblique censure of the innovations of Constantine,

his passionate invective against the vices of Constantius, were heard

with less satisfaction; and the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed, “ Respect, we beseech you, the author of your An artful expression, which, according to the chance own fortune.” "Julian (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286) positively asserts that he intercepted the letters of Constantius to the barbarians; and Libanius as positively affirms that he read them on his march to the troops and the cities. Yet Ammianus (xxi. 3) expresses himself with cool and candid hesitation, si famte soltus He specifics, however, an intercepted letter from admittenda est fides. Vadomair to Constantius, which supposes an intimate correspondence between them “Csesar tuus disciplinam non habet.” " Zosimus mentions his epistles to the Athenians, the Corinthians, and the Lacedaimonians. The substance was probably the same, though the address was properly varied. The epistle to the Athenians is still extant (p. 268-287), and has afforded much valuable information. It deserves the praises of the Abbe de la Bleterie (Pref a I’Histoirc de Jovien, p. 24, 25), and is one of the best manifestoes to be found in any language. ” Auctori tuo reverentium rogatnus. Ammian. xxi. 10. It is amusing enough to observe the secret conflicts of the senate between flattery and fear. :

See Tacit. Hist.

i.

85.

M*

THE DECI.INE AND FALL OP

—

of war, might be differently explained as a manly reproof of the ingratitude of the usurper or as a flattering confession that a single act of such benefit to the state ought to atone for all the failings of Constantius.

The intelligence of the march and rapid progress of Julian was speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor, had obtained some respite from the Persian war. Disguising the anguish of his soul under the semblance of contempt, Constantius professed his intention of returning into Europe, and of giving chase to Julian; for he never spoke of this military expedition in any other light than that of a hunting party.®* In the camp of Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design to his army; slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Casar; and ventured to assure them that, if the mutineers of Gaul presumed to meet them in the field, they would be unable to sustain the fire of their eyes and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset. The speech of the emperor was received with military applause; and Theodotus, the president of the council of Hierapolis, requested, with tears of adulation, that his city might be adorned with the head of the vanquished rebel.*® A chosen detachment was despatched away in post-waggons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the pass of Sued; the recruits, the horses, the arms, and the magazines, which had been prepared against Sapor, were appropriated to the service of the civil war; and the domestic victories of Constantius inspired his partisans with the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary Gaudentius had occupied in his name the provinces of Africa; the subsistence of Rome was intercepted; and the distress of Julian was increased by an imexpected event, which might have been productive of fatal consequences. Julian had received the submission of two legions and a cohort of archers who were stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected, with reason, the fidelity of those troops which, bad been distinguished hy the emperor; and it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposed state of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most important scene of action. They advanced, with reluctance, as far as the confines of Italy; but, as they dreaded the length of the way and the savage fierceness of the Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of one of their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners of Constantius on the walls of that impregnable city. The

^e mischief, and the an immediate remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back a part of the army into Italy; and the siege of Aquileia was formed with diligence and prosecuted with vigour. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of vigilance of Julian perceived at once the extent of

necessity of applying

“Tanquam venaticiam praedam caperet; hoc enim ad leniendum suorum metum subinde praedicabat. Ammian. xxi. 7. "See the speech and preparations in Ammianus, xxi. 13. The vile Theodotus afterwards implored and obtained his pardon from the merciful conwho signified his wish of diminishing his enemies and increasing the

queror,

number of

his friends (xxii. 14).

THE ROHAN EHPIRE

^43

the place with dull and perseverance; invited the rest of Italy to imitate the example of thdr courage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat of Julian, if he should be forced to yield to the superior numbers of the armies of the East/' But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel alternative which he pathetically laments of destroying or of being himself destroyed: and the seasonable death of Constantins delivered the Roman empire from the calamities of civil war. The approach of winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch; and his favourites durst not oppose his impatient desire of revenge. A slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned by the agitation of his spirits, was increased by the fatigues of the journey, and Constantins was obliged to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after a short illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign.‘= His genuine character, which was composed of pride and weakness, of superstition and cruelty, has been fully displayed in the preceding narrative of civil aiH ecclesiastical events. The long abuse of power rendered him a considerable object in the eyes of his contemporaries; but, as personal merit can alone deserve the notice of posterity, the last of the sons of Constantine may be dismissed from the world with the remark that he inherited the defects, without the abilities, of his father. Before Constantius expired, he is said to have named Julian for his successor; nor does it seem improbable that his anxious concern for the fate of a young and tender wife, whom he left with child, may have prevailed in his last

moments over

the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eusebius and his guilty associates made a faint attempt to prolong the reign of the eunudis by the election of another emperor; but their intrigues were rejected with disdain by an army which now abhorred the thought of civil discord; and two officers of rank were instantly despatched to assure Julian that every sword in the empire would be drawn for his service. The military designs of that prince, who had formed three different attacks against Thrace, were prevented by this fortunate event. Without shedding the blood of his fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a doubtful conflict, and acquired the advantages of a complete victory. Impatient

"Ammian. xxi, /, ii, 12. He seems to describe, with superfluous labour, the operations of the siege of Aquileia, which on this occasion maintained its impregnable fame. Gregor> Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 68) ascribes thpo(rrfa))vi icai O^/uov. Aristot. ap. Julian, Si ivBptnrov KcXeiiuv The MS. of Vossius, unsatisfied with the [in Epist. ad Themistium] p. 261. cinglo beast, affords the stronger reading of eipta, which the experience of

despotism

may

warrant.

c. Ixxxiv. Ixxxv. p. 310, 311, 312) has given this interesting detail of the private life of Julian. He himself (in Misopogon, p. the gross and sensual appetite 350) mentions his vegetable diet, and upbraids

*Libanius (Orat. Parentalis,

of the people of Antioch.

>

M

the decline and fall or

WM

the (Sgestion ; and, except in the short interval of a^ marriage which than love, the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female companion.®® He was soon awakened by the entrance of effect of policy rather

fresh secretaries, who had slept the preceding day; and his servants were obliged to wait alternately, while their indefatigable master allowed himself scarcely any other refreshment than the change of occupations. The predecessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother, and his cousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of the Circus, under the specious pretence of complying with the inclinations of the people; and they frequently remained the greatest part of the day as idle spectators, and as a part of

was the splendid spectacle, till the ordinary round of twenty-four races completely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian, who felt and professed an unfashionable dislike to these frivolous amusements, condescended to appear in the Circus; and, after bestowing a careless glance on five or six of the races, he hastily withdrew with the impatience of a philosopher, who considered every moment as lost that was not devoted to the advantage of the public or the improvement of his own mind.®® By this avarice of time he seemed to protract the short duration of his reign; and, if the dates were less securely ascertained, we should refuse to believe that only sixteen months elapsed between the death of Constantius and the departure of his successor for the Persian war. The actions of Julian can only be preserved by the care of the historian; but the portion of his voluminous writings which is still extant remains as a monument of the application, as well as of the genius, of the emperor. The Misopogon, the Cssars, several of his orations, and his elaborate work against the Christian religion, were composed in the long nights of the two winters, the former of which he passed at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch. "Lectulus . . . Vestalium toris punor, is the praise which Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 13) addresses to Julian himself. Libanius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew a woman before his marriage, or after the death of his wife (Oral. Parent, c. Ixxxviii. p. 313). The chastity of Julian is confirmed by the impartial testimony of Ammianus (xxv. 4), and the partial silence of the Christians. Yet Julian ironically urges the reproach of the people of Antioch, that he almost always (’s Commentary, tom. i. p. 218, ad locum. “The president Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, etc., des 449) excuses this ^minute and Remains, c. xiv. in his works, tom. iu. p. absurd tyranny, by supposing that actions the _most indifferent in our eyes might excite, in a Roman mind, the idea of guilt and danger. This strange apology is supported by a strange misapprehension of the English laws, “ chez une nation . . . ou il est defendu de boire a la sante d’une certainc

"See Ammian.

I.

ii.

tit.

personne.”

THE DECLINE AND PALL OF

753

of Marcellus,

and the

liberality of the

emperor endeavoured to heal the

wound which had been inflicted by the hand of justice.** Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom.^*

From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues.’* He sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of four score

A

motive of superstition prevented years, had established in the empire. the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of rebut he absolutely lieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem refused the title of Dotninus or Lord,'^ a word which was grown so fa;

Romans, that they no longer remembered its serand humiliating origin. The office, or rather the name, of consul was cherished by a prince who contemplated with reverence the ruins of the republic; and the same behaviour which had been assumed by the prudence of Augustus was adopted by Julian from choice and inclination. On the calends of January, at break of day, the new consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to Uie palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was informed of their approach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates to receive miliar to the ears of the vile

the demonstrations of his aflected humility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate. The emperor, on foot, marched before their litters, and the gazing multitude admired the image of ancient times, or secretly blamed a conduct which, in their eyes, degraded the majesty of the purple.’* But the behaviour of Julian was uniformly supported. During

"The

clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which was formed against

by Ammianus (xxii. g, lo, and Vales, ad and Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 99, p. 323). "According to some, says Aristotle (as he is quoted by Julian ad Themist. p. 261), the form of absolute government, the vanfiturCXtia., is contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher choose, however, to involve thi,eternal truth in artful and laboured obscurity. "That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of Julian himself. his life at Antioch, are described

loc.)

Ammian.

xxii. 10.

" Libanius .

,

.

Parent, c. 95, p. 330), who mentions the wish and _ insinuates in mysterious language oCru yyoyruv 4 icuXilwv) that the emperor was restrained by some par-

(Oral.

design

of Julian, 4 X\’ 4 cLiuhav atience, that the flames of persecution should be immediately kindled against the enemies of the gods; and that the ingenious malice of Julian woidd invent some cruel refinements of death and torture which had been unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of

But the hop)es, as well as the fears, of the religious factions were apparently disappointed by the prudent humanity of a prince who was careful of his own fame, of the public peace, and of

his predecessors.

the rights of mankind. Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind. The reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar; but the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of the hand. Religious obstinacy is hardened and exasperated by oppression; and, as soon as the persecution subsides, those who have yielded are restored as penitents, and those who have resisted are honoured as saints and martyrs. If Julian adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and his colleagues, he was sensible that he should stain his memory with the name of tyrant, and add new glories to the catholic churdi, which had derived strength and increase from the severity of the Pagan magistrates. Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an imsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellowsubjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics. The Pagans received a gracious permission, or rather an express order, to open all their temples;®* and they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws and arbitrary vexations which they had sustained under the reign of Constantine and of his sons. At the same time, the bishops and clergy who had been banished by the Arian monarch were recalled from exile, and restored to their respective

churches; the Donatists, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the Eunomians, and those who, with a more prosperous fortune, adhered to the “Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. Iviii. p. 383, 284) has eloquently explained the Iti a very remarktolerating principles and conduct of his Imperial friend. able epistle to the people of Bostra, Julian himself (Epist. lii. [p. 436]) professes his moderation, and betrays his zeal, which is acknowledged by mianus and exposed by Gregory. (Orat. iii. p. 73 .) “ In Greece the temples of Minerva were opened hy his express command,

Am-

before the death of Constantius (Liban. Orat. Parent, c. 55, p. 280) ; and Julian declares himself a Pagan in his public manifesto to the Athenians. This unquestionable evidence may correct the hasty assertion of Ammianus, who seems to suppose Constantinople to be the place where he discovered his attachment to the gods.

THE DECLINE A^D FALL OF

TflS

doctrine of die council of ffice.

JtdUn, who iindCTStood and derided

]^ace the leaders of the hostile spectacle of their furious enagreeable sects, that he might enjoy the counters. The clamour of controversy sometimes provoked the emperor to exclaim, “ Hear me! the Franks have heard me, and the Alemanni;” but he soon discovered that he was now engaged with more obstinate and implacable enemies; and though he exerted the powers of oratory to persuade them to live in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied, before he dismissed them from his presence, that he had nothing to dre^ from the union of the Christians. The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this affected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine divisions of the church; and the insidious design of undermining the foundations of Christianity was inseparably connected with the zeal which Julian professed to restore the ancient religion of the empire.®* As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to the custom of his predecessors, the character of supreme pontiff; not only as the most honourable title of Imperial greatness, but as a sacred and important office, the duties of which he was resolved to execute with pious diligence. As the business of the state prevented the emperor from joining every day in the public devotion of his subjects, he dedicated a domestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun; his gardens were filled with statues and altars of the gods; and each apartment of the palace displayed the appearance of a magnificent temple. Every morning he saluted the parent of light with a sacrifice; the blood of another victim was shed at the moment when the Sun sunk below the horizon; and the Moon, the Stars, and the Genii of the night received their respective and seasonable honours from the indefatigable devotion of Julian. On solemn festivals he regularly visited the temple of the god or goddess to whom the day was peculiarly consecrated, and endeavoured to excite the religion of the magistrates and people by the example of his own zeal. Instead of maintaining the lofty state of a monarch, distinguished by the splendour of his purple, and encompassed by the golden shields of his guards, Julian solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices which contributed to the worship of the gods. Amidst the sacred but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior ministers, and of female dancers, who were dedicated to the service of the temple, it was the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and, thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of the expiring animal, to draw forth the heart or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill of an hariispex, the imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of the Fagans censured this extravagant superstitheir theological disputes, invited to the

" Ammianus,

Sozomen, 1 . v. c. 5. Bestia moritur, tranquillitas episcopi qui de propriis sedibus fuerant exterminati per indulgentiam novi principis ad ecclesias redeunt. Jerom. adversus Luciferianos, tom. ii. p. 143 [tom. ii. p. 191, ed. Vallars.]. Optatus accuses the Donatists for owing their safety to an apostate ( 1. ii. c. l6, p. 36, 37, edit. Dupin). redit

.

,

.

xxii. 5.

omnes

_

ROM.AN EMPIRE

"

7««

ticm, which affected to despise the retraints of prudence and decent^. Under the reign of a prince who practised the rigid maxims of economy, the expense of religious worship consumed a very large portion of the revenue; a constant supply of the scarcest and most beautiful birds was transported from distant climates, to bleed on the altars of the gods; an hundred oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian on one and the same day; and it soon became a popular jest, that, if he ^ould return with conquest from the Persian war, the breed of horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yet this expense may appear inconsiderable, when it is compared with the splendid presents which were offered, either

or by order of the emperor, to all the celebrated places of devotion in the Roman world; and with the sums allotted to repair and decorate the ancient temples, which had suffered the silent decay of time, or the recent injuries of Christian rapine. Encouraged by the example, the exhortations, the liberality of their pious sovereign, the cities and families resumed the practice of their neglected ceremonies. “ Every part of the world,” exclaims Libanius, with devout transport, “ displayed the triumph of religion, and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priests and prophets, without fear and without danger. The sound of prayer and of music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains; and the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for their ®“ joyous votaries.” genius the and power of Julian were unequal to the enterprise of But restoring a religion which was destitute of theological principles, of moral precepts, and of ecclesiastical discipline; which rapidly hastened to decay and dissolution, and was not susceptible of any solid or consistent reformation. The jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff, more especially after that office had been united with the Imperial dignity, comprehended the whole extent of the Roman empire. Julian named for his vicars, in the several provinces, the priests and philosophers, whom he esteemed the best qualified to co-operate in the execution of his great design; and his pastoral letters,®^ if we may use that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his wishes and intentions. He directs that in every city the sacerdotal order should be composed, without any distinction

by the hand

The restoration of the Pagan worship is described by Julian (Misopogon, 34d), Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 6o, p. 286, 287, and Orat. Consular.^ ad Julian, p. 245, 246, edit. Morel,), Ammianus (xxii. 12), and Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 121). These writers agree in the essential, and even minute, facts; but the different lights in which they view the extreme devotion of Julian are expressive of the gradations of self-applause, passionate admira**

P*

tion,

mild reproof, and partial invective.

Ixiii., and a long and curious fragment, The supreme pontiff derides the 288-305). Mosaic history and the Christian discipline, prefers the Greek poets to tlw Hebrew prophets, and palliates, with the skill of a Jesuit, the relative wor^p of images.

"See

Julian, Epistol. xlix.

without beginning or end

Ixii.

(p.

770

the decline AND FALL OF

of birth or fortune, of those persons who were the most conspicuous for tyir love of the gods and of men. “ If they are guilty,” continues he, “ of any scandalous ip-xinai, “Arnmian. xxiii. i. Cum itaque rei fortifer instaret Alypius, juvaretque provinciae rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundaments crebris assultibus erumpentes feccre locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum; bocque modo elemento destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum. Warburton labours (p. 60-90) to extort a confession of the miracle from the mouths of Julian and Libanius, and to employ the evidence of a rabbi who lived in the fifteenth century. Such witnesses can only be received by a very favourable

"Greg. Nazianzen, Orat.

oiii roit

ailrats

judge.

"Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian critics, presumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle (Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p.| 47-71). The silence of Jerom would lead to a suspicion that the same story which was celebrated at a distance might be despised on the spot. [Michaelis would offer an explanation of the miracle of the balls of fire which drove the workmen from the site of the temple. It is based on a passage in Tacitus. That historian, speaking of Jerusalem, says, “The temple itself was a kind of citadel which had its own walls superior in their workmanship and construction to those of the city. The porticoes themselves which surrounded the temple were an excellent fortification. There was a fountain of constantly running water, subterranean excavations under the mountain, reservoirs and cisterns to collect the ram water.” (Tacit. Hist. v. i3.) These excavations and reservoirs must have been very extensive. The latter furnished water during the whole siege to 1,100,000 people. As to the excavations, they were very considerable, and served after and even before the return of the Jews from Babylon not only as magazines for oil, com, and wine, but ior the treasures laid up in the temple. When Jerusalem was on the point

—

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

783

The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with the ruin of the Qiristian chur^. Julian still continued to maintain the free* dom of rdiigious worship, without distingui^ing whether this universal He aSected to toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency. pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in Ae most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his con* tempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which indicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honourable appellation of Galii.^ns.‘‘ He declared that, by the folly of the Galilseans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to men and odious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a public edict that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by salutary violence.^" An ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favour and friendship, while the other was entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedient people.*’' According to a of being taken by Titus, the rebel chiefs, placing their last hopes in these vast subterranean caverns, formed a design of concealing themselves there and remaining during the conflagration of the city and until the Romans had returned. Many of them had not time to execute the design, but one of them, Simon the son of Gioras, having provided himself with food, descended into this retreat with some companions, and remained there until Titus had set out for Rome. Under the pressure of famine he issued forth on a sudden in the very place where the temple had 'stood, and appeared in the midst of the Roman guard. He was seized and sent to Rome, the hiding-place was searched, and many other fugitives in hiding were discovered. Now these passages were unquestionably a part of the first temple, and were built by Solomon’s builders. In the centuries which elapsed between Solomon’s reigm and the fall of Jerusalem, gases would accumulate in the passages, and when the workmen of Julian’s epoch approached the place to dig the foundations of the new temple, they would probably use torches to explore the passages, when the gases igniting would produce the explosions referred to. But Dr. Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi, in the Jewish Quarterly Review for 1893 (p. 615 ff.) has proved that the whole story was a fiction of Gregory Nazianzen, from whose " Invective against Julian ” it passed in Ambrose and otlier fathers, and that Julian’s work was never commenced. See Dr. Adler’s article.

0

.

S.j

Greg. Haz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton has justly observed (p. 35) that the Platonists believed in the mysterious virtue of words ; and Julian’s dislike for the name of Christ might proceed from superstition as well as from contempt. “Fragment. Julian, p. 288. He derides the /tupla TaXthaiar (Epist. vit.) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration as to wish (Epist. xlii. [p. 424]) iKorras ISffSat. "Oi yip full Sifus iari KOfu[ipet ^ iXeatpeiv Ayepat, ol Ke 0€otarel and dowacast lodks, recoauoe&d their pure and modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers ”** The sdiism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the restored the tranlatter; and the wisdom of the prsefect Prsetextatus Frstextatus was a philosophic Fagan, a man of quillity of the city. learning, of taste, and politeness; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus that if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion.®* This lively picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century becomes the more curious as it represents the intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fisherman and the royal St: te of a temporal prince whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po. When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the ety,

I

sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his reputation in arms, his military skill and experience, and his rigid attachment to

the forms as well as spirit of ancient discipline, were the principal motives of their judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, who pressed him to nominate his colleague, was justified by the dangerous

and Valentinian himself was conscious that the abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of the distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as the death of Julian had relieved the barbarians from the terror of his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited the nations of the East, of the North, and of the South. Their inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but, during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his firmness and vigilance protected his own dominsituation of public affairs;

ions;

and his powerful genius seemed

to inspire

and

direct the feeble

counsels of his brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly express the urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted by a te^ous narrative. separate view of the five great theatres of

and desultory

A

“Ammian. xxvii. 3. Perpetuo Numini, verisgue ejus cultoribus. The incomparable pliancy of a polytheist 1 "Ammianus, who makes a fair report of his prefecture (xxvii. 9), styles

A

prseclarse indolis, gravitatisque, senator (xxii. 7, and Vales, ad loc.). cur'ous inscription ((jruter MCII. No. 2) records, in two columns, his religious and civil honours. In one line he was Pontiff of the Sun and of Vesta, Augur, Quindecemvir, Hierophant, etc., etc. In the other, i. Qusestor candidatus, more probably titular. 2. Praetor. 3. Corrector of Tuscany and Umbria, 6. Praefect of Rome. 7. 4. Consular of Lusitania. S- Proconsul of Achaia. Praetorian praefect of Italy. 8. Of Illyricum. 9. Consul elect; but he dt^ before the beginning of the year 383. See Tillemont, Hist des Empereurs, tom. V. p. 241, 736. “Facite me Romanae urbis episcopum, et ero protinus Christianus (Jerom, tom. ii. p. 16s [contra Joann. lerosol. tom. ii. p. 415, ed. Vallars.]). It is more than probable that Damasus would not have purchased his conversion

him

at such a price.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

868

—

IV. The East; and V. The image of the military state of the empire under the reigns of Valentinian and Valens. I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh and haughty behaviour of Ursadus, master of the offices;®® who, by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as well as the quantity, of the presents to which they were entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession of a new emperor. They expressed, and they communicated to their countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The irascible minds of the diiefs were exasperated by the suspicion of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were in flames: before his general Dagalaiphus could encounter the Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the forests of Germany. In the beginning of the ensuing year the military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine during the severity of a northern winter. Two Roman counts were defeated and mortally wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into the hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts and menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valentinian that his soldiers must learn to fear their commander before they could cease to fear the enemy. The troops were solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were enclosed within the circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy on the officers whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians weie degraded from their rank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence the troops fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the indignation of their Sovereign, and protested that if he would indulge them in another trial, they would approve themselves not unworthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers. Valentinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to their entreaties: the Batavians resumed their

war ^I. Germany; 11. Britain; Danube ^will impress a more

III. Africa;

—

distinct

arms; and, with their arms, the invincible resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the Alemanni.*® The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus; and that experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with too much prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking, had the mortification, before the end of the campaign,

"Ammian. the

xxvi.

S.

Valesius adds a long and good note on the master of

offices.

" Ammian.

xxvii. i. Zosimus, 1 iv, fc, 9] p. 208. The disgrace of the Basuppressed by the contemporary soldier, from a regard for military honour, which could not affect a Greek rhetorician of the succeeding age.

tavians

is

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

8«9

of senng his rival Jovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive ad* vantage over the scattered forces of the barbarians. At the head of a well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry, and light troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to Scarponna,®' in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a lai^e division of the Alemanni before

they had time to run to their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidence of an easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on the shady banks of. the MoseUe. Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eye of a general, made his silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were combing their long and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard the sound of the Roman trumpet; they saw the enemy in their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was followed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravest warriors was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries and auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most considerable, camp in the Catalaunian plains, near ChiIons in Champagne: the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; and the barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonislied by the fate of their companions, prepared to encounter in a decisive batThe bloody tle the victorious forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. and obstinate conflict lasted a whole summer's day, with equal valour and with alternate success. The Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned to Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign, and the ensigns of the consulship for the ensuing year.®- The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair, a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated and protected by the Romans;®* and the violation of the laws of humanity and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the weakness of the declining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom adopted in public

“See D’Anville, Notice de I’Ancienne Gaule, p. 587. The name of the Moselle, which is not specified by Ammianus, is clearly understood by Mascou (Hist, of the Ancient Germans, vii. 2). “ The battles arc described by Ammianus (xxvii. 2) and by Zosimus 1 . iv. ( [c, 9] p. 209), who supposes Valentinian to have been present. “Studio solicitante nostrorum, occubuit Ammian. xxvii. 10.

the decline and FALL OF

«70

any confidence in the power of the sword. While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city of the Upper Germany. In the unsuspicious moment of a Christian festival, Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine, entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude councils, as long as they retain

of captives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on the whole body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most probably on the side of Rhatia. The emperor in person, accompanied by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a formidable army, which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry and infantry of the West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation of their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty and almost inaccessible moimtain in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and resolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and unguarded

A

path. troop of barbarians suddenly rose from their ambuscade; and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his horse down a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his armour-bearer, and his helmet magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At

the signal of the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed and ascended the mountain of Solicinium on three different sides. Every step which they gained increased their ardour, and abated the resistance of the enemy: and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the hill, ^ey impetuously urged the barbarians down the northern descent, where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their retreat. After this signal victory Valentinian returned to his winter quarters at Treves, where he indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games."^ But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany, confined his attention to the important and laborious defence of the Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes of the North."® The banks of the Rhine, from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted with •‘The expedition of Valentinian is related by Ammianus (xxvii. lo) ; and celebrated by Ausonius (Mosell. 421, etc.), who foolishly supposes that the Romans were ignorant of the sources of the Danube. tDr. William Smith points out that Ausonius merely says that “they are not recorded in Roman history.” O. S.] Immanis ennn iiatio, jam inde ab incunabulis primis varietate casuum imminuta; ita sxpius adolcscit, ut fuissc longis saeculis aestimetur Intacta. Ammian. xxviii. 5. The Count de Buat (Hist, des Pcuples de I’Europe, tom. vi. p. 370), ascribes the fecundity of the Alemanni to their easy adoption of strangers. [Guizot cites the following passage from Malthus as throwing light on this

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

«7i

strong castles and convenient towers; new works and new arms were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of war. The progress of the work,

which was sometimes opposed by modest representations and sometimes by hostile attempts, secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years of the administration of Valentinian.®® That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims of Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe, were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians, a warlike and numerous people of the Vandal race,"' whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their civil

and

ecclesiastical constitution.

The

appellation of Hendinos

was

given to the king or general, and the title of Sinistus to the high-priest of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal government was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of war accused the courage or conduct of the king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal department.®* The disputed possession of some salt-pits ®® engaged the point of the extraordinary fecundity of the Alemanni, as shown by the fact that while the birth-rate of Rome was decreasing, that of the Germans was Malthus asks, “What northern reservoir increasing beyond all precedent. supplied this incessant stream of daring adventurers? Montesquieu’s solution of the problem will, I think, hardly be admitted. (Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. i6, p. 187). The whole difficulty is at once removed if we apply to the German nations, at that time, a fact which is so generally known to have occurred in America, and suppose that, when not checked by wars and famine, they increased at a rate which would double their numbers in twentyThe propriety, nay, even the necessity of applying this five or thirty years. rate of increase to the inhabitants of ancient Germany, will strikingly appear from that v?Uiable picture of their manners which has been left us by Tacitus. O. S.] [T-ac. Germania, section De Moribus Gerraanorum, c. 16-20. "Ammian. xxvin. 2. Zosimus, 1. iv. [c. _i6] p. 214. The younger Victor mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian nova arma meditari ; ftngere terra seu limo simulacra. [Epit. c. 45 ] "Bellicosos et pubis immensse viribus affluentes; et ideo metuendos finiti-

—

:

mis universis. Ammian. xxviii. S. [Pliny thought the Burgundians to be a pure Vandalic race. In reality they were cognate in blood and speech to both the Vandals and the Goths. O. S.] " I am always apt to suspect historians and travellers of improving extraordinary facts into general laws. Ammianus ascribes a similar custom to Egypt ; and the Chinese have imputed it to the Ta-tsin, or Roman empire (De Guignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. part i. p. 79 ). "Salinarum finiumque causa Alemannis ssepe jurgabant. Ammian. xxvtu.

—

.

.

;

the decline AND FALL OF

872

Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter were easily tempted by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor; and their fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers who had formerly been left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus was admitted with mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest.*”® An army of fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks of the Rhine, and impatiently required the support and subsidies which Valentinian had promised; but they were amused with excuses and delays, till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they were compelled to retire. The arms and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just resentment; and their massacre of the captives served to embitter the hereditary feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a wise prince may perhaps be explained by some alteration of circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of Valentinian to intimidate rather than to destroy; as the balance of power would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of either of the German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light and unincumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have seized the object of bis pursuit, if his judicious measures had not been defeated by the imMacrianus was afterwards admitted to the patience of the troops. honour of a personal conference with the emperor; and the favours which he received fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere friend of the republic.'®*

The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but the and Britain was exposed to the depredations of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbe.'®* This contracted territory, the sea-coast of Gaul

Possibly they disputed the possession of the Sala, a river which produced and which had been the object of ancient contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57, and Lipsius ad loc. Jam indc temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam Burgundii sciunt and the vague tradition gradually assumed a more regular form (Oros. 1 vii. It is annihilated by the decisive authority of Pliny, who composed c. 32). the History of Drusus, and served in Germany (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5), within sixty years after the death of that hero. Germanorutn genera quinque Vindili, quorum pars Burgundiones, etc. (Hist. Natur. iv. 28). “'The wars and negotiations relative to the Burgundians and Alemanni arc distinctly related by Aramianus Marcellinus (xxviii. 5, xxix. 4, xxx. 3). Orosius ( 1 vii. c. 32), and the Chronicles of Jerom and Cassiodorus, fix some dates and add some circumstances. '"’Eirl Toj> aixiva t^s TS-i/iPpiievi 'X.epeoy^eov, Sdiartt. At the northern extremity of the peninsula (the Cimhric promontory of Pliny, iv. 27) Ptolemy fixes the remnant of the Cimbri. He fills the interval between the Saxons and S.

salt,

.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

873

present duchy of Schleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the British island with their language, their laws, and their colonies, and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne.'*® The solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners and loose constitution of the tribes of Germany, which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons flisposed them to embrace the haaardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were fumi^ed by the nations who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern Columns of Hercules (which during several months of the year are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful armaments which sailed from the mouth of* the Elbe would soon provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus oi the Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who were united, as early as the sixth century, under the national appellation of Danes. See Cluver German. Antiu1.

iii.

c. 21, 22, 23.

’”M. d’Anville ( Etablissemcnt des Etats de I’Europe, etc., p. 19-26) has marked the extensive limits of the Saxony of Charlemagne. [Latham proposes another solution of this Saxon problem. He suggests that the term “ Saxon ” was a general appellation given by the Celts of Britain to the Germans of the sea-coast and the water-systems of the T.ower Rhine, Weser, Lower Elbe, and Eyder, to Low Germans on the Rhine, to Frisians and Saxons on the Elbe, and to North Frisians on the Eyder. He observes that Saxon was a word like Greek, i.e. a term which in the language of the Hellenes was so very special, partial, and unimportant, as to have been practically a foreign term, or at least anything but a native name, whilst in that of the Romans it was one of general and widely extended import. Henc^ mutatis maiandis, it is the insignificant Saxoncs of the neck of the Cimbric Chersonese, and the three Saxon islands first mentioned by Ptolemy, who are the analogues of the equally unimportant Grseci of Epirus; and these it was whose name eventually comprised populations as different as the Angles and the Saxons of Saxony, even as the word Graicus in the mouth of a Roman

comprised Dorians, .Eolians, Macedonians, Athenians, Rhodians, etc. In this way the name was German, but its extended import was Celtic and Roman. Cf. Latham. Germania of Tacitus, Epilegomcna, p. cxv. ff., also Morris, Outlines of

— O. S.)

English Accidence, pp. 3 -iO-

The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to pass, or even to approach, the Sound (styled, from an obvious resemblance, the Columns of Hercules), and the naval enterprise was never resumed (Tacit, de Moribus German, c. th* 34). The Imowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of Baltic (c. 44, 45) was obtained by their land journeys in search of amber.

the decline and fall of Scbleswig, and to launch their vessels on the great sea. The varioua troc^s of pirates and adventurers who fou^t under the same standard were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine, and military confederation was gradually afterwards of government. moulded into a national body by the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the alliance, accepted the name and laws of the Saxons. If the fact were not establi^ed by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers by the description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and tlie Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large fiatbottomed boats was framed of light timber, but the sides and upper works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides.*®® In the course of their slow and distant navigations they must always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of ^e Saxons were undoubtedly filled wi^ the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of the sea and of the shore: their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel; and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design,

A

and dispersed the fleets of the enemy.*®® After they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the West they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so little ‘“Quin

et Aremoricus piratem Saxona tractus Sperabat; cui pelle salum sulcare Britannum Ludus; et assuto glaucutn mare findere lembo. Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 369. The genius of Cxsar imitated, for a particular service, these rude, but light vessels, which were likewise used by the natives of Britain (Comment, de Bell. Civil, i. 54, and Guichardt, Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, tom. ii. p. 41, 42). The British vessels would now astonish the genius of Csesar. “"The best original account of the Saxon pirates may be found in Sidonius Apollinaris (I. viii. Epist. 6, p. 223, edit Sirmond), and the best commentary in the Abbe du Bos (Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Franqoisc, etc., tom. i. 1 i. See likewise p. 77, 78). c. 16, _p. 148-155. [With regard to the Saxon inroads, it would appear that they were settled at this time on the coast of Gaul, since the Notitia (Imp. Occid. c. 36), which must have been drawn up at this period (according to Dr. W. Smith) or shortly after, the “ Littus Saxonicum ” is mentioned as part of the Armorican “ jimit. In the Notitia ” the settlement is named Grannona, of which the site is uncertain, but subsequently we find the Saxons permanently settled near Bayeux, In the “ Notitia ” (c. 25, Imp. Occid.) the “ Littus Saxonicum per Britannias ” is also mentioned, which goes to show that the Saxons were settled in our island earlier than is usually supposed, probably at the same time as their brethren on the opposite coast of Gaul. Cf. Kemble, The Saxom in England, vol. i. p. 13; Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 384. O. S.] .

—

TR£ ROMAN EMPIRE

875

water that they could easily proceed fourscore or an hundred miles up the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable that they were transported on waggons from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine or of the Rhine might descend, with the rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian the maritime provinces of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence of the seacoast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who foimd his strength or his abilities unequal to the task, implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat; and the condition was readily granted by the Roman general, who meditated an act of perfidy,^®' imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive and in arms to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm the undaunted valour of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword to shed their blood in the amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus complains that twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves with their own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome were impressed with the deepest horror when they were informed that the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tithe of their human spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice.*®" II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride and amused the credulity of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational philosophy opinion that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent,

Ammian. and Orosius

breach of faith to pirates and robbers; clearly expresses their real guilt ; virtute atque

(xxviii. 5) justifies this

32)

( 1 . vii.

more

agilitate terribiles.

Symmachus ( 1 ii. Epist. 46) still presumes to mention the sacred names of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, might condemn with less inconsistency, the human sacrifices of the Saxons. ( 1 viii. Epist. 6), ”• In the beginning of the last century the learned Camden was obliged to undermine with respectful scepticism, the romance of Brutus the Trojan, who Scola. the daughter of Pharaoh, and her is now buried in silent oblivion, with numerous progeny. Yet I am informed that some champions of the Milesian colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland. A people visions of their past or dissatisfied with their present condition grasp at any .

.

future glory.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

876

to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin distinctly preserved in the perpetud resemblance of language, of religion, and of manners: and Ae peculiar characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances/*® The Roman province was reduced to the state

was

of civilised and peaceful servitude: the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts,*** who have since experience a very different fortune. The power, and almost the memory, of the Piets have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honours of the English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinction of the Scots and Piets. The former were the men of the hills, and the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a rude state of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters, expressed the contempt or envy of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of the earth might introduce a more accurate separation of property, and the habits of a sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was still the ruling passion of the Piets; and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of the husbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scots, which,' in the Celtic tongue, is said to be ‘“Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law Agricola, might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some llritish tribes. liut it was their sober, deliberate “ In universum tamen xstimaiiti Gallos vicinum solum occupasse opinion ” credibile est Eorum sacra deprehendas . . . sermo baud multum diversus (in Vit. Agricol. c. xi.). Caesar had observed their common religion (Comment. de Bello Gallico, vi. 13) ; and in his time the emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an historical event (v. 12). Camden, the British Strabo, has modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities (Britannia, vol. i. :

Introduction, p. ii.-xxxi.). “‘In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly qualified for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, etc., of the Caledonians, by Dr. John Maepherson, London, 1768, in 4to. and Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Maepherson, Esq., London, 1773, in 4to. third edit. Dr. Maepherson was a minister in the Isle of Skye: and it is a circumstance honourable for the present age, that a work replete with erudition and criticism should have been composed in the most remote of tlie Hebrides. ;

TdB ROMAN EMPIRE

877

equivalent to tliat of woMdererSf or vagrants. The inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food in the waters. which intersect their country are plentifully The deep lakes and stored with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted their curiosity and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering their nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slight alteration, the name of Erin, or lerne, or Ireland. It is probable that in some remote period of antiquity the fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were often associated in military enterprise, were deeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherish^ the lively tradition of their common name and origin: and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion that their Irish countrymen were the natural, as well as spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century. On this slight foundation a huge superstructure of fable was gradually reared by the bards and the monks; two orders of men who equally abused The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, the privilege of fiction. adopted their Irish genealogy: and the annals of a long line of imaginary Icingg have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius and the classic ele-

gance of Buchanan.”* Irish descent of the Scots has been revived, in the last moments of its and strenuously supported, by the Rev. Mr. Whitaker (Hist, of Manchester, vol. i. p. 430, 431 and Genuine History of the Britons asserted, etc., Yet he acknowledges, i. That the Scots of Ammiknus Marcelp. 154-293). linus (a.i). 340) were already settled in Caledonia, and that the Roman authors do not afford any hints of their emigration from another country. 3. That all

The

decay,

;

the accounts of such emigrations, which have been asserted or received, by Irish bards, Scotch historians, or English antiquaries (Buchanan, Camden, Usher, Stillingflect, etc.), are totally fabulous. 3. Thai three of the Irish tribes, which are mentioned by Ptolemy (a.d. 150 ) were of Caledonian extracCaledonian princes, of the house of Fingal, tion 4. That a younger branch of the acquired and possessed the monarchy of Ireland. After these concessions, and remaining difference between Mr. Whitaker and his adversaries is minute the cousin of obscure. The genuine history, which he produces, of a Fergus, Caledonia, is built Ossian, who was transplanted (aj>. .324) from Ireland to ,

THE DECLINE A^D FAtt OF Srears after the death of Constantine the destructive inroads of Scots and Piets required the presence of his youngest so^ who reigned in the Western empire. Constans visited his British dominions;

/

we may form some estimate of the importance of his achievements by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over but

tte elements, or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich.^'’ The calamities which the afflicted provincials continued to experience from foreign war and domestic tyranny were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian was soon lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold; the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers.^'* The oppression of the good and the impuni ty of the wicked equally contribute to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt;

and every ambitious subject, every desperate might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who

exile,

detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Piets, and the Saxons, spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antonius to the shores of Kent. Every production of

on a conjectural supplement to the Erse poetry, and the feeble evidence of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century. The lively spirit of the learned and ingenious antiquarian has tempted him to forget the nature of a question which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides. [The origin of the Piets and Scots l^s been a vexed question for the past

120 years. With respect to the Scots, it is now generally admitted that they belonged to the same race as the inhabitants of Ireland, being indeed emigrants from the north-east of Ireland, and are to all intepts and purposes represented by the Gaels of the present day. The Piets are now generally believed to be dosely allied to the Kelts and the Welsh. They were probably those ancient Caledonian tribes which inhabited the far north of Scotland, and were the remains of an older emigration from Gaul. Both Professor Rhys and Professor Bury have fallen into error here. Cf. Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol i dso Hume Brown s //ijtory of Scotland, vol. i. chaps, i.-iii.; Andrew Lang’s Hutory of Scotland, vol. i. chaps. i.-v. The Piets were more akin to the Wdsh, the Cornish and the Arraoricans than to the Gaels proper.—O. S.] Hieme tumentes ac ssevientes undas calcastis Occani sub remis vestris . . insperatum imperatoris faciem Britannus expavit. Julius Firmicus Matemus de Errore Profan. Relig p. 464 [p. 59, ed. Lugd. B. 1672] edit. Gronov, Fcl, See Xilleniont (Hist, des Hmpereurs, tom. iv. ^ u* T p, 336). Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious passage . has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries. *

.

•

HOMAN HMPIHB art

tod

natuife,

879

ev^ object of conveniences or lozuiy, which they were

incapable of creating by labour or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain.”* philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.

A

From

the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets this rapacious continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians: but the same people whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Piets;”* and a vai ant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,^^’' the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused by an eye-witness of deli gh tin g in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts both of males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts.^*® If in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Gla^ow a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate in the period of the Scottish history the opposite extremes of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce in some future age the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere. Every messenger who escaped across the British channel conveyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian, and the emperor was soon informed that the two military commanders of the province had been surprised and cui ofl by the barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court of Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate the greatness of the evil, and, after a long and serious consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was inspirit

*“ The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, etc., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, vol. ii. p. 343; and Mr. Maepherson’s Introduction, p. 242-286. “‘Lord Lyttelton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182), and Sir David Dalrymple has slightly mentioned (Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 p. ^), a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (a.d. 1137) when law, religion, and society must have softened their primitive manners. Ammian. xxvii. 8. Camden (Intro“’Attacotti bellicosa hom'num natio duct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in the text of Jerotn. The bands of Attacotti which Jerom had seen in Gaul were afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum (Notitia, S. viii. xxxix xl.)._ *** Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Brittannicam humanis vesci carnibus ; et cum per silvas porcorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiaiit, pastorum nates ct feminarum papulas solere abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerom (tom. ii. p. 75 (adv. Jovinianum, 1 ii. tom. ii. p. 33 Si ed. Vallars.]), whose veracity I find no reason to question. .

'

SSo

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

trusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius.

The

exploits of Uiat

general, the father of a line of emperors, have been celebrated, wiA peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age; but his real merit deserved their applause, and his nomination was received, by the army and

province, as a sure presage of approaching victory. He seized the favourable moment of navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In his march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated several parties of the barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and, after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil, established the fame of disinterested justice by the restitution of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens cf London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open their gates, and, as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the court of Treves the important aid of a military lieutenant and a civil governor, he executed with wisdom and vigour the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain. The vagrant soldiers were recalled to their standard, an edict of amnesty dispelled the public apprehensions, and his cheerful example alleviated the rigour of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of the barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit and consummate art of the Roman general were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, which successively rescued every part of the province from the hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. The splendour of the cities and the security of the fortifications were diligently restored by the paternal care of Theodosius, who with a strong hand confined the trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of the island, and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reign of Valentinian.”® The voice of poetry and panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the Piets, that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the Hyperborean ocean, and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of his naval victory over the Saxon pirates.^® He left the province with a fair as well

‘“Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. the whole series of the British war.

i,

xxvi.

4,

xxvii. 8, xxviii. 3)

Horrescit . . . ratibus . . . impervia Thule, file . . nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit. Scotumque vago mucrone secutus Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas. Claudian, in iii. Cons. Honorii, ver. S3, Maduerunt Saxone fuso Orcades : incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule. .

Scotorum cumulos

etc.

flevit glacialis lerne.

In

See likewise Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet.

iv.

Cons. Hon. ver. 31, etc. But it is not easy to appre-

xii. 5).

ciate the intrinsic value of flattery and metaphor. Compare the British victories of Bolanus (Statius, Silv. v. 2) with his real character (Tacit, in Vit. Agricol. c. 16).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

88i

as splendid reputation, and \ras immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry by a prince who could applaud, without envy, the merit of his servants. In Ae important station of the Upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa. III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs his people to consider him as the accomplice of his ministers. The military command of Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and his abilities were not inadequate to his station; but as sordid interest was the sole motive cf his conduct, he acted on most occasions as if he had been the enemy of the province, and the friend of the barbarians of the desert. The three flo fishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union,’-^ were obliged, for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostile invasion; several of their most honourable citizens were surprised and massacred, the villages and even the suburbs were pillaged, and the vines and fruit-trees of that rich territory were extirpated by the malicious savages of Gaetulia. The unhappy provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but th^ soon found that their military governor was not less cruel and rapacious than the barbarians. As they were incapable of furnishing the four thousand camels and the exorbitant present which he required before he would march to the assistance of Tripoli, his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a gold victory, and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude, with their humble complaint that they were ruined by the enemy and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of Valentinian it would have fallen on the guilty head of But the count, long exercised in the arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty messenger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of the offices. The wisdom of the imperial council was deceived by artifice, and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court of Treves to examine the state of Africa and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed; he was tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public treasure which he brought with him for the payment of the troops, and, from the moment that he was conscious of his own guilt, he could no longer refuse

had been Romanus.

rightly directed,

frequently mentions their concilium annuum, legitimum, etc. since ruined; but the city of Oea, the native country of Apuleius, still flourishes under the provincial denomination of See Cellarius (Geograph. Antiqua, tom. ii. part ii. p. 8 i), D'Anville Tripoli. (Geographic Ancienne, tom. iii. p. 71, 7*). and Marmol (Afrique, tom. iu

“Ammianus

Leptis

and Sabrata are long

p. 562).

—

Ui

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

to attest the innocence and* merit of the count. The charge of the Trip? olitans was declared to be false and frivolous, and Palladius himself was

sent back from Treves to Africa with a special commission to discover and prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against the representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success, that he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had

sustained a recent siege of eight days, to contradict the truth of their decrees and to censure the behaviour of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronounced, without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of the province, was publicly executed at Utica; four distinguished citizens were put to death as the accomplices

own

of the imaginary fraud,

and the tongues of two others were cut out by

the express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by impunity and irritated by resistance, was still continued in the military command, till the Africans were provoked, by his avarice, to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor.’®* His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the Moorish princes who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly disputed, and Zamma, one of bis sons, was slain in a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal with which Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder could be ascribed only to a motive of avarice or personal hatred; but on this occasion his claims were just, his influence was weighty, and Firmus clearly understood that he must either present his neck to the executioner, or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory to his sword and to the people.®®'' He was received as the deliverer of his country, and, as soon as it appeared that Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the tyrant of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of Cssarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the danger of resistance; the power of Firmus was established, at least in the provinces of Mauritania and Numidia, and it seemed to be his only doubt

’”Ainmian. xxviii. 6. Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 25, 676) has discussed the chronological difficulties of the history of Count Romanus. “*The chronology of Ammianus is loose and obscure: and Orosius ( 1 vii. c. 33, p. S 5 I, edit. Havercamp.) seems to place the revolt of Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and Valcns. Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 691) endeavours to pick his way. The patient and sure-footed mule of the Alps may be trusted in the most slippery paths. [Gibbon has erred here through misunderstanding Orosius. What the latter does say is that Theodosius was sent by Valentinian against Firmus the Moor. The revolt was suppressed either in 373 according to Reiche and Sievers, or in 374 according to Cagnat. The war was much longer protracted than Gibbon’s account would lead us to suppose. Only after Igmazen had been more than once severely defeated did he consent to give up the person of the man who had sought his protection. 0 S.] .

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Ml

i^ether he ^ould assume the diadem of a Moorish king or the purple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soon discovered that, in this rash insurrection, they had not sufficiently consulted their own strength or the abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain intelligence that the emperor of the West had fixed the choice of a general, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed that the great Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast, and the timid usurper sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though Firmus possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory immediately reduced him to the use of those arts which, in the same country and in a simUar situation, had formerly been practised by the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an apparent submission, the vigilance of the Roman general, to seduce the fidelity of his troops, and to protract the duration of the war by successively engaging the independent tribes of Africa to espouse his quarrel or to protect his flight. Theodosius imitated the example and obtained the success of his predecessor Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a suppliant, accused his own rashness and humbly solicited the clemency of the emperor, the lieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him with a friendly embrace; but he diligently required the useful and substantial pledges of a sincere repentance, nor could he be persuaded, by the assurances of peace, to suspend for an A dark conspiracy was deinstant the operations of an active war. tected by the penetration of Theodosius, and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the public indignation which he had secretly excited. Several of the guilty accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, according to ancient custom, to the tumult of a military execution; many more, by the amputation of both their hands, continued to edibit an instructive spectacle of horror the hatred of the rebels was accompanied with fear, and the fear of the Roman soldiers was mingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless plains of Gaetulia and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was impossible to prevent the escape of Firmus; and if the usurper could have tired the patience of his antagonist, he would have secured his person in the depth of some remote solitude, and expected the hopes of a future revolution. He was subdued by the perseverance of Theodosius, who had formed an inflexible determination that the war should end only by the death of the tyrant, and that every nation of Africa which presumed to support his cause should be involved in his ruin. At the head of a small body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five hundred men, the Roman general advanced with a steady prudence, devoid of rashness or of fear, into the heart of a country where he was sometimes attacked by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The boldness of his charge dismayed the irregular barbarians; they were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly retreats; they were continually baffled by the unknown resources of the military art; and they felt and ;

TH^ DECLINE AND FALL OF

884

confessed the just superiority which was assumed by the leader of a When Theodosius entered the octensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the Isadenses, the haughty savage required, in words civilised nation.

of defiance, bis name and the object of his expedition. “ I am,” replied the stern and disdainful count, “ 1 am the general of Valentinian, the lord of the world, who jius sent me hither to pursue and punish a desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be assured, that, if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible sovereign, thou and the people over whom thou reignest shall be utterly extirpated. ” As soon as Igmazen was satisfied that his enemy had strength and resolution to execute the fatal menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peace by the sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed to secure the person of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape, and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the sense of danger, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans by strangling himself in the night. His dead body, ^e only present which Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a camel; and Theodosius, leading back his victorious troops to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclamations of joy and loyalty.'-* % Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by the virtues of Theodosius; and our curiosity may be usefully directed to the inquiry of the respective treatment which the two generals received from the Imperial court. The authority of Count Romanus had been suspended by the master-general of the cavalry, and he was commit-

^

ted to safe and honourable custody till the end of the war. His crimes were proved by the most authentic evidence, and the public expected, with some impatience, the decree of severe justice. But the partial and powerful favour of Mellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtain repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct by the ad-

and forgery. About the same time the restQ'ar a vague suspicion that his name and se.»vices were superior to the rank of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded at Carthage. Valentinian no longer reigned; and the death of Theo((osius, as well as the impunity of Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the ministers who abused the confidence and deceived the ihexperiditional guilt of fraud

of Britain

and

Africa, on

^

enced youth of his sons.'*® If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately bestowed on the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have traosition 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 valour 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 passion which 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 artiThe anxious tenderness of his father ficial fruits of a royal education. 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 laboured to form the mind and body of the young abandonner

I’aflreusc solitude qu’ils avoint faite (CEuvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 479; Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur et de la Decadence des Romains, c. xvii.). The president Montesquieu seems ignorant that the Goths, after the defeat of Valens, never abandoned the Roman territory. It is now thirty years, says Claudian (de Bello Getico, 166, etc., a.d. 404), Ex quo jam patrios gens hsec oblita Triones, Atque Istrum transvecta semel, vestigia fixit Threicio funesta solo The error is inexcusable; since it disguises the principal and immediate cause of the fall of the Western empire of Rome.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 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

and the absence of passion might easily be mistaken for the His preceptors gradually rose to the rank and strength of reason. consequence of ministers of state,^ and, as they wisely dissembled their secret authority, he seemed to act with firmness, with propriety, and

precepts,

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 favour 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 ’ Valentinian was less attentive to the religion of his son since he intrusted (Mem. de I’Acathe education of Gratian to Ausonius, a professed Pagan. demie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 125-138). The poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age. ‘Ausonius was successively promoted to the Praetorian prefecture of Italy (a.d. 377) and of Gaul (a.d. 378) ; and was at length invested with the consulship (a.d. 379). He expressed his gratitude in a servile and insipid piece of flattery (Actio Gratiarum, _p. 699-736 (ed. Toll. Amst. 1671]), which has survived more worthy productions. * Disputare Sacrilegii enim instar est de principali judicio non oportet. Codex Justinian. 1 ix. dubitare, an is dignus sit, quern elegerit imperator. This convenient law was revived and promulgated, after the tit xxix. leg. 2. death of Gratian, by the feeble court of Milan. ‘Ambrose composed, for his instruction, a theological treatise on the faith of the Trinity; and Tillemont (Hist, des Einpereurs, tom. v. p. 158, 169) ascribes to the archbishop the merit of Gratian’s intolerant taws. 'Qui divinx Icgis sanctitatem [aut] nesciendo omittunt, aut negligendo violant, et offendunt, sacrilegium committunt. Codex Justinian. 1 ix. tit. xxix. Theodosius indeed may claim his share in the merit of this compreleg. I. hensive law. ;

.

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

958

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 behaviour 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 honours of his faithful troops,

appeared to be the object of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian freely indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and shooting, he naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of his favourite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the military and domestic service of the palace, and the admirable ^ill which they were accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia was exercised on a more narrow theatre in the parks and enGratian admired the talents and customs of these closures of Gaul. favourite 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 The unworthy spectacle of a Roman prince who had rewarrior. nounced 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 A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the the Seine. camps and garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of Gratian

more

neglected to extinguish the

first

symptoms

of discontent, the

want

of

'Ammianus (xxxi. lo) and the younger Victor [Epit. c. 47] acknowledge the virtues of Gratian; and accuse, or rather lament, his degenerate taste. " The odious parallel of Commodus is saved by “ licet incruentus ; and perhaps Philostorgius ( 1 x. c. 10 [5], and Godefroy, p. 41a) had guarded, with some similar reserve, the comparison of Nero. ’ Zosimus ( 1 iv [c. 35] p. 247) and the younger Victor ascribe the revolution to the favour of the Alani and the discontent of the Roman troops. exercitum negligeret, et paucos ex Alanis, quos ingenti auro ad se transtulerat, anteferret veteri ac Romano militi [Epit. c. 47]. .

.

Dum

THS ROMAN EMPIRE love and Fei^>ect 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 causes 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 and the name of Maximus for a spirit of presumption and arrogance was proclaimed by the tumultuary but unanimous voice both of the soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, or the rebel, for his 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 CaernarBut this provincial rank might justly be considered as a vonshire.^" 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 bis 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 favour 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 '

Britannia

fertilis

provincia tyrannorum,

is

a memorable expression used

in the Pelagian controversy, and variously tortured in the disputes national antiquaries. The revolutions of the last age appeared to

by Jerom of our

justify the image of the sublime Bossuet, “cette ile, plus orageuse que les mers qui I’environment.” *Zosimus says of the British soldiers, rSv S\\uy iirifrav ir\4oi> aiSaitl^ xal Bviiif

VlKUIlil'CVt

“Helena

[1.

c.].

the daughter of

now Caer-nnrvon. Rowland’s Mona Antiqua.)

segont,

Eudda. Her chapel may still be seen at Caer(Carte's Hist, of England, vol. i. p. i68, from

The prudent

reader

may

not perhaps be satisfied

with such Welch evidence.

“Camden (vol. i. introduct. p. ci.) appoints him governor of Britain; and the father of our antiquities is followed, as usual, by his blind progeny. Pacatus and Zosimus had taken some pains to prevent this error or fable; and I shall protect myself by their decisive testimonies. Regali habitu exulem suum, illi exules orbis induerunt (in Panegyr. Vet xii. 23), and the Greek historian still less equivocally, oArhs (Maximus) 8i o68i *li ipx^p hnpov Htvxc ( 1 hr. [c. 35 ] P. 248). .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

9te

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 hopie 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 emBut his feeble efforts ployed more honourably against the rebels. announced his degenerate spirit and desperate situation, and deprived him of the resources which he still might have found in the support The armies of Gaul, instead of opposing of his subjects and allies. the march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal acclamations, and the shame of the desertion was transferred from the people The troops whose station more immediately attached to the prince. them to the service of the palace abandoned the standard of Gratian the first time that it was displayed in the neighbourhood 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 a refuge, or at least a passage, he was taught by cruel experience Yet he might still that every gate is shut against the unfortunate. 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 Andragatbius, the general of the cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense. That resolute officer executed, without remorse, the orders or the intentions of the usurper. Gratian, as he rose from his

supper, was delivered into the hands of the assassin, and his body was denied to the pious and pressing entreaties of his brother Valentinian,** “ Sulpicius Severus, Dialog, ii. 7. Orosius, 1 vii. c. 34, p. 556 -They both acknowledge (Sulpicius had been his subject) his innocence and merit. It is singular enough that Maximus should be less favourably treated by Zosimus, .

the partial adversary of his rival. “Archbishop Usher (Antiquitat. Britan. Eccles. p. 107, 108) has diligently collected thp legends of the island and the continent. The whole emigration consisted of 30,000 soldiers and 100,000 plebeians, who settled in Bretagne. Their destined brides, St. Ursula with 11,000 noble and 60,000 plebeian virgins, -mistook their way, landed at Cologne, and were all most cruelly murdered by the Huns. But the plebeian sisters have been defrauded of their equal honours ; and, what js still harder, John Trithemius presumes to mention the jchtldren of these British 7nrgins. “.Zosimus ( 1 iv. fc. 35] p 248, 249) has transported the death of Gratian .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

«««

The death

of the emperor was followed by that of his powerful general Mellobaudes, the king of the Franks, who maintained to the last mo* ment of his life the ambiguous reputation which is the just recompense These executions might be necessary of obscure and subtle policy.^" 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 ’nd 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 conBut he proceeded, in a sent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers. 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 honour 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

from Lugdunum

in

Gaul (Lyons) to Singidunum

in

Maesia.

Some

hints

be extracted from the Chronicles; some lies may be detected in Sozomen Ambrose is our most authentic evi(1 vii. c. 13) and Socrates ( 1 v. c. ii). dence (tom. i. Enarrat. in Psalm Ixi. p. 961, tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 8M, etc., and de Obitu Valentinian Consolat. No. 28, p. 1182). ’“Pacatus (xii. 28) celebrates his fidelity; while his treachery is marked Ambrose, who in Prosper’s Chronicle as the cause of the ruin of Gratian. has occasion to exculpate himself, only condemns the death of Vallio, a faithful servant of Gratian (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 891, edit. Benedict.).

may

.

“ He

nullum ex adversariis

nisi inacie occubuisse. Sulp. Severua orator of Theodosius bestow's reluctant, and therefore weighty, praise on his clemency. Si cui ille, pro ceteris, sceleribus, suit, mfniM crudelis fuisse videtur (Panegyr. Vet. xii, 28).

protested,

in Vit. B. Martin,

c.

23.

The

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

gftt

Even the principles of justice and the interest of society assassin. 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 honour 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 honourable 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 reconcilation, Theodosius secretly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge.^ The contempt of Gratian for the Roman soldiers bad 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 honours, 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 as-

” Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quas non abrogavit ii.

hostis (tom.

Epist. xvii. p. 827).

We

may disclaim his odious sus37] p. 251, 252. reject the treaty of peace which the friends of Theodosius have absolutely forgotten, or slightly mentioned. “Their oracle, the archbishop of Milan, assigns to his pupil Gratian an high and respectable place in heaven (tom. ii. de Obit. Val. (^nsol. p. 1193). “Zosimus,

picions, but

1.

iv.

[c.

we cannot

'TH'S:

^

ROlfAN EMPIRE^

sumed the merit of subduing the Arian heresy, and of abolishing wor^ip of idols in the Roman world. Theodosius was the first of

the the

emperors baptised in the true faith of the Trinity. Although he was bom of a Christian family, the maxims, or at least the practice, of the age encouraged him to delay the ceremony of his initiation till be 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 solenm edict, which proclaimed his own faith, and prescribed the religion of his subjects. “ It !:> 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 preserv^, and which is now professed by the pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, bi^op of Alexandria, a man of aposAccording to the discipline of the apostles, and the tolic holiness. 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 authorise 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 The by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon them." 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 Flacilla, who trembled for the salvation of her husband; and the mind of Theodosius was confirmed by a theological argument

“For

the baptism of

Theodosius, see Soromen

( 1.

vii.

c.

4),

Socrates

and Tillemonl (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728). “Ascolius, or Acholius, was honoured by the friendship and the praises of Ambrose, who styles him, murus fidei atque sanctitatis (tom. ii. Epist and afterwards celebrates his speed and diligence in running XV. p. 820) to Constantinople, Italy, etc. (Epist. xvi. p. 822)— a virtue which does not appertain either to a wall or a bishop. “Codex Theodos. 1 xvi. tit. i. leg. 2, with Godefroy’s Commentary, tom. Such an edict deserved the warmest praises of Baronins, aurcam vi. p. 5-g. sanctionem, edictum pium et salutare. sic itur ad astra. ( 1 . V. c.

6),

;

.

—

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

to the rudest capacity. He had lately bestowed on his ^est son Arcadius the name and honours of Augustus, and the two princes were seated on a stately throne to receive the homage of their subjects. bishop, Amphilochius of Iconium, approached the throne, and, after saluting with due reverence the person of his sovereign, he accosted the

A

royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which he mi^t have used towards a plebeian child. Provoked by this insolent behaviour, 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 bi^op of Iconium, and never forgot the important lesson which he received .'

this dramatic parable.^^ Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, the faith of the princes and prelates in a long interval of forty years, who reigned in the capital of the East was rejected in the purer schools The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, of Rome and Alexandria. 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 aSorded 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 profoimd 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 endeavoured to secure the attachment of

from

“Sozomen, 1 vii. (Mem. Eiccles. tom.

Theodoret, 1 . v. c. i6. Tillemont is displeased 627, 628) with the terms of “rustic bishop,” “obscure city.” Yet I must take leave to think that both Amphilochius and Iconium were objects of inconsiderable magnitude in the Roman empire. “Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 5. Socrates, 1 . v. c. 7. Marcellin. in Chron. The account of forty years must be dated from the election or intrusion of Eusebius, who wisely exchanged the bishopric of Nicomedia for the throne of Constantinople. .

c.

6.

vi.

p.

.

“See Jortin’s Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 71. The thirty-third Oration of Gregory Nazianzen affords indeed some similar ideas, even some still more ridiculous; but I have not yet found the words of this remarkable passage, which 1 allege on the faith of a correct and liberal scholar.

——

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

96$

those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with unrelentiag severity, the victory which they had obtained over the followers of the coun* partial reigns of Constantius and Valens, the cil of Nice. During 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 subdued, derived strength and vigour from oppression, they seized the first moments of imperfect freedom, which they 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 criebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had cifltivated, with equal ardour, the same liberal studies in the schools of Athens; ^ey 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 ar(±iepiscopal throne of Caesarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to himself, the pride of his cl^racter; and the first favour which he condescended to bestow on his friend was received, and perhaps was intended, as a cruel insult.®* Instead of employing the sutheir zeal, instead of being

”See the own

thirty-second Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, and the account which he has composed in 1800 iambics. Yet every physician is prone to exaggerate the inveterate nature of the disease which he has cured. ” I confess myself deeply indebted to the tzvo Lives of Gregory Nazianzen, composed, with very different views, by Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 305-560, 692-731), and Le Clerc (Bibilotbeque Universelle, tom. xviii.

of his

life,

p. 1-128).

"Unless Gregory Nazianzen mistook thirty years in his own age, he was born, as well as his friend Basil, about the year 329. The preposterous chronology of Suidas has been graciously received, because it removes the scandal of Gregory’s father, a saint likewise, begetting children after he became a bishop (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 693-697). "Gregory’s Poem on his own Life contains some beautiful lines (tom. ii. p. 8 [ed. Paris, 1609]), which burst from the heart, and speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship irifot Kotnl \6yw, OiiAarvyit rt koX mirivnoi ptos, RsOt els dn^air .... AterKiSao-TCU. vivTa, Kippirrai Aipat ^powi rkj iraXatii fXiritas. In the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena addresses the same pathedc complaint to her friend Hermia : Is all the counsel that we two have shared. :

h

The sisters’ vows, etc. Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen ; he was ignorant

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL Or

perior talents of Gregory in some useful and conspicuous station, the ^ughty 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 ot rude and clamorous waggoners. 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 honourable 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 labours 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 sumof the Greek language; but his mother-tongue, the language of Nature,

is

the same in Cappadocia and in Britain.

"This unfavourable (tom.

ii.

portrait of Sasima is drawn by Gregory Nazianzen 8). Its precise situation, forty-nine miles from thirty-two from Tyana, is fixed in the Itinerary of Antoninus

de Vita sua,

Archelais, and

p. 7,

Wesseling). of Nazianzus has been immortalised by Gregory; but his native town, under the Greek or Roman title of Diocsesarea (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles tom. lx. p. 692), is mentioned by Pliny (vi. 3), Ptolemy, and Hierocles (Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 7og). It appears to have been situate on the edge of Isauria. “See Ducange, Constant. Christiana, 1. iv. p. 141, 142. The fleia Svya/ut of Siras 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 of Inquisitors of the Faith, a name so deservedly abhorred, Yet we are assured first instituted under the reign of Theodosius.

office

was

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 ^e Christian princes who shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of their religious opinions. The cause of the Friscillianists,®'^ 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 Praetorian praefect, seven persons were tortured, condenmed, 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

“They always kept their Easter, like the Jewish Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first moon after the vernal equinox ; and thus pertinaciously opposed the Roman church and Nicene synod, which had fixed Easter to a Sunday.

Bingham’s Antiquities,

1.

xx.

c

5, vol. ii. p.

30p^ fol. edit.

“ Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 12. “ See the Sacred History of .

Sulpicius Severus (I. ii. p. 437-452, edit. Lugd. Dr. Lardner (Credibility, etc., 1647), a correct and original writer. part ii. vol. ix. p. 256-350) has laboured this article with pure learning, good Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 491-527) has sense, and moderation. raked together all the dirt of the fathers— an useful scavenger 1 “ Sulpicius Severus mentions the arch-heretic with esteem and pity. Felix profecto, si non pravo studio cornipisset optimum ingenium; prorsus (Hist. Sacra, 1 . ii. p. 439.) multa in eo animi et corporis bona cemercs. Even Jerom (tom. i. in Script. Eccles. p. 302 [tom. ii. p. 934, ed. Vallars.])

Bat

speaks with temper of Priscillian and Latronian.

“The bishopric (in Old Castile) is now worth 20,000 ducats a-year (Busching’s Geography, vol. ii. p. 308), and is therefore much less likely to produce the author of a new heresy. “ Exprobrabatur mulieri viduse nimia religio, et diligentius culta divinitas (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29). Such was the idea of a humane though ignorant polytheist.

'I'HE

f^4

l^ECLZNE AND FALL OF

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 acexile;*'*

curate, or rather a candid inquiry, will discover that, if the Friscillianviolated the laws of nature, it was not by the licentiousness, but by

ists

They absolutely condemned the use of the marriage-bed; and the peace of families was often disturbed by indiscreet separations. They enjoined, or recommended, a total abstinence from all animal food; and Aeir 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 Manichxan system; and this vain philosophy, which had been tran^orted from £g}q)t to Spain, was The obscure disciples of ill adapted to the grosser spirits of the West. 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 and Martin of Tours,** who, on this ocbishops, Ambrose of Milan casion, 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 irrgularity of the the austerity of their lives.

“One

of them was sent in Syllinam insulam quae ultra Britanniam est. the ancient condition of the rocks of Scilly (Camdm’s

What must have been Britannia, vol.

ii.

p.

“The scpdalous

1519) ?

calumnies of Augustin, pope Leo, etc., which Tillemont swallows like a child, and Lardner refutes like a man, may suggest some candid suspicions in favour of the older Gnostics. "Ambrose, tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 8 gi. “In the Sacred History, and the Life of St. Martin, Sulpicius Severus uses some caution; but he declares himself more freely in the Dialogues (iii. IS). Martin was reproved, however, by his own conscience and by an angel; nor could he afterwards perform miracles with so much ease.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

«fS

proceedings against Priscillian and his adherents. The civil and ec* clesiastical 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

juris-

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 profiigate 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 ot persecution have been refined and methodised in the holy office, whidi assigns their distinct parts to the ecclesiastical and secuThe devoted victim is regularly delivered by the priest to la. powers 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. 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 but the palm of episcop^ to the monastic virtues of Martin of Tours vigour 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 Prstorian prefect of Gaul; and the son, after passing through the studies of a liberal education, attained, in the regular gradation of civil honours, 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 preternatural impulse; and the reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a diction.

The bishops had

;

spiritual office for

which he was not prepared by the habits and occupa-

tions of his former fied

him

life.

But the active force of his genius soon qualiand prudence, the duties of his ecdesi-

to exercise, with zeal

"The catholic presbyter (Sulp. Sever. 1. ii. p. 4^), and the Fagan orator (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xxi. 29), reprobate with equal indignation the character and conduct of Ithacius. "The Life of St Martin, and the Dialogues concerning his miracles, contain facts adapted to the grossest barbarism, in a style not unworthy of the Augustin age. So natural is the alliance between good taste and good sense, that I am always astonished by this contrast. “The short and superficial Life of St. Ambrose, by his deacon Paulinus (Appendix ad edit. Benedict, p. i.-xv.), has the merit of original evidence. Eccles. tom. x. p. 7^306) and the Benedictine editors (p. Tillemont xxxi.-lxiii.) have laboured with their usual diligence.

(M^.

976

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

astical jurisdiction; and ^ile 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 Gratian loved and revered control the administration of the empire. him as a father; and the eiaborate 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

and perhaps contributed, by his authority and eloquence, to check the ambition of Mmdmus, 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 favour, or apprehending the displeasure, of his feeble political characters;

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 endeavomed 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 shouid resign the use of a single church, either in the city or suburbs of Milan. But the conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles."'^ The palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Csesar, but the churches were 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 "Ambrose himself (tom. very spirited account of his

ii.

Epist. xxiv. p. 888-891) gives the

emperor a

own embassy.

“His own representation of his principles and conduct (tom. ii. Epist. xx._ xxi. xxii. p. 852-880) is one of the curious monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. It contains two letters to his sister Marcellina, with a petition _ to Valentinian, and the sermon de BasiKcis non tradendis.

TH^ ROMAN EMPIRE

97:

the-sqTproachii^ festival of Easter, Ambrose was ordered to appear before toe council. He obeyed toe summons with toe 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 toe 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 toe tranquillity of toe capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and, during six of toe most solemn days which Christian piety has set apart for the exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the The officers of the irregular convulsions of tumult and fanaticism. hi usehold 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 toe streets were exposed to toe most imminent danger of their lives; and Ambrose enjoyed the merit and reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from toe hands of toe enraged multitude. _ But while he laboured to restrain the effects of their zeal, toe pat]iHm vehemence of his sermons continually infiamed the angry and ^itious 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

and inferior servants of the courts of justice, that, during the continuance of toe 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 a timely compliance with the will of

officers

The

Ambrose was couched in the most humble 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 toe episcopal character. In such a cause he was prepared to suffer whatever toe malice of the daeman could inflict; and he only wished to die in the presence of his faithful flock, and at the foot of toe altar; he had not contributed to excite, but it was in the power of his sovereign.

and

God

reply of

respectful terms,

alone to appease, the rage of toe people: he deprecated the scenes

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF 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 flourishThe obstinate biging city, and perhaps the desolation of all Italy.” otry of Justina would have endan^red 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 theliands 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 exBy the influence of Justina, an cuse the resistance of the catholics. 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 The character and language of the archbishop of Milan may peace.'”’ justify the suspicion that his conduct soon aflorded 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. sentence of easy and honourable 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

A

"Retz had a similar message from the queen to request that he would appease the tumult of Paris. It was no longer in his power, etc. quo! j’ajoutai tout ce que vous pouvez vous imaginer de respect, de douleur, de regret, et de soumission, etc. (Memoires, tom. i. p. 140). Certainly I do not compare either the causes or the men; yet the coadjutor himself had some idea(p. 84) of imitating St. Ambrose. “ Sozomen alone ( 1 . vii. c. 13) throws this luminous fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.

A

THE HOMAN EMPIRE

#79

‘

maxims

of passive loyalty, appeared to Andnose 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

practised the

consent of his faithful people.*®

They guarded by

turns the person of

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 signalising 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 gular 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 preternatural 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 deemoniacs, 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, their archbishop; the gates of the cathedral

professed the art of rhetoric in Milan. The reason of the present age possibly approve the incredulity of Justina and her Arian court, who derided the theatrical representations which were exhibited by the

may

“Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia tnort parata cum episcopo suo Nos adhuc frigidi cxcitabamur tamen civitate attonita atque turbata. Augustin. .

Confession. etc.,

.

ix. c. 7.

I.

Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. ?8 498. Many churches in Italy, were dedicated to these unknown martyrs, of whom St. Gervase

Tilleraont,

Gaul,

.

,

seems to have been more fortunate than his .companion. * Invenimus mirse magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca

setas ferebat, tom. The size of the.se skeletons was fortunately, or skilEpist. xxii. p. 875. fully, suited to the popular prejudice of the gradual decrease of the human stature, which has prevailed in every age since the time of Homer. Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris. “Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin. Confes. 1 . ix. c. 7, de Paulin, in Vita St. AmiPros, c. 14, in Append. BeneCivitat. Dei, 1 xxii. c. 8. The blind man’s name was Severus ; he touched the holy garment, dict. p. 4. recovered his sight, and devoted the rest of his life (at least twenty-five years) to the service of the church. I should recommend this miracle to our divines, if it did not prove the worship of relics as well as the Nicene creed. ii.

.

9to

THE DECLINE AND FALL. OF

Their effect, contrivance, and at the expense, of the archbishop.” however, on the minds of the people, was rapid and irresistible ; and the feeble sovereign of Italy found himself unable to contend with the favourite 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 from the oppressed provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, extorted 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 favour 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 armour and the dus 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 so might accuse their own imprudence and the perfidious arts of Maximus but they wanted time, and force, and resolution to stand against tl Gauls and Germans, either in the field or within the walls of a large anc ’"Paulin, in Vit. St.

Ambros.

c.

5 [15], in Append. Benedict, p.

5.

"Tillemont, Mem. Ecclcs. tom. x. p 150, 750. He partially allows the mediation of Theodosius, and capriciously rejects that of Maximus, though it is attested by Prosper, Sozomen, and Theodoret. ’The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog, iii. 15 [p. 576] inflicts a much deeper wound than the feeble declamation of Pacatus (xii. 25, 26) "Esto tutior adversus hominem, pacis involucro [bellumj tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose (tom. ii. p. 891) after his return from his second embassy. .

THE ROHAN EMPIRE

9C1

Fli^t vras their only hope; Aquileia their only refuge: and, as Maximus now displayed his genuine diaracter, 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. vessel was secretly provided to transport the Imperial family; they embarked with precipitation in one of the obscure harbours of Venetia, or Istria; traversed ^e whole extent of the Hadriatic 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 £mona, 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 the palace of Constantinople, Theodosius had some unknown reasons to fix their residence at Thes'-alonica; but these reasons did not proceed from contempt or indifference, as he speedily made a visit to that city, accompanied by tlie 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 Vicene 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 and the arguments .'•y Theodosius to the deliberation of his council; which might be alleged on the side of honour and justice had acquired, 'nee the death of Gratian, a considerable degree of additional weight, ;he persecution of the Imperial family, to which Theodosius himself «ad been indebted for his fortune, was now aggravated by recent and (epcatea injuries. Neither oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundi 'less ambition of Maximus; and the delay of vigorous and decisive I measures, instead of prolonging the blessings of peace, would expose the Eastern empire to the danger of an 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 valour and diminish disaffected city.

A

j

’

'

” Baronius (a.d. 387, No. 63) applies to this season of public distress some of the penitential sermons of the archbishop.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF their numbers, might tend to relieve the provinces from an intoIer^Ue Notwithstanding these specious and solid reasons, which oppression. 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 %ons, 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 afiections were insensibly engaged by the graces of youth and innocence; the art of Justina manage 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 Zosi-

For my own part, I shall frankly confess that I am willing to 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, t can distinguish, with peculiar complacency, a pentle hero who may be supposed to receive his armour from the hard^ 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 Hadriatic, 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 Riuetian provinces into the centre of Gaul. A powerful fleet was equipped in the harbours 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 meanwhile Theodosius himself advanced^ at the head of a brave and disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy rival, who, after the siege of Mmoim, had fixed h’s camp in the nei^bourhood of Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly fortified by the broad and rapid stream of the Save. mus.

find, or

“The

flight of Valentinian and the love of Theodosius for his sister are by Zosimus ( 1 iv. [c. 43] p. 263, 264). Tillemont produces some weak and ambiguous evidence to antedate the second marriage of Theodosius (Hist, des Empereurs, tom, v. p 740), and consequently to refute ces contes de Zosime qui seroient trop contraires a la pi^e de Theodose.

related

.

*

THS ROMAN EMPIRE The

veterans,

who

still

remembered the long

resistance,

9«l

and

socces*

sive resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare themselves for the labours of three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his suc-

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 valour 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 Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acconqueror. clamations of the citizens of ^Emona, Theodosius pressed forwards to terminate the war ly 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 IMaximus. He was dragged from his throne, rudely stripped of the Imperial ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and conducted, like a malefac.rr, to the camp and presence of Iheodosius, at a place The behaviour of the emperor was les from Aquileia. about three not intended to insult, and he showed some dirposition 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 expos^; 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 But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity was victorious emperor. checked by his regard for public justice and the memory of Gratian; cessor,

m

See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws, Cod. Theodos. tom.

i.

p.

exub

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

g84

who drew and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the solvere, his head from separated instantly and presence him out of the Imperial The intelligence of his defeat and death was received with his body. 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

When he had thus terminated the civil war, with 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 ihto the successfully executed.

less difficulty

ancient capital of the

The

Roman

who may be

orator,

empire.^'

silent

without danger,

may

praise without

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 difficulty

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 those persons who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of personal

among

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 favours and ser" Besides the

hints

tical history,

Zosimus

and Pacatus

(in

which may be gathered from chronicles and (

1.

iv.

[c. 40,

seq.] p. 259-267),

Orosius

(1.

ecclesias-

vii.

c.

35),

Panegyr. Vet. xii. 30-47), supply the loose and scanty materials of this civil war. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 952, 953) darkly alludes to the well-known events of a magazine surprised, an action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, etc. Ausonius (p. 236, edit. Toll.) applauds the peculiar merit and good fortune of Aquileia. ”Quam promptum laudare principem, tam tutum siluisse de principe (Pacat. in Panegyr.^ Vet. xii. 2) Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, a native of Gaul, pronounced this oration at Rome (a.d. 388). He was afterwards proconsul of Africa; and his friend Ausonius praises him as a poet second only to Virgil. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v p 303. " See the fair portrait of Theodosius by the younger Victor the strokes are distinct and the colours are mixed. The praise of Pacatus is too vague; and Claudian always seems afraid of exalting the father above the son. ;

THE ROMAN EMIPIRE

9S5

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 an 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 The annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven favourite study. 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 sucThe Moorish guards of the tyrant had been cess of the civil war. 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 vices which he

;

orator Pacatus that, if the elder Brutus could be permitted to revisi» 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 The virtuous mind of Theodosius was his recent love of despotism. “Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 955. Pacatus, from the want of of courage, omits this glorious circumstance. “ Pacat in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 20.

skill

or

THE BECLINE AND FALL OF

006

by pasoften relaxed by indolence,®* and it was sometinies inflamed In the pursuit of an important object his active courage was capable of the most vigorous exertions; but as soon as the desi^ accomplished, or the danger was surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose, and, forgetful that the time of a prince is the property of sion.®*

wm

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 infir-

mity 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 But the painful virtue efforts enhanced the merit of his clemency. 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 a nd pleasures of Antioch; and the tribunal of the magistrate wa s ^siege d by a suppliant crowd, who, in pathetic, but at first in respectful language, solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually incen sed by the pride of thar haughty rulers, who treated their complaints as a criminal resist-

“Zosimus, 1 iv. [c. 50] p. 271, 272. His partial evidence is marked by an candour and truth. He observes these vicissitudes of sloth and ac.

air of tivity,

not as a vice but as a singularity in the character of Theodosius.

“This

choleric temper is aclmowledged and excused by Victor [Epit. c. Sed habes (says Ambrose in decent and manly language to his sovereign) natur®^ impetum, quern si quis lenire velit, cito vertes ad misericordiam si quis_ stimulet, in magis exsuscitas, ut eum revocare vix possis (tom. II. Epist. li. p. 998). Theodosius (Claud, in iv. Cons. Hon. s66 etc.) exhorts his son to moderate his anger. 48].

_

:

,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

987

anc6; their satirical 'wit degenerated into sharp and ai^ry 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 Imperitd 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, notwiti^tanding the diligence of the Imperial posts, the guilty city was severely punished by a long and dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumour agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard with terror that their sovereign, and exasperated by the insult which had been offered to his own 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 s^ition, the general Hellebicus, and Caesarius, 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 denonunation of a village, to the juris**

The

Christians and Pagans agreed in believing that the sedition of Antiod) gigantic woman (says Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 23) paraded the streets with a scourge in her hand. An old man, says Libanius (Orat. xii p. 396), transformed himself into a youth, then a boy, etc. "Zosimus, in his short and disingenuous account ( 1 iv. [c. 41] p. 258, 259), is certainly mistaken in sending Libanius himself to Constantinople. His own orations fix him at Antioch. “Libanius (Orat. i. p. 6, edit. Venet.) declares, that under such a reign the fear of a massacre was groundless and absurd, especially in the emperor’s absence; for his presence, according to the eloquent slave, might have given a sanction to the most bloody acts.

was excited by the daemons.

A

.

.

488

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

diction 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 com was abolished by the severe instructions of Theodosius. His commissioners then proceeded to in-

—

quire 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 Csesarius, encompassed with armed soldiers, was erected in the midst of the Fomm. 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 which the preacher of Antioch, the eloconclude the horrors of a day quent Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the last and

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 Cssarius 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 favourable 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 splendour. Theodosius condescended to praise the senate of Conuniversal

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 expres-

stantinople,

sions of respect

and

gratitude.

A

thousand new statues arose to the

"Laodicea, on the sea-coast, sixty-five miles from Antioch (see Noris, Epoch. Syro-Maced. Dissert, iii. p. 230). The Antiochians were offended that the dependent city of Seleucia should presume to intercede for them. “As the days of the tumult depend on the movable festival of Easter, they can only be determined by the previous determination of the year. The year 387 has been preferred, after a laborious inquiry, by Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. tom. V. p. 741-744) and Montfaucon (Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 105-110). Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the Cynics.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE of Theodosius; the applause of his 'subjects was ratified tqr 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 beauti-

demency

who The

excited the impure desires of one of the charioteers of the and brutal lover was thrown into prison by the Older of Botheric; and he sternly rejected the importunate clamours of the multitude, who, on the day of the public games, lamented the abful boy,

circus.

insolent

sence of their favourite, and considered the skill of a charioteer as an The resentment of the object of more importance than his virtue. people was embittered 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

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 oi a general pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius had despatch^ 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 The people of Thessalonica were artifice of an illegal conspiracy.

,be expiated

“The

sedition of Antioch is represented in a lively and almost dramatic orators who had their respective shares of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat. xiv. xv. [xii. xiii.) p. 380 - 420 , edit. Morel.; Oral i. p. 1-14, Venet. 1754) and the twenty orations of St. John Chrysostom, de Statuis (tom. ii. p. 1-225, edit. Montfaucon). 1 do not pretend to much personal acquaintance with Chrysostom; but Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v.

manner by two

and Hermpt (Vie de St (Thrysostome, tom. him with pious curiosity and diligence. p. 263-283)

i.

p.

137-224) had read

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

treacherously invited, in' the name of their sovereign, to the games 6f 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 sigThe promiscuous nal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. 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 A foreign merchant, who had sacrificed to the manes of Botheric.

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 susp>ense by plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the defenceThe apology of the assassins, that they were obliged to less youths. produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the massacre, whidi 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 The united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. 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 provinces synagogue or to repay the damage and this mod-

either to rebuild the

;

“ The original evidence of Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 998), Augustin _(de Civitat. Dei, v. 26), and Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24), is delivered in vague expressions of horror and pity. It is illustrated by the subsequent and unequal testimonies of Sozomen ( 1 vii. c. 25), Theodoret ( 1 v. c. 17), Theophancs (Chronograph p. 62 [tom. i. p. 113, ed. Bonn. 1 ), Cedrenus (p. 3i7_[tom. i. p. 536, ed. Bonn.]), and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1 xiii. [c. 18I p. 34). Zosimus alone, the partial enemy of Theodosius, most unaccountably passes over in silence the worst of his actions. .

.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

g9i

But it was not con* erate sentence •was confirmed by the emperor. firmed by the archbishop of Milan.*^ He dictated an epistle of cen* sure 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 But as to indulge his grief and to avoid the presence of Theodosius. 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 vigour 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 ”-See the whole transaction in Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xl. xli. p. 946-956), his biographer Paulinus (c. 23). Baylc and Barbeyrac (Morales des Peres, c. xvii. p. 325, etc.) have justly condemned the archbishop. “ His sermon is a strange allegory of Jeremiah's rod, of an almond-tree, of the woman who washed and anointed the feet of Christ. But the peroration is direct and personal. H'^die, Episcope, de me proposuisti. Ambrose modestly confessed it ; but he sternly reprimanded Timesius, general of the horse and foot, who had presumed to say that the mo.iks of Callinicum deserved punishment. “Yet, five years afterwards, when Theodosius was absent from his spiritual guide, he tolerated the Jews, and condemned the destruction of their synagogues. Cod. Theodos. 1 . xvi. tit. viii. leg. 9, with Godefroy’s Commentary, tom. vi. p. 225. “Ambros. tom. ii, Epist. li. p. 997- 1001, His epistle is a miserable rhapsody on a noble subject. Ambrose could act better than he could write. His compositions are destitute of taste or genius; without the spirit of Tertullian, the copious elegance of Lactantius, the lively wit of Jerom, or the grave energy

and

of Augustin.

THE I>ECLIN£ AND FALL OF

gp,

Ijy own an innocent people. The emperor was deeply affect^ had behe after and father; reproaches and by those of his spiritual wailed 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 honourable 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 “'According to the discipline of St. Basil (Canon Ivi.), the voluntary homiwas four years a mourner; five an hearer; scirn in a prostrate state; and four in a standing posture. I have the original (Beveridge, Pandect, tom. ii. P. 47-151) and a translation (Chardon, Hist, des Sacremens, tom iv. p. 219277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil. “The penance of Theodosius is authenticated by Ambrose (tom. ii. dc Obit. Theodos. c. 34, p. 1207), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26), and Paulinus (in

cide

Vit. Ambros. c. 24). Socrates is ignorant; Sozomen ( 1 vii. c. 25) concise; and the copious narrative of Theodoret ( 1 v. c. 18) must be used with pre.

.

caution.

” Codex Theodos. 1 ix. tit. xl. leg. 13. The date and circumstances of this law are perplexed with difficulties; but I feel myself inclined to favour the honest efforts of Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 721) and Pagi (Critica, .

tom.

i.

p.

578).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

993

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 hand 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. 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 honourable 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

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 behaviour on this memorable occaHe sion has extorted the applause of his most inveterate enemies. 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 valour had recovered from the assassin of GraSatisfied with the glory which he had acquired by revenging tian.^"^ 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 of Valentinian

prince qui aime la religion, et qui la craint, cst un lion qui cede a. la pprit des Loix, 1 xxiv. c. 2. le flatte, ou a la voix qui I’appaise. Tovro ircpt roiti eiepyiras KaS^Kor lSo(fytlyai, is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself ( 1 iv. [c. 48] p. 267). Augustin says, with some happiness . . misericordissima veneratione restituit. of expression, Valentinianum

Un

main qui

.

.

THE DECLINE AND PALL OP

994

Valentinian; and posterity, which admires the pure and ^gular glory of his elevation, must applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use ctf 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 favourable 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 would 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 On the death of his master he joined the the service of Gratian. standard of Theodosius, contributed, by his valour and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant, and was appointed, after the His real merit and victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul.

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 honours 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 condiThe indignation which he expressed, though it tion of a captive.^"® might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of youth, ma y be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a prince who felt that he Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 14. His chronology is very irregular. '“See Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, etc., p. 1178, c. 36, etc., When the young emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; p. 1184). he refused to see an handsome actress, etc. Since he ordered his wild beasts to be killed, it is ungenerous in Philostorgius (1. xi. c. i) to reproach him with the love of that amusement. ’“Zosimus ( IV. [c. S3j p. 275) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (1. v. c. 25) and Orosius (1. vii. c. 35). '“Gregory of Tours ( 1 ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more valuable than himself. .

1.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

995

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 bis 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 Vienne, in Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the But the hopes of relief were distant and doubtfid; hostile faction. and, as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate conHe received Arbogastes on the throne, test with his powerful general. 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 contempThe indignant monar^ tuously threw the paper on the ground. 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 pro“

nounced a funeral oration to commemorate his virtue 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 sislers 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 breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the unknown master whom the choice of a Frank might place on But some remains of pride and prejudice still the Imperial throne. opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself, and the judicious barba“‘Godefroy (Dissertat. ad Philostorg. p. 429-434) has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of Valentinian II. The variations and the ignorance of contemporary writers prove that it was secret. De Obitu Valentinian. tom. 11. p. 1173-1196. He is forced to speak a discreet and obscure language yet he is much bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would have dared to be. Chardon (Hist, des Sacremens, ‘“See c. SI, p 1188; c. 75, P- itpStom. 1. p. 86), who owns that St Ambrose most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of baptism, labours to reconcile the contradiction. .

THE decline AND FALL OF

•9$

to reign under the name of sonm debestowed the purple on the rhetorician £ugedomestic nius,’®® whom he had already raised from the place of his course both of In the offices. of the master rank of secretary to the 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 favourable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with afiected 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 labours and the fruit of his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and once beloved wife 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 bad silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of mirs^es and the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one of the favourite 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 neighbourhood of that city, and on the summit

nans thought

it

pendent Roman.

more advisable

He

®“Quein sibi Germanus famulutn delegerat exul, the contemptuous expression of Claudian (iv. Cons. Hon. 74). Eugenius professed Christianity; but his .secret attachment to Paganism (Sozomen, 1 . vii. c. 22; Philostorg. 1 xi. c. 2) is probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus (L iv. [c. 54] p. 276, 277). '“Zosimus ( 1 iv. [c. 55] p. 278) mentions this embassy; but he is diverted by another story from relating the event. Sui'erdpafei’ 4 tovtov yaiurii FuXXa rd /Sao’fXna, rhv dScX0i» iXo^vpopdi^. Zosim. 1 iv. [c. 55] p. 277. He afterwards says ([c. 57] p. 280) that Galla died in childbed [a.d. 394. S.] ; and intimates that the affliction of her husband was extreme but short. '“Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of Said, about the size of , St. Denys, which drives a profitable trade with the kingdom of Sennaar, and has a very convenient fountain, “cujus potu signa virginitatis eripiuntur.” See D’Anville, Description de I’Egypte, p. 181. Abulfeda, Descript. Egypt, p. 14; and the curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of his editor Michaelis. is

.

.

.

—

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

9P7

John^“ had constructed vnth 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 The eunuch of Theodosius apevery part of the Christian world. proached the window with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favourable 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 of a lofty mountain, the holy

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 troop>s of Theodosius were permitted to occupy, without resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as is described by his two friends, Ruiinus and Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738), in Kosweyde’s great Collection of the Vitae Patrum. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718,

“'The Life of John of Lycopolis

(

1.

ii.

c.

i.

p.

449

)

720) has settled the chronology.

Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. 1 i. 312) mentions the eunuch’s journey; but he most contemptuously derives the Egyptian dreams and the oracles of the Nile. “‘Zosimus, 1 iv. [c. 57] p. 280; Socrates, 1 . vii. 10. .\laric himself (de Bell, (jetico, 524) dwells with more complacency on his early exploits against the .

.

.

Romans. Tot Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi. . Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of fljdng emperors. “•Claudian (in iv. (^ns. Honor. 77, etc.) contrasts the military plans of' .

the

.

two usurpers: Novitas audere priori . . Suadebat; cautumque dabant e.xcmpla sequentem. His nova moliri prseceps: his quterere tuta Providus. Hie fusis, collectis viribus ille; Hie vagus excurrens; hie intra claustra reductus; Dissimiles, sed morte pares . . . .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

998

far as the foot of the Julian Alps; and even the passes of the moim" were negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader. He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishfaiTig

ment, the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans that covered with arms and tents the open coimtry 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 Hadriatic, 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 ValenWithout weighing the natural and artificial obstacles that optinian. posed his efforts, the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications of his rivals, assigned the post of honourable 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

except that strong assurance which, under the most deshopes, perate 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

who expressed their inclination to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honourable 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 reinforcement, and they those troops,

" The Frigidus, a now

small though memorable stream in the country of Goretz,

above Aquileia, some miles from the Hadriatic. See D’Anville’s ancient and modern maps, and the Italia Antiqua of Cluverius (tom. i. p. i88). Claudian’s wit is intolerable; the snow was dyed red; the cold river smoked ; and the channel must have been choked with carcasses if the current had not been swelled with blood. '“Thepdoret affirms that St. John and St. Philip appeared to the waking or sleeping emperor, on horseback, etc. This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which afterwards became so popular in ^ain and in the Crusades. called the Vipao, falls into the Sontius, or Lisonzo,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE again marched with confidence to surprise the camp of a tyrant whose I^incipal 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 ffie example of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the empire was determined in a narrow comer of Italy; and the legitimate 'luccessor of the house of Valentinian embraced the archbi^op 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 successWith a manly freedom, which might have been fatal ful usurpation. to any other subject, the ardibishop 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 archbi^op of Milan.^^^

"Te

propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis Obruit adversas acies; revolutague tela

Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris

O

^olus armatas hiemes

;

Et conjurati veniunt ad

militat £ther, classica venti.

tnii

These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons Honor. 93, etc., A.D. 396) are alleged by his contemporaries, Augustin and Orosius, who suppress the Pagan deity of jEolus, and add some circumstances from the information of eyewitnesses. Within four months after the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to the miraculous victories of Moses and Joshua. The events of this civil war are gatliered from Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist Ixii. p. 1022), Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 26-34), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei,

“

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1000

as wll as tte authority, of After the defeat of Eugenios, the merit, the inhabitants of tbe Theodosius was cheerfuUy acknowledged by all encouraged the conduct p^t his of experience Pnman world. The age of the emthe and reign; future his of expectations pleasing most the prospect extend to peror, which did not exceed fifty years, seemed after his victory, months four death, only His felicity. public of the 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 nouri^ed the principles of The strength of Theodosius was unable to support the disease.^** 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 imfortimate reigns of Arcadius and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss. V. 26),

Orosius

Zosimus iv.

(1

iv.

Cons. Hon.

35), Sozomen ( 1 . vii. c. 24), Theodoret ( 1 . v. c. 24), 58], p. 281, 282), Claudian (in iii. Cons. Hon. 63-105; in ;ra-ii7), and the Chronicles published by Scaliger. ( 1 . vii. c.

[c.

"*

This disease, ascribed by Socrates ( 1. v. c. 26) to the fatigues of war, is represented by Philostorgius ( 1 . xi. c. 2) as the effect of sloth and intemperance; for which Photius calls him an impudent liar (Godefroy, Dissert, p. 438). “* Zosimus supposes that the boy Honorius accompanied his father ( 1 fv. tc. 58] p. 280), Yet the quanto flagrabant pectora voto is all that flattery would allow to_ a contemporary poet, who clearly describes the emperor’s refusal, and the journey of Honorius, after the victory (Claudian in iii. (jons. 78-125). .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

xoox

In the faithful pictwe of the virtues of Theodosius, his imperfechave not been dissembled; the act of cruelty, and the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the greatest of the tions

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; 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 and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action whidi impel, in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions clear

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, per-

haps, or of Augustus, the alteration cannot be ascribed to any beneficial improvements which had gradually increased the stock of national long period of calamity or decay must have checked ihe riches.

A

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 And the mad prodigality which prevails in of the rapacious Goth. 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 armour 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 armour, which ***

Zosimus.

1.

iv.

[c.

33] P- ^44-

THE DECLINE AND FALL OP

^ ^e

permissron of successively obtained they seldom wore; and they heavy helmets, their laying aside both their cuirasses and fonmdable which ^eated his blovs: the htige idol was overthrown and broken jn and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged throu^ the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcase was burnt in the amjdiitheatre, 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 familiarising themselves to the senses of mankind; but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to whidh 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 Fagans 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 hy 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 Jewellknown and fertilising 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 exposed 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; ^eep 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 honour of the gods. But it was alleged that, as no part of the anin^ 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.”” pieces;

“ The History of the Reformation affords frequent examples of the sudden change from superstition to contempt. "Sozomen, 1 vii. c. 20. I have supplied the measure. The same standard of the inundation, and consequently of the cubit, has uniformly subsisted since the time of Herodotus. See Freret, in the Mem. de I’Academie des .

Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344-353. The Egyptian cubit is aboui

Greaves's Miscellaneous Works, vol.

i.

p.

twenty-two inches of the English measure. " Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest age such feasts had enlivened the *33.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

jumI

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 comprehendve

“ 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, ^all presume in any city or in any place to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a terms.

The act of sacrificing and the practice of divination 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 Fagan superstition which might seem less bloody and atrocious are abolished as highly injurious to the truth and honour 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 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 gufltless victim.”

by

Wse

world.'" In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian 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 country; and those of Bacchus (Georpc. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See Godefroy, ad loc., Liban., and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 284 [ed. Lugd. 1665].

“Honorms

tolerated these rustic festivals (a.d. 3P9).

“Absque

ullo sacri-

atquc ulla superstitione damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found necessary to reiterate and enforce the same proviso (Codex Theodos. 1. xvi.

ficio, it

tit.

X. leg. 17, 19)

“ Cod. Theodos.

1.

xvi.

vol. iv. p. 134) censures, this intolerant law.

tit.

x. leg. 12.

Jortin

(Remarks on

Eccles. History,

with becoming asperity, the style and sentiment of

** Such a charge should not be lightly made ; but it may surely be justified by the authority of St. Augustin, who thus addresses the Donatists; “Quis nostrum, quis vestrum non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus Et certe longe ibi pcena severior constituta est; illius sacrificia Paganorum?

quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est.” Epist. xciii. No 10 [tom. ii. p. 308, ed. Bened. 1797], quoted by Lc Clerc (Bibliothique Choisie, tom. viiL vicP- ^7)* who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of the torious Christians.

THE DECLINE. AND FALL OF

ioi8

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, whi(± still adhered to their worship, might have been permitted to enjoy in peace and obscurity the religious customs 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 favourite 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 conThe disorderly opposition ®“ test, to the fortune of their adversaries. of die 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, "Orosius, 1 vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat. in Psalm cxl. apud Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 458) insults their cowardice. “Quis eorum comprehensus est in sacriiicio (cum his legibus ista prohiberentur) et non negavit ? ” “ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure, the occasional conformity, and as it were theatrical play, of these hypocrites. ** Libanius concludes his apology (p. by declaring to the emperor that, unless he expressly warrants the destruction of the temples, Mi robs tup iypup ttarbrat, sat aAroir, koX rif pb/uf pmi&iivapTat, the proprietors will defend them.

selves

and the laws.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

lott)

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 £ugenius; and they were left exposed to the resentment of the conqueror, who laboured to deserve the favour 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 dast 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 honours 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,

“Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. Theodoret, 1 v. c. 24.

c.

26.

Augustin de

Civitat. Dei,

1.

v. c. 26.

.

“Libanius suggest, the form of a persecuting edict which Theodosius might enact (pro Temphs, p. 31) a rash joke and a dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his advice. “ Denitjuc pro mentis terrestribus a:qua rependens Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honorcs, Dux bonus, et certare sinit cum laude suorum; Ncc pago implicitos per debita culmina mundi Ire viros prohibet. Ipse magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal :

Contulit.

Prudent, in

Symmach.

i.

617, etc.

“Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that Theodosius should thus distinguish a man who even in his presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence seems to be no more than a figure of rhetoric. “ Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and indecent bigotry, the Christian princes, and even the father of his sovereign. His work must have been privately circulated, since it escaped the invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius (L iii. c. 40-41), who lived towards the end of the sixth century.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1030

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 of 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

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 The ignorant artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books.** 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 athabit.

tracted within the pale of the catholic church: and so rapid, yet so was the fall of Paganism, that only twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible

gentle,

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

“Yet the Pagans of Africa complained that the times would not allow them to answer with freedom the Ci^ of God ; nor does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge.

“The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved the Mahometan religion above a century, under- the tyranny of the Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the_ peculiar use of the Arabic tongue. See the curious and honest story of their expulsion in Geddes (Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 1-198). " Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos esse credamus, etc. Cod. Theodos. 1 xvi. tit. x. leg. 22, a.d. 423. The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied that his judgment had been somewhat premature. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

KMU

earth produces in our days; such are the martyrs, the supreme arl»tra> tors 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 honours 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 honoured 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 ;

" See Eunapius, he rd

in the Life of the sophist .Sdesius ; in that of Eustathius nvBwSes, ical deiSh, vxoroi rvpayiriirn foretells the ruin of Paganism, koI

n

KaWurra. "Caius (apud Euseb. Hist. Eiccles. I. it. c. 25), a Roman presbyter, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus (a.d. 202-219), is an early witness of this iirl yTjs

superstitious practice.

” Chrysostom. Quod Christus sit Deus. Tom. i. nov. edit. No. 9. I am indebted for this quotation to Benedict the XIVth’s pastoral letter on the Jubilee of the year 1750. See the curious and entertaining letters of M. Chais, tom.

iii.

" Male Petri and

facit

ergo

Romanus

episcopus ?

qui,

super mortiiorum hominum,

offert Domino sacriticia, nos, ossa veneranda . . et tumulos eorum, Christi arbitrator altaria. Jerom. tom. ii. advers. Vigilant. [Tom. ii. p. 395 ed. Vallars.] P. 153 "Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122 [contra Vigilant, c. 5, tom. ii. p. 391, ed. Vallars.]) bears witness to these translations, which are neglected by the ecclesiastical historians. The passion of St. Andrew at Patrse is described in an epistle from the clergy of Achaia, which Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.o. 60, No. 34) wishes to believe, and Tillemont is forced to reject. St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual founder of Constantinople (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 317-323. -

588-594).

Pauli,

secundum .

.

1023

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

were filled with an uninterrupted proand 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 Wngs.’“ The example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the faith and discipline of the catholic world. The honours 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 to the gates of Constantinople,

cession;

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 valstimulated the clergy to multiply uable than gold or precious stones the treasures of the church. Without much regard for truth or probaThe bility, they invented names for skeletons, and actions for names. 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 aafty 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 Theo-

” Jerom (tom.

122 fl. c. ed. Vallars.]) pompously describes the translais noticed in all the chronicles of the times. "The Presbyter Vigilantius, the protcstant of his age, firmly, though ineffectually, withstood the superstition of monks, relics, saints, fasts, etc., for which Jerom compares him to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, etc., and considers him only as the organ of the Diemon (tom. ii. p. 120-126 [tom. ii. Whoever will peruse the controversy of St. Jerom p. 387-402, ed. Vallars.]. and Vigilantius, and St. Augustin’s account of the miracles of St. Stephen, may speedily gain some idea of the spirit of the Fathers. ’“M. de Beausobre (Hist, du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious observation of the clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of St. Polycarp the martyr. "Martin of Tours (see his Life, c. 8, by Sulpicius Severus) extorted this confession from the mouth of the dead man. The error is allowed to be natural; the di.scovery is supposed to be miraculous. Which of the two was likely to happen most frequently? tion of Samuel,

ii.

p.

which

THe ROMAN EMPIRE

x«(»

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 reflated dosius, Lucian/^

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 odour 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 honour on Mount Sion; and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blo^,’* or the scrapings of a hone, 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 Augustin solemnly declares that he has selected those Christianity. 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 favourably " Lucian composed in Greek his original narrative, which has been transby Avitus, and published by Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 415, No. 7-16).

lated

Benedictine editors of St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work Civitate Dei) two several copies, with many various re.udings; It is the character of falsehood to he loose and inconsistent. The most incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and softened by Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom.

The

De ii.

p. 9, etc.).

"A

phial of St. Stephen’s blood was annually liquefied at Naples till he was superseded by St. Januarius (Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal, p. sag). " Augustin composed the two-and-twcnty books de Civitate Dei in the space

(Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, of thirteen years, a.d. 413-426. His learning is too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often etc.) his own ; but the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design, vigorously, and not unddlfully, executed.

the decline and fall of

1034

And yet the bishop treated than the other cities of the province. enumerates above seventy miracles, of which three were r^urrectioiu 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 diocese, 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 mart3n'S were the perpetual theatre, revealed to the pious believer the actual

state

and constitution of the

tions appeared to be founded

and his religious speculaon the firm basis of fact and experience.

invisible world;

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 favourite objects of their " See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, 1 xxii. c. 22, and the Appendix, which contwo books of St. Stephen’s miracles, by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis. Fre.

tains

culphus (apud T’asnage, Hist, des Juifs, tom. viii. p. 240) has preserved a Gallic or Spanish proverb, “Whoever pretends to have read all the miracles of St. Stephen, he lies.” Burnet (de Statu Mortuorum, p. 56-84) collects the opinions of the Fathers, as .far as they assert the sleep or repose of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterwards exposes (p. 91, etc.) the inconveniences which must arise if they possessed a more active and sensible existence. "Vigilantius placed the souls of the prophets and mart3TS, either in the bosom of Abraham (in loco refrigerii), or else under the altar of God. Nec posse [de] suis tumulis et ubi voluerint adesse praesentes. But Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122 [tom. ii. p. 392, cd. Vallars.]) sternly refutes this blasphemy. Tu Deo leges pones? Tu apostolis vincula injicies, ut usque ad diem judicii teneantur custodia, nec sint cum Domino suo ; de quibus scriptum est, Sequuntur Agnum quocunque vadit. Si Agnus ubique, ergo, et hi, qui cum Agno sunt, ubique esse credendi sunt. Et cum diabolus et dsemones toto vagentur in orbe, etc.

.

THE ROHAN EMPIRE

H«|

most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship mi(|^t 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 possesaon 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 favour 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 gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted: and the MONARCHY of hcaven, 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 its

"Fleury, Discours sur I’Hist. Exclesiastique, iii. p. 8o. "At Minorca, the relics of St. Stephen converted in eight days 540 Jews; with the help, indeed, of some wholesome severities, such as burning the synagogue, driving the obstinate infidels to starve among the rocks, etc. See the original letter of Severus bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin, de Civ. Dei), and the judicious remarks of Basnage (tom. viii. p. 245-251). “Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434) observes, like a philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of polytheism and theism. " D’Aubigne (see his own Memoires, p. 156-160) frankly offered, with the consent of the Huguenot ministers, to allow the first 400 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du Perron haggled for forty years more, which were indiscreetly given. Yet neither party would have found their account in this foolish bargain.

*'The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, is so extremely pure and spiritual, that their declamations against the Pagan sometimes glance against the Jewish ceremonies.

etc.,

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1026

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 dpen, they must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noon-day, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their light. 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 Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous their children. journey, they requested that the holy mart)n'S 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 grateftil thanksgiving, their obligations to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with symbols of the favours 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 Con“Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of idolatry. Vertitis idola quos votis similibus colitis. M. de Beausobre (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 629-700), a protestant, but a philosopher, has represented, with candour and learning, the introduction of Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth centuries. "The resemblance of superstition, which could not be imitated, might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has seized this idea, which he distorts by rendering it too general and absolute (Divine Legation, vol. iv.

in martyres

p. 126, etc.).

.

.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

tart

stantine 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

vanqui^ed

rivals.*"

CHAPTER XXIX

——

Final Division of the Roman Empire between the Sons of Theodositu Reign of Arcadius and Honorius Administration of Rufinus and Stilicho Re~ volt 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 throu^out 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 then was 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 .Ethiopia. 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 prafecture 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 valour of Theodosius, were for ever 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 “The letter jii.

p.

Paganism is the subject of Dr. Middleton’s agreeable Warburton's animadversions obliged him to connect (voL 120-132) the history of the two religions, and to prove the antiquity of imitation of

from Rome

the Christian copy.

ergit amores. 'Vet I should prefer the Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and deep bed which runs through Elis and falls into the sea below Cyllene. It had been joined with the Alpheus to cleanse the Augean stable. (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 760.

Chandler’s Travels,

p. 286,)

"Strabo, 1 viii. p. S17 [p. 335, ed. Casaub.]. Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 3. Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They measured from different points the distance between the two lands. "Synesius passed three years (a.d. 357-400) at Constantinople as deputy from Cyrene to the emperor Arcadius. He presented him with a crown of gold, and pronounced before him the instructive oration de Regno (p. 1-32, edit. Petav. Paris, 1612). The philosopher was made bishop of Ptolemais, A.D. 410, and died about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 400, .

554,683-685.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1053

and deidores the fatal abuse udiich 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 empire; their ferocious youth, who disdained

illustrious dignities of the

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 Gotbs 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 Lacedaemonians 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 visionaiy, 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

“ Synesius de Regno,

p. 21-26.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1054

mercenaries. The use to which Alaric applied his new command distinguishes the hrm and judicious character of his policy. He issued bis 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 destruction and the barbarians removed the only defect which had sometimes disappointed the efforts of their courage.^® The birth of

own

;

and the confidence in his future body of the nation under his victorious standards; 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 dcminicms of the West. The provinces of Europe which belonged to Alaric, the glory of his past exploits,

designs, insensibly united the

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

hundred triumphs.*®

of three

“ Ditatur

:

qui foedera rumpit qui scrvat, eget vastator Achiv®

Gentis, et

:

Epirum nuper populatus

inultatn

Prxsidet Illyrico jam, quos obsedit, amicos Ingreditur muros; illis responsa datums Quorum conjugibus potitur, natosquc peremit. Claudlan in Eutrop. 1 il. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy (de Bell. Getic. 533-543) in tile use which he had made of this Illyrian jurisdiction. "Jornandcs, c. 29, p. 651 [ed. Grot. 1655; p. 81, ed. Lugd. B. 1597]. The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit. Cum suis dcliberans suasit suo labore quscrerc regna, quam alienis per otium subjaccre. [Some annotators think that it was more likely that Alaric was proclaimed king in 395 a.d. after the death of Theodosius. O. S.] “ Discors odiisque anccps civilibus orbis Non sua vis tutata diu, dum fcxdcra fallax Ludit, et altern® perjuria venditat anise. Claudian de Bell. Get. 565. “ Alpibus Itali® ruptis penetrabis ad I ’rbem. This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least by Claudian (de Bell. Gctico, 547), .seven years before the event. But as it was not accomplished within the term which has been rashly fixed, the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning. [Claiulian states that a voice had foretold to Alaric that he would plant his standard on the walls of Rome. Cf. Claudian, De Bello Grfico, 546-7. Rurnpe omiies, .Clarice mores: hoc impiger anno Alpibus Itali® ruptis penetrabis ad urbem. In Koch’s edition of Claudian the fact is indicated that the first and last letters of the two lines spell ROMA.— O. S.] :

.

—

^

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1055

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 entrenchments; 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 reinforced 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 an 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 "Our best materials are 970 \erses of Claudian, in the poem on the Getic war, and the beginning of tliat which celebrates the sixth consulship of llonorius. Zosimus is totally silent; and we are reduced to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as we can pick from Orosius and the Chronicles. "Notwithstanding the gross errors of Jornandes, who confounds the Italian wars of Alaric (c. 29), his date of the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelian (a.I). 400) is firm and respectable. It is certain from Claudian (Tillemont, Hist, dcs Emp. tom. v. p. 804), that the battle of Pollentia was fought A.D. 403 ; but we cannot easily fill the intervaL [.\s regards Alaric in Italy, the events which Gibbon supposes to have taken place in 400-402 are uncertain. know that Alaric crossed the Alps early in the winter of 401 A.n., probably October (Claudian vi. Cons. Honor. 440, Ficll Get. 471), entered Italy in November of that same year, and fought the battle of Pollentia on Easter Day 402. Alaric was in Istria late in 402 or early in 403, and the battle of Verona was fought in the summer (probably June) of that year, 403. Bury thinks that after Pollentia there must have been another engagement at Asta. The 17th Appendix to Prof. Bury’s third volume is worthy of the most careful study by all interested in this question. There is, however, no authority for Gibbon’s statement that Honorius on his way to Arles took refuge in Asta. It is (says Dr. W. Smith) simply an hypothesis to account for the presence of Alaric in Liguria, and rests only on Claudian’s mention of Asta in conjunction with Pollentia. O. S.j "Tantum Romanse urbis judicium fugis, ut magis obsidionem barbaricam, quam pacalcE urbis judicium velis sustinerc. Jerom, tom. ii. p. 239. Kufinus understood his own danger; the peaceful city was inflamed by the beldam Marcella and the rest of Jerom’s faction. "Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who was persecuted and insulted by the furious Jerom (Jortin’s Remarks, vol. iv. p. 104, etc.). See the original edict of banishment in the Theodosian Code. 1 xvi. tit. v. leg. 53. "This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui surburbium nusquam egressus est)

We

—

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1056

and innocent life in the neighbourhood of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of bishops; his pleasures, 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 his simple

where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian describes with so much truth and feeling) was His trees, his old still exposed to the undistinguishing rage of war. 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.” The emperor Honorius was distinguished, above his subjects, by the pre-eminence 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. is one of the earliest and most pleasing compositions of Claudian. Cowley’s imitation (Hurd's edition, vol. ii. p. 241) has some natural and happy strokes: but it is much inferior to the original portrait, which is evidently drawn from the life. ‘'Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum .^iquxvumque videt consenuisse nemus.

A neighbouring wood bom with himself he sees. And loves his old contemporary trees. In this passage Cowley is perhaps superior to his original; and the English poet, who was a good botanist, has concealed the oaks under a more general expression.

" Claudian de

Bell. Get. 199-266. He may seem prolix : but fear and superoccupied as large a space in the minds of the Italians. "From the passages of Paulinus which Baronius has produced (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 403, No. 51) it is manifest that the general alarm had pervaded all Italy, as far as Nola in Campania, where that famous penitent had fixed his abode.

stition

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1057

had courage and authority to resist this 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 Rhstian 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 d'sturbed the tranquillity of Rhxtia.** 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 favour. The cohorts, who were delivered from the neighbouring 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 vigour 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. Stilicho alone**

;

;

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, ** Solus erat Stilicho, etc., is the exclusive commendation which Claudian bestows (de Bell. Get. 267), without condescending to except the emperor. How insignificant must Honorius have appeared in his own court I “ The face of the country and the hardiness of Stilicho are finely described (de Bell. Get. 340-363). “Venit et extremis legio pnetenta Britannis Quse Scoto dat frena truci.

De

Bell. Get. 416.

Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan, must have required^a longer space of time than Claudian seems willing to allow for the duration of the Gothic war.

ios8

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

the Oglio, and the Addua, which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous torrents.^’'^ fiut 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 was 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 rains, or

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 bis 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 fortification of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piemont, situate on the banks of the TanaThe siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize, rus.^“ and seemed incapable of a long resistance, was instantly formed, and indefatigably pressed, by the king of the Goths; and the bold declaration, whidh 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 Goffiic camp under the walls of Asta, revived the hopes "Every

traveller must recollect the face of Lombardy (see Fontenelle, tom. 279), which is often tormented by the capricious and irregular abundance of waters. The Austrians before Genoa were encamped in the dry bed of “ Ne sarebbe” (says Muratori) “mai passato per mente a the Polccyera. que’ buoni Alemanni, che quel picciolo torrente potesse, per cosi dire, in un instantc cangiarsi in un terribil gigante." (Annal. d’ltalia, tom. xvi. p. 443, Milan, 1753, 8vo. edit.) " Ciaudian does not clearly answer our question, Where was Honorius himself ?_ Yet the flight is marked by the pursuit; and my idea of the Gothic war is justified by the Italian critics, Sigonius (tom. i. p. ii. p. 369. de Imp. Occident. 1 . x.) and Muratori (Annali dTtalia, tom. iv. p. 45). "One of the roads may be traced in the Itineraries (p. 288, 294, with Wesseling’s Notes). Asta lay some miles on the right hand. "Asta, or Asti, a Roman colony, is now the capital of a pleasant county, which, in the sixteenth century, devolved to the dukes of Savoy (Leandro Alberti, Descrizzione dTtalia. p. 382). “Ncc me timor impulit ullus. He might hold this proud language the next year at Rome, five hundred miles from the scene of danger (vi. Cons. V. p.

Hon. 449)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

I 05 »

and vindicated the honour of Rome. Instead of grasping the fruit of his victory, the barbarian vras gradually invested, on every side, by the troops of the West, who successively issued throu^ 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. military council was assembled of the long-haired chiefs of the Gothic nation; of aged war-

A

whose bodies were wrapped in furs, and whose stern countenances were marked with honourable 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 In this important debate, AJaric displayed the spirit of the r-^treat. conqueror of Rome; and after he had reminded his countrymen of their achievements and of their designs, he concluded bis 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 neighbourhood 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, soon as they bad recovered from riors,

their astonishment, the pious confidence that the

God

of the Christians

added new strength to their native valour. 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

would

assert their cause

**Hanc ego Victus,

vel victor regno, vel

morte tenebo

humum.

The

speeches (de Bell. Get. 479-549) of the Gothic Nestor and Achilles are characteristic, adapted to the circumstances, and possibly not less genuine than those of Livy. “Orosius (1. vii. c. 37) is shocked at the impiety of the Romans, who attacked on Easter Sunday such pious Christians. Yet, at the same time, public prayers were offered at the shrine of St. Thomas of Edessa for the See Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. destruction of the Arian robber. p. jag), who quotes a homily which has been erroneously ascribed to St. strong,

Chrysostom. ** The vestiges of Pollentia are twenty-five miles to the south-east of Turin. Urbs, in the same neighbourhood, was a royal chase of the kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which excused the prediction, “penetrabis ad urbem.” (Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 83-83.)

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

kote

with which he fought and fell in the service of the republic; and the famo 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 entrenchments of their camp were forced, and the scene of rapine and slaughter made some atonement for the calamiThe ties which they had inflicted on the subjects of the empire.*' magnifi cent 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

* Oroiius wishes, in doubtful words, to insinuate the defeat of the Romans. “ Pugnantes vicimus, victores victi sumus.” Prosper (in Chron.) makes it an equal and bloody battle but the Gothic writers, Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 30), claim a decisive victory. ;

" Demens Ausonidum gemmata monilia matrum, Romanasque alta famulas cervice petebat.

De

Bell. Get. 627.

[From these lines of Claudian by no possible stretch of ingenuity can be wrung any authority whereon to base the statement that Alaric’s wife fell a

—

captive into the victor’s hands. O. S.] " Claudian (de Bell. Get. 580-647) and Prudentius (in Symmach. 1 ii. 694They 719) celebrate, without ambiguity, the Roman victory of Pollentia. are poetical and party writers ; yet some credit is due to the most suspicious witnesses who are checked by the recent notoriety of facts. " Qaudian's peroration is strong and elegant ; but the identity of the Cimbric and Gothic fields must be understood (like Virgil’s Philippi, Georgric Vercellse and Pollentia are i. 490) according to the loose geography of a poet. sixty miles from each other; and the latitude is still greater if the Cimbri were defeated in the wide and barren plain of Verona (Maffei, Verona II.

lustrata, p.

i.

p.

54-62).

" Claudian and Prudentius must be

and extort the

strictly

historic sense of those poets.

examined, to reduce the figures

s

THE HOMAN EMPIRE

xa^

and partial muse bestows more genuine on the character of the Gothic king. His name is, indeed, branded with the reproachful epithets of pirate and robber, to which

his patron; but his reluctant

praise

the conquerors of every age are so justly entitled; but the poet of acknowledge that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind which rises superior to every misfortude, and After the total defeat of his derives new resources from adversity. 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 appraised of the designs that were formed in the camp and council of Alaric. The king of the Goths, ambitious to signalise his retreat by some splendid achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city of Verona, which commands the principal passage of the Rhaetian 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, Stilicho is compelled to

already possessed by the Imperial troops; where he was exposed, almost at the same instant, to a generd attack in the front, on his

" Et gravant en De mes etats

airain ses f reles avantages

conquis enchainer les images.

practice of exposing in triumph the images of kings and provinces was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithndates himself was twelve feet hi(d>, of massy gold (Freinshem. Supplement. Livian. ciii. 47).

The

THE DECLINE AND TALL OF

to63

and in the rear. In this bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of Verona, the loss of Uie Goths was not less heavy than that which they had sustaiiied in the defeat of Pollentia; and flanks,

their valiant king,

who escaped by

the swiftness of his horse,

must

have been dain 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 But superior numbers of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. 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 either

to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often dismissed the implacable enemy of the repubThe first moment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and lic. 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 laboured 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 era 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 an hundred years, had only thrice been honoured 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

“ The Getic war and the sixth consulship of Honorius obscurely connect the events of Alaric’s retreat and losses. “Taceo de Alarico . saepe victo, sxpe concluso, semperque dimisso. Orosius, 1 vii. c. 37, p. 567. Claudian (vi. Cons. Hon. 320) drops the curtain with a fine image. ’’The remainder of Claudian's poem on the sixth consulship of Honorius describes the journey, the triumph, and the games (330-660). See the inscription in Mascou’s History of the Ancient Germans, viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet: Getarum nationem in omne, *vum .

.

domitam,

etc.

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1063

months in the capital, and every part of his behaviour 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 several

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 amphitheatre of Rome. The first Christian emperor may claim the honour 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 civilised 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 grateAmidst the general joy of the ful spectacle of blood and cruelty. 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, an 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 ‘°On the curious though horrid subject of the gladiators, consult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius, who, as an antiquarian, is inclined to excuse the practice of antiquity (tom. iii. p. 483-545). “ Cod. Theodos. 1. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom. v. p. 396) for the history of gladiators. "See the peroration of Prudentius (in Sjnnmach 1. ii. 1121-1131), who had doubtless read the eloquent invective of Lactantius (Divin. Institut 1. The Christian apologists have not spared these bloody games, which vi. c. 20). were introduced in the religious festivals of Paganism. “Theodoret, 1. v. c. 26. I wish to believe the story of St. Telemachus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no altar has been erected, to the only monk who died a martyr in the cause of humanity.

the decline and fall of

t«tf4

memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of mart3mlom; and they submitted, wi^out a murmur, to the laws of Honorius, which

human

abolished for ever the citizens,

who adhered

to the

haps insinuate that the

last

sacrifices of the amphitheatre.

manners of

The

might perwere preserved

their ancestors,

remains of a martial

spirit

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 valour 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 Hadriatic, about ten or twelve miles from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the Thessalians had founded which they afterwards resigned to the ancient colony of Ravenna, 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 harbour for the reception of two hundred and fifty ships This naval establishment, which included the arsends and of war. 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 harbour; 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 foun;

piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial causeway

dation of wooden miles,

"Cnidele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum nonnullis videri solet; hand scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit. Cicero Tusculan. ii. 17. He faintly censures the abuse, and warmly defends the use, of these sports; oculis nulla poterat esse fortior contra dolorem et mortem disciplina. Seneca (Epist. v. i.) shows the feelings of a man. "This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo ( 1 v. p. 327 [p. 213, ed. Casauh.]), Pliny (iii. 20), Stephen of Byzantium (sub voce 'Pd/Sej'ro, p. 651, edit. Berkel.), Claudian (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, etc)., Sidonius Apollinaris et

.

(l_i. Epist. S, 8), Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 29), Procopius i. i. _c. p. 309, edit. Louvre [tom. ii. p. 8, ed. Bonn]), and

1.

Antiq. tom. i. p. 301-307). topographical map.

Yet 1

still

(de Bell. Gothic. Cluverius (Ital. want a local antiquarian, and a good

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ipft$

which connected Ravenna with the continent might be easily guardisd or destroyed on the approach of an 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 neighbourhood of Alexandria, as uncommonly pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, 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 The gradual retreat of the sea has left the modern city T-avenna. at the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic, and as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era 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

This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour; 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 eighth 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 While Italy rejoiced in her deliverance precautions without effect. 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 learned industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman empire. large ships of the enemy.

“Martial (Epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of the knave who had him wine instead of water; but he seriously declares that a cistern at

sold

Ravenna is more valuable than a vineyard. Sidonius complains that the town is destitute of fountains and aqueducts, and ranks the want of fresh water among the local evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the stinging of gnats, etc. “The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has so admirably transplanted from Boccaccio (Giomata iii. novell. viii.) was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from Classis, the naval station, which, with the intermediate road or suburb, the Via Cssaris, constituted the triple city of

Ravenna.

“From the year 404 the dates of the Theodosian Code became sedentary See Godefro^s Chronology of the Laws, at Constantinople and Ravenna. tom.

i.

p. cxlviii., etc.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1066

extensive territory to the north of the great wall was possessed Huns by the victorious Sienpi; who were sometimes broken into independent tribes, and sometimes re-united under

The

after the flight of the

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 in-

vaded 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

Topa

name of the fear of punishment, to desert his standard, and to range the desert at the head This gang of robbers and outlaws swelled of an hundred followers. the

princes

Moko, renowned

had

enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the

for his valour, but

who was tempted, by

a camp, a tribe, a numerous people, distinguished by the appellaGeougen; 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 an hundred and of a thousand men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honours were proposed as the reward of valour; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise the learning of China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were favourable 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 into

tion of

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 “See M. de Guignes, 334-338.

Hist, des

Huns, tom.

i.

p.

179-189, tom.

ii.

p. 295,

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

X067

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, a.^-other 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 an 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 This formidable emigration issued four hundred thousand persons. 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 vigour 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 inhabi-

“ Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1 i. c. iii. p. 182 fed. Paris; tom. i. p. 319, Bonn]) has observed an emigration from the Palus Mieotis to the north of Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error. "Zosimus ( 1 V. [c. 26] p. 331) uses the general description of the nations beyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their situation, and consequently their names, are manifestly shown, even in the various epithets which each ancient .

ed.

.

may have casually added. "The name of Khadagast was

writer

that of a local deity of the Obotrites (in Mecklenburg). A hero might naturally assume the appellation of his tutelar god but it is not probable that the barbarians should worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou, Hist, of the Germans, viii. 14. " Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180 [p. 57, ed. Bekker]) uses the Latin word ’OirriAuiTOi, which does not convey any precise idea. I suspect that they were the princes and nobles with their faithful companions the knights with their squires, as they would have been styled some centuries afterwards. •Tacit de Moribus Germanorum, c. 37. ;

—

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

io6S

The nations who now usurp an extent of land which thqr are tants. unable to cultivate would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of their neighbours, if the government of Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property. 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 troop®, 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 reinforced 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 Sams, were animated by interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the confederate Germans passed without resistance the Alps,

Cujus agendi Spectator vel causa fui, Claudian, vi. Cons. Hon. 439, is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which he had seen somewhat nearer. "Zosimus ( 1 V. Ic. 26] p. 331) transports the war and the victory of Stilicho beyond the Danube. strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured by reading "Aprav for "lirrpov (Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. tom. In good policy, we must use the service of Zosimus, without esteemV. p. 807), ing or trusting him. ” Codex Theodos. 1 . vis. fit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law (a.d. 406, May 18) satisfies me, as it had done Godefroy (tom. ii. p. 387), of the true year of the invasion of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and respect, to St. Paulinus of Nola. ” Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the senate, on a sudden emergency, armed ten legions, 3000 horse and 42,000 foot a force which the city could not have sent forth under Augustus (Livy, vii. 25). This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquien. .

A

;

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

iofi9

the Po, and the Apennine; leaving on one hand the inaccesable 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 and the siege of Florence’* by Radagaisus is

pillaged or destroyed;

one of the earliest events in the history of that celebrated republic, whose firmness checked and delayed the unskilful fury of the barbaThe senate and people trembled at their approach within an rians. 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 civilised 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 ashes, and to sacrifice the most the city into a heap of stones 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

^d

religious faction.

The oppressed enemy

spected, in the implacable

votaries of Jupiter and Mercury reof Rome, the character of a devout

Fagan; 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 faith-

“Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher, the origin of Florence, which insensibly descended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of Fsesulae to the banks of the Arno (Istoria Florentina, tom. i. 1 ii. p. 36; Londra, 1747). The triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius (Tacit. Annal. See Culver. i. 79), deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing city. .

Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, etc. the Jupiter of Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor and Woden, was very different from the Olympic or Capitoline Jove. The accommodating temper of polytheism might unite those various and remote deities but the gfenuine Romans abhorred the human sacrifices of Gaul and Germany. " Faulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 50) relates this story, which he received from the mouth of Pansophia herself, a religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop soon ceased to take an active part in the business of the world, and never became a popular saint. Ital.

"Yet

;

”

loro

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

ful city, and who soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the barbarian host. The apparent contradictions of those writers who variot^y 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, ascribe this miraculous victory to the providence of God rather than to the valour of man.^^ They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even

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 Fasulse, which rise above the dty 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 bloodshed,

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 Ca:sar 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 entrenchment which might confine and starve the most numerous host of barbarians.^* The Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry than from the valour of their ancestors; and if the servile and laborious work offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many thousand peasants who would labour, 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 im" Augustin de Civitat. Dei. v. 23. Orosius, 1 vii. c. The 37, p. 567-571. two friends wrote in Africa ten or twelve years after the victory, and their authority is implicitly followed by Isidore of Seville (in Chron. p. 713, edit. Grot.). How many interesting facts might Orosius have inserted in the vacant space which is devoted to pious nonsense " Franguntur monies, planumque per ardua Cxsar ;

.

I

Ducit opus pandit fossas, turritaque summis Disponit castella jugis, magnoque recessu Amplexus fines, saltus, nemorosaque tesqua £t silvas, vastaque feras indagine claudit. Yet the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 44) is far greater than the amplifications of Lucan (Pharsal. 1 vi. 29-63). "The rhetorical expressions of Orosius, “in arido et aspero montis jugo, “in unum ac parvum verticem, ” are not very suitable to the encampment of a great army. But Faesulae, only three miles from Florence, might afford space for tlie head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the circuit of the Roman lines. ;

.

)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1071

patient enemy. The despair of the hungry barbarians would precipitate them against the fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge the ardour 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 beThe proud monarch of so many warlike nations, after the sieged. loss of his bravest warriors, was reduced to confide either in the faith But the death of of a capitulation, or in the clemency of Stilicho."' the royal captive, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the tri-

umph tion

of

was

Rome and

of Christianity;

sufficient to

deliberate cruelty.""

and the short delay of his execu-

brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and 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

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."' their labour,

The fame

of the victory,

and more especially of the miracle,

ha.s

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: and pride of birth, the insolence of valour, the jealousy of command, the impatience of subor” See Zosimus, 1 v. [c. 26] p. 331, and the Chronicles of Prosper and .

Marcellinus.

“Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180 [p. 57, ed. Bekk.]), uses an ex(irpoa-riTaipiiraTo which would denote a strict and friendly alliance, and render btilicho still more criminal. The paulisper retentus, deinde in-

pression

terfectus, of Orosius (p. 570], is sufficiently odious. "Orosius, piously inhuman, sacrifices the king

—

and people Agag and the Amalekites without a symptom of compassion. The bloody actor is less detestable than the cool, unfeeling historian. “And Claudian's muse, was she asleep? had she been ill-paid? Methinks the seventh consulship of Honorius (a.p. 407) would have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was discovered that the state could no longer be saved, Stilicho (after Komulus, Camillus, and Marius) might have been worthily surnamed the fourth founder of Rome. luminous passage of Prosper’s Chronicle, "In tres paries, per diversos principcs, divisus exercitus,” reduces the miracle of Florence, and connects the history of Italy, Gaul, and Germany.

—

“A

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Wja

conflict of opinions, of interests, and of pas* so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield or to obey. After the defeat of Radagaisus, two parts of German host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thousand

dination, sions,

and the obstinate

among

^e

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 wedth and tranquillity of the The barbarians acquired, from the junction of distant provinces.®" 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 derivfe 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 de fence 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 princes who were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho.®’ When the limits of Gaul and Germany were allegiance to

Ae

“Orosius and Jerom positively charge him with instigating the invasion. Excitat® a Stilichone gentes," etc. They must mean indirectly. He saved Italy at the expense of Gaul. “The Count de Uuat is satisfied that the Germans who invaded Gaul were the two-thirds that yet remained of the army of Radagaisus. See the Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de I’Europe (tom. vii. p. 87, izi, Paris, 1772), an elaborate work, which I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As rarly as 1771, I find the same idea expressed in a rough draught of the present History. I have since observed a similar intimation in Mascou (viii. 15). Such agreement, without mutual communication, may add some weight to our

common

sentiment.

Provincia missos Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges

Quos

dederis.

Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. 1 i. 235, etc.) is clear and satisfactory. These kings of Prance are unknown to Gregory of Tours; but the author of the Gesta Francorum mentions both Sunno and Marcomir, and names the latter as the father of Pharamond (in tom. it. p. 543). He seems to write from good materials, which he did not understand. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1075

shaken by the northern emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of the Vandals, who, regardless of the lessons of adveraty, 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 Godigisdus, were slain in the field of battle. The whole people mxist 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 honourable resistance, were comThe victorious confederates pelled to relinquish the unequal contest. 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 withThis memorable out opposition the defenceless provinces of Gaul. 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

civilised 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 Tiber, with elegant houses and wellcultivated 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; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the

German yoke; and the

"See Zosimus (1. vi. fc. 3] P- 373), Orosius (1. vii. c. 40, p. 576), and the Chronicles. Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 9, p. i6s, in the second volume of the Histoiians of France; has preserved a valuable fragment of Renatus Profuturus Frigendus, whose three names denote a Christian, a Roman subject, and a semi-barbarian. ” Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. 1. i. 221, etc.; 1. ii. 186) describes the peace and The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, etc., prosperity of the Gallic frontier. tom. i. p. 174) would read Alba (a nameless rivulet of the Ardennes) instead of Albis; and expatiates on the danger of the Gallic cattle grazing beyond the In poetical geography, the Elbe and the Hercynian Foolish enough Elbe. signify any river or any wood in Germany. Claudian is not prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries. " Geminasque viator Cum videat ripas, qua sit Romana requirat. 1

1074

the decline AND FALL OF

rnnsiiming flames of War spread from the banks of the Rhine over That rich and the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. 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 valour. 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 licence 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 the Fifth, he inquired of a prisoner how many days Paris might be distant from the frontier; “ Perhaps twelve, but they will be days of battle:” *•' such was the gallant answer which checked

“Jerom, tom. i. p. 93 [Epiit. cxxiii. c. 16, tom. i. p. go8, ed. Vallars.]. See, volume of the Historians of France, p. 777, 782, the proper extracts from the Carmen de Providentia Divina, and Salvian. The anonymous poet was himself a captiNC, with his bishop and fellow-citizens. “The Pelagian doctrine, which was fir.st agitated a.d. 405, was condemned, in the space of ten years, at Rome and Carthage. St. Augustin fought and conquered; but the Greek church was favourable to his adversaries; and (what is singular enough) the people did not take any part in a dispute which they

in the first

could not understand. “ See the Memoires de Guillaume du Bcllay, 1 vi. In French, the original reproof is less obvious and more pointed, from the double sense of the word journie, which alike signifies a day’s travel or a battle. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1075

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 Pyrenasan 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 vrar, when the walls and stations of the province were stripped If any of the legionaries were permitted to of the Roman troops. rivurn from the Italian expedition, their faithful report of the court and character of Honorius must have tended to dissolve the bounds 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 Marcus was the first whom they placed on the throne, as passion.®’ 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 their disapprobation of his manners may seem to inscribe an honourable 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 ** Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. 1. ii. 250). It is supposed that the Scots of Ireland invaded by sea the whole western coast of Britain and some slight credit may be given even to Nennius and the Irish traditions (Carte’s Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 169). Whitaker’s Genuine History of the Britons, p. 199. The sixty-six Lives of St. Patrick, which were extant in the ninth century, must have contained as many thousand lies; yet we may believe that, in one of these Irish inroads, the future apostle was led away captive (Usher, Antiquit. and Tillcmont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 456, 7fe, Eccles. Britann. p. 431 ;

;

etc.).

“The

British usurpers are taken from Zosimus (1. vi. [c. 2] p. 371-375), (1. vii. v. 40, p. 576, 577), Olyrapiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180, 181 The [p. 57, ed. Bekker]), the ecclesiastical historians, and the Chronicles. Latins are ignorant of Marcus.

Orosius

“Cum

inconstantiam

. execrarentur (Sidonius ApolSirmond.). Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a pun, to stigmatise a prince who had disgraced his grandfather.

linaris,

1.

in

Constantino

v. Epist. 9, p.

.

139. edit, secund.

.

1076

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

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

He landed at Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and he had reposed himself son^ days, he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the barbarians, to acknowledge They obeyed the summons without reluctance. their lawful sovereign. 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 vigour 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 provinces. after

but treacherous interview, Constantine fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was inefiectually 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. 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 su^rdination, and received

On

" Bagaudie is the name whicdi Zosimtis applies to them perhaps they deserved ; a less odious character (see Dubes, Hist. Critique, tom. L p. 203). shall hear of them again.

We

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1077

the laws and magistrates of the Gallic prsefecture. 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 favour of their kinsman, the deceased emperor, an honourable 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 dependents, and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenaean mountains. This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negotiate with some troops of barbarian auxilThey were distinguished by iaries, for the service of the Spanish war.

a name which might have reminded them of and if it should candidly be allowed that the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British prince, the Moors and the Marcomanhi could be tempted only the

title

of Honorians;

**

their fidelity to their lawful sovereign;

liberality of the usurper, who distributed among tlie barbarians the military, and even the civil, honours of Spain. Tlie nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the establi^ment 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

by the profuse

public disgrace, he might perhaps be tunes of his generous kinsmen. Such cided the possession of the Western wall of Antoninus to the Columns of

affected

by

the personal misfor-

were the feeble arms which deprovinces of Europe, from the 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 pro-

Verinianus, Didymus, Theodosius, and Lagodius, who in modern courts styled princes of the blood, were not distinguished by any rank or privileges above the rest of their fellow-subjects. "These Honoriani or Honoriaci consisted of two bands of Scots or Attacotti, two of Moors, two of Marcomanni, the Victores, the Ascarii, and the They were part of Gallicani (Notitia Imperii, sect xxxviii. edit. Lab.). the sixty-five Auxilia Palatina, and are properly styled iv rf oOXj ri&ts **

would be

by Zosimus

(1. vi.

[c.

4] P- 374)-

1078

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

vinces 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 Adversity had to recruit their numbers and revive their confidence. exercised and displayed the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his valour 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 serv;

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 prsefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the true and ancient limits, by ice of the

The execution of the ambitious design, the minister of Honorius.’®’ which was either stipulated or implied in the articles of the treaty, appears to have been suspended by the formidable irruption of Radaand the neutrality of the Gothic king may perhaps be compared to the indifference of Caesar, 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 of Thessaly and Epirus; and who soon returned to claim the extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp near gaisus;

•

Comitantur euntem

Pallor, et atra Fames ; et saucia lividus ora Luctus ; et inferno stridentes agmine Morbi.

Claudian in vi. Cons. Hon. 321, etc. These dark transactions are investigated by the Count de Buat (Hist •ics Peuples de I’Europe, tom. vii. c. iii.-viii. p. 69-206} , whose laborious accuracy may sometimes fatigue a superficial reader.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE'

toy«

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 imm^iate satisfaction, and clearly intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet, if his conduct \ras 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 laboured to deceive each other and the world must for ever 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 The necessity of finding some artificial support Alaric and Stilicho. 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 Csesars; 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 declar^, in regular speeches or in tumultuary acclamations, that it was unworthy of the maj'esty of Rome to purdiase 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 dishonour. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded only by the voices 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, thotigh private, letters of the emperor him”• See Zosimus, 1 v. [c. 29] He interrupts his scanty narrative p. 334, 335. to relate the fable of £mona, and of the ship Argo, which was drawn overland from that place to the Hadriatic. Sozomen (1. viii. c. 25; 1 ix. c. 4J and Socrates ( 1 . vii. c. 10) cast a pale and doubtful light, and Orosius (L vH. 3 P- 571) is abominably partial .

.

c

^

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

xoSo

These contradictory orders (he would not dissemble the errors self. 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 stem 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 serviand escaped the danger of such bold opposition by immeditude;” ately retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church. 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, io 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 degenYet Stilicho might have continued to brave the clamours of eracy. the people, and even of the soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over the feeble mind of hb 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 favour he was promoted to the honourable offices of the Imperial palace. Olympius revealed to the imsuspecting 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 ;

'"Zosimus, 1 V. [c. 29] p. 338. 339. He repeats the words of -Lampadius as they were spoken in Latin, “Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis, ” and then translates them into Greek for the benefit of his readers. ""He came from the coast of the Euxine, and exercised a splendid office, \anrfias Si arpartias ir r«7 i pavCKtlmt His actions justify 'his character, which Zosimus ( 1 v. [c. 32] p. 340) exposes with visible satisfaction. Augustin revered the piety of Olympius, whom he styles a true son of the church (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. a.d. 408, No. 19, etc.; Tillemont, Mim. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468). But these praises, which the African saint so unworthily bestows, might proc^d as well from ignorance as from .

.

adulation.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

leSx

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 favourite to assume the tone of mdependent dignity; and the minister was astonished to find that secret resolutions were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his Instead of residing in the palace of interest, or to his intentions.

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 die 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

Justinian, a

Roman

was pressed, by the advice of his confidant, advocate, of a lively and penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his reputation and safety. His strenuous, but inefiectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of 01}nnpius; 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 Praetorian praefects, of Gaul and of Italy; two masters-general of the cavalry and infantry; the master of the offices, the quaestor, 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 diaidem, yielded to the persuasions of his favourite, 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 minister

‘“Zosimus, I. V. [c. 31] p. 338, 339- Sozomen, I. ix. c. 4. Stilicho offered to undertake^ the journey to Constantinople, that he might divert Honorius

from the vain attempt.

The Eastern empire would not have obeyed, and

could not have been conquered.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

xoSa

and gloomy apprehensions, and he instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leados 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 Stilicho with just

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 valour, 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, pcn«ve 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, bis 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 di^sition of the hypocrite was incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously afiected to elude, rather than to violate, ffie privilege of the sanctuary. Count Heraclian, vrith a troop of soldiers, appeared at the dawn of day before the gates of the churdi 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 unwor^y 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 ’"Zosimus p.

V.

[c. 30,

related the disgrace

>77

[p. 56, ed.

Bekker]), Orosius p>

and Philostorgius

though not clearly, Olympiodorus (apud Phot. p.

jgg.] p. 336-345) has copiously,

and death of Stili^o.

(1. xi. c. 3, 1 . xii. c.

38, p. 571, 572), Sozomen ( 1 . ix. 2), afford supplemental hints.

c.

4),

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1083

with the master-general of the West, which had so lately been a title to wealth and honours, 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 justi-

and perhaps absolved the innocence, of their patron; and the despotic power which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatise his memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial suffrage of posterity.^"” The services of Stilicho are great and fied the choice,

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 conununication of the two empires, which

had been

by

so long interrupted

The

the public

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

Even the religion of Stilicho was arraigned by the malice 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 the notaries. of his rival.

""Zosimus, 1 . V. [c. 28] p. 333. The marriage of a Christian with two sisters scandalises Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. SS7 ). who expects, in vain, that Pope Innocent I. should have done something in the way either of censure or of dispensation. ‘“Two of his friends are honourably mentioned (Zosimus, 1 . v. [c. 35] p. Peter, chief of the school of notaries, and the great chamberlam 346) Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the bedchamber; and it is surprising that, under a feeble prince, the bedchamber was not able to secure him.

—

‘“Orosius

( 1,

vii.

c.

38, p. S71,

manifestos which were dispersed

S 72 ) seems to copy the false and furious the provinces by the new adminis-

throng

tration.

See the Theodosian Code, 1 vii. tit xvi. leg. i ; 1 ix. tit. xlii. leg. aa. is branded with the name of prosdo publicus, who employed his wealth ad omnem ditandam, inquietandamque Barbariem. .

Stilicho

.

ioS4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

Serena had borhad uniformly professed and zealously supported and the rowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of Rome, had been committed to The pride and power of Stilicbo constituted his real the flames.'^^ guilt. An honourable 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 dependents 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 favour 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 rich heiress of

the province of Africa and the statue 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 Praetorian praefects of Italy; he contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes resigned the hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with the interested 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

“‘Augustin himself is satisfied with the effectual laws which Stilicho had enacted against heretics and idolaters, and which are still extant in the Code. He only applies to Olympius for their confirmation (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. No. 19). ”*Zosimus, 1. V.

A.D.

We may

observe the bad taste of the age, in finery. “’See Kutilius Numatianus (Itinerar. 1. ii. 41-do), to religious enthusiasm has dictated some elegant and forcible lines. Stilicho likewise stripped the gold plates from the doors of the Capitol, and read a prophetic [c.

38] p. 351.

dressing their statues with such

awkward

whom

sentence which was engraven under them (Zosimus, 1. v. [c. 38] p. 352). These are foolish stories yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the praise, which Zosimus reluctantly bestows, of his virtues. ‘“At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!) all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts, and the gods themselves enriched their favourite. Claudian had neither flocks, nor herds, nor vines, nor olives. His wealthy bride was heiress to them all. But he carried to Africa a recommendatory letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy (Epist. ii. ad Serenam). ‘“Claudian feels the honour like a man who deserved it (in prsefat. Bell. Get.). The original inscription, on marble, was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of Pomponius Lsetus. The statue of a poet, far superior to Claudian, should have been erected, during his lifetime, by the men of letters, his countrymen and contemporaries. It was a noble design. ;

—

;

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1085

”

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 The poet concealed himself, however, sacrifice of an obnoxious poet. during the tumult of the revolution, and, consulting the dictates of prudence rather than of honour, he addressed, in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the ofiended prsefect. 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 defenseless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and poverty, and deeply wounded by the exile, ^e tortures, and ^e 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 tliese 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 adoring the most barren, and of diversifying the most I

more especially in descriptive poetry, is 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 similar topics; his colouring, soft

“* See

;

Epigram xxx.

:

Mallius indulget sotnno noctesque diesque Insomnis Pharius sacra, prof ana, rapit. Omnibus, hoc, Italse gentes, exposcite votis, Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius. Hadrian was a Pharian (of Alexandria). See his public life in Godefroy, Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 364. Mallius did not always sleep. He composed some elegant dialogues on the Greek systems of natural philosophy (Claud, in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61-112). See Claudian’s first Epistle. Yet in some places an air of irony and indignation betrays his secret reluctance.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

X0S6,

To these commendations, independent of any acddmits versification. of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit which Claudian derived from the unfavourable circumstances of his birth. In the decline of arts who had received the education of and of empire, a native of Egypt, a Greek, assumed in a mature age the familiar use and absolute command of the Latin language;^'" soared above the beads of his feeble contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome.^^

CHAPTER XXXI

—Manners of the Roman Senate and People—Rome 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

Invasion of Italy by Alaric is thrice

besieged,

and

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 valour of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal or hereditary infiuence 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 jvessing instances of the new favourites, these generals, unworthy as

'"National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a Spaniard. But the Epistle of Claudian proves him a native of Alexandria (Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin, tom. iii. p. igi-202, edit. Ernest.). "His first Latin verses were composed during the consulship of Probinus,

first

A.D.

395:—

Romanos bibimus primum,

te consule, fontes,

£t Latise cessit Graia Thalia togx. Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin poet had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus, Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, etc. It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry than of authentic history. Strada (Prolusion v. vi.) allows him to contend with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds or flowers which _

spring too luxuriantly in his Latian soil. * The series of events, from the death of Stilicho to the arrival of Alaric before Rome, can only be found in Zosimus, 1 v. [c. 35-37] p. 347-350. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE they had shown themselves of the name of

soldiers,*

10B7

were promoted to

command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince would have subscribed with pleasure the edict which the

the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout emperor. Honorius excluded edl 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 These measures, so or who had imbibed the opinions of Arianism.* advantageotis 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 that 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

“The expression of Zosimus

strong and lively, (coTo0p4i>ij«» contempt of the enemy. ' Eos qui catholics sects sunt inimici, intra palatium militare prohibemm. Nullus nobis sit aliqua ratione conjunctus, qui a nobis fide et religione discordat. Cod. Theodos, 1 xvi. tit. v. leg. 42, and Godefroy’s Commentary, tots, vi. p-. 164. This law was applied in the utmost latitude and rigorously executed. Zosimus, 1 V. [c. 46] p. 3&^ is

Toil iroXeiiloit ipKoOrrat, sufficient to excite the

.

.

1088

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

and regret. The pressing invitation of the malcontents, the king of the Goths to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he might speciously 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 Aetius 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 sincere praise

who urged

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 should 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 preternatural 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

‘Addison (see his_ Works, vol. ii. p. 54, edit. Baskerville) has given a very picturesque description of the road through the Apennine. The Goths were not at leisure to observe the beauties of the prospect; but they were pleased to find t^t the Saxa Intercisa, a narrow passage which Vespasian had cut through the rock (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 618), was totally neglected.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1089

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 Nami: but the king of the Goths, despising the ignoble prey, still advanced with unabated vigour; 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 tile 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 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 albi, CHtumne, Greges, et maxima taurus Victima sxpe, tuo perfusi flumine sacro, Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos. Georg, ii. 147. Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Claudian, etc., whose passages may be found in Cluverius and Addison, have celebrated the triumphal victims of Clitumnus. 'Some ideas of the march of Alaric are borrowed from the journey of Honorius over the same ground (see Claudian in vi. Cons. Hon. 494-522). The measured distance between Ravenna and Rome was 254 Roman miles.

‘Hinc

Itinerar. Wcsseling, p. 126. ’The march and retreat

of Hannibal are described by Livy, 1 xxvi. c. 7, and the reader is made a spectator of the interesting scene. * These comparisons were used by Cineas, the counsellor of Pyrrhus, after his return from his embassy, in which he had diligently studied the discipline and manners of Rome. See Plutarch in Pyrrho [c. 19], tom. ii. p. 459. * In the three census which were made of the Roman people about the time of the second Punic war, the numbers stand as follows (see Livy, Epitom. 8, 9, 10, II

.

;

XX. Hist. 1 xxvii. 36, xxix. 37), 270, 213, 137, 108, 214,000. The fall of the second and the rise of the third appears so enormous, that several critics, notwithstanding the unanimity of the MSS., have suspected some corruption of the text of Livy. (See Drakenborch ad xxvii. 36, and Beaufort, Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 325.) They did not consider that the second census was taken only at Rome, and that the numbers were diminished, not only by &e death, but likewise by the absence, of many soldiers. In the third cenji«r,_ Livy expressly affirms that the legions were mustered by the care of particular From the numbers 0:1 the list we must always deduct onecommissaries. twelfth above threescore and incapable of bearing arms. See Population de la France, p. 72. 1.

.

—

topo

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

remained an equal number in Rome and the adjacent territory Tuho 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 etill

Capua jor

recalling their scattered forces, expected his 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

raising the siege of

approach.

He encamped

public auction; and that a body of troops was dismissed by an opposite road to reinforce 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 destoyed 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 honours 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, Blxsilla, numbered the Scipios, .£milius Paulus, and the Gracchi in the list of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from £neas, 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 parautes, 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 alwaj^ 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 ** Livy considers these two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I suspect that they were both managed by the admirable policy of the senate. [As a parallel instance to what is related of Hannibal, compare the remarkable transaction in Jerom, xxxii 6, 44, where the prophet purchases his uncle’s estate at the approach of the Babylonian captivity, in his undoubting confidence in the future restoration of the people. In the latter case it was the triumph of religious faith, in the other of national pride. 0 S.] “See Jerom, tom. i. p. 169, 170, ad Eustochium [Epist. cviii. tom. i. p. 684, ed. Vallars.] he bestows on Paula the splendid titles of Gracchorum stirps, ; soboles Scipionum, Pauli haeres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martise Papyrise Matris African! vera et germana propago. This particular description supposes a more solid title than the surname of Julius, which Toxotius shared with a Aousand families of the western provinces. See the Index of Tacitus, of Gruter s Inscriptions, etc .

'

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1091

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 eminanrg by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the honours, 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 pre-eminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble familiga

which contend^ only for the second place.'® During the five first ages of the dty the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from Prsneste; and the ambition of those new citizens was long satisfied with the plebeian honours of tribunes of the people.'* One hundred and sixtyeight years before the Christian era the family was ennobled by the praetorship 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 consuMips in distant periods mark the

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

succession of the Anician name.'®

"Tacitus (Annal. iii. 55) affirms that, between the battle of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the senate was gradually filled with new families from the Municipia and colonies of Italy. ** Nec quisquam Procerum tentet (licet sere vetusto Floreat, et claro cingatur Roma senatu) Se jactare parem; sed prima sede relicta Aucheniis, de jure licet certare secundo. Claud, in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 18. Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has amazed the critics; but they all agree that, whatever may be the true reading, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family. '*The earliest date on the annals of Pighius is that of M. Anicius Gallui, Trib. PI. A.u.c. 506, Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, a.u.c. S08, is distinguished by the epithet of Praenestinus. Livy (xlv. 43) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome. “ Livy, xliv. 30, 31, xlv. 3, 26, 43. He fairly appreciates the merit of Anicius, and justly observes that his fame was clouded by the superior lustre of the Macedonian, which preceded the Illyrian, triumph. “The dates of the three consulships are a.u.c. 593, 818, 967; the two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only by his infamous flattery (Tacit. Annal. xv. 74) ; but even the evidence of crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance, to prove the genealogy of a noble house. [There is still an earlier instance of a member of the family attaining one of the higher offices of the state. Quintus Anicius Praenestinus was cunile aedile with Q. Flavius, the celebrated scribe of Appius Cilaudius Caecus, BX. 304.

Cf. Pliny. Hist. Nat.

lib.

xxxiii. c. i,

a.

6.— O.

S.]

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

109 a

of the Imperial purple.*^ The several branches to whom municated united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth

it was comand 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; an^ it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and prsfect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine.^* Thdr ample patrimony was increa^ by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family, who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised four times the high office of Ptaetorian His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent prxfect.** 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 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

clients

Rome.” “ The marbles

of the Anician palace,” were used as a proverbial expresson of opulence and splendour;” but the nobles and senators of

” In the sixth century the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. 1 . x. £p. ii, 12) with singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of

Italy.

“ Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras Hac de stirpe virum, certum est de Consule nasci. Per fasces numerantur avi, semperque renata Nobilitate virent, et prolem fata sequuntur.

(Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, etc.) The Annii, whose name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. “The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 553) and the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist, dcs Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 183, v. p. 44. Baron. Annal. a.d. 312, No. 78; a.d. 322, No. 2. “ Probus . claritudine generis et potentia et opum amplitudine cognitus Orbi Romano, per quern universum poene patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian. Marcellin. xxvii. ii. His children and widow erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the time of pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. Baronius, who laments the ruin of this Christian monument, has diligently preserved the inscriptions and basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A.D. 395 No. S-17. “Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome to hear St. Ambrose and to see Probus. (Paulin, in Vit. Ambros.) Claudian (in Cons. Probin. et^Olybr. 30-60) seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus. ^See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths. Secundinus, the Manichzan, ap. Baron. Annal. ^cles. aj). 390, No. 34. .

,

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

iO»

Rome aspired in due gradation to mutate 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 honourable citizens.^^ Many of these stately mansions mig^t 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 everything which could be subservient either to use or luxury: markets, hippodromes, temples,

—

fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries. The Olympi^orus, who represents the state of Rome when it

historian

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 poimds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the (hgnity of the senatorian rank, which Several required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. examples are recorded in the age of Honorius of vain and popular nobles who celebrated the year of their prsetorship by a festival which lasted seven days and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling.‘^

The

estates of the

Roman

senators, which so far exceed the

" See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89, 4^, 500. * Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia

silvas ?

Vernula qua vario carmine ludit avis.^ Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. ver. in. moderate palace would The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres (Val. Max, iv. 4, 7). In laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a judicious note of

A

Mr. Hume, Essays,

vol. i. p. 562, last 8vo ^ition. ’“This curious account of Rome in the reign of Honorius is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. "The sons of Alypius [Olympius in Bekker’s ed.], of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective prsetorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, centenaries (or hundredweight of gold). See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian Code (1. vi. tit. iv. leg. s) which fixes the expense of the first praetor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000, and of the third at 15,000 folles. The name of follis (see Mem. de 1’ Academic des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 727) was equally applied to a purse of 125 pieces

of

silver,

and

to a small copper coin of the value of

part of that purse.

In the former sense, the 25,000 foUes would be equal to £150,000; in the latter The one appears extravagant, the other is to five or six pounds sterling. ridiculous. There must have existed some third and middle value, which is here understood ; but ambiguity is an inexcusable fault in the language of laws. [The centenarium was a hundred pounds weight of gold, and from the time of Constantine, the pound contained 72 solidi. Supposing the solidus to be worth only los. English, the prsetorship of Symmachus cost £72,000, and that of Maximus £144,000. In the passage from the Theodosian (jode»

;

the decline and fall of

jtoM

proportion of modern wealth, were not confined to the limits ot Italy. Their possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and ^gean 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 labour 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

A

violated by the mutual inclinations and interest of both parties."® considerable mass of treasure must always have existed at Rome, either

quoted by Gibbon, the

means a purse of

125 pieces of silver, and as nearly (accordinfr to Mommsen) 25,000 foUes=. £143,750. This sum is prodigious, but it is nearly the same as what was expended by Maximus in his prsetorship. Savigny makes the solidus equal to los., but Mommsen prefers 12s. as being its approximate value. O. S.J * Nicopolis ... in Actiaco littore sita possessionis vestra; nunc pars vel this

jollit

was equal

follis

to

£5

iis.

—

maxima est. Jerom. in praefat. Comment ad M. de Tillemont supposes, strangely enough, inheritance.

Mem.

Epistol.

that

it

ad Titum, tom.

ix. p. 243.

was part of Agamemnon's

Eccles. tom. xii. p. 85.

Seneca, Epist. Ixxxix. His language is of the declamatory kind: but declamation could scarcely exaggerate the avarice and luxury of the Romans. The philosopher himself deserved some share of the reproach, if it be true that his rigorous exaction of Quadringenties, above three hundred thousand pounds, which he had lent at high interest, provoked a rebellion in Britain. (Dion Cassius, 1 Ixii. [c. 2] p. 1003.) According to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus’s Itinerary in Britain, p. 92), the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk, and another in the kingdom of Naples. “Volusius, a wealthy senator (Tacit. Annal. iii. 30), always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who received this maxim from him, atgues very judiciously on the subject. De Re Rustics, 1 i. c. 7, p. 408, edit, (ksner. Leipzig, 1735. “ Valesius (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) has proved, from Chrysostom and Augustin, that the senators were not allowed to lend money at usury. Yet it appears from the Theodosian Code (see Godefroy ad 1 ii. tit. xxxiii. tom. i. p. 230-239) that they were permitted to take six per cent, or one-half of the legal interest and, what is more singular, this permission was granted to the young senators. **

.

.

.

—

THE ROUAN EMPIRE

1095

in the cunent coin of the empire, or in the form of gold and silver 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 mi^t of plate;

wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands; of the numer-

ous 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 nunute and laborious disquisition; 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 alwa5rs approve th*e 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.®* **

Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 50.

He

states the silver at only

4380 pounds,

which is increased by Livy (xxx. 45) to 100,023; the former seems too little for an opulent city, the latter too much for any private sideboard. “The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, etc., p. 153) has observed with humour, and 1 believe with truth, that Augustus had neither glass to his windows nor a shirt to his back. Under the lower empire the use of linen and glass became somewhat more common. [This is altogether wrong. The discovery of glass in common use in Pompeii has rather spoilt the point of Arbuthnot’s jest. Glass was in general use in the reign of Augustus, and linen became common in that of Tiberius. O. S.] “ It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I have taken with the text of Ammianus. i. I have melted down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the fourth of the twenty-eighth book. 2. I have given order and connection to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have softened some extravagant hyperboles and pared away some superfluities of the original. 4. I have developed some observations which were insinuated rather than expressed. With these allowances my version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful and exact.

1096

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

greatness of Rome (such is the language of the historian) 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 neighbours and enemies of the In the strength and ardour of youth she sustained the rising city. storms of war, carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the

“The

was founded on 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 Caesars, her favourite 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 splendour (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 licence 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 Fabu-

—

—

^which may impress the ears of the vulPagonius or Tarrasius gar 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 honourable 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 nius,

who seems

to have read the history of Ammianus, speaks of less courtly style; Postquam jura ferox in se communia Csesar Transtulit ; et laps! mores ; desuetaque priscis Artibus, in gremium pacis servile recessi. De Bell. Gildonico, v. 49. "The minute diligence of antiquarians has not been able to verify these extraordinary names. I am of opinion that they were invented by the historian himself, who was afraid of any personal satire or application. It is certain, however, that the simple denominations of the Romans were gradually lengthmed to the number of_ four, five, or even seven, pompous surnames ; as, for instance, Marcus Mxcius Msemmius Furius Balburius Caecilianus Placidul. See Norris, Cenotaph. Pisan. Dissert, iv. p. 438. ’’Claudian,

this great revolution in

a

much

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1097

delicacy of their food or the splendour 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 ate 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 honour 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 demeanour, 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

” The carructe, or coaches of the Romans, were often of solid silver curiously carved and engraved ; and the trappings of the mules or horses were embossed with gold. This magnificence continued from the reign of Nero to that of Honorius; and the Appian way was covered with the splendid equipages of the nobles, who came out to meet St. Melania when she returned to Rome six years before the Gothic siege (Seneca, Epist. Ixxxvii. Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 49; Paulin. Nolan, apud Baron. Annal. Ecclcs a.d. 397, No. 5). Yet pomp is well exchanged for convenience; and a plain modern coach that is hung upon springs is much preferable to the silver or gold carts of antiquity, which rolled on the axletree, and were exposed, for the most part, to the inclemency of the weather. " In a homily of Asterius, bishop of Amasia, M. de Valois has discovered (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) that this was a new fashion; that bears, wolves, lions, and tigers, woods, hunting-matches, etc., were represented in embroidery; and that the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some favourite saint. • See Plinyr’s Epistles, i. 6. Three large wild boars were allured and taken in the toils without interrupting the studies of the philosophic sportsman. ;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1098

" to their elegant villas on the sea-coast of Puteoli and Caieta/* they compare their own expeditions to the marches of Csesar 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 journe3?s 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 marshall ed by the skill of their military leaders, so the domestic officers, who bear a rod as an ensign of authority, distribute and arrange the lake

and attendants. The baggage and wardrobe 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 favourite band of eunudis, distributed from age to youth, according to the order of seniority. Their numbers and their deformity excite the horror of the indignant specnumerous

move

train of slaves

in the front,

are ready to execrate the memory of Semiramis for the 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 chastators,

who

cruel art

*The

change from the inauspicious word Avemus, which stands in the The two lakes, Avernus and Lucrinus, communicated with each other, and were fashioned by the stupendous moles of Agrippa into the Julian port, which opened through a narrow entrance into the gulf of Puteoli. Virgil, who resided on the spot, has described (Georgic ii. i6i) this work at the moment of its execution and his commentators, especially Catrou, have derived much light from Strabo, Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes and volcanoes have changed the face of the country, and turned the Lucrine lake, since the year 1538, into the Monte Nuovo. See Camillo Pellegrino Discorsi della Campania Felice, p. 239, 244, etc. Antonii Sanfelicii Campania, text, is immaterial.

;

9

-

13. 88.

"The

regna Cumana et Puteolana; loca csetero quivalde expetenda, interpellantium autem multitudine psene fugienda. Cicero ad Attic, xiv. 16. " The proverbial expression of Cimmerian darkness was originally borrowed from the description of Homer (in the eleventh book of the Odyssey) which he applies to a remote and fabulous country on the shores of the ocean. See Erasmi Adagia, in his Works, tom. ii. p. 593, the Leyden edition. may learn from Seneca Epist. cxxiii., three curious circumstances relative to the journeys of the Romans, i. They were preceded by a troop of Numidian light-horse, who announced by a cloud of dust the approach of a great man. 2. Their baggage-mules transported not only the precious vases but even the fragile vessels of crystal and trmrra, which kist is almost proved, by the learned French translator of Seneca (tom. iii. p, 402-422}, to mean the

"We

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1099

tised with three hundred lashes; but should the same slave commit a wilful murder, the master will mildly observe that he is a worthless

he repeats the offence he ^all not escape puni^> 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, ^e native seat of manners as well as of empire. Secure of a favourable 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 dependents, 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 fellow, but that if

ment.

Roman

tables the birds, the squirrels*-’ or the fish, which appear of

porcelain of China and Japan.

3.

The

an

beautiful faces of the youn(r slaves

were covered with a medicated crust, or ointment, which secured them against the effects of the sun and frost. The sportuloe, or sportell(B, were “Distributio solcmnium sportularum. small baskets supposed to contain a quantity of hot provisions of the value of too quadrantes, or twelvepence halfpenny, which were ranged in order in the hall, and ostentatiously distributed to the hungry or servile crowd who waited at the door. This indelicate custom is very frequently mentioned in the epigrams of Martial and the satires of Juvenal. See likewise Suetonius, in Claud, c. 21 in Neron. c. 16; in Domitian. c. 4, 7. These baskets of provisions were afterwards conveited into large pieces of gold and silver coin, or plate, which were mutually given and accepted even by the persons of the highest rank (see Symmach. Epist. iv. 55, ix. 124, and Miscell. p. 256 [ed. Paris, 1604]), on solemn occasions, of consulships, marriages, etc. " The want of an English name obliges me to refer to the common genus of squirrels, the Latin glis, the French loir; a little animal who inhabits the woods and remains torpid in cold weather (see Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 82; Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. viii. 158; Pennant’s Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p. 289). ;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1100

uncommon

size, are contemplated with curious attention; a pair of 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 marvellous event. Another method of introduction into the houses and society of the great is derived from the profession of gam-

scales

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 is a sure road to wealdi be interpreted the game of dice and tables 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 prstorship by the votes of a capricious people. The acquisition of knovdedge seldom engages the curiosity of the 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 ing, or, as it is

The

art of rearing and fattening great numbers of gliers was practised in villas as a profitable article of rural economy (Varro, de Re Rustica, The excessive demand of them for luxurious tables was increased iii. 15). by the foolish prohibitions of the censors ; and it is reported that they are still esteemed in modern Rome, and are frequently sent as presents by the Colonna princes (see Brotier, the last editor of Pliny, tom. ii. p. 458, apud Barbou, 1779).

Roman

"This game, which might be translated by the more familiar names of or backgammon, was a favourite amusement of the gravest Romans; and old Mucius Scxvola, the lawyer, had the reputation of a very skilful player. It was called Indus duodccim scriptorum, from the twelve scripta or lines which equally divided the alveolus or table. On these the two armies, the white and the black, each consisting of fifteen men, or calculi, were regularly placed and alternately moved according to the laws of the game and the chances of the tesseree or dice. Dr. Hyde, who diligently traces the history and varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic etymology) from Ireland to Japan, pours forth on this trifling subject a copious torrent of classic and Oriental learning. See Syntagma Uissertat. tom. ii. p. 217-405. " Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui et mythistoricis se trictrac,

voluminibus implicavit. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p; 242 [Vopisc. Firm, c. I.] He wrote the Lives pi the Emperors from Trajan to Alexander Severus. Sm Gerard Vossius de Historicis Latin. 1. ii. c. 3, in his Works, vol. iv. p. 57. “This satire is probably exaggerated. The Saturnalia of Macrobius, and the Epistles of Jerom, afford satisfactory proofs that Christian theology and classic literature were studiously cultivated by several Romans of both sexes and of the highest rank.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE suspidon of a contagious malady visits of the

most intimate

is of sufficient

friends;

IIOI

weight to excuse the

and even the servants who are

despatched to make the decent inquiries are not suffered to rettim till they have undergone the ceremony of a previous ablution.

home Yet

and unmanly delicacy

occasionally yields to the more 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 dtizen is the most powerful of the Romans. The art of obtaining the signature of a favourable 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 this selfish

impierious passion of avarice.

The

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 distress

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

who

a charge of

poison, or magic, against the insolent

seldom re^fased 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 die, or to appear in public, till they creditor,

have

is

diligently consulted, according to the rules of astrology, the situaMercury and the aspect of the moon." It is singular enough

tion of

may often be discovered among the profane impiously doubt or deny the existence of a celestial

that this vain credulity sceptics

who

power.” In populous cities, which are the seat of conunerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labour 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 mili tary service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his

*Macrobiu 8 , the friend of these Roman nobles, considered the stars as the cause, or at least the signs, of future events (de Somn. Scipion. 1. i. c. 19, p.68).

1102

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

farm.®® The lands of Italy, which had been originally divided among the families of free and indigent proprietors, were insenably 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 any independent substance.®* Yet as long as the people bestowed by their suffrages the honours 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 thirtyBut five tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of Rome. when the prodigal commons had imprudently alienated not only the use, but the inheritance, of power, they sunk, under the reign of the Caesars, 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 ^e 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 histories of Livy (see particularly vi. 36) are full of the extortions of the rich and the sufferings of the poor debtors. The melancholy story of a brave old soldier (Dionys. Hal. I. vi. c. 26, p. 347, edit. Hudson, and Livy, ii. 23) must have been frequently repeated in those primitive times, which have been so undeservedly praised. " Non esse in civitate duo millia hominum qui rem haberent. Cicero, Oflic. This vague computation 21, and Comment. Paul. Manut, in edit. Grxv. was made a.u.c. 649, in a speech of the tribune Philippus, and it was his object, as well as that of the Gracchi (see Plutarch), to deplore, and perhaps to exagii.

misery of the “ See the third Satire

gerate, the

common

people.

(60-125)

of Juvenal,

who

indignantly complains,

Quamvis quota i»rtio faecia Achaei Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes; 1

Et linguam

et mores, etc.

Seneca, when he proposes to comfort his mother (Consolat. ad Helv. c. 6) by the reflection that a great part of mankind were in a state of exile, remmds her how few of the inhabitants of Rome were born in the city. Almost all that is said of the bread, bacon, oil, wine, etc., may be fouiul

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1x03

the convenience of the la^ plebeians, the monthly distributions of com 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 forests 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 of 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 clamour 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 in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian Code, which expressly treats of the police of the great cities. See particularly the titles iii. iv. xv. xvi. xvii. xxiv. The collateral testimonies are produced in Godefroy’s Commentary, and According to a law of Theodosius, which it is needless to transcribe them. appreciates in money the military allowance, a piece of gold (eleven shillings) was equivalent to eighty pounds of bacon, or to eighty pounds of oil, or to twelve modii (or pecks) of salt (Cod. Theod. 1 viii. tit. iv. leg. 17). This equation, compared with another seventy pounds of bacon for an amphora (Cod. Theod. 1 xiv. tit. iv. leg. 4), fixes the price of wine at about sixteenpence the gallon. ** The anonymous author of the Description of the World (p. 14, in tom. iii. (^ograph. Minor. Hudson ) observes of Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio obtima, et ipsa omnibus Imbundans, et lardum multum foras emittit: propter quod est in montibus, cujus aescam animalium variam. “See Novell, ad calcem Cod. Theod. D. Valent. 1 i. tit. xv. [tom. vi. App. p. 28, ed. Gothofr.]. This law was published at Rome, June 29th, a.d. 452 “Sueton. in August, c. 42. The utmost debauch of the emperor himself, in his favourite wine of Rhxtia, never exceeded a sextarius (an English pint). Id. c. 77. Torrentius ad loc. and Arbuthnot’s Tables, p. 86. “ His design was to plant vineyards along the sea-coast of Etruria (Vopiscus, in Hist. August, p. 225 [in Aurel. c. 48]), the dreary, unwholesome, uncultivated Maremme of modern Tuscany. .

.

,

.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1104

very easy and was delegated

The

liberal terms.

to

administration of the public cdlars

a magistrate of honourable 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 Thernue, 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 colours. 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 enjo3rment of a scene of pomp and luxury which might From these stately palaces excite the envy of the kings of Asia.®* issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum to hear news and to hold disputes; who dissipated in extravagant gaming the miserable pittance of ^eir wives and children; and spent the hours

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 the night in obscure taverns

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 spjectators, 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 colours which they espoused; and the happiness of "Olympiodor, apud Phot. p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. “ Seneca (Epistol. Ixxxvi.) compares the baths of Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with the magnihccnce (which was continually increasing) the public baths of Rome, long before the stately Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were erected. The quadtans paid for admission was the quarter

of the as, about one-eighth of an English penny.

"“Ammianus ( 1 xiv. c. 6, and 1. xxviii. c. 4), after describing the luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome, exposes, with equal indignation, the vices and follies of the common people. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

xios

Rome appeared to hang on the* event of a race.®^ The same immoderate ardour inspired tiieir clamours 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 modem capitals may deserve to be considered as a pure and elegant school of and perhaps of virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Romans, who sddom aspired beyond the imitation of Attic genius,®* had been almost totally silent ance 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 favour 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 taste,

the professors of the liberal arts.®® It is said that the foolish curiosity of Eiagabalus attempted to discover, from the quantity of spiders' webs, the number of the inhabi-

“ Juvenal, Satir. xi. 191, etc. The expressions of the historian Aramianus are not less strong and animated than those of the satirist; and both the one and the other painted from the life. The numbers which the great Circus was capable of receiving are taken from the original Notitia of the city. The differences between them prove that they did not transcribe each other; but the sum may appear incredible, though the country on these occasions flocked to the city. “ Sometimes, indeed, they composed original pieces. Vestigia Graeca Ausi desercre et celebrare domestica facta. Horat. Epistol. ad Pisones, 285, and the learned though perplexed note of Dacier, who might have allowed the name of tragedies to the Brutus and the Decius of Pacuvius, or to the Cato of Maternus. The Octavia, ascribed to one of the Senecas, still remains a very unfavourable specimen of Roman tragedy. “ In the time of Quintillian and Pliny a tragic poet was reduced to the imperfect method of hiring a great room, and reading his play to the company, Dialog, de Oratoribus, c. 9, lo, and whom he invited for that purpose. Plin. Epistol.

vii. 17.)

" See

the dialogue of Lucian, entitled de Saltatione, tom. ii. p. 265-317, edit. and it Reitz. The pantomimes obtained the honourable name of was required that they should be conversant with almost every art and science. Burette (in the Memoircs de 1 Academic dcs In.scriptions, tom. i. p. 127, etc.) has given a short history of the art of pantomimes. “Ammianus, I. xiv. c. 6. He complains, with decent indignation, that the streets of Rome were filled with crowds of females, who might have given children to the state, but whose only occupation was to curl and dress their hair, and Jactari volubilibus gyris, dum exprimunt innumera simulacra, quse finxere fabulse theatrales. ’

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

iio6

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 tants of

known to contain the largest space within any given circumference. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age, and

II.

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 thd 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.*" “Lipsius (tom. iii. p. 423, de Magnitud. Romana, 1 iii. c. 3) and Isaac Vossius (Observat. Var. p. 26-34) have indulged strange dreams, of four, or eight, or fourteen millions in Rome. Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. i. p. 450-457), with admirable good sense and scepticism, betrays some secret disposition to extenuate the populousness of ancient times. " Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Grsec. tom. ix. p. 400. [The name of the mathematician was Ammon, not Ammonius, and notwithstanding this statement in Olympiodorus, the actual circumference of the walls of Rome could not have exceeded twelve miles. O. S.] "In ea autem maj estate urbis, et vicium infinita frequentia innumerabiles habitationes opus fuit explicate. Ergo cum recipere non posset area plana tantam multitudinem fad habitandum] in urbe, ad auxilium altitudinis aedificiorum res ipsa coiigit devenire. Vitruv. ii. 8. This passage, which I owe to Vossius, is clear, strong, and comprehensive. "The successive testimonies of Pliny, Aristides, Claudian, Rutilius, etc., prove the insufficiency of these restrictive edicts. See Lipsius, de Magnitud. .

—

Romana,

1.

iii.

c. 4.

Tabulata

Tu

tibi

jam

tertia

fumant;

nescis nam si gradibus trepidatur ab imis Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula sola tuetur pluvia. Juvenal, Satir.

A

;

iii.

199.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1107

in. Juvenal

laments, as it should seem from his own experience, the 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 annuall y paid for a dark and

hard^ps

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 eightytwo.’^ The two classes of domus and of insulce, 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 If we adopt the same average garret immediately under the tiles. 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.’*

”Read

the whole third Satire, but particularly 166, 223, etc. The descripcrowded insula, or lodging-house, in Petronius (c. 95, 97), perfectly tallies with the complaints of Juvenal; and we learn from legal authority that, in the time of Augustus (Heineccius, Hist. Juris Roman, c. iv. p. 181), the tion of a

ordinary rent of the several cccnaeula, or apartments of an insula, annually produced forty thousand sesterces, between three and four hundred pounds sterling (Pandect. 1. xix. tit. ii. No. 30), a sum which proves at once the large extent and high value of those common buildings. "This sum total is composed of 1780 domus, or great houses, of 46,602 •«sulce, or plebeian habitations (see Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. iii. p. ; and these numbers are ascertained by the agreement of the texts of the different Notitia. Nardini,

1. viii. p. 498, 500. that accurate writer M. de Messancc, Recherches sur la Population, From probable or certain grounds he assigns to Paris 23,565 p. 175-187. houses, 71,114 families, and 576,630 inhabitants. "This computation is not very different from that which M. Brotier, the last editor of Tacitus (tom. ii. p. 380), has assumed from similar principles; though he seems to aim at a degree of precision which it is neither possible nor important to obtain. [Since the time of Gibbon, the populousness of ancient Rome has been De la Malle has investigated by several writers, whose names are below. reduced the population to 562,000 souls, and Hock to 2,265,000. The estimate of the former is much too low. The most important datum for estimating the population is the statement in the Monumentum Ancyranum, that the plebs

"See

;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

iioS

Such was the state of

when

the Gothic

Rome under

army formed the

the reign of Honorius, at the time siege, or rather the blockade, of

By a skilful disposition of his numerous forces, who impawatched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the

the city/* tiently

commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tiber, from which the Romans derived the surest and most The first emotions of the nobles and plentiful supply of provisions.

walls,

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 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; 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 her 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. defenceless

This number contains in the year 5 b.c. consisted of 320,000 males. years of age (Suetonius, Aug 41), nor senators, neither children under nor equitcs, nor slaves. The females and children under eleven must have been at least double, which would make the plebs urbana 640,000. Hock supposes that as the 320.000 were the persons who received the congiarifi from the state, they were only the poorer members of the plebs urbana, and that Mommsen, however, the whole number of the latter amounted to 1,250,000. has satisfactorily proved that all Roman citizens received the congiaria, with The latter may have been the exception of the senators and the equites. about 10,000. The number of slaves was immense, and was at least equal to or double the male population. In addition to these we must reckon the military and the great mass of foreigners always resident in Rome, so that the population could not have been far short of 2,000,000. If this should be considered too large a number to be distributed among the 1780 domus and the 46,602 insulae, it must be remembered that the domus were large palaces, and the insulae contained numerous separate dwellings, being divided from other edifices by a space of at least five feet, whence their name. Besides this, the slaves were very densely crowded, and lived in cellars and subterranean dwellings under the public edifices. O. S.] For the events of the first siege of Rome, which are often confounded with those of the second and third, see Zosimus, 1 . v. [c. 38-42] p. 350-354; Sozomen, 1 ix. c. 6; Olympiodorus, ap. Phot. p. 180 [p. 57, ed, Bel^.] Philostorgius, L xii. c. 3 ; and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 467-475.

urbana

H

—

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

no?

The

poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the necessaries of solicited the precarious charity of the rich; and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the humanity of Lata, 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 preternatural deliverance. Pompeianus, praefect of the city, had been persuaded, by the art or fanaticism of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force of ^lls 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 comlife,

1

"The mother of Lseta was named Pissumena. Her father, family, and country are unknown. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 59. ”Ad ncfandos cibos erupit esurientium rabies, et sua invicem membra aniarunt, dum mater non parcit lactenti infantise; et recipit utero, quern paullo ante effuderat. Jerom. ad. Principiam, tom. i. p. 121 [Ep. cxxvii. tom. The same horrid circumstance is likewise told of the i. p. 953) ed. Vallars.]. sieges of Jerusalem and Paris. For the latter, compare the tenth book of the Henriade, and the Journal de Henri IV. tom. i. p. 47-83 ; and observe that a plain narrative of facts is much more pathetic than the most laboured descriptions of epic poetry. "Zosimus (1. V. [c. 41] p. 355, 356) speaks of these ceremonies like a Greek unacquainted with the national superstition of Rome and Tuscany. I suspect that they consisted of two parts, die secret and the public; the former

1110

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

municated 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 senate, who in this the moderation, of the king of the Goths. 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 tlie 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 honourable 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 condescend^ 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 who 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,

were probably an imitation of the arts and spells by which Numa had drawn down Jupiter and his thunder on Mount Aventine. Quid agant laqueis, quze carmina dicant, Quaque trahant superis scdibus arte Jovem, Scire nefas homini. of Mars, the pignora Imperii, which were carried in solemn procession on the calends of March, derived their origin from thi^ mysterious event (Ovid. Fast. iii. 259-398). It was probably designed to revive this ancient festival, which had been suppressed by Theodosius. In that case we recover a chronological date (March the 1st, a.d. 409) which has not hitherto been observed. “Sozomen (l."ix. c. 6) insinuates that the experiment was actually though unsuccessfully made, but he dues not mention the name of Innocent; and Tillemont (Mem_. Eccles. tom. x. p. 645) is determined not to believe that a pope could be guilty of such impious condescension.

The

anctlia or shields

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

IIXI

O kingl axe 3rour demands, what do you intend to leave us? ” “ Yotis LIVES,” replied the haughty conqueror: they trembled and retired. Yet before they retired, a ^ort 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 rigour 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 were intercepted by the calamities of war; the gold and gems had been exch»iged, 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 As soon as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands of city. 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 granaA more regular discipline than could have been expected was ries. 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 Go^s 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 refu^ 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 honourable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus,*® the brother of his wife, had conducted, at his pressing invitation, from the banks of the ” Pepper was a favourite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery, and the best sort commonly sold for fifteen denarii, or ten shillings, the pound. See Pliny, Hist. Natur. xii. 14. It was brought from India; and the same country, the coast of Malabar, still affords the greatest plenty; but the improvement of trade and navigation has multiplied the quantity and reduced the price. See Histoire Politique et Philosophique, etc., tom. i. p. 457. "This Gothic chieftain is called, by Jornandes and Isidore, Athaulphus; by Zosimus and Orosius, Ataulphus; and by Ol3mipiodorus, Adaoulphns. I have used the celebrated name of Adolphus, which seems to be authorised by ^e practice of the Swedes, the sons or brothers of the ancient Goths.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

X1I2

and who had cut their way, with some through the superior numbers 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 an hundred thousand fighting men; and Italy pronounced with terror and respect the formidable name of Alaric.*^ 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 hos-

Danube

difficulty

to those of the Tiber,

and

loss,

tages and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals which he clearly expressed during the course of the negotiations could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as they might seem inadequate

more

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 be chose the provinces of Dalmatia, to the state of his fortune.

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 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 dismisspd their ambassadors under the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of honour, and too feeble for an army of defence. Six

Germany.®*

thousand Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered 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 an hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the ambassadors, who could no longer Haim the protection of the law of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a raiisom of thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed to

The

treaty between Alaric

and the Romans, etc., is taken from Zosimus. 3S4 35S, 3S8, 359, 3^2, 363. The additional circumstances are too few and trifling to require any other quotation I*"'

Zosimus,

i

1.

V.

[c.

48] p. 367, 368, 369.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ixij

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.** Oljrmpius mi^t have continued to insult the just resentment of a his proposals of peace,

who loudly accused him as the author of the public ralamitiea, but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the palace. The favourite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius and the empire to Jovius, the Praetorian praefect an unworthy servant, who did not atone by the merit of personal attachment for the errors people

—

and misfortunes of his administration. The exile, or escape, of the 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 guilty

—

—

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 pro-

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 militarx^ 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 honourable 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 Rhaetia, 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 denieii by the avarice or poverty of the court of Ravenna. The valour of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Ill3n'ian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a reinforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of scription

“ Zosimus, I. v. [c. 45] p. 360, 361, 362 The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending calamities of the city. Orosius, 1 vii. c. 39, p. 573. “For the adventures of Olympius and his successors in the ministry, see Zosimus, 1 V. [c. 46] P- 363 36 S, 366; and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181 [p. 57, ed. Bekk.]. “Zosimus ( 1 V. [c. 46] p. 364) relates this circumstance with visible complacency, and celebrates the character of Gennerid as the last glory of expiring Paganism. Very different were the sentiments of the council of Carthage, who deputed four bishops to the court of Ravenna, to compl&in of the law which had been just enacted, that all conversions to Christianity should be See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. a.d. 409, No. 12; a.d. 410, free and voluntary. .

t

.

No. 47,

48.

III4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

by such a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous and oxen, as mig^t 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 praefect 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 ship-board and privately executed; while the favour 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 the subordinate minisBy the insolent order ters was the cause of their mutual destruction. of the count of the domestics, the great chamberlain was shamefully Italy, attended

train of sheep

beaten to death with sticks before the eyes of the astonished emperor; 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 Prsetorian praefect, granting him a free permission to dispose of the public money, but sternly refuang to prostitute the military honours of Rome to the proud de-

and the subsequent assassination of Allobich,

mands 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 praefect 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 tq..the mercy of Heaven; but 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

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1115

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 marshes 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 afiected, 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 Csesar 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 Tiber about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia.** The Roman Port insensibly swelled to

“ Zosimus, 1. V. [c. 47-49] P* 3^7, 368, 369. This custom of swearing by the head, or life, or safety, or genius, of the sovereign, was of the highest antiquity, both in Egypt (Genesis xlii. 15) and Scythia. It was soon transferred, by flattery, to the Caesars; and Tertullian complains that it was die only oath which the Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an elegant Dissertation of the Abbe Massieu on the Oaths of the Ancients, in the Mon. de I’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 208, 209. " Zosimus, 1. V. [c. 50] p. 368, 369. I have softened 'the expressions of Alaric, who expatiates in too florid a manner on the history of Rome. “See Sueton. in Claud, c. 20; Dion Cassius, 1. lx. fc. n] p. 949, edit Reimar; and the lively description of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, etc. In the sixteenth century, when the remains of this Augustan port were still visible, the antiquarians sketched the plan (see D'Anville, Mem. de I’Academie del Inscriptions, tom xxx. p. 198}, and declared with enthusiasm that all the monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute so great a work (Bergier, Hist, des Grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. p. 356). “The Ostia Tiberina (see Cluver. Italia Antiq. 1. iii. p. 870-879), in the plural number, the two mouths of the Tiber, were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral triangle, whose sides were each of them computed at about two miles. The colony ot Ostia was founded immediately beyond the left, or southern, and the Port immediately beyond the right, or northern, branch of the river; and the distance between their remains measures something more than two miles on Cingrolani’s map. In the time of Strabo the sand and mud deposited by the Tiber had choked the harbour of Ostia; the progress of the same cause has added much to the size of thi Holy Island, and gradually left both Ostia and the Port at a considerable distance from the shore. The dry channels (fiumt morti) and the large estuaries (stagno

;

THE DEClrlME AND FALL OF

ixi6

the size of an episcopal dty,*® where the com of Africa was d^Msited in spacious granaries for the use of the capital. As soon as ^Alaric was the city to tmin possession of that important place he summoned render 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

The clamours of that people and the terror of people depended. 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 Attains, prasfect 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 Attains; and the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship and alliance.**

The the

gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of side by the Gothic arms, was con-

Romans, encompassed on every

ducted in tumultuous procession to the palace of Augustus and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers, Attalus convened an assembly of the senate, before whom, in a formal 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 favourable 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 di Ponente, di Levante) mark the changes of the river and the efforts of the sea. Consult, for the present state of this dreary and desolate tract, the excellent map of the ecclesiastical state by the mathematicians of Benedict XIV.; an actual survey of the Agro Romano, in six sheets, by Cingolani, which contains 113,819 rubbia (about 570,000 acres) ; and the large topographical map of Ameti, in eight sheets. "As early as the third (Lardner’s Credibility of the Gospel, part ii. vol. iii p. 89-93), or at least the fourth century (Carol, a Sancto Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47), the Port of Rome was an episcopal city, which was demolished, as it should seem, in the ninth century, by pope Gregory IV., during the incursions of the Arabs._ It is now reduced to an inn, a church, and the house or palace of the bishop, who ranks as one of six cardinal bishops of the Roman church. See Eschinard, Descrizione di Roma et dell’ Agro Romano, p. 328. "For the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, 1 . vi. [c. 6, 7] p. 377-380; Sozomen, 1 . ix.erson; 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 still

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

was terminated by the death of the count himself, who 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 entertain^ 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 tragic scene

after three ineffectual strokes,

which he afterwards ascended. In the familiar intercourse of private manners were cheerful and engaging: nor would he sometimes disdain, in the license of convivial mirth, to vie with the pantomimes

life his

themselves in the exercises of their ridiculous profession. But when the trumpet summoned him to arms; when he mounted bis 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 praises which Sozomen has bestowed on this act of despair appear strange and scandalous in the mouth of an ecclesiastical historian. He observes (p. 379 [ed. Cantab. 1720]) that the wife of Gerontius was a Christian; and that her death was worthy of her religion, and of immortal fame. E’Sor fiftoi' TvparvlSos, is the expression of Olsmipiodorus, which he seems to have borrowed from ^olus. a tragedy of Euripides, of which some fragments only are now extant (Euripid. Barnes, tom. ii. p. 443. rer. This allusion may prove that the ancient tragic poets were still familiar to the Greeks of the fifth century.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

iii7

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 Constantins 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 behav^ 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 secu-

and after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the sacred characa Christian presbyter, he ventured to open the gates of the city. But he soon experienced that the principles of honour and integrity, which might regulate the ordinary conduct of Constantius, were superseded by the loose doctrines of political morality. The Roman general rity;

ter of

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 had 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 battlfr, the justice of the cause of Honorius. The hasty retreat of Constantius might be

the decline and fall op

Itzi justified

reasons; but be resigned vithout a stride the po»> and Dardanus, the Pnetorian praefect, is recorded as the

by weigbty

session of Gaul;

only magistrate \rho 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 Attains, 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 Attains 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 ^rone, Jovinus upbraided, in dark and ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attains; 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 Sams, 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 Sams 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 deserv^ the esteem, without exciting the compassion, of their than he was enemies; and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils instantly despatched. The death of Sams dissolved the loose alliance which Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of Gaul. He again listened to the dictates of love and pmdence; and soon satisfied the brother of Flacidia, 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 oldest cities of Gaul. The “*Sidonius Apollinaris ( 1 v. Epist. 9, p. 139, and Not. Sirmond. p. 58), after stigmatising the inconstancy of Constantine, the facility of Jovinus, the perfidy of Gerontius, continues to observe that all the vices of these tyrants were united in the person of Dardanus. Yet the praefect supported a respectable character in the world, and even in the church held a devout correspond.

;

ence with St. Augustin and St. Jeront; and was complimented by the latter (tom. iii. p. 66) with the epithets of Christianorum Nobilissime and Nobilium Christianissime.

’"The expression may be understood almost

literally:

Olympiodorus

says,

SAkkos (or o'dicot) may signify a sack or a loose garment and this method of entangling and catching an enemy, laciniis contortis, was much practised by the Huns (Ammian. xxxi. 2). II fut pris vif avec des filets, is the translation of Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. v. p. preme and independent authority over their native subjects, ambitiously solicited the more honourable 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 ^e 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 neighbouring island. They expelled the Roman magistrate, 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, the inconstant, ;

See the remarkable passage of the Eucharisticon of Paulinus, Mascou, 1. viii. c. 42.

575,

apad

‘‘"This important truth is established by the accuracy of Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. tom v. p 641) and by the ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos (Hist, de I'Etabhsscment de la Monarchie Fran^oise dans Ics Gaules, tom 1. p 259). ' ’ Zosimus ( 1 VI. [c. s] 376 [c. 10], 383) relates in a few words the revolt of Our antiquarians, even the great Camden himself, Britain and Armorica have been betrayed into many gross errors by their imperfect knowledge of the history of the continent. ”*The limits of Armorica are defined by two national geographers, Messieurs The word de Valois and d’Anville, in their Notiftas of Ancient Gaul been used in a more extensive, and was afterwards contracted to a much narrower, signification. .

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1^

nbellious disposition of the people, was incompatible either with freeand Armorica, though it could not long maintain dom or servitude the -form of a republic,”® was agitated by frequent and destructive Britain was irrecoverably lost.^’^' But as the emperors wisely revolts. acquiesced in the independence of a remote province, the separation was not embittered by the reproach of tyranny or rebellion; and the rlaims of allegiance and protection were succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of national friendship.*'® This revolution dissolved the artiiici^ 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.*'® 1. 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 *"

Gens inter geminos notissima clauditur amnes, Armoricana prius veteri cognomine dicta.

Torva, ferox, ventosa, procax, incauta, rebellis; Inconstans, disparque sibi novitatis amore; Prodiga verborum, sed non et prodiga facti. Erricus, Monach. in Vit. St. Gcrmani, 1 . v. apud Vales. Notit. Galliarum, p. 43. Valesius alleges several testimonies to confirm this character to which 1 sl»ll add the evidence of the presbyter Constantine (a.d. 488), who, in the Life of St. Germain, calls the Armorican rebels mobilem et indisciplinatum populum. See the Historians of France, tom. i. p. ^3. "* I thought it necessary to enter my protest against this part Of the system of the Abbe Dubos, which Montesquieu has so vigorously opposed. See Esprit des Loix, 1 . xxx. c. 24. *” BperarWar lUvroi 'VwiiaXoi ivaaiSmairBai oiKiri tvxov, are the words of Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1 . i. c. 2, p. 181, Louvre edition [tom. i. p. 318, ed. Bonn]), in a very important passage which has been too much neglected. Even Bede (Hist. Gent. Anglican. 1 . i. c. 12, p. 50, edit. Smith) .acknowledges that the Romans finally left Britain in the reign of Honorius. Yet our modern historians and antiquarians extend the term of thoir dominion; and there are some who allow only the interval of a few months between their departure and the arrival of the Saxons. *" Bede has not forgot the occasional aid of the legions against the Scots and Piets; and more authentic proof will hereafter be produced that the independent Britons raised 12,000 men for the service of the emperor Anthemius ;

in Gaul.

owe

it to myself and to historic truth to declare that some circumstances paragraph are founded only on conjecture and analogy. The stubbornness of our language has sometimes forced me to deviate from the cECL1NE AHD FALL OF

XI4S

and the customs of thdr. relaps^ into barbarism, while the dHes 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 bis equals might enable him to subdue the freedom of some neighbouring cities, and to dispose

them

ancestors.

to affect the dress, the language,

If the princes of Britain

claim a rank

among

the tyrants

who

infested Britain after the dis-

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 behaviour. The interest, as well as the temper, of the clergy, was favourable 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 laboured 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,*" solution of the

;

|**’AXX’ o6ra, is

the expression of Olympiodorus (apud

196 [p. 62 b, ed. Bekk.] ) ; who means, perhaps, to describe the same caresses which Mahomet bestowed on his daughter Phatemah. Quando (says the prophet himself), quando sabit mihi desiderium Paradisi, osculor earn, et ingcro_ linguam mcam in os ejus. But this sensual indulgence was

Photium,

justified

p.

by miracle and mystery ; and the anecdote has been communicated and Confuta-

to the public by the Reverend Father Maracci, in his Version tion of the Koran, tom. i. p, 32.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1183

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 press^ the approach of Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular cred^ity 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 he marched through the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his people from the Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the resinging, as

mainder 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

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 conquest,

For these revolutions of the Western empire consult Olympiodor. apud Sozomen, I. ix. c. 16; p. 192, 193, 196, 197, 200 [p. 61-63, ed. Bekk.] vii. 23, 24; Philostorgius, I. xii. c. 10, ii [12-14], and Godefroy, Socrates, ’

Phot.

;

1.

4^; Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 3, p, 182, 183 319 seqq. ed. Bonn] ; Theophanes, in Chronograph, p.

Dissertat. p.

fed.

tom.

72,

Par

i. ;

p.

tom

i.

p. 129-131, ed.

Bonn]

;

Paris; 73 [ed.

and the Chronicles.

See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1 . ii. c. 7. He Ifts laboriously, but vainly, attempted to form a reasonable system of jurisprudence from the various and discordant modes of royal succession, which have been introduced by fraud or force, by time or accident *

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

iiS4

his departure from Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of Cmsarx authority and, after the conquest of Italy, the patrician Helion, by of Theodosius, and in the presence of the senate, saluted Valentinian

^e

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 bethrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius and Athenais; and, as soon as the lover and his bride had attained the age of puberty, this honourable 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 sucPlacidia envied, but she could not cession of the Western empire. equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of Theodosius; the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and successful policy of PulThe mother of Valentinian was jealous of the power which cheria. she was incapable of exercising:^ she reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the character of that unworthy emperor grad-

*The iv.

p.

original writers are not agreed

139)

Ravenna.

(see Muratori, Annali d’ltalia, tom. whether Valentinian received the Imperial diadem at Rome or

In this uncertainty, I

am

willing to believe that

some respect was

shown to the senate, ‘The Count dc Buat

(Hist, des Peoples de I’Europe, tom. vii. p. 292-300) has established the reality, explained the motives, and traced the consequences, of this remarkable cession. * See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he ratifies and communicates (a.d. 438) the Theodosian Code. About 40 years before that time the unity of legislation had been proved by an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the cities of Apulia and Calabria, produced a law of the East to justify their exemption from municipal offices (Cod. Theod. 1 xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13) ; and the Western emperor was obliged to invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis partibus esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. 1 xi. [xii.] .

.

tit. i.

leg. 158.

’Cassiodorus (Vciriar. 1 xi. Epist. i. p. 238 fp. 161, ed. Venet.]) has compared the regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns the weakness of the mother of Valentinian. and praises the virtues of his royal mistress. Oa this occasion flattery seems to have spoken the languag^e of truth. .

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

xx8s

uaUy countenanced the su^icion that Pladdia had enervated his youth by a dissolute education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly and honourable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her armies were commanded by two generals, AStius ^ and Bomface,* 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 has immortalised the fame of Aetius; and thou^ 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. 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 abUities of Aetius 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 favour and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy season of her exile and

A

Boniface alone had maintained her cause with unshaken fideland the troops and treasures of Africa had essentially contributed The same rebellion had been supported to extinguish the rebellion. by the zeal and activity of Aetius, 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 purdistress, ity;

• Philostorgius, 1. xii. c. 12 [14], and Godefroy’s Dissertat. p. 493, etc.; and Renatus Fngendus, apud Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetiub was Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the province of Scythia and master-general of the cavalry; his mother was a rich and noble Italian. From his earliest youth, Aetius, as a soldier and a hostage, had

conversed with the barbarians. “For the character of Boniface see Olympiodorus. apud Phot, p 196 [p. 62 b, ed Bekk.] ; and St. Augustin, apud Tillemont, Memoires Eiccles. tom. The bishop of Hippo at len^h deplored the fall of xiii. p. 712-715, 886. his friend, who, after a solemn vow of chastity, had married a second wife of the Arian sect, and who was suspected of keeping several concubines in u'ts

house.

iz86

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

But Aetius posriiagM by liberal gifts and more liberal promises. sessed an advantage of singular moment in a female reign: he was present; he beseiged 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 Flacidia to recall could not easily suspect. He secretly persuaded 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 bf revolt; and when the credulous and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his defence, Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing temperate inquiry the rebellion which his own perfidy had excited. into the real motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful ser-

A

vant to his duty and to the republic; but the arts of Aetius 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 auAority 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 Baetica. The rapid progress of the Vandals soon required 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 enemy, Castinus fled with dis-

honour 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 "Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1 i. c. 3, 4, p. 182-186 [tom. i. p. 319-328, Bonn]) relates the fraud of Aetius, the revolt of Boniface, and the loss of Africa. This_ anecdote, which is supported by some collateral testimony (see Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal, p. 420, 421) seems agreeable to the practice of ancient and modem courts, and would be naturally revealed by .

ed.

the repentance of Boniface. "See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius [Sirmond, Op. tom. ii. p. 298], Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, 1 vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608) ascribes the victory 01 the Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted, they prayed, they carried .

_

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ii8r

the prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the vessels -which they found in the harbour of Carthagena might easily transport them to 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 reserved 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 dexteroudy 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 conAlmost in the moment of his departure he was informed tention. 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 Gibralter, 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 a Bible in the front of the Host, with the design, perhaps, of reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of their enemies. "Gizcricus (his name is variously expressed) statura mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermonc rarus, luxurix contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes providentissimus, semina contentionum jacerc, odia miscerc paratus. Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33. P. 657. This portrait, which is drawn with some skill and a strong likeness^ must have been copied from the Gothic history of Cassiodorus. “ Sec the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a Spaniard and a contemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in the month of May, of the year of Abraham (which commences in October) 2444. This date, which coincides with A.D. 429, is confirmed by Isidore, another Spanish bishop, and is justly preferred to the opinion of those writers who have marked for that event one of the two preceding years. See Pagi Critica, tom. ii. p. 205, etc.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

nSS

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 chUiarchs, 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 fourscore 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 The wandering Moors,^® as they their dread of the Roman arms. gradually ventured to approach the sea-shore and the camp of the Vandals, must have viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armour, the martial pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had landed on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blueeyed warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighbourhood of the After the first difficulties had in some measure been retorrid zone. moved 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 favourable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before be landed in Africa,

“Compare Procopius (de

Bell.

Vandal.

I.

i.

c. 5, p.

190 [tom.

i.

p. 334, ed.

Bonn]) and Victor Vitensis (de Persecutione Vandal. 1 i. c. i, p. 3, edit. Ruinart). We are assured by Idatius that Genseric evacuated Spain, cum Vandalis omnibus eorumque familiis [Sirm. Op. tom. ii. p. 299] and Possidius (in Vit Augustin, c. 28, apud Ruinart, p. 427) describes his army as manus ingens immanium gentium Vandalorum et Alanorum, commixtam secum habens Gothorum gentem, aliarumque diversarum personas. “For the manners of the Moors see Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1 ii. c. 6, p. 249 [torn. i. p. 434, ed. Bonn] ) ; for their figure and complexion, M. de .

;

.

Buffon

(Histoire Naturelle, tom. iiL p. 430). Procopius says in general Moors liad joined the Vandals before the death of Valentinian (de Bell. Vandal. 1 i. c. S, p. 190 [tom. i. p. 334, ed. Bonn] ) ; and it is probable that the independent trij^s did not embrace any uniform system of policy. “See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 516-558; and the whole series of the persecution, in the original monuments, published by Dupin at the end of Optatus, p. 323-515. that the

.

THE ROHAN EHPIRE

nflg

a public conference was held at Carthage by the order of the magistrate. catholics were sat^ed 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 dergy, were tom from their churdies, stripped of their ecdesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, and proscribed by Ae laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in dties and in the country, woe 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 distinctions of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of assisting at schismatic conventide; and if the fine had been levied five times without subduing the obstinacy of the offended, 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

The

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

“The Donatist bishops, at the conference of Carthage, amounted to 279; and they asserted that their whole number was not less than 400. The Catholics had 286 present, 120 absent, besides sixty-four vacant bishoprics. “The fifth title of the sixteenth book of the Theodosian Code exhibits a series of the Imperial laws against the Donatists, from the year 400 to the year 428. Of these the S4th law, promulgated by Honorius, a.d. 414, is the most severe and effectual. “St. Augustin altered his opinion with regard to the proper treatment of heretics. His pathetic declaration of pity and indulgence for the Manichsans has been inserted by Mr. Locke (vol. iii. p. 469) among the choice specimens of his commonplace book. Another philosopher, the celebrated Bayle (tom. ii. p. 445-496), has refuted, with superfluous diligence and ingenuity, the arguments by which the bishop of Hippo justified, in his old age, the persecution of the Donatists. “See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 586-592, 806. The Donatists boasted of thousands of these voluntary martyrs. Augustin asserts, and probably with truth, that these numbers were much exaggerated ; but he sternly maintains that it was better that some should burn themselves in this world than that all should burn in hell flames. “According to St. Augustin and Theodoret, the Donatists were inclined to the principles, or at least to the party, of the Arians, ‘which Genseric supported. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vL p. 68.

^

ngo

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

by the active zeal or the secret favour of a domestic 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 favours and so many services, had renounced his allegiance and invited the barbarians to destroy the province entrusted to his command. The friends of Boniface, who stiU believed that his criminal behaviour might be excused by some honourable motive, solicited, during the absence of Aetius, a free conference with the Count of Africa; and Darius, an officer of high distinction, In their first interview at was named for the important embassy.^® Carthage the imaginary provocations were mutually explained, the opposite letters of Aetius 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 Carthage and the Roman garrisons returned with their its foundations. 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 insult^ the open coimtry; 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: \^as facilitated

faction;

” See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. a.d. 428, No. 7, a.d. 439, No. 35. The cardinal, though more inclined to seek the cause of great events in heaven than on the earth, has observed the apparent connection of the Vandals and the Donatists. Under the reign of the barbarians, the schismatics of Africa enjoyed an obscure peace of one hundred years; at the end of which we may again trace them by the light of the Imperial persecutions. See Tillemont,

Mem. "In

Eccles. tom. vi. p. 192, etc. a confidential letter to Count Boniface, St. Augustin, without examining the grounds of the quarrel, piously exhorts him to discharge the duties of a Christian and a subject; to extricate himself without de&y from his dangerous and guilty situation; and even, if he could obtain the consent of his wife, to embracfe a life of celibacy and penance (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 890) . The bishop was intimately connected with Darius, the minister of peace (id. tom. xiii. p. 928).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1191

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 exa^erated 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 the valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the distinction 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 stem 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 imable to check. After the loss of a battle he retired to Hippo Regius, where he was immediately besieged by an enemy who considered him as the real bulwark of Africa. The mariabout two hundred miles westward of Cartime colony of Hippo , thage, had formerly acquired the distinguishing epithet of Regius from the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of trade and

—

’*The original complaints of the desolation of Africa are contained i. In letter from Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, to excuse his absence from the council of Ephesus (ap. Ruinart, p. 428). z. In the Life of St. Augustin by his friend and colleague Possidius (ap. Ruinart, p. 427). 3. In the History of the Vandalic Persecution, by Victor Vltensis (I. i. c. i, 2, 3, edit. Ruinart). The last picture, which was drawn sixty years after the event, is more expressive of the author’s passions than of the truth of facts. "See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. part ii. p. iiz. Leo African, in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 70. L’Afrique de Marmol, tom. ii. p. 434, 437. Shaw’s Travels, p. 46, 47. The old Hippo Regius was finally destroyed by the Arabs in the seventh century; but a new town, at the distance of two miles, was built with the materials and it contained in the sixteenth century about three hundred families of industrious, but turbulent, manufactSrers. The adjacmt territory is renowned for a pure air, a fertile soil, and plenty of exquisite

a

;

fruitk

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

eedily repaired; but this accident was aggravated by a superstitious fear that Heaven itself had delivered to

the Imperial city to the shepherds of Scythia, wb i were strangers to the laws, the language, and the religion of the Romans.**

In all their invasions of the civilised 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. " Septuaginta civitates (says Prosper-Tyro) deprsedatione vastatse. The language of Count Marcellinus is still more forcible. Pene totam Europam, invasis excisisque civitatibus atque castellis, conrasit. "Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. io6, 107) has paid great attention to this memorable earthquake, which was felt as lar from Constanti-

nople as Antioch and Alexandria, and is celebrated by all the ecclesiastical writers. In the hands of a popular preacher, an earthquake is an engine of admirable effect.

THE ROHAN EMPIRE But these considerations

of

hope and fear are

almost unknown

xaop in the

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 ^ort 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

pastoral state of nations.

Thu Huns

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 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 honourable 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 meanwhile 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 behaviour of the Moguls when they were not conscious of any extraordinary rigour.** 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,

“He

represented to the emperor of the Mogpils that the four provinces (Petcheli, Chantong, Chansi, and Leaotong) which he already possessed might annually produce, under a mild administration, 500,000 ounces of silver, 400,000 measures of rice, and 800,000 pieces of silk. Gaubil, Hist, de la Dynastie des Mongous, p. 58, 59. Yelutchousay (such was the name of the mandarin) was a wise and virtuous minister, who saved his country and civilised the

conquerors. See p. 102, 103. ” Particular instances would be endless ; but the curioilfs reader may consult the Life of Gengiscan, by Petit de la Croix, the Histoire des Mongous, and tile fifteenth book of the History of the Huns.

1210

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

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

ScouKGE OF God.** 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 laboured in the propagation of the gospel.** The pastoral tribes, who were igno-

rant 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.*®

“At Maru,

1,300,000; at Herat, 1,600,000; at Neisabour, 1,747,000. D’HerbeBibliotheque Orientalc, p. 380, 381. I use the orthography of D’Anville’s maps. It must, however, he allowed, that the Persians were disposed to exaggerate their losses, and the Moguls to magnify their exploits. “ Cherefeddin Ali, his servile panegyrist, would afford us many horrid examples. In his camp before Delhi, Timur massacred 100,000 Indian prisoners, who had smiled when the army of their countrymen appeared in sight (Hist, de Timur Bee, tom. iii. p. go). The people of Ispahan supplied 70,000 human skulls for the structure of several lofty towers (id. tom. i. p. 434). similar tax was levied on the revolt of Bagdad (tom. iii. p. 370) ; and the exact account, which Chcrefeddin was not able to procure from the proper officers, is stated by another historian (Ahmed Arabsiada, tom. ii. p. 175, vers. Manger) at 90,000 heads. ”The ancients, Jornandcs, Priscus, etc., are ignorant of this epithet. The modern Hungarians have imagined that it was applied, by a hermit of Gaul, to Attila, who was pleased to insert it among the titles of his royal dignity. Mascou, ix. 23, and Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 143. “The missionaries of St. Chrysostom had converted great numbers of the Scythians, who dwelt beyond the Danube in tents and waggons. Theodoret, 1 . V. c. 31; Photius, p. 1517 [p. 508 b, ed. Bekk.]. The Mahometans, the Nestoriaiis, and the Latin Christians, thought themselves secure of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis, who treated the rival missionaries with impartial favour. lot,

A

“The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his legions, had been particularly offended with the Roman laws and lawyers. One of the barbarians, after the effectual precautions of cutting out the tongue of an advocate, and

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

latx

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 favourites 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 armourer, 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 favour and respect: the barbarians, who despised death, might be apprehensive

The perpetual

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 daves, 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 Pythian. 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 bis captivity,* since it had been the introduction to a happy and independent state, which he sewing up

his

no longer

hiss.

mouth, observed with much satistaction that the viper could Florus,

iv.

12.

“Priscus, p. 59 [p. igo, ed. Bonn]. It should seem that the Huns preferred the Gothic and Latin languages to their own, which was probably a harsh and barren idiom. “ Philip de Comines, in his admirable picture of the last moments of Lewis XI. (Memoires, 1 vi. c. 12), represents the insolence of his physician, who, in five months, extorted 54,000 crowns and a rich bishopric from the stern .

avaricious tyrant. "Priscus (p. 61 [p. 194, cd. Bonn]) extols the equity of the Roman laws, which protected the life of a slave. Occidere solent (says Tacitus of the Germans) non disciplina et servitate, sed impetu et ‘iaa, ut inimicum, nisi quod impune. De Moribus Germ. c. 25. The Heruli, who were the subjects of Attila, claimed and exercised the power of life and death over their slaves. See a remarkable instance in the second book of Agathias.

I>12

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

by the honourable 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

held

defended by Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colours, 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 stffl 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 Singiduniim, or Belgrade, as far as Novae, 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 through the foulest channels to the treasury of Constantinople. The revenue was dissipated by Theodosius and his favourites in waste-

“See the whole conversation in Nova iterum Orienti assurgit

p. 59-62 [p. 189-197, ed. Bonn]. quum nulla ab Occidentalibus feiTOTtur auxilia. Prosper-Tyro composed his Chronicle in the West; and his observation implies a censure.

Priscus, ruina . .

.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

iai3

ful and profuse luxury, which was disguised by the names of Imperial magnificence or Christian charity. The immediate supplies had been perexhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military preparations. sonal 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

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 prisoners 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 ;

“According to the description, or rather invective, of Chrysostom, an auction of Byzantine luxury must have been vep^ productive. Every wealthy house possessed a semicircular table of massy silver, such as two men could scarcely lift a vase of solid gold of the weight of forty pounds ; cups, dishes, of the :

same

metal,

etc.

"The articles of the treaty, expressed without much order or precision, may be found in Priscus (p. 34, 35, 36, 37, 53, etc. [ed. Par.; p. 142-148, 178, Count Marcellinus dispenses some comfort by observing— and presents which he had formerly refused; and, 2. That, about the same time, the ambassadors of India presented a fine large tame tiger to the emperor Theodosius. " Priscus, p. 35, 36 [p. 143, 144, ed. Bonn]. Among the hundred and eigh^two forts or castles of Thrace enumerated by Procopius (de .Sdificiis, 1 it. c. xi. tom. ii. p. 92, edit. Paris [tom. iii. p. 306, ed. Bonn]), there is one of the name of Esimontou, whose position is doubtfully marked, in the neighbourhood of Anchialus and the Euxine Sea. The name ana '^alls of Azimuntium might subsist till the reign of Justinian; but the race of its brave defenders had been carefully extirpated by the jealousy of the Roman princes. etc., 1.

ed.

That

Bonn]).

Attila himself solicited the peace

.

the decline AND FALL OF

iax4

Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and successful sallies, the troops of who gradually declined the dangerous neighbourhood, rescu^ 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 They negotiate an equal exchange with the citizens of Azimus. 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 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, inde^, if Theodosius had purchased, by the loss of honour, a secure and solid tranquillity, or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries. The Byzantine court was the Huns,

insulted

by

five or six successive

embassies;*® and the ministers of Attila

were uniformly instructed to press the tardy or imperfect execution of the l^t 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 motive of pride and interest which might prompt the king of the Huns to continue this train

"The

peevish dispute of St.

Jerom and

St.

Augustin,

who

laboured by

seeming quarrel of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, depends on the solution of an important question (Middleton’s Works, vol. ii. p. S-io), which has been frequently agitated by catholic and Protestant divines, and even by lawyers and philosophers of every age. "Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, etc., c. xix.) has delineated, with a bold and easy pencil, some of the most striking circumstances of the pride of Attila and* the disgrace of the Romans. He deserves the praise of having read the Fragments of Priscus, which have been too much disredifferent expedients to reconcile the

garded.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

iai5

of negotiation, he was influenced by the less honourable view of enriching The Imperial treasury his favourites at the expense of his enemies. was exhausted to procure the friendly offices of the ambassadors and their principal attendants, whose favourable 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 splendour 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 Constantins.^* That Gallic adventurer, who was recommended by Aetius 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 obli-

gations of her country. The reluctance of the victim, some domestic troubles, and the unjust confiscation of her fortune, cooled the ardour 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. F or these importunate and oppressive embassies Attila claimed a suitable return; he weired, 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 minister 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 •

“See

Priscus, p. 69, 71, 72, etc. [p. 208, 213, ed. Bonn]. I would fain believe that this adventurer was afterwards crucified by the order of Attila, on a suspicion of treasonable practices; but Priscus (p. 57 [p. 185, 186, ed. Bonn]) has too plainly distinguished two persons of the name of Constantins, who, from the similar events of their lives, might have been easily con-

founded. “ In the Persian treaty, concluded in the year 422, the wise and eloquent Maximin had been the assessor of Ardaburius (Socrates, 1 vii. c. 20). When Marcian ascended the throne, the office of Great Chamberlain was bestowed on Maximin, who is ranked in a public edict among the four principal minHe executed isters of state (Novell, ad Calc. Cod. Theod. p. 31 [tit. ii.]). a civil and military commission in the eastern provinces and his death was lamented by the savages of JEithiopia, whose incursions he had repressed. See Priscus, p. 40, 41 [p. 153, I 54 ed- Bonn]. “ Priscus was a native of Paniura in Thrace, and ae?erved by his eloquence an honourable place among the sophists of the age. His Byzantine history, which related to his own times, was comprised in seven books. See Fabricins .

;

.

m6

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

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 Fannonian 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,

was incumbent on the Romans to

exercise the duties of hospitality. 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 ardour, 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 it

They

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 had 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, hollqwed out of the trunk of a single tree; the ministers Biblioth. Grscc. tom. vi. p. 235, 236. Notwithstanding: the charitable judgnient critics, I suspect that Priscus was a Fagan.

of the

:

THE ROMAN EMPIRE Theodoaus were safely landed on the opposite bank; and thdr 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 him to communicate the business and the instructions which he reserved for the ear of their sovereign. When Maximin temperatdy urged the contrary practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says Friscus) which should not be revealed to the gods themselves, had bem 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 firntr ness 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, instead 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 mardh, 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 Theiss, or Tibiscus, mi^t 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 Friscus, was distilled from barley.*® Such faje mi^t appear coarse and indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of Conof

stantinople; but, in their accidental distress, they were relieved

by

the

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

gentleness

* The Huns themselves still continued to despise the labours of agriculture they abused the privilege of a victorious nation; and the Goths, tiieir industrious subjects, who cultivated the earth, dreaded their neighbourhood, ISce that of so many ravenous wolves (Friscus, p. 45 [p. 163, ed. Bonn]). In the same manner the Sarts and Tadgics provide for fheir own subsistence, and for that of the Usbec Tartars, their lazy and rapacious sovereigns. See Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 423, 455, etc.

iii8

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

of the night, uncertain of their road and apprehensive of some tmknown danger, tili/they awakened by their cries the inhabitants of a neighbouring 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 embar-

rassed by the singular politeness of Bleda’s widow, who added to her other favours 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 Theiss, and the Carpathian hills, in the plains of Upper Hungary, and most probably in the neighbourhood of Jazberin, 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

“It is evident that Priscus passed the Danube and the Theiss, and that he did not reach the foot of the Carpathian hills. Agria, Tokay, and Jazberin are situate in the plains circumscribed by this definition. M. de Buat (Histoir^ des Peuples, etc,, tom. vii. p. 461) has chosen Tokay; Otrokosci (p. 180, apud Mascou, ix. 23), a learned Hungarian, has preferred Jazberin, a place about thirty-six miles westward of Buda and the Danube. [M. St. Martin considers the narrative of Priscus, the only authority of Count de Buat and of Gibbon, too vague to fix the position of Attila's camp. “ It is worthy of remark that in the Hungarian traditions collected by Thevrocz, I. 2, c. 17, precisely on the left branch of the Danube, where Attila’s residence was situated, in the same parallel stands the present city of Buda, in Hungarian Buduvur. It is for this reason that this city has retained for a long time among the Germans of Hungary the name of Etzelnburg or Etzelaburg, viz., the city of Attila. St. Martin sees no reason for not accepting the narration of the Hungarian historians. O. S.] “The royal village of Attila may be compared to the city of Karacorum, the residence of the successors of Zingis, which, though it appears to have been a more stable habitation, did not equal the size or splendour of the town and abbey of St« Oenys in the 13th century (see Rubruquis, in the Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. vii. p. 286). 'The camp of Aurengzebe, as it is so agreeably described by Bernier (tom. ii. p. 217-235), blended the manners of Scythia with the magnificence and luxury of Hindostan.

—

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1*19

may

be presumed that the meaner habitations of the royal mud, or of canvas. The wooden houses of the more illustrious Huns were built and adorned with rude magtimber,

it

village consisted of straw, of

nificence, according to the rank, the fortune, or the taste of the proThey seem to have been distributed with some degree of

prietors.

order and symmetry; and each spot became more honourable 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. 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 of her mansion, the height of the round columns, the size and beauty of the wood, which was curioudy 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 watted before the gate, the ambassadors were introduced into the private apartment of The wife of Attila received their visit sitting, or rather Cerca. 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 fjishioned by the labour of Grecian artists. The monarch alone assumed the superior pride of still adhering to the simplicity The dress of Attila, his arms, and the of his Scythian ancestors.*® furniture of his horse, were plain, without ornament, and of a sin^e The royal table was served in wooden cups and platters; colour. flesh was his only food; and the conqueror of the North never tasted

A

;

the luxury of bread.

When Attila first gave audience to the Roman ambassadors on the hanifg of the Danube, his tent was encompassed with a formidable guard. The monarch himself was seated in a wooden chair. His stem the diet of Toncal, the “ When the Moguls displayed the spoils of Asia throne of Zingis was still covered with the original black felt carpet on which he had been seated when he was raised to the command of his warSee Vie de Gengiscan, 1. iv. c. 9. like countrymen.

IMO

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

cqantenance, angry gestures, and impatient tone astonished the firnmess more reason to tremble, since he disof Maximin; but Vigilius tinctly understood the menace, that if Attila did not respect the law of nations, he would nail the deceitful interpreter to a cross, and leave his body to the vultures. The barbarians 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 He disit is our pleasure that it should be erased from the earth? ”

^d

missed, however, the interpreter, who returned to Constantinople with demand of more complete restitution, and a more His anger gradually subsided, and his domestic splendid embassy.

his peremptory

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. 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 favourite 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 ^e 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 banquet where Attila feasted with the

A

and nobles of Scythia. Maximin and his colleagues were stqpped on the threshold, till they had made a devout libation to the health and prosperity bf 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 princes

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

un

st^ in the midst of the hall; and a son, an uncle, or pada{xi a favourite king, were admitted to share the simple and homely rquM of Attila. Two lines of small tables, each of which contained three or four guests, were ranged in order on either hand; the ri^t was esteemed the most honourable, 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 cupbearer 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. Tto 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 valour 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 ardour 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 A Moorish and a Scythian buffoon sucdignity of human nature. cessively 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 Jlimnic 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 kii^ by severd

"If we may believe Plutarch (in Demetrio, tom. y. [c. 19] p. 24), it was the custom of the Scythians, when they indulged in the pleasures of the table, to awaken their languid courage by the martial harmony of twanging their bow-strings.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1132

held a long and familiar conversation with Maximin; but was interrupted by rude expressions and haughty re* proaches; and he was provoked, by a motive of interest, to support, with unbecoming zeal, the private daims 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

Huns

of the his

civility

ransom, to their pressing entreaties; and, besides the royal presents, they were permitted to accept from each of the Sc}rthian nobles the honourable 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, Ae 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.^^ But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous de»gn which had been concealed under the mask of the public faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he contemplated the splendour 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

The ambassador of the Huns listened to the tempting offer; professed, with apparent zeal, his ability, as well as readiness, to execute the bloody deed: the design was communicated to the master admired.

and

and the devout Theodosius consented to the assassination 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 If we now review the embassy of Maximin and the beconfession. haviour of Attila, we must applaud the barbarian, who respected the laws of hospitality, and generously entertained and dismissed the minisof the offices,

of his invincible enemy.

;

*The

curious narrative of this embassy, which required few observations, collateral evidence, may be found in Priscus, But I have not confined myself p. 49-70 [ed. Par.; p. 170-209, ed. Bonn]. to ^e same order ; and I had previously extracted the historical circumstances, which were less intimately connected with the journey and business of the

and was not susceptible of any

Roman • M.

ambassadors. _de Tillemont

has very properly given the succession of chamberlains reigned in the name of Theodosius. Chrysaphius was the last, and, according^ to the unanimqfit evidence of history, the worst of these favourites (sw Hist, des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 117-119; Mem. Eccles. tom. xv. p. 438). His partiality for his godfather, ^e heresiarch Eutyches, engaged him to persecute the orthodox party.

who

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1S*3-

life. But the rashness of 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 favourite 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

ter of

a princ&vho had conspired against his

Vigilius will appear

still

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 be disdained to punish. He pointed his just indignation against a nobler object. His ambassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were immediately desjiatched 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 recognised 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 honours, 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 astonish-

ment 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 demeanour, 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 ift wealth and inhabitants. But this treaty was purchased at an expense which might have supported a vigorous and successful war; and the subjects of The-

the decline and fall of

x»S4

odosius were compelled to rederan the safety of a worthless favouii^ for hi^

by oppressive taxes which they would more cheerfully have paid destruction.*®

The emperor Theodosius did not long survive the most humiliating circumstance of an inglorious life. As he was riding or hunting in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, he was thrown from his horse into the river Lycus: the spine of his 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 Fulcheria, 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 Fulcheria 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 favourite 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 Fulcheria 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 behaviour 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 bom 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 secret conspiracy, and its important consequences, may be traced fragments of Priscus, p. 37, 38, 39, 54, 70, 71, 72 [p. 146-150, i8o, 210214, ed. Bonn]. The chronology of that historian is not fixed by any precise date; but the series of negotiations between Attila and the Eastern empire must be included within the three or four years which are terminated, AX. 450, by the death of Theodosius. “ Theodoras the Reader (see Vales. Hist. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 563) and the Paschal Chronicle mention the fall without specifying the injury; but the consequence was so likely to happen, and so unlikely to be invented, that we may safely give credit to Nicephorus Callistus, a Greek of die fourteenth

"This

in the

century.

,

•

"Pulcheriie nutu est.

(says Count Marcellinus) sua cum avaritia interemptus She abandoned the eunuch to the pious revenge of a son whose father

had suffered at

his instigation.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

i»S

of Aspar and his son Ardabnrius; followed those powerand African wars; and obtained, by their influence, the honourable rank of tribune and senator. Plis mild disposition and useful talents, without alarming the jealousy, recomnoended

ttiilitaty service

ful generals to the Persian

Marcian to the esteem and favour 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

—

—

Iiwasion of Gaul by Attila He is repulsed by Aetius and the Visigoths Attila invades and evacuates Italy The Deaths uf Attila, Aetius, and Valentinian the Third

—

It was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided as long as it possible to preserve's secure and honourable peace; but it was likewise his opinion that peace cannot be honourable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war. This temperate courage

is

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 friend^ip of his allies; but that, if they presumed to violate the public peace, they should feel that he possessed troops, and arms, resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language, even in the camp of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold teft^ to deliver the presents, till he had been admitted to a personal

and

interview, displayed a sense of dignity, and a contempt of danger, which

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 Attila

“ Procopius, de

Evagrius, Bell. Vandal. 1 i. c. 4 [tom. i. p. 325, sqq. ed. Bonn] Theophanes, p. 90, 91 [ed. Par.; tom. i. p. 161-164, ed. Bonn] ; Novell, ad Calcem Cod. Thcod. tom. vi. p. 30. The praises which St. Leo and the catholics have bestowed on Marcian are diligently transcribed by Baronius, as an encouragement for future princes. * See Priscus, p. 39, 72 [p. 213, 214, ed. Bonn]. •The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which introduces this haughty message during the lifetime of Theodosius, may have anticipated the date; 1 . ii. c.

I

;

.

;

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1226

Romans

despised, or affected to despise, the

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 enter-

In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns were by the wealth and fertility of those provinces; but the particular motives and provocations of Attila can only be explained by &e state of the Western empire under the reign of Valentinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the administration of Aetius.® After the death of his rival Boniface, Aetius 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, be 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 prise.

naturally attracted

Placidia protect the son-in-law of Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian,® from the implacable persecution whicJi urged him from one

kingdom

to another,

till

he miserably perished in the service of the

fortunate Aetius, who was immediately promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested with the honours of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the whole

Vandals.

military

The

power of the

state;

and he is sometimes

writers, die duke, or general, of the

Romans

styled,

by contemporary

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

Western empire. The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses that Aetius was born for the salvation of the Roman republic; ® and the following portrait, though it is drawn in the fairest colours, must be

of the

but the dull annalist was incapable of inventing the original and genuine style of Attila. ’The second book of the Histoire Critique dc rEtablisscment de la Monarchic Frangoise, tom. i. p. 189-424, throws great light on the state of Gau! when it was invaded by Attila; but the ingenious author, the Abbe Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system and conjecture. ‘Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. 1 i. c. 6, p. 8, edit. Ruinart) calls him, acer consilio ct strenuus in bello: but his courage, when he became unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness; and Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of prcsceps (Sidon. ApoIIinar. Carmen ix. 281). His adventures at Constantinople, in Sicily, Gaul, Spain, and Africa, are faintly marked in the Chronicles of Marcellinus and Idatius. In his distress he was always followed by a numerous train ; since he could ravage the Hellespont and Propontis land seize the city of Barcelona. ‘Reipublicx Romanse singulariter natus, qui superbiam Suevorum, Francorumque barbariem immensis coedibus servire Imperio Romano .

coegisset.

Jomandes de Rebus

Geticis, c. 34, p.

66a

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

i»7

Idlowed 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 honours of the palace, for which he was equally qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of Aetius was not above the middle stature; but bis manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility; and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing a bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food of of sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed tlie 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 valour of the patrician Aetius. He soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced their interest, 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, TVetius assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns. While he resided in their tents as an hostage or an exile, he had familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appear 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 Aetius, 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 • [Some valuable fragments of a poetical panegyric on Aetius by Merobaudes, a Spaniard, were recovered from a palimpsest MS. by the industry and sagacity of Niebuhr, and were reprinted in the edition of the Byzantine The poet speaks in glowing terms of the long peace enjoyed historians. under the administration of Aetius. The poet was rewarded by a statue publicly dedicated to his honour in Rome. O. S.] ’This portrait is drawn by Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, a contemporary historian, known only by some extracts which are preserved by Gregory of Tours ( 1 ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163). It was probably the duty, or at least the interest, of Renatus, to magnify the virtues of Aetius; but he would have shown more dexterity if he had not insisted on his patient forgiving disposition.

—

.

—

I3S8

:

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

the two empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a vanqui^ed dty, some vases of gold, which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military governors of Noricum were immediately despatdied to satisfy his complaints: ^ and it is evident, from their conversation with Mazimin and Priscus in the royal village, that the valour and prudence of Aetius 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 Valence and Orleans; * and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhdne 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 an hostile invasion.*® Strangers to the emperor or the republic, the Alani of Gaul were devoted to the ambition of Aetius; and though he might suspect that, in a contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of their national king, the patrician laboured 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 Aetius. After the death of Wallia, the Gothic sceptre * The embassy consisted of Count Romulus of Promotus, president of Noricum; and of Romanus, the military duke. They were accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio, in the same province, and father of Orestes, who had married the daughter of Count Romulus. See ;

Priscus, p. 57, 65 [p. 185, 198, ed. Bonn]. Cassiodorus (Variar. i. 4^ mentions another embassy which was executed by his father and Carpilio, the son*of Ai-tius; and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their manly, intrepid behaviour in his presence. * Deserta Valentinae urbis rura Alanis partienda traduntur. Prosper. Tyronis Chron. in Historiens de France, tom. i. p. 639. few lines afterwards. Prosper observes that lands in the ulterior Gaul were assigned to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of Dubos (tom. i. p. 300), the reasonable supposition of two colonies or garrisons of Alani will confirm his arguments and remove

A

his objections.

“See Prosper, Tyro, p, 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. name of Auvergne, his native country

Avit. 246)

complains,

in the

Litorius Scythicos equites tunc forte, subacto Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen Per terras, Arverne, tuas: qui proxima quseque Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis, Delebant; pacis fallentes nomcn inane. Another poet, Paulfnus of Perigord, confirms the complaint Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste.

See Dubos, tom.

i.

p. 330.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

xsag

and his prosperous devolved to Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric; rdgn of more than thirty years over a turbulent people may be allowed to prove that bis prudence was supported by uncommon vigour, 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 Aetius; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy, to divert the martial valour of his subjects in a Spanish war. Yet 'Iheodoric still watched, and eagerly seiz^, the favourable moment of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne, while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians; and the public safety was ^reatened on every side by the apparent union of the enemies of Rome. On every side, the activity of Aetius 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 entrenchments of the besiegers. The siege was immediately rais^; and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of Aetius 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 Toulouse, 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; an. 602-672), who has sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed, the larger history of Cassiodorus. Jornande.s, a iiuotalion which it would be superfluous to repeat, may be corrected and illustrated by Gregory of Tonrs, I. ii. c. 5, 6, 7. and the Chronicles of Idatiiis, Is'dorc, and the two Prospers. All the ancient testimonies are collected and inserted in the Historians of France; but the reader should be cautioned against a supposed extract from the Chronicle of Idatins (among the fragments of Frcdcgariiis, tom. ii. p. 462), which often contradicts the genuine text of the Gallician bishop. “'The aitricnt legendaries deserve some regard, as they are obliged to connect their fables with the real history of their own times. See the Lives of St. Lupus, St. Anianus, the bishops of Metz, Ste. Genevieve, etc., in the Hi.storians of France, tom. i. p..644, 645, 649, tom. iii. p. 369. “The scepticism of the Count de Buat (Hist, des Pcuples, tom. vii. p. 539, S40) cannot be reconciled with any principles of reason or criticism. Is not Gregory of Tours precise and positive in his account of the destruction of Metz? At the distance of no more than an hundred years could he be ignorant, could the people be ignorant of the fate of a city, the actual residence of his sovereigns, the kings of Austrasia.? The learned Count, who seems to have undertaken the apology of Attila and the barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, parcens cii^tatibus Germanix et Gallix, and forgets that the true Idatius bad explicitly affirmed, pluritnae civitates effracteB, among wbicb he in

Jornandes

enumerates Metz.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1937

the expected succours. 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 cormted the days and hours, de^atched 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 favourable wind, blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of Aetius 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 Toulouse, mutually suspicious of each other’s intentions, beheld with supine indifference the approach of their Common enemy. Aetius 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 honourable exercise of the Praetorian praefecture 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 laboured 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

-Vix liquerat Alpes rarum sine milite dueem auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen

Aetius, tenue, et

Robur, in Incassum propriis praesumens adfore

castris.

Panegyr. Avit. 3^,

etc.

THE decline: and fall of

xtjs

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 honourable, and declared that as the faithful ally of Aetius and the Romans he was ready to expose his, The Visigoths, who life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul.“" at that time were in the mature vigour 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 Laeti, 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 Aetius 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 valour 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 policy of Attila, of Aetius, and of the Visigoths, is imperfectly described in the Panegyric of Avitus and the thirty-sixth chapter of Jornandcs. The poet and the historian were both biased by personal or national prejThe former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus; orbis, udices. Avite, salus, etc. ! The latter is anxious to show the Goths in the most favourable light. Yet their agreement, when they are fairly interpreted, is a proof of their veracity. "The review of the army of Aetius

is made by Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine editor. Tfie Lcrti were a promiscuous race of barbarians, bom or naturalised in Gaul ; and the Riparii, or Ripuarii, derived their name from their posts on the three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle; the Armoricans possessed the indei>endcnt cities between the Seine and the Loire. colony of Saxons had been planted in the diocese of Bayeux; the Burgundians were settled in Savoy; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhsetians, to the eas{ af the lake of Constance. “ Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio, nec direptio. Sidon. Apollin. 1 viii. Epist. 15, p. 246. The preservation of Orleans might easily be turned into a miracle, obtained and foretold by the holy bishop.

edit. Grot.

A

.

tom.

ii.

p. 23, of the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

lajg

enemy in the plains of ChSIons, 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 Gepidje, in which fifteen thousand barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a more general and de'cisive action. The Catalaunian fields spread themselves round Chalons, 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 appallation of a chan^paign country.'*" This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some inequalities of ground; and the importance of an 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 laboured 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 the

haruspices. It was reported that, after scrutinising the entrails of vie tims and scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his

own

and that by accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntar} the superior merit of Aetius. But the unusual despondencj

defeat, with the death of his principal adversary;

the barbarian,

esteem for which seemed to prevail among the Huns engaged Attila to use thr 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

and their future hopes. fortune which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their unarmed valour, which had laid so many warlike nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this memorable field for

to consider their past glory, their actual danger,

The same

editions read xcm; but there is some authority of manu(and almost any authority is sufficient) for the more reasonable number of xvm. “Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni, had formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims, from whence it is distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 136; D’Anville, Notice de I’Anctenne Gaule,

“The common

scripts

p. 212, 279.

“ The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently mentioned by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which Rheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales. Notit. p. 120-123. “I am sensible that these military orations are usually composed by the historian; yet the old Ostrogoths, who had served und^r Attila, might repeat his discourse to Cassiodorus; the ideas, and even the expressions, have an original Scythian cast and I doubt wljether an Italian of the sixth century would have thought of the hujus certaminis gaudia. ;

THE DECLINE AND FAlL OF

1340

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 Visigotls 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 favourable 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 “ I myself,” strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. 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,

^e

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 Gepidae; and the three valiant brothers who reigned over the Ostrogoths were posted on the 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 left to

be strictly watched, and his treachery might be instantly punished. Aetius 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 Bank, and perhaps the rear, of the The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were Scythian army. assembled on the plain of Chalons: 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 Caesar, 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 Chalons 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 tne knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorus, however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors who served ;

.

m “

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

a conflict,” as they informed him, and bloody; sudh as could not be paral-

that memorable engagement; fierce, various, obstinate,

leled either in the present or in past ages.”

The number

of the

hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according and these into another account, three hundred thousand persons credible 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. AftW the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalise 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 slain

*

Km

“

amotmted

to one

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 waggons 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 honourable resource. The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were collected by his order into a funerd pile; and the magnanimous barbarian had resolved, if his entrenchments 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.*"

“The

expressions of Jornandes, or rather of Cassiodorus, are extremely Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, pertinax, cui simile nulle usquam narrat antiquitas ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil csset quod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus miraculi privaretur aspectu [c. 40, Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392, 393) attempts to reconcile the p. 668]. 162,000 of Jornandes with the 300,000 of Idatius and Jsidore, by supposing that the larger number included the total destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the slaughter of the unarmed people, etc. “The Count de Buat (Hist, des Peoples, etc., tom. vii. p. SS4-573), still strong.

:

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

1243

But

his enemies

had passed the night

in equal disorder

The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted

and ansdety.

to urge the pursuit,

he unexpectedly found himself, with a few followers, in the midst of the Scythian waggons. 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, Aetius 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 Chalons; 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 entrenchments; and when he contemplated the bloody scene, till

he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had principally fallen on the barbarians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with honourable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the slain: his 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 entrenchments. 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 Aetius 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 disby his speedy return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who

appoint,

depending on the Zaire', and again rejecting the true, Idatius, has divided the defeat of Attila into two great battles; the former near Orleans, the latter in Champagne: in the one, Theodoric w&s slain; in the other, he was revenged.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

x ish. 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 *• The Alemanni had passed the Rhsetian Alps, and were defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through which the Ticino flows, in its descent from Mount Adula, to the Lago Maggiore (Cluvcr. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. too. loi). This boasted victory over nine hundred barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian. 373 , etc. ) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy. " Imperatorem me factum, P. C. electionis vestrae arbitrio, et fortissimi exercitus ordinatione agnoscite (Novell. Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem Cod. Theodos.). Sidonius proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire: Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plehs, curia, miles, [Carm. v.j 386. Et collega simul. This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the state. "Either dilationes, or delationes, would afford a tolerable reading; but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I have therefore given the preference. **Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus: by the latter, Majorian must tmderstand the tyranny of Avitus, whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. -Un this occasion Sidonius is fearful and obscure; be describes the twelve Cxsars, the nations of Africa, etc., that he may escape the dangerous name of Avitus (305-369).

TBE ROMAN EMPIRE

xM*

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

name of senator, of the judgment which

in the

and who is anxious that you should never repent you have pronounced in his favour.” The em-

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 sympathised in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was capable of appljing (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 weary fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and With this view, he granted an universal amnesty, superindictions.** 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 labour with hope and gratitude for himself and for his countty. 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 pero>, who, amidst the ruins of the

,

The favourite servants who himself or of the Praetorian praefects. obtained such irregular powers were insolent in their behaviour 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 * See

the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the senate (Novell, tit. iv. p. Yet the expression rcgnum nostrum bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats. “See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number, but very long and various), at the end of the Theodosian Code, Novell. 1 iv. p. 32-3?. Godefroy • has not given any commentary on these additional piecq;. “Fessas provincialium varia atque multiplici tributorflm exactione fortunas et extraordinariis fiscalium solutionum oneribus attritas, etc. Novell. Majorian 34.)

.

tit. iv.

p. 34-

1370

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

would accept only such ancient pieces as were staiiq>ed with the nam^s 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 III. “The municipal corporations (says the emof former times.*® peror), the lesser senates (so antiquity has justly styled them), deserve

be considered as the heart of the cities and the sinews of the repubAnd 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 provincisd magistrates, to resume their office to

lic.

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 foimdations of those massy fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, dur-

"The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has found, by a diligent inquiry, that atirei of the Antonines weighed one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only sixty-eight English grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold coin, excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not in the weight, but in the standard. [Until about the time of Constantine, “Defensor” was the title of persons who were employed in municipal matters of merely a temporary kind. But about the first half or the middle of the fourth century the Defensores appear as regularly established functionaries. Their title is Defensor Civitatis, Plebis, Loci. They were elected by the whole town, and not merely by the decurions, and, unlike the magistrates, who were chosen from the decurions, they could not be taken from the latter body. The office was, at its origin, held for five years, but after the thAe of Justinian only for two. The principal business of the decurion was to protect the town against the oppression of the governor. Cf. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, vol.

i.

p. 88.

—O.

S.]

•

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ujt

iBg a period of ten centuries; and the motives of interest, that afteroperated 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 theatses might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the desires of the people: the temples which had escaped the zeal of the Christians were DO longer inhabited either by gods or men; the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense space of their baths and porticoes; 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, cBPaper, 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 labours of Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation their ancestors. of the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil.*® He reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognisance of the extreme cases which

might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; imposed a fine of pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant such illegal and scandalous licence;

fifty

and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers by a severe whipping and the amputation of both their handa 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; 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 Widows under that age veil till they had reached their fortieth year. were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five years,

“The whole

(Novell. Majorian.

“Anti35) is curious. [earum] aliquid reparetur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum prtesumere de publicis locis sediiicium construens, per gratiam judicum . . With equal zeal, but with less necessaria, et transferre non dubitet,” etc. power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated the same complaints (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327). If I prosecute this Hinery, I shall not be unmindful of the decline and fall of the cjfy of Rome an interesting object, to ^ which my plan was originally confined. edict

tit.

quarum zdium dissipatur speciosa constructio; magna diruuntur. Hinc jam orcasio nascitur,

vi.

p.

et ut

.

—

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

»73

by the

forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest relations or to the

Unequal marriages were condemned or annulled. ment of confiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate state.

adultery, that, if the criminal returned to Italy, he might, declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity.**

The punishto the guilt of

by the express /

While the emperor Majorian assiduously laboured 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 brotherin-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

mon-

archy, 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 predwas reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting barbarig.n auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects: and his superior

ecessors,

abilities could only be displayed in the vigour 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 valour attracted the nations of the Danube, the Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais.

Many

thousands of the bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidae, the Ostrogoths, the Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the plains of Liguria, and their formidable strength was bal-

"The emperor

chides the lenipr of Rogatian, consular of Tuscany, in a acrimonius reproof, which sounds almost like personal resentment (Novell, tit ix. p. 37 ). The law of Majorian which punished obstinate widows was soon afterwards Repealed by his successor Severus (Novell. Sever, tit. i. style of

P. 37)-

“Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 385-440'

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1373

anced by their mutual animosities.*” They passed the Alps in a severe winter. The emperor led the way on foot and in complete armour, sounding with his long staff the dqpth of the ice or snow, and encouraging the Scythians, who complaint of the extreme cold, by the cheerful a^urance 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 greatest part of Gaul and Spain was the effect of persuasion as well as of force and the independent Bagaudse, 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 favourable, Majorian equalled the ^irit 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

Carthagena

an adequate proportion of transports and

collected in the secure and capacious harbour of in Spain.*® The intrepid countenance of Majorian ani-

smaller vessels,

was

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

mated

*“The review of the army, and passage of the Alps, contain the most tolerable passages of the Panegyric (470-552). M. de Buat (Hist, des Ptuples, etc., tom. viii. p. 49-55) is a more satisfactory commentator than cither Savaron or Sirmond.

T4

to td Xoyoif, is the just and forcible distinction of Priscus 42 [p. 156, ed. Bonn]), in a .short fragment which throws much light on the history of Majorian. Jornaiides has suppressed the defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly proclaimed in Gallicia, and are marked in ihe Chronicle of Idatius. ** Florus, 1 ii. c. 2. He amuses himself with the poetical fancy that the trees had been transformed into ships; and, indeed, the whole transaction, as it is related in the first book of Polybius, deviates too much from the probable course of human events. "Interea duplici texis dum littore classem Inferno superoque mari, cadit omnis in sequor *’

iitv SjtXoii,

(Excerpt. Legat.

p.

.

Silva

tibi, etc.

•

,

Sidon. Panegyi* Majorian. 441-461. The number of ships, which Priscus fix(s at 300, is magnified, by an indefinite comparison with the fleets of Agamemnon, Xerxes, and Augustus.

'

taj4

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF

the Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the colotar of his hair, to ambassador: and Gestaedc visit Carthage in the character of his was afterwards mortified by the discovery that he had entertained and dismissed the emperor of ^e Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction, but it is a fiction which would noUhave been imagined unless in the life of a hero.'’*’ Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of his adversary. He practised his customary arts of fraud and delay, but he practised 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 valour 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 ^e 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 oi the African coast. But Genseric was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treacheiy of some powerful subjects, envious or apprehensive of Uieir 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 behaviour 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

ow

"Pfbcopius de Bell. Vandal. 1 i. c. 7, p. 194 [tom. i. p. 341, ed. Bonn]. When Genseric conducted his unknown guest into the arsenal of Carthage, the arms clashed of their own accord. Majorian had tinged his yellow locks with a black colour, “ Spoliisque potitus Immensis, robur luxu jam perdidit omne. .

Quo valuit dum pauper erat.

He

afterwards applies to Genseric, unjustly as

it

Panegyr. Majorian. 330. should seem, the vices of his

subjects.

“He

burnt the villages and poisoned the springs (Priscus, p. 42 [p. 156, ed. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 475) observes that the magazines which the Moors buried in the earth might escape his destructive search. Two or three hundred pits are sometimes dug in the same place, and each pit contains at least four fijmdred bushels of corn. Shaw’s Travels, p. 139. “Idatius, who was safe in Gallicia from the power of Ricimer, boldly and honestly declares, Vandali per proditrres admoniti, etc.: he dissembles, however, the name of the traitor.

Bom]).

—

TH£ ROMAN EMPIRE

»»

labours for the public happiness; and as he was conscious he might long remain ignorant of the dark conSfwacy which threatened his throne and his life. The rec^t misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had dazzled the eyes of the jpultitude: almost every description of civil and military offi(xrs were exasperated against the Reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses which he endeavoured 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 ab