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History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Vol. 3...................................................................1

Death Of Gratian. Ruin Of Arianism. St. Ambrose. First Civil War, Against Maximus. Character,

Administration, And Penance Of Theodosius. Death Of Valentinian II. Second Civil War, Against

The fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was equal to that of the most

celebrated princes. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his private friends, the graceful

affability of his manners engaged the affection of the people: the men of letters, who enjoyed the liberality,

acknowledged the taste and eloquence, of their sovereign; his valor and dexterity in arms were equally

applauded by the soldiers; and the clergy considered the humble piety of Gratian as the first and most useful

of his virtues. The victory of Colmar had delivered the West from a formidable invasion; and the grateful

provinces of the East ascribed the merits of Theodosius to the author of his greatness, and of the public

safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or five years; but he survived his reputation; and,

before he fell a victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect and confidence of the Roman

The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not be imputed to the arts of flattery, which had

besieged the son of Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions which the that gentle youth

appears to have escaped. A more attentive view of the life of Gratian may perhaps suggest the true cause of

the disappointment of the public hopes. His apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of

experience and adversity, were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal education. The anxious tenderness

of his father was continually employed to bestow on him those advantages, which he might perhaps esteem

the more highly, as he himself had been deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of every science, and

of every art, had labored to form the mind and body of the young prince. ^1 The knowledge which they

painfully communicated was displayed with ostentation, and celebrated with lavish praise. His soft and

tractable disposition received the fair impression of their judicious precepts, and the absence of passion might

easily be mistaken for the strength of reason. His preceptors gradually rose to the rank and consequence of

ministers of state: ^2 and, as they wisely dissembled their secret authority, he seemed to act with firmness,

with propriety, and with judgment, on the most important occasions of his life and reign. But the influence of

this elaborate instruction did not penetrate beyond the surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so accurately

guided the steps of their royal pupil, could not infuse into his feeble and indolent character the vigorous and

independent principle of action which renders the laborious pursuit of glory essentially necessary to the

happiness, and almost to the existence, of the hero. As soon as time and accident had removed those faithful

counsellors from the throne, the emperor of the West insensibly descended to the level of his natural genius;

abandoned the reins of government to the ambitious hands which were stretched forwards to grasp them; and

amused his leisure with the most frivolous gratifications. A public sale of favor and injustice was instituted,

both in the court and in the provinces, by the worthless delegates of his power, whose merit it was made

sacrilege to question. ^3 The conscience of the credulous prince was directed by saints and bishops; ^4 who

procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a capital offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance, of

the divine law. ^5 Among the various arts which had exercised the youth of Gratian, he had applied himself,

with singular inclination and success, to manage the horse, to draw the bow, and to dart the javelin; and these

qualifications, which might be useful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler purposes of hunting. Large

parks were enclosed for the Imperial pleasures, and plentifully stocked with every species of wild beasts; and

Gratian neglected the duties, and even the dignity, of his rank, to consume whole days in the vain display of

his dexterity and boldness in the chase. The pride and wish of the Roman emperor to excel in an art, in which

he might be surpassed by the meanest of his slaves, reminded the numerous spectators of the examples of

Nero and Commodus, but the chaste and temperate Gratian was a stranger to their monstrous vices; and his

hands were stained only with the blood of animals. ^6 The behavior of Gratian, which degraded his character

in the eyes of mankind, could not have disturbed the security of his reign, if the army had not been provoked

to resent their peculiar injuries. As long as the young emperor was guided by the instructions of his masters,

he professed himself the friend and pupil of the soldiers; many of his hours were spent in the familiar

conversation of the camp; and the health, the comforts, the rewards, the honors, of his faithful troops,

appeared to be the objects of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian more freely indulged his prevailing taste

for hunting and shooting, he naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of his favorite

amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the military and domestic service of the palace; and the

admirable skill, which they were accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia, was exercised, on

a more narrow theatre, in the parks and enclosures of Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and customs of these

favorite guards, to whom alone he intrusted the defence of his person; and, as if he meant to insult the public

opinion, he frequently showed himself to the soldiers and people, with the dress and arms, the long bow, the

sounding quiver, and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy spectacle of a Roman prince, who

had renounced the dress and manners of his country, filled the minds of the legions with grief and

indignation. ^7 Even the Germans, so strong and formidable in the armies of the empire, affected to disdain

the strange and horrid appearance of the savages of the North, who, in the space of a few years, had wandered

from the banks of the Volga to those of the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the

camps and garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of Gratian neglected to extinguish the first

symptoms of discontent, the want of love and respect was not supplied by the influence of fear. But the

subversion of an established government is always a work of some real, and of much apparent, difficulty; and

the throne of Gratian was protected by the sanctions of custom, law, religion, and the nice balance of the civil

and military powers, which had been established by the policy of Constantine. It is not very important to

inquire from what cause the revolt of Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of disorder; the

seeds of rebellion happened to fall on a soil which was supposed to be more fruitful than any other in tyrants

and usurpers; ^8 the legions of that sequestered island had been long famous for a spirit of presumption and

arrogance; ^9 and the name of Maximus was proclaimed, by the tumultuary, but unanimous voice, both of the

soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, or the rebel, for this title was not yet ascertained by fortune,

was a native of Spain, the countryman, the fellowsoldier, and the rival of Theodosius whose elevation he

had not seen without some emotions of envy and resentment: the events of his life had long since fixed him in

Britain; and I should not be unwilling to find some evidence for the marriage, which he is said to have

contracted with the daughter of a wealthy lord of Caernarvonshire. ^10 But this provincial rank might justly

be considered as a state of exile and obscurity; and if Maximus had obtained any civil or military office, he

was not invested with the authority either of governor or general. ^11 His abilities, and even his integrity, are

acknowledged by the partial writers of the age; and the merit must indeed have been conspicuous that could

extort such a confession in favor of the vanquished enemy of Theodosius. The discontent of Maximus might

incline him to censure the conduct of his sovereign, and to encourage, perhaps, without any views of

ambition, the murmurs of the troops. But in the midst of the tumult, he artfully, or modestly, refused to

ascend the throne; and some credit appears to have been given to his own positive declaration, that he was

[Footnote 1: Valentinian was less attentive to the religion of his son; since he intrusted the education of

Gratian to Ausonius, a professed Pagan. (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 125 138. The

[Footnote 2: Ausonius was successively promoted to the Praetorian praefecture 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,) which has survived more worthy

[Footnote 3: Disputare de principali judicio non oportet. Sacrilegii enim instar est dubitare, an is dignus sit,

quem elegerit imperator. Codex Justinian, l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 3. This convenient law was revived and

[Footnote 4: Ambrose composed, for his instruction, a theological treatise on the faith of the Trinity: and

Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 158, 169,) ascribes to the archbishop the merit of Gratian's

[Footnote 5: Qui divinae legis sanctitatem nesciendo omittunt, aut negligende violant, et offendunt,

sacrilegium committunt. Codex Justinian. l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 1. Theodosius indeed may claim his share in the

[Footnote 6: Ammianus (xxxi. 10) and the younger Victor 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 (l. x. c. 10, and Godefroy, p. 41) had guarded with some similar reserve, the

[Footnote 7: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 247) and the younger Victor ascribe the revolution to the favor of the Alani,

and the discontent of the Roman troops Dum exercitum negligeret, et paucos ex Alanis, quos ingenti auro ad

[Footnote 8: Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum, is a memorable expression, used by Jerom in the

Pelagian controversy, and variously tortured in the disputes of our national antiquaries. The revolutions of the

last age appeared to justify the image of the sublime Bossuet, "sette ile, plus orageuse que les mers qui

[Footnote 10: Helena, the daughter of Eudda. Her chapel may still be seen at Caersegont, now Caernarvon.

(Carte's Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 168, from Rowland's Mona Antiqua.) The prudent reader may not perhaps

[Footnote 11: Camden (vol. i. introduct. p. ci.) appoints him governor at 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, (Maximus) (l.

[Footnote 12: Sulpicius Severus, Dialog. ii. 7. Orosius, l. 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 favorably

But there was danger likewise in refusing the empire; and from the moment that Maximus had violated his

allegiance to his lawful sovereign, he could not hope to reign, or even to live, if he confined his moderate

ambition within the narrow limits of Britain. He boldly and wisely resolved to prevent the designs of Gratian;

the youth of the island crowded to his standard, and he invaded Gaul with a fleet and army, which were long

afterwards remembered, as the emigration of a considerable part of the British nation. ^13 The emperor, in

his peaceful residence of Paris, was alarmed by their hostile approach; and the darts which he idly wasted on

lions and bears, might have been employed more honorably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts

announced his degenerate spirit and desperate situation; and deprived him of the resources, which he still

might have found, in the support of his subjects and allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of opposing the march

of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal acclamations; and the shame of the desertion was transferred

from the people to the prince. The troops, whose station more immediately attached them to the service of the

palace, abandoned the standard of Gratian the first time that it was displayed in the neighborhood of Paris.

The emperor of the West fled towards Lyons, with a train of only three hundred horse; and, in the cities along

the road, where he hoped to find refuge, or at least a passage, he was taught, by cruel experience, that every

gate is shut against the unfortunate. Yet he might still have reached, in safety, the dominions of his brother;

and soon have returned with the forces of Italy and the East; if he had not suffered himself to be fatally

deceived by the perfidious governor of the Lyonnese province. Gratian was amused by protestations of

doubtful fidelity, and the hopes of a support, which could not be effectual; till the arrival of Andragathius, the

general of the cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense. That resolute officer executed, without

remorse, the orders or the intention of the usurper. Gratian, as he rose from supper, was delivered into the

hands of the assassin: and his body was denied to the pious and pressing entreaties of his brother Valentinian.

^14 The death of the emperor was followed by that of his powerful general Mellobaudes, the king of the

Franks; who maintained, to the last moment of his life, the ambiguous reputation, which is the just

recompense of obscure and subtle policy. ^15 These executions might be necessary to the public safety: but

the successful usurper, whose power was acknowledged by all the provinces of the West, had the merit, and

the satisfaction, of boasting, that, except those who had perished by the chance of war, his triumph was not

[Footnote 13: Archbishop Usher (Antiquat. Britan. Eccles. p. 107, 108) has diligently collected the 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 honors; and what is still harder, John Trithemius presumes to

[Footnote 14: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 248, 249) has transported the death of Gratian from Lugdunum in Gaul

(Lyons) to Singidunum in Moesia. Some hints may be extracted from the Chronicles; some lies may be

detected in Sozomen (l. vii. c. 13) and Socrates, (l. v. c. 11.) Ambrose is our most authentic evidence, (tom. i.

Enarrat. in Psalm lxi. p. 961, tom ii. epist. xxiv. p. 888 and de Obitu Valentinian Consolat. Ner. 28, p. 1182.)]

[Footnote 15: Pacatus (xii. 28) celebrates his fidelity; while his treachery is marked in Prosper's Chronicle, as

the cause of the ruin of Gratian. Ambrose, who has occasion to exculpate himself, only condemns the death

of Vallio, a faithful servant of Gratian, (tom. ii. epist. xxiv. p. 891, edit. Benedict.)

Note: Le Beau contests the reading in the chronicle of Prosper upon which this charge rests. Le Beau, iv. 232.

M. Note: According to Pacatus, the Count Vallio, who commanded the army, was carried to Chalons to be

burnt alive; but Maximus, dreading the imputation of cruelty, caused him to be secretly strangled by his

Bretons. Macedonius also, master of the offices, suffered the death which he merited. Le Beau, iv. 244. M.]

[Footnote 16: He protested, nullum ex adversariis nisi in acissie occubu. Sulp. Jeverus in Vit. B. Martin, c.

23. The orator Theodosius bestows reluctant, and therefore weighty, praise on his clemency. Si cui ille, pro

ceteris sceleribus suis, minus crudelis fuisse videtur, (Panegyr. Vet. xii. 28.)]

The events of this revolution had passed in such rapid succession, that it would have been impossible for

Theodosius to march to the relief of his benefactor, before he received the intelligence of his defeat and

death. During the season of sincere grief, or ostentatious mourning, the Eastern emperor was interrupted by

the arrival of the principal chamberlain of Maximus; and the choice of a venerable old man, for an office

which was usually exercised by eunuchs, announced to the court of Constantinople the gravity and

temperance of the British usurper. The ambassador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct of his

master; and to protest, in specious language, that the murder of Gratian had been perpetrated, without his

knowledge or consent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers. But he proceeded, in a firm and equal tone, to

offer Theodosius the alternative of peace, or war. The speech of the ambassador concluded with a spirited

declaration, that although Maximus, as a Roman, and as the father of his people, would choose rather to

employ his forces in the common defence of the republic, he was armed and prepared, if his friendship should

be rejected, to dispute, in a field of battle, the empire of the world. An immediate and peremptory answer was

required; but it was extremely difficult for Theodosius to satisfy, on this important occasion, either the

feelings of his own mind, or the expectations of the public. The imperious voice of honor and gratitude called

aloud for revenge. From the liberality of Gratian, he had received the Imperial diadem; his patience would

encourage the odious suspicion, that he was more deeply sensible of former injuries, than of recent

obligations; and if he accepted the friendship, he must seem to share the guilt, of the assassin. Even the

principles of justice, and the interest of society, would receive a fatal blow from the impunity of Maximus;

and the example of successful usurpation would tend to dissolve the artificial fabric of government, and once

more to replunge the empire in the crimes and calamities of the preceding age. But, as the sentiments of

gratitude and honor should invariably regulate the conduct of an individual, they may be overbalanced in the

mind of a sovereign, by the sense of superior duties; and the maxims both of justice and humanity must

permit the escape of an atrocious criminal, if an innocent people would be involved in the consequences of

his punishment. The assassin of Gratian had usurped, but he actually possessed, the most warlike provinces of

the empire: the East was exhausted by the misfortunes, and even by the success, of the Gothic war; and it was

seriously to be apprehended, that, after the vital strength of the republic had been wasted in a doubtful and

destructive contest, the feeble conqueror would remain an easy prey to the Barbarians of the North. These

weighty considerations engaged Theodosius to dissemble his resentment, and to accept the alliance of the

tyrant. But he stipulated, that Maximus should content himself with the possession of the countries beyond

the Alps. The brother of Gratian was confirmed and secured in the sovereignty of Italy, Africa, and the

Western Illyricum; and some honorable conditions were inserted in the treaty, to protect the memory, and the

laws, of the deceased emperor. ^17 According to the custom of the age, the images of the three Imperial

colleagues were exhibited to the veneration of the people; nor should it be lightly supposed, that, in the

moment of a solemn reconciliation, Theodosius secretly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge. ^18

[Footnote 17: Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quas non abrogavit hostia (tom. ii epist. xvii. p. 827.)]

[Footnote 18: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 251, 252. We may disclaim his odious suspicions; but we cannot reject the

treaty of peace which the friends of Theodosius have absolutely forgotten, or slightly mentioned.]

The contempt of Gratian for the Roman soldiers had exposed him to the fatal effects of their resentment. His

profound veneration for the Christian clergy was rewarded by the applause and gratitude of a powerful order,

which has claimed, in every age, the privilege of dispensing honors, both on earth and in heaven. ^19 The

orthodox bishops bewailed his death, and their own irreparable loss; but they were soon comforted by the

discovery, that Gratian had committed the sceptre of the East to the hands of a prince, whose humble faith

and fervent zeal, were supported by the spirit and abilities of a more vigorous character. Among the

benefactors of the church, the fame of Constantine has been rivalled by the glory of Theodosius. If

Constantine had the advantage of erecting the standard of the cross, the emulation of his successor assumed

the merit of subduing the Arian heresy, and of abolishing the worship of idols in the Roman world.

Theodosius was the first of the emperors baptized in the true faith of the Trinity. Although he was born of a

Christian family, the maxims, or at least the practice, of the age, encouraged him to delay the ceremony of his

initiation; till he was admonished of the danger of delay, by the serious illness which threatened his life,

towards the end of the first year of his reign. Before he again took the field against the Goths, he received the

sacrament of baptism ^20 from Acholius, the orthodox bishop of Thessalonica: ^21 and, as the emperor

ascended from the holy font, still glowing with the warm feelings of regeneration, he dictated a solemn edict,

which proclaimed his own faith, and prescribed the religion of his subjects. "It is our pleasure (such is the

Imperial style) that all the nations, which are governed by our clemency and moderation, should steadfastly

adhere to the religion which was taught by St. Peter to the Romans; which faithful tradition has preserved;

and which is now professed by the pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic

holiness. According to the discipline of the apostles, and the doctrine of the gospel, let us believe the sole

deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; under an equal majesty, and a pious Trinity. We authorize

the followers of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians; and as we judge, that all others are

extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of Heretics; and declare that their conventicles

shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of churches. Besides the condemnation of divine justice,

they must expect to suffer the severe penalties, which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think

proper to inflict upon them." ^22 The faith of a soldier is commonly the fruit of instruction, rather than of

inquiry; but as the emperor always fixed his eyes on the visible landmarks of orthodoxy, which he had so

prudently constituted, his religious opinions were never affected by the specious texts, the subtle arguments,

and the ambiguous creeds of the Arian doctors. Once indeed he expressed a faint inclination to converse with

the eloquent and learned Eunomius, who lived in retirement at a small distance from Constantinople. But the

dangerous interview was prevented by the prayers of the empress Flaccilla, who trembled for the salvation of

her husband; and the mind of Theodosius was confirmed by a theological argument, adapted to the rudest

capacity. He had lately bestowed on his eldest son, Arcadius, the name and honors of Augustus, and the two

princes were seated on a stately throne to receive the homage of their subjects. A bishop, Amphilochius of

Iconium, approached the throne, and after saluting, with due reverence, the person of his sovereign, he

accosted the royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which he might have used towards a plebeian

child. Provoked by this insolent behavior, the monarch gave orders, that the rustic priest should be instantly

driven from his presence. But while the guards were forcing him to the door, the dexterous polemic had time

to execute his design, by exclaiming, with a loud voice, "Such is the treatment, O emperor! which the King of

heaven has prepared for those impious men, who affect to worship the Father, but refuse to acknowledge the

equal majesty of his divine Son." Theodosius immediately embraced the bishop of Iconium, and never forgot

[Footnote 19: Their oracle, the archbishop of Milan, assigns to his pupil Gratian, a high and respectable place

[Footnote 20: For the baptism of Theodosius, see Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 4,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 6,) and Tillemont,

[Footnote 21: Ascolius, or Acholius, was honored by the friendship, and the praises, of Ambrose; who styles

him murus fidei atque sanctitatis, (tom. ii. epist. xv. p. 820;) and afterwards celebrates his speed and diligence

in running to Constantinople, Italy, (epist. xvi. p. 822.) a virtue which does not appertain either to a wall, or a

[Footnote 22: Codex Theodos. l. xvi. tit. i. leg. 2, with Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p. 5 9. Such an

edict deserved the warmest praises of Baronius, auream sanctionem, edictum pium et salutare. Sic itua ad

[Footnote 23: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 6. Theodoret, l. v. c. 16. Tillemont is displeased (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p.

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.]

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, ^24 the

faith of the princes and prelates, who reigned in the capital of the East, was rejected in the purer schools of

Rome and Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much

Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free

importation of vice and error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of religious controversy

afforded a new occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion of an

intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal. "This city,"

says he, "is full of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound theologians; and preach in the shops,

and in the streets. If you desire a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you, wherein the Son differs

from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply, that the Son is inferior to the

Father; and if you inquire, whether the bath is ready, the answer is, that the Son was made out of nothing."

^25 The heretics, of various denominations, subsisted in peace under the protection of the Arians of

Constantinople; who endeavored to secure the attachment of those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with

unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over the followers of the council of Nice. During

the partial reigns of Constantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians was deprived of the

public and private exercise of their religion; and it has been observed, in pathetic language, that the scattered

flock was left without a shepherd to wander on the mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. ^26

But, as their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigor from oppression, they seized the first

moments of imperfect freedom, which they had acquired by the death of Valens, to form themselves into a

regular congregation, under the conduct of an episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil, and

Gregory Nazianzen, ^27 were distinguished above all their contemporaries, ^28 by the rare union of profane

eloquence and of orthodox piety. These orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves, and by

the public, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the strictest friendship.

They had cultivated, with equal ardor, the same liberal studies in the schools of Athens; they had retired, with

equal devotion, to the same solitude in the deserts of Pontus; and every spark of emulation, or envy, appeared

to be totally extinguished in the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil. But the exaltation of Basil,

from a private life to the archiepiscopal throne of Caesarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to himself,

the pride of his character; and the first favor which he condescended to bestow on his friend, was received,

and perhaps was intended, as a cruel insult. ^29 Instead of employing the superior talents of Gregory in some

useful and conspicuous station, the haughty prelate selected, among the fifty bishoprics of his extensive

province, the wretched village of Sasima, ^30 without water, without verdure, without society, situate at the

junction of three highways, and frequented only by the incessant passage of rude and clamorous wagoners.

Gregory submitted with reluctance to this humiliating exile; he was ordained bishop of Sasima; but he

solemnly protests, that he never consummated his spiritual marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards

consented to undertake the government of his native church of Nazianzus, ^31 of which his father had been

bishop above fiveandforty years. But as he was still conscious that he deserved another audience, and

another theatre, he accepted, with no unworthy ambition, the honorable invitation, which was addressed to

him from the orthodox party of Constantinople. On his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertained in the

house of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious room was consecrated to the uses of religious

worship; and the name of Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the Nicene faith. This private

conventicle was afterwards converted into a magnificent church; and the credulity of the succeeding age was

prepared to believe the miracles and visions, which attested the presence, or at least the protection, of the

Mother of God. ^32 The pulpit of the Anastasia was the scene of the labors and triumphs of Gregory

Nazianzen; and, in the space of two years, he experienced all the spiritual adventures which constitute the

prosperous or adverse fortunes of a missionary. ^33 The Arians, who were provoked by the boldness of his

enterprise, represented his doctrine, as if he had preached three distinct and equal Deities; and the devout

populace was excited to suppress, by violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies of the Athanasian heretics.

From the cathedral of St. Sophia there issued a motley crowd "of common beggars, who had forfeited their

claim to pity; of monks, who had the appearance of goats or satyrs; and of women, more terrible than so

many Jezebels." The doors of the Anastasia were broke open; much mischief was perpetrated, or attempted,

with sticks, stones, and firebrands; and as a man lost his life in the affray, Gregory, who was summoned the

next morning before the magistrate, had the satisfaction of supposing, that he publicly confessed the name of

Christ. After he was delivered from the fear and danger of a foreign enemy, his infant church was disgraced

and distracted by intestine faction. A stranger who assumed the name of Maximus, ^34 and the cloak of a

Cynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the confidence of Gregory; deceived and abused his favorable

opinion; and forming a secret connection with some bishops of Egypt, attempted, by a clandestine ordination,

to supplant his patron in the episcopal seat of Constantinople. These mortifications might sometimes tempt

the Cappadocian missionary to regret his obscure solitude. But his fatigues were rewarded by the daily

increase of his fame and his congregation; and he enjoyed the pleasure of observing, that the greater part of

his numerous audience retired from his sermons satisfied with the eloquence of the preacher, ^35 or

[Footnote 24: Sozomen, l. vii. c. v. Socrates, l. 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

[Footnote 25: See Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 71. The thirtythird 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 I allege on the faith of a correct and liberal scholar.]

[Footnote 26: See the thirtysecond Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, and the account of his own life, which he

has composed in 1800 iambics. Yet every physician is prone to exaggerate the inveterate nature of the disease

[Footnote 27: I confess myself deeply indebted to the two lives of Gregory Nazianzen, composed, with very

different views, by Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 305 560, 692 731) and Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque

[Footnote 28: 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

[Footnote 29: Gregory's Poem on his own Life contains some beautiful lines, (tom. ii. p. 8,) which burst from

In the Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena addresses the same pathetic complaint to her friend Hermia:

Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen; he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his

mother tongue, the language of Nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain.]

[Footnote 30: This unfavorable portrait of Sasimae is drawn by Gregory Nazianzen, (tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 7,

8.) Its precise situation, forty nine miles from Archelais, and thirtytwo from Tyana, is fixed in the Itinerary

[Footnote 31: The name of Nazianzus has been immortalized by Gregory; but his native town, under the

Greek or Roman title of Diocaesarea, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 692,) is mentioned by Pliny, (vi.

3,) Ptolemy, and Hierocles, (Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 709). It appears to have been situate on the edge of

[Footnote 32: See Ducange, Constant. Christiana, l. iv. p. 141, 142. The Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5) is interpreted to

[Footnote 33: Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 432, diligently collects, enlarges, and explains, the

[Footnote 34: He pronounced an oration (tom. i. Orat. xxiii. p. 409) in his praise; but after their quarrel, the

name of Maximus was changed into that of Heron, (see Jerom, tom. i. in Catalog. Script. Eccles. p. 301). I

[Footnote 35: Under the modest emblem of a dream, Gregory (tom. ii. Carmen ix. p. 78) describes his own

success with some human complacency. Yet it should seem, from his familiar conversation with his auditor

St. Jerom, (tom. i. Epist. ad Nepotian. p. 14,) that the preacher understood the true value of popular applause.]

[Footnote 36: Lachrymae auditorum laudes tuae sint, is the lively and judicious advice of St. Jerom.]

The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with joyful confidence by the baptism and edict of

Theodosius; and they impatiently waited the effects of his gracious promise. Their hopes were speedily

accomplished; and the emperor, as soon as he had finished the operations of the campaign, made his public

entry into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The next day after his arrival, he summoned

Damophilus to his presence, and offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of subscribing the Nicene

creed, or of instantly resigning, to the orthodox believers, the use and possession of the episcopal palace, the

cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the churches of Constantinople. The zeal of Damophilus, which in a Catholic

saint would have been justly applauded, embraced, without hesitation, a life of poverty and exile, ^37 and his

removal was immediately followed by the purification of the Imperial city. The Arians might complain, with

some appearance of justice, that an inconsiderable congregation of sectaries should usurp the hundred

churches, which they were insufficient to fill; whilst the far greater part of the people was cruelly excluded

from every place of religious worship. Theodosius was still inexorable; but as the angels who protected the

Catholic cause were only visible to the eyes of faith, he prudently reenforced those heavenly legions with the

more effectual aid of temporal and carnal weapons; and the church of St. Sophia was occupied by a large

body of the Imperial guards. If the mind of Gregory was susceptible of pride, he must have felt a very lively

satisfaction, when the emperor conducted him through the streets in solemn triumph; and, with his own hand,

respectfully placed him on the archiepiscopal throne of Constantinople. But the saint (who had not subdued

the imperfections of human virtue) was deeply affected by the mortifying consideration, that his entrance into

the fold was that of a wolf, rather than of a shepherd; that the glittering arms which surrounded his person,

were necessary for his safety; and that he alone was the object of the imprecations of a great party, whom, as

men and citizens, it was impossible for him to despise. He beheld the innumerable multitude of either sex,

and of every age, who crowded the streets, the windows, and the roofs of the houses; he heard the tumultuous

voice of rage, grief, astonishment, and despair; and Gregory fairly confesses, that on the memorable day of

his installation, the capital of the East wore the appearance of a city taken by storm, and in the hands of a

Barbarian conqueror. ^38 About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius declared his resolution of expelling from

all the churches of his dominions the bishops and their clergy who should obstinately refuse to believe, or at

least to profess, the doctrine of the council of Nice. His lieutenant, Sapor, was armed with the ample powers

of a general law, a special commission, and a military force; ^39 and this ecclesiastical revolution was

conducted with so much discretion and vigor, that the religion of the emperor was established, without tumult

or bloodshed, in all the provinces of the East. The writings of the Arians, if they had been permitted to exist,

^40 would perhaps contain the lamentable story of the persecution, which afflicted the church under the reign

of the impious Theodosius; and the sufferings of their holy confessors might claim the pity of the

disinterested reader. Yet there is reason to imagine, that the violence of zeal and revenge was, in some

measure, eluded by the want of resistance; and that, in their adversity, the Arians displayed much less

firmness than had been exerted by the orthodox party under the reigns of Constantius and Valens. The moral

character and conduct of the hostile sects appear to have been governed by the same common principles of

nature and religion: but a very material circumstance may be discovered, which tended to distinguish the

degrees of their theological faith. Both parties, in the schools, as well as in the temples, acknowledged and

worshipped the divine majesty of Christ; and, as we are always prone to impute our own sentiments and

passions to the Deity, it would be deemed more prudent and respectful to exaggerate, than to circumscribe,

the adorable perfections of the Son of God. The disciple of Athanasius exulted in the proud confidence, that

he had entitled himself to the divine favor; while the follower of Arius must have been tormented by the

secret apprehension, that he was guilty, perhaps, of an unpardonable offence, by the scanty praise, and

parsimonious honors, which he bestowed on the Judge of the World. The opinions of Arianism might satisfy

a cold and speculative mind: but the doctrine of the Nicene creed, most powerfully recommended by the

merits of faith and devotion, was much better adapted to become popular and successful in a believing age.

[Footnote 37: Socrates (l. v. c. 7) and Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5) relate the evangelical words and actions of

Damophilus without a word of approbation. He considered, says Socrates, that it is difficult to resist the

[Footnote 38: See Gregory Nazianzen, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 21, 22. For the sake of posterity, the bishop of

Constantinople records a stupendous prodigy. In the month of November, it was a cloudy morning, but the

[Footnote 39: Of the three ecclesiastical historians, Theodoret alone (l. v. c. 2) has mentioned this important

commission of Sapor, which Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728) judiciously removes from the

[Footnote 40: I do not reckon Philostorgius, though he mentions (l. ix. c. 19) the explosion of Damophilus.

The hope, that truth and wisdom would be found in the assemblies of the orthodox clergy, induced the

emperor to convene, at Constantinople, a synod of one hundred and fifty bishops, who proceeded, without

much difficulty or delay, to complete the theological system which had been established in the council of

Nice. The vehement disputes of the fourth century had been chiefly employed on the nature of the Son of

God; and the various opinions which were embraced, concerning the Second, were extended and transferred,

by a natural analogy, to the Third person of the Trinity. ^41 Yet it was found, or it was thought, necessary, by

the victorious adversaries of Arianism, to explain the ambiguous language of some respectable doctors; to

confirm the faith of the Catholics; and to condemn an unpopular and inconsistent sect of Macedonians; who

freely admitted that the Son was consubstantial to the Father, while they were fearful of seeming to

acknowledge the existence of Three Gods. A final and unanimous sentence was pronounced to ratify the

equal Deity of the Holy Ghost: the mysterious doctrine has been received by all the nations, and all the

churches of the Christian world; and their grateful reverence has assigned to the bishops of Theodosius the

second rank among the general councils. ^42 Their knowledge of religious truth may have been preserved by

tradition, or it may have been communicated by inspiration; but the sober evidence of history will not allow

much weight to the personal authority of the Fathers of Constantinople. In an age when the ecclesiastics had

scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolic purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always the

most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies. The conflict and fermentation of so many

opposite interests and tempers inflamed the passions of the bishops: and their ruling passions were, the love

of gold, and the love of dispute. Many of the same prelates who now applauded the orthodox piety of

Theodosius, had repeatedly changed, with prudent flexibility, their creeds and opinions; and in the various

revolutions of the church and state, the religion of their sovereign was the rule of their obsequious faith.

When the emperor suspended his prevailing influence, the turbulent synod was blindly impelled by the

absurd or selfish motives of pride, hatred, or resentment. The death of Meletius, which happened at the

council of Constantinople, presented the most favorable opportunity of terminating the schism of Antioch, by

suffering his aged rival, Paulinus, peaceably to end his days in the episcopal chair. The faith and virtues of

Paulinus were unblemished. But his cause was supported by the Western churches; and the bishops of the

synod resolved to perpetuate the mischiefs of discord, by the hasty ordination of a perjured candidate, ^43

rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the East, which had been illustrated by the birth and death of the

Son of God. Such unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members of the assembly to dissent

and to secede; and the clamorous majority which remained masters of the field of battle, could be compared

[Footnote 41: Le Clerc has given a curious extract (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 91 105) of the

theological sermons which Gregory Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople against the Arians, Eunomians,

Macedonians, He tells the Macedonians, who deified the Father and the Son without the Holy Ghost, that

they might as well be styled Tritheists as Ditheists. Gregory himself was almost a Tritheist; and his monarchy

[Footnote 42: The first general council of Constantinople now triumphs in the Vatican; but the popes had

long hesitated, and their hesitation perplexes, and almost staggers, the humble Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom.

[Footnote 43: Before the death of Meletius, six or eight of his most popular ecclesiastics, among whom was

Flavian, had abjured, for the sake of peace, the bishopric of Antioch, (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 3, 11. Socrates, l. v.

c. v.) Tillemont thinks it his duty to disbelieve the story; but he owns that there are many circumstances in the

life of Flavian which seem inconsistent with the praises of Chrysostom, and the character of a saint, (Mem.

[Footnote 44: Consult Gregory Nazianzen, de Vita sua, tom. ii. p. 25 28. His general and particular opinion

of the clergy and their assemblies may be seen in verse and prose, (tom. i. Orat. i. p. 33. Epist. lv. p. 814, tom.

ii. Carmen x. p. 81.) Such passages are faintly marked by Tillemont, and fairly produced by Le Clerc.]

A suspicion may possibly arise, that so unfavorable a picture of ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the

partial hand of some obstinate heretic, or some malicious infidel. But the name of the sincere historian who

has conveyed this instructive lesson to the knowledge of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs of

superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious and eloquent bishops of the age; a saint, and a doctor

of the church; the scourge of Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a distinguished member of the

council of Constantinople, in which, after the death of Meletius, he exercised the functions of president; in a

word Gregory Nazianzen himself. The harsh and ungenerous treatment which he experienced, ^45 instead

of derogating from the truth of his evidence, affords an additional proof of the spirit which actuated the

deliberations of the synod. Their unanimous suffrage had confirmed the pretensions which the bishop of

Constantinople derived from the choice of the people, and the approbation of the emperor. But Gregory soon

became the victim of malice and envy. The bishops of the East, his strenuous adherents, provoked by his

moderation in the affairs of Antioch, abandoned him, without support, to the adverse faction of the Egyptians;

who disputed the validity of his election, and rigorously asserted the obsolete canon, that prohibited the

licentious practice of episcopal translations. The pride, or the humility, of Gregory prompted him to decline a

contest which might have been imputed to ambition and avarice; and he publicly offered, not without some

mixture of indignation, to renounce the government of a church which had been restored, and almost created,

by his labors. His resignation was accepted by the synod, and by the emperor, with more readiness than he

seems to have expected. At the time when he might have hoped to enjoy the fruits of his victory, his

episcopal throne was filled by the senator Nectarius; and the new archbishop, accidentally recommended by

his easy temper and venerable aspect, was obliged to delay the ceremony of his consecration, till he had

previously despatched the rites of his baptism. ^46 After this remarkable experience of the ingratitude of

princes and prelates, Gregory retired once more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia; where he employed

the remainder of his life, about eight years, in the exercises of poetry and devotion. The title of Saint has been

added to his name: but the tenderness of his heart, ^47 and the elegance of his genius, reflect a more pleasing

[Footnote 45: See Gregory, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 28 31. The fourteenth, twentyseventh, and

thirtysecond Orations were pronounced in the several stages of this business. The peroration of the last,

(tom. i. p. 528,) in which he takes a solemn leave of men and angels, the city and the emperor, the East and

[Footnote 46: The whimsical ordination of Nectarius is attested by Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 8;) but Tillemont

observes, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 719,) Apres tout, ce narre de Sozomene est si honteux, pour tous ceux

qu'il y mele, et surtout pour Theodose, qu'il vaut mieux travailler a le detruire, qu'a le soutenir; an admirable

[Footnote 47: I can only be understood to mean, that such was his natural temper when it was not hardened,

or inflamed, by religious zeal. From his retirement, he exhorts Nectarius to prosecute the heretics of

It was not enough that Theodosius had suppressed the insolent reign of Arianism, or that he had abundantly

revenged the injuries which the Catholics sustained from the zeal of Constantius and Valens. The orthodox

emperor considered every heretic as a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of earth; and each of

those powers might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty. The decrees of

the council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard of the faith; and the ecclesiastics, who

governed the conscience of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of persecution. In the space of

fifteen years, he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics; ^48 more especially against

those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; and to deprive them of every hope of escape, he sternly

enacted, that if any laws or rescripts should be alleged in their favor, the judges should consider them as the

illegal productions either of fraud or forgery. The penal statutes were directed against the ministers, the

assemblies, and the persons of the heretics; and the passions of the legislator were expressed in the language

of declamation and invective. I. The heretical teachers, who usurped the sacred titles of Bishops, or

Presbyters, were not only excluded from the privileges and emoluments so liberally granted to the orthodox

clergy, but they were exposed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation, if they presumed to preach the

doctrine, or to practise the rites, of their accursed sects. A fine of ten pounds of gold (above four hundred

pounds sterling) was imposed on every person who should dare to confer, or receive, or promote, an heretical

ordination: and it was reasonably expected, that if the race of pastors could be extinguished, their helpless

flocks would be compelled, by ignorance and hunger, to return within the pale of the Catholic church. II. The

rigorous prohibition of conventicles was carefully extended to every possible circumstance, in which the

heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping God and Christ according to the dictates of their

conscience. Their religious meetings, whether public or secret, by day or by night, in cities or in the country,

were equally proscribed by the edicts of Theodosius; and the building, or ground, which had been used for

that illegal purpose, was forfeited to the Imperial domain. III. It was supposed, that the error of the heretics

could proceed only from the obstinate temper of their minds; and that such a temper was a fit object of

censure and punishment. The anathemas of the church were fortified by a sort of civil excommunication;

which separated them from their fellow citizens, by a peculiar brand of infamy; and this declaration of the

supreme magistrate tended to justify, or at least to excuse, the insults of a fanatic populace. The sectaries

were gradually disqualified from the possession of honorable or lucrative employments; and Theodosius was

satisfied with his own justice, when he decreed, that, as the Eunomians distinguished the nature of the Son

from that of the Father, they should be incapable of making their wills or of receiving any advantage from

testamentary donations. The guilt of the Manichaean heresy was esteemed of such magnitude, that it could be

expiated only by the death of the offender; and the same capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or

Quartodecimans, ^49 who should dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an improper day the

festival of Easter. Every Roman might exercise the right of public accusation; but the office of Inquisitors of

the Faith, a name so deservedly abhorred, was first instituted under the reign of Theodosius. Yet we are

assured, that the execution of his penal edicts was seldom enforced; and that the pious emperor appeared less

desirous to punish, than to reclaim, or terrify, his refractory subjects. ^50 [Footnote 48: See the Theodosian

Code, l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 6 23, with Godefroy's commentary on each law, and his general summary, or

[Footnote 49: 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, l. xx. c. 5, vol. ii. p. 309, fol. edit.]

The theory of persecution was established by Theodosius, whose justice and piety have been applauded by

the saints: but the practice of it, in the fullest extent, was reserved for his rival and colleague, Maximus, the

first, among the Christian princes, who shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of their religious

opinions. The cause of the Priscillianists, ^51 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, condemned, and executed. The first of these

was Priscillian ^52 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. ^54 Two bishops who had

embraced the sentiments of Priscillian, were condemned to a distant and dreary exile; ^55 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. ^56 Priscillian, who wandered about the world in the company of his spiritual

sisters, was accused of praying stark naked in the midst of the congregation; and it was confidently asserted,

that the effects of his criminal intercourse with the daughter of Euchrocia had been suppressed, by means still

more odious and criminal. But an accurate, or rather a candid, inquiry will discover, that if the Priscillianists

violated the laws of nature, it was not by the licentiousness, but by the austerity, of their lives. They

absolutely condemned the use of the marriagebed; and the peace of families was often disturbed by

indiscreet separations. They enjoyed, or recommended, a total abstinence from all anima food; and their

continual prayers, fasts, and vigils, inculcated a rule of strict and perfect devotion. The speculative tenets of

the sect, concerning the person of Christ, and the nature of the human soul, were derived from the Gnostic

and Manichaean system; and this vain philosophy, which had been transported from Egypt to Spain, was ill

adapted to the grosser spirits of the West. The obscure disciples of Priscillian suffered languished, and

gradually disappeared: his tenets were rejected by the clergy and people, but his death was the subject of a

long and vehement controversy; while some arraigned, and others applauded, the justice of his sentence. It is

with pleasure that we can observe the humane inconsistency of the most illustrious saints and bishops,

Ambrose of Milan, ^57 and Martin of Tours, ^58 who, on this occasion, asserted the cause of toleration. They

pitied the unhappy men, who had been executed at Treves; they refused to hold communion with their

episcopal murderers; and if Martin deviated from that generous resolution, his motives were laudable, and his

repentance was exemplary. The bishops of Tours and Milan pronounced, without hesitation, the eternal

damnation of heretics; but they were surprised, and shocked, by the bloody image of their temporal death,

and the honest feelings of nature resisted the artificial prejudices of theology. The humanity of Ambrose and

Martin was confirmed by the scandalous irregularity of the proceedings against Priscillian and his adherents.

The civil and ecclesiastical ministers had transgressed the limits of their respective provinces. The secular

judge had presumed to receive an appeal, and to pronounce a definitive sentence, in a matter of faith, and

episcopal jurisdiction. The bishops had disgraced themselves, by exercising the functions of accusers in a

criminal prosecution. The cruelty of Ithacius, ^59 who beheld the tortures, and solicited the death, of the

heretics, provoked the just indignation of mankind; and the vices of that profligate bishop were admitted as a

proof, that his zeal was instigated by the sordid motives of interest. Since the death of Priscillian, the rude

attempts of persecution have been refined and methodized in the holy office, which assigns their distinct parts

to the ecclesiastical and secular powers. The devoted victim is regularly delivered by the priest to the

magistrate, and by the magistrate to the executioner; and the inexorable sentence of the church, which

declares the spiritual guilt of the offender, is expressed in the mild language of pity and intercession.

[Footnote 51: See the Sacred History of Sulpicius Severus, (l. ii. p. 437 452, edit. Ludg. Bat. 1647,) a

correct and original writer. Dr. Lardner (Credibility, part ii. vol. ix. p. 256 350) has labored this article with

pure learning, good sense, and moderation. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 491 527) has raked

[Footnote 52: Severus Sulpicius mentions the archheretic with esteem and pity Faelix profecto, si non pravo

studio corrupisset optimum ingenium prorsus multa in eo animi et corporis bona cerneres. (Hist. Sacra, l ii. p.

439.) Even Jerom (tom. i. in Script. Eccles. p. 302) speaks with temper of Priscillian and Latronian.]

[Footnote 53: 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.]

[Footnote 54: Exprobrabatur mulieri viduae nimia religio, et diligentius culta divinitas, (Pacat. in Panegyr.

[Footnote 55: One of them was sent in Sillinam insulam quae ultra Britannianest. What must have been the

ancient condition of the rocks of Scilly? (Camden's Britannia, vol. ii. p. 1519.)]

[Footnote 56: The scandalous calumnies of Augustin, Pope Leo, which Tillemont swallows like a child, and

Lardner refutes like a man, may suggest some candid suspicions in favor of the older Gnostics.]

[Footnote 58: 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. 15.) Martin was reproved, however, by his own

conscience, and by an angel; nor could he afterwards perform miracles with so much ease.]

[Footnote 59: The Catholic Presbyter (Sulp. Sever. l. ii. p. 448) and the Pagan Orator (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet.

xii. 29) reprobate, with equal indignation, the character and conduct of Ithacius.]

Among the ecclesiastics, who illustrated the reign of Theodosius, Gregory Nazianzen was distinguished by

the talents of an eloquent preacher; the reputation of miraculous gifts added weight and dignity to the

monastic virtues of Martin of Tours; ^60 but the palm of episcopal vigor and ability was justly claimed by the

intrepid Ambrose. ^61 He was descended from a noble family of Romans; his father had exercised the

important office of Praetorian praefect of Gaul; and the son, after passing through the studies of a liberal

education, attained, in the regular gradation of civil honors, the station of consular of Liguria, a province

which included the Imperial residence of Milan. At the age of thirtyfour, 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 praeternatural impulse; and the reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual

office, for which he was not prepared by the habits and occupations of his former life. But the active force of

his genius soon qualified him to exercise, with zeal and prudence, the duties of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction;

and while he cheerfully renounced the vain and splendid trappings of temporal greatness, he condescended,

for the good of the church, to direct the conscience of the emperors, and to control the administration of the

empire. Gratian loved and revered him as a father; and the elaborate treatise on the faith of the Trinity was

designed for the instruction of the young prince. After his tragic death, at a time when the empress Justina

trembled for her own safety, and for that of her son Valentinian, the archbishop of Milan was despatched, on

two different embassies, to the court of Treves. He exercised, with equal firmness and dexterity, the powers

of his spiritual and political characters; and perhaps contributed, by his authority and eloquence, to check the

ambition of Maximus, and to protect the peace of Italy. ^62 Ambrose had devoted his life, and his abilities, to

the service of the church. Wealth was the object of his contempt; he had renounced his private patrimony; and

he sold, without hesitation, the consecrated plate, for the redemption of captives. The clergy and people of

Milan were attached to their archbishop; and he deserved the esteem, without soliciting the favor, or

[Footnote 60: 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 Augustan age. So natural is the alliance between good taste

[Footnote 61: 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. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 78 306) and the

[Footnote 62: Ambrose himself (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 888 891) gives the emperor a very spirited account

The government of Italy, and of the young emperor, naturally devolved to his mother Justina, a woman of

beauty and spirit, but who, in the midst of an orthodox people, had the misfortune of professing the Arian

heresy, which she endeavored to instil into the mind of her son. Justina was persuaded, that a Roman emperor

might claim, in his own dominions, the public exercise of his religion; and she proposed to the archbishop, as

a moderate and reasonable concession, that he should resign the use of a single church, either in the city or

the suburbs of Milan. But the conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. ^63 The

palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Caesar; but the churches were the houses of God; and, within the

limits of his diocese, he himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles, was the only minister of God. The

privileges of Christianity, temporal as well as spiritual, were confined to the true believers; and the mind of

Ambrose was satisfied, that his own theological opinions were the standard of truth and orthodoxy. The

archbishop, who refused to hold any conference, or negotiation, with the instruments of Satan, declared, with

modest firmness, his resolution to die a martyr, rather than to yield to the impious sacrilege; and Justina, who

resented the refusal as an act of insolence and rebellion, hastily determined to exert the Imperial prerogative

of her son. As she desired to perform her public devotions on the approaching festival of Easter, Ambrose

was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed the summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but

he was followed, without his consent, by an innumerable people they pressed, with impetuous zeal, against

the gates of the palace; and the affrighted ministers of Valentinian, instead of pronouncing a sentence of exile

on the archbishop of Milan, humbly requested that he would interpose his authority, to protect the person of

the emperor, and to restore the tranquility of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and

communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and, during six of the most solemn days, which

Christian piety had set apart for the exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the irregular convulsions of

tumult and fanaticism. The officers of the household were directed to prepare, first, the Portian, and

afterwards, the new, Basilica, for the immediate reception of the emperor and his mother. The splendid

canopy and hangings of the royal seat were arranged in the customary manner; but it was found necessary to

defend them. by a strong guard, from the insults of the populace. The Arian ecclesiastics, who ventured to

show themselves in the streets, were exposed to the most imminent danger of their lives; and Ambrose

enjoyed the merit and reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from the hands of the enraged multitude.

[Footnote 63: 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,

But while he labored to restrain the effects of their zeal, the pathetic vehemence of his sermons continually

inflamed the angry and seditious temper of the people of Milan. The characters of Eve, of the wife of Job, of

Jezebel, of Herodias, were indecently applied to the mother of the emperor; and her desire to obtain a church

for the Arians was compared to the most cruel persecutions which Christianity had endured under the reign of

Paganism. The measures of the court served only to expose the magnitude of the evil. A fine of two hundred

pounds of gold was imposed on the corporate body of merchants and manufacturers: an order was signified,

in the name of the emperor, to all the officers, and inferior servants, of the courts of justice, that, during the

continuance of the public disorders, they should strictly confine themselves to their houses; and the ministers

of Valentinian imprudently confessed, that the most respectable part of the citizens of Milan was attached to

the cause of their archbishop. He was again solicited to restore peace to his country, by timely compliance

with the will of his sovereign. The reply of Ambrose was couched in the most humble and respectful terms,

which might, however, be interpreted as a serious declaration of civil war. "His life and fortune were in the

hands of the emperor; but he would never betray the church of Christ, or degrade the dignity of the episcopal

character. In such a cause he was prepared to suffer whatever the malice of the daemon could inflict; and he

only wished to die in the presence of his faithful flock, and at the foot of the altar; he had not contributed to

excite, but it was in the power of God alone to appease, the rage of the people: he deprecated the scenes of

blood and confusion which were likely to ensue; and it was his fervent prayer, that he might not survive to

behold the ruin of a flourishing city, and perhaps the desolation of all Italy." ^64 The obstinate bigotry of

Justina would have endangered the empire of her son, if, in this contest with the church and people of Milan,

she could have depended on the active obedience of the troops of the palace. A large body of Goths had

marched to occupy the Basilica, which was the object of the dispute: and it might be expected from the Arian

principles, and barbarous manners, of these foreign mercenaries, that they would not entertain any scruples in

the execution of the most sanguinary orders. They were encountered, on the sacred threshold, by the

archbishop, who, thundering against them a sentence of excommunication, asked them, in the tone of a father

and a master, whether it was to invade the house of God, that they had implored the hospitable protection of

the republic. The suspense of the Barbarians allowed some hours for a more effectual negotiation; and the

empress was persuaded, by the advice of her wisest counsellors, to leave the Catholics in possession of all the

churches of Milan; and to dissemble, till a more convenient season, her intentions of revenge. The mother of

Valentinian could never forgive the triumph of Ambrose; and the royal youth uttered a passionate

exclamation, that his own servants were ready to betray him into the hands of an insolent priest.

[Footnote 64: 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, A quoi j'ajoutai tout ce que vous pouvez vous imaginer de respect de

douleur, de regret, et de soumission, (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]

The laws of the empire, some of which were inscribed with the name of Valentinian, still condemned the

Arian heresy, and seemed to excuse the resistance of the Catholics. By the influence of Justina, an edict of

toleration was promulgated in all the provinces which were subject to the court of Milan; the free exercise of

their religion was granted to those who professed the faith of Rimini; and the emperor declared, that all

persons who should infringe this sacred and salutary constitution, should be capitally punished, as the

enemies of the public peace. ^65 The character and language of the archbishop of Milan may justify the

suspicion, that his conduct soon afforded a reasonable ground, or at least a specious pretence, to the Arian

ministers; who watched the opportunity of surprising him in some act of disobedience to a law which he

strangely represents as a law of blood and tyranny. A sentence of easy and honorable banishment was

pronounced, which enjoined Ambrose to depart from Milan without delay; whilst it permitted him to choose

the place of his exile, and the number of his companions. But the authority of the saints, who have preached

and practised the maxims of passive loyalty, appeared to Ambrose of less moment than the extreme and

pressing danger of the church. He boldly refused to obey; and his refusal was supported by the unanimous

consent of his faithful people. ^66 They guarded by turns the person of their archbishop; the gates of the

cathedral and the episcopal palace were strongly secured; and the Imperial troops, who had formed the

blockade, were unwilling to risk the attack, of that impregnable fortress. The numerous poor, who had been

relieved by the liberality of Ambrose, embraced the fair occasion of signalizing their zeal and gratitude; and

as the patience of the multitude might have been exhausted by the length and uniformity of nocturnal vigils,

he prudently introduced into the church of Milan the useful institution of a loud and regular psalmody. While

he maintained this arduous contest, he was instructed, by a dream, to open the earth in a place where the

remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius, ^67 had been deposited above three hundred years.

Immediately under the pavement of the church two perfect skeletons were found, ^68 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 praeternatural influence was communicated to the most distant

objects, without losing any part of its original virtue. The extraordinary cure of a blind man, ^69 and the

reluctant confessions of several daemoniacs, appeared to justify the faith and sanctity of Ambrose; and the

truth of those miracles is attested by Ambrose himself, by his secretary Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the

celebrated Augustin, who, at that time, professed the art of rhetoric in Milan. The reason of the present age

may possibly approve the incredulity of Justina and her Arian court; who derided the theatrical

representations which were exhibited by the contrivance, and at the expense, of the archbishop. ^70 Their

effect, however, on the minds of the people, was rapid and irresistible; and the feeble sovereign of Italy found

himself unable to contend with the favorite of Heaven. The powers likewise of the earth interposed in the

defence of Ambrose: the disinterested advice of Theodosius was the genuine result of piety and friendship;

and the mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious designs of the tyrant of Gaul. ^71

[Footnote 65: Sozomen alone (l. vii. c. 13) throws this luminous fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.]

[Footnote 66: Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia, mori parata cum episcopo suo .... Nos, adhuc frigidi,

excitabamur tamen civitate attonita atque curbata. Augustin. Confession. l. ix. c. 7]

[Footnote 67: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 78, 498. Many churches in Italy, Gaul, were dedicated to

these unknown martyrs, of whom St. Gervaise seems to have been more fortunate than his companion.]

[Footnote 68: Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca aetas ferebat, tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875.

The size of these skeletons was fortunately, or skillfully, suited to the popular prejudice of the gradual

decrease of the human stature, which has prevailed in every age since the time of Homer.

[Footnote 69: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin. Confes, l. ix. c. 7, de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 8.

Paulin. in Vita St. Ambros. c. 14, in Append. Benedict. p. 4. The blind man's name was Severus; he touched

the holy garment, recovered his sight, and devoted the rest of his life (at least twentyfive years) to the

service of the church. I should recommend this miracle to our divines, if it did not prove the worship of relics,

[Footnote 71: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 190, 750. He partially allow the mediation of Theodosius,

and capriciously rejects that of Maximus, though it is attested by Prosper, Sozomen, and Theodoret.]

The reign of Maximus might have ended in peace and prosperity, could he have contented himself with the

possession of three ample countries, which now constitute the three most flourishing kingdoms of modern

Europe. But the aspiring usurper, whose sordid ambition was not dignified by the love of glory and of arms,

considered his actual forces as the instruments only of his future greatness, and his success was the

immediate cause of his destruction. The wealth which he extorted ^72 from the oppressed provinces of Gaul,

Spain, and Britain, was employed in levying and maintaining a formidable army of Barbarians, collected, for

the most part, from the fiercest nations of Germany. The conquest of Italy was the object of his hopes and

preparations: and he secretly meditated the ruin of an innocent youth, whose government was abhorred and

despised by his Catholic subjects. But as Maximus wished to occupy, without resistance, the passes of the

Alps, he received, with perfidious smiles, Domninus of Syria, the ambassador of Valentinian, and pressed

him to accept the aid of a considerable body of troops, for the service of a Pannonian war. The penetration of

Ambrose had discovered the snares of an enemy under the professions of friendship; ^73 but the Syrian

Domninus was corrupted, or deceived, by the liberal favor of the court of Treves; and the council of Milan

obstinately rejected the suspicion of danger, with a blind confidence, which was the effect, not of courage,

but of fear. The march of the auxiliaries was guided by the ambassador; and they were admitted, without

distrust, into the fortresses of the Alps. But the crafty tyrant followed, with hasty and silent footsteps, in the

rear; and, as he diligently intercepted all intelligence of his motions, the gleam of armor, and the dust excited

by the troops of cavalry, first announced the hostile approach of a stranger to the gates of Milan. In this

extremity, Justina and her son might accuse their own imprudence, and the perfidious arts of Maximus; but

they wanted time, and force, and resolution, to stand against the Gauls and Germans, either in the field, or

within the walls of a large and disaffected city. Flight was their only hope, Aquileia their only refuge; and as

Maximus now displayed his genuine character, the brother of Gratian might expect the same fate from the

hands of the same assassin. Maximus entered Milan in triumph; and if the wise archbishop refused a

dangerous and criminal connection with the usurper, he might indirectly contribute to the success of his arms,

by inculcating, from the pulpit, the duty of resignation, rather than that of resistance. ^74 The unfortunate

Justina reached Aquileia in safety; but she distrusted the strength of the fortifications: she dreaded the event

of a siege; and she resolved to implore the protection of the great Theodosius, whose power and virtue were

celebrated in all the countries of the West. A vessel was secretly provided to transport the Imperial family;

they embarked with precipitation in one of the obscure harbors of Venetia, or Istria; traversed the whole

extent of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas; turned the extreme promontory of Peloponnesus; and, after a long, but

successful navigation, reposed themselves in the port of Thessalonica. All the subjects of Valentinian

deserted the cause of a prince, who, by his abdication, had absolved them from the duty of allegiance; and if

the little city of Aemona, 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.

[Footnote 72: The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog. iii. 15) inflicts a much deeper wound than the

[Footnote 73: Esto tutior adversus hominem, pacis involurco tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose

[Footnote 74: Baronius (A.D. 387, No. 63) applies to this season of public distress some of the penitential

Instead of inviting his royal guests to take the palace of Constantinople, Theodosius had some unknown

reasons to fix their residence at Thessalonica; but these reasons did not proceed from contempt or

indifference, as he speedily made a visit to that city, accompanied by the greatest part of his court and senate.

After the first tender expressions of friendship and sympathy, the pious emperor of the East gently

admonished Justina, that the guilt of heresy was sometimes punished in this world, as well as in the next; and

that the public profession of the Nicene faith would be the most efficacious step to promote the restoration of

her son, by the satisfaction which it must occasion both on earth and in heaven. The momentous question of

peace or war was referred, by Theodosius, to the deliberation of his council; and the arguments which might

be alleged on the side of honor and justice, had acquired, since the death of Gratian, a considerable degree of

additional weight. The persecution of the Imperial family, to which Theodosius himself had been indebted for

his fortune, was now aggravated by recent and repeated injuries. Neither oaths nor treaties could restrain the

boundless ambition of Maximus; and the delay of vigorous and decisive measures, instead of prolonging the

blessings of peace, would expose the Eastern empire to the danger of a hostile invasion. The Barbarians, who

had passed the Danube, had lately assumed the character of soldiers and subjects, but their native fierceness

was yet untamed: and the operations of a war, which would exercise their valor, and diminish their numbers,

might tend to relieve the provinces from an intolerable oppression. Notwithstanding these specious and solid

reasons, which were approved by a majority of the council, Theodosius still hesitated whether he should draw

the sword in a contest which could no longer admit any terms of reconciliation; and his magnanimous

character was not disgraced by the apprehensions which he felt for the safety of his infant sons, and the

welfare of his exhausted people. In this moment of anxious doubt, while the fate of the Roman world

depended on the resolution of a single man, the charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded the

cause of her brother Valentinian. ^75 The heart of Theodosius wa softened by the tears of beauty; his

affections were insensibly engaged by the graces of youth and innocence: the art of Justina managed and

directed the impulse of passion; and the celebration of the royal nuptials was the assurance and signal of the

civil war. The unfeeling critics, who consider every amorous weakness as an indelible stain on the memory of

a great and orthodox emperor, are inclined, on this occasion, to dispute the suspicious evidence of the

historian Zosimus. For my own part, I shall frankly confess, that I am willing to find, or even to seek, in the

revolutions of the world, some traces of the mild and tender sentiments of domestic life; and amidst the

crowd of fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can distinguish, with peculiar complacency, a gentle hero, who

may be supposed to receive his armor from the hands of love. The alliance of the Persian king was secured by

the faith of treaties; the martial Barbarians were persuaded to follow the standard, or to respect the frontiers,

of an active and liberal monarch; and the dominions of Theodosius, from the Euphrates to the Adriatic,

resounded with the preparations of war both by land and sea. The skilful disposition of the forces of the East

seemed to multiply their numbers, and distracted the attention of Maximus. He had reason to fear, that a

chosen body of troops, under the command of the intrepid Arbogastes, would direct their march along the

banks of the Danube, and boldly penetrate through the Rhaetian provinces into the centre of Gaul. A powerful

fleet was equipped in the harbors of Greece and Epirus, with an apparent design, that, as soon as the passage

had been opened by a naval victory, Valentinian and his mother should land in Italy, proceed, without delay,

to Rome, and occupy the majestic seat of religion and empire. In the mean while, Theodosius himself

advanced at the head of a brave and disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy rival, who, after the siege of

Aemona, ^* had fixed his camp in the neighborhood of Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly fortified by the

[Footnote 75: The flight of Valentinian, and the love of Theodosius for his sister, are related by Zosimus, (l.

iv. p. 263, 264.) Tillemont produces some weak and ambiguous evidence to antedate the second marriage of

Theodosius, (Hist. des Empereurs, to. v. p. 740,) and consequently to refute ces contes de Zosime, qui

The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and successive resources, of the tyrant Magnentius,

might prepare themselves for the labors of three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his successor, who,

like him, had usurped the throne of the West, was easily decided in the term of two months, ^76 and within

the space of two hundred miles. The superior genius of the emperor of the East might prevail over the feeble

Maximus, who, in this important crisis, showed himself destitute of military skill, or personal courage; but

the abilities of Theodosius were seconded by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous and active

cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after their example, the Goths themselves, were formed into squadrons of

archers; who fought on horseback, and confounded the steady valor of the Gauls and Germans, by the rapid

motions of a Tartar war. After the fatigue of a long march, in the heat of summer, they spurred their foaming

horses into the waters of the Save, swam the river in the presence of the enemy, and instantly charged and

routed the troops who guarded the high ground on the opposite side. Marcellinus, the tyrant's brother,

advanced to support them with the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and strength of the

army. The action, which had been interrupted by the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and,

after a sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of Maximus threw down their arms at the

feet of the conqueror. Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acclamations of the citizens of

Aemona, Theodosius pressed forwards to terminate the war by the death or captivity of his rival, who fled

before him with the diligence of fear. From the summit of the Julian Alps, he descended with such incredible

speed into the plain of Italy, that he reached Aquileia on the evening of the first day; and Maximus, who

found himself encompassed on all sides, had scarcely time to shut the gates of the city. But the gates could

not long resist the effort of a victorious enemy; and the despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the

soldiers and people, hastened the downfall of the wretched Maximus. He was dragged from his throne, rudely

stripped of the Imperial ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and conducted, like a

malefactor, to the camp and presence of Theodosius, at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The behavior

of the emperor was not intended to insult, and he showed disposition to pity and forgive, the tyrant of the

West, who had never been his personal enemy, and was now become the object of his contempt. Our

sympathy is the most forcibly excited by the misfortunes to which we are exposed; and the spectacle of a

proud competitor, now prostrate at his feet, could not fail of producing very serious and solemn thoughts in

the mind of the victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity was checked by his regard for

public justice, and the memory of Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the soldiers, who

drew him out of the Imperial presence, and instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of his

defeat and death was received with sincere or welldissembled joy: his son Victor, on whom he had

conferred the title of Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold Arbogastes; and all the

military plans of Theodosius were successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war, with

less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally expect, he employed the winter months of his residence

at Milan, to restore the state of the afflicted provinces; and early in the spring he made, after the example of

Constantine and Constantius, his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman empire. ^77 [Footnote

[Footnote 77: Besides the hints which may be gathered from chronicles and ecclesiastical history, Zosimus (l.

iv. p. 259 267,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35,) and Pacatus, (in 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 wellknown

events of a magazine surprised, an action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, Ausonius (p. 256,

The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty, and without reluctance; ^78 and

posterity will confess, that the character of Theodosius ^79 might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample

panegyric. The wisdom of his laws, and the success of his arms, rendered his administration respectable in

the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which

seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was chaste and temperate; he enjoyed,

without excess, the sensual and social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous passions was

never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the tender

names of a faithful husband, an indulgent father; his uncle was raised, by his affectionate esteem, to the rank

of a second parent: Theodosius embraced, as his own, the children of his brother and sister; and the

expressions of his regard were extended to the most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred.

His familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those persons, who, in the equal intercourse of

private life, had appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of personal and superior merit

enabled him to despise the accidental distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct, that he had

forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully remembered all the favors and services, which he had

received before he ascended the throne of the Roman empire. The serious or lively tone of his conversation

was adapted to the age, the rank, or the character of his subjects, whom he admitted into his society; and the

affability of his manners displayed the image of his mind. Theodosius respected the simplicity of the good

and virtuous: every art, every talent, of a useful, or even of an innocent nature, was rewarded by his judicious

liberality; and, except the heretics, whom he persecuted with implacable hatred, the diffusive circle of his

benevolence was circumscribed only by the limits of the human race. The government of a mighty empire

may assuredly suffice to occupy the time, and the abilities, of a mortal: yet the diligent prince, without

aspiring to the unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some moments of his leisure for

the instructive amusement of reading. History, which enlarged his experience, was his favorite study. The

annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven hundred years, presented him with a various and splendid

picture of human life: and it has been particularly observed, that whenever he perused the cruel acts of Cinna,

of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly expressed his generous detestation of those enemies of humanity and

freedom. His disinterested opinion of past events was usefully applied as the rule of his own actions; and

Theodosius has deserved the singular commendation, that his virtues always seemed to expand with his

fortune: the season of his prosperity was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the most

conspicuous after the danger and success of a civil war. The Moorish guards of the tyrant had been massacred

in the first heat of the victory, and a small number of the most obnoxious criminals suffered the punishment

of the law. But the emperor showed himself much more attentive to relieve the innocent than to chastise the

guilty. The oppressed subjects of the West, who would have deemed themselves happy in the restoration of

their lands, were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent to their losses; and the liberality of the

conqueror supported the aged mother, and educated the orphan daughters, of Maximus. ^80 A character thus

accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant supposition of the orator Pacatus; that, if the elder Brutus

could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius, his hatred

of kings; and ingenuously confess, that such a monarch was the most faithful guardian of the happiness and

dignity of the Roman people. ^81 [Footnote 78: 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

[Footnote 79: See the fair portrait of Theodosius, by the younger Victor; the strokes are distinct, and the

colors are mixed. The praise of Pacatus is too vague; and Claudian always seems afraid of exalting the father

[Footnote 80: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from the want of skill or of courage, omits this

Yet the piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have discerned two essential imperfections, which

might, perhaps, have abated his recent love of despostism. The virtuous mind of Theodosius was often

relaxed by indolence, ^82 and it was sometimes inflamed by passion. ^83 In the pursuit of an important

object, his active courage was capable of the most vigorous exertions; but, as soon as the design was

accomplished, or the danger was surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and, forgetful that the

time of a prince is the property of his people, resigned himself to the enjoyment of the innocent, but trifling,

pleasures of a luxurious court. The natural disposition of Theodosius was hasty and choleric; and, in a station

where none could resist, and few would dissuade, the fatal consequence of his resentment, the humane

monarch was justly alarmed by the consciousness of his infirmity and of his power. It was the constant study

of his life to suppress, or regulate, the intemperate sallies of passion and the success of his efforts enhanced

the merit of his clemency. But the painful virtue which claims the merit of victory, is exposed to the danger

of defeat; and the reign of a wise and merciful prince was polluted by an act of cruelty which would stain the

annals of Nero or Domitian. Within the space of three years, the inconsistent historian of Theodosius must

relate the generous pardon of the citizens of Antioch, and the inhuman massacre of the people of

Thessalonica. [Footnote 82: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 271, 272. His partial evidence is marked by an air of candor

and truth. He observes these vicissitudes of sloth and activity, not as a vice, but as a singularity in the

[Footnote 83: This choleric temper is acknowledged and excused by Victor Sed habes (says Ambrose, in

decent and many language, to his sovereign) nature impetum, quem 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.)

The lively impatience of the inhabitants of Antioch was never satisfied with their own situation, or with the

character and conduct of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of Theodosius deplored the loss of

their churches; and as three rival bishops disputed the throne of Antioch, the sentence which decided their

pretensions excited the murmurs of the two unsuccessful congregations. The exigencies of the Gothic war,

and the inevitable expense that accompanied the conclusion of the peace, had constrained the emperor to

aggravate the weight of the public impositions; and the provinces of Asia, as they had not been involved in

the distress were the less inclined to contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period now

approached of the tenth year of his reign; a festival more grateful to the soldiers, who received a liberal

donative, than to the subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long since converted into an extraordinary

and oppressive burden. The edicts of taxation interrupted the repose, and pleasures, of Antioch; and the

tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd; who, in pathetic, but, at first, in respectful

language, solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually incensed by the pride of their haughty

rulers, who treated their complaints as a criminal resistance; their satirical wit degenerated into sharp and

angry invectives; and, from the subordinate powers of government, the invectives of the people insensibly

rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor himself. Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition,

discharged itself on the images of the Imperial family, which were erected, as objects of public veneration, in

the most conspicuous places of the city. The statues of Theodosius, of his father, of his wife Flaccilla, of his

two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were insolently thrown down from their pedestals, broken in pieces, or

dragged with contempt through the streets; and the indignities which were offered to the representations of

Imperial majesty, sufficiently declared the impious and treasonable wishes of the populace. The tumult was

almost immediately suppressed by the arrival of a body of archers: and Antioch had leisure to reflect on the

nature and consequences of her crime. ^84 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. ^85 But the two capitals, Antioch and

Constantinople, were separated by the distance of eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the diligence of

the Imperial posts, the guilty city was severely punished by a long and dreadful interval of suspense. Every

rumor agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard with terror, that their sovereign,

exasperated by the insult which had been offered to his own statues, and more especially, to those of his

beloved wife, had resolved to level with the ground the offending city; and to massacre, without distinction of

age or sex, the criminal inhabitants; ^86 many of whom were actually driven, by their apprehensions, to seek

a refuge in the mountains of Syria, and the adjacent desert. At length, twentyfour days after the sedition, 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 denomination of a village, to

the jurisdiction of Laodicea. ^87 The baths, the Circus, and the theatres were shut: and, that every source of

plenty and pleasure might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn was abolished, by the

severe instructions of Theodosius. His commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of individuals;

of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The

tribunal of Hellebicus and Caesarius, encompassed with armed soldiers, was erected in the midst of the

Forum. The noblest, and most wealthy, of the citizens of Antioch appeared before them in chains; the

examination was assisted by the use of torture, and their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to

the judgment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the criminals were exposed to sale, their

wives and children were suddenly reduced, from affluence and luxury, to the most abject distress; and a

bloody execution was expected to conclude the horrors of the day, ^88 which the preacher of Antioch, the

eloquent Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the last and universal judgment of the world. But

the ministers of Theodosius performed, with reluctance, the cruel task which had been assigned them; they

dropped a gentle tear over the calamities of the people; and they listened with reverence to the pressing

solicitations of the monks and hermits, who descended in swarms from the mountains. ^89 Hellebicus and

Caesarius were persuaded to suspend the execution of their sentence; and it was agreed that the former should

remain at Antioch, while the latter returned, with all possible speed, to Constantinople; and presumed once

more to consult the will of his sovereign. The resentment of Theodosius had already subsided; the deputies of

the people, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a favorable audience; and the reproaches of the

emperor were the complaints of injured friendship, rather than the stern menaces of pride and power. A free

and general pardon was granted to the city and citizens of Antioch; the prison doors were thrown open; the

senators, who despaired of their lives, recovered the possession of their houses and estates; and the capital of

the East was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and splendor. Theodosius condescended to

praise the senate of Constantinople, who had generously interceded for their distressed brethren: he rewarded

the eloquence of Hilarius with the government of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioch with the

warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A thousand new statues arose to the clemency of

Theodosius; the applause of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his own heart; and the emperor

confessed, that, if the exercise of justice is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is the most

[Footnote 84: The Christians and Pagans agreed in believing that the sedition of Antioch was excited by the

daemons. A gigantic woman (says Sozomen, l. 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,

[Footnote 85: Zosimus, in his short and disingenuous account, (l. iv. p. 258, 259,) is certainly mistaken in

sending Libanius himself to Constantinople. His own orations fix him at Antioch.]

[Footnote 86: 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,

[Footnote 87: Laodicea, on the seacoast, sixtyfive miles from Antioch, (see Noris Epoch. SyroMaced.

Dissert. iii. p. 230.) The Antiochians were offended, that the dependent city of Seleucia should presume to

[Footnote 88: 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

[Footnote 89: Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not attended with much risk, to the cowardly

[Footnote 90: The sedition of Antioch is represented in a lively, and almost dramatic, manner by two orators,

who had their respective shares of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat. xiv. xv. p. 389 420, edit. Morel.

Orat. i. p. 1 14, Venet. 1754) and the twenty orations of St. John Chrysostom, de Statuis, (tom. ii. p. 1

225, edit. Montfaucon.) I do not pretend to much personal acquaintance with Chrysostom but Tillemont

(Hist. des. Empereurs, tom. v. p. 263 283) and Hermant (Vie de St. Chrysostome, tom. i. p. 137 224) had

The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more shameful cause, and was productive of much more

dreadful consequences. That great city, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces, had been protected from

the dangers of the Gothic war by strong fortifications and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the general of those

troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian, had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited

the impure desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and brutal lover was thrown into

prison by the order of Botheric; and he sternly rejected the importunate clamors of the multitude, who, on the

day of the public games, lamented the absence of their favorite; and considered the skill of a charioteer as an

object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the people was imbittered by some previous

disputes; and, as the strength of the garrison had been drawn away for the service of the Italian war, the

feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced by desertion, could not save the unhappy general from their

licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers, were inhumanly murdered; their mangled

bodies were dragged about the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Milan, was surprised by the

intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty of the people of Thessalonica. The sentence of a

dispassionate judge would have inflicted a severe punishment on the authors of the crime; and the merit of

Botheric might contribute to exasperate the grief and indignation of his master. The fiery and choleric temper

of Theodosius was impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved, that the blood

of his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood of the guilty people. Yet his mind still fluctuated between

the counsels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost extorted from the reluctant

emperor the promise of a general pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering suggestions of his

minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius had despatched the messengers of death, he attempted, when it was

too late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a Roman city was blindly committed to the

undistinguishing sword of the Barbarians; and the hostile preparations were concerted with the dark and

perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the

name of their sovereign, to the games of the Circus; and such was their insatiate avidity for those

amusements, that every consideration of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous spectators. As

soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers, who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the

signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without

discrimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt; the most moderate accounts state

the number of the slain at seven thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers that more than fifteen thousand

victims were sacrificed to the names of Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his

murder, offered his own life, and all his wealth, to supply the place of one of his two sons; but, while the

father hesitated with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, and unwilling to condemn, the

soldiers determined his suspense, by plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the

defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins, that they were obliged to produce the prescribed number of

heads, serves only to increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the massacre, which was

executed by the commands of Theodosius. The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent

residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city, the aspect of the streets and buildings, the

dress and faces of the inhabitants, were familiar, and even present, to his imagination; and Theodosius

possessed a quick and lively sense of the existence of the people whom he destroyed. ^91 [Footnote 91: 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, (l. vii. c. 25,) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 17,) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p.

62,) Cedrenus, (p. 317,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 34.) Zosimus alone, the partial enemy of Theodosius,

The respectful attachment of the emperor for the orthodox clergy, had disposed him to love and admire the

character of Ambrose; who united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The friends and

ministers of Theodosius imitated the example of their sovereign; and he observed, with more surprise than

displeasure, that all his secret counsels were immediately communicated to the archbishop; who acted from

the laudable persuasion, that every measure of civil government may have some connection with the glory of

God, and the interest of the true religion. The monks and populace of Callinicum, ^* an obscure town on the

frontier of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by that of their bishop, had tumultuously burnt a

conventicle of the Valentinians, and a synagogue of the Jews. The seditious prelate was condemned, by the

magistrate of the province, either to rebuild the synagogue, or to repay the damage; and this moderate

sentence was confirmed by the emperor. But it was not confirmed by the archbishop of Milan. ^92 He

dictated an epistle of censure and reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor had received the mark of

circumcision, and renounced the faith of his baptism. Ambrose considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the

persecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares that he himself, and every true believer, would eagerly

dispute with the bishop of Callinicum the merit of the deed, and the crown of martyrdom; and laments, in the

most pathetic terms, that the execution of the sentence would be fatal to the fame and salvation of

Theodosius. As this private admonition did not produce an immediate effect, the archbishop, from his pulpit,

^93 publicly addressed the emperor on his throne; ^94 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; ^95 and, during the term of his

residence at Milan, his affection for Ambrose was continually increased by the habits of pious and familiar

[Footnote 92: See the whole transaction in Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xl. xli. p. 950 956,) and his biographer

Paulinus, (c. 23.) Bayle and Barbeyrac (Morales des Peres, c. xvii. p. 325, have justly condemned the

[Footnote 93: 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.]

[Footnote 94: Hodie, Episcope, de me proposuisti. Ambrose modestly confessed it; but he sternly

reprimanded Timasius, general of the horse and foot, who had presumed to say that the monks of Callinicum

[Footnote 95: 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. l. xvi. tit. viii. leg. 9, with

When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his mind was filled with horror and anguish.

He retired into the country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of Theodosius. But as the

archbishop was satisfied that a timid silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he represented, in

a private letter, the enormity of the crime; which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The

episcopal vigor of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and he contented himself with signifying ^96 an

indirect sort of excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been warned in a vision not to offer the

oblation in the name, or in the presence, of Theodosius; and by the advice, that he would confine himself to

the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the altar of Christ, or to receive the holy eucharist with

those hands that were still polluted with the blood of an innocent people. The emperor was deeply affected by

his own reproaches, and by those of his spiritual father; and after he had bewailed the mischievous and

irreparable consequences of his rash fury, he proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his devotions

in the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the archbishop; who, in the tone and language of

an ambassador of Heaven, declared to his sovereign, that private contrition was not sufficient to atone for a

public fault, or to appease the justice of the offended Deity. Theodosius humbly represented, that if he had

contracted the guilt of homicide, David, the man after God's own heart, had been guilty, not only of murder,

but of adultery. "You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then his repentance," was the reply of the

undaunted Ambrose. The rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted; and the public penance of

the emperor Theodosius has been recorded as one of the most honorable events in the annals of the church.

According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical discipline, which were established in the fourth century, the

crime of homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years: ^97 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. ^98 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. ^99 Posterity has

applauded the virtuous firmness of the archbishop; and the example of Theodosius may prove the beneficial

influence of those principles, which could force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human

punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible Judge. "The prince," says Montesquieu, "who

is actuated by the hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile only to the voice, and

tractable to the hand, of his keeper." ^100 The motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the

inclination, and interest, of the man who has acquired such dangerous authority over him; and the priest, who

holds in his hands the conscience of a king, may inflame, or moderate, his sanguinary passions. The cause of

humanity, and that of persecution, have been asserted, by the same Ambrose, with equal energy, and with

equal success. [Footnote 96: 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

[Footnote 97: According to the discipline of St. Basil, (Canon lvi.,) the voluntary homicide was four years a

mourner; five a hearer; seven 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. 219

[Footnote 98: The penance of Theodosius is authenticated by Ambrose, (tom. vi. de Obit. Theodos. c. 34, p.

1207,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus, (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24.) Socrates is ignorant; Sozomen

(l. vii. c. 25) concise; and the copious narrative of Theodoret (l. v. c. 18) must be used with precaution.]

[Footnote 99: Codex Theodos. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 13. The date and circumstances of this law are perplexed with

difficulties; but I feel myself inclined to favor the honest efforts of Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 721)

[Footnote 100: Un prince qui aime la religion, et qui la craint, est un lion qui cede a la main qui le flatte, ou a

After the defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman world was in the possession of Theodosius. He

derived from the choice of Gratian his honorable title to the provinces of the East: he had acquired the West

by the right of conquest; and the three years which he spent in Italy were usefully employed to restore the

authority of the laws, and to correct the abuses which had prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of

Maximus, and the minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian was regularly inserted in the public acts:

but the tender age, and doubtful faith, of the son of Justina, appeared to require the prudent care of an

orthodox guardian; and his specious ambition might have excluded the unfortunate youth, without a struggle,

and almost without a murmur, from the administration, and even from the inheritance, of the empire. If

Theodosius had consulted the rigid maxims of interest and policy, his conduct would have been justified by

his friends; but the generosity of his behavior on this memorable occasion has extorted the applause of his

most inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the throne of Milan; and, without stipulating any present

or future advantages, restored him to the absolute dominion of all the provinces, from which he had been

driven by the arms of Maximus. To the restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius added the free and

generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which his successful valor had recovered from the assassin of

Gratian. ^101 Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the death of his benefactor, and

delivering the West from the yoke of tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and, in the

peaceful possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into his former habits of luxury and indolence.

Theodosius discharged his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal tenderness to the sister, of

Valentinian; and posterity, which admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must applaud his

[Footnote 101: It is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself, (l. iv. p. 267.) Augustin says, with some happiness

of expression, Valentinianum .... misericordissima veneratione restituit.] 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. ^102 The pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian

had imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a more orthodox

education. His growing zeal for the faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character and authority of

Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favorable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor

of the West. ^103 They applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his application to

business, and his tender affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to

pronounce an unjust sentence against the meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had

accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by domestic treason; and the empire was again

involved in the horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes, ^104 a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held the

second rank in the service of Gratian. On the death of his master he joined the standard of Theodosius;

contributed, by his valor and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after the

victory, mastergeneral of the armies of Gaul. His real merit, and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence

both of the prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he

was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was secretly determined

either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the West. The important commands of the army were distributed

among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the honors and offices of the civil

government; the progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of Valentinian;

and the emperor, without power and without intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent

condition of a captive. ^105 The indignation which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and

impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a prince, who felt that he was

not unworthy to reign. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a mediator; as

the pledge of his sincerity, and the guardian of his safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of the East of

his helpless situation, and he declared, that, unless Theodosius could speedily march to his assistance, he

must attempt to escape from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed

his residence in the midst of the hostile faction. But the hopes of relief were distant, and doubtful: and, as

every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to

risk an immediate contest with his powerful general. He received Arbogastes on the throne; and, as the count

approached with some appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all his

employments. "My authority," replied Arbogastes, with insulting coolness, "does not depend on the smile or

the frown of a monarch;" and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground. The indignant monarch

snatched at the sword of one of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not

without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using the deadly weapon against his enemy, or

against himself. A few days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed his resentment and his

weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was found strangled in his apartment; and some pains were employed

to disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the world, that the death of the young emperor

had been the voluntary effect of his own despair. ^106 His body was conducted with decent pomp to the

sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to commemorate his virtues and his

misfortunes. ^107 On this occasion the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his

theological system; and to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance, that their pious

brother, though he had not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the

[Footnote 103: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, p. 1178. c. 36, p. 1184.) When the young

emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a handsome actress, Since he ordered his

wild beasts to to be killed, it is ungenerous in Philostor (l. xi. c. 1) to reproach him with the love of that

[Footnote 104: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c.

[Footnote 105: Gregory of Tours (l. 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.]

[Footnote 106: 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,

[Footnote 107: De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. 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.]

[Footnote 108: See c. 51, p. 1188, c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon, (Hist. des Sacramens, tom. i. p. 86,) who

owns that St. Ambrose most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of baptism, labors to reconcile

The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose

breast every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the

unknown master, whom the choice of a Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of pride

and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more

advisable to reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the purple on the rhetorician

Eugenius; ^109 whom he had already raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank of master of

the offices. In the course, both of his private and public service, the count had always approved the

attachment and abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by the gravity of his manners,

recommended him to the esteem of the people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the throne,

may inspire a favorable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were

immediately despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with affected grief, the unfortunate

accident of the death of Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to request, that the

monarch of the East would embrace, as his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the

unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the West. ^110 Theodosius was justly provoked, that the

perfidy of a Barbarian, should have destroyed, in a moment, the labors, and the fruit, of his former victory;

and he was excited by the tears of his beloved wife, ^111 to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and

once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne. But as the second conquest of the West was a

task of difficulty and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents, and an ambiguous answer, the

ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before

he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will of Heaven; and as the

progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who

possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one of the

favorite eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up the

Nile, as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais. ^112 In the

neighborhood of that city, and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John ^113 had constructed, with

his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without

seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire, or any human art.

Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a

small window, and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants who successively flowed from every part of the

Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window with respectful steps, proposed his

questions concerning the event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favorable oracle, which animated

the courage of the emperor by the assurance of a bloody, but infallible victory. ^114 The accomplishment of

the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two

mastergenerals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline of

the Roman legions. The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the ensigns of their national

chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth, who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were

enlisted in the service of the same prince; ^* and the renowned Alaric acquired, in the school of Theodosius,

the knowledge of the art of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the destruction of Rome. ^115

[Footnote 109: Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul, is the contemptuous expression of Claudian,

(iv. Cons. Hon. 74.) Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to Paganism (Sozomen, l. vii.

c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2) is probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus, (l. iv.

[Footnote 110: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this embassy; but he is diverted by another story from

[Footnote 111: Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280) that Galla died in childbed; and intimates,

[Footnote 112: 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 Senaar, and has a very convenient fountain, "cujus potu signa

virgini tatis eripiuntur." See D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 181 Abulfeda, Descript. Egypt. p. 14, and

[Footnote 113: The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and

Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738,) in Rosweyde's great Collection of the Vitae Patrum. Tillemont (Mem.

[Footnote 114: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. l. i. 312) mentions the eunuch's journey; but he

[Footnote 115: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10. Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524) dwells with

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. ^116 Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines of Italy; the troops of Theodosius were permitted to

occupy, without resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; and even the

passes of the mountains were negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader. He descended

from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment, the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans, that

covered with arms and tents the open country which extends to the walls of Aquileia, and the banks of the

Frigidus, ^117 or Cold River. ^118 This narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed by the Alps and the

Adriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have

disdained a pardon; his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation; and Theodosius was impatient to satisfy

his glory and revenge, by the chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing the natural and

artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts, the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications of

his rivals, assigned the post of honorable danger to the Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody

conflict might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten thousand of those auxiliaries, and

Bacurius, general of the Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory was not purchased by

their blood; the Gauls maintained their advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly flight, or

retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate

night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes; ^119 except that strong assurance, which, under

the most desperate circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt of fortune and of life.

The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and

vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of troops to occupy the passes of the mountains,

and to encompass the rear of the Eastern army. The dawn of day discovered to the eyes of Theodosius the

extent and the extremity of his danger; but his apprehensions were soon dispelled, by a friendly message from

the leaders of those troops who expressed their inclination to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honorable

and lucrative rewards, which they stipulated as the price of their perfidy, were granted without hesitation; and

as ink and paper could not easily be procured, the emperor subscribed, on his own tablets, the ratification of

the treaty. The spirit of his soldiers was revived by this seasonable reenforcement; and they again marched,

with confidence, to surprise the camp of a tyrant, whose principal officers appeared to distrust, either the

justice or the success of his arms. In the heat of the battle, a violent tempest, ^120 such as is often felt among

the Alps, suddenly arose from the East. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their position from the

impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested

their weapons from their hands, and diverted, or repelled, their ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage

was skilfully improved, the violence of the storm was magnified by the superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and

they yielded without shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate on the side of the pious

emperor. His victory was decisive; and the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the difference

of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had almost acquired the dominion of the world, was

reduced to implore the mercy of the conqueror; and the unrelenting soldiers separated his head from his body

as he lay prostrate at the feet of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle, in which he had discharged

the duties of a soldier and a general, wandered several days among the mountains. But when he was

convinced that his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the intrepid Barbarian imitated the

example of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the empire was

determined in a narrow corner of Italy; and the legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the

archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of the provinces of the West. Those provinces

were involved in the guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone had resisted the claims

of successful usurpation. With a manly freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the

archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, ^* declined his correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan,

to avoid the odious presence of a tyrant, whose downfall he predicted in discreet and ambiguous language.

The merit of Ambrose was applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the people by his

alliance with the church; and the clemency of Theodosius is ascribed to the humane intercession of the

archbishop of Milan. ^121 [Footnote 116: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, contrasts the military plans of the

[Footnote 117: The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in the country of Goretz, now called the

Vipao, falls into the Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the Adriatic. See D'Anville's

ancient and modern maps, and the Italia Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i. c. 188.)]

[Footnote 118: Claudian's wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed red; the cold ver smoked; and the channel

must have been choked with carcasses the current had not been swelled with blood.

[Footnote 119: Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Philip, appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor,

on horseback, This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which afterwards became so popular in Spain,

Obruit adversas acies; revolutaque tela Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas

O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris Aeolus armatas hyemes; cui militat Aether, Et conjurati veniunt ad

These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, A.D. 396) are alleged by his contemporaries,

Augustin and Orosius; who suppress the Pagan deity of Aeolus, and add some circumstances from the

information of eyewitnesses. Within four months after the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to the

[Footnote *: Arbogastes and his emperor had openly espoused the Pagan party, according to Ambrose and

Augustin. See Le Beau, v. 40. Beugnot (Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme) is more full, and perhaps

somewhat fanciful, on this remarkable reaction in favor of Paganism, but compare p 116. M.]

[Footnote 121: The events of this civil war are gathered from Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. lxii. p. 1022,)

Paulinus, (in Vit. Ambros. c. 26 34,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35,) Sozomen, (l.

vii. c. 24,) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 24,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 281, 282,) Claudian, (in iii. Cons. Hon. 63 105, in iv.

After the defeat of Eugenius, the merit, as well as the authority, of Theodosius was cheerfully acknowledged

by all the inhabitants of the Roman world. The experience of his past conduct encouraged the most pleasing

expectations of his future reign; and the age of the emperor, which did not exceed fifty years, seemed to

extend the prospect of the public felicity. His death, only four months after his victory, was considered by the

people as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed, in a moment, the hopes of the rising generation.

But the indulgence of ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of disease. ^122 The strength of

Theodosius was unable to support the sudden and violent transition from the palace to the camp; and the

increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the speedy dissolution of the emperor. The opinion, and perhaps

the interest, of the public had confirmed the division of the Eastern and Western empires; and the two royal

youths, Arcadius and Honorius, who had already obtained, from the tenderness of their father, the title of

Augustus, were destined to fill the thrones of Constantinople and of Rome. Those princes were not permitted

to share the danger and glory of the civil war; ^123 but as soon as Theodosius had triumphed over his

unworthy rivals, he called his younger son, Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the victory, and to receive the

sceptre of the West from the hands of his dying father. The arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a

splendid exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the emperor, though he was oppressed by the weight of

his disorder, contributed by his presence to the public joy. But the remains of his strength were exhausted by

the painful effort which he made to assist at the spectacles of the morning. Honorius supplied, during the rest

of the day, the place of his father; and the great Theodosius expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the

recent animosities of a civil war, his death was universally lamented. The Barbarians, whom he had

vanquished and the churchmen, by whom he had been subdued, celebrated, with loud and sincere applause,

the qualities of the deceased emperor, which appeared the most valuable in their eyes. The Romans were

terrified by the impending dangers of a feeble and divided administration, and every disgraceful moment of

the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss.

[Footnote 122: This disease, ascribed by Socrates (l. v. c. 26) to the fatigues of war, is represented by

Philostorgius (l. xi. c. 2) as the effect of sloth and intemperance; for which Photius calls him an impudent liar,

[Footnote 123: Zosimus supposes, that the boy Honorius accompanied his father, (l. iv. p. 280.) Yet the

quanto flagrabrant 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. Cons. 78 125.)]

In the faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his imperfections have not been dissembled; the act of

cruelty, and the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the greatest of the Roman princes. An

historian, perpetually adverse to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices, and their pernicious

effects; he boldly asserts, that every rank of subjects imitated the effeminate manners of their sovereign; and

that every species of corruption polluted the course of public and private life; and that the feeble restraints of

order and decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a

blush, the consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence of sloth and appetite. ^124 The complaints

of contemporary writers, who deplore the increase of luxury, and depravation of manners, are commonly

expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers, who possess a clear and

comprehensive view of the revolutions of society; and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret

springs of action, which impel, in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions of a

multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree of truth, that the luxury of the Romans was

more shameless and dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age of Constantine, perhaps, or of

Augustus, the alteration cannot be ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually increased

the stock of national riches. A long period of calamity or decay must have checked the industry, and

diminished the wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been the result of that indolent

despair, which enjoys the present hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain condition of their

property discouraged the subjects of Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious undertakings

which require an immediate expense, and promise a slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of

ruin and desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony, which might, every hour, become

the prey of the rapacious Goth. And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a shipwreck, or a

siege, may serve to explain the progress of luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.

The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and cities, had instilled a secret and destructive

poison into the camps of the legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the pen of a military writer,

who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the just and

important observation of Vegetius, that the infantry was invariably covered with defensive armor, from the

foundation of the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of discipline, and the disuse of

exercise, rendered the soldiers less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the service; they

complained of the weight of the armor, which they seldom wore; and they successively obtained the

permission of laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors, the

short sword, and the formidable pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their feeble

hands. As the use of the shield is incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the field;

condemned to suffer either the pain of wounds, or the ignominy of flight, and always disposed to prefer the

more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt the benefits, and

adopted the use, of defensive armor; and, as they excelled in the management of missile weapons, they easily

overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions, whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence, to

the arrows of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of cities, and the dishonor of the Roman

name, ineffectually solicited the successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the cuirasses of the infantry.

The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the public defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may

[Footnote 125: Vegetius, de Re Militari, l. i. c. 10. The series of calamities which he marks, compel us to

believe, that the Hero, to whom he dedicates his book, is the last and most inglorious of the Valentinians.]

Final Destruction Of Paganism. Introduction Of The Worship Of Saints, And Relics, Among The

The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any

ancient and popular superstition; and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the history

of the human mind. The Christians, more especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the prudent delays

of Constantine, and the equal toleration of the elder Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest perfect

or secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist. The influence which Ambrose and his brethren

had acquired over the youth of Gratian, and the piety of Theodosius, was employed to infuse the maxims of

persecution into the breasts of their Imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious jurisprudence

were established, from whence they deduced a direct and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the

empire who still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that the magistrate is, in some measure, guilty

of the crimes which he neglects to prohibit, or to punish; and, that the idolatrous worship of fabulous deities,

and real daemons, is the most abominable crime against the supreme majesty of the Creator. The laws of

Moses, and the examples of Jewish history, ^1 were hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied, by the clergy, to

the mild and universal reign of Christianity. ^2 The zeal of the emperors was excited to vindicate their own

honor, and that of the Deity: and the temples of the Roman world were subverted, about sixty years after the

[Footnote 1: St. Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Theodos. p. 1208) expressly praises and recommends the zeal of

Josiah in the destruction of idolatry The language of Julius Firmicus Maternus on the same subject (de Errore

Profan. Relig. p. 467, edit. Gronov.) is piously inhuman. Nec filio jubet (the Mosaic Law) parci, nec fratri, et

[Footnote 2: Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406, in his Commentaire Philosophique) justifies, and limits, these intolerant

From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans preserved the regular succession of the several

colleges of the sacerdotal order. ^3 Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their supreme jurisdiction over all things, and

persons, that were consecrated to the service of the gods; and the various questions which perpetually arose in

a loose and traditionary system, were submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal Fifteen grave and

learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and prescribed the actions of heroes, according to the flight

of birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sibylline books (their name of Quindecemvirs was derived from their number)

occasionally consulted the history of future, and, as it should seem, of contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted

their virginity to the guard of the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of the duration of Rome; which no

mortal had been suffered to behold with impunity. ^4 Seven Epulos prepared the table of the gods, conducted

the solemn procession, and regulated the ceremonies of the annual festival. The three Flamens of Jupiter, of

Mars, and of Quirinus, were considered as the peculiar ministers of the three most powerful deities, who

watched over the fate of Rome and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices represented the person of

Numa, and of his successors, in the religious functions, which could be performed only by royal hands. The

confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, practised such rites as might extort a smile of contempt from

every reasonable man, with a lively confidence of recommending themselves to the favor of the immortal

gods. The authority, which the Roman priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of the republic, was

gradually abolished by the establishment of monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity

of their sacred character was still protected by the laws, and manners of their country; and they still

continued, more especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital, and sometimes in the provinces,

the rights of their ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of purple, chariotz of state, and sumptuous

entertainments, attracted the admiration of the people; and they received, from the consecrated lands, and the

public revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally supported the splendor of the priesthood, and all the

expenses of the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar was not incompatible with the

command of armies, the Romans, after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff, or of

augur; the seats of Cicero ^5 and Pompey were filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members

of the senate; and the dignity of their birth reflected additional splendor on their sacerdotal character. The

fifteen priests, who composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more distinguished rank as the companions

of their sovereign; and the Christian emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns, which were

appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when Gratian ascended the throne, more scrupulous or

more enlightened, he sternly rejected those profane symbols; ^6 applied to the service of the state, or of the

church, the revenues of the priests and vestals; abolished their honors and immunities; and dissolved the

ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported by the opinions and habits of eleven hundred

years. Paganism was still the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple, in which they

assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of Victory; ^7 a majestic female standing on a globe, with

flowing garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her outstretched hand. ^8 The senators were

sworn on the altar of the goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and a solemn offering

of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public deliberations. The removal of this ancient

monument was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the superstition of the Romans. The altar of

Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once more banished from the senate by

the zeal of Gratian. ^10 But the emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were exposed to the public

veneration: four hundred and twentyfour temples, or chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the

people; and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was offended by the fumes of idolatrous

sacrifice. ^11 [Footnote 3: See the outlines of the Roman hierarchy in Cicero, (de Legibus, ii. 7, 8,) Livy, (i.

20,) Dionysius Halicarnassensis, (l. ii. p. 119 129, edit. Hudson,) Beaufort, (Republique Romaine, tom. i. p.

1 90,) and Moyle, (vol. i. p. 10 55.) The last is the work of an English whig, as well as of a Roman

[Footnote 4: These mystic, and perhaps imaginary, symbols have given birth to various fables and

conjectures. It seems probable, that the Palladium was a small statue (three cubits and a half high) of

Minerva, with a lance and distaff; that it was usually enclosed in a seria, or barrel; and that a similar barrel

was placed by its side to disconcert curiosity, or sacrilege. See Mezeriac (Comment. sur les Epitres d'Ovide,

[Footnote 5: Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, l. ii. Epist. 5) or indirectly (ad Familiar. l. xv. Epist. 4) confesses

that the Augurate is the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny is proud to tread in the footsteps of Cicero, (l. iv.

Epist. 8,) and the chain of tradition might be continued from history and marbles.]

[Footnote 6: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249, 250. I have suppressed the foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus.]

[Footnote 7: This statue was transported from Tarentum to Rome, placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar, and

[Footnote 8: Prudentius (l. ii. in initio) has drawn a very awkward portrait of Victory; but the curious reader

[Footnote 9: See Suetonius (in August. c. 35) and the Exordium of Pliny's Panegyric.]

[Footnote 10: These facts are mutually allowed by the two advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose.]

[Footnote 11: The Notitia Urbis, more recent than Constantine, does not find one Christian church worthy to

be named among the edifices of the city. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. p. 825) deplores the public scandals of

Rome, which continually offended the eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful.]

But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the senate of Rome: ^12 and it was only by their

absence, that they could express their dissent from the legal, though profane, acts of a Pagan majority. In that

assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of

fanaticism. Four respectable deputations were successively voted to the Imperial court, ^13 to represent the

grievances of the priesthood and the senate, and to solicit the restoration of the altar of Victory. The conduct

of this important business was intrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, ^14 a wealthy and noble senator, who

united the sacred characters of pontiff and augur with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and praefect of

the city. The breast of Symmachus was animated by the warmest zeal for the cause of expiring Paganism; and

his religious antagonists lamented the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy of his moral virtues. ^15 The

orator, whose petition is extant to the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty and danger of the

office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids every topic which might appear to reflect on the religion

of his sovereign; humbly declares, that prayers and entreaties are his only arms; and artfully draws his

arguments from the schools of rhetoric, rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus endeavors to

seduce the imagination of a young prince, by displaying the attributes of the goddess of victory; he

insinuates, that the confiscation of the revenues, which were consecrated to the service of the gods, was a

measure unworthy of his liberal and disinterested character; and he maintains, that the Roman sacrifices

would be deprived of their force and energy, if they were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well as in

the name, of the republic. Even scepticism is made to supply an apology for superstition. The great and

incomprehensible secret of the universe eludes the inquiry of man. Where reason cannot instruct, custom may

be permitted to guide; and every nation seems to consult the dictates of prudence, by a faithful attachment to

those rites and opinions, which have received the sanction of ages. If those ages have been crowned with

glory and prosperity, if the devout people have frequently obtained the blessings which they have solicited at

the altars of the gods, it must appear still more advisable to persist in the same salutary practice; and not to

risk the unknown perils that may attend any rash innovations. The test of antiquity and success was applied

with singular advantage to the religion of Numa; and Rome herself, the celestial genius that presided over the

fates of the city, is introduced by the orator to plead her own cause before the tribunal of the emperors. "Most

excellent princes," says the venerable matron, "fathers of your country! pity and respect my age, which has

hitherto flowed in an uninterrupted course of piety. Since I do not repent, permit me to continue in the

practice of my ancient rites. Since I am born free, allow me to enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion

has reduced the world under my laws. These rites have repelled Hannibal from the city, and the Gauls from

the Capitol. Were my gray hairs reserved for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant of the new system that I

am required to adopt; but I am well assured, that the correction of old age is always an ungrateful and

ignominious office." ^16 The fears of the people supplied what the discretion of the orator had suppressed;

and the calamities, which afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire, were unanimously imputed, by the

[Footnote 12: Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in contradiction to common sense (Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 147,)

[Footnote 13: The first (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who refused them audience; the second (A.D. 384) to

Valentinian, when the field was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose; the third (A.D. 388) to Theodosius;

and the fourth (A.D. 392) to Valentinian. Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372 399) fairly

[Footnote 14: Symmachus, who was invested with all the civil and sacerdotal honors, represented the

emperor under the two characters of Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps Senatus. See the proud inscription at

Note: Mr. Beugnot has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was more than Pontifex Major. Destruction du

[Footnote 15: As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 639) should dig in the mud with an instrument

of gold and ivory. Even saints, and polemic saints, treat this adversary with respect and civility.]

[Footnote 16: See the fiftyfourth Epistle of the tenth book of Symmachus. In the form and disposition of his

ten books of Epistles, he imitated the younger Pliny; whose rich and florid style he was supposed, by his

friends, to equal or excel, (Macrob. Saturnal. l. v. c. i.) But the luxcriancy of Symmachus consists of barren

leaves, without fruits, and even without flowers. Few facts, and few sentiments, can be extracted from his

But the hopes of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the firm and dexterous opposition of the archbishop

of Milan, who fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence of the advocate of Rome. In this

controversy, Ambrose condescends to speak the language of a philosopher, and to ask, with some contempt,

why it should be thought necessary to introduce an imaginary and invisible power, as the cause of those

victories, which were sufficiently explained by the valor and discipline of the legions. He justly derides the

absurd reverence for antiquity, which could only tend to discourage the improvements of art, and to replunge

the human race into their original barbarism. From thence, gradually rising to a more lofty and theological

tone, he pronounces, that Christianity alone is the doctrine of truth and salvation; and that every mode of

Polytheism conducts its deluded votaries, through the paths of error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. ^17

Arguments like these, when they were suggested by a favorite bishop, had power to prevent the restoration of

the altar of Victory; but the same arguments fell, with much more energy and effect, from the mouth of a

conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged in triumph at the chariotwheels of Theodosius. ^18 In a

full meeting of the senate, the emperor proposed, according to the forms of the republic, the important

question, Whether the worship of Jupiter, or that of Christ, should be the religion of the Romans. ^* The

liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was destroyed by the hopes and fears that his presence

inspired; and the arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a recent admonition, that it might be dangerous to oppose

the wishes of the monarch. On a regular division of the senate, Jupiter was condemned and degraded by the

sense of a very large majority; and it is rather surprising, that any members should be found bold enough to

declare, by their speeches and votes, that they were still attached to the interest of an abdicated deity. ^19 The

hasty conversion of the senate must be attributed either to supernatural or to sordid motives; and many of

these reluctant proselytes betrayed, on every favorable occasion, their secret disposition to throw aside the

mask of odious dissimulation. But they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the cause of the ancient

became more hopeless; they yielded to the authority of the emperor, to the fashion of the times, and to the

entreaties of their wives and children, ^20 who were instigated and governed by the clergy of Rome and the

monks of the East. The edifying example of the Anician family was soon imitated by the rest of the nobility:

the Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi, embraced the Christian religion; and "the luminaries of the world, the

venerable assembly of Catos (such are the highflown expressions of Prudentius) were impatient to strip

themselves of their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old serpent; to assume the snowy robes of

baptismal innocence, and to humble the pride of the consular fasces before tombs of the martyrs." ^21 The

citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and the populace, who were supported by the public liberality,

filled the churches of the Lateran, and Vatican, with an incessant throng of devout proselytes. The decrees of

the senate, which proscribed the worship of idols, were ratified by the general consent of the Romans; ^22 the

splendor of the Capitol was defaced, and the solitary temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt. ^23

Rome submitted to the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished provinces had not yet lost their reverence for

[Footnote 17: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. xviii. p. 825 833.) The former of these epistles is a short

caution; the latter is a formal reply of the petition or libel of Symmachus. The same ideas are more copiously

expressed in the poetry, if it may deserve that name, of Prudentius; who composed his two books against

Symmachus (A.D. 404) while that senator was still alive. It is whimsical enough that Montesquieu

(Considerations, c. xix. tom. iii. p. 487) should overlook the two professed antagonists of Symmachus, and

amuse himself with descanting on the more remote and indirect confutations of Orosius, St. Augustin, and

[Footnote 18: See Prudentius (in Symmach. l. i. 545, The Christian agrees with the Pagan Zosimus (l. iv. p.

283) in placing this visit of Theodosius after the second civil war, gemini bis victor caede Tyranni, (l. i. 410.)

[Footnote *: M. Beugnot (in his Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident, i. p. 483 488)

questions, altogether, the truth of this statement. It is very remarkable that Zosimus and Prudentius concur in

asserting the fact of the question being solemnly deliberated by the senate, though with directly opposite

results. Zosimus declares that the majority of the assembly adhered to the ancient religion of Rome; Gibbon

has adopted the authority of Prudentius, who, as a Latin writer, though a poet, deserves more credit than the

Greek historian. Both concur in placing this scene after the second triumph of Theodosius; but it has been

almost demonstrated (and Gibbon see the preceding note seems to have acknowledged this) by Pagi and

Tillemont, that Theodosius did not visit Rome after the defeat of Eugenius. M. Beugnot urges, with much

force, the improbability that the Christian emperor would submit such a question to the senate, whose

authority was nearly obsolete, except on one occasion, which was almost hailed as an epoch in the restoration

of her ancient privileges. The silence of Ambrose and of Jerom on an event so striking, and redounding so

much to the honor of Christianity, is of considerable weight. M. Beugnot would ascribe the whole scene to

the poetic imagination of Prudentius; but I must observe, that, however Prudentius is sometimes elevated by

the grandeur of his subject to vivid and eloquent language, this flight of invention would be so much bolder

and more vigorous than usual with this poet, that I cannot but suppose there must have been some foundation

for the story, though it may have been exaggerated by the poet, or misrepresented by the historian. M]

[Footnote 19: Prudentius, after proving that the sense of the senate is declared by a legal majority, proceeds to

Adspice quam pleno subsellia nostra Senatu Decernant infame Jovis pulvinar, et omne Idolum longe purgata

ex urbe fugandum, Qua vocat egregii sententia Principis, illuc Libera, cum pedibus, tum corde, frequentia

Zosimus ascribes to the conscript feathers a heathenish courage, which few of them are found to possess.]

[Footnote 20: Jerom specifies the pontiff Albinus, who was surrounded with such a believing family of

children and grandchildren, as would have been sufficient to convert even Jupiter himself; an extraordinary

[Footnote 21: Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi Lumina; Conciliumque senum gestire Catonum

Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum Sumere; et exuvias deponere pontificales.

[Footnote 22: Prudentius, after he has described the conversion of the senate and people, asks, with some

truth and confidence, Et dubitamus adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe, dicatam In leges transisse tuas?]

[Footnote 23: Jerom exults in the desolation of the Capitol, and the other temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54,

[Footnote *: M. Beugnot is more correct in his general estimate of the measures enforced by Theodosius for

the abolition of Paganism. He seized (according to Zosimus) the funds bestowed by the public for the

expense of sacrifices. The public sacrifices ceased, not because they were positively prohibited, but because

the public treasury would no longer bear the expense. The public and the private sacrifices in the provinces,

which were not under the same regulations with those of the capital, continued to take place. In Rome itself,

many pagan ceremonies, which were without sacrifice, remained in full force. The gods, therefore, were

invoked, the temples were frequented, the pontificates inscribed, according to ancient usage, among the

family titles of honor; and it cannot be asserted that idolatry was completely destroyed by Theodosius. See

The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to proceed, with some caution and tenderness, in

the reformation of the eternal city. Those absolute monarchs acted with less regard to the prejudices of the

provincials. The pious labor which had been suspended near twenty years since the death of Constantius, ^24

was vigorously resumed, and finally accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosius. Whilst that warlike prince yet

struggled with the Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the republic, he ventured to offend a

considerable party of his subjects, by some acts which might perhaps secure the protection of Heaven, but

which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human prudence. The success of his first experiments

against the Pagans encouraged the pious emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts of proscription: the same

laws which had been originally published in the provinces of the East, were applied, after the defeat of

Maximus, to the whole extent of the Western empire; and every victory of the orthodox Theodosius

contributed to the triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. ^25 He attacked superstition in her most vital

part, by prohibiting the use of sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as well as infamous; and if the

terms of his edicts more strictly condemned the impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victim,

^26 every subsequent explanation tended to involve in the same guilt the general practice of immolation,

which essentially constituted the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for the purpose of

sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince to remove from his subjects the dangerous temptation of

offending against the laws which he had enacted. A special commission was granted to Cynegius, the

Praetorian praefect of the East, and afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of

distinguished rank in the West; by which they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy the

instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and to confiscate the consecrated property for

the benefit of the emperor, of the church, or of the army. ^27 Here the desolation might have stopped: and the

naked edifices, which were no longer employed in the service of idolatry, might have been protected from the

destructive rage of fanaticism. Many of those temples were the most splendid and beautiful monuments of

Grecian architecture; and the emperor himself was interested not to deface the splendor of his own cities, or

to diminish the value of his own possessions. Those stately edifices might be suffered to remain, as so many

lasting trophies of the victory of Christ. In the decline of the arts they might be usefully converted into

magazines, manufactures, or places of public assembly: and perhaps, when the walls of the temple had been

sufficiently purified by holy rites, the worship of the true Deity might be allowed to expiate the ancient guilt

of idolatry. But as long as they subsisted, the Pagans fondly cherished the secret hope, that an auspicious

revolution, a second Julian, might again restore the altars of the gods: and the earnestness with which they

addressed their unavailing prayers to the throne, ^28 increased the zeal of the Christian reformers to extirpate,

without mercy, the root of superstition. The laws of the emperors exhibit some symptoms of a milder

disposition: ^29 but their cold and languid efforts were insufficient to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and

rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the spiritual rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy

Martin, bishop of Tours, ^30 marched at the head of his faithful monks to destroy the idols, the temples, and

the consecrated trees of his extensive diocese; and, in the execution of this arduous task, the prudent reader

will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons. In Syria, the

divine and excellent Marcellus, ^31 as he is styled by Theodoret, a bishop animated with apostolic fervor,

resolved to level with the ground the stately temples within the diocese of Apamea. His attack was resisted by

the skill and solidity with which the temple of Jupiter had been constructed. The building was seated on an

eminence: on each of the four sides, the lofty roof was supported by fifteen massy columns, sixteen feet in

circumference; and the large stone, of which they were composed, were firmly cemented with lead and iron.

The force of the strongest and sharpest tools had been tried without effect. It was found necessary to

undermine the foundations of the columns, which fell down as soon as the temporary wooden props had been

consumed with fire; and the difficulties of the enterprise are described under the allegory of a black daemon,

who retarded, though he could not defeat, the operations of the Christian engineers. Elated with victory,

Marcellus took the field in person against the powers of darkness; a numerous troop of soldiers and gladiators

marched under the episcopal banner, and he successively attacked the villages and country temples of the

diocese of Apamea. Whenever any resistance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the faith, whose

lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly, placed himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach

of darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his death: he was surprised and slain by a body of exasperated

rustics; and the synod of the province pronounced, without hesitation, that the holy Marcellus had sacrificed

his life in the cause of God. In the support of this cause, the monks, who rushed with tumultuous fury from

the desert, distinguished themselves by their zeal and diligence. They deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and

some of them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of avarice, which they gratified with

holy plunder, and of intemperance, which they indulged at the expense of the people, who foolishly admired

their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and artificial paleness. ^32 A small number of temples was protected

by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and ecclesiastical governors. The temple of

the Celestial Venus at Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumference of two miles, was

judiciously converted into a Christian church; ^33 and a similar consecration has preserved inviolate the

majestic dome of the Pantheon at Rome. ^34 But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of

fanatics, without authority, and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest

structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those Barbarians, who alone had time and inclination to

[Footnote 24: Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10, Genev. 1634, published by James Godefroy, and now

extremely scarce) accuses Valentinian and Valens of prohibiting sacrifices. Some partial order may have been

issued by the Eastern emperor; but the idea of any general law is contradicted by the silence of the Code, and

Note: See in Reiske's edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155. Sacrific was prohibited by Valens, but not the

[Footnote 26: Homer's sacrifices are not accompanied with any inquisition of entrails, (see Feithius,

Antiquitat. Homer. l. i. c. 10, 16.) The Tuscans, who produced the first Haruspices, subdued both the Greeks

[Footnote 27: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 245, 249. Theodoret. l. v. c. 21. Idatius in Chron. Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c.

38, apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 52. Libanius (pro Templis, p. 10) labors to prove that the

Note: Libanius appears to be the best authority for the East, where, under Theodosius, the work of

devastation was carried on with very different degrees of violence, according to the temper of the local

authorities and of the clergy; and more especially the neighborhood of the more fanatican monks. Neander

well observes, that the prohibition of sacrifice would be easily misinterpreted into an authority for the

destruction of the buildings in which sacrifices were performed. (Geschichte der Christlichen religion ii. p.

156.) An abuse of this kind led to this remarkable oration of Libanius. Neander, however, justly doubts

whether this bold vindication or at least exculpation, of Paganism was ever delivered before, or even placed

[Footnote 28: Cod. Theodos, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8, 18. There is room to believe, that this temple of Edessa,

which Theodosius wished to save for civil uses, was soon afterwards a heap of ruins, (Libanius pro Templis,

[Footnote 29: See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis, pronounced, or rather composed, about the

year 390. I have consulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner's version and remarks, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv.

[Footnote 30: See the Life of Martin by Sulpicius Severus, c. 9 14. The saint once mistook (as Don Quixote

might have done) a harmless funeral for an idolatrous procession, and imprudently committed a miracle.]

[Footnote 31: Compare Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 15) with Theodoret, (l. v. c. 21.) Between them, they relate the

[Footnote 32: Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10 13. He rails at these black garbed men, the Christian monks,

[Footnote 33: Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud Baronium; Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 58, The temple had

[Footnote 34: Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l. iv. c. 4, p. 468. This consecration was performed by Pope

Boniface IV. I am ignorant of the favorable circumstances which had preserved the Pantheon above two

In this wide and various prospect of devastation, the spectator may distinguish the ruins of the temple of

Serapis, at Alexandria. ^35 Serapis does not appear to have been one of the native gods, or monsters, who

sprung from the fruitful soil of superstitious Egypt. ^36 The first of the Ptolemies had been commanded, by a

dream, to import the mysterious stranger from the coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the

inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so imperfectly understood, that it became a subject

of dispute, whether he represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch of the subterraneous regions.

^37 The Egyptians, who were obstinately devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this foreign

deity within the walls of their cities. ^38 But the obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of the

Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power of the god of Pontus: an honorable and domestic

genealogy was provided; and this fortunate usurper was introduced into the throne and bed of Osiris, ^39 the

husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch of Egypt. Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar protection,

gloried in the name of the city of Serapis. His temple, ^40 which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the

Capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the level

of the adjacent parts of the city; and the interior cavity was strongly supported by arches, and distributed into

vaults and subterraneous apartments. The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico;

the stately halls, and exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts; and the treasures of ancient learning

were preserved in the famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new splendor from its ashes. ^41

After the edicts of Theodosius had severely prohibited the sacrifices of the Pagans, they were still tolerated in

the city and temple of Serapis; and this singular indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious

terrors of the Christians themselves; as if they had feared to abolish those ancient rites, which could alone

secure the inundations of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of Constantinople. ^42

[Footnote 35: Sophronius composed a recent and separate history, (Jerom, in Script. Eccles. tom. i. p. 303,)

which has furnished materials to Socrates, (l. v. c. 16.) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 22,) and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22.) Yet

the last, who had been at Alexandria before and after the event, may deserve the credit of an original

[Footnote 36: Gerard Vossius (Opera, tom. v. p. 80, and de Idoloaltria, l. i. c. 29) strives to support the

strange notion of the Fathers; that the patriarch Joseph was adored in Egypt, as the bull Apis, and the god

Note: Consult du Dieu Serapis et son Origine, par J D. Guigniaut, (the translator of Creuzer's Symbolique,)

[Footnote 37: Origo dei nondum nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum antistites sic memorant, Tacit. Hist. iv. 83.

The Greeks, who had travelled into Egypt, were alike ignorant of this new deity.]

[Footnote 38: Macrobius, Saturnal, l. i. c. 7. Such a living fact decisively proves his foreign extraction.]

[Footnote 39: At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in the same temple. The precedency which the queen

assumed, may seem to betray her unequal alliance with the stranger of Pontus. But the superiority of the

female sex was established in Egypt as a civil and religious institution, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 31, edit.

Wesseling,) and the same order is observed in Plutarch's Treatise of Isis and Osiris; whom he identifies with

[Footnote 40: Ammianus, (xxii. 16.) The Expositio totius Mundi, (p. 8, in Hudson's Geograph. Minor. tom.

iii.,) and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22,) celebrate the Serapeum, as one of the wonders of the world.]

[Footnote 41: See Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 397 416. The old library of the

Ptolemies was totally consumed in Caesar's Alexandrian war. Marc Antony gave the whole collection of

Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the foundation of the new library of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 42: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 21) indiscreetly provokes his Christian masters by this insulting

At that time ^43 the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, ^44 the perpetual enemy

of peace and virtue; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood. His

pious indignation was excited by the honors of Serapis; and the insults which he offered to an ancient temple

of Bacchus, ^* convinced the Pagans that he meditated a more important and dangerous enterprise. In the

tumultuous capital of Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient to inflame a civil war. The votaries of

Serapis, whose strength and numbers were much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms at the

instigation of the philosopher Olympius, ^45 who exhorted them to die in the defence of the altars of the

gods. These Pagan fanatics fortified themselves in the temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis; repelled the

besiegers by daring sallies, and a resolute defence; and, by the inhuman cruelties which they exercised on

their Christian prisoners, obtained the last consolation of despair. The efforts of the prudent magistrate were

usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till the answer of Theodosius should determine the fate of

Serapis. The two parties assembled, without arms, in the principal square; and the Imperial rescript was

publicly read. But when a sentence of destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the

Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way to

consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, by their flight or obscurity, the resentment of

their enemies. Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, without any other difficulties, than

those which he found in the weight and solidity of the materials: but these obstacles proved so insuperable,

that he was obliged to leave the foundations; and to content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a heap

of rubbish, a part of which was soon afterwards cleared away, to make room for a church, erected in honor of

the Christian martyrs. The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years

afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator, whose

mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice. ^46 The compositions of ancient genius, so many of

which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the

amusement and instruction of succeeding ages; and either the zeal or the avarice of the archbishop, ^47 might

have been satiated with the rich spoils, which were the reward of his victory. While the images and vases of

gold and silver were carefully melted, and those of a less valuable metal were contemptuously broken, and

cast into the streets, Theophilus labored to expose the frauds and vices of the ministers of the idols; their

dexterity in the management of the loadstone; their secret methods of introducing a human actor into a hollow

statue; ^* and their scandalous abuse of the confidence of devout husbands and unsuspecting females. ^48

Charges like these may seem to deserve some degree of credit, as they are not repugnant to the crafty and

interested spirit of superstition. But the same spirit is equally prone to the base practice of insulting and

calumniating a fallen enemy; and our belief is naturally checked by the reflection, that it is much less difficult

to invent a fictitious story, than to support a practical fraud. The colossal statue of Serapis ^49 was involved

in the ruin of his temple and religion. A great number of plates of different metals, artificially joined together,

composed the majestic figure of the deity, who touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. The aspect

of Serapis, his sitting posture, and the sceptre, which he bore in his left hand, were extremely similar to the

ordinary representations of Jupiter. He was distinguished from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which was

placed on his head; and by the emblematic monster which he held in his right hand; the head and body of a

serpent branching into three tails, which were again terminated by the triple heads of a dog, a lion, and a

wolf. It was confidently affirmed, that if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty of the god, the

heavens and the earth would instantly return to their original chaos. An intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and

armed with a weighty battleaxe, ascended the ladder; and even the Christian multitude expected, with some

anxiety, the event of the combat. ^50 He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis; the cheek fell

to the ground; the thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to preserve their

accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his blows: the huge idol was overthrown,

and broken in pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria.

His mangled carcass was burnt in the Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many persons

attributed their conversion to this discovery of the impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of

religion, that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have the advantage of adapting and

familiarizing themselves to the senses of mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and

inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is exposed. It is scarcely possible, that, in every

disposition of mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence for the idols, or the relics, which the naked eye,

and the profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the most common productions of art or nature; and if, in

the hour of danger, their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own preservation, he scorns

the vain apologies of his priests, and justly derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious attachment.

^51 After the fall of Serapis, some hopes were still entertained by the Pagans, that the Nile would refuse his

annual supply to the impious masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation seemed to

announce the displeasure of the rivergod. But this delay was soon compensated by the rapid swell of the

waters. They suddenly rose to such an unusual height, as to comfort the discontented party with the pleasing

expectation of a deluge; till the peaceful river again subsided to the wellknown and fertilizing level of

sixteen cubits, or about thirty English feet. ^52 [Footnote 43: We may choose between the date of

Marcellinus (A.D. 389) or that of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 310, 756) prefers

[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441 500. The ambiguous situation of Theophilus a

saint, as the friend of Jerom a devil, as the enemy of Chrysostom produces a sort of impartiality; yet, upon

[Footnote 45: Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411) has alleged beautiful passage from Suidas, or

rather from Damascius, which show the devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light of a warrior, but of a

[Footnote 46: Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus direptis, exinanita ea a nostris hominibus, nostris

temporibus memorant. Orosius, l. vi. c. 15, p. 421, edit. Havercamp. Though a bigot, and a controversial

[Footnote 47: Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and Aedesius, execrates the sacrilegious rapine of

Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an epistle of Isidore of Pelusium, which

reproaches the primate with the idolatrous worship of gold, the auri sacra fames.]

[Footnote *: An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has discovered the secret of the vocal Memnon. There was

a cavity in which a person was concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a ringing sound like brass. The

Arabs, who stood below when Mr. Wilkinson performed the miracle, described sound just as the author of the

[Footnote 48: Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in the character of the god, familiarly conversed with

many pious ladies of quality, till he betrayed himself, in a moment of transport, when he could not disguise

the tone of his voice. The authentic and impartial narrative of Aeschines, (see Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique,

Scamandre,) and the adventure of Mudus, (Joseph. Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877 edit. Havercamp,)

[Footnote 49: See the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii. p. 297:) but the description of Macrobius

[Footnote 50: Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent In sua

(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true," (said Augustus to a veteran of Italy, at whose house he supped) "that the man

who gave the first blow to the golden statue of Anaitis, was instantly deprived of his eyes, and of his life?"

"I was that man, (replied the clearsighted veteran,) and you now sup on one of the legs of the goddess."

[Footnote 51: The history of the reformation affords frequent examples of the sudden change from

[Footnote 52: Sozomen, l. 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

l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344 353. Greaves's Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. p. 233. The

Note: Compare Wilkinson's Thebes and Egypt, p. 313. M.] The temples of the Roman empire were

deserted, or destroyed; but the ingenious superstition of the Pagans still attempted to elude the laws of

Theodosius, by which all sacrifices had been severely prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose

conduct was less opposed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their religious, under the appearance of

convivial, meetings. On the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in great numbers under the spreading

shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and oxen were slaughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment

was sanctified by the use of incense, and by the hymns which were sung in honor of the gods. But it was

alleged, that, as no part of the animal was made a burntoffering, 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. ^53

Whatever might be the truth of the facts, or the merit of the distinction, ^54 these vain pretences were swept

away by the last edict of Theodosius, which inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. ^55

^* This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehensive terms. "It is our will and

pleasure," says the emperor, "that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however

exalted or however humble may be their rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place, to

worship an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." The act of sacrificing, and the practice of

divination by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any regard to the object of the inquiry) a crime

of high treason against the state, which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan

superstition, which might seem less bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and

honor of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine, are specially enumerated and

condemned; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household gods, are included in this

rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies, subjects the offender to the

forfeiture of the house or estate, where they have been performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property

of another for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay, a heavy fine of

twentyfive 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

[Footnote 53: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric.

From the earliest age, such feasts had enlivened the country: and those of Bacchus (Georgic. ii. 380) had

produced the theatre of Athens. See Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 284.]

[Footnote 54: Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals, (A.D. 399.) "Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla

superstitione damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found it necessary to reiterate and enforce the same

[Footnote 55: Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Eccles. History, vol. iv. p. 134)

censures, with becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant law.]

[Footnote *: Paganism maintained its ground for a considerable time in the rural districts. Endelechius, a poet

In the middle of the same century, Maximus, bishop of Turin, writes against the heathen deities as if their

worship was still in full vigor in the neighborhood of his city. Augustine complains of the encouragement of

the Pagan rites by heathen landowners; and Zeno of Verona, still later, reproves the apathy of the Christian

proprietors in conniving at this abuse. (Compare Neander, ii. p. 169.) M. Beugnot shows that this was the

case throughout the north and centre of Italy and in Sicily. But neither of these authors has adverted to one

fact, which must have tended greatly to retard the progress of Christianity in these quarters. It was still chiefly

a slave population which cultivated the soil; and however, in the towns, the better class of Christians might be

eager to communicate "the blessed liberty of the gospel" to this class of mankind; however their condition

could not but be silently ameliorated by the humanizing influence of Christianity; yet, on the whole, no doubt

the servile class would be the least fitted to receive the gospel; and its general propagation among them

would be embarrassed by many peculiar difficulties. The rural population was probably not entirely

converted before the general establishment of the monastic institutions. Compare Quarterly Review of

[Footnote 56: 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 sacrificia Paganorum? Et certe longe ibi poera severior constituta est; illius quippe impietatis

capitale supplicium est." Epist. xciii. No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. viii. p. 277,)

who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of the victorious Christians.

Note: Yet Augustine, with laudable inconsistency, disapproved of the forcible demolition of the temples. "Let

us first extirpate the idolatry of the hearts of the heathen, and they will either themselves invite us or

anticipate us in the execution of this good work," tom. v. p. 62. Compare Neander, ii. 169, and, in p. 155, a

beautiful passage from Chrysostom against all violent means of propagating Christianity. M.]

In the cruel reigns of Decius and Dioclesian, Christianity had been proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient

and hereditary religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions which were entertained of a dark and

dangerous faction, were, in some measure, countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid conquests of the

Catholic church. But the same excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors who

violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as

well as folly, of Paganism; the light of reason and of faith had already exposed, to the greatest part of

mankind, the vanity of idols; and the declining sect, which still adhered to their worship, might have been

permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the religious costumes of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been

animated by the undaunted zeal which possessed the minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the

Church must have been stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have embraced the

glorious opportunity of devoting their lives and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate zeal was

not congenial to the loose and careless temper of Polytheism. The violent and repeated strokes of the

orthodox princes were broken by the soft and yielding substance against which they were directed; and the

ready obedience of the Pagans protected them from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian Code. ^57

Instead of asserting, that the authority of the gods was superior to that of the emperor, they desisted, with a

plaintive murmur, from the use of those sacred rites which their sovereign had condemned. If they were

sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the hopes of concealment, to indulge their favorite

superstition, their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian magistrate, and they seldom

refused to atone for their rashness, by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the Gospel. The

churches were filled with the increasing multitude of these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from

temporal motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly imitated the postures, and recited the

prayers, of the faithful, they satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of the gods of

antiquity. ^58 If the Pagans wanted patience to suffer they wanted spirit to resist; and the scattered myriads,

who deplored the ruin of the temples, yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of their adversaries. The

disorderly opposition ^59 of the peasants of Syria, and the populace of Alexandria, to the rage of private

fanaticism, was silenced by the name and authority of the emperor. The Pagans of the West, without

contributing to the elevation of Eugenius, disgraced, by their partial attachment, the cause and character of

the usurper. The clergy vehemently exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of

apostasy; that, by his permission, the altar of victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous symbols of

Jupiter and Hercules were displayed in the field, against the invincible standard of the cross. But the vain

hopes of the Pagans were soon annihilated by the defeat of Eugenius; and they were left exposed to the

resentment of the conqueror, who labored to deserve the favor of Heaven by the extirpation of idolatry. ^60

[Footnote 57: Orosius, l. 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 sacrificio (cum his

[Footnote 58: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure the occasional conformity, and as

[Footnote 59: Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by declaring to the emperor, that unless he expressly

warrants the destruction of the temples, the proprietors will defend themselves and the laws.]

[Footnote 60: Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 26. Theodoret, l. v. c. 24.]

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute

power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression. Theodosius might undoubtedly have

proposed to his Pagan subjects the alternative of baptism or of death; and the eloquent Libanius has praised

the moderation of a prince, who never enacted, by any positive law, that all his subjects should immediately

embrace and practise the religion of their sovereign. ^61 The profession of Christianity was not made an

essential qualification for the enjoyment of the civil rights of society, nor were any peculiar hardships

imposed on the sectaries, who credulously received the fables of Ovid, and obstinately rejected the miracles

of the Gospel. The palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, were filled with declared and devout Pagans;

they obtained, without distinction, the civil and military honors of the empire. ^* Theodosius distinguished

his liberal regard for virtue and genius by the consular dignity, which he bestowed on Symmachus; ^62 and

by the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius; ^63 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, ^64 and the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato, betray the most furious animosity, and contain

the sharpest invectives, against the sentiments and conduct of their victorious adversaries. If these audacious

libels were publicly known, we must applaud the good sense of the Christian princes, who viewed, with a

smile of contempt, the last struggles of superstition and despair. ^65 But the Imperial laws, which prohibited

the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism, were rigidly executed; and every hour contributed to destroy the

influence of a religion, which was supported by custom, rather than by argument. The devotion or the poet, or

the philosopher, may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, and study; but the exercise of public

worship appears to be the only solid foundation of the religious sentiments of the people, which derive their

force from imitation and habit. The interruption of that public exercise may consummate, in the period of a

few years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of theological opinions cannot long be

preserved, without the artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books. ^66 The ignorant vulgar, whose

minds are still agitated by the blind hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon persuaded by their

superiors to direct their vows to the reigning deities of the age; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent zeal for

the support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual hunger at first compelled them to accept.

The generation that arose in the world after the promulgation of the Imperial laws, was attracted within the

pale of the Catholic church: and so rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only twentyeight

years after the death of Theodosius, the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the

legislator. ^67 [Footnote 61: Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting edict, which Theodosius might

enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash joke, and a dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his

[Footnote *: The most remarkable instance of this, at a much later period, occurs in the person of

Merobaudes, a general and a poet, who flourished in the first half of the fifth century. A statue in honor of

Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of Trajan, of which the inscription is still extant. Fragments of his

poems have been recovered by the industry and sagacity of Niebuhr. In one passage, Merobaudes, in the

genuine heathen spirit, attributes the ruin of the empire to the abolition of Paganism, and almost renews the

old accusation of Atheism against Christianity. He impersonates some deity, probably Discord, who

summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome; and in a strain of fierce irony recommends to her

[Footnote 63: 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.]

[Footnote 64: Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Exadvocate 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.

Note: Heyne in his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque Fidem. places Zosimum towards the close of the fifth

[Footnote 65: Yet the Pagans of Africa complained, that the times would not allow them to answer with

[Footnote 66: 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.)]

[Footnote 67: Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos esse credamus, Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg.

22, A.D. 423. The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied, that his judgment had been somewhat

Note: The statement of Gibbon is much too strongly worded. M. Beugnot has traced the vestiges of Paganism

in the West, after this period, in monuments and inscriptions with curious industry. Compare likewise note, p.

The ruin of the Pagan religion is described by the sophists as a dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered

the earth with darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and of night. They relate, in solemn and

pathetic strains, that the temples were converted into sepulchres, and that the holy places, which had been

adorned by the statues of the gods, were basely polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs. "The monks" (a

race of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse the name of men) "are the authors of the new

worship, which, in the place of those deities who are conceived by the understanding, has substituted the

meanest and most contemptible slaves. The heads, salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who for

the multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and ignominious death; their bodies still marked by the

impression of the lash, and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by the sentence of the magistrate;

such" (continues Eunapius) 'are the gods which the earth produces in our days; such are the martyrs, the

supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects

of the veneration of the people." ^68 Without approving the malice, it is natural enough to share the surprise

of the sophist, the spectator of a revolution, which raised those obscure victims of the laws of Rome to the

rank of celestial and invisible protectors of the Roman empire. The grateful respect of the Christians for the

martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and victory, into religious adoration; and the most illustrious of the

saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the honors of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after

the glorious deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road were distinguished by the tombs,

or rather by the trophies, of those spiritual heroes. ^69 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; ^70 and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which

the bishops of the royal city continually offered the unbloody sacrifice. ^71 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. ^72 About fifty years

afterwards, the same banks were honored by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of

Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the bishops

into each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were received by the people with the same joy and reverence

which they would have shown to the living prophet; the highways, from Palestine to the gates of

Constantinople, were filled with an uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head

of the most illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who had

always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. ^73 The example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed

the faith and discipline of the Catholic world. The honors of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and

ineffectual murmur of profane reason, ^74 were universally established; and in the age of Ambrose and

Jerom, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a Christian church, till it had been consecrated

by some portion of holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the faithful.

[Footnote 68: See Eunapius, in the Life of the sophist Aedesius; in that of Eustathius he foretells the ruin of

[Footnote 69: Caius, (apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 25,) a Roman presbyter, who lived in the time of

Zephyrinus, (A.D. 202 219,) is an early witness of this superstitious practice.]

[Footnote 70: 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 1759. See the curious and entertaining letters

[Footnote 71: Male facit ergo Romanus episcopus? qui, super mortuorum hominum, Petri Pauli, secundum

nos, ossa veneranda ... offeri Domino sacrificia, et tumulos eorum, Christi arbitratur altaria. Jerom. tom. ii.

[Footnote 72: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) bears witness to these translations, which are neglected by the

ecclesiastical historians. The passion of St. Andrew at Patrae is described in an epistle from the clergy of

Achaia, which Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 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

[Footnote 73: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) pompously describes the translation of Samuel, which is noticed in all

[Footnote 74: The presbyter Vigilantius, the Protestant of his age, firmly, though ineffectually, withstood the

superstition of monks, relics, saints, fasts, for which Jerom compares him to the Hydra, Cerberus, the

Centaurs, and considers him only as the organ of the Daemon, (tom. ii. p. 120 126.) Whoever will peruse

the controversy of St. Jerom and Vigilantius, and St. Augustin's account of the miracles of St. Stephen, may

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

I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were more valuable than gold or precious stones, ^75

stimulated the clergy to multiply the treasures of the church. Without much regard for truth or probability,

they invented names for skeletons, and actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and of the holy men who

had imitated their virtues, was darkened by religious fiction. To the invincible band of genuine and primitive

martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who had never existed, except in the fancy of crafty or

credulous legendaries; and there is reason to suspect, that Tours might not be the only diocese in which the

bones of a malefactor were adored, instead of those of a saint. ^76 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. [Footnote 75: 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.

[Footnote 76: 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 discovery is supposed to be miraculous. Which

II. But the progress of superstition would have been much less rapid and victorious, if the faith of the people

had not been assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and miracles, to ascertain the authenticity and virtue of

the most suspicious relics. In the reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, ^77 a presbyter of Jerusalem, and

the ecclesiastical minister of the village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city, related a very

singular dream, which, to remove his doubts, had been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable

figure stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a long beard, a white robe, and a gold rod;

announced himself by the name of Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter, that his own corpse,

with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend Nicodemus, and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the

Christian faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with some impatience, that it was time to

release himself and his companions from their obscure prison; that their appearance would be salutary to a

distressed world; and that they had made choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation

and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still retarded this important discovery were successively

removed by new visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the presence of an innumerable

multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of his son, and of his friend, were found in regular order; but when the

fourth coffin, which contained the remains of Stephen, was shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an

odor, such as that of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various diseases of seventythree of the

assistants. The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of Caphargamala: but the relics of

the first martyr were transported, in solemn procession, to a church constructed in their honor on Mount Sion;

and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood, ^78 or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged,

in almost every province of the Roman world, to possess a divine and miraculous virtue. The grave and

learned Augustin, ^79 whose understanding scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the

innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St. Stephen; and this marvellous

narrative is inserted in the elaborate work of the City of God, which the bishop of Hippo designed as a solid

and immortal proof of the truth of Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares, that he has selected those

miracles only which were publicly certified by the persons who were either the objects, or the spectators, of

the power of the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted, or forgotten; and Hippo had been less favorably

treated than the other cities of the province. And yet the bishop enumerates above seventy miracles, of which

three were resurrections from the dead, in the space of two years, and within the limits of his own diocese.

^80 If we enlarge our view to all the dioceses, and all the saints, of the Christian world, it will not be easy to

calculate the fables, and the errors, which issued from this inexhaustible source. But we may surely be

allowed to observe, that a miracle, in that age of superstition and credulity, lost its name and its merit, since it

could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the ordinary and established laws of nature.

[Footnote 77: Lucian composed in Greek his original narrative, which has been translated by Avitus, and

published by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 415, No. 7 16.) The Benedictine editors of St. Augustin have

given (at the end of the work de Civitate Dei) two several copies, with many various readings. It is the

character of falsehood to be loose and inconsistent. The most incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and

[Footnote 78: A phial of St. Stephen's blood was annually liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded by St.

[Footnote 79: Augustin composed the twoandtwenty books de Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years,

A.D. 413 426. (Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, His learning is too often borrowed, and his

arguments are too often his own; but the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design, vigorously,

[Footnote 80: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 22, and the Appendix, which contains two books of St.

Stephen's miracles, by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis. Freculphus (apud Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 249)

has preserved a Gallic or a Spanish proverb, "Whoever pretends to have read all the miracles of St. Stephen,

III. The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs of the martyrs were the perpetual theatre, revealed to the

pious believer the actual state and constitution of the invisible world; and his religious speculations appeared

to be founded on the firm basis of fact and experience. Whatever might be the condition of vulgar souls, in

the long interval between the dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that the superior

spirits of the saints and martyrs did not consume that portion of their existence in silent and inglorious sleep.

^81 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. ^82 The confidence of their petitioners was founded on the persuasion, that the saints, who

reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the prosperity of the

Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their faith and piety, were the peculiar

and favorite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship might be influenced by

considerations of a less exalted kind: they viewed with partial affection the places which had been

consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death, their burial, or the possession of their relics. The

meaner passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints

themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the liberality of their votaries; and the

sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious wretches, who violated their magnificent

shrines, or disbelieved their supernatural power. ^83 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. ^84 The immediate, and almost instantaneous, effects that were

supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence, satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and

authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God; and it seemed almost superfluous to

inquire whether they were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace; or whether they might

not be permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the delegated powers

of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation

and worship of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration as were more

proportioned to its gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the

primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the Monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical

subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign of

[Footnote 81: 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, the

inconveniences which must arise, if they possessed a more active and sensible existence.]

[Footnote 82: Vigilantius placed the souls of the prophets and martyrs, either in the bosom of Abraham, (in

loco refrigerii,) or else under the altar of God. Nec posse suis tumulis et ubi voluerunt adesse praesentes. But

Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) 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

[Footnote 84: 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, See the original letter of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ. Dei,) and the

[Footnote 85: Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434) observes, like a philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of

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, ^86 Tertullian, or Lactantius, ^87 had been suddenly raised from the dead, to

assist at the festival of some popular saint, or martyr, ^88 they would have gazed with astonishment, and

indignation, on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian

congregation. As soon as the doors of the church were thrown open, they must have been offended by the

smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noonday, a

gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar,

they made their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and pilgrims, who

resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and,

perhaps, of wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice; and

their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the bones, the blood,

or the ashes of the saint, which were usually concealed, by a linen or silken veil, from the eyes of the vulgar.

The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful

intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal, blessings. They implored the

preservation of their health, or the cure of their infirmities; the fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety

and happiness of their children. Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested,

that the holy martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and if they returned without having

experienced any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with grateful

thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung

round with symbols of the favors which they had received; eyes, and hands, and feet, of gold and silver: and

edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the

image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same uniform original spirit of superstition

might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity, and of

affecting the senses of mankind: ^89 but it must ingenuously be confessed, that the ministers of the Catholic

church imitated the profane model, which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable bishops had

persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism,

if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of

Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors

themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. ^90 ^* [Footnote 86: 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.]

[Footnote 87: 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.]

[Footnote 88: Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of idolatry. Vertitis idola in martyres .... quos

votis similibus colitis. M. de Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 629 700,) a Protestant,

but a philosopher, has represented, with candor and learning, the introduction of Christian idolatry in the

[Footnote 89: 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

[Footnote 90: The imitation of Paganism is the subject of Dr. Middleton's agreeable letter from Rome.

Warburton's animadversions obliged him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120 132,) the history of the two religions,

[Footnote *: But there was always this important difference between Christian and heathen Polytheism. In

Paganism this was the whole religion; in the darkest ages of Christianity, some, however obscure and vague,

Christian notions of future retribution, of the life after death, lurked at the bottom, and operated, to a certain

Final Division Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of Theodosius. Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius

The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius; the last of the successors of Augustus and Constantine, who

appeared in the field at the head of their armies, and whose authority was universally acknowledged

throughout the whole extent of the empire. The memory of his virtues still continued, however, to protect the

feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons. After the death of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were

saluted, by the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East, and of the West; and the

oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by every order of the state; the senates of old and new Rome, the clergy, the

magistrates, the soldiers, and the people. Arcadius, who was then about eighteen years of age, was born in

Spain, in the humble habitation of a private family. But he received a princely education in the palace of

Constantinople; and his inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of royalty, from whence

he appeared to reign over the provinces of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower Danube to

the confines of Persia and Aethiopia. 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 praefecture of Illyricum was divided between the two princes: the defence and possession of the

provinces of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia still belonged to the Western empire; but the two large

dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, which Gratian had intrusted to the valor of Theodosius, were forever

united to the empire of the East. The boundary in Europe was not very different from the line which now

separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and

military strength, were fairly balanced and compensated, in this final and permanent division of the Roman

empire. The hereditary sceptre of the sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature, and of their father;

the generals and ministers had been accustomed to adore the majesty of the royal infants; and the army and

people were not admonished of their rights, and of their power, by the dangerous example of a recent

election. The gradual discovery of the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the repeated calamities of

their reign, were not sufficient to obliterate the deep and early impressions of loyalty. The subjects of Rome,

who still reverenced the persons, or rather the names, of their sovereigns, beheld, with equal abhorrence, the

Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the elevation of Rufinus; an odious favorite, who, in an

age of civil and religious faction, has deserved, from every party, the imputation of every crime. The strong

impulse of ambition and avarice ^1 had urged Rufinus to abandon his native country, an obscure corner of

Gaul, ^2 to advance his fortune in the capital of the East: the talent of bold and ready elocution, ^3 qualified

him to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law; and his success in that profession was a regular step to

the most honorable and important employments of the state. He was raised, by just degrees, to the station of

master of the offices. In the exercise of his various functions, so essentially connected with the whole system

of civil government, he acquired the confidence of a monarch, who soon discovered his diligence and

capacity in business, and who long remained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the covetousness of his

disposition. These vices were concealed beneath the mask of profound dissimulation; ^4 his passions were

subservient only to the passions of his master; yet in the horrid massacre of Thessalonica, the cruel Rufinus

inflamed the fury, without imitating the repentance, of Theodosius. The minister, who viewed with proud

indifference the rest of mankind, never forgave the appearance of an injury; and his personal enemies had

forfeited, in his opinion, the merit of all public services. Promotus, the mastergeneral of the infantry, had

saved the empire from the invasion of the Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the preeminence of a

rival, whose character and profession he despised; and in the midst of a public council, the impatient soldier

was provoked to chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the favorite. This act of violence was represented

to the emperor as an insult, which it was incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of

Promotus were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without delay, to a military station on the banks of

the Danube; and the death of that general (though he was slain in a skirmish with the Barbarians) was

imputed to the perfidious arts of Rufinus. ^5 The sacrifice of a hero gratified his revenge; the honors of the

consulship elated his vanity; but his power was still imperfect and precarious, as long as the important posts

of praefect of the East, and of praefect of Constantinople, were filled by Tatian, ^6 and his son Proculus;

whose united authority balanced, for some time, the ambition and favor of the master of the offices. The two

praefects were accused of rapine and corruption in the administration of the laws and finances. For the trial of

these illustrious offenders, the emperor constituted a special commission: several judges were named to share

the guilt and reproach of injustice; but the right of pronouncing sentence was reserved to the president alone,

and that president was Rufinus himself. The father, stripped of the praefecture of the East, was thrown into a

dungeon; but the son, conscious that few ministers can be found innocent, where an enemy is their judge, had

secretly escaped; and Rufinus must have been satisfied with the least obnoxious victim, if despotism had not

condescended to employ the basest and most ungenerous artifice. The prosecution was conducted with an

appearance of equity and moderation, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a favorable event: his

confidence was fortified by the solemn assurances, and perfidious oaths, of the president, who presumed to

interpose the sacred name of Theodosius himself; and the unhappy father was at last persuaded to recall, by a

private letter, the fugitive Proculus. He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and beheaded, in one of

the suburbs of Constantinople, with a precipitation which disappointed the clemency of the emperor. Without

respecting the misfortunes of a consular senator, the cruel judges of Tatian compelled him to behold the

execution of his son: the fatal cord was fastened round his own neck; but in the moment when he expected.

and perhaps desired, the relief of a speedy death, he was permitted to consume the miserable remnant of his

old age in poverty and exile. ^7 The punishment of the two praefects might, perhaps, be excused by the

exceptionable parts of their own conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be palliated by the jealous and

unsociable nature of ambition. But he indulged a spirit of revenge equally repugnant to prudence and to

justice, when he degraded their native country of Lycia from the rank of Roman provinces; stigmatized a

guiltless people with a mark of ignominy; and declared, that the countrymen of Tatian and Proculus should

forever remain incapable of holding any employment of honor or advantage under the Imperial government.

^8 The new praefect of the East (for Rufinus instantly succeeded to the vacant honors of his adversary) was

not diverted, however, by the most criminal pursuits, from the performance of the religious duties, which in

that age were considered as the most essential to salvation. In the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he

had built a magnificent villa; to which he devoutly added a stately church, consecrated to the apostles St.

Peter and St. Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers and penance of a regular society of monks. A

numerous, and almost general, synod of the bishops of the Eastern empire, was summoned to celebrate, at the

same time, the dedication of the church, and the baptism of the founder. This double ceremony was

performed with extraordinary pomp; and when Rufinus was purified, in the holy font, from all the sins that he

had hitherto committed, a venerable hermit of Egypt rashly proposed himself as the sponsor of a proud and

ambitious statesman. ^9 [Footnote 1: Alecto, envious of the public felicity, convenes an infernal synod

Megaera recommends her pupil Rufinus, and excites him to deeds of mischief, But there is as much

difference between Claudian's fury and that of Virgil, as between the characters of Turnus and Rufinus.]

[Footnote 2: It is evident, (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 770,) though De Marca is ashamed of his

countryman, that Rufinus was born at Elusa, the metropolis of Novempopulania, now a small village of

[Footnote 6: Zosimus, who describes the fall of Tatian and his son, (l. iv. p. 273, 274,) asserts their

innocence; and even his testimony may outweigh the charges of their enemies, (Cod. Theod. tom. iv. p. 489,)

who accuse them of oppressing the Curiae. The connection of Tatian with the Arians, while he was praefect

of Egypt, (A.D. 373,) inclines Tillemont to believe that he was guilty of every crime, (Hist. des Emp. tom. v.

The facts of Zosimus explain the allusions of Claudian; but his classic interpreters were ignorant of the fourth

century. The fatal cord, I found, with the help of Tillemont, in a sermon of St. Asterius of Amasea.]

[Footnote 8: This odious law is recited and repealed by Arcadius, (A.D. 296,) on the Theodosian Code, l. ix.

tit. xxxviii. leg. 9. The sense as it is explained by Claudian, (in Rufin. i. 234,) and Godefroy, (tom. iii. p. 279,)

The scruples of Pagi and Tillemont can arise only from their zeal for the glory of Theodosius.]

[Footnote 9: Ammonius .... Rufinum propriis manibus suscepit sacro fonte mundatum. See Rosweyde's Vitae

Patrum, p. 947. Sozomen (l. viii. c. 17) mentions the church and monastery; and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles.

tom. ix. p. 593) records this synod, in which St. Gregory of Nyssa performed a conspicuous part.]

The character of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task of hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes

restrained, the abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent slumber of a prince

still capable of exerting the abilities and the virtue, which had raised him to the throne. ^10 But the absence,

and, soon afterwards, the death, of the emperor, confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the person

and dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious praefect considered as his pupil, rather than

his sovereign. Regardless of the public opinion, he indulged his passions without remorse, and without

resistance; and his malignant and rapacious spirit rejected every passion that might have contributed to his

own glory, or the happiness of the people. His avarice, ^11 which seems to have prevailed, in his corrupt

mind, over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the East, by the various arts of partial and general

extortion; oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust confiscations, forced or fictitious

testaments, by which the tyrant despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children of strangers, or enemies; and

the public sale of justice, as well as of favor, which he instituted in the palace of Constantinople. The

ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest part of his patrimony, the honors and

emoluments of some provincial government; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people were abandoned to

the most liberal purchaser; and the public discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice of an

unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only to the praefect of the East, his accomplice and his

judge. If avarice were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives of Rufinus might excite our

curiosity; and we might be tempted to inquire with what view he violated every principle of humanity and

justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which he could not spend without folly, nor possess without

danger. Perhaps he vainly imagined, that he labored for the interest of an only daughter, on whom he intended

to bestow his royal pupil, and the august rank of Empress of the East. Perhaps he deceived himself by the

opinion, that his avarice was the instrument of his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on a secure and

independent basis, which should no longer depend on the caprice of the young emperor; yet he neglected to

conciliate the hearts of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution of those riches, which he had

acquired with so much toil, and with so much guilt. The extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the

reproach and envy of illgotten wealth; his dependants served him without attachment; the universal hatred

of mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian proclaimed to the East,

that the praefect, whose industry was much abated in the despatch of ordinary business, was active and

indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son of the praefect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and

the enemy of Julian, had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption, to

purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and the high office of Count of the East. But the new magistrate

imprudently departed from the maxims of the court, and of the times; disgraced his benefactor by the contrast

of a virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have

tended to the profit of the emperor's uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the supposed insult; and

the praefect of the East resolved to execute in person the cruel vengeance, which he meditated against this

ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed with incessant speed the journey of seven or eight hundred

miles, from Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread universal

consternation among a people ignorant of his design, but not ignorant of his character. The Count of the

fifteen provinces of the East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus.

Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an

accuser, Lucian was condemned, almost with out a trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The

ministers of the tyrant, by the orders, and in the presence, of their master, beat him on the neck with leather

thongs armed at the extremities with lead; and when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was

removed in a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner had

Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and

silent curses of a trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was accelerated by the

hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials of his daughter with the emperor of the East. ^12

[Footnote 10: Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c. 12) praises one of the laws of Theodosius addressed to

the praefect Rufinus, (l. ix. tit. iv. leg. unic.,) to discourage the prosecution of treasonable, or sacrilegious,

words. A tyrannical statute always proves the existence of tyranny; but a laudable edict may only contain the

specious professions, or ineffectual wishes, of the prince, or his ministers. This, I am afraid, is a just, though

This character (Claudian, in. Rufin. i. 184 220) is confirmed by Jerom, a disinterested witness, (dedecus

insatiabilis avaritiae, tom. i. ad Heliodor. p. 26,) by Zosimus, (l. v. p. 286,) and by Suidas, who copied the

Footnote 12: Caetera segnis; Ad facinus velox; penitus regione remotas Impiger ire vias.

This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. i. 241) is again explained by the circumstantial narrative of Zosimus, (l.

But Rufinus soon experienced, that a prudent minister should constantly secure his royal captive by the

strong, though invisible chain of habit; and that the merit, and much more easily the favor, of the absent, are

obliterated in a short time from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the praefect satiated his

revenge at Antioch, a secret conspiracy of the favorite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain Eutropius,

undermined his power in the palace of Constantinople. They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to

love the daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for his bride; and they contrived to

substitute in her place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto, ^13 a general of the Franks in the service of

Rome; and who was educated, since the death of her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young

emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the pious care of his tutor Arsenius, ^14 eagerly

listened to the artful and flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia: he gazed with impatient ardor on

her picture, and he understood the necessity of concealing his amorous designs from the knowledge of a

minister who was so deeply interested to oppose the consummation of his happiness. Soon after the return of

Rufinus, the approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was announced to the people of Constantinople, who

prepared to celebrate, with false and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his daughter. A splendid train of

eunuchs and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp, from the gates of the palace; bearing aloft the diadem, the

robes, and the inestimable ornaments, of the future empress. The solemn procession passed through the

streets of the city, which were adorned with garlands, and filled with spectators; but when it reached the

house of the sons of Promotus, the principal eunuch respectfully entered the mansion, invested the fair

Eudoxia with the Imperial robes, and conducted her in triumph to the palace and bed of Arcadius. ^15 The

secrecy and success with which this conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted, imprinted a mark of

indelible ridicule on the character of a minister, who had suffered himself to be deceived, in a post where the

arts of deceit and dissimulation constitute the most distinguished merit. He considered, with a mixture of

indignation and fear, the victory of an aspiring eunuch, who had secretly captivated the favor of his

sovereign; and the disgrace of his daughter, whose interest was inseparably connected with his own, wounded

the tenderness, or, at least, the pride of Rufinus. At the moment when he flattered himself that he should

become the father of a line of kings, a foreign maid, who had been educated in the house of his implacable

enemies, was introduced into the Imperial bed; and Eudoxia soon displayed a superiority of sense and spirit,

to improve the ascendant which her beauty must acquire over the mind of a fond and youthful husband. The

emperor would soon be instructed to hate, to fear, and to destroy the powerful subject, whom he had injured;

and the consciousness of guilt deprived Rufinus of every hope, either of safety or comfort, in the retirement

of a private life. But he still possessed the most effectual means of defending his dignity, and perhaps of

oppressing his enemies. The praefect still exercised an uncontrolled authority over the civil and military

government of the East; and his treasures, if he could resolve to use them, might be employed to procure

proper instruments for the execution of the blackest designs, that pride, ambition, and revenge could suggest

to a desperate statesman. The character of Rufinus seemed to justify the accusations that he conspired against

the person of his sovereign, to seat himself on the vacant throne; and that he had secretly invited the Huns and

the Goths to invade the provinces of the empire, and to increase the public confusion. The subtle praefect,

whose life had been spent in the intrigues of the palace, opposed, with equal arms, the artful measures of the

eunuch Eutropius; but the timid soul of Rufinus was astonished by the hostile approach of a more formidable

rival, of the great Stilicho, the general, or rather the master, of the empire of the West. ^16

[Footnote 13: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 243) praises the valor, prudence, and integrity of Bauto the Frank. See

[Footnote 14: Arsenius escaped from the palace of Constantinople, and passed fiftyfive years in rigid

penance in the monasteries of Egypt. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 676 702; and Fleury, Hist

Eccles. tom. v. p. 1, but the latter, for want of authentic materials, has given too much credit to the legend of

[Footnote 15: This story (Zosimus, l. v. p. 290) proves that the hymeneal rites of antiquity were still

practised, without idolatry, by the Christians of the East; and the bride was forcibly conducted from the house

of her parents to that of her husband. Our form of marriage requires, with less delicacy, the express and

[Footnote 16: Zosimus, (l. v. p. 290,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 37,) and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Claudian (in

Rufin. ii. 7 100) paints, in lively colors, the distress and guilt of the praefect.]

The celestial gift, which Achilles obtained, and Alexander envied, of a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of

heroes has been enjoyed by Stilicho, in a much higher degree than might have been expected from the

declining state of genius, and of art. The muse of Claudian, ^17 devoted to his service, was always prepared

to stigmatize his adversaries, Rufinus, or Eutropius, with eternal infamy; or to paint, in the most splendid

colors, the victories and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the review of a period indifferently supplied with

authentic materials, we cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of Honorius, from the invectives, or the

panegyrics, of a contemporary writer; but as Claudian appears to have indulged the most ample privilege of a

poet and a courtier, some criticism will be requisite to translate the language of fiction or exaggeration, into

the truth and simplicity of historic prose. His silence concerning the family of Stilicho may be admitted as a

proof, that his patron was neither able, nor desirous, to boast of a long series of illustrious progenitors; and

the slight mention of his father, an officer of Barbarian cavalry in the service of Valens, seems to

countenance the assertion, that the general, who so long commanded the armies of Rome, was descended

from the savage and perfidious race of the Vandals. ^18 If Stilicho had not possessed the external advantages

of strength and stature, the most flattering bard, in the presence of so many thousand spectators, would have

hesitated to affirm, that he surpassed the measure of the demigods of antiquity; and that whenever he

moved, with lofty steps, through the streets of the capital, the astonished crowd made room for the stranger,

who displayed, in a private condition, the awful majesty of a hero. From his earliest youth he embraced the

profession of arms; his prudence and valor were soon distinguished in the field; the horsemen and archers of

the East admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree of his military promotions, the public judgment

always prevented and approved the choice of the sovereign. He was named, by Theodosius, to ratify a solemn

treaty with the monarch of Persia; he supported, during that important embassy, the dignity of the Roman

name; and after he return to Constantinople, his merit was rewarded by an intimate and honorable alliance

with the Imperial family. Theodosius had been prompted, by a pious motive of fraternal affection, to adopt,

for his own, the daughter of his brother Honorius; the beauty and accomplishments of Serena ^19 were

universally admired by the obsequious court; and Stilicho obtained the preference over a crowd of rivals, who

ambitiously disputed the hand of the princess, and the favor of her adopted father. ^20 The assurance that the

husband of Serena would be faithful to the throne, which he was permitted to approach, engaged the emperor

to exalt the fortunes, and to employ the abilities, of the sagacious and intrepid Stilicho. He rose, through the

successive steps of master of the horse, and count of the domestics, to the supreme rank of mastergeneral of

all the cavalry and infantry of the Roman, or at least of the Western, empire; ^21 and his enemies confessed,

that he invariably disdained to barter for gold the rewards of merit, or to defraud the soldiers of the pay and

gratifications which they deserved or claimed, from the liberality of the state. ^22 The valor and conduct

which he afterwards displayed, in the defence of Italy, against the arms of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify

the fame of his early achievements and in an age less attentive to the laws of honor, or of pride, the Roman

generals might yield the preeminence of rank, to the ascendant of superior genius. ^23 He lamented, and

revenged, the murder of Promotus, his rival and his friend; and the massacre of many thousands of the flying

Bastarnae is represented by the poet as a bloody sacrifice, which the Roman Achilles offered to the manes of

another Patroclus. The virtues and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus: and the arts of

calumny might have been successful if the tender and vigilant Serena had not protected her husband against

his domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the field the enemies of the empire. ^24 Theodosius continued to

support an unworthy minister, to whose diligence he delegated the government of the palace, and of the East;

but when he marched against the tyrant Eugenius, he associated his faithful general to the labors and glories

of the civil war; and in the last moments of his life, the dying monarch recommended to Stilicho the care of

his sons, and of the republic. ^25 The ambition and the abilities of Stilicho were not unequal to the important

trust; and he claimed the guardianship of the two empires, during the minority of Arcadius and Honorius. ^26

The first measure of his administration, or rather of his reign, displayed to the nations the vigor and activity

of a spirit worthy to command. He passed the Alps in the depth of winter; descended the stream of the Rhine,

from the fortress of Basil to the marshes of Batavia; reviewed the state of the garrisons; repressed the

enterprises of the Germans; and, after establishing along the banks a firm and honorable peace, returned, with

incredible speed, to the palace of Milan. ^27 The person and court of Honorius were subject to the

mastergeneral of the West; and the armies and provinces of Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a regular

authority, which was exercised in the name of their young sovereign. Two rivals only remained to dispute the

claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor, maintained a

proud and dangerous independence; and the minister of Constantinople asserted his equal reign over the

emperor, and the empire, of the East. [Footnote 17: Stilicho, directly or indirectly, is the perpetual theme of

Claudian. The youth and private life of the hero are vaguely expressed in the poem on his first consulship, 35

[Footnote 18: Vandalorum, imbellis, avarae, perfidae, et dolosae, gentis, genere editus. Orosius, l. vii. c. 38.

[Footnote 19: Claudian, in an imperfect poem, has drawn a fair, perhaps a flattering, portrait of Serena. That

favorite niece of Theodosius was born, as well as here sister Thermantia, in Spain; from whence, in their

[Footnote 20: Some doubt may be entertained, whether this adoption was legal or only metaphorical, (see

Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 75.) An old inscription gives Stilicho the singular title of Progener Divi

[Footnote 21: Claudian (Laus Serenae, 190, 193) expresses, in poetic language "the dilectus equorum," and

the "gemino mox idem culmine duxit agmina." The inscription adds, "count of the domestics," an important

command, which Stilicho, in the height of his grandeur, might prudently retain.]

[Footnote 22: The beautiful lines of Claudian (in i. Cons. Stilich. ii. 113) displays his genius; but the integrity

of Stilicho (in the military administration) is much more firmly established by the unwilling evidence of

Adspiceres. Claudian, Laus Seren. p. 196, A modern general would deem their submission either heroic

[Footnote 24: Compare the poem on the first consulship (i. 95 115) with the Laus Serenoe (227 237,

where it unfortunately breaks off.) We may perceive the deep, inveterate malice of Rufinus.]

[Footnote 25: Quem fratribus ipse Discedens, clypeum defensoremque dedisti. Yet the nomination (iv.

Cons. Hon. 432) was private, (iii. Cons. Hon. 142,) cunctos discedere ... jubet; and may therefore be

suspected. Zosimus and Suidas apply to Stilicho and Rufinus the same equal title of guardians, or

[Footnote 26: The Roman law distinguishes two sorts of minority, which expired at the age of fourteen, and

of twentyfive. The one was subject to the tutor, or guardian, of the person; the other, to the curator, or

trustee, of the estate, (Heineccius, Antiquitat. Rom. ad Jurisprudent. pertinent. l. i. tit. xxii. xxiii. p. 218

232.) But these legal ideas were never accurately transferred into the constitution of an elective monarchy.]

[Footnote 27: See Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. i. 188 242;) but he must allow more than fifteen days for the

The impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common guardian of the royal brothers, engaged him to

regulate the equal division of the arms, the jewels, and the magnificent wardrobe and furniture of the

deceased emperor. ^28 But the most important object of the inheritance consisted of the numerous legions,

cohorts, and squadrons, of Romans, or Barbarians, whom the event of the civil war had united under the

standard of Theodosius. The various multitudes of Europe and Asia, exasperated by recent animosities, were

overawed by the authority of a single man; and the rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of the

citizens from the rapine of the licentious soldier. ^29 Anxious, however, and impatient, to relieve Italy from

the presence of this formidable host, which could be useful only on the frontiers of the empire, he listened to

the just requisition of the minister of Arcadius, declared his intention of reconducting in person the troops of

the East, and dexterously employed the rumor of a Gothic tumult to conceal his private designs of ambition

and revenge. ^30 The guilty soul of Rufinus was alarmed by the approach of a warrior and a rival, whose

enmity he deserved; he computed, with increasing terror, the narrow space of his life and greatness; and, as

the last hope of safety, he interposed the authority of the emperor Arcadius. Stilicho, who appears to have

directed his march along the seacoast of the Adriatic, was not far distant from the city of Thessalonica,

when he received a peremptory message, to recall the troops of the East, and to declare, that his nearer

approach would be considered, by the Byzantine court, as an act of hostility. The prompt and unexpected

obedience of the general of the West, convinced the vulgar of his loyalty and moderation; and, as he had

already engaged the affection of the Eastern troops, he recommended to their zeal the execution of his bloody

design, which might be accomplished in his absence, with less danger, perhaps, and with less reproach.

Stilicho left the command of the troops of the East to Gainas, the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly relied,

with an assurance, at least, that the hardy Barbarians would never be diverted from his purpose by any

consideration of fear or remorse. The soldiers were easily persuaded to punish the enemy of Stilicho and of

Rome; and such was the general hatred which Rufinus had excited, that the fatal secret, communicated to

thousands, was faithfully preserved during the long march from Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople.

As soon as they had resolved his death, they condescended to flatter his pride; the ambitious praefect was

seduced to believe, that those powerful auxiliaries might be tempted to place the diadem on his head; and the

treasures which he distributed, with a tardy and reluctant hand, were accepted by the indignant multitude as

an insult, rather than as a gift. At the distance of a mile from the capital, in the field of Mars, before the

palace of Hebdomon, the troops halted: and the emperor, as well as his minister, advanced, according to

ancient custom, respectfully to salute the power which supported their throne. As Rufinus passed along the

ranks, and disguised, with studied courtesy, his innate haughtiness, the wings insensibly wheeled from the

right and left, and enclosed the devoted victim within the circle of their arms. Before he could reflect on the

danger of his situation, Gainas gave the signal of death; a daring and forward soldier plunged his sword into

the breast of the guilty praefect, and Rufinus fell, groaned, and expired, at the feet of the affrighted emperor.

If the agonies of a moment could expiate the crimes of a whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a breathless

corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity might perhaps be affected by the horrid circumstances which

accompanied the murder of Rufinus. His mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fury of the populace of

either sex, who hastened in crowds, from every quarter of the city, to trample on the remains of the haughty

minister, at whose frown they had so lately trembled. His right hand was cut off, and carried through the

streets of Constantinople, in cruel mockery, to extort contributions for the avaricious tyrant, whose head was

publicly exposed, borne aloft on the point of a long lance. ^31 According to the savage maxims of the Greek

republics, his innocent family would have shared the punishment of his crimes. The wife and daughter of

Rufinus were indebted for their safety to the influence of religion. Her sanctuary protected them from the

raging madness of the people; and they were permitted to spend the remainder of their lives in the exercise of

[Footnote 28: I. Cons. Stilich. ii. 88 94. Not only the robes and diadems of the deceased emperor, but even

the helmets, swordhilts, belts, rasses, were enriched with pearls, emeralds, and diamonds.]

[Footnote 29: Tantoque remoto Principe, mutatas orbis non sensit habenas. This high commendation (i.

Cons. Stil. i. 149) may be justified by the fears of the dying emperor, (de Bell. Gildon. 292 301;) and the

peace and good order which were enjoyed after his death, (i. Cons. Stil i. 150 168.)]

[Footnote 30: Stilicho's march, and the death of Rufinus, are described by Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 101

453,) Zosimus, l. v. p. 296, 297,) Sozomen (l. viii. c. 1,) Socrates, (l. vi. c. 1,) Philostorgius, (l. xi c. 3, with

[Footnote 31: The dissection of Rufinus, which Claudian performs with the savage coolness of an anatomist,

(in Rufin. ii. 405 415,) is likewise specified by Zosimus and Jerom, (tom. i. p. 26.)]

[Footnote 32: The Pagan Zosimus mentions their sanctuary and pilgrimage. The sister of Rufinus, Sylvania,

who passed her life at Jerusalem, is famous in monastic history. 1. The studious virgin had diligently, and

even repeatedly, perused the commentators on the Bible, Origen, Gregory, Basil, to the amount of five

millions of lines. 2. At the age of threescore, she could boast, that she had never washed her hands, face, or

any part of her whole body, except the tips of her fingers to receive the communion. See the Vitae Patrum, p.

The servile poet of Stilicho applauds, with ferocious joy, this horrid deed, which, in the execution, perhaps, of

justice, violated every law of nature and society, profaned the majesty of the prince, and renewed the

dangerous examples of military license. The contemplation of the universal order and harmony had satisfied

Claudian of the existence of the Deity; but the prosperous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his moral

attributes; and the fate of Rufinus was the only event which could dispel the religious doubts of the poet. ^33

Such an act might vindicate the honor of Providence, but it did not much contribute to the happiness of the

people. In less than three months they were informed of the maxims of the new administration, by a singular

edict, which established the exclusive right of the treasury over the spoils of Rufinus; and silenced, under

heavy penalties, the presumptuous claims of the subjects of the Eastern empire, who had been injured by his

rapacious tyranny. ^34 Even Stilicho did not derive from the murder of his rival the fruit which he had

proposed; and though he gratified his revenge, his ambition was disappointed. Under the name of a favorite,

the weakness of Arcadius required a master, but he naturally preferred the obsequious arts of the eunuch

Eutropius, who had obtained his domestic confidence: and the emperor contemplated, with terror and

aversion, the stern genius of a foreign warrior. Till they were divided by the jealousy of power, the sword of

Gainas, and the charms of Eudoxia, supported the favor of the great chamberlain of the palace: the perfidious

Goth, who was appointed mastergeneral of the East, betrayed, without scruple, the interest of his benefactor;

and the same troops, who had so lately massacred the enemy of Stilicho, were engaged to support, against

him, the independence of the throne of Constantinople. The favorites of Arcadius fomented a secret and

irreconcilable war against a formidable hero, who aspired to govern, and to defend, the two empires of Rome,

and the two sons of Theodosius. They incessantly labored, by dark and treacherous machinations, to deprive

him of the esteem of the prince, the respect of the people, and the friendship of the Barbarians. The life of

Stilicho was repeatedly attempted by the dagger of hired assassins; and a decree was obtained from the senate

of Constantinople, to declare him an enemy of the republic, and to confiscate his ample possessions in the

provinces of the East. At a time when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman name depended on the

firm union, and reciprocal aid, of all the nations to whom it had been gradually communicated, the subjects of

Arcadius and Honorius were instructed, by their respective masters, to view each other in a foreign, and even

hostile, light; to rejoice in their mutual calamities, and to embrace, as their faithful allies, the Barbarians,

whom they excited to invade the territories of their countrymen. ^35 The natives of Italy affected to despise

the servile and effeminate Greeks of Byzantium, who presumed to imitate the dress, and to usurp the dignity,

of Roman senators; ^36 and the Greeks had not yet forgot the sentiments of hatred and contempt, which their

polished ancestors had so long entertained for the rude inhabitants of the West. The distinction of two

governments, which soon produced the separation of two nations, will justify my design of suspending the

series of the Byzantine history, to prosecute, without interruption, the disgraceful, but memorable, reign of

[Footnote 33: See the beautiful exordium of his invective against Rufinus, which is curiously discussed by

[Footnote 34: See the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 14, 15. The new ministers attempted, with

inconsistent avarice, to seize the spoils of their predecessor, and to provide for their own future security.]

[Footnote 35: See Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich, l. i. 275, 292, 296, l. ii. 83,) and Zosimus, (l. v. p. 302.)]

[Footnote 36: Claudian turns the consulship of the eunuch Eutropius into a national reflection, (l. ii. 134):

It is curious to observe the first symptoms of jealousy and schism between old and new Rome, between the

The prudent Stilicho, instead of persisting to force the inclinations of a prince, and people, who rejected his

government, wisely abandoned Arcadius to his unworthy favorites; and his reluctance to involve the two

empires in a civil war displayed the moderation of a minister, who had so often signalized his military spirit

and abilities. But if Stilicho had any longer endured the revolt of Africa, he would have betrayed the security

of the capital, and the majesty of the Western emperor, to the capricious insolence of a Moorish rebel. Gildo,

^37 the brother of the tyrant Firmus, had preserved and obtained, as the reward of his apparent fidelity, the

immense patrimony which was forfeited by treason: long and meritorious service, in the armies of Rome,

raised him to the dignity of a military count; the narrow policy of the court of Theodosius had adopted the

mischievous expedient of supporting a legal government by the interest of a powerful family; and the brother

of Firmus was invested with the command of Africa. His ambition soon usurped the administration of justice,

and of the finances, without account, and without control; and he maintained, during a reign of twelve years,

the possession of an office, from which it was impossible to remove him, without the danger of a civil war.

During those twelve years, the provinces of Africa groaned under the dominion of a tyrant, who seemed to

unite the unfeeling temper of a stranger with the partial resentments of domestic faction. The forms of law

were often superseded by the use of poison; and if the trembling guests, who were invited to the table of

Gildo, presumed to express fears, the insolent suspicion served only to excite his fury, and he loudly

summoned the ministers of death. Gildo alternately indulged the passions of avarice and lust; ^38 and if his

days were terrible to the rich, his nights were not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The fairest of their

wives and daughters were prostituted to the embraces of the tyrant; and afterwards abandoned to a ferocious

troop of Barbarians and assassins, the black, or swarthy, natives of the desert; whom Gildo considered as the

only of his throne. In the civil war between Theodosius and Eugenius, the count, or rather the sovereign, of

Africa, maintained a haughty and suspicious neutrality; refused to assist either of the contending parties with

troops or vessels, expected the declaration of fortune, and reserved for the conqueror the vain professions of

his allegiance. Such professions would not have satisfied the master of the Roman world; but the death of

Theodosius, and the weakness and discord of his sons, confirmed the power of the Moor; who condescended,

as a proof of his moderation, to abstain from the use of the diadem, and to supply Rome with the customary

tribute, or rather subsidy, of corn. In every division of the empire, the five provinces of Africa were

invariably assigned to the West; and Gildo had to govern that extensive country in the name of Honorius, but

his knowledge of the character and designs of Stilicho soon engaged him to address his homage to a more

distant and feeble sovereign. The ministers of Arcadius embraced the cause of a perfidious rebel; and the

delusive hope of adding the numerous cities of Africa to the empire of the East, tempted them to assert a

claim, which they were incapable of supporting, either by reason or by arms. ^39

[Footnote 37: Claudian may have exaggerated the vices of Gildo; but his Moorish extraction, his notorious

actions, and the complaints of St. Augustin, may justify the poet's invectives. Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D.

[Footnote 38: Instat terribilis vivis, morientibus haeres, Virginibus raptor, thalamis obscoenus adulter. Nulla

quies: oritur praeda cessante libido, Divitibusque dies, et nox metuenda maritis. Mauris clarissima quaeque

Baronius condemns, still more severely, the licentiousness of Gildo; as his wife, his daughter, and his sister,

were examples of perfect chastity. The adulteries of the African soldiers are checked by one of the Imperial

[Footnote 39: Inque tuam sortem numerosas transtulit urbes. Claudian (de Bell. Gildonico, 230 324) has

touched, with political delicacy, the intrigues of the Byzantine court, which are likewise mentioned by

When Stilicho had given a firm and decisive answer to the pretensions of the Byzantine court, he solemnly

accused the tyrant of Africa before the tribunal, which had formerly judged the kings and nations of the earth;

and the image of the republic was revived, after a long interval, under the reign of Honorius. The emperor

transmitted an accurate and ample detail of the complaints of the provincials, and the crimes of Gildo, to the

Roman senate; and the members of that venerable assembly were required to pronounce the condemnation of

the rebel. Their unanimous suffrage declared him the enemy of the republic; and the decree of the senate

added a sacred and legitimate sanction to the Roman arms. ^40 A people, who still remembered that their

ancestors had been the masters of the world, would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation

of ancient freedom; if they had not since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the

unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness. The subsistence of Rome depended on the harvests of Africa;

and it was evident, that a declaration of war would be the signal of famine. The praefect Symmachus, who

presided in the deliberations of the senate, admonished the minister of his just apprehension, that as soon as

the revengeful Moor should prohibit the exportation of corn, the and perhaps the safety, of the capital would

be threatened by the hungry rage of a turbulent multitude. ^41 The prudence of Stilicho conceived and

executed, without delay, the most effectual measure for the relief of the Roman people. A large and

seasonable supply of corn, collected in the inland provinces of Gaul, was embarked on the rapid stream of the

Rhone, and transported, by an easy navigation, from the Rhone to the Tyber. During the whole term of the

African war, the granaries of Rome were continually filled, her dignity was vindicated from the humiliating

dependence, and the minds of an immense people were quieted by the calm confidence of peace and plenty.

[Footnote 40: Symmachus (l. iv. epist. 4) expresses the judicial forms of the senate; and Claudian (i. Cons.

[Footnote 41: Claudian finely displays these complaints of Symmachus, in a speech of the goddess of Rome,

[Footnote 42: See Claudian (in Eutrop. l. i 401, i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 306, i. Cons. Stilich. 91,

The cause of Rome, and the conduct of the African war, were intrusted by Stilicho to a general, active and

ardent to avenge his private injuries on the head of the tyrant. The spirit of discord which prevailed in the

house of Nabal, had excited a deadly quarrel between two of his sons, Gildo and Mascezel. ^43 The usurper

pursued, with implacable rage, the life of his younger brother, whose courage and abilities he feared; and

Mascezel, oppressed by superior power, refuge in the court of Milan, where he soon received the cruel

intelligence that his two innocent and helpless children had been murdered by their inhuman uncle. The

affliction of the father was suspended only by the desire of revenge. The vigilant Stilicho already prepared to

collect the naval and military force of the Western empire; and he had resolved, if the tyrant should be able to

wage an equal and doubtful war, to march against him in person. But as Italy required his presence, and as it

might be dangerous to weaken the of the frontier, he judged it more advisable, that Mascezel should attempt

this arduous adventure at the head of a chosen body of Gallic veterans, who had lately served exhorted to

convince the world that they could subvert, as well as defend the throne of a usurper, consisted of the Jovian,

the Herculian, and the Augustan legions; of the Nervian auxiliaries; of the soldiers who displayed in their

banners the symbol of a lion, and of the troops which were distinguished by the auspicious names of

Fortunate, and Invincible. Yet such was the smallness of their establishments, or the difficulty of recruiting,

that these seven bands, ^44 of high dignity and reputation in the service of Rome, amounted to no more than

five thousand effective men. ^45 The fleet of galleys and transports sailed in tempestuous weather from the

port of Pisa, in Tuscany, and steered their course to the little island of Capraria; which had borrowed that

name from the wild goats, its original inhabitants, whose place was occupied by a new colony of a strange

and savage appearance. "The whole island (says an ingenious traveller of those times) is filled, or rather

defiled, by men who fly from the light. They call themselves Monks, or solitaries, because they choose to live

alone, without any witnesses of their actions. They fear the gifts of fortune, from the apprehension of losing

them; and, lest they should be miserable, they embrace a life of voluntary wretchedness. How absurd is their

choice! how perverse their understanding! to dread the evils, without being able to support the blessings, of

the human condition. Either this melancholy madness is the effect of disease, or exercise on their own bodies

the tortures which are inflicted on fugitive slaves by the hand of justice." ^46 Such was the contempt of a

profane magistrate for the monks as the chosen servants of God. ^47 Some of them were persuaded, by his

entreaties, to embark on board the fleet; and it is observed, to the praise of the Roman general, that his days

and nights were employed in prayer, fasting, and the occupation of singing psalms. The devout leader, who,

with such a reenforcement, appeared confident of victory, avoided the dangerous rocks of Corsica, coasted

along the eastern side of Sardinia, and secured his ships against the violence of the south wind, by casting

anchor in the and capacious harbor of Cagliari, at the distance of one hundred and forty miles from the

[Footnote 43: He was of a mature age; since he had formerly (A.D. 373) served against his brother Firmus

(Ammian. xxix. 5.) Claudian, who understood the court of Milan, dwells on the injuries, rather than the

merits, of Mascezel, (de Bell. Gild. 389 414.) The Moorish war was not worthy of Honorius, or Stilicho,

[Footnote 44: Claudian, Bell. Gild. 415 423. The change of discipline allowed him to use indifferently the

[Footnote 45: Orosius (l. vii. c. 36, p. 565) qualifies this account with an expression of doubt, (ut aiunt;) and

it scarcely coincides with Zosimus, (l. v. p. 303.) Yet Claudian, after some declamation about Cadmus,

soldiers, frankly owns that Stilicho sent a small army lest the rebels should fly, ne timeare times, (i. Cons.

[Footnote 46: Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. i. 439 448. He afterwards (515 526) mentions a religious

madman on the Isle of Gorgona. For such profane remarks, Rutilius and his accomplices are styled, by his

commentator, Barthius, rabiosi canes diaboli. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles com. xii. p. 471) more calmly

[Footnote 47: Orosius, l. vii. c. 36, p. 564. Augustin commends two of these savage saints of the Isle of

Goats, (epist. lxxxi. apud Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 317, and Baronius, Annal Eccles. A.D. 398

[Footnote 48: Here the first book of the Gildonic war is terminated. The rest of Claudian's poem has been

lost; and we are ignorant how or where the army made good their landing in Afica.]

Gildo was prepared to resist the invasion with all the forces of Africa. By the liberality of his gifts and

promises, he endeavored to secure the doubtful allegiance of the Roman soldiers, whilst he attracted to his

standard the distant tribes of Gaetulia and Aethiopia. He proudly reviewed an army of seventy thousand men,

and boasted, with the rash presumption which is the forerunner of disgrace, that his numerous cavalry would

trample under their horses' feet the troops of Mascezel, and involve, in a cloud of burning sand, the natives of

the cold regions of Gaul and Germany. ^49 But the Moor, who commanded the legions of Honorius, was too

well acquainted with the manners of his countrymen, to entertain any serious apprehension of a naked and

disorderly host of Barbarians; whose left arm, instead of a shield, was protected only by mantle; who were

totally disarmed as soon as they had darted their javelin from their right hand; and whose horses had never He

fixed his camp of five thousand veterans in the face of a superior enemy, and, after the delay of three days,

gave the signal of a general engagement. ^50 As Mascezel advanced before the front with fair offers of peace

and pardon, he encountered one of the foremost standardbearers of the Africans, and, on his refusal to yield,

struck him on the arm with his sword. The arm, and the standard, sunk under the weight of the blow; and the

imaginary act of submission was hastily repeated by all the standards of the line. At this the disaffected

cohorts proclaimed the name of their lawful sovereign; the Barbarians, astonished by the defection of their

Roman allies, dispersed, according to their custom, in tumultuary flight; and Mascezel obtained the of an

easy, and almost bloodless, victory. ^51 The tyrant escaped from the field of battle to the seashore; and

threw himself into a small vessel, with the hope of reaching in safety some friendly port of the empire of the

East; but the obstinacy of the wind drove him back into the harbor of Tabraca, ^52 which had acknowledged,

with the rest of the province, the dominion of Honorius, and the authority of his lieutenant. The inhabitants,

as a proof of their repentance and loyalty, seized and confined the person of Gildo in a dungeon; and his own

despair saved him from the intolerable torture of supporting the presence of an injured and victorious brother.

^53 The captives and the spoils of Africa were laid at the feet of the emperor; but more sincere, in the midst

of prosperity, still affected to consult the laws of the republic; and referred to the senate and people of Rome

the judgment of the most illustrious criminals. ^54 Their trial was public and solemn; but the judges, in the

exercise of this obsolete and precarious jurisdiction, were impatient to punish the African magistrates, who

had intercepted the subsistence of the Roman people. The rich and guilty province was oppressed by the

Imperial ministers, who had a visible interest to multiply the number of the accomplices of Gildo; and if an

edict of Honorius seems to check the malicious industry of informers, a subsequent edict, at the distance of

ten years, continues and renews the prosecution of the which had been committed in the time of the general

rebellion. ^55 The adherents of the tyrant who escaped the first fury of the soldiers, and the judges, might

derive some consolation from the tragic fate of his brother, who could never obtain his pardon for the

extraordinary services which he had performed. After he had finished an important war in the space of a

single winter, Mascezel was received at the court of Milan with loud applause, affected gratitude, and secret

jealousy; ^56 and his death, which, perhaps, was the effect of passage of a bridge, the Moorish prince, who

accompanied the mastergeneral of the West, was suddenly thrown from his horse into the river; the

officious haste of the attendants was on the countenance of Stilicho; and while they delayed the necessary

[Footnote 49: Orosius must be responsible for the account. The presumption of Gildo and his various train of

[Footnote 50: St. Ambrose, who had been dead about a year, revealed, in a vision, the time and place of the

victory. Mascezel afterwards related his dream to Paulinus, the original biographer of the saint, from whom it

[Footnote 51: Zosimus (l. v. p. 303) supposes an obstinate combat; but the narrative of Orosius appears to

[Footnote 52: Tabraca lay between the two Hippos, (Cellarius, tom. ii. p. 112; D'Anville, tom. iii. p. 84.)

Orosius has distinctly named the field of battle, but our ignorance cannot define the precise situation.]

[Footnote 53: The death of Gildo is expressed by Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. 357) and his best interpreters,

[Footnote 54: Claudian (ii. Cons. Stilich. 99 119) describes their trial (tremuit quos Africa nuper, cernunt

rostra reos,) and applauds the restoration of the ancient constitution. It is here that he introduces the famous

[Footnote 55: See the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxix. leg. 3, tit. xl. leg. 19.]

[Footnote 56: Stilicho, who claimed an equal share in all the victories of Theodosius and his son, particularly

asserts, that Africa was recovered by the wisdom of his counsels, (see an inscription produced by Baronius.)]

[Footnote 57: I have softened the narrative of Zosimus, which, in its crude simplicity, is almost incredible, (l.

v. p. 303.) Orosius damns the victorious general (p. 538) for violating the right of sanctuary.]

The joy of the African triumph was happily connected with the nuptials of the emperor Honorius, and of his

cousin Maria, the daughter of Stilicho: and this equal and honorable alliance seemed to invest the powerful

minister with the authority of a parent over his submissive pupil. The muse of Claudian was not silent on this

propitious day; ^58 he sung, in various and lively strains, the happiness of the royal pair; and the glory of the

hero, who confirmed their union, and supported their throne. The ancient fables of Greece, which had almost

ceased to be the object of religious faith, were saved from oblivion by the genius of poetry. The picture of the

Cyprian grove, the seat of harmony and love; the triumphant progress of Venus over her native seas, and the

mild influence which her presence diffused in the palace of Milan, express to every age the natural sentiments

of the heart, in the just and pleasing language of allegorical fiction. But the amorous impatience which

Claudian attributes to the young prince, ^59 must excite the smiles of the court; and his beauteous spouse (if

she deserved the praise of beauty) had not much to fear or to hope from the passions of her lover. Honorius

was only in the fourteenth year of his age; Serena, the mother of his bride, deferred, by art of persuasion, the

consummation of the royal nuptials; Maria died a virgin, after she had been ten years a wife; and the chastity

of the emperor was secured by the coldness, perhaps, the debility,of his constitution. ^60 His subjects, who

attentively studied the character of their young sovereign, discovered that Honorius was without passions,

and consequently without talents; and that his feeble and languid disposition was alike incapable of

discharging the duties of his rank, or of enjoying the pleasures of his age. In his early youth he made some

progress in the exercises of riding and drawing the bow: but he soon relinquished these fatiguing occupations,

and the amusement of feeding poultry became the serious and daily care of the monarch of the West, ^61 who

resigned the reins of empire to the firm and skilful hand of his guardian Stilicho. The experience of history

will countenance the suspicion that a prince who was born in the purple, received a worse education than the

meanest peasant of his dominions; and that the ambitious minister suffered him to attain the age of manhood,

without attempting to excite his courage, or to enlighten his under standing. ^62 The predecessors of

Honorius were accustomed to animate by their example, or at least by their presence, the valor of the legions;

and the dates of their laws attest the perpetual activity of their motions through the provinces of the Roman

world. But the son of Theodosius passed the slumber of his life, a captive in his palace, a stranger in his

country, and the patient, almost the indifferent, spectator of the ruin of the Western empire, which was

repeatedly attacked, and finally subverted, by the arms of the Barbarians. In the eventful history of a reign of

twentyeight years, it will seldom be necessary to mention the name of the emperor Honorius. [Footnote 58:

Claudian,as the poet laureate, composed a serious and elaborate epithalamium of 340 lines; besides some gay

[Footnote 61: Procopius de Bell. Gothico, l. i. c. 2. I have borrowed the general practice of Honorius, without

adopting the singular, and indeed improbable tale, which is related by the Greek historian.]

[Footnote 62: The lessons of Theodosius, or rather Claudian, (iv. Cons. Honor 214 418,) might compose a

fine institution for the future prince of a great and free nation. It was far above Honorius, and his degenerate

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.

If the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations to the great Theodosius, they were too soon

convinced, how painfully the spirit and abilities of their deceased emperor had supported the frail and

mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and before the end of the winter of the

same year, the Gothic nation was in arms. ^1 The Barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard;

and boldly avowed the hostile designs, which they had long cherished in their ferocious minds. Their

countrymen, who had been condemned, by the conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tranquility and labor,

deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet; and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had

reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued

from their forests; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark, "that they rolled their

ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back of the indignant river." ^2 The unhappy natives of the

provinces to the south of the Danube submitted to the calamities, which, in the course of twenty years, were

almost grown familiar to their imagination; and the various troops of Barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic

name, were irregularly spread from woody shores of Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople. ^3 The

interruption, or at least the diminution, of the subsidy, which the Goths had received from the prudent

liberality of Theodosius, was the specious pretence of their revolt: the affront was imbittered by their

contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius; and their resentment was inflamed by the weakness, or

treachery, of the minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the Barbarians whose

arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty

correspondence, and the public enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst

the general devastation, to spare the private estates of the unpopular praefect. The Goths, instead of being

impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius

of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the Balti; ^4 which yielded only to the

royal dignity of the Amali: he had solicited the command of the Roman armies; and the Imperial court

provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their refusal, and the importance of their loss. Whatever hopes

might be entertained of the conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an

impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was

terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms; but the want of wisdom and valor was supplied by the strength of

the city; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and random darts

of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and

Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped

[Footnote 1: The revolt of the Goths, and the blockade of Constantinople, are distinctly mentioned by

Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 7 100,) Zosimus, (l. v. 292,) and Jornandes, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 29.)] [Footnote

2: Alii per toga ferocis Danubii solidata ruunt; expertaque remis Frangunt stagna rotis.

Claudian and Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchanging the metaphors and properties of liquid water,

[Footnote 3: Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. He endeavors to comfort his friend Heliodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the

loss of his nephew, Nepotian, by a curious recapitulation of all the public and private misfortunes of the

[Footnote 4: Baltha or bold: origo mirifica, says Jornandes, (c. 29.) This illustrious race long continued to

flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the corrupted appellation of

Boax; and a branch of that family afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist.

Gothic. p. 53.) The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of seventynine subordinate places, were independent of

[Footnote 5: Zosimus (l. v. p. 293 295) is our best guide for the conquest of Greece: but the hints and

The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece,

confirmed the public suspicion, that he had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic

invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable father; and Gerontius, who

commanded the provincial troops, was much better qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant, than

to defend, with courage and ability, a country most remarkably fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had

traversed, without resistance, the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a steep

and woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from east to west, to the edge of

the seashore; and left, between the precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which,

in some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a single carriage. ^6 In this narrow pass of

Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted their lives, the Goths

might have been stopped, or destroyed, by a skilful general; and perhaps the view of that sacred spot might

have kindled some sparks of military ardor in the breasts of the degenerate Greeks. The troops which had

been posted to defend the Straits of Thermopylae, retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb

the secure and rapid passage of Alaric; ^7 and the fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia were instantly covered

by a deluge of Barbarians who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful

females, with the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. The travellers, who visited Greece several years

afterwards, could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths; and Thebes was less

indebted for her preservation to the strength of her seven gates, than to the eager haste of Alaric, who

advanced to occupy the city of Athens, and the important harbor of the Piraeus. The same impatience urged

him to prevent the delay and danger of a siege, by the offer of a capitulation; and as soon as the Athenians

heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their wealth, as

the ransom of the city of Minerva and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed

with mutual fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small and select train, was admitted within the walls; he

indulged himself in the refreshment of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet, which was provided by the

magistrate, and affected to show that he was not ignorant of the manners of civilized nations. ^8 But the

whole territory of Attica, from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blasted by his baleful

presence; and, if we may use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the

bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim. The distance between Megara and Corinth could not much

exceed thirty miles; but the bad road, an expressive name, which it still bears among the Greeks, was, or

might easily have been made, impassable for the march of an enemy. The thick and gloomy woods of Mount

Cithaeron covered the inland country; the Scironian rocks approached the water's edge, and hung over the

narrow and winding path, which was confined above six miles along the seashore. ^9 The passage of those

rocks, so infamous in every age, was terminated by the Isthmus of Corinth; and a small a body of firm and

intrepid soldiers might have successfully defended a temporary intrenchment of five or six miles from the

Ionian to the Aegean Sea. The confidence of the cities of Peloponnesus in their natural rampart, had tempted

them to neglect the care of their antique walls; and the avarice of the Roman governors had exhausted and

betrayed the unhappy province. ^10 Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the

Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved, by death, from beholding the slavery of their

families and the conflagration of their cities. ^11 The vases and statues were distributed among the

Barbarians, with more regard to the value of the materials, than to the elegance of the workmanship; the

female captives submitted to the laws of war; the enjoyment of beauty was the reward of valor; and the

Greeks could not reasonably complain of an abuse which was justified by the example of the heroic times.

^12 The descendants of that extraordinary people, who had considered valor and discipline as the walls of

Sparta, no longer remembered the generous reply of their ancestors to an invader more formidable than

Alaric. "If thou art a god, thou wilt not hurt those who have never injured thee; if thou art a man, advance:

and thou wilt find men equal to thyself." ^13 From Thermopylae to Sparta, the leader of the Goths pursued

his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonists: but one of the advocates of expiring

Paganism has confidently asserted, that the walls of Athens were guarded by the goddess Minerva, with her

formidable Aegis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles; ^14 and that the conqueror was dismayed by the

presence of the hostile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjust to dispute the

claim of the historian Zosimus to the common benefit: yet it cannot be dissembled, that the mind of Alaric

was ill prepared to receive, either in sleeping or waking visions, the impressions of Greek superstition. The

songs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had probably never reached the ear of the illiterate Barbarian; and

the Christian faith, which he had devoutly embraced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities of Rome

and Athens. The invasion of the Goths, instead of vindicating the honor, contributed, at least accidentally, to

extirpate the last remains of Paganism: and the mysteries of Ceres, which had subsisted eighteen hundred

years, did not survive the destruction of Eleusis, and the calamities of Greece. ^15

[Footnote 6: Compare Herodotus (l. vii. c. 176) and Livy, (xxxvi. 15.) The narrow entrance of Greece was

[Footnote 7: He passed, says Eunapius, (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93, edit. Commelin, 1596,) through the straits,

[Footnote 8: In obedience to Jerom and Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 191,) I have mixed some darker colors in the

Synesius (Epist. clvi. p. 272, edit. Petav.) observes, that Athens, whose sufferings he imputes to the

proconsul's avarice, was at that time less famous for her schools of philosophy than for her trade of honey.]

[Footnote 9: Vallata mari Scironia rupes, Et duo continuo connectens aequora muro Isthmos.

The Scironian rocks are described by Pausanias, (l. i. c. 44, p. 107, edit. Kuhn,) and our modern travellers,

Wheeler (p. 436) and Chandler, (p. 298.) Hadrian made the road passable for two carriages.]

[Footnote 10: Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 186, and de Bello Getico, 611, vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the

[Footnote 11: These generous lines of Homer (Odyss. l. v. 306) were transcribed by one of the captive youths

of Corinth: and the tears of Mummius may prove that the rude conqueror, though he was ignorant of the

value of an original picture, possessed the purest source of good taste, a benevolent heart, (Plutarch,

[Footnote 12: Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience of those female captives, who gave their

charms, and even their hearts, to the murderers of their fathers, brothers, Such a passion (of Eriphile for

[Footnote 13: Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 474, edit. Brian) gives the genuine answer in the Laconic dialect.

Pyrrhus attacked Sparta with 25,000 foot, 2000 horse, and 24 elephants, and the defence of that open town is

[Footnote 14: Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx. 164) had so nobly painted him.]

[Footnote 15: Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 90 93) intimates that a troop of monks betrayed Greece, and

The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms, their gods, or their sovereign, was

placed in the powerful assistance of the general of the West; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to

repulse, advanced to chastise, the invaders of Greece. ^16 A numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of

Italy; and the troops, after a short and prosperous navigation over the Ionian Sea, were safely disembarked on

the isthmus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country of Arcadia, the fabulous

residence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of a long and doubtful conflict between the two generals

not unworthy of each other. The skill and perseverance of the Roman at length prevailed; and the Goths, after

sustaining a considerable loss from disease and desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of Pholoe,

near the sources of the Peneus, and on the frontiers of Elis; a sacred country, which had formerly been

exempted from the calamities of war. ^17 The camp of the Barbarians was immediately besieged; the waters

of the river ^18 were diverted into another channel; and while they labored under the intolerable pressure of

thirst and hunger, a strong line of circumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. After these

precautions, Stilicho, too confident of victory, retired to enjoy his triumph, in the theatrical games, and

lascivious dances, of the Greeks; his soldiers, deserting their standards, spread themselves over the country of

their allies, which they stripped of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands of the enemy. Alaric

appears to have seized the favorable moment to execute one of those hardy enterprises, in which the abilities

of a general are displayed with more genuine lustre, than in the tumult of a day of battle. To extricate himself

from the prison of Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should pierce the intrenchments which surrounded

his camp; that he should perform a difficult and dangerous march of thirty miles, as far as the Gulf of

Corinth; and that he should transport his troops, his captives, and his spoil, over an arm of the sea, which, in

the narrow interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at least half a mile in breadth. ^19 The

operations of Alaric must have been secret, prudent, and rapid; since the Roman general was confounded by

the intelligence, that the Goths, who had eluded his efforts, were in full possession of the important province

of Epirus. This unfortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to conclude the treaty, which he secretly

negotiated, with the ministers of Constantinople. The apprehension of a civil war compelled Stilicho to retire,

at the haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he respected, in the enemy of

Rome, the honorable character of the ally and servant of the emperor of the East.

[Footnote 16: For Stilicho's Greek war, compare the honest narrative of Zosimus (l. v. p. 295, 296) with the

curious circumstantial flattery of Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. l. i. 172 186, iv. Cons. Hon. 459 487.) As the

[Footnote 17: The troops who marched through Elis delivered up their arms. This security enriched the

Eleans, who were lovers of a rural life. Riches begat pride: they disdained their privilege, and they suffered.

Polybius advises them to retire once more within their magic circle. See a learned and judicious discourse on

[Footnote 18: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Hon. 480) alludes to the fact without naming the river; perhaps the

Yet 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.

[Footnote 19: Strabo, l. viii. p. 517. Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 3. Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They measured

A Grecian philosopher, ^20 who visited Constantinople soon after the death of Theodosius, published his

liberal opinions concerning the duties of kings, and the state of the Roman republic. Synesius observes, and

deplores, the fatal abuse, which the imprudent bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the military

service. The citizens and subjects had purchased an exemption from the indispensable duty of defending their

country; which was supported by the arms of Barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of Scythia were permitted

to disgrace the illustrious dignities of the empire; their ferocious youth, who disdained the salutary restraint

of laws, were more anxious to acquire the riches, than to imitate the arts, of a people, the object of their

contempt and hatred; and the power of the Goths was the stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the

peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures which Synesius recommends, are the dictates of a bold

and generous patriot. He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his subjects, by the example of manly

virtue; to banish luxury from the court and from the camp; to substitute, in the place of the Barbarian

mercenaries, an army of men, interested in the defence of their laws and of their property; to force, in such a

moment of public danger, the mechanic from his shop, and the philosopher from his school; to rouse the

indolent citizen from his dream of pleasure, and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the

laborious husbandman. At the head of such troops, who might deserve the name, and would display the spirit,

of Romans, he animates the son of Theodosius to encounter a race of Barbarians, who were destitute of any

real courage; and never to lay down his arms, till he had chased them far away into the solitudes of Scythia;

or had reduced them to the state of ignominious servitude, which the Lacedaemonians formerly imposed on

the captive Helots. ^21 The court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the

advice, of Synesius. Perhaps the philosopher who addresses the emperor of the East in the language of reason

and virtue, which he might have used to a Spartan king, had not condescended to form a practicable scheme,

consistent with the temper, and circumstances, of a degenerate age. Perhaps the pride of the ministers, whose

business was seldom interrupted by reflection, might reject, as wild and visionary, every proposal, which

exceeded the measure of their capacity, and deviated from the forms and precedents of office. While the

oration of Synesius, and the downfall of the Barbarians, were the topics of popular conversation, an edict was

published at Constantinople, which declared the promotion of Alaric to the rank of mastergeneral of the

Eastern Illyricum. The Roman provincials, and the allies, who had respected the faith of treaties, were justly

indignant, that the ruin of Greece and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was

received as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he had so lately besieged. The fathers, whose sons he had

massacred, the husbands, whose wives he had violated, were subject to his authority; and the success of his

rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign mercenaries. The use to which Alaric applied

his new command, distinguishes the firm and judicious character of his policy. He issued his orders to the

four magazines and manufactures of offensive and defensive arms, Margus, Ratiaria, Naissus, and

Thessalonica, to provide his troops with an extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords, and spears; the

unhappy provincials were compelled to forge the instruments of their own destruction; and the Barbarians

removed the only defect which had sometimes disappointed the efforts of their courage. ^22 The birth of

Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his future designs, insensibly united the body of

the nation under his victorious standard; and, with the unanimous consent of the Barbarian chieftains, the

mastergeneral of Illyricum was elevated, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed

king of the Visigoths. ^23 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; ^24 till he declared and

executed his resolution of invading the dominions of the West. The provinces of Europe which belonged to

the Eastern emperor, were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of

Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy, which

he had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich

[Footnote 20: Synesius passed three years (A.D. 397 400) 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

Quorum conjugibus potitur, natosque peremit. Claudian in Eutrop. l. ii. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy

(de Bell Getic. 533 543) in the use which he had made of this Illyrian jurisdiction.]

[Footnote 23: Jornandes, c. 29, p. 651. The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans

Discors odiisque anceps civilibus orbis, Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax Ludit, et alternae

This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least by Claudian, (de Bell. Getico, 547,) seven

years before the event. But as it was not accomplished within the term which has been rashly fixed the

The scarcity of facts, ^26 and the uncertainty of dates, ^27 oppose our attempts to describe the circumstances

of the first invasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric. His march, perhaps from Thessalonica, through the warlike

and hostile country of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his passage of those mountains, which

were strongly guarded by troops and intrenchments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the provinces

of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable time. Unless his operations were extremely

cautious and slow, the length of the interval would suggest a probable suspicion, that the Gothic king

retreated towards the banks of the Danube; and reenforced his army with fresh swarms of Barbarians, before

he again attempted to penetrate into the heart of Italy. Since the public and important events escape the

diligence of the historian, he may amuse himself with contemplating, for a moment, the influence of the arms

of Alaric on the fortunes of two obscure individuals, a presbyter of Aquileia and a husbandman of Verona.

The learned Rufinus, who was summoned by his enemies to appear before a Roman synod, ^28 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. ^29 The old man, ^30 who had passed his

simple and innocent life in the neighborhood of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of

bishops; 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 where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this

humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian describes with so much truth and feeling) was still exposed to the

undistinguishing rage of war. His trees, his old contemporary trees, ^31 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. ^32 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. ^33 [Footnote 26: Our best materials are 970 verses

of Claudian in the poem on the Getic war, and the beginning of that which celebrates the sixth consulship of

Honorius. Zosimus is totally silent; and we are reduced to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as we can pick from

[Footnote 27: 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.D. 400) is firm and respectable. It is certain from

Claudian (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 804) that the battle of Polentia was fought A.D. 403; but we

[Footnote 28: Tantum Romanae urbis judicium fugis, ut magis obsidionem barbaricam, quam pacatoe urbis

judicium velis sustinere. Jerom, tom. ii. p. 239. Rufinus understood his own danger; the peaceful city was

[Footnote 29: Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who was persecuted and insulted by the furious

Jerom, (Jortin's Remarks, vol. iv. p. 104, See the original edict of banishment in the Theodosian Code, xvi.

[Footnote 30: This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui suburbium nusquam egres sus est) 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

[Footnote 31: Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum Aequaevumque videt consenuisse nemus. A

In this passage, Cowley is perhaps superior to his original; and the English poet, who was a good botanist,

[Footnote 32: Claudian de Bell. Get. 199 266. He may seem prolix: but fear and superstition occupied as

[Footnote 33: 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

The emperor Honorius was distinguished, above his subjects, by the preeminence of fear, as well as of rank.

The pride and luxury in which he was educated, had not allowed him to suspect, that there existed on the

earth any power presumptuous enough to invade the repose of the successor of Augustus. The arts of flattery

concealed the impending danger, till Alaric approached the palace of Milan. But when the sound of war had

awakened the young emperor, instead of flying to arms with the spirit, or even the rashness, of his age, he

eagerly listened to those timid counsellors, who proposed to convey his sacred person, and his faithful

attendants, to some secure and distant station in the provinces of Gaul. Stilicho alone ^34 had courage and

authority to resist his disgraceful measure, which would have abandoned Rome and Italy to the Barbarians;

but as the troops of the palace had been lately detached to the Rhaetian frontier, and as the resource of new

levies was slow and precarious, the general of the West could only promise, that if the court of Milan would

maintain their ground during his absence, he would soon return with an army equal to the encounter of the

Gothic king. Without losing a moment, (while each moment was so important to the public safety,) Stilicho

hastily embarked on the Larian Lake, ascended the mountains of ice and snow, amidst the severity of an

Alpine winter, and suddenly repressed, by his unexpected presence, the enemy, who had disturbed the

tranquillity of Rhaetia. ^35 The Barbarians, perhaps some tribes of the Alemanni, respected the firmness of a

chief, who still assumed the language of command; and the choice which he condescended to make, of a

select number of their bravest youth, was considered as a mark of his esteem and favor. The cohorts, who

were delivered from the neighboring foe, diligently repaired to the Imperial standard; and Stilicho issued his

orders to the most remote troops of the West, to advance, by rapid marches, to the defence of Honorius and of

Italy. The fortresses of the Rhine were abandoned; and the safety of Gaul was protected only by the faith of

the Germans, and the ancient terror of the Roman name. Even the legion, which had been stationed to guard

the wall of Britain against the Caledonians of the North, was hastily recalled; ^36 and a numerous body of the

cavalry of the Alani was persuaded to engage in the service of the emperor, who anxiously expected the

return of his general. The prudence and vigor of Stilicho were conspicuous on this occasion, which revealed,

at the same time, the weakness of the falling empire. The legions of Rome, which had long since languished

in the gradual decay of discipline and courage, were exterminated by the Gothic and civil wars; and it was

found impossible, without exhausting and exposing the provinces, to assemble an army for the defence of

Italy. [Footnote 34: Solus erat Stilicho, is the exclusive commendation which Claudian bestows, (del Bell.

Get. 267,) without condescending to except the emperor. How insignificant must Honorius have appeared in

[Footnote 35: The face of the country, and the hardiness of Stilicho, are finely described, (de Bell. Get. 340

Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan, must have required a longer space of time

When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sovereign in the unguarded palace of Milan, he had probably calculated

the term of his absence, the distance of the enemy, and the obstacles that might retard their march. He

principally depended on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the Mincius, the Oglio, and the Addua, which, in the

winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and

impetuous torrents. ^37 But the season happened to be remarkably dry: and the Goths could traverse, without

impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream.

The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic army; and as Alaric

approached the walls, or rather the suburbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of seeing the emperor

of the Romans fly before him. Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen and eunuchs, hastily

retreated towards the Alps, with a design of securing his person in the city of Arles, which had often been the

royal residence of his predecessors. ^* But Honorius ^38 had scarcely passed the Po, before he was overtaken

by the speed of the Gothic cavalry; ^39 since the urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a temporary

shelter within the fortifications of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piemont, situate on the banks of the Tanarus.

^40 The siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize, and seemed incapable of a long

resistance, was instantly formed, and indefatigably pressed, by the king of the Goths; and the bold

declaration, which the emperor might afterwards make, that his breast had never been susceptible of fear, did

not probably obtain much credit, even in his own court. ^41 In the last, and almost hopeless extremity, after

the Barbarians had already proposed the indignity of a capitulation, the Imperial captive was suddenly

relieved by the fame, the approach, and at length the presence, of the hero, whom he had so long expected. At

the head of a chosen and intrepid vanguard, Stilicho swam the stream of the Addua, to gain the time which he

must have lost in the attack of the bridge; the passage of the Po was an enterprise of much less hazard and

difficulty; and the successful action, in which he cut his way through the Gothic camp under the walls of

Asta, revived the hopes, and vindicated the honor, of Rome. Instead of grasping the fruit of his victory, the

Barbarian was gradually invested, on every side, by the troops of the West, who successively issued through

all the passes of the Alps; his quarters were straitened; his convoys were intercepted; and the vigilance of the

Romans prepared to form a chain of fortifications, and to besiege the lines of the besiegers. A military

council was assembled of the longhaired chiefs of the Gothic nation; of aged warriors, whose bodies were

wrapped in furs, and whose stern countenances were marked with honorable wounds. They weighed the glory

of persisting in their attempt against the advantage of securing their plunder; and they recommended the

prudent measure of a seasonable retreat. In this important debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror

of Rome; and after he had reminded his countrymen of their achievements and of their designs, he concluded

his animating speech by the solemn and positive assurance that he was resolved to find in Italy either a

[Footnote 37: Every traveller must recollect the face of Lombardy, (see Fonvenelle, tom. v. p. 279,) which is

often tormented by the capricious and irregular abundance of waters. The Austrians, before Genoa, were

encamped in the dry bed of the Polcevera. "Ne sarebbe" (says Muratori) "mai passato per mente a que' buoni

Alemanni, che quel picciolo torrente potesse, per cosi dire, in un instante cangiarsi in un terribil gigante."

[Footnote *: According to Le Beau and his commentator M. St. Martin, Honorius did not attempt to fly.

Settlements were offered to the Goths in Lombardy, and they advanced from the Po towards the Alps to take

possession of them. But it was a treacherous stratagem of Stilicho, who surprised them while they were

[Footnote 38: Claudian does not clearly answer our question, Where was Honorius himself? Yet the flight is

marked by the pursuit; and my idea of the Gothic was is justified by the Italian critics, Sigonius (tom. P, ii. p.

[Footnote 39: One of the roads may be traced in the Itineraries, (p. 98, 288, 294, with Wesseling's Notes.)

[Footnote 40: Asta, or Asti, a Roman colony, is now the capital of a pleasant country, which, in the sixteenth

century, devolved to the dukes of Savoy, (Leandro Alberti Descrizzione d'Italia, p. 382.)]

[Footnote 41: Nec me timor impulit ullus. He might hold this proud language the next year at Rome, five

The speeches (de Bell. Get. 479 549) of the Gothic Nestor, and Achilles, are strong, characteristic, adapted

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. ^43 The execution of the stratagem, or, as

it was termed by the clergy of the sacrilege, was intrusted to Saul, a Barbarian and a Pagan, who had served,

however, with distinguished reputation among the veteran generals of Theodosius. The camp of the Goths,

which Alaric had pitched in the neighborhood of Pollentia, ^44 was thrown into confusion by the sudden and

impetuous charge of the Imperial cavalry; but, in a few moments, the undaunted genius of their leader gave

them an order, and a field of battle; and, as soon as they had recovered from their astonishment, the pious

confidence, that the God of the Christians would assert their cause, added new strength to their native valor.

In this engagement, which was long maintained with equal courage and success, the chief of the Alani, whose

diminutive and savage form concealed a magnanimous soul approved his suspected loyalty, by the zeal with

which he fought, and fell, in the service of the republic; and the fame of this gallant Barbarian has been

imperfectly preserved in the verses of Claudian, since the poet, who celebrates his virtue, has omitted the

mention of his name. His death was followed by the flight and dismay of the squadrons which he

commanded; and the defeat of the wing of cavalry might have decided the victory of Alaric, if Stilicho had

not immediately led the Roman and Barbarian infantry to the attack. The skill of the general, and the bravery

of the soldiers, surmounted every obstacle. In the evening of the bloody day, the Goths retreated from the

field of battle; the intrenchments of their camp were forced, and the scene of rapine and slaughter made some

atonement for the calamities which they had inflicted on the subjects of the empire. ^45 The magnificent

spoils of Corinth and Argos enriched the veterans of the West; the captive wife of Alaric, who had

impatiently claimed his promise of Roman jewels and Patrician handmaids, ^46 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 ^47 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

[Footnote 43: Orosius (l. 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 destruction of the Arian robber. See Tillemont (Hist des Emp. tom. v. p. 529) who quotes a

[Footnote 44: The vestiges of Pollentia are twentyfive miles to the south east of Turin. Urbs, in the same

neighborhood, was a royal chase of the kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which excused the prediction,

[Footnote 45: Orosius 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. 29) claim a decisive victory.]

[Footnote 46: Demens Ausonidum gemmata monilia matrum, Romanasque alta famulas cervice petebat.

[Footnote 47: Claudian (de Bell. Get. 580 647) and Prudentius (in Symmach. n. 694 719) celebrate,

without ambiguity, the Roman victory of Pollentia. They are poetical and party writers; yet some credit is due

to the most suspicious witnesses, who are checked by the recent notoriety of facts.]

[Footnote 48: Claudian's peroration is strong and elegant; but the identity of the Cimbric and Gothic fields

must be understood (like Virgil's Philippi, Georgic i. 490) according to the loose geography of a poet.

Verselle and Pollentia are 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 Illustrata, P. i. p. 54 62.)]

The eloquence of Claudian ^49 has celebrated, with lavish applause, the victory of Pollentia, one of the most

glorious days in the life of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse bestows more genuine praise on the

character of the Gothic king. His name is, indeed, branded with the reproachful epithets of pirate and robber,

to which the conquerors of every age are so justly entitled; but the poet of Stilicho is compelled to

acknowledge that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind, which rises superior to every misfortune,

and derives new resources from adversity. After the total defeat of his infantry, he escaped, or rather

withdrew, from the field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken. Without wasting a

moment to lament the irreparable loss of so many brave companions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in

chains the captive images of a Gothic king; ^50 and boldly resolved to break through the unguarded passes of

the Apennine, to spread desolation over the fruitful face of Tuscany, and to conquer or die before the gates of

Rome. The capital was saved by the active and incessant diligence of Stilicho; but he respected the despair of

his enemy; and, instead of committing the fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he proposed to

purchase the absence of the Barbarians. The spirit of Alaric would have rejected such terms, the permission

of a retreat, and the offer of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a limited and

precarious authority over the independent chieftains who had raised him, for their service, above the rank of

his equals; they were still less disposed to follow an unsuccessful general, and many of them were tempted to

consult their interest by a private negotiation with the minister of Honorius. The king submitted to the voice

of his people, ratified the treaty with the empire of the West, and repassed the Po with the remains of the

flourishing army which he had led into Italy. A considerable part of the Roman forces still continued to attend

his motions; and Stilicho, who maintained a secret correspondence with some of the Barbarian chiefs, was

punctually apprised of the designs that were formed in the camp and council of Alaric. The king of the Goths,

ambitious to signalize his retreat by some splendid achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city of

Verona, which commands the principal passage of the 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, already

possessed by the Imperial troops; where he was exposed, almost at the same instant, to a general attack in the

front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In this bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of Verona, the

loss of the Goths was not less heavy than that which they had sustained in the defeat of Pollentia; and their

valiant king, who escaped by the swiftness of his horse, must either have been slain or made prisoner, if the

hasty rashness of the Alani had not disappointed the measures of the Roman general. Alaric secured the

remains of his army on the adjacent rocks; and prepared himself, with undaunted resolution, to maintain a

siege against the superior numbers of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he could not oppose the

destructive progress of hunger and disease; nor was it possible for him to check the continual desertion of his

impatient and capricious Barbarians. In this extremity he still found resources in his own courage, or in the

moderation of his adversary; and the retreat of the Gothic king was considered as the deliverance of Italy. ^51

Yet the people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of peace and

war, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often

dismissed the implacable enemy of the republic. The first momen of the public safety is devoted to gratitude

[Footnote 49: Claudian and Prudentius must be strictly examined, to reduce the figures, and extort the historic

[Footnote 50: Et gravant en airain ses freles avantages De mes etats conquis enchainer les images.

The practice of exposing in triumph the images of kings and provinces was familiar to the Romans. The bust

of Mithridates himself was twelve feet high, of massy gold, (Freinshem. Supplement. Livian. ciii. 47.)]

[Footnote 51: The Getic war, and the sixth consulship of Honorius, obscurely connect the events of Alaric's

[Footnote 52: Taceo de Alarico ... saepe visto, saepe concluso, semperque dimisso. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p.

The citizens of Rome had been astonished by the approach of Alaric; and the diligence with which they

labored to restore the walls of the capital, confessed their own fears, and the decline of the empire. After the

retreat of the Barbarians, Honorius was directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, and to celebrate,

in the Imperial city, the auspicious aera of the Gothic victory, and of his sixth consulship. ^53 The suburbs

and the streets, from the Milvian bridge to the Palatine mount, were filled by the Roman people, who, in the

space of a hundred years, had only thrice been honored with the presence of their sovereigns. While their

eyes were fixed on the chariot where Stilicho was deservedly seated by the side of his royal pupil, they

applauded the pomp of a triumph, which was not stained, like that of Constantine, or of Theodosius, with

civil blood. The procession passed under a lofty arch, which had been purposely erected: but in less than

seven years, the Gothic conquerors of Rome might read, if they were able to read, the superb inscription of

that monument, which attested the total defeat and destruction of their nation. ^54 The emperor resided

several months in the capital, and every part of his behavior was regulated with care to conciliate the

affection of the clergy, the senate, and the people of Rome. The clergy was edified by his frequent visits and

liberal gifts to the shrines of the apostles. The senate, who, in the triumphal procession, had been excused

from the humiliating ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial chariot, was treated with the decent

reverence which Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The people was repeatedly gratified by the

attention and courtesy of Honorius in the public games, which were celebrated on that occasion with a

magnificence not unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the appointed number of chariot races was

concluded, the decoration of the Circus was suddenly changed; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various

and splendid entertainment; and the chase was succeeded by a military dance, which seems, in the lively

description of Claudian, to present the image of a modern tournament. [Footnote 53: The remainder of

Claudian's poem on the sixth consulship of Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and the games, (330

[Footnote 54: See the inscription in Mascou's History of the Ancient Germans, viii. 12. The words are

In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators ^55 polluted, for the last time, the

amphitheater of Rome. The first Christian emperor may claim the honor of the first edict which condemned

the art and amusement of shedding human blood; ^56 but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of the

prince, without reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civilized nation below the condition of

savage cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great

cities of the empire; and the month of December, more peculiarly devoted to the combats of gladiators, still

exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty. Amidst the general joy of

the victory of Pollentia, a Christian poet exhorted the emperor to extirpate, by his authority, the horrid custom

which had so long resisted the voice of humanity and religion. ^57 The pathetic representations of Prudentius

were less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, and Asiatic monk, whose death was more

useful to mankind than his life. ^58 The Romans were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures; and the

rash monk, who had descended into the arena to separate the gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of

stones. But the madness of the people soon subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had

deserved the honors of martyrdom; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the laws of Honorius, which

abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphitheater. ^* The citizens, who adhered to the manners of

their ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of a martial spirit were preserved in this school

of fortitude, which accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood, and to the contempt of death; a vain and

cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the valor of ancient Greece, and of modern Europe! ^59

[Footnote 55: 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.)]

[Footnote 56: Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom.

[Footnote 57: See the peroration of Prudentius (in Symmach. l. ii. 1121 1131) who had doubtless read the

eloquent invective of Lactantius, (Divin. Institut. l. vi. c. 20.) The Christian apologists have not spared these

[Footnote 58: Theodoret, l. 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.]

[Footnote *: Muller, in his valuable Treatise, de Genio, moribus et luxu aevi Theodosiani, is disposed to

question the effect produced by the heroic, or rather saintly, death of Telemachus. No prohibitory law of

Honorius is to be found in the Theodosian Code, only the old and imperfect edict of Constantine. But Muller

has produced no evidence or allusion to gladiatorial shows after this period. The combats with wild beasts

certainly lasted till the fall of the Western empire; but the gladiatorial combats ceased either by common

[Footnote 59: Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum nonnullis videri solet, et haud 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. vii.) shows the

The recent danger, to which the person of the emperor had been exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan,

urged him to seek a retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy, where he might securely remain, while the

open country was covered by a deluge of Barbarians. On the coast of the Adriatic, about ten or twelve miles

from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the Thessalians had founded the ancient colony of

Ravenna, ^60 which they afterwards resigned to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who had observed the

opportunity of the place, prepared, at the distance of three miles from the old town, a capacious harbor, for

the reception of two hundred and fifty ships of war. This naval establishment, which included the arsenals

and magazines, the barracks of the troops, and the houses of the artificers, derived its origin and name from

the permanent station of the Roman fleet; the intermediate space was soon filled with buildings and

inhabitants, and the three extensive and populous quarters of Ravenna gradually contributed to form one of

the most important cities of Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poured a copious stream of the waters of

the Po through the midst of the city, to the entrance of the harbor; the same waters were introduced into the

profound ditches that encompassed the walls; they were distributed by a thousand subordinate canals, into

every part of the city, which they divided into a variety of small islands; the communication was maintained

only by the use of boats and bridges; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance may be compared to that

of Venice, were raised on the foundation of wooden piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many

miles, was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial causeway, which connected Ravenna with the

continent, might be easily guarded or destroyed, on the approach of a hostile army These morasses were

interspersed, however, with vineyards: and though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town

enjoyed a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water. ^61 The air, instead of receiving the sickly, and

almost pestilential, exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like the neighborhood of

Alexandria, as uncommonly pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides

of the Adriatic, which swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and floated,

every day, the vessels of the adjacent country into the heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left

the modern city at the distance of four miles from the Adriatic; and as early as the fifth or sixth century of the

Christian aera, 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. ^62 Even this alteration contributed to

increase the natural strength of the place, and the shallowness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the

large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labor; and in the twentieth year

of his age, the emperor of the West, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement

of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the

Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and till the

middle of the eight century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy. ^63

[Footnote 60: This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (l. v. p. 327,) Pliny, (iii. 20,) Stephen of

Byzantium, (sub voce, p. 651, edit. Berkel,) Claudian, (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. i.

epist. 5, 8,) Jornandes, (de Reb. Get. c. 29,) Procopius (de Bell, (lothic, l. i. c. i. p. 309, edit. Louvre,) and

Cluverius, (Ital. Antiq tom i. p. 301 307.) Yet I still want a local antiquarian and a good topographical

[Footnote 61: Martial (Epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of the knave, who had sold him wine instead of

water; but he seriously declares that a cistern at 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

[Footnote 62: The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has so admirably transplanted from

Boccaccio, (Giornata 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 Caesaris, constituted the triple city of

[Footnote 63: From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code become sedentary at Constantinople and

The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were his precautions without effect. While Italy

rejoiced in her deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany,

who yielded to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern

extremity of the continent of Asia. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the earned industry

of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman

empire. The extensive territory to the north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, by

the victorious Sienpi, who were sometimes broken into independent tribes, and sometimes reunited under a

supreme chief; till at length, styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid

consistence, and a more formidable power. The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern

desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine

discord; and these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the vanquished people, founded an

Imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of the

monarchy. Some generations before they ascended the throne of China, one of the Topa princes had enlisted

in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valor, but who was tempted, by the fear of

punishment, to desert his standard, and to range the desert at the head of a hundred followers. This gang of

robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous people, distinguished by the appellation of

Geougen; and their hereditary chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed their rank among the

Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes

which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with adversity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa,

and became the legislator of his nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops were distributed into regular

bands of a hundred and of a thousand men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honors were

proposed as the reward of valor; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise the learning of China,

adopted only such arts and institutions as were favorable to the military spirit of his government. His tents,

which he removed in the winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched, during the summer, on the

fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests stretched from Corea far beyond the River Irtish. He vanquished,

in the country to the north of the Caspian Sea, the nation of the Huns; and the new title of Khan, or Cagan,

[Footnote 64: See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 179 189, tom ii p. 295, 334 338.]

The chain of events is interrupted, or rather is concealed, as it passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through

the dark interval which separates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the Roman, geography. Yet the

temper of the Barbarians, and the experience of successive emigrations, sufficiently declare, that the Huns,

who were oppressed by the arms of the Geougen, soon withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The

countries towards the Euxine were already occupied by their kindred tribes; and their hasty flight, which they

soon converted into a bold attack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and level plains, through

which the Vistula gently flows into the Baltic Sea. The North must again have been alarmed, and agitated, by

the invasion of the Huns; ^* and the nations who retreated before them must have pressed with incumbent

weight on the confines of Germany. ^65 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. ^66 About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the title of Khan of the

Geougen, another Barbarian, the haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus, ^67 marched from the northern

extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to achieve the

destruction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed the strength of this mighty

host; but the Alani, who had found a hospitable reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the

heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus,

that by some historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve thousand warriors, distinguished

above the vulgar by their noble birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; ^68 and the whole multitude,

which was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased, by the accession of women,

of children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand persons. This formidable emigration issued

from the same coast of the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and Teutones, to assault

Rome and Italy in the vigor of the republic. After the departure of those Barbarians, their native country,

which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long ramparts, and gigantic moles, ^69 remained, during

some ages, a vast and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the powers of generation, and

the vacancy was filled by the influx of new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an extent of land which

they are unable to cultivate, would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of their neighbors, if the

[Footnote *: There is no authority which connects this inroad of the Teutonic tribes with the movements of

the Huns. The Huns can hardly have reached the shores of the Baltic, and probably the greater part of the

forces of Radagaisus, particularly the Vandals, had long occupied a more southern position. M.]

[Footnote 65: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. iii. p. 182) has observed an emigration from the Palus

Maeotis to the north of Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient history are strangely

[Footnote 66: Zosimus (l. v. 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

[Footnote 67: The name of Rhadagast was 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

Note: The god of war and of hospitality with the Vends and all the Sclavonian races of Germany bore the

name of Radegast, apparently the same with Rhadagaisus. His principal temple was at Rhetra in

Mecklenburg. It was adorned with great magnificence. The statue of the gold was of gold. St. Martin, v. 255.

A statue of Radegast, of much coarser materials, and of the rudest workmanship, was discovered between

1760 and 1770, with those of other Wendish deities, on the supposed site of Rhetra. The names of the gods

were cut upon them in Runic characters. See the very curious volume on these antiquities Die

[Footnote 68: Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180, uses the Greek word which does not convey any precise

idea. I suspect that they were the princes and nobles with their faithful companions; the knights with their

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. ^70 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. ^71 The hopes of the vigilant

minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, recalled

the troops, pressed the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and pusillanimously eluded; employed the

most efficacious means to arrest, or allure, the deserters; and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of

gold, to all the slaves who would enlist. ^72 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. ^73 The thirty legions of Stilicho were

reenforced by a large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were personally attached to his service;

and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who marched under the banners of their native princes, Huldin and

Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the

confederate Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine; leaving on one hand the

inaccessible palace of Honorius, securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on the other, the camp

of Stilicho, who had fixed his headquarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive

battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege

of Florence, ^74 by Radagaisus, is one of the earliest events in the history of that celebrated republic; whose

firmness checked and delayed the unskillful fury of the Barbarians. The senate and people trembled at their

approached within a hundred and eighty miles of Rome; and anxiously compared the danger which they had

escaped, with the new perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and a soldier, the leader of a

disciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had

familiarly conversed with the subjects of the empire in the same camps, and the same churches. The savage

Radagaisus was a stranger to the manners, the religion, and even the language, of the civilized nations of the

South. The fierceness of his temper was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally believed,

that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce the city into a heap of stones and ashes, and to

sacrifice the most illustrious of the Roman senators on the altars of those gods who were appeased by human

blood. The public danger, which should have reconciled all domestic animosities, displayed the incurable

madness of religious faction. The oppressed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable

enemy of Rome, the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they were more apprehensive of the

sacrifices, than of the arms, of Radagaisus; and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which

is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which he had seen somewhat nearer.]

[Footnote 71: Zosimus (l. v. p. 331) transports the war, and the victory of Stilisho, beyond the Danube. A

strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 807.) In good

[Footnote 72: Codex Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law A.D. 406. May 18) satisfiesme, 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.

[Footnote 73: 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,

xi. 25.) This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquieu.]

[Footnote 74: Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher, the origin of Florence, which insensibly

descended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of Faesulae to the banks of the Arno, (Istoria Fiorentina,

tom. i. p. 36. Londra, 1747.) The triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius, (Tacit. Annal. i.

79,) deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507,

[Footnote 75: Yet 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 genuine Romans ahhorred the human sacrifices of Gaul and Germany.]

[Footnote *: Gibbon has rather softened the language of Augustine as to this threatened insurrection of the

Pagans, in order to restore the prohibited rites and ceremonies of Paganism; and their treasonable hopes that

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. ^76 On a

sudden, they beheld, from their walls, the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united force, to the

relief of the faithful city; and who soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The

apparent contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat of Radagaisus, may be reconciled

without offering much violence to their respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, who were intimately

connected by friendship and religion, ascribed this miraculous victory to the providence of God, rather than

to the valor of man. ^77 They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of bloodshed; and positively

affirm, that the Romans, whose camp was the scene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress of the

Barbarians, slowly expiring on the sharp and barren ridge of the hills of Faesulae, which rise above the city of

Florence. Their extravagant assertion that not a single soldier of the Christian army was killed, or even

wounded, may be dismissed with silent contempt; but the rest of the narrative of Augustin and Orosius is

consistent with the state of the war, and the character of Stilicho. Conscious that he commanded the last army

of the republic, his prudence would not expose it, in the open field, to the headstrong fury of the Germans.

The method of surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which he had twice employed

against the Gothic king, was repeated on a larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The examples of

Caesar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the Roman warriors; and the fortifications of

Dyrrachium, which connected twentyfour castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen miles, afforded

the model of an intrenchment which might confine, and starve, the most numerous host of Barbarians. ^78

The Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry, than from the valor, of their ancestors; and if their

servile and laborious work offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many thousand peasants,

who would labor, though, perhaps, they would not fight, for the salvation of their native country. The

imprisoned multitude of horses and men ^79 was gradually destroyed, by famine rather than by the sword;

but the Romans were exposed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to the frequent attacks of an

impatient enemy. The despair of the hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the fortifications of

Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge the ardor of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to

assault the camp of the Germans; and these various incidents might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts

which dignify the narrative of Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus. ^80 A seasonable

supply of men and provisions had been introduced into the walls of Florence, and the famished host of

Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike nations, after the loss of his

bravest warriors, was reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or in the clemency of Stilicho.

^81 But the death of the royal captive, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and

of Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was sufficient to brand the conqueror with the guilt of

cool and deliberate cruelty. ^82 The famished Germans, who escaped the fury of the auxiliaries, were sold as

slaves, at the contemptible price of as many single pieces of gold; but the difference of food and climate

swept away great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and it was observed, that the inhuman purchasers,

instead of reaping the fruits of their labor were soon obliged to provide the expense of their interment Stilicho

informed the emperor and the senate of his success; and deserved, a second time, the glorious title of

[Footnote 76: Paulinus (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

[Footnote 77: Augustin de Civitat. Dei, v. 23. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p. 567 571. The 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

Ducit opus: pandit fossas, turritaque summis Disponit castella jugis, magnoque necessu Amplexus fines,

saltus, memorosaque tesqua Et 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. l. vi. 29 63.)]

[Footnote 79: 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 the headquarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the

[Footnote 80: See Zosimus, l. v. p. 331, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus.]

[Footnote 81: Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180) uses an expression which would denote a strict and

friendly alliance, and render Stilicho still more criminal. The paulisper detentus, deinde interfectus, of

Note: Gibbon, by translating this passage of Olympiodorus, as if it had been good Greek, has probably fallen

into an error. The natural order of the words is as Gibbon translates it; but it is almost clear, refers to the

Gothic chiefs, "whom Stilicho, after he had defeated Radagaisus, attached to his army." So in the version

[Footnote 82: 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.

Note: Considering the vow, which he was universally believed to have made, to destroy Rome, and to

sacrifice the senators on the altars, and that he is said to have immolated his prisoners to his gods, the

execution of Radagaisus, if, as it appears, he was taken in arms, cannot deserve Gibbon's severe

condemnation. Mr. Herbert (notes to his poem of Attila, p. 317) justly observes, that "Stilicho had probably

authority for hanging him on the first tree." Marcellinus, adds Mr. Herbert, attributes the execution to the

[Footnote 83: And Claudian's muse, was she asleep? had she been ill paid! Methinks the seventh consulship

of Honorius (A.D. 407) would have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was discovered that the

state could no longer be saved, Stilicho (after Romulus, Camillus and Marius) might have been worthily

The fame of the victory, and more especially of the miracle, has encouraged a vain persuasion, that the whole

army, or rather nation, of Germans, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic, miserably perished under the

walls of Florence. Such indeed was the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful companions, and

of more than one third of the various multitude of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who

adhered to the standard of their general. ^84 The union of such an army might excite our surprise, but the

causes of separation are obvious and forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of valor, the jealousy of

command, the impatience of subordination, and the obstinate conflict of opinions, of interests, and of

passions, among so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or to obey. After the defeat of

Radagaisus, two parts of the German host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thousand

men, still remained in arms, between the Apennine and the Alps, or between the Alps and the Danube. It is

uncertain whether they attempted to revenge the death of their general; but their irregular fury was soon

diverted by the prudence and firmness of Stilicho, who opposed their march, and facilitated their retreat; who

considered the safety of Rome and Italy as the great object of his care, and who sacrificed, with too much

indifference, the wealth and tranquillity of the distant provinces. ^85 The Barbarians acquired, from the

junction of some Pannonian deserters, the knowledge of the country, and of the roads; and the invasion of

Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by the remains of the great army of Radagaisus. ^86

[Footnote 84: A luminous passage of Prosper's Chronicle, "In tres partes, pes diversos principes, diversus

exercitus," reduces the miracle of Florence and connects the history of Italy, Gaul, and Germany.]

[Footnote 85: Orosius and Jerom positively charge him with instigating the in vasion. "Excitatae a Stilichone

[Footnote 86: The Count de Buat 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 l'Europe, (tom. vii. p. 87, 121.

Paris, 1772;) an elaborate work, which I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As early 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.] Yet if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes of Germany, who

inhabited the banks of the Rhine, their hopes were disappointed. The Alemanni preserved a state of inactive

neutrality; and the Franks distinguished their zeal and courage in the defence of the of the empire. In the rapid

progress down the Rhine, which was the first act of the administration of Stilicho, he had applied himself,

with peculiar attention, to secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the irreconcilable enemies

of peace and of the republic. Marcomir, one of their kings, was publicly convicted, before the tribunal of the

Roman magistrate, of violating the faith of treaties. He was sentenced to a mild, but distant exile, in the

province of Tuscany; and this degradation of the regal dignity was so far from exciting the resentment of his

subjects, that they punished with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted to revenge his brother; and

maintained a dutiful allegiance to the princes, who were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho.

^87 When the limits of Gaul and Germany were shaken by the northern emigration, the Franks bravely

encountered the single force of the Vandals; who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had again separated

their troops from the standard of their Barbarian allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness; and twenty

thousand Vandals, with their king Godigisclus, were slain in the field of battle. The whole people must have

been extirpated, if the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief, had not trampled down the infantry of

the Franks; who, after an honorable resistance, were compelled to relinquish the unequal contest. The

victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last day of the year, in a season when the waters of

the Rhine were most probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the defenceless provinces of Gaul.

This memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never afterwards

retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the

barriers, which had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the earth, were from that fatal

Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, is clear and satisfactory. These kings of France 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. ii. p. 543.) He seems to write from good materials, which he did not

[Footnote 88: See Zosimus, (l. vi. p. 373,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576,) and the Chronicles. Gregory of

Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a valuable fragment

of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whose three names denote a Christian, a Roman subject, and a

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. ^89 The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tyber, 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. ^90 This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert;

and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of

man. The flourishing city of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand Christians were

inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long and obstinate siege; Strasburgh, Spires,

Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and the consuming

flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul.

That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the

Barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden

with the spoils of their houses and altars. ^91 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, ^92 which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predestination,

soon became the serious employment of the Latin clergy, the Providence which had decreed, or foreseen, or

permitted, such a train of moral and natural evils, was rashly weighed in the imperfect and fallacious balance

of reason. The crimes, and the misfortunes, of the suffering people, were presumptuously compared with

those of their ancestors; and they arraigned the Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the common

destruction the feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion of the human species. These idle disputants overlooked

the invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety

with valor. The timid and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recall the Palatine legions for the

protection of Italy; the remains of the stationary troops might be unequal to the arduous task; and the

Barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the unbounded license of spoil to the benefits of a moderate and regular

stipend. But the provinces of Gaul were filled with a numerous race of hardy and robust youth, who, in the

defence of their houses, their families, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would have deserved to

vanquish. The knowledge of their native country would have enabled them to oppose continual and

insuperable obstacles to the progress of an invader; and the deficiency of the Barbarians, in arms, as well as

in discipline, removed the only pretence which excuses the submission of a populous country to the inferior

numbers of a veteran army. When France was invaded by Charles V., he inquired of a prisoner, how many

days Paris might be distant from the frontier; "Perhaps twelve, but they will be days of battle:" ^93 such was

the gallant answer which checked the arrogance of that ambitious prince. The subjects of Honorius, and those

of Francis I., were animated by a very different spirit; and in less than two years, the divided troops of the

savages of the Baltic, whose numbers, were they fairly stated, would appear contemptible, advanced, without

[Footnote 89: Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 221, l. ii. 186) describes the peace and prosperity of the Gallic

frontier. The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, 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 Elbe. Foolish

enough! In poetical geography, the Elbe, and the Hercynian, signify any river, or any wood, in Germany.

[Footnote 91: Jerom, tom. i. p. 93. See in the 1st vol. of the Historians of France, p. 777, 782, the proper

extracts from the Carmen de Providentil Divina, and Salvian. The anonymous poet was himself a captive,

[Footnote 92: The Pelagian doctrine, which was first 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 favorable to his

adversaries; and (what is singular enough) the people did not take any part in a dispute which they could not

[Footnote 93: See the Memoires de Guillaume du Bellay, l. vi. In French, the original reproof is less obvious,

and more pointed, from the double sense of the word journee, which alike signifies, a day's travel, or a battle.]

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. ^94 But those restless

Barbarians could not neglect the fair opportunity of the Gothic war, when the walls and stations of the

province were stripped of the Roman troops. If any of the legionaries were permitted to return from the

Italian expedition, their faithful report of the court and character of Honorius must have tended to dissolve the

bonds of allegiance, and to exasperate the seditious temper of the British army. The spirit of revolt, which had

formerly disturbed the age of Gallienus, was revived by the capricious violence of the soldiers; and the

unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates, who were the objects of their choice, were the instruments,

and at length the victims, of their passion. ^95 Marcus was the first whom they placed on the throne, as the

lawful emperor of Britain and of the West. They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus, the oath of fidelity

which they had imposed on themselves; and their disapprobation of his manners may seem to inscribe an

honorable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they adorned with the diadem and the purple; and,

at the end of four months, Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The memory of the great

Constantine, whom the British legions had given to the church and to the empire, suggested the singular

motive of their third choice. They discovered in the ranks a private soldier of the name of Constantine, and

their impetuous levity had already seated him on the throne, before they perceived his incapacity to sustain

the weight of that glorious appellation. ^96 Yet the authority of Constantine was less precarious, and his

government was more successful, than the transient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger of leaving

his inactive troops in those camps, which had been twice polluted with blood and sedition, urged him to

attempt the reduction of the Western provinces. He landed at Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and

after he had reposed himself some days, he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the

Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful sovereign. They obeyed the summons without reluctance. The

neglect of the court of Ravenna had absolved a deserted people from the duty of allegiance; their actual

distress encouraged them to accept any circumstances of change, without apprehension, and, perhaps, with

some degree of hope; and they might flatter themselves, that the troops, the authority, and even the name of a

Roman emperor, who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy country from the rage of the

Barbarians. The first successes of Constantine against the detached parties of the Germans, were magnified

by the voice of adulation into splendid and decisive victories; which the reunion and insolence of the enemy

soon reduced to their just value. His negotiations procured a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of

the Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises, to undertake the defence of the

Rhine, these expensive and uncertain treaties, instead of restoring the pristine vigor of the Gallic frontier,

served only to disgrace the majesty of the prince, and to exhaust what yet remained of the treasures of the

republic. Elated, however, with this imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the

provinces of the South, to encounter a more pressing and personal danger. Sarus the Goth was ordered to lay

the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperor Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy were unworthily

consumed in this domestic quarrel. After the loss of his two bravest generals, Justinian and Nevigastes, the

former of whom was slain in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful but treacherous interview, Constantine

fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked seven days; and the

Imperial army supported, in a precipitate retreat, the ignominy of purchasing a secure passage from the

freebooters and outlaws of the Alps. ^97 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

[Footnote 94: Claudian, (i. Cons. Stil. l. 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 sixtysix

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.

[Footnote 95: The British usurpers are taken from Zosimus, (l. vi. p. 371 375,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576,

577,) Olympiodorus, (apud Photium, p. 180, 181,) the ecclesiastical historians, and the Chronicles. The

[Footnote 96: Cum in Constantino inconstantiam ... execrarentur, (Sidonius Apollinaris, l. v. epist. 9, p. 139,

edit. secund. Sirmond.) Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a pun, to stigmatize a prince who had

[Footnote 97: Bagaudoe is the name which Zosimus applies to them; perhaps they deserved a less odious

character, (see Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 203, and this History, vol. i. p. 407.) We shall hear of them

On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine might be justified by the proximity of danger; but

his throne was soon established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain; which yielded to the

influence of regular and habitual subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the Gallic

praefecture. 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 ^98 had obtained, by the favor of their kinsman, the deceased emperor, an

honorable rank and ample possessions in their native country; and the grateful youths resolved to risk those

advantages in the service of his son. After an unsuccessful effort to maintain their ground at the head of the

stationary troops of Lusitania, they retired to their estates; where they armed and levied, at their own expense,

a considerable body of slaves and dependants, and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenean

Mountains. This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was

compelled to negotiate with some troops of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the service of the Spanish war. They

were distinguished by the title of Honorians; ^99 a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to

their lawful sovereign; and if it should candidly be allowed that the Scots were influenced by any partial

affection for a British prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni could be tempted only by the profuse liberality

of the usurper, who distributed among the Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honors of Spain. The

nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the establishment of the Western empire, could not

exceed the number of five thousand men: yet this inconsiderable force was sufficient to terminate a war,

which had threatened the power and safety of Constantine. The rustic army of the Theodosian family was

surrounded and destroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers had the good fortune to escape by sea to Italy,

or the East; the other two, after an interval of suspense, were executed at Arles; and if Honorius could remain

insensible of the public disgrace, he might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes of his generous

kinsmen. Such were the feeble arms which decided the possession of the Western provinces of Europe, from

the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war have undoubtedly been

diminished by the narrow and imperfect view of the historians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the

causes, and of the effects, of the most important revolutions. But the total decay of the national strength had

annihilated even the last resource of a despotic government; and the revenue of exhausted provinces could no

longer purchase the military service of a discontented and pusillanimous people. [Footnote 98: Verinianus,

Didymus, Theodosius, and Lagodius, who in modern courts would be styled princes of the blood, were not

distinguished by any rank or privileges above the rest of their fellowsubjects.]

[Footnote 99: These Honoriani, or Honoriaci, consisted of two bands of Scots, or Attacotti, two of Moors,

two of Marcomanni, the Victores, the Asca in, and the Gallicani, (Notitia Imperii, sect. xxxiii. edit. Lab.)

They were part of the sixtyfive Auxilia Palatina, and are properly styled by Zosimus, (l. vi. 374.)]

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. ^100 In the

course of this unfortunate expedition, the king of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss;

and his harassed forces required an interval of repose, to recruit their numbers and revive their confidence.

Adversity had exercised and displayed the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his valor invited to the Gothic

standard the bravest of the Barbarian warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the desire

of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he soon accepted the friendship, of Stilicho himself.

Renouncing the service of the emperor of the East, Alaric concluded, with the court of Ravenna, a treaty of

peace and alliance, by which he was declared mastergeneral of the Roman armies throughout the

praefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the true and ancient limits, by the minister of

Honorius. ^101 The execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated, or implied, in the articles

of the treaty, appears to have been suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the neutrality of

the Gothic king may perhaps be compared to the indifference of 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 in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon

returned to claim the extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp near Aemona, ^102 on

the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the emperor of the West a long account of promises, of expenses, and

of demands; called for immediate satisfaction, and clearly intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet if his

conduct was hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed himself the friend of Stilicho,

and the soldier of Honorius; offered his person and his troops to march, without delay, against the usurper of

Gaul; and solicited, as a permanent retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant province of

the Western empire. [Footnote 100: Comitatur euntem Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora

[Footnote 101: These dark transactions are investigated by the Count de Bual (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe,

tom. vii. c. iii. viii. p. 69 206,) whose laborious accuracy may sometimes fatigue a superficial reader.]

[Footnote 102: See Zosimus, l. v. p. 334, 335. He interrupts his scanty narrative to relate the fable of

Aemona, and of the ship Argo; which was drawn overland from that place to the Adriatic. Sozomen (l. viii. c.

25, l. ix. c. 4) and Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) cast a pale and doubtful light; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 38, p. 571) is

The political and secret transactions of two statesmen, who labored to deceive each other and the world, must

forever have been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if the debates of a popular assembly

had not thrown some rays of light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity of finding

some artificial support for a government, which, from a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was

reduced to negotiate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the authority of the Roman senate; and the

minister of Honorius respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic. Stilicho assembled the

senate in the palace of the Caesars; represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs; proposed the

demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their consideration the choice of peace or war. The senators, as

if they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred years, appeared, on this important

occasion, to be inspired by the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors. They loudly

declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome to

purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian king; and that, in the judgment of a

magnanimous people, the chance of ruin was always preferable to the certainty of dishonor. The minister,

whose pacific intentions were seconded only by the voice of a few servile and venal followers, attempted to

allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct, and even for the demands of the Gothic prince.

"The payment of a subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought not (such was the

language of Stilicho) to be considered in the odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransom, extorted by the

menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted the just pretensions of the republic to the

provinces which were usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople: he modestly required the fair and stipulated

recompense of his services; and if he had desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed, in

his retreat, the peremptory, though private, letters of the emperor himself. These contradictory orders (he

would not dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the intercession of Serena. The

tender piety of his wife had been too deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of her

adopted father; and the sentiments of nature had too easily prevailed over the stern dictates of the public

welfare." These ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues of the palace of Ravenna,

were supported by the authority of Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm debate, the reluctant approbation of

the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was

granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king

of the Goths. Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the assembly, still persisted in his

dissent; exclaimed, with a loud voice, "This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude;" ^103 and escaped the

danger of such bold opposition by immediately retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church. [See Palace Of

[Footnote 103: Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. He repeats the words of Lampadius, as they were spoke in Latin,

"Non est ista pax, sed pactio servi tutis," and then translates them into Greek for the benefit of his readers.

But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end; and the proud minister might perceive the symptoms of his

approaching disgrace. The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the senate, so patiently

resigned to a long servitude, rejected with disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops,

who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman legions, were exasperated by the partial affection

of Stilicho for the Barbarians: and the people imputed to the mischievous policy of the minister the public

misfortunes, which were the natural consequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have continued

to brave the clamors of the people, and even of the soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over

the feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion,

and hatred. The crafty Olympius, ^104 who concealed his vices under the mask of Christian piety, had

secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose favor he was promoted to the honorable offices of the Imperial

palace. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor, who had attained the twentyfifth year of his age,

that he was without weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed his timid and indolent

disposition by a lively picture of the designs of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his sovereign,

with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius. The emperor was instigated,

by his new favorite, to assume the tone of independent dignity; and the minister was astonished to find, that

secret resolutions were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his interest, or to his

intentions. Instead of residing in the palace of Rome, Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to

the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to

visit Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius.

^105 The representation of the difficulty and expense of such a distant expedition, checked this strange and

sudden sally of active diligence; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor to the camp of Pavia,

which was composed of the Roman troops, the enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained

fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of his confidant, Justinian, a Roman advocate,

of a lively and penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his reputation and safety. His

strenuous but ineffectual efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer withdrew

[Footnote 104: He came from the coast of the Euxine, and exercised a splendid office. His actions justify his

character, which Zosimus (l. v. p. 340) exposes with visible satisfaction. Augustin revered the piety of

Olympius, whom he styles a true son of the church, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles, Eccles. A.D. 408, No. 19,

Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.) But these praises, which the African saint so unworthily

[Footnote 105: Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. Sozomen, l. 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

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 mastersgeneral 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 diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his

favorite; condemned the memory of the slain; and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their

assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy

apprehensions; and he instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders, who

were attached to his service, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly called

aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero, whom they

had so often followed to victory; to surprise, to oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate

Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of executing a resolution,

which might have been justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost. He was still

ignorant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the

fatal consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians against the soldiers and people of Italy. The

confederates, impatient of his timorous and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the

hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his strength and

valor, suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns,

who guarded his person, and penetrated to the tent, where the minister, pensive and sleepless, meditated on

the dangers of his situation. Stilicho escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths and, after issuing a

last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to shut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence,

or his despair, urged him to throw himself into Ravenna, which was already in the absolute possession of his

enemies. Olympius, who had assumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed, that his rival had

embraced, as a suppliant the altar of the Christian church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was

incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously affected to elude, rather than to violate, the privilege of the

sanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates of the

church of Ravenna. The bishop was satisfied by a solemn oath, that the Imperial mandate only directed them

to secure the person of Stilicho: but as soon as the unfortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy

threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution. Stilicho supported, with calm resignation, the

injurious names of traitor and parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his followers, who were ready to

attempt an ineffectual rescue; and, with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals, submitted

[Footnote 106: Zosimus (l. v. p. 336 345) has copiously, though not clearly, related the disgrace and death

of Stilicho. Olympiodorus, (apud Phot. p. 177.) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 38, p. 571, 572,) Sozomen, (l. ix. c. 4,) and

The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and

the most distant connection with the mastergeneral of the West, which had so lately been a title to wealth

and honors, was studiously denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple alliance with the

family of Theodosius, might envy the condition of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was

intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the

place of her sister Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed. ^107 The friends of

Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius;

and the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession of a treasonable and sacrilegious

conspiracy. They died in silence: their firmness justified the choice, ^108 and perhaps absolved the innocence

of their patron: and the despotic power, which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatize his memory

without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial suffrage of posterity. ^109 The services of Stilicho are

great and manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language of flattery and hatred, are obscure at

least, and improbable. About four months after his death, an edict was published, in the name of Honorius, to

restore the free communication of the two empires, which had been so long interrupted by the public enemy.

^110 The minister, whose fame and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state, was accused of betraying

Italy to the Barbarians; whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at Verona, and before the walls of

Florence. His pretended design of placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius, could not have been

conducted without preparations or accomplices; and the ambitious father would not surely have left the future

emperor, till the twentieth year of his age, in the humble station of tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of

Stilicho was arraigned by the malice of his rival. The seasonable, and almost miraculous, deliverance was

devoutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy; who asserted, that the restoration of idols, and the

persecution of the church, would have been the first measure of the reign of Eucherius. The son of Stilicho,

however, was educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had uniformly professed, and zealously

supported. ^111 ^* Serena had borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta; ^112 and the

Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of

Rome, had been committed to the flames. ^113 The pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An

honorable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrymen appears to have contributed to the success of his

unworthy rival; and it is the last humiliation of the character of Honorius, that posterity has not condescended

to reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his youth, and the support of his empire.

[Footnote 107: Zosimus, l. v. p. 333. The marriage of a Christian with two sisters, scandalizes Tillemont,

(Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 557;) who expects, in vain, that Pope Innocent I. should have done

[Footnote 108: Two of his friends are honorably mentioned, (Zosimus, l. v. p. 346:) Peter, chief of the school

of notaries, and the great chamberlain Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the bedchamber; and it is surprising

[Footnote 109: Orosius (l. vii. c. 38, p. 571, 572) seems to copy the false and furious manifestos, which were

[Footnote 110: See the Theodosian code, l. vii. tit. xvi. leg. 1, l. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 22. Stilicho is branded with

the name of proedo publicus, who employed his wealth, ad omnem ditandam, inquietandamque Barbariem.]

[Footnote 111: 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

[Footnote 112: Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad taste of the age, in dressing their statues with

[Footnote 113: See Rutilius Numatianus, (Itinerar. l. ii. 41 60,) to whom 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 sentence which was engraven under them, (Zosimus, l. v. p. 352.) These are foolish stories:

yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the praise which Zosimus reluctantly bestows on his

Note: One particular in the extorted praise of Zosimus, deserved the notice of the historian, as strongly

opposed to the former imputations of Zosimus himself, and indicative of he corrupt practices of a declining

age. "He had never bartered promotion in the army for bribes, nor peculated in the supplies of provisions for

[Footnote *: Hence, perhaps, the accusation of treachery is countenanced by Hatilius:

Among the train of dependants whose wealth and dignity attracted the notice of their own times, our curiosity

is excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favor of Stilicho, and was

overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the Imperial

court: he was indebted to the powerful intercession of Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the

province of Africa; ^114 and the statute of Claudian, erected in the forum of Trajan, was a monument of the

taste and liberality of the Roman senate. ^115 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 interesting diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in the pursuit

of unjust or sacrilegious, gain. "How happy," continues Claudian, "how happy might it be for the people of

Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would always sleep!" ^116 The repose of Mallius

was not disturbed by this friendly and gentle admonition; but the cruel vigilance of Hadrian watched the

opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained, from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an

obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the tumult of the revolution; and, consulting

the dictates of prudence rather than of honor, he addressed, in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble

recantation to the offended praefect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal indiscretion into which he had

been hurried by passion and folly; submits to the imitation of his adversary the generous examples of the

clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses his hope that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not

trample on a defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and poverty, and deeply

wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the death of his dearest friends. ^117 Whatever might be the success

of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of a few years levelled in the grave the minister

and the poet: but the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is read with pleasure in

every country which has retained, or acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly balance his

merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge that Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. It

would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse that

melts the heart or enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of Claudian, the happy

invention, and artificial conduct, of an interesting fable; or the just and lively representation of the characters

and situations of real life. For the service of his patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives:

and the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his propensity to exceed the limits of truth and

nature. These imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the poetical virtues of Claudian.

He was endowed with the rare and precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most barren, and of

diversifying the most similar, topics: his coloring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and splendid;

and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious

fancy, an easy, and sometimes forcible, expression; and a perpetual flow of harmonious versification. To

these commendations, independent of any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit which

Claudian derived from the unfavorable circumstances of his birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a

native of Egypt, ^118 who had received the education of a Greek, assumed, in a mature age, the familiar use,

and absolute command, of the Latin language; ^119 soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries; and

placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome. ^120

[Footnote 114: At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!) all the parts of animated nature contributed

their various gifts; and the gods themselves enriched their favorite. 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

[Footnote 115: Claudian feels the honor like a man who deserved it, (in praefat Bell. Get.) The original

inscription, on marble, was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of Pomponius Laetus. The

statue of a poet, far superior to Claudian, should have been erected, during his lifetime, by the men of letters,

Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque: Insomnis Pharius sacra, profana, rapit. Omnibus, hoc, Italae

Hadrian was a Pharian, (of Alexandrian.) 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

[Footnote 117: See Claudian's first Epistle. Yet, in some places, an air of irony and indignation betrays his

Note: M. Beugnot has pointed out one remarkable characteristic of Claudian's poetry, and of the times his

extraordinary religious indifference. Here is a poet writing at the actual crisis of the complete triumph of the

new religion, the visible extinction of the old: if we may so speak, a strictly historical poet, whose works,

excepting his Mythological poem on the rape of Proserpine, are confined to temporary subjects, and to the

politics of his own eventful day; yet, excepting in one or two small and indifferent pieces, manifestly written

by a Christian, and interpolated among his poems, there is no allusion whatever to the great religious strife.

No one would know the existence of Christianity at that period of the world, by reading the works of

Claudian. His panegyric and his satire preserve the same religious impartiality; award their most lavish praise

or their bitterest invective on Christian or Pagan; he insults the fall of Eugenius, and glories in the victories of

Theodosius. Under the child, and Honorius never became more than a child, Christianity continued to

inflict wounds more and more deadly on expiring Paganism. Are the gods of Olympus agitated with

apprehension at the birth of this new enemy? They are introduced as rejoicing at his appearance, and

promising long years of glory. The whole prophetic choir of Paganism, all the oracles throughout the world,

are summoned to predict the felicity of his reign. His birth is compared to that of Apollo, but the narrow

Augury and divination, the shrines of Ammon, and of Delphi, the Persian Magi, and the Etruscan seers, the

Chaldean astrologers, the Sibyl herself, are described as still discharging their prophetic functions, and

celebrating the natal day of this Christian prince. They are noble lines, as well as curious illustrations of the

... Quae tunc documenta futuri? Quae voces avium? quanti per inane volatus? Quis vatum discursus erat? Tibi

corniger Ammon, Et dudum taciti rupere silentia Delphi. Te Persae cecinere Magi, te sensit Etruscus Augur,

et inspectis Babylonius horruit astris; Chaldaei stupuere senes, Cumanaque rursus Itonuit rupes, rabidae

From the Quarterly Review of Beugnot. Hist. de la Paganisme en Occident, Q. R. v. lvii. p. 61. M.]

[Footnote 118: National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a Spaniard. But the first Epistle of Claudian

proves him a native of Alexandria, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191 202, edit. Ernest.)]

[Footnote 119: His first Latin verses were composed during the consulship of Probinus, A.D. 395.

Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, Et Latiae cessit Graia Thalia togae.

Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin poet had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities

of Tarsus, Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, than of authentic

[Footnote 120: 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

Invasion Of Italy By Alaric. Manners Of The Roman Senate And People. Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And

At Length Pillaged, By The Goths. Death Of Alaric. The Goths Evacuate Italy. Fall Of Constantine.

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. ^1 The king of the Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to

destroy the formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy, as well as in Greece, he had been twice

overthrown. Their active and interested hatred laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great

Stilicho. The valor of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal, or hereditary, influence over the confederate

Barbarians, could recommend him only to the friends of their country, who despised, or detested, the

worthless characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of the new favorites,

these generals, unworthy as they had shown themselves of the names of soldiers, ^2 were promoted to the

command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince would have

subscribed with pleasure the edict which the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout

emperor. Honorius excluded all persons, who were adverse to the Catholic church, from holding any office in

the state; obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his religion; and rashly disqualified

many of his bravest and most skilful officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who had imbibed the

opinions of Arianism. ^3 These measures, so advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and

might perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful, whether the Barbarian would have promoted his

interest at the expense of the inhuman and absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the direction, or at least

with the connivance of the Imperial ministers. The foreign auxiliaries, who had been attached to the person of

Stilicho, lamented his death; but the desire of revenge was checked by a natural apprehension for the safety of

their wives and children; who were detained as hostages in the strong cities of Italy, where they had likewise

deposited their most valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities of Italy were

polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous

destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated by such an injury, which might have

awakened the tamest and most servile spirit, they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of

Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable war, the perfidious nation who had so

basely violated the laws of hospitality. By the imprudent conduct of the ministers of Honorius, the republic

lost the assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest soldiers; and the weight of that

formidable army, which alone might have determined the event of the war, was transferred from the scale of

the Romans into that of the Goths. [Footnote 1: The series of events, from the death of Stilicho to the arrival

[Footnote 2: The expression of Zosimus is strong and lively, sufficient to excite the contempt of the enemy.]

[Footnote 3: Eos qui catholicae sectae sunt inimici, intra palatium militare pro hibemus. Nullus nobis sit

aliqua ratione conjunctus, qui a nobis fidest religione discordat. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 42, and

Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p. 164. This law was applied in the utmost latitude, and rigorously

In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the Gothic king maintained his superior ascendant over

an enemy, whose seeming changes proceeded from the total want of counsel and design. From his camp, on

the confines of Italy, Alaric attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the progress of faction

and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appearance

of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho: to whose virtues, when they were no longer formidable, he could

pay a just tribute of sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the malecontents, who urged the king

of the Goths to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he might especially

complain, that the Imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the payment of the four thousand pounds of

gold which had been granted by the Roman senate, either to reward his services, or to appease his fury. His

decent firmness was supported by an artful moderation, which contributed to the success of his designs. He

required a fair and reasonable satisfaction; but he gave the strongest assurances, that, as soon as he had

obtained it, he would immediately retire. He refused to trust the faith of the Romans, unless 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 an army; and with a rash confidence, derived only from their ignorance of the extreme danger,

irretrievably wasted the decisive moments of peace and war. While they expected, in sullen silence, that the

Barbarians would evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid marches, passed the Alps and the

Po; hastily pillaged the cities of Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to his arms;

increased his forces by the accession of thirty thousand auxiliaries; and, without meeting a single enemy in

the field, advanced as far as the edge of the morass which protected the impregnable residence of the emperor

of the West. Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of the Goths proceeded

to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the seacoast 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 praeternatural 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, ^4 descended into the rich plains of

Umbria; and, as they lay encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter and devour the

milkwhite oxen, which had been so long reserved for the use of Roman triumphs. ^5 A lofty situation, and a

seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of Narni; but the king of the Goths,

despising the ignoble prey, still advanced with unabated vigor; and after he had passed through the stately

arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories, he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome. ^6

[Footnote 4: 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 that the Saxa Intercisa, a narrow passage which Vespasian had cut through the rock,

Hine albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro, Romanos ad templa

Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Claudian, whose passages may be

found in Cluverius and Addison, have celebrated the triumphal victims of the Clitumnus.]

[Footnote 6: 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

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 ^7 served only to display the character of the

senate and people; of a senate degraded, rather than ennobled, by the comparison of an assembly of kings;

and of a people, to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra. ^8

Each of the senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplished his term of the military service, either in

a subordinate or a superior station; and the decree, which invested with temporary command all those who

had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and

experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman people consisted of two hundred and fifty

thousand citizens of an age to bear arms. ^9 Fifty thousand had already died in the defence of their country;

and the twentythree legions which were employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily,

and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But there still remained an equal number in Rome, and

the adjacent territory, who were animated by the same intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained, from

his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercises of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of

the senate, who, without raising the siege of Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected his approach.

He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of three miles from the city; and he was soon

informed, that the ground on which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate price at a public auction;

^* and that a body of troops was dismissed by an opposite road, to reenforce the legions of Spain. ^10 He led

his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found three armies in order of battle, prepared to receive him; but

Hannibal dreaded the event of a combat, from which he could not hope to escape, unless he destroyed the last

of his enemies; and his speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans.

[Footnote 7: The march and retreat of Hannibal are described by Livy, l. xxvi. c. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; and the

[Footnote 8: These comparisons were used by Cyneas, 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.

[Footnote 9: 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. l. xx. Hist. l. 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 the death, but

likewise by the absence, of many soldiers. In the third census, Livy expressly affirms, that the legions were

mustered by the care of particular commissaries. From the numbers on the list we must always deduct one

twelfth above threescore, and incapable of bearing arms. See Population de la France, p. 72.]

[Footnote *: Compare the remarkable transaction in Jeremiah xxxii. 6, to 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 one case it is the triumph of religious faith, in the other of national pride.

[Footnote 10: Livy considers these two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I suspect that they

From the time of the Punic war, the uninterrupted succession of senators had preserved the name and image

of the republic; and the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their descent from the heroes

who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal, and subdued the nations of the earth. The temporal honors which the

devout Paula ^11 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, Blaesilla, numbered the Scipios, Aemilius Paulus, and

the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from

Aeneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by these

lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the

vulgar; and were countenanced, in some measure, by the custom of adopting the name of their patron, which

had always prevailed among the freedmen and clients of illustrious families. Most of those families, however,

attacked by so many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated; and it would be

more reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty generations, among the mountains of the Alps, or in the

peaceful solitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune, of danger, and of perpetual

revolutions. Under each successive reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy

adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the honors, and the palaces

of Rome; and oppressed, or protected, the poor and humble remains of consular families; who were ignorant,

[Footnote 11: See Jerom, tom. i. p. 169, 170, ad Eustochium; he bestows on Paula the splendid titles of

Gracchorum stirps, soboles Scipionum, Pauli haeres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiae Papyriae Matris

Africani vera et germana propago. This particular description supposes a more solid title than the surname of

Julius, which Toxotius shared with a thousand families of the western provinces. See the Index of Tacitus, of

[Footnote 12: 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.]

In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously yielded the preeminence to the Anician line; and

a slight view of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families, which

contended only for the second place. ^13 During the five first ages of the city, the name of the Anicians was

unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from Praeneste; and the ambition of those new citizens was

long satisfied with the Plebeian honors of tribunes of the people. ^14 One hundred and sixtyeight years

before the Christian aera, 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. ^15 From the triumph of that

general, three consulships, in distant periods, mark the succession of the Anician name. ^16 From the reign of

Diocletian to the final extinction of the Western empire, that name shone with a lustre which was not

eclipsed, in the public estimation, by the majesty of the Imperial purple. ^17 The several branches, to whom it

was communicated, united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and

the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim.

^18 The Anician family excelled in faith and in riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced

Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and praefect of the city, atoned

for his attachment to the party of Maxentius, by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of

Constantine. ^19 Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician

family; who shared with Gratian the honors of the consulship, and exercised, four times, the high office of

Praetorian praefect. ^20 His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world; and

though the public might suspect or disapprove the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity

and magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients, and the admiration of

strangers. ^21 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,

Floreat, et claro cingatur Roma senatu) Se jactare parem; sed prima sede relicta Aucheniis, de jure licet

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.]

[Footnote 14: The earliest date in the annals of Pighius, is that of M. Anicius Gallus. Trib. Pl. A. U. C. 506.

Another tribune, Q. Anicius, A. U. C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet of Praenestinus. Livy (xlv. 43)

[Footnote 15: 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.]

[Footnote 16: 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,

[Footnote 17: In the sixth century, the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. l. x. Ep.

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, 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

[Footnote 19: 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. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.

[Footnote 20: Probus ... claritudine generis et potentia et opum magnitudine, cognitus Orbi Romano, per

quem universum poene patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian Marcellin.

xxvii. 11. 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 bassorelievos. See Annal. Eccles.

[Footnote 21: 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

"The marbles of the Anician palace," were used as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendor; ^23 but

the nobles and senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate

description of the city, which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred

and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honorable citizens. ^24 Many of these stately mansions

might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each

palace was equal to a city: since it included within its own precincts every thing which could be subservient

either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial

aviaries. ^25 The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the

Goths, ^26 continues to observe, that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual

income of four thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without

computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value one

third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen

hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank,

which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded, in the age of

Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated the year of their praetorship by a festival, which lasted

seven days, and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling. ^27 The estates of the Roman senators,

which so far exceeded the proportion of modern wealth, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their

possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and Aegean 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; ^28 and it is observed by Seneca, that the rivers, which had divided hostile nations, now

flowed through the lands of private citizens. ^29 According to their temper and circumstances, the estates of

the Romans were either cultivated by the labor of their slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to

the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommend the former method,

wherever it may be practicable; but if the object should be removed, by its distance or magnitude, from the

immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil, and

interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, steward. ^30

[Footnote 23: Secundinus, the Manichaean, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 390, No. 34.]

Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate

palace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres (Val. Max. iv. 4.) In laxitatem ruris excurrunt,

says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. i. p. 562, last 8vo edition.]

[Footnote 26: This curious account of Rome, in the reign of Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian

[Footnote 27: The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective

praetorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, centenaries, (or hundred weight of gold.) See Olympiodor. ap. Phot.

p. 197. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian

Code, (l. vi. leg. 5,) 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 l'Academie 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 1/2625 part of

that purse. In the former sense, the 25,000 folles would be equal to 150,000l.; in the latter, to five or six

ponuds sterling The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There must have existed some third and

middle value, which is here understood; but ambiguity is an excusable fault in the language of laws.]

[Footnote 28: Nicopolis ...... in Actiaco littore sita possessioris vestra nunc pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in

Praefat. Comment. ad Epistol. ad Titum, tom. ix. p. 243. M. D. Tillemont supposes, strangely enough, that it

[Footnote 29: Seneca, Epist. lxxxix. 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, l. lxii. p. 1003.) According

to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus's Itinerary in Britain, p. 92,) the same Faustinus possessed an estate near

[Footnote 30: Volusius, a wealthy senator, (Tacit. Annal. iii. 30,) always preferred tenants born on the estate.

Columella, who received this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the subject. De Re Rustica, l. i. c.

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 obselete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual inclinations and interest of both parties. ^31 A

considerable mass of treasure must always have existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the empire, or

in the form of gold and silver plate; and there were many sideboards in the time of Pliny which contained

more solid silver, than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage. ^32 The greater part of the

nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth, and

idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labor of a thousand

hands; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment; and of

the various professions of artificers and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain.

The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life, which have been invented or improved by

the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern

nations of Europe, than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual

luxury. ^33 Their luxury, and their manners, have been the subject of minute and laborious disposition: but as

such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present work, I shall produce an authentic

state of Rome and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion.

Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence the best adapted to the

historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation of the scenes

with which he was familiarly conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve of the asperity of

censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices,

and personal resentments, which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he will surely observe, with

philosophic curiosity, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome. ^34 [Footnote 31: 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 l. ii. tit. xxxiii. tom. i. p. 230

289,) that they were permitted to take six percent., or one half of the legal interest; and, what is more singular,

[Footnote 32: 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

[Footnote 33: The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 153) has observed with humor, and I

believe with truth, that Augustus had neither glass to his windows, nor a shirt to his back. Under the lower

Note: The discovery of glass in such common use at Pompeii, spoils the argument of Arbuthnot. See Sir W.

[Footnote 34: It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I have taken with the text of Ammianus. 1.

I have melted down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the fourth of the twentyeighth

book. 2. I have given order and connection to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have softened some

extravagant hyperbeles, 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,

"The greatness of Rome" such is the language of the historian "was founded on the rare, and almost

incredible, alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious

struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbors and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and ardor of

youth, she sustained the storms of war; carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and

brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and

sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The

venerable city, which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the

perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the

Caesars, her favorite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. ^35 A secure and profound peace,

such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome was

still adored as the queen of the earth; and the subject nations still reverenced the name of the people, and the

majesty of the senate. But this native splendor," continues Ammianus, "is degraded, and sullied, by the

conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of their country, assume an

unbounded license of vice and folly. They contend with each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames;

and curiously select, or invent, the most lofty and sonorous appellations, Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius, or

Tarasius, ^36 which may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and respect. From a vain ambition

of perpetuating their memory, they affect to multiply their likeness, in statues of bronze and marble; nor are

they satisfied, unless those statues are covered with plates of gold; an honorable distinction, first granted to

Acilius the consul, after he had subdued, by his arms and counsels, the power of King Antiochus. The

ostentation of displaying, of magnifying, perhaps, the rentroll of the estates which they possess in all the

provinces, from the rising to the setting sun, provokes the just resentment of every man, who recollects, that

their poor and invincible ancestors were not distinguished from the meanest of the soldiers, by the delicacy of

their food, or the splendor of their apparel. But the modern nobles measure their rank and consequence

according to the loftiness of their chariots, ^37 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. ^38 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 posthorses; and the example of the senators is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies,

whose covered carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the city and suburbs. Whenever

these persons of high distinction condescend to visit the public baths, they assume, on their entrance, a tone

of loud and insolent command, and appropriate to their own use the conveniences which were designed for

the Roman people. If, in these places of mixed and general resort, they meet any of the infamous ministers of

their pleasures, they express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly decline the salutations of

their fellowcitizens, who are not permitted to aspire above the honor of kissing their hands, or their knees.

As soon as they have indulged themselves in the refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the

other ensigns of their dignity, select from their private wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might suffice for a

dozen persons, the garments the most agreeable to their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same

haughty demeanor; which perhaps might have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of

Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous achievements; they visit their estates in

Italy, and procure themselves, by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the chase. ^39 If at any time,

but more especially on a hot day, they have courage to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine Lake

^40 to their elegant villas on the seacoast of Puteoli and Cayeta, ^41 they compare their own expeditions to

the marches of Caesar 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, ^42 the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys into the country, ^43 the whole body of

the household marches with their master. In the same manner as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy and the

light armed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are marshalled by the skill of their military leaders; so

the domestic officers, who bear a rod, as an ensign of authority, distribute and arrange the numerous train of

slaves and attendants. The baggage and wardrobe move in the front; and are immediately followed by a

multitude of cooks, and inferior ministers, employed in the service of the kitchens, and of the table. The main

body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or

dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the favorite band of eunuchs, distributed from age to youth,

according to the order of seniority. Their numbers and their deformity excite the horror of the indignant

spectators, who are ready to execrate the memory of Semiramis, for the cruel art which she invented, of

frustrating the purposes of nature, and of blasting in the bud the hopes of future generations. In the exercise of

domestic jurisdiction, the nobles of Rome express an exquisite sensibility for any personal injury, and a

contemptuous indifference for the rest of the human species. When they have called for warm water, if a

slave has been tardy in his obedience, he is instantly chastised with three hundred lashes: but should the same

slave commit a wilful murder, the master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless fellow; but that, if he

repeats the offence, he shall not escape punishment. Hospitality was formerly the virtue of the Romans; and

every stranger, who could plead either merit or misfortune, was relieved, or rewarded by their generosity. At

present, if a foreigner, perhaps of no contemptible rank, is introduced to one of the proud and wealthy

senators, he is welcomed indeed in the first audience, with such warm professions, and such kind inquiries,

that he retires, enchanted with the affability of his illustrious friend, and full of regret that he had so long

delayed his journey to Rome, the active seat of manners, as well as of empire. Secure of a favorable

reception, he repeats his visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discovery, that his person, his name,

and his country, are already forgotten. If he still has resolution to persevere, he is gradually numbered in the

train of dependants, and obtains the permission to pay his assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty

patron, incapable of gratitude or friendship; who scarcely deigns to remark his presence, his departure, or his

return. Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular entertainment; ^44 whenever they celebrate, with

profuse and pernicious luxury, their private banquets; the choice of the guests is the subject of anxious

deliberation. The modest, the sober, and the learned, are seldom preferred; and the nomenclators, who are

commonly swayed by interested motives, have the address to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure

names of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent and familiar companions of the great, are those

parasites, who practise the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery; who eagerly applaud each word, and

every action, of their immortal patron; gaze with rapture on his marble columns and variegated pavements;

and strenuously praise the pomp and elegance which he is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit.

At the Roman tables, the birds, the squirrels, ^45 or the fish, which appear of an uncommon size, are

contemplated with curious attention; a pair of scales is accurately applied, to ascertain their real weight; and,

while the more rational guests are disgusted by the vain and tedious repetition, notaries are summoned to

attest, by an authentic record, the truth of such a marvelous event. Another method of introduction into the

houses and society of the great, is derived from the profession of gaming, or, as it is more politely styled, of

play. The confederates are united by a strict and indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a

superior degree of skill in the Tesserarian art (which may be interpreted the game of dice and tables) ^46 is a

sure road to wealth and reputation. A master of that sublime science, who in a supper, or assembly, is placed

below a magistrate, displays in his countenance the surprise and indignation which Cato might be supposed

to feel, when he was refused the praetorship by the votes of a capricious people. The acquisition of

knowledge seldom engages the curiosity of nobles, who abhor the fatigue, and disdain the advantages, of

study; and the only books which they peruse are the Satires of Juvenal, and the verbose and fabulous histories

of Marius Maximus. ^47 The libraries, which they have inherited from their fathers, are secluded, like dreary

sepulchres, from the light of day. ^48 But the costly instruments of the theatre, flutes, and enormous lyres,

and hydraulic organs, are constructed for their use; and the harmony of vocal and instrumental music is

incessantly repeated in the palaces of Rome. In those palaces, sound is preferred to sense, and the care of the

body to that of the mind. It is allowed as a salutary maxim, that the light and frivolous suspicion of a

contagious malady, is of sufficient weight to excuse the visits of the most intimate friends; and even the

servants, who are despatched to make the decent inquiries, are not suffered to return home, till they have

undergone the ceremony of a previous ablution. Yet this selfish and unmanly delicacy occasionally yields to

the more imperious passion of avarice. The prospect of gain will urge a rich and gouty senator as far as

Spoleto; every sentiment of arrogance and dignity is subdued by the hopes of an inheritance, or even of a

legacy; and a wealthy childless citizen is the most powerful of the Romans. The art of obtaining the signature

of a favorable testament, and sometimes of hastening the moment of its execution, is perfectly understood;

and it has happened, that in the same house, though in different apartments, a husband and a wife, with the

laudable design of overreaching each other, have summoned their respective lawyers, to declare, at the same

time, their mutual, but contradictory, intentions. The distress which follows and chastises extravagant luxury,

often reduces the great to the use of the most humiliating expedients. When they desire to borrow, they

employ the base and supplicating style of the slave in the comedy; but when they are called upon to pay, they

assume the royal and tragic declamation of the grandsons of Hercules. If the demand is repeated, they readily

procure some trusty sycophant, instructed to maintain a charge of poison, or magic, against the insolent

creditor; who is seldom released from prison, till he has signed a discharge of the whole debt. These vices,

which degrade the moral character of the Romans, are mixed with a puerile superstition, that disgraces their

understanding. They listen with confidence to the predictions of haruspices, who pretend to read, in the

entrails of victims, the signs of future greatness and prosperity; and there are many who do not presume either

to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in public, till they have diligently consulted, according to the rules of

astrology, the situation of Mercury, and the aspect of the moon. ^49 It is singular enough, that this vain

credulity may often be discovered among the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt, or deny, the existence

[Footnote 35: Claudian, who seems to have read the history of Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a

De Be. Gildonico, p. 49.] [Footnote 36: 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 lengthened to the number of four, five, or even seven, pompous surnames; as, for instance, Marcus

Maecius Maemmius Furius Balburius Caecilianus Placidus. See Noris Cenotaph Piran Dissert. iv. p. 438.]

[Footnote 37: The 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.

lxxxvii. Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 49. Paulin. Nolan. apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 397, No. 5.) Yet pomp

is well exchange 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

[Footnote 38: 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, huntingmatches, were represented in

embroidery: and that the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some favorite saint.]

[Footnote 39: See Pliny's Epistles, i. 6. Three large wild boars were allured and taken in the toils without

[Footnote 40: The change from the inauspicious word Avernus, which stands in the text, is immaterial. 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. 161) 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, Antonii Sanfelicii

[Footnote 41: The regna Cumana et Puteolana; loca caetiroqui valde expe tenda, interpellantium autem

[Footnote 42: 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.]

[Footnote 43: We may learn from Seneca (epist. cxxiii.) three curious circumstances relative to the journeys

of the Romans. 1. 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 murra, which last is almost proved, by the learned French translator of

Seneca, (tom. iii. p. 402 422,) to mean the porcelain of China and Japan. 3. The beautiful faces of the young

slaves were covered with a medicated crust, or ointment, which secured them against the effects of the sun

[Footnote 44: Distributio solemnium sportularum. The sportuloe, or sportelloe, were small baskets, supposed

to contain a quantity of hot provisions of the value of 100 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 converted into large pieces of gold and silver coin, or plate, which were mutually

given and accepted even by persons of the highest rank, (see Symmach. epist. iv. 55, ix. 124, and Miscell. p.

[Footnote 45: 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. 153. Pennant's Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p. 289.) The

art of rearing and fattening great numbers of glires was practised in Roman villas as a profitable article of

rural economy, (Varro, de Re Rustica, iii. 15.) The excessive demand of them for luxurious tables was

increased 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.

[Footnote 46: This game, which might be translated by the more familiar names of trictrac, or backgammon,

was a favorite amusement of the gravest Romans; and old Mucius Scaevola, the lawyer, had the reputation of

a very skilful player. It was called ludus duodecim scriptorum, from the twelve scripta, or lines, which

equally divided the alvevolus or table. On these, the two armies, the white and the black, each consisting of

fifteen men, or catculi, were regularly placed, and alternately moved according to the laws of the game, and

the chances of the tesseroe, 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 Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 217 405.]

[Footnote 47: Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui, et mythistoricis se voluminibus

implicavit. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 242. He wrote the lives of the emperors, from Trajan to Alexander

Severus. See Gerard Vossius de Historicis Latin. l. ii. c. 3, in his works, vol. iv. p. 47.]

[Footnote 48: 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

[Footnote 49: Macrobius, the friend of these Roman nobles, considered the siara as the cause, or at least the

In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who

derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labor of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most

useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the community. But the plebeians of Rome, who

disdained such sedentary and servile arts, had been oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of debt

and usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military service, was obliged to abandon the

cultivation of his farm. ^50 The lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the families of free

and indigent proprietors, were insensibly purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age

which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed that only two thousand citizens were possessed of an

independent substance. ^51 Yet as long as the people bestowed, by their suffrages, the honors of the state, the

command of the legions, and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious pride alleviated in

some measure, the hardships of poverty; and their wants were seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality

of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the thirtyfive tribes, or the hundred and

ninetythree centuries, of Rome. But when the prodigal commons had not only imprudently alienated 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 the dissolute, effeminate

prostitution of the Syrians, were mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and false

denomination of Romans, presumed to despise their fellow subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt

[Footnote 50: 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. l. vi. c. 26, p. 347,

edit. Hudson, and Livy, ii. 23) must have been frequently repeated in those primitive times, which have been

[Footnote 51: Non esse in civitate duo millia hominum qui rem habereni. Cicero. Offic. ii. 21, and Comment.

Paul. Manut. in edit. Graev. This vague computation 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

[Footnote 52: See the third Satire (60 125) of Juvenal, who indignantly complains,

Quamvis quota portio faecis Achaei! Jampridem Syrus in Tiberem defluxit Orontes; Et linguam et mores,

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, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of Rome were born in the 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. ^53 I. For the

convenience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of

bread; a great number of ovens were constructed and maintained at the public expense; and at the appointed

hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket, ascended the flight of steps, which had been assigned to

his peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift, or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the

weight of three pounds, for the use of his family. II. The forest of Lucania, whose acorns fattened large

droves of wild hogs, ^54 afforded, as a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat.

During five months of the year, a regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the

annual consumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined from its former lustre, was

ascertained, by an edict from Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and twentyeight thousand

pounds. ^55 III. In the manners of antiquity, the use of oil was indispensable for the lamp, as well as for the

bath; and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of

three millions of pounds, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand English gallons. IV. The anxiety

of Augustus to provide the metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended beyond that necessary

article of human subsistence; and when the popular clamor accused the dearness and scarcity of wine, a

proclamation was issued, by the grave reformer, to remind his subjects that no man could reasonably

complain of thirst, since the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city so many copious streams of

pure and salubrious water. ^56 This rigid sobriety was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous design

of Aurelian ^57 does not appear to have been executed in its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very

easy and liberal terms. The administration of the public cellars was delegated to a magistrate of honorable

rank; and a considerable part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate inhabitants of Rome.

[Footnote 53: Almost all that is said of the bread, bacon, oil, wine, may be found 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 it is needless to

transcribe them. According to a law of Theodosius, which 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. l. viii. tit. iv. leg. 17.) This equation, compared with another of

seventy pounds of bacon for an amphora, (Cod. Theod. l. xiv. tit. iv. leg. 4,) fixes the price of wine at about

[Footnote 54: The anonymous author of the Description of the World (p. 14. in tom. iii. Geograph. Minor.

Hudson) observes of Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio optima, et ipsa omnibus habundans, et lardum

[Footnote 55: See Novell. ad calcem Cod. Theod. D. Valent. l. i. tit. xv. This law was published at Rome,

[Footnote 56: Sueton. in August. c. 42. The utmost debauch of the emperor himself, in his favorite wine of

Rhaetia, never exceeded a sextarius, (an English pint.) Id. c. 77. Torrentius ad loc. and Arbuthnot's Tables, p.

[Footnote 57: His design was to plant vineyards along the seacoast of Hetruria, (Vopiscus, in Hist. August.

The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises of Augustus himself, replenished the Thermoe,

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. ^58 The walls of the lofty apartments were covered with curious mosaics, that imitated

the art of the pencil in the elegance of design, and the variety of colors. The Egyptian granite was beautifully

encrusted with the precious green marble of Numidia; the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the

capacious basins, through so many wide mouths of bright and massy silver; and the meanest Roman could

purchase, with a small copper coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which might excite

the envy of the kings of Asia. ^59 From these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians,

without shoes and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the street of Forum, to hear news and

to hold disputes; who dissipated in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their wives and children;

and spent the hours of the night in the obscure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and vulgar

[Footnote 59: Seneca (epistol. lxxxvi.) compares the baths of Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with

the magnificence (which was continually increasing) of the public baths of Rome, long before the stately

Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were erected. The quadrans paid for admission was the quarter of the

[Footnote 60: Ammianus, (l. xiv. c. 6, and l. 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.]

But the most lively and splendid amusement of the idle multitude, depended on the frequent exhibition of

public games and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the inhuman combats of

gladiators; but the Roman people still considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat of the

republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places, and there were many who

passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the

sun, or of the rain, the spectators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand,

remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and

fear, for the success of the colors which they espoused: and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the

event of a race. ^61 The same immoderate ardor inspired their clamors and their applause, as often as they

were entertained with the hunting of wild beasts, and the various modes of theatrical representation. These

representations in modern capitals may deserve to be considered as a pure and elegant school of taste, and

perhaps of virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the imitation

of Attic genius, ^62 had been almost totally silent since the fall of the republic; ^63 and their place was

unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate music, and splendid pageantry. The pantomimes, ^64

who maintained their reputation from the age of Augustus to the sixth century, expressed, without the use of

words, the various fables of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their art, which sometimes

disarmed the gravity of the philosopher, always excited the applause and wonder of the people. The vast and

magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by three thousand female dancers, and by three thousand singers,

with the masters of the respective choruses. Such was the popular favor which they enjoyed, that, in a time of

scarcity, when all strangers were banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the public pleasures

exempted them from a law, which was strictly executed against the professors of the liberal arts. ^65

[Footnote 61: Juvenal. Satir. xi. 191, The expressions of the historian Ammianus 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 Notitioe of the city. The differences

between them prove that they did not transcribe each other; but the same may appear incredible, though the

[Footnote 62: Sometimes indeed they composed original pieces. Vestigia Graeca Ausi deserere et celeb rare

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 unfavorable specimen of Roman tragedy.]

[Footnote 63: In the time of Quintilian and Pliny, a tragic poet was reduced to the imperfect method of hiring

a great room, and reading his play to the company, whom he invited for that purpose. (See Dialog. de

[Footnote 64: See the dialogue of Lucian, entitled the Saltatione, tom. ii. p. 265 317, edit. Reitz. The

pantomimes obtained the honorable name; and it was required, that they should be conversant with almost

every art and science. Burette (in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 127, has given a

[Footnote 65: Ammianus, l. 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 experimunt innumera simulacra, quae finxere

It is said, that the foolish curiosity of Elagabalus attempted to discover, from the quantity of spiders' webs,

the number of the inhabitants of Rome. A more rational method of inquiry might not have been undeserving

of the attention of the wisest princes, who could easily have resolved a question so important for the Roman

government, and so interesting to succeeding ages. The births and deaths of the citizens were duly registered;

and if any writer of antiquity had condescended to mention the annual amount, or the common average, we

might now produce some satisfactory calculation, which would destroy the extravagant assertions of critics,

and perhaps confirm the modest and probable conjectures of philosophers. ^66 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 twentyone miles. ^67 It should not be forgotten that the form of the city was almost

that of a circle; the geometrical figure which is known to contain the largest space within any given

circumference. II. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age, and whose evidence, on this

occasion, has peculiar weight and authority, observes, that the innumerable habitations of the Roman people

would have spread themselves far beyond the narrow limits of the city; and that the want of ground, which

was probably contracted on every side by gardens and villas, suggested the common, though inconvenient,

practice of raising the houses to a considerable height in the air. ^68 But the loftiness of these buildings,

which often consisted of hasty work and insufficient materials, was the cause of frequent and fatal accidents;

and it was repeatedly enacted by Augustus, as well as by Nero, that the height of private edifices within the

walls of Rome, should not exceed the measure of seventy feet from the ground. ^69 III. Juvenal ^70 laments,

as it should seem from his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to whom he addresses the

salutary advice of emigrating, without delay, from the smoke of Rome, since they might purchase, in the little

towns of Italy, a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the same price which they annually paid for a dark and

miserable lodging. Houserent 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 fortyeight thousand three hundred and eightytwo. ^71 The two classes of

domus and of insuloe, 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 lodginghouse, where the poet Codrus and his wife were permitted to hire a wretched garret

immediately under the files. If we adopt the same average, which, under similar circumstances, has been

found applicable to Paris, ^72 and indifferently allow about twentyfive 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. ^73 ^* [Footnote 66: Lipsius (tom. iii. p. 423, de Magnitud. Romana, l. iii. c. 3) and

Isaac Vossius (Observant. 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.]

[Footnote 67: Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. tom. ix. p. 400.]

[Footnote 68: In ea autem majestate urbis, et civium infinita frequentia, innumerabiles habitationes opus fuit

explicare. Ergo cum recipero non posset area plana tantam multitudinem in urbe, ad auxilium altitudinis

aedificiorum res ipsa coegit devenire. Vitruv. ii. 8. This passage, which I owe to Vossius, is clear, strong, and

[Footnote 69: The successive testimonies of Pliny, Aristides, Claudian, Rutilius, prove the insufficiency of

Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant; Tu nescis; nam si gradibus trepidatur ab imis Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula

[Footnote 70: Read the whole third satire, but particularly 166, 223, The description of a crowded insula, or

lodginghouse, 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 ordinary rent

of the several coenacula, or apartments of an insula, annually produced forty thousand sesterces, between

three and four hundred pounds sterling, (Pandect. l. xix. tit. ii. No. 30,) a sum which proves at once the large

[Footnote 71: This sum total is composed of 1780 domus, or great houses of 46,602 insuloe, or plebeian

habitations, (see Nardini, Roma Antica, l. iii. p. 88;) and these numbers are ascertained by the agreement of

[Footnote 72: See that accurate writer M. de Messance, Recherches sur la Population, p. 175 187. From

probable, or certain grounds, he assigns to Paris 23,565 houses, 71,114 families, and 576,630 inhabitants.]

[Footnote 73: 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

[Footnote *: M. Dureau de la Malle (Economic Politique des Romaines, t. i. p. 369) quotes a passage from

the xvth chapter of Gibbon, in which he estimates the population of Rome at not less than a million, and adds

(omitting any reference to this passage,) that he (Gibbon) could not have seriously studied the question. M.

Dureau de la Malle proceeds to argue that Rome, as contained within the walls of Servius Tullius, occupying

an area only one fifth of that of Paris, could not have contained 300,000 inhabitants; within those of Aurelian

not more than 560,000, inclusive of soldiers and strangers. The suburbs, he endeavors to show, both up to the

time of Aurelian, and after his reign, were neither so extensive, nor so populous, as generally supposed. M.

Dureau de la Malle has but imperfectly quoted the important passage of Dionysius, that which proves that

when he wrote (in the time of Augustus) the walls of Servius no longer marked the boundary of the city. In

many places they were so built upon, that it was impossible to trace them. There was no certain limit, where

the city ended and ceased to be the city; it stretched out to so boundless an extent into the country. Ant. Rom.

iv. 13. None of M. de la Malle's arguments appear to me to prove, against this statement, that these irregular

suburbs did not extend so far in many parts, as to make it impossible to calculate accurately the inhabited area

of the city. Though no doubt the city, as reconstructed by Nero, was much less closely built and with many

more open spaces for palaces, temples, and other public edifices, yet many passages seem to prove that the

laws respecting the height of houses were not rigidly enforced. A great part of the lower especially of the

slave population, were very densely crowded, and lived, even more than in our modern towns, in cellars and

Nor do M. de la Malle's arguments, by which he would explain the insulae insulae (of which the Notitiae

Urbis give us the number) as rows of shops, with a chamber or two within the domus, or houses of the

wealthy, satisfy me as to their soundness of their scholarship. Some passages which he adduces directly

contradict his theory; none, as appears to me, distinctly prove it. I must adhere to the old interpretation of the

word, as chiefly dwellings for the middling or lower classes, or clusters of tenements, often perhaps, under

On this point, Zumpt, in the Dissertation before quoted, entirely disagrees with M. de la Malle. Zumpt has

likewise detected the mistake of M. de la Malle as to the "canon" of corn, mentioned in the life of Septimius

Severus by Spartianus. On this canon the French writer calculates the inhabitants of Rome at that time. But

the "canon" was not the whole supply of Rome, but that quantity which the state required for the public

granaries to supply the gratuitous distributions to the people, and the public officers and slaves; no doubt

likewise to keep down the general price. M. Zumpt reckons the population of Rome at 2,000,000. After

careful consideration, I should conceive the number in the text, 1,200,000, to be nearest the truth M. 1845.]

Such was the state of Rome under the reign of Honorius; at the time when the Gothic army formed the siege,

or rather the blockade, of the city. ^74 By a skilful disposition of his numerous forces, who impatiently

watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates,

intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber,

from which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotions of the

nobles, and of the people, were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian should dare to insult

the capital of the world: but their arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead

of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim.

Perhaps in the person of Serena, the Romans might have respected the niece of Theodosius, the aunt, nay,

even the adoptive mother, of the reigning emperor: but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and they listened

with credulous passion to the tale of calumny, which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal

correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the same popular frenzy, the senate,

without requiring any evidence of his guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death. Serena was ignominiously

strangled; and the infatuated multitude were astonished to find, that this cruel act of injustice did not

immediately produce the retreat of the Barbarians, and the deliverance of the city. That unfortunate city

gradually experienced the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of famine. The daily

allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one half, to one third, to nothing; and the price of corn

still continued to rise in a rapid and extravagant proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase

the necessaries of life, solicited the precarious charity of the rich; and for a while the public misery was

alleviated by the humanity of Laeta, 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. ^75 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 fellowcreatures, 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! ^76 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 praeternatural deliverance. Pompeianus, praefect of the city, had been persuaded, by the art or

fanaticism of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force of spells and sacrifices, they could extract

the lightning from the clouds, and point those celestial fires against the camp of the Barbarians. ^77 The

important secret was communicated to Innocent, the bishop of Rome; and the successor of St. Peter is

accused, perhaps without foundation, of preferring the safety of the republic to the rigid severity of the

Christian worship. But when the question was agitated in the senate; when it was proposed, as an essential

condition, that those sacrifices should be performed in the Capitol, by the authority, and in the presence, of

the magistrates, the majority of that respectable assembly, apprehensive either of the Divine or of the

Imperial displeasure, refused to join in an act, which appeared almost equivalent to the public restoration of

[Footnote 74: For the events of the first siege of Rome, which are often confounded with those of the second

and third, see Zosimus, l. v. p. 350 354, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 6, Olympiodorus, ap. Phot. p. 180, Philostorgius,

[Footnote 75: The mother of Laeta was named Pissumena. Her father, family, and country, are unknown.

[Footnote 76: Ad nefandos cibos erupit esurientium rabies, et sua invicem membra laniarunt, dum mater non

parcit lactenti infantiae; et recipit utero, quem paullo ante effuderat. Jerom. ad Principiam, tom. i. p. 121. The

same horrid circumstance is likewise told of the 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 labored descriptions of epic poetry]

[Footnote 77: Zosimus (l. v. 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, the secret and the

public; the former were probably an imitation of the arts and spells, by which Numa had drawn down Jupiter

Quid agant laqueis, quae carmine dicant, Quaque trahant superis sedibus arte Jovem, Scire nefas homini.

The ancilia, or shields of Mars, the pignora Imperii, which were carried in solemn procession on the calends

of March, derived their origin from this 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.

Note: On this curious question of the knowledge of conducting lightning, processed by the ancients, consult

[Footnote 78: Sozomen (l. ix. c. 6) insinuates that the experiment was actually, though unsuccessfully, made;

but he does not mention the name of Innocent: and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 645) is determined

The last resource of the Romans was in the clemency, or at least in the moderation, of the king of the Goths.

The senate, who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government, appointed two ambassadors

to negotiate with the enemy. This important trust was delegated to Basilius, a senator, of Spanish extraction,

and already conspicuous in the administration of provinces; and to John, the first tribune of the notaries, who

was peculiarly qualified, by his dexterity in business, as well as by his former intimacy with the Gothic

prince. When they were introduced into his presence, they declared, perhaps in a more lofty style than

became their abject condition, that the Romans were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war;

and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honorable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to

give battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated by despair. "The thicker the hay, the

easier it is mowed," was the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a

loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by

luxury before they were emaciated by famine. He then condescended to fix the ransom, which he would

accept as the price of his retreat from the walls of Rome: all the gold and silver in the city, whether it were

the property of the state, or of individuals; all the rich and precious movables; and all the slaves that could

prove their title to the name of Barbarians. The ministers of the senate presumed to ask, in a modest and

suppliant tone, "If such, O king, are your demands, what do you intend to leave us?" "Your Lives!" replied

the haughty conqueror: they trembled, and retired. Yet, before they retired, a short suspension of arms was

granted, which allowed some time for a more temperate negotiation. The stern features of Alaric were

insensibly relaxed; he abated much of the rigor of his terms; and at length consented to raise the siege, on the

immediate payment of five thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thousand pounds of silver, of four thousand

robes of silk, of three thousand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and of three thousand pounds weight of pepper.

^79 But the public treasury was exhausted; the annual rents of the great estates in Italy and the provinces, had

been exchanged, during the famine, for the vilest sustenance; the hoards of secret wealth were still concealed

by the obstinacy of avarice; and some remains of consecrated spoils afforded the only resource that could

avert the impending ruin of the city. As soon as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric,

they were restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment of peace and plenty. Several of the gates were

cautiously opened; the importation of provisions from the river and the adjacent country was no longer

obstructed by the Goths; the citizens resorted in crowds to the free market, which was held during three days

in the suburbs; and while the merchants who undertook this gainful trade made a considerable profit, the

future subsistence of the city was secured by the ample magazines which were deposited in the public and

private granaries. A more regular discipline than could have been expected, was maintained in the camp of

Alaric; and the wise Barbarian justified his regard for the faith of treaties, by the just severity with which he

chastised a party of licentious Goths, who had insulted some Roman citizens on the road to Ostia. His army,

enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly advanced into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany,

where he proposed to establish his winter quarters; and the Gothic standard became the refuge of forty

thousand Barbarian slaves, who had broke their chains, and aspired, under the command of their great

deliverer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace of their cruel servitude. About the same time, he received a

more honorable reenforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus, ^80 the brother of his wife, had

conducted, at his pressing invitation, from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tyber, and who had cut

their way, with some difficulty and loss, through the superior number of the Imperial troops. A victorious

leader, who united the daring spirit of a Barbarian with the art and discipline of a Roman general, was at the

head of a hundred thousand fighting men; and Italy pronounced, with terror and respect, the formidable name

[Footnote 79: Pepper was a favorite 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

[Footnote 80: This Gothic chieftain is called by Jornandes and Isidore, Athaulphus; by Zosimus and Orosius,

Ataulphus; and by Olympiodorus, Adaoulphus. I have used the celebrated name of Adolphus, which seems to

be authorized by the practice of the Swedes, the sons or brothers of the ancient Goths.]

[Footnote 81: The treaty between Alaric and the Romans, is taken from Zosimus, l. v. p. 354, 355, 358, 359,

362, 363. The additional circumstances are too few and trifling to require any other quotation.]

At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with relating the military exploits of the conquerors

of Rome, without presuming to investigate the motives of their political conduct. In the midst of his apparent

prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal defect; or perhaps the

moderation which he displayed, was intended only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the ministers

of Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared, that it was his desire to be considered as the friend of

peace, and of the Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to the court of

Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of hostages, and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals, which he

more clearly expressed during the course of the negotiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as

they might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The Barbarian still aspired to the rank of

mastergeneral of the armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and money; and he chose

the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have

commanded the important communication between Italy and the Danube. If these modest terms should be

rejected, Alaric showed a disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to content himself with

the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the

Barbarians of Germany. ^82 But the hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or interested

views, of the minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed

their ambassadors under the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of honor, and too feeble

for any army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march

from Ravenna to Rome, through an open country which was occupied by the formidable myriads of the

Barbarians. These brave legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folly; their

general, Valens, with a hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the ambassadors, who

could no longer claim the protection of the law of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a

ransom of thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility,

immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived

weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the

[Footnote 83: Zosimus, l. v. p. 360, 361, 362. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending

Olympius ^84 might have continued to insult the just resentment of a people who loudly accused him as the

author of the public calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the palace. The

favorite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the empire, to Jovius, the Praetorian praefect;

an unworthy servant, who did not atone, by the merit of personal attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of

his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olympius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of

fortune: he experienced the adventures of an obscure and wandering life; he again rose to power; he fell a

second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired under the lash; and his ignominious death

afforded a grateful spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whose character was

deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from the impolitic

proscription, which excluded them from the dignities of the state. The brave Gennerid, ^85 a soldier of

Barbarian origin, who still adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay aside the military

belt: and though he was repeatedly assured by the emperor himself, that laws were not made for persons of

his rank or merit, he refused to accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable disgrace, till he

had extorted a general act of justice from the distress of the Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid in

the important station to which he was promoted or restored, of mastergeneral 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 denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the court of Ravenna. The valor

of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his

vigilant care assisted the empire with a reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of

Italy, attended by such a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might have

been sufficient, not only for the march of an army, but for the settlement of a colony. But the court and

councils of Honorius still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of corruption and anarchy. Instigated

by the 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 shipboard, and

privately executed; while the favor of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at Milan and

Constantinople. Eusebius the eunuch, and the Barbarian Allobich, succeeded to the command of the

bedchamber and of the guards; and the mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers was the cause of their

mutual destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the domestics, the great chamberlain was shamefully

beaten to death with sticks, before the eyes of the astonished emperor; and the subsequent assassination of

Allobich, in the midst of a public procession, is the only circumstance of his life, in which Honorius

discovered the faintest symptom of courage or resentment. Yet before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had

contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a

selfish, and perhaps a criminal, motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a personal interview under the walls of

Rimini. During the absence of Jovius, the emperor was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity,

such as neither his situation, nor his character, could enable him to support; and a letter, signed with the name

of Honorius, was immediately despatched to the Praetorian praefect, granting him a free permission to

dispose of the public money, but sternly refusing to prostitute the military honors of Rome to the proud

demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in

the whole transaction had behaved with temper and decency, expressed, in the most outrageous language, his

lively sense of the insult so wantonly offered to his person and to his nation. The conference of Rimini was

hastily interrupted; and the 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 in voked the name of the Deity, they would consult the public safety, and trust

their souls to the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the sacred head of the emperor himself; they had

sworn by the sacred head of the emperor himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that august seat of

majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath would exposethem to the temporal penalties of sacrilege

and rebellion. ^86 [Footnote 84: For the adventures of Olympius, and his successors in the ministry, see

[Footnote 85: Zosimus (l. v. 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 complain of the law, which had

been just enacted, that all conversions to Christianity should be free and voluntary. See Baronius, Annal.

[Footnote 86: Zosimus, l. v. p. 367, 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 the only oath which the

Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an elegant Dissertation of the Abbe Mossieu on the Oaths of

While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the security of the marches and fortifications of

Ravenna, they abandoned Rome, almost without defence, to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was the

moderation which he still preserved, or affected, that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian way, he

successively despatched the bishops of the towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace, and to congradulate

the emperor, that he would save the city and its inhabitants from hostile fire, and the sword of the Barbarians.

^87 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. ^88 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 Caesar the useful design, which was executed under the reign of Claudius. The artificial

moles, which formed the narrow entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly repelled the fury of the

waves, while the largest vessels securely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basins, which

received the northern branch of the Tyber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia. ^89 The Roman

Port insensibly swelled to the size of an episcopal city, ^90 where the corn of Africa was deposited in

spacious granaries for the use of the capital. As soon as Alaric was in possession of that important place, he

summoned the city to surrender at discretion; and his demands were enforced by the positive declaration, that

a refusal, or even a delay, should be instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, on which the life

of the Roman people depended. The clamors of that people, and the terror of famine, subdued the pride of the

senate; they listened, without reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor on the throne of the

unworthy Honorius; and the suffrage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple on Attalus, praefect of the

city. The grateful monarch immediately acknowledged his protector as mastergeneral of the armies of the

West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and

the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship and alliance. ^91 [Footnote 87:

Zosimus, l. v. p. 368, 369. I have softened the expressions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner,

[Footnote 88: See Sueton. in Claud. c. 20. Dion Cassius, l. lx. p. 949, edit Reimar, and the lively description

of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, In the sixteenth century, when the remains of this Augustan port were still visible,

the antiquarians sketched the plan, (see D'Anville, Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxx. p. 198,)

and declared, with enthusiasm, that all the monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute so great a work,

[Footnote 89: The Ostia Tyberina, (see Cluver. Italia Antiq. l. iii. p. 870 879,) in the plural number, the two

mouths of the Tyber, were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral triangle, whose sides were each of

them computed at about two miles. The colony of Ostia was founded immediately beyond the left, or

southern, and the Port immediately beyond the right, or northern, branch of hte river; and the distance

between their remains measures something more than two miles on Cingolani's map. In the time of Strabo,

the sand and mud deposited by the Tyber had choked the harbor of Ostia; the progress of the same cause has

added much to the size of the Holy Islands, and gradually left both Ostia and the Port at a considerable

distance from the shore. The dry channels (fiumi morti) and the large estuaries (stagno 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

[Footnote 90: As early as the third, (Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel, part ii. vol. iii. p. 89 92,) or at least

the fourth, century, (Carol. a Sancta 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 cardinalbishops of the Roman church. See Eschinard, Deserizione di Roman et dell' Agro Romano, p.

[Footnote 91: For the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, l. vi. p. 377 380, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8, 9,

Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181, Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3, and Godefroy's Dissertat. p. 470.]

The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of the Romans, encompassed on every side by

the Gothic arms, was conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus and Trajan. After he

had distributed the civil and military dignities among his favorites and followers, Attalus convened an

assembly of the senate; before whom, in a format and florid speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the

majesty of the republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt and the East, which had once

acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen with a

just contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper, whose elevation was the deepest and most

ignominious wound which the republic had yet sustained from the insolence of the Barbarians. But the

populace, with their usual levity, applauded the change of masters. The public discontent was favorable to the

rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by his persecuting edicts, expected some degree of

countenance, or at least of toleration, from a prince, who, in his native country of Ionia, had been educated in

the Pagan superstition, and who had since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an Arian

bishop. ^92 The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent

with an inconsiderable body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa; the greatest part of Italy submitted to

the terror of the Gothic powers; and though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and effectual resistance, the

people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations, the

choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army, Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to

the gates of Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of Jovius, the Praetorian praefect, of

Valens, master of the cavalry and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian, the first of the notaries,

was introduced, with martial pomp, into the Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they consented to

acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide the provinces of Italy and the West between

the two emperors. Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and the refusal was aggravated by the insulting

clemency of Attalus, who condescended to promise, that, if Honorius would instantly resign the purple, he

should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. ^93 So

desperate indeed did the situation of the son of Theodosius appear, to those who were the best acquainted

with his strength and resources, that Jovius and Valens, his minister and his general, betrayed their trust,

infamously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and devoted their treacherous allegiance to the

service of his more fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples of domestic treason, Honorius trembled at

the approach of every servant, at the arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, who might

lurk in his capital, his palace, his bedchamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna, to

transport the abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the emperor of the East. [Footnote 92:

We may admit the evidence of Sozomen for the Arian baptism, and that of Philostorgius for the Pagan

education, of Attalus. The visible joy of Zosimus, and the discontent which he imputes to the Anician family,

[Footnote 93: He carried his insolence so far, as to declare that he should mutilate Honorius before he sent

him into exile. But this assertion of Zosimus is destroyed by the more impartial testimony of Olympiodorus;

who attributes the ungenerous proposal (which was absolutely rejected by Attalus) to the baseness, and

But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of the historian Procopius) ^94 that watches over

innocence and folly; and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot reasonably be disputed. At

the moment when his despair, incapable of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a

seasonable reenforcement of four thousand veterans unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To these

valiant strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions of the court, he committed the walls

and gates of the city; and the slumbers of the emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension of

imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which was received from Africa suddenly changed

the opinions of men, and the state of public affairs. The troops and officers, whom Attalus had sent into that

province, were defeated and slain; and the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own allegiance, and that of

his people. The faithful count of Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of the

Imperial guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of corn and oil, introduced famine, tumult,

and discontent, into the walls of Rome. The failure of the African expedition was the source of mutual

complaint and recrimination in the party of Attalus; and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated

from the interest of a prince, who wanted spirit to command, or docility to obey. The most imprudent

measures were adopted, without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and the obstinate refusal of

the senate, to allow, in the embarkation, the mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and

distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither generous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic

king was exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised to the rank of patrician, and who

afterwards excused his double perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had only seemed to abandon the

service of Honorius, more effectually to ruin the cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and in the

presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Barbarians, the wretched Attalus was publicly

despoiled of the diadem and purple; and those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as the pledge of peace

and friendship, to the son of Theodosius. ^95 The officers who returned to their duty, were reinstated in their

employments, and even the merit of a tardy repentance was graciously allowed; but the degraded emperor of

the Romans, desirous of life, and insensible of disgrace, implored the permission of following the Gothic

[Footnote 95: See the cause and circumstances of the fall of Attalus in Zosimus, l. vi. p. 380 383. Sozomen,

l. ix. c. 8. Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3. The two acts of indemnity in the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 11,

12, which were published the 12th of February, and the 8th of August, A.D. 410, evidently relate to this

[Footnote 96: In hoc, Alaricus, imperatore, facto, infecto, refecto, ac defecto ... Mimum risit, et ludum

The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to the conclusion of the peace; and Alaric

advanced within three miles of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial ministers, whose insolence

soon returned with the return of fortune. His indignation was kindled by the report, that a rival chieftain, that

Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the hereditary foe of the house of Balti, had been received into

the palace. At the head of three hundred followers, that fearless Barbarian immediately sallied from the gates

of Ravenna; surprised, and cut in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; reentered the city in triumph; and was

permitted to insult his adversary, by the voice of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric had

forever excluded him from the friendship and alliance of the emperor. ^97 The crime and folly of the court of

Ravenna was expiated, a third time, by the calamities of Rome. The king of the Goths, who no longer

dissembled his appetite for plunder and revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the capital; and the

trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by a desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their

country. But they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their slaves and domestics; who,

either from birth or interest, were attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the Salarian

gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet.

Eleven hundred and sixtythree years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and

civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and

[Footnote 97: Zosimus, l. vi. p. 384. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 9. Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. In this place the text of

Zosimus is mutilated, and we have lost the remainder of his sixth and last book, which ended with the sack of

Rome. Credulous and partial as he is, we must take our leave of that historian with some regret.]

[Footnote 98: Adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat, irrumpit. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573. He

despatches this great event in seven words; but he employs whole pages in celebrating the devotion of the

Goths. I have extracted from an improbable story of Procopius, the circumstances which had an air of

probability. Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2. He supposes that the city was surprised while the senators slept

in the afternoon; but Jerom, with more authority and more reason, affirms, that it was in the night, nocte

The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a vanquished city, discovered, however, some

regard for the laws of humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops boldly to seize the rewards of valor,

and to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and effeminate people: but he exhorted them, at the

same time, to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and to respect the churches of the apostles, St. Peter

and St. Paul, as holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors of a nocturnal tumult, several of the

Christian Goths displayed the fervor of a recent conversion; and some instances of their uncommon piety and

moderation are related, and perhaps adorned, by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers. ^99 While the Barbarians

roamed through the city in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to

the service of the altar, was forced open by one of the powerful Goths. He immediately demanded, though in

civil language, all the gold and silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness with which she

conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate, of the richest materials, and the most curious

workmanship. The Barbarian viewed with wonder and delight this valuable acquisition, till he was

interrupted by a serious admonition, addressed to him in the following words: "These," said she, "are the

consecrated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you presume to touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on

your conscience. For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend." The Gothic captain, struck with

reverential awe, despatched a messenger to inform the king of the treasure which he had discovered; and

received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all the consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported,

without damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the

distant quarter of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order of battle through the

principal streets, protected, with glittering arms, the long train of their devout companions, who bore aloft, on

their heads, the sacred vessels of gold and silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians were mingled with

the sound of religious psalmody. From all the adjacent houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this

edifying procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of age, or rank, or even of sect, had the

good fortune to escape to the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned work, concerning

the City of God, was professedly composed by St. Augustin, to justify the ways of Providence in the

destruction of the Roman greatness. He celebrates, with peculiar satisfaction, this memorable triumph of

Christ; and insults his adversaries, by challenging them to produce some similar example of a town taken by

storm, in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able to protect either themselves or their deluded

votaries. ^100 [Footnote 99: Orosius (l. vii. c. 39, p. 573 576) applauds the piety of the Christian Goths,

without seeming to perceive that the greatest part of them were Arian heretics. Jornandes (c. 30, p. 653) and

Isidore of Seville, (Chron. p. 417, edit. Grot.,) who were both attached to the Gothic cause, have repeated and

embellished these edifying tales. According to Isidore, Alaric himself was heard to say, that he waged war

with the Romans, and not with the apostles. Such was the style of the seventh century; two hundred years

before, the fame and merit had been ascribed, not to the apostles, but to Christ.]

[Footnote 100: See Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 1 6. He particularly appeals to the examples of Troy,

In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary examples of Barbarian virtue have been deservedly

applauded. But the holy precincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches, could receive a very small

proportion of the Roman people; many thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns, who served under the

standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at least to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without

any breach of charity or candor, that in the hour of savage license, when every passion was inflamed, and

every restraint was removed, the precepts of the Gospel seldom influenced the behavior of the Gothic

Christians. The writers, the best disposed to exaggerate their clemency, have freely confessed, that a cruel

slaughter was made of the Romans; ^101 and that the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies, which

remained without burial during the general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes

converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the

promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty thousand

slaves was exercised without pity or remorse; and the ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received,

were washed away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The matrons and virgins of Rome were

exposed to injuries more dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death itself; and the ecclesiastical

historian has selected an example of female virtue, for the admiration of future ages. ^102 A Roman lady, of

singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the impatient desires of a young Goth, who, according to the

sagacious remark of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, he

drew his sword, and, with the anger of a lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still

continued to brave his resentment, and to repel his love, till the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts,

respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six pieces of gold to the guards of the

church, on condition that they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband. Such instances of

courage and generosity were not extremely common. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites,

without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives: and a nice question of casuistry

was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation

which they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. ^103 Their were other

losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and more general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the

Barbarians were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous outrages; and the want of youth, or beauty,

or chastity, protected the greatest part of the Roman women from the danger of a rape. But avarice is an

insatiate and universal passion; since the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to the

different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome,

a just preference was given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest value in the smallest compass and

weight: but, after these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the palaces of Rome

were rudely stripped of their splendid and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated

wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the wagons, that always followed the march of a

Gothic army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly handled, or wantonly destroyed; many a statue

was melted for the sake of the precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the spoil, was shivered

into fragments by the stroke of a battleaxe. The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of

the rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and by tortures, to force from their prisoners

the confession of hidden treasure. ^104 Visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof of a plentiful

fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some

misers, who endured the most cruel torments before they would discover the secret object of their affection,

was fatal to many unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash, for refusing to reveal their imaginary

treasures. The edifices of Rome, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from

the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide

their march, and to distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which encountered no obstacle in the

disorder of the night, consumed many private and public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of Sallust ^105

remained, in the age of Justinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration. ^106 Yet a contemporary

historian has observed, that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of solid brass, and that the

strength of man was insufficient to subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may possibly be

concealed in his devout assertion, that the wrath of Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and

that the proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was levelled in the

dust by the stroke of lightning. ^107 [Footnote 101: Jerom (tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam) has applied to the

Procopius (l. i. c. 2) positively affirms that great numbers were slain by the Goths. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, l. i.

c. 12, 13) offers Christian comfort for the death of those whose bodies (multa corpora) had remained (in tanta

strage) unburied. Baronius, from the different writings of the Fathers, has thrown some light on the sack of

[Footnote 102: Sozomen. l. ix. c. 10. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 17) intimates, that some virgins or

matrons actually killed themselves to escape violation; and though he admires their spirit, he is obliged, by

his theology, to condemn their rash presumption. Perhaps the good bishop of Hippo was too easy in the

belief, as well as too rigid in the censure, of this act of female heroism. The twenty maidens (if they ever

existed) who threw themselves into the Elbe, when Magdeburgh was taken by storm, have been multiplied to

the number of twelve hundred. See Harte's History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 308.]

[Footnote 103: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 16, 18. He treats the subject with remarkable accuracy:

and after admitting that there cannot be any crime where there is no consent, he adds, Sed quia non solum

quod ad dolorem, verum etiam quod ad libidinem, pertinet, in corpore alieno pepetrari potest; quicquid tale

factum fuerit, etsi retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam non excutit, pudorem tamen incutit, ne credatur

factum cum mentis etiam voluntate, quod fieri fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate non potuit. In c. 18 he

[Footnote 104: Marcella, a Roman lady, equally respectable for her rank, her age, and her piety, was thrown

on the ground, and cruelly beaten and whipped, caesam fustibus flagellisque, Jerom, tom. i. p. 121, ad

Principiam. See Augustin, de Civ. Dei, l. c. 10. The modern Sacco di Roma, p. 208, gives an idea of the

[Footnote 105: The historian Sallust, who usefully practiced the vices which he has so eloquently censured,

employed the plunder of Numidia to adorn his palace and gardens on the Quirinal hill. The spot where the

house stood is now marked by the church of St. Susanna, separated only by a street from the baths of

Diocletian, and not far distant from the Salarian gate. See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 192, 193, and the great

[Footnote 106: The expressions of Procopius are distinct and moderate, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.) The

Chronicle of Marcellinus speaks too strongly partem urbis Romae cremavit; and the words of Philostorgius (l.

xii. c. 3) convey a false and exaggerated idea. Bargaeus has composed a particular dissertation (see tom. iv.

Antiquit. Rom. Graev.) to prove that the edifices of Rome were not subverted by the Goths and Vandals.]

[Footnote 107: Orosius, l. ii. c. 19, p. 143. He speaks as if he disapproved all statues; vel Deum vel hominem

mentiuntur. They consisted of the kings of Alba and Rome from Aeneas, the Romans, illustrious either in

arms or arts, and the deified Caesars. The expression which he uses of Forum is somewhat ambiguous, since

there existed five principal Fora; but as they were all contiguous and adjacent, in the plain which is

surrounded by the Capitoline, the Quirinal, the Esquiline, and the Palatine hills, they might fairly be

considered as one. See the Roma Antiqua of Donatus, p. 162 201, and the Roma Antica of Nardini, p. 212

273. The former is more useful for the ancient descriptions, the latter for the actual topography.]

Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian rank, who perished in the massacre of Rome, it is

confidently affirmed that only one senator lost his life by the sword of the enemy. ^108 But it was not easy to

compute the multitudes, who, from an honorable station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced to

the miserable condition of captives and exiles. As the Barbarians had more occasion for money than for

slaves, they fixed at a moderate price the redemption of their indigent prisoners; and the ransom was often

paid by the benevolence of their friends, or the charity of strangers. ^109 The captives, who were regularly

sold, either in open market, or by private contract, would have legally regained their native freedom, which it

was impossible for a citizen to lose, or to alienate. ^110 But as it was soon discovered that the vindication of

their liberty would endanger their lives; and that the Goths, unless they were tempted to sell, might be

provoked to murder, their useless prisoners; the civil jurisprudence had been already qualified by a wise

regulation, that they should be obliged to serve the moderate term of five years, till they had discharged by

their labor the price of their redemption. ^111 The nations who invaded the Roman empire, had driven before

them, into Italy, whole troops of hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude than of

famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the inhabitants to the most lonely, the most secure, the

most distant places of refuge. While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and desolation along the seacoast of

Campania and Tuscany, the little island of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the Argentarian

promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers

of citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that sequestered spot. ^112 The ample patrimonies,

which many senatorian families possessed in Africa, invited them, if they had time, and prudence, to escape

from the ruin of their country, to embrace the shelter of that hospitable province. The most illustrious of these

fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, ^113 the widow of the praefect Petronius. After the death of her

husband, the most powerful subject of Rome, she had remained at the head of the Anician family, and

successively supplied, from her private fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three sons. When the

city was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba supported, with Christian resignation, the loss of immense

riches; embarked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at sea, the flames of her burning palace, and fled

with her daughter Laeta, and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias, to the coast of Africa. The

benevolent profusion with which the matron distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates, contributed to

alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity. But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the

rapacious oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in matrimonial prostitution, the noblest maidens

of Rome to the lust or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were dispersed through the

provinces, along the coast of Egypt and Asia, as far as Constantinople and Jerusalem; and the village of

Bethlem, the solitary residence of St. Jerom and his female converts, was crowded with illustrious beggars of

either sex, and every age, who excited the public compassion by the remembrance of their past fortune. ^114

This awful catastrophe of Rome filled the astonished empire with grief and terror. So interesting a contrast of

greatness and ruin, disposed the fond credulity of the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the

afflictions of the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events the lofty metaphors of oriental

prophecy, were sometimes tempted to confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of the globe.

[Footnote 108: Orosius (l. ii. c. 19, p. 142) compares the cruelty of the Gauls and the clemency of the Goths.

Ibi vix quemquam inventum senatorem, qui vel absens evaserit; hic vix quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens

perierit. But there is an air of rhetoric, and perhaps of falsehood, in this antithesis; and Socrates (l. vii. c. 10)

affirms, perhaps by an opposite exaggeration, that many senators were put to death with various and exquisite

[Footnote 109: Multi ... Christiani incaptivitatem ducti sunt. Augustin, de Civ Dei, l. i. c. 14; and the

[Footnote 111: Appendix Cod. Theodos. xvi. in Sirmond. Opera, tom. i. p. 735. This edict was published on

the 11th of December, A.D. 408, and is more reasonable than properly belonged to the ministers of

[Footnote 112: Eminus Igilii sylvosa cacumina miror; Quem fraudare nefas laudis honore suae.

Sive loci ingenio, seu Domini genio. Gurgite cum modico victricibus obstitit armis, Tanquam longinquo

Hic fessis posito certa timore salus. Plurima terreno populaverat aequora bello,

Contra naturam classe timendus eques: Unum, mira fides, vario discrimine portum!

[Footnote 113: As the adventures of Proba and her family are connected with the life of St. Augustin, they are

diligently illustrated by Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 620 635. Some time after their arrival in

Africa, Demetrias took the veil, and made a vow of virginity; an event which was considered as of the highest

importance to Rome and to the world. All the Saints wrote congratulatory letters to her; that of Jerom is still

extant, (tom. i. p. 62 73, ad Demetriad. de servand Virginitat.,) and contains a mixture of absurd reasoning,

spirited declamation, and curious facts, some of which relate to the siege and sack of Rome.]

[Footnote 114: See the pathetic complaint of Jerom, (tom. v. p. 400,) in his preface to the second book of his

There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of

the present times. Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate was made of the real

damage, the more learned and judicious contemporaries were forced to confess, that infant Rome had

formerly received more essential injury from the Gauls, than she had now sustained from the Goths in her

declining age. ^115 The experience of eleven centuries has enabled posterity to produce a much more

singular parallel; and to affirm with confidence, that the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from

the banks of the Danube, were less destructive than the hostilities exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth,

a Catholic prince, who styled himself Emperor of the Romans. ^116 The Goths evacuated the city at the end

of six days, but Rome remained above nine months in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was

stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The authority of Alaric preserved some order and

moderation among the ferocious multitude which acknowledged him for their leader and king; but the

constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed

every restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent nations, the Italians, the

Spaniards, and the Germans. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners of Italy exhibited a

remarkable scene of the depravity of mankind. They united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an unsettled

state of society, with the polished vices which spring from the abuse of art and luxury; and the loose

adventurers, who had violated every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to assault the palace of the

Roman pontiff, must deserve to be considered as the most profligate of the Italians. At the same aera, the

Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New World: but their high spirited valor was disgraced by

gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame and riches, they

had improved, by repeated practice, the most exquisite and effectual methods of torturing their prisoners:

many of the Castilians, who pillaged Rome, were familiars of the holy inquisition; and some volunteers,

perhaps, were lately returned from the conquest of Mexico The Germans were less corrupt than the Italians,

less cruel than the Spaniards; and the rustic, or even savage, aspect of those Tramontane warriors, often

disguised a simple and merciful disposition. But they had imbibed, in the first fervor of the reformation, the

spirit, as well as the principles of Luther. It was their favorite amusement to insult, or destroy, the consecrated

objects of Catholic superstition; they indulged, without pity or remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of

every denomination and degree, who form so considerable a part of the inhabitants of modern Rome; and

their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of Antichrist, to purify, with blood and fire, the

abominations of the spiritual Babylon. ^117 [Footnote 115: Orosius, though with some theological partiality,

states this comparison, l. ii. c. 19, p. 142, l. vii. c. 39, p. 575. But, in the history of the taking of Rome by the

Gauls, every thing is uncertain, and perhaps fabulous. See Beaufort sur l'Incertitude, de l'Histoire Romaine, p.

[Footnote 116: The reader who wishes to inform himself of the circumstances of his famous event, may

peruse an admirable narrative in Dr. Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 283; or consult the Annali

d'Italia of the learned Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 230 244, octavo edition. If he is desirous of examining the

originals, he may have recourse to the eighteenth book of the great, but unfinished, history of Guicciardini.

But the account which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original, is a little book, entitled, Il

Sacco di Roma, composed, within less than a month after the assault of the city, by the brother of the

historian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able magistrate and a dispassionate writer.]

[Footnote 117: The furious spirit of Luther, the effect of temper and enthusiasm, has been forcibly attacked,

(Bossuet, Hist. des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, livre i. p. 20 36,) and feebly defended, (Seckendorf.

Comment. de Lutheranismo, especially l. i. No. 78, p. 120, and l. iii. No. 122, p. 556.)]

The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the sixth day, ^118 might be the result of

prudence; but it was not surely the effect of fear. ^119 At the head of an army encumbered with rich and

weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy,

destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting

country. The fate of Capua, the proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which was respected, even

in its decay, as the eighth city of the empire, ^120 is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent town of Nola ^121

has been illustrated, on this occasion, by the sanctity of Paulinus, ^122 who was successively a consul, a

monk, and a bishop. At the age of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honor, of society and

literature, to embrace a life of solitude and penance; and the loud applause of the clergy encouraged him to

despise the reproaches of his worldly friends, who ascribed this desperate act to some disorder of the mind or

body. ^123 An early and passionate attachment determined him to fix his humble dwelling in one of the

suburbs of Nola, near the miraculous tomb of St. Faelix, which the public devotion had already surrounded

with five large and populous churches. The remains of his fortune, and of his understanding, were dedicated

to the service of the glorious martyr; whose praise, on the day of his festival, Paulinus never failed to

celebrate by a solemn hymn; and in whose name he erected a sixth church, of superior elegance and beauty,

which was decorated with many curious pictures, from the history of the Old and New Testament. Such

assiduous zeal secured the favor of the saint, ^124 or at least of the people; and, after fifteen years' retirement,

the Roman consul was compelled to accept the bishopric of Nola, a few months before the city was invested

by the Goths. During the siege, some religious persons were satisfied that they had seen, either in dreams or

visions, the divine form of their tutelar patron; yet it soon appeared by the event, that Faelix wanted power, or

inclination, to preserve the flock of which he had formerly been the shepherd. Nola was not saved from the

general devastation; ^125 and the captive bishop was protected only by the general opinion of his innocence

and poverty. Above four years elapsed from the successful invasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric, to the

voluntary retreat of the Goths under the conduct of his successor Adolphus; and, during the whole time, they

reigned without control over a country, which, in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various

excellences of nature and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy had attained in the auspicious age of the

Antonines, had gradually declined with the decline of the empire. The fruits of a long peace perished under

the rude grasp of the Barbarians; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant refinements

of luxury, which had been prepared for the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however,

claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected

and consumed in the Gothic camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas and gardens, once inhabited

by Lucullus and Cicero, along the beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons and

daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine to the

haughty victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of planetrees, ^126 artificially disposed to

exclude the scorching rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights were enhanced by the

memory of past hardships: the comparison of their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the

frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube, added new charms to the felicity of the Italian climate. ^127

[Footnote 118: Marcellinus, in Chron. Orosius, (l. vii. c. 39, p. 575,) asserts, that he left Rome on the third

day; but this difference is easily reconciled by the successive motions of great bodies of troops.]

[Footnote 119: Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) pretends, without any color of truth, or reason, that Alaric fled on the

[Footnote 120: Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233, edit. Toll. The luxury of Capua had formerly surpassed

that of Sybaris itself. See Athenaeus Deipnosophist. l. xii. p. 528, edit. Casaubon.]

[Footnote 121: Fortyeight years before the foundation of Rome, (about 800 before the Christian aera,) the

Tuscans built Capua and Nola, at the distance of twentythree miles from each other; but the latter of the two

[Footnote 122: Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 1 46) has compiled, with his usual diligence, all that

relates to the life and writings of Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own pen, and by the praises of

St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin, Sulpicius Severus, his Christian friends and contemporaries.]

[Footnote 123: See the affectionate letters of Ausonius (epist. xix. xxv. p. 650698, edit. Toll.) to his

colleague, his friend, and his disciple, Paulinus. The religion of Ausonius is still a problem, (see Mem. de

l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 123 138.) I believe that it was such in his own time, and,

[Footnote 124: The humble Paulinus once presumed to say, that he believed St. Faelix did love him; at least,

[Footnote 125: See Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30, p. 653. Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. Augustin. de Civ. Dei,

[Footnote 126: The platanus, or planetree, was a favorite of the ancients, by whom it was propagated, for the

sake of shade, from the East to Gaul. Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions several of an enormous size;

one in the Imperial villa, at Velitrae, which Caligula called his nest, as the branches were capable of holding a

large table, the proper attendants, and the emperor himself, whom Pliny quaintly styles pars umbroe; an

A brighter day, and skies of azure hue; Scent the new fragrance of the opening rose, And quaff the pendent

vintage as it grows. See Gray's Poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197. Instead of compiling tables of

chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic

Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, were the object or Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable

ardor, which could neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by success. No sooner had he reached the

extreme land of Italy, than he was attracted by the neighboring prospect of a fertile and peaceful island. Yet

even the possession of Sicily he considered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he

already meditated against the continent of Africa. The Straits of Rhegium and Messina ^128 are twelve miles

in length, and, in the narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad; and the fabulous monsters of the

deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and unskilful

mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of the Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk, or

scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by the terrors of a new element; and the whole

design was defeated by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short illness, the fatal term of his

conquests. The ferocious character of the Barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose valor and

fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted

the course of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned

with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then

restored to their natural channel; and the secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was

forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners, who had been employed to execute the work.

^129 [Footnote 128: For the perfect description of the Straits of Messina, Scylla, Clarybdis, see Cluverius,

(Ital. Antiq. l. iv. p. 1293, and Sicilia Antiq. l. i. p. 60 76, who had diligently studied the ancients, and

The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Barbarians were suspended by the strong necessity of

their affairs; and the brave Adolphus, the brotherinlaw of the deceased monarch, was unanimously elected

to succeed to his throne. The character and political system of the new king of the Goths may be best

understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen of Narbonne; who afterwards, in a

pilgrimage to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the historian Orosius. "In the full

confidence of valor and victory, I once aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face of the universe; to

obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus,

the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. By repeated experiments, I was gradually convinced, that

laws are essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a wellconstituted state; and that the fierce,

untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws and civil government.

From that moment I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition; and it is now my sincere

wish that the gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the merit of a stranger, who employed the sword of

the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and maintain, the prosperity of the Roman empire." ^130 With these

pacific views, the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war; and seriously negotiated with the

Imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance. It was the interest of the ministers of Honorius, who were

now released from the obligation of their extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of the

Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service against the tyrants and Barbarians who infested the

provinces beyond the Alps. ^131 Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman general, directed his march

from the extremity of Campania to the southern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force of agreement,

immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne, Thoulouse, and Bordeaux; and though they were repulsed by

Count Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their quarters from the Mediterranean to the

Ocean. The oppressed provincials might exclaim, that the miserable remnant, which the enemy had spared,

was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies; yet some specious colors were not wanting to palliate, or

justify the violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul, which they attacked, might perhaps be considered as in a

state of rebellion against the government of Honorius: the articles of the treaty, or the secret instructions of

the court, might sometimes be alleged in favor of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus; and the guilt of any

irregular, unsuccessful act of hostility might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth, to the

ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of peace or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less

effectual to soften the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths; and they had imbibed the vices,

[Footnote 130: Orosius, l. vii. c. 43, p. 584, 585. He was sent by St. Augustin in the year 415, from Africa to

Palestine, to visit St. Jerom, and to consult with him on the subject of the Pelagian controversy.]

[Footnote 131: Jornandes supposes, without much probability, that Adolphus visited and plundered Rome a

second time, (more locustarum erasit) Yet he agrees with Orosius in supposing that a treaty of peace was

concluded between the Gothic prince and Honorius. See Oros. l. vii. c. 43 p. 584, 585. Jornandes, de Reb.

[Footnote 132: The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their first transactions in Gaul, are dark and doubtful.

I have derived much assistance from Mascou, (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, l. viii. c. 29, 35, 36, 37,) who

has illustrated, and connected, the broken chronicles and fragments of the times.]

The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and his attachment to the cause of the republic was

secured by the ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and understanding of the

Barbarian king. Placidia, ^133 the daughter of the great Theodosius, and of Galla, his second wife, had

received a royal education in the palace of Constantinople; but the eventful story of her life is connected with

the revolutions which agitated the Western empire under the reign of her brother Honorius. When Rome was

first invested by the arms of Alaric, Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age, resided in the city; and

her ready consent to the death of her cousin Serena has a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according

to the circumstances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by the consideration of her tender age.

^134 The victorious Barbarians detained, either as a hostage or a captive, ^135 the sister of Honorius; but,

while she was exposed to the disgrace of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp, she

experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment. The authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty

of Placidia, may perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence, the expressive silence, of her flatterers: yet the

splendor of her birth, the bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the dexterous insinuation which she

condescended to employ, made a deep impression on the mind of Adolphus; and the Gothic king aspired to

call himself the brother of the emperor. The ministers of Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an

alliance so injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride; and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia, as an

indispensable condition of the treaty of peace. But the daughter of Theodosius submitted, without reluctance,

to the desires of the conqueror, a young and valiant prince, who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature, but

who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace and beauty. The marriage of Adolphus and Placidia

^136 was consummated before the Goths retired from Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the anniversary day of

their nuptials was afterwards celebrated in the house of Ingenuus, one of the most illustrious citizens of

Narbonne in Gaul. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman empress, was placed on a throne of state; and

the king of the Goths, who assumed, on this occasion, the Roman habit, contented himself with a less

honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift, which, according to the custom of his nation, ^137 was offered to

Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes,

carried a basin in each hand; and one of these basins was filled with pieces of gold, the other with precious

stones of an inestimable value. Attalus, so long the sport of fortune, and of the Goths, was appointed to lead

the chorus of the Hymeneal song; and the degraded emperor might aspire to the praise of a skilful musician.

The Barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph; and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which

tempered, by the mild influence of love and reason, the fierce spirit of their Gothic lord. ^138 [Footnote 133:

See an account of Placidia in Ducange Fam. Byzant. p. 72; and Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p.

[Footnote 135: Zosim. l. vi. p. 383. Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576,) and the Chronicles of Marcellinus and

Idatius, seem to suppose, that the Goths did not carry away Placidia till after the last siege of Rome.]

[Footnote 136: See the pictures of Adolphus and Placidia, and the account of their marriage, in Jornandes, de

Reb. Geticis, c. 31, p. 654, 655. With regard to the place where the nuptials were stipulated, or consummated,

or celebrated, the Mss. of Jornandes vary between two neighboring cities, Forli and Imola, (Forum Livii and

Forum Cornelii.) It is fair and easy to reconcile the Gothic historian with Olympiodorus, (see Mascou, l. viii.

c. 46:) but Tillemont grows peevish, and swears that it is not worth while to try to conciliate Jornandes with

[Footnote 137: The Visigoths (the subjects of Adolphus) restrained by subsequent laws, the prodigality of

conjugal love. It was illegal for a husband to make any gift or settlement for the benefit of his wife during the

first year of their marriage; and his liberality could not at any time exceed the tenth part of his property. The

Lombards were somewhat more indulgent: they allowed the morgingcap immediately after the wedding

night; and this famous gift, the reward of virginity might equal the fourth part of the husband's substance.

Some cautious maidens, indeed, were wise enough to stipulate beforehand a present, which they were too

sure of not deserving. See Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xix. c. 25. Muratori, delle Antichita Italiane, tom.

[Footnote 138: We owe the curious detail of this nuptial feast to the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p.

The hundred basins of gold and gems, presented to Placidia at her nuptial feast, formed an inconsiderable

portion of the Gothic treasures; of which some extraordinary specimens may be selected from the history of

the successors of Adolphus. Many curious and costly ornaments of pure gold, enriched with jewels, were

found in their palace of Narbonne, when it was pillaged, in the sixth century, by the Franks: sixty cups, caps,

or chalices; fifteen patens, or plates, for the use of the communion; twenty boxes, or cases, to hold the books

of the Gospels: this consecrated wealth ^139 was distributed by the son of Clovis among the churches of his

dominions, and his pious liberality seems to upbraid some former sacrilege of the Goths. They possessed,

with more security of conscience, the famous missorium, or great dish for the service of the table, of massy

gold, of the weight of five hundred pounds, and of far superior value, from the precious stones, the exquisite

workmanship, and the tradition, that it had been presented by Aetius, the patrician, to Torismond, king of the

Goths. One of the successors of Torismond purchased the aid of the French monarch by the promise of this

magnificent gift. When he was seated on the throne of Spain, he delivered it with reluctance to the

ambassadors of Dagobert; despoiled them on the road; stipulated, after a long negotiation, the inadequate

ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold; and preserved the missorium, as the pride of the Gothic

treasury. ^140 When that treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was plundered by the Arabs, they admired,

and they have celebrated, another object still more remarkable; a table of considerable size, of one single

piece of solid emerald, ^141 encircled with three rows of fine pearls, supported by three hundred and

sixtyfive feet of gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of five hundred thousand pieces of gold.

^142 Some portion of the Gothic treasures might be the gift of friendship, or the tribute of obedience; but the

far greater part had been the fruits of war and rapine, the spoils of the empire, and perhaps of Rome.

[Footnote 139: See in the great collection of the Historians of France by Dom Bouquet, tom. ii. Greg.

Turonens. l. iii. c. 10, p. 191. Gesta Regum Francorum, c. 23, p. 557. The anonymous writer, with an

ignorance worthy of his times, supposes that these instruments of Christian worship had belonged to the

temple of Solomon. If he has any meaning it must be, that they were found in the sack of Rome.]

[Footnote 140: Consult the following original testimonies in the Historians of France, tom. ii. Fredegarii

Scholastici Chron. c. 73, p. 441. Fredegar. Fragment. iii. p. 463. Gesta Regis Dagobert, c. 29, p. 587. The

accession of Sisenand to the throne of Spain happened A.D. 631. The 200,000 pieces of gold were

[Footnote 141: The president Goguet (Origine des Loix, tom. ii. p. 239) is of opinion, that the stupendous

pieces of emerald, the statues and columns which antiquity has placed in Egypt, at Gades, at Constantinople,

were in reality artificial compositions of colored glass. The famous emerald dish, which is shown at Genoa, is

[Footnote 142: Elmacin. Hist. Saracenica, l. i. p. 85. Roderic. Tolet. Hist. Arab. c. 9. Cardonne, Hist. de

l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous les Arabes tom. i. p. 83. It was called the Table of Solomon, according to the

custom of the Orientals, who ascribe to that prince every ancient work of knowledge or magnificence.]

After the deliverance of Italy from the oppression of the Goths, some secret counsellor was permitted, amidst

the factions of the palace, to heal the wounds of that afflicted country. ^143 By a wise and humane

regulation, the eight provinces which had been the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Picenum,

Samnium, Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lucania, obtained an indulgence of five years: the ordinary tribute

was reduced to one fifth, and even that fifth was destined to restore and support the useful institution of the

public posts. By another law, the lands which had been left without inhabitants or cultivation, were granted,

with some diminution of taxes, to the neighbors who should occupy, or the strangers who should solicit them;

and the new possessors were secured against the future claims of the fugitive proprietors. About the same

time a general amnesty was published in the name of Honorius, to abolish the guilt and memory of all the

involuntary offences which had been committed by his unhappy subjects, during the term of the public

disorder and calamity A decent and respectful attention was paid to the restoration of the capital; the citizens

were encouraged to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed or damaged by hostile fire; and

extraordinary supplies of corn were imported from the coast of Africa. The crowds that so lately fled before

the sword of the Barbarians, were soon recalled by the hopes of plenty and pleasure; and Albinus, praefect of

Rome, informed the court, with some anxiety and surprise, that, in a single day, he had taken an account of

the arrival of fourteen thousand strangers. ^144 In less than seven years, the vestiges of the Gothic invasion

were almost obliterated; and the city appeared to resume its former splendor and tranquillity. The venerable

matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the storms of war; and was still amused, in

the last moment of her decay, with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion. ^145

[Footnote 143: His three laws are inserted in the Theodosian Code, l. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 7. L. xiii. tit. xi. leg.

12. L. xv. tit. xiv. leg. 14 The expressions of the last are very remarkable; since they contain not only a

[Footnote 144: Olympiodorus ap. Phot. p. 188. Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 5) observes, that when Honorius made

his triumphal entry, he encouraged the Romans, with his hand and voice, to rebuild their city; and the

Chronicle of Prosper commends Heraclian, qui in Romanae urbis reparationem strenuum exhibuerat

[Footnote 145: The date of the voyage of Claudius Rutilius Numatianus is clogged with some difficulties; but

Scaliger has deduced from astronomical characters, that he left Rome the 24th of September and embarked at

Porto the 9th of October, A.D. 416. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom, v. p. 820. In this poetical

Itinerary, Rutilius (l. i. 115, addresses Rome in a high strain of congratulation:

This apparent tranquillity was soon disturbed by the approach of a hostile armament from the country which

afforded the daily subsistence of the Roman people. Heraclian, count of Africa, who, under the most difficult

and distressful circumstances, had supported, with active loyalty, the cause of Honorius, was tempted, in the

year of his consulship, to assume the character of a rebel, and the title of emperor. The ports of Africa were

immediately filled with the naval forces, at the head of which he prepared to invade Italy: and his fleet, when

it cast anchor at the mouth of the Tyber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and Alexander, if all the

vessels, including the royal galley, and the smallest boat, did actually amount to the incredible number of

three thousand two hundred. ^146 Yet with such an armament, which might have subverted, or restored, the

greatest empires of the earth, the African usurper made a very faint and feeble impression on the provinces of

his rival. As he marched from the port, along the road which leads to the gates of Rome, he was encountered,

terrified, and routed, by one of the Imperial captains; and the lord of this mighty host, deserting his fortune

and his friends, ignominiously fled with a single ship. ^147 When Heraclian landed in the harbor of Carthage,

he found that the whole province, disdaining such an unworthy ruler, had returned to their allegiance. The

rebel was beheaded in the ancient temple of Memory his consulship was abolished: ^148 and the remains of

his private fortune, not exceeding the moderate sum of four thousand pounds of gold, were granted to the

brave Constantius, who had already defended the throne, which he afterwards shared with his feeble

sovereign. Honorius viewed, with supine indifference, the calamities of Rome and Italy; ^149 but the

rebellious attempts of Attalus and Heraclian, against his personal safety, awakened, for a moment, the torpid

instinct of his nature. He was probably ignorant of the causes and events which preserved him from these

impending dangers; and as Italy was no longer invaded by any foreign or domestic enemies, he peaceably

existed in the palace of Ravenna, while the tyrants beyond the Alps were repeatedly vanquished in the name,

and by the lieutenants, of the son of Theodosius. ^150 In the course of a busy and interesting narrative I

might possibly forget to mention the death of such a prince: and I shall therefore take the precaution of

observing, in this place, that he survived the last siege of Rome about thirteen years. [Footnote 146: Orosius

composed his history in Africa, only two years after the event; yet his authority seems to be overbalanced by

the improbability of the fact. The Chronicle of Marcellinus gives Heraclian 700 ships and 3000 men: the

latter of these numbers is ridiculously corrupt; but the former would please me very much.]

[Footnote 147: The Chronicle of Idatius affirms, without the least appearance of truth, that he advanced as far

as Otriculum, in Umbria, where he was overthrown in a great battle, with the loss of 50,000 men.]

[Footnote 148: See Cod. Theod. l. xv. tit. xiv. leg. 13. The legal acts performed in his name, even the

manumission of slaves, were declared invalid, till they had been formally repeated.]

[Footnote 149: I have disdained to mention a very foolish, and probably a false, report, (Procop. de Bell.

Vandal. l. i. c. 2,) that Honorius was alarmed by the loss of Rome, till he understood that it was not a favorite

chicken of that name, but only the capital of the world, which had been lost. Yet even this story is some

[Footnote 150: The materials for the lives of all these tyrants are taken from six contemporary historians, two

Latins and four Greeks: Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 581, 582, 583; Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, apud Gregor

Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in the Historians of France, tom. ii. p. 165, 166; Zosimus, l. v. p. 370, 371; Olympiodorus,

apud Phot. p. 180, 181, 184, 185; Sozomen, l. ix. c. 12, 13, 14, 15; and Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 5, 6, with

Godefroy's Dissertation, p. 477481; besides the four Chronicles of Prosper Tyro, Prosper of Aquitain,

The usurpation of Constantine, who received the purple from the legions of Britain, had been successful, and

seemed to be secure. His title was acknowledged, from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules;

and, in the midst of the public disorder he shared the dominion, and the plunder, of Gaul and Spain, with the

tribes of Barbarians, whose destructive progress was no longer checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees. Stained

with the blood of the kinsmen of Honorius, he extorted, from the court of Ravenna, with which he secretly

corresponded, the ratification of his rebellious claims Constantine engaged himself, by a solemn promise, to

deliver Italy from the Goths; advanced as far as the banks of the Po; and after alarming, rather than assisting,

his pusillanimous ally, hastily returned to the palace of Arles, to celebrate, with intemperate luxury, his vain

and ostentatious triumph. But this transient prosperity was soon interrupted and destroyed by the revolt of

Count Gerontius, the bravest of his generals; who, during the absence of his son Constants, a prince already

invested with the Imperial purple, had been left to command in the provinces of Spain. From some reason, of

which we are ignorant, Gerontius, instead of assuming the diadem, placed it on the head of his friend

Maximus, who fixed his residence at Tarragona, while the active count pressed forwards, through the

Pyrenees, to surprise the two emperors, Constantine and Constans, before they could prepare for their

defence. The son was made prisoner at Vienna, and immediately put to death: and the unfortunate youth had

scarcely leisure to deplore the elevation of his family; which had tempted, or compelled him, sacrilegiously to

desert the peaceful obscurity of the monastic life. The father maintained a siege within the walls of Arles; but

those walls must have yielded to the assailants, had not the city been unexpectedly relieved by the approach

of an Italian army. The name of Honorius, the proclamation of a lawful emperor, astonished the contending

parties of the rebels. Gerontius, abandoned by his own troops, escaped to the confines of Spain; and rescued

his name from oblivion, by the Roman courage which appeared to animate the last moments of his life. In the

middle of the night, a great body of his perfidious soldiers surrounded and attacked his house, which he had

strongly barricaded. His wife, a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani, and some faithful slaves, were still

attached to his person; and he used, with so much skill and resolution, a large magazine of darts and arrows,

that above three hundred of the assailants lost their lives in the attempt. His slaves when all the missile

weapons were spent, fled at the dawn of day; and Gerontius, if he had not been restrained by conjugal

tenderness, might have imitated their example; till the soldiers, provoked by such obstinate resistance,

applied fire on all sides to the house. In this fatal extremity, he complied with the request of his Barbarian

friend, and cut off his head. The wife of Gerontius, who conjured him not to abandon her to a life of misery

and disgrace, eagerly presented her neck to his sword; and the tragic scene was terminated by the death of the

count himself, who, after three ineffectual strokes, drew a short dagger, and sheathed it in his heart. ^151 The

unprotected Maximus, whom he had invested with the purple, was indebted for his life to the contempt that

was entertained of his power and abilities. The caprice of the Barbarians, who ravaged Spain, once more

seated this Imperial phantom on the throne: but they soon resigned him to the justice of Honorius; and the

tyrant Maximus, after he had been shown to the people of Ravenna and Rome, was publicly executed.

[Footnote 151: 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) that the wife of Gerontius was a

Christian; and that her death was worthy of her religion, and of immortal fame.]

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, ^152 marked him, in the popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the throne, which

he afterwards ascended. In the familiar intercourse of private life, his manners were cheerful and engaging;

nor would he sometimes disdain, in the license of convivial mirth, to vie with the pantomimes themselves, in

the exercises of their ridiculous profession. But when the trumpet summoned him to arms; when he mounted

his horse, and, bending down (for such was his singular practice) almost upon the neck, fiercely rolled his

large animated eyes round the field, Constantius then struck terror into his foes, and inspired his soldiers with

the assurance of victory. He had received from the court of Ravenna the important commission of extirpating

rebellion in the provinces of the West; and the pretended emperor Constantine, after enjoying a short and

anxious respite, was again besieged in his capital by the arms of a more formidable enemy. Yet this interval

allowed time for a successful negotiation with the Franks and Alemanni and his ambassador, Edobic, soon

returned at the head of an army, to disturb the operations of the siege of Arles. The Roman general, instead of

expecting the attack in his lines, boldly and perhaps wisely, resolved to pass the Rhone, and to meet the

Barbarians. His measures were conducted with so much skill and secrecy, that, while they engaged the

infantry of Constantius in the front, they were suddenly attacked, surrounded, and destroyed, by the cavalry

of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had silently gained an advantageous post in their rear. The remains of the

army of Edobic were preserved by flight or submission, and their leader escaped from the field of battle to the

house of a faithless friend; who too clearly understood, that the head of his obnoxious guest would be an

acceptable and lucrative present for the Imperial general. On this occasion, Constantius behaved with the

magnanimity of a genuine Roman. Subduing, or suppressing, every sentiment of jealousy, he publicly

acknowledged the merit and services of Ulphilas; but he turned with horror from the assassin of Edobic; and

sternly intimated his commands, that the camp should no longer be polluted by the presence of an ungrateful

wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and hospitality. The usurper, who beheld, from the walls of

Arles, the ruin of his last hopes, was tempted to place some confidence in so generous a conqueror. He

required a solemn promise for his security; and after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the sacred

character of a Christian Presbyter, he ventured to open the gates of the city. But he soon experienced that the

principles of honor and integrity, which might regulate the ordinary conduct of Constantius, were superseded

by the loose doctrines of political morality. The Roman general, indeed, refused to sully his laurels with the

blood of Constantine; but the abdicated emperor, and his son Julian, were sent under a strong guard into Italy;

and before they reached the palace of Ravenna, they met the ministers of death. [Footnote 152: It is the

expression of Olympiodorus, which he seems to have borrowed from Aeolus, a tragedy of Euripides, of

which some fragments only are now extant, (Euripid. Barnes, tom. ii. p. 443, ver 38.) This allusion may

prove, that the ancient tragic poets were still familiar to the Greeks of the fifth century.]

At a time when it was universally confessed, that almost every man in the empire was superior in personal

merit to the princes whom the accident of their birth had seated on the throne, a rapid succession of usurpers,

regardless of the fate of their predecessors, still continued to arise. This mischief was peculiarly felt in the

provinces of Spain and Gaul, where the principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war and

rebellion. Before Constantine resigned the purple, and in the fourth month of the siege of Arles, intelligence

was received in the Imperial camp, that Jovinus has assumed the diadem at Mentz, in the Upper Germany, at

the instigation of Goar, king of the Alani, and of Guntiarius, king of the Burgundians; and that the candidate,

on whom they had bestowed the empire, advanced with a formidable host of Barbarians, from the banks of

the Rhine to those of the Rhone. Every circumstance is dark and extraordinary in the short history of the reign

of Jovinus. It was natural to expect, that a brave and skilful general, at the head of a victorious army, would

have asserted, in a field of battle, the justice of the cause of Honorius. The hasty retreat of Constantius might

be justified by weighty reasons; but he resigned, without a struggle, the possession of Gaul; and Dardanus,

the Praetorian praefect, is recorded as the only magistrate who refused to yield obedience to the usurper. ^153

When the Goths, two years after the siege of Rome, established their quarters in Gaul, it was natural to

suppose that their inclinations could be divided only between the emperor Honorius, with whom they had

formed a recent alliance, and the degraded Attalus, whom they reserved in their camp for the occasional

purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch. Yet in a moment of disgust, (for which it is not easy to

assign a cause, or a date,) Adolphus connected himself with the usurper of Gaul; and imposed on Attalus the

ignominious task of negotiating the treaty, which ratified his own disgrace. We are again surprised to read,

that, instead of considering the Gothic alliance as the firmest support of his throne, Jovinus upbraided, in dark

and ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attalus; that, scorning the advice of his great ally, he

invested with the purple his brother Sebastian; and that he most imprudently accepted the service of Sarus,

when that gallant chief, the soldier of Honorius, was provoked to desert the court of a prince, who knew not

how to reward or punish. Adolphus, educated among a race of warriors, who esteemed the duty of revenge as

the most precious and sacred portion of their inheritance, advanced with a body of ten thousand Goths to

encounter the hereditary enemy of the house of Balti. He attacked Sarus at an unguarded moment, when he

was accompanied only by eighteen or twenty of his valiant followers. United by friendship, animated by

despair, but at length oppressed by multitudes, this band of heroes deserved the esteem, without exciting the

compassion, of their enemies; and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils, ^154 than he was instantly

despatched. The death of Sarus dissolved the loose alliance which Adolphus still maintained with the

usurpers of Gaul. He again listened to the dictates of love and prudence; and soon satisfied the brother of

Placidia, by the assurance that he would immediately transmit to the palace of Ravenna the heads of the two

tyrants, Jovinus and Sebastian. The king of the Goths executed his promise without difficulty or delay; the

helpless brothers, unsupported by any personal merit, were abandoned by their Barbarian auxiliaries; and the

short opposition of Valentia was expiated by the ruin of one of the noblest cities of Gaul. The emperor,

chosen by the Roman senate, who had been promoted, degraded, insulted, restored, again degraded, and again

insulted, was finally abandoned to his fate; but when the Gothic king withdrew his protection, he was

restrained, by pity or contempt, from offering any violence to the person of Attalus. The unfortunate Attalus,

who was left without subjects or allies, embarked in one of the ports of Spain, in search of some secure and

solitary retreat: but he was intercepted at sea, conducted to the presence of Honorius, led in triumph through

the streets of Rome or Ravenna, and publicly exposed to the gazing multitude, on the second step of the

throne of his invincible conqueror. The same measure of punishment, with which, in the days of his

prosperity, he was accused of menacing his rival, was inflicted on Attalus himself; he was condemned, after

the amputation of two fingers, to a perpetual exile in the Isle of Lipari, where he was supplied with the decent

necessaries of life. The remainder of the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion; and it may be

observed, that, in the space of five years, seven usurpers had yielded to the fortune of a prince, who was

[Footnote 153: Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. v. epist. 9, p. 139, and Not. Sirmond. p. 58,) after stigmatizing 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 correspondence with St. Augustin and St. Jerom;

and was complimented by the latter (tom. iii. p. 66) with the epithets of Christianorum Nobilissime, and

[Footnote 154: The expression may be understood almost literally: Olympiodorus says 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.) Il fut pris vif avec des filets, is the translation of Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,

Note: Bekker in his Photius reads something, but in the new edition of the Bysantines, he retains the old

version, which is translated Scutis, as if they protected him with their shields, in order to take him alive.

The situation of Spain, separated, on all sides, from the enemies of Rome, by the sea, by the mountains, and

by intermediate provinces, had secured the long tranquillity of that remote and sequestered country; and we

may observe, as a sure symptom of domestic happiness, that, in a period of four hundred years, Spain

furnished very few materials to the history of the Roman empire. The footsteps of the Barbarians, who, in the

reign of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees, were soon obliterated by the return of peace; and in

the fourth century of the Christian aera, the cities of Emerita, or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, Bracara, and

Tarragona, were numbered with the most illustrious of the Roman world. The various plenty of the animal,

the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, was improved and manufactured by the skill of an industrious

people; and the peculiar advantages of naval stores contributed to support an extensive and profitable trade.

^155 The arts and sciences flourished under the protection of the emperors; and if the character of the

Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and servitude, the hostile approach of the Germans, who had spread terror

and desolation from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed to rekindle some sparks of military ardor. As long as

the defence of the mountains was intrusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country, they successfully

repelled the frequent attempts of the Barbarians. But no sooner had the national troops been compelled to

resign their post to the Honorian bands, in the service of Constantine, than the gates of Spain were

treacherously betrayed to the public enemy, about ten months before the sack of Rome by the Goths. ^156

The consciousness of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert

their station; to invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alani; and to swell the torrent which was

poured with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to the sea of Africa. The misfortunes of Spain may

be described in the language of its most eloquent historian, who has concisely expressed the passionate, and

perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary writers. ^157 "The irruption of these nations was

followed by the most dreadful calamities; as the Barbarians exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the

fortunes of the Romans and the Spaniards, and ravaged with equal fury the cities and the open country. The

progress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellowcreatures; and even

the wild beasts, who multiplied, without control, in the desert, were exasperated, by the taste of blood, and

the impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and devour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the

inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion of the people was swept away; and the groans of the

dying excited only the envy of their surviving friends. At length the Barbarians, satiated with carnage and

rapine, and afflicted by the contagious evils which they themselves had introduced, fixed their permanent

seats in the depopulated country. The ancient Gallicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old Castille,

was divided between the Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered over the provinces of Carthagena

and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; and the fruitful territory of Boetica was allotted

to the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation. After regulating this partition, the conquerors contracted

with their new subjects some reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience: the lands were again

cultivated; and the towns and villages were again occupied by a captive people. The greatest part of the

Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism, to the severe oppressions

of the Roman government; yet there were many who still asserted their native freedom; and who refused,

more especially in the mountains of Gallicia, to submit to the Barbarian yoke." ^158 [Footnote 155: Without

recurring to the more ancient writers, I shall quote three respectable testimonies which belong to the fourth

and seventh centuries; the Expositio totius Mundi, (p. 16, in the third volume of Hudson's Minor

Geographers,) Ausonius, (de Claris Urbibus, p. 242, edit. Toll.,) and Isidore of Seville, (Praefat. ad. Chron.

ap. Grotium, Hist. Goth. 707.) Many particulars relative to the fertility and trade of Spain may be found in

Nonnius, Hispania Illustrata; and in Huet, Hist. du Commerce des Anciens, c. 40. p. 228 234.]

[Footnote 156: The date is accurately fixed in the Fasti, and the Chronicle of Idatius. Orosius (l. vii. c. 40, p.

578) imputes the loss of Spain to the treachery of the Honorians; while Sozomen (l. ix. c. 12) accuses only

[Footnote 157: Idatius wishes to apply the prophecies of Daniel to these national calamities; and is therefore

obliged to accommodate the circumstances of the event to the terms of the prediction.]

[Footnote 158: Mariana de Rebus Hispanicis, l. v. c. 1, tom. i. p. 148. Comit. 1733. He had read, in Orosius,

(l. vii. c. 41, p. 579,) that the Barbarians had turned their swords into ploughshares; and that many of the

Provincials had preferred inter Barbaros pauperem libertatem, quam inter Romanos tributariam solicitudinem,

The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian had approved the friendship of Adolphus, and

restored Gaul to the obedience of his brother Honorius. Peace was incompatible with the situation and temper

of the king of the Goths. He readily accepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms against the

Barbarians of Spain; the troops of Constantius intercepted his communication with the seaports of Gaul, and

gently pressed his march towards the Pyrenees: ^159 he passed the mountains, and surprised, in the name of

the emperor, the city of Barcelona. The fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride, was not abated by time or

possession: and the birth of a son, surnamed, from his illustrious grandsire, Theodosius, appeared to fix him

forever in the interest of the republic. The loss of that infant, whose remains were deposited in a silver coffin

in one of the churches near Barcelona, afflicted his parents; but the grief of the Gothic king was suspended by

the labors of the field; and the course of his victories was soon interrupted by domestic treason. He had

imprudently received into his service one of the followers of Sarus; a Barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a

diminutive stature; whose secret desire of revenging the death of his beloved patron was continually irritated

by the sarcasms of his insolent master. Adolphus was assassinated in the palace of Barcelona; the laws of the

succession were violated by a tumultuous faction; ^160 and a stranger to the royal race, Singeric, the brother

of Sarus himself, was seated on the Gothic throne. The first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the

six children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage, whom he tore, without pity, from the feeble arms of

a venerable bishop. ^161 The unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful compassion, which she might

have excited in the most savage breasts, was treated with cruel and wanton insult. The daughter of the

emperor Theodosius, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was compelled to march on foot above

twelve miles, before the horse of a Barbarian, the assassin of a husband whom Placidia loved and lamented.

^162 [Footnote 159: This mixture of force and persuasion may be fairly inferred from comparing Orosius and

[Footnote 160: According to the system of Jornandes, (c. 33, p. 659,) the true hereditary right to the Gothic

sceptre was vested in the Amali; but those princes, who were the vassals of the Huns, commanded the tribes

[Footnote 161: The murder is related by Olympiodorus: but the number of the children is taken from an

[Footnote 162: The death of Adolphus was celebrated at Constantinople with illuminations and Circensian

games. (See Chron. Alexandrin.) It may seem doubtful whether the Greeks were actuated, on this occasion,

But Placidia soon obtained the pleasure of revenge, and the view of her ignominious sufferings might rouse

an indignant people against the tyrant, who was assassinated on the seventh day of his usurpation. After the

death of Singeric, the free choice of the nation bestowed the Gothic sceptre on Wallia; whose warlike and

ambitious temper appeared, in the beginning of his reign, extremely hostile to the republic. He marched in

arms from Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients revered and dreaded as the

boundary of the world. But when he reached the southern promontory of Spain, ^163 and, from the rock now

covered by the fortress of Gibraltar, contemplated the neighboring and fertile coast of Africa, Wallia resumed

the designs of conquest, which had been interrupted by the death of Alaric. The winds and waves again

disappointed the enterprise of the Goths; and the minds of a superstitious people were deeply affected by the

repeated disasters of storms and shipwrecks. In this disposition the successor of Adolphus no longer refused

to listen to a Roman ambassador, whose proposals were enforced by the real, or supposed, approach of a

numerous army, under the conduct of the brave Constantius. A solemn treaty was stipulated and observed;

Placidia was honorably restored to her brother; six hundred thousand measures of wheat were delivered to the

hungry Goths; ^164 and Wallia engaged to draw his sword in the service of the empire. A bloody war was

instantly excited among the Barbarians of Spain; and the contending princes are said to have addressed their

letters, their ambassadors, and their hostages, to the throne of the Western emperor, exhorting him to remain a

tranquil spectator of their contest; the events of which must be favorable to the Romans, by the mutual

slaughter of their common enemies. ^165 The Spanish war was obstinately supported, during three

campaigns, with desperate valor, and various success; and the martial achievements of Wallia diffused

through the empire the superior renown of the Gothic hero. He exterminated the Silingi, who had

irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Boetica. He slew, in battle, the king of the Alani;

and the remains of those Scythian wanderers, who escaped from the field, instead of choosing a new leader,

humbly sought a refuge under the standard of the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards

confounded. The Vandals themselves, and the Suevi, yielded to the efforts of the invincible Goths. The

promiscuous multitude of Barbarians, whose retreat had been intercepted, were driven into the mountains of

Gallicia; where they still continued, in a narrow compass and on a barren soil, to exercise their domestic and

implacable hostilities. In the pride of victory, Wallia was faithful to his engagements: he restored his Spanish

conquests to the obedience of Honorius; and the tyranny of the Imperial officers soon reduced an oppressed

people to regret the time of their Barbarian servitude. While the event of the war was still doubtful, the first

advantages obtained by the arms of Wallia had encouraged the court of Ravenna to decree the honors of a

triumph to their feeble sovereign. He entered Rome like the ancient conquerors of nations; and if the

monuments of servile corruption had not long since met with the fate which they deserved, we should

probably find that a crowd of poets and orators, of magistrates and bishops, applauded the fortune, the

wisdom, and the invincible courage, of the emperor Honorius. ^166 [Footnote 163: Quod Tartessiacis avus

hujus Vallia terris Vandalicas turmas, et juncti Martis Alanos Stravit, et occiduam texere cadavera Calpen.

[Footnote 164: This supply was very acceptable: the Goths were insulted by the Vandals of Spain with the

epithet of Truli, because in their extreme distress, they had given a piece of gold for a trula, or about half a

[Footnote 165: Orosius inserts a copy of these pretended letters. Tu cum omnibus pacem habe, omniumque

obsides accipe; nos nobis confligimus nobis perimus, tibi vincimus; immortalis vero quaestus erit Reipublicae

tuae, si utrique pereamus. The idea is just; but I cannot persuade myself that it was entertained or expressed

[Footnote 166: Roman triumphans ingreditur, is the formal expression of Prosper's Chronicle. The facts

which relate to the death of Adolphus, and the exploits of Wallia, are related from Olympiodorus, (ap. Phot.

p. 188,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 43 p. 584 587,) Jornandes, (de Rebus p. 31, 32,) and the chronicles of Idatius and

Such a triumph might have been justly claimed by the ally of Rome, if Wallia, before he repassed the

Pyrenees, had extirpated the seeds of the Spanish war. His victorious Goths, fortythree years after they had

passed the Danube, were established, according to the faith of treaties, in the possession of the second

Aquitain; a maritime province between the Garonne and the Loire, under the civil and ecclesiastical

jurisdiction of Bourdeaux. That metropolis, advantageously situated for the trade of the ocean, was built in a

regular and elegant form; and its numerous inhabitants were distinguished among the Gauls by their wealth,

their learning, and the politeness of their manners. The adjacent province, which has been fondly compared to

the garden of Eden, is blessed with a fruitful soil, and a temperate climate; the face of the country displayed

the arts and the rewards of industry; and the Goths, after their martial toils, luxuriously exhausted the rich

vineyards of Aquitain. ^167 The Gothic limits were enlarged by the additional gift of some neighboring

dioceses; and the successors of Alaric fixed their royal residence at Thoulouse, which included five populous

quarters, or cities, within the spacious circuit of its walls. About the same time, in the last years of the reign

of Honorius, the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks, obtained a permanent seat and dominion in the

provinces of Gaul. The liberal grant of the usurper Jovinus to his Burgundian allies, was confirmed by the

lawful emperor; the lands of the First, or Upper, Germany, were ceded to those formidable Barbarians; and

they gradually occupied, either by conquest or treaty, the two provinces which still retain, with the titles of

Duchy and County, the national appellation of Burgundy. ^168 The Franks, the valiant and faithful allies of

the Roman republic, were soon tempted to imitate the invaders, whom they had so bravely resisted. Treves,

the capital of Gaul, was pillaged by their lawless bands; and the humble colony, which they so long

maintained in the district of Toxandia, in Brabant, insensibly multiplied along the banks of the Meuse and

Scheld, till their independent power filled the whole extent of the Second, or Lower Germany. These facts

may be sufficiently justified by historic evidence; but the foundation of the French monarchy by Pharamond,

the conquests, the laws, and even the existence, of that hero, have been justly arraigned by the impartial

severity of modern criticism. ^169 [Footnote 167: Ausonius (de Claris Urbibus, p. 257 262) celebrates

Bourdeaux with the partial affection of a native. See in Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, p. 228. Paris, 1608) a florid

[Footnote 168: Orosius (l. vii. c. 32, p. 550) commends the mildness and modesty of these Burgundians, who

treated their subjects of Gaul as their Christian brethren. Mascou has illustrated the origin of their kingdom in

the four first annotations at the end of his laborious History of the Ancient Germans, vol. ii. p. 555 572, of

[Footnote 169: See Mascou, l. viii. c. 43, 44, 45. Except in a short and suspicious line of the Chronicle of

Prosper, (in tom. i. p. 638,) the name of Pharamond is never mentioned before the seventh century. The

author of the Gesta Francorum (in tom. ii. p. 543) suggests, probably enough, that the choice of Pharamond,

or at least of a king, was recommended to the Franks by his father Marcomir, who was an exile in Tuscany.

Note: The first mention of Pharamond is in the Gesta Francorum, assigned to about the year 720. St. Martin,

iv. 469. The modern French writers in general subscribe to the opinion of Thierry: Faramond fils de

Markomir, quo que son nom soit bien germanique, et son regne possible, ne figure pas dans les histoires les

The ruin of the opulent provinces of Gaul may be dated from the establishment of these Barbarians, whose

alliance was dangerous and oppressive, and who were capriciously impelled, by interest or passion, to violate

the public peace. A heavy and partial ransom was imposed on the surviving provincials, who had escaped the

calamities of war; the fairest and most fertile lands were assigned to the rapacious strangers, for the use of

their families, their slaves, and their cattle; and the trembling natives relinquished with a sigh the inheritance

of their fathers. Yet these domestic misfortunes, which are seldom the lot of a vanquished people, had been

felt and inflicted by the Romans themselves, not only in the insolence of foreign conquest, but in the madness

of civil discord. The Triumvirs proscribed eighteen of the most flourishing colonies of Italy; and distributed

their lands and houses to the veterans who revenged the death of Caesar, and oppressed the liberty of their

country. Two poets of unequal fame have deplored, in similar circumstances, the loss of their patrimony; but

the legionaries of Augustus appear to have surpassed, in violence and injustice, the Barbarians who invaded

Gaul under the reign of Honorius. It was not without the utmost difficulty that Virgil escaped from the sword

of the Centurion, who had usurped his farm in the neighborhood of Mantua; ^170 but Paulinus of Bourdeaux

received a sum of money from his Gothic purchaser, which he accepted with pleasure and surprise; and

though it was much inferior to the real value of his estate, this act of rapine was disguised by some colors of

moderation and equity. ^171 The odious name of conquerors was softened into the mild and friendly

appellation of the guests of the Romans; and the Barbarians of Gaul, more especially the Goths, repeatedly

declared, that they were bound to the people by the ties of hospitality, and to the emperor by the duty of

allegiance and military service. The title of Honorius and his successors, their laws, and their civil

magistrates, were still respected in the provinces of Gaul, of which they had resigned the possession to the

Barbarian allies; and the kings, who exercised a supreme and independent authority over their native subjects,

ambitiously solicited the more honorable rank of mastergenerals of the Imperial armies. ^172 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. [Footnote 170: O Lycida, vivi pervenimus: advena nostri (Quod

nunquam veriti sumus) ut possessor agelli Diseret: Haec mea sunt; veteres migrate coloni. Nunc victi tristes,

See the whole of the ninth eclogue, with the useful Commentary of Servius. Fifteen miles of the Mantuan

territory were assigned to the veterans, with a reservation, in favor of the inhabitants, of three miles round the

city. Even in this favor they were cheated by Alfenus Varus, a famous lawyer, and one of the commissioners,

[Footnote 171: See the remarkable passage of the Eucharisticon of Paulinus, 575, apud Mascou, l. viii. c. 42.]

[Footnote 172: 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 l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise dans les

Whilst Italy was ravaged by the Goths, and a succession of feeble tyrants oppressed the provinces beyond the

Alps, the British island separated itself from the body of the Roman empire. The regular forces, which

guarded that remote province, had been gradually withdrawn; and Britain was abandoned without defence to

the Saxon pirates, and the savages of Ireland and Caledonia. The Britons, reduced to this extremity, no longer

relied on the tardy and doubtful aid of a declining monarchy. They assembled in arms, repelled the invaders,

and rejoiced in the important discovery of their own strength. ^173 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 ^174) resolved to imitate the example of the neighboring island. They

expelled the Roman magistrates, who acted under the authority of the usurper Constantine; and a free

government was established among a people who had so long been subject to the arbitrary will of a master.

The independence of Britain and Armorica was soon confirmed by Honorius himself, the lawful emperor of

the West; and the letters, by which he committed to the new states the care of their own safety, might be

interpreted as an absolute and perpetual abdication of the exercise and rights of sovereignty. This

interpretation was, in some measure, justified by the event. After the usurpers of Gaul had successively

fallen, the maritime provinces were restored to the empire. Yet their obedience was imperfect and precarious:

the vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people, was incompatible either with freedom or servitude;

^175 and Armorica, though it could not long maintain the form of a republic, ^176 was agitated by frequent

and destructive revolts. Britain was irrecoverably lost. ^177 But as the emperors wisely acquiesced in the

independence of a remote province, the separation was not imbittered by the reproach of tyranny or rebellion;

and the claims of allegiance and protection were succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of national

[Footnote 173: Zosimus (l. vi. 376, 383) relates in a few words the revolt of Britain and Armorica. Our

antiquarians, even the great Cambder himself, have been betrayed into many gross errors, by their imperfect

[Footnote 174: The limits of Armorica are defined by two national geographers, Messieurs De Valois and

D'Anville, in their Notitias of Ancient Gaul. The word had been used in a more extensive, and was afterwards

Prodiga verborum, sed non et prodiga facti. Erricus, Monach. in Vit. St. Germani. l. v. apud Vales. Notit.

Galliarum, p. 43. Valesius alleges several testimonies to confirm this character; to which I shall 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. 643.]

[Footnote 176: 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, l. xxx. c. 24.

Note: See Memoires de Gallet sur l'Origine des Bretons, quoted by Daru Histoire de Bretagne, i. p. 57.

According to the opinion of these authors, the government of Armorica was monarchical from the period of

[Footnote 177: The words of Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2, p. 181, Louvre edition) in a very important

passage, which has been too much neglected Even Bede (Hist. Gent. Anglican. l. i. c. 12, p. 50, edit. Smith)

acknowledges that the Romans finally left Britain in the reign of Honorius. Yet our modern historians and

antiquaries extend the term of their dominion; and there are some who allow only the interval of a few

[Footnote 178: Bede has not forgotten the occasional aid of the legions against the Scots and Picts; and more

authentic proof will hereafter be produced, that the independent Britons raised 12,000 men for the service of

This revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil and military government; and the independent country,

during a period of forty years, till the descent of the Saxons, was ruled by the authority of the clergy, the

nobles, and the municipal towns. ^179 I. Zosimus, who alone has preserved the memory of this singular

transaction, very accurately observes, that the letters of Honorius were addressed to the cities of Britain. ^180

Under the protection of the Romans, ninetytwo considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that

great province; and, among these, thirtythree cities were distinguished above the rest by their superior

privileges and importance. ^181 Each of these cities, as in all the other provinces of the empire, formed a

legal corporation, for the purpose of regulating their domestic policy; and the powers of municipal

government were distributed among annual magistrates, a select senate, and the assembly of the people,

according to the original model of the Roman constitution. ^182 The management of a common revenue, the

exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and the habits of public counsel and command, were inherent to

these petty republics; and when they asserted their independence, the youth of the city, and of the adjacent

districts, would naturally range themselves under the standard of the magistrate. But the desire of obtaining

the advantages, and of escaping the burdens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of

discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed, that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from tumult

and faction. The preeminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular

citizens; and the haughty nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects of their own servants,

^183 would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary monarch. II. The jurisdiction of each city over the

adjacent country, was supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal senators; and the smaller towns,

the villages, and the proprietors of land, consulted their own safety by adhering to the shelter of these rising

republics. The sphere of their attraction was proportioned to the respective degrees of their wealth and

populousness; but the hereditary lords of ample possessions, who were not oppressed by the neighborhood of

any powerful city, aspired to the rank of independent princes, and boldly exercised the rights of peace and

war. The gardens and villas, which exhibited some faint imitation of Italian elegance, would soon be

converted into strong castles, the refuge, in time of danger, of the adjacent country: ^184 the produce of the

land was applied to purchase arms and horses; to maintain a military force of slaves, of peasants, and of

licentious followers; and the chieftain might assume, within his own domain, the powers of a civil magistrate.

Several of these British chiefs might be the genuine posterity of ancient kings; and many more would be

tempted to adopt this honorable genealogy, and to vindicate their hereditary claims, which had been

suspended by the usurpation of the Caesars. ^185 Their situation and their hopes would dispose them to affect

the dress, the language, and the customs of their ancestors. If the princes of Britain relapsed into barbarism,

while the cities studiously preserved the laws and manners of Rome, the whole island must have been

gradually divided by the distinction of two national parties; again broken into a thousand subdivisions of war

and faction, by the various provocations of interest and resentment. The public strength, instead of being

united against a foreign enemy, was consumed in obscure and intestine quarrels; and the personal merit which

had placed a successful leader at the head of his equals, might enable him to subdue the freedom of some

neighboring cities; and to claim a rank among the tyrants, ^186 who infested Britain after the dissolution of

the Roman government. III. The British church might be composed of thirty or forty bishops, ^187 with an

adequate proportion of the inferior clergy; and the want of riches (for they seem to have been poor ^188)

would compel them to deserve the public esteem, by a decent and exemplary behavior. The interest, as well

as the temper of the clergy, was favorable to the peace and union of their distracted country: those salutary

lessons might be frequently inculcated in their popular discourses; and the episcopal synods were the only

councils that could pretend to the weight and authority of a national assembly. In such councils, where the

princes and magistrates sat promiscuously with the bishops, the important affairs of the state, as well as of the

church, might be freely debated; differences reconciled, alliances formed, contributions imposed, wise

resolutions often concerted, and sometimes executed; and there is reason to believe, that, in moments of

extreme danger, a Pendragon, or Dictator, was elected by the general consent of the Britons. These pastoral

cares, so worthy of the episcopal character, were interrupted, however, by zeal and superstition; and the

British clergy incessantly labored to eradicate the Pelagian heresy, which they abhorred, as the peculiar

[Footnote 179: I owe it to myself, and to historic truth, to declare, that some circumstances in this paragraph

are founded only on conjecture and analogy. The stubbornness of our language has sometimes forced me to

[Footnote 181: Two cities of Britain were municipia, nine colonies, ten Latii jure donatoe, twelve

stipendiarioe of eminent note. This detail is taken from Richard of Cirencester, de Situ Britanniae, p. 36; and

though it may not seem probable that he wrote from the Mss. of a Roman general, he shows a genuine

knowledge of antiquity, very extraordinary for a monk of the fourteenth century.

Note: The names may be found in Whitaker's Hist. of Manchester vol. ii. 330, 379. Turner, Hist.

[Footnote 183: Leges restituit, libertatemque reducit, Et servos famulis non sinit esse suis.

[Footnote 184: An inscription (apud Sirmond, Not. ad Sidon. Apollinar. p. 59) describes a castle, cum muris

et portis, tutioni omnium, erected by Dardanus on his own estate, near Sisteron, in the second Narbonnese,

[Footnote 185: The establishment of their power would have been easy indeed, if we could adopt the

impracticable scheme of a lively and learned antiquarian; who supposes that the British monarchs of the

several tribes continued to reign, though with subordinate jurisdiction, from the time of Claudius to that of

[Footnote 186: Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 181. Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum, was the

expression of Jerom, in the year 415 (tom. ii. p. 255, ad Ctesiphont.) By the pilgrims, who resorted every year

to the Holy Land, the monk of Bethlem received the earliest and most accurate intelligence.]

[Footnote 188: It is reported of three British bishops who assisted at the council of Rimini, A.D. 359, tam

pauperes fuisse ut nihil haberent. Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 420. Some of their brethren however,

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, ^190 filled

with the strongest assurances of that paternal affection which princes so often express, and so seldom feel, the

emperor Honorius promulgated his intention of convening an annual assembly of the seven provinces: a name

peculiarly appropriated to Aquitain and the ancient Narbonnese, which had long since exchanged their Celtic

rudeness for the useful and elegant arts of Italy. ^191 Arles, the seat of government and commerce, was

appointed for the place of the assembly; which regularly continued twentyeight days, from the fifteenth of

August to the thirteenth of September, of every year. It consisted of the Praetorian praefect of the Gauls; of

seven provincial governors, one consular, and six presidents; of the magistrates, and perhaps the bishops, of

about sixty cities; and of a competent, though indefinite, number of the most honorable and opulent

possessors of land, who might justly be considered as the representatives of their country. They were

empowered to interpret and communicate the laws of their sovereign; to expose the grievances and wishes of

their constituents; to moderate the excessive or unequal weight of taxes; and to deliberate on every subject of

local or national importance, that could tend to the restoration of the peace and prosperity of the seven

provinces. If such an institution, which gave the people an interest in their own government, had been

universally established by Trajan or the Antonines, the seeds of public wisdom and virtue might have been

cherished and propagated in the empire of Rome. The privileges of the subject would have secured the throne

of the monarch; the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been prevented, in some degree, or

corrected, by the interposition of these representative assemblies; and the country would have been defended

against a foreign enemy by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the mild and generous influence of

liberty, the Roman empire might have remained invincible and immortal; or if its excessive magnitude, and

the instability of human affairs, had opposed such perpetual continuance, its vital and constituent members

might have separately preserved their vigor and independence. But in the decline of the empire, when every

principle of health and life had been exhausted, the tardy application of this partial remedy was incapable of

producing any important or salutary effects. The emperor Honorius expresses his surprise, that he must

compel the reluctant provinces to accept a privilege which they should ardently have solicited. A fine of

three, or even five, pounds of gold, was imposed on the absent representatives; who seem to have declined

this imaginary gift of a free constitution, as the last and most cruel insult of their oppressors.

[Footnote 190: See the correct text of this edict, as published by Sirmond, (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 148.)

Hincmar of Rheims, who assigns a place to the bishops, had probably seen (in the ninth century) a more

perfect copy. Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Francoise, tom. i. p. 241 255]

[Footnote 191: It is evident from the Notitia, that the seven provinces were the Viennensis, the maritime

Alps, the first and second Narbonnese Novempopulania, and the first and second Aquitain. In the room of the

first Aquitain, the Abbe Dubos, on the authority of Hincmar, desires to introduce the first Lugdunensis, or

Arcadius Emperor Of The East. Administration And Disgrace Of Eutropius. Revolt Of Gainas.

Persecution Of St. John Chrysostom. Theodosius II. Emperor Of The East. His Sister Pulcheria. His

The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the empire

of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one

thousand and fiftyeight years, in a state of premature and perpetual decay. The sovereign of that empire

assumed, and obstinately retained, the vain, and at length fictitious, title of Emperor of the Romans; and the

hereditary appellation of Caesar and Augustus continued to declare, that he was the legitimate successor of

the first of men, who had reigned over the first of nations. The place of Constantinople rivalled, and perhaps

excelled, the magnificence of Persia; and the eloquent sermons of St. Chrysostom ^1 celebrate, while they

condemn, the pompous luxury of the reign of Arcadius. "The emperor," says he, "wears on his head either a

diadem, or a crown of gold, decorated with precious stones of inestimable value. These ornaments, and his

purple garments, are reserved for his sacred person alone; and his robes of silk are embroidered with the

figures of golden dragons. His throne is of massy gold. Whenever he appears in public, he is surrounded by

his courtiers, his guards, and his attendants. Their spears, their shields, their cuirasses, the bridles and

trappings of their horses, have either the substance or the appearance of gold; and the large splendid boss in

the midst of their shield is encircled with smaller bosses, which represent the shape of the human eye. The

two mules that drew the chariot of the monarch are perfectly white, and shining all over with gold. The

chariot itself, of pure and solid gold, attracts the admiration of the spectators, who contemplate the purple

curtains, the snowy carpet, the size of the precious stones, and the resplendent plates of gold, that glitter as

they are agitated by the motion of the carriage. The Imperial pictures are white, on a blue ground; the

emperor appears seated on his throne, with his arms, his horses, and his guards beside him; and his

vanquished enemies in chains at his feet." The successors of Constantine established their perpetual residence

in the royal city, which he had erected on the verge of Europe and Asia. Inaccessible to the menaces of their

enemies, and perhaps to the complaints of their people, they received, with each wind, the tributary

productions of every climate; while the impregnable strength of their capital continued for ages to defy the

hostile attempts of the Barbarians. Their dominions were bounded by the Adriatic and the Tigris; and the

whole interval of twentyfive days' navigation, which separated the extreme cold of Scythia from the torrid

zone of Aethiopia, ^2 was comprehended within the limits of the empire of the East. The populous countries

of that empire were the seat of art and learning, of luxury and wealth; and the inhabitants, who had assumed

the language and manners of Greeks, styled themselves, with some appearance of truth, the most enlightened

and civilized portion of the human species. The form of government was a pure and simple monarchy; the

name of the Roman Republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was confined to the Latin

provinces; and the princes of Constantinople measured their greatness by the servile obedience of their

people. They were ignorant how much this passive disposition enervates and degrades every faculty of the

mind. The subjects, who had resigned their will to the absolute commands of a master, were equally

incapable of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assaults of the Barbarians, or of defending their

[Footnote 1: Father Montfaucon, who, by the command of his Benedictine superiors, was compelled (see

Longueruana, tom. i. p. 205) to execute the laborious edition of St. Chrysostom, in thirteen volumes in folio,

(Paris, 1738,) amused himself with extracting from that immense collection of morals, some curious

antiquities, which illustrate the manners of the Theodosian age, (see Chrysostom, Opera, tom. xiii. p. 192

196,) and his French Dissertation, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. xiii. p. 474 490.]

[Footnote 2: According to the loose reckoning, that a ship could sail, with a fair wind, 1000 stadia, or 125

miles, in the revolution of a day and night, Diodorus Siculus computes ten days from the Palus Moeotis to

Rhodes, and four days from Rhodes to Alexandria. The navigation of the Nile from Alexandria to Syene,

under the tropic of Cancer, required, as it was against the stream, ten days more. Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p.

200, edit. Wesseling. He might, without much impropriety, measure the extreme heat from the verge of the

torrid zone; but he speaks of the Moeotis in the 47th degree of northern latitude, as if it lay within the polar

The first events of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius are so intimately connected, that the rebellion of the

Goths, and the fall of Rufinus, have already claimed a place in the history of the West. It has already been

observed, that Eutropius, ^3 one of the principal eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, succeeded the

haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose vices he soon imitated. Every order of the state

bowed to the new favorite; and their tame and obsequious submission encouraged him to insult the laws, and,

what is still more difficult and dangerous, the manners of his country. Under the weakest of the predecessors

of Arcadius, the reign of the eunuchs had been secret and almost invisible. They insinuated themselves into

the confidence of the prince; but their ostensible functions were confined to the menial service of the

wardrobe and Imperial bedchamber. They might direct, in a whisper, the public counsels, and blast, by their

malicious suggestions, the fame and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens; but they never presumed to

stand forward in the front of empire, ^4 or to profane the public honors of the state. Eutropius was the first of

his artificial sex, who dared to assume the character of a Roman magistrate and general. ^5 Sometimes, in the

presence of the blushing senate, he ascended the tribunal to pronounce judgment, or to repeat elaborate

harangues; and, sometimes, appeared on horseback, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armor of a hero.

The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and illregulated mind; nor does Eutropius seem

to have compensated for the folly of the design by any superior merit or ability in the execution. His former

habits of life had not introduced him to the study of the laws, or the exercises of the field; his awkward and

unsuccessful attempts provoked the secret contempt of the spectators; the Goths expressed their wish that

such a general might always command the armies of Rome; and the name of the minister was branded with

ridicule, more pernicious, perhaps, than hatred, to a public character. The subjects of Arcadius were

exasperated by the recollection, that this deformed and decrepit eunuch, ^6 who so perversely mimicked the

actions of a man, was born in the most abject condition of servitude; that before he entered the Imperial

palace, he had been successively sold and purchased by a hundred masters, who had exhausted his youthful

strength in every mean and infamous office, and at length dismissed him, in his old age, to freedom and

poverty. ^7 While these disgraceful stories were circulated, and perhaps exaggerated, in private conversation,

the vanity of the favorite was flattered with the most extraordinary honors. In the senate, in the capital, in the

provinces, the statues of Eutropius were erected, in brass, or marble, decorated with the symbols of his civil

and military virtues, and inscribed with the pompous title of the third founder of Constantinople. He was

promoted to the rank of patrician, which began to signify in a popular, and even legal, acceptation, the father

of the emperor; and the last year of the fourth century was polluted by the consulship of a eunuch and a slave.

This strange and inexpiable prodigy ^8 awakened, however, the prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate

consul was rejected by the West, as an indelible stain to the annals of the republic; and without invoking the

shades of Brutus and Camillus, the colleague of Eutropius, a learned and respectable magistrate, ^9

sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two administrations. [Footnote 3: Barthius, who adored

his author with the blind superstition of a commentator, gives the preference to the two books which Claudian

composed against Eutropius, above all his other productions, (Baillet Jugemens des Savans, tom. iv. p. 227.)

They are indeed a very elegant and spirited satire; and would be more valuable in an historical light, if the

[Footnote 4: After lamenting the progress of the eunuchs in the Roman palace, and defining their proper

Yet it does not appear that the eunuchs had assumed any of the efficient offices of the empire, and he is styled

only Praepositun sacri cubiculi, in the edict of his banishment. See Cod. Theod. l. leg 17.

Jamque oblita sui, nec sobria divitiis mens In miseras leges hominumque negotia ludit Judicat eunuchus .......

Claudian, (i. 229 270,) with that mixture of indignation and humor which always pleases in a satiric poet,

describes the insolent folly of the eunuch, the disgrace of the empire, and the joy of the Goths.

[Footnote 6: The poet's lively description of his deformity (i. 110 125) is confirmed by the authentic

testimony of Chrysostom, (tom. iii. p. 384, edit Montfaucon;) who observes, that when the paint was washed

away the face of Eutropius appeared more ugly and wrinkled than that of an old woman. Claudian remarks,

(i. 469,) and the remark must have been founded on experience, that there was scarcely an interval between

[Footnote 7: Eutropius appears to have been a native of Armenia or Assyria. His three services, which

Claudian more particularly describes, were these: 1. He spent many years as the catamite of Ptolemy, a

groom or soldier of the Imperial stables. 2. Ptolemy gave him to the old general Arintheus, for whom he very

skilfully exercised the profession of a pimp. 3. He was given, on her marriage, to the daughter of Arintheus;

and the future consul was employed to comb her hair, to present the silver ewer to wash and to fan his

[Footnote 8: Claudian, (l. i. in Eutrop. l. 22,) after enumerating the various prodigies of monstrous births,

speaking animals, showers of blood or stones, double suns, adds, with some exaggeration,

The first book concludes with a noble speech of the goddess of Rome to her favorite Honorius, deprecating

[Footnote 9: Fl. Mallius Theodorus, whose civil honors, and philosophical works, have been celebrated by

The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems to have been actuated by a more sanguinary and revengeful

spirit; but the avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that of the praefect. ^10 As long as he

despoiled the oppressors, who had enriched themselves with the plunder of the people, Eutropius might

gratify his covetous disposition without much envy or injustice: but the progress of his rapine soon invaded

the wealth which had been acquired by lawful inheritance, or laudable industry. The usual methods of

extortion were practised and improved; and Claudian has sketched a lively and original picture of the public

auction of the state. "The impotence of the eunuch," says that agreeable satirist, "has served only to stimulate

his avarice: the same hand which in his servile condition, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the coffers

of his master, now grasps the riches of the world; and this infamous broker of the empire appreciates and

divides the Roman provinces from Mount Haemus to the Tigris. One man, at the expense of his villa, is made

proconsul of Asia; a second purchases Syria with his wife's jewels; and a third laments that he has exchanged

his paternal estate for the government of Bithynia. In the antechamber of Eutropius, a large tablet is exposed

to public view, which marks the respective prices of the provinces. The different value of Pontus, of Galatia,

of Lydia, is accurately distinguished. Lycia may be obtained for so many thousand pieces of gold; but the

opulence of Phrygia will require a more considerable sum. The eunuch wishes to obliterate, by the general

disgrace, his personal ignominy; and as he has been sold himself, he is desirous of selling the rest of

mankind. In the eager contention, the balance, which contains the fate and fortunes of the province, often

trembles on the beam; and till one of the scales is inclined, by a superior weight, the mind of the impartial

judge remains in anxious suspense. ^11 Such," continues the indignant poet, "are the fruits of Roman valor,

of the defeat of Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey." This venal prostitution of public honors secured

the impunity of future crimes; but the riches, which Eutropius derived from confiscation, were already stained

with injustice; since it was decent to accuse, and to condemn, the proprietors of the wealth, which he was

impatient to confiscate. Some noble blood was shed by the hand of the executioner; and the most inhospitable

extremities of the empire were filled with innocent and illustrious exiles. Among the generals and consuls of

the East, Abundantius ^12 had reason to dread the first effects of the resentment of Eutropius. He had been

guilty of the unpardonable crime of introducing that abject slave to the palace of Constantinople; and some

degree of praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful favorite, who was satisfied with the disgrace of

his benefactor. Abundantius was stripped of his ample fortunes by an Imperial rescript, and banished to

Pityus, on the Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman world; where he subsisted by the precarious mercy of the

Barbarians, till he could obtain, after the fall of Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon, in Phoenicia. The

destruction of Timasius ^13 required a more serious and regular mode of attack. That great officer, the

mastergeneral of the armies of Theodosius, had signalized his valor by a decisive victory, which he obtained

over the Goths of Thessaly; but he was too prone, after the example of his sovereign, to enjoy the luxury of

peace, and to abandon his confidence to wicked and designing flatterers. Timasius had despised the public

clamor, by promoting an infamous dependant to the command of a cohort; and he deserved to feel the

ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly instigated by the favorite to accuse his patron of a treasonable

conspiracy. The general was arraigned before the tribunal of Arcadius himself; and the principal eunuch

stood by the side of the throne to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign. But as this form of trial

might be deemed partial and arbitrary, the further inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to

Saturninus and Procopius; the former of consular rank, the latter still respected as the fatherinlaw of the

emperor Valens. The appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of

Procopius; and he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague, who pronounced a

sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated in the

name of the emperor, and for the benefit of the favorite; and he was doomed to perpetual exile a Oasis, a

solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of Libya. ^14 Secluded from all human converse, the

mastergeneral of the Roman armies was lost forever to the world; but the circumstances of his fate have

been related in a various and contradictory manner. It is insinuated that Eutropius despatched a private order

for his secret execution. ^15 It was reported, that, in attempting to escape from Oasis, he perished in the

desert, of thirst and hunger; and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya. ^16 It has been asserted,

with more confidence, that his son Syagrius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and

emissaries of the court, collected a band of African robbers; that he rescued Timasius from the place of his

exile; and that both the father and the son disappeared from the knowledge of mankind. ^17 But the

ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt was soon after circumvented and

destroyed, by the more powerful villany of the minister himself, who retained sense and spirit enough to

[Footnote 10: Drunk with riches, is the forcible expression of Zosimus, (l. v. p. 301;) and the avarice of

Eutropius is equally execrated in the Lexicon of Suidas and the Chronicle of Marcellinus Chrysostom had

often admonished the favorite of the vanity and danger of immoderate wealth, tom. iii. p. 381. certantum

saepe duorum Diversum suspendit onus: cum pondere judex Vergit, et in geminas nutat provincia lances.

Claudian (i. 192 209) so curiously distinguishes the circumstances of the sale, that they all seem to allude to

[Footnote 12: Claudian (i. 154 170) mentions the guilt and exile of Abundantius; nor could he fail to quote

the example of the artist, who made the first trial of the brazen bull, which he presented to Phalaris. See

Zosimus, l. v. p. 302. Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. The difference of place is easily reconciled; but the decisive

authority of Asterius of Amasia (Orat. iv. p. 76, apud Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 435) must

[Footnote 13: Suidas (most probably from the history of Eunapius) has given a very unfavorable picture of

Timasius. The account of his accuser, the judges, trial, is perfectly agreeable to the practice of ancient and

modern courts. (See Zosimus, l. v. p. 298, 299, 300.) I am almost tempted to quote the romance of a great

master, (Fielding's Works, vol. iv. p. 49, 8vo. edit.,) which may be considered as the history of human

[Footnote 14: The great Oasis was one of the spots in the sands of Libya, watered with springs, and capable

of producing wheat, barley, and palm trees. It was about three days' journey from north to south, about half

a day in breadth, and at the distance of about five days' march to the west of Abydus, on the Nile. See

D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 186, 187, 188. The barren desert which encompasses Oasis (Zosimus, l.

v. p. 300) has suggested the idea of comparative fertility, and even the epithet of the happy island ]

evidently alludes to his persuasion of the death of Timasius. Note: A fragment of Eunapius confirms this

account. "Thus having deprived this great person of his life a eunuch, a man, a slave, a consul, a minister of

[Footnote 17: Zosimus, l. v. p. 300. Yet he seems to suspect that this rumor was spread by the friends of

The public hatred, and the despair of individuals, continually threatened, or seemed to threaten, the personal

safety of Eutropius; as well as of the numerous adherents, who were attached to his fortune, and had been

promoted by his venal favor. For their mutual defence, he contrived the safeguard of a law, which violated

every principal of humanity and justice. ^18 I. It is enacted, in the name, and by the authority of Arcadius,

that all those who should conspire, either with subjects or with strangers, against the lives of any of the

persons whom the emperor considers as the members of his own body, shall be punished with death and

confiscation. This species of fictitious and metaphorical treason is extended to protect, not only the illustrious

officers of the state and army, who were admitted into the sacred consistory, but likewise the principal

domestics of the palace, the senators of Constantinople, the military commanders, and the civil magistrates of

the provinces; a vague and indefinite list, which, under the successors of Constantine, included an obscure

and numerous train of subordinate ministers. II. This extreme severity might perhaps be justified, had it been

only directed to secure the representatives of the sovereign from any actual violence in the execution of their

office. But the whole body of Imperial dependants claimed a privilege, or rather impunity, which screened

them, in the loosest moments of their lives, from the hasty, perhaps the justifiable, resentment of their

fellowcitizens; and, by a strange perversion of the laws, the same degree of guilt and punishment was

applied to a private quarrel, and to a deliberate conspiracy against the emperor and the empire. The edicts of

Arcadius most positively and most absurdly declares, that in such cases of treason, thoughts and actions

ought to be punished with equal severity; that the knowledge of a mischievous intention, unless it be instantly

revealed, becomes equally criminal with the intention itself; ^19 and that those rash men, who shall presume

to solicit the pardon of traitors, shall themselves be branded with public and perpetual infamy. III. "With

regard to the sons of the traitors," (continues the emperor,) "although they ought to share the punishment,

since they will probably imitate the guilt, of their parents, yet, by the special effect of our Imperial lenity, we

grant them their lives; but, at the same time, we declare them incapable of inheriting, either on the father's or

on the mother's side, or of receiving any gift or legacy, from the testament either of kinsmen or of strangers.

Stigmatized with hereditary infamy, excluded from the hopes of honors or fortune, let them endure the pangs

of poverty and contempt, till they shall consider life as a calamity, and death as a comfort and relief." In such

words, so well adapted to insult the feelings of mankind, did the emperor, or rather his favorite eunuch,

applaud the moderation of a law, which transferred the same unjust and inhuman penalties to the children of

all those who had seconded, or who had not disclosed, their fictitious conspiracies. Some of the noblest

regulations of Roman jurisprudence have been suffered to expire; but this edict, a convenient and forcible

engine of ministerial tyranny, was carefully inserted in the codes of Theodosius and Justinian; and the same

maxims have been revived in modern ages, to protect the electors of Germany, and the cardinals of the

[Footnote 18: See the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. 14, ad legem Corneliam de Sicariis, leg. 3, and the Code of

Justinian, l. ix. tit. viii, viii. ad legem Juliam de Majestate, leg. 5. The alteration of the title, from murder to

treason, was an improvement of the subtle Tribonian. Godefroy, in a formal dissertation, which he has

inserted in his Commentary, illustrates this law of Arcadius, and explains all the difficult passages which had

been perverted by the jurisconsults of the darker ages. See tom. iii. p. 88 111.]

[Footnote 19: Bartolus understands a simple and naked consciousness, without any sign of approbation or

concurrence. For this opinion, says Baldus, he is now roasting in hell. For my own part, continues the discreet

Heineccius, (Element. Jur. Civil l. iv. p. 411,) I must approve the theory of Bartolus; but in practice I should

incline to the sentiments of Baldus. Yet Bartolus was gravely quoted by the lawyers of Cardinal Richelieu;

[Footnote 20: Godefroy, tom. iii. p. 89. It is, however, suspected, that this law, so repugnant to the maxims of

Yet these sanguinary laws, which spread terror among a disarmed and dispirited people, were of too weak a

texture to restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild ^21 the Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which

had been planted by Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts of Phrygia, ^22 impatiently compared the

slow returns of laborious husbandry with the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their leader

resented, as a personal affront, his own ungracious reception in the palace of Constantinople. A soft and

wealthy province, in the heart of the empire, was astonished by the sound of war; and the faithful vassal who

had been disregarded or oppressed, was again respected, as soon as he resumed the hostile character of a

Barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields, between the rapid Marsyas and the winding Maeander, ^23 were

consumed with fire; the decayed walls of the cities crumbled into dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; the

trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the Hellespont; and a considerable part

of Asia Minor was desolated by the rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked by the resistance

of the peasants of Pamphylia; and the Ostrogoths, attacked in a narrow pass, between the city of Selgae, ^24 a

deep morass, and the craggy cliffs of Mount Taurus, were defeated with the loss of their bravest troops. But

the spirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army was continually recruited by swarms of

Barbarians and outlaws, who were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery, under the more honorable

names of war and conquest. The rumors of the success of Tribigild might for some time be suppressed by

fear, or disguised by flattery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital. Every misfortune was

exaggerated in dark and doubtful hints; and the future designs of the rebels became the subject of anxious

conjecture. Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country, the Romans were inclined to suppose that

he meditated the passage of Mount Taurus, and the invasion of Syria. If he descended towards the sea, they

imputed, and perhaps suggested, to the Gothic chief, the more dangerous project of arming a fleet in the

harbors of Ionia, and of extending his depredations along the maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to

the port of Constantinople. The approach of danger, and the obstinacy of Tribigild, who refused all terms of

accommodation, compelled Eutropius to summon a council of war. ^25 After claiming for himself the

privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch intrusted the guard of Thrace and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth,

and the command of the Asiatic army to his favorite, Leo; two generals, who differently, but effectually,

promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo, ^26 who, from the bulk of his body, and the dulness of his mind, was

surnamed the Ajax of the East, had deserted his original trade of a woolcomber, to exercise, with much less

skill and success, the military profession; and his uncertain operations were capriciously framed and

executed, with an ignorance of real difficulties, and a timorous neglect of every favorable opportunity. The

rashness of the Ostrogoths had drawn them into a disadvantageous position between the Rivers Melas and

Eurymedon, where they were almost besieged by the peasants of Pamphylia; but the arrival of an Imperial

army, instead of completing their destruction, afforded the means of safety and victory. Tribigild surprised

the unguarded camp of the Romans, in the darkness of the night; seduced the faith of the greater part of the

Barbarian auxiliaries, and dissipated, without much effort, the troops, which had been corrupted by the

relaxation of discipline, and the luxury of the capital. The discontent of Gainas, who had so boldly contrived

and executed the death of Rufinus, was irritated by the fortune of his unworthy successor; he accused his own

dishonorable patience under the servile reign of a eunuch; and the ambitious Goth was convicted, at least in

the public opinion, of secretly fomenting the revolt of Tribigild, with whom he was connected by a domestic,

as well as by a national alliance. ^27 When Gainas passed the Hellespont, to unite under his standard the

remains of the Asiatic troops, he skilfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the Ostrogoths; abandoning,

by his retreat, the country which they desired to invade; or facilitating, by his approach, the desertion of the

Barbarian auxiliaries. To the Imperial court he repeatedly magnified the valor, the genius, the inexhaustible

resources of Tribigild; confessed his own inability to prosecute the war; and extorted the permission of

negotiating with his invincible adversary. The conditions of peace were dictated by the haughty rebel; and the

peremptory demand of the head of Eutropius revealed the author and the design of this hostile conspiracy.

[Footnote 21: A copious and circumstantial narrative (which he might have reserved for more important

events) is bestowed by Zosimus (l. v. p. 304 312) on the revolt of Tribigild and Gainas. See likewise

Socrates, l. vi. c. 6, and Sozomen, l. viii. c. 4. The second book of Claudian against Eutropius, is a fine,

[Footnote 22: Claudian (in Eutrop. l. ii. 237 250) very accurately observes, that the ancient name and nation

of the Phrygians extended very far on every side, till their limits were contracted by the colonies of the

Bithvnians of Thrace, of the Greeks, and at last of the Gauls. His description (ii. 257 272) of the fertility of

[Footnote 23: Xenophon, Anabasis, l. i. p. 11, 12, edit. Hutchinson. Strabo, l. xii p. 865, edit. Amstel. Q. Curt.

l. iii. c. 1. Claudian compares the junction of the Marsyas and Maeander to that of the Saone and the Rhone,

with this difference, however, that the smaller of the Phrygian rivers is not accelerated, but retarded, by the

[Footnote 24: Selgae, a colony of the Lacedaemonians, had formerly numbered twenty thousand citizens; but

in the age of Zosimus it was reduced to a small town. See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq tom. ii. p. 117.]

[Footnote 25: The council of Eutropius, in Claudian, may be compared to that of Domitian in the fourth

Satire of Juvenal. The principal members of the former were juvenes protervi lascivique senes; one of them

had been a cook, a second a woolcomber. The language of their original profession exposes their assumed

dignity; and their trifling conversation about tragedies, dancers, is made still more ridiculous by the

[Footnote 26: Claudian (l. ii. 376 461) has branded him with infamy; and Zosimus, in more temperate

[Footnote 27: The conspiracy of Gainas and Tribigild, which is attested by the Greek historian, had not

reached the ears of Claudian, who attributes the revolt of the Ostrogoth to his own martial spirit, and the

The bold satirist, who has indulged his discontent by the partial and passionate censure of the Christian

emperors, violates the dignity, rather than the truth, of history, by comparing the son of Theodosius to one of

those harmless and simple animals, who scarcely feel that they are the property of their shepherd. Two

passions, however, fear and conjugal affection, awakened the languid soul of Arcadius: he was terrified by

the threats of a victorious Barbarian; and he yielded to the tender eloquence of his wife Eudoxia, who, with a

flood of artificial tears, presenting her infant children to their father, implored his justice for some real or

imaginary insult, which she imputed to the audacious eunuch. ^28 The emperor's hand was directed to sign

the condemnation of Eutropius; the magic spell, which during four years had bound the prince and the people,

was instantly dissolved; and the acclamations that so lately hailed the merit and fortune of the favorite, were

converted into the clamors of the soldiers and people, who reproached his crimes, and pressed his immediate

execution. In this hour of distress and despair, his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the church, whose

privileges he had wisely or profanely attempted to circumscribe; and the most eloquent of the saints, John

Chrysostom, enjoyed the triumph of protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice had raised him to the

ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople. The archbishop, ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, that he might

be distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex and of every age, pronounced a

seasonable and pathetic discourse on the forgiveness of injuries, and the instability of human greatness. The

agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch, who lay grovelling under the table of the altar, exhibited a solemn

and instructive spectacle; and the orator, who was afterwards accused of insulting the misfortunes of

Eutropius, labored to excite the contempt, that he might assuage the fury, of the people. ^29 The powers of

humanity, of superstition, and of eloquence, prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was restrained by her own

prejudices, or by those of her subjects, from violating the sanctuary of the church; and Eutropius was tempted

to capitulate, by the milder arts of persuasion, and by an oath, that his life should be spared. ^30 Careless of

the dignity of their sovereign, the new ministers of the palace immediately published an edict to declare, that

his late favorite had disgraced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish his statues, to confiscate his

wealth, and to inflict a perpetual exile in the Island of Cyprus. ^31 A despicable and decrepit eunuch could no

longer alarm the fears of his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained, the comforts of

peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate. But their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of a

miserable life, and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The

vain hope of eluding, by a change of place, the obligation of an oath, engaged the empress to transfer the

scene of his trial and execution from Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul

Aurelian pronounced the sentence; and the motives of that sentence expose the jurisprudence of a despotic

government. The crimes which Eutropius had committed against the people might have justified his death;

but he was found guilty of harnessing to his chariot the sacred animals, who, from their breed or color, were

reserved for the use of the emperor alone. ^32 [Footnote 28: This anecdote, which Philostorgius alone has

preserved, (l xi. c. 6, and Gothofred. Dissertat. p. 451 456) is curious and important; since it connects the

[Footnote 29: See the Homily of Chrysostom, tom. iii. p. 381 386, which the exordium is particularly

beautiful. Socrates, l. vi. c. 5. Sozomen, l. viii. c. 7. Montfaucon (in his Life of Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 135)

too hastily supposes that Tribigild was actually in Constantinople; and that he commanded the soldiers who

were ordered to seize Eutropius Even Claudian, a Pagan poet, (praefat. ad l. ii. in Eutrop. 27,) has mentioned

Suppliciterque pias humilis prostratus ad aras, Mitigat iratas voce tremente nurus,]

[Footnote 30: Chrysostom, in another homily, (tom. iii. p. 386,) affects to declare that Eutropius would not

have been taken, had he not deserted the church. Zosimus, (l. v. p. 313,) on the contrary, pretends, that his

enemies forced him from the sanctuary. Yet the promise is an evidence of some treaty; and the strong

assurance of Claudian, (Praefat. ad l. ii. 46,) Sed tamen exemplo non feriere tuo,

[Footnote 31: Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xi. leg. 14. The date of that law (Jan. 17, A.D. 399) is erroneous and

corrupt; since the fall of Eutropius could not happen till the autumn of the same year. See Tillemont, Hist. des

While this domestic revolution was transacted, Gainas ^33 openly revolted from his allegiance; united his

forces at Thyatira in Lydia, with those of Tribigild; and still maintained his superior ascendant over the

rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths. The confederate armies advanced, without resistance, to the straits of the

Hellespont and the Bosphorus; and Arcadius was instructed to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions, by

resigning his authority and his person to the faith of the Barbarians. The church of the holy martyr Euphemia,

situate on a lofty eminence near Chalcedon, ^34 was chosen for the place of the interview. Gainas bowed

with reverence at the feet of the emperor, whilst he required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturninus, two

ministers of consular rank; and their naked necks were exposed, by the haughty rebel, to the edge of the

sword, till he condescended to grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite. The Goths, according to the

terms of the agreement, were immediately transported from Asia into Europe; and their victorious chief, who

accepted the title of mastergeneral of the Roman armies, soon filled Constantinople with his troops, and

distributed among his dependants the honors and rewards of the empire. In his early youth, Gainas had passed

the Danube as a suppliant and a fugitive: his elevation had been the work of valor and fortune; and his

indiscreet or perfidious conduct was the cause of his rapid downfall. Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition

of the archbishop, he importunately claimed for his Arian sectaries the possession of a peculiar church; and

the pride of the Catholics was offended by the public toleration of heresy. ^35 Every quarter of

Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder; and the Barbarians gazed with such ardor on the rich

shops of the jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were covered with gold and silver, that it was

judged prudent to remove those dangerous temptations from their sight. They resented the injurious

precaution; and some alarming attempts were made, during the night, to attack and destroy with fire the

Imperial palace. ^36 In this state of mutual and suspicious hostility, the guards and the people of

Constantinople shut the gates, and rose in arms to prevent or to punish the conspiracy of the Goths. During

the absence of Gainas, his troops were surprised and oppressed; seven thousand Barbarians perished in this

bloody massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the Catholics uncovered the roof, and continued to throw down

flaming logs of wood, till they overwhelmed their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or conventicle

of the Arians. Gainas was either innocent of the design, or too confident of his success; he was astonished by

the intelligence that the flower of his army had been ingloriously destroyed; that he himself was declared a

public enemy; and that his countryman, Fravitta, a brave and loyal confederate, had assumed the management

of the war by sea and land. The enterprises of the rebel, against the cities of Thrace, were encountered by a

firm and wellordered defence; his hungry soldiers were soon reduced to the grass that grew on the margin of

the fortifications; and Gainas, who vainly regretted the wealth and luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate

resolution of forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was destitute of vessels; but the woods of the

Chersonesus afforded materials for rafts, and his intrepid Barbarians did not refuse to trust themselves to the

waves. But Fravitta attentively watched the progress of their undertaking As soon as they had gained the

middle of the stream, the Roman galleys, ^37 impelled by the full force of oars, of the current, and of a

favorable wind, rushed forwards in compact order, and with irresistible weight; and the Hellespont was

covered with the fragments of the Gothic shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, and the loss of many

thousands of his bravest soldiers, Gainas, who could no longer aspire to govern or to subdue the Romans,

determined to resume the independence of a savage life. A light and active body of Barbarian horse,

disengaged from their infantry and baggage, might perform in eight or ten days a march of three hundred

miles from the Hellespont to the Danube; ^38 the garrisons of that important frontier had been gradually

annihilated; the river, in the month of December, would be deeply frozen; and the unbounded prospect of

Scythia was opened to the ambition of Gainas. This design was secretly communicated to the national troops,

who devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and before the signal of departure was given, a great

number of provincial auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to their native country, were

perfidiously massacred. The Goths advanced, by rapid marches, through the plains of Thrace; and they were

soon delivered from the fear of a pursuit, by the vanity of Fravitta, ^* who, instead of extinguishing the war,

hastened to enjoy the popular applause, and to assume the peaceful honors of the consulship. But a

formidable ally appeared in arms to vindicate the majesty of the empire, and to guard the peace and liberty of

Scythia. ^39 The superior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns, opposed the progress of Gainas; a hostile and

ruined country prohibited his retreat; he disdained to capitulate; and after repeatedly attempting to cut his way

through the ranks of the enemy, he was slain, with his desperate followers, in the field of battle. Eleven days

after the naval victory of the Hellespont, the head of Gainas, the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was

received at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of gratitude; and the public deliverance was

celebrated by festivals and illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of epic poems; ^40

and the monarch, no longer oppressed by any hostile terrors, resigned himself to the mild and absolute

dominion of his wife, the fair and artful Eudoxia, who was sullied her fame by the persecution of St. John

Chrysostom. [Footnote 33: Zosimus, l. v. p. 313 323,) Socrates, (l. vi. c. 4,) Sozomen, (l. viii. c. 4,) and

Theodoret, (l. v. c. 32, 33,) represent, though with some various circumstances, the conspiracy, defeat, and

[Footnote 34: It is the expression of Zosimus himself, (l. v. p. 314,) who inadvertently uses the fashionable

language of the Christians. Evagrius describes (l. ii. c. 3) the situation, architecture, relics, and miracles, of

that celebrated church, in which the general council of Chalcedon was afterwards held.]

[Footnote 35: The pious remonstrances of Chrysostom, which do not appear in his own writings, are strongly

urged by Theodoret; but his insinuation, that they were successful, is disproved by facts. Tillemont (Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. v. p. 383) has discovered that the emperor, to satisfy the rapacious demands of Gainas, was

[Footnote 36: The ecclesiastical historians, who sometimes guide, and sometimes follow, the public opinion,

most confidently assert, that the palace of Constantinople was guarded by legions of angels.]

[Footnote 37: Zosmius (l. v. p. 319) mentions these galleys by the name of Liburnians, and observes that they

were as swift (without explaining the difference between them) as the vessels with fifty oars; but that they

were far inferior in speed to the triremes, which had been long disused. Yet he reasonably concludes, from

the testimony of Polybius, that galleys of a still larger size had been constructed in the Punic wars. Since the

establishment of the Roman empire over the Mediterranean, the useless art of building large ships of war had

[Footnote 38: Chishull (Travels, p. 61 63, 72 76) proceeded from Gallipoli, through Hadrianople to the

Danube, in about fifteen days. He was in the train of an English ambassador, whose baggage consisted of

seventyone wagons. That learned traveller has the merit of tracing a curious and unfrequented route.]

[Footnote *: Fravitta, according to Zosimus, though a Pagan, received the honors of the consulate. Zosim, v.

c. 20. On Fravitta, see a very imperfect fragment of Eunapius. Mai. ii. 290, in Niebuhr. 92. M.]

[Footnote 39: The narrative of Zosimus, who actually leads Gainas beyond the Danube, must be corrected by

the testimony of Socrates, aud Sozomen, that he was killed in Thrace; and by the precise and authentic dates

of the Alexandrian, or Paschal, Chronicle, p. 307. The naval victory of the Hellespont is fixed to the month

Apellaeus, the tenth of the Calends of January, (December 23;) the head of Gainas was brought to

Constantinople the third of the nones of January, (January 3,) in the month Audynaeus.]

[Footnote 40: Eusebius Scholasticus acquired much fame by his poem on the Gothic war, in which he had

served. Near forty years afterwards Ammonius recited another poem on the same subject, in the presence of

After the death of the indolent Nectarius, the successor of Gregory Nazianzen, the church of Constantinople

was distracted by the ambition of rival candidates, who were not ashamed to solicit, with gold or flattery, the

suffrage of the people, or of the favorite. On this occasion Eutropius seems to have deviated from his

ordinary maxims; and his uncorrupted judgment was determined only by the superior merit of a stranger. In a

late journey into the East, he had admired the sermons of John, a native and presbyter of Antioch, whose

name has been distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. ^41 A private order was

despatched to the governor of Syria; and as the people might be unwilling to resign their favorite preacher, he

was transported, with speed and secrecy in a post chariot, from Antioch to Constantinople. The unanimous

and unsolicited consent of the court, the clergy, and the people, ratified the choice of the minister; and, both

as a saint and as an orator, the new archbishop surpassed the sanguine expectations of the public. Born of a

noble and opulent family, in the capital of Syria, Chrysostom had been educated, by the care of a tender

mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. He studied the art of rhetoric in the school of Libanius;

and that celebrated sophist, who soon discovered the talents of his disciple, ingenuously confessed that John

would have deserved to succeed him, had he not been stolen away by the Christians. His piety soon disposed

him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to renounce the lucrative and honorable profession of the law; and

to bury himself in the adjacent desert, where he subdued the lusts of the flesh by an austere penance of six

years. His infirmities compelled him to return to the society of mankind; and the authority of Meletius

devoted his talents to the service of the church: but in the midst of his family, and afterwards on the

archiepiscopal throne, Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the monastic virtues. The ample

revenues, which his predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he diligently applied to the

establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes, who were supported by his charity, preferred the eloquent and

edifying discourses of their archbishop to the amusements of the theatre or the circus. The monuments of that

eloquence, which was admired near twenty years at Antioch and Constantinople, have been carefully

preserved; and the possession of near one thousand sermons, or homilies has authorized the critics ^42 of

succeeding times to appreciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They unanimously attribute to the Christian

orator the free command of an elegant and copious language; the judgment to conceal the advantages which

he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and

similitudes of ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most familiar topics; the happy art of engaging the

passions in the service of virtue; and of exposing the folly, as well as the turpitude, of vice, almost with the

[Footnote 41: The sixth book of Socrates, the eighth of Sozomen, and the fifth of Theodoret, afford curious

and authentic materials for the life of John Chrysostom. Besides those general historians, I have taken for my

guides the four principal biographers of the saint. 1. The author of a partial and passionate Vindication of the

archbishop of Constantinople, composed in the form of a dialogue, and under the name of his zealous

partisan, Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 500 533.) It is inserted

among the works of Chrysostom. tom. xiii. p. 1 90, edit. Montfaucon. 2. The moderate Erasmus, (tom. iii.

epist. Mcl. p. 1331 1347, edit. Lugd. Bat.) His vivacity and good sense were his own; his errors, in the

uncultivated state of ecclesiastical antiquity, were almost inevitable. 3. The learned Tillemont, (Mem.

Ecclesiastiques, tom. xi. p. 1 405, 547 626, who compiles the lives of the saints with incredible patience

and religious accuracy. He has minutely searched the voluminous works of Chrysostom himself. 4. Father

Montfaucon, who has perused those works with the curious diligence of an editor, discovered several new

homilies, and again reviewed and composed the Life of Chrysostom, (Opera Chrysostom. tom. xiii. p. 91

[Footnote 42: As I am almost a stranger to the voluminous sermons of Chrysostom, I have given my

confidence to the two most judicious and moderate of the ecclesiastical critics, Erasmus (tom. iii. p. 1344)

and Dupin, (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. p. 38:) yet the good taste of the former is sometimes

vitiated by an excessive love of antiquity; and the good sense of the latter is always restrained by prudential

considerations.] The pastoral labors of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked, and gradually united

against him, two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who

were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against the

degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding, or even marking, the

character of any individual. When he declaimed against the peculiar vices of the rich, poverty might obtain a

transient consolation from his invectives; but the guilty were still sheltered by their numbers; and the

reproach itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and enjoyment. But as the pyramid rose towards

the summit, it insensibly diminished to a point; and the magistrates, the ministers, the favorite eunuchs, the

ladies of the court, ^43 the empress Eudoxia herself, had a much larger share of guilt to divide among a

smaller proportion of criminals. The personal applications of the audience were anticipated, or confirmed, by

the testimony of their own conscience; and the intrepid preacher assumed the dangerous right of exposing

both the offence and the offender to the public abhorrence. The secret resentment of the court encouraged the

discontent of the clergy and monks of Constantinople, who were too hastily reformed by the fervent zeal of

their archbishop. He had condemned, from the pulpit, the domestic females of the clergy of Constantinople,

who, under the name of servants, or sisters, afforded a perpetual occasion either of sin or of scandal. The

silent and solitary ascetics, who had secluded themselves from the world, were entitled to the warmest

approbation of Chrysostom; but he despised and stigmatized, as the disgrace of their holy profession, the

crowd of degenerate monks, who, from some unworthy motives of pleasure or profit, so frequently infested

the streets of the capital. To the voice of persuasion, the archbishop was obliged to add the terrors of

authority; and his ardor, in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not always exempt from passion;

nor was it always guided by prudence. Chrysostom was naturally of a choleric disposition. ^44 Although he

struggled, according to the precepts of the gospel, to love his private enemies, he indulged himself in the

privilege of hating the enemies of God and of the church; and his sentiments were sometimes delivered with

too much energy of countenance and expression. He still maintained, from some considerations of health or

abstinence, his former habits of taking his repasts alone; and this inhospitable custom, ^45 which his enemies

imputed to pride, contributed, at least, to nourish the infirmity of a morose and unsocial humor. Separated

from that familiar intercourse, which facilitates the knowledge and the despatch of business, he reposed an

unsuspecting confidence in his deacon Serapion; and seldom applied his speculative knowledge of human

nature to the particular character, either of his dependants, or of his equals. Conscious of the purity of his

intentions, and perhaps of the superiority of his genius, the archbishop of Constantinople extended the

jurisdiction of the Imperial city, that he might enlarge the sphere of his pastoral labors; and the conduct which

the profane imputed to an ambitious motive, appeared to Chrysostom himself in the light of a sacred and

indispensable duty. In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces, he deposed thirteen bishops of Lydia and

Phrygia; and indiscreetly declared that a deep corruption of simony and licentiousness had infected the whole

episcopal order. ^46 If those bishops were innocent, such a rash and unjust condemnation must excite a well

grounded discontent. If they were guilty, the numerous associates of their guilt would soon discover that their

own safety depended on the ruin of the archbishop; whom they studied to represent as the tyrant of the

[Footnote 43: The females of Constantinople distinguished themselves by their enmity or their attachment to

Chrysostom. Three noble and opulent widows, Marsa, Castricia, and Eugraphia, were the leaders of the

persecution, (Pallad. Dialog. tom. xiii. p. 14.) It was impossible that they should forgive a preacher who

reproached their affectation to conceal, by the ornaments of dress, their age and ugliness, (Pallad p. 27.)

Olympias, by equal zeal, displayed in a more pious cause, has obtained the title of saint. See Tillemont, Mem.

[Footnote 44: Sozomen, and more especially Socrates, have defined the real character of Chrysostom with a

temperate and impartial freedom, very offensive to his blind admirers. Those historians lived in the next

generation, when party violence was abated, and had conversed with many persons intimately acquainted

[Footnote 45: Palladius (tom. xiii. p. 40, very seriously defends the archbishop 1. He never tasted wine. 2.

The weakness of his stomach required a peculiar diet. 3. Business, or study, or devotion, often kept him

fasting till sunset. 4. He detested the noise and levity of great dinners. 5. He saved the expense for the use of

the poor. 6. He was apprehensive, in a capital like Constantinople, of the envy and reproach of partial

[Footnote 46: Chrysostom declares his free opinion (tom. ix. hom. iii in Act. Apostol. p. 29) that the number

of bishops, who might be saved, bore a very small proportion to those who would be damned.]

This ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by Theophilus, ^47 archbishop of Alexandria, an active and

ambitious prelate, who displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation. His national dislike to the

rising greatness of a city which degraded him from the second to the third rank in the Christian world, was

exasperated by some personal dispute with Chrysostom himself. ^48 By the private invitation of the empress,

Theophilus landed at Constantinople with a stou body of Egyptian mariners, to encounter the populace; and a

train of dependent bishops, to secure, by their voices, the majority of a synod. The synod ^49 was convened

in the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where Rufinus had erected a stately church and monastery;

and their proceedings were continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A bishop and a deacon accused the

archbishop of Constantinople; but the frivolous or improbable nature of the fortyseven articles which they

presented against him, may justly be considered as a fair and unexceptional panegyric. Four successive

summons were signified to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust either his person or his reputation in the

hands of his implacable enemies, who, prudently declining the examination of any particular charges,

condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily pronounced a sentence of deposition. The synod of

the Oak immediately addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably insinuated,

that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher, who had reviled, under the name of

Jezebel, the empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and conducted through the city, by

one of the Imperial messengers, who landed him, after a short navigation, near the entrance of the Euxine;

from whence, before the expiration of two days, he was gloriously recalled. [Footnote 47: See Tillemont,

[Footnote 48: I have purposely omitted the controversy which arose among the monks of Egypt, concerning

Origenism and Anthropomorphism; the dissimulation and violence of Theophilus; his artful management of

the simplicity of Epiphanius; the persecution and flight of the long, or tall, brothers; the ambiguous support

[Footnote 49: Photius (p. 53 60) has preserved the original acts of the synod of the Oak; which destroys the

false assertion, that Chrysostom was condemned by no more than thirtysix bishops, of whom twentynine

were Egyptians. Fortyfive bishops subscribed his sentence. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 595.

The first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute and passive: they suddenly rose with unanimous

and irresistible fury. Theophilus escaped, but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners was

slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constantinople. ^50 A seasonable earthquake justified the

interposition of Heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled forwards to the gates of the palace; and the empress,

agitated by fear or remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and confessed that the public safety could

be purchased only by the restoration of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable vessels;

the shores of Europe and Asia were profusely illuminated; and the acclamations of a victorious people

accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the archbishop; who, too easily, consented to

resume the exercise of his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by the authority of an

ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant, or careless, of the impending danger, Chrysostom indulged his zeal, or perhaps

his resentment; declaimed with peculiar asperity against female vices; and condemned the profane honors

which were addressed, almost in the precincts of St. Sophia, to the statue of the empress. His imprudence

tempted his enemies to inflame the haughty spirit of Eudoxia, by reporting, or perhaps inventing, the famous

exordium of a sermon, "Herodias is again furious; Herodias again dances; she once more requires the head of

John;" an insolent allusion, which, as a woman and a sovereign, it was impossible for her to forgive. ^51 The

short interval of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin

of the archbishop. A numerous council of the Eastern prelates, who were guided from a distance by the

advice of Theophilus, confirmed the validity, without examining the justice, of the former sentence; and a

detachment of Barbarian troops was introduced into the city, to suppress the emotions of the people. On the

vigil of Easter, the solemn administration of baptism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers, who alarmed the

modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated, by their presence, the awful mysteries of the Christian

worship. Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia, and the archiepiscopal throne. The Catholics retreated

to the baths of Constantine, and afterwards to the fields; where they were still pursued and insulted by the

guards, the bishops, and the magistrates. The fatal day of the second and final exile of Chrysostom was

marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of the senatehouse, and of the adjacent buildings; and this

calamity was imputed, without proof, but not without probability, to the despair of a persecuted faction. ^52

[Footnote 50: Palladius owns (p. 30) that if the people of Constantinople had found Theophilus, they would

certainly have thrown him into the sea. Socrates mentions (l. vi. c. 17) a battle between the mob and the

sailors of Alexandria, in which many wounds were given, and some lives were lost. The massacre of the

monks is observed only by the Pagan Zosimus, (l. v. p. 324,) who acknowledges that Chrysostom had a

[Footnote 51: See Socrates, l. vi. c. 18. Sozomen, l. viii. c. 20. Zosimus (l. v. p 324, 327) mentions, in general

terms, his invectives against Eudoxia. The homily, which begins with those famous words, is rejected as

spurious. Montfaucon, tom. xiii. p. 151. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom xi. p. 603.]

[Footnote 52: We might naturally expect such a charge from Zosimus, (l. v. p. 327;) but it is remarkable

enough, that it should be confirmed by Socrates, (l. vi. c. 18,) and the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 307.)]

Cicero might claim some merit, if his voluntary banishment preserved the peace of the republic; ^53 but the

submission of Chrysostom was the indispensable duty of a Christian and a subject. Instead of listening to his

humble prayer, that he might be permitted to reside at Cyzicus, or Nicomedia, the inflexible empress assigned

for his exile the remote and desolate town of Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the Lesser

Armenia. A secret hope was entertained, that the archbishop might perish in a difficult and dangerous march

of seventy days, in the heat of summer, through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was continually

threatened by the hostile attacks of the Isaurians, and the more implacable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom

arrived in safety at the place of his confinement; and the three years which he spent at Cucusus, and the

neighboring town of Arabissus, were the last and most glorious of his life. His character was consecrated by

absence and persecution; the faults of his administration were no longer remembered; but every tongue

repeated the praises of his genius and virtue: and the respectful attention of the Christian world was fixed on a

desert spot among the mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the archbishop, whose active mind was

invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a strict and frequent correspondence ^54 with the most distant

provinces; exhorted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to persevere in their allegiance; urged

the destruction of the temples of Phoenicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the Isle of Cyprus; extended his

pastoral care to the missions of Persia and Scythia; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman pontiff

and the emperor Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a partial synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and

general council. The mind of the illustrious exile was still independent; but his captive body was exposed to

the revenge of the oppressors, who continued to abuse the name and authority of Arcadius. ^55 An order was

despatched for the instant removal of Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so faithfully

obeyed their cruel instructions, that, before he reached the seacoast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in

Pontus, in the sixtieth year of his age. The succeeding generation acknowledged his innocence and merit. The

archbishops of the East, who might blush that their predecessors had been the enemies of Chrysostom, were

gradually disposed, by the firmness of the Roman pontiff, to restore the honors of that venerable name. ^56

At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people of Constantinople, his relics, thirty years after his death,

were transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal city. ^57 The emperor Theodosius advanced to

receive them as far as Chalcedon; and, falling prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of his guilty

[Footnote 53: He displays those specious motives (Post Reditum, c. 13, 14) in the language of an orator and a

[Footnote 54: Two hundred and fortytwo of the epistles of Chrysostom are still extant, (Opera, tom. iii. p.

528 736.) They are addressed to a great variety of persons, and show a firmness of mind much superior to

that of Cicero in his exile. The fourteenth epistle contains a curious narrative of the dangers of his journey.]

[Footnote 55: After the exile of Chrysostom, Theophilus published an enormous and horrible volume against

him, in which he perpetually repeats the polite expressions of hostem humanitatis, sacrilegorum principem,

immundum daemonem; he affirms, that John Chrysostom had delivered his soul to be adulterated by the

devil; and wishes that some further punishment, adequate (if possible) to the magnitude of his crimes, may be

inflicted on him. St. Jerom, at the request of his friend Theophilus, translated this edifying performance from

Greek into Latin. See Facundus Hermian. Defens. pro iii. Capitul. l. vi. c. 5 published by Sirmond. Opera,

[Footnote 56: His name was inserted by his successor Atticus in the Dyptics of the church of Constantinople,

A.D. 418. Ten years afterwards he was revered as a saint. Cyril, who inherited the place, and the passions, of

his uncle Theophilus, yielded with much reluctance. See Facund. Hermian. l. 4, c. 1. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.

[Footnote 57: Socrates, l. vii. c. 45. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36. This event reconciled the Joannites, who had

hitherto refused to acknowledge his successors. During his lifetime, the Joannites were respected, by the

Catholics, as the true and orthodox communion of Constantinople. Their obstinacy gradually drove them to

[Footnote 58: According to some accounts, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 438 No. 9, 10,) the emperor was

forced to send a letter of invitation and excuses, before the body of the ceremonious saint could be moved

Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, whether any stain of hereditary guilt could be derived from

Arcadius to his successor. Eudoxia was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged her passions, and

despised her husband; Count John enjoyed, at least, the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public

named him as the real father of Theodosius the younger. ^59 The birth of a son was accepted, however, by

the pious husband, as an event the most fortunate and honorable to himself, to his family, and to the Eastern

world: and the royal infant, by an unprecedented favor, was invested with the titles of Caesar and Augustus.

In less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom of youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a

miscarriage; and this untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop, ^60 who, amidst the

universal joy, had ventured to foretell, that she should behold the long and auspicious reign of her glorious

son. The Catholics applauded the justice of Heaven, which avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom; and

perhaps the emperor was the only person who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and rapacious

Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted him more deeply than the public calamities of the East; ^61

the licentious excursions, from Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the

weakness of the government; and the earthquakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts,

^62 which the popular discontent was equally disposed to attribute to the incapacity of the monarch. At

length, in the thirtyfirst year of his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word) of thirteen years, three

months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his

character; since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical materials, it has not been possible to

[Footnote 59: Zosimus, l. v. p. 315. The chastity of an empress should not be impeached without producing a

witness; but it is astonishing, that the witness should write and live under a prince whose legitimacy he dared

to attack. We must suppose that his history was a party libel, privately read and circulated by the Pagans.

Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 782) is not averse to brand the reputation of Eudoxia.]

[Footnote 60: Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the order which he had obtained for the

destruction of eight Pagan temples of that city. See the curious details of his life, (Baronius, A.D. 401, No. 17

51,) originally written in Greek, or perhaps in Syriac, by a monk, one of his favorite deacons.]

[Footnote 62: Jerom (tom. vi. p. 73, 76) describes, in lively colors, the regular and destructive march of the

locusts, which spread a dark cloud, between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Seasonable winds

The historian Procopius ^63 has indeed illuminated the mind of the dying emperor with a ray of human

prudence, or celestial wisdom. Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless condition of his son

Theodosius, who was no more than seven years of age, the dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring

spirit of Jezdegerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious subject, by the

participation of supreme power, he boldly appealed to the magnanimity of a king; and placed, by a solemn

testament, the sceptre of the East in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guardian accepted and

discharged this honorable trust with unexampled fidelity; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the

arms and councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius; and his veracity is not disputed by

Agathias, ^64 while he presumes to dissent from his judgment, and to arraign the wisdom of a Christian

emperor, who, so rashly, though so fortunately, committed his son and his dominions to the unknown faith of

a stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred and fifty years, this political question might

be debated in the court of Justinian; but a prudent historian will refuse to examine the propriety, till he has

ascertained the truth, of the testament of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the history of the world,

we may justly require, that it should be attested by the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporaries.

The strange novelty of the event, which excites our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their

[[Footnote 64: Agathias, l. iv. p. 136, 137. Although he confesses the prevalence of the tradition, he asserts,

that Procopius was the first who had committed it to writing. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 597)

argues very sensibly on the merits of this fable. His criticism was not warped by any ecclesiastical authority:

Note: See St Martin's article on Jezdegerd, in the Biographie Universelle de Michand. M.]

The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they could fairly be transferred from private property to public

dominion, would have adjudged to the emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew, till he had attained,

at least, the fourteenth year of his age. But the weakness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign,

disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such was the absolute separation of the two

monarchies, both in interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed, with less reluctance, the

orders of the Persian, than those of the Italian, court. Under a prince whose weakness is disguised by the

external signs of manhood and discretion, the most worthless favorites may secretly dispute the empire of the

palace; and dictate to submissive provinces the commands of a master, whom they direct and despise. But the

ministers of a child, who is incapable of arming them with the sanction of the royal name, must acquire and

exercise an independent authority. The great officers of the state and army, who had been appointed before

the death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have inspired them with the idea of a free republic;

and the government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the praefect Anthemius, ^65 who

obtained, by his superior abilities, a lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of the young

emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sustained the force and

reputation of an infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians, was encamped in the heart of

Thrace; he proudly rejected all terms of accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the

Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should alone terminate the conquest of the Huns. But the

desertion of his confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and liberality of the Imperial

ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube: the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rearguard, was

almost extirpated; and many thousand captives were dispersed to cultivate, with servile labor, the fields of

Asia. ^66 In the midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was protected by a strong enclosure of new and

more extensive walls; the same vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the Illyrian cities; and

a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in the space of seven years, would have secured the command of the

Danube, by establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two hundred and fifty armed vessels. ^67

[Footnote 65: Socrates, l. vii. c. l. Anthemius was the grandson of Philip, one of the ministers of Constantius,

and the grandfather of the emperor Anthemius. After his return from the Persian embassy, he was appointed

consul and Praetorian praefect of the East, in the year 405 and held the praefecture about ten years. See his

honors and praises in Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350. Tillemont, Hist. des Emptom. vi. p. 1.

[Footnote 66: Sozomen, l. ix. c. 5. He saw some Scyrri at work near Mount Olympus, in Bithynia, and

But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a monarch, that the first, even among the

females, of the Imperial family, who displayed any courage or capacity, was permitted to ascend the vacant

throne of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria, ^68 who was only two years older than himself, received, at the

age of sixteen, the title of Augusta; and though her favor might be sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue,

she continued to govern the Eastern empire near forty years; during the long minority of her brother, and after

his death, in her own name, and in the name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive either of

prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy; and notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of

Pulcheria, ^69 this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by

the Christian world, as the sublime effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people, the three

daughters of Arcadius ^70 dedicated their virginity to God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was

inscribed on a tablet of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great church of Constantinople.

Their palace was converted into a monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience, the saints

who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were scrupulously excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria,

her two sisters, and a chosen train of favorite damsels, formed a religious community: they denounced the

vanity of dress; interrupted, by frequent fasts, their simple and frugal diet; allotted a portion of their time to

works of embroidery; and devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercises of prayer and psalmody.

The piety of a Christian virgin was adorned by the zeal and liberality of an empress. Ecclesiastical history

describes the splendid churches, which were built at the expense of Pulcheria, in all the provinces of the East;

her charitable foundations for the benefit of strangers and the poor; the ample donations which she assigned

for the perpetual maintenance of monastic societies; and the active severity with which she labored to

suppress the opposite heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to deserve the peculiar

favor of the Deity: and the relics of martyrs, as well as the knowledge of future events, were communicated in

visions and revelations to the Imperial saint. ^71 Yet the devotion of Pulcheria never diverted her

indefatigable attention from temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants of the great

Theodosius, appears to have inherited any share of his manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and familiar use

which she had acquired, both of the Greek and Latin languages, was readily applied to the various occasions

of speaking or writing, on public business: her deliberations were maturely weighed; her actions were prompt

and decisive; and, while she moved, without noise or ostentation, the wheel of government, she discreetly

attributed to the genius of the emperor the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last years of his peaceful life,

Europe was indeed afflicted by the arms of war; but the more extensive provinces of Asia still continued to

enjoy a profound and permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was never reduced to the disgraceful

necessity of encountering and punishing a rebellious subject: and since we cannot applaud the vigor, some

praise may be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the administration of Pulcheria.

[Footnote 68: Sozomen has filled three chapters with a magnificent panegyric of Pulcheria, (l. ix. c. 1, 2, 3;)

and Tillemont (Memoires Eccles. tom. xv. p. 171 184) has dedicated a separate article to the honor of St.

Note: The heathen Eunapius gives a frightful picture of the venality and a justice of the court of Pulcheria.

[Footnote 69: Suidas, (Excerpta, p. 68, in Script. Byzant.) pretends, on the credit of the Nestorians, that

Pulcheria was exasperated against their founder, because he censured her connection with the beautiful

[Footnote 70: See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 70. Flaccilla, the eldest daughter, either died before Arcadius,

or, if she lived till the year 431, (Marcellin. Chron.,) some defect of mind or body must have excluded her

[Footnote 71: She was admonished, by repeated dreams, of the place where the relics of the forty martyrs had

been buried. The ground had successively belonged to the house and garden of a woman of Constantinople,

to a monastery of Macedonian monks, and to a church of St. Thyrsus, erected by Caesarius, who was consul

A.D. 397; and the memory of the relics was almost obliterated. Notwithstanding the charitable wishes of Dr.

Jortin, (Remarks, tom. iv. p. 234,) it is not easy to acquit Pulcheria of some share in the pious fraud; which

The Roman world was deeply interested in the education of its master. A regular course of study and exercise

was judiciously instituted; of the military exercises of riding, and shooting with the bow; of the liberal studies

of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy: the most skilful masters of the East ambitiously solicited the attention

of their royal pupil; and several noble youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his diligence by the

emulation of friendship. Pulcheria alone discharged the important task of instructing her brother in the arts of

government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicions of the extent of her capacity, or of the purity

of her intentions. She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to walk, to hold his robes, to

seat himself on his throne, in a manner worthy of a great prince; to abstain from laughter; to listen with

condescension; to return suitable answers; to assume, by turns, a serious or a placid countenance: in a word,

to represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman emperor. But Theodosius ^72 was never

excited to support the weight and glory of an illustrious name: and, instead of aspiring to support his

ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of

his father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by the guardian care of a parent, whose

lessons were enforced by his authority and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is born in the purple,

must remain a stranger to the voice of truth; and the son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual

infancy encompassed only by a servile train of women and eunuchs. The ample leisure which he acquired by

neglecting the essential duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements and unprofitable studies.

Hunting was the only active pursuit that could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most

assiduously labored, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp, in the mechanic occupations of painting and

carving; and the elegance with which he transcribed religious books entitled the Roman emperor to the

singular epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair writer. Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil,

Theodosius trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who were accustomed to amuse and flatter his

indolence; and as he never perused the papers that were presented for the royal signature, the acts of injustice

the most repugnant to his character were frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor himself was chaste,

temperate, liberal, and merciful; but these qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues when they

are supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom beneficial, and they sometimes proved

mischievous, to mankind. His mind, enervated by a royal education, was oppressed and degraded by abject

superstition: he fasted, he sung psalms, he blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines with which his faith

was continually nourished. Theodosius devoutly worshipped the dead and living saints of the Catholic

church; and he once refused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an excommunication on his sovereign,

[Footnote 72: There is a remarkable difference between the two ecclesiastical historians, who in general bear

so close a resemblance. Sozomen (l. ix. c. 1) ascribes to Pulcheria the government of the empire, and the

education of her brother, whom he scarcely condescends to praise. Socrates, though he affectedly disclaims

all hopes of favor or fame, composes an elaborate panegyric on the emperor, and cautiously suppresses the

merits of his sister, (l. vii. c. 22, 42.) Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 7) expresses the influence of Pulcheria in gentle

and courtly language. Suidas (Excerpt. p. 53) gives a true character of Theodosius; and I have followed the

example of Tillemont (tom. vi. p. 25) in borrowing some strokes from the modern Greeks.]

[Footnote 73: Theodoret, l. v. c. 37. The bishop of Cyrrhus, one of the first men of his age for his learning

The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted from a private condition to the Imperial throne, might be

deemed an incredible romance, if such a romance had not been verified in the marriage of Theodosius. The

celebrated Athenais ^74 was educated by her father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and

so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher entertained of his contemporaries, that he

divided his patrimony between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy of one hundred

pieces of gold, in the lively confidence that her beauty and merit would be a sufficient portion. The jealousy

and avarice of her brothers soon compelled Athenais to seek a refuge at Constantinople; and, with some

hopes, either of justice or favor, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That sagacious princess listened to

her eloquent complaint; and secretly destined the daughter of the philosopher Leontius for the future wife of

the emperor of the East, who had now attained the twentieth year of his age. She easily excited the curiosity

of her brother, by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais; large eyes, a well proportioned nose, a

fair complexion, golden locks, a slender person, a graceful demeanor, an understanding improved by study,

and a virtue tried by distress. Theodosius, concealed behind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was

permitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the modest youth immediately declared his pure and honorable love;

and the royal nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of the capital and the provinces. Athenais,

who was easily persuaded to renounce the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian name of

Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius had approved

her fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused, fifteen years afterwards, the emperor of the West.

The brothers of Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but as she could easily forgive

their unfortunate unkindness, she indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by promoting

them to the rank of consuls and praefects. In the luxury of the palace, she still cultivated those ingenuous arts

which had contributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her talents to the honor of religion, and of her

husband. Eudocia composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the Old Testament, and of the

prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah; a cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of Christ,

the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius; and her writings, which

were applauded by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by the candor of impartial

criticism. ^75 The fondness of the emperor was not abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the

marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Her ostentatious progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit of Christian humility; she

pronounced, from a throne of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her royal

intention of enlarging the walls of the city, bestowed a donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the

public baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her

alms and pious foundations exceeded the munificence of the great Helena, and though the public treasure

might be impoverished by this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of returning to

Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the

Virgin, painted by St. Luke. ^76 But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of the glories of Eudocia. Satiated

with empty pomp, and unmindful, perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired to the

government of the Eastern empire; the palace was distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last

decided, by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius. The execution of Paulinus, master of the

offices, and the disgrace of Cyrus, Praetorian praefect of the East, convinced the public that the favor of

Eudocia was insufficient to protect her most faithful friends; and the uncommon beauty of Paulinus

encouraged the secret rumor, that his guilt was that of a successful lover. ^77 As soon as the empress

perceived that the affection of Theodosius was irretrievably lost, she requested the permission of retiring to

the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She obtained her request; but the jealousy of Theodosius, or the vindictive

spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat; and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to

punish with death two ecclesiastics, her most favored servants. Eudocia instantly revenged them by the

assassination of the count; the furious passions which she indulged on this suspicious occasion, seemed to

justify the severity of Theodosius; and the empress, ignominiously stripped of the honors of her rank, ^78

was disgraced, perhaps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The remainder of the life of Eudocia, about sixteen

years, was spent in exile and devotion; and the approach of age, the death of Theodosius, the misfortunes of

her only daughter, who was led a captive from Rome to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks of

Palestine, insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her mind. After a full experience of the vicissitudes of

human life, the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired, at Jerusalem, in the sixtyseventh year of her

age; protesting, with her dying breath, that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence and

[Footnote 74: Socrates (l. vii. c. 21) mentions her name, (Athenais, the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian

sophist,) her baptism, marriage, and poetical genius. The most ancient account of her history is in John

Malala (part ii. p. 20, 21, edit. Venet. 1743) and in the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 311, 312.) Those authors had

probably seen original pictures of the empress Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, Cedrenus, have

displayed the love, rather than the talent of fiction. From Nicephorus, indeed, I have ventured to assume her

age. The writer of a romance would not have imagined, that Athenais was near twenty eight years old when

[Footnote 75: Socrates, l. vii. c. 21, Photius, p. 413 420. The Homeric cento is still extant, and has been

repeatedly printed: but the claim of Eudocia to that insipid performance is disputed by the critics. See

Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom. i. p. 357. The Ionia, a miscellaneous dictionary of history and fable, was

compiled by another empress of the name of Eudocia, who lived in the eleventh century: and the work is still

[Footnote 76: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 438, 439) is copious and florid, but he is accused of placing the

[Footnote 77: In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I have imitated the caution of Evagrius (l. i. c. 21)

and Count Marcellinus, (in Chron A.D. 440 and 444.) The two authentic dates assigned by the latter, overturn

a great part of the Greek fictions; and the celebrated story of the apple, is fit only for the Arabian Nights,

[Footnote 78: Priscus, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 69,) a contemporary, and a courtier, dryly mentions her Pagan

[Footnote 79: For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long residence at Jerusalem, her devotion, alms,

see Socrates (l. vii. c. 47) and Evagrius, (l. i. c. 21, 22.) The Paschal Chronicle may sometimes deserve

regard; and in the domestic history of Antioch, John Malala becomes a writer of good authority. The Abbe

Guenee, in a memoir on the fertility of Palestine, of which I have only seen an extract, calculates the gifts of

The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the ambition of conquest, or military renown; and the

slight alarm of a Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East. The motives of this war were

just and honorable. In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a bishop,

who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of the firetemples of Susa. ^80 His zeal and

obstinacy were revenged on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the intolerant zeal of

Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Varanes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some

Christian fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly demanded, and generously refused; and

the refusal, aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the rival monarchies. The

mountains of Armenia, and the plains of Mesopotamia, were filled with hostile armies; but the operations of

two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive or memorable events. Some engagements

were fought, some towns were besieged, with various and doubtful success: and if the Romans failed in their

attempt to recover the longlost possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls of a

Mesopotamian city, by the valor of a martial bishop, who pointed his thundering engine in the name of St.

Thomas the Apostle. Yet the splendid victories which the incredible speed of the messenger Palladius

repeatedly announced to the palace of Constantinople, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics. From

these panegyrics the historians ^81 of the age might borrow their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales;

of the proud challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and despatched by the sword, of

Areobindus the Goth; of the ten thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman camp; and of

the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who were impelled by a panic terror to throw themselves headlong

into the Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of

Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion. Boldly declaring,

that vases of gold and silver are useless to a God who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the

plate of the church of Amida; employed the price in the redemption of seven thousand Persian captives;

supplied their wants with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their native country, to inform their

king of the true spirit of the religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the midst of war

must always tend to assuage the animosity of contending nations; and I wish to persuade myself, that Acacius

contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which was held on the limits of the two empires, the

Roman ambassadors degraded the personal character of their sovereign, by a vain attempt to magnify the

extent of his power; when they seriously advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the

wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this distant war. A truce of one hundred years was solemnly

ratified; and although the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public tranquillity, the essential

conditions of this treaty were respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine and Artaxerxes.

[Footnote 80: Theodoret, l. v. c. 39 Tillemont. Mem. Eccles tom. xii. 356 364. Assemanni, Bibliot.

Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396, tom. iv. p. 61. Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but extols the constancy of

his martyrdom. Yet I do not clearly understand the casuistry which prohibits our repairing the damage which

[Footnote 81: Socrates (l. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21) is the best author for the Persian war. We may likewise

Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of

Armenia ^82 was alternately oppressed by its formidable protectors; and in the course of this History, several

events, which inclined the balance of peace and war, have been already related. A disgraceful treaty had

resigned Armenia to the ambition of Sapor; and the scale of Persia appeared to preponderate. But the royal

race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the turbulent nobles asserted, or betrayed, their

hereditary independence; and the nation was still attached to the Christian princes of Constantinople. In the

beginning of the fifth century, Armenia was divided by the progress of war and faction; ^83 and the unnatural

division precipitated the downfall of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned over the

Eastern and most extensive portion of the country; while the Western province acknowledged the jurisdiction

of Arsaces, and the supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. ^* After the death of Arsaces, the Romans

suppressed the regal government, and imposed on their allies the condition of subjects. The military

command was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of Theodosiopolis ^84 was built and

fortified in a strong situation, on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates; and the

dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and

purple. The less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and envied the honors of their equals,

were provoked to negotiate their peace and pardon at the Persian court; and returning, with their followers, to

the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes ^! for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards,

Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under the displeasure of the haughty and capricious

nobles of Armenia; and they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the room of an unworthy king. The

answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a

superstitious people. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of Artasires; and declared, that he

should not hesitate to accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian emperor, who would punish, without

destroying, the sinner. "Our king," continued Isaac, "is too much addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has

been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire or the

elements. He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure,

though his manners are flagitious. I will never consent to abandon my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves;

and you would soon repent your rash exchange of the infirmities of a believer, for the specious virtues of a

heathen." ^85 Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the factious nobles accused both the king and the

archbishop as the secret adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the sentence of condemnation,

which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces

were degraded from the royal dignity, ^86 which they had possessed above five hundred and sixty years; ^87

and the dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, ^* under the new and significant appellation of Persarmenia,

were reduced into the form of a province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman government; but

the rising disputes were soon terminated by an amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of

Armenia: ^** and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might have despised, reflected some lustre on the

[Footnote 82: This account of the ruin and division of the kingdom of Armenia is taken from the third book

of the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene. Deficient as he is in every qualification of a good historian, his

local information, his passions, and his prejudices are strongly expressive of a native and contemporary.

Procopius (de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 1, 5) relates the same facts in a very different manner; but I have extracted the

circumstances the most probable in themselves, and the least inconsistent with Moses of Chorene.]

[Footnote 83: The western Armenians used the Greek language and characters in their religious offices; but

the use of that hostile tongue was prohibited by the Persians in the Eastern provinces, which were obliged to

use the Syriac, till the invention of the Armenian letters by Mesrobes, in the beginning of the fifth century,

and the subsequent version of the Bible into the Armenian language; an event which relaxed to the

[Footnote 84: Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 59, p. 309, and p. 358. Procopius, de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 5.

Theodosiopolis stands, or rather stood, about thirtyfive miles to the east of Arzeroum, the modern capital of

[Footnote *: The division of Armenia, according to M. St. Martin, took place much earlier, A. C. 390. The

Eastern or Persian division was four times as large as the Western or Roman. This partition took place during

the reigns of Theodosius the First, and Varanes (Bahram) the Fourth. St. Martin, Sup. to Le Beau, iv. 429.

This partition was but imperfectly accomplished, as both parts were afterwards reunited under Chosroes, who

[Footnote !: Chosroes, according to Procopius (who calls him Arsaces, the common name of the Armenian

kings) and the Armenian writers, bequeathed to his two sons, to Tigranes the Persian, to Arsaces the Roman,

division of Armenia, A. C. 416. With the assistance of the discontented nobles the Persian king placed his son

Sapor on the throne of the Eastern division; the Western at the same time was united to the Roman empire,

and called the Greater Armenia. It was then that Theodosiopolis was built. Sapor abandoned the throne of

Armenia to assert his rights to that of Persia; he perished in the struggle, and after a period of anarchy,

Bahram V., who had ascended the throne of Persia, placed the last native prince, Ardaschir, son of Bahram

Schahpour, on the throne of the Persian division of Armenia. St. Martin, v. 506. This Ardaschir was the

Artasires of Gibbon. The archbishop Isaac is called by the Armenians the Patriarch Schag. St. Martin, vi. 29.

[Footnote 85: Moses Choren, l. iii. c. 63, p. 316. According to the institution of St. Gregory, the Apostle of

Armenia, the archbishop was always of the royal family; a circumstance which, in some degree, corrected the

[Footnote 86: A branch of the royal house of Arsaces still subsisted with the rank and possessions (as it

[Footnote 87: Valarsaces was appointed king of Armenia by his brother the Parthian monarch, immediately

after the defeat of Antiochus Sidetes, (Moses Choren. l. ii. c. 2, p. 85,) one hundred and thirty years before

Christ. Without depending on the various and contradictory periods of the reigns of the last kings, we may be

assured, that the ruin of the Armenian kingdom happened after the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 431, (l. iii. c.

61, p. 312;) and under Varamus, or Bahram, king of Persia, (l. iii. c. 64, p. 317,) who reigned from A.D. 420

Note: Five hundred and eighty. St. Martin, ibid. He places this event A. C 429. M.]

Note: According to M. St. Martin, vi. 32, Vagharschah, or Valarsaces, was appointed king by his brother

[Footnote *: Artasires or Ardaschir was probably sent to the castle of Oblivion. St. Martin, vi. 31. M.]

[Footnote **: The duration of the Armenian kingdom according to M. St. Martin, was 580 years. M]

Death Of Honorius. Valentinian III. Emperor Of The East. Administration Of His Mother Placidia

During a long and disgraceful reign of twentyeight years, Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated

from the friendship of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over the East; and

Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference and secret joy, the calamities of Rome. The strange

adventures of Placidia ^1 gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the two empires. The daughter of

the great Theodosius had been the captive, and the queen, of the Goths; she lost an affectionate husband; she

was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the

treaty of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her return from Spain to Italy, Placidia

experienced a new persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a marriage, which had been

stipulated without her consent; and the brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom he had

vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius himself, the struggling and the reluctant hand of the widow

of Adolphus. But her resistance ended with the ceremony of the nuptials: nor did Placidia refuse to become

the mother of Honoria and Valentinian the Third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion over the

mind of her grateful husband. The generous soldier, whose time had hitherto been divided between social

pleasure and military service, was taught new lessons of avarice and ambition: he extorted the title of

Augustus: and the servant of Honorius was associated to the empire of the West. The death of Constantius, in

the seventh month of his reign, instead of diminishing, seemed to inerease the power of Placidia; and the

indecent familiarity ^2 of her brother, which might be no more than the symptoms of a childish affection,

were universally attributed to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base intrigues of a steward and a nurse,

this excessive fondness was converted into an irreconcilable quarrel: the debates of the emperor and his sister

were not long confined within the walls of the palace; and as the Gothic soldiers adhered to their queen, the

city of Ravenna was agitated with bloody and dangerous tumults, which could only be appeased by the forced

or voluntary retreat of Placidia and her children. The royal exiles landed at Constantinople, soon after the

marriage of Theodosius, during the festival of the Persian victories. They were treated with kindness and

magnificence; but as the statues of the emperor Constantius had been rejected by the Eastern court, the title of

Augusta could not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few months after the arrival of Placidia, a

swift messenger announced the death of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the important secret was

not divulged, till the necessary orders had been despatched for the march of a large body of troops to the

seacoast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of Constantinople remained shut during seven days; and the

loss of a foreign prince, who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was celebrated with loud and affected

[Footnote 2: It is the expression of Olympiodorus (apud Phetium p. 197;) who means, perhaps, to describe the

same caresses which Mahomet bestowed on his daughter Phatemah. Quando, (says the prophet himself,)

quando subit mihi desiderium Paradisi, osculor eam, et ingero linguam meam in os ejus. But this sensual

indulgence was justified by miracle and mystery; and the anecdote has been communicated to the public by

the Reverend Father Maracci in his Version and Confutation of the Koran, tom. i. p. 32.]

While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the vacant throne of Honorius was usurped by the

ambition of a stranger. The name of the rebel was John; he filled the confidential office of Primicerius, or

principal secretary, and history has attributed to his character more virtues, than can easily be reconciled with

the violation of the most sacred duty. Elated by the submission of Italy, and the hope of an alliance with the

Huns, John presumed to insult, by an embassy, the majesty of the Eastern emperor; but when he understood

that his agents had been banished, imprisoned, and at length chased away with deserved ignominy, John

prepared to assert, by arms, the injustice of his claims. In such a cause, the grandson of the great Theodosius

should have marched in person: but the young emperor was easily diverted, by his physicians, from so rash

and hazardous a design; and the conduct of the Italian expedition was prudently intrusted to Ardaburius, and

his son Aspar, who had already signalized their valor against the Persians. It was resolved, that Ardaburius

should embark with the infantry; whilst Aspar, at the head of the cavalry, conducted Placidia and her son

Valentinian along the seacoast of the Adriatic. The march of the cavalry was performed with such active

diligence, that they surprised, without resistance, the important city of Aquileia: when the hopes of Aspar

were unexpectedly confounded by the intelligence, that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet; and that his

father, with only two galleys, was taken and carried a prisoner into the port of Ravenna. Yet this incident,

unfortunate as it might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy. Ardaburius employed, or abused, the courteous

freedom which he was permitted to enjoy, to revive among the troops a sense of loyalty and gratitude; and as

soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, he invited, by private messages, and pressed the approach of,

Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity transformed into an angel, guided the eastern cavalry by a

secret, and, it was thought, an impassable road, through the morasses of the Po: the gates of Ravenna, after a

short struggle, were thrown open; and the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the mercy, or rather to the

cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand was first cut off; and, after he had been exposed, mounted on an

ass, to the public derision, John was beheaded in the circus of Aquileia. The emperor Theodosius, when he

received the news of the victory, interrupted the horseraces; and singing, as he marched through the streets,

a suitable psalm, conducted his people from the Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the remainder of

[Footnote 3: For these revolutions of the Western empire, consult Olympiodor, apud Phot. p. 192, 193, 196,

197, 200; Sozomen, l. ix. c. 16; Socrates, l. vii. 23, 24; Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 10, 11, and Godefroy, Dissertat

p. 486; Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 182, 183, in Chronograph, p. 72, 73, and the Chronicles.]

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; ^4 and Theodosius, by the right of consanguinity or conquest, might have reigned the sole legitimate

emperor of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway;

but his indolent temper gradually acquiesced in the dictates of sound policy. He contented himself with the

possession of the East; and wisely relinquished the laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful war

against the Barbarians beyond the Alps; or of securing the obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose

minds were alienated by the irreconcilable difference of language and interest. Instead of listening to the

voice of ambition, Theodosius resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather, and to seat his cousin

Valentinian on the throne of the West. The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the title of

Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before his departure from Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of Caesar;

and after the conquest of Italy, the patrician Helion, by the authority of Theodosius, and in the presence of the

senate, saluted Valentinian the Third by the name of Augustus, and solemnly invested him with the diadem

and the Imperial purple. ^5 By the agreement of the three females who governed the Roman world, the son of

Placidia was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius and Athenais; and as soon as the lover and his

bride had attained the age of puberty, this honorable alliance was faithfully accomplished. At the same time,

as a compensation, perhaps, for the expenses of the war, the Western Illyricum was detached from the Italian

dominions, and yielded to the throne of Constantinople. ^6 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

[Footnote 4: See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, l. ii. c. 7. He has laboriously out vainly, attempted to form a

reasonable system of jurisprudence from the various and discordant modes of royal succession, which have

[Footnote 5: The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori, Annali d'Italia tom. iv. p. 139) whether

Valentinian received the Imperial diadem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, I am willing to believe,

[Footnote 6: The count de Buat (Hist. des Peup es de l'Europe, tom. vii. p. 292 300) has established the

reality, explained the motives, and traced the consequences, of this remarkable cession.]

[Footnote 7: See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he ratifies and communicates (A.D. 438) the

Theodosian Code. About forty 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. l. 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.

Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no more than six years of age; and his long minority

was intrusted to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim to the succession of the

Western empire. Placidia envied, but she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of

Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of

Valentinian was jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; ^8 she reigned twentyfive

years, in the name of her son; and the character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the

suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute education, and studiously diverted his attention

from every manly and honorable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her armies were commanded by

two generals, Aetius ^9 and Boniface, ^10 who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their

union might have supported a sinking empire; their discord was the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of

Africa. The invasion and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Aetius; and though time has thrown a

shade over the exploits of his rival, the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest the military

talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle, in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror

of the Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his friend Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which

had once tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded his spotless integrity; the army dreaded

his equal and inexorable justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A peasant, who

complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal

the following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently informed himself of the time and place of the

assignation, mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the guilty couple, punished the

soldier with instant death, and silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the next morning,

with the head of the adulterer. The abilities of 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 favor and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy season of her

exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained her cause with unshaken fidelity: and the troops and

treasures of Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the rebellion. The same rebellion had been

supported by the zeal and activity of 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 purchased by liberal

gifts, and more liberal promises. But Aetius possessed an advantage of singular moment in a female reign; he

was present: he besieged, with artful and assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark designs

with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at length deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a

subtle conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not easily suspect. He had secretly persuaded

^11 Placidia to recall Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised Boniface to disobey the

Imperial summons: to the one, he represented the order as a sentence of death; to the other, he stated the

refusal as a signal of revolt; and when the credulous and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his

defence, Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion, which his own perfidy had excited. A

temperate inquiry into the real motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant to his duty and to

the republic; but the arts of 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. [Footnote 8:

Cassiodorus (Variar. l. xi. Epist. i. p. 238) 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. On this

[Footnote 9: Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy's Dissertat. p. 493, and Renatus Frigeridus, apud

Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetius was Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the

province of Scythia, and mastergeneral 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.]

[Footnote 10: For the character of Boniface, see Olympiodorus, apud Phot. p. 196; and St. Augustin apud

Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 712 715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at length deplored the fall of

his friend, who, after a solemn vow of chastity, had married a second wife of the Arian sect, and who was

[Footnote 11: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, 4, p. 182 186) 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 modern courts,

After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain;

except only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had fortified their camps, in mutual

discord and hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed; and their adversaries were besieged in the

Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked,

the victorious Barbarians to remove the scene of the war to the plains of Boetica. The rapid progress of the

Vandals soon acquired a more effectual opposition; and the mastergeneral Castinus marched against them

with a numerous army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior army, Castinus fled with

dishonor to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has been represented as the punishment, was most

probably the effect, of his rash presumption. ^12 Seville and Carthagena became the reward, or rather the

prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the vessels which they found in the harbor of Carthagena might easily

transport them to the Isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had

vainly concealed their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation, and perhaps the prospect of

Africa, encouraged the Vandals to accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface; and the

death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the bold enterprise. In the room of a prince not

conspicuous for any superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard brother, the terrible

Genseric; ^13 a name, which, in the destruction of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank with the

names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is described to have been of a middle stature, with a

lameness in one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and cautious

speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul; he disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished;

but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds and

without scruples; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to solicit the allies

who might be useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and contention.

Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to

ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon. Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued

the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as Merida; precipitated the king and his army into the River Anas, and

calmly returned to the seashore to embark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported the Vandals

over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only twelve miles in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards,

who anxiously wished their departure; and by the African general, who had implored their formidable

[Footnote 12: See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius. Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, l. vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608)

ascribes the victory of the Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted, they prayed, they carried a Bible in the

front of the Host, with the design, perhaps, of reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of their enemies.]

[Footnote 13: Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo

profundus, sermone rarus, luxuriae contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes

providentissimus, semina contentionum jacere, odia miscere 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

[Footnote 14: See 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,

Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the martial swarms of Barbarians that seemed to

issue from the North, will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army which Genseric mustered on the

coast of Mauritania. The Vandals, who in twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were

united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned with equal authority over the Alani, who had

passed, within the term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate.

The hopes of the bold enterprise had excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and many

desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by the same means which had occasioned their

ruin. Yet this various multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and though Genseric artfully

magnified his apparent strength, by appointing eighty chinarchs, 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. ^15 But his own dexterity, and the discontents of Africa, soon fortified the

Vandal powers, by the accession of numerous and active allies. The parts of Mauritania which border on the

Great Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage

temper had been exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of the Roman arms. The wandering

Moors, ^16 as they gradually ventured to approach the seashore, and the camp of the Vandals, must have

viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armor, the martial pride and discipline of the unknown

strangers who had landed on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blueeyed warriors of Germany

formed a very singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighborhood of the

torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some measure been removed, which arose from the mutual

ignorance of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any future consequence, embraced the

alliance of the enemies of Rome; and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and valleys of Mount

Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who had injuriously expelled them from the native

sovereignty of the land. [Footnote 15: Compare Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p. 190) and Victor

Vitensis, (de Persecutione Vandal. l. i. c. 1, p. 3, edit. Ruinart.) We are assured by Idatius, that Genseric

evacuated Spain, cum Vandalis omnibus eorumque familiis; and Possidius (in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud

Ruinart, p. 427) describes his army as manus ingens immanium gentium Vandalorum et Alanorum,

[Footnote 16: For the manners of the Moors, see Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. ii. c. 6, p. 249;) for their

figure and complexion, M. de Buffon, (Histoire Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 430.) Procopius says in general, that the

Moors had joined the Vandals before the death of Valentinian, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p. 190;) and it is

probable that the independent tribes did not embrace any uniform system of policy.]

The persecution of the Donatists ^17 was an event not less favorable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen

years before he landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by the order of the magistrate.

The Catholics were satisfied, that, after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the obstinacy of the

schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary; and the emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most

rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops,

^18 with many thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical

possessions, banished to the islands, and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in

the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived of the

rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred

pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained, according to the distinction of rank and fortune, to punish the

crime of assisting at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five times, without subduing the

obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was referred to the discretion of the Imperial court. ^19 By

these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of St. Augustin, ^20 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. ^21 Under these circumstances,

Genseric, a Christian, but an enemy of the orthodox communion, showed himself to the Donatists as a

powerful deliverer, from whom they might reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts

of the Roman emperors. ^22 The conquest of Africa was facilitated by the active zeal, or the secret favor, of a

domestic faction; the wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy of which the Vandals are accused,

may be fairly imputed to the fanaticism of their allies; and the intolerant spirit which disgraced the triumph of

Christianity, contributed to the loss of the most important province of the West. ^23

[Footnote 17: 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.]

[Footnote 18: 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

[Footnote 19: 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 54th law, promulgated by

[Footnote 20: St. Augustin altered his opinion with regard tosthe proper treatment of heretics. His pathetic

declaration of pity and indulgence for the Manichaeans, 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

[Footnote 21: 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

[Footnote 22: 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. vi. p. 68.]

[Footnote 23: 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 fight of the Imperial

The court and the people were astonished by the strange intelligence, that a virtuous hero, after so many

favors, and so many services, had renounced his allegiance, and invited the Barbarians to destroy the

province intrusted to his command. The friends of Boniface, who still believed that his criminal behavior

might be excused by some honorable motive, solicited, during the absence of Aetius, a free conference with

the Count of Africa; and Darius, an officer of high distinction, was named for the important embassy. ^24 In

their first interview at 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 its foundations. Carthage and the

Roman garrisons returned with their general to the allegiance of Valentinian; but the rest of Africa was still

distracted with war and faction; and the inexorable king of the Vandals, disdaining all terms of

accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the possession of his prey. The band of veterans who marched

under the standard of Boniface, and his hasty levies of provincial troops, were defeated with considerable

loss; the victorious Barbarians insulted the open country; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius, were the

[Footnote 24: In 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

delay from his dangerous and guilty situation; and even, if he could obtain the consent of his wife, to embrace

a life of celibacy and penance, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 890.) The bishop was intimately

The long and narrow tract of the African coast was filled with frequent monuments of Roman art and

magnificence; and the respective degrees of improvement might be accurately measured by the distance from

Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple reflection will impress every thinking mind with the clearest idea

of fertility and cultivation: the country was extremely populous; the inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence

for their own use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat, was so regular and plentiful, that Africa

deserved the name of the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden the seven fruitful

provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by the invasion of the Vandals; whose destructive rage

has perhaps been exaggerated by popular animosity, religious zeal, and extravagant declamation. War, in its

fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice; and the hostilities of Barbarians are

inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit which incessantly disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The

Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the deaths of their valiant countrymen were

expiated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the distinctions of age, or sex,

or rank, they employed every species of indignity and torture, to force from the captives a discovery of their

hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified his frequent examples of military execution: he was not

always the master of his own passions, or of those of his followers; and the calamities of war were aggravated

by the licentiousness of the Moors, and the fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not easily be persuaded,

that it was the common practice of the Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit trees, of a country

where they intended to settle: nor can I believe that it was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of

their prisoners before the walls of a besieged city, for the sole purpose of infecting the air, and producing a

pestilence, of which they themselves must have been the first victims. ^25 [Footnote 25: The original

complaints of the desolation of Africa are contained 1. In a letter from Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, to

excuse his absence from the council of Ephesus, (ap. Ruinart, p. 427.) 2. 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

Vitensis, (l. i. c. 1, 2, 3, edit. Ruinart.) The last picture, which was drawn sixty years after the event, is more

The generous mind of Count Boniface was tortured by the exquisite distress of beholding the ruin which he

had occasioned, and whose rapid progress he was unable to check. After the loss of a battle he retired into

Hippo Regius; where he was immediately besieged by an enemy, who considered him as the real bulwark of

Africa. The maritime colony of Hippo, ^26 about two hundred miles westward of Carthage, had formerly

acquired the distinguishing epithet of Regius, from the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of

trade and populousness still adhere to the modern city, which is known in Europe by the corrupted name of

Bona. The military labors, and anxious reflections, of Count Boniface, were alleviated by the edifying

conversation of his friend St. Augustin; ^27 till that bishop, the light and pillar of the Catholic church, was

gently released, in the third month of the siege, and in the seventysixth year of his age, from the actual and

the impending calamities of his country. The youth of Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors

which he so ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of his conversion to that of his death, the manners

of the bishop of Hippo were pure and austere: and the most conspicuous of his virtues was an ardent zeal

against heretics of every denomination; the Manichaeans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, against whom he

waged a perpetual controversy. When the city, some months after his death, was burnt by the Vandals, the

library was fortunately saved, which contained his voluminous writings; two hundred and thirtytwo separate

books or treatises on theological subjects, besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the gospel, and a

copious magazine of epistles and homilies. ^28 According to the judgment of the most impartial critics, the

superficial learning of Augustin was confined to the Latin language; ^29 and his style, though sometimes

animated by the eloquence of passion, is usually clouded by false and affected rhetoric. But he possessed a

strong, capacious, argumentative mind; he boldly sounded the dark abyss of grace, predestination, free will,

and original sin; and the rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored, ^30 has been entertained,

with public applause, and secret reluctance, by the Latin church. ^31 [Footnote 26: See Cellarius, Geograph.

Antiq. tom. ii. part ii. p. 112. 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 manufacturers. The adjacent

territory is renowned for a pure air, a fertile soil, and plenty of exquisite fruits.]

[Footnote 27: The life of St. Augustin, by Tillemont, fills a quarto volume (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii.) of more

than one thousand pages; and the diligence of that learned Jansenist was excited, on this occasion, by factious

[Footnote 28: Such, at least, is the account of Victor Vitensis, (de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 3;) though

Gennadius seems to doubt whether any person had read, or even collected, all the works of St. Augustin, (see

Hieronym. Opera, tom. i. p. 319, in Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.) They have been repeatedly printed; and Dupin

(Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. iii. p. 158 257) has given a large and satisfactory abstract of them as they stand

in the last edition of the Benedictines. My personal acquaintance with the bishop of Hippo does not extend

[Footnote 29: In his early youth (Confess. i. 14) St. Augustin disliked and neglected the study of Greek; and

he frankly owns that he read the Platonists in a Latin version, (Confes. vii. 9.) Some modern critics have

thought, that his ignorance of Greek disqualified him from expounding the Scriptures; and Cicero or

Quintilian would have required the knowledge of that language in a professor of rhetoric.]

[Footnote 30: These questions were seldom agitated, from the time of St. Paul to that of St. Augustin. I am

informed that the Greek fathers maintain the natural sentiments of the SemiPelagians; and that the

[Footnote 31: The church of Rome has canonized Augustin, and reprobated Calvin. Yet as the real difference

between them is invisible even to a theological microscope, the Molinists are oppressed by the authority of

the saint, and the Jansenists are disgraced by their resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while, the

Protestant Arminians stand aloof, and deride the mutual perplexity of the disputants, (see a curious Review of

the Controversy, by Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, (tom. xiv. p. 144 398.) Perhaps a reasoner still

more independent may smile in his turn, when he peruses an Arminian Commentary on the Epistle to the

By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of the Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted

above fourteen months: the sea was continually open; and when the adjacent country had been exhausted by

irregular rapine, the besiegers themselves were compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The

importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of the West. Placidia implored the assistance

of her eastern ally; and the Italian fleet and army were reenforced by Asper, who sailed from Constantinople

with a powerful armament. As soon as the force of the two empires was united under the command of

Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate

of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair; and the people of Hippo were permitted, with their

families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were either slain or

made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic,

might enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of Placidia.

Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank of patrician, and the dignity of mastergeneral of the Roman

armies; but he must have blushed at the sight of those medals, in which he was represented with the name and

attributes of victory. ^32 The discovery of his fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished

favor of his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Aetius. He hastily returned from Gaul to

Italy, with a retinue, or rather with an army, of Barbarian followers; and such was the weakness of the

government, that the two generals decided their private quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was successful;

but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a

few days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments, that he exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to

accept Aetius for her second husband. But Aetius could not derive any immediate advantage from the

generosity of his dying enemy: he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia; and though he attempted

to defend some strong fortresses, erected on his patrimonial estate, the Imperial power soon compelled him to

retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of

[Footnote 32: Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head of Valentinian; on the reverse, Boniface,

with a scourge in one hand, and a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which is drawn by four

horses, or, in another medal, by four stags; an unlucky emblem! I should doubt whether another example can

be found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an Imperial medal. See Science des Medailles, by the Pere

Note: Lord Mahon, Life of Belisarius, p. 133, mentions one of Belisarius on the authority of Cedrenus M.]

[Footnote 33: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 185) continues the history of Boniface no further than

his return to Italy. His death is mentioned by Prosper and Marcellinus; the expression of the latter, that

Aetius, the day before, had provided himself with a longer spear, implies something like a regular duel.]

It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals would achieve, without

resistance or delay, the conquest of Africa. Eight years, however, elapsed, from the evacuation of Hippo to

the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of that interval, the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent

prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he gave his son Hunneric for a hostage; and consented to

leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias. ^34 This moderation,

which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was

encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate

claims of his nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he sacrificed to his safety; and their

mother, the widow of the deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river Ampsaga. But the

public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to

have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in the field of battle. ^35 The convulsions

of Africa, which had favored his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power; and the various

seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the

unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops

from the Western provinces; the seacoast was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans of Spain and

Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city of Corta still persisted in obstinate independence.

^36 These difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric;

who alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed

a solemn treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance, and the moment

of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship, which concealed

his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eightyfive

years after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio. ^37 [Footnote 34: See Procopius, de

Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186. Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the distress of his

Numidian and Mauritanian subjects; he discharged them, in a great measure, from the payment of their debts,

reduced their tribute to one eighth, and gave them a right of appeal from their provincial magistrates to the

[Footnote 35: Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. ii. c. 5, p. 26. The cruelties of Genseric towards his

[Footnote 37: See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but

A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal

prerogatives of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendor of Antioch, she still

maintained the second rank in the West; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of the

African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis ^38 displayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a

flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A

regular subordination of civil honors gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and quarters of

the city, to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and

dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education of the African

youth; and the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek

and Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was planted in

the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and capacious harbor, was subservient to the commercial indus

try of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the

presence of the Barbarians. The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and the

reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their subtle and faithless character. ^39 The habits of trade, and the

abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks, and the shameless

practice of unnatural lusts, are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the

preacher of the age. ^40 The king of the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and the

ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not without energy) was

reduced by Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to

satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression. An edict was

promulgated, which enjoined all persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and

valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was

inexorably punished with death and torture, as an act of treason against the state. The lands of the proconsular

province, which formed the immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured, and divided among the

Barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar domain the fertile territory of Byzacium, and the

adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia. ^41 [Footnote 38: The picture of Carthage; as it flourished in the

fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 17, 18, in the third volume of Hudson's

Minor Geographers, from Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229; and principally from Salvian, de

[Footnote 39: The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi compares in his barbarous Latin, the

country and the inhabitants; and, after stigmatizing their want of faith, he coolly concludes, Difficile autem

[Footnote 40: He declares, that the peculiar vices of each country were collected in the sink of Carthage, (l.

vii. p. 257.) In the indulgence of vice, the Africans applauded their manly virtue. Et illi se magis virilis

fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime vires foeminei usus probositate fregissent, (p. 268.) The streets of

Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who publicly assumed the countenance, the dress, and the

character of women, (p. 264.) If a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was pursued with impious scorn

[Footnote 41: Compare Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p. 189, 190, and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut

It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he had injured: the nobility and senators of

Carthage were exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused the ignominious terms,

which their honor and religion forbade them to accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the

condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the East, were filled with a crowd of

exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public compassion; and the benevolent

epistles of Theod oret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian and Maria. ^42 The Syrian

bishop deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who, from the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage,

was reduced, with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign country; but he applauds the

resignation of the Christian exile, and the philosophic temper, which, under the pressure of such calamities,

could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria, the

daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon, is singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was

purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a slave in their native

country. A female attendant, transported in the same ship, and sold in the same family, still continued to

respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level of servitude; and the daughter of

Eudaemon received from her grateful affection the domestic services which she had once required from her

obedience. This remarkable behavior divulged the real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop

of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery oy the generosity of some soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of

Theodoret provided for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the deaconesses of the

church; till she was unexpectedly informed, that her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage,

exercised an honorable office in one of the Western provinces. Her filial impatience was seconded by the

pious bishop: Theodoret, in a letter still extant, recommends Maria to the bishop of Aegae, a maritime city of

Cilicia, which was frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West; most earnestly requesting,

that his colleague would use the maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would intrust her

to the care of such faithful merchants, as would esteem it a sufficient gain, if they restored a daughter, lost

beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent. [Footnote 42: Ruinart (p. 441 457) has collected

from Theodoret, and other authors, the misfortunes, real and fabulous, of the inhabitants of Carthage.]

Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the

Seven Sleepers; ^43 whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius, and the

conquest of Africa by the Vandals. ^44 When the emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble

youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain; where they

were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured by the a pile

of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged without

injuring the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and eightyseven years. At the end of that time,

the slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the stones to supply

materials for some rustic edifice: the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the Seven Sleepers were

permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger;

and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should secretly return to the city to purchase bread for the

use of his companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could no longer recognize the

once familiar aspect of his native country; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a large cross,

triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus. His singular dress, and obsolete language,

confounded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the current coin of the empire; and

Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual inquiries

produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had

escaped from the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and,

as it is said, the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven Sleepers; who

bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this

marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the

authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian

bishop, who was born only two years after the death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two

hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the young men of Ephesus. ^45 Their legend, before the end of

the sixth century, was translated from the Syriac into the Latin language, by the care of Gregory of Tours.

The hostile communions of the East preserve their memory with equal reverence; and their names are

honorably inscribed in the Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. ^46 Nor has their reputation

been confined to the Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn when he drove his

camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced as a divine revelation, into the Koran. ^47 The story of the Seven

Sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan

religion; ^48 and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the remote extremities of

Scandinavia. ^49 This easy and universal belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to

the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the

gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs; and even in our larger experience of history, the imagination

is accustomed, by a perpetual series of causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But if the

interval between two memorable aeras could be instantly annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary

slumber of two hundred years, to display the new world to the eyes of a spectator, who still retained a lively

and recent impression of the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of a

philosophical romance. The scene could not be more advantageously placed, than in the two centuries which

elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of Theodosius the Younger. During this period, the seat of

government had been transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus; and the

abuse of military spirit had been suppressed by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The

throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes, who had

extirpated the fabulous gods of antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints

and martyrs of the Catholic church, on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was

dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown Barbarians, issuing from the frozen

regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.

[Footnote 43: The choice of fabulous circumstances is of small importance; yet I have confined myself to the

narrative which was translated from the Syriac by the care of Gregory of Tours, (de Gloria Martyrum, l. i. c.

95, in Max. Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xi. p. 856,) to the Greek acts of their martyrdom (apud Photium, p.

1400, 1401) and to the Annals of the Patriarch Eutychius, (tom. i. p. 391, 531, 532, 535, Vers. Pocock.)]

[Footnote 44: Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by Assemanni, (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. i. p. 336, 338,)

place the resurrection of the Seven Sleepers in the year 736 (A.D. 425) or 748, (A.D. 437,) of the aera of the

Seleucides. Their Greek acts, which Photius had read, assign the date of the thirtyeighth year of the reign of

Theodosius, which may coincide either with A.D. 439, or 446. The period which had elapsed since the

persecution of Decius is easily ascertained; and nothing less than the ignorance of Mahomet, or the

[Footnote 45: James, one of the orthodox fathers of the Syrian church, was born A.D. 452; he began to

compose his sermons A.D. 474; he was made bishop of Batnae, in the district of Sarug, and province of

Mesopotamia, A.D. 519, and died A.D. 521. (Assemanni, tom. i. p. 288, 289.) For the homily de Pueris

Ephesinis, see p. 335 339: though I could wish that Assemanni had translated the text of James of Sarug,

[Footnote 46: See the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Mensis Julii, tom. vi. p. 375 397. This immense

calendar of Saints, in one hundred and twentysix years, (1644 1770,) and in fifty volumes in folio, has

advanced no further than the 7th day of October. The suppression of the Jesuits has most probably checked an

undertaking, which, through the medium of fable and superstition, communicates much historical and

[Footnote 47: See Maracci Alcoran. Sura xviii. tom. ii. p. 420 427, and tom. i. part iv. p. 103. With such an

ample privilege, Mahomet has not shown much taste or ingenuity. He has invented the dog (Al Rakim) the

Seven Sleepers; the respect of the sun, who altered his course twice a day, that he might not shine into the

cavern; and the care of God himself, who preserved their bodies from putrefaction, by turning them to the

[Footnote 48: See D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 139; and Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p.

[Footnote 49: Paul, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis Langobardorum, l. i. c. 4, p. 745, 746, edit. Grot.,) who

lived towards the end of the eight century, has placed in a cavern, under a rock, on the shore of the ocean, the

Seven Sleepers of the North, whose long repose was respected by the Barbarians. Their dress declared them

to be Romans and the deacon conjectures, that they were reserved by Providence as the future apostles of

The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The Huns. Death Of Theodosius The Younger.

The Western world was oppressed by the Goths and Vandals, who fled before the Huns; but the achievements

of the Huns themselves were not adequate to their power and prosperity. Their victorious hordes had spread

from the Volga to the Danube; but the public force was exhausted by the discord of independent chieftains;

their valor was idly consumed in obscure and predatory excursions; and they often degraded their national

dignity, by condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist under the banners of their fugitive enemies. In the

reign of Attila, ^1 the Huns again became the terror of the world; and I shall now describe the character and

actions of that formidable Barbarian; who alternately insulted and invaded the East and the West, and urged

[Footnote 1: The authentic materials for the history of Attila, may be found in Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c.

3450, p. 668688, edit. Grot.) and Priscus (Excerpta de Legationibus, p. 3376, Paris, 1648.) I have not

seen the Lives of Attila, composed by Juvencus Caelius Calanus Dalmatinus, in the twelfth century, or by

Nicholas Olahus, archbishop of Gran, in the sixteenth. See Mascou's History of the Germans, ix., and Maffei

Osservazioni Litterarie, tom. i. p. 88, 89. Whatever the modern Hungarians have added must be fabulous; and

they do not seem to have excelled in the art of fiction. They suppose, that when Attila invaded Gaul and Italy,

married innumerable wives, he was one hundred and twenty years of age. Thewrocz Chron. c. i. p. 22, in

In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from the confines of China to those of Germany, the most

powerful and populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge of the Roman provinces. The

accumulated weight was sustained for a while by artificial barriers; and the easy condescension of the

emperors invited, without satisfying, the insolent demands of the Barbarians, who had acquired an eager

appetite for the luxuries of civilized life. The Hungarians, who ambitiously insert the name of Attila among

their native kings, may affirm with truth that the hordes, which were subject to his uncle Roas, or Rugilas,

had formed their encampments within the limits of modern Hungary, ^2 in a fertile country, which liberally

supplied the wants of a nation of hunters and shepherds. In this advantageous situation, Rugilas, and his

valiant brothers, who continually added to their power and reputation, commanded the alternative of peace or

war with the two empires. His alliance with the Romans of the West was cemented by his personal friendship

for the great Aetius; who was always secure of finding, in the Barbarian camp, a hospitable reception and a

powerful support. At his solicitation, and in the name of John the usurper, sixty thousand Huns advanced to

the confines of Italy; their march and their retreat were alike expensive to the state; and the grateful policy of

Aetius abandoned the possession of Pannonia to his faithful confederates. The Romans of the East were not

less apprehensive of the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the provinces, or even the capital. Some

ecclesiastical historians have destroyed the Barbarians with lightning and pestilence; ^3 but Theodosius was

reduced to the more humble expedient of stipulating an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of

gold, and of disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title of general, which the king of the Huns

condescended to accept. The public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce impatience of the

Barbarians, and the perfidious intrigues of the Byzantine court. Four dependent nations, among whom we

may distinguish the Barbarians, disclaimed the sovereignty of the Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and

protected by a Roman alliance; till the just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas, were effectually urged

by the voice of Eslaw his ambassador. Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate: their decree was ratified

by the emperor; and two ambassadors were named, Plinthas, a general of Scythian extraction, but of consular

rank; and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman, who was recommended to that office by

his ambitious colleague. [Footnote 2: Hungary has been successively occupied by three Scythian colonies. 1.

The Huns of Attila; 2. The Abares, in the sixth century; and, 3. The Turks or Magiars, A.D. 889; the

immediate and genuine ancestors of the modern Hungarians, whose connection with the two former is

extremely faint and remote. The Prodromus and Notitia of Matthew Belius appear to contain a rich fund of

information concerning ancient and modern Hungary. I have seen the extracts in Bibli otheque Ancienne et

Note: Mailath (in his Geschichte der Magyaren) considers the question of the origin of the Magyars as still

undecided. The old Hungarian chronicles unanimously derived them from the Huns of Attila See note, vol.

iv. pp. 341, 342. The later opinion, adopted by Schlozer, Belnay, and Dankowsky, ascribes them, from their

language, to the Finnish race. Fessler, in his history of Hungary, agrees with Gibbon in supposing them

Turks. Mailath has inserted an ingenious dissertation of Fejer, which attempts to connect them with the

[Footnote 3: Socrates, l. vii. c. 43. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36. Tillemont, who always depends on the faith of his

ecclesiastical authors, strenuously contends (Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 136, 607) that the wars and personages

The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty. His two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded

to the throne of their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the ambassadors of Constantinople; but as

they proudly refused to dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spacious plain near the city

of Margus, in the Upper Maesia. The kings of the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain honors,

of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of peace, and each condition was an insult on the majesty of

the empire. Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on the banks of the Danube, they required that

the annual contribution should be augmented from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred pounds of gold;

that a fine or ransom of eight pieces of gold should be paid for every Roman captive who had escaped from

his Barbarian master; that the emperor should renounce all treaties and engagements with the enemies of the

Huns; and that all the fugitives who had taken refuge in the court or provinces of Theodosius, should be

delivered to the justice of their offended sovereign. This justice was rigorously inflicted on some unfortunate

youths of a royal race. They were crucified on the territories of the empire, by the command of Attila: and as

soon as the king of the Huns had impressed the Romans with the terror of his name, he indulged them in a

short and arbitrary respite, whilst he subdued the rebellious or independent nations of Scythia and Germany.

[Footnote 4: See Priscus, p. 47, 48, and Hist. de Peuples de l'Europe, tom. v. i. c. xii, xiii, xiv, xv.]

Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps his regal, descent ^5 from the ancient Huns, who had

formerly contended with the monarchs of China. His features, according to the observation of a Gothic

historian, bore the stamp of his national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity of a

modern Calmuk; ^6 a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deepseated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in

the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of a

disproportioned form. The haughty step and demeanor of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of

his superiority above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to

enjoy the terror which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was not inaccessible to pity; his suppliant enemies

might confide in the assurance of peace or pardon; and Attila was considered by his subjects as a just and

indulgent master. He delighted in war; but, after he had ascended the throne in a mature age, his head, rather

than his hand, achieved the conquest of the North; and the fame of an adventurous soldier was usefully

exchanged for that of a prudent and successful general. The effects of personal valor are so inconsiderable,

except in poetry or romance, that victory, even among Barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill with

which the passions of the multitude are combined and guided for the service of a single man. The Scythian

conquerors, Attila and Zingis, surpassed their rude countrymen in art rather than in courage; and it may be

observed that the monarchies, both of the Huns and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the

basis of popular superstition The miraculous conception, which fraud and credulity ascribed to the

virginmother of Zingis, raised him above the level of human nature; and the naked prophet, who in the name

of the Deity invested him with the empire of the earth, pointed the valor of the Moguls with irresistible

enthusiasm. ^7 The religious arts of Attila were not less skillfully adapted to the character of his age and

country. It was natural enough that the Scythians should adore, with peculiar devotion, the god of war; but as

they were incapable of forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their

tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron cimeter. ^8 One of the shepherds of the Huns perceived, that a

heifer, who was grazing, had wounded herself in the foot, and curiously followed the track of the blood, till

he discovered, among the long grass, the point of an ancient sword, which he dug out of the ground and

presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this

celestial favor; and, as the rightful possessor of the sword of Mars, asserted his divine and indefeasible claim

to the dominion of the earth. ^9 If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn occasion, a lofty altar, or

rather pile of fagots, three hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious plain; and the

sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the

blood of sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive. ^10 Whether human sacrifices formed any part of the

worship of Attila, or whether he propitiated the god of war with the victims which he continually offered in

the field of battle, the favorite of Mars soon acquired a sacred character, which rended his conquests more

easy and more permanent; and the Barbarian princes confessed, in the language of devotion or flattery, that

they could not presume to gaze, with a steady eye, on the divine majesty of the king of the Huns. ^11 His

brother Bleda, who reigned over a considerable part of the nation, was compelled to resign his sceptre and his

life. Yet even this cruel act was attributed to a supernatural impulse; and the vigor with which Attila wielded

the sword of Mars, convinced the world that it had been reserved alone for his invincible arm. ^12 But the

extent of his empire affords the only remaining evidence of the number and importance of his victories; and

the Scythian monarch, however ignorant of the value of science and philosophy, might perhaps lament that

his illiterate subjects were destitute of the art which could perpetuate the memory of his exploits.

[Footnote 5: Priscus, p. 39. The modern Hungarians have deduced his genealogy, which ascends, in the

thirtyfifth degree, to Ham, the son of Noah; yet they are ignorant of his father's real name. (De Guignes,

[Footnote 6: Compare Jornandes (c. 35, p. 661) with Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 380. The former had

a right to observe, originis suae sigua restituens. The character and portrait of Attila are probably transcribed

[Footnote 7: Abulpharag. Pocock, p. 281. Genealogical History of the Tartars, by Abulghazi Bahader Khan,

part iii c. 15, part iv c. 3. Vie de Gengiscan, par Petit de la Croix, l. 1, c. 1, 6. The relations of the

missionaries, who visited Tartary in the thirteenth century, (see the seventh volume of the Histoire des

Voyages,) express the popular language and opinions; Zingis is styled the son of God,

[Footnote 8: Nec templum apud eos visitur, aut delubrum, ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam

potest; sed gladius Barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem regionum quas circumcircant

praesulem verecundius colunt. Ammian. Marcellin. xxxi. 2, and the learned Notes of Lindenbrogius and

[Footnote 9: Priscus relates this remarkable story, both in his own text (p. 65) and in the quotation made by

Jornandes, (c. 35, p. 662.) He might have explained the tradition, or fable, which characterized this famous

sword, and the name, as well as attributes, of the Scythian deity, whom he has translated into the Mars of the

[Footnote 10: Herodot. l. iv. c. 62. For the sake of economy, I have calculated by the smallest stadium. In the

human sacrifices, they cut off the shoulder and arm of the victim, which they threw up into the air, and drew

[Footnote 11: Priscus, p. 65. A more civilized hero, Augustus himself, was pleased, if the person on whom he

fixed his eyes seemed unable to support their divine lustre. Sueton. in August. c. 79.]

[Footnote 12: The Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vii. p. 428, 429) attempts to clear Attila

from the murder of his brother; and is almost inclined to reject the concurrent testimony of Jornandes, and the

If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized and the savage climates of the globe; between the

inhabitants of cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds, who dwelt in tents, Attila might

aspire to the title of supreme and sole monarch of the Barbarians. ^13 He alone, among the conquerors of

ancient and modern times, united the two mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague

appellations, when they are applied to his reign, may be understood with an ample latitude. Thuringia, which

stretched beyond its actual limits as far as the Danube, was in the number of his provinces; he interposed,

with the weight of a powerful neighbor, in the domestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his lieutenants

chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine. He subdued the islands of the ocean, the

kingdoms of Scandinavia, encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns might derive a

tribute of furs from that northern region, which has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity

of the climate, and the courage of the natives. Towards the East, it is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of

Attila over the Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured, that he reigned on the banks of the Volga; that the

king of the Huns was dreaded, not only as a warrior, but as a magician; ^14 that he insulted and vanquished

the khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent ambassadors to negotiate an equal alliance with the

empire of China. In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the sovereignty of Attila, and who

never entertained, during his lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths were

distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the personal merits of their chiefs. The renowned Ardaric,

king of the Gepidae, was the faithful and sagacious counsellor of the monarch, who esteemed his intrepid

genius, whilst he loved the mild and discreet virtues of the noble Walamir, king of the Ostrogoths. The crowd

of vulgar kings, the leaders of so many martial tribes, who served under the standard of Attila, were ranged in

the submissive order of guards and domestics round the person of their master. They watched his nod; they

trembled at his frown; and at the first signal of his will, they executed, without murmur or hesitation, his stern

and absolute commands. In time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national troops, attended the

royal camp in regular succession; but when Attila collected his military force, he was able to bring into the

field an army of five, or, according to another account, of seven hundred thousand Barbarians. ^15

[Footnote 13: Fortissimarum gentium dominus, qui inaudita ante se potentia colus Scythica et Germanica

regna possedit. Jornandes, c. 49, p. 684. Priscus, p. 64, 65. M. de Guignes, by his knowledge of the Chinese,

[Footnote 14: See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 296. The Geougen believed that the Huns could excite, at

pleasure, storms of wind and rain. This phenomenon was produced by the stone Gezi; to whose magic power

the loss of a battle was ascribed by the Mahometan Tartars of the fourteenth century. See Cherefeddin Ali,

[Footnote 15: Jornandes, c. 35, p. 661, c. 37, p. 667. See Tillemont, Hist. dea Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 129, 138.

Corneille has represented the pride of Attila to his subject kings, and his tragedy opens with these two

The two kings of the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths are profound politicians and sentimental lovers, and the

The ambassadors of the Huns might awaken the attention of Theodosius, by reminding him that they were his

neighbors both in Europe and Asia; since they touched the Danube on one hand, and reached, with the other,

as far as the Tanais. In the reign of his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the

provinces of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils and innumerable captives. ^16 They

advanced, by a secret path, along the shores of the Caspian Sea; traversed the snowy mountains of Armenia;

passed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Halys; recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of

Cappadocian horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, and disturbed the festal songs and dances of the

citizens of Antioch. Egypt trembled at their approach; and the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land prepared

to escaped their fury by a speedy embarkation. The memory of this invasion was still recent in the minds of

the Orientals. The subjects of Attila might execute, with superior forces, the design which these adventurers

had so boldly attempted; and it soon became the subject of anxious conjecture, whether the tempest would

fall on the dominions of Rome, or of Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the Huns, who were

themselves in the rank of powerful princes, had been sent to ratify an alliance and society of arms with the

emperor, or rather with the general of the West. They related, during their residence at Rome, the

circumstances of an expedition, which they had lately made into the East. After passing a desert and a

morass, supposed by the Romans to be the Lake Maeotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and arrived,

at the end of fifteen days' march, on the confines of Media; where they advanced as far as the unknown cities

of Basic and Cursic. ^* They encountered the Persian army in the plains of Media and the air, according to

their own expression, was darkened by a cloud of arrows. But the Huns were obliged to retire before the

numbers of the enemy. Their laborious retreat was effected by a different road; they lost the greatest part of

their booty; and at length returned to the royal camp, with some knowledge of the country, and an impatient

desire of revenge. In the free conversation of the Imperial ambassadors, who discussed, at the court of Attila,

the character and designs of their formidable enemy, the ministers of Constantinople expressed their hope,

that his strength might be diverted and employed in a long and doubtful contest with the princes of the house

of Sassan. The more sagacious Italians admonished their Eastern brethren of the folly and danger of such a

hope; and convinced them, that the Medes and Persians were incapable of resisting the arms of the Huns; and

that the easy and important acquisition would exalt the pride, as well as power, of the conqueror. Instead of

contenting himself with a moderate contribution, and a military title, which equalled him only to the generals

of Theodosius, Attila would proceed to impose a disgraceful and intolerable yoke on the necks of the

prostrate and captive Romans, who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the empire of the Huns. ^17

Assuetumque choris, et laeta plebe canorum, Proterit imbellem sonipes hostilis Orontem.

See likewise, in Eutrop. l. i. 243 251, and the strong description of Jerom, who wrote from his feelings,

tom. i. p. 26, ad Heliodor. p. 200 ad Ocean. Philostorgius (l. ix. c. 8) mentions this irruption.]

[Footnote *: Gibbon has made a curious mistake; Basic and Cursic were the names of the commanders of the

While the powers of Europe and Asia were solicitous to avert the impending danger, the alliance of Attila

maintained the Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enterprise had been concerted between the courts of

Ravenna and Constantinople, for the recovery of that valuable province; and the ports of Sicily were already

filled with the military and naval forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations

round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the king of the Huns to invade the Eastern empire; and a

trifling incident soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war. ^18 Under the faith of the treaty of

Margus, a free market was held on the Northern side of the Danube, which was protected by a Roman fortress

surnamed Constantia. A troop of Barbarians violated the commercial security; killed, or dispersed, the

unsuspecting traders; and levelled the fortress with the ground. The Huns justified this outrage as an act of

reprisal; alleged, that the bishop of Margus had entered their territories, to discover and steal a secret treasure

of their kings; and sternly demanded the guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the fugitive subjects, who

had escaped from the justice of Attila. The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of war; and the

Maesians at first applauded the generous firmness of their sovereign. But they were soon intimidated by the

destruction of Viminiacum and the adjacent towns; and the people was persuaded to adopt the convenient

maxim, that a private citizen, however innocent or respectable, may be justly sacrificed to the safety of his

country. The bishop of Margus, who did not possess the spirit of a martyr, resolved to prevent the designs

which he suspected. He boldly treated with the princes of the Huns: secured, by solemn oaths, his pardon and

reward; posted a numerous detachment of Barbarians, in silent ambush, on the banks of the Danube; and, at

the appointed hour, opened, with his own hand, the gates of his episcopal city. This advantage, which had

been obtained by treachery, served as a prelude to more honorable and decisive victories. The Illyrian frontier

was covered by a line of castles and fortresses; and though the greatest part of them consisted only of a single

tower, with a small garrison, they were commonly sufficient to repel, or to intercept, the inroads of an enemy,

who was ignorant of the art, and impatient of the delay, of a regular siege. But these slight obstacles were

instantly swept away by the inundation of the Huns. ^19 They destroyed, with fire and sword, the populous

cities of Sirmium and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marcianopolis, of Naissus and Sardica; where every

circumstance of the discipline of the people, and the construction of the buildings, had been gradually

adapted to the sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends above five hundred miles

from the Euxine to the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads of

Barbarians whom Attila led into the field. The public danger and distress could not, however, provoke

Theodosius to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in person at the head of the Roman

legions. But the troops, which had been sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled from Sicily; the

garrisons, on the side of Persia, were exhausted; and a military force was collected in Europe, formidable by

their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and the soldiers the duty of

obedience. The armies of the Eastern empire were vanquished in three successive engagements; and the

progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. The two former, on the banks of the Utus, and under

the walls of Marcianopolis, were fought in the extensive plains between the Danube and Mount Haemus. As

the Romans were pressed by a victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired towards the

Chersonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of the land, was marked by their third,

and irreparable, defeat. By the destruction of this army, Attila acquired the indisputable possession of the

field. From the Hellespont to Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, without

resistance, and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might,

perhaps, escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns; but the words, the most expressive of total extirpation and

erasure, are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the Eastern empire. ^20

Theodosius, his court, and the unwarlike people, were protected by the walls of Constantinople; but those

walls had been shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of fiftyeight towers had opened a large and

tremendous breach. The damage indeed was speedily repaired; but this accident was aggravated by a

superstitious fear, that Heaven itself had delivered the Imperial city to the shepherds of Scythia, who were

[Footnote 18: Priscus, p. 331. His history contained a copious and elegant account of the war, (Evagrius, l. i.

c. 17;) but the extracts which relate to the embassies are the only parts that have reached our times. The

original work was accessible, however, to the writers from whom we borrow our imperfect knowledge,

Jornandes, Theophanes, Count Marcellinus, Prosper Tyro, and the author of the Alexandrian, or Paschal,

Chronicle. M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vii. c. xv.) has examined the cause, the

circumstances, and the duration of this war; and will not allow it to extend beyond the year 44.]

[Footnote 19: Procopius, de Edificiis, l. 4, c. 5. These fortresses were afterwards restored, strengthened, and

enlarged by the emperor Justinian, but they were soon destroyed by the Abares, who succeeded to the power

[Footnote 20: Septuaginta civitates (says ProsperTyro) depredatione vastatoe. The language of Count

Marcellinus is still more forcible. Pene totam Europam, invasis excisisque civitatibus atque castellis,

[Footnote 21: Tillemont (Hist des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 106, 107) has paid great attention to this memorable

earthquake; which was felt as far from Constantinople 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.]

In all their invasions of the civilized empires of the South, the Scythian shepherds have been uniformly

actuated by a savage and destructive spirit. The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and

murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which

may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest; and a just apprehension, lest the desolation which we inflict

on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost

unknown in the pastoral state of nations. The Huns of Attila may, without injustice, be compared to the

Moguls and Tartars, before their primitive manners were changed by religion and luxury; and the evidence of

Oriental history may reflect some light on the short and imperfect annals of Rome. After the Moguls had

subdued the northern provinces of China, it was seriously proposed, not in the hour of victory and passion,

but in calm deliberate council, to exterminate all the inhabitants of that populous country, that the vacant land

might be converted to the pasture of cattle. The firmness of a Chinese mandarin, ^22 who insinuated some

principles of rational policy into the mind of Zingis, diverted him from the execution of this horrid design.

But in the cities of Asia, which yielded to the Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the rights of war was exercised

with a regular form of discipline, which may, with equal reason, though not with equal authority, be imputed

to the victorious Huns. The inhabitants, who had submitted to their discretion, were ordered to evacuate their

houses, and to assemble in some plain adjacent to the city; where a division was made of the vanquished into

three parts. The first class consisted of the soldiers of the garrison, and of the young men capable of bearing

arms; and their fate was instantly decided they were either enlisted among the Moguls, or they were

massacred on the spot by the troops, who, with pointed spears and bended bows, had formed a circle round

the captive multitude. The second class, composed of the young and beautiful women, of the artificers of

every rank and profession, and of the more wealthy or honorable citizens, from whom a private ransom might

be expected, was distributed in equal or proportionable lots. The remainder, whose life or death was alike

useless to the conquerors, were permitted to return to the city; which, in the mean while, had been stripped of

its valuable furniture; and a tax was imposed on those wretched inhabitants for the indulgence of breathing

their native air. Such was the behavior of the Moguls, when they were not conscious of any extraordinary

rigor. ^23 But the most casual provocation, the slightest motive of caprice or convenience, often provoked

them to involve a whole people in an indiscriminate massacre; and the ruin of some flourishing cities was

executed with such unrelenting perseverance, that, according to their own expression, horses might run,

without stumbling, over the ground where they had once stood. The three great capitals of Khorasan, Maru,

Neisabour, and Herat, were destroyed by the armies of Zingis; and the exact account which was taken of the

slain amounted to four millions three hundred and fortyseven thousand persons. ^24 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, ^25 either the Tartar or the Hun might deserve the epithet of the Scourge of

[Footnote 22: He represented to the emperor of the Moguls 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. Yelut chousay (such was the name of the mandarin) was a wise and virtuous

Note: Compare the life of this remarkable man, translated from the Chinese by M. Abel Remusat. Nouveaux

[Footnote 23: Particular instances would be endless; but the curious reader may consult the life of Gengiscan,

by Petit de la Croix, the Histoire des Mongous, and the fifteenth book of the History of the Huns.]

[Footnote 24: At Maru, 1,300,000; at Herat, 1,600,000; at Neisabour, 1,747,000. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque

Orientale, p. 380, 381. I use the orthography of D'Anville's maps. It must, however, be allowed, that the

Persians were disposed to exaggerate their losses and the Moguls to magnify their exploits.]

[Footnote 25: Cherefeddin Ali, his servile panegyrist, would afford us many horrid examples. In his camp

before Delhi, Timour massacred 100,000 Indian prisoners, who had smiled when the army of their

countrymen appeared in sight, (Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. iii. p. 90.) The people of Ispahan supplied 70,000

human skulls for the structure of several lofty towers, (id. tom. i. p. 434.) A similar tax was levied on the

revolt of Bagdad, (tom. iii. p. 370;) and the exact account, which Cherefeddin was not able to procure from

the proper officers, is stated by another historian (Ahmed Arabsiada, tom. ii. p. 175, vera Manger) at 90,000

[Footnote 26: The ancients, Jornandes, Priscus, 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.]

It may be affirmed, with bolder assurance, that the Huns depopulated the provinces of the empire, by the

number of Roman subjects whom they led away into captivity. In the hands of a wise legislator, such an

industrious colony might have contributed to diffuse through the deserts of Scythia the rudiments of the

useful and ornamental arts; but these captives, who had been taken in war, were accidentally dispersed among

the hordes that obeyed the empire of Attila. The estimate of their respective value was formed by the simple

judgment of unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians. Perhaps they might not understand the merit of a

theologian, profoundly skilled in the controversies of the Trinity and the Incarnation; yet they respected the

ministers of every religion and the active zeal of the Christian missionaries, without approaching the person

or the palace of the monarch, successfully labored in the propagation of the gospel. ^27 The pastoral tribes,

who were ignorant of the distinction of landed property, must have disregarded the use, as well as the abuse,

of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt or their

abhorrence. ^28 The perpetual intercourse of the Huns and the Goths had communicated the familiar

knowledge of the two national dialects; and the Barbarians were ambitious of conversing in Latin, the

military idiom even of the Eastern empire. ^29 But they disdained the language and the sciences of the

Greeks; and the vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the flattering applause of the schools,

was mortified to find that his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance than himself. The

mechanic arts were encouraged and esteemed, as they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect in

the service of Onegesius, one of the favorites of Attila, was employed to construct a bath; but this work was a

rare example of private luxury; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter, the armorer, were much more

adapted to supply a wandering people with the useful instruments of peace and war. But the merit of the

physician was received with universal favor and respect: the Barbarians, who despised death, might be

apprehensive of disease; and the haughty conqueror trembled in the presence of a captive, to whom he

ascribed, perhaps, an imaginary power of prolonging or preserving his life. ^30 The Huns might be provoked

to insult the misery of their slaves, over whom they exercised a despotic command; ^31 but their manners

were not susceptible of a refined system of oppression; and the efforts of courage and diligence were often

recompensed by the gift of freedom. The historian Priscus, whose embassy is a source of curious instruction,

was accosted in the camp of Attila by a stranger, who saluted him in the Greek language, but whose dress and

figure displayed the appearance of a wealthy Scythian. In the siege of Viminiacum, he had lost, according to

his own account, his fortune and liberty; he became the slave of Onegesius; but his faithful services, against

the Romans and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to the rank of the native Huns; to whom he was

attached by the domestic pledges of a new wife and several children. The spoils of war had restored and

improved his private property; he was admitted to the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek blessed

the hour of his captivity, since it had been the introduction to a happy and independent state; which he held

by the honorable tenure of military service. This reflection naturally produced a dispute on the advantages

and defects of the Roman government, which was severely arraigned by the apostate, and defended by

Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colors, the

vices of a declining empire, of which he had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman

princes, unable to protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms for their

own defence; the intolerable weight of taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary

modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of

judicial proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased the

influence of the rich, and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor. A sentiment of patriotic sympathy was at

length revived in the breast of the fortunate exile; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the guilt or

weakness of those magistrates who had perverted the wisest and most salutary institutions. ^32

[Footnote 27: The missionaries of St. Chrysostom had converted great numbers of the Scythians, who dwelt

beyond the Danube in tents and wagons. Theodoret, l. v. c. 31. Photius, p. 1517. The Mahometans, the

Nestorians, and the Latin Christians, thought themselves secure of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis,

[Footnote 28: 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 sewing up his mouth, observed, with much satisfaction, that the viper could no longer hiss.

[Footnote 29: Priscus, p. 59. It should seem that the Huns preferred the Gothic and Latin languages to their

[Footnote 30: Philip de Comines, in his admirable picture of the last moments of Lewis XI., (Memoires, l. vi.

c. 12,) represents the insolence of his physician, who, in five months, extorted 54,000 crowns, and a rich

[Footnote 31: Priscus (p. 61) extols the equity of the Roman laws, which protected the life of a slave.

Occidere solent (says Tacitus of the Germans) non disciplina et severitate, sed impetu et ira, 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]

The timid or selfish policy of the Western Romans had abandoned the Eastern empire to the Huns. ^33 The

loss of armies, and the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the personal character of the

monarch. Theodosius might still affect the style, as well as the title, of Invincible Augustus; but he was

reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who imperiously dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions of

peace. I. The emperor of the East resigned, by an express or tacit convention, an extensive and important

territory, which stretched along the southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as far as

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, though the foulest channels, to the treasury of Constantinople. The revenue

was dissipated by Theodosius and his favorites in wasteful and profuse luxury; which was disguised by the

names of Imperial magnificence, or Christian charity. The immediate supplies had been exhausted by the

unforeseen necessity of military preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, but capriciously, imposed

on the members of the senatorian order, was the only expedient that could disarm, without loss of time, the

impatient avarice of Attila; and the poverty of the nobles compelled them to adopt the scandalous resource of

exposing to public auction the jewels of their wives, and the hereditary ornaments of their palaces. ^34 III.

The king of the Huns appears to have established, as a principle of national jurisprudence, that he could never

lose the property, which he had once acquired, in the persons who had yielded either a voluntary, or reluctant,

submission to his authority. From this principle he concluded, and the conclusions of Attila were irrevocable

laws, that the Huns, who had been taken prisoner in war, should be released without delay, and without

ransom; that every Roman captive, who had presumed to escape, should purchase his right to freedom at the

price of twelve pieces of gold; and that all the Barbarians, who had deserted the standard of Attila, should be

restored, without any promise or stipulation of pardon. In the execution of this cruel and ignominious treaty,

the Imperial officers were forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters, who refused to devote

themselves to certain death; and the Romans forfeited all reasonable claims to the friendship of any Scythian

people, by this public confession, that they were destitute either of faith, or power, to protect the suppliant,

[Footnote 33: Nova iterum Orienti assurgit ruina ... quum nulla ab Cocidentalibus ferrentur auxilia. Prosper

Tyro composed his Chronicle in the West; and his observation implies a censure.]

[Footnote 34: According to the description, or rather invective, of Chrysostom, an auction of Byzantine

luxury must have been very 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

[Footnote 35: The articles of the treaty, expressed without much order or precision, may be found in Priscus,

(p. 34, 35, 36, 37, 53, Count Marcellinus dispenses some comfort, by observing, 1. That Attila himself

solicited the peace and presents, which he had formerly refused; and, 2dly, That, about the same time, the

ambassadors of India presented a fine large tame tiger to the emperor 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, ^36 had been distinguished by the martial spirit of its youth, the skill

and reputation of the leaders whom they had chosen, and their daring exploits against the innumerable host of

the Barbarians. Instead of tamely expecting their approach, the Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and

successful sallies, the troops of the Huns, who gradually declined the dangerous neighborhood, rescued from

their hands the spoil and the captives, and recruited their domestic force by the voluntary association of

fugitives and deserters. After the conclusion of the treaty, Attila still menaced the empire with implacable

war, unless the Azimuntines were persuaded, or compelled, to comply with the conditions which their

sovereign had accepted. The ministers of Theodosius confessed with shame, and with truth, that they no

longer possessed any authority over a society of men, who so bravely asserted their natural independence;

and the king of the Huns condescended to negotiate an equal exchange with the citizens of Azimus. They

demanded the restitution of some shepherds, who, with their cattle, had been accidentally surprised. A strict,

though fruitless, inquiry was allowed: but the Huns were obliged to swear, that they did not detain any

prisoners belonging to the city, before they could recover two surviving countrymen, whom the Azimuntines

had reserved as pledges for the safety of their lost companions. Attila, on his side, was satisfied, and

deceived, by their solemn asseveration, that the rest of the captives had been put to the sword; and that it was

their constant practice, immediately to dismiss the Romans and the deserters, who had obtained the security

of the public faith. This prudent and officious dissimulation may be condemned, or excused, by the casuists,

as they incline to the rigid decree of St. Augustin, or to the milder sentiment of St. Jerom and St. Chrysostom:

but every soldier, every statesman, must acknowledge, that, if the race of the Azimuntines had been

encouraged and multiplied, the Barbarians would have ceased to trample on the majesty of the empire. ^37

[Footnote 36: Priscus, p. 35, 36. Among the hundred and eightytwo forts, or castles, of Thrace, enumerated

by Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. iv. c. xi. tom. ii. p. 92, edit. Paris,) there is one of the name of Esimontou,

whose position is doubtfully marked, in the neighborhood of Anchialus and the Euxine Sea. The name and

walls of Azimuntium might subsist till the reign of Justinian; but the race of its brave defenders had been

[Footnote 37: The peevish dispute of St. Jerom and St. Augustin, who labored, by different expedients, to

reconcile the 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. 5 20,) which has been frequently agitated by Catholic

It would have been strange, indeed, if Theodosius had purchased, by the loss of honor, a secure and solid

tranquillity, or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries. The Byzantine court was insulted by

five or six successive embassies; ^38 and the ministers of Attila were uniformly instructed to press the tardy

or imperfect execution of the last treaty; to produce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were still

protected by the empire; and to declare, with seeming moderation, that, unless their sovereign obtained

complete and immediate satisfaction, it would be impossible for him, were it even his wish, to check the

resentment of his warlike tribes. Besides the motives of pride and interest, which might prompt the king of

the Huns to continue this train of negotiation, he was influenced by the less honorable view of enriching his

favorites at the expense of his enemies. The Imperial treasury was exhausted, to procure the friendly offices

of the ambassadors and their principal attendants, whose favorable report might conduce to the maintenance

of peace. The Barbarian monarch was flattered by the liberal reception of his ministers; he computed, with

pleasure, the value and splendor of their gifts, rigorously exacted the performance of every promise which

would contribute to their private emolument, and treated as an important business of state the marriage of his

secretary Constantius. ^39 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 obligations of her country. The

reluctance of the victim, some domestic troubles, and the unjust confiscation of her fortune, cooled the ardor

of her interested lover; but he still demanded, in the name of Attila, an equivalent alliance; and, after many

ambiguous delays and excuses, the Byzantine court was compelled to sacrifice to this insolent stranger the

widow of Armatius, whose birth, opulence, and beauty, placed her in the most illustrious rank of the Roman

matrons. For these importunate and oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable return: he weighed, with

suspicious pride, the character and station of the Imperial envoys; but he condescended to promise that he

would advance as far as Sardica to receive any ministers who had been invested with the consular dignity.

The council of Theodosius eluded this proposal, by representing the desolate and ruined condition of Sardica,

and even ventured to insinuate that every officer of the army or household was qualified to treat with the most

powerful princes of Scythia. Maximin, ^40 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, ^41

embraced the opportunity of observing the Barbarian hero in the peaceful and domestic scenes of life: but the

secret of the embassy, a fatal and guilty secret, was intrusted only to the interpreter Vigilius. The two last

ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain

of the tribe of the Scyrri, returned at the same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure

names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of their sons: the two servants

of Attila became the fathers of the last Roman emperor of the West, and of the first Barbarian king of Italy.

[Footnote 38: Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, 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 disregarded.]

[Footnote 39: See Priscus, p. 69, 71, 72, 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) has too plainly distinguished

two persons of the name of Constantius, who, from the similar events of their lives, might have been easily

[Footnote 40: In the Persian treaty, concluded in the year 422, the wise and eloquent Maximin had been the

assessor of Ardaburius, (Socrates, l. vii. c. 20.) When Marcian ascended the throne, the office of Great

Chamberlain was bestowed on Maximin, who is ranked, in the public edict, among the four principal

ministers of state, (Novell. ad Calc. Cod. Theod. p. 31.) He executed a civil and military commission in the

Eastern provinces; and his death was lamented by the savages of Aethiopia, whose incursions he had

[Footnote 41: Priscus was a native of Panium in Thrace, and deserved, by his eloquence, an honorable place

among the sophists of the age. His Byzantine history, which related to his own times, was comprised in seven

books. See Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 235, 236. Notwithstanding the charitable judgment of the

critics, I suspect that Priscus was a Pagan. Note: Niebuhr concurs in this opinion. Life of Priscus in the new

The ambassadors, who were followed by a numerous train of men and horses, made their first halt at Sardica,

at the distance of three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' journey, from Constantinople. As the

remains of Sardica were still included within the limits of the empire, it was incumbent on the Romans to

exercise the duties of hospitality. They provided, with the assistance of the provincials, a sufficient number of

sheep and oxen, and invited the Huns to a splendid, or at least, a plentiful supper. But the harmony of the

entertainment was soon disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion. The greatness of the emperor and the

empire was warmly maintained by their ministers; the Huns, with equal ardor, asserted the superiority of their

victorious monarch: the dispute was inflamed by the rash and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius, who

passionately rejected the comparison of a mere mortal with the divine Theodosius; and it was with extreme

difficulty that Maximin and Priscus were able to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry minds, of the

Barbarians. When they rose from table, the Imperial ambassador presented Edecon and Orestes with rich gifts

of silk robes and Indian pearls, which they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could not forbear insinuating that

he had not always been treated with such respect and liberality: and the offensive distinction which was

implied, between his civil office and the hereditary rank of his colleague seems to have made Edecon a

doubtful friend, and Orestes an irreconcilable enemy. After this entertainment, they travelled about one

hundred miles from Sardica to Naissus. That flourishing city, which has given birth to the great Constantine,

was levelled with the ground: the inhabitants were destroyed or dispersed; and the appearance of some sick

persons, who were still permitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served only to increase the horror

of the prospect. The surface of the country was covered with the bones of the slain; and the ambassadors, who

directed their course to the northwest, were obliged to pass the hills of modern Servia, before they

descended into the flat and marshy grounds which are terminated by the Danube. The Huns were masters of

the great river: their navigation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree; the

ministers of Theodosius were safely landed on the opposite bank; and their Barbarian associates immediately

hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally prepared for the amusements of hunting or of war. No

sooner had Maximin advanced about two miles ^* from the Danube, than he began to experience the

fastidious insolence of the conqueror. He was sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he

should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal mansion. ^! The ministers of Attila pressed them to

communicate the business, and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear of their sovereign When

Maximin temperately urged the contrary practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that the

resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods

themselves, had been treacherously disclosed to the public enemy. On his refusal to comply with such

ignominious terms, the Imperial envoy was commanded instantly to depart; the order was recalled; it was

again repeated; and the Huns renewed their ineffectual attempts to subdue the patient firmness of Maximin.

At length, by the intercession of Scotta, the brother of Onegesius, whose friendship had been purchased by a

liberal gift, he was admitted to the royal presence; but, in stead of obtaining a decisive answer, he was

compelled to undertake a remote journey towards the north, that Attila might enjoy the proud satisfaction of

receiving, in the same camp, the ambassadors of the Eastern and Western empires. His journey was regulated

by the guides, who obliged him to halt, to hasten his march, or to deviate from the common road, as it best

suited the convenience of the king. The Romans, who traversed the plains of Hungary, suppose that they

passed several navigable rivers, either in canoes or portable boats; but there is reason to suspect that the

winding stream of the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might present itself in different places under different names. From

the contiguous villages they received a plentiful and regular supply of provisions; mead instead of wine,

millet in the place of bread, and a certain liquor named camus, which according to the report of Priscus, was

distilled from barley. ^42 Such fare might appear coarse and indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of

Constantinople; but, in their accidental distress, they were relieved by the gentleness and hospitality of the

same Barbarians, so terrible and so merciless in war. The ambassadors had encamped on the edge of a large

morass. A violent tempest of wind and rain, of thunder and lightning, overturned their tents, immersed their

baggage and furniture in the water, and scattered their retinue, who wandered in the darkness of the night,

uncertain of their road, and apprehensive of some unknown danger, till they awakened by their cries the

inhabitants of a neighboring village, the property of the widow of Bleda. A bright illumination, and, in a few

moments, a comfortable fire of reeds, was kindled by their officious benevolence; the wants, and even the

desires, of the Romans were liberally satisfied; and they seem to have been embarrassed by the singular

politeness of Bleda's widow, who added to her other favors the gift, or at least the loan, of a sufficient number

of beautiful and obsequious damsels. The sunshine of the succeeding day was dedicated to repose, to collect

and dry the baggage, and to the refreshment of the men and horses: but, in the evening, before they pursued

their journey, the ambassadors expressed their gratitude to the bounteous lady of the village, by a very

acceptable present of silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and Indian pepper. Soon after this adventure, they

rejoined the march of Attila, from whom they had been separated about six days, and slowly proceeded to the

capital of an empire, which did not contain, in the space of several thousand miles, a single city.

[Footnote !: He was forbidden to pitch his tents on an eminence because Attila's were below on the plain.

[Footnote 42: The Huns themselves still continued to despise the labors of agriculture: they abused the

privilege of a victorious nation; and the Goths, their industrious subjects, who cultivated the earth, dreaded

their neighborhood, like that of so many ravenous wolves, (Priscus, p. 45.) In the same manner the Sarts and

Tadgics provide for their own subsistence, and for that of the Usbec Tartars, their lazy and rapacious

As far as we may ascertain the vague and obscure geography of Priscus, this capital appears to have been

seated between the Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills, in the plains of Upper Hungary, and most

probably in the neighborhood of Jezberin, Agria, or Tokay. ^43 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. ^44 The baths, constructed by Onegesius, were the only edifice of

stone; the materials had been transported from Pannonia; and since the adjacent country was destitute even of

large timber, it may be presumed, that the meaner habitations of the royal village consisted of straw, or mud,

or of canvass. The wooden houses of the more illustrious Huns were built and adorned with rude

magnificence, according to the rank, the fortune, or the taste of the proprietors. They seem to have been

distributed with some degree of order and symmetry; and each spot became more honorable as it approached

the person of the sovereign. The palace of Attila, which surpassed all other houses in his dominions, was built

entirely of wood, and covered an ample space of ground. The outward enclosure was a lofty wall, or palisade,

of smooth square timber, intersected with high towers, but intended rather for ornament than defence. This

wall, which seems to have encircled the declivity of a hill, comprehended a great variety of wooden edifices,

adapted to the uses of royalty. A separate house was assigned to each of the numerous wives of Attila; and,

instead of the rigid and illiberal confinement imposed by Asiatic jealousy they politely admitted the Roman

ambassadors to their presence, their table, and even to the freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maximin

offered his presents to Cerca, ^* the principal queen, he admired the singular architecture on her mansion, the

height of the round columns, the size and beauty of the wood, which was curiously shaped or turned or

polished or carved; and his attentive eye was able to discover some taste in the ornaments and some

regularity in the proportions. After passing through the guards, who watched before the gate, the ambassadors

were introduced into the private apartment of Cerca. The wife of Attila received their visit sitting, or rather

lying, on a soft couch; the floor was covered with a carpet; the domestics formed a circle round the queen;

and her damsels, seated on the ground, were employed in working the variegated embroidery which adorned

the dress of the Barbaric warriors. The Huns were ambitious of displaying those riches which were the fruit

and evidence of their victories: the trappings of their horses, their swords, and even their shoes, were studded

with gold and precious stones; and their tables were profusely spread with plates, and goblets, and vases of

gold and silver, which had been fashioned by the labor of Grecian artists. The monarch alone assumed the

superior pride of still adhering to the simplicity of his Scythian ancestors. ^45 The dress of Attila, his arms,

and the furniture of his horse, were plain, without ornament, and of a single color. The royal table was served

in wooden cups and platters; flesh was his only food; and the conqueror of the North never tasted the luxury

of bread. [Footnote 43: It is evident that Priscus passed the Danube and the Teyss, and that he did not reach

the foot of the Carpathian hills. Agria, Tokay, and Jazberin, are situated in the plains circumscribed by this

definition. M. de Buat (Histoire des Peuples, tom. vii. p. 461) has chosen Tokay; Otrokosci, (p. 180, apud

Mascou, ix. 23,) a learned Hungarian, has preferred Jazberin, a place about thirtysix miles westward of

Note: M. St. Martin considers the narrative of Priscus, the only authority of M. 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 Thwrocz, l. 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 Etzelnburgh or Etzelaburgh, i. e., the

city of Attila. The distance of Buda from the place where Priscus crossed the Danube, on his way from

Naissus, is equal to that which he traversed to reach the residence of the king of the Huns. I see no good

reason for not acceding to the relations of the Hungarian historians." St. Martin, vi. 191. M]

[Footnote 44: 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

splendor of the town and abbey of St. Denys, 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.]

[Footnote *: The name of this queen occurs three times in Priscus, and always in a different form Cerca,

Creca, and Rheca. The Scandinavian poets have preserved her memory under the name of Herkia. St. Martin,

[Footnote 45: When the Moguls displayed the spoils of Asia, in the diet of Toncat, the throne of Zingis was

still covered with the original black felt carpet, on which he had been seated, when he was raised to the

When Attila first gave audience to the Roman ambassadors on the banks of the Danube, his tent was

encompassed with a formidable guard. The monarch himself was seated in a wooden chair. His stern

countenance, angry gestures, and impatient tone, astonished the firmness of Maximin; but Vigilius had more

reason to tremble, since he distinctly understood the menace, that if Attila did not respect the law of nations,

he would nail the deceitful interpreter to the cross. and leave his body to the vultures. The Barbarian

condescended, by producing an accurate list, to expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed that

no more than seventeen deserters could be found. But he arrogantly declared, that he apprehended only the

disgrace of contending with his fugitive slaves; since he despised their impotent efforts to defend the

provinces which Theodosius had intrusted to their arms: "For what fortress," (added Attila,) "what city, in the

wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it

should be erased from the earth?" He dismissed, however, the interpreter, who returned to Constantinople

with his peremptory demand of more complete restitution, and a more splendid embassy. His anger gradually

subsided, and his domestic satisfaction in a marriage which he celebrated on the road with the daughter of

Eslam, ^* might perhaps contribute to mollify the native fierceness of his temper. The entrance of Attila into

the royal village was marked by a very singular ceremony. A numerous troop of women came out to meet

their hero and their king. They marched before him, distributed into long and regular files; the intervals

between the files were filled by white veils of thin linen, which the women on either side bore aloft in their

hands, and which formed a canopy for a chorus of young virgins, who chanted hymns and songs in the

Scythian language. The wife of his favorite Onegesius, with a train of female attendants, saluted Attila at the

door of her own house, on his way to the palace; and offered, according to the custom of the country, her

respectful homage, by entreating him to taste the wine and meat which she had prepared for his reception. As

soon as the monarch had graciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted a small silver table to a

convenient height, as he sat on horseback; and Attila, when he had touched the goblet with his lips, again

saluted the wife of Onegesius, and continued his march. During his residence at the seat of empire, his hours

were not wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the king of the Huns could maintain his superior

dignity, without concealing his person from the public view. He frequently assembled his council, and gave

audience to the ambassadors of the nations; and his people might appeal to the supreme tribunal, which he

held at stated times, and, according to the Eastern custom, before the principal gate of his wooden palace. The

Romans, both of the East and of the West, were twice invited to the banquets, where Attila feasted with the

princes and nobles of Scythia. Maximin and his colleagues were stopped on the threshold, till they had made

a devout libation to the health and prosperity of the king of the Huns; and were conducted, after this

ceremony, to their respective seats in a spacious hall. The royal table and couch, covered with carpets and

fine linen, was raised by several steps in the midst of the hall; and a son, an uncle, or perhaps a favorite king,

were admitted to share the simple and homely repast of Attila. Two lines of small tables, each of which

contained three or four guests, were ranged in order on either hand; the right was esteemed the most

honorable, but the Romans ingenuously confess, that they were placed on the left; and that Beric, an

unknown chieftain, most probably of the Gothic race, preceded the representatives of Theodosius and

Valentinian. The Barbarian monarch received from his 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. This ceremony was successively performed for all, or at least for the

illustrious persons of the assembly; and a considerable time must have been consumed, since it was thrice

repeated as each course or service was placed on the table. But the wine still remained after the meat had

been removed; and the Huns continued to indulge their intemperance long after the sober and decent

ambassadors of the two empires had withdrawn themselves from the nocturnal banquet. Yet before they

retired, they enjoyed a singular opportunity of observing the manners of the nation in their convivial

amusements. Two Scythians stood before the couch of Attila, and recited the verses which they had

composed, to celebrate his valor and his victories. ^* A profound silence prevailed in the hall; and the

attention of the guests was captivated by the vocal harmony, which revived and perpetuated the memory of

their own exploits; a martial ardor flashed from the eyes of the warriors, who were impatient for battle; and

the tears of the old men expressed their generous despair, that they could no longer partake the danger and

glory of the field. ^46 This entertainment, which might be considered as a school of military virtue, was

succeeded by a farce, that debased the dignity of human nature. A Moorish and a Scythian buffcon ^*

successively excited the mirth of the rude spectators, by their deformed figure, ridiculous dress, antic

gestures, absurd speeches, and the strange, unintelligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic, and the Hunnic

languages; and the hall resounded with loud and licentious peals of laughter. In the midst of this intemperate

riot, Attila alone, without a change of countenance, maintained his steadfast and inflexible gravity; which was

never relaxed, except on the entrance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons: he embraced the boy with a smile of

paternal tenderness, gently pinched him by the cheek, and betrayed a partial affection, which was justified by

the assurance of his prophets, that Irnac would be the future support of his family and empire. Two days

afterwards, the ambassadors received a second invitation; and they had reason to praise the politeness, as well

as the hospitality, of Attila. The king of the Huns held a long and familiar conversation with Maximin; but his

civility was interrupted by rude expressions and haughty reproaches; and he was provoked, by a motive of

interest, to support, with unbecoming zeal, the private claims of his secretary Constantius. "The emperor"

(said Attila) "has long promised him a rich wife: Constantius must not be disappointed; nor should a Roman

emperor deserve the name of liar." On the third day, the ambassadors were dismissed; the freedom of several

captives was granted, for a moderate ransom, to their pressing entreaties; and, besides the royal presents, they

were permitted to accept from each of the Scythian nobles the honorable and useful gift of a horse. Maximin

returned, by the same road, to Constantinople; and though he was involved in an accidental dispute with

Beric, the new ambassador of Attila, he flattered himself that he had contributed, by the laborious journey, to

[Footnote *: Was this his own daughter, or the daughter of a person named Escam? (Gibbon has written

incorrectly Eslam, an unknown name. The officer of Attila, called Eslas.) In either case the construction is

imperfect: a good Greek writer would have introduced an article to determine the sense. Nor is it quite clear,

whether Scythian usage is adduced to excuse the polygamy, or a marriage, which would be considered

incestuous in other countries. The Latin version has carefully preserved the ambiguity, filiam Escam uxorem.

I am not inclined to construe it 'his own daughter' though I have too little confidence in the uniformity of the

grammatical idioms of the Byzantines (though Priscus is one of the best) to express myself without

[Footnote *: This passage is remarkable from the connection of the name of Attila with that extraordinary

cycle of poetry, which is found in different forms in almost all the Teutonic languages. A Latin poem, de

prima expeditione Attilae, Regis Hunnorum, in Gallias, was published in the year 1780, by Fischer at Leipsic.

It contains, with the continuation, 1452 lines. It abounds in metrical faults, but is occasionally not without

some rude spirit and some copiousness of fancy in the variation of the circumstances in the different combats

of the hero Walther, prince of Aquitania. It contains little which can be supposed historical, and still less

which is characteristic concerning Attila. It relates to a first expedition of Attila into Europe which cannot be

traced in history, during which the kings of the Franks, of the Burgundians, and of Aquitaine, submit

themselves, and give hostages to Attila: the king of the Franks, a personage who seems the same with the

Hagen of Teutonic romance; the king of Burgundy, his daughter Heldgund; the king of Aquitaine, his son

Walther. The main subject of the poem is the escape of Walther and Heldgund from the camp of Attila, and

the combat between Walther and Gunthar, king of the Franks. with his twelve peers, among whom is Hagen.

Walther had been betrayed while he passed through Worms, the city of the Frankish king. by paying for his

ferry over the Rhine with some strange fish, which he had caught during his flight, and which were unknown

in the waters of the Rhine. Gunthar was desirous of plundering him of the treasure, which Walther had

carried off from the camp of Attila. The author of this poem is unknown, nor can I, on the vague and rather

doubtful allusion to Thule, as Iceland, venture to assign its date. It was, evidently, recited in a monastery, as

appears by the first line; and no doubt composed there. The faults of metre would point out a late date; and it

may have been formed upon some local tradition, as Walther, the hero, seems to have turned monk.

This poem, however, in its character and its incidents, bears no relation to the Teutonic cycle, of which the

Nibelungen Lied is the most complete form. In this, in the Heldenbuch, in some of the Danish Sagas. in

countess lays and ballads in all the dialects of Scandinavia, appears King Etzel (Attila) in strife with the

Burgundians and the Franks. With these appears, by a poetic anachronism, Dietrich of Berne. (Theodoric of

Verona,) the celebrated Ostrogothic king; and many other very singular coincidences of historic names,

which appear in the poems. (See Lachman Kritik der Sage in his volume of various readings to the

I must acknowledge myself unable to form any satisfactory theory as to the connection of these poems with

the history of the time, or the period, from which they may date their origin; notwithstanding the laborious

investigations and critical sagacity of the Schlegels, the Grimms, of P. E. Muller and Lachman, and a whole

host of German critics and antiquaries; not to omit our own countryman, Mr. Herbert, whose theory

concerning Attila is certainly neither deficient in boldness nor originality. I conceive the only way to obtain

any thing like a clear conception on this point would be what Lachman has begun, (see above,) patiently to

collect and compare the various forms which the traditions have assumed, without any preconceived, either

mythical or poetical, theory, and, if possible, to discover the original basis of the whole rich and fantastic

legend. One point, which to me is strongly in favor of the antiquity of this poetic cycle, is, that the manners

are so clearly anterior to chivalry, and to the influence exercised on the poetic literature of Europe by the

chivalrous poems and romances. I think I find some traces of that influence in the Latin poem, though

The English reader will find an amusing account of the German Nibelungen and Heldenbuch, and of some of

the Scandinavian Sagas, in the volume of Northern Antiquities published by Weber, the friend of Sir Walter

Scott. Scott himself contributed a considerable, no doubt far the most valuable, part to the work. See also the

various German editions of the Nibelungen, to which Lachman, with true German perseverance, has

compiled a thick volume of various readings; the Heldenbuch, the old Danish poems by Grimm, the Eddas,

[Footnote 46: If we may believe Plutarch, (in Demetrio, tom. v. 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

[Footnote *: The Scythian was an idiot or lunatic; the Moor a regular buffcon M.]

[Footnote 47: The curious narrative of this embassy, which required few observations, and was not

susceptible of any collateral evidence, may be found in Priscus, p. 49 70. But I have not confined myself to

the same order; and I had previously extracted the historical circumstances, which were less intimately

But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous design, which had been concealed under the

mask of the public faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he contemplated the splendor of

Constantinople, had encouraged the interpreter Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with the eunuch

Chrysaphius, ^48 who governed the emperor and the empire. After some previous conversation, and a mutual

oath of secrecy, the eunuch, who had not, from his own feelings or experience, imbibed any exalted notions

of ministerial virtue, ventured to propose the death of Attila, as an important service, by which Edecon might

deserve a liberal share of the wealth and luxury which he admired. The ambassador of the Huns listened to

the tempting offer; and professed, with apparent zeal, his ability, as well as readiness, to execute the bloody

deed; the design was communicated to the master of the offices, and the devout Theodosius consented to the

assassination of his invincible enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated by the dissimulation, or

the repentance, of Edecon; and though he might exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he

seemed to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit of an early and voluntary confession. If we now review

the embassy of Maximin, and the behavior of Attila, we must applaud the Barbarian, who respected the laws

of hospitality, and generously entertained and dismissed the minister of a prince who had conspired against

his life. But the rashness of Vigilius will appear still more extraordinary, since he returned, conscious of his

guilt and danger, to the royal camp, accompanied by his son, and carrying with him a weighty purse of gold,

which the favorite eunuch had furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and to corrupt the fidelity of the

guards. The interpreter was instantly seized, and dragged before the tribunal of Attila, where he asserted his

innocence with specious firmness, till the threat of inflicting instant death on his son extorted from him a

sincere discovery of the criminal transaction. Under the name of ransom, or confiscation, the rapacious king

of the Huns accepted two hundred pounds of gold for the life of a traitor, whom he disdained to punish. He

pointed his just indignation against a nobler object. His ambassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were immediately

despatched to Constantinople, with a peremptory instruction, which it was much safer for them to execute

than to disobey. They boldly entered the Imperial presence, with the fatal purse hanging down from the neck

of Orestes; who interrogated the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the throne, whether he recognized

the evidence of his guilt. But the office of reproof was reserved for the superior dignity of his colleague

Eslaw, who gravely addressed the emperor of the East in the following words: "Theodosius is the son of an

illustrious and respectable parent: Attila likewise is descended from a noble race; and he has supported, by

his actions, the dignity which he inherited from his father Mundzuk. But Theodosius has forfeited his paternal

honors, and, by consenting to pay tribute has degraded himself to the condition of a slave. It is therefore just,

that he should reverence the man whom fortune and merit have placed above him; instead of attempting, like

a wicked slave, clandestinely to conspire against his master." The son of Arcadius, who was accustomed only

to the voice of flattery, heard with astonishment the severe language of truth: he blushed and trembled; nor

did he presume directly to refuse the head of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and Orestes were instructed to

demand. A solemn embassy, armed with full powers and magnificent gifts, was hastily sent to deprecate the

wrath of Attila; and his pride was gratified by the choice of Nomius and Anatolius, two ministers of consular

or patrician rank, of whom the one was great treasurer, and the other was mastergeneral of the armies of the

East. He condescended to meet these ambassadors on the banks of the River Drenco; and though he at first

affected a stern and haughty demeanor, his anger was insensibly mollified by their eloquence and liberality.

He condescended to pardon the emperor, the eunuch, and the interpreter; bound himself by an oath to observe

the conditions of peace; released a great number of captives; abandoned the fugitives and deserters to their

fate; and resigned a large territory, to the south of the Danube, which he had already exhausted of its wealth

and inhabitants. But this treaty was purchased at an expense which might have supported a vigorous and

successful war; and the subjects of Theodosius were compelled to redeem the safety of a worthless favorite

by oppressive taxes, which they would more cheerfully have paid for his destruction. ^49

[Footnote 48: M. de Tillemont has very properly given the succession of chamberlains, who reigned in the

name of Theodosius. Chrysaphius was the last, and, according to the unanimous evidence of history, the

worst of these favorites, (see Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 117 119. Mem. Eccles. tom. xv. p. 438.) His

partiality for his godfather the heresiarch Eutyches, engaged him to persecute the orthodox party]

[Footnote 49: This secret conspiracy and its important consequences, may be traced in the fragments of

Priscus, p. 37, 38, 39, 54, 70, 71, 72. 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

The emperor Theodosius did not long survive the most humiliating circumstance of an inglorious life. As he

was riding, or hunting, in the neighborhood of Constantinople, he was thrown from his horse into the River

Lycus: the spine of the back was injured by the fall; and he expired some days afterwards, in the fiftieth year

of his age, and the fortythird of his reign. ^50 His sister Pulcheria, whose authority had been controlled both

in civil and ecclesiastical affairs by the pernicious influence of the eunuchs, was unanimously proclaimed

Empress of the East; and the Romans, for the first time, submitted to a female reign. No sooner had Pulcheria

ascended the throne, than she indulged her own and the public resentment, by an act of popular justice.

Without any legal trial, the eunuch Chrysaphius was executed before the gates of the city; and the immense

riches which had been accumulated by the rapacious favorite, served only to hasten and to justify his

punishment. ^51 Amidst the general acclamations of the clergy and people, the empress did not forget the

prejudice and disadvantage to which her sex was exposed; and she wisely resolved to prevent their murmurs

by the choice of a colleague, who would always respect the superior rank and virgin chastity of his wife. She

gave her hand to Marcian, a senator, about sixty years of age; and the nominal husband of Pulcheria was

solemnly invested with the Imperial purple. The zeal which he displayed for the orthodox creed, as it was

established by the council of Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the grateful eloquence of the Catholics.

But the behavior of Marcian in a private life, and afterwards on the throne, may support a more rational

belief, that he was qualified to restore and invigorate an empire, which had been almost dissolved by the

successive weakness of two hereditary monarchs. He was born in Thrace, and educated to the profession of

arms; but Marcian's youth had been severely exercised by poverty and misfortune, since his only resource,

when he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed of a

friend. He passed nineteen years in the domestic and military service of Aspar, and his son Ardaburius;

followed those powerful generals to the Persian and African wars; and obtained, by their influence, the

honorable rank of tribune and senator. His mild disposition, and useful talents, without alarming the jealousy,

recommended Marcian to the esteem and favor of his patrons; he had seen, perhaps he had felt, the abuses of

a venal and oppressive administration; and his own example gave weight and energy to the laws, which he

promulgated for the reformation of manners. ^52 [Footnote 50: Theodorus 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

[Footnote 51: Pulcheriae nutu (says Count Marcellinus) sua cum avaritia interemptus est. She abandoned the

eunuch to the pious revenge of a son, whose father had suffered at his instigation.

Note: Might not the execution of Chrysaphius have been a sacrifice to avert the anger of Attila, whose

[Footnote 52: de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4. Evagrius, l. ii. c. 1. Theophanes, p. 90, 91. Novell. ad Calcem. Cod.

Theod. tom. vi. p. 30. The praises which St. Leo and the Catholics have bestowed on Marcian, are diligently

Invasion Of Gaul By Attila. He Is Repulsed By Aetius And The Visigoths. Attila Invades And Evacuates

It was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided, as long as it is possible to preserve a secure and

honorable peace; but it was likewise his opinion, that peace cannot be honorable or secure, if the sovereign

betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war. This temperate courage dictated his reply to the demands of Attila,

who insolently pressed the payment of the annual tribute. The emperor signified to the Barbarians, that they

must no longer insult the majesty of Rome by the mention of a tribute; that he was disposed to reward, with

becoming liberality, the faithful friendship of his allies; but that, if they presumed to violate the public peace,

they should feel that he possessed troops, and arms, and resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language,

even in the camp of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver the

presents, till he had been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a sense of dignity, and a contempt of

danger, which Attila was not prepared to expect from the degenerate Romans. ^1 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." ^2 But as the Barbarian despised, or affected to despise, the Romans of the East, whom

he had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had

achieved a more glorious and important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns

were naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of those provinces; but the particular motives and

provocations of Attila can only be explained by the state of the Western empire under the reign of

Valentinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the administration of Aetius. ^3

[Footnote 2: The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which introduces this haughty message, during the

lifetime of Theodosius, may have anticipated the date; but the dull annalist was incapable of inventing the

[Footnote 3: The second book of the Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise tom. i. p.

189 424, throws great light on the state of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila; but the ingenious author,

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,

he solicited his pardon at the head of sixty thousand Barbarians; and the empress Placidia confessed, by a

feeble resistance, that the condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency, was the effect of

weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son Valentinian, and the Western empire, into the hands of an

insolent subject; nor could Placidia protect the son inlaw of Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian,

^4 from the implacable persecution which urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished

in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate Aetius, who was immediately promoted to the rank of patrician,

and thrice invested with the honors of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and

infantry, the whole military power of the state; and he is sometimes styled, by contemporary writers, the

duke, or general, of the Romans of the West. His prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the

grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace and

luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and a patriot, who supported near

twenty years the ruins of the Western empire. The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses, that Aetius was

born for the salvation of the Roman republic; ^5 and the following portrait, though it is drawn in the fairest

colors, must be allowed to contain a much larger proportion of truth than of flattery. ^* "His mother was a

wealthy and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in the province of

Scythia, gradually rose from the station of a military domestic, to the dignity of master of the cavalry. Their

son, who was enrolled almost in his infancy in the guards, was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and

afterwards to the Huns; ^! and he successively obtained the civil and military honors of the palace, for which

he was equally qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of Aetius was not above the middle stature;

but his manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility; and he excelled in the martial

exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want

of food, or of sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the

genuine courage that can despise not only dangers, but injuries: and it was impossible either to corrupt, or

deceive, or intimidate the firm integrity of his soul." ^6 The Barbarians, who had seated themselves in the

Western provinces, were insensibly taught to respect the faith and valor of the patrician Aetius. He soothed

their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced their interests, and checked their ambition. ^* A

seasonable treaty, which he concluded with Genseric, protected Italy from the depredations of the Vandals;

the independent Britons implored and acknowledged his salutary aid; the Imperial authority was restored and

maintained in Gaul and Spain; and he compelled the Franks and the Suevi, whom he had vanquished in the

field, to become the useful confederates of the republic. [Footnote 4: Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. l.

i. 6, p. 8, edit. Ruinart) calls him, acer consilio et strenuus in bello: but his courage, when he became

unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness; and Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of proeceps,

(Sidon. Apollinar Carmen ix. 181.) His adventures in 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, and seize the city of Barcelona.]

[Footnote 5: Reipublicae Romanae singulariter natus, qui superbiam Suevorum, Francorumque barbariem

immensis caedibus servire Imperio Romano coegisset. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, p. 660.]

[Footnote *: Some valuable fragments of a poetical panegyric on Aetius by Merobaudes, a Spaniard, have

been recovered from a palimpsest MS. by the sagacity and industry of Niebuhr. They have been reprinted in

the new edition of the Byzantine Historians. The poet speaks in glowing terms of the long (annosa) peace

enjoyed under the administration of Aetius. The verses are very spirited. The poet was rewarded by a statue

Danuvii cum pace redit, Tanaimque furore Exuit, et nigro candentes aethere terras Marte suo caruisse jubet.

Dedit otia ferro Caucasus, et saevi condemnant praelia reges. Addidit hiberni famulantia foedera Rhenus

Orbis ...... Lustrat Aremoricos jam mitior incola saltus; Perdidit et mores tellus, adsuetaque saevo Crimine

quaesitas silvis celare rapinas, Discit inexpertis Cererem committere campis; Caesareoque diu manus

obluctata labori Sustinet acceptas nostro sub consule leges; Et quamvis Geticis sulcum confundat aratris,

Telaque Tarpeias premerent Arctoa secures, Hostilem fregit rabiem, pignus quesuperbi Foederis et mundi

pretium fuit. Hinc modo voti Rata fides, validis quod dux premat impiger armis Edomuit quos pace puer;

bellumque repressit Ignarus quid bella forent. Stupuere feroces In tenero jam membra Getae. Rex ipse,

verendum Miratus pueri decus et prodentia fatum Lumina, primaevas dederat gestare faretras, Laudabatque

manus librantem et tela gerentem Oblitus quod noster erat Pro nescia regis Corda, feris quanto populis

[Footnote 6: This portrait is drawn by Renetus Profuturus Frigeridus, a contemporary historian, known only

by some extracts, which are preserved by Gregory of Tours, (l. 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

[Footnote *: Insessor Libyes, quamvis, fatalibus armis Ausus Elisaei solium rescindere regni, Milibus Arctois

Romanam vincire fidem, Latiosque parentes Adnumerare sib, sociamque intexere prolem.

From a principle of interest, as well as gratitude, Aetius assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns.

While he resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the

nephew of his benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appeared to have been connected by a personal and

military friendship, which they afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the education

of Carpilio, the son of 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 the two

empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a

vanquished city, some vases of gold, which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military governors

of Noricum were immediately despatched to satisfy his complaints: ^7 and it is evident, from their

conversation with Maximin and Priscus, in the royal village, that the valor 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 Valens and Orleans; ^8 and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhone and

of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome.

Their original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of conquest; and the province through

which they marched was exposed to all the calamities of a hostile invasion. ^9 Strangers to the emperor or the

republic, the Alani of Gaul was 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 labored to

restrain, rather than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks.

[Footnote 7: 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. Cassiodorus

(Variar. i. 4) mentions another embassy, which was executed by his father and Carpilio, the son of Aetius;

and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their manly, intrepid behavior in his presence.]

[Footnote 8: Deserta Valentinae urbis rura Alanis partienda traduntur. Prosper. Tyronis Chron. in Historiens

de France, tom. i. p. 639. A 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 his objections.]

[Footnote 9: See Prosper. Tyro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246) complains, in the name of Auvergne,

Litorius Scythicos equites tunc forte subacto Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen Per terras,

Averne, tuas, qui proxima quaedue Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis, Delebant; pacis fallentes nomen

another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint: Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste.

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 devolved to Theodoric, the son of the great

Alaric; ^10 and his prosperous reign of more than thirty years, over a turbulent people, may be allowed to

prove, that his prudence was supported by uncommon vigor, both of mind and body. Impatient of his narrow

limits, Theodoric aspired to the possession of Arles, the wealthy seat of government and commerce; but the

city was saved by the timely approach of 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 valor of his subjects in a

Spanish war. Yet Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized, the favorable moment of renewing his hostile

attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne, while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians; and

the public safety was threatened on every side by the apparent union of the enemies of Rome. On every side,

the activity of 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. ^11 The walls of Narbonne had been shaken by the battering engines, and the

inhabitants had endured the last extremities of famine, when Count Litorius, approaching in silence, and

directing each horseman to carry behind him two sacks of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the

besiegers. The siege was immediately raised; and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal

conduct of 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 Thoulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his misfortunes had rendered

prudent, and his situation made desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius with the

profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic capital in triumph; and the trust which he reposed in his

Pagan allies, encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were repeatedly proposed by the

bishops in the name of Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the edifying contrast of

Christian piety and moderation; nor did he lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for

the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The

conflict was obstinate; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a total defeat, which could be

imputed only to his unskilful rashness, was actually led through the streets of Thoulouse, not in his own, but

in a hostile triumph; and the misery which he experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the

compassion of the Barbarians themselves. ^12 Such a loss, in a country whose spirit and finances were long

since exhausted, could not easily be repaired; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the sentiments of

ambition and revenge, would have planted their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the

presence of Aetius had not restored strength and discipline to the Romans. ^13 The two armies expected the

signal of a decisive action; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's force, and doubtful of their

own superiority, prudently sheathed their swords in the field of battle; and their reconciliation was permanent

and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, appears to have deserved the love of his subjects, the

confidence of his allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne was surrounded by six valiant sons, who were

educated with equal care in the exercises of the Barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic schools: from the

study of the Roman jurisprudence, they acquired the theory, at least, of law and justice; and the harmonious

sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their native manners. ^14 The two daughters of the Gothic

king were given in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi and of the Vandals, who reigned in

Spain and Africa: but these illustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The queen of the Suevi

bewailed the death of a husband inhumanly massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the

victim of a jealous tyrant, whom she called her father. The cruel Genseric suspected that his son's wife had

conspired to poison him; the supposed crime was punished by the amputation of her nose and ears; and the

unhappy daughter of Theodoric was ignominiously returned to the court of Thoulouse in that deformed and

mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem incredible to a civilized age drew tears from every

spectator; but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king, to revenge such irreparable

injuries. The Imperial ministers, who always cherished the discord of the Barbarians, would have supplied the

Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the African war; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been

fatal to himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the formidable power of the Huns. His rich

gifts and pressing solicitations inflamed the ambition of Attila; and the designs of Aetius and Theodoric were

prevented by the invasion of Gaul. ^15 [Footnote 10: Theodoric II., the son of Theodoric I., declares to

Avitus his resolution of repairing, or expiating, the faults which his grandfather had committed,

This character, applicable only to the great Alaric, establishes the genealogy of the Gothic kings, which has

[Footnote 11: The name of Sapaudia, the origin of Savoy, is first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus; and

two military posts are ascertained by the Notitia, within the limits of that province; a cohort was stationed at

Grenoble in Dauphine; and Ebredunum, or Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the

Lake of Neufchatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 284,

[Footnote 12: Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the Deity; a task which may be

readily performed by supposing that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous,

[Footnote 13: Capto terrarum damna patebant Litorio, in Rhodanum proprios producere fines, Thendoridae

fixum; nec erat pugnare necesse, Sed migrare Getis; rabidam trux asperat iram Victor; quod sensit Scythicum

sub moenibus hostem Imputat, et nihil est gravius, si forsitan unquam Vincere contingat, trepido. Panegyr.

Avit. 300, Sitionius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist, to transfer the whole merit from

[Footnote 14: Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the character of his preceptor.

Mihi Romula dudum Per te jura placent; parvumque ediscere jussit Ad tua verba pater, docili quo prisca

[Footnote 15: Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are, Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, 36, and the

Chronicles of Idatius, and the two Prospers, inserted in the historians of France, tom. i. p. 612 640. To these

we may add Salvian de Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p. 243, 244, 245, and the panegyric of Avitus, by Sidonius.]

The Franks, whose monarchy was still confined to the neighborhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely

established the right of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians. ^16 These princes

were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military command; ^17 and the royal fashion of long hair was the

ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which they combed and dressed with singular care, hung

down in flowing ringlets on their back and shoulders; while the rest of the nation were obliged, either by law

or custom, to shave the hinder part of their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to content

themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. ^18 The lofty stature of the Franks, and their blue eyes,

denoted a Germanic origin; their close apparel accurately expressed the figure of their limbs; a weighty sword

was suspended from a broad belt; their bodies were protected by a large shield; and these warlike Barbarians

were trained, from their earliest youth, to run, to leap, to swim; to dart the javelin, or battleaxe, with

unerring aim; to advance, without hesitation, against a superior enemy; and to maintain, either in life or death,

the invincible reputation of their ancestors. ^19 Clodion, the first of their longhaired kings, whose name and

actions are mentioned in authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum, ^20 a village or fortress, whose

place may be assigned between Louvain and Brussels. From the report of his spies, the king of the Franks

was informed, that the defenceless state of the second Belgic must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valor

of his subjects. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses of the Carbonarian forest; ^21

occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only cities which existed in the fifth century, and extended his conquests

as far as the River Somme, over a desolate country, whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of

more recent industry. ^22 While Clodion lay encamped in the plains of Artois, ^23 and celebrated, with vain

and ostentatious security, the marriage, perhaps, of his son, the nuptial feast was interrupted by the

unexpected and unwelcome presence of Aetius, who had passed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry.

The tables, which had been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the banks of a pleasant stream, were

rudely overturned; the Franks were oppressed before they could recover their arms, or their ranks; and their

unavailing valor was fatal only to themselves. The loaded wagons, which had followed their march, afforded

a rich booty; and the virgin bride, with her female attendants, submitted to the new lovers, who were

imposed on them by the chance of war. This advance, which had been obtained by the skill and activity of

Aetius, might reflect some disgrace on the military prudence of Clodion; but the king of the Franks soon

regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the possession of his Gallic kingdom from the

Rhine to the Somme. ^24 Under his reign, and most probably from the thee enterprising spirit of his subjects,

his three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice. The

distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion of the same Barbarians, who evacuated the

ruins of Treves; and Treves, which in the space of forty years had been four times besieged and pillaged, was

disposed to lose the memory of her afflictions in the vain amusements of the Circus. ^25 The death of

Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, exposed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his two sons.

Meroveus, the younger, ^26 was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was received at the

Imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian, and the adopted son of the patrician Aetius; and dismissed to his

native country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances of friendship and support. During his

absence, his elder brother had solicited, with equal ardor, the formidable aid of Attila; and the king of the

Huns embraced an alliance, which facilitated the passage of the Rhine, and justified, by a specious and

[Footnote 16: Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, et ut ita dicam nobiliori suorum familia, (Greg. Turon. l.

ii. c. 9, p. 166, of the second volume of the Historians of France.) Gregory himself does not mention the

Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the beginning of the seventh century, as the distinctive

appellation of the royal family, and even of the French monarchy. An ingenious critic has deduced the

Merovingians from the great Maroboduus; and he has clearly proved, that the prince, who gave his name to

the first race, was more ancient than the father of Childeric. See Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions,

[Footnote 17: This German custom, which may be traced from Tacitus to Gregory of Tours, was at length

adopted by the emperors of Constantinople. From a MS. of the tenth century, Montfaucon has delineated the

representation of a similar ceremony, which the ignorance of the age had applied to King David. See

[Footnote 18: Caesaries prolixa ... crinium flagellis per terga dimissis, See the Preface to the third volume of

the Historians of France, and the Abbe Le Boeuf, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 47 79.) This peculiar fashion of the

Merovingians has been remarked by natives and strangers; by Priscus, (tom. i. p. 608,) by Agathias, (tom. ii.

p. 49,) and by Gregory of Tours, (l. viii. 18, vi. 24, viii. 10, tom. ii. p. 196, 278, 316.)]

[Footnote 19: See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms, and temper of the ancient Franks, in Sidonius

Apollinaris, (Panegyr. Majorian. 238 254;) and such pictures, though coarsely drawn, have a real and

intrinsic value. Father Daniel (History de la Milice Francoise, tom. i. p. 2 7) has illustrated the description.]

[Footnote 20: Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 271, 272. Some geographers have placed Dispargum on the

German side of the Rhine. See a note of the Benedictine Editors, to the Historians of France, tom. ii p. 166.]

[Footnote 21: The Carbonarian wood was that part of the great forest of the Ardennes which lay between the

[Footnote 22: Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in tom. ii. p. 166, 167. Fredegar. Epitom. c. 9, p. 395. Gesta Reg.

Francor. c. 5, in tom. ii. p. 544. Vit St. Remig. ab Hincmar, in tom. iii. p. 373.]

The precise spot was a town or village, called Vicus Helena; and both the name and place are discovered by

modern geographers at Lens See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de la France tom. ii. p.

[Footnote 24: See a vague account of the action in Sidonius. Panegyr. Majorian 212 230. The French

critics, impatient to establish their monarchy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument from the silence of

Sidonius, who dares not insinuate, that the vanquished Franks were compelled to repass the Rhine. Dubos,

[Footnote 25: Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, l. vi.) has expressed, in vague and declamatory language, the

misfortunes of these three cities, which are distinctly ascertained by the learned Mascou, Hist. of the Ancient

[Footnote 26: Priscus, in relating the contest, does not name the two brothers; the second of whom he had

seen at Rome, a beardless youth, with long, flowing hair, (Historians of France, tom. i. p. 607, 608.) The

Benedictine Editors are inclined to believe, that they were the sons of some unknown king of the Franks, who

reigned on the banks of the Neckar; but the arguments of M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. viii.

p. 464) seem to prove that the succession of Clodion was disputed by his two sons, and that the younger was

Note: The relationship of Meroveus to Clodion is extremely doubtful. By some he is called an illegitimate

son; by others merely of his race. Tur ii. c. 9, in Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, i. 177. See Mezeray.]

[Footnote 27: Under the Merovingian race, the throne was hereditary; but all the sons of the deceased

monarch were equally entitled to their share of his treasures and territories. See the Dissertations of M. de

When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause of his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the

same time, and almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch professed himself the lover and

the champion of the princess Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace of Ravenna; and

as her marriage might be productive of some danger to the state, she was raised, by the title of Augusta, ^28

above the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained the sixteenth

year of her age, than she detested the importunate greatness which must forever exclude her from the

comforts of honorable love; in the midst of vain and unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to the

impulse of nature, and threw herself into the arms of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and shame (such is

the absurd language of imperious man) were soon betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy; but the disgrace

of the royal family was published to the world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia who dismissed her

daughter, after a strict and shameful confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The unhappy princess

passed twelve or fourteen years in the irksome society of the sisters of Theodosius, and their chosen virgins;

to whose crown Honoria could no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, and vigils,

she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of long and hopeless celibacy urged her to embrace a strange and

desperate resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at Constantinople; and his frequent

embassies entertained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and the Imperial palace. In the pursuit of

love, or rather of revenge, the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every duty and every prejudice; and offered to

deliver her person into the arms of a Barbarian, of whose language she was ignorant, whose figure was

scarcely human, and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she

transmitted to Attila a ring, the pledge of her affection; and earnestly conjured him to claim her as a lawful

spouse, to whom he had been secretly betrothed. These indecent advances were received, however, with

coldness and disdain; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply the number of his wives, till his love

was awakened by the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion of Gaul was preceded,

and justified, by a formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial

patrimony. His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in the same hostile and peremptory

manner, the daughters of China; and the pretensions of Attila were not less offensive to the majesty of Rome.

A firm, but temperate, refusal was communicated to his ambassadors. The right of female succession, though

it might derive a specious argument from the recent examples of Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously

denied; and the indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to the claims of her Scythian lover. ^29

On the discovery of her connection with the king of the Huns, the guilty princess had been sent away, as an

object of horror, from Constantinople to Italy: her life was spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was

performed with some obscure and nominal husband, before she was immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail

those crimes and misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the daughter of an

emperor. ^30 [Footnote 28: A medal is still extant, which exhibits the pleasing countenance of Honoria, with

the title of Augusta; and on the reverse, the improper legend of Salus Reipublicoe round the monogram of

[Footnote 29: See Priscus, p, 39, 40. It might be fairly alleged, that if females could succeed to the throne,

Valentinian himself, who had married the daughter and heiress of the younger Theodosius, would have

[Footnote 30: The adventures of Honoria are imperfectly related by Jornandes, de Successione Regn. c. 97,

and de Reb. Get. c. 42, p. 674; and in the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus; but they cannot be made

consistent, or probable, unless we separate, by an interval of time and place, her intrigue with Eugenius, and

A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, the learned and eloquent Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of

Clermont, had made a promise to one of his friends, that he would compose a regular history of the war of

Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting work, ^31

the historian would have related, with the simplicity of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in

vague and doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded. ^32 The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia,

from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the

plains of Hungary his standard moved towards the West; and after a march of seven or eight hundred miles,

he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Neckar, where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to his

ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in quest of plunder, might

choose the winter for the convenience of passing the river on the ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the Huns

required such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a milder season; the Hercynian

forest supplied materials for a bridge of boats; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless violence,

into the Belgic provinces. ^33 The consternation of Gaul was universal; and the various fortunes of its cities

have been adorned by tradition with martyrdoms and miracles. ^34 Troyes was saved by the merits of St.

Lupus; St. Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not behold the ruin of Tongres; and the

prayers of St. Genevieve diverted the march of Attila from the neighborhood of Paris. But as the greatest part

of the Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers, they were besieged and stormed by the Huns;

who practised, in the example of Metz, ^35 their customary maxims of war. They involved, in a promiscuous

massacre, the priests who served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour of danger, had been providently

baptized by the bishop; the flourishing city was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel of St. Stephen

marked the place where it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of

Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of

Orleans. He was desirous of securing his conquests by the possession of an advantageous post, which

commanded the passage of the Loire; and he depended on the secret invitation of Sangiban, king of the Alani,

who had promised to betray the city, and to revolt from the service of the empire. But this treacherous

conspiracy was detected and disappointed: Orleans had been strengthened with recent fortifications; and the

assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful valor of the soldiers, or citizens, who defended

the place. The pastoral diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and consummate prudence,

exhausted every art of religious policy to support their courage, till the arrival of the expected succors. After

an obstinate siege, the walls were shaken by the battering rams; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs;

and the people, who were incapable of bearing arms, lay prostrate in prayer. Anianus, who anxiously counted

the days and hours, despatched a trusty messenger to observe, from the rampari, the face of the distant

country. He returned twice, without any intelligence that could inspire hope or comfort; but, in his third

report, he mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the extremity of the horizon. "It is the aid

of God!" exclaimed the bishop, in a tone of pious confidence; and the whole multitude repeated after him, "It

is the aid of God." The remote object, on which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger, and more

distinct; the Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived; and a favorable wind blowing aside the

dust, discovered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of Aetius and Theodoric, who pressed forwards to

[Footnote 31: Exegeras mihi, ut promitterem tibi, Attilae bellum stylo me posteris intimaturum .... coeperam

scribere, sed operis arrepti fasce perspecto, taeduit inchoasse. Sidon. Apoll. l. viii. epist. 15, p. 235]

[Footnote 32: Subito cum rupta tumultu Barbaries totas in te transfuderat Arctos,

Gallia. Pugnacem Rugum comitante Gelono, Gepida trux sequitur; Scyrum Burgundio cogit:

Bructerus, ulvosa vel quem Nicer abluit unda Prorumpit Francus. Cecidit cito secta bipenni Hercynia in

lintres, et Rhenum texuit alno. Et jam terrificis diffuderat Attila turmis In campos se, Belga, tuos.

[Footnote 33: The most authentic and circumstantial account of this war is contained in Jornandes, (de Reb.

Geticis, c. 36 41, p. 662 672,) who has sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed, the larger history

of Cassiodorus. Jornandes, a quotation which it would be superfluous to repeat, may be corrected and

illustrated by Gregory of Tours, l. ii. c. 5, 6, 7, and the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, 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 Idatius, (among the fragments of Fredegarius,

tom. ii. p. 462,) which often contradicts the genuine text of the Gallician bishop.]

[Footnote 34: The ancient 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, in the Historians of France, tom. i. p. 644, 645, 649, tom. iii. p. 369.]

[Footnote 35: The scepticism of the count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples, tom. vii. p. 539, 540) 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 a 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 Germaniae et Galliae, and forgets that the true Idatius had explicitly

The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy,

as well as to the terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully mitigated by his private assurances;

he alternately soothed and threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna and Thoulouse,

mutually suspicious of each other's intentions, beheld, with supine indifference, the approach of their

common enemy. 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. ^36 But on his arrival at Arles,

or Lyons, he was confounded by the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the defence of Gaul,

had determined to expect, within their own territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to

despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of the 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 labored to oppress. The

lively eloquence of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the description of the injuries which their

ancestors had suffered from the Huns; whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the foot

of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of every Christian to save, from sacrilegious

violation, the churches of God, and the relics of the saints: that it was the interest of every Barbarian, who had

acquired a settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated for his use, against

the desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth; adopted the measure at

once the most prudent and the most honorable; and declared, that, as the faithful ally of Aetius and the

Romans, he was ready to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul. ^37 The Visigoths,

who, at that time, were in the mature vigor of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war;

prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged king, who was resolved, with

his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric, to command in person his numerous and valiant people. The

example of the Goths determined several tribes or nations, that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the

Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul and Germany,

who had formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who now claimed

the rewards of voluntary service, and the rank of independent allies; the 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

[Footnote 37: The policy of Attila, of Aetius, and of the Visigoths, is imperfectly described in the Panegyric

of Avitus, and the thirtysixth chapter of Jornandes. The poet and the historian were both biased by personal

or national prejudices. The former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus; orbis, Avite, salus, The latter is

anxious to show the Goths in the most favorable light. Yet their agreement when they are fairly interpreted, is

[Footnote 38: The review of the army of Aetius is made by Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23,

of the Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine editor. The Loeti were a promiscuous race of

Barbarians, born or naturalized in Gaul; and the Riparii, or Ripuarii, derived their name from their post on the

three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle; the Armoricans possessed the independent cities between

the Seine and the Loire. A 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 Rhaetians, to the east of the Lake of

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. ^39 The valor of Attila was

always guided by his prudence; and as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he

repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains of Chalons, 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 Gepidae, in which fifteen thousand ^40 Barbarians

were slain, was a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian fields ^41 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

appellation of a champaign country. ^42 This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some

inequalities of ground; and the importance of a height, which commanded the camp of Attila, was understood

and disputed by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the Goths

rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns, who labored to ascend from the opposite side: and the possession

of this advantageous post inspired both the troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The

anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was reported, that, after scrutinizing

the entrails of victims, and scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own defeat, with

the death of his principal adversary; and that the Barbarians, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his

involuntary esteem for the superior merit of Aetius. But the unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail

among the Huns, engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his

troops by a military oration; and his language was that of a king, who had often fought and conquered at their

head. ^43 He pressed them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future hopes. The same

fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so many

warlike nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this memorable field for the consummation of

their victories. The cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he

artfully represented as the effects, not of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and

nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns might securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close

and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of supporting the dangers

or the fatigues of a day of battle. The doctrine of predestination, so favorable to martia virtue, was carefully

inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his subjects, that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were

safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring Fates would strike their victims in

the bosom of inglorious peace. "I myself," continued Attila, "will throw the first javelin, and the wretch who

refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the Barbarians

was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the example of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their

impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in

person the centre of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thuringians, the

Franks, the Burgundians, were extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian fields; the

right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over

the Ostrogoths, were posted on the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition of the

allies was regulated by a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king of the Alani, was placed in the

centre, where his motions might be strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly punished.

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 flank, and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army.

The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were 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. [Footnote 39: Aurelianensis urbis

obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio, nec direptio, l. v. Sidon. Apollin. l. viii. Epist. 15, p. 246. The preservation of

Orleans might easily be turned into a miracle, obtained and foretold by the holy bishop.]

[Footnote 40: The common editions read xcm but there is some authority of manuscripts (and almost any

[Footnote 41: Chalons, or DuroCatalaunum, afterwards Catalauni, had formerly made a part of the territory

of Rheims from whence it is distant only twentyseven miles. See Vales, Notit. Gall. p. 136. D'Anville,

[Footnote 42: 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.]

[Footnote 43: I am sensible that these military orations are usually composed by the historian; yet the old

Ostrogoths, who had served under Attila, might repeat his discourse to Cassiodorus; the ideas, and even the

expressions, have an original Scythian cast; and I doubt, whether an Italian of the sixth century would have

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 the knowledge of military affairs.

Cassiolorus, however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable

engagement; "a conflict," as they informed him, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be

paralleled either in the present or in past ages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and

sixtytwo thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; ^44 and these

incredible exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to justify the historian's remark, that

whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour. After the

mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their

superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furiously mingled in closer combat. The

Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies,

separated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole force

against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke

from the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his horse. The wounded king was

oppressed in the general disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry; and this important death

served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of

victory, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and verified the remainder of the prediction.

The Visigoths, who had been thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the Alani, gradually restored

their order of battle; and the Huns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He

had exposed his person with the rashness of a private soldier; but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed

forwards beyond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly supported; their flanks were unguarded; and the

conquerors of Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They retired

within the circle of wagons that fortified their camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared themselves for a

defence, to which neither their arms, nor their temper, were adapted. The event was doubtful: but Attila had

secured a last and honorable resource. The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were collected, by his

order, into a funeral pile; and the magnanimous Barbarian had resolved, if his intrenchments should be

forced, to rush headlong into the flames, and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they might have

acquired, by the death or captivity of Attila. ^45 [Footnote 44: The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of

Cassiodorus, are extremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, pertinax, cui simile nulla usquam narrat

antiquitas: ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil esset quod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus

miraculi privaretur aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392, 393) attempts to reconcile the 162,000 of

Jornandes with the 300,000 of Idatius and Isidore, by supposing that the larger number included the total

destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the slaughter of the unarmed people,

[Footnote 45: The count de Buat, (Hist. des Peuples, tom. vii. p. 554 573,) still depending on the false, 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 was slain in the other, he was revenged.]

But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond

was tempted to urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few followers, in the midst of the

Scythian wagons. In the confusion of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the Gothic

prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had

not rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner, but on the left of the line, 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 intrenchments; and when he

contemplated the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had principally fallen on

the Barbarians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the

slain: is subjects bewailed the death of their king and father; but their tears were mingled with songs and

acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy. The Goths, clashing

their arms, elevated on a buckler his eldest son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their

success; and the new king accepted the obligation of revenge as a sacred portion of his paternal inheritance.

Yet the Goths themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of their formidable antagonist;

and their historian has compared Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his hunters with

redoubled fury. The kings and nations who might have deserted his standard in the hour of distress, were

made sensible that the displeasure of their monarch was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All his

instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of defiance; and the foremost

troops who advanced to the assault were checked or destroyed by showers of arrows from every side of the

intrenchments. It was determined, in a general council of war, to besiege the king of the Huns in his camp, to

intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But

the impatience of the Barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures; and the mature policy

of 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 disappoint, by his speedy return, the

ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne and treasures of Thoulouse. ^46 After the

departure of the Goths, and the separation of the allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast silence that

reigned over the plains of Chalons: the suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him several days within

the circle of his wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in

the name of the Western empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent distance, and magnifying the

opinion of their strength by the numerous fires which they kindled every night, continued to follow the rear of

the Huns till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila: they

traversed, both in their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks; and it was perhaps in this war

that they exercised the cruelties which, about fourscore years afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis.

They massacred their hostages, as well as their captives: two hundred young maidens were tortured with

exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were crushed

under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey

to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage ancestors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited the

[Footnote 46: Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 41, p. 671. The policy of Aetius, and the behavior of

Torismond, are extremely natural; and the patrician, according to Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 7, p. 163,)

dismissed the prince of the Franks, by suggesting to him a similar apprehension. The false Idatius

ridiculously pretends, that Aetius paid a clandestine nocturnal visit to the kings of the Huns and of the

Visigoths; from each of whom he obtained a bribe of ten thousand pieces of gold, as the price of an

[Footnote 47: These cruelties, which are passionately deplored by Theodoric, the son of Clovis, (Gregory of

Tours, l. iii. c. 10, p. 190,) suit the time and circumstances of the invasion of Attila. His residence in

Thuringia was long attested by popular tradition; and he is supposed to have assembled a couroultai, or diet,

in the territory of Eisenach. See Mascou, ix. 30, who settles with nice accuracy the extent of ancient

Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation, of Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic

expedition In the ensuing spring he repeated his demand of the princess Honoria, and her patrimonial

treasures. The demand was again rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the field,

passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those

Barbarians were unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which, even among the ancients,

required some knowledge, or at least some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labor of many thousand

provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed without pity, might execute the most painful and

dangerous work. The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the destruction of their country. The

walls of Aquileia were assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, movable turrets, and engines, that

threw stones, darts, and fire; ^48 and the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear,

emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that

period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime cities of the Adriatic coast.

The Gothic auxiliaries, who appeared to have served under their native princes, Alaric and Antala,

communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful resistance

which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian, who disgraced the majesty of the Roman

purple. Three months were consumed without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the want of provisions,

and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his orders,

that the troops should strike their tents the next morning, and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the

walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers,

and to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman,

this trifling incident, which chance had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone,

that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient

seats, unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and solitude. ^49 The favorable omen inspired

an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a large breach was made in

the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with

irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. ^50 After this

dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and

Padua, were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were

exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of

their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from the flames the public, as well as

private, buildings, and spared the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin, or

Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread

his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps

and Apennine. ^51 When he took possession of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised and offended at

the sight of a picture which represented the Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia

prostrate at their feet. The revenge which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman vanity, was harmless

and ingenious. He commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and the emperors were

delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before

the throne of the Scythian monarch. ^52 The spectators must have confessed the truth and propriety of the

alteration; and were perhaps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the wellknown fable of the dispute

between the lion and the man. ^53 [Footnote 48: Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum generibus

adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the thirteenth century, the Moguls battered the cities of China with large

engines, constructed by the Mahometans or Christians in their service, which threw stones from 150 to 300

pounds weight. In the defence of their country, the Chinese used gunpowder, and even bombs, above a

hundred years before they were known in Europe; yet even those celestial, or infernal, arms were insufficient

to protect a pusillanimous nation. See Gaubil. Hist. des Mongous, p. 70, 71, 155, 157,

[Footnote 49: The same story is told by Jornandes, and by Procopius, (de Bell Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 187, 188:)

nor is it easy to decide which is the original. But the Greek historian is guilty of an inexcusable mistake, in

[Footnote 50: Jornandes, about a hundred years afterwards, affirms, that Aquileia was so completely ruined,

ita ut vix ejus vestigia, ut appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 42, p. 673. Paul. Diacon. l.

ii. c. 14, p. 785. Liutprand, Hist. l. iii. c. 2. The name of Aquileia was sometimes applied to Forum Julii,

Note: Compare the curious Latin poems on the destruction of Aquileia, published by M. Endlicher in his

Repleta quondam domibus sublimibus, ornatis mire, niveis, marmorels, Nune ferax frugum metiris funiculo

Vindictam tamen non evasit impius destructor tuus Attila sevissimus, Nunc igni simul gehennae et vermibus

[Footnote 51: In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous, but so imperfectly known, I have taken for

my guides two learned Italians, who considered the subject with some peculiar advantages; Sigonius, de

Imperio Occidentali, l. xiii. in his works, tom. i. p. 495 502; and Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 229

[Footnote 52: This anecdote may be found under two different articles of the miscellaneous compilation of

[Footnote 53: Leo respondit, humana, hoc pictum manu: Videres hominem dejectum, si pingere Leones

The lion in Phaedrus very foolishly appeals from pictures to the amphitheatre; and I am glad to observe, that

the native taste of La Fontaine (l. iii. fable x.) has omitted this most lame and impotent conclusion.]

It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had

trod. Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a republic, which revived, in the feudal

state of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, ^54

was formerly diffused over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the River

Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the Barbarians, fifty Venetian

cities flourished in peace and prosperity: Aquileia was placed in the most conspicuous station: but the ancient

dignity of Padua was supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of five hundred citizens,

who were entitled to the equestrian rank, must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million

seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from

the sword of the Huns, found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighboring islands. ^55 At the extremity

of the Gulf, where the Adriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are

separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from the waves by several long slips of land,

which admit the entrance of vessels through some secret and narrow channels. ^56 Till the middle of the fifth

century, these remote and sequestered spots remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost

without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts and their government, were gradually

formed by their new situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, ^57 which describes their condition

about seventy years afterwards, may be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. ^* The

minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory style, to waterfowl, who had fixed their

nests on the bosom of the waves; and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had formerly contained

many noble families, he insinuates, that they were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble

poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every rank: their only treasure consisted in

the plenty of salt, which they extracted from the sea: and the exchange of that commodity, so essential to

human life, was substituted in the neighboring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people, whose

habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or water, soon became alike familiar with the two

elements; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to

Chiozza, were intimately connected with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the secure, though

laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size

and number, visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage which Venice annually celebrates with the

Adriatic, was contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the Praetorian praefect, is addressed

to the maritime tribunes; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal of their

countrymen for the public service, which required their assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil

from the province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is

explained by the tradition, that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an

annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is

attested by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual

[Footnote 54: Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 14, p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about

the end of the eighth century Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc Venetias dicimus, constat; sed

ejus terminus a Pannoniae finibus usque Adduam fluvium protelatur. The history of that province till the age

of Charlemagne forms the first and most interesting part of the Verona Illustrata, p. 1 388,) in which the

marquis Scipio Maffei has shown himself equally capable of enlarged views and minute disquisitions.]

[Footnote 55: This emigration is not attested by any contemporary evidence; but the fact is proved by the

event, and the circumstances might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of Aquileia retired to the Isle of

Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus Altus, or Rialto, where the city of Venice was afterwards built,

[Footnote 56: The topography and antiquities of the Venetian islands, from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia,

are accurately stated in the Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi. p. 151 155.]

[Footnote 57: Cassiodor. Variar. l. xii. epist. 24. Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 240 254) has translated

and explained this curious letter, in the spirit of a learned antiquarian and a faithful subject, who considered

Venice as the only legitimate offspring of the Roman republic. He fixes the date of the epistle, and

consequently the praefecture, of Cassiodorus, A.D. 523; and the marquis's authority has the more weight, as

he prepared an edition of his works, and actually published a dissertation on the true orthography of his name.

[Footnote *: The learned count Figliasi has proved, in his memoirs upon the Veneti (Memorie de' Veneti

primi e secondi del conte Figliasi, t. vi. Veneziai, 796,) that from the most remote period, this nation, which

occupied the country which has since been called the Venetian States or Terra Firma, likewise inhabited the

islands scattered upon the coast, and that from thence arose the names of Venetia prima and secunda, of

which the first applied to the main land and the second to the islands and lagunes. From the time of the

Pelasgi and of the Etrurians, the first Veneti, inhabiting a fertile and pleasant country, devoted themselves to

agriculture: the second, placed in the midst of canals, at the mouth of several rivers, conveniently situated

with regard to the islands of Greece, as well as the fertile plains of Italy, applied themselves to navigation and

commerce. Both submitted to the Romans a short time before the second Punic war; yet it was not till after

the victory of Marius over the Cimbri, that their country was reduced to a Roman province. Under the

emperors, Venetia Prima obtained more than once, by its calamities, a place in history. * * But the maritime

province was occupied in salt works, fisheries, and commerce. The Romans have considered the inhabitants

of this part as beneath the dignity of history, and have left them in obscurity. * * * They dwelt there until the

period when their islands afforded a retreat to their ruined and fugitive compatriots. Sismondi. Hist. des Rep.

[Footnote 58: See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie, Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, a

translation of the famous Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its merits, is stained, in

every line, with the disingenuous malevolence of party: but the principal evidence, genuine and apocryphal,

The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by

the approach of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their religion, as well as of

their republic. Amidst the general consternation, Aetius alone was incapable of fear; but it was impossible

that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits worthy of his former renown. The

Barbarians who had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy; and the succors promised by the

Eastern emperor were distant and doubtful. Since Aetius, at the head of his domestic troops, still maintained

the field, and harassed or retarded the march of Attila, he never showed himself more truly great, than at the

time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful people. ^59 If the mind of Valentinian had

been susceptible of any generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his example and his

guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius, instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war;

and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an impregnable fortress to an open capital, betrayed his

secret intention of abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his Imperial person. This

shameful abdication was suspended, however, by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to

pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious tendency. The Western emperor, with the

senate and people of Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and suppliant

embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and

riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients, and his personal abilities, held the first rank in

the Roman senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus ^60 was admirably qualified to conduct a

negotiation either of public or private interest: his colleague Trigetius had exercised the Praetorian

praefecture of Italy; and Leo, bishop of Rome, consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The

genius of Leo ^61 was exercised and displayed in the public misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation

of Great, by the successful zeal with which he labored to establish his opinions and his authority, under the

venerable names of orthodox faith and ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman ambassadors were introduced to

the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slowwinding Mincius is lost in the foaming

waves of the Lake Benacus, ^62 and trampled, with his Scythian cavalry, the farms of Catullus and Virgil.

^63 The Barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even respectful, attention; and the deliverance of

Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army might

facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth and idolence of a

warm climate. The shepherds of the North, whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, indulged

themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine, and of meat, prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery;

and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the injuries of the Italians. ^64 When Attila declared

his resolution of carrying his victorious arms to the gates of Rome, he was admonished by his friends, as well

as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long survived the conquest of the eternal city. His mind, superior to real

danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors; nor could he escape the influence of superstition, which had so

often been subservient to his designs. ^65 The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal

robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two

apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the Barbarian with instant death, if he rejected the prayer of

their successor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome might deserve the

interposition of celestial beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable, which has been represented by the

[Footnote 59: Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 19) has published a curious passage from the Chronicle of

Prosper. Attila, redintegratis viribus, quas in Gallia amiserat, Italiam ingredi per Pannonias intendit; nihil

duce nostro Aetio secundum prioris belli opera prospiciente, He reproaches Aetius with neglecting to guard

the Alps, and with a design to abandon Italy; but this rash censure may at least be counterbalanced by the

[Footnote 60: See the original portraits of Avienus and his rival Basilius, delineated and contrasted in the

epistles (i. 9. p. 22) of Sidonius. He had studied the characters of the two chiefs of the senate; but he attached

[Footnote 61: The character and principles of Leo may be traced in one hundred and fortyone original

epistles, which illustrate the ecclesiastical history of his long and busy pontificate, from A.D. 440 to 461. See

[Footnote 62: tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat Mincius, et tenera praetexit arundine ripas

[Footnote 63: The marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 95, 129, 221, part ii. p. 2, 6) has illustrated

with taste and learning this interesting topography. He places the interview of Attila and St. Leo near

Ariolica, or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at the conflux of the lake and river; ascertains the villa of Catullus, in

the delightful peninsula of Sirmio, and discovers the Andes of Virgil, in the village of Bandes, precisely

situate, qua se subducere colles incipiunt, where the Veronese hills imperceptibly slope down into the plain of

Note: Gibbon has made a singular mistake: the Mincius flows out of the Bonacus at Peschiera, not into it.

The interview is likewise placed at Ponte Molino. and at Governolo, at the conflux of the Mincio and the

Gonzaga. bishop of Mantua, erected a tablet in the year 1616, in the church of the latter place,

commemorative of the event. Descrizione di Verona a de la sua provincia. C. 11, p. 126. M.]

[Footnote 64: Si statim infesto agmine urbem petiissent, grande discrimen esset: sed in Venetia quo fere

tractu Italia mollissima est, ipsa soli coelique clementia robur elanquit. Ad hoc panis usu carnisque coctae, et

dulcedine vini mitigatos, This passage of Florus (iii. 3) is still more applicable to the Huns than to the Cimbri,

and it may serve as a commentary on the celestial plague, with which Idatius and Isidore have afflicted the

[Footnote 65: The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the effect which this example produced on the

[Footnote 66: The picture of Raphael is in the Vatican; the basso (or perhaps the alto) relievo of Algardi, on

one of the altars of St. Peter, (see Dubos, Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i. p. 519, 520.)

Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 452, No. 57, 58) bravely sustains the truth of the apparition; which is rejected,

Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to return more dreadful, and more implacable, if

his bride, the princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within the term stipulated by the treaty.

Yet, in the mean while, Attila relieved his tender anxiety, by adding a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico,

to the list of his innumerable wives. ^67 Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at

his wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired at a late hour

from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures, or his repose, the

greatest part of the ensuing day, till the unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and, after

attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at length broke into the royal apartment. They

found the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger,

as well as the death of the king, who had expired during the night. ^68 An artery had suddenly burst: and as

Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage

through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the midst of

the plain, under a silken pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in measured

evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his death, the

father of his people, the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the world. According to their national

custom, the Barbarians cut off a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, and bewailed

their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains

of Attila were enclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in the night:

the spoils of nations were thrown into his grave; the captives who had opened the ground were inhumanly

massacred; and the same Huns, who had indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dissolute and

intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of their king. It was reported at Constantinople, that on the

fortunate night on which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila broken asunder: and the

report may be allowed to prove, how seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was absent from the

mind of a Roman emperor. ^69 [Footnote 67: Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suae tempore,

puellam Ildico nomine, decoram, valde, sibi matrimonium post innumerabiles uxores ... socians. Jornandes, c.

49, p. 683, 684. He afterwards adds, (c. 50, p. 686,) Filii Attilae, quorum per licentiam libidinis poene

populus fuit. Polygamy has been established among the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian wives is

regulated only by their personal charms; and the faded matron prepares, without a murmur, the bed which is

destined for her blooming rival. But in royal families, the daughters of Khans communicate to their sons a

[Footnote 68: The report of her guilt reached Constantinople, where it obtained a very different name; and

Marcellinus observes, that the tyrant of Europe was slain in the night by the hand, and the knife, of a woman

Corneille, who has adapted the genuine account to his tragedy, describes the irruption of blood in forty

S'il ne veut s'arreter, (his blood.) (Ditil) on me payera ce qui m'en va couter.]

[Footnote 69: The curious circumstances of the death and funeral of Attila are related by Jornandes, (c. 49, p.

The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns, established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone

had sustained the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest chieftains aspired to the rank of

kings; the most powerful kings refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so many

various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign

command of the nations of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and represented the disgrace of this

servile partition; and his subjects, the warlike Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the conduct of three

valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and

decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia, the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of the

Goths, the arrows of the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and the heavy weapons of the

Alani, encountered or supported each other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the

slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the

memorable battle of Netad: his early valor had raised him to the throne of the Acatzires, a Scythian people,

whom he subdued; and his father, who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of Ellac. ^70

His brother, Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground

above fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila, with the old country of Dacia, from the

Carpathian hills to the Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by Ardaric, king of the

Gepidae. The Pannonian conquests from Vienna to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the

settlements of the tribes, who had so bravely asserted their native freedom, were irregularly distributed,

according to the measure of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude of his

father's slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich was confined to the circle of his wagons; his desperate courage

urged him to invade the Eastern empire: he fell in battle; and his head ignominiously exposed in the

Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or

superstitiously believed, that Irnac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to perpetuate the glories of his

race. The character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness of his brother Dengisich, was

more suitable to the declining condition of the Huns; and Irnac, with his subject hordes, retired into the heart

of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon overwhelmed by a torrent of new Barbarians, who followed the same

road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The Geougen, or Avares, whose residence is

assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean, impelled the adjacent tribes; till at length the Igours

of the North, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the most valuable furs, spread themselves

over the desert, as far as the Borysthenes and the Caspian gates; and finally extinguished the empire of the

[Footnote 70: See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50, p. 685, 686, 687, 688. His distinction of the national

arms is curious and important. Nan ibi admirandum reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi cernere erat cunctis,

pugnantem Gothum ense furentem, Gepidam in vulnere suorum cuncta tela frangentem, Suevum pede,

Hunnum sagitta praesumere, Alanum gravi Herulum levi, armatura, aciem instruere. I am not precisely

[Footnote 71: Two modern historians have thrown much new light on the ruin and division of the empire of

Attila; M. de Buat, by his laborious and minute diligence, (tom. viii. p. 3 31, 68 94,) and M. de Guignes,

by his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese language and writers. See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 315

Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern empire, under the reign of a prince who

conciliated the friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians. But the emperor of the West, the

feeble and dissolute Valentinian, who had reached his thirtyfifth year without attaining the age of reason or

courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of the

patrician Aetius. From the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally

celebrated as the terror of the Barbarians, and the support of the republic; ^* and his new favorite, the eunuch

Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of

Placidia, ^72 by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Aetius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous and

martial train of Barbarian followers, his powerful dependants, who filled the civil offices of the state, and the

hopes of his son Gaudentius, who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter, had raised him

above the rank of a subject. The ambitious designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as

well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Aetius himself, supported by the consciousness of his merit, his

services, and perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet behavior. The

patrician offended his sovereign by a hostile declaration; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him to

ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected

his safety; and from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was incapable even of a manly

crime, he rashly ventured his person in the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate

vehemence, the marriage of his son; Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword he had ever drawn,

plunged it in the breast of a general who had saved his empire: his courtiers and eunuchs ambitiously

struggled to imitate their master; and Aetius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence.

Boethius, the Praetorian praefect, was killed at the same moment, and before the event could be divulged, the

principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace, and separately murdered. The horrid deed,

palliated by the specious names of justice and necessity, was immediately communicated by the emperor to

his soldiers, his subjects, and his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to Aetius, generously

deplored the unworthy fate of a hero: the Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled their

grief and resentment: and the public contempt, which had been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at

once converted into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom pervade the walls of a palace;

yet the emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a Roman, whose approbation he had not disdained to

solicit. "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know, that you have acted like a man who

cuts off his right hand with his left." ^73 [Footnote *: The praises awarded by Gibbon to the character of

Aetius have been animadverted upon with great severity. (See Mr. Herbert's Attila. p. 321.) I am not aware

that Gibbon has dissembled or palliated any of the crimes or treasons of Aetius: but his position at the time of

his murder was certainly that of the preserver of the empire, the conqueror of the most dangerous of the

barbarians: it is by no means clear that he was not "innocent" of any treasonable designs against Valentinian.

If the early acts of his life, the introduction of the Huns into Italy, and of the Vandals into Africa, were among

the proximate causes of the ruin of the empire, his murder was the signal for its almost immediate downfall.

[Footnote 72: Placidia died at Rome, November 27, A.D. 450. She was buried at Ravenna, where her

sepulchre, and even her corpse, seated in a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The empress

received many compliments from the orthodox clergy; and St. Peter Chrysologus assured her, that her zeal

for the Trinity had been recompensed by an august trinity of children. See Tillemont, Uist. Jer Emp. tom. vi.

[Footnote 73: Aetium Placidus mactavit semivir amens, is the expression of Sidonius, (Panegyr. Avit. 359.)

The poet knew the world, and was not inclined to flatter a minister who had injured or disgraced Avitus and

The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and frequent visits of Valentinian; who was

consequently more despised at Rome than in any other part of his dominions. A republican spirit was

insensibly revived in the senate, as their authority, and even their supplies, became necessary for the support

of his feeble government. The stately demeano of an hereditary monarch offended their pride; and the

pleasures of Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honor of noble families. The birth of the empress

Eudoxia was equal to his own, and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of love which

her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of

the Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a chaste and beautiful wife: her obstinate

resistance served only to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to accomplish them, either by

stratagem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the court: the emperor, who, by chance or

contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for

the debt; and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in her husband's name, that she should

immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her litter to the

Imperial palace; the emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her to a remote and silent bedchamber; and

Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospitality. Her tears, when she returned home, her deep

affliction, and her bitter reproaches against a husband whom she considered as the accomplice of his own

shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge; the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition; and he might

reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage of the Roman senate, to the throne of a detested and despicable rival.

Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had

imprudently admitted among his guards several domestics and followers of Aetius. Two of these, of

Barbarian race were persuaded to execute a sacred and honorable duty, by punishing with death the assassin

of their patron; and their intrepid courage did not long expect a favorable moment. Whilst Valentinian

amused himself, in the field of Mars, with the spectacle of some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon

him with drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor to the heart, without the

least opposition from his numerous train, who seemed to rejoice in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate of

Valentinian the Third, ^74 the last Roman emperor of the family of Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the

hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the

innocence, which alleviate, in their characters, the want of spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable,

since he had passions, without virtues: even his religion was questionable; and though he never deviated into

the paths of heresy, he scandalized the pious Christians by his attachment to the profane arts of magic and

[Footnote 74: With regard to the cause and circumstances of the deaths of Aetius and Valentinian, our

information is dark and imperfect. Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186, 187, 188) is a fabulous writer

for the events which precede his own memory. His narrative must therefore be supplied and corrected by five

or six Chronicles, none of which were composed in Rome or Italy; and which can only express, in broken

sentences, the popular rumors, as they were conveyed to Gaul, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, or Alexandria.]

As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures

which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city. ^75 This

prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy

apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; ^76 and

even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or

fabulous circumstance has been seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was

announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the Roman government appeared every day less

formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. ^77 The taxes were multiplied with the

public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the rich

shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people, whom they defrauded of the indulgences that

might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition which confiscated their goods, and

tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the

Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary

servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of

mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, werethrown into a state of

disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the Imperial ministers pursued with

proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made. ^78 If all the Barbarian conquerors

had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West:

and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor.

[Footnote 75: This interpretation of Vettius, a celebrated augur, was quoted by Varro, in the xviiith book of

[Footnote 76: According to Varro, the twelfth century would expire A.D. 447, but the uncertainty of the true

aera of Rome might allow some latitude of anticipation or delay. The poets of the age, Claudian (de Bell

Getico, 265) and Sidonius, (in Panegyr. Avit. 357,) may be admitted as fair witnesses of the popular opinion.

Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volatu Vulturis, incidunt properatis saecula metis. ....... Jam prope fata tui

[Footnote 77: The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic lamentations and vehement invectives. His

immoderate freedom serves to prove the weakness, as well as the corruption, of the Roman government. His

book was published after the loss of Africa, (A.D. 439,) and before Attila's war, (A.D. 451.)]

[Footnote 78: The Bagaudae of Spain, who fought pitched battles with the Roman troops, are repeatedly

mentioned in the Chronicle of Idatius. Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in very forcible

language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum ... nunc ultro repudiatur ac fugitur, nec vile tamen sed etiam

abominabile poene habetur ... Et hinc est ut etiam hi quid ad Barbaros non confugiunt, Barbari tamen esse

coguntur, scilicet ut est pars magna Hispanorum, et non minima Gallorum .... De Bagaudis nunc mihi sermo

est, qui per malos judices et cruentos spoliati, afflicti, necati postquam jus Romanae libertatis amiserant,

etiam honorem Romani nominis perdiderunt .... Vocamus rabelles, vocamus perditos quos esse compulimua

Sack Of Rome By Genseric, King Of The Vandals. His Naval Depredations. Succession Of The Last

Emperors Of The West, Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Glycerius, Nepos,

Augustulus. Total Extinction Of The Western Empire. Reign Of Odoacer, The First Barbarian King Of

The loss or desolation of the provinces, from the Ocean to the Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of

Rome: her internal prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of Africa. The rapacious Vandals

confiscated the patrimonial estates of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies, which relieved the

poverty and encouraged the idleness of the plebeians. The distress of the Romans was soon aggravated by an

unexpected attack; and the province, so long cultivated for their use by industrious and obedient subjects, was

armed against them by an ambitious Barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who followed the successful standard

of Genseric, had acquired a rich and fertile territory, which stretched along the coast above ninety days'

journey from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits were pressed and confined, on either side, by the

sandy desert and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the Black nations, that might dwell

beneath the torrid zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes towards the

sea; he resolved to create a naval power, and his bold resolution was executed with steady and active

perseverance. The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of timber: his new subjects were

skilled in the arts of navigation and shipbuilding; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a mode of

warfare which would render every maritime country accessible to their arms; the Moors and Africans were

allured by the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries, the fleets that issued from the port of

Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the conquest of Sicily,

the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother of

Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual,

were prepared, for the destruction of the common enemy; who reserved his courage to encounter those

dangers which his policy could not prevent or elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly

baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and apparent concessions; and the interposition of his

formidable confederate, the king of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of Africa to the care of

their domestic safety. The revolutions of the palace, which left the Western empire without a defender, and

without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediately

equipped a numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Tyber, about three

months after the death of Valentinian, and the elevation of Maximus to the Imperial throne.

The private life of the senator Petronius Maximus ^1 was often alleged as a rare example of human felicity.

His birth was noble and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician family; his dignity was supported by

an adequate patrimony in land and money; and these advantages of fortune were accompanied with liberal

arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his

palace and table was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public, he was surrounded by a

train of grateful and obsequious clients; ^2 and it is possible that among these clients, he might deserve and

possess some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the favor of the prince and senate: he thrice exercised

the office of Praetorian praefect of Italy; he was twice invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank

of patrician. These civil honors were not incompatible with the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity; his

hours, according to the demands of pleasure or reason, were accurately distributed by a waterclock; and this

avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus entertained of his own happiness. The

injury which he received from the emperor Valentinian appears to excuse the most bloody revenge. Yet a

philosopher might have reflected, that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still

inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would

have hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those inevitable calamities which must follow

the extinction of the royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary

considerations; he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his

feet; and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of

his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively expression of

Sidonius) in the palace; and after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his

wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation. Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he

communicated his anxious thoughts to his friend and quaestor Fulgentius; and when he looked back with

unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, the emperor exclaimed, "O fortunate Damocles,

^3 thy reign began and ended with the same dinner;" a wellknown allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards

[Footnote 1: Sidonius Apollinaris composed the thirteenth epistle of the second book, to refute the paradox of

his friend Serranus, who entertained a singular, though generous, enthusiasm for the deceased emperor. This

epistle, with some indulgence, may claim the praise of an elegant composition; and it throws much light on

[Footnote 2: Clientum, praevia, pedisequa, circumfusa, populositas, is the train which Sidonius himself (l. i.

[Footnote 3: Districtus ensis cui super impia Cervice pendet, non Siculoe dapes Dulcem elaborabunt

Sidonius concludes his letter with the story of Damocles, which Cicero (Tusculan. v. 20, 21) had so

The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His hours, of which he had lost the command, were

disturbed by remorse, or guilt, or terror, and his throne was shaken by the seditions of the soldiers, the people,

and the confederate Barbarians. The marriage of his son Paladius with the eldest daughter of the late emperor,

might tend to establish the hereditary succession of his family; but the violence which he offered to the

empress Eudoxia, could proceed only from the blind impulse of lust or revenge. His own wife, the cause of

these tragic events, had been seasonably removed by death; and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to

violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to submit to the embraces of a presumptuous usurper,

whom she suspected as the assassin of her deceased husband. These suspicions were soon justified by the

indiscreet confession of Maximus himself; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his reluctant bride, who

was still conscious that she was descended from a line of emperors. From the East, however, Eudoxia could

not hope to obtain any effectual assistance; her father and her aunt Pulcheria were dead; her mother

languished at Jerusalem in disgrace and exile; and the sceptre of Constantinople was in the hands of a

stranger. She directed her eyes towards Carthage; secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals; and

persuaded Genseric to improve the fair opportunity of disguising his rapacious designs by the specious names

of honor, justice, and compassion. ^4 Whatever abilities Maximus might have shown in a subordinate station,

he was found incapable of administering an empire; and though he might easily have been informed of the

naval preparations which were made on the opposite shores of Africa, he expected with supine indifference

the approach of the enemy, without adopting any measures of defence, of negotiation, or of a timely retreat.

When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of the Tyber, the emperor was suddenly roused from his

lethargy by the clamors of a trembling and exasperated multitude. The only hope which presented itself to his

astonished mind was that of a precipitate flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the example of their

prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the streets, than he was assaulted by a shower of stones; a

Roman, or a Burgundian soldier, claimed the honor of the first wound; his mangled body was ignominiously

cast into the Tyber; the Roman people rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the author of

the public calamities; and the domestics of Eudoxia signalized their zeal in the service of their mistress. ^5

[Footnote 4: Notwithstanding the evidence of Procopius, Evagrius, Idatius Marcellinus, the learned Muratori

(Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 249 doubts the reality of this invitation, and observes, with great truth, "Non si

puo dir quanto sia facile il popolo a sognare e spacciar voci false." But his argument, from the interval of time

and place, is extremely feeble. The figs which grew near Carthage were produced to the senate of Rome on

[Footnote 5: Infidoque tibi Burgundio ductu Extorquet trepidas mactandi principis iras.

A remarkable line, which insinuates that Rome and Maximus were betrayed by their Burgundian

On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced from the port of Ostia to the gates of the

defenceless city. Instead of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued from the gates an unarmed and venerable

procession of the bishop at the head of his clergy. ^6 The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and eloquence,

again mitigated the fierceness of a Barbarian conqueror; the king of the Vandals promised to spare the

unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, and to exempt the captives from torture; and

although such orders were neither seriously given, nor strictly obeyed, the mediation of Leo was glorious to

himself, and in some degree beneficial to his country. But Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the

licentiousness of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage

lasted fourteen days and nights; and all that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane

treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two

temples, or rather of two religions, exhibited a memorable example of the vicissitudes of human and divine

things. Since the abolition of Paganism, the Capitol had been violated and abandoned; yet the statues of the

gods and heroes were still respected, and the curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for the rapacious hands

of Genseric. ^7 The holy instruments of the Jewish worship, ^8 the gold table, and the gold candlestick with

seven branches, originally framed according to the particular instructions of God himself, and which were

placed in the sanctuary of his temple, had been ostentatiously displayed to the Roman people in the triumph

of Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the temple of Peace; and at the end of four hundred years, the

spoils of Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to Carthage, by a Barbarian who derived his origin from the

shores of the Baltic. These ancient monuments might attract the notice of curiosity, as well as of avarice. But

the Christian churches, enriched and adorned by the prevailing superstition of the times, afforded more

plentiful materials for sacrilege; and the pious liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six silver vases, the gift of

Constantine, each of a hundred pounds weight, is an evidence of the damage which he attempted to repair. In

the fortyfive years that had elapsed since the Gothic invasion, the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some

measure restored; and it was difficult either to escape, or to satisfy, the avarice of a conqueror, who possessed

leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The Imperial ornaments of the palace, the

magnificent furniture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy plate, were accumulated with disorderly rapine;

the gold and silver amounted to several thousand talents; yet even the brass and copper were laboriously

removed. Eudoxia herself, who advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon bewailed the imprudence of

her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her jewels; and the unfortunate empress, with her two daughters,

the only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was compelled, as a captive, to follow the haughty

Vandal; who immediately hoisted sail, and returned with a prosperous navigation to the port of Carthage. ^9

Many thousand Romans of both sexes, chosen for some useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly

embarked on board the fleet of Genseric; and their distress was aggravated by the unfeeling Barbarians, who,

in the division of the booty, separated the wives from their husbands, and the children from their parents. The

charity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, ^10 was their only consolation and support. He generously sold the

gold and silver plate of the church to purchase the freedom of some, to alleviate the slavery of others, and to

assist the wants and infirmities of a captive multitude, whose health was impaired by the hardships which

they had suffered in their passage from Italy to Africa. By his order, two spacious churches were converted

into hospitals; the sick were distributed into convenient beds, and liberally supplied with food and medicines;

and the aged prelate repeated his visits both in the day and night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength,

and a tender sympathy which enhanced the value of his services. Compare this scene with the field of

Cannae; and judge between Hannibal and the successor of St. Cyprian. ^11 [Footnote 6: The apparant success

of Pope Leo may be justified by Prosper, and the Historia Miscellan.; but the improbable notion of Baronius

A.D. 455, No. 13) that Genseric spared the three apostolical churches, is not countenanced even by the

[Footnote 7: The profusion of Catulus, the first who gilt the roof of the Capitol, was not universally approved,

(Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 18;) but it was far exceeded by the emperor's, and the external gilding of the temple

cost Domitian 12,000 talents, (2,400,000l.) The expressions of Claudian and Rutilius (luce metalli oemula ....

fastigia astris, and confunduntque vagos delubra micantia visus) manifestly prove, that this splendid covering

was not removed either by the Christians or the Goths, (see Donatus, Roma Antiqua, l. ii. c. 6, p. 125.) It

should seem that the roof of the Capitol was decorated with gilt statues, and chariots drawn by four horses.]

[Footnote 8: The curious reader may consult the learned and accurate treatise of Hadrian Reland, de Spoliis

Templi Hierosolymitani in Arcu Titiano Romae conspicuis, in 12mo. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1716.]

[Footnote 9: The vessel which transported the relics of the Capitol was the only one of the whole fleet that

suffered shipwreck. If a bigoted sophist, a Pagan bigot, had mentioned the accident, he might have rejoiced

[Footnote 10: See Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 8, p. 11, 12, edit. Ruinart. Deogratius governed

the church of Carthage only three years. If he had not been privately buried, his corpse would have been torn

[Footnote 11: The general evidence for the death of Maximus, and the sack of Rome by the Vandals, is

comprised in Sidonius, (Panegyr. Avit. 441 450,) Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, 5, p. 188, 189, and

l. ii. c. 9, p. 255,) Evagrius, (l. ii. c. 7,) Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 45, p. 677,) and the Chronicles of

The deaths of Aetius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties which held the Barbarians of Gaul in peace and

subordination. The seacoast was infested by the Saxons; the Alemanni and the Franks advanced from the

Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of the Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent

conquests. The emperor Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious choice, from the weight of these distant

cares; he silenced the solicitations of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and promoted a stranger to the

general command of the forces of Gaul. Avitus, ^12 the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded,

descended from a wealthy and honorable family in the diocese of Auvergne. The convulsions of the times

urged him to embrace, with the same ardor, the civil and military professions: and the indefatigable youth

blended the studies of literature and jurisprudence with the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty years of his

life were laudably spent in the public service; he alternately displayed his talents in war and negotiation; and

the soldier of Aetius, after executing the most important embassies, was raised to the station of Praetorian

praefect of Gaul. Either the merit of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous of repose, since he

calmly retired to an estate, which he possessed in the neighborhood of Clermont. A copious stream, issuing

from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a

lake about two miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake. The baths, the

porticos, the summer and winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and use; and the adjacent

country afforded the various prospects of woods, pastures, and meodows. ^13 In this retreat, where Avitus

amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of husbandry, and the society of his friends, ^14 he

received the Imperial diploma, which constituted him mastergeneral of the cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He

assumed the military command; the Barbarians suspended their fury; and whatever means he might employ,

whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the people enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But

the fate of Gaul depended on the Visigoths; and the Roman general, less attentive to his dignity than to the

public interest, did not disdain to visit Thoulouse in the character of an ambassador. He was received with

courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of the Goths; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid

alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was

slain, and that Rome had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne, which he might ascend without guilt

or danger, tempted his ambition; ^15 and the Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by their

irresistible suffrage. They loved the person of Avitus; they respected his virtues; and they were not insensible

of the advantage, as well as honor, of giving an emperor to the West. The season was now approaching, in

which the annual assembly of the seven provinces was held at Arles; their deliberations might perhaps be

influenced by the presence of Theodoric and his martial brothers; but their choice would naturally incline to

the most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent resistance, accepted the Imperial diadem from

the representatives of Gaul; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the Barbarians and

provincials. The formal consent of Marcian, emperor of the East, was solicited and obtained; but the senate,

Rome, and Italy, though humbled by their recent calamities, submitted with a secret murmur to the

[Footnote 12: The private life and elevation of Avitus must be deduced, with becoming suspicion, from the

[Footnote 13: After the example of the younger Pliny, Sidonius (l. ii. c. 2) has labored the florid, prolix, and

obscure description of his villa, which bore the name, (Avitacum,) and had been the property of Avitus. The

precise situation is not ascertained. Consult, however, the notes of Savaron and Sirmond.]

[Footnote 14: Sidonius (l. ii. epist. 9) has described the country life of the Gallic nobles, in a visit which he

made to his friends, whose estates were in the neighborhood of Nismes. The morning hours were spent in the

sphoeristerium, or tenniscourt; or in the library, which was furnished with Latin authors, profane and

religious; the former for the men, the latter for the ladies. The table was twice served, at dinner and supper,

with hot meat (boiled and roast) and wine. During the intermediate time, the company slept, took the air on

[Footnote 15: Seventy lines of panegyric (505 575) which describe the importunity of Theodoric and of

Gaul, struggling to overcome the modest reluctance of Avitus, are blown away by three words of an honest

historian. Romanum ambisset Imperium, (Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 1l, in tom. ii. p. 168.)]

Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his

elder brother Torismond; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design which his predecessor had formed

of violating his alliance with the empire. ^16 Such a crime might not be incompatible with the virtues of a

Barbarian; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle and humane; and posterity may contemplate without

terror the original picture of a Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately observed, in the hours of peace and

of social intercourse. In an epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator satisfies the curiosity of one

of his friends, in the following description: ^17 "By the majesty of his appearance, Theodoric would

command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit; and although he is born a prince, his merit would

dignify a private station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears rather plump than fat, and in his

wellproportioned limbs agility is united with muscular strength. ^18 If you examine his countenance, you

will distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy eyebrows, an aquiline nose, thin lips, a regular set of white

teeth, and a fair complexion, that blushes more frequently from modesty than from anger. The ordinary

distribution of his time, as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be concisely represented. Before

daybreak, he repairs, with a small train, to his domestic chapel, where the service is performed by the Arian

clergy; but those who presume to interpret his secret sentiments, consider this assiduous devotion as the effect

of habit and policy. The rest of the morning is employed in the administration of his kingdom. His chair is

surrounded by some military officers of decent aspect and behavior: the noisy crowd of his Barbarian guards

occupies the hall of audience; but they are not permitted to stand within the veils or curtains that conceal the

councilchamber from vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of the nations are successively introduced: Theodoric

listens with attention, answers them with discreet brevity, and either announces or delays, according to the

nature of their business, his final resolution. About eight (the second hour) he rises from his throne, and visits

either his treasury or his stables. If he chooses to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on horseback, his bow is

carried by a favorite youth; but when the game is marked, he bends it with his own hand, and seldom misses

the object of his aim: as a king, he disdains to bear arms in such ignoble warfare; but as a soldier, he would

blush to accept any military service which he could perform himself. On common days, his dinner is not

different from the repast of a private citizen, but every Saturday, many honorable guests are invited to the

royal table, which, on these occasions, is served with the elegance of Greece, the plenty of Gaul, and the

order and diligence of Italy. ^19 The gold or silver plate is less remarkable for its weight than for the

brightness and curious workmanship: the taste is gratified without the help of foreign and costly luxury; the

size and number of the cups of wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance; and the

respectful silence that prevails, is interrupted only by grave and instructive conversation. After dinner,

Theodoric sometimes indulges himself in a short slumber; and as soon as he wakes, he calls for the dice and

tables, encourages his friends to forget the royal majesty, and is delighted when they freely express the

passions which are excited by the incidents of play. At this game, which he loves as the image of war, he

alternately displays his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper. If he loses, he laughs; he is

modest and silent if he wins. Yet, notwithstanding this seeming indifference, his courtiers choose to solicit

any favor in the moments of victory; and I myself, in my applications to the king, have derived some benefit

from my losses. ^20 About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of business again returns, and flows

incessantly till after sunset, when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of suppliants and

pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast, buffoons and pantomimes are sometimes introduced, to

divert, not to offend, the company, by their ridiculous wit: but female singers, and the soft, effeminate modes

of music, are severely banished, and such martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of valor are alone

grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires from table; and the nocturnal guards are immediately posted at the

[Footnote 16: Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who was himself of the blood royal of the Goths, acknowledges,

and almost justifies, (Hist. Goth. p. 718,) the crime which their slave Jornandes had basely dissembled, (c 43,

[Footnote 17: This elaborate description (l. i. ep. ii. p. 2 7) was dictated by some political motive. It was

designed for the public eye, and had been shown by the friends of Sidonius, before it was inserted in the

collection of his epistles. The first book was published separately. See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xvi.

[Footnote 18: I have suppressed, in this portrait of Theodoric, several minute circumstances, and technical

phrases, which could be tolerable, or indeed intelligible, to those only who, like the contemporaries of

Sidonius, had frequented the markets where naked slaves were exposed to male, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom.

[Footnote 19: Videas ibi elegantiam Graecam, abundantiam Gallicanam; celeritatem Italam; publicam

[Footnote 20: Tunc etiam ego aliquid obsecraturus feliciter vincor, et mihi tabula perit ut causa salvetur.

Sidonius of Auvergne was not a subject of Theodoric; but he might be compelled to solicit either justice or

When the king of the Visigoths encouraged Avitus to assume the purple, he offered his person and his forces,

as a faithful soldier of the republic. ^21 The exploits of Theodoric soon convinced the world that he had not

degenerated from the warlike virtues of his ancestors. After the establishment of the Goths in Aquitain, and

the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi, who had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the

conquest of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble remains of the Roman dominion. The provincials

of Carthagena and Tarragona, afflicted by a hostile invasion, represented their injuries and their

apprehensions. Count Fronto was despatched, in the name of the emperor Avitus, with advantageous offers of

peace and alliance; and Theodoric interposed his weighty mediation, to declare, that, unless his

brotherinlaw, the king of the Suevi, immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of justice

and of Rome. "Tell him," replied the haughty Rechiarius, "that I despise his friendship and his arms; but that I

shall soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the walls of Thoulouse." Such a challenge

urged Theodoric to prevent the bold designs of his enemy; he passed the Pyrenees at the head of the

Visigoths: the Franks and Burgundians served under his standard; and though he professed himself the dutiful

servant of Avitus, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors, the absolute possession of his

Spanish conquests. The two armies, or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of the

River Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga; and the decisive victory of the Goths appeared for a while to

have extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi. From the field of battle Theodoric advanced to Braga,

their metropolis, which still retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and dignity. ^22 His

entrance was not polluted with blood; and the Goths respected the chastity of their female captives, more

especially of the consecrated virgins: but the greatest part of the clergy and people were made slaves, and

even the churches and altars were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate king of the Suevi had

escaped to one of the ports of the ocean; but the obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight: he was delivered

to his implacable rival; and Rechiarius, who neither desired nor expected mercy, received, with manly

constancy, the death which he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody sacrifice to policy or

resentment, Theodoric carried his victorious arms as far as Merida, the principal town of Lusitania, without

meeting any resistance, except from the miraculous powers of St. Eulalia; but he was stopped in the full

career of success, and recalled from Spain before he could provide for the security of his conquests. In his

retreat towards the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the country through which he passed; and, in

the sack of Pollentia and Astorga, he showed himself a faithless ally, as well as a cruel enemy. Whilst the

king of the Visigoths fought and vanquished in the name of Avitus, the reign of Avitus had expired; and both

the honor and the interest of Theodoric were deeply wounded by the disgrace of a friend, whom he had seated

[Footnote 21: Theodoric himself had given a solemn and voluntary promise of fidelity, which was understood

[Footnote 22: Quaeque sinu pelagi jactat se Bracara dives. Auson. de Claris Urbibus, p. 245.

From the design of the king of the Suevi, it is evident that the navigation from the ports of Gallicia to the

Mediterranean was known and practised. The ships of Bracara, or Braga, cautiously steered along the coast,

[Footnote 23: This Suevic war is the most authentic part of the Chronicle of Idatius, who, as bishop of Iria

Flavia, was himself a spectator and a sufferer. Jornandes (c. 44, p. 675, 676, 677) has expatiated, with

The pressing solicitations of the senate and people persuaded the emperor Avitus to fix his residence at

Rome, and to accept the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of January, his soninlaw,

Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his praises in a panegyric of six hundred verses; but this composition, though

it was rewarded with a brass statue, ^24 seems to contain a very moderate proportion, either of genius or of

truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit of a sovereign and a father; and

his prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when the

Imperial dignity was reduced to a preeminence of toil and danger, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian

luxury: age had not extinguished his amorous inclinations; and he is accused of insulting, with indiscreet and

ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated. ^25 But the Romans were not

inclined either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the empire became

every day more alienated from each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular hatred and

contempt. The senate asserted their legitimate claim in the election of an emperor; and their authority, which

had been originally derived from the old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a

declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed senate, if their

discontent had not been supported, or perhaps inflamed, by the Count Ricimer, one of the principal

commanders of the Barbarian troops, who formed the military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king

of the Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the father's side, from the nation of the

Suevi; ^26 his pride or patriotism might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; and he obeyed,

with reluctance, an emperor in whose elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important services

against the common enemy rendered him still more formidable; ^27 and, after destroying on the coast of

Corsica a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the appellation

of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus, that his reign was at an end; and the

feeble emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing struggle to

abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, ^28 he was permitted to descend

from the throne to the more desirable station of bishop of Placentia: but the resentment of the senate was still

unsatisfied; and their inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death He fled towards the Alps, with

the humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of securing his person and treasures in the

sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. ^29 Disease, or the hand of the executioner,

arrested him on the road; yet his remains were decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native

province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. ^30 Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of

Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the patrimony of his fatherinlaw; lamenting, at the same time, the

disappointment of his public and private expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least to

countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and the poet had contracted some guilt, which it

was incumbent on him to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding emperor. ^31

[Footnote 24: In one of the porticos or galleries belonging to Trajan's library, among the statues of famous

writers and orators. Sidon. Apoll. l. ix. epist, 16, p. 284. Carm. viii. p. 350.]

[Footnote 25: Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est, is the concise expression of Gregory of

Tours, (l. ii. c. xi. in tom. ii. p. 168.) An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649) mentions an indecent jest of Avitus,

[Footnote 26: Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 302, praises the royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, as he

[Footnote 27: See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv. p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum

[Footnote 28: Parcens innocentiae Aviti, is the compassionate, but contemptuous, language of Victor

Tunnunensis, (in Chron. apud Scaliger Euseb.) In another place, he calls him, vir totius simplicitatis. This

commendation is more humble, but it is more solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius]

[Footnote 29: He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution of Diocletian, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.

v. p. 279, 696.) Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory of Julian the Martyr an entire

book, (de Gloria Martyrum, l. ii. in Max. Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xi. p. 861871,) in which he relates about fifty

[Footnote 30: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. xi. p. 168) is concise, but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The

words of Idatius, "cadet imperio, caret et vita," seem to imply, that the death of Avitus was violent; but it

must have been secret, since Evagrius (l. ii. c. 7) could suppose, that he died of the plaque.]

[Footnote 31: After a modest appeal to the examples of his brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly

confesses the debt, and promises payment. Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte cadenti Jussisti placido Victor ut

The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes

arise, in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species. The emperor Majorian has deserved

the praises of his contemporaries, and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in the words

of a judicious and disinterested historian: "That he was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his

enemies; and that he excelled, in every virtue, all his predecessors who had reigned over the Romans." ^32

Such a testimony may justify at least the panegyric of S donius; and we may acquiesce in the assurance, that,

although the obsequious orator would have flattered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the

extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion, within the bounds of truth. ^33 Majorian

derived his name from his maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great Theodosius, had commanded

the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a respectable

officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and integrity; and generously preferred the

friendship of Aetius to the tempting offer of an insidious court. His son, the future emperor, who was

educated in the profession of arms, displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and

unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed the standard of Aetius, contributed to his success,

shared, and sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his

wife, who forced him to retire from the service. ^34 Majorian, after the death of Aetius, was recalled and

promoted; and his intimate connection with Count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the

throne of the Western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious

Barbarian, whose birth excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed Italy with the title of Patrician;

resigned to his friend the conspicuous station of mastergeneral of the cavalry and infantry; and, after an

interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favor Majorian had

solicited by a recent victory over the Alemanni. ^35 He was invested with the purple at Ravenna: and the

epistle which he addressed to the senate, will best describe his situation and his sentiments. "Your election,

Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, have made me your emperor. ^36 May the

propitious Deity direct and prosper the counsels and events of my administration, to your advantage and to

the public welfare! For my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor should I have discharged

the obligations of a citizen if I had refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those

labors, which were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom you have made; partake the

duties which you have enjoined; and may our common endeavors promote the happiness of an empire, which

I have accepted from your hands. Be assured, that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient vigor, and

that virtue shall become, not only innocent, but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be

apprehensive of delations, ^37 which, as a subject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince, will severely

punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all military affairs, and

provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies. ^38

You now understand the maxims of my government; you may confide in the faithful love and sincere

assurances of a prince who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers; who still glories in the

name of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent the judgment which you have pronounced

in his favor." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world, revived the ancient language of law

and liberty, which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous sentiments from his

own heart; since they were not suggested to his imitation by the customs of his age, or the example of his

[Footnote 32: The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 194;) a concise

[Footnote 33: The Panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the end of the year 458, while the emperor was

still consul. It has more art than genius, and more labor than art. The ornaments are false and trivial; the

expression is feeble and prolix; and Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a strong and

distinct light. The private life of Majorian occupies about two hundred lines, 107 305.]

[Footnote 34: She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem

that Aetius, like Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife; whose fervent piety, though it might

work miracles, (Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 7, p. 162,) was not incompatible with base and sanguinary counsels.]

[Footnote 35: The Alemanni had passed the Rhaetian Alps, and were defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley

of Bellinzone, through which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula to the Lago Maggiore,

(Cluver Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 100, 101.) This boasted victory over nine hundred Barbarians (Panegyr.

[Footnote 36: 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

Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plebs, curia, nules, Et collega simul. 386.

This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe, that the clergy were not yet considered as a

[Footnote 37: Either dilationes, or delationes would afford a tolerable reading, but there is much more sense

[Footnote 38: Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus: by the latter, Majorian must understand the

tyranny of Avitus; whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this occasion, Sidonius is

fearful and obscure; he describes the twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, that he may escape the dangerous

[Footnote 39: See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the senate, (Novell. tit. iv. p. 34.) Yet the

expression, regnum nostrum, bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly with the word respublica,

The private and public actions of Majorian are very imperfectly known: but his laws, remarkable for an

original cast of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of a sovereign who loved his people,

who sympathized in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was

capable of applying (as far as such reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to the

public disorders. ^40 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 superindictions. ^41 With this view he granted a universal amnesty, a final and absolute

discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand

from the people. This wise dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and purified

the sources of the public revenue; and the subject who could now look back without despair, might labor with

hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and collection of taxes, Majorian

restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates; and suppressed the extraordinary commissions

which had been introduced, in the name of the emperor himself, or of the Praetorian praefects. The favorite

servants, who obtained such irregular powers, were insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary in their demands:

they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were discontented, if their fees and profits did not

twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their extortion

would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by the legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment

in gold: but they refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept only such ancient pieces as were

stamped with the names of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious

medals, had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their rapacious demands; or if he succeeded in

the research, his imposition was doubled, according to the weight and value of the money of former times.

^42 III. "The municipal corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser senates, (so antiquity has justly styled

them,) deserve to be considered as the heart of the cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are

they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their members,

renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure exile." He urges, and

even compels, their return to their respective cities; but he removes the grievance which had forced them to

desert the exercise of their municipal functions. They are directed, under the authority of the provincial

magistrates, to resume their office of levying the tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the whole

sum assessed on their district, they are only required to produce a regular account of the payments which they

have actually received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian was not

ignorant that these corporate bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and oppression which

they had suffered; and he therefore revives the useful office of the defenders of cities. He exhorts the people

to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who would dare to assert their

privileges, to represent their grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and to inform the

emperor of the abuses that were committed under the sanction of his name and authority.

[Footnote 40: See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number, but very long, and various) at the end

of the Theodosian Code, Novell. l. iv. p. 32 37. Godefroy has not given any commentary on these

[Footnote 41: Fessas provincialium varia atque multiplici tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis

[Footnote 42: The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has found, by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the

Antonines weighed one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only sixtyeight, English grains.

Majorian gives currency to all gold coin, excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not in the

The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of

the Goths and Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor power, nor perhaps inclination, to

perpetrate. The tempest of war might strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the destruction which

undermined the foundations of those massy fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of ten

centuries; and the motives of interest, that afterwards operated without shame or control, were severely

checked by the taste and spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city had gradually impaired the

value of the public works. The circus and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the desires of

the people: the temples, which had escaped the zeal of the Christians, were no longer inhabited, either by

gods or men; the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense space of their baths and

porticos; and the stately libraries and halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose repose

was seldom disturbed, either by study or business. The monuments of consular, or Imperial, greatness were

no longer revered, as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of

materials, cheaper, and more convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were continually

addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, which stated the want of stones or bricks, for some necessary

service: the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced, for the sake of some paltry, or pretended,

repairs; and the degenerate Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument, demolished, with

sacrilegious hands, the labors of their ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of the

city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. ^43 He reserved to the prince and senate the sole

cognizance of the extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; imposed a fine of

fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant such

illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers,

by a severe whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last instance, the legislator might seem

to forget the proportion of guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous principle, and Majorian

was anxious to protect the monuments of those ages, in which he would have desired and deserved to live.

The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the number of his subjects; and that it was his duty

to guard the purity of the marriagebed: but the means which he employed to accomplish these salutary

purposes are of an ambiguous, and perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated their

virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under

that age were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five years, by the forfeiture of half their

wealth to their nearest relations, or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or annulled. The

punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal

returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity. ^44 [Footnote 43:

The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35) is curious. "Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa

constructio; et ut aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque

privatum aedificium construens, per gratiam judicum ..... praesumere de publicis locis necessaria, et

transferre non dubitet" With equal zeal, but with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated the

same complaints. (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327.) If I prosecute this history, I shall not be unmindful

of the decline and fall of the city of Rome; an interesting object to which any plan was originally confined.]

[Footnote 44: The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular of Tuscany in a style of acrimonious

reproof, which sounds almost like personal resentment, (Novell. tit. ix. p. 47.) The law of Majorian, which

punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards repealed by his successor Severus, (Novell. Sever. tit. i. p.

While the emperor Majorian assiduously labored to restore the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he

encountered the arms of Genseric, from his character and situation their most formidable enemy. A fleet of

Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano; but the Imperial troops surprised and

attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were encumbered with the spoils of Campania; they were chased

with slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's brotherinlaw, was found in the number of the

slain. ^45 Such vigilance might announce the character of the new reign; but the strictest vigilance, and the

most numerous forces, were insufficient to protect the longextended coast of Italy from the depredations of

a naval war. The public opinion had imposed a nobler and more arduous task on the genius of Majorian.

Rome expected from him alone the restitution of Africa; and the design, which he formed, of attacking the

Vandals in their new settlements, was the result of bold and judicious policy. If the intrepid emperor could

have infused his own spirit into the youth of Italy; if he could have revived in the field of Mars, the manly

exercises in which he had always surpassed his equals; he might have marched against Genseric at the head

of a Roman army. Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the rising generation; but it

is the misfortune of those princes who laboriously sustain a declining monarchy, that, to obtain some

immediate advantage, or to avert some impending danger, they are forced to countenance, and even to

multiply, the most pernicious abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was reduced to the

disgraceful expedient of substituting Barbarian auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects: and his

superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigor and dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous

instrument, so apt to recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who were already engaged in

the service of the empire, the fame of his liberality and valor attracted the nations of the Danube, the

Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidae, the

Ostrogoths, the Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the plains of Liguria; and their

formidable strength was balanced by their mutual animosities. ^46 They passed the Alps in a severe winter.

The emperor led the way, on foot, and in complete armor; sounding, with his long staff, the depth of the ice,

or snow, and encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by the cheerful assurance, that

they should be satisfied with the heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their gates; they

soon implored, and experienced, the clemency of Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and

admitted to his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy of his arms. The beneficial,

though precarious, reunion of the greater part of Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as well as of

force; ^47 and the independent Bagaudae, 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. ^48 Under circumstances much less

favorable, Majorian equalled the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The woods of the Apennine

were felled; the arsenals and manufactures of Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy and Gaul vied with

each other in liberal contributions to the public service; and the Imperial navy of three hundred large galleys,

with an adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious

harbor of Carthagena in Spain. ^49 The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his troops with a

confidence of victory; and, if we might credit the historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him

beyond the bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the state of the Vandals, he ventured,

after disguising the color of his hair, to visit Carthage, in the character of his own ambassador: and Genseric

was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the emperor of the Romans.

Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been

imagined, unless in the life of a hero. ^50 [Footnote 45: Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian, 385 440.]

[Footnote 46: 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 Peuples, tom. viii. p. 49 55 is a more satisfactory

[Footnote 47: It is the just and forcible distinction of Priscus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 42,) in a short fragment,

which throws much light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed the defeat and alliance of the

Visigoths, which were solemnly proclaimed in Gallicia; and are marked in the Chronicle of Idatius.]

[Footnote 48: Florus, l. 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

[Footnote 49: Iterea duplici texis dum littore classem Inferno superoque mari, cadit omnis in aequor

The number of ships, which Priscus fixed at 300, is magnified, by an indefinite comparison with the fleets of

[Footnote 50: Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 8, p. 194. 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

Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of

his adversary. He practiced his customary arts of fraud and delay, but he practiced them without success. His

applications for peace became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere; but the inflexible

Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Rome could not be safe, as long as Carthage existed in a

hostile state. The king of the Vandals distrusted the valor of his native subjects, who were enervated by the

luxury of the South; ^51 he suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, who abhorred him as an Arian

tyrant; and the desperate measure, which he executed, of reducing Mauritania into a desert, ^52 could not

defeat the operations of the Roman emperor, who was at liberty to land his troops on any part of the African

coast. But Genseric was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery of some powerful

subjects, envious, or apprehensive, of their master's success. Guided by their secret intelligence, he surprised

the unguarded fleet in the Bay of Carthagena: many of the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the

preparations of three years were destroyed in a single day. ^53 After this event, the behavior of the two

antagonists showed them superior to their fortune. The Vandal, instead of being elated by this accidental

victory, immediately renewed his solicitations for peace. The emperor of the West, who was capable of

forming great designs, and of supporting heavy disappointments, consented to a treaty, or rather to a

suspension of arms; in the full assurance that, before he could restore his navy, he should be supplied with

provocations to justify a second war. Majorian returned to Italy, to prosecute his labors for the public

happiness; and, as he was conscious of his own integrity, he might long remain ignorant of the dark

conspiracy which threatened his throne and his life. The recent misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory

which had dazzled the eyes of the multitude; almost every description of civil and military officers were

exasperated against the Reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses which he

endeavored to suppress; and the patrician Ricimer impelled the inconstant passions of the Barbarians against

a prince whom he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could not protect him from the impetuous

sedition, which broke out in the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the Alps. He was compelled to abdicate the

Imperial purple: five days after his abdication, it was reported that he died of a dysentery; ^54 and the humble

tomb, which covered his remains, was consecrated by the respect and gratitude of succeeding generations.

^55 The private character of Majorian inspired love and respect. Malicious calumny and satire excited his

indignation, or, if he himself were the object, his contempt; but he protected the freedom of wit, and, in the

hours which the emperor gave to the familiar society of his friends, he could indulge his taste for pleasantry,

without degrading the majesty of his rank. ^56 [Footnote 51: Spoliisque potitus Immensis, robux luxu jam

He afterwards applies to Genseric, unjustly, as it should seem, the vices of his subjects.]

[Footnote 52: He burnt the villages, and poisoned the springs, (Priscus, p. 42.) 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 hundred

[Footnote 53: Idatius, who was safe in Gallicia from the power of Recimer boldly and honestly declares,

Vandali per proditeres admoniti, i. e. dissembles, however, the name of the traitor.]

[Footnote 54: Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. i. c. 8, p. 194. The testimony of Idatius is fair and impartial:

"Majorianum de Galliis Romam redeuntem, et Romano imperio vel nomini res necessarias ordinantem;

Richimer livore percitus, et invidorum consilio fultus, fraude interficit circumventum." Some read Suevorum,

and I am unwilling to efface either of the words, as they express the different accomplices who united in the

[Footnote 55: See the Epigrams of Ennodius, No. cxxxv. inter Sirmond. Opera, tom. i. p. 1903. It is flat and

obscure; but Ennodius was made bishop of Pavia fifty years after the death of Majorian, and his praise

[Footnote 56: Sidonius gives a tedious account (l. i. epist. xi. p. 2531) of a supper at Arles, to which he was

invited by Majorian, a short time before his death. He had no intention of praising a deceased emperor: but a

casual disinterested remark, "Subrisit Augustus; ut erat, auctoritate servata, cum se communioni dedisset, joci

It was not, perhaps, without some regret, that Ricimer sacrificed his friend to the interest of his ambition: but

he resolved, in a second choice, to avoid the imprudent preference of superior virtue and merit. At his

command, the obsequious senate of Rome bestowed the Imperial title on Libius Severus, who ascended the

throne of the West without emerging from the obscurity of a private condition. History has scarcely deigned

to notice his birth, his elevation, his character, or his death. Severus expired, as soon as his life became

inconvenient to his patron; ^57 and it would be useless to discriminate his nominal reign in the vacant

interval of six years, between the death of Majorian and the elevation of Anthemius. During that period, the

government was in the hands of Ricimer alone; and, although the modest Barbarian disclaimed the name of

king, he accumulated treasures, formed a separate army, negotiated private alliances, and ruled Italy with the

same independent and despotic authority, which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his

dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman generals, Marcellinus and Aegidius, maintained their

allegiance to the republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled an emperor. Marcellinus

still adhered to the old religion; and the devout Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church and

state, applauded his profound skill in the science of divination. But he possessed the more valuable

qualifications of learning, virtue, and courage; ^58 the study of the Latin literature had improved his taste;

and his military talents had recommended him to the esteem and confidence of the great Aetius, in whose ruin

he was involved. By a timely flight, Marcellinus escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his

liberty amidst the convulsions of the Western empire. His voluntary, or reluctant, submission to the authority

of Majorian, was rewarded by the government of Sicily, and the command of an army, stationed in that island

to oppose, or to attack, the Vandals; but his Barbarian mercenaries, after the emperor's death, were tempted to

revolt by the artful liberality of Ricimer. At the head of a band of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus

occupied the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of patrician of the West, secured the love of his subjects

by a mild and equitable reign, built a fleet which claimed the dominion of the Adriatic, and alternately

alarmed the coasts of Italy and of Africa. ^59 Aegidius, the mastergeneral of Gaul, who equalled, or at least

who imitated, the heroes of ancient Rome, ^60 proclaimed his immortal resentment against the assassins of

his beloved master. A brave and numerous army was attached to his standard: and, though he was prevented

by the arts of Ricimer, and the arms of the Visigoths, from marching to the gates of Rome, he maintained his

independent sovereignty beyond the Alps, and rendered the name of Aegidius, respectable both in peace and

war. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful follies of Childeric, elected the Roman general for

their king: his vanity, rather than his ambition, was gratified by that singular honor; and when the nation, at

the end of four years, repented of the injury which they had offered to the Merovingian family, he patiently

acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful prince. The authority of Aegidius ended only with his life, and the

suspicions of poison and secret violence, which derived some countenance from the character of Ricimer,

[Footnote 57: Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 317) dismisses him to heaven: Auxerat Augustus naturae lege

And an old list of the emperors, composed about the time of Justinian, praises his piety, and fixes his

[Footnote 58: Tillemont, who is always scandalized by the virtues of infidels, attributes this advantageous

portrait of Marcellinus (which Suidas has preserved) to the partial zeal of some Pagan historian, (Hist. des

[Footnote 59: Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191. In various circumstances of the life of Marcellinus,

it is not easy to reconcile the Greek historian with the Latin Chronicles of the times.]

[Footnote 60: I must apply to Aegidius the praises which Sidonius (Panegyr Majorian, 553) bestows on a

nameless mastergeneral, who commanded the rearguard of Majorian. Idatius, from public report,

commends his Christian piety; and Priscus mentions (p. 42) his military virtues.]

[Footnote 61: Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 168. The Pere Daniel, whose ideas were superficial and

modern, has started some objections against the story of Childeric, (Hist. de France, tom. i. Preface

Historique, p. lxxvii., but they have been fairly satisfied by Dubos, (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 460510,) and

by two authors who disputed the prize of the Academy of Soissons, (p. 131177, 310339.) With regard to

the term of Childeric's exile, it is necessary either to prolong the life of Aegidius beyond the date assigned by

the Chronicle of Idatius or to correct the text of Gregory, by reading quarto anno, instead of octavo.]

The kingdom of Italy, a name to which the Western empire was gradually reduced, was afflicted, under the

reign of Ricimer, by the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. ^62 In the spring of each year, they

equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age,

still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable

secrecy, till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked, by his pilot, what course he should steer,

"Leave the determination to the winds, (replied the Barbarian, with pious arrogance;) they will transport us to

the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice;" but if Genseric himself deigned to issue

more precise orders, he judged the most wealthy to be the most criminal. The Vandals repeatedly visited the

coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus,

Greece, and Sicily: they were tempted to subdue the Island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the

centre of the Mediterranean; and their arms spread desolation, or terror, from the columns of Hercules to the

mouth of the Nile. As they were more ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom attacked any fortified

cities, or engaged any regular troops in the open field. But the celerity of their motions enabled them, almost

at the same time, to threaten and to attack the most distant objects, which attracted their desires; and as they

always embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no sooner landed, than they swept the dismayed

country with a body of light cavalry. Yet, notwithstanding the example of their king, the native Vandals and

Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and perilous warfare; the hardy generation of the first conquerors was

almost extinguished, and their sons, who were born in Africa, enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which

had been acquired by the valor of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied by a various multitude of

Moors and Romans, of captives and outlaws; and those desperate wretches, who had already violated the

laws of their country, were the most eager to promote the atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of

Genseric. In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice, and sometimes

indulged his cruelty; and the massacre of five hundred noble citizens of Zant or Zacynthus, whose mangled

bodies he cast into the Ionian Sea, was imputed, by the public indignation, to his latest posterity.

[Footnote 62: The naval war of Genseric is described by Priscus, (Excerpta Legation. p. 42,) Procopius, (de

Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p. 189, 190, and c. 22, p. 228,) Victor Vitensis, (de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 17, and

Ruinart, p. 467481,) and in three panegyrics of Sidonius, whose chronological order is absurdly transposed

in the editions both of Savaron and Sirmond. (Avit. Carm. vii. 441451. Majorian. Carm. v. 327350, 385

440. Anthem. Carm. ii. 348386) In one passage the poet seems inspired by his subject, and expresses a

Hinc Vandalus hostis Urget; et in nostrum numerosa classe quotannis Militat excidium; conversoque ordine

Such crimes could not be excused by any provocations; but the war, which the king of the Vandals

prosecuted against the Roman empire was justified by a specious and reasonable motive. The widow of

Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from Rome to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the

Theodosian house; her elder daughter, Eudocia, became the reluctant wife of Hunneric, his eldest son; and the

stern father, asserting a legal claim, which could not easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a just proportion

of the Imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at least a valuable, compensation, was offered by the Eastern

emperor, to purchase a necessary peace. Eudoxia and her younger daughter, Placidia, were honorably

restored, and the fury of the Vandals was confined to the limits of the Western empire. The Italians, destitute

of a naval force, which alone was capable of protecting their coasts, implored the aid of the more fortunate

nations of the East; who had formerly acknowledged, in peace and war, the supremacy of Rome. But the

perpetual divisions of the two empires had alienated their interest and their inclinations; the faith of a recent

treaty was alleged; and the Western Romans, instead of arms and ships, could only obtain the assistance of a

cold and ineffectual mediation. The haughty Ricimer, who had long struggled with the difficulties of his

situation, was at length reduced to address the throne of Constantinople, in the humble language of a subject;

and Italy submitted, as the price and security to accept a master from the choice of the emperor of the East.

^63 It is not the purpose of the present chapter, or even of the present volume, to continue the distinct series

of the Byzantine history; but a concise view of the reign and character of the emperor Leo, may explain the

last efforts that were attempted to save the falling empire of the West. ^64 [Footnote 63: The poet himself is

Praeterea invictus Ricimer, quem publica fata Respiciunt, proprio solas vix Marte repellit Piratam per rura

Italy addresses her complaint to the Tyber, and Rome, at the solicitation of the river god, transports herself to

Constantinople, renounces her ancient claims, and implores the friendship of Aurora, the goddess of the East.

This fabulous machinery, which the genius of Claudian had used and abused, is the constant and miserable

[Footnote 64: The original authors of the reigns of Marcian, Leo, and Zeno, are reduced to some imperfect

fragments, whose deficiencies must be supplied from the more recent compilations of Theophanes, Zonaras,

Since the death of the younger Theodosius, the domestic repose of Constantinople had never been interrupted

by war or faction. Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, and the sceptre of the East, on the modest virtue of

Marcian: he gratefully reverenced her august rank and virgin chastity; and, after her death, he gave his people

the example of the religious worship that was due to the memory of the Imperial saint. ^65 Attentive to the

prosperity of his own dominions, Marcian seemed to behold, with indifference, the misfortunes of Rome; and

the obstinate refusal of a brave and active prince, to draw his sword against the Vandals, was ascribed to a

secret promise, which had formerly been exacted from him when he was a captive in the power of Genseric.

^66 The death of Marcian, after a reign of seven years, would have exposed the East to the danger of a

popular election; if the superior weight of a single family had not been able to incline the balance in favor of

the candidate whose interest they supported. The patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on his own

head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene creed. ^67 During three generations, the armies of the East

were successively commanded by his father, by himself, and by his son Ardaburius; his Barbarian guards

formed a military force that overawed the palace and the capital; and the liberal distribution of his immense

treasures rendered Aspar as popular as he was powerful. He recommended the obscure name of Leo of

Thrace, a military tribune, and the principal steward of his household. His nomination was unanimously

ratified by the senate; and the servant of Aspar received the Imperial crown from the hands of the patriarch or

bishop, who was permitted to express, by this unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity. ^68 This emperor,

the first of the name of Leo, has been distinguished by the title of the Great; from a succession of princes,

who gradually fixed in the opinion of the Greeks a very humble standard of heroic, or at least of royal,

perfection. Yet the temperate firmness with which Leo resisted the oppression of his benefactor, showed that

he was conscious of his duty and of his prerogative. Aspar was astonished to find that his influence could no

longer appoint a praefect of Constantinople: he presumed to reproach his sovereign with a breach of promise,

and insolently shaking his purple, "It is not proper, (said he,) that the man who is invested with this garment,

should be guilty of lying." "Nor is it proper, (replied Leo,) that a prince should be compelled to resign his

own judgment, and the public interest, to the will of a subject."69 After this extraordinary scene, it was

impossible that the reconciliation of the emperor and the patrician could be sincere; or, at least, that it could

be solid and permanent. An army of Isaurians ^70 was secretly levied, and introduced into Constantinople;

and while Leo undermined the authority, and prepared the disgrace, of the family of Aspar, his mild and

cautious behavior restrained them from any rash and desperate attempts, which might have been fatal to

themselves, or their enemies. The measures of peace and war were affected by this internal revolution. As

long as Aspar degraded the majesty of the throne, the secret correspondence of religion and interest engaged

him to favor the cause of Genseric. When Leo had delivered himself from that ignominious servitude, he

listened to the complaints of the Italians; resolved to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals; and declared his

alliance with his colleague, Anthemius, whom he solemnly invested with the diadem and purple of the West.

[Footnote 65: St. Pulcheria died A.D. 453, four years before her nominal husband; and her festival is

celebrated on the 10th of September by the modern Greeks: she bequeathed an immense patrimony to pious,

or, at least, to ecclesiastical, uses. See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xv p. 181 184.]

[Footnote 67: From this disability of Aspar to ascend the throne, it may be inferred that the stain of Heresy

was perpetual and indelible, while that of Barbarism disappeared in the second generation.]

[Footnote 68: Theophanes, p. 95. This appears to be the first origin of a ceremony, which all the Christian

princes of the world have since adopted and from which the clergy have deduced the most formidable

[Footnote 69: Cedrenus, (p. 345, 346,) who was conversant with the writers of better days, has preserved the

[Footnote 70: The power of the Isaurians agitated the Eastern empire in the two succeeding reigns of Zeno

and Anastasius; but it ended in the destruction of those Barbarians, who maintained their fierce

The virtues of Anthemius have perhaps been magnified, since the Imperial descent, which he could only

deduce from the usurper Procopius, has been swelled into a line of emperors. ^71 But the merit of his

immediate parents, their honors, and their riches, rendered Anthemius one of the most illustrious subjects of

the East. His father, Procopius, obtained, after his Persian embassy, the rank of general and patrician; and the

name of Anthemius was derived from his maternal grandfather, the celebrated praefect, who protected, with

so much ability and success, the infant reign of Theodosius. The grandson of the praefect was raised above

the condition of a private subject, by his marriage with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor Marcian. This

splendid alliance, which might supersede the necessity of merit, hastened the promotion of Anthemius to the

successive dignities of count, of mastergeneral, of consul, and of patrician; and his merit or fortune claimed

the honors of a victory, which was obtained on the banks of the Danube, over the Huns. Without indulging an

extravagant ambition, the soninlaw of Marcian might hope to be his successor; but Anthemius supported

the disappointment with courage and patience; and his subsequent elevation was universally approved by the

public, who esteemed him worthy to reign, till he ascended the throne. ^72 The emperor of the West marched

from Constantinople, attended by several counts of high distinction, and a body of guards almost equal to the

strength and numbers of a regular army: he entered Rome in triumph, and the choice of Leo was confirmed

by the senate, the people, and the Barbarian confederates of Italy. ^73 The solemn inauguration of Anthemius

was followed by the nuptials of his daughter and the patrician Ricimer; a fortunate event, which was

considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of the state. The wealth of two empires was

ostentatiously displayed; and many senators completed their ruin, by an expensive effort to disguise their

poverty. All serious business was suspended during this festival; the courts of justice were shut; the streets of

Rome, the theatres, the places of public and private resort, resounded with hymeneal songs and dances: and

the royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a crown on her head, was conducted to the palace of Ricimer,

who had changed his military dress for the habit of a consul and a senator. On this memorable occasion,

Sidonius, whose early ambition had been so fatally blasted, appeared as the orator of Auvergne, among the

provincial deputies who addressed the throne with congratulations or complaints. ^74 The calends of January

were now approaching, and the venal poet, who had loved Avitus, and esteemed Majorian, was persuaded by

his friends to celebrate, in heroic verse, the merit, the felicity, the second consulship, and the future triumphs,

of the emperor Anthemius. Sidonius pronounced, with assurance and success, a panegyric which is still

extant; and whatever might be the imperfections, either of the subject or of the composition, the welcome

flatterer was immediately rewarded with the praefecture of Rome; a dignity which placed him among the

illustrious personages of the empire, till he wisely preferred the more respectable character of a bishop and a

The poet (Sidon. Panegyr. Anthem. 67 306) then proceeds to relate the private life and fortunes of the

[Footnote 72: Sidonius discovers, with tolerable ingenuity, that this disappointment added new lustre to the

virtues of Anthemius, (210, who declined one sceptre, and reluctantly accepted another, (22,

[Footnote 73: The poet again celebrates the unanimity of all orders of the state, (15 22;) and the Chronicle

[Footnote 74: Interveni autem nuptiis Patricii Ricimeris, cui filia perennis Augusti in spem publicae

securitatis copulabator. The journey of Sidonius from Lyons, and the festival of Rome, are described with

[Footnote 75: Sidonius (l. i. epist. 9, p. 23, 24) very fairly states his motive, his labor, and his reward. "Hic

ipse Panegyricus, si non judicium, certa eventum, boni operis, accepit." He was made bishop of Clermont,

The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and catholic faith of the emperor whom they gave to the West;

nor do they forget to observe, that when he left Constantinople, he converted his palace into the pious

foundation of a public bath, a church, and a hospital for old men. ^76 Yet some suspicious appearances are

found to sully the theological fame of Anthemius. From the conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian

sectary, he had imbibed the spirit of religious toleration; and the Heretics of Rome would have assembled

with impunity, if the bold and vehement censure which Pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter,

had not obliged him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. ^77 Even the Pagans, a feeble and obscure remnant,

conceived some vain hopes, from the indifference, or partiality, of Anthemius; and his singular friendship for

the philosopher Severus, whom he promoted to the consulship, was ascribed to a secret project, of reviving

the ancient worship of the gods. ^78 These idols were crumbled into dust: and the mythology which had once

been the creed of nations, was so universally disbelieved, that it might be employed without scandal, or at

least without suspicion, by Christian poets. ^79 Yet the vestiges of superstition were not absolutely

obliterated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had preceded the foundation of Rome, was still

celebrated under the reign of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were expressive of an early state of

society before the invention of arts and agriculture. The rustic deities who presided over the toils and

pleasures of the pastoral life, Pan, Faunus, and their train of satyrs, were such as the fancy of shepherds might

create, sportive, petulant, and lascivious; whose power was limited, and whose malice was inoffensive. A

goat was the offering the best adapted to their character and attributes; the flesh of the victim was roasted on

willow spits; and the riotous youths, who crowded to the feast, ran naked about the fields, with leather thongs

in their hands, communicating, as it was supposed, the blessing of fecundity to the women whom they

touched. ^80 The altar of Pan was erected, perhaps by Evander the Arcadian, in a dark recess in the side of

the Palantine hill, watered by a perpetual fountain, and shaded by a hanging grove. A tradition, that, in the

same place, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf, rendered it still more sacred and venerable in the

eyes of the Romans; and this sylvan spot was gradually surrounded by the stately edifices of the Forum. ^81

After the conversion of the Imperial city, the Christians still continued, in the month of February, the annual

celebration of the Lupercalia; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious influence on the genial powers

of the animal and vegetable world. The bishops of Rome were solicitous to abolish a profane custom, so

repugnant to the spirit of Christianity; but their zeal was not supported by the authority of the civil magistrate:

the inveterate abuse subsisted till the end of the fifth century, and Pope Gelasius, who purified the capital

from the last stain of idolatry, appeased by a formal apology, the murmurs of the senate and people. ^82

[Footnote 76: The palace of Anthemius stood on the banks of the Propontis. In the ninth century, Alexius, the

soninlaw of the emperor Theophilus, obtained permission to purchase the ground; and ended his days in a

monastery which he founded on that delightful spot. Ducange Constantinopolis Christiana, p. 117, 152.]

[Footnote 77: Papa Hilarius ... apud beatum Petrum Apostolum, palam ne id fieret, clara voce constrinxit, in

tantum ut non ea facienda cum interpositione juramenti idem promitteret Imperator. Gelasius Epistol ad

Andronicum, apud Baron. A.D. 467, No. 3. The cardinal observes, with some complacency, that it was much

[Footnote 78: Damascius, in the life of the philosopher Isidore, apud Photium, p. 1049. Damascius, who lived

under Justinian, composed another work, consisting of 570 praeternatural stories of souls, daemons,

[Footnote 79: In the poetical works of Sidonius, which he afterwards condemned, (l. ix. epist. 16, p. 285,) the

fabulous deities are the principal actors. If Jerom was scourged by the angels for only reading Virgil, the

bishop of Clermont, for such a vile imitation, deserved an additional whipping from the Muses.]

[Footnote 80: Ovid (Fast. l. ii. 267 452) has given an amusing description of the follies of antiquity, which

still inspired so much respect, that a grave magistrate, running naked through the streets, was not an object of

[Footnote 81: See Dionys. Halicarn. l. i. p. 25, 65, edit. Hudson. The Roman antiquaries Donatus (l. ii. c. 18,

p. 173, 174) and Nardini (p. 386, 387) have labored to ascertain the true situation of the Lupercal.]

[Footnote 82: Baronius published, from the MSS. of the Vatican, this epistle of Pope Gelasius, (A.D. 496,

No. 28 45,) which is entitled Adversus Andromachum Senatorem, caeterosque Romanos, qui Lupercalia

secundum morem pristinum colenda constituebant. Gelasius always supposes that his adversaries are nominal

Christians, and, that he may not yield to them in absurd prejudice, he imputes to this harmless festival all the

In all his public declarations, the emperor Leo assumes the authority, and professes the affection, of a father,

for his son Anthemius, with whom he had divided the administration of the universe. ^83 The situation, and

perhaps the character, of Leo, dissuaded him from exposing his person to the toils and dangers of an African

war. But the powers of the Eastern empire were strenuously exerted to deliver Italy and the Mediterranean

from the Vandals; and Genseric, who had so long oppressed both the land and sea, was threatened from every

side with a formidable invasion. The campaign was opened by a bold and successful enterprise of the praefect

Heraclius. ^84 The troops of Egypt, Thebais, and Libya, were embarked, under his command; and the Arabs,

with a train of horses and camels, opened the roads of the desert. Heraclius landed on the coast of Tripoli,

surprised and subdued the cities of that province, and prepared, by a laborious march, which Cato had

formerly executed, ^85 to join the Imperial army under the walls of Carthage. The intelligence of this loss

extorted from Genseric some insidious and ineffectual propositions of peace; but he was still more seriously

alarmed by the reconciliation of Marcellinus with the two empires. The independent patrician had been

persuaded to acknowledge the legitimate title of Anthemius, whom he accompanied in his journey to Rome;

the Dalmatian fleet was received into the harbors of Italy; the active valor of Marcellinus expelled the

Vandals from the Island of Sardinia; and the languid efforts of the West added some weight to the immense

preparations of the Eastern Romans. The expense of the naval armament, which Leo sent against the Vandals,

has been distinctly ascertained; and the curious and instructive account displays the wealth of the declining

empire. The Royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied seventeen thousand pounds of

gold; fortyseven thousand pounds of gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into

the treasury by the Praetorian praefects. But the cities were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent

calculation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just or

merciful administration. The whole expense, by whatsoever means it was defrayed, of the African campaign,

amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions two hundred

thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money appears, from the comparative price of corn, to

have been somewhat higher than in the present age. ^86 The fleet that sailed from Constantinople to

Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded

one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Vorina, was intrusted with this important

command. His sister, the wife of Leo, had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against the Scythians.

But the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was reserved for the African war; and his friends could only save

his military reputation by asserting, that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Genseric, and to betray the last

[Footnote 83: Itaque nos quibus totius mundi regimen commisit superna provisio .... Pius et triumphator

semper Augustus filius noster Anthemius, licet Divina Majestas et nostra creatio pietati ejus plenam Imperii

commiserit potestatem, .... Such is the dignified style of Leo, whom Anthemius respectfully names, Dominus

et Pater meus Princeps sacratissimus Leo. See Novell. Anthem. tit. ii. iii. p. 38, ad calcem Cod. Theod.]

[Footnote 84: The expedition of Heraclius is clouded with difficulties, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.

vi. p. 640,) and it requires some dexterity to use the circumstances afforded by Theophanes, without injury to

[Footnote 85: The march of Cato from Berenice, in the province of Cyrene, was much longer than that of

Heraclius from Tripoli. He passed the deep sandy desert in thirty days, and it was found necessary to provide,

besides the ordinary supplies, a great number of skins filled with water, and several Psylli, who were

supposed to possess the art of sucking the wounds which had been made by the serpents of their native

country. See Plutarch in Caton. Uticens. tom. iv. p. 275. Straben Geograph. l. xxii. p. 1193.]

[Footnote 86: The principal sum is clearly expressed by Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191;) the

smaller constituent parts, which Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 396) has laboriously collected

from the Byzantine writers, are less certain, and less important. The historian Malchus laments the public

misery, (Excerpt. ex Suida in Corp. Hist. Byzant. p. 58;) but he is surely unjust, when he charges Leo with

Note: Compare likewise the newlydiscovered work of Lydus, de Magistratibus, ed. Hase, Paris, 1812, (and

in the new collection of the Byzantines,) l. iii. c. 43. Lydus states the expenditure at 65,000 lbs. of gold,

700,000 of silver. But Lydus exaggerates the fleet to the incredible number of 10,000 long ships, (Liburnae,)

and the troops to 400,000 men. Lydus describes this fatal measure, of which he charges the blame on

Basiliscus, as the shipwreck of the state. From that time all the revenues of the empire were anticipated; and

Experience has shown, that the success of an invader most commonly depends on the vigor and celerity of his

operations. The strength and sharpness of the first impression are blunted by delay; the health and spirit of the

troops insensibly languish in a distant climate; the naval and military force, a mighty effort which perhaps

can never be repeated, is silently consumed; and every hour that is wasted in negotiation, accustoms the

enemy to contemplate and examine those hostile terrors, which, on their first appearance, he deemed

irresistible. The formidable navy of Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from the Thracian

Bosphorus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops at Cape Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about

forty miles from Carthage. ^87 The army of Heraclius, and the fleet of Marcellinus, either joined or seconded

the Imperial lieutenant; and the Vandals who opposed his progress by sea or land, were successively

vanquished. ^88 If Basiliscus had seized the moment of consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital,

Carthage must have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was extinguished. Genseric beheld the

danger with firmness, and eluded it with his veteran dexterity. He protested, in the most respectful language,

that he was ready to submit his person, and his dominions, to the will of the emperor; but he requested a truce

of five days to regulate the terms of his submission; and it was universally believed, that his secret liberality

contributed to the success of this public negotiation. Instead of obstinately refusing whatever indulgence his

enemy so earnestly solicited, the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus consented to the fatal truce; and his

imprudent security seemed to proclaim, that he already considered himself as the conqueror of Africa. During

this short interval, the wind became favorable to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largest ships of war

with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals; and they towed after them many large barks, filled with

combustible materials. In the obscurity of the night, these destructive vessels were impelled against the

unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by the sense of their instant danger.

Their close and crowded order assisted the progress of the fire, which was communicated with rapid and

irresistible violence; and the noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of the soldiers

and mariners, who could neither command nor obey, increased the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they

labored to extricate themselves from the fireships, and to save at least a part of the navy, the galleys of

Genseric assaulted them with temperate and disciplined valor; and many of the Romans, who escaped the

fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the victorious Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous

night, the heroic, or rather desperate, courage of John, one of the principal officers of Basiliscus, has rescued

his name from oblivion. When the ship, which he had bravely defended, was almost consumed, he threw

himself in his armor into the sea, disdainfully rejected the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of Genseric, who

pressed him to accept honorable quarter, and sunk under the waves; exclaiming, with his last breath, that he

would never fall alive into the hands of those impious dogs. Actuated by a far different spirit, Basiliscus,

whose station was the most remote from danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the engagement,

returned to Constantinople with the loss of more than half of his fleet and army, and sheltered his guilty head

in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tears and entreaties, could obtain his pardon from the

indignant emperor. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he

was assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king of the

Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Romans themselves should remove from the world

his most formidable antagonists. ^89 After the failure of this great expedition, ^* Genseric again became the

tyrant of the sea: the coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were again exposed to his revenge and avarice; Tripoli

and Sardinia returned to his obedience; he added Sicily to the number of his provinces; and before he died, in

the fulness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire of the West. ^90

[Footnote 87: This promontory is forty miles from Carthage, (Procop. l. i. c. 6, p. 192,) and twenty leagues

from Sicily, (Shaw's Travels, p. 89.) Scipio landed farther in the bay, at the fair promontory; see the animated

[Footnote 88: Theophanes (p. 100) affirms that many ships of the Vandals were sunk. The assertion of

Jornandes, (de Successione Regn.,) that Basiliscus attacked Carthage, must be understood in a very qualified

[Footnote 89: Damascius in Vit. Isidor. apud Phot. p. 1048. It will appear, by comparing the three short

chronicles of the times, that Marcellinus had fought near Carthage, and was killed in Sicily.]

[Footnote *: According to Lydus, Leo, distracted by this and the other calamities of his reign, particularly a

dreadful fire at Constantinople, abandoned the palace, like another Orestes, and was preparing to quit

[Footnote 90: For the African war, see Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191, 192, 193,) Theophanes,

(p. 99, 100, 101,) Cedrenus, (p. 349, 350,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 50, 51.) Montesquieu

(Considerations sur la Grandeur, c. xx. tom. iii. p. 497) has made a judicious observation on the failure of

During his long and active reign, the African monarch had studiously cultivated the friendship of the

Barbarians of Europe, whose arms he might employ in a seasonable and effectual diversion against the two

empires. After the death of Attila, he renewed his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul; and the sons of the

elder Theodoric, who successively reigned over that warlike nation, were easily persuaded, by the sense of

interest, to forget the cruel affront which Genseric had inflicted on their sister. ^91 The death of the emperor

Majorian delivered Theodoric the Second from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honor; he violated his

recent treaty with the Romans; and the ample territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united to his dominions,

became the immediate reward of his perfidy. The selfish policy of Ricimer encouraged him to invade the

provinces which were in the possession of Aegidius, his rival; but the active count, by the defence of Arles,

and the victory of Orleans, saved Gaul, and checked, during his lifetime, the progress of the Visigoths. Their

ambition was soon rekindled; and the design of extinguishing the Roman empire in Spain and Gaul was

conceived, and almost completed, in the reign of Euric, who assassinated his brother Theodoric, and

displayed, with a more savage temper, superior abilities, both in peace and war. He passed the Pyrenees at the

head of a numerous army, subdued the cities of Saragossa and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial

nobles of the Tarragonese province, carried his victorious arms into the heart of Lusitania, and permitted the

Suevi to hold the kingdom of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain. ^92 The efforts of Euric were not

less vigorous, or less successful, in Gaul; and throughout the country that extends from the Pyrenees to the

Rhone and the Loire, Berry and Auvergne were the only cities, or dioceses, which refused to acknowledge

him as their master. ^93 In the defence of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabitants of Auvergne

sustained, with inflexible resolution, the miseries of war, pestilence, and famine; and the Visigoths,

relinquishing the fruitless siege, suspended the hopes of that important conquest. The youth of the province

were animated by the heroic, and almost incredible, valor of Ecdicius, the son of the emperor Avitus, ^94

who made a desperate sally with only eighteen horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic army, and, after

maintaining a flying skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls of Clermont. His charity was equal

to his courage: in a time of extreme scarcity, four thousand poor were fed at his expense; and his private

influence levied an army of Burgundians for the deliverance of Auvergne. From his virtues alone the faithful

citizens of Gaul derived any hopes of safety or freedom; and even such virtues were insufficient to avert the

impending ruin of their country, since they were anxious to learn, from his authority and example, whether

they should prefer the alternative of exile or servitude. ^95 The public confidence was lost; the resources of

the state were exhausted; and the Gauls had too much reason to believe, that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy,

was incapable of protecting his distressed subjects beyond the Alps. The feeble emperor could only procure

for their defence the service of twelve thousand British auxiliaries. Riothamus, one of the independent kings,

or chieftains, of the island, was persuaded to transport his troops to the continent of Gaul: he sailed up the

Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where the people complained of these oppressive allies, till they

[Footnote 91: Jornandes is our best guide through the reigns of Theodoric II. and Euric, (de Rebus Geticis, c.

44, 45, 46, 47, p. 675 681.) Idatius ends too soon, and Isidore is too sparing of the information which he

might have given on the affairs of Spain. The events that relate to Gaul are laboriously illustrated in the third

[Footnote 93: An imperfect, but original, picture of Gaul, more especially of Auvergne, is shown by

Sidonius; who, as a senator, and afterwards as a bishop, was deeply interested in the fate of his country. See l.

[Footnote 94: Sidonius, l. iii. epist. 3, p. 65 68. Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 24, in tom. ii. p. 174. Jornandes, c. 45,

p. 675. Perhaps Ecdicius was only the soninlaw of Avitus, his wife's son by another husband.]

[Footnote 95: Si nullae a republica vires, nulla praesidia; si nullae, quantum rumor est, Anthemii principis

opes; statuit, te auctore, nobilitas, seu patriaca dimittere seu capillos, (Sidon. l. ii. epist. 1, p. 33.) The last

words Sirmond, Not. p. 25) may likewise denote the clerical tonsure, which was indeed the choice of

[Footnote 96: The history of these Britons may be traced in Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 678,) Sidonius, (l. iii. epistol.

9, p. 73, 74,) and Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 18, in tom. ii. p. 170.) Sidonius (who styles these mercenary

troops argutos, armatos, tumultuosos, virtute numero, contul ernio, contumaces) addresses their general in a

One of the last acts of jurisdiction, which the Roman senate exercised over their subjects of Gaul, was the

trial and condemnation of Arvandus, the Praetorian praefect. Sidonius, who rejoices that he lived under a

reign in which he might pity and assist a state criminal, has expressed, with tenderness and freedom, the

faults of his indiscreet and unfortunate friend. ^97 From the perils which he had escaped, Arvandus imbibed

confidence rather than wisdom; and such was the various, though uniform, imprudence of his behavior, that

his prosperity must appear much more surprising than his downfall. The second praefecture, which he

obtained within the term of five years, abolished the merit and popularity of his preceding administration. His

easy temper was corrupted by flattery, and exasperated by opposition; he was forced to satisfy his

importunate creditors with the spoils of the province; his capricious insolence offended the nobles of Gaul,

and he sunk under the weight of the public hatred. The mandate of his disgrace summoned him to justify his

conduct before the senate; and he passed the Sea of Tuscany with a favorable wind, the presage, as he vainly

imagined, of his future fortunes. A decent respect was still observed for the Proefectorian rank; and on his

arrival at Rome, Arvandus was committed to the hospitality, rather than to the custody, of Flavius Asellus,

the count of the sacred largesses, who resided in the Capitol. ^98 He was eagerly pursued by his accusers, the

four deputies of Gaul, who were all distinguished by their birth, their dignities, or their eloquence. In the

name of a great province, and according to the forms of Roman jurisprudence, they instituted a civil and

criminal action, requiring such restitution as might compensate the losses of individuals, and such

punishment as might satisfy the justice of the state. Their charges of corrupt oppression were numerous and

weighty; but they placed their secret dependence on a letter which they had intercepted, and which they could

prove, by the evidence of his secretary, to have been dictated by Arvandus himself. The author of this letter

seemed to dissuade the king of the Goths from a peace with the Greek emperor: he suggested the attack of the

Britons on the Loire; and he recommended a division of Gaul, according to the law of nations, between the

Visigoths and the Burgundians. ^99 These pernicious schemes, which a friend could only palliate by the

reproaches of vanity and indiscretion, were susceptible of a treasonable interpretation; and the deputies had

artfully resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons till the decisive moment of the contest. But

their intentions were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He immediately apprised the unsuspecting criminal

of his danger; and sincerely lamented, without any mixture of anger, the haughty presumption of Arvandus,

who rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of his friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus

showed himself in the Capitol in the white robe of a candidate, accepted indiscriminate salutations and offers

of service, examined the shops of the merchants, the silks and gems, sometimes with the indifference of a

spectator, and sometimes with the attention of a purchaser; and complained of the times, of the senate, of the

prince, and of the delays of justice. His complaints were soon removed. An early day was fixed for his trial;

and Arvandus appeared, with his accusers, before a numerous assembly of the Roman senate. The mournful

garb which they affected, excited the compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by the gay and

splendid dress of their adversary: and when the praefect Arvandus, with the first of the Gallic deputies, were

directed to take their places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of pride and modesty was observed

in their behavior. In this memorable judgment, which presented a lively image of the old republic, the Gauls

exposed, with force and freedom, the grievances of the province; and as soon as the minds of the audience

were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the fatal epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the

strange supposition, that a subject could not be convicted of treason, unless he had actually conspired to

assume the purple. As the paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice, acknowledged it for his

genuine composition; and his astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate

declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded from the rank of a praefect to the

obscure condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the public prison. After a

fortnight's adjournment, the senate was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death; but while he

expected, in the Island of Aesculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest

malefactors, ^100 his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and the praefect of Gaul obtained

the milder punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might deserve compassion; but the

impunity of Seronatus accused the justice of the republic, till he was condemned and executed, on the

complaint of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline of his age and country, held a

secret correspondence with the Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed: his industry was

continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences; and his extravagant vices would

have inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear and abhorrence. ^101 [Footnote 97: See Sidonius, l. i.

epist. 7, p. 15 20, with Sirmond's notes. This letter does honor to his heart, as well as to his understanding.

The prose of Sidonius, however vitiated by a false and affected taste, is much superior to his insipid verses.]

[Footnote 98: When the Capitol ceased to be a temple, it was appropriated to the use of the civil magistrate;

and it is still the residence of the Roman senator. The jewellers, might be allowed to expose then precious

[Footnote 99: Haec ad regem Gothorum, charta videbatur emitti, pacem cum Graeco Imperatore dissuadens,

Britannos super Ligerim sitos impugnari oportere, demonstrans, cum Burgundionibus jure gentium Gallias

[Footnote 100: Senatusconsultum Tiberianum, (Sirmond Not. p. 17;) but that law allowed only ten days

between the sentence and execution; the remaining twenty were added in the reign of Theodosius.]

[Footnote 101: Catilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, l. ii. epist. 1, p. 33; l. v. epist 13, p. 143; l. vii. epist. vii. p.

185. He execrates the crimes, and applauds the punishment, of Seronatus, perhaps with the indignation of a

Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice; but whatever might be the guilt of Ricimer, that

powerful Barbarian was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince, whose alliance he had condescended

to accept. The peaceful and prosperous reign which Anthemius had promised to the West, was soon clouded

by misfortune and discord. Ricimer, apprehensive, or impatient, of a superior, retired from Rome, and fixed

his residence at Milan; an advantageous situation either to invite or to repel the warlike tribes that were seated

between the Alps and the Danube. ^102 Italy was gradually divided into two independent and hostile

kingdoms; and the nobles of Liguria, who trembled at the near approach of a civil war, fell prostrate at the

feet of the patrician, and conjured him to spare their unhappy country. "For my own part," replied Ricimer, in

a tone of insolent moderation, "I am still inclined to embrace the friendship of the Galatian; ^103 but who

will undertake to appease his anger, or to mitigate the pride, which always rises in proportion to our

submission?" They informed him, that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia, ^104 united the wisdom of the serpent

with the innocence of the dove; and appeared confident, that the eloquence of such an ambassador must

prevail against the strongest opposition, either of interest or passion. Their recommendation was approved;

and Epiphanius, assuming the benevolent office of mediation, proceeded without delay to Rome, where he

was received with the honors due to his merit and reputation. The oration of a bishop in favor of peace may

be easily supposed; he argued, that, in all possible circumstances, the forgiveness of injuries must be an act of

mercy, or magnanimity, or prudence; and he seriously admonished the emperor to avoid a contest with a

fierce Barbarian, which might be fatal to himself, and must be ruinous to his dominions. Anthemius

acknowledged the truth of his maxims; but he deeply felt, with grief and indignation, the behavior of Ricimer,

and his passion gave eloquence and energy to his discourse. "What favors," he warmly exclaimed, "have we

refused to this ungrateful man? What provocations have we not endured! Regardless of the majesty of the

purple, I gave my daughter to a Goth; I sacrificed my own blood to the safety of the republic. The liberality

which ought to have secured the eternal attachment of Ricimer has exasperated him against his benefactor.

What wars has he not excited against the empire! How often has he instigated and assisted the fury of hostile

nations! Shall I now accept his perfidious friendship? Can I hope that he will respect the engagements of a

treaty, who has already violated the duties of a son?" But the anger of Anthemius evaporated in these

passionate exclamations: he insensibly yielded to the proposals of Epiphanius; and the bishop returned to his

diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of Italy, by a reconciliation, ^105 of which the sincerity

and continuance might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the emperor was extorted from his

weakness; and Ricimer suspended his ambitious designs till he had secretly prepared the engines with which

he resolved to subvert the throne of Anthemius. The mask of peace and moderation was then thrown aside.

The army of Ricimer was fortified by a numerous reenforcement of Burgundians and Oriental Suevi: he

disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek emperor, marched from Milan to the Gates of Rome, and fixing his

camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival of Olybrius, his Imperial candidate.

[Footnote 102: Ricimer, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated and slew in battle Beorgor, king of the Alani,

(Jornandes, c. 45, p. 678.) His sister had married the king of the Burgundians, and he maintained an intimate

[Footnote 103: Galatam concitatum. Sirmond (in his notes to Ennodius) applies this appellation to Anthemius

himself. The emperor was probably born in the province of Galatia, whose inhabitants, the GalloGrecians,

[Footnote 104: Epiphanius was thirty years bishop of Pavia, (A.D. 467497;) see Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.

tom. xvi. p. 788. His name and actions would have been unknown to posterity, if Ennodius, one of his

successors, had not written his life; (Sirmond, Opera tom. i. p. 1647 1692;) in which he represents him as

[Footnote 105: Ennodius (p. 1659 1664) has related this embassy of Epiphanius; and his narrative, verbose

and turgid as it must appear, illustrates some curious passages in the fall of the Western empire.]

The senator Olybrius, of the Anician family, might esteem himself the lawful heir of the Western empire. He

had married Placidia, the younger daughter of Valentinian, after she was restored by Genseric; who still

detained her sister Eudoxia, as the wife, or rather as the captive, of his son. The king of the Vandals

supported, by threats and solicitations, the fair pretensions of his Roman ally; and assigned, as one of the

motives of the war, the refusal of the senate and people to acknowledge their lawful prince, and the unworthy

preference which they had given to a stranger. ^106 The friendship of the public enemy might render

Olybrius still more unpopular to the Italians; but when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor Anthemius,

he tempted, with the offer of a diadem, the candidate who could justify his rebellion by an illustrious name

and a royal alliance. The husband of Placidia, who, like most of his ancestors, had been invested with the

consular dignity, might have continued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune in the peaceful residence of

Constantinople; nor does he appear to have been tormented by such a genius as cannot be amused or

occupied, unless by the administration of an empire. Yet Olybrius yielded to the importunities of his friends,

perhaps of his wife; rashly plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil war; and, with the secret

connivance of the emperor Leo, accepted the Italian purple, which was bestowed, and resumed, at the

capricious will of a Barbarian. He landed without obstacle (for Genseric was master of the sea) either at

Ravenna, or the port of Ostia, and immediately proceeded to the camp of Ricimer, where he was received as

the sovereign of the Western world. ^107 [Footnote 106: Priscus, Excerpt. Legation p. 74. Procopius de Bell.

Vandel l. i. c. 6, p. 191. Eudoxia and her daughter were restored after the death of Majorian. Perhaps the

[Footnote 107: The hostile appearance of Olybrius is fixed (notwithstanding the opinion of Pagi) by the

duration of his reign. The secret connivance of Leo is acknowledged by Theophanes and the Paschal

Chronicle. We are ignorant of his motives; but in this obscure period, our ignorance extends to the most

The patrician, who had extended his posts from the Anio to the Melvian bridge, already possessed two

quarters of Rome, the Vatican and the Janiculum, which are separated by the Tyber from the rest of the city;

^108 and it may be conjectured, that an assembly of seceding senators imitated, in the choice of Olybrius, the

forms of a legal election. But the body of the senate and people firmly adhered to the cause of Anthemius;

and the more effectual support of a Gothic army enabled him to prolong his reign, and the public distress, by

a resistance of three months, which produced the concomitant evils of famine and pestilence. At length

Ricimer made a furious assault on the bridge of Hadrian, or St. Angelo; and the narrow pass was defended

with equal valor by the Goths, till the death of Gilimer, their leader. The victorious troops, breaking down

every barrier, rushed with irresistible violence into the heart of the city, and Rome (if we may use the

language of a contemporary pope) was subverted by the civil fury of Anthemius and Ricimer. ^109 The

unfortunate Anthemius was dragged from his concealment, and inhumanly massacred by the command of his

soninlaw; who thus added a third, or perhaps a fourth, emperor to the number of his victims. The soldiers,

who united the rage of factious citizens with the savage manners of Barbarians, were indulged, without

control, in the license of rapine and murder: the crowd of slaves and plebeians, who were unconcerned in the

event, could only gain by the indiscriminate pillage; and the face of the city exhibited the strange contrast of

stern cruelty and dissolute intemperance. ^110 Forty days after this calamitous event, the subject, not of

glory, but of guilt, Italy was delivered, by a painful disease, from the tyrant Ricimer, who bequeathed the

command of his army to his nephew Gundobald, one of the princes of the Burgundians. In the same year all

the principal actors in this great revolution were removed from the stage; and the whole reign of Olybrius,

whose death does not betray any symptoms of violence, is included within the term of seven months. He left

one daughter, the offspring of his marriage with Placidia; and the family of the great Theodosius, transplanted

from Spain to Constantinople, was propagated in the female line as far as the eighth generation. ^111

[Footnote 108: Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which Rome was divided by Augustus, only one, the

Janiculum, lay on the Tuscan side of the Tyber. But, in the fifth century, the Vatican suburb formed a

considerable city; and in the ecclesiastical distribution, which had been recently made by Simplicius, the

reigning pope, two of the seven regions, or parishes of Rome, depended on the church of St. Peter. See

Nardini Roma Antica, p. 67. It would require a tedious dissertation to mark the circumstances, in which I am

[Footnote 109: Nuper Anthemii et Ricimeris civili furore subversa est. Gelasius in Epist. ad Andromach.

apud Baron. A.D. 496, No. 42, Sigonius (tom. i. l. xiv. de Occidentali Imperio, p. 542, 543,) and Muratori

(Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 308, 309,) with the aid of a less imperfect Ms. of the Historia Miscella., have

[Footnote 110: Such had been the saeva ac deformis urbe tota facies, when Rome was assaulted and stormed

by the troops of Vespasian, (see Tacit. Hist. iii. 82, 83;) and every cause of mischief had since acquired much

additional energy. The revolution of ages may bring round the same calamities; but ages may revolve without

[Footnote 111: See Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. p. 74, 75. Areobindus, who appears to have married the

niece of the emperor Justinian, was the eighth descendant of the elder Theodosius.]

Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to lawless Barbarians, ^112 the election of a new colleague

was seriously agitated in the council of Leo. The empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness of her

own family, had married one of her nieces to Julius Nepos, who succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in the

sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more solid possession than the title which he was persuaded to accept, of Emperor

of the West. But the measures of the Byzantine court were so languid and irresolute, that many months

elapsed after the death of Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor could show

himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects. During that interval, Glycerius, an obscure soldier,

was invested with the purple by his patron Gundobald; but the Burgundian prince was unable, or unwilling,

to support his nomination by a civil war: the pursuits of domestic ambition recalled him beyond the Alps,

^113 and his client was permitted to exchange the Roman sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After

extinguishing such a competitor, the emperor Nepos was acknowledged by the senate, by the Italians, and by

the provincials of Gaul; his moral virtues, and military talents, were loudly celebrated; and those who derived

any private benefit from his government, announced, in prophetic strains, the restoration of the public felicity.

^114 Their hopes (if such hopes had been entertained) were confounded within the term of a single year, and

the treaty of peace, which ceded Auvergue to the Visigoths, is the only event of his short and inglorious

reign. The most faithful subjects of Gaul were sacrificed, by the Italian emperor, to the hope of domestic

security; ^115 but his repose was soon invaded by a furious sedition of the Barbarian confederates, who,

under the command of Orestes, their general, were in full march from Rome to Ravenna. Nepos trembled at

their approach; and, instead of placing a just confidence in the strength of Ravenna, he hastily escaped to his

ships, and retired to his Dalmatian principality, on the opposite coast of the Adriatic. By this shameful

abdication, he protracted his life about five years, in a very ambiguous state, between an emperor and an

exile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the ungrateful Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps as the

reward of his crime, to the archbishopric of Milan. ^116 [Footnote 112: The last revolutions of the Western

empire are faintly marked in Theophanes, (p. 102,) Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 679,) the Chronicle of Marcellinus,

and the Fragments of an anonymous writer, published by Valesius at the end of Ammianus, (p. 716, 717.) If

Photius had not been so wretchedly concise, we should derive much information from the contemporary

[Footnote 113: See Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 28, in tom. ii. p. 175. Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 613. By the

murder or death of his two brothers, Gundobald acquired the sole possession of the kingdom of Burgundy,

[Footnote 114: Julius Nepos armis pariter summus Augustus ac moribus. Sidonius, l. v. ep. 16, p. 146. Nepos

had given to Ecdicius the title of Patrician, which Anthemius had promised, decessoris Anthemii fidem

[Footnote 115: Epiphanius was sent ambassador from Nepos to the Visigoths, for the purpose of ascertaining

the fines Imperii Italici, (Ennodius in Sirmond, tom. i. p. 1665 1669.) His pathetic discourse concealed the

disgraceful secret which soon excited the just and bitter complaints of the bishop of Clermont.]

[Footnote 116: Malchus, apud Phot. p. 172. Ennod. Epigram. lxxxii. in Sirmond. Oper. tom. i. p. 1879. Some

doubt may, however, be raised on the identity of the emperor and the archbishop.]

The nations who had asserted their independence after the death of Attila, were established, by the right of

possession or conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube; or in the Roman provinces

between the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the army of confederates, who

formed the defence and the terror of Italy; ^117 and in this promiscuous multitude, the names of the Heruli,

the Scyrri, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians, appear to have predominated. The example of these

warriors was imitated by Orestes, ^118 the son of Tatullus, and the father of the last Roman emperor of the

West. Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this History, had never deserted his country. His birth and

fortunes rendered him one of the most illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to the

Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign, obtained the office of his secretary, and was

repeatedly sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the person, and signify the commands, of the

imperious monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him to his freedom; and Orestes might honorably

refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped

the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian princes, the successors of Valentinian; and

as he possessed the qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with rapid steps in the

military profession, till he was elevated, by the favor of Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician, and

mastergeneral of the troops. These troops had been long accustomed to reverence the character and

authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their own language, and was

intimately connected with their national chieftains, by long habits of familiarity and friendship. At his

solicitation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, who presumed to claim their obedience; and when

Orestes, from some secret motive, declined the purple, they consented, with the same facility, to acknowledge

his son Augustulus as the emperor of the West. By the abdication of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the

summit of his ambitious hopes; but he soon discovered, before the end of the first year, that the lessons of

perjury and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be resorted to against himself; and that the

precarious sovereign of Italy was only permitted to choose, whether he would be the slave, or the victim, of

his Barbarian mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last

remains of Roman freedom and dignity. At each revolution, their pay and privileges were augmented; but

their insolence increased in a still more extravagant degree; they envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul,

Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they

insisted on their peremptory demand, that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided

among them. Orestes, with a spirit, which, in another situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose rather

to encounter the rage of an armed multitude, than to subscribe the ruin of an innocent people. He rejected the

audacious demand; and his refusal was favorable to the ambition of Odoacer; a bold Barbarian, who assured

his fellowsoldiers, that, if they dared to associate under his command, they might soon extort the justice

which had been denied to their dutiful petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy, the confederates,

actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes, impatiently flocked to the standard of this popular

leader; and the unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily retreated to the strong city of Pavia,

the episcopal seat of the holy Epiphanites. Pavia was immediately besieged, the fortifications were stormed,

the town was pillaged; and although the bishop might labor, with much zeal and some success, to save the

property of the church, and the chastity of female captives, the tumult could only be appeased by the

execution of Orestes. ^119 His brother Paul was slain in an action near Ravenna; and the helpless

Augustulus, who could no longer command the respect, was reduced to implore the clemency, of Odoacer.

[Footnote 117: Our knowledge of these mercenaries, who subverted the Western empire, is derived from

Procopius, (de Bell. Gothico, l. i. c. i. p. 308.) The popular opinion, and the recent historians, represent

Odoacer in the false light of a stranger, and a king, who invaded Italy with an army of foreigners, his native

[Footnote 118: Orestes, qui eo tempore quando Attila ad Italiam venit, se illi unxit, ejus notarius factus fuerat.

Anonym. Vales. p. 716. He is mistaken in the date; but we may credit his assertion, that the secretary of Attila

[Footnote 119: See Ennodius, (in Vit. Epiphan. Sirmond, tom. i. p. 1669, 1670.) He adds weight to the

narrative of Procopius, though we may doubt whether the devil actually contrived the siege of Pavia, to

That successful Barbarian was the son of Edecon; who, in some remarkable transactions, particularly

described in a preceding chapter, had been the colleague of Orestes himself. ^* The honor of an ambassador

should be exempt from suspicion; and Edecon had listened to a conspiracy against the life of his sovereign.

But this apparent guilt was expiated by his merit or repentance; his rank was eminent and conspicuous; he

enjoyed the favor of Attila; and the troops under his command, who guarded, in their turn, the royal village,

consisted of a tribe of Scyrri, his immediate and hereditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they still

adhered to the Huns; and more than twelve years afterwards, the name of Edecon is honorably mentioned, in

their unequal contests with the Ostrogoths; which was terminated, after two bloody battles, by the defeat and

dispersion of the Scyrri. ^120 Their gallant leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left two sons,

Onulf and Odoacer, to struggle with adversity, and to maintain as they might, by rapine or service, the

faithful followers of their exile. Onulf directed his steps towards Constantinople, where he sullied, by the

assassination of a generous benefactor, the fame which he had acquired in arms. His brother Odoacer led a

wandering life among the Barbarians of Noricum, with a mind and a fortune suited to the most desperate

adventures; and when he had fixed his choice, he piously visited the cell of Severinus, the popular saint of the

country, to solicit his approbation and blessing. The lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of

Odoacer: he was obliged to stoop; but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the symptoms of his

future greatness; and addressing him in a prophetic tone, "Pursue" (said he) "your design; proceed to Italy;

you will soon cast away this coarse garment of skins; and your wealth will be adequate to the liberality of

your mind." ^121 The Barbarian, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified the prediction, was admitted into

the service of the Western empire, and soon obtained an honorable rank in the guards. His manners were

gradually polished, his military skill was improved, and the confederates of Italy would not have elected him

for their general, unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high opinion of his courage and capacity.

^122 Their military acclamations saluted him with the title of king; but he abstained, during his whole reign,

from the use of the purple and diadem, ^123 lest he should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their

accidental mixture, had formed the victorious army, which time and policy might insensibly unite into a great

[Footnote *: Manso observes that the evidence which identifies Edecon, the father of Odoacer, with the

colleague of Orestes, is not conclusive. Geschichte des OstGothischen Reiches, p. 32. But St. Martin

[Footnote 120: Jornandes, c. 53, 54, p. 692 695. M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. viii. p. 221

228) has clearly explained the origin and adventures of Odoacer. I am almost inclined to believe that he

was the same who pillaged Angers, and commanded a fleet of Saxon pirates on the ocean. Greg. Turon. l. ii.

Note: According to St. Martin there is no foundation for this conjecture, vii 5 M.]

[Footnote 121: Vade ad Italiam, vade vilissimis nunc pellibus coopertis: sed multis cito plurima largiturus.

Anonym. Vales. p. 717. He quotes the life of St. Severinus, which is extant, and contains much unknown and

valuable history; it was composed by his disciple Eugippius (A.D. 511) thirty years after his death. See

[Footnote 122: Theophanes, who calls him a Goth, affirms, that he was educated, aursed in Italy, (p. 102;)

and as this strong expression will not bear a literal interpretation, it must be explained by long service in the

[Footnote 123: Nomen regis Odoacer assumpsit, cum tamen neque purpura nee regalibus uteretur insignibus.

Cassiodor. in Chron. A.D. 476. He seems to have assumed the abstract title of a king, without applying it to

Note: Manso observes that Odoacer never called himself king of Italy, assume the purple, and no coins are

Royalty was familiar to the Barbarians, and the submissive people of Italy was prepared to obey, without a

murmur, the authority which he should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the West.

But Odoacer had resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the weight of antique

prejudice, that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise.

The unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace: he signified his resignation to the

senate; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom,

and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno,

the soninlaw and successor of Leo; who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine

throne. They solemnly "disclaim the necessity, or even the wish, of continuing any longer the Imperial

succession in Italy; since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and protect,

at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name, and in the name of the people, they consent

that the seat of universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce

the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet remained of the authority which had given laws to

the world. The republic (they repeat that name without a blush) might safely confide in the civil and military

virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request, that the emperor would invest him with the title of Patrician,

and the administration of the diocese of Italy." The deputies of the senate were received at Constantinople

with some marks of displeasure and indignation: and when they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he

sternly reproached them with their treatment of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the East had

successively granted to the prayers of Italy. "The first" (continued he) "you have murdered; the second you

have expelled; but the second is still alive, and whilst he lives he is your lawful sovereign." But the prudent

Zeno soon deserted the hopeless cause of his abdicated colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of sole

emperor, and by the statues erected to his honor in the several quarters of Rome; he entertained a friendly,

though ambiguous, correspondence with the patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully accepted the Imperial

ensigns, the sacred ornaments of the throne and palace, which the Barbarian was not unwilling to remove

[Footnote 124: Malchus, whose loss excites our regret, has preserved (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 93) this

extraordinary embassy from the senate to Zeno. The anonymous fragment, (p. 717,) and the extract from

In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian, nine emperors had successively disappeared; and

the son of Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of

posterity, if his reign, which was marked by the extinction of the Roman empire in the West, did not leave a

memorable era in the history of mankind. ^125 The patrician Orestes had married the daughter of Count

Romulus, of Petovio in Noricum: the name of Augustus, notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was known

at Aquileia as a familiar surname; and the appellations of the two great founders, of the city and of the

monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their successors. ^126 The son of Orestes assumed and

disgraced the names of Romulus Augustus; but the first was corrupted into Momyllus, by the Greeks, and the

second has been changed by the Latins into the contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life of this

inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer; who dismissed him, with his whole

family, from the Imperial palace, fixed his annual allowance at six thousand pieces of gold, and assigned the

castle of Lucullus, in Campania, for the place of his exile or retirement. ^127 As soon as the Romans

breathed from the toils of the Punic war, they were attracted by the beauties and the pleasures of Campania;

and the country house of the elder Scipio at Liternum exhibited a lasting model of their rustic simplicity.

^128 The delicious shores of the Bay of Naples were crowded with villas; and Sylla applauded the masterly

skill of his rival, who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of Misenum, that commands, on every side,

the sea and land, as far as the boundaries of the horizon. ^129 The villa of Marius was purchased, within a

few years, by Lucullus, and the price had increased from two thousand five hundred, to more than fourscore

thousand, pounds sterling. ^130 It was adorned by the new proprietor with Grecian arts and Asiatic treasures;

and the houses and gardens of Lucullus obtained a distinguished rank in the list of Imperial palaces. ^131

When the Vandals became formidable to the seacoast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory of Misenum,

gradually assumed the strength and appellation of a strong castle, the obscure retreat of the last emperor of

the West. About twenty years after that great revolution, it was converted into a church and monastery, to

receive the bones of St. Severinus. They securely reposed, amidst the the broken trophies of Cimbric and

Armenian victories,till the beginning of the tenth century; when the fortifications, which might afford a

dangerous shelter to the Saracens, were demolished by the people of Naples. ^132

[Footnote 125: The precise year in which the Western empire was extinguished, is not positively ascertained.

The vulgar era of A.D. 476 appears to have the sanction of authentic chronicles. But the two dates assigned

by Jornandes (c. 46, p. 680) would delay that great event to the year 479; and though M. de Buat has

overlooked his evidence, he produces (tom. viii. p. 261 288) many collateral circumstances in support of

[Footnote 126: See his medals in Ducange, (Fam. Byzantin. p. 81,) Priscus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 56,) Maffei,

(Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii p. 314.) We may allege a famous and similar case. The meanest subjects of

the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of Patricius, which, by the conversion of Ireland has been

[Footnote 127: Ingrediens autem Ravennam deposuit Augustulum de regno, cujus infantiam misertus

concessit ei sanguinem; et quia pulcher erat, tamen donavit ei reditum sex millia solidos, et misit eum intra

Campaniam cum parentibus suis libere vivere. Anonym. Vales. p. 716. Jornandes says, (c 46, p. 680,) in

[Footnote 128: See the eloquent Declamation of Seneca, (Epist. lxxxvi.) The philosopher might have

recollected, that all luxury is relative; and that the elder Scipio, whose manners were polished by study and

conversation, was himself accused of that vice by his ruder contemporaries, (Livy, xxix. 19.)]

[Footnote 129: Sylla, in the language of a soldier, praised his peritia castrametandi, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii.

7.) Phaedrus, who makes its shady walks (loeta viridia) the scene of an insipid fable, (ii. 5,) has thus

Caesar Tiberius quum petens Neapolim, In Misenensem villam venissit suam; Quae monte summo posita

[Footnote 130: From seven myriads and a half to two hundred and fifty myriads of drachmae. Yet even in the

possession of Marius, it was a luxurious retirement. The Romans derided his indolence; they soon bewailed

[Footnote 131: Lucullus had other villa of equal, though various, magnificence, at Baiae, Naples, Tusculum,

He boasted that he changed his climate with the storks and cranes. Plutarch, in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 193.]

[Footnote 132: Severinus died in Noricum, A.D. 482. Six years afterwards, his body, which scattered

miracles as it passed, was transported by his disciples into Italy. The devotion of a Neapolitan lady invited the

saint to the Lucullan villa, in the place of Augustulus, who was probably no more. See Baronius (Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 50, 51) and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 178 181,) from the original life by

Eugippius. The narrative of the last migration of Severinus to Naples is likewise an authentic piece.]

Odoacer was the first Barbarian who reigned in Italy, over a people who had once asserted their just

superiority above the rest of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans still excites our respectful compassion,

and we fondly sympathize with the imaginary grief and indignation of their degenerate posterity. But the

calamities of Italy had gradually subdued the proud consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman

virtue the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws, of the republic; till those laws were

subverted by civil discord, and both the city and the province became the servile property of a tyrant. The

forms of the constitution, which alleviated or disguised their abject slavery, were abolished by time and

violence; the Italians alternately lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereign, whom they detested

or despised; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various evils of military license, capricious

despotism, and elaborate oppression. During the same period, the Barbarians had emerged from obscurity and

contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into the provinces, as the servants, the

allies, and at length the masters, of the Romans, whom they insulted or protected. The hatred of the people

was suppressed by fear; they respected the spirit and splendor of the martial chiefs who were invested with

the honors of the empire; and the fate of Rome had long depended on the sword of those formidable

strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had exercised the power, without assuming

the title, of a king; and the patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknowledge the royalty of Odoacer

The king of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to which his valor and fortune had exalted him: his

savage manners were polished by the habits of conversation; and he respected, though a conqueror and a

Barbarian, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his subjects. After an interval of seven years, Odoacer

restored the consulship of the West. For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an honor which was still

accepted by the emperors of the East; but the curule chair was successively filled by eleven of the most

illustrious senators; ^133 and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues claimed

the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. ^134 The laws of the emperors were strictly

enforced, and the civil administration of Italy was still exercised by the Praetorian praefect and his

subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates the odious and oppressive task of

collecting the public revenue; but he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence.

^135 Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian heresy; but he revered the monastic

and episcopal characters; and the silence of the Catholics attest the toleration which they enjoyed. The peace

of the city required the interposition of his praefect Basilius in the choice of a Roman pontiff: the decree

which restrained the clergy from alienating their lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of the people,

whose devotions would have been taxed to repair the dilapidations of the church. ^136 Italy was protected by

the arms of its conqueror; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who had

so long insulted the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer passed the Adriatic, to chastise the assassins of the

emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the remains

of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The

king was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of captives and subjects was

transplanted into Italy; and Rome, after a long period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her

[Footnote 133: The consular Fasti may be found in Pagi or Muratori. The consuls named by Odoacer, or

perhaps by the Roman senate, appear to have been acknowledged in the Eastern empire.]

[Footnote 134: Sidonius Apollinaris (l. i. epist. 9, p. 22, edit. Sirmond) has compared the two leading senators

of his time, (A.D. 468,) Gennadius Avienus and Caecina Basilius. To the former he assigns the specious, to

the latter the solid, virtues of public and private life. A Basilius junior, possibly his son, was consul in the

[Footnote 135: Epiphanius interceded for the people of Pavia; and the king first granted an indulgence of five

years, and afterwards relieved them from the oppression of Pelagius, the Praetorian praefect, (Ennodius in Vit

[Footnote 136: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 483, No. 10 15. Sixteen years afterwards the irregular

[Footnote 137: The wars of Odoacer are concisely mentioned by Paul the Deacon, (de Gest. Langobard. l. i.

c. 19, p. 757, edit. Grot.,) and in the two Chronicles of Cassiodorus and Cuspinian. The life of St. Severinus

by Eugippius, which the count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples, tom. viii. c. 1, 4, 8, 9) has diligently studied,

Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his kingdom exhibited the sad prospect of misery and

desolation. Since the age of Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy; and it was a just subject

of complaint, that the life of the Roman people depended on the accidents of the winds and waves. ^138 In

the division and the decline of the empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn; the

numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of subsistence; and the country was

exhausted by the irretrievable losses of war, famine, ^139 and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin

of a populous district, which had been once adorned with the flourishing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium,

and Placentia. ^140 Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer; and he affirms, with strong exaggeration, that in

Aemilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces, the human species was almost extirpated. ^141 The plebeians

of Rome, who were fed by the hand of their master, perished or disappeared, as soon as his liberality was

suppressed; the decline of the arts reduced the industrious mechanic to idleness and want; and the senators,

who might support with patience the ruin of their country, bewailed their private loss of wealth and luxury. ^*

One third of those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, ^142 was extorted for the

use of the conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by insults; the sense of actual sufferings was imbittered by

the fear of more dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted to the new swarms of Barbarians, each senator

was apprehensive lest the arbitrary surveyors should approach his favorite villa, or his most profitable farm.

The least unfortunate were those who submitted without a murmur to the power which it was impossible to

resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some gratitude to the tyrant who had spared their lives; and since

he was the absolute master of their fortunes, the portion which he left must be accepted as his pure and

voluntary gift. ^143 The distress of Italy ^! was mitigated by the prudence and humanity of Odoacer, who

had bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent

multitude. The kings of the Barbarians were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered, by their native

subjects, and the various bands of Italian mercenaries, who associated under the standard of an elective

general, claimed a larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy destitute of national union, and

hereditary right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign of fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by the

superior genius of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; a hero alike excellent in the arts of war and of

government, who restored an age of peace and prosperity, and whose name still excites and deserves the

attention of mankind. [Footnote 138: Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. The Recherches sur l'Administration des Terres

[Footnote 139: A famine, which afflicted Italy at the time of the irruption of Odoacer, king of the Heruli, is

eloquently described, in prose and verse, by a French poet, (Les Mois, tom. ii. p. 174, 205, edit. in 12 mo.) I

am ignorant from whence he derives his information; but I am well assured that he relates some facts

[Footnote 140: See the xxxixth epistle of St. Ambrose, as it is quoted by Muratori, sopra le Antichita Italiane,

[Footnote 141: Aemilia, Tuscia, ceteraeque provinciae in quibus hominum propenullus exsistit. Gelasius,

[Footnote *: Denina supposes that the Barbarians were compelled by necessity to turn their attention to

agriculture. Italy, either imperfectly cultivated, or not at all, by the indolent or ruined proprietors, not only

could not furnish the imposts, on which the pay of the soldiery depended, but not even a certain supply of the

necessaries of life. The neighboring countries were now occupied by warlike nations; the supplies of corn

from Africa were cut off; foreign commerce nearly destroyed; they could not look for supplies beyond the

limits of Italy, throughout which the agriculture had been long in a state of progressive but rapid depression.

[Footnote 142: Verumque confitentibus, latifundia perdidere Italiam. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.]

[Footnote 143: Such are the topics of consolation, or rather of patience, which Cicero (ad Familiares, lib. ix.

Epist. 17) suggests to his friend Papirius Paetus, under the military despotism of Caesar. The argument,

however, of "vivere pulcherrimum duxi," is more forcibly addressed to a Roman philosopher, who possessed

[Footnote !: Compare, on the desolation and change of property in Italy, Manno des OstGothischen Reiches,

Origin Progress, And Effects Of The Monastic Life. Conversion Of The Barbarians To Christianity And

Arianism. Persecution Of The Vandals In Africa. Extinction Of Arianism Among The Barbarians.

The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical affairs has compelled, and encouraged, me to relate the

progress, the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption, of

Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events, interesting in the study of

human nature, and important in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. I. The institution of the monastic

[Footnote 1: The origin of the monastic institution has been laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline

de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1119 1426) and Helyot, (Hist. des Ordres Monastiques, tom. i. p. 1 66.) These

authors are very learned, and tolerably honest, and their difference of opinion shows the subject in its full

extent. Yet the cautious Protestant, who distrusts any popish guides, may consult the seventh book of

I. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the vulgar and the Ascetic Christians. ^2 The loose and

imperfect practice of religion satisfied the conscience of the multitude. The prince or magistrate, the soldier

or merchant, reconciled their fervent zeal, and implicit faith, with the exercise of their profession, the pursuit

of their interest, and the indulgence of their passions: but the Ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid

precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm which represents man as a criminal, and God

as a tyrant. They seriously renounced the business, and the pleasures, of the age; abjured the use of wine, of

flesh, and of marriage; chastised their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life of misery, as the

price of eternal happiness. In the reign of Constantine, the Ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate world,

to perpetual solitude, or religious society. Like the first Christians of Jerusalem, ^3 ^* they resigned the use,

or the property of their temporal possessions; established regular communities of the same sex, and a similar

disposition; and assumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anachorets, expressive of their lonely retreat in

a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of the world, which they despised; and the

loudest applause was bestowed on this Divine Philosophy, ^4 which surpassed, without the aid of science or

reason, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics, in the

contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death: the Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their

servile discipline; and they disdained, as firmly as the Cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil

society. But the votaries of this Divine Philosophy aspired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They

trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired to the desert; ^5 and they restored the devout and

contemplative life, which had been instituted by the Essenians, in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye

of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among the palmtrees near the Dead

Sea; who subsisted without money, who were propagated without women; and who derived from the disgust

[Footnote 2: See Euseb. Demonstrat. Evangel., (l. i. p. 20, 21, edit. Graec. Rob. Stephani, Paris, 1545.) In his

Ecclesiastical History, published twelve years after the Demonstration, Eusebius (l. ii. c. 17) asserts the

Christianity of the Therapeutae; but he appears ignorant that a similar institution was actually revived in

[Footnote 3: Cassian (Collat. xviii. 5.) claims this origin for the institution of the Coenobites, which gradually

[Footnote *: It has before been shown that the first Christian community was not strictly coenobitic. See vol.

[Footnote 4: These are the expressive words of Sozomen, who copiously and agreeably describes (l. i. c. 12,

13, 14) the origin and progress of this monkish philosophy, (see Suicer. Thesau, Eccles., tom. ii. p. 1441.)

Some modern writers, Lipsius (tom. iv. p. 448. Manuduct. ad Philosoph. Stoic. iii. 13) and La Mothe le

Vayer, (tom. ix. de la Vertu des Payens, p. 228 262,) have compared the Carmelites to the Pythagoreans,

[Footnote 5: The Carmelites derive their pedigree, in regular succession, from the prophet Elijah, (see the

Theses of Beziers, A.D. 1682, in Bayle's Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, Oeuvres, tom. i. p. 82, and

the prolix irony of the Ordres Monastiques, an anonymous work, tom. i. p. 1 433, Berlin, 1751.) Rome, and

the inquisition of Spain, silenced the profane criticism of the Jesuits of Flanders, (Helyot, Hist. des Ordres

Monastiques, tom. i. p. 282 300,) and the statue of Elijah, the Carmelite, has been erected in the church of

[Footnote 6: Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni

venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. Ita per seculorum millia (incredibile dictu) gens aeterna est in

qua nemo nascitur. Tam foecunda illis aliorum vitae poenitentia est. He places them just beyond the noxious

influence of the lake, and names Engaddi and Massada as the nearest towns. The Laura, and monastery of St.

Sabas, could not be far distant from this place. See Reland. Palestin., tom. i. p. 295; tom. ii. p. 763, 874, 880,

Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life. Antony, ^7 an

illiterate ^8 youth of the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, ^9 deserted his family and native

home, and executed his monastic penance with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful

novitiate, among the tombs, and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey to

the eastward of the Nile; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the advantages of shade and water, and

fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim, near the Red Sea; where an ancient monastery still preserves the

name and memory of the saint. ^10 The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and

when he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with discretion

and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant

respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for

Antony attained the age of one hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed

by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of

Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain, and

adjacent desert, of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand anachorets; and the traveller may still investigate the

ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony. ^11 In the Upper

Thebais, the vacant island of Tabenne, ^12 was occupied by Pachomius and fourteen hundred of his brethren.

That holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men, and one of women; and the festival of Easter

sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline. ^13 The

stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public

edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might preach in twelve

churches, computed ten thousand females and twenty thousand males, of the monastic profession. ^14 The

Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope, and to believe, that the number

of the monks was equal to the remainder of the people; ^15 and posterity might repeat the saying, which had

formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the same country, That in Egypt it was less difficult to find a

[Footnote 7: See Athanas. Op. tom. ii. p. 450 505, and the Vit. Patrum, p. 26 74, with Rosweyde's

Annotations. The former is the Greek original the latter, a very ancient Latin version by Evagrius, the friend

[Footnote 8: Athanas. tom. ii. in Vit. St. Anton. p. 452; and the assertion of his total ignorance has been

received by many of the ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 666) shows, by

some probable arguments, that Antony could read and write in the Coptic, his native tongue; and that he was

only a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher Synesius (p. 51) acknowledges that the natural genius of

[Footnote 9: Aruroe autem erant ei trecentae uberes, et valde optimae, (Vit. Patr. l. v. p. 36.) If the Arura be a

square measure, of a hundred Egyptian cubits, (Rosweyde, Onomasticon ad Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 1015,) and

the Egyptian cubit of all ages be equal to twentytwo English inches, (Greaves, vol. i. p. 233,) the arura will

[Footnote 10: The description of the monastery is given by Jerom (tom. i. p. 248, 249, in Vit. Hilarion) and

the P. Sicard, (Missions du Levant tom. v. p. 122 200.) Their accounts cannot always be reconciled the

[Footnote 11: Jerom, tom. i. p. 146, ad Eustochium. Hist. Lausiac. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 712. The P. Sicard

(Missions du Levant, tom. ii. p. 29 79) visited and has described this desert, which now contains four

monasteries, and twenty or thirty monks. See D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 74.]

[Footnote 12: Tabenne is a small island in the Nile, in the diocese of Tentyra or Dendera, between the modern

town of Girge and the ruins of ancient Thebes, (D'Anville, p. 194.) M. de Tillemont doubts whether it was an

isle; but I may conclude, from his own facts, that the primitive name was afterwards transferred to the great

[Footnote 13: See in the Codex Regularum (published by Lucas Holstenius, Rome, 1661) a preface of St.

[Footnote 14: Rufin. c. 5, in Vit. Patrum, p. 459. He calls it civitas ampla ralde et populosa, and reckons

twelve churches. Strabo (l. xvii. p. 1166) and Ammianus (xxii. 16) have made honorable mention of

[Footnote 15: Quanti populi habentur in urbibus, tantae paene habentur in desertis multitudines monachorum.

Athanasius introduced into Rome the knowledge and practice of the monastic life; and a school of this new

philosophy was opened by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the holy threshold of

the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and,

at length, applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their

palaces and villas into religious houses; and the narrow institution of six vestals was eclipsed by the frequent

monasteries, which were seated on the ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Roman forum. ^16

Inflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was Hilarion, ^17 fixed his dreary abode on

a sandy beach, between the sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he

persisted fortyeight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm; and the holy man was followed by a train of two or

three thousand anachorets, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil

^18 is immortal in the monastic history of the East. With a mind that had tasted the learning and eloquence of

Athens; with an ambition scarcely to be satisfied with the archbishopric of Caesarea, Basil retired to a savage

solitude in Pontus; and deigned, for a while, to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely

scattered along the coast of the Black Sea. In the West, Martin of Tours, ^19 a soldier, a hermit, a bishop, and

a saint, established the monasteries of Gaul; two thousand of his disciples followed him to the grave; and his

eloquent historian challenges the deserts of Thebais to produce, in a more favorable climate, a champion of

equal virtue. The progress of the monks was not less rapid, or universal, than that of Christianity itself. Every

province, and, at last, every city, of the empire, was filled with their increasing multitudes; and the bleak and

barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arose out of the Tuscan Sea, were chosen by the anachorets for the

place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and land connected the provinces of

the Roman world; and the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of Palestine

might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the Island of Cyprus. ^20 The

Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome. The pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly

copied, in the most distant climates of the earth, the faithful model of the monastic life. The disciples of

Antony spread themselves beyond the tropic, over the Christian empire of Aethiopia. ^21 The monastery of

Banchor, ^22 in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand brethren, dispersed a numerous colony

among the Barbarians of Ireland; ^23 and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was planted by the Irish monks,

diffused over the northern regions a doubtful ray of science and superstition. ^24

[Footnote 16: The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and Italy is occasionally mentioned by Jerom,

[Footnote 17: See the Life of Hilarion, by St. Jerom, (tom. i. p. 241, 252.) The stories of Paul, Hilarion, and

Malchus, by the same author, are admirably told: and the only defect of these pleasing compositions is the

[Footnote 18: His original retreat was in a small village on the banks of the Iris, not far from NeoCaesarea.

The ten or twelve years of his monastic life were disturbed by long and frequent avocations. Some critics

have disputed the authenticity of his Ascetic rules; but the external evidence is weighty, and they can only

prove that it is the work of a real or affected enthusiast. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles tom. ix. p. 636 644.

[Footnote 19: See his Life, and the three Dialogues by Sulpicius Severus, who asserts (Dialog. i. 16) that the

booksellers of Rome were delighted with the quick and ready sale of his popular work.]

[Footnote 20: When Hilarion sailed from Paraetonium to Cape Pachynus, he offered to pay his passage with a

book of the Gospels. Posthumian, a Gallic monk, who had visited Egypt, found a merchant ship bound from

Alexandria to Marseilles, and performed the voyage in thirty days, (Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i. 1.) Athanasius,

who addressed his Life of St. Antony to the foreign monks, was obliged to hasten the composition, that it

[Footnote 21: See Jerom, (tom. i. p. 126,) Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 92, p. 857 919, and

Geddes, Church History of Aethiopia, p. 29 31. The Abyssinian monks adhere very strictly to the primitive

[Footnote 23: All that learning can extract from the rubbish of the dark ages is copiously stated by

Archbishop Usher in his Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, cap. xvi. p. 425 503.]

[Footnote 24: This small, though not barren, spot, Iona, Hy, or Columbkill, only two miles in length, aud one

mile in breadth, has been distinguished, 1. By the monastery of St. Columba, founded A.D. 566; whose abbot

exercised an extraordinary jurisdiction over the bishops of Caledonia; 2. By a classic library, which afforded

some hopes of an entire Livy; and, 3. By the tombs of sixty kings, Scots, Irish, and Norwegians, who reposed

in holy ground. See Usher (p. 311, 360 370) and Buchanan, (Rer. Scot. l. ii. p. 15, edit. Ruddiman.)]

These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the dark and implacable genius of superstition. Their

mutual resolution was supported by the example of millions, of either sex, of every age, and of every rank;

and each proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery, was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny

path of eternal happiness. ^25 But the operation of these religious motives was variously determined by the

temper and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue, or passion might suspend, their influence: but they

acted most forcibly on the infirm minds of children and females; they were strengthened by secret remorse, or

accidental misfortune; and they might derive some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest.

It was naturally supposed, that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world to accomplish the

work of their salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government of the Christians. The reluctant

hermit was torn from his cell, and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people, on the episcopal throne: the

monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the East, supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops; and

ambition soon discovered the secret road which led to the possession of wealth and honors. ^26 The popular

monks, whose reputation was connected with the fame and success of the order, assiduously labored to

multiply the number of their fellowcaptives. They insinuated themselves into noble and opulent families;

and the specious arts of flattery and seduction were employed to secure those proselytes who might bestow

wealth or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant father bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son;

^27 the credulous maid was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature; and the matron aspired to

imaginary perfection, by renouncing the virtues of domestic life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of

Jerom; ^28 and the profane title of motherinlaw of God ^29 tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate

the virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company, of her spiritual guide, Paula

abandoned Rome and her infant son; retired to the holy village of Bethlem; founded a hospital and four

monasteries; and acquired, by her alms and penance, an eminent and conspicuous station in the Catholic

church. Such rare and illustrious penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of their age; but the

monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject plebeians, ^30 who gained in the cloister much

more than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and mechanics, might escape from poverty and

contempt to a safe and honorable profession; whose apparent hardships are mitigated by custom, by popular

applause, and by the secret relaxation of discipline. ^31 The subjects of Rome, whose persons and fortunes

were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the oppression of the Imperial

government; and the pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the dangers of a military,

life. The affrighted provincials of every rank, who fled before the Barbarians, found shelter and subsistence:

whole legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries; and the same cause, which relieved the distress of

[Footnote 25: Chrysostom (in the first tome of the Benedictine edition) has consecrated three books to the

praise and defence of the monastic life. He is encouraged, by the example of the ark, to presume that none but

the elect (the monks) can possibly be saved (l. i. p. 55, 56.) Elsewhere, indeed, he becomes more merciful, (l.

iii. p. 83, 84,) and allows different degrees of glory, like the sun, moon, and stars. In his lively comparison of

a king and a monk, (l. iii. p. 116 121,) he supposes (what is hardly fair) that the king will be more sparingly

[Footnote 26: Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise tom. i. p. 1426 1469) and Mabillon, (Oeuvres Posthumes,

tom. ii. p. 115 158.) The monks were gradually adopted as a part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.]

[Footnote 27: Dr. Middleton (vol. i. p. 110) liberally censures the conduct and writings of Chrysostom, one of

[Footnote 28: Jerom's devout ladies form a very considerable portion of his works: the particular treatise,

which he styles the Epitaph of Paula, (tom. i. p. 169 192,) is an elaborate and extravagant panegyric. The

exordium is ridiculously turgid: "If all the members of my body were changed into tongues, and if all my

[Footnote 29: Socrus Dei esse coepisti, (Jerom, tom. i. p. 140, ad Eustochium.) Rufinus, (in Hieronym. Op.

tom. iv. p. 223,) who was justly scandalized, asks his adversary, from what Pagan poet he had stolen an

[Footnote 30: Nunc autem veniunt plerumque ad hanc professionem servitutis Dei, et ex conditione servili,

vel etiam liberati, vel propter hoc a Dominis liberati sive liberandi; et ex vita rusticana et ex opificum

exercitatione, et plebeio labore. Augustin, de Oper. Monach. c. 22, ap. Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise,

tom. iii. p. 1094. The Egyptian, who blamed Arsenius, owned that he led a more comfortable life as a monk

[Footnote 31: A Dominican friar, (Voyages du P. Labat, tom. i. p. 10,) who lodged at Cadiz in a convent of

his brethren, soon understood that their repose was never interrupted by nocturnal devotion; "quoiqu'on ne

[Footnote 32: See a very sensible preface of Lucas Holstenius to the Codex Regularum. The emperors

attempted to support the obligation of public and private duties; but the feeble dikes were swept away by the

torrent of superstition; and Justinian surpassed the most sanguine wishes of the monks, (Thomassin, tom. i. p.

Note: The emperor Valens, in particular, promulgates a law contra ignavise quosdam sectatores, qui desertis

civitatum muneribus, captant solitudines secreta, et specie religionis cum coetibus monachorum

The monastic profession of the ancients ^33 was an act of voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was

threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted; but the doors of the monastery were still

open for repentance. Those monks, whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion, were at liberty to

resume the character of men and citizens; and even the spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of

an earthly lover. ^34 The examples of scandal, and the progress of superstition, suggested the propriety of

more forcible restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice was secured by a solemn and

perpetual vow; and his irrevocable engagement was ratified by the laws of the church and state. A guilty

fugitive was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual prison; and the interposition of the magistrate

oppressed the freedom and the merit, which had alleviated, in some degree, the abject slavery of the monastic

discipline. ^35 The actions of a monk, his words, and even his thoughts, were determined by an inflexible

rule, ^36 or a capricious superior: the slightest offences were corrected by disgrace or confinement,

extraordinary fasts, or bloody flagellation; and disobedience, murmur, or delay, were ranked in the catalogue

of the most heinous sins. ^37 A blind submission to the commands of the abbot, however absurd, or even

criminal, they might seem, was the ruling principle, the first virtue of the Egyptian monks; and their patience

was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials. They were directed to remove an enormous rock;

assiduously to water a barren staff, that was planted in the ground, till, at the end of three years, it should

vegetate and blossom like a tree; to walk into a fiery furnace; or to cast their infant into a deep pond: and

several saints, or madmen, have been immortalized in monastic story, by their thoughtless and fearless

obedience. ^38 The freedom of the mind, the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed

by the habits of credulity and submission; and the monk, contracting the vices of a slave, devoutly followed

the faith and passions of his ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the Eastern church was invaded by a swarm of

fanatics, incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame,

that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest Barbarians. ^39

[Footnote 33: The monastic institutions, particularly those of Egypt, about the year 400, are described by four

curious and devout travellers; Rufinus, (Vit. Patrum, l. ii. iii. p. 424 536,) Posthumian, (Sulp. Sever. Dialog.

i.) Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac. in Vit. Patrum, p. 709 863,) and Cassian, (see in tom. vii. Bibliothec. Max.

Patrum, his four first books of Institutes, and the twentyfour Collations or Conferences.)]

[Footnote 34: The example of Malchus, (Jerom, tom. i. p. 256,) and the design of Cassian and his friend,

(Collation. xxiv. 1,) are incontestable proofs of their freedom; which is elegantly described by Erasmus in his

[Footnote 35: See the Laws of Justinian, (Novel. cxxiii. No. 42,) and of Lewis the Pious, (in the Historians of

France, tom vi. p. 427,) and the actual jurisprudence of France, in Denissart, (Decisions, tom. iv. p. 855,)

[Footnote 36: The ancient Codex Regularum, collected by Benedict Anianinus, the reformer of the monks in

the beginning of the ninth century, and published in the seventeenth, by Lucas Holstenius, contains thirty

different rules for men and women. Of these, seven were composed in Egypt, one in the East, one in

Cappadocia, one in Italy, one in Africa, four in Spain, eight in Gaul, or France, and one in England.]

[Footnote 37: The rule of Columbanus, so prevalent in the West, inflicts one hundred lashes for very slight

offences, (Cod. Reg. part ii. p. 174.) Before the time of Charlemagne, the abbots indulged themselves in

mutilating their monks, or putting out their eyes; a punishment much less cruel than the tremendous vade in

pace (the subterraneous dungeon or sepulchre) which was afterwards invented. See an admirable discourse of

the learned Mabillon, (Oeuvres Posthumes, tom. ii. p. 321 336,) who, on this occasion, seems to be inspired

by the genius of humanity. For such an effort, I can forgive his defence of the holy tear of Vendeme (p. 361

[Footnote 38: Sulp. Sever. Dialog. i. 12, 13, p. 532, Cassian. Institut. l. iv. c. 26, 27. "Praecipua ibi virtus et

prima est obedientia." Among the Verba seniorum, (in Vit. Patrum, l. v. p. 617,) the fourteenth libel or

discourse is on the subject of obedience; and the Jesuit Rosweyde, who published that huge volume for the

use of convents, has collected all the scattered passages in his two copious indexes.]

[Footnote 39: Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 161) has observed the scandalous

valor of the Cappadocian monks, which was exemplified in the banishment of Chrysostom.]

Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic garments of the monks: ^40 but their apparent

singularity sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and primitive model, which the

revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind. The father of the Benedictines expressly

disclaims all idea of choice of merit; and soberly exhorts his disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient

dress of the countries which they may inhabit. ^41 The monastic habits of the ancients varied with the

climate, and their mode of life; and they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheepskin of the Egyptian

peasants, or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where

it was a cheap and domestic manufacture; but in the West they rejected such an expensive article of foreign

luxury. ^42 It was the practice of the monks either to cut or shave their hair; they wrapped their heads in a

cowl to escape the sight of profane objects; their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme cold of

winter; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was

horrid and disgusting: every sensation that is offensive to man was thought acceptable to God; and the angelic

rule of Tabenne condemned the salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water, and of anointing them with oil.

^43 ^* The austere monks slept on the ground, on a hard mat, or a rough blanket; and the same bundle of

palmleaves served them as a seat in the lay, and a pillow in the night. Their original cells were low, narrow

huts, built of the slightest materials; which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and

populous village, enclosing, within the common wall, a church, a hospital, perhaps a library, some necessary

offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of

separate discipline and diet; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty families.

[Footnote 40: Cassian has simply, though copiously, described the monastic habit of Egypt, (Institut. l. i.,) to

[Footnote 42: See the rule of Ferreolus, bishop of Usez, (No. 31, in Cod. Regul part ii. p. 136,) and of Isidore,

[Footnote 43: Some partial indulgences were granted for the hands and feet "Totum autem corpus nemo

unguet nisi causa infirmitatis, nec lavabitur aqua nudo corpore, nisi languor perspicuus sit," (Regul. Pachom

[Footnote *: Athanasius (Vit. Ant. c. 47) boasts of Antony's holy horror of clear water, by which his feet were

Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks, and they discovered, by experience,

that rigid fasts, and abstemious diet, are the most effectual preservatives against the impure desires of the

flesh. ^44 The rules of abstinence which they imposed, or practised, were not uniform or perpetual: the

cheerful festival of the Pentecost was balanced by the extraordinary mortification of Lent; the fervor of new

monasteries was insensibly relaxed; and the voracious appetite of the Gauls could not imitate the patient and

temperate virtue of the Egyptians. ^45 The disciples of Antony and Pachomius were satisfied with their daily

pittance, ^46 of twelve ounces of bread, or rather biscuit, ^47 which they divided into two frugal repasts, of

the afternoon and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, and almost a duty, to abstain from the boiled

vegetables which were provided for the refectory; but the extraordinary bounty of the abbot sometimes

indulged them with the luxury of cheese, fruit, salad, and the small dried fish of the Nile. ^48 A more ample

latitude of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or assumed; but the use of flesh was long confined to the

sick or travellers; and when it gradually prevailed in the less rigid monasteries of Europe, a singular

distinction was introduced; as if birds, whether wild or domestic, had been less profane than the grosser

animals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent beverage of the primitive monks; and the founder of the

Benedictines regrets the daily portion of half a pint of wine, which had been extorted from him by the

intemperance of the age. ^49 Such an allowance might be easily supplied by the vineyards of Italy; and his

victorious disciples, who passed the Alps, the Rhine, and the Baltic, required, in the place of wine, an

[Footnote 44: St. Jerom, in strong, but indiscreet, language, expresses the most important use of fasting and

abstinence: "Non quod Deus universitatis Creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu, et inanitate

ventris, pulmonisque ardore delectetur, sed quod aliter pudicitia tuta esse non possit." (Op. tom. i. p. 32, ad

Eustochium.) See the twelfth and twenty second Collations of Cassian, de Castitate and de Illusionibus

[Footnote 45: Edacitas in Graecis gula est, in Gallis natura, (Dialog. i. c. 4 p. 521.) Cassian fairly owns, that

the perfect model of abstinence cannot be imitated in Gaul, on account of the aerum temperies, and the

qualitas nostrae fragilitatis, (Institut. iv. 11.) Among the Western rules, that of Columbanus is the most

austere; he had been educated amidst the poverty of Ireland, as rigid, perhaps, and inflexible as the

abstemious virtue of Egypt. The rule of Isidore of Seville is the mildest; on holidays he allows the use of

[Footnote 46: "Those who drink only water, and have no nutritious liquor, ought, at least, to have a pound

and a half (twentyfour ounces) of bread every day." State of Prisons, p. 40, by Mr. Howard.]

[Footnote 47: See Cassian. Collat. l. ii. 19 21. The small loaves, or biscuit, of six ounces each, had obtained

the name of Paximacia, (Rosweyde, Onomasticon, p. 1045.) Pachomius, however, allowed his monks some

latitude in the quantity of their food; but he made them work in proportion as they ate, (Pallad. in Hist.

[Footnote 48: See the banquet to which Cassian (Collation viii. 1) was invited by Serenus, an Egyptian

[Footnote 49: See the Rule of St. Benedict, No. 39, 40, (in Cod. Reg. part ii. p. 41, 42.) Licet legamus vinum

omnino monachorum non esse, sed quia nostris temporibus id monachis persuaderi non potest; he allows

them a Roman hemina, a measure which may be ascertained from Arbuthnot's Tables.]

The candidate who aspired to the virtue of evangelical poverty, abjured, at his first entrance into a regular

community, the idea, and even the name, of all separate or exclusive possessions. ^50 The brethren were

supported by their manual labor; and the duty of labor was strenuously recommended as a penance, as an

exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their daily subsistence. ^51 The garden and fields,

which the industry of the monks had often rescued from the forest or the morass, were diligently cultivated by

their hands. They performed, without reluctance, the menial offices of slaves and domestics; and the several

trades that were necessary to provide their habits, their utensils, and their lodging, were exercised within the

precincts of the great monasteries. The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than

to dispel, the cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some learned solitaries has cultivated the

ecclesiastical, and even the profane, sciences; and posterity must gratefully acknowledge, that the monuments

of Greek and Roman literature have been preserved and multiplied by their indefatigable pens. ^52 But the

more humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, was contented with the silent, sedentary occupation

of making wooden sandals, or of twisting the leaves of the palmtree into mats and baskets. The superfluous

stock, which was not consumed in domestic use, supplied, by trade, the wants of the community: the boats of

Tabenne, and the other monasteries of Thebais, descended the Nile as far as Alexandria; and, in a Christian

market, the sanctity of the workmen might enhance the intrinsic value of the work.

[Footnote 50: Such expressions as my book, my cloak, my shoes, (Cassian Institut. l. iv. c. 13,) were not less

severely prohibited among the Western monks, (Cod. Regul. part ii. p. 174, 235, 288;) and the rule of

Columbanus punished them with six lashes. The ironical author of the Ordres Monastiques, who laughs at the

foolish nicety of modern convents, seems ignorant that the ancients were equally absurd.]

[Footnote 51: Two great masters of ecclesiastical science, the P. Thomassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. iii.

p. 1090 1139,) and the P. Mabillon, (Etudes Monastiques, tom. i. p. 116 155,) have seriously examined

the manual labor of the monks, which the former considers as a merit and the latter as a duty.]

[Footnote 52: Mabillon (Etudes Monastiques, tom. i. p. 47 55) has collected many curious facts to justify

the literary labors of his predecessors, both in the East and West. Books were copied in the ancient

monasteries of Egypt, (Cassian. Institut. l. iv. c. 12,) and by the disciples of St. Martin, (Sulp. Sever. in Vit.

Martin. c. 7, p. 473.) Cassiodorus has allowed an ample scope for the studies of the monks; and we shall not

be scandalized, if their pens sometimes wandered from Chrysostom and Augustin to Homer and Virgil.]

But the necessity of manual labor was insensibly superseded. The novice was tempted to bestow his fortune

on the saints, in whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder of his life; and the pernicious

indulgence of the laws permitted him to receive, for their use, any future accessions of legacy or inheritance.

^53 Melania contributed her plate, three hundred pounds weight of silver; and Paula contracted an immense

debt, for the relief of their favorite monks; who kindly imparted the merits of their prayers and penance to a

rich and liberal sinner. ^54 Time continually increased, and accidents could seldom diminish, the estates of

the popular monasteries, which spread over the adjacent country and cities: and, in the first century of their

institution, the infidel Zosimus has maliciously observed, that, for the benefit of the poor, the Christian

monks had reduced a great part of mankind to a state of beggary. ^55 As long as they maintained their

original fervor, they approved themselves, however, the faithful and benevolent stewards of the charity,

which was entrusted to their care. But their discipline was corrupted by prosperity: they gradually assumed

the pride of wealth, and at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public luxury might be excused by the

magnificence of religious worship, and the decent motive of erecting durable habitations for an immortal

society. But every age of the church has accused the licentiousness of the degenerate monks; who no longer

remembered the object of their institution, embraced the vain and sensual pleasures of the world, which they

had renounced, ^56 and scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the austere virtues of

their founders. ^57 Their natural descent, from such painful and dangerous virtue, to the common vices of

humanity, will not, perhaps, excite much grief or indignation in the mind of a philosopher.

[Footnote 53: Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 118, 145, 146, 171 179) has examined the

revolution of the civil, canon, and common law. Modern France confirms the death which monks have

[Footnote 54: See Jerom, (tom. i. p. 176, 183.) The monk Pambo made a sublime answer to Melania, who

wished to specify the value of her gift: "Do you offer it to me, or to God? If to God, He who suspends the

mountain in a balance, need not be informed of the weight of your plate." (Pallad. Hist. Lausiac. c. 10, in the

[Footnote 55: Zosim. l. v. p. 325. Yet the wealth of the Eastern monks was far surpassed by the princely

[Footnote 56: The sixth general council (the Quinisext in Trullo, Canon xlvii in Beveridge, tom. i. p. 213)

restrains women from passing the night in a male, or men in a female, monastery. The seventh general

council (the second Nicene, Canon xx. in Beveridge, tom. i. p. 325) prohibits the erection of double or

promiscuous monasteries of both sexes; but it appears from Balsamon, that the prohibition was not effectual.

On the irregular pleasures and expenses of the clergy and monks, see Thomassin, tom. iii. p. 1334 1368.]

[Footnote 57: I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot: "My vow of

poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a

The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude; undisturbed by the various

occupations which fill the time, and exercise the faculties, of reasonable, active, and social beings. Whenever

they were permitted to step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual

guards and spies of each other's actions; and, after their return, they were condemned to forget, or, at least, to

suppress, whatever they had seen or heard in the world. Strangers, who professed the orthodox faith, were

hospitably entertained in a separate apartment; but their dangerous conversation was restricted to some

chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence, the monastic slave might not

receive the visits of his friends or kindred; and it was deemed highly meritorious, if he afflicted a tender

sister, or an aged parent, by the obstinate refusal of a word or look. ^58 The monks themselves passed their

lives, without personal attachments, among a crowd which had been formed by accident, and was detained, in

the same prison, by force or prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate: a

special license of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their familiar visits; and, at their silent meals,

they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible, and almost invisible, to each other. ^59 Study is the

resource of solitude: but education had not prepared and qualified for any liberal studies the mechanics and

peasants who filled the monastic communities. They might work: but the vanity of spiritual perfection was

tempted to disdain the exercise of manual labor; and the industry must be faint and languid, which is not

[Footnote 58: Pior, an Egyptian monk, allowed his sister to see him; but he shut his eyes during the whole

[Footnote 59: The 7th, 8th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 34th, 57th, 60th, 86th, and 95th articles of the Rule of

According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the day, which they passed in their cells, either in vocal

or mental prayer: they assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in the night, for the public worship

of the monastery. The precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene

sky of Egypt; and a rustic horn, or trumpet, the signal of devotion, twice interrupted the vast silence of the

desert. ^60 Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured: the vacant hours of the

monk heavily rolled along, without business or pleasure; and, before the close of each day, he had repeatedly

accused the tedious progress of the sun. ^61 In this comfortless state, superstition still pursued and tormented

her wretched votaries. ^62 The repose which they had sought in the cloister was disturbed by a tardy

repentance, profane doubts, and guilty desires; and, while they considered each natural impulse as an

unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottomless abyss. From the painful

struggles of disease and despair, these unhappy victims were sometimes relieved by madness or death; and, in

the sixth century, a hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion of the austere penitents, who were

deprived of their senses. ^63 Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged term of

frenzy, have afforded ample materials of supernatural history. It was their firm persuasion, that the air, which

they breathed, was peopled with invisible enemies; with innumerable demons, who watched every occasion,

and assumed every form, to terrify, and above all to tempt, their unguarded virtue. The imagination, and even

the senses, were deceived by the illusions of distempered fanaticism; and the hermit, whose midnight prayer

was oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily confound the phantoms of horror or delight, which had

occupied his sleeping and his waking dreams. ^64 [Footnote 60: The diurnal and nocturnal prayers of the

monks are copiously discussed by Cassian, in the third and fourth books of his Institutions; and he constantly

prefers the liturgy, which an angel had dictated to the monasteries of Tebennoe.]

[Footnote 61: Cassian, from his own experience, describes the acedia, or listlessness of mind and body, to

which a monk was exposed, when he sighed to find himself alone. Saepiusque egreditur et ingreditur cellam,

et Solem velut ad occasum tardius properantem crebrius intuetur, (Institut. x. l.)]

[Footnote 62: The temptations and sufferings of Stagirius were communicated by that unfortunate youth to

his friend St. Chrysostom. See Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 107 110. Something similar introduces the life

of every saint; and the famous Inigo, or Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, (vide d'Inigo de Guiposcoa, tom.

[Footnote 63: Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, tom. vii. p. 46. I have read somewhere, in the Vitae Patrum, but I

cannot recover the place that several, I believe many, of the monks, who did not reveal their temptations to

[Footnote 64: See the seventh and eighth Collations of Cassian, who gravely examines, why the demons were

grown less active and numerous since the time of St. Antony. Rosweyde's copious index to the Vitae Patrum

will point out a variety of infernal scenes. The devils were most formidable in a female shape.]

The monks were divided into two classes: the Coenobites, who lived under a common and regular discipline;

and the Anachorets, who indulged their unsocial, independent fanaticism. ^65 The most devout, or the most

ambitious, of the spiritual brethren, renounced the convent, as they had renounced the world. The fervent

monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, were surrounded by a Laura, ^66 a distant circle of solitary cells;

and the extravagant penance of Hermits was stimulated by applause and emulation. ^67 They sunk under the

painful weight of crosses and chains; and their emaciated limbs were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets,

and greaves of massy and rigid iron. All superfluous encumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away;

and some savage saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their

long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is

scarcely distinguishable above his kindred animals; and the numerous sect of Anachorets derived their name

from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. ^68 They often

usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble; they buried themselves in some gloomy

cavern, which art or nature had scooped out of the rock; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed

with the monuments of their penance. ^69 The most perfect Hermits are supposed to have passed many days

without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without speaking; and glorious was the man ( I

abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or seat, of a peculiar construction, which might expose him, in the

[Footnote 65: For the distinction of the Coenobites and the Hermits, especially in Egypt, see Jerom, (tom. i. p.

45, ad Rusticum,) the first Dialogue of Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, (c. 22, in Vit. Patrum, l. ii. p. 478,)

Palladius, (c. 7, 69, in Vit. Patrum, l. viii. p. 712, 758,) and, above all, the eighteenth and nineteenth

Collations of Cassian. These writers, who compare the common and solitary life, reveal the abuse and danger

[Footnote 66: Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 205, 218. Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p.

1501, 1502) gives a good account of these cells. When Gerasimus founded his monastery in the wilderness of

[Footnote 67: Theodoret, in a large volume, (the Philotheus in Vit. Patrum, l. ix. p. 793 863,) has collected

the lives and miracles of thirty Anachorets. Evagrius (l. i. c. 12) more briefly celebrates the monks and

[Footnote 68: Sozomen, l. vi. c. 33. The great St. Ephrem composed a panegyric on these or grazing monks,

[Footnote 69: The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, tom. ii. p. 217 233) examined the caverns of the Lower

Thebais with wonder and devotion. The inscriptions are in the old Syriac character, which was used by the

Among these heroes of the monastic life, the name and genius of Simeon Stylites ^70 have been

immortalized by the singular invention of an aerial penance. At the age of thirteen, the young Syrian deserted

the profession of a shepherd, and threw himself into an austere monastery. After a long and painful novitiate,

in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his residence on a mountain, about

thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandra, or circle of stones, to which he had

attached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which was successively raised from the height

of nine, to that of sixty, feet from the ground. ^71 In this last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted

the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his

dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the different postures of devotion.

He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most

familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious

spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless

account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh ^72 might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life;

and the patient Hermit expired, without descending from his column. A prince, who should capriciously

inflict such tortures, would be deemed a tyrant; but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long

and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This voluntary martyrdom must have

gradually destroyed the sensibility both of the mind and body; nor can it be presumed that the fanatics, who

torment themselves, are susceptible of any lively affection for the rest of mankind. A cruel, unfeeling temper

has distinguiseed the monks of every age and country: their stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by

personal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the

holy office of the Inquisition. [Footnote 70: See Theodoret (in Vit. Patrum, l. ix. p. 848 854,) Antony, (in

Vit. Patrum, l. i. p. 170 177,) Cosmas, (in Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental tom. i. p. 239 253,) Evagrius, (l. i. c.

[Footnote 71: The narrow circumference of two cubits, or three feet, which Evagrius assigns for the summit

of the column is inconsistent with reason, with facts, and with the rules of architecture. The people who saw

[Footnote 72: I must not conceal a piece of ancient scandal concerning the origin of this ulcer. It has been

reported that the Devil, assuming an angelic form, invited him to ascend, like Elijah, into a fiery chariot. The

saint too hastily raised his foot, and Satan seized the moment of inflicting this chastisement on his vanity.]

The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a philosopher, were respected, and almost

adored, by the prince and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar

of Simeon: the tribes of Saracens disputed in arms the honor of his benediction; the queens of Arabia and

Persia gratefully confessed his supernatural virtue; and the angelic Hermit was consulted by the younger

Theodosius, in the most important concerns of the church and state. His remains were transported from the

mountain of Telenissa, by a solemn procession of the patriarch, the mastergeneral of the East, six bishops,

twentyone counts or tribunes, and six thousand soldiers; and Antioch revered his bones, as her glorious

ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these

recent and popular Anachorets; the Christian world fell prostrate before their shrines; and the miracles

ascribed to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the spiritual exploits of their lives. But the

golden legend of their lives ^73 was embellished by the artful credulity of their interested brethren; and a

believing age was easily persuaded, that the slightest caprice of an Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been

sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. The favorites of Heaven were accustomed to cure

inveterate diseases with a touch, a word, or a distant message; and to expel the most obstinate demons from

the souls or bodies which they possessed. They familiarly accosted, or imperiously commanded, the lions and

serpents of the desert; infused vegetation into a sapless trunk; suspended iron on the surface of the water;

passed the Nile on the back of a crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant

tales, which display the fiction without the genius, of poetry, have seriously affected the reason, the faith, and

the morals, of the Christians. Their credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the

evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science. Every

mode of religious worship which had been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they

believed, was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the

servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks. If it be possible to measure the interval between the

philosophic writings of Cicero and the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of Cato and that of

Simeon, we may appreciate the memorable revolution which was accomplished in the Roman empire within

[Footnote 73: I know not how to select or specify the miracles contained in the Vitae Patrum of Rosweyde, as

the number very much exceeds the thousand pages of that voluminous work. An elegant specimen may be

found in the dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, and his Life of St. Martin. He reveres the monks of Egypt; yet he

insults them with the remark, that they never raised the dead; whereas the bishop of Tours had restored three

II. The progress of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and

luxurious citizens of the Roman empire; and over the warlike Barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who

subverted the empire, and embraced the religion, of the Romans. The Goths were the foremost of these

savage proselytes; and the nation was indebted for its conversion to a countryman, or, at least, to a subject,

worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the remembrance and gratitude of

posterity. A great number of Roman provincials had been led away into captivity by the Gothic bands, who

ravaged Asia in the time of Gallienus; and of these captives, many were Christians, and several belonged to

the ecclesiastical order. Those involuntary missionaries, dispersed as slaves in the villages of Dacia,

successively labored for the salvation of their masters. The seeds which they planted, of the evangelic

doctrine, were gradually propagated; and before the end of a century, the pious work was achieved by the

labors of Ulphilas, whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube from a small town of

Ulphilas, the bishop and apostle of the Goths, ^74 acquired their love and reverence by his blameless life and

indefatigable zeal; and they received, with implicit confidence, the doctrines of truth and virtue which he

preached and practised. He executed the arduous task of translating the Scriptures into their native tongue, a

dialect of the German or Teutonic language; but he prudently suppressed the four books of Kings, as they

might tend to irritate the fierce and sanguinary spirit of the Barbarians. The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers

and shepherds, so ill qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and modulated by his

genius: and Ulphilas, before he could frame his version, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of

twentyfour letters; ^* four of which he invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the

Greek and Latin pronunciation. ^75 But the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon afflicted by war

and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by religion as well as by interest. Fritigern, the friend of

the Romans, became the proselyte of Ulphilas; while the haughty soul of Athanaric disdained the yoke of the

empire and of the gospel The faith of the new converts was tried by the persecution which he excited. A

wagon, bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor, perhaps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession

through the streets of the camp; and the rebels, who refused to worship the god of their fathers, were

immediately burnt, with their tents and families. The character of Ulphilas recommended him to the esteem

of the Eastern court, where he twice appeared as the minister of peace; he pleaded the cause of the distressed

Goths, who implored the protection of Valens; and the name of Moses was applied to this spiritual guide,

who conducted his people through the deep waters of the Danube to the Land of Promise. ^76 The devout

shepherds, who were attached to his person, and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in their settlement, at the

foot of the Maesian mountains, in a country of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks and

herds, and enabled them to purchase the corn and wine of the more plentiful provinces. These harmless

[Footnote 74: On the subject of Ulphilas, and the conversion of the Goths, see Sozomen, l. vi. c. 37. Socrates,

l. iv. c. 33. Theodoret, l. iv. c. 37. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 5. The heresy of Philostorgius appears to have given him

[Footnote *: This is the MoesoGothic alphabet of which many of the letters are evidently formed from the

Greek and Roman. M. St. Martin, however contends, that it is impossible but that some written alphabet must

have been known long before among the Goths. He supposes that their former letters were those inscribed on

the runes, which, being inseparably connected with the old idolatrous superstitions, were proscribed by the

Christian missionaries. Everywhere the runes, so common among all the German tribes, disappear after the

[Footnote 75: A mutilated copy of the four Gospels, in the Gothic version, was published A.D. 1665, and is

esteemed the most ancient monument of the Teutonic language, though Wetstein attempts, by some frivolous

conjectures, to deprive Ulphilas of the honor of the work. Two of the four additional letters express the W,

and our own Th. See Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, tom ii. p. 219 223. Mill. Prolegom p.

Note: The Codex Argenteus, found in the sixteenth century at Wenden, near Cologne, and now preserved at

Upsal, contains almost the entire four Gospels. The best edition is that of J. Christ. Zahn, Weissenfels, 1805.

In 1762 Knettel discovered and published from a Palimpsest MS. four chapters of the Epistle to the Romans:

they were reprinted at Upsal, 1763. M. Mai has since that time discovered further fragments, and other

remains of MoesoGothic literature, from a Palimpsest at Milan. See Ulphilae partium inedi arum in

[Footnote 76: Philostorgius erroneously places this passage under the reign of Constantine; but I am much

[Footnote 77: We are obliged to Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 51, p. 688) for a short and lively picture of these

lesser Goths. Gothi minores, populus immensus, cum suo Pontifice ipsoque primate Wulfila. The last words,

Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, universally adopted the religion of the Romans, with whom

they maintained a perpetual intercourse, of war, of friendship, or of conquest. In their long and victorious

march from the Danube to the Atlantic Ocean, they converted their allies; they educated the rising generation;

and the devotion which reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of Thoulouse, might edify or disgrace the

palaces of Rome and Constantinople. ^78 During the same period, Christianity was embraced by almost all

the Barbarians, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western empire; the Burgundians in Gaul,

the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries,

that raised Odoacer to the throne of Italy. The Franks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors of

Paganism; but the Franks obtained the monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis; and

the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome.

These Barbarian proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the propagation of the faith. The

Merovingian kings, and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws and victories,

the dominion of the cross. England produced the apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually

diffused from the neighborhood of the Rhine, to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic. ^79

[Footnote 78: At non ita Gothi non ita Vandali; malis licet doctoribus instituti meliores tamen etiam in hac

[Footnote 79: Mosheim has slightly sketched the progress of Christianity in the North, from the fourth to the

fourteenth century. The subject would afford materials for an ecclesiastical and even philosophical, history]

The different motives which influenced the reason, or the passions, of the Barbarian converts, cannot easily

be ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental; a dream, an omen, the report of a miracle, the

example of some priest, or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the fortunate event of a

prayer, or vow, which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. ^80 The early

prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the habits of frequent and familiar society, the moral

precepts of the gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of the monks; and a spiritual theology was

supported by the visible power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the rational and ingenious

mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop ^81 suggested to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed

by the missionaries, who labored for the conversion of infidels. "Admit," says the sagacious disputant,

"whatever they are pleased to assert of the fabulous, and carnal, genealogy of their gods and goddesses, who

are propagated from each other. From this principle deduce their imperfect nature, and human infirmities, the

assurance they were born, and the probability that they will die. At what time, by what means, from what

cause, were the eldest of the gods or goddesses produced? Do they still continue, or have they ceased, to

propagate? If they have ceased, summon your antagonists to declare the reason of this strange alteration. If

they still continue, the number of the gods must become infinite; and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet

worship of some impotent deity, to excite the resentment of his jealous superior? The visible heavens and

earth, the whole system of the universe, which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or eternal? If

created, how, or where, could the gods themselves exist before creation? If eternal, how could they assume

the empire of an independent and preexisting world? Urge these arguments with temper and moderation;

insinuate, at seasonable intervals, the truth and beauty of the Christian revelation; and endeavor to make the

unbelievers ashamed, without making them angry." This metaphysical reasoning, too refined, perhaps, for the

Barbarians of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of authority and popular consent. The advantage

of temporal prosperity had deserted the Pagan cause, and passed over to the service of Christianity. The

Romans themselves, the most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient

superstition; and, if the ruin of their empire seemed to accuse the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was

already retrieved by the conversion of the victorious Goths. The valiant and fortunate Barbarians, who

subdued the provinces of the West, successively received, and reflected, the same edifying example. Before

the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe might exult in the exclusive possession of the

temperate climates, of the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and oil; while the savage idolaters, and

their helpless idols, were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen regions of the North.

[Footnote 80: To such a cause has Socrates (l. vii. c. 30) ascribed the conversion of the Burgundians, whose

[Footnote 81: See an original and curious epistle from Daniel, the first bishop of Winchester, (Beda, Hist.

Eccles. Anglorum, l. v. c. 18, p. 203, edit Smith,) to St. Boniface, who preached the gospel among the

savages of Hesse and Thuringia. Epistol. Bonifacii, lxvii., in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xiii. p. 93]

[Footnote 82: The sword of Charlemagne added weight to the argument; but when Daniel wrote this epistle,

(A.D. 723,) the Mahometans, who reigned from India to Spain, might have retorted it against the Christians.]

Christianity, which opened the gates of Heaven to the Barbarians, introduced an important change in their

moral and political condition. They received, at the same time, the use of letters, so essential to a religion

whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book; and while they studied the divine truth, their minds were

insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the

Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite among their clergy

some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the church, and to examine, in the

writings of the fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek

and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable monuments of ancient learning. The immortal

productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian Barbarians, maintained a

silent intercourse between the reign of Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation of

mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state; and the flame of science was secretly

kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the Western world. In the most corrupt state of

Christianity, the Barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel; and if the

knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or to regulate their passions, they were

sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion

was less effectual than the holy communion, which united them with their Christian brethren in spiritual

friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance,

of the Romans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the

downfall of the empire, a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome. In the days of Paganism,

the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrates;

and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample, measure of devout obedience, to the pontiffs

of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their temporal possessions; they

obtained an honorable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen; and it was their interest, as

well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the Barbarians. The perpetual

correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing

authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian republic, and gradually produced the similar

manners, and common jurisprudence, which have distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent,

But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the unfortunate accident, which infused a

deadly poison into the cup of Salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ulphilas, his connections

with the empire and the church were formed during the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths

subscribed the creed of Rimini; professed with freedom, and perhaps with sincerity, that the Son was not

equal, or consubstantial to the Father; ^83 communicated these errors to the clergy and people; and infected

the Barbaric world with a heresy, ^84 which the great Theodosius proscribed and extinguished among the

Romans. The temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to metaphysical subtilties;

but they strenuously maintained, what they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of

Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the Scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted

the apostolic labors of Ulphilas and his successors; and they ordained a competent number of bishops and

presbyters for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the

Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin clergy, ^85 preferred the more intelligible lessons of

their domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the warlike converts, who were

seated on the ruins of the Western empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of

jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of Barbarian was imbittered by the more odious epithet of Heretic. The

heroes of the North, who had submitted, with some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors were in hell,

^86 were astonished and exasperated to learn, that they themselves had only changed the mode of their

eternal condemnation. Instead of the smooth applause, which Christian kings are accustomed to expect from

their royal prelates, the orthodox bishops and their clergy were in a state of opposition to the Arian courts;

and their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might sometimes be dangerous. ^87 The

pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and Holofernes; ^88 the

public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a glorious deliverance; and the seditious saints

were tempted to promote the accomplishment of their own predictions. Notwithstanding these provocations,

the Catholics of Gaul, Spain, and Italy, enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free and peaceful exercise

of their religion. Their haughty masters respected the zeal of a numerous people, resolved to die at the foot of

their altars; and the example of their devout constancy was admired and imitated by the Barbarians

themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or confession, of fear, by attributing

their toleration to the liberal motives of reason and humanity; and while they affected the language, they

[Footnote 83: The opinions of Ulphilas and the Goths inclined to semi Arianism, since they would not say

that the Son was a creature, though they held communion with those who maintained that heresy. Their

apostle represented the whole controversy as a question of trifling moment, which had been raised by the

[Footnote 84: The Arianism of the Goths has been imputed to the emperor Valens: "Itaque justo Dei judicio

ipsi eum vivum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui, vitio erroris arsuri sunt." Orosius, l. vii. c. 33, p.

554. This cruel sentence is confirmed by Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 604 610,) who coolly

observes, "un seul homme entraina dans l'enfer un nombre infini de Septentrionaux, Salvian (de Gubern. Dei,

[Footnote 85: Orosius affirms, in the year 416, (l. vii. c. 41, p. 580,) that the Churches of Christ (of the

[Footnote 86: Radbod, king of the Frisons, was so much scandalized by this rash declaration of a missionary,

that he drew back his foot after he had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix p. 167.]

[Footnote 87: The epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the Visigotha, and of Avitus, bishop of

Vienna, under the Burgundians, explain sometimes in dark hints, the general dispositions of the Catholics.

[Footnote 88: Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with which he punished such indiscreet

The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were indiscreet, the Barbarians were

impatient; and the partial acts of severity or injustice, which had been recommended by the Arian clergy,

were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the

Visigoths; who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of episcopal functions; and punished the

popular bishops of Aquitain with imprisonment, exile, and confiscation. ^89 But the cruel and absurd

enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people was undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself,

in his early youth, had renounced the orthodox communion; and the apostate could neither grant, nor expect,

a sincere forgiveness. He was exasperated to find that the Africans, who had fled before him in the field, still

presumed to dispute his will in synods and churches; and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of

compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant laws and arbitrary punishments. The

language of Genseric was furious and formidable; the knowledge of his intentions might justify the most

unfavorable interpretation of his actions; and the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which

stained the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of

the monarch of the sea. But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only his vices, tormented the

Catholics with the same unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends and

favorites of his father; and even to the Arian patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of

Carthage. The religious war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce; persecution was made the

serious and important business of the Vandal court; and the loathsome disease which hastened the death of

Hunneric, revenged the injuries, without contributing to the deliverance, of the church. The throne of Africa

was successively filled by the two nephews of Hunneric; by Gundamund, who reigned about twelve, and by

Thrasimund, who governed the nation about twentyseven, years. Their administration was hostile and

oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate, or even to surpass, the cruelty of his

uncle; and, if at length he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom of Athanasian

worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the

greatest and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, prudence, and

magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful

clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the gentle, but efficacious, powers of seduction.

Wealth, dignity, and the royal favor, were the liberal rewards of apostasy; the Catholics, who had violated the

laws, might purchase their pardon by the renunciation of their faith; and whenever Thrasimund meditated any

rigorous measure, he patiently waited till the indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious

opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death; and he exacted from his successor a solemn

oath, that he would never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor, Hilderic, the gentle son of

the savage Hunneric, preferred the duties of humanity and justice to the vain obligation of an impious oath;

and his accession was gloriously marked by the restoration of peace and universal freedom. The throne of

that virtuous, though feeble monarch, was usurped by his cousin Gelimer, a zealous Arian: but the Vandal

kingdom, before he could enjoy or abuse his power, was subverted by the arms of Belisarius; and the

[Footnote 89: Such are the contemporary complaints of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont (l. vii. c. 6, p. 182, edit.

Sirmond.) Gregory of Tours who quotes this Epistle, (l. ii. c. 25, in tom. ii. p. 174,) extorts an unwarrantable

assertion, that of the nine vacancies in Aquitain, some had been produced by episcopal martyrdoms]

[Footnote 90: The original monuments of the Vandal persecution are preserved in the five books of the

history of Victor Vitensis, (de Persecutione Vandalica,) a bishop who was exiled by Hunneric; in the life of

St. Fulgentius, who was distinguished in the persecution of Thrasimund (in Biblioth. Max. Patrum, tom. ix. p.

4 16;) and in the first book of the Vandalic War, by the impartial Procopius, (c. 7, 8, p. 196, 197, 198, 199.)

Dom Ruinart, the last editor of Victor, has illustrated the whole subject with a copious and learned apparatus

The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole historians of this persecution, cannot afford any

distinct series of causes and events; any impartial view of the characters, or counsels; but the most

remarkable circumstances that deserve either credit or notice, may be referred to the following heads; I. In the

original law, which is still extant, ^91 Hunneric expressly declares, (and the declaration appears to be

correct,) that he had faithfully transcribed the regulations and penalties of the Imperial edicts, against the

heretical congregations, the clergy, and the people, who dissented from the established religion. If the rights

of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must have condemned their past conduct or acquiesced in

their actual suffering. But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence which they claimed. While they

trembled under the lash of persecution, they praised the laudable severity of Hunneric himself, who burnt or

banished great numbers of Manichaeans; ^92 and they rejected, with horror, the ignominious compromise,

that the disciples of Arius and of Athanasius should enjoy a reciprocal and similar toleration in the territories

of the Romans, and in those of the Vandals. ^93 II. The practice of a conference, which the Catholics had so

frequently used to insult and punish their obstinate antagonists, was retorted against themselves. ^94 At the

command of Hunneric, four hundred and sixtysix orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage; but when they

were admitted into the hall of audience, they had the mortification of beholding the Arian Cyrila exalted on

the patriarchal throne. The disputants were separated, after the mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and

silence, of delay and precipitation, of military force and of popular clamor. One martyr and one confessor

were selected among the Catholic bishops; twenty eight escaped by flight, and eightyeight by conformity;

fortysix were sent into Corsica to cut timber for the royal navy; and three hundred and two were banished to

the different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their enemies, and carefully deprived of all the temporal

and spiritual comforts of life. ^95 The hardships of ten years' exile must have reduced their numbers; and if

they had complied with the law of Thrasimund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the orthodox

church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its actual members. They disobeyed, and their

disobedience was punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into Sardinia; where they

languished fifteen years, till the accession of the gracious Hilderic. ^96 The two islands were judiciously

chosen by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca, from his own experience, has deplored and exaggerated

the miserable state of Corsica, ^97 and the plenty of Sardinia was overbalanced by the unwholesome quality

of the air. ^98 III. The zeal of Generic and his successors, for the conversion of the Catholics, must have

rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the Vandal faith. Before the churches were finally

shut, it was a crime to appear in a Barbarian dress; and those who presumed to neglect the royal mandate

were rudely dragged backwards by their long hair. ^99 The palatine officers, who refused to profess the

religion of their prince, were ignominiously stripped of their honors and employments; banished to Sardinia

and Sicily; or condemned to the servile labors of slaves and peasants in the fields of Utica. In the districts

which had been peculiarly allotted to the Vandals, the exercise of the Catholic worship was more strictly

prohibited; and severe penalties were denounced against the guilt both of the missionary and the proselyte.

By these arts, the faith of the Barbarians was preserved, and their zeal was inflamed: they discharged, with

devout fury, the office of spies, informers, or executioners; and whenever their cavalry took the field, it was

the favorite amusement of the march to defile the churches, and to insult the clergy of the adverse faction.

^100 IV. The citizens who had been educated in the luxury of the Roman province, were delivered, with

exquisite cruelty, to the Moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, with a

faithful crowd of four thousand and ninety six persons, whose guilt is not precisely ascertained, were torn

from their native homes, by the command of Hunneric. During the night they were confined, like a herd of

cattle, amidst their own ordure: during the day they pursued their march over the burning sands; and if they

fainted under the heat and fatigue, they were goaded, or dragged along, till they expired in the hands of their

tormentors. ^101 These unhappy exiles, when they reached the Moorish huts, might excite the compassion of

a people, whose native humanity was neither improved by reason, nor corrupted by fanaticism: but if they

escaped the dangers, they were condemned to share the distress of a savage life. V. It is incumbent on the

authors of persecution previously to reflect, whether they are determined to support it in the last extreme.

They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish; and it soon becomes necessary to chastise the

contumacy, as well as the crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is unable or unwilling to discharge,

exposes his person to the severity of the law; and his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and

propriety of capital punishment. Through the veil of fiction and declamation we may clearly perceive, that the

Catholics more especially under the reign of Hunneric, endured the most cruel and ignominious treatment.

^102 Respectable citizens, noble matrons, and consecrated virgins, were stripped naked, and raised in the air

by pulleys, with a weight suspended at their feet. In this painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with

scourges, or burnt in the most tender parts with redhot plates of iron. The amputation of the ears the nose,

the tongue, and the right hand, was inflicted by the Arians; and although the precise number cannot be

defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a bishop ^103 and a proconsul ^104 may be named,

were entitled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honor has been ascribed to the memory of Count

Sebastian, who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken constancy; and Genseric might detest, as a heretic,

the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. ^105 VI. A new mode of conversion, which

might subdue the feeble, and alarm the timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by

fraud or violence, the rites of baptism; and punished the apostasy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this

odious and profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the will, and the unity of the

sacrament. ^106 The hostile sects had formerly allowed the validity of each other's baptism; and the

innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed only to the example and advice of the

Donatists. VII. The Arian clergy surpassed in religious cruelty the king and his Vandals; but they were

incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard, which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch ^107

might seat himself on the throne of Carthage; some bishops, in the principal cities, might usurp the place of

their rivals; but the smallness of their numbers, and their ignorance of the Latin language, ^108 disqualified

the Barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry of a great church; and the Africans, after the loss of their

orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of Christianity. VIII. The emperors were the natural

protectors of the Homoousian doctrine; and the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and as Catholics,

preferred their lawful sovereignty to the usurpation of the Barbarous heretics. During an interval of peace and

friendship, Hunneric restored the cathedral of Carthage; at the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the East,

and of Placidia, the daughter and relict of emperors, and the sister of the queen of the Vandals. ^109 But this

decent regard was of short duration; and the haughty tyrant displayed his contempt for the religion of the

empire, by studiously arranging the bloody images of persecution, in all the principal streets through which

the Roman ambassador must pass in his way to the palace. ^110 An oath was required from the bishops, who

were assembled at Carthage, that they would support the succession of his son Hilderic, and that they would

renounce all foreign or transmarine correspondence. This engagement, consistent, as it should seem, with

their moral and religious duties, was refused by the more sagacious members ^111 of the assembly. Their

refusal, faintly colored by the pretence that it is unlawful for a Christian to swear, must provoke the

[Footnote 91: Victor, iv. 2, p. 65. Hunneric refuses the name of Catholics to the Homoousians. He describes,

as the veri Divinae Majestatis cultores, his own party, who professed the faith, confirmed by more than a

[Footnote 92: Victor, ii, 1, p. 21, 22: Laudabilior ... videbatur. In the Mss which omit this word, the passage is

[Footnote 93: Victor, ii. p. 22, 23. The clergy of Carthage called these conditions periculosoe; and they seem,

[Footnote 94: See the narrative of this conference, and the treatment of the bishops, in Victor, ii. 13 18, p.

35 42 and the whole fourth book p. 63 171. The third book, p. 42 62, is entirely filled by their apology

[Footnote 95: See the list of the African bishops, in Victor, p. 117 140, and Ruinart's notes, p. 215 397.

The schismatic name of Donatus frequently occurs, and they appear to have adopted (like our fanatics of the

last age) the pious appellations of Deodatus, Deogratias, Quidvultdeus, Habetdeum,

[Footnote 96: Fulgent. Vit. c. 16 29. Thrasimund affected the praise of moderation and learning; and

Fulgentius addressed three books of controversy to the Arian tyrant, whom he styles piissime Rex. Biblioth.

Maxim. Patrum, tom. ix. p. 41. Only sixty bishops are mentioned as exiles in the life of Fulgentius; they are

increased to one hundred and twenty by Victor Tunnunensis and Isidore; but the number of two hundred and

twenty is specified in the Historia Miscella, and a short authentic chronicle of the times. See Ruinart, p. 570,

[Footnote 97: See the base and insipid epigrams of the Stoic, who could not support exile with more fortitude

than Ovid. Corsica might not produce corn, wine, or oil; but it could not be destitute of grass, water, and even

[Footnote 98: Si ob gravitatem coeli interissent vile damnum. Tacit. Annal. ii. 85. In this application,

[Footnote 99: See these preludes of a general persecution, in Victor, ii. 3, 4, 7 and the two edicts of Hunneric,

[Footnote 100: See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 197, 198. A Moorish prince endeavored to

propitiate the God of the Christians, by his diligence to erase the marks of the Vandal sacrilege.]

[Footnote 101: See this story in Victor. ii. 8 12, p. 30 34. Victor describes the distress of these confessors

[Footnote 102: See the fifth book of Victor. His passionate complaints are confirmed by the sober testimony

of Procopius, and the public declaration of the emperor Justinian. Cod. l. i. tit. xxvii.]

[Footnote 104: Victor, v. 4, p. 74, 75. His name was Victorianus, and he was a wealthy citizen of

Adrumetum, who enjoyed the confidence of the king; by whose favor he had obtained the office, or at least

[Footnote 105: Victor, i. 6, p. 8, 9. After relating the firm resistance and dexterous reply of Count Sebastian,

[Footnote 107: Primate was more properly the title of the bishop of Carthage; but the name of patriarch was

given by the sects and nations to their principal ecclesiastic. See Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p.

[Footnote 108: The patriarch Cyrila himself publicly declared, that he did not understand Latin (Victor, ii. 18,

p. 42:) Nescio Latine; and he might converse with tolerable ease, without being capable of disputing or

preaching in that language. His Vandal clergy were still more ignorant; and small confidence could be placed

[Footnote 110: Victor, v. 7, p. 77. He appeals to the ambassador himself, whose name was Uranius.]

[Footnote 111: Astutiores, Victor, iv. 4, p. 70. He plainly intimates that their quotation of the gospel "Non

jurabitis in toto," was only meant to elude the obligation of an inconvenient oath. The fortysix bishops who

refused were banished to Corsica; the three hundred and two who swore were distributed through the

The Catholics, oppressed by royal and military force, were far superior to their adversaries in numbers and

learning. With the same weapons which the Greek ^112 and Latin fathers had already provided for the Arian

controversy, they repeatedly silenced, or vanquished, the fierce and illiterate successors of Ulphilas. The

consciousness of their own superiority might have raised them above the arts and passions of religious

warfare. Yet, instead of assuming such honorable pride, the orthodox theologians were tempted, by the

assurance of impunity, to compose fictions, which must be stigmatized with the epithets of fraud and forgery.

They ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of Christian antiquity; the characters

of Athanasius and Augustin were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and his disciples; ^113 and the famous

creed, which so clearly expounds the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, is deduced, with strong

probability, from this African school. ^114 Even the Scriptures themselves were profaned by their rash and

sacrilegious hands. The memorable text, which asserts the unity of the three who bear witness in heaven,

^115 is condemned by the universal silence of the orthodox fathers, ancient versions, and authentic

manuscripts. ^116 It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom Hunneric summoned to the conference

of Carthage. ^117 An allegorical interpretation, in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, invaded the text of

the Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in a dark period of ten centuries. ^118 After the

invention of printing, ^119 the editors of the Greek Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or those of the

times; ^120 and the pious fraud, which was embraced with equal zeal at Rome and at Geneva, has been

[Footnote 112: Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspae, in the Byzacene province, was of a senatorial family, and had

received a liberal education. He could repeat all Homer and Menander before he was allowed to study Latin

his native tongue, (Vit. Fulgent. c. l.) Many African bishops might understand Greek, and many Greek

[Footnote 113: Compare the two prefaces to the Dialogue of Vigilius of Thapsus, (p. 118, 119, edit. Chiflet.)

He might amuse his learned reader with an innocent fiction; but the subject was too grave, and the Africans

[Footnote 114: The P. Quesnel started this opinion, which has been favorably received. But the three

following truths, however surprising they may seem, are now universally acknowledged, (Gerard Vossius,

tom. vi. p. 516 522. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 667 671.) 1. St. Athanasius is not the author of

the creed which is so frequently read in our churches. 2. It does not appear to have existed within a century

after his death. 3. It was originally composed in the Latin tongue, and, consequently in the Western

provinces. Gennadius patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by this extraordinary composition,

that he frankly pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man. Petav. Dogmat. Theologica, tom. ii. l. vii. c. 8,

[Footnote 115: 1 John, v. 7. See Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, part i. c. xviii. p. 203 218;

and part ii. c. ix. p. 99 121; and the elaborate Prolegomena and Annotations of Dr. Mill and Wetstein to

their editions of the Greek Testament. In 1689, the papist Simon strove to be free; in 1707, the Protestant Mill

wished to be a slave; in 1751, the Armenian Wetstein used the liberty of his times, and of his sect.

Note: This controversy has continued to be agitated, but with declining interest even in the more religious

part of the community; and may now be considered to have terminated in an almost general acquiescence of

the learned to the conclusions of Porson in his Letters to Travis. See the pamphlets of the late Bishop of

[Footnote 116: Of all the Mss. now extant, above fourscore in number, some of which are more than 1200

years old, (Wetstein ad loc.) The orthodox copies of the Vatican, of the Complutensian editors, of Robert

Stephens, are become invisible; and the two Mss. of Dublin and Berlin are unworthy to form an exception.

See Emlyn's Works, vol. ii. p 227 255, 269 299; and M. de Missy's four ingenious letters, in tom. viii. and

[Footnote 117: Or, more properly, by the four bishops who composed and published the profession of faith in

the name of their brethren. They styled this text, luce clarius, (Victor Vitensis de Persecut. Vandal. l. iii. c.

11, p. 54.) It is quoted soon afterwards by the African polemics, Vigilius and Fulgentius.]

[Footnote 118: In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Bibles were corrected by Lanfranc, archbishop of

Canterbury, and by Nicholas, cardinal and librarian of the Roman church, secundum orthodoxam fidem,

(Wetstein, Prolegom. p. 84, 85.) Notwithstanding these corrections, the passage is still wanting in

twentyfive Latin Mss., (Wetstein ad loc.,) the oldest and the fairest; two qualities seldom united, except in

[Footnote 119: The art which the Germans had invented was applied in Italy to the profane writers of Rome

and Greece. The original Greek of the New Testament was published about the same time (A.D. 1514, 1516,

1520,) by the industry of Erasmus, and the munificence of Cardinal Ximenes. The Complutensian Polyglot

cost the cardinal 50,000 ducats. See Mattaire, Annal. Typograph. tom. ii. p. 2 8, 125 133; and Wetstein,

[Footnote 120: The three witnesses have been established in our Greek Testaments by the prudence of

Erasmus; the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors; the typographical fraud, or error, of Robert

Stephens, in the placing a crotchet; and the deliberate falsehood, or strange misapprehension, of Theodore

The example of fraud must excite suspicion: and the specious miracles by which the African Catholics have

defended the truth and justice of their cause, may be ascribed, with more reason, to their own industry, than to

the visible protection of Heaven. Yet the historian, who views this religious conflict with an impartial eye,

may condescend to mention one preternatural event, which will edify the devout, and surprise the

incredulous. Tipasa, ^121 a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to the east of Caesarea, had been

distinguished, in every age, by the orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the Donatists;

^122 they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians. The town was deserted on the approach of an

heretical bishop: most of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of Spain; and the

unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper, still presumed to hold their pious, but illegal,

assemblies. Their disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was despatched from

Carthage to Tipasa: he collected the Catholics in the Forum, and, in the presence of the whole province,

deprived the guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors continued to speak without

tongues; and this miracle is attested by Victor, an African bishop, who published a history of the persecution

within two years after the event. ^123 "If any one," says Victor, "should doubt of the truth, let him repair to

Constantinople, and listen to the clear and perfect language of Restitutus, the subdeacon, one of these

glorious sufferers, who is now lodged in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and is respected by the devout

empress." At Constantinople we are astonished to find a cool, a learned, and unexceptionable witness,

without interest, and without passion. Aeneas of Gaza, a Platonic philosopher, has accurately described his

own observations on these African sufferers. "I saw them myself: I heard them speak: I diligently inquired by

what means such an articulate voice could be formed without any organ of speech: I used my eyes to examine

the report of my ears; I opened their mouth, and saw that the whole tongue had been completely torn away by

the roots; an operation which the physicians generally suppose to be mortal." ^124 The testimony of Aeneas

of Gaza might be confirmed by the superfluous evidence of the emperor Justinian, in a perpetual edict; of

Count Marcellinus, in his Chronicle of the times; and of Pope Gregory the First, who had resided at

Constantinople, as the minister of the Roman pontiff. ^125 They all lived within the compass of a century;

and they all appeal to their personal knowledge, or the public notoriety, for the truth of a miracle, which was

repeated in several instances, displayed on the greatest theatre of the world, and submitted, during a series of

years, to the calm examination of the senses. This supernatural gift of the African confessors, who spoke

without tongues, will command the assent of those, and of those only, who already believe, that their

language was pure and orthodox. But the stubborn mind of an infidel, is guarded by secret, incurable

suspicion; and the Arian, or Socinian, who has seriously rejected the doctrine of a Trinity, will not be shaken

by the most plausible evidence of an Athanasian miracle. [Footnote 121: Plin. Hist. Natural. v. 1. Itinerar.

Wesseling, p. 15. Cellanius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. part ii. p. 127. This Tipasa (which must not be

confounded with another in Numidia) was a town of some note since Vespasian endowed it with the right of

[Footnote 124: Aeneas Gazaeus in Theophrasto, in Biblioth. Patrum, tom. viii. p. 664, 665. He was a

Christian, and composed this Dialogue (the Theophrastus) on the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection

of the body; besides twentyfive Epistles, still extant. See Cave, (Hist. Litteraria, p. 297,) and Fabricius,

[Footnote 125: Justinian. Codex. l. i. tit. xxvii. Marcellin. in Chron. p. 45, in Thesaur. Temporum Scaliger.

Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7. p. 196. Gregor. Magnus, Dialog. iii. 32. None of these witnesses have

specified the number of the confessors, which is fixed at sixty in an old menology, (apud Ruinart. p. 486.)

Two of them lost their speech by fornication; but the miracle is enhanced by the singular instance of a boy

The Vandals and the Ostrogoths persevered in the profession of Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms

which they had founded in Africa and Italy. The Barbarians of Gaul submitted to the orthodox dominion of

the Franks; and Spain was restored to the Catholic church by the voluntary conversion of the Visigoths.

This salutary revolution ^126 was hastened by the example of a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may

style an ungrateful rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved the respect of his enemies, and

the love of his subjects; the Catholics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods attempted, without

much success, to reconcile their scruples by abolishing the unpopular rite of a second baptism. His eldest son

Hermenegild, who was invested by his father with the royal diadem, and the fair principality of Boetica,

contracted an honorable and orthodox alliance with a Merovingian princess, the daughter of Sigebert, king of

Austrasia, and of the famous Brunechild. The beauteous Ingundis, who was no more than thirteen years of

age, was received, beloved, and persecuted, in the Arian court of Toledo; and her religious constancy was

alternately assaulted with blandishments and violence by Goisvintha, the Gothic queen, who abused the

double claim of maternal authority. ^127 Incensed by her resistance, Goisvintha seized the Catholic princess

by her long hair, inhumanly dashed her against the ground, kicked her till she was covered with blood, and at

last gave orders that she should be stripped, and thrown into a basin, or fishpond. ^128 Love and honor

might excite Hermenegild to resent this injurious treatment of his bride; and he was gradually persuaded that

Ingundis suffered for the cause of divine truth. Her tender complaints, and the weighty arguments of Le

ander, archbishop of Seville, accomplished his conversion and the heir of the Gothic monarchy was initiated

in the Nicene faith by the solemn rites of confirmation. ^129 The rash youth, inflamed by zeal, and perhaps

by ambition, was tempted to violate the duties of a son and a subject; and the Catholics of Spain, although

they could not complain of persecution, applauded his pious rebellion against an heretical father. The civil

war was protracted by the long and obstinate sieges of Merida, Cordova, and Seville, which had strenuously

espoused the party of Hermenegild He invited the orthodox Barbarians, the Seuvi, and the Franks, to the

destruction of his native land; he solicited the dangerous aid of the Romans, who possessed Africa, and a part

of the Spanish coast; and his holy ambassador, the archbishop Leander, effectually negotiated in person with

the Byzantine court. But the hopes of the Catholics were crushed by the active diligence of the monarch who

commanded the troops and treasures of Spain; and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain attempts to resist or

to escape, was compelled to surrender himself into the hands of an incensed father. Leovigild was still

mindful of that sacred character; and the rebel, despoiled of the regal ornaments, was still permitted, in a

decent exile, to profess the Catholic religion. His repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length provoked the

indignation of the Gothic king; and the sentence of death, which he pronounced with apparent reluctance, was

privately executed in the tower of Seville. The inflexible constancy with which he refused to accept the Arian

communion, as the price of his safety, may excuse the honors that have been paid to the memory of St.

Hermenegild. His wife and infant son were detained by the Romans in ignominious captivity; and this

domestic misfortune tarnished the glories of Leovigild, and imbittered the last moments of his life.

[Footnote 126: See the two general historians of Spain, Mariana (Hist. de Rebus Hispaniae, tom. i. l. v. c. 12

15, p. 182 194) and Ferreras, (French translation, tom. ii. p. 206 247.) Mariana almost forgets that he is

a Jesuit, to assume the style and spirit of a Roman classic. Ferreras, an industrious compiler, reviews his facts,

[Footnote 127: Goisvintha successively married two kings of the Visigoths: Athanigild, to whom she bore

Brunechild, the mother of Ingundis; and Leovigild, whose two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, were the

[Footnote 128: Iracundiae furore succensa, adprehensam per comam capitis puellam in terram conlidit, et diu

calcibus verberatam, ac sanguins cruentatam, jussit exspoliari, et piscinae immergi. Greg. Turon. l. v. c. 39. in

tom. ii. p. 255. Gregory is one of our best originals for this portion of history.]

[Footnote 129: The Catholics who admitted the baptism of heretics repeated the rite, or, as it was afterwards

styled, the sacrament, of confirmation, to which they ascribed many mystic and marvellous prerogatives both

His son and successor, Recared, the first Catholic king of Spain, had imbibed the faith of his unfortunate

brother, which he supported with more prudence and success. Instead of revolting against his father, Recared

patiently expected the hour of his death. Instead of condemning his memory, he piously supposed, that the

dying monarch had abjured the errors of Arianism, and recommended to his son the conversion of the Gothic

nation. To accomplish that salutary end, Recared convened an assembly of the Arian clergy and nobles,

declared himself a Catholic, and exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince. The laborious

interpretation of doubtful texts, or the curious pursuit of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an

endless controversy; and the monarch discreetly proposed to his illiterate audience two substantial and visible

arguments, the testimony of Earth, and of Heaven. The Earth had submitted to the Nicene synod: the

Romans, the Barbarians, and the inhabitants of Spain, unanimously professed the same orthodox creed; and

the Visigoths resisted, almost alone, the consent of the Christian world. A superstitious age was prepared to

reverence, as the testimony of Heaven, the preternatural cures, which were performed by the skill or virtue of

the Catholic clergy; the baptismal fonts of Osset in Boetica, ^130 which were spontaneously replenished

every year, on the vigil of Easter; ^131 and the miraculous shrine of St. Martin of Tours, which had already

converted the Suevic prince and people of Gallicia. ^132 The Catholic king encountered some difficulties on

this important change of the national religion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the queendowager, was

formed against his life; and two counts excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonnese Gaul. But Recared

disarmed the conspirators, defeated the rebels, and executed severe justice; which the Arians, in their turn,

might brand with the reproach of persecution. Eight bishops, whose names betray their Barbaric origin,

abjured their errors; and all the books of Arian theology were reduced to ashes, with the house in which they

had been purposely collected. The whole body of the Visigoths and Suevi were allured or driven into the pale

of the Catholic communion; the faith, at least of the rising generation, was fervent and sincere: and the devout

liberality of the Barbarians enriched the churches and monasteries of Spain. Seventy bishops, assembled in

the council of Toledo, received the submission of their conquerors; and the zeal of the Spaniards improved

the Nicene creed, by declaring the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father; a

weighty point of doctrine, which produced, long afterwards, the schism of the Greek and Latin churches.

^133 The royal proselyte immediately saluted and consulted Pope Gregory, surnamed the Great, a learned

and holy prelate, whose reign was distinguished by the conversion of heretics and infidels. The ambassadors

of Recared respectfully offered on the threshold of the Vatican his rich presents of gold and gems; they

accepted, as a lucrative exchange, the hairs of St. John the Baptist; a cross, which enclosed a small piece of

the true wood; and a key, that contained some particles of iron which had been scraped from the chains of St.

[Footnote 130: Osset, or Julia Constantia, was opposite to Seville, on the northern side of the Boetis, (Plin.

Hist. Natur. iii. 3:) and the authentic reference of Gregory of Tours (Hist. Francor. l. vi. c. 43, p. 288)

deserves more credit than the name of Lusitania, (de Gloria Martyr. c. 24,) which has been eagerly embraced

by the vain and superstitious Portuguese, (Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 166.)]

[Footnote 131: This miracle was skilfully performed. An Arian king sealed the doors, and dug a deep trench

round the church, without being able to intercept the Easter supply of baptismal water.]

[Footnote 132: Ferreras (tom. ii. p. 168 175, A.D. 550) has illustrated the difficulties which regard the time

and circumstances of the conversion of the Suevi. They had been recently united by Leovigild to the Gothic

[Footnote 133: This addition to the Nicene, or rather the Constantinopolitan creed, was first made in the

eighth council of Toledo, A.D. 653; but it was expressive of the popular doctrine, (Gerard Vossius, tom. vi. p.

[Footnote 134: See Gregor. Magn. l. vii. epist. 126, apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 559, No. 25, 26.]

The same Gregory, the spiritual conqueror of Britain, encouraged the pious Theodelinda, queen of the

Lombards, to propagate the Nicene faith among the victorious savages, whose recent Christianity was

polluted by the Arian heresy. Her devout labors still left room for the industry and success of future

missionaries; and many cities of Italy were still disputed by hostile bishops. But the cause of Arianism was

gradually suppressed by the weight of truth, of interest, and of example; and the controversy, which Egypt

had derived from the Platonic school, was terminated, after a war of three hundred years, by the final

conversion of the Lombards of Italy. ^135 [Footnote 135: Paul Warnefrid (de Gestis Langobard. l. iv. c. 44,

p. 153, edit Grot.) allows that Arianism still prevailed under the reign of Rotharis, (A.D. 636 652.) The

pious deacon does not attempt to mark the precise era of the national conversion, which was accomplished,

The first missionaries who preached the gospel to the Barbarians, appealed to the evidence of reason, and

claimed the benefit of toleration. ^136 But no sooner had they established their spiritual dominion, than they

exhorted the Christian kings to extirpate, without mercy, the remains of Roman or Barbaric superstition. The

successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred lashes on the peasants who refused to destroy their idols; the crime

of sacrificing to the demons was punished by the AngloSaxon laws with the heavier penalties of

imprisonment and confiscation; and even the wise Alfred adopted, as an indispensable duty, the extreme rigor

of the Mosaic institutions. ^137 But the punishment and the crime were gradually abolished among a

Christian people; the theological disputes of the schools were suspended by propitious ignorance; and the

intolerant spirit which could find neither idolaters nor heretics, was reduced to the persecution of the Jews.

That exiled nation had founded some synagogues in the cities of Gaul; but Spain, since the time of Hadrian,

was filled with their numerous colonies. ^138 The wealth which they accumulated by trade, and the

management of the finances, invited the pious avarice of their masters; and they might be oppressed without

danger, as they had lost the use, and even the remembrance, of arms. Sisebut, a Gothic king, who reigned in

the beginning of the seventh century, proceeded at once to the last extremes of persecution. ^139 Ninety

thousand Jews were compelled to receive the sacrament of baptism; the fortunes of the obstinate infidels were

confiscated, their bodies were tortured; and it seems doubtful whether they were permitted to abandon their

native country. The excessive zeal of the Catholic king was moderated, even by the clergy of Spain, who

solemnly pronounced an inconsistent sentence: that the sacraments should not be forcibly imposed; but that

the Jews who had been baptized should be constrained, for the honor of the church, to persevere in the

external practice of a religion which they disbelieved and detested. Their frequent relapses provoked one of

the successors of Sisebut to banish the whole nation from his dominions; and a council of Toledo published a

decree, that every Gothic king should swear to maintain this salutary edict. But the tyrants were unwilling to

dismiss the victims, whom they delighted to torture, or to deprive themselves of the industrious slaves, over

whom they might exercise a lucrative oppression. The Jews still continued in Spain, under the weight of the

civil and ecclesiastical laws, which in the same country have been faithfully transcribed in the Code of the

Inquisition. The Gothic kings and bishops at length discovered, that injuries will produce hatred, and that

hatred will find the opportunity of revenge. A nation, the secret or professed enemies of Christianity, still

multiplied in servitude and distress; and the intrigues of the Jews promoted the rapid success of the Arabian

[Footnote 136: Quorum fidei et conversioni ita congratulatus esse rex perhibetur, ut nullum tamen cogeret ad

Christianismum. ... Didiceret enim a doctoribus auctoribusque suae salutis, servitium Christi voluntarium non

coactitium esse debere. Bedae Hist. Ecclesiastic. l. i. c. 26, p. 62, edit. Smith.]

[Footnote 137: See the Historians of France, tom. iv. p. 114; and Wilkins, Leges AngloSaxonicae, p. 11, 31.

[Footnote 138: The Jews pretend that they were introduced into Spain by the fleets of Solomon, and the arms

of Nebuchadnezzar; that Hadrian transported forty thousand families of the tribe of Judah, and ten thousand

of the tribe of Benjamin, Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. c. 9, p. 240 256.]

[Footnote 139: Isidore, at that time archbishop of Seville, mentions, disapproves and congratulates, the zeal

of Sisebut (Chron. Goth. p. 728.) Barosins (A.D. 614, No. 41) assigns the number of the evidence of Almoin,

(l. iv. c. 22;) but the evidence is weak, and I have not been able to verify the quotation, (Historians of France,

[Footnote 140: Basnage (tom. viii. c. 13, p. 388 400) faithfully represents the state of the Jews; but he

might have added from the canons of the Spanish councils, and the laws of the Visigoths, many curious

As soon as the Barbarians withdrew their powerful support, the unpopular heresy of Arius sunk into contempt

and oblivion. But the Greeks still retained their subtle and loquacious disposition: the establishment of an

obscure doctrine suggested new questions, and new disputes; and it was always in the power of an ambitious

prelate, or a fanatic monk, to violate the peace of the church, and, perhaps, of the empire. The historian of the

empire may overlook those disputes which were confined to the obscurity of schools and synods. The

Manichaeans, who labored to reconcile the religions of Christ and of Zoroaster, had secretly introduced

themselves into the provinces: but these foreign sectaries were involved in the common disgrace of the

Gnostics, and the Imperial laws were executed by the public hatred. The rational opinions of the Pelagians

were propagated from Britain to Rome, Africa, and Palestine, and silently expired in a superstitious age. But

the East was distracted by the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies; which attempted to explain the mystery

of the incarnation, and hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native land. These controversies were first

agitated under the reign of the younger Theodosius: but their important consequences extend far beyond the

limits of the present volume. The metaphysical chain of argument, the contests of ecclesiastical ambition, and

their political influence on the decline of the Byzantine empire, may afford an interesting and instructive

series of history, from the general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, to the conquest of the East by the

Reign And Conversion Of Clovis. His Victories Over The Alemanni, Burgundians, And Visigoths.

Establishment Of The French Monarchy In Gaul. Laws Of The Barbarians. State Of The Romans. The

The Gauls, ^1 who impatiently supported the Roman yoke, received a memorable lesson from one of the

lieutenants of Vespasian, whose weighty sense has been refined and expressed by the genius of Tacitus. ^2

"The protection of the republic has delivered Gaul from internal discord and foreign invasions. By the loss of

national independence, you have acquired the name and privileges of Roman citizens. You enjoy, in common

with yourselves, the permanent benefits of civil government; and your remote situation is less exposed to the

accidental mischiefs of tyranny. Instead of exercising the rights of conquest, we have been contented to

impose such tributes as are requisite for your own preservation. Peace cannot be secured without armies; and

armies must be supported at the expense of the people. It is for your sake, not for our own, that we guard the

barrier of the Rhine against the ferocious Germans, who have so often attempted, and who will always desire,

to exchange the solitude of their woods and morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul. The fall of Rome

would be fatal to the provinces; and you would be buried in the ruins of that mighty fabric, which has been

raised by the valor and wisdom of eight hundred years. Your imaginary freedom would be insulted and

oppressed by a savage master; and the expulsion of the Romans would be succeeded by the eternal hostilities

of the Barbarian conquerors." ^3 This salutary advice was accepted, and this strange prediction was

accomplished. In the space of four hundred years, the hardy Gauls, who had encountered the arms of Caesar,

were imperceptibly melted into the general mass of citizens and subjects: the Western empire was dissolved;

and the Germans, who had passed the Rhine, fiercely contended for the possession of Gaul, and excited the

contempt, or abhorrence, of its peaceful and polished inhabitants. With that conscious pride which the

preeminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages of

the North; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally

disgusting to the sight and to the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated in the schools of Autun and

Bordeaux; and the language of Cicero and Virgil was familiar to the Gallic youth. Their ears were astonished

by the harsh and unknown sounds of the Germanic dialect, and they ingeniously lamented that the trembling

muses fled from the harmony of a Burgundian lyre. The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art

and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to

flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives. ^4

[Footnote 1: In this chapter I shall draw my quotations from the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la

France, Paris, 1738 1767, in eleven volumes in folio. By the labor of Dom Bouquet, and the other

Benedictines, all the original testimonies, as far as A.D. 1060, are disposed in chronological order, and

illustrated with learned notes. Such a national work, which will be continued to the year 1500, might provoke

[Footnote 2: Tacit. Hist. iv. 73, 74, in tom. i. p. 445. To abridge Tacitus would indeed be presumptuous; but I

may select the general ideas which he applies to the present state and future revelations of Gaul.]

[Footnote 3: Eadem semper causa Germanis transcendendi in Gallias libido atque avaritiae et mutandae sedis

amor; ut relictis paludibus et solitudinibus, suis, fecundissimum hoc solum vosque ipsos possiderent .... Nam

[Footnote 4: Sidonius Apollinaris ridicules, with affected wit and pleasantry, the hardships of his situation,

As soon as Odoacer had extinguished the Western empire, he sought the friendship of the most powerful of

the Barbarians. The new sovereign of Italy resigned to Euric, king of the Visigoths, all the Roman conquests

beyond the Alps, as far as the Rhine and the Ocean: ^5 and the senate might confirm this liberal gift with

some ostentation of power, and without any real loss of revenue and dominion. The lawful pretensions of

Euric were justified by ambition and success; and the Gothic nation might aspire, under his command, to the

monarchy of Spain and Gaul. Arles and Marseilles surrendered to his arms: he oppressed the freedom of

Auvergne; and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant

praise. Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants; and

their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power, and the renown, of the king of the

Visigoths. The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their naked bodies with its coerulean color, implored

his protection; and the Saxons respected the maritime provinces of a prince, who was destitute of any naval

force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his authority; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till he had

imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful

friendship; and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of the

neighboring Huns. The North (such are the lofty strains of the poet) was agitated or appeased by the nod of

Euric; the great king of Persia consulted the oracle of the West; and the aged god of the Tyber was protected

by the swelling genius of the Garonne. ^6 The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents; and France

may ascribe her greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king, at a time when his son Alaric was a

[Footnote 5: See Procopius de Bell. Gothico, l. i. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 81. The character of Grotius inclines me

to believe, that he has not substituted the Rhine for the Rhone (Hist. Gothorum, p. 175) without the authority

[Footnote 6: Sidonius, l. viii. epist. 3, 9, in tom. i. p. 800. Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 47 p. 680) justifies,

[Footnote 7: I use the familiar appellation of Clovis, from the Latin Chlodovechus, or Chlodovoeus. But the

Ch expresses only the German aspiration, and the true name is not different from Lewis, (Mem. de 'Academie

While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in Germany, he was hospitably entertained by the queen,

as well as by the king, of the Thuringians. After his restoration, Basina escaped from her husband's bed to the

arms of her lover; freely declaring, that if she had known a man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful, than

Childeric, that man should have been the object of her preference. ^8 Clovis was the offspring of this

voluntary union; and, when he was no more than fifteen years of age, he succeeded, by his father's death, to

the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom were confined to the island of the

Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and Arras; ^10 and at the baptism of Clovis the number of

his warriors could not exceed five thousand. The kindred tribes of the Franks, who had seated themselves

along the Belgic rivers, the Scheld, the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, were governed by their

independent kings, of the Merovingian race; the equals, the allies, and sometimes the enemies of the Salic

prince. But the Germans, who obeyed, in peace, the hereditary jurisdiction of their chiefs, were free to follow

the standard of a popular and victorious general; and the superior merit of Clovis attracted the respect and

allegiance of the national confederacy. When he first took the field, he had neither gold and silver in his

coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazine; ^11 but he imitated the example of Caesar, who, in the same

country, had acquired wealth by the sword, and purchased soldiers with the fruits of conquest. After each

successful battle or expedition, the spoils were accumulated in one common mass; every warrior received his

proportionable share; and the royal prerogative submitted to the equal regulations of military law. The

untamed spirit of the Barbarians was taught to acknowledge the advantages of regular discipline. ^12 At the

annual review of the month of March, their arms were diligently inspected; and when they traversed a

peaceful territory, they were prohibited from touching a blade of grass. The justice of Clovis was inexorable;

and his careless or disobedient soldiers were punished with instant death. It would be superfluous to praise

the valor of a Frank; but the valor of Clovis was directed by cool and consummate prudence. ^13 In all his

transactions with mankind, he calculated the weight of interest, of passion, and of opinion; and his measures

were sometimes adapted to the sanguinary manners of the Germans, and sometimes moderated by the milder

genius of Rome, and Christianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory, since he died in the fortyfifth

year of his age: but he had already accomplished, in a reign of thirty years, the establishment of the French

[Footnote 8: Greg. l. ii. c. 12, in tom. i. p. 168. Basina speaks the language of nature; the Franks, who had

seen her in their youth, might converse with Gregory in their old age; and the bishop of Tours could not wish

[Footnote 9: The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise dans les Gaules,

tom. i. p. 630 650) has the merit of defining the primitive kingdom of Clovis, and of ascertaining the

[Footnote 10: Ecclesiam incultam ac negligentia civium Paganorum praetermis sam, veprium densitate

oppletam, Vit. St. Vedasti, in tom. iii. p. 372. This description supposes that Arras was possessed by the

[Footnote 11: Gregory of Tours (l v. c. i. tom. ii. p. 232) contrasts the poverty of Clovis with the wealth of his

grandsons. Yet Remigius (in tom. iv. p. 52) mentions his paternas opes, as sufficient for the redemption of

[Footnote 12: See Gregory, (l. ii. c. 27, 37, in tom. ii. p. 175, 181, 182.) The famous story of the vase of

Soissons explains both the power and the character of Clovis. As a point of controversy, it has been strangely

[Footnote 13: The duke of Nivernois, a noble statesman, who has managed weighty and delicate negotiations,

ingeniously illustrates (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 147 184) the political system of

The first exploit of Clovis was the defeat of Syagrius, the son of Aegidius; and the public quarrel might, on

this occasion, be inflamed by private resentment. The glory of the father still insulted the Merovingian race;

the power of the son might excite the jealous ambition of the king of the Franks. Syagrius inherited, as a

patrimonial estate, the city and diocese of Soissons: the desolate remnant of the second Belgic, Rheims and

Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally submit to the count or patrician: ^14 and after the dissolution

of the Western empire, he might reign with the title, or at least with the authority, of king of the Romans. ^15

As a Roman, he had been educated in the liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence; but he was engaged by

accident and policy in the familiar use of the Germanic idiom. The independent Barbarians resorted to the

tribunal of a stranger, who possessed the singular talent of explaining, in their native tongue, the dictates of

reason and equity. The diligence and affability of their judge rendered him popular, the impartial wisdom of

his decrees obtained their voluntary obedience, and the reign of Syagrius over the Franks and Burgundians

seemed to revive the original institution of civil society. ^16 In the midst of these peaceful occupations,

Syagrius received, and boldly accepted, the hostile defiance of Clovis; who challenged his rival in the spirit,

and almost in the language, of chivalry, to appoint the day and the field ^17 of battle. In the time of Caesar

Soissons would have poured forth a body of fifty thousand horse and such an army might have been

plentifully supplied with shields, cuirasses, and military engines, from the three arsenals or manufactures of

the city. ^18 But the courage and numbers of the Gallic youth were long since exhausted; and the loose bands

of volunteers, or mercenaries, who marched under the standard of Syagrius, were incapable of contending

with the national valor of the Franks. It would be ungenerous without some more accurate knowledge of his

strength and resources, to condemn the rapid flight of Syagrius, who escaped, after the loss of a battle, to the

distant court of Thoulouse. The feeble minority of Alaric could not assist or protect an unfortunate fugitive;

the pusillanimous ^19 Goths were intimidated by the menaces of Clovis; and the Roman king, after a short

confinement, was delivered into the hands of the executioner. The Belgic cities surrendered to the king of the

Franks; and his dominions were enlarged towards the East by the ample diocese of Tongres ^20 which Clovis

[Footnote 14: M. Biet (in a Dissertation which deserved the prize of the Academy of Soissons, p. 178 226,)

has accurately defined the nature and extent of the kingdom of Syagrius and his father; but he too readily

allows the slight evidence of Dubos (tom. ii. p. 54 57) to deprive him of Beauvais and Amiens.]

[Footnote 15: I may observe that Fredegarius, in his epitome of Gregory of Tours, (tom. ii. p. 398,) has

prudently substituted the name of Patricius for the incredible title of Rex Romanorum.]

[Footnote 16: Sidonius, (l. v. Epist. 5, in tom. i. p. 794,) who styles him the Solon, the Amphion, of the

Barbarians, addresses this imaginary king in the tone of friendship and equality. From such offices of

arbitration, the crafty Dejoces had raised himself to the throne of the Medes, (Herodot. l. i. c. 96 100.)]

[Footnote 17: Campum sibi praeparari jussit. M. Biet (p. 226 251) has diligently ascertained this field of

battle, at Nogent, a Benedictine abbey, about ten miles to the north of Soissons. The ground was marked by a

circle of Pagan sepulchres; and Clovis bestowed the adjacent lands of Leully and Coucy on the church of

[Footnote 18: See Caesar. Comment. de Bell. Gallic. ii. 4, in tom. i. p. 220, and the Notitiae, tom. i. p. 126.

The three Fabricae of Soissons were, Seutaria, Balistaria, and Clinabaria. The last supplied the complete

[Footnote 19: The epithet must be confined to the circumstances; and history cannot justify the French

prejudice of Gregory, (l. ii. c. 27, in tom. ii. p. 175,) ut Gothorum pavere mos est.]

[Footnote 20: Dubos has satisfied me (tom. i. p. 277 286) that Gregory of Tours, his transcribers, or his

readers, have repeatedly confounded the German kingdom of Thuringia, beyond the Rhine, and the Gallic

city of Tongria, on the Meuse, which was more anciently the country of the Eburones, and more recently the

The name of the Alemanni has been absurdly derived from their imaginary settlement on the banks of the

Leman Lake. ^21 That fortunate district, from the lake to the Avenche, and Mount Jura, was occupied by the

Burgundians. ^22 The northern parts of Helvetia had indeed been subdued by the ferocious Alemanni, who

destroyed with their own hands the fruits of their conquest. A province, improved and adorned by the arts of

Rome, was again reduced to a savage wilderness; and some vestige of the stately Vindonissa may still be

discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the Aar. ^23 From the source of the Rhine to its conflux with

the Mein and the Moselle, the formidable swarms of the Alemanni commanded either side of the river, by the

right of ancient possession, or recent victory. They had spread themselves into Gaul, over the modern

provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; and their bold invasion of the kingdom of Cologne summoned the Salic

prince to the defence of his Ripuarian allies. Clovis encountered the invaders of Gaul in the plain of Tolbiac,

about twentyfour miles from Cologne; and the two fiercest nations of Germany were mutually animated by

the memory of past exploits, and the prospect of future greatness. The Franks, after an obstinate struggle,

gave way; and the Alemanni, raising a shout of victory, impetuously pressed their retreat. But the battle was

restored by the valor, and the conduct, and perhaps by the piety, of Clovis; and the event of the bloody day

decided forever the alternative of empire or servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was slain in the field,

and his people were slaughtered or pursued, till they threw down their arms, and yielded to the mercy of the

conqueror. Without discipline it was impossible for them to rally: they had contemptuously demolished the

walls and fortifications which might have protected their distress; and they were followed into the heart of

their forests by an enemy not less active, or intrepid, than themselves. The great Theodoric congratulated the

victory of Clovis, whose sister Albofleda the king of Italy had lately married; but he mildly interceded with

his brother in favor of the suppliants and fugitives, who had implored his protection. The Gallic territories,

which were possessed by the Alemanni, became the prize of their conqueror; and the haughty nation,

invincible, or rebellious, to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who

graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and institutions, under the government of official,

and, at length, of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest of the Western provinces, the Franks alone maintained

their ancient habitations beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued, and civilized, the exhausted countries, as

far as the Elbe, and the mountains of Bohemia; and the peace of Europe was secured by the obedience of

Germany. ^24 [Footnote 21: Populi habitantes juxta Lemannum lacum, Alemanni dicuntur. Servius, ad

Virgil. Georgic. iv. 278. Don Bouquet (tom. i. p. 817) has only alleged the more recent and corrupt text of

[Footnote 22: Gregory of Tours sends St. Lupicinus inter illa Jurensis deserti secreta, quae, inter Burgundiam

Alamanniamque sita, Aventicae adja cent civitati, in tom. i. p. 648. M. de Watteville (Hist. de la

Confederation Helvetique, tom. i. p. 9, 10) has accurately defined the Helvetian limits of the Duchy of

Alemannia, and the Transjurane Burgundy. They were commensurate with the dioceses of Constance and

Avenche, or Lausanne, and are still discriminated, in modern Switzerland, by the use of the German, or

[Footnote 23: See Guilliman de Rebus Helveticis, l i. c. 3, p. 11, 12. Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,

the castle of Hapsburgh, the abbey of Konigsfield, and the town of Bruck, have successively risen. The

philosophic traveller may compare the monuments of Roman conquest of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of

monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and

[Footnote 24: Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. 30, 37, in tom. ii. p. 176, 177, 182,) the Gesta Francorum, (in tom. ii. p.

551,) and the epistle of Theodoric, (Cassiodor. Variar. l. ii. c. 41, in tom. iv. p. 4,) represent the defeat of the

Alemanni. Some of their tribes settled in Rhaetia, under the protection of Theodoric; whose successors ceded

the colony and their country to the grandson of Clovis. The state of the Alemanni under the Merovingian

kings may be seen in Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, xi. 8, Annotation xxxvi.) and Guilliman, (de

Till the thirtieth year of his age, Clovis continued to worship the gods of his ancestors. ^25 His disbelief, or

rather disregard, of Christianity, might encourage him to pillage with less remorse the churches of a hostile

territory: but his subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship; and the bishops entertained a

more favorable hope of the idolater, than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince had contracted a fortunate

alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, was

educated in the profession of the Catholic faith. It was her interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the

conversion ^26 of a Pagan husband; and Clovis insensibly listened to the voice of love and religion. He

conesnted (perhaps such terms had been previously stipulated) to the baptism of his eldest son; and though

the sudden death of the infant excited some superstitious fears, he was persuaded, a second time, to repeat the

dangerous experiment. In the distress of the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the God of Clotilda and

the Christians; and victory disposed him to hear, with respectful gratitude, the eloquent ^27 Remigius, ^28

bishop of Rheims, who forcibly displayed the temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. The king

declared himself satisfied of the truth of the Catholic faith; and the political reasons which might have

suspended his public profession, were removed by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks, who

showed themselves alike prepared to follow their heroic leader to the field of battle, or to the baptismal font.

The important ceremony was performed in the cathedral of Rheims, with every circumstance of magnificence

and solemnity that could impress an awful sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytes. ^29 The new

Constantine was immediately baptized, with three thousand of his warlike subjects; and their example was

imitated by the remainder of the gentle Barbarians, who, in obedience to the victorious prelate, adored the

cross which they had burnt, and burnt the idols which they had formerly adored. ^30 The mind of Clovis was

susceptible of transient fervor: he was exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and death of Christ; and,

instead of weighing the salutary consequences of that mysterious sacrifice, he exclaimed, with indiscreet fury,

"Had I been present at the head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged his injuries." ^31 But the savage

conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the proofs of a religion, which depends on the laborious

investigation of historic evidence and speculative theology. He was still more incapable of feeling the mild

influence of the gospel, which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine convert. His ambitious reign was

a perpetual violation of moral and Christian duties: his hands were stained with blood in peace as well as in

war; and, as soon as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Gallican church, he calmly assassinated all the

princes of the Merovingian race. ^32 Yet the king of the Franks might sincerely worship the Christian God,

as a Being more excellent and powerful than his national deities; and the signal deliverance and victory of

Tolbiac encouraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of the Lord of Hosts. Martin, the most popular

of the saints, had filled the Western world with the fame of those miracles which were incessantly performed

at his holy sepulchre of Tours. His visible or invisible aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox

prince; and the profane remark of Clovis himself, that St.Martin was an expensive friend, ^33 need not be

interpreted as the symptom of any permanent or rational scepticism. But earth, as well as heaven, rejoiced in

the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he alone,

in the Christian world, deserved the name and prerogatives of a Catholic king. The emperor Anastasius

entertained some dangerous errors concerning the nature of the divine incarnation; and the Barbarians of

Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul, were involved in the Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only, son of the

church, was acknowledged by the clergy as their lawful sovereign, or glorious deliverer; and the armies of

Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and fervor of the Catholic faction. ^34 [Footnote 25: Clotilda,

or rather Gregory, supposes that Clovis worshipped the gods of Greece and Rome. The fact is incredible, and

the mistake only shows how completely, in less than a century, the national religion of the Franks had been

[Footnote 26: Gregory of Tours relates the marriage and conversion of Clovis, (l. ii. c. 28 31, in tom. ii. p.

175 178.) Even Fredegarius, or the nameless Epitomizer, (in tom. ii. p. 398 400,) the author of the Gesta

Francorum, (in tom. ii. p. 548 552,) and Aimoin himself, (l. i. c. 13, in tom. iii. p. 37 40,) may be heard

without disdain. Tradition might long preserve some curious circumstances of these important transactions.]

[Footnote 27: A traveller, who returned from Rheims to Auvergne, had stolen a copy of his declamations

from the secretary or bookseller of the modest archbishop, (Sidonius Apollinar. l. ix. epist. 7.) Four epistles

of Remigius, which are still extant, (in tom. iv. p. 51, 52, 53,) do not correspond with the splendid praise of

[Footnote 28: Hincmar, one of the succesors of Remigius, (A.D. 845 882,) had composed his life, (in tom.

iii. p. 373 380.) The authority of ancient MSS. of the church of Rheims might inspire some confidence,

which is destroyed, however, by the selfish and audacious fictions of Hincmar. It is remarkable enough, that

Remigius, who was consecrated at the age of twentytwo, (A.D. 457,) filled the episcopal chair seventyfour

[Footnote 29: A phial (the Sainte Ampoulle of holy, or rather celestial, oil,) was brought down by a white

dove, for the baptism of Clovis; and it is still used and renewed, in the coronation of the kings of France.

Hincmar (he aspired to the primacy of Gaul) is the first author of this fable, (in tom. iii. p. 377,) whose slight

foundations the Abbe de Vertot (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. ii. p. 619 633) has

[Footnote 30: Mitis depone colla, Sicamber: adora quod incendisti, incende quod adorasti. Greg. Turon. l. ii.

[Footnote 31: Si ego ibidem cum Francis meis fuissem, injurias ejus vindicassem. This rash expression,

which Gregory has prudently concealed, is celebrated by Fredegarius, (Epitom. c. 21, in tom. ii. p. 400,) Ai

moin, (l. i. c. 16, in tom. iii. p. 40,) and the Chroniques de St. Denys, (l. i. c. 20, in tom. iii. p. 171,) as an

[Footnote 32: Gregory, (l. ii. c. 40 43, in tom. ii. p. 183 185,) after coolly relating the repeated crimes,

and affected remorse, of Clovis, concludes,perhaps undesignedly, with a lesson, which ambition will never

[Footnote 33: After the Gothic victory, Clovis made rich offerings to St. Martin of Tours. He wished to

redeem his warhorse by the gift of one hundred pieces of gold, but the enchanted steed could not remove

from the stable till the price of his redemption had been doubled. This miracle provoked the king to exclaim,

Vere B. Martinus est bonus in auxilio, sed carus in negotio. (Gesta Francorum, in tom. ii. p. 554, 555.)]

[Footnote 34: See the epistle from Pope Anastasius to the royal convert, (in Com. iv. p. 50, 51.) Avitus,

bishop of Vienna, addressed Clovis on the same subject, (p. 49;) and many of the Latin bishops would assure

Under the Roman empire, the wealth and jurisdiction of the bishops, their sacred character, and perpetual

office, their numerous dependants, popular eloquence, and provincial assemblies, had rendered them always

respectable, and sometimes dangerous. Their influence was augmented with the progress of superstition; and

the establishment of the French monarchy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm alliance of a hundred

prelates, who reigned in the discontented, or independent, cities of Gaul. The slight foundations of the

Armorican republic had been repeatedly shaken, or overthrown; but the same people still guarded their

domestic freedom; asserted the dignity of the Roman name; and bravely resisted the predatory inroads, and

regular attacks, of Clovis, who labored to extend his conquests from the Seine to the Loire. Their successful

opposition introduced an equal and honorable union. The Franks esteemed the valor of the Armoricans ^35

and the Armoricans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks. The military force which had been

stationed for the defence of Gaul, consisted of one hundred different bands of cavalry or infantry; and these

troops, while they assumed the title and privileges of Roman soldiers, were renewed by an incessant supply

of the Barbarian youth. The extreme fortifications, and scattered fragments of the empire, were still defended

by their hopeless courage. But their retreat was intercepted, and their communication was impracticable: they

were abandoned by the Greek princes of Constantinople, and they piously disclaimed all connection with the

Arian usurpers of Gaul. They accepted, without shame or reluctance, the generous capitulation, which was

proposed by a Catholic hero; and this spurious, or legitimate, progeny of the Roman legions, was

distinguished in the succeeding age by their arms, their ensigns, and their peculiar dress and institutions. But

the national strength was increased by these powerful and voluntary accessions; and the neighboring

kingdoms dreaded the numbers, as well as the spirit, of the Franks. The reduction of the Northern provinces

of Gaul, instead of being decided by the chance of a single battle, appears to have been slowly effected by the

gradual operation of war and treaty and Clovis acquired each object of his ambition, by such efforts, or such

concessions, as were adequate to its real value. His savage character, and the virtues of Henry IV., suggest the

most opposite ideas of human nature; yet some resemblance may be found in the situation of two princes,

who conquered France by their valor, their policy, and the merits of a seasonable conversion. ^36

[Footnote 35: Instead of an unknown people, who now appear on the text of Procopious, Hadrian de Valois

has restored the proper name of the easy correction has been almost universally approved. Yet an

unprejudiced reader would naturally suppose, that Procopius means to describe a tribe of Germans in the

alliance of Rome; and not a confederacy of Gallic cities, which had revolted from the empire.

Note: Compare Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages, vol i. p. 2, Daru, Hist. de Bretagne vol. i. p. 129

[Footnote 36: This important digression of Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. l. i. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 29 36)

illustrates the origin of the French monarchy. Yet I must observe, 1. That the Greek historian betrays an

inexcusable ignorance of the geography of the West. 2. That these treaties and privileges, which should leave

The kingdom of the Burgundians, which was defined by the course of two Gallic rivers, the Saone and the

Rhone, extended from the forest of Vosges to the Alps and the sea of Marscilles. ^37 The sceptre was in the

hands of Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince had reduced the number of royal candidates by the

death of two brothers, one of whom was the father of Clotilda; ^38 but his imperfect prudence still permitted

Godegesil, the youngest of his brothers, to possess the dependent principality of Geneva. The Arian monarch

was justly alarmed by the satisfaction, and the hopes, which seemed to animate his clergy and people after the

conversion of Clovis; and Gundobald convened at Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it were

possible, their religious and political discontents. A vain conference was agitated between the two factions.

The Arians upbraided the Catholics with the worship of three Gods: the Catholics defended their cause by

theological distinctions; and the usual arguments, objections, and replies were reverberated with obstinate

clamor; till the king revealed his secret apprehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which he

addressed to the orthodox bishops. "If you truly profess the Christian religion, why do you not restrain the

king of the Franks? He has declared war against me, and forms alliances with my enemies for my destruction.

A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sincere conversion: let him show his faith by his

works." The answer of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, was delivered with

the voice and countenance of an angel. "We are ignorant of the motives and intentions of the king of the

Franks: but we are taught by Scripture, that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are frequently

subverted; and that enemies will arise on every side against those who have made God their enemy. Return,

with thy people, to the law of God, and he will give peace and security to thy dominions." The king of

Burgundy, who was not prepared to accept the condition which the Catholics considered as essential to the

treaty, delayed and dismissed the ecclesiastical conference; after reproaching his bishops, that Clovis, their

[Footnote 37: Regnum circa Rhodanum aut Ararim cum provincia Massiliensi retinebant. Greg. Turon. l. ii.

c. 32, in tom. ii. p. 178. The province of Marseilles, as far as the Durance, was afterwards ceded to the

Ostrogoths; and the signatures of twentyfive bishops are supposed to represent the kingdom of Burgundy,

A.D. 519. (Concil. Epaon, in tom. iv. p. 104, 105.) Yet I would except Vindonissa. The bishop, who lived

under the Pagan Alemanni, would naturally resort to the synods of the next Christian kingdom. Mascou (in

his four first annotations) has explained many circumstances relative to the Burgundian monarchy.]

[Footnote 38: Mascou, (Hist. of the Germans, xi. 10,) who very reasonably distracts the testimony of Gregory

of Tours, has produced a passage from Avitus (epist. v.) to prove that Gundobald affected to deplore the

[Footnote 39: See the original conference, (in tom. iv. p. 99 102.) Avitus, the principal actor, and probably

the secretary of the meeting, was bishop of Vienna. A short account of his person and works may be fouud in

The allegiance of his brother was already seduced; and the obedience of Godegesil, who joined the royal

standard with the troops of Geneva, more effectually promoted the success of the conspiracy. While the

Franks and Burgundians contended with equal valor, his seasonable desertion decided the event of the battle;

and as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected Gauls, he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and

hastily retreated from the field, which appears to have been situate between Langres and Dijon. He distrusted

the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular fortress, encompassed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet high, and

fifteen thick, with four gates, and thirtythree towers: ^40 he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the

important cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundobald still fled with precipitation, till he had reached

Avignon, at the distance of two hundred and fifty miles from the field of battle. A long siege and an artful

negotiation, admonished the king of the Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He imposed a

tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled him to pardon and reward his brother's treachery, and proudly

returned to his own dominions, with the spoils and captives of the southern provinces. This splendid triumph

was soon clouded by the intelligence, that Gundobald had violated his recent obligations, and that the

unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at Vienna with a garrison of five thousand Franks, ^41 had been

besieged, surprised, and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage might have exasperated the

patience of the most peaceful sovereign; yet the conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury, released the tribute,

and accepted the alliance, and military service, of the king of Burgundy. Clovis no longer possessed those

advantages which had assured the success of the preceding war; and his rival, instructed by adversity, had

found new resources in the affections of his people. The Gauls or Romans applauded the mild and impartial

laws of Gundobald, which almost raised them to the same level with their conquerors. The bishops were

reconciled, and flattered, by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of his approaching conversion; and

though he eluded their accomplishment to the last moment of his life, his moderation secured the peace, and

[Footnote 40: Gregory of Tours (l. iii. c. 19, in tom. ii. p. 197) indulges his genius, or rather describes some

more eloquent writer, in the description of Dijon; a castle, which already deserved the title of a city. It

depended on the bishops of Langres till the twelfth century, and afterwards became the capital of the dukes of

[Footnote 41: The Epitomizer of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 401) has supplied this number of Franks; but

he rashly supposes that they were cut in pieces by Gundobald. The prudent Burgundian spared the soldiers of

Clovis, and sent these captives to the king of the Visigoths, who settled them in the territory of Thoulouse.]

[Footnote 42: In this Burgundian war I have followed Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 32, 33, in tom. ii. p. 178,

179,) whose narrative appears so incompatible with that of Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. i. c. 12, in tom. ii. p.

31, 32,) that some critics have supposed two different wars. The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. ii. p. 126

I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which was accomplished under the reign of

Sigismond, the son of Gundobald. The Catholic Sigismond has acquired the honors of a saint and martyr; ^43

but the hands of the royal saint were stained with the blood of his innocent son, whom he inhumanly

sacrificed to the pride and resentment of a step mother. He soon discovered his error, and bewailed the

irreparable loss. While Sigismond embraced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he received a severe

admonition from one of his attendants: "It is not his situation, O king! it is thine which deserves pity and

lamentation." The reproaches of a guilty conscience were alleviated, however, by his liberal donations to the

monastery of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, in Vallais; which he himself had founded in honor of the imaginary

martyrs of the Thebaean legion. ^44 A full chorus of perpetual psalmody was instituted by the pious king; he

assiduously practised the austere devotion of the monks; and it was his humble prayer, that Heaven would

inflict in this world the punishment of his sins. His prayer was heard: the avengers were at hand: and the

provinces of Burgundy were overwhelmed by an army of victorious Franks. After the event of an

unsuccessful battle, Sigismond, who wished to protract his life that he might prolong his penance, concealed

himself in the desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered and betrayed by his subjects, who solicited the

favor of their new masters. The captive monarch, with his wife and two children, was transported to Orleans,

and buried alive in a deep well, by the stern command of the sons of Clovis; whose cruelty might derive some

excuse from the maxims and examples of their barbarous age. Their ambition, which urged them to achieve

the conquest of Burgundy, was inflamed, or disguised, by filial piety: and Clotilda, whose sanctity did not

consist in the forgiveness of injuries, pressed them to revenge her father's death on the family of his assassin.

The rebellious Burgundians (for they attempted to break their chains) were still permitted to enjoy their

national laws under the obligation of tribute and military service; and the Merovingian princes peaceably

reigned over a kingdom, whose glory and greatness had been first overthrown by the arms of Clovis. ^45

[Footnote 43: See his life or legend, (in tom. iii. p. 402.) A martyr! how strangely has that word been

distorted from its original sense of a common witness. St. Sigismond was remarkable for the cure of fevers]

[Footnote 44: Before the end of the fifth century, the church of St. Maurice, and his Thebaean legion, had

rendered Agaunum a place of devout pilgrimage. A promiscuous community of both sexes had introduced

some deeds of darkness, which were abolished (A.D. 515) by the regular monastery of Sigismond. Within

fifty years, his angels of light made a nocturnal sally to murder their bishop, and his clergy. See in the

Bibliotheque Raisonnee (tom. xxxvi. p. 435 438) the curious remarks of a learned librarian of Geneva.]

[Footnote 45: Marius, bishop of Avenche, (Chron. in tom. ii. p. 15,) has marked the authentic dates, and

Gregory of Tours (l. iii. c. 5, 6, in tom. ii. p. 188, 189) has expressed the principal facts, of the life of

Sigismond, and the conquest of Burgundy. Procopius (in tom. ii. p. 34) and Agathias (in tom. ii. p. 49) show

The first victory of Clovis had insulted the honor of the Goths. They viewed his rapid progress with jealousy

and terror; and the youthful fame of Alaric was oppressed by the more potent genius of his rival. Some

disputes inevitably arose on the edge of their contiguous dominions; and after the delays of fruitless

negotiation, a personal interview of the two kings was proposed and accepted. The conference of Clovis and

Alaric was held in a small island of the Loire, near Amboise. They embraced, familiarly conversed, and

feasted together; and separated with the warmest professions of peace and brotherly love. But their apparent

confidence concealed a dark suspicion of hostile and treacherous designs; and their mutual complaints

solicited, eluded, and disclaimed, a final arbitration. At Paris, which he already considered as his royal seat,

Clovis declared to an assembly of the princes and warriors, the pretence, and the motive, of a Gothic war. "It

grieves me to see that the Arians still possess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against them with the

aid of God; and, having vanquished the heretics, we will possess and divide their fertile provinces." ^46 The

Franks, who were inspired by hereditary valor and recent zeal, applauded the generous design of their

monarch; expressed their resolution to conquer or die, since death and conquest would be equally profitable;

and solemnly protested that they would never shave their beards till victory should absolve them from that

inconvenient vow. The enterprise was promoted by the public or private exhortations of Clotilda. She

reminded her husband how effectually some pious foundation would propitiate the Deity, and his servants:

and the Christian hero, darting his battleaxe with a skilful and nervous band, "There, (said he,) on that spot

where my Francisca, ^47 shall fall, will I erect a church in honor of the holy apostles." This ostentatious piety

confirmed and justified the attachment of the Catholics, with whom he secretly corresponded; and their

devout wishes were gradually ripened into a formidable conspiracy. The people of Aquitain were alarmed by

the indiscreet reproaches of their Gothic tyrants, who justly accused them of preferring the dominion of the

Franks: and their zealous adherent Quintianus, bishop of Rodez, ^48 preached more forcibly in his exile than

in his diocese. To resist these foreign and domestic enemies, who were fortified by the alliance of the

Burgundians, Alaric collected his troops, far more numerous than the military powers of Clovis. The

Visigoths resumed the exercise of arms, which they had neglected in a long and luxurious peace; ^49 a select

band of valiant and robust slaves attended their masters to the field; ^50 and the cities of Gaul were

compelled to furnish their doubtful and reluctant aid. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who reigned in Italy,

had labored to maintain the tranquillity of Gaul; and he assumed, or affected, for that purpose, the impartial

character of a mediator. But the sagacious monarch dreaded the rising empire of Clovis, and he was firmly

engaged to support the national and religious cause of the Goths. [Footnote 46: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 37,

in tom. ii. p. 181) inserts the short but persuasive speech of Clovis. Valde moleste fero, quod hi Ariani partem

teneant Galliarum, (the author of the Gesta Francorum, in tom. ii. p. 553, adds the precious epithet of

optimam,) camus cum Dei adjutorio, et, superatis eis, redigamus terram in ditionem nostram.]

[Footnote 47: Tunc rex projecit a se in directum Bipennem suam quod est Francisca, (Gesta Franc. in tom. ii.

p. 554.) The form and use of this weapon are clearly described by Procopius, (in tom. ii. p. 37.) Examples of

its national appellation in Latin and French may be found in the Glossary of Ducange, and the large

[Footnote 48: It is singular enough that some important and authentic facts should be found in a Life of

Quintianus, composed in rhyme in the old Patois of Rouergue, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. ii. p. 179.)]

[Footnote 49: Quamvis fortitudini vestrae confidentiam tribuat parentum ves trorum innumerabilis multitudo;

quamvis Attilam potentem reminiscamini Visigotharum viribus inclinatum; tamen quia populorum ferocia

corda longa pace mollescunt, cavete subito in alean aleam mittere, quos constat tantis temporibus exercitia

non habere. Such was the salutary, but fruitless, advice of peace of reason, and of Theodoric, (Cassiodor. l.

[Footnote 50: Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xv. c. 14) mentions and approves the law of the Visigoths, (l.

ix. tit. 2, in tom. iv. p. 425,) which obliged all masters to arm, and send, or lead, into the field a tenth of their

The accidental, or artificial, prodigies which adorned the expedition of Clovis, were accepted by a

superstitious age, as the manifest declaration of the divine favor. He marched from Paris; and as he proceeded

with decent reverence through the holy diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him to consult the shrine of St.

Martin, the sanctuary and the oracle of Gaul. His messengers were instructed to remark the words of the

Psalm which should happen to be chanted at the precise moment when they entered the church. Those words

most fortunately expressed the valor and victory of the champions of Heaven, and the application was easily

transferred to the new Joshua, the new Gideon, who went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. ^51

Orleans secured to the Franks a bridge on the Loire; but, at the distance of forty miles from Poitiers, their

progress was intercepted by an extraordinary swell of the River Vigenna or Vienne; and the opposite banks

were covered by the encampment of the Visigoths. Delay must be always dangerous to Barbarians, who

consume the country through which they march; and had Clovis possessed leisure and materials, it might

have been impracticable to construct a bridge, or to force a passage, in the face of a superior enemy. But the

affectionate peasants who were impatient to welcome their deliverer, could easily betray some unknown or

unguarded ford: the merit of the discovery was enhanced by the useful interposition of fraud or fiction; and a

white hart, of singular size and beauty, appeared to guide and animate the march of the Catholic army. The

counsels of the Visigoths were irresolute and distracted. A crowd of impatient warriors, presumptuous in their

strength, and disdaining to fly before the robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to assert in arms the name and

blood of the conquerors of Rome. The advice of the graver chieftains pressed him to elude the first ardor of

the Franks; and to expect, in the southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the

king of Italy had already sent to his assistance. The decisive moments were wasted in idle deliberation the

Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an advantageous post; and the opportunity of a secure retreat was lost

by their slow and disorderly motions. After Clovis had passed the ford, as it is still named, of the Hart, he

advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the escape of the enemy. His nocturnal march was directed by

a flaming meteor, suspended in the air above the cathedral of Poitiers; and this signal, which might be

previously concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilary, was compared to the column of fire that

guided the Israelites in the desert. At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers, Clovis

overtook, and instantly attacked, the Gothic army; whose defeat was already prepared by terror and

confusion. Yet they rallied in their extreme distress, and the martial youths, who had clamorously demanded

the battle, refused to survive the ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered each other in single combat.

Alaric fell by the hand of his rival; and the victorious Frank was saved by the goodness of his cuirass, and the

vigor of his horse, from the spears of two desperate Goths, who furiously rode against him to revenge the

death of their sovereign. The vague expression of a mountain of the slain, serves to indicate a cruel though

indefinite slaughter; but Gregory has carefully observed, that his valiant countryman Apollinaris, the son of

Sidonius, lost his life at the head of the nobles of Auvergne. Perhaps these suspected Catholics had been

maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the enemy; and perhaps the influence of religion was superseded

[Footnote 51: This mode of divination, by accepting as an omen the first sacred words, which in particular

circumstances should be presented to the eye or ear, was derived from the Pagans; and the Psalter, or Bible,

was substituted to the poems of Homer and Virgil. From the fourth to the fourteenth century, these sortes

sanctorum, as they are styled, were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly

practised by kings, bishops, and saints. See a curious dissertation of the Abbe du Resnel, in the Memoires de

[Footnote 52: After correcting the text, or excusing the mistake, of Procopius, who places the defeat of Alaric

near Carcassone, we may conclude, from the evidence of Gregory, Fortunatus, and the author of the Gesta

Francorum, that the battle was fought in campo Vocladensi, on the banks of the Clain, about ten miles to the

south of Poitiers. Clovis overtook and attacked the Visigoths near Vivonne, and the victory was decided near

a village still named Champagne St. Hilaire. See the Dissertations of the Abbe le Boeuf, tom. i. p. 304 331.]

Such is the empire of Fortune, (if we may still disguise our ignorance under that popular name,) that it is

almost equally difficult to foresee the events of war, or to explain their various consequences. A bloody and

complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand

men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages. The decisive battle of

Poitiers was followed by the conquest of Aquitain. Alaric had left behind him an infant son, a bastard

competitor, factious nobles, and a disloyal people; and the remaining forces of the Goths were oppressed by

the general consternation, or opposed to each other in civil discord. The victorious king of the Franks

proceeded without delay to the siege of Angouleme. At the sound of his trumpets the walls of the city

imitated the example of Jericho, and instantly fell to the ground; a splendid miracle, which may be reduced to

the supposition, that some clerical engineers had secretly undermined the foundations of the rampart. ^53 At

Bordeaux, which had submitted without resistance, Clovis established his winter quarters; and his prudent

economy transported from Thoulouse the royal treasures, which were deposited in the capital of the

monarchy. The conqueror penetrated as far as the confines of Spain; ^54 restored the honors of the Catholic

church; fixed in Aquitain a colony of Franks; ^55 and delegated to his lieutenants the easy task of subduing,

or extirpating, the nation of the Visigoths. But the Visigoths were protected by the wise and powerful

monarch of Italy. While the balance was still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the march of the

Ostrogoths; but their strenuous efforts successfully resisted the ambition of Clovis; and the army of the

Franks, and their Burgundian allies, was compelled to raise the siege of Arles, with the loss, as it is said, of

thirty thousand men. These vicissitudes inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to acquiesce in an advantageous

treaty of peace. The Visigoths were suffered to retain the possession of Septimania, a narrow tract of

seacoast, from the Rhone to the Pyrenees; but the ample province of Aquitain, from those mountains to the

Loire, was indissolubly united to the kingdom of France. ^56 [Footnote 53: Angouleme is in the road from

Poitiers to Bordeaux; and although Gregory delays the siege, I can more readily believe that he confounded

[Footnote 54: Pyrenaeos montes usque Perpinianum subjecit, is the expression of Rorico, which betrays his

recent date; since Perpignan did not exist before the tenth century, (Marca Hispanica, p. 458.) This florid and

fabulous writer (perhaps a monk of Amiens see the Abbe le Boeuf, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xvii. p.

228245) relates, in the allegorical character of a shepherd, the general history of his countrymen the Franks;

[Footnote 55: The author of the Gesta Francorum positively affirms, that Clovis fixed a body of Franks in the

Saintonge and Bourdelois: and he is not injudiciously followed by Rorico, electos milites, atque fortissimos,

cum parvulis, atque mulieribus. Yet it should seem that they soon mingled with the Romans of Aquitain, till

Charlemagne introduced a more numerous and powerful colony, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. ii. p. 215.)]

[Footnote 56: In the composition of the Gothic war, I have used the following materials, with due regard to

their unequal value. Four epistles from Theodoric, king of Italy, (Cassiodor l. iii. epist. 1 4. in tom. iv p. 3

5;) Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. i. c 12, in tom. ii. p. 32, 33;) Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 35, 36, 37, in tom. ii.

p. 181 183;) Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 58, in tom. ii. p. 28;) Fortunatas, (in Vit. St. Hilarii, in tom. iii.

p. 380;) Isidore, (in Chron. Goth. in tom. ii. p. 702;) the Epitome of Gregory of Tours, (in tom. ii. p. 401;) the

author of the Gesta Francorum, (in tom. ii. p. 553 555;) the Fragments of Fredegarius, (in tom. ii. p. 463;)

Aimoin, (l. i. c. 20, in tom. iii. p. 41, 42,) and Rorico, (l. iv. in tom. iii. p. 14 19.)]

After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the honors of the Roman consulship. The emperor

Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival of Theodoric the title and ensigns of that

eminent dignity; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the Fasti either

of the East or West. ^57 On the solemn day, the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was

invested, in the church of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence he proceeded on horseback

to the cathedral of Tours; and, as he passed through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a

donative of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, who incessantly repeated their acclamations of Consul and

Augustus. The actual or legal authority of Clovis could not receive any new accessions from the consular

dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant; and if the conqueror had been instructed to claim the

ancient prerogatives of that high office, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration. But the

Romans were disposed to revere, in the person of their master, that antique title which the emperors

condescended to assume: the Barbarian himself seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect the majesty

of the republic; and the successors of Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship, tacitly forgave, and almost

[Footnote 57: The Fasti of Italy would naturally reject a consul, the enemy of their sovereign; but any

ingenious hypothesis that might explain the silence of Constantinople and Egypt, (the Chronicle of

Marcellinus, and the Paschal,) is overturned by the similar silence of Marius, bishop of Avenche, who

composed his Fasti in the kingdom of Burgundy. If the evidence of Gregory of Tours were less weighty and

positive, (l. ii. c. 38, in tom. ii. p. 183,) I could believe that Clovis, like Odoacer, received the lasting title and

Twentyfive years after the death of Clovis this important concession was more formally declared, in a treaty

between his sons and the emperor Justinian. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their distant

acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks the cities of Arles and Marseilles; of Arles, still adorned with the seat

of a Praetorian praefect, and of Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. ^58 This

transaction was confirmed by the Imperial authority; and Justinian, generously yielding to the Franks the

sovereignty of the countries beyond the Alps, which they already possessed, absolved the provincials from

their allegiance; and established on a more lawful, though not more solid, foundation, the throne of the

Merovingians. ^59 From that era they enjoyed the right of celebrating at Arles the games of the circus; and by

a singular privilege, which was denied even to the Persian monarch, the gold coin, impressed with their name

and image, obtained a legal currency in the empire. ^60 A Greek historian of that age has praised the private

and public virtues of the Franks, with a partial enthusiasm, which cannot be sufficiently justified by their

domestic annals. ^61 He celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and orthodox

religion; and boldly asserts, that these Barbarians could be distinguished only by their dress and language

from the subjects of Rome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social disposition, and lively graces,

which, in every age, have disguised their vices, and sometimes concealed their intrinsic merit. Perhaps

Agathias, and the Greeks, were dazzled by the rapid progress of their arms, and the splendor of their empire.

Since the conquest of Burgundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province of Septimania, was subject, in its whole

extent, to the sons of Clovis. They had extinguished the German kingdom of Thuringia, and their vague

dominion penetrated beyond the Rhine, into the heart of their native forests. The Alemanni, and Bavarians,

who had occupied the Roman provinces of Rhaetia and Noricum, to the south of the Danube, confessed

themselves the humble vassals of the Franks; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable of resisting

their ambition. When the last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the inheritance and conquests of the

Merovingians, his kingdom extended far beyond the limits of modern France. Yet modern France, such has

been the progress of arts and policy, far surpasses, in wealth, populousness, and power, the spacious but

[Footnote 58: Under the Merovingian kings, Marseilles still imported from the East paper, wine, oil, linen,

silk, precious stones, spices, The Gauls, or Franks, traded to Syria, and the Syrians were established in Gaul.

[Footnote 59: This strong declaration of Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. l. iii. cap. 33, in tom. ii. p. 41) would

[Footnote 60: The Franks, who probably used the mints of Treves, Lyons, and Arles, imitated the coinage of

the Roman emperors of seventytwo solidi, or pieces, to the pound of gold. But as the Franks established

only a decuple proportion of gold and silver, ten shillings will be a sufficient valuation of their solidus of

gold. It was the common standard of the Barbaric fines, and contained forty denarii, or silver three pences.

Twelve of these denarii made a solidus, or shilling, the twentieth part of the ponderal and numeral livre, or

pound of silver, which has been so strangely reduced in modern France. See La Blanc, Traite Historique des

[Footnote 61: Agathias, in tom. ii. p. 47. Gregory of Tours exhibits a very different picture. Perhaps it would

not be easy, within the same historical space, to find more vice and less virtue. We are continually shocked

[Footnote 62: M. de Foncemagne has traced, in a correct and elegant dissertation, (Mem. de l'Academie, tom.

The Franks, or French, are the only people of Europe who can deduce a perpetual succession from the

conquerors of the Western empire. But their conquest of Gaul was followed by ten centuries of anarchy and

ignorance. On the revival of learning, the students, who had been formed in the schools of Athens and Rome,

disdained their Barbarian ancestors; and a long period elapsed before patient labor could provide the requisite

materials to satisfy, or rather to excite, the curiosity of more enlightened times. ^63 At length the eye of

criticism and philosophy was directed to the antiquities of France; but even philosophers have been tainted by

the contagion of prejudice and passion. The most extreme and exclusive systems, of the personal servitude of

the Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks, have been rashly conceived, and

obstinately defended; and the intemperate disputants have accused each other of conspiring against the

prerogative of the crown, the dignity of the nobles, or the freedom of the people. Yet the sharp conflict has

usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and genius; and each antagonist, alternately vanquished and

victorious has extirpated some ancient errors, and established some interesting truths. An impartial stranger,

instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same original

materials, the state of the Roman provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the

[Footnote 63: The Abbe Dubos (Histoire Critique, tom. i. p. 29 36) has truly and agreeably represented the

slow progress of these studies; and he observes, that Gregory of Tours was only once printed before the year

1560. According to the complaint of Heineccius, (Opera, tom. iii. Sylloge, iii. p. 248, Germany received with

indifference and contempt the codes of Barbaric laws, which were published by Heroldus, Lindenbrogius, At

present those laws, (as far as they relate to Gaul,) the history of Gregory of Tours, and all the monuments of

the Merovingian race, appear in a pure and perfect state, in the first four volumes of the Historians of France.]

[Footnote 64: In the space of [about] thirty years (17281765) this interesting subject has been agitated by

the free spirit of the count de Boulainvilliers, (Memoires Historiques sur l'Etat de la France, particularly tom.

i. p. 15 49;) the learned ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos, (Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie

Francoise dans les Gaules, 2 vols. in 4to;) the comprehensive genius of the president de Montesquieu, (Esprit

des Loix, particularly l. xxviii. xxx. xxxi.;) and the good sense and diligence of the Abbe de Mably,

The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society, is regulated, however, by some fixed and general

rules. When Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some permanent

maxims, or customs, of public and private life, which were preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction

of the art of writing, and of the Latin tongue. ^65 Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most

powerful tribe, or nation, of the Franks, appointed four venerable chieftains to compose the Salic laws; ^66

and their labors were examined and approved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the baptism

of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with Christianity: the Salic law was again

amended by his sons; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its

actual form, one hundred years after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the

customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and published; and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age

and country, had accurately studied the two national laws, which still prevailed among the Franks. ^67 The

same care was extended to their vassals; and the rude institutions of the Alemanni and Bavarians were

diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and

Burgundians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, showed less impatience to attain one of

the principal benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes who expressed, in writing,

the manners and customs of his people; and the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy

rather than of justice; to alleviate the yoke, and regain the affections, of their Gallic subjects. ^68 Thus, by a

singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless institutions, at a time when the elaborate system of

Roman jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws, and the Pandects of Justinian, we may

compare the first rudiments, and the full maturity, of civil wisdom; and whatever prejudices may be

suggested in favor of Barbarism, our calmer reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages,

not only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Yet the laws ^* of the Barbarians were adapted to

their wants and desires, their occupations and their capacity; and they all contributed to preserve the peace,

and promote the improvement, of the society for whose use they were originally established. The

Merovingians, instead of imposing a uniform rule of conduct on their various subjects, permitted each people,

and each family, of their empire, freely to enjoy their domestic institutions; ^69 nor were the Romans

excluded from the common benefits of this legal toleration. ^70 The children embraced the law of their

parents, the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his patron; and in all causes where the parties were

of different nations, the plaintiff or accuser was obliged to follow the tribunal of the defendant, who may

always plead a judicial presumption of right, or innocence. A more ample latitude was allowed, if every

citizen, in the presence of the judge, might declare the law under which he desired to live, and the national

society to which he chose to belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial distinctions of victory: and

the Roman provincials might patiently acquiesce in the hardships of their condition; since it depended on

themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the character, of free and warlike Barbarians. ^71

[Footnote 65: I have derived much instruction from two learned works of Heineccius, the History, and the

Elements, of the Germanic law. In a judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse the

[Footnote 66: Latin appears to have been the original language of the Salic law. It was probably composed in

the beginning of the fifth century, before the era (A.D. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond. The preface

mentions the four cantons which produced the four legislators; and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony,

Hanover, Brabant, have claimed them as their own. See an excellent Dissertation of Heinecties de Lege

Note: The relative antiquity of the two copies of the Salic law has been contested with great learning and

ingenuity. The work of M. Wiarda, History and Explanation of the Salic Law, Bremen, 1808, asserts that

what is called the Lex Antiqua, or Vetustior in which many German words are mingled with the Latin, has no

claim to superior antiquity, and may be suspected to be more modern. M. Wiarda has been opposed by M.

Fuer bach, who maintains the higher age of the "ancient" Code, which has been greatly corrupted by the

transcribers. See Guizot, Cours de l'Histoire Moderne, vol. i. sect. 9: and the preface to the useful

republication of five of the different texts of the Salic law, with that of the Ripuarian in parallel columns. By

[Footnote 67: Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, c. 29, in tom. v. p. 100. By these two laws, most critics

understand the Salic and the Ripuarian. The former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire, (tom.

iv. p. 151,) and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rhine, (tom. iv. p. 222.)]

[Footnote 68: Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several codes, in the fourth volume of the

Historians of France. The original prologue to the Salic law expresses (though in a foreign dialect) the

genuine spirit of the Franks more forcibly than the ten books of Gregory of Tours.]

[Footnote 69: The Ripuarian law declares, and defines, this indulgence in favor of the plaintiff, (tit. xxxi. in

tom. iv. p. 240;) and the same toleration is understood, or expressed, in all the codes, except that of the

Visigoths of Spain. Tanta diversitas legum (says Agobard in the ninth century) quanta non solum in

regionibus, aut civitatibus, sed etiam in multis domibus habetur. Nam plerumque contingit ut simul eant aut

sedeant quinque homines, et nullus eorum communem legem cum altero habeat, (in tom. vi. p. 356.) He

Note: It is the object of the important work of M. Savigny, Geschichte des Romisches Rechts in Mittelalter,

[Footnote *: The most complete collection of these codes is in the "Barbarorum leges antiquae," by P.

[Footnote 70: Inter Romanos negotia causarum Romanis legibus praecipimus terminari. Such are the words

of a general constitution promulgated by Clotaire, the son of Clovis, the sole monarch of the Franks (in tom.

[Footnote 71: This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. 2) from the

constitution of Lothaire I. (Leg. Langobard. l. ii. tit. lvii. in Codex Lindenbrog. p. 664;) though the example is

too recent and partial. From a various reading in the Salic law, (tit. xliv. not. xlv.) the Abbe de Mably (tom. i.

p. 290 293) has conjectured, that, at first, a Barbarian only, and afterwards any man, (consequently a

Roman,) might live according to the law of the Franks. I am sorry to offend this ingenious conjecture by

observing, that the stricter sense (Barbarum) is expressed in the reformed copy of Charlemagne; which is

confirmed by the Royal and Wolfenbuttle MSS. The looser interpretation (hominem) is authorized only by

the MS. of Fulda, from from whence Heroldus published his edition. See the four original texts of the Salic

Note: Gibbon appears to have doubted the evidence on which this "liberty of choice" rested. His doubts have

been confirmed by the researches of M. Savigny, who has not only confuted but traced with convincing

sagacity the origin and progress of this error. As a general principle, though liable to some exceptions, each

Note: This constitution of Lothaire at first related only to the duchy of Rome; it afterwards found its way into

When justice inexorably requires the death of a murderer, each private citizen is fortified by the assurance,

that the laws, the magistrate, and the whole community, are the guardians of his personal safety. But in the

loose society of the Germans, revenge was always honorable, and often meritorious: the independent warrior

chastised, or vindicated, with his own hand, the injuries which he had offered or received; and he had only to

dread the resentment of the sons and kinsmen of the enemy, whom he had sacrificed to his selfish or angry

passions. The magistrate, conscious of his weakness, interposed, not to punish, but to reconcile; and he was

satisfied if he could persuade or compel the contending parties to pay and to accept the moderate fine which

had been ascertained as the price of blood. ^72 The fierce spirit of the Franks would have opposed a more

rigorous sentence; the same fierceness despised these ineffectual restraints; and, when their simple manners

had been corrupted by the wealth of Gaul, the public peace was continually violated by acts of hasty or

deliberate guilt. In every just government the same penalty is inflicted, or at least is imposed, for the murder

of a peasant or a prince. But the national inequality established by the Franks, in their criminal proceedings,

was the last insult and abuse of conquest. ^73 In the calm moments of legislation, they solemnly pronounced,

that the life of a Roman was of smaller value than that of a Barbarian. The Antrustion, ^74 a name expressive

of the most illustrious birth or dignity among the Franks, was appreciated at the sum of six hundred pieces of

gold; while the noble provincial, who was admitted to the king's table, might be legally murdered at the

expense of three hundred pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient for a Frank of ordinary condition; but

the meaner Romans were exposed to disgrace and danger by a trifling compensation of one hundred, or even

fifty, pieces of gold. Had these laws been regulated by any principle of equity or reason, the public protection

should have supplied, in just proportion, the want of personal strength. But the legislator had weighed in the

scale, not of justice, but of policy, the loss of a soldier against that of a slave: the head of an insolent and

rapacious Barbarian was guarded by a heavy fine; and the slightest aid was afforded to the most defenceless

subjects. Time insensibly abated the pride of the conquerors and the patience of the vanquished; and the

boldest citizen was taught, by experience, that he might suffer more injuries than he could inflict. As the

manners of the Franks became less ferocious, their laws were rendered more severe; and the Merovingian

kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigor of the Visigoths and Burgundians. ^75 Under the empire of

Charlemagne, murder was universally punished with death; and the use of capital punishments has been

[Footnote 72: In the heroic times of Greece, the guilt of murder was expiated by a pecuniary satisfaction to

the family of the deceased, (Feithius Antiquitat. Homeric. l. ii. c. 8.) Heineccius, in his preface to the

Elements of Germanic Law, favorably suggests, that at Rome and Athens homicide was only punished with

exile. It is true: but exile was a capital punishment for a citizen of Rome or Athens.]

[Footnote 73: This proportion is fixed by the Salic (tit. xliv. in tom. iv. p. 147) and the Ripuarian (tit. vii. xi.

xxxvi. in tom. iv. p. 237, 241) laws: but the latter does not distinguish any difference of Romans. Yet the

orders of the clergy are placed above the Franks themselves, and the Burgundians and Alemanni between the

[Footnote 74: The Antrustiones, qui in truste Dominica sunt, leudi, fideles, undoubtedly represent the first

order of Franks; but it is a question whether their rank was personal or hereditary. The Abbe de Mably (tom.

i. p. 334 347) is not displeased to mortify the pride of birth (Esprit, l. xxx. c. 25) by dating the origin of the

[Footnote 75: See the Burgundian laws, (tit. ii. in tom. iv. p. 257,) the code of the Visigoths, (l. vi. tit. v. in

tom. p. 384,) and the constitution of Childebert, not of Paris, but most evidently of Austrasia, (in tom. iv. p.

112.) Their premature severity was sometimes rash, and excessive. Childebert condemned not only murderers

but robbers; quomodo sine lege involavit, sine lege moriatur; and even the negligent judge was involved in

the same sentence. The Visigoths abandoned an unsuccessful surgeon to the family of his deceased patient, ut

quod de eo facere voluerint habeant potestatem, (l. xi. tit. i. in tom. iv. p. 435.)]

[Footnote 76: See, in the sixth volume of the works of Heineccius, the Elementa Juris Germanici, l. ii. p. 2,

No. 261, 262, 280 283. Yet some vestiges of these pecuniary compositions for murder have been traced in

The civil and military professions, which had been separated by Constantine, were again united by the

Barbarians. The harsh sound of the Teutonic appellations was mollified into the Latin titles of Duke, of

Count, or of Praefect; and the same officer assumed, within his district, the command of the troops, and the

administration of justice. ^77 But the fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified to discharge the

duties of a judge, which required all the faculties of a philosophic mind, laboriously cultivated by experience

and study; and his rude ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple, and visible, methods of

ascertaining the cause of justice. In every religion, the Deity has been invoked to confirm the truth, or to

punish the falsehood of human testimony; but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abused by the

simplicity of the German legislators. The party accused might justify his innocence, by producing before their

tribunal a number of friendly witnesses, who solemnly declared their belief, or assurance, that he was not

guilty. According to the weight of the charge, this legal number of compurgators was multiplied;

seventytwo voices were required to absolve an incendiary or assassin: and when the chastity of a queen of

France was suspected, three hundred gallant nobles swore, without hesitation, that the infant prince had been

actually begotten by her deceased husband. ^78 The sin and scandal of manifest and frequent perjuries

engaged the magistrates to remove these dangerous temptations; and to supply the defects of human

testimony by the famous experiments of fire and water. These extraordinary trials were so capriciously

contrived, that, in some cases, guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved without the interposition of

a miracle. Such miracles were really provided by fraud and credulity; the most intricate causes were

determined by this easy and infallible method, and the turbulent Barbarians, who might have disdained the

[Footnote 77: The whole subject of the Germanic judges, and their jurisdiction, is copiously treated by

Heineccius, (Element. Jur. Germ. l. iii. No. 1 72.) I cannot find any proof that, under the Merovingian race,

Note: The question of the scabini is treated at considerable length by Savigny. He questions the existence of

the scabini anterior to Charlemagne. Before this time the decision was by an open court of the freemen, the

[Footnote 78: Gregor. Turon. l. viii. c. 9, in tom. ii. p. 316. Montesquieu observes, (Esprit des Loix. l. xxviii.

c. 13,) that the Salic law did not admit these negative proofs so universally established in the Barbaric codes.

Yet this obscure concubine (Fredegundis,) who became the wife of the grandson of Clovis, must have

[Footnote 79: Muratori, in the Antiquities of Italy, has given two Dissertations (xxxvii. xxxix.) on the

judgments of God. It was expected that fire would not burn the innocent; and that the pure element of water

But the trials by single combat gradually obtained superior credit and authority, among a warlike people, who

could not believe that a brave man deserved to suffer, or that a coward deserved to live. ^80 Both in civil and

criminal proceedings, the plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or even the witness, were exposed to mortal

challenge from the antagonist who was destitute of legal proofs; and it was incumbent on them either to

desert their cause, or publicly to maintain their honor, in the lists of battle. They fought either on foot, or on

horseback, according to the custom of their nation; ^81 and the decision of the sword, or lance, was ratified

by the sanction of Heaven, of the judge, and of the people. This sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by

the Burgundians; and their legislator Gundobald ^82 condescended to answer the complaints and objections

of his subject Avitus. "Is it not true," said the king of Burgundy to the bishop, "that the event of national

wars, and private combats, is directed by the judgment of God; and that his providence awards the victory to

the juster cause?" By such prevailing arguments, the absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had

been peculiar to some tribes of Germany, was propagated and established in all the monarchies of Europe,

from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of ten centuries, the reign of legal violence was not totally extinguished;

and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes, and of synods, may seem to prove, that the influence of

superstition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with reason and humanity. The tribunals were stained with

the blood, perhaps, of innocent and respectable citizens; the law, which now favors the rich, then yielded to

the strong; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm, were condemned, either to renounce their fairest claims and

possessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal conflict, ^83 or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary

champion. This oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of Gaul, who complained of any

injuries in their persons and property. Whatever might be the strength, or courage, of individuals, the

victorious Barbarians excelled in the love and exercise of arms; and the vanquished Roman was unjustly

summoned to repeat, in his own person, the bloody contest which had been already decided against his

country. ^84 [Footnote 80: Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 17) has condescended to explain and

excuse "la maniere de penser de nos peres," on the subject of judicial combats. He follows this strange

institution from the age of Gundobald to that of St. Lewis; and the philosopher is some times lost in the legal

[Footnote 81: In a memorable duel at AixlaChapelle, (A.D. 820,) before the emperor Lewis the Pious, his

biographer observes, secundum legem propriam, utpote quia uterque Gothus erat, equestri pugna est, (Vit.

Lud. Pii, c. 33, in tom. vi. p. 103.) Ermoldus Nigellus, (l. iii. 543 628, in tom. vi. p. 48 50,) who describes

the duel, admires the ars nova of fighting on horseback, which was unknown to the Franks.]

[Footnote 82: In his original edict, published at Lyons, (A.D. 501,) establishes and justifies the use of judicial

combat,) Les Burgund. tit. xlv. in tom. ii. p. 267, 268.) Three hundred years afterwards, Agobard, bishop of

Lyons, solicited Lewis the Pious to abolish the law of an Arian tyrant, (in tom. vi. p. 356 358.) He relates

[Footnote 83: "Accidit, (says Agobard,) ut non solum valentes viribus, sed etiam infirmi et senes lacessantur

ad pugnam, etiam pro vilissimis rebus. Quibus foralibus certaminibus contingunt homicidia injusta; et

crudeles ac perversi eventus judiciorum. Like a prudent rhetorician, he suppresses the legal privilege of hiring

[Footnote 84: Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, xxviii. c. 14,) who understands why the judicial combat was

admitted by the Burgundians, Ripuarians, Alemanni, Bavarians, Lombards, Thuringians, Frisons, and

Saxons, is satisfied (and Agobard seems to countenance the assertion) that it was not allowed by the Salic

law. Yet the same custom, at least in case of treason, is mentioned by Ermoldus, Nigellus (l. iii. 543, in tom.

vi. p. 48,) and the anonymous biographer of Lewis the Pious, (c. 46, in tom. vi. p. 112,) as the "mos antiquus

Francorum, more Francis solito," expressions too general to exclude the noblest of their tribes.]

A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand Germans had formerly passed the Rhine under the

command of Ariovistus. One third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was appropriated to their use; and

the conqueror soon repeated his oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony

of twentyfour thousand Barbarians, whom he had invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul. ^85 At the

distance of five hundred years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of Ariovistus,

usurped the same unequal proportion of two thirds of the subject lands. But this distribution, instead of

spreading over the province, may be reasonably confined to the peculiar districts where the victorious people

had been planted by their own choice, or by the policy of their leader. In these districts, each Barbarian was

connected by the ties of hospitality with some Roman provincial. To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor

was compelled to abandon two thirds of his patrimony, but the German, a shepherd and a hunter, might

sometimes content himself with a spacious range of wood and pasture, and resign the smallest, though most

valuable, portion, to the toil of the industrious husbandman. ^86 The silence of ancient and authentic

testimony has encouraged an opinion, that the rapine of the Franks was not moderated, or disguised, by the

forms of a legal division; that they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul, without order or control;

and that each victorious robber, according to his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword

the extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sovereign, the Barbarians might indeed be tempted

to exercise such arbitrary depredation; but the firm and artful policy of Clovis must curb a licentious spirit,

which would aggravate the misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the

conquerors. ^* The memorable vase of Soissons is a monument and a pledge of the regular distribution of the

Gallic spoils. It was the duty and the interest of Clovis to provide rewards for a successful army, settlements

for a numerous people; without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries on the loyal Catholics of Gaul.

The ample fund, which he might lawfully acquire, of the Imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and Gothic

usurpations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and confiscation, and the humble provincials

would more patiently acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their loss. ^87

[Footnote 86: The obscure hints of a division of lands occasionally scattered in the laws of the Burgundians,

(tit. liv. No. 1, 2, in tom. iv. p. 271, 272,) and Visigoths, (l. x. tit. i. No. 8, 9, 16, in tom. iv. p. 428, 429, 430,)

are skillfully explained by the president Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 7, 8, 9.) I shall only add,

that among the Goths, the division seems to have been ascertained by the judgment of the neighborhood, that

the Barbarians frequently usurped the remaining third; and that the Romans might recover their right, unless

[Footnote *: Sismondi (Hist des Francais, vol. i. p. 197) observes, they were not a conquering people, who

had emigrated with their families, like the Goths or Burgundians. The women, the children, the old, had not

followed Clovis: they remained in their ancient possessions on the Waal and the Rhine. The adventurers

alone had formed the invading force, and they always considered themselves as an army, not as a colony.

Hence their laws retained no traces of the partition of the Roman properties. It is curious to observe the recoil

from the national vanity of the French historians of the last century. M. Sismondi compares the position of

the Franks with regard to the conquered people with that of the Dey of Algiers and his corsair troops to the

peaceful inhabitants of that province: M. Thierry (Lettres sur l'Histoire de France, p. 117) with that of the

[Footnote 87: It is singular enough that the president de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 7) and the

Abbe de Mably (Observations, tom i. p. 21, 22) agree in this strange supposition of arbitrary and private

rapine. The Count de Boulainvilliers (Etat de la France, tom. i. p. 22, 23) shows a strong understanding

Note: Sismondi supposes that the Barbarians, if a farm were conveniently situated, would show no great

respect for the laws of property; but in general there would have been vacant land enough for the lots

The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they

still delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; the cities were abandoned to solitude and decay; and

their coins, their charters, and their synods, are still inscribed with the names of the villas, or rural palaces, in

which they successively resided. One hundred and sixty of these palaces, a title which need not excite any

unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, were scattered through the provinces of their kingdom; and if some might

claim the honors of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable farms. The

mansion of the longhaired kings was surrounded with convenient yards and stables, for the cattle and the

poultry; the garden was planted with useful vegetables; the various trades, the labors of agriculture, and even

the arts of hunting and fishing, were exercised by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign; his

magazines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or consumption; and the whole administration was

conducted by the strictest maxims of private economy. ^88 This ample patrimony was appropriated to supply

the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his successors; and to reward the fidelity of their brave companions who,

both in peace and war, were devoted to their persona service. Instead of a horse, or a suit of armor, each

companion, according to his rank, or merit, or favor, was invested with a benefice, the primitive name, and

most simple form, of the feudal possessions. These gifts might be resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign;

and his feeble prerogative derived some support from the influence of his liberality. ^* But this dependent

tenure was gradually abolished ^89 by the independent and rapacious nobles of France, who established the

perpetual property, and hereditary succession, of their benefices; a revolution salutary to the earth, which had

been injured, or neglected, by its precarious masters. ^90 Besides these royal and beneficiary estates, a large

proportion had been assigned, in the division of Gaul, of allodial and Salic lands: they were exempt from

tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male descendants of the Franks. ^91 [Footnote 88:

See the rustic edict, or rather code, of Charlemagne, which contains seventy distinct and minute regulations

of that great monarch (in tom. v. p. 652 657.) He requires an account of the horns and skins of the goats,

allows his fish to be sold, and carefully directs, that the larger villas (Capitaneoe) shall maintain one hundred

hens and thirty geese; and the smaller (Mansionales) fifty hens and twelve geese. Mabillon (de Re

Diplomatica) has investigated the names, the number, and the situation of the Merovingian villas.]

[Footnote *: The resumption of benefices at the pleasure of the sovereign, (the general theory down to his

time,) is ably contested by Mr. Hallam; "for this resumption some delinquency must be imputed to the

vassal." Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 162. The reader will be interested by the singular analogies with the beneficial

and feudal system of Europe in a remote part of the world, indicated by Col. Tod in his splendid work on

[Footnote 89: From a passage of the Burgundian law (tit. i. No. 4, in tom. iv. p. 257) it is evident, that a

deserving son might expect to hold the lands which his father had received from the royal bounty of

Gundobald. The Burgundians would firmly maintain their privilege, and their example might encourage the

[Footnote 90: The revolutions of the benefices and fiefs are clearly fixed by the Abbe de Mably. His accurate

distinction of times gives him a merit to which even Montesquieu is a stranger.]

[Footnote 91: See the Salic law, (tit. lxii. in tom. iv. p. 156.) The origin and nature of these Salic lands,

which, in times of ignorance, were perfectly understood, now perplex our most learned and sagacious critics.

Note: No solution seems more probable, than that the ancient lawgivers of the Salic Franks prohibited

females from inheriting the lands assigned to the nation, upon its conquest of Gaul, both in compliance with

their ancient usages, and in order to secure the military service of every proprietor. But lands subsequently

acquired by purchase or other means, though equally bound to the public defence, were relieved from the

severity of this rule, and presumed not to belong to the class of Sallic. Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 145.

In the bloody discord and silent decay of the Merovingian line, a new order of tyrants arose in the provinces,

who, under the appellation of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right to govern, and a license to oppress, the

subjects of their peculiar territory. Their ambition might be checked by the hostile resistance of an equal: but

the laws were extinguished; and the sacrilegious Barbarians, who dared to provoke the vengeance of a saint

or bishop, ^92 would seldom respect the landmarks of a profane and defenceless neighbor. The common or

public rights of nature, such as they had always been deemed by the Roman jurisprudence, ^93 were severely

restrained by the German conquerors, whose amusement, or rather passion, was the exercise of hunting. The

vague dominion which Man has assumed over the wild inhabitants of the earth, the air, and the waters, was

confined to some fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was again overspread with woods; and the

animals, who were reserved for the use or pleasure of the lord, might ravage with impunity the fields of his

industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian

transgressors were legally chastised with stripes and imprisonment; ^94 but in an age which admitted a slight

composition for the life of a citizen, it was a capital crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts

of the royal forests. ^95 [Footnote 92: Many of the two hundred and six miracles of St. Martin (Greg Turon.

in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xi. p. 896 932) were repeatedly performed to punish sacrilege. Audite

haec omnes (exclaims the bishop of Tours) protestatem habentes, after relating, how some horses ran mad,

[Footnote 94: Jonas, bishop of Orleans, (A.D. 821 826. Cave, Hist. Litteraria, p. 443,) censures the legal

tyranny of the nobles. Pro feris, quas cura hominum non aluit, sed Deus in commune mortalibus ad utendum

concessit, pauperes a potentioribus spoliantur, flagellantur, ergastulis detruduntur, et multa alia patiuntur. Hoc

enim qui faciunt, lege mundi se facere juste posse contendant. De Institutione Laicorum, l. ii. c. 23, apud

[Footnote 95: On a mere suspicion, Chundo, a chamberlain of Gontram, king of Burgundy, was stoned to

death, (Greg. Turon. l. x. c. 10, in tom. ii. p. 369.) John of Salisbury (Policrat. l. i. c. 4) asserts the rights of

nature, and exposes the cruel practice of the twelfth century. See Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Germ. l. ii. p. 1, No.

According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror became the lawful master of the enemy whom he had

subdued and spared: ^96 and the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which had been almost suppressed by the

peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived and multiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the

independent Barbarians. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned from a successful expedition,

dragged after him a long train of sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, whom he treated with the same

brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant form and an ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic

service; a doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the favorable or cruel impulse of passion. The

useful mechanics and servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen

in gold and silver, employed their skill for the use, or profit, of their master. But the Roman captives, who

were destitute of art, but capable of labor, were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to tend the

cattle and cultivate the lands of the Barbarians. The number of the hereditary bondsmen, who were attached

to the Gallic estates, was continually increased by new supplies; and the servile people, according to the

situation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently

depressed by capricious despotism. ^97 An absolute power of life and death was exercised by these lords; and

when they married their daughters, a train of useful servants, chained on the wagons to prevent their escape,

was sent as a nuptial present into a distant country. ^98 The majesty of the Roman laws protected the liberty

of each citizen, against the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian

kings might alienate their personal freedom; and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is

expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity of human nature. ^99 The example of the

poor, who purchased life by the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was gradually imitated by the

feeble and the devout, who, in times of public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter themselves under

the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted

by these temporal or spiritual patrons; and the hasty transaction irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and

that of their latest posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive centuries, the laws and manners

of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of personal servitude. Time

and violence almost obliterated the intermediate ranks of society; and left an obscure and narrow interval

between the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has been transformed by pride and

prejudice into a national distinction, universally established by the arms and the laws of the Merovingians.

The nobles, who claimed their genuine or fabulous descent from the independent and victorious Franks, have

asserted and abused the indefeasible right of conquest over a prostrate crowd of slaves and plebeians, to

[Footnote 96: The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was totally extinguished in the thirteenth century, by

the prevailing influence of Christianity; but it might be proved, from frequent passages of Gregory of Tours,

that it was practised, without censure, under the Merovingian race; and even Grotius himself, (de Jure Belli et

Pacis l. iii. c. 7,) as well as his commentator Barbeyrac, have labored to reconcile it with the laws of nature

[Footnote 97: The state, professions, of the German, Italian, and Gallic slaves, during the middle ages, are

explained by Heineccius, (Element Jur. Germ. l. i. No. 28 47,) Muratori, (Dissertat. xiv. xv.,) Ducange,

(Gloss. sub voce Servi,) and the Abbe de Mably, (Observations, tom. ii. p. 3, p. 237,

[Footnote 98: Gregory of Tours (l. vi. c. 45, in tom. ii. p. 289) relates a memorable example, in which

Chilperic only abused the private rights of a master. Many families which belonged to his domus fiscales in

[Footnote 99: Licentiam habeatis mihi qualemcunque volueritis disciplinam ponere; vel venumdare, aut quod

vobis placuerit de me facere Marculf. Formul. l. ii. 28, in tom. iv. p. 497. The Formula of Lindenbrogius, (p.

559,) and that of Anjou, (p. 565,) are to the same effect Gregory of Tours (l. vii. c. 45, in tom. ii. p. 311)

The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated

by the particular example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly maintained

a just preeminence among the independent states and cities of Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants

displayed a singular trophy; the sword of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the

walls of Gergovia. ^100 As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a fraternal alliance with the

Romans; ^101 and if each province had imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the Western

empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly

sworn to the Visigoths, out when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle of Poitiers, they accepted,

without resistance, a victorious and Catholic sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved and

possessed by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis: but the remote province was separated from his Austrasian

dominions, by the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which formed, after their father's

death, the inheritance of his three brothers. The king of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the neighborhood

and beauty of Auvergne. ^102 The Upper country, which rises towards the south into the mountains of the

Cevennes, presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures; the sides of the hills were clothed

with vines; and each eminence was crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the River Allier

flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne; and the inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and

still supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repetition of the same harvests. ^103 On the false

report, that their lawful sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed

by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris. Childebert enjoyed this clandestine victory; and the free subjects of

Theodoric threatened to desert his standard, if he indulged his private resentment, while the nation was

engaged in the Burgundian war. But the Franks of Austrasia soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of their

king. "Follow me," said Theodoric, "into Auvergne; I will lead you into a province, where you may acquire

gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious apparel, to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise; I give

you the people and their wealth as your prey; and you may transport them at pleasure into your own country."

By the execution of this promise, Theodoric justly forfeited the allegiance of a people whom he devoted to

destruction. His troops, reenforced by the fiercest Barbarians of Germany, ^104 spread desolation over the

fruitful face of Auvergne; and two places only, a strong castle and a holy shrine, were saved or redeemed

from their licentious fury. The castle of Meroliac ^105 was seated on a lofty rock, which rose a hundred feet

above the surface of the plain; and a large reservoir of fresh water was enclosed, with some arable lands,

within the circle of its fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair this impregnable fortress; but

they surprised a party of fifty stragglers; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their captives, they

fixed, at a trifling ransom, the alternative of life or death for these wretched victims, whom the cruel

Baroarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as

Brivas, or Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had taken refuge in the sanctuary of St.

Julian. The doors of the church resisted the assault; but a daring soldier entered through a window of the

choir, and opened a passage to his companions. The clergy and people, the sacred and the profane spoils,

were rudely torn from the altar; and the sacrilegious division was made at a small distance from the town of

Brioude. But this act of impiety was severely chastised by the devout son of Clovis. He punished with death

the most atrocious offenders; left their secret accomplices to the vengeance of St. Julian; released the

captives; restored the plunder; and extended the rights of sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy

martyr. ^106 [Footnote 100: When Caesar saw it, he laughed, (Plutarch. in Caesar. in tom. i. p. 409:) yet he

relates his unsuccessful siege of Gergovia with less frankness than we might expect from a great man to

whom victory was familiar. He acknowledges, however, that in one attack he lost fortysix centurions and

[Footnote 101: Audebant se quondam fatres Latio dicere, et sanguine ab Iliaco populos computare, (Sidon.

Apollinar. l. vii. epist. 7, in tom i. p. 799.) I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this

[Footnote 102: Either the first, or second, partition among the sons of Clovis, had given Berry to Childebert,

(Greg. Turon. l. iii. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 192.) Velim (said he) Arvernam Lemanem, quae tanta jocunditatis

gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis cernere, (l. iii. c. p. 191.) The face of the country was concealed by a thick fog,

[Footnote 103: For the description of Auvergne, see Sidonius, (l. iv. epist. 21, in tom. i. p. 703,) with the

notes of Savaron and Sirmond, (p. 279, and 51, of their respective editions.) Boulainvilliers, (Etat de la

France, tom. ii. p. 242 268,) and the Abbe de la Longuerue, (Description de la France, part i. p. 132 139.)]

[Footnote 104; Furorem gentium, quae de ulteriore Rheni amnis parte venerant, superare non poterat, (Greg.

Turon. l. iv. c. 50, in tom. ii. 229.) was the excuse of another king of Austrasia (A.D. 574) for the ravages

[Footnote 105: From the name and situation, the Benedictine editors of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 192)

have fixed this fortress at a place named Castel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac, in the Upper Auvergne. In

this description, I translate infra as if I read intra; the two are perpetually confounded by Gregory, or his

[Footnote 106: See these revolutions, and wars, of Auvergne, in Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 37, in tom. ii. p.

183, and l. iii. c. 9, 12, 13, p. 191, 192, de Miraculis St. Julian. c. 13, in tom. ii. p. 466.) He frequently betrays

Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric exacted some pledges of the future loyalty

of a people, whose just hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band of noble youths, the sons

of the principal senators, was delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of Childebert, and of

their countrymen. On the first rumor of war, or conspiracy, these guiltless youths were reduced to a state of

servitude; and one of them, Attalus, ^107 whose adventures are more particularly related, kept his master's

horses in the diocese of Treves. After a painful search, he was discovered, in this unworthy occupation, by

the emissaries of his grandfather, Gregory bishop of Langres; but his offers of ransom were sternly rejected

by the avarice of the Barbarian, who required an exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his

noble captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy stratagem of Leo, an item belonging to the kitchens

of the bishop of Langres. ^108 An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family. The Barbarian

purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of gold; and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in

the luxury of an episcopal table: "Next Sunday," said the Frank, "I shall invite my neighbors and kinsmen.

Exert thy art, and force them to confess, that they have never seen, or tasted, such an entertainment, even in

the king's house." Leo assured him, that if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes

should be satisfied. The master who already aspired to the merit of elegant hospitality, assumed, as his own,

the praise which the voracious guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the dexterous Leo insensibly

acquired the trust and management of his household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he

cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the

hour of midnight, the intemperate guests retired from the table; and the Frank's soninlaw, whom Leo

attended to his apartment with a nocturnal potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he might

betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this dangerous raillery, entered his master's bedchamber;

removed his spear and shield; silently drew the fleetest horses from the stable; unbarred the ponderous gates;

and excited Attalus to save his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions urged them to

leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse; ^109 they swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent

forest, and subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild plumtree. As they lay concealed in a dark

thicket, they heard the noise of horses; they were terrified by the angry countenance of their master, and they

anxiously listened to his declaration, that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would cut in

pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on a gibbet. A length, Attalus and his faithful Leo reached

the friendly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting strength with bread and wine,

concealed them from the search of their enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the limits of the

Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal palace of Langres. Gregory embraced his grandson with tears of joy,

gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him the

property of a farm, where he might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this singular adventure,

which is marked with so many circumstances of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his

cousin or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours ^110 was born about sixty years after

the death of Sidonius Apollinaris; and their situation was almost similar, since each of them was a native of

Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express the

decay of Gaul; and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mind had lost of its energy and

[Footnote 107: The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of Tours, (l. iii. c. 16, tom. ii. p. 193 195.) His

editor, the P. Ruinart, confounds this Attalus, who was a youth (puer) in the year 532, with a friend of

Silonius of the same name, who was count of Autun, fifty or sixty years before. Such an error, which cannot

[Footnote 108: This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of Tours, (in tom. ii. p. 197, 490,) lived

ninetytwo years; of which he passed forty as count of Autun, and thirtytwo as bishop of Langres.

According to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal merit in these different stations.

Nobilis antiqua decurrens prole parentum, Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. Arbiter ante ferox, dein

[Footnote 109: As M. de Valois, and the P. Ruinart, are determined to change the Mosella of the text into

Mosa, it becomes me to acquiesce in the alteration. Yet, after some examination of the topography. I could

[Footnote 110: The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius Georgius) were of noble extraction, (natalibus

... illustres,) and they possessed large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born in the

year 539, was consecrated bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 593 or 595, soon after he had terminated his

history. See his life by Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in tom. ii. p. 129 135,) and a new Life in the Memoires de

[Footnote 111: Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cultura literarum, (in

praefat. in tom. ii. p. 137,) is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he fully verifies by his own work. His

style is equally devoid of elegance and simplicity. In a conspicuous station, he still remained a stranger to his

own age and country; and in a prolific work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted almost

every thing that posterity desires to learn. I have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of

We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and, perhaps, artful, misrepresentations, which have softened,

or exaggerated, the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the Merovingians. The conquerors

never promulgated any universal edict of servitude, or confiscation; but a degenerate people, who excused

their weakness by the specious names of politeness and peace, was exposed to the arms and laws of the

ferocious Barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, their freedom, and their safety. Their

personal injuries were partial and irregular; but the great body of the Romans survived the revolution, and

still preserved the property, and privileges, of citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use

of the Franks: but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from tribute; ^112 and the same irresistible violence

which swept away the arts and manufactures of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of

Imperial despotism. The Provincials must frequently deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or

Ripuarian laws; but their private life, in the important concerns of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was

still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Roman might freely aspire, or descend, to the title

and character of a Barbarian. The honors of the state were accessible to his ambition: the education and

temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them for the offices of civil government; and, as soon as

emulation had rekindled their military ardor, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or even at the head,

of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt to enumerate the generals and magistrates, whose names ^113

attest the liberal policy of the Merovingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of Patrician,

was successively intrusted to three Romans; and the last, and most powerful, Mummolus, ^114 who

alternately saved and disturbed the monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of Autun, and

left a treasury of thirty talents of gold, and two hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate

Barbarians were excluded, during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the orders, of the

church. ^115 The clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provincials; the haughty Franks fell at the

feet of their subjects, who were dignified with the episcopal character: and the power and riches which had

been lost in war, were insensibly recovered by superstition. ^116 In all temporal affairs, the Theodosian Code

was the universal law of the clergy; but the Barbaric jurisprudence had liberally provided for their personal

safety; a subdeacon was equivalent to two Franks; the antrustion, and priest, were held in similar estimation:

and the life of a bishop was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of nine hundred pieces

of gold. ^117 The Romans communicated to their conquerors the use of the Christian religion and Latin

language; ^118 but their language and their religion had alike degenerated from the simple purity of the

Augustan, and Apostolic age. The progress of superstition and Barbarism was rapid and universal: the

worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of the Christians; and the rustic dialect of peasants

and soldiers was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of sacred and social

communion eradicated the distinctions of birth and victory; and the nations of Gaul were gradually

confounded under the name and government of the Franks. [Footnote 112: The Abbe de Mably (tom. p. i. 247

267) has diligently confirmed this opinion of the President de Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 13.)]

[Footnote 113: See Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Francoise, tom. ii. l. vi. c. 9, 10. The French

antiquarians establish as a principle, that the Romans and Barbarians may be distinguished by their names.

Their names undoubtedly form a reasonable presumption; yet in reading Gregory of Tours, I have observed

Gondulphus, of Senatorian, or Roman, extraction, (l. vi. c. 11, in tom. ii. p. 273,) and Claudius, a Barbarian,

[Footnote 114: Eunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory of Tours, from the fourth (c. 42, p.

224) to the seventh (c. 40, p. 310) book. The computation by talents is singular enough; but if Gregory

attached any meaning to that obsolete word, the treasures of Mummolus must have exceeded 100,000l.

[Footnote 116: The bishop of Tours himself has recorded the complaint of Chilperic, the grandson of Clovis.

Ecce pauper remansit Fiscus noster; ecce divitiae nostrae ad ecclesias sunt translatae; nulli penitus nisi soli

[Footnote 117: See the Ripuarian Code, (tit. xxxvi in tom. iv. p. 241.) The Salic law does not provide for the

safety of the clergy; and we might suppose, on the behalf of the more civilized tribe, that they had not

foreseen such an impious act as the murder of a priest. Yet Praetextatus, archbishop of Rouen, was

assassinated by the order of Queen Fredegundis before the altar, (Greg. Turon. l. viii. c. 31, in tom. ii. p.

[Footnote 118: M. Bonamy (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxiv. p. 582 670) has ascertained

the Lingua Romana Rustica, which, through the medium of the Romance, has gradually been polished into

the actual form of the French language. Under the Carlovingian race, the kings and nobles of France still

The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might have imparted the most valuable of human

gifts, a spirit and system of constitutional liberty. Under a king, hereditary, but limited, the chiefs and

counsellors might have debated at Paris, in the palace of the Caesars: the adjacent field, where the emperors

reviewed their mercenary legions. would have admitted the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors; and

the rude model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany, ^119 might have been polished and

improved by the civil wisdom of the Romans. But the careless Barbarians, secure of their personal

independence, disdained the labor of government: the annual assemblies of the month of March were silently

abolished; and the nation was separated, and almost dissolved, by the conquest of Gaul. ^120 The monarchy

was left without any regular establishment of justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis wanted

resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the legislative and executive powers, which the people had

abdicated: the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample privilege of rapine and murder; and

the love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the

licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of impunity. Seventyfive years after the death of

Clovis, his grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the Gothic possessions of

Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were

excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched, without discipline, under the banners of German, or Gallic,

counts: their attack was feeble and unsuccessful; but the friendly and hostile provinces were desolated with

indiscriminate rage. The cornfields, the villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire: the

inhabitants were massacred, or dragged into captivity; and, in the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these

inhuman savages were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious Gontran reproached the guilt

or neglect of their leaders, and threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and arbitrary execution,

they accused the universal and incurable corruption of the people. "No one," they said, "any longer fears or

respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to do evil, and freely indulges his criminal

inclinations. The most gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash magistrate, who

presumes to censure or restrain his seditious subjects, seldom escapes alive from their revenge." ^121 It has

been reserved for the same nation to expose, by their intemperate vices, the most odious abuse of freedom;

and to supply its loss by the spirit of honor and humanity, which now alleviates and dignifies their obedience

[Footnote 119: Ce beau systeme a ete trouve dans les bois. Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xi. c. 6.]

[Footnote 120: See the Abbe de Mably. Observations, tom. i. p. 34 56. It should seem that the institution of

national assemblies, which are with the French nation, has never been congenial to its temper.]

[Footnote 121: Gregory of Tours (l. viii. c. 30, in tom. ii. p. 325, 326) relates, with much indifference, the

crimes, the reproof, and the apology. Nullus Regem metuit, nullus Ducem, nullus Comitem reveretur; et si

fortassis alicui ista displicent, et ea, pro longaevitate vitae vestrae, emendare conatur, statim seditio in populo,

statim tumultus exoritur, et in tantum unusquisque contra seniorem saeva intentione grassatur, ut vix se credat

[Footnote *: This remarkable passage was published in 1779 M.] The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the

greatest part of their Gallic possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by the easy conquest, and

secure enjoyment, of the provinces of Spain. From the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the

Suevic kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive some national vanity; but the historian of the

Roman empire is neither invited, nor compelled, to pursue the obscure and barren series of their annals. ^122

The Goths of Spain were separated from the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean mountains:

their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to the Germanic tribes, have been already

explained. I have anticipated, in the preceding chapter, the most important of their ecclesiastical events, the

fall of Arianism, and the persecution of the Jews; and it only remains to observe some interesting

circumstances which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom. [Footnote 122:

Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours; the Saxons, or

Angles, a Bede; the Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, But the history of the Visigoths is contained in the short

After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Frank and the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with

equal submission, the inherent evils and the accidental benefits, of superstition. But the prelates of France,

long before the extinction of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting Barbarians.

They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws of temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of

private ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal profession. ^123 The bishops of Spain

respected themselves, and were respected by the public: their indissoluble union disguised their vices, and

confirmed their authority; and the regular discipline of the church introduced peace, order, and stability, into

the government of the state. From the reign of Recared, the first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the

immediate predecessor of the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen national councils were successively convened. The

six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville, Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to their

respective seniority; the assembly was composed of their suffragan bishops, who appeared in person, or by

their proxies; and a place was assigned to the most holy, or opulent, of the Spanish abbots. During the first

three days of the convocation, as long as they agitated the ecclesiastical question of doctrine and discipline,

the profane laity was excluded from their debates; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity.

But, on the morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open for the entrance of the great officers of the

palace, the dukes and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the Gothic nobles, and the decrees

of Heaven were ratified by the consent of the people. The same rules were observed in the provincial

assemblies, the annual synods, which were empowered to hear complaints, and to redress grievances; and a

legal government was supported by the prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The bishops, who, in each

revolution, were prepared to flatter the victorious, and to insult the prostrate labored, with diligence and

success, to kindle the flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above the crown. Yet the national councils

of Toledo, in which the free spirit of the Barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal policy, have

established some prudent laws for the common benefit of the king and people. The vacancy of the throne was

supplied by the choice of the bishops and palatines; and after the failure of the line of Alaric, the regal dignity

was still limited to the pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their lawful prince,

always recommended, and sometimes practised, the duty of allegiance; and the spiritual censures were

denounced on the heads of the impious subjects, who should resist his authority, conspire against his life, or

violate, by an indecent union, the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself, when he ascended the

throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to God and his people, that he would faithfully execute this important

trust. The real or imaginary faults of his administration were subject to the control of a powerful aristocracy;

and the bishops and palatines were guarded by a fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded,

imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the free and public judgment

[Footnote 123: Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and the reformer of Gaul, (in

tom. iv. p. 94.) The fourscore years, which he deplores, of license and corruption, would seem to insinuate

[Footnote 124: The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the most authentic records of the church and

constitution of Spain. The following passages are particularly important, (iii. 17, 18; iv. 75; v. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8; vi.

11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18; vii. 1; xiii. 2 3 6.) I have found Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, xv. 29, and

Annotations, xxvi. and xxxiii.) and Ferreras (Hist. Generale de l'Espagne, tom. ii.) very useful and accurate

One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified the code of laws which had been compiled

by a succession of Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric, to the devout Egica. As long as the Visigoths

themselves were satisfied with the rude customs of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of Aquitain

and Spain in the enjoyment of the Roman law. Their gradual improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in

religion, encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign institutions; and to compose a code of

civil and criminal jurisprudence, for the use of a great and united people. The same obligations, and the same

privileges, were communicated to the nations of the Spanish monarchy; and the conquerors, insensibly

renouncing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of equity, and exalted the Romans to the

participation of freedom. The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation of Spain under the

reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were long separated from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable

difference of religion. After the conversion of Recared had removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the

coasts, both of the Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern emperors; who secretly

excited a discontented people to reject the yoke of the Barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of

Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed most effectually secured by their own

persuasion, that they hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by a revolution; but it has appeared

so natural to oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the praise of

[Footnote 125: The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into twelve books, has been correctly published

by Dom Bouquet, (in tom. iv. p. 273 460.) It has been treated by the President de Montesquieu (Esprit des

Loix, l. xxviii. c. 1) with excessive severity. I dislike the style; I detest the superstition; but I shall presume to

think, that the civil jurisprudence displays a more civilized and enlightened state of society, than that of the

While the kingdom of the Franks and Visigoths were established in Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the

conquest of Britain, the third great diocese of the Praefecture of the West. Since Britain was already separated

from the Roman empire, I might, without reproach, decline a story familiar to the most illiterate, and obscure

to the most learned, of my readers. The Saxons, who excelled in the use of the oar, or the battle axe, were

ignorant of the art which could alone perpetuate the fame of their exploits; the Provincials, relapsing into

barbarism, neglected to describe the ruin of their country; and the doubtful tradition was almost extinguished,

before the missionaries of Rome restored the light of science and Christianity. The declamations of Gildas,

the fragments, or fables, of Nennius, the obscure hints of the Saxon laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical

tales of the venerable Bede, ^126 have been illustrated by the diligence, and sometimes embellished by the

fancy, of succeeding writers, whose works I am not ambitious either to censure or to transcribe. ^127 Yet the

historian of the empire may be tempted to pursue the revolutions of a Roman province, till it vanishes from

his sight; and an Englishman may curiously trace the establishment of the Barbarians, from whom he derives

[Footnote 126: See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. 11 25, p. 4 9, edit. Gale. Nennius, Hist. Britonum, c.

28, 35 65, p. 105 115, edit. Gale. Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentis Angloruml. i. c. 12 16, p. 49 53. c.

22, p. 58, edit. Smith. Chron. Saxonicum, p. 11 23, edit. Gibson. The AngloSaxon laws were published by

Wilkins, London, 1731, in folio; and the Leges Wallicae, by Wotton and Clarke, London, 1730, in folio.]

[Footnote 127: The laborious Mr. Carte, and the ingenious Mr. Whitaker, are the two modern writers to

whom I am principally indebted. The particular historian of Manchester embraces, under that obscure title, a

Note: Add the AngloSaxon History of Mr. S. Turner; and Sir F. Palgrave Sketch of the "Early History of

About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman government, Vortigern appears to have obtained the

supreme, though precarious command of the princes and cities of Britain. That unfortunate monarch has been

almost unanimously condemned for the weak and mischievous policy of inviting ^128 a formidable stranger,

to repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambassadors are despatched, by the gravest historians, to

the coast of Germany: they address a pathetic oration to the general assembly of the Saxons, and those

warlike Barbarians resolve to assist with a fleet and army the suppliants of a distant and unknown island. If

Britain had indeed been unknown to the Saxons, the measure of its calamities would have been less complete.

But the strength of the Roman government could not always guard the maritime province against the pirates

of Germany; the independent and divided states were exposed to their attacks; and the Saxons might

sometimes join the Scots and the Picts, in a tacit, or express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern

could only balance the various perils, which assaulted on every side his throne and his people; and his policy

may deserve either praise or excuse, if he preferred the alliance of those Barbarians, whose naval power

rendered them the most dangerous enemies and the most serviceable allies. Hengist and Horsa, as they ranged

along the Eastern coast with three ships, were engaged, by the promise of an ample stipend, to embrace the

defence of Britain; and their intrepid valor soon delivered the country from the Caledonian invaders. The Isle

of Thanet, a secure and fertile district, was allotted for the residence of these German auxiliaries, and they

were supplied, according to the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and provisions. This favorable

reception encouraged five thousand warriors to embark with their families in seventeen vessels, and the infant

power of Hengist was fortified by this strong and seasonable reenforcement. The crafty Barbarian suggested

to Vortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the neighborhood of the Picts, a colony of faithful allies: a

third fleet of forty ships, under the command of his son and nephew, sailed from Germany, ravaged the

Orkneys, and disembarked a new army on the coast of Northumberland, or Lothian, at the opposite extremity

of the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible to prevent, the impending evils. The two

nations were soon divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons magnified all that they had done

and suffered in the cause of an ungrateful people; while the Britons regretted the liberal rewards which could

not satisfy the avarice of those haughty mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an

irreconcilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms; and if they perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the

security of a feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confidence which sustains the intercourse of peace and war.

[Footnote 128: This invitation, which may derive some countenance from the loose expressions of Gildas and

Bede, is framed into a regular story by Witikind, a Saxon monk of the tenth century, (see Cousin, Hist. de

l'Empire d'Occident, tom. ii. p. 356.) Rapin, and even Hume, have too freely used this suspicious evidence,

without regarding the precise and probable testimony of Tennius: Iterea venerunt tres Chinlae a exilio pulsoe,

[Footnote 129: Nennius imputes to the Saxons the murder of three hundred British chiefs; a crime not

unsuitable to their savage manners. But we are not obliged to believe (see Jeffrey of Monmouth, l. viii. c. 9

12) that Stonehenge is their monument, which the giants had formerly transported from Africa to Ireland, and

Note: Sir f. Palgrave (Hist. of England, p. 36) is inclined to resolve the whole of these stories, as Niebuhr the

older Roman history, into poetry. To the editor they appeared, in early youth, so essentially poetic, as to

justify the rash attempt to embody them in an Epic Poem, called Samor, commenced at Eton, and finished

Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest of Britain, exhorted his countrymen to embrace the glorious

opportunity: he painted in lively colors the fertility of the soil, the wealth of the cities, the pusillanimous

temper of the natives, and the convenient situation of a spacious solitary island, accessible on all sides to the

Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which issued, in the period of a century, from the mouths of the Elbe,

the Weser, and the Rhine, were principally composed of three valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the Jutes,

the old Saxons, and the Angles. The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner of Hengist, assumed the

merit of leading their countrymen in the paths of glory, and of erecting, in Kent, the first independent

kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed to the primitive Saxons; and the common laws and

language of the conquerors are described by the national appellation of a people, which, at the end of four

hundred years, produced the first monarchs of South Britain. The Angles were distinguished by their numbers

and their success; and they claimed the honor of fixing a perpetual name on the country, of which they

occupied the most ample portion. The Barbarians, who followed the hopes of rapine either on the land or sea,

were insensibly blended with this triple confederacy; the Frisians, who had been tempted by their vicinity to

the British shores, might balance, during a short space, the strength and reputation of the native Saxons; the

Danes, the Prussians, the Rugians, are faintly described; and some adventurous Huns, who had wandered as

far as the Baltic, might embark on board the German vessels, for the conquest of a new world. ^130 But this

arduous achievement was not prepared or executed by the union of national powers. Each intrepid chieftain,

according to the measure of his fame and fortunes, assembled his followers; equipped a fleet of three, or

perhaps of sixty, vessels; chose the place of the attack; and conducted his subsequent operations according to

the events of the war, and the dictates of his private interest. In the invasion of Britain many heroes

vanquished and fell; but only seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least maintained, the title of kings.

Seven independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, ^* were founded by the conquerors, and seven families,

one of which has been continued, by female succession, to our present sovereign, derived their equal and

sacred lineage from Woden, the god of war. It has been pretended, that this republic of kings was moderated

by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the

rude and turbulent spirit of the Saxons: their laws are silent; and their imperfect annals afford only a dark and

[Footnote 130: All these tribes are expressly enumerated by Bede, (l. i. c. 15, p. 52, l. v. c. 9, p. 190;) and

though I have considered Mr. Whitaker's remarks, (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 538 543,) I do not

perceive the absurdity of supposing that the Frisians, were mingled with the AngloSaxons.]

[Footnote *: This term (the Heptarchy) must be rejected because an idea is conveyed thereby which is

substantially wrong. At no one period were there ever seven kingdoms independent of each other. Palgrave,

vol. i. p. 46. Mr. Sharon Turner has the merit of having first confuted the popular notion on this subject.

[Footnote 131: Bede has enumerated seven kings, two Saxons, a Jute, and four Angles, who successively

acquired in the heptarchy an indefinite supremacy of power and renown. But their reign was the effect, not of

law, but of conquest; and he observes, in similar terms, that one of them subdued the Isles of Man and

Anglesey; and that another imposed a tribute on the Scots and Picts. (Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 5, p. 83.)]

A monk, who, in the profound ignorance of human life, has presumed to exercise the office of historian,

strangely disfigures the state of Britain at the time of its separation from the Western empire. Gildas ^132

describes in florid language the improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade which flowed with every tide

into the Thames and the Severn the solid and lofty construction of public and private edifices; he accuses the

sinful luxury of the British people; of a people, according to the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts,

and incapable, without the aid of the Romans, of providing walls of stone, or weapons of iron, for the defence

of their native land. ^133 Under the long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly moulded into

the elegant and servile form of a Roman province, whose safety was intrusted to a foreign power. The

subjects of Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror; they were left destitute of any

civil or military constitution; and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or authority, to direct

the public force against the common enemy. The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weakness,

and degraded the character both of the prince and people. Their consternation magnified the danger; the want

of union diminished their resources; and the madness of civil factions was more solicitous to accuse, than to

remedy, the evils, which they imputed to the misconduct of their adversaries. Yet the Britons were not

ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of the manufacture or the use of arms; the successive and disorderly

attacks of the Saxons allowed them to recover from their amazement, and the prosperous or adverse events of

[Footnote 133: Mr. Whitaker (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 503, 516) has smartly exposed this glaring

absurdity, which had passed unnoticed by the general historians, as they were hastening to more interesting

While the continent of Europe and Africa yielded, without resistance, to the Barbarians, the British island,

alone and unaided, maintained a long, a vigorous, though an unsuccessful, struggle, against the formidable

pirates, who, almost at the same instant, assaulted the Northern, the Eastern, and the Southern coasts. The

cities which had been fortified with skill, were defended with resolution; the advantages of ground, hills,

forests, and morasses, were diligently improved by the inhabitants; the conquest of each district was

purchased with blood; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the discreet silence of their

annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve the conquest of Britain; but his ambition, in an active reign of

thirtyfive years, was confined to the possession of Kent; and the numerous colony which he had planted in

the North, was extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West Saxons was laboriously

founded by the persevering efforts of three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest of the

children of Woden, was consumed in the conquest of Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight; and the loss which he

sustained in the battle of Mount Badon, reduced him to a state of inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son,

advanced into Wiltshire; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a commanding eminence; and vanquished

an army which advanced to the relief of the city. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough, ^134 his British

enemies displayed their military science. Their troops were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three

distinct bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, and the pikemen, were distributed according to the principles of

Roman tactics. The Saxons charged in one weighty column, boldly encountered with their shord swords the

long lances of the Britons, and maintained an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive victories,

the death of three British kings, and the reduction of Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester, established the fame

and power of Ceaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious arms to the banks of the Severn.

[Footnote 134: At Beranbirig, or Barburycastle, near Marlborough. The Saxon chronicle assigns the name

and date. Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 128) ascertains the place; and Henry of Huntingdon (Scriptores pest

Bedam, p. 314) relates the circumstances of this battle. They are probable and characteristic; and the

historians of the twelfth century might consult some materials that no longer exist.] After a war of a hundred

years, the independent Britons still occupied the whole extent of the Western coast, from the wall of

Antoninus to the extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the principal cities of the inland country still opposed

the arms of the Barbarians. Resistance became more languid, as the number and boldness of the assailants

continually increased. Winning their way by slow and painful efforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and their

various confederates, advanced from the North, from the East, and from the South, till their victorious

banners were united in the centre of the island. Beyond the Severn the Britons still asserted their national

freedom, which survived the heptarchy, and even the monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest warriors, who

preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the mountains of Wales: the reluctant submission of

Cornwall was delayed for some ages; ^135 and a band of fugitives acquired a settlement in Gaul, by their

own valor, or the liberality of the Merovingian kings. ^136 The Western angle of Armorica acquired the new

appellations of Cornwall, and the Lesser Britain; and the vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange

people, who, under the authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the laws and language of their

ancestors. To the feeble descendants of Clovis and Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the

customary tribute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes, and formed a powerful,

[Footnote 135: Cornwall was finally subdued by Athelstan, (A.D. 927 941,) who planted an English colony

at Exeter, and confined the Britons beyond the River Tamar. See William of Malmsbury, l. ii., in the

Scriptores post Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the Cornish knights was degraded by servitude: and it should

seem, from the Romance of Sir Tristram, that their cowardice was almost proverbial.]

[Footnote 136: The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved in the sixth century, by Procopius, Gregory

of Tours, the second council of Tours, (A.D. 567,) and the least suspicious of their chronicles and lives of

saints. The subscription of a bishop of the Britons to the first council of Tours, (A.D. 461, or rather 481,) the

army of Riothamus, and the loose declamation of Gildas, (alii transmarinas petebant regiones, c. 25, p. 8,)

may countenance an emigration as early as the middle of the fifth century. Beyond that era, the Britons of

Armorica can be found only in romance; and I am surprised that Mr. Whitaker (Genuine History of the

Britons, p. 214 221) should so faithfully transcribe the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial errors he has

[Footnote 137: The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the subject even of political controversy, are

illustrated by Hadrian Valesius, (Notitia Galliarum, sub voce Britannia Cismarina, p. 98 100.) M.

D'Anville, (Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, Corisopiti, Curiosolites, Osismii, Vorganium, p. 248, 258, 508, 720,

and Etats de l'Europe, p. 76 80,) Longuerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 84 94,) and the Abbe de

Vertot, (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement des Bretons dans les Gaules, 2 vols. in 12 mo., Paris, 1720.) I may

Note: Compare Gallet, Memoires sur la Bretagne, and Daru, Histoire de Bretagne. These authors appear to

me to establish the point of the independence of Bretagne at the time that the insular Britons took refuge in

their country, and that the greater part landed as fugitives rather than as conquerors. I observe that M.

Lappenberg (Geschichte von England, vol. i. p. 56) supposes the settlement of a military colony formed of

British soldiers, (Milites limitanei, laeti,) during the usurpation of Maximus, (381, 388,) who gave their name

and peculiar civilization to Bretagne. M. Lappenberg expresses his surprise that Gibbon here rejects the

In a century of perpetual, or at least implacable, war, much courage, and some skill, must have been exerted

for the defence of Britain. Yet if the memory of its champions is almost buried in oblivion, we need not

repine; since every age, however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and

military renown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the seashore, as

a landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius

Aurelian was descended from a noble family of Romans; ^138 his modesty was equal to his valor, and his

valor, till the last fatal action, ^139 was crowned with splendid success. But every British name is effaced by

the illustrious name of Arthur, ^140 the hereditary prince of the Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king

or general of the nation. According to the most rational account, he defeated, in twelve successive battles, the

Angles of the North, and the Saxons of the West; but the declining age of the hero was imbittered by popular

ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The events of his life are less interesting than the singular revolutions

of his fame. During a period of five hundred years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely

embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons, and unknown to

the rest of mankind. The pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to inquire into the

ancient history of Britain: they listened with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the

merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common enemies. His romance, transcribed in the

Latin of Jeffrey of Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of the times, was enriched

with the various, though incoherent, ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or the

fancy, of the twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian colony, from the Tyber to the Thames, was easily

ingrafted on the fable of the Aeneid; and the royal ancestors of Arthur derived their origin from Troy, and

claimed their alliance with the Caesars. His trophies were decorated with captive provinces and Imperial

titles; and his Danish victories avenged the recent injuries of his country. The gallantry and superstition of the

British hero, his feasts and tournaments, and the memorable institution of his Knights of the Round Table,

were faithfully copied from the reigning manners of chivalry; and the fabulous exploits of Uther's son appear

less incredible than the adventures which were achieved by the enterprising valor of the Normans.

Pilgrimage, and the holy wars, introduced into Europe the specious miracles of Arabian magic. Fairies and

giants, flying dragons, and enchanted palaces, were blended with the more simple fictions of the West; and

the fate of Britain depended on the art, or the predictions, of Merlin. Every nation embraced and adorned the

popular romance of Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table: their names were celebrated in Greece and

Italy; and the voluminous tales of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram were devoutly studied by the princes and

nobles, who disregarded the genuine heroes and historians of antiquity. At length the light of science and

reason was rekindled; the talisman was broken; the visionary fabric melted into air; and by a natural, though

unjust, reverse of the public opinion, the severity of the present age is inclined to question the existence of

Arthur. ^141 [Footnote 138: Bede, who in his chronicle (p. 28) places Ambrosius under the reign of Zeno,

(A.D. 474 491,) observes, that his parents had been "purpura induti;" which he explains, in his

ecclesiastical history, by "regium nomen et insigne ferentibus," (l. i. c. 16, p. 53.) The expression of Nennius

(c. 44, p. 110, edit. Gale) is still more singular, "Unus de consulibus gentis Romanicae est pater meus."]

[Footnote 139: By the unanimous, though doubtful, conjecture of our antiquarians, Ambrosius is confounded

with Natanleod, who (A.D. 508) lost his own life, and five thousand of his subjects, in a battle against Cerdic,

[Footnote 140: As I am a stranger to the Welsh bards, Myrdhin, Llomarch, and Taliessin, my faith in the

existence and exploits of Arthur principally rests on the simple and circumstantial testimony of Nennius.

(Hist. Brit. c. 62, 63, p. 114.) Mr. Whitaker, (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 31 71) had framed an

interesting, and even probable, narrative of the wars of Arthur: though it is impossible to allow the reality of

Note: I presume that Gibbon means Llywarch Hen, or the Aged. The Elegies of this Welsh prince and bard

have been published by Mr. Owen; to whose works and in the Myvyrian Archaeology, slumbers much

curious information on the subject of Welsh tradition and poetry. But the Welsh antiquarians have never

obtained a hearing from the public; they have had no Macpherson to compensate for his corruption of their

poetic legends by forcing them into popularity. See also Mr. Sharon Turner's Essay on the Welsh Bards.

[Footnote 141: The progress of romance, and the state of learning, in the middle ages, are illustrated by Mr.

Thomas Warton, with the taste of a poet, and the minute diligence of an antiquarian. I have derived much

instruction from the two learned dissertations prefixed to the first volume of his History of English Poetry.

Note: These valuable dissertations should not now be read without the notes and preliminary essay of the late

editor, Mr. Price, which, in point of taste and fulness of information, are worthy of accompanying and

Resistance, if it cannot avert, must increase the miseries of conquest; and conquest has never appeared more

dreadful and destructive than in the hands of the Saxons; who hated the valor of their enemies, disdained the

faith of treaties, and violated, without remorse, the most sacred objects of the Christian worship. The fields of

battle might be traced, almost in every district, by monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers were

stained with blood; the last of the Britons, without distinction of age or sex, was massacred, ^142 in the ruins

of Anderida; ^143 and the repetition of such calamities was frequent and familiar under the Saxon heptarchy.

The arts and religion, the laws and language, which the Romans had so carefully planted in Britain, were

extirpated by their barbarous successors. After the destruction of the principal churches, the bishops, who had

declined the crown of martyrdom, retired with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica; the remains of their

flocks were left destitute of any spiritual food; the practice, and even the remembrance, of Christianity were

abolished; and the British clergy might obtain some comfort from the damnation of the idolatrous strangers.

The kings of France maintained the privileges of their Roman subjects; but the ferocious Saxons trampled on

the laws of Rome, and of the emperors. The proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of honor,

the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance,

were finally suppressed; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and plebeian slaves was governed by the

traditionary customs, which had been coarsely framed for the shepherds and pirates of Germany. The

language of science, of business, and of conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was lost in

the general desolation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic words might be assumed by the Germans, to

express their new wants and ideas; ^144 but those illiterate Pagans preserved and established the use of their

national dialect. ^145 Almost every name, conspicuous either in the church or state, reveals its Teutonic

origin; ^146 and the geography of England was universally inscribed with foreign characters and

appellations. The example of a revolution, so rapid and so complete, may not easily be found; but it will

excite a probable suspicion, that the arts of Rome were less deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain;

and that the native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants was covered by a thin varnish of Italian

manners. [Footnote 142: Hoc anno (490) Aella et Cissa obsederunt AndredesCeaster; et interfecerunt omnes

qui id incoluerunt; adeo ut ne unus Brito ibi superstes fuerit, (Chron. Saxon. p. 15;) an expression more

dreadful in its simplicity, than all the vague and tedious lamentations of the British Jeremiah.]

[Footnote 143: AndredesCeaster, or Anderida, is placed by Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 258) at Newenden,

in the marshy grounds of Kent, which might be formerly covered by the sea, and on the edge of the great

[Footnote 144: Dr. Johnson affirms, that few English words are of British extraction. Mr. Whitaker, who

understands the British language, has discovered more than three thousand, and actually produces a long and

various catalogue, (vol. ii. p. 235 329.) It is possible, indeed, that many of these words may have been

Note: Dr. Prichard's very curious researches, which connect the Celtic, as well as the Teutonic languages with

the IndoEuropean class, make it still more difficult to decide between the Celtic or Teutonic origin of

English words. See Prichard on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations Oxford, 1831. M.]

[Footnote 145: In the beginning of the seventh century, the Franks and the AngloSaxons mutually

understood each other's language, which was derived from the same Teutonic root, (Bede, l. i. c. 25, p. 60.)]

[Footnote 146: After the first generation of Italian, or Scottish, missionaries, the dignities of the church were

This strange alteration has persuaded historians, and even philosophers, that the provincials of Britain were

totally exterminated; and that the vacant land was again peopled by the perpetual influx, and rapid increase,

of the German colonies. Three hundred thousand Saxons are said to have obeyed the summons of Hengist;

^147 the entire emigation of the Angles was attested, in the age of Bede, by the solitude of their native

country; ^148 and our experience has shown the free propagation of the human race, if they are cast on a

fruitful wilderness, where their steps are unconfined, and their subsistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms

displayed the face of recent discovery and cultivation; the towns were small, the villages were distant; the

husbandry was languid and unskilful; four sheep were equivalent to an acre of the best land; ^149 an ample

space of wood and morass was resigned to the vague dominion of nature; and the modern bishopric of

Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to the Tees, had returned to its primitive state of a savage and

solitary forest. ^150 Such imperfect population might have been supplied, in some generations, by the

English colonies; but neither reason nor facts can justify the unnatural supposition, that the Saxons of Britain

remained alone in the desert which they had subdued. After the sanguinary Barbarians had secured their

dominion, and gratified their revenge, it was their interest to preserve the peasants as well as the cattle, of the

unresisting country. In each successive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters;

and the salutary compact of food and labor is silently ratified by their mutual necessities. Wilfrid, the apostle

of Sussex, ^151 accepted from his royal convert the gift of the Vpeninsula of Selsey, near Chichester, with

the persons and property of its inhabitants, who then amounted to eightyseven families. He released them at

once from spiritual and temporal bondage; and two hundred and fifty slaves of both sexes were baptized by

their indulgent master. The kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the Thames, contained seven

thousand families; twelve hundred were ascribed to the Isle of Wight; and, if we multiply this vague

computation, it may seem probable, that England was cultivated by a million of servants, or villains, who

were attached to the estates of their arbitrary landlords. The indigent Barbarians were often tempted to sell

their children, or themselves into perpetual, and even foreign, bondage; ^152 yet the special exemptions

which were granted to national slaves, ^153 sufficiently declare that they were much less numerous than the

strangers and captives, who had lost their liberty, or changed their masters, by the accidents of war. When

time and religion had mitigated the fierce spirit of the AngloSaxons, the laws encouraged the frequent

practice of manumission; and their subjects, of Welsh or Cambrian extraction, assumed the respectable

station of inferior freemen, possessed of lands, and entitled to the rights of civil society. ^154 Such gentle

treatment might secure the allegiance of a fierce people, who had been recently subdued on the confines of

Wales and Cornwall. The sage Ina, the legislator of Wessex, united the two nations in the bands of domestic

alliance; and four British lords of Somersetshire may be honorably distinguished in the court of a Saxon

[Footnote 147: Carte's History of England, vol. i. p. 195. He quotes the British historians; but I much fear,

[Footnote 148: Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. i. c. 15, p. 52. The fact is probable, and well attested: yet such was

the loose intermixture of the German tribes, that we find, in a subsequent period, the law of the Angli and

[Footnote 149: See Dr. Henry's useful and laborious History of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 388.]

[Footnote 150: Quicquid (says John of Tinemouth) inter Tynam et Tesam fluvios extitit, sola eremi vastitudo

tunc temporis fuit, et idcirco nullius ditioni servivit, eo quod sola indomitorum et sylvestrium animalium

spelunca et habitatio fuit, (apud Carte, vol. i. p. 195.) From bishop Nicholson (English Historical Library, p.

65, 98) I understand that fair copies of John of Tinemouth's ample collections are preserved in the libraries of

[Footnote 151: See the mission of Wilfrid, in Bede, Hist. Eccles. l. iv. c. 13, 16, p. 155, 156, 159.]

[Footnote 152: From the concurrent testimony of Bede (l. ii. c. 1, p. 78) and William of Malmsbury, (l. iii. p.

102,) it appears, that the Anglo Saxons, from the first to the last age, persisted in this unnatural practice.

[Footnote 153: According to the laws of Ina, they could not be lawfully sold beyond the seas.]

[Footnote 154: The life of a Wallus, or Cambricus, homo, who possessed a hyde of land, is fixed at 120

shillings, by the same laws (of Ina, tit. xxxii. in Leg. AngloSaxon. p. 20) which allowed 200 shillings for a

free Saxon, 1200 for a Thane, (see likewise Leg. AngloSaxon. p. 71.) We may observe, that these

legislators, the West Saxons and Mercians, continued their British conquests after they became Christians.

The laws of the four kings of Kent do not condescend to notice the existence of any subject Britons.]

[Footnote 155: See Carte's Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 278.] The independent Britons appear to have relapsed

into the state of original barbarism, from whence they had been imperfectly reclaimed. Separated by their

enemies from the rest of mankind, they soon became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the Catholic

world. ^156 Christianity was still professed in the mountains of Wales; but the rude schismatics, in the form

of the clerical tonsure, and in the day of the celebration of Easter, obstinately resisted the imperious mandates

of the Roman pontiffs. The use of the Latin language was insensibly abolished, and the Britons were deprived

of the art and learning which Italy communicated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armorica, the Celtic

tongue, the native idiom of the West, was preserved and propagated; and the Bards, who had been the

companions of the Druids, were still protected, in the sixteenth century, by the laws of Elizabeth. Their chief,

a respectable officer of the courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermarthen, accompanied the king's

servants to war: the monarchy of the Britons, which he sung in the front of battle, excited their courage, and

justified their depredations; and the songster claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His

subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and instrumental music, visited, in their respective

circuits, the royal, the noble, and the plebeian houses; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by the clergy,

was oppressed by the importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn

trials, and the strong belief of supernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet, and of his audience. ^157

The last retreats of Celtic freedom, the extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were less adapted to

agriculture than to pasturage: the wealth of the Britons consisted in their flocks and herds; milk and flesh

were their ordinary food; and bread was sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty had

peopled the mountains of Wales and the morasses of Armorica; but their populousness has been maliciously

ascribed to the loose practice of polygamy; and the houses of these licentious barbarians have been supposed

to contain ten wives, and perhaps fifty children. ^158 Their disposition was rash and choleric; they were bold

in action and in speech; ^159 and as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alternately indulged their

passions in foreign and domestic war. The cavalry of Armorica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the archers of

Merioneth, were equally formidable; but their poverty could seldom procure either shields or helmets; and the

inconvenient weight would have retarded the speed and agility of their desultory operations. One of the

greatest of the English monarchs was requested to satisfy the curiosity of a Greek emperor concerning the

state of Britain; and Henry II. could assert, from his personal experience, that Wales was inhabited by a race

of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the defensive armor of their enemies. ^160

[Footnote 156: At the conclusion of his history, (A.D. 731,) Bede describes the ecclesiastical state of the

island, and censures the implacable, though impotent, hatred of the Britons against the English nation, and the

[Footnote 157: Mr. Pennant's Tour in Wales (p. 426 449) has furnished me with a curious and interesting

account of the Welsh bards. In the year 1568, a session was held at Caerwys by the special command of

Queen Elizabeth, and regular degrees in vocal and instrumental music were conferred on fiftyfive minstrels.

[Footnote 158: Regio longe lateque diffusa, milite, magis quam credibile sit, referta. Partibus equidem in illis

miles unus quinquaginta generat, sortitus more barbaro denas aut amplius uxores. This reproach of William

of Poitiers (in the Historians of France, tom. xi. p. 88) is disclaimed by the Benedictine editors.]

[Footnote 159: Giraldus Cambrensis confines this gift of bold and ready eloquence to the Romans, the

French, and the Britons. The malicious Welshman insinuates that the English taciturnity might possibly be

[Footnote 160: The picture of Welsh and Armorican manners is drawn from Giraldus, (Descript. Cambriae, c.

6 15, inter Script. Camden. p. 886 891,) and the authors quoted by the Abbe de Vertot, (Hist. Critique

By the revolution of Britain, the limits of science, as well as of empire, were contracted. The dark cloud,

which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finally dispelled by the arms of Caesar, again

settled on the shores of the Atlantic, and a Roman province was again lost among the fabulous Islands of the

Ocean. One hundred and fifty years after the reign of Honorius, the gravest historian of the times ^161

describes the wonders of a remote isle, whose eastern and western parts are divided by an antique wall, the

boundary of life and death, or, more properly, of truth and fiction. The east is a fair country, inhabited by a

civilized people: the air is healthy, the waters are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her regular and

fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the wall, the air is infectious and mortal; the ground is covered with

serpents; and this dreary solitude is the region of departed spirits, who are transported from the opposite

shores in substantial boats, and by living rowers. Some families of fishermen, the subjects of the Franks, are

excused from tribute, in consideration of the mysterious office which is performed by these Charons of the

ocean. Each in his turn is summoned, at the hour of midnight, to hear the voices, and even the names, of the

ghosts: he is sensible of their weight, and he feels himself impelled by an unknown, but irresistible power.

After this dream of fancy, we read with astonishment, that the name of this island is Brittia; that it lies in the

ocean, against the mouth of the Rhine, and less than thirty miles from the continent; that it is possessed by

three nations, the Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons; and that some Angles had appeared at Constantinople,

in the train of the French ambassadors. From these ambassadors Procopius might be informed of a singular,

though not improbable, adventure, which announces the spirit, rather than the delicacy, of an English heroine.

She had been betrothed to Radiger, king of the Varni, a tribe of Germans who touched the ocean and the

Rhine; but the perfidious lover was tempted, by motives of policy, to prefer his father's widow, the sister of

Theodebert, king of the Franks. ^162 The forsaken princess of the Angles, instead of bewailing, revenged her

disgrace. Her warlike subjects are said to have been ignorant of the use, and even of the form, of a horse; but

she boldly sailed from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a fleet of four hundred ships, and an army of

one hundred thousand men. After the loss of a battle, the captive Radiger implored the mercy of his

victorious bride, who generously pardoned his offence, dismissed her rival, and compelled the king of the

Varni to discharge with honor and fidelity the duties of a husband. ^163 This gallant exploit appears to be the

last naval enterprise of the AngloSaxons. The arts of navigation, by which they acquired the empire of

Britain and of the sea, were soon neglected by the indolent Barbarians, who supinely renounced all the

commercial advantages of their insular situation. Seven independent kingdoms were agitated by perpetual

discord; and the British world was seldom connected, either in peace or war, with the nations of the

Continent. ^164 [Footnote 161: See Procopius de Bell. Gothic. l. iv. c. 20, p. 620 625. The Greek historian

is himself so confounded by the wonders which he relates, that he weakly attempts to distinguish the islands

of Britia and Britain, which he has identified by so many inseparable circumstances.]

[Footnote 162: Theodebert, grandson of Clovis, and king of Austrasia, was the most powerful and warlike

prince of the age; and this remarkable adventure may be placed between the years 534 and 547, the extreme

terms of his reign. His sister Theudechildis retired to Sens, where she founded monasteries, and distributed

alms, (see the notes of the Benedictine editors, in tom. ii. p. 216.) If we may credit the praises of Fortunatus,

(l. vi. carm. 5, in tom. ii. p. 507,) Radiger was deprived of a most valuable wife.]

[Footnote 163: Perhaps she was the sister of one of the princes or chiefs of the Angles, who landed in 527,

and the following years, between the Humber and the Thames, and gradually founded the kingdoms of East

Anglia and Mercia. The English writers are ignorant of her name and existence: but Procopius may have

suggested to Mr. Rowe the character and situation of Rodogune in the tragedy of the Royal Convert.]

[Footnote 164: In the copious history of Gregory of Tours, we cannot find any traces of hostile or friendly

intercourse between France and England except in the marriage of the daughter of Caribert, king of Paris,

quam regis cujusdam in Cantia filius matrimonio copulavit, (l. ix. c. 28, in tom. ii. p. 348.) The bishop of

Tours ended his history and his life almost immediately before the conversion of Kent.]

I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, from the

fortunate age of Trajan and the Antonines, to its total extinction in the West, about five centuries after the

Christian era. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession of

Britain: Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and the

dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians: Africa was exposed to the cruel persecution of the

Vandals, and the savage insults of the Moors: Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were

afflicted by an army of Barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless tyranny was succeeded by the reign of

Theodoric the Ostrogoth. All the subjects of the empire, who, by the use of the Latin language, more

particularly deserved the name and privileges of Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of

foreign conquest; and the victorious nations of Germany established a new system of manners and

government in the western countries of Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by the princes

of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the

East, from the Danube to the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic and Vandal kingdoms of Italy and Africa were

subverted by the arms of Justinian; and the history of the Greek emperors may still afford a long series of

The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the

merit, but to the fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her

favors, had now consented (such was the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from

her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the Tyber. ^1 A wiser Greek, who has

composed, with a philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this

vain and delusive comfort, by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. ^2 The

fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of education, and the

prejudices of religion. Honor, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens

labored to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardor of the Roman youth was kindled into active

emulation, as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. ^3 The temperate struggles of the

patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united

the freedom of popular assemblies, with the authority and wisdom of a senate, and the executive powers of a

regal magistrate. When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the

obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by

a military service of ten years. This wise institution continually poured into the field the rising generations of

freemen and soldiers; and their numbers were reenforced by the warlike and populous states of Italy, who,

after a brave resistance, had yielded to the valor and embraced the alliance, of the Romans. The sage

historian, who excited the virtue of the younger Scipio, and beheld the ruin of Carthage, ^4 has accurately

described their military system; their levies, arms, exercises, subordination, marches, encampments; and the

invincible legion, superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander. From these

institutions of peace and war Polybius has deduced the spirit and success of a people, incapable of fear, and

impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest, which might have been defeated by the seasonable

conspiracy of mankind, was attempted and achieved; and the perpetual violation of justice was maintained by

the political virtues of prudence and courage. The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle,

always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean;

and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were

[Footnote 1: Such are the figurative expressions of Plutarch, (Opera, tom. ii. p. 318, edit. Wechel,) to whom,

on the faith of his son Lamprias, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. iii. p. 341,) I shall boldly impute the

malicious declamation. The same opinions had prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty years

before Plutarch; and to confute them is the professed intention of Polybius, (Hist. l. i. p. 90, edit. Gronov.

[Footnote 2: See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of Polybius, and many other parts of his general

history, particularly a digression in the seventeenth book, in which he compares the phalanx and the legion.]

[Footnote 3: Sallust, de Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the generous professions of P. Scipio and Q.

Maximus. The Latin historian had read and most probably transcribes, Polybius, their contemporary and

[Footnote 4: While Carthage was in flames, Scipio repeated two lines of the Iliad, which express the

destruction of Troy, acknowledging to Polybius, his friend and preceptor, (Polyb. in Excerpt. de Virtut. et

Vit. tom. ii. p. 1455 1465,) that while he recollected the vicissitudes of human affairs, he inwardly applied

them to the future calamities of Rome, (Appian. in Libycis, p. 136, edit. Toll.)]

[Footnote 5: See Daniel, ii. 31 40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron

breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things." The remainder of the prophecy (the mixture of iron and clay) was

accomplished, according to St. Jerom, in his own time. Sicut enim in principio nihil Romano Imperio fortius

et durius, ita in fine rerum nihil imbecillius; quum et in bellis civilibus et adversus diversas nationes, aliarum

The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a

philosophic mind. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness.

Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest;

and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the

pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the

Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious

legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of

the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal

safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered

them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed,

and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a

The decay of Rome has been frequently ascribed to the translation of the seat of empire; but this History has

already shown, that the powers of government were divided, rather than removed. The throne of

Constantinople was erected in the East; while the West was still possessed by a series of emperors who held

their residence in Italy, and claimed their equal inheritance of the legions and provinces. This dangerous

novelty impaired the strength, and fomented the vices, of a double reign: the instruments of an oppressive and

arbitrary system were multiplied; and a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was introduced and supported

between the degenerate successors of Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people,

imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The hostile favorites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the

republic to its common enemies; and the Byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the

disgrace of Rome, the misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the West. Under the succeeding reigns, the alliance

of the two empires was restored; but the aid of the Oriental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual; and

the national schism of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and

manners, of interests, and even of religion. Yet the salutary event approved in some measure the judgment of

Constantine. During a long period of decay, his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of Barbarians,

protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in peace and war, the important straits which connect the

Euxine and Mediterranean Seas. The foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the

As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal, that

the introduction or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman

empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity: the active virtues of

society were discouraged; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister: a large portion of

public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and the soldiers'

pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes, who could only plead the merits of abstinence and

chastity. ^* Faith, zeal, curiosity, and the more earthly passions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of

theological discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by religious factions, whose conflicts were

sometimes bloody, and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods;

the Roman world was oppressed by a new species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret

enemies of their country. Yet party spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as of

dissension. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of passive obedience to a lawful

and orthodox sovereign; their frequent assemblies, and perpetual correspondence, maintained the communion

of distant churches; and the benevolent temper of the gospel was strengthened, though confined, by the

spiritual alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and

effeminate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempted the

unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic. Religious precepts are easily

obeyed, which indulge and sanctify the natural inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine

influence of Christianity may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the Barbarian proselytes

of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of Constantine, his

victorious religion broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.

[Footnote *: It might be a curious speculation, how far the purer morals of the genuine and more active

Christians may have compensated, in the population of the Roman empire, for the secession of such numbers

This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the instruction of the present age. It is the duty of a patriot

to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native country: but a philosopher may be

permitted to enlarge his views, and to consider Europe as one great republic whose various inhabitants have

obtained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate,

and the prosperity of our own, or the neighboring kingdoms, may be alternately exalted or depressed; but

these partial events cannot essentially injure our general state of happiness, the system of arts, and laws, and

manners, which so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies.

The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with

anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly

oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome. Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that

I. The Romans were ignorant of the extent of their danger, and the number of their enemies. Beyond the

Rhine and Danube, the Northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with innumerable tribes of hunters

and shepherds, poor, voracious, and turbulent; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of industry. The

Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the

distant revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious enemy, directed their march towards the

West; and the torrent was swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The flying tribes who

yielded to the Huns assumed in their turn the spirit of conquest; the endless column of Barbarians pressed on

the Roman empire with accumulated weight; and, if the foremost were destroyed, the vacant space was

instantly replenished by new assailants. Such formidable emigrations can no longer issue from the North; and

the long repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the

progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly scattered among its woods and

morasses, Germany now produces a list of two thousand three hundred walled towns: the Christian kingdoms

of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, have been successively established; and the Hanse merchants, with the

Teutonic knights, have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic, as far as the Gulf of Finland.

From the Gulf of Finland to the Eastern Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilized

empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge, are introduced on the banks of the Volga, the Oby, and the

Lena; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and obey. The reign of independent

Barbarism is now contracted to a narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose forces may

be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions of the great republic of Europe. ^6 Yet this

apparent security should not tempt us to forget, that new enemies, and unknown dangers, may possibly arise

from some obscure people, scarcely visible in the map of the world, The Arabs or Saracens, who spread their

conquests from India to Spain, had languished in poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those

[Footnote 6: The French and English editors of the Genealogical History of the Tartars have subjoined a

curious, though imperfect, description, of their present state. We might question the independence of the

Calmucks, or Eluths, since they have been recently vanquished by the Chinese, who, in the year 1759,

subdued the Lesser Bucharia, and advanced into the country of Badakshan, near the source of the Oxus,

(Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. i. p. 325 400.) But these conquests are precarious, nor will I venture to

II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by the singular and perfect coalition of its members. The

subject nations, resigning the hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the character of Roman

citizens; and the provinces of the West were reluctantly torn by the Barbarians from the bosom of their

mother country. ^7 But this union was purchased by the loss of national freedom and military spirit; and the

servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the mercenary troops and governors,

who were directed by the orders of a distant court. The happiness of a hundred millions depended on the

personal merit of one or two men, perhaps children, whose minds were corrupted by education, luxury, and

despotic power. The deepest wounds were inflicted on the empire during the minorities of the sons and

grandsons of Theodosius; and, after those incapable princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they

abandoned the church to the bishops, the state to the eunuchs, and the provinces to the Barbarians. Europe is

now divided into twelve powerful, though unequal kingdoms, three respectable commonwealths, and a

variety of smaller, though independent, states: the chances of royal and ministerial talents are multiplied, at

least, with the number of its rulers; and a Julian, or Semiramis, may reign in the North, while Arcadius and

Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the South. The abuses of tyranny are restrained by the mutual

influence of fear and shame; republics have acquired order and stability; monarchies have imbibed the

principles of freedom, or, at least, of moderation; and some sense of honor and justice is introduced into the

most defective constitutions by the general manners of the times. In peace, the progress of knowledge and

industry is accelerated by the emulation of so many active rivals: in war, the European forces are exercised by

temperate and undecisive contests. If a savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he must

repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, the numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of

France, and the intrepid freemen of Britain; who, perhaps, might confederate for their common defence.

Should the victorious Barbarians carry slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand

vessels would transport beyond their pursuit the remains of civilized society; and Europe would revive and

flourish in the American world, which is already filled with her colonies and institutions. ^8

[Footnote 7: The prudent reader will determine how far this general proposition is weakened by the revolt of

the Isaurians, the independence of Britain and Armorica, the Moorish tribes, or the Bagaudae of Gaul and

[Footnote 8: America now contains about six millions of European blood and descent; and their numbers, at

least in the North, are continually increasing. Whatever may be the changes of their political situation, they

must preserve the manners of Europe; and we may reflect with some pleasure, that the English language will

III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue, fortify the strength and courage of Barbarians. In every

age they have oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, India, and Persia, who neglected, and still

neglect, to counterbalance these natural powers by the resources of military art. The warlike states of

antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their

courage, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron, which they possessed, into

strong and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and manners; and the

feeble policy of Constantine and his successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude

valor of the Barbarian mercenaries. The military art has been changed by the invention of gunpowder; which

enables man to command the two most powerful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics, chemistry,

mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the service of war; and the adverse parties oppose to each other

the most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may indignantly observe, that the preparations

of a siege would found and maintain a flourishing colony; ^9 yet we cannot be displeased, that the subversion

of a city should be a work of cost and difficulty; or that an industrious people should be protected by those

arts, which survive and supply the decay of military virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form an

impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians;

since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual advances in the science of war

would always be accompanied, as we may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable

improvement in the arts of peace and civil policy; and they themselves must deserve a place among the

polished nations whom they subdue. [Footnote 9: On avoit fait venir (for the siege of Turin) 140 pieces de

canon; et il est a remarquer que chaque gros canon monte revient a environ ecus: il y avoit 100,000 boulets;

106,000 cartouches d'une facon, et 300,000 d'une autre; 21,000 bombes; 27,700 grenades, 15,000 sacs a terre,

30,000 instruments pour la pionnage; 1,200,000 livres de poudre. Ajoutez a ces munitions, le plomb, le fer, et

le ferblanc, les cordages, tout ce qui sert aux mineurs, le souphre, le salpetre, les outils de toute espece. Il est

certain que les frais de tous ces preparatifs de destruction suffiroient pour fonder et pour faire fleurir la plus

aombreuse colonie. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. c. xx. in his Works. tom. xi. p. 391.]

Should these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there still remains a more humble source of

comfort and hope. The discoveries of ancient and modern navigators, and the domestic history, or tradition,

of the most enlightened nations, represent the human savage, naked both in body and mind and destitute of

laws, of arts, of ideas, and almost of language. ^10 From this abject condition, perhaps the primitive and

universal state of man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilize the earth, to traverse the

ocean and to measure the heavens. His progress in the improvement and exercise of his mental and corporeal

faculties ^11 has been irregular and various; infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with

redoubled velocity: ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall; and the

several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four

thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what

height the human species may aspire in their advances towards perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that

no people, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism. The improvements

of society may be viewed under a threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age and country

by the efforts of a single mind; but those superior powers of reason or fancy are rare and spontaneous

productions; and the genius of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less admiration, if they could be

created by the will of a prince, or the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The benefits of law and policy, of trade and

manufactures, of arts and sciences, are more solid and permanent: and many individuals may be qualified, by

education and discipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the interest of the community. But this

general order is the effect of skill and labor; and the complex machinery may be decayed by time, or injured

by violence. 3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, or, at least, more necessary arts, can be performed

without superior talents, or national subordination: without the powers of one, or the union of many. Each

village, each family, each individual, must always possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate the use of

fire ^12 and of metals; the propagation and service of domestic animals; the methods of hunting and fishing;

the rudiments of navigation; the imperfect cultivation of corn, or other nutritive grain; and the simple practice

of the mechanic trades. Private genius and public industry may be extirpated; but these hardy plants survive

the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into the most unfavorable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and

Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance; and the Barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome.

But the scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn, ^13 still continued annually to mow the harvests of Italy;

and the human feasts of the Laestrigons ^14 have never been renewed on the coast of Campania. [Footnote

10: It would be an easy, though tedious, task, to produce the authorities of poets, philosophers, and historians.

I shall therefore content myself with appealing to the decisive and authentic testimony of Diodorus Siculus,

(tom. i. l. i. p. 11, 12, l. iii. p. 184, edit. Wesseling.) The Icthyophagi, who in his time wandered along the

shores of the Red Sea, can only be compared to the natives of New Holland, (Dampier's Voyages, vol. i. p.

464 469.) Fancy, or perhaps reason, may still suppose an extreme and absolute state of nature far below the

[Footnote 11: See the learned and rational work of the president Goguet, de l'Origine des Loix, des Arts, et

des Sciences. He traces from facts, or conjectures, (tom. i. p. 147 337, edit. 12mo.,) the first and most

[Footnote 12: It is certain, however strange, that many nations have been ignorant of the use of fire. Even the

ingenious natives of Otaheite, who are destitute of metals, have not invented any earthen vessels capable of

sustaining the action of fire, and of communicating the heat to the liquids which they contain.]

[Footnote 13: Plutarch. Quaest. Rom. in tom. ii. p. 275. Macrob. Saturnal. l. i. c. 8, p. 152, edit. London. The

arrival of Saturn (of his religious worship) in a ship, may indicate, that the savage coast of Latium was first

[Footnote 14: In the ninth and tenth books of the Odyssey, Homer has embellished the tales of fearful and

credulous sailors, who transformed the cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous giants.]

Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and religious zeal have diffused, among the savages of

the Old and New World, these inestimable gifts: they have been successively propagated; they can never be

lost. We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has increased, and

still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race. ^15

[Footnote 15: The merit of discovery has too often been stained with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism; and the

intercourse of nations has produced the communication of disease and prejudice. A singular exception is due

to the virtue of our own times and country. The five great voyages, successively undertaken by the command

of his present Majesty, were inspired by the pure and generous love of science and of mankind. The same

prince, adapting his benefactions to the different stages of society, has founded his school of painting in his

capital; and has introduced into the islands of the South Sea the vegetables and animals most useful to human