The Project Gutenberg eBook of History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Volume 3 by Edward Gibbon

The Project Gutenberg eBook of History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Volume 3 by Edward Gibbon
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Title: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Volume 3
Author: Edward Gibbon
Commentator: H. H. Milman
Release Date: November, 1996 [eBook #733]
[Most recently updated: March 14, 2021]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
Produced by: David Reed and David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ***
HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 3
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
Contents
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part
I.
Death Of Gratian.—Ruin Of Arianism.—St. Ambrose.—First
Civil War, Against Maximus.—Character, Administration, And
Penance Of Theodosius.—Death Of Valentinian II.—Second
Civil War, Against Eugenius.—Death Of Theodosius.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part
II.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part
III.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part
IV.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part
V.
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part
I.
Final Destruction Of Paganism.—Introduction Of The Worship
Of Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part
II.
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part
III.
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire
Between Sons Of Theodosius.—Part I.
Final Division Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of
Theodosius.—Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius—Administration
Of Rufinus And Stilicho.—Revolt And Defeat Of Gildo In
Africa.
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire
Between Sons Of Theodosius.—Part II.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part
I.
Revolt Of The Goths.—They Plunder Greece.—Two Great
Invasions Of Italy By Alaric And Radagaisus.—They Are
Repulsed By Stilicho.—The Germans Overrun Gaul.—Usurpation
Of Constantine In The West.—Disgrace And Death Of Stilicho.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part
II.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part
III.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part
IV.
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part
V.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part I.
Invasion Of Italy By Alaric.—Manners Of The Roman Senate
And People.—Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And At Length
Pillaged, By The Goths.—Death Of Alaric.—The Goths
Evacuate Italy.—Fall Of Constantine.—Gaul And Spain Are
Occupied By The Barbarians. —Independence Of Britain.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part II.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part III.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part IV.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part V.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part VI.
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation
Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part VII.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II.—Part I.
Arcadius Emperor Of The East.—Administration And Disgrace
Of Eutropius.—Revolt Of Gainas.—Persecution Of St. John
Chrysostom.—Theodosius II. Emperor Of The East.—His Sister
Pulcheria.—His Wife Eudocia.—The Persian War, And Division
Of Armenia.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II.—Part II.
Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius,
Theodosius II.—Part III.
Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The
Vandals.—Part I.
Death Of Honorius.—Valentinian III.—Emperor Of The East.
—Administration Of His Mother Placidia—Ætius And
Boniface.—Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.
Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The
Vandals.—Part II.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila.—Part I.
The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The
Huns.—Death Of Theodosius The Younger.—Elevation Of
Marcian To The Empire Of The East.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila.—Part II.
Chapter XXXIV: Attila.—Part III.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part
I.
Invasion Of Gaul By Attila.—He Is Repulsed By Ætius And
The Visigoths.—Attila Invades And Evacuates Italy.—The
Deaths Of Attila, Ætius, And Valentinian The Third.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part
II.
Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part
III.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Part I.
Sack Of Rome By Genseric, King Of The Vandals.—His Naval
Depredations.—Succession Of The Last Emperors Of The West,
Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius,
Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus.—Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Reign Of Odoacer, The First Barbarian King
Of Italy.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Part II.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Part III.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Part IV.
Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The
Western Empire.—Part V.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians
To Christianity.—Part I.
Origin Progress, And Effects Of The Monastic Life.—
Conversion Of The Barbarians To Christianity And Arianism.—
Persecution Of The Vandals In Africa.—Extinction Of
Arianism Among The Barbarians.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians
To Christianity.—Part II.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians
To Christianity.—Part III.
Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians
To Christianity.—Part IV.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
I.
Reign And Conversion Of Clovis.—His Victories Over The
Alemanni, Burgundians, And Visigoths.—Establishment Of The
French Monarchy In Gaul.—Laws Of The Barbarians.—State Of
The Romans.—The Visigoths Of Spain.—Conquest Of Britain By
The Saxons.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
II.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
III.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
IV.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
V.
Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part
VI.
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part I.
Death Of Gratian.—Ruin Of Arianism.—St. Ambrose.—First
Civil War, Against Maximus.—Character, Administration, And
Penance Of Theodosius.—Death Of Valentinian II.—Second
Civil War, Against Eugenius.—Death Of Theodosius.
The fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his
age, was equal to that of the most celebrated princes. His gentle and
amiable disposition endeared him to his private friends, the graceful
affability of his manners engaged the affection of the people: the men of
letters, who enjoyed the liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence,
of their sovereign; his valor and dexterity in arms were equally applauded
by the soldiers; and the clergy considered the humble piety of Gratian as
the first and most useful of his virtues. The victory of Colmar had
delivered the West from a formidable invasion; and the grateful provinces
of the East ascribed the merits of Theodosius to the author of his
greatness, and of the public safety. Gratian survived those memorable
events only four or five years; but he survived his reputation; and,
before he fell a victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the
respect and confidence of the Roman world.
The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not be imputed
to the arts of flattery, which had besieged the son of Valentinian from
his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions which the that gentle youth
appears to have escaped. A more attentive view of the life of Gratian may
perhaps suggest the true cause of the disappointment of the public hopes.
His apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of experience
and adversity, were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal
education. The anxious tenderness of his father was continually employed
to bestow on him those advantages, which he might perhaps esteem the more
highly, as he himself had been deprived of them; and the most skilful
masters of every science, and of every art, had labored to form the mind
and body of the young prince.
The knowledge which they painfully communicated
was displayed with ostentation, and celebrated with lavish praise. His
soft and tractable disposition received the fair impression of their
judicious precepts, and the absence of passion might easily be mistaken
for the strength of reason. His preceptors gradually rose to the rank and
consequence of ministers of state:
and, as they wisely
dissembled their secret authority, he seemed to act with firmness, with
propriety, and with judgment, on the most important occasions of his life
and reign. But the influence of this elaborate instruction did not
penetrate beyond the surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so
accurately guided the steps of their royal pupil, could not infuse into
his feeble and indolent character the vigorous and independent principle
of action which renders the laborious pursuit of glory essentially
necessary to the happiness, and almost to the existence, of the hero. As
soon as time and accident had removed those faithful counsellors from the
throne, the emperor of the West insensibly descended to the level of his
natural genius; abandoned the reins of government to the ambitious hands
which were stretched forwards to grasp them; and amused his leisure with
the most frivolous gratifications. A public sale of favor and injustice
was instituted, both in the court and in the provinces, by the worthless
delegates of his power, whose merit it was made sacrilege to question.
The
conscience of the credulous prince was directed by saints and bishops;
who
procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a capital offence, the violation,
the neglect, or even the ignorance, of the divine law.
Among the
various arts which had exercised the youth of Gratian, he had applied
himself, with singular inclination and success, to manage the horse, to
draw the bow, and to dart the javelin; and these qualifications, which
might be useful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler purposes of
hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the Imperial pleasures, and
plentifully stocked with every species of wild beasts; and Gratian
neglected the duties, and even the dignity, of his rank, to consume whole
days in the vain display of his dexterity and boldness in the chase. The
pride and wish of the Roman emperor to excel in an art, in which he might
be surpassed by the meanest of his slaves, reminded the numerous
spectators of the examples of Nero and Commodus, but the chaste and
temperate Gratian was a stranger to their monstrous vices; and his hands
were stained only with the blood of animals.
The behavior of Gratian,
which degraded his character in the eyes of mankind, could not have
disturbed the security of his reign, if the army had not been provoked to
resent their peculiar injuries. As long as the young emperor was guided by
the instructions of his masters, he professed himself the friend and pupil
of the soldiers; many of his hours were spent in the familiar conversation
of the camp; and the health, the comforts, the rewards, the honors, of his
faithful troops, appeared to be the objects of his attentive concern. But,
after Gratian more freely indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and
shooting, he naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers
of his favorite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the
military and domestic service of the palace; and the admirable skill,
which they were accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia,
was exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in the parks and enclosures of
Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and customs of these favorite guards, to
whom alone he intrusted the defence of his person; and, as if he meant to
insult the public opinion, he frequently showed himself to the soldiers
and people, with the dress and arms, the long bow, the sounding quiver,
and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy spectacle of a
Roman prince, who had renounced the dress and manners of his country,
filled the minds of the legions with grief and indignation.
Even the
Germans, so strong and formidable in the armies of the empire, affected to
disdain the strange and horrid appearance of the savages of the North,
who, in the space of a few years, had wandered from the banks of the Volga
to those of the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the
camps and garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of Gratian
neglected to extinguish the first symptoms of discontent, the want of love
and respect was not supplied by the influence of fear. But the subversion
of an established government is always a work of some real, and of much
apparent, difficulty; and the throne of Gratian was protected by the
sanctions of custom, law, religion, and the nice balance of the civil and
military powers, which had been established by the policy of Constantine.
It is not very important to inquire from what cause the revolt of Britain
was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of disorder; the seeds of
rebellion happened to fall on a soil which was supposed to be more
fruitful than any other in tyrants and usurpers;
the legions of that
sequestered island had been long famous for a spirit of presumption and
arrogance;
and the name of Maximus was proclaimed, by the tumultuary, but unanimous
voice, both of the soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor, or the
rebel,—for this title was not yet ascertained by fortune,—was
a native of Spain, the countryman, the fellow-soldier, and the rival of
Theodosius whose elevation he had not seen without some emotions of envy
and resentment: the events of his life had long since fixed him in
Britain; and I should not be unwilling to find some evidence for the
marriage, which he is said to have contracted with the daughter of a
wealthy lord of Caernarvonshire.
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 compelled to accept the dangerous
present of the Imperial purple.
12
1 (
return
[ 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 poetical fame of Ausonius condemns
the taste of his age.]
2 (
return
[ Ausonius was successively
promoted to the Prætorian 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 productions.]
3 (
return
[ 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 promulgated, after the death of
Gratian, by the feeble court of Milan.]
4 (
return
[ 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 intolerant laws.]
5 (
return
[ 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 merit of this comprehensive
law.]
6 (
return
[ 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 comparison of Nero.]
7 (
return
[ 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 sa transtulerat, anteferret veteri ac Romano
militi.]
8 (
return
[ 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 l’environment.”]
9 (
return
[ Zosimus says of the British
soldiers.]
10 (
return
[ Helena, the daughter of
Eudda. Her chapel may still be seen at Caer-segont, now Caer-narvon.
(Carte’s Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 168, from Rowland’s Mona Antiqua.)
The prudent reader may not perhaps be satisfied with such Welsh evidence.]
11 (
return
[ 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. iv. p. 248.)]
12 (
return
[ 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 treated by Zosimus, the
partial adversary of his rival.]
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 stained by the
blood of the Romans.
16
13 (
return
[ 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
mention the children of these British virgins.]
14 (
return
[ 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 &c., and de Obitu Valentinian
Consolat. Ner. 28, p. 1182.)]
15 (
return
[ 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.]
16 (
return
[ 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
17 (
return
[ Ambrose mentions the laws
of Gratian, quas non abrogavit hostia (tom. ii epist. xvii. p. 827.)]
18 (
return
[ 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 the important lesson, which he had received from this
dramatic parable.
23
19 (
return
[ Their oracle, the
archbishop of Milan, assigns to his pupil Gratian, a high and respectable
place in heaven, (tom. ii. de Obit. Val. Consol p. 1193.)]
20 (
return
[ For the baptism of
Theodosius, see Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 4,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 6,) and
Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728.)]
21 (
return
[ 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, &c., (epist. xvi. p. 822.) a virtue which does
not appertain either to a wall, or a bishop.]
22 (
return
[ 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 astra.]
23 (
return
[ 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.]
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part II.
Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a
long interval of forty years,
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 five-and-forty years. But as he was still conscious that
he deserved another audience, and another theatre, he accepted, with no
unworthy ambition, the honorable invitation, which was addressed to him
from the orthodox party of Constantinople. On his arrival in the capital,
Gregory was entertained in the house of a pious and charitable kinsman;
the most spacious room was consecrated to the uses of religious worship;
and the name of Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the
Nicene faith. This private conventicle was afterwards converted into a
magnificent church; and the credulity of the succeeding age was prepared
to believe the miracles and visions, which attested the presence, or at
least the protection, of the Mother of God.
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 dissatisfied with the manifold imperfections
of their faith and practice.
36
24 (
return
[ 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 throne of Constantinople.]
25 (
return
[ See Jortin’s Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 71. The thirty-third Oration of
Gregory Nazianzen affords indeed some similar ideas, even some still more
ridiculous; but I have not yet found the words of this remarkable passage,
which I allege on the faith of a correct and liberal scholar.]
26 (
return
[ See the thirty-second
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 which he has cured.]
27 (
return
[ 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, (Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 1-128.)]
28 (
return
[ Unless Gregory Nazianzen
mistook thirty years in his own age, he was born, as well as his friend
Basil, about the year 329. The preposterous chronology of Suidas has been
graciously received, because it removes the scandal of Gregory’s father, a
saint likewise, begetting children after he became a bishop, (Tillemont,
Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 693-697.)]
29 (
return
[ Gregory’s Poem on his own
Life contains some beautiful lines, (tom. ii. p. 8,) which burst from the
heart, and speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship. ——In
the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena addresses the same pathetic complaint
to her friend Hermia:—Is all the counsel that we two have shared.
The sister’s vows, &c. 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.]
30 (
return
[ 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 thirty-two
from Tyana, is fixed in the Itinerary of Antoninus, (p. 144, edit.
Wesseling.)]
31 (
return
[ 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 Isauria.]
32 (
return
[ See Ducange, Constant.
Christiana, l. iv. p. 141, 142. The Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5) is interpreted
to mean the Virgin Mary.]
33 (
return
[ Tillemont (Mem. Eccles.
tom. ix. p. 432, &c.) diligently collects, enlarges, and explains, the
oratorical and poetical hints of Gregory himself.]
34 (
return
[ 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 touch slightly on these obscure and
personal squabbles.]
35 (
return
[ 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.]
36 (
return
[ 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.
37 (
return
[ 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 powerful, but it was easy, and would
have been profitable, to submit.]
38 (
return
[ 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 sun broke forth when the procession entered
the church.]
39 (
return
[ 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 reign of Gratian to that of
Theodosius.]
40 (
return
[ I do not reckon
Philostorgius, though he mentions (l. ix. c. 19) the explosion of
Damophilus. The Eunomian historian has been carefully strained through an
orthodox sieve.]
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 only to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of
geese.
44
41 (
return
[ Le Clerc has given a
curious extract (Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 91-105) of the
theological sermons which Gregory Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople
against the Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, &c. 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 of heaven resembles a
well-regulated aristocracy.]
42 (
return
[ 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. ix. p. 499, 500.)]
43 (
return
[ 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. Eccles. tom. x.
p. 541.)]
44 (
return
[ 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 lustre on the memory of Gregory Nazianzen.
45 (
return
[ See Gregory, tom. ii. de
Vita sua, p. 28-31. The fourteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-second
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 the West, &c.,
is pathetic, and almost sublime.]
46 (
return
[ 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
canon of criticism!]
47 (
return
[ 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 Constantinople.]
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
48 (
return
[ See the Theodosian Code,
l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 6—23, with Godefroy’s commentary on each law,
and his general summary, or Paratitlon, tom vi. p. 104-110.]
49 (
return
[ 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.]
50 (
return
[ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 12.]
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
Prætorian 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.
53
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 marriage-bed; and
the peace of families was often disturbed by indiscreet separations. They
enjoyed, or recommended, a total abstinence from all animal 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.
51 (
return
[ See the Sacred History of
Sulpicius Severus, (l. ii. p. 437-452, edit. Ludg. Bat. 1647,) a correct
and original writer. Dr. Lardner (Credibility, &c., 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
together all the dirt of the fathers; a useful scavenger!]
52 (
return
[ Severus Sulpicius
mentions the arch-heretic 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.]
53 (
return
[ 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.]
54 (
return
[ Exprobrabatur mulieri
viduae nimia religio, et diligentius culta divinitas, (Pacat. in Panegyr.
Vet. xii. 29.) Such was the idea of a humane, though ignorant,
polytheist.]
55 (
return
[ 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.)]
56 (
return
[ The scandalous calumnies
of Augustin, Pope Leo, &c., which Tillemont swallows like a child, and
Lardner refutes like a man, may suggest some candid suspicions in favor of
the older Gnostics.]
57 (
return
[ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist.
xxiv. p. 891.]
58 (
return
[ 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.]
59 (
return
[ 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.]
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part III.
Among the ecclesiastics, who illustrated the reign of Theodosius, Gregory
Nazianzen was distinguished by the talents of an eloquent preacher; the
reputation of miraculous gifts added weight and dignity to the monastic
virtues of Martin of Tours;
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
Prætorian 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 thirty-four, and
before he had received the sacrament of baptism, Ambrose, to his own
surprise, and to that of the world, was suddenly transformed from a
governor to an archbishop. Without the least mixture, as it is said, of
art or intrigue, the whole body of the people unanimously saluted him with
the episcopal title; the concord and perseverance of their acclamations
were ascribed to a 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 apprehending the
displeasure, of his feeble sovereigns.
60 (
return
[ 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 and good sense, that I am
always astonished by this contrast.]
61 (
return
[ 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 Benedictine editors (p. xxxi.—lxiii.)
have labored with their usual diligence.]
62 (
return
[ Ambrose himself (tom. ii.
Epist. xxiv. p. 888—891) gives the emperor a very spirited account
of his own embassy.]
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.
63 (
return
[ His own representation of
his principles and conduct (tom. ii. Epist. xx xxi. xxii. p. 852-880) is
one of the curious monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. It contains two
letters to his sister Marcellina, with a petition to Valentinian and the
sermon de Basilicis non madendis.]
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.
64 (
return
[ 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, &c. A quoi j’ajoutai tout ce que
vous pouvez vous imaginer de respect de douleur, de regret, et de
soumission, &c. (Mémoires, 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
65 (
return
[ Sozomen alone (l. vii. c.
13) throws this luminous fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.]
66 (
return
[ 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]
67 (
return
[ Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.
tom. ii. p. 78, 498. Many churches in Italy, Gaul, &c., were dedicated
to these unknown martyrs, of whom St. Gervaise seems to have been more
fortunate than his companion.]
68 (
return
[ 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.—Grandiaque
effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.]
69 (
return
[ 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 twenty-five years) to the
service of the church. I should recommend this miracle to our divines, if
it did not prove the worship of relics, as well as the Nicene creed.]
70 (
return
[ Paulin, in Tit. St.
Ambros. c. 5, in Append. Benedict. p. 5.]
71 (
return
[ 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.
72 (
return
[ The modest censure of
Sulpicius (Dialog. iii. 15) inflicts a much deeper wound than the
declamation of Pacatus, (xii. 25, 26.)]
73 (
return
[ Esto tutior adversus
hominem, pacis involurco tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose (tom.
ii. p. 891) after his return from his second embassy.]
74 (
return
[ Baronius (A.D. 387, No.
63) applies to this season of public distress some of the penitential
sermons of the archbishop.]
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,
7511
had fixed his camp in the neighborhood of Siscia, a city of Pannonia,
strongly fortified by the broad and rapid stream of the Save.
75 (
return
[ 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 seroient trop contraires a la piete de Theodose.]
7511 (
return
[ Aemonah, Laybach.
Siscia Sciszek.—M.]
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part IV.
The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and successive
resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare themselves for the
labors of three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his successor, who,
like him, had usurped the throne of the West, was easily decided in the
term of two months,
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 well-dissembled joy: his son Victor, on whom
he had conferred the title of Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the
hand, of the bold Arbogastes; and all the military plans of Theodosius
were successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war,
with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally expect, he
employed the winter months of his residence at Milan, to restore the state
of the afflicted provinces; and early in the spring he made, after the
example of Constantine and Constantius, his triumphal entry into the
ancient capital of the Roman empire.
77
76 (
return
[ See Godefroy’s Chronology
of the Laws, Cod. Theodos, tom l. p. cxix.]
77 (
return
[ 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 well-known
events of a magazine surprised, an action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps
a naval, victory, &c., Ausonius (p. 256, edit. Toll.) applauds the
peculiar merit and good fortune of Aquileia.]
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
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
78 (
return
[ Quam promptum laudare
principem, tam tutum siluisse de principe, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii.
2.) Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, a native of Gaul, pronounced this oration
at Rome, (A.D. 388.) He was afterwards proconsul of Africa; and his friend
Ausonius praises him as a poet second only to Virgil. See Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 303.]
79 (
return
[ 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 above the son.]
80 (
return
[ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist.
xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from the want of skill or of courage, omits this
glorious circumstance.]
81 (
return
[ Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet.
xii. 20.]
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.
82 (
return
[ 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 character of Theodosius.]
83 (
return
[ 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.)
Theodosius (Claud. in iv. Hon. 266, &c.) exhorts his son to moderate
his anger.]
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, twenty-four 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 exquisite pleasure, of
a sovereign.
90
84 (
return
[ 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, &c.]
85 (
return
[ 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.]
86 (
return
[ Libanius (Orat. i. p. 6,
edit. Venet.) declares, that under such a reign the fear of a massacre was
groundless and absurd, especially in the emperor’s absence, for his
presence, according to the eloquent slave, might have given a sanction to
the most bloody acts.]
87 (
return
[ Laodicea, on the
sea-coast, sixty-five miles from Antioch, (see Noris Epoch. Syro-Maced.
Dissert. iii. p. 230.) The Antiochians were offended, that the dependent
city of Seleucia should presume to intercede for them.]
88 (
return
[ As the days of the tumult
depend on the movable festival of Easter, they can only be determined by
the previous determination of the year. The year 387 has been preferred,
after a laborious inquiry, by Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p.
741-744) and Montfaucon, (Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 105-110.)]
89 (
return
[ Chrysostom opposes their
courage, which was not attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of
the Cynics.]
90 (
return
[ 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 read him with
pious curiosity and diligence.]
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
91 (
return
[ 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, most
unaccountably passes over in silence the worst of his actions.]
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,
9111
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 conversation.
9111 (
return
[ Raeca, on the
Euphrates—M.]
92 (
return
[ 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, &c.) have justly condemned the archbishop.]
93 (
return
[ 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.]
94 (
return
[ 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 deserved punishment.]
95 (
return
[ 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 Godefroy’s Commentary, tom.
vi. p. 225.]
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.
96 (
return
[ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist.
li. p. 997-1001. His epistle is a miserable rhapsody on a noble subject.
Ambrose could act better than he could write. His compositions are
destitute of taste, or genius; without the spirit of Tertullian, the
copious elegance of Lactantius the lively wit of Jerom, or the grave
energy of Augustin.]
97 (
return
[ 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.
219-277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil.]
98 (
return
[ 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.]
99 (
return
[ 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) and Pagi, (Critica, tom. i.
p. 578.)]
100 (
return
[ Un prince qui aime la
religion, et qui la craint, est un lion qui cede a la main qui le flatte,
ou a la voix qui l’appaise. Esprit des Loix, l. xxiv. c. 2.]
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part V.
After the defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman world was in
the possession of Theodosius. He derived from the choice of Gratian his
honorable title to the provinces of the East: he had acquired the West by
the right of conquest; and the three years which he spent in Italy were
usefully employed to restore the authority of the laws, and to correct the
abuses which had prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of Maximus,
and the minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian was regularly
inserted in the public acts: but the tender age, and doubtful faith, of
the son of Justina, appeared to require the prudent care of an orthodox
guardian; and his specious ambition might have excluded the unfortunate
youth, without a struggle, and almost without a murmur, from the
administration, and even from the inheritance, of the empire. If
Theodosius had consulted the rigid maxims of interest and policy, his
conduct would have been justified by his friends; but the generosity of
his behavior on this memorable occasion has extorted the applause of his
most inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the throne of Milan;
and, without stipulating any present or future advantages, restored him to
the absolute dominion of all the provinces, from which he had been driven
by the arms of Maximus. To the restitution of his ample patrimony,
Theodosius added the free and generous gift of the countries beyond the
Alps, which his successful valor had recovered from the assassin of
Gratian.
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 unrivalled
generosity in the use of victory.
101 (
return
[ 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, master-general of the armies
of Gaul. His real merit, and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence
both of the prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the
allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he was universally esteemed as the
pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was secretly determined
either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the West. The important commands
of the army were distributed among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes
were promoted to all the honors and offices of the civil government; the
progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the
presence of Valentinian; and the emperor, without power and without
intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent condition
of a captive.
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
mansions of eternal bliss.
108
102 (
return
[ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 14.
His chronology is very irregular.]
103 (
return
[ See Ambrose, (tom. ii.
de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.)
When the young emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; he
refused to see a handsome actress, &c. 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 amusement.]
104 (
return
[ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275)
praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c.
25) and Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35.)]
105 (
return
[ 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.]
106 (
return
[ Godefroy (Dissertat.
ad. Philostorg. p. 429-434) has diligently collected all the circumstances
of the death of Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of
contemporary writers, prove that it was secret.]
107 (
return
[ 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.]
108 (
return
[ 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 contradiction.]
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 master-generals,
Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit the numbers, and to revive
the discipline of the Roman legions. The formidable troops of Barbarians
marched under the ensigns of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the
Arab, and the Goth, who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were
enlisted in the service of the same prince;
1141
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
109 (
return
[ 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. p.
276, 277.)]
110 (
return
[ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278)
mentions this embassy; but he is diverted by another story from relating
the event.]
111 (
return
[ Zosim. l. iv. p. 277.
He afterwards says (p. 280) that Galla died in childbed; and intimates,
that the affliction of her husband was extreme but short.]
112 (
return
[ 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 the
curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of his editor Michaelis.]
113 (
return
[ 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. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718,
720) has settled the chronology.]
114 (
return
[ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22.
Claudian (in Eutrop. l. i. 312) mentions the eunuch’s journey; but he most
contemptuously derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the Nile.]
1141 (
return
[ Gibbon has embodied
the picturesque verses of Claudian:—
.... Nec tantis dissona linguis
Turba, nec armorum cultu diversion unquam]
115 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280.
Socrates, l. vii. 10. Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524) dwells with
more complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.
.... Tot Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi.
Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of flying
emperors.]
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,
1201
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
116 (
return
[ Claudian (in iv. Cons.
Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts the military plans of the two usurpers:—
.... Novitas audere priorem
Suadebat; cautumque dabant exempla sequentem.
Hic nova moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta
Providus. Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille.
Hic vagus excurrens; hic claustra reductus
Dissimiles, sed morte pares......]
117 (
return
[ 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.)]
118 (
return
[ 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. Confluxit populus: totam pater undique secum Moverat Aurorem;
mixtis hic Colchus Iberis, Hic mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine decoro
Armenius, hic picta Saces, fucataque Medus, Hic gemmata tiger tentoria
fixerat Indus.—De Laud. Stil. l. 145.—M.]
119 (
return
[ Theodoret affirms, that
St. John, and St. Philip, appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on
horseback, &c. This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which
afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the Crusades.]
120 (
return
[ Te propter, gelidis
Aquilo de monte procellis
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 classica venti.
These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c. 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
eye-witnesses. Within four months after the victory, it was compared by
Ambrose to the miraculous victories of Moses and Joshua.]
1201 (
return
[ 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.]
121 (
return
[ 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. Cons. Hon. 70-117,) and the Chronicles published by Scaliger.]
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.
122 (
return
[ 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, (Godefroy, Dissert. p. 438.)]
123 (
return
[ 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.
124 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. iv. p.
244.]
The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and cities,
had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the camps of the
legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the pen of a military
writer, who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of
Roman discipline. It is the just and important observation of Vegetius,
that the infantry was invariably covered with defensive armor, from the
foundation of the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The
relaxation of discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the
soldiers less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they seldom
wore; and they successively obtained the permission of laying aside both
their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors,
the short sword, and the formidable pilum, which had subdued the world,
insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use of the shield is
incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the
field; condemned to suffer either the pain of wounds, or the ignominy of
flight, and always disposed to prefer the more shameful alternative. The
cavalry of the Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt the benefits, and
adopted the use, of defensive armor; and, as they excelled in the
management of missile weapons, they easily overwhelmed the naked and
trembling legions, whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence,
to the arrows of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of
cities, and the dishonor of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited the
successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the cuirasses of the
infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the public
defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may be considered as the
immediate cause of the downfall of the empire.
125
125 (
return
[ 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.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part I.
Final Destruction Of Paganism.—Introduction Of The Worship
Of Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.
The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only
example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition;
and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the
history of the human mind. The Christians, more especially the clergy, had
impatiently supported the prudent delays of Constantine, and the equal
toleration of the elder Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest
perfect or secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist.
The influence which Ambrose and his brethren had acquired over the youth
of Gratian, and the piety of Theodosius, was employed to infuse the maxims
of persecution into the breasts of their Imperial proselytes. Two specious
principles of religious jurisprudence were established, from whence they
deduced a direct and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the
empire who still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that the
magistrate is, in some measure, guilty of the crimes which he neglects to
prohibit, or to punish; and, that the idolatrous worship of fabulous
deities, and real daemons, is the most abominable crime against the
supreme majesty of the Creator. The laws of Moses, and the examples of
Jewish history,
were hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied, by
the clergy, to the mild and universal reign of Christianity.
The
zeal of the emperors was excited to vindicate their own honor, and that of
the Deity: and the temples of the Roman world were subverted, about sixty
years after the conversion of Constantine.
1 (
return
[ 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 per amatam conjugera gladium vindicem ducit, &c.]
2 (
return
[ Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406,
in his Commentaire Philosophique) justifies, and limits, these intolerant
laws by the temporal reign of Jehovah over the Jews. The attempt is
laudable.]
From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans preserved the
regular succession of the several colleges of the sacerdotal order.
Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their supreme jurisdiction over all things, and
persons, that were consecrated to the service of the gods; and the various
questions which perpetually arose in a loose and traditionary system, were
submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal. Fifteen grave and learned
Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and prescribed the actions of
heroes, according to the flight of birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sibylline
books (their name of Quindecemvirs was derived from their number)
occasionally consulted the history of future, and, as it should seem, of
contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the guard of
the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of the duration of Rome; which
no mortal had been suffered to behold with impunity.
Seven Epulos prepared the table of the gods, conducted the solemn
procession, and regulated the ceremonies of the annual festival. The three
Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and of Quirinus, were considered as the
peculiar ministers of the three most powerful deities, who watched over
the fate of Rome and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices
represented the person of Numa, and of his successors, in the religious
functions, which could be performed only by royal hands. The
confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c., practised such
rites as might extort a smile of contempt from every reasonable man, with
a lively confidence of recommending themselves to the favor of the
immortal gods. The authority, which the Roman priests had formerly
obtained in the counsels of the republic, was gradually abolished by the
establishment of monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the
dignity of their sacred character was still protected by the laws, and
manners of their country; and they still continued, more especially the
college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital, and sometimes in the
provinces, the rights of their ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction.
Their robes of purple, 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
and Pompey were filled, in the fourth century,
by the most illustrious members of the senate; and the dignity of their
birth reflected additional splendor on their sacerdotal character. The
fifteen priests, who composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more
distinguished rank as the companions of their sovereign; and the Christian
emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns, which were
appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when Gratian ascended
the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened, he sternly rejected those
profane symbols;
applied to the service of the state, or of the
church, the revenues of the priests and vestals; abolished their honors
and immunities; and dissolved the ancient fabric of Roman superstition,
which was supported by the opinions and habits of eleven hundred years.
Paganism was still the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or
temple, in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of
Victory;
a majestic female standing on a globe, with
flowing garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her
outstretched hand.
The senators were sworn on the altar of the
goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and a solemn
offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public
deliberations.
The removal of this ancient monument was the
only injury which Constantius had offered to the superstition of the
Romans. The altar of Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated by
Valentinian, and once more banished from the senate by the zeal of
Gratian.
10
But the emperor yet spared the statues of the
gods which were exposed to the public veneration: four hundred and
twenty-four temples, or chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of
the people; and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians
was offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice.
11
3 (
return
[ 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 antiquary.]
4 (
return
[ 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, tom i. p. 60—66) and Lipsius, (tom. iii. p. 610
de Vesta, &c. c 10.)]
5 (
return
[ 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.]
6 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249,
250. I have suppressed the foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus.]
7 (
return
[ This statue was
transported from Tarentum to Rome, placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar,
and decorated by Augustus with the spoils of Egypt.]
8 (
return
[ Prudentius (l. ii. in
initio) has drawn a very awkward portrait of Victory; but the curious
reader will obtain more satisfaction from Montfaucon’s Antiquities, (tom.
i. p. 341.)]
9 (
return
[ See Suetonius (in August.
c. 35) and the Exordium of Pliny’s Panegyric.]
10 (
return
[ These facts are
mutually allowed by the two advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose.]
11 (
return
[ 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 Pagans, to the new religion of Christ and of Constantine.
12 (
return
[ Ambrose repeatedly
affirms, in contradiction to common sense (Moyle’s Works, vol. ii. p.
147,) that the Christians had a majority in the senate.]
13 (
return
[ 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 represents the whole
transaction.]
14 (
return
[ 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 the head of his works. * Note: Mr. Beugnot has
made it doubtful whether Symmachus was more than Pontifex Major.
Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p. 459.—M.]
15 (
return
[ 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.]
16 (
return
[ See the fifty-fourth
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 verbose correspondence.]
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 chariot-wheels 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.
1811
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 high-flown expressions of Prudentius) were impatient
to strip themselves of their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the
old serpent; to assume the snowy robes of baptismal innocence, and to
humble the pride of the consular fasces before tombs of the martyrs.”
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 the name and
authority of Rome.
2311
17 (
return
[ 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. 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 Salvian.]
18 (
return
[ See Prudentius (in
Symmach. l. i. 545, &c.) 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.) But the time and
circumstances are better suited to his first triumph.]
1811 (
return
[ 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]
19 (
return
[ Prudentius, after
proving that the sense of the senate is declared by a legal majority,
proceeds to say, (609, &c.)—
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 transit.
Zosimus ascribes to the conscript fathers a heathenish courage, which few
of them are found to possess.]
20 (
return
[ 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 proselyted (tom. i. ad Laetam, p. 54.)]
21 (
return
Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi
Lumina; Conciliumque senum gestire Catonum
Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum
Sumere; et exuvias deponere pontificales.
The fancy of Prudentius is warmed and elevated by victory]
22 (
return
[ 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?]
23 (
return
[ Jerom exults in the
desolation of the Capitol, and the other temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54,
tom. ii. p. 95.)]
2311 (
return
[ 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 Beugnot, p. 491.—M.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part II.
The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to proceed, with
some caution and tenderness, in the reformation of the eternal city. Those
absolute monarchs acted with less regard to the prejudices of the
provincials. The pious labor which had been suspended near twenty years
since the death of Constantius,
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 Prætorian 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 execute such laborious destruction.
24 (
return
[ 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 the evidence of ecclesiastical history. Note: See in
Reiske’s edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155. Sacrific was prohibited by
Valens, but not the offering of incense.—M.]
25 (
return
[ See his laws in the
Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 7-11.]
26 (
return
[ 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 and the Romans, (Cicero de
Divinatione, ii. 23.)]
27 (
return
[ 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 commands of Theodosius were not
direct and positive. * 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 in the hands of the Christian
emperor.—M.]
28 (
return
[ 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, p. 26, 27, and Godefroy’s notes, p. 59.)]
29 (
return
[ 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. p. 135-163.)]
30 (
return
[ 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.]
31 (
return
[ Compare Sozomen, (l.
vii. c. 15) with Theodoret, (l. v. c. 21.) Between them, they relate the
crusade and death of Marcellus.]
32 (
return
[ Libanius, pro Templis,
p. 10-13. He rails at these black-garbed men, the Christian monks, who eat
more than elephants. Poor elephants! they are temperate animals.]
33 (
return
[ Prosper. Aquitan. l.
iii. c. 38, apud Baronium; Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 58, &c. The
temple had been shut some time, and the access to it was overgrown with
brambles.]
34 (
return
[ 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 hundred years after the reign of
Theodosius.]
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
35 (
return
[ 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 witness.]
36 (
return
[ 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 Serapis. * Note: Consult du Dieu
Serapis et son Origine, par J D. Guigniaut, (the translator of Creuzer’s
Symbolique,) Paris, 1828; and in the fifth volume of Bournouf’s
translation of Tacitus.—M.]
37 (
return
[ Origo dei nondum
nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum antistites sic memorant, &c., Tacit.
Hist. iv. 83. The Greeks, who had travelled into Egypt, were alike
ignorant of this new deity.]
38 (
return
[ Macrobius, Saturnal, l.
i. c. 7. Such a living fact decisively proves his foreign extraction.]
39 (
return
[ 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 Serapis.]
40 (
return
[ 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.]
41 (
return
[ See Mémoires 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.]
42 (
return
[ Libanius (pro Templis,
p. 21) indiscreetly provokes his Christian masters by this insulting
remark.]
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,
4411
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;
4711
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 battle-axe, 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 river-god. But this
delay was soon compensated by the rapid swell of the waters. They suddenly
rose to such an unusual height, as to comfort the discontented party with
the pleasing expectation of a deluge; till the peaceful river again
subsided to the well-known and fertilizing level of sixteen cubits, or
about thirty English feet.
52
43 (
return
[ 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 the former, and
Pagi the latter.]
44 (
return
[ 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 the whole, the balance is justly
inclined against him.]
4411 (
return
[ No doubt a temple
of Osiris. St. Martin, iv 398-M.]
45 (
return
[ 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 prophet.]
46 (
return
[ 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 writer. Orosius seems to blush.]
47 (
return
[ 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.]
4711 (
return
[ 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
epigram.—M.]
48 (
return
[ 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,) may prove that such
amorous frauds have been practised with success.]
49 (
return
[ See the images of
Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii. p. 297:) but the description of
Macrobius (Saturnal. l. i. c. 20) is much more picturesque and
satisfactory.]
50 (
return
Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent
In sua credebant redituras membra secures.
(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 clear-sighted veteran,) and you now sup on one
of the legs of the goddess.” (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 24)]
51 (
return
[ The history of the
reformation affords frequent examples of the sudden change from
superstition to contempt.]
52 (
return
[ 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
Egyptian cubit is about twenty-two inches of the English measure. * 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 burnt-offering, as no altar was provided to receive the blood, and
as the previous oblation of salt cakes, and the concluding ceremony of
libations, were carefully omitted, these festal meetings did not involve
the guests in the guilt, or penalty, of an illegal sacrifice.
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
5511
This prohibitory law is expressed in the
most absolute and comprehensive terms. “It is our will and pleasure,” says
the emperor, “that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private
citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their rank and
condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place, to worship an
inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim.” The act of
sacrificing, and the practice of divination by the entrails of the victim,
are declared (without any regard to the object of the inquiry) a crime of
high treason against the state, which can be expiated only by the death of
the guilty. The rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody
and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and honor
of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine,
are specially enumerated and condemned; and the harmless claims of the
domestic genius, of the household gods, are included in this rigorous
proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies,
subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate, where they
have been performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property of another
for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay,
a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or more than one thousand
pounds sterling. A fine, not less considerable, is imposed on the
connivance of the secret enemies of religion, who shall neglect the duty
of their respective stations, either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt of
idolatry. Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which
were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud and
unanimous applause of the Christian world.
56
53 (
return
[ 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.]
54 (
return
[ 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 proviso, (Codex Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x.
leg. 17, 19.)]
55 (
return
[ 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.]
5511 (
return
[ Paganism maintained
its ground for a considerable time in the rural districts. Endelechius, a
poet who lived at the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of the cross
as Signum quod perhibent esse crucis Dei, Magnis qui colitur solus
inurbibus. 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 Beugnot. vol lvii. p. 52—M.]
56 (
return
[ 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, (Bibliothèque 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.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part III.
In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity had been
proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary religion of the
empire; and the unjust suspicions which were entertained of a dark and
dangerous faction, were, in some measure, countenanced by the inseparable
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
57 (
return
[ 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 legibus sta prohiberentur) et non negavit?”]
58 (
return
[ Libanius (pro Templis,
p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure the occasional conformity, and as it
were theatrical play, of these hypocrites.]
59 (
return
[ 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.]
60 (
return
[ 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.
6111
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 twenty-eight years after the
death of Theodosius, the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible
to the eye of the legislator.
67
61 (
return
[ 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 advice.]
6111 (
return
[ 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 other fatal
measures, to extirpate the gods of Rome:—
Roma, ipsique tremant furialia murmura reges.
Jam superos terris atque hospita numina pelle:
Romanos populare Deos, et nullus in aris
Vestoe exoratoe fotus strue palleat ignis.
Ilis instructa dolis palatia celsa subibo;
Majorum mores, et pectora prisca fugabo
Funditus; atque simul, nullo discrimine rerum,
Spernantur fortes, nec sic reverentia justis.
Attica neglecto pereat facundia Phoebo:
Indignis contingat honos, et pondera rerum;
Non virtus sed casus agat; tristique cupido;
Pectoribus saevi demens furor aestuet aevi;
Omniaque hoec sine mente Jovis, sine numine sumimo.
Merobaudes in Niebuhr’s edit. of the Byzantines, p. 14.—M.]
62 (
return
[ Denique pro meritis
terrestribus aequa rependens
Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honores.

Dux bonus, et certare sinit cum laude suorum,
Nec pago implicitos per debita culmina mundi Ire
viros prohibet.
Ipse magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal

Contulit.
Prudent. in Symmach. i. 617, &c.
Note: I have inserted some lines omitted by Gibbon.—M.]
63 (
return
[ 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.]
64 (
return
[ Zosimus, who styles
himself Count and Ex-advocate of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and
indecent bigotry, the Christian princes, and even the father of his
sovereign. His work must have been privately circulated, since it escaped
the invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius, (l.
iii. c. 40-42,) who lived towards the end of the sixth century. * Note:
Heyne in his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque Fidem. places Zosimum towards
the close of the fifth century. Zosim. Heynii, p. xvii.—M.]
65 (
return
[ Yet the Pagans of
Africa complained, that the times would not allow them to answer with
freedom the City of God; nor does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge.]
66 (
return
[ 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.)]
67 (
return
[ Paganos qui supersunt,
quanquam jam nullos esse credamus, &c. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x.
leg. 22, A.D. 423. The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied, that
his judgment had been somewhat premature. 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. 112, on the more tardy progress of
Christianity in the rural districts.—M.]
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.
68 (
return
[ See Eunapius, in the
Life of the sophist Aedesius; in that of Eustathius he foretells the ruin
of Paganism.]
69 (
return
[ 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.]
70 (
return
[ 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 of M. Chais, tom.
iii.]
71 (
return
[ 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. advers. Vigilant. p. 183.]
72 (
return
[ 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, 588-594.)]
73 (
return
[ Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122)
pompously describes the translation of Samuel, which is noticed in all the
chronicles of the times.]
74 (
return
[ The presbyter
Vigilantius, the Protestant of his age, firmly, though ineffectually,
withstood the superstition of monks, relics, saints, fasts, &c., for
which Jerom compares him to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c.,
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 speedily gain some
idea of the spirit of the Fathers.]
In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed between the
reign of Constantine and the reformation of Luther, the worship of saints
and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian
model: and some symptoms of degeneracy may be observed even in the first
generations which adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation.
I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were more
valuable than gold or precious stones,
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.
75 (
return
[ M. de Beausobre (Hist.
du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious
observation of the clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of
St. Polycarp the martyr.]
76 (
return
[ 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 of the two was likely to happen most
frequently?]
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 seventy-three of
the assistants. The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful
residence of Caphargamala: but the relics of the first martyr were
transported, in solemn procession, to a church constructed in their honor
on Mount Sion; and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood,
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.
77 (
return
[ 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 softened by Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles.
tom. ii. p. 9, &c.)]
78 (
return
[ A phial of St.
Stephen’s blood was annually liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded
by St. Jamarius, (Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal p. 529.)]
79 (
return
[ Augustin composed the
two-and-twenty books de Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years, A.D.
413-426. Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, &c.) 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, and not
unskilfully, executed.]
80 (
return
[ 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, he lies.”]
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 polytheism.
85
81 (
return
[ 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, &c.) the inconveniences which must arise,
if they possessed a more active and sensible existence.]
82 (
return
[ 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 diabolus
et daemones tote vagentur in orbe, &c.]
83 (
return
[ Fleury Discours sur
l’Hist. Ecclesiastique, iii p. 80.]
84 (
return
[ 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, &c. See the original
letter of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ.
Dei,) and the judicious remarks of Basnage, (tom. viii. p. 245-251.)]
85 (
return
[ Mr. Hume (Essays, vol.
ii. p. 434) observes, like a philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of
polytheism and theism.]
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
9011
86 (
return
[ D’Aubigne (see his own
Mémoires, 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.]
87 (
return
[ The worship practised
and inculcated by Tertullian, Lactantius Arnobius, &c., is so
extremely pure and spiritual, that their declamations against the Pagan
sometimes glance against the Jewish, ceremonies.]
88 (
return
[ 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
fourth and fifth centuries.]
89 (
return
[ The resemblance of
superstition, which could not be imitated, might be traced from Japan to
Mexico. Warburton has seized this idea, which he distorts, by rendering it
too general and absolute, (Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c.)]
90 (
return
[ 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, and to prove the antiquity of the
Christian copy.]
9011 (
return
[ 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 extent, on the thoughts and feelings, sometimes on the
actions.—M.]
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between Sons Of Theodosius.—Part
I.
Final Division Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of
Theodosius.—Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius—Administration
Of Rufinus And Stilicho.—Revolt And Defeat Of Gildo In
Africa.
The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius; the last of the successors of
Augustus and Constantine, who appeared in the field at the head of their
armies, and whose authority was universally acknowledged throughout the
whole extent of the empire. The memory of his virtues still continued,
however, to protect the feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons.
After the death of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by
the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East, and
of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by every order of
the state; the senates of old and new Rome, the clergy, the magistrates,
the soldiers, and the people. Arcadius, who was then about eighteen years
of age, was born in Spain, in the humble habitation of a private family.
But he received a princely education in the palace of Constantinople; and
his inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of
royalty, from whence he appeared to reign over the provinces of Thrace,
Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower Danube to the confines of
Persia and Æthiopia. His younger brother Honorius, assumed, in the
eleventh year of his age, the nominal government of Italy, Africa, Gaul,
Spain, and Britain; and the troops, which guarded the frontiers of his
kingdom, were opposed, on one side, to the Caledonians, and on the other,
to the Moors. The great and martial 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 rebels
who opposed, and the ministers who abused, the authority of the throne.
Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the elevation of
Rufinus; an odious favorite, who, in an age of civil and religious
faction, has deserved, from every party, the imputation of every crime.
The strong impulse of ambition and avarice
had urged Rufinus to
abandon his native country, an obscure corner of Gaul,
to
advance his fortune in the capital of the East: the talent of bold and
ready elocution,
qualified him to succeed in the lucrative
profession of the law; and his success in that profession was a regular
step to the most honorable and important employments of the state. He was
raised, by just degrees, to the station of master of the offices. In the
exercise of his various functions, so essentially connected with the whole
system of civil government, he acquired the confidence of a monarch, who
soon discovered his diligence and capacity in business, and who long
remained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the covetousness of his
disposition. These vices were concealed beneath the mask of profound
dissimulation;
his passions were subservient only to the
passions of his master; yet in the horrid massacre of Thessalonica, the
cruel Rufinus inflamed the fury, without imitating the repentance, of
Theodosius. The minister, who viewed with proud indifference the rest of
mankind, never forgave the appearance of an injury; and his personal
enemies had forfeited, in his opinion, the merit of all public services.
Promotus, the master-general of the infantry, had saved the empire from
the invasion of the Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the
preeminence of a rival, whose character and profession he despised; and in
the midst of a public council, the impatient soldier was provoked to
chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the favorite. This act of
violence was represented to the emperor as an insult, which it was
incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of Promotus
were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without delay, to a
military station on the banks of the Danube; and the death of that general
(though he was slain in a skirmish with the Barbarians) was imputed to the
perfidious arts of Rufinus.
The sacrifice of a hero gratified his revenge;
the honors of the consulship elated his vanity; but his power was still
imperfect and precarious, as long as the important posts of praefect of
the East, and of praefect of Constantinople, were filled by Tatian,
and
his son Proculus; whose united authority balanced, for some time, the
ambition and favor of the master of the offices. The two 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.
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.
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.
1 (
return
[ Alecto, envious of the
public felicity, convenes an infernal synod Megaera recommends her pupil
Rufinus, and excites him to deeds of mischief, &c. But there is as
much difference between Claudian’s fury and that of Virgil, as between the
characters of Turnus and Rufinus.]
2 (
return
[ 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 Gassony, (D’Anville, Notice de
l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 289.)]
3 (
return
[ Philostorgius, l. xi c.
3, with Godefroy’s Dissert. p. 440.]
4 (
return
[ A passage of Suidas is
expressive of his profound dissimulation.]
5 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 272,
273.]
6 (
return
[ 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. p. 360. Mem. Eccles. tom vi. p.
589.)]
7 (
return
[—Juvenum rorantia
colla Ante patrum vultus stricta cecidere securi.
Ibat grandaevus nato moriente superstes
Post trabeas exsul.
—-In Rufin. i. 248.
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.]
8 (
return
[ 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,) is perfectly clear.
—-Exscindere cives
Funditus; et nomen gentis delere laborat.
The scruples of Pagi and Tillemont can arise only from their zeal for the
glory of Theodosius.]
9 (
return
[ 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 ill-gotten wealth; his
dependants served him without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind
was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian
proclaimed to the East, that the 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
10 (
return
[ 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 mortifying, canon of
criticism.]
11 (
return
—fluctibus auri Expleri sitis ista nequit—
*****
Congestae cumulantur opes; orbisque ruinas Accipit una domus.
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 history of Eunapius.]
12 (
return
—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. v. p. 288, 289.)]
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
13 (
return
[ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 243)
praises the valor, prudence, and integrity of Bauto the Frank. See
Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 771.]
14 (
return
[ Arsenius escaped from
the palace of Constantinople, and passed fifty-five 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, &c.; but the latter,
for want of authentic materials, has given too much credit to the legend
of Metaphrastes.]
15 (
return
[ 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 public consent of a virgin.]
16 (
return
[ 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 demi-gods of antiquity; and that whenever he moved, with lofty
steps, through the streets of the capital, the astonished crowd made room
for the stranger, who displayed, in a private condition, the awful majesty
of a hero. From his earliest youth he embraced the profession of arms; his
prudence and valor were soon distinguished in the field; the horsemen and
archers of the East admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree of
his military promotions, the public judgment always prevented and approved
the choice of the sovereign. He was named, by Theodosius, to ratify a
solemn treaty with the monarch of Persia; he supported, during that
important embassy, the dignity of the Roman name; and after he returned 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 master-general 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 master-general of the West; and the armies and provinces of Europe
obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority, which was exercised in
the name of their young sovereign. Two rivals only remained to dispute the
claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. Within the limits of
Africa, Gildo, the Moor, maintained a proud and dangerous independence;
and the minister of Constantinople asserted his equal reign over the
emperor, and the empire, of the East.
17 (
return
[ 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,
35-140.]
18 (
return
[ Vandalorum, imbellis,
avarae, perfidae, et dolosae, gentis, genere editus. Orosius, l. vii. c.
38. Jerom (tom. i. ad Gerontiam, p. 93) call him a Semi-Barbarian.]
19 (
return
[ 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 earliest youth, they were
honorably conducted to the palace of Constantinople.]
20 (
return
[ 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 Pro-gener Divi Theodosius]
21 (
return
[ 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.]
22 (
return
[ 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 Zosimus, (l. v. p. 345.)]
23 (
return
[—Si bellica moles
Ingrueret, quamvis annis et jure minori,
Cedere grandaevos equitum peditumque magistros
Adspiceres. Claudian, Laus Seren. p. 196, &c. A modern general would
deem their submission either heroic patriotism or abject servility.]
24 (
return
[ 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.]
25 (
return
[—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 procurators.]
26 (
return
[ The Roman law
distinguishes two sorts of minority, which expired at the age of fourteen,
and of twenty-five. 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.]
27 (
return
[ See Claudian, (i. Cons.
Stilich. i. 188-242;) but he must allow more than fifteen days for the
journey and return between Milan and Leyden.]
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between Sons Of Theodosius.—Part
II.
The impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common guardian of the
royal brothers, engaged him to regulate the equal division of the arms,
the jewels, and the magnificent wardrobe and furniture of the deceased
emperor.
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 sea-coast of the Adriatic, was not far distant from
the city of Thessalonica, when he received a peremptory message, to recall
the troops of the East, and to declare, that his nearer approach would be
considered, by the Byzantine court, as an act of hostility. The prompt and
unexpected obedience of the general of the West, convinced the vulgar of
his loyalty and moderation; and, as he had already engaged the affection
of the Eastern troops, he recommended to their zeal the execution of his
bloody design, which might be accomplished in his absence, with less
danger, perhaps, and with less reproach. Stilicho left the command of the
troops of the East to Gainas, the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly
relied, with an assurance, at least, that the hardy Barbarians would never
be diverted from his purpose by any consideration of fear or remorse. The
soldiers were easily persuaded to punish the enemy of Stilicho and of
Rome; and such was the general hatred which Rufinus had excited, that the
fatal secret, communicated to thousands, was faithfully preserved during
the long march from Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople. As soon
as they had resolved his death, they condescended to flatter his pride;
the ambitious 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 Christian devotions, in the peaceful
retirement of Jerusalem.
32
28 (
return
[ I. Cons. Stilich. ii.
88-94. Not only the robes and diadems of the deceased emperor, but even
the helmets, sword-hilts, belts, rasses, &c., were enriched with
pearls, emeralds, and diamonds.]
29 (
return
[—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.)]
30 (
return
[ 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 Godefory, p. 441,) and the
Chronicle of Marcellinus.]
31 (
return
[ 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.)]
32 (
return
[ 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, &c., 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. 779, 977.]
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 master-general of the East, betrayed, without scruple, the
interest of his benefactor; and the same troops, who had so lately
massacred the enemy of Stilicho, were engaged to support, against him, the
independence of the throne of Constantinople. The favorites of Arcadius
fomented a secret and irreconcilable war against a formidable hero, who
aspired to govern, and to defend, the two empires of Rome, and the two
sons of Theodosius. They incessantly labored, by dark and treacherous
machinations, to deprive him of the esteem of the prince, the respect of
the people, and the friendship of the Barbarians. The life of Stilicho was
repeatedly attempted by the dagger of hired assassins; and a decree was
obtained from the senate of Constantinople, to declare him an enemy of the
republic, and to confiscate his ample possessions in the provinces of the
East. At a time when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman name
depended on the firm union, and reciprocal aid, of all the nations to whom
it had been gradually communicated, the subjects of Arcadius and Honorius
were instructed, by their respective masters, to view each other in a
foreign, and even hostile, light; to rejoice in their mutual calamities,
and to embrace, as their faithful allies, the Barbarians, whom they
excited to invade the territories of their countrymen.
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
Honorius.
33 (
return
[ See the beautiful
exordium of his invective against Rufinus, which is curiously discussed by
the sceptic Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, Rufin. Not. E.]
34 (
return
[ 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.]
35 (
return
[ See Claudian, (i. Cons.
Stilich, l. i. 275, 292, 296, l. ii. 83,) and Zosimus, (l. v. p. 302.)]
36 (
return
[ Claudian turns the
consulship of the eunuch Eutropius into a national reflection, (l. ii.
134):—
—-Plaudentem cerne senatum,
Et Byzantinos proceres Graiosque Quirites:
O patribus plebes, O digni consule patres.
It is curious to observe the first symptoms of jealousy and schism between
old and new Rome, between the Greeks and Latins.]
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 guardians 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
37 (
return
[ 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. 398, No. 35-56) has treated the
African rebellion with skill and learning.]
38 (
return
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
Fastidita datur.
——De Bello Gildonico, 165, 189.
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
laws.]
39 (
return
[ 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 Zosimus, (l. v. p. 302.)]
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, tranquility 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.
42
40 (
return
[ Symmachus (l. iv.
epist. 4) expresses the judicial forms of the senate; and Claudian (i.
Cons. Stilich. l. i. 325, &c.) seems to feel the spirit of a Roman.]
41 (
return
[ Claudian finely
displays these complaints of Symmachus, in a speech of the goddess of
Rome, before the throne of Jupiter, (de Bell Gildon. 28-128.)]
42 (
return
[ See Claudian (in
Eutrop. l. i 401, &c. i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 306, &c. i. Cons.
Stilich. 91, &c.)]
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, took 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 defence 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 under the standard of
Eugenius. These troops, who were 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 African shores.
48
43 (
return
[ 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, &c.]
44 (
return
[ Claudian, Bell. Gild.
415-423. The change of discipline allowed him to use indifferently the
names of Legio Cohors, Manipulus. See Notitia Imperii, S. 38, 40.]
45 (
return
[ 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.
Stilich. l. i. 314 &c.)]
46 (
return
[ 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 observes,
that the unbelieving poet praises where he means to censure.]
47 (
return
[ 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 No. 51.)]
48 (
return
[ 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 Æthiopia. He proudly
reviewed an army of seventy thousand men, and boasted, with the rash
presumption which is the forerunner of disgrace, that his numerous
cavalry would trample under their horses’ feet the troops of
Mascezel, and involve, in a cloud of burning sand, the natives of the
cold regions of Gaul and Germany.
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 been in combat. 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 standard-bearers of the Africans, and, on
his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm with his sword. The arm, and
the standard, sunk under the weight of the blow; and the imaginary act of
submission was hastily repeated by all the standards of the line. At this
the disaffected cohorts proclaimed the name of their lawful sovereign;
the Barbarians, astonished by the defection of their Roman allies,
dispersed, according to their custom, in tumultuary flight; and Mascezel
obtained the honors of an easy, and almost bloodless, victory.
51
The tyrant escaped from the field of battle
to the sea-shore; and threw himself into a small vessel, with the hope of
reaching in safety some friendly port of the empire of the East; but the
obstinacy of the wind drove him back into the harbor of Tabraca,
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 Stilicho,
whose moderation appeared more conspicuous and 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 offences 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
master-general of the West, was suddenly thrown from his horse into the
river; the officious haste of the attendants was restrained by a cruel
and perfidious smile which they observed on the countenance of Stilicho;
and while they delayed the necessary assistance, the unfortunate Mascezel
was irrecoverably drowned.
57
49 (
return
[ Orosius must be
responsible for the account. The presumption of Gildo and his various
train of Barbarians is celebrated by Claudian, Cons. Stil. l. i. 345-355.]
50 (
return
[ 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 might easily pass to Orosius.]
51 (
return
[ Zosimus (l. v. p. 303)
supposes an obstinate combat; but the narrative of Orosius appears to
conceal a real fact, under the disguise of a miracle.]
52 (
return
[ 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.]
53 (
return
[ The death of Gildo is
expressed by Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. 357) and his best interpreters,
Zosimus and Orosius.]
54 (
return
[ 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 sentence, so familiar to the friends
of despotism:
—-Nunquam libertas gratior exstat,
Quam sub rege pio.
But the freedom which depends on royal piety, scarcely deserves
appellation]
55 (
return
[ See the Theodosian
Code, l. ix. tit. xxxix. leg. 3, tit. xl. leg. 19.]
56 (
return
[ 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.)]
57 (
return
[ 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, or 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 understanding.
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 twenty-eight
years, it will seldom be necessary to mention the name of the emperor
Honorius.
58 (
return
[ Claudian,as the poet
laureate, composed a serious and elaborate epithalamium of 340 lines;
besides some gay Fescennines, which were sung, in a more licentious tone,
on the wedding night.]
59 (
return
Calet obvius ire
Jam princeps, tardumque cupit discedere solem.
Nobilis haud aliter sonipes.
(De Nuptiis Honor. et Mariae, and more freely in the Fescennines 112-116)
Dices, O quoties,hoc mihi dulcius
Quam flavos decics vincere Sarmatas.
....
Tum victor madido prosilias toro,
Nocturni referens vulnera proelii.]
60 (
return
[ See Zosimus, l. v. p.
333.]
61 (
return
[ 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.]
62 (
return
[ 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 subjects.]
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part I.
Revolt Of The Goths.—They Plunder Greece.—Two Great
Invasions Of Italy By Alaric And Radagaisus.—They Are
Repulsed By Stilicho.—The Germans Overrun Gaul.—Usurpation
Of Constantine In The West.—Disgrace And Death Of Stilicho.
If the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations to the
great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced, how painfully the spirit
and abilities of their deceased emperor had supported the frail and
mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and
before the end of the winter of the same year, the Gothic nation was in
arms.
The Barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly
avowed the hostile designs, which they had long cherished in their
ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned, by the
conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tranquility and labor,
deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet; and eagerly
resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of
the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from
their forests; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to
remark, “that they rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy
back of the indignant river.”
The unhappy natives of
the provinces to the south of the Danube submitted to the calamities,
which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their
imagination; and the various troops of Barbarians, who gloried in the
Gothic name, were irregularly spread from woody shores of Dalmatia, to the
walls of Constantinople.
The interruption, or at least the diminution,
of the subsidy, which the Goths had received from the prudent liberality
of Theodosius, was the specious pretence of their revolt: the affront was
imbittered by their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius; and
their resentment was inflamed by the weakness, or treachery, of the
minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the
Barbarians whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered
as a sufficient evidence of his guilty correspondence, and the public
enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive,
amidst the general devastation, to spare the private estates of the
unpopular 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;
which yielded only to the royal dignity of the
Amali: he had solicited the command of the Roman armies; and the Imperial
court provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their refusal, and the
importance of their loss. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the
conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an
impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a
discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of
the Gothic arms; but the want of wisdom and valor was supplied by the
strength of the city; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land,
might securely brave the impotent and random darts of the Barbarians.
Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined
countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest
of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of
war.
1 (
return
[ 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.)]
2 (
return
[—
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, and solid ice. Much false wit has been
expended in this easy exercise.]
3 (
return
[ 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 times. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.
tom. xii. p. 200, &c.]
4 (
return
[ 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 seventy-nine
subordinate places, were independent of the counts of Provence,
(Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 357).]
5 (
return
[ Zosimus (l. v. p.
293-295) is our best guide for the conquest of Greece: but the hints and
allusion of Claudian are so many rays of historic light.]
The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had
devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public suspicion, that he
had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic
invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable
father; and Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops, was much
better qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant, than to
defend, with courage and ability, a country most remarkably fortified by
the hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without resistance, the plains
of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a steep and
woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched
from east to west, to the edge of the sea-shore; and left, between the
precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which,
in some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a
single carriage.
In this narrow pass of 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;
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.
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 sea-shore.
The passage of those
rocks, so infamous in every age, was terminated by the Isthmus of Corinth;
and a small a body of firm and intrepid soldiers might have successfully
defended a temporary intrenchment of five or six miles from the Ionian to
the 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
6 (
return
[ Compare Herodotus (l.
vii. c. 176) and Livy, (xxxvi. 15.) The narrow entrance of Greece was
probably enlarged by each successive ravisher.]
7 (
return
[ He passed, says Eunapius,
(in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93, edit. Commelin, 1596,) through the straits, of
Thermopylae.]
8 (
return
[ In obedience to Jerom and
Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 191,) I have mixed some darker colors in the
mild representation of Zosimus, who wished to soften the calamities of
Athens.
Nec fera Cecropias traxissent vincula matres.
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.]
9 (
return
[—
Vallata mari Scironia rupes,
Et duo continuo connectens aequora muro
Isthmos.
—Claudian de Bel. Getico, 188.
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.]
10 (
return
[ Claudian (in Rufin. l.
ii. 186, and de Bello Getico, 611, &c.) vaguely, though forcibly,
delineates the scene of rapine and destruction.]
11 (
return
[ 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, Symposiac. l.
ix. tom. ii. p. 737, edit. Wechel.)]
12 (
return
[ 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, &c. Such a passion (of Eriphile for Achilles) is touched
with admirable delicacy by Racine.]
13 (
return
[ 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 a fine comment on the laws
of Lycurgus, even in the last stage of decay.]
14 (
return
[ Such, perhaps, as Homer
(Iliad, xx. 164) had so nobly painted him.]
15 (
return
[ Eunapius (in Vit.
Philosoph. p. 90-93) intimates that a troop of monks betrayed Greece, and
followed the Gothic camp. * Note: The expression is curious: Vit. Max. t.
i. p. 53, edit. Boissonade.—M.]
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.
16 (
return
[ 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 event was not glorious, it is
artfully thrown into the shade.]
17 (
return
[ 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 the
Olympic games, which Mr. West has prefixed to his translation of Pindar.]
18 (
return
[ Claudian (in iv. Cons.
Hon. 480) alludes to the fact without naming the river; perhaps the
Alpheus, (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 185.)
—-Et Alpheus Geticis angustus acervis
Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores.
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. i.
p. 760. Chandler’s Travels, p. 286.)]
19 (
return
[ Strabo, l. viii. p.
517. Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 3. Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They
measured from different points the distance between the two lands.]
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 master-general of the
Eastern Illyricum. The Roman provincials, and the allies, who had
respected the faith of treaties, were justly indignant, that the ruin of
Greece and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror
was received as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he had so lately
besieged. The fathers, whose sons he had massacred, the husbands, whose
wives he had violated, were subject to his authority; and the success of
his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign
mercenaries. The use to which Alaric applied his new command,
distinguishes the firm and judicious character of his policy. He issued
his orders to the four magazines and manufactures of offensive and
defensive arms, Margus, Ratiaria, Naissus, and Thessalonica, to provide
his troops with an extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords, and
spears; the unhappy provincials were compelled to forge the instruments of
their own destruction; and the Barbarians removed the only defect which
had sometimes disappointed the efforts of their courage.
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 master-general 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; till he declared and executed his
resolution of invading the dominions of the West. The provinces of Europe
which belonged to the Eastern emperor, were already exhausted; those of
Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted
his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of
Italy, which he had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the
Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with the
accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs.
25
20 (
return
[ 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 died
about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 490, 554, 683-685.]
21 (
return
[ Synesius de Regno, p.
21-26.]
22 (
return
[—qui foedera
rumpit
Ditatur: qui servat, eget: vastator Achivae
Gentis, et Epirum nuper populatus inultam,
Praesidet Illyrico: jam, quos obsedit, amicos
Ingreditur muros; illis responsa daturus,
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.]
23 (
return
[ Jornandes, c. 29, p.
651. The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans
suasit suo labore quaerere regna, quam alienis per otium subjacere.
Discors odiisque anceps civilibus orbis,
Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax
Ludit, et alternae perjuria venditat aulae.
—-Claudian de Bell. Get. 565]
25 (
return
[ Alpibus Italiae ruptis
penetrabis ad Urbem. 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 interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning.]
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
26 (
return
[ 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 Orosius and the Chronicles.]
27 (
return
[ 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 cannot easily fill the interval.]
28 (
return
[ 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 inflamed by the beldam Marcella, and the
rest of Jerom’s faction.]
29 (
return
[ Jovinian, the enemy of
fasts and of celibacy, who was persecuted and insulted by the furious
Jerom, (Jortin’s Remarks, vol. iv. p. 104, &c.) See the original edict
of banishment in the Theodosian Code, xvi. tit. v. leg. 43.]
30 (
return
[ 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
life.]
31 (
return
Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum
Aequaevumque videt consenuisse nemus.

A neighboring wood born with himself he sees,
And loves his old contemporary trees.
In this passage, Cowley is perhaps superior to his original; and the
English poet, who was a good botanist, has concealed the oaks under a more
general expression.]
32 (
return
[ Claudian de Bell. Get.
199-266. He may seem prolix: but fear and superstition occupied as large a
space in the minds of the Italians.]
33 (
return
[ From the passages of
Paulinus, which Baronius has produced, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 403, No. 51,)
it is manifest that the general alarm had pervaded all Italy, as far as
Nola in Campania, where that famous penitent had fixed his abode.]
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part II.
The emperor Honorius was distinguished, above his subjects, by the
preeminence of fear, as well as of rank. The pride and luxury in which he
was educated, had not allowed him to suspect, that there existed on the
earth any power presumptuous enough to invade the repose of the successor
of Augustus. The arts of flattery concealed the impending danger, till
Alaric approached the palace of Milan. But when the sound of war had
awakened the young emperor, instead of flying to arms with the spirit, or
even the rashness, of his age, he eagerly listened to those timid
counsellors, who proposed to convey his sacred person, and his faithful
attendants, to some secure and distant station in the provinces of Gaul.
Stilicho alone
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.
34 (
return
[ Solus erat Stilicho,
&c., is the exclusive commendation which Claudian bestows, (del Bell.
Get. 267,) without condescending to except the emperor. How insignificant
must Honorius have appeared in his own court.]
35 (
return
[ The face of the
country, and the hardiness of Stilicho, are finely described, (de Bell.
Get. 340-363.)]
36 (
return
Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis,
Quae Scoto dat frena truci.
—-De Bell. Get. 416.
Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan, must have
required a longer space of time than Claudian seems willing to allow for
the duration of the Gothic war.]
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part III.
When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sovereign in the unguarded palace of
Milan, he had probably calculated the term of his absence, the distance of
the enemy, and the obstacles that might retard their march. He principally
depended on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the Mincius, the Oglio, and
the Addua, which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the
melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous
torrents.
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.
3711
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 long-haired chiefs of the Gothic nation; of
aged warriors, whose bodies were wrapped in furs, and whose stern
countenances were marked with honorable wounds. They weighed the glory of
persisting in their attempt against the advantage of securing their
plunder; and they recommended the prudent measure of a seasonable retreat.
In this important debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror of
Rome; and after he had reminded his countrymen of their achievements and
of their designs, he concluded his animating speech by the solemn and
positive assurance that he was resolved to find in Italy either a kingdom
or a grave.
42
37 (
return
[ 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.” (Annali d’Italia, tom. xvi. p. 443,
Milan, 1752, 8vo edit.)]
3711 (
return
[ 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
reposing on the faith of this treaty. Le Beau, v. x.]
38 (
return
[ 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. 369, de Imp. Occident. l. x.)
and Muratori, (Annali d’Italia. tom. iv. p. 45.)]
39 (
return
[ One of the roads may be
traced in the Itineraries, (p. 98, 288, 294, with Wesseling’s Notes.) Asta
lay some miles on the right hand.]
40 (
return
[ 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.)]
41 (
return
[ Nec me timor impulit
ullus. He might hold this proud language the next year at Rome, five
hundred miles from the scene of danger (vi. Cons. Hon. 449.)]
42 (
return
[ Hanc ego vel victor
regno, vel morte tenebo Victus, humum.——The speeches (de Bell.
Get. 479-549) of the Gothic Nestor, and Achilles, are strong,
characteristic, adapted to the circumstances; and possibly not less
genuine than those of Livy.]
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 ground, the two most formidable enemies of Rome.
48
43 (
return
[ 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 homily,
which has been erroneously ascribed to St. Chrysostom.]
44 (
return
[ The vestiges of
Pollentia are twenty-five 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, “penetrabis ad urbem,” (Cluver. Ital.
Antiq tom. i. p. 83-85.)]
45 (
return
[ 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.]
46 (
return
[ Demens Ausonidum
gemmata monilia matrum, Romanasque alta famulas cervice petebat. De Bell.
Get. 627.]
47 (
return
[ 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.]
48 (
return
[ 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 and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by
envy and calumny.
52
49 (
return
[ Claudian and Prudentius
must be strictly examined, to reduce the figures, and extort the historic
sense, of those poets.]
50 (
return
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.)]
51 (
return
[ The Getic war, and the
sixth consulship of Honorius, obscurely connect the events of Alaric’s
retreat and losses.]
52 (
return
[ Taceo de Alarico...
saepe visto, saepe concluso, semperque dimisso. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p.
567. Claudian (vi. Cons. Hon. 320) drops the curtain with a fine image.]
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 era 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.
53 (
return
[ The remainder of
Claudian’s poem on the sixth consulship of Honorius, describes the
journey, the triumph, and the games, (330-660.)]
54 (
return
[ See the inscription in
Mascou’s History of the Ancient Germans, viii. 12. The words are positive
and indiscreet: Getarum nationem in omne aevum domitam, &c.]
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, an 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.
5811
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
55 (
return
[ 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.)]
56 (
return
[ Cod. Theodos. l. xv.
tit. xii. leg. i. The Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom.
v. p. 396) for the history of gladiators.]
57 (
return
[ 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 bloody games, which were
introduced in the religious festivals of Paganism.]
58 (
return
[ 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.]
5811 (
return
[ 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 consent, or by Imperial edict.—M.]
59 (
return
[ 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
feelings of a man.]
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 era, the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards;
and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once
rode at anchor.
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
60 (
return
[ 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, &c.,) 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 map.]
61 (
return
[ 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 local
evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the stinging of gnats, &c.]
62 (
return
[ 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 Ravenna.]
63 (
return
[ From the year 404, the
dates of the Theodosian Code become sedentary at Constantinople and
Ravenna. See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws, tom. i. p. cxlviii., &c.]
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 learned industry of
the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote
causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the
north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, by
the victorious Sienpi, who were sometimes broken into independent tribes,
and sometimes reunited under a supreme chief; till at length, styling
themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid
consistence, and a more formidable power. The Topa soon compelled the
pastoral nations of the eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of
their arms; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine
discord; and these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the
vanquished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned near one
hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of the monarchy. Some
generations before they ascended the throne of China, one of the Topa
princes had enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned
for his valor, but who was tempted, by the fear of punishment, to desert
his standard, and to range the desert at the head of a hundred followers.
This gang of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous
people, distinguished by the appellation of Geougen; and their hereditary
chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed their rank among the
Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants,
was exercised by those misfortunes which are the school of heroes. He
bravely struggled with adversity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa,
and became the legislator of his nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His
troops were distributed into regular bands of a hundred and of a thousand
men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honors were proposed
as the reward of valor; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise
the learning of China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were
favorable to the military spirit of his government. His tents, which he
removed in the winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched,
during the summer, on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests
stretched from Corea far beyond the River Irtish. He vanquished, in the
country to the north of the Caspian Sea, the nation of the Huns; and the
new title of Khan, or Cagan, expressed the fame and power which he derived
from this memorable victory.
64
64 (
return
[ 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;
6411
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 government of Europe did not protect the claims of
dominion and property.
6411 (
return
[ 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.]
65 (
return
[ 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 darkened by ignorance and error.]
66 (
return
[ 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 which each ancient writer may have
casually added.]
67 (
return
[ 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 worship an unsuccessful hero. See
Mascou, Hist. of the Germans, viii. 14. * 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 Gottesdienstliche Alterthumer der Obotriter—Masch
and Wogen. Berlin, 1771.—M.]
68 (
return
[ 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 squires, as they would have been styled
some centuries afterwards.]
69 (
return
[ Tacit. de Moribus
Germanorum, c. 37.]
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part IV.
The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and
precarious, that the revolutions of the North might escape the knowledge
of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was collected along
the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper
Danube. The emperor of the West, if his ministers disturbed his amusements
by the news of the impending danger, was satisfied with being the
occasion, and the spectator, of the war.
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 head-quarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who
seems to have avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his distant
forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege of
Florence,
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 approach within a hundred and eighty miles of Rome;
and anxiously compared the danger which they had escaped, with the new
perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and a soldier,
the leader of a disciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who
respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had familiarly conversed with
the subjects of the empire in the same camps, and the same churches. The
savage Radagaisus was a stranger to the manners, the religion, and even
the language, of the civilized nations of the South. The fierceness of his
temper was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally
believed, that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce the city
into a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the most illustrious of
the Roman senators on the altars of those gods who were appeased by human
blood. The public danger, which should have reconciled all domestic
animosities, displayed the incurable madness of religious faction. The
oppressed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable
enemy of Rome, the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they
were more apprehensive of the sacrifices, than of the arms, of Radagaisus;
and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which condemned
the faith of their Christian adversaries.
75
7511
70 (
return
Cujus agendi
Spectator vel causa fui,
—-(Claudian, vi. Cons. Hon. 439,)
is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which
he had seen somewhat nearer.]
71 (
return
[ 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 policy, we must use the service of
Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him.]
72 (
return
[ Codex Theodos. l. vii.
tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law A.D. 406. May 18 satisfies me, as
it had done Godefroy, (tom. ii. p. 387,) of the true year of the invasion
of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year;
but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and respect, to St.
Paulinus of Nola.]
73 (
return
[ 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.]
74 (
return
[ 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, &c.]
75 (
return
[ 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.]
7511 (
return
[ 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 the success of Radagaisus would
be the triumph of idolatry. Compare ii. 25—M.]
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
twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen miles,
afforded the model of an intrenchment which might confine, and starve, the
most numerous host of Barbarians.
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 Deliverer of Italy.
83
76 (
return
[ 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 business of the world, and never
became a popular saint.]
77 (
return
[ 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
which is devoted to pious nonsense!]
78 (
return
Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar
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.)]
79 (
return
[ 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
head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the circuit
of the Roman lines.]
80 (
return
[ See Zosimus, l. v. p.
331, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus.]
81 (
return
[ 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 Orosius, is sufficiently odious. * 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 corrected by Classen for Niebuhr’s edition
of the Byzantines, p. 450.—M.]
82 (
return
[ 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 Gothic chiefs Sarus.—M.]
83 (
return
[ 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 surnamed the
fourth founder of Rome.]
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
84 (
return
[ 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.]
85 (
return
[ Orosius and Jerom
positively charge him with instigating the in vasion. “Excitatae a
Stilichone gentes,” &c. They must mean a directly. He saved Italy at
the expense of Gaul]
86 (
return
[ 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 moment levelled with the ground.
88
87 (
return
Provincia missos
Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges
Quos dederis.
Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, &c.) 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 understand.]
88 (
return
[ 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
Semi-Barbarian.]
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 well-cultivated farms; and if
a poet descended the river, he might express his doubt, on which side was
situated the territory of the Romans.
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 a
combat, to the foot of the Pyrenean Mountains.
89 (
return
[ Claudian (i. Cons.
Stil. l. i. 221, &c., l. ii. 186) describes the peace and prosperity
of the Gallic frontier. The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c., 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. Claudian is not
prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries.]
90 (
return
[—Germinasque
viator Cum videat ripas, quae sit Romana requirat.]
91 (
return
[ 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, with his bishop and fellow-citizens.]
92 (
return
[ 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
understand.]
93 (
return
[ See the Mémoires 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 and Scythia.
94 (
return
[ 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
sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, which were extant in the ninth century,
must have contained as many thousand lies; yet we may believe, that, in
one of these Irish inroads the future apostle was led away captive,
(Usher, Antiquit. Eccles Britann. p. 431, and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.
xvi. p. 45 782, &c.)]
95 (
return
[ 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 Latins are ignorant of Marcus.]
96 (
return
[ 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 disgraced his grandfather.]
97 (
return
[ 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 again.]
Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part V.
On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine might be
justified by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon established
by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain; which yielded to the
influence of regular and habitual subordination, and received the laws and
magistrates of the Gallic 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.
98 (
return
[ 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 fellow-subjects.]
99 (
return
[ 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 sixty-five
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 master-general 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.
100 (
return
Comitatur euntem
Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora
Luctus; et inferno stridentes agmine morbi.
—-Claudian in vi. Cons. Hon. 821, &c.]
101 (
return
[ 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.]
102 (
return
[ 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 abominably partial.]
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 The Caesars]
103 (
return
[ 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. * Note: From Cicero’s XIIth
Philippic, 14.—M.]
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 twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without weight, or
authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed his timid and
indolent disposition by a lively picture of the designs of Stilicho, who
already meditated the death of his sovereign, with the ambitious hope of
placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius. The emperor was
instigated, by his new favorite, to assume the tone of independent
dignity; and the minister was astonished to find, that secret resolutions
were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his
interest, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace of Rome,
Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to the secure
fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death of his brother
Arcadius, he prepared to visit Constantinople, and to regulate, with the
authority of a guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius.
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 himself from the
impending ruin of his patron.
104 (
return
[ 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, &c. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.) But these
praises, which the African saint so unworthily bestows, might proceed as
well from ignorance as from adulation.]
105 (
return
[ 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 obeyed, and could not have been
conquered.]
In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, a mutiny of the guards was
excited and appeased by the secret policy of Stilicho; who announced his
instructions to decimate the guilty, and ascribed to his own intercession
the merit of their pardon. After this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the
last time, the minister whom he now considered as a tyrant, and proceeded
on his way to the camp of Pavia; where he was received by the loyal
acclamations of the troops who were assembled for the service of the
Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced, as he had
been taught, a military oration in the presence of the soldiers, whom the
charitable visits, and artful discourses, of Olympius had prepared to
execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At the first signal, they massacred
the friends of Stilicho, the most illustrious officers of the empire; two
Prætorian praefects, of Gaul and of Italy; two masters-general of the
cavalry and infantry; the master of the offices; the quaestor, the
treasurer, and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost; many
houses were plundered; the furious sedition continued to rage till the
close of the evening; and the trembling emperor, who was seen in the
streets of Pavia without his robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions
of his favorite; condemned the memory of the slain; and solemnly approved
the innocence and fidelity of their assassins. The intelligence of the
massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy
apprehensions; and he instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a
council of the confederate leaders, who were attached to his service, and
would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly called
aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a moment’s delay, under
the banners of a hero, whom they had so often followed to victory; to
surprise, to oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate
Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured
general. Instead of executing a resolution, which might have been
justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost.
He was still ignorant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the
fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal
consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians against the
soldiers and people of Italy. The confederates, impatient of his timorous
and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the
hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians
themselves for his strength and valor, suddenly invaded the camp of his
benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who
guarded his person, and penetrated to the tent, where the minister,
pensive and sleepless, meditated on the dangers of his situation. Stilicho
escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths and, after issuing a
last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to shut their gates
against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his despair, urged him to throw
himself into Ravenna, which was already in the absolute possession of his
enemies. Olympius, who had assumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily
informed, that his rival had embraced, as a suppliant the altar of the
Christian church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was
incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously affected to elude, rather
than to violate, the privilege of the sanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a
troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates of the
church of Ravenna. The bishop was satisfied by a solemn oath, that the
Imperial mandate only directed them to secure the person of Stilicho: but
as soon as the unfortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy
threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution. Stilicho
supported, with calm resignation, the injurious names of traitor and
parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his followers, who were
ready to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and, with a firmness not unworthy
of the last of the Roman generals, submitted his neck to the sword of
Heraclian.
106
106 (
return
[ 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 Philostorgius, (l. xi. c. 3, l.
xii. c. 2,) afford supplemental hints.]
The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the fortune of
Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and the most distant connection
with the master-general of the West, which had so lately been a title to
wealth and honors, was studiously denied, and rigorously punished. His
family, united by a triple alliance with the family of Theodosius, might
envy the condition of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius
was intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed the
divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister Maria; and who,
like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed.
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
1111
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.
107 (
return
[ 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 something in the way either of censure or of
dispensation.]
108 (
return
[ 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 bed-chamber; and it is surprising that, under a feeble prince,
the bed-chamber was not able to secure him.]
109 (
return
[ Orosius (l. vii. c.
38, p. 571, 572) seems to copy the false and furious manifestos, which
were dispersed through the provinces by the new administration.]
110 (
return
[ 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.]
111 (
return
[ Augustin himself is
satisfied with the effectual laws, which Stilicho had enacted against
heretics and idolaters; and which are still extant in the Code. He only
applies to Olympius for their confirmation, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D.
408, No. 19.)]
112 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. v. p.
351. We may observe the bad taste of the age, in dressing their statues
with such awkward finery.]
113 (
return
[ 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 virtues. 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 the army.” l. v. c. xxxiv.—M.]
1111 (
return
[ Hence, perhaps, the
accusation of treachery is countenanced by Hatilius:—
Quo magis est facinus diri Stilichonis iniquum
Proditor arcani quod fuit imperii.
Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes,
Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor.
Dumque timet, quicquid se fecerat ipso timeri,
Immisit Latiae barbara tela neci. Rutil. Itin. II. 41.—M.]
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.]
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 Prætorian 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
114 (
return
[ 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 letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy, (Epist.
ii. ad Serenam.)]
115 (
return
[ 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, his countrymen and contemporaries. It was a noble design.]
116 (
return
[ See Epigram xxx.
Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque:
Insomnis Pharius sacra, profana, rapit.
Omnibus, hoc, Italae gentes, exposcite votis;
Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius.
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 philosophy, (Claud,
in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61-112.)]
117 (
return
[ See Claudian’s first
Epistle. Yet, in some places, an air of irony and indignation betrays his
secret reluctance. * 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 limits of an island must not confine the
new deity—
... Non littora nostro
Sufficerent angusta Deo.
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 times:
... 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 delubra Sibyllae.
—Claud. iv. Cons. Hon. 141.
From the Quarterly Review of Beugnot. Hist. de la Paganisme en Occident,
Q. R. v. lvii. p. 61.—M.]
118 (
return
[ 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.)]
119 (
return
[ 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,
&c. It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, than of
authentic history.]
120 (
return
[ Strada (Prolusion v.
vi.) allows him to contend with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil,
Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier
Balthazar Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the
rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds, or flowers, which spring too
luxuriantly in his Latian soil]
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part
I.
Invasion Of Italy By Alaric.—Manners Of The Roman Senate
And People.—Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And At Length
Pillaged, By The Goths.—Death Of Alaric.—The Goths
Evacuate Italy.—Fall Of Constantine.—Gaul And Spain Are
Occupied By The Barbarians. —Independence Of Britain.
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the
appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence with
the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council
of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were
actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.
The king of the Goths
would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to destroy the
formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy, as well as in Greece, he
had been twice overthrown. Their active and interested hatred laboriously
accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great Stilicho. The valor of
Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal, or hereditary, influence over
the confederate Barbarians, could recommend him only to the friends of
their country, who despised, or detested, the worthless characters of
Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of the new
favorites, these generals, unworthy as they had shown themselves of the
names of soldiers,
were promoted to the command of the cavalry, of
the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince would have
subscribed with pleasure the edict which the fanaticism of Olympius
dictated to the simple and devout emperor. Honorius excluded all persons,
who were adverse to the Catholic church, from holding any office in the
state; obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from
his religion; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and most skilful
officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who had imbibed the
opinions of Arianism.
These measures, so advantageous to an enemy,
Alaric would have approved, and might perhaps have suggested; but it may
seem doubtful, whether the Barbarian would have promoted his interest at
the expense of the inhuman and absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the
direction, or at least with the connivance of the Imperial ministers. The
foreign auxiliaries, who had been attached to the person of Stilicho,
lamented his death; but the desire of revenge was checked by a natural
apprehension for the safety of their wives and children; who were detained
as hostages in the strong cities of Italy, where they had likewise
deposited their most valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a
common signal, the cities of Italy were polluted by the same horrid scenes
of universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous
destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated by
such an injury, which might have awakened the tamest and most servile
spirit, they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of
Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable war, the
perfidious nation who had so basely violated the laws of hospitality. By
the imprudent conduct of the ministers of Honorius, the republic lost the
assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest
soldiers; and the weight of that formidable army, which alone might have
determined the event of the war, was transferred from the scale of the
Romans into that of the Goths.
1 (
return
[ The series of events,
from the death of Stilicho to the arrival of Alaric before Rome, can only
be found in Zosimus, l. v. p. 347-350.]
2 (
return
[ The expression of Zosimus
is strong and lively, sufficient to excite the contempt of the enemy.]
3 (
return
[ 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 executed. Zosimus,
l. v. p. 364.]
In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the Gothic king
maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy, whose seeming changes
proceeded from the total want of counsel and design. From his camp, on the
confines of Italy, Alaric attentively observed the revolutions of the
palace, watched the progress of faction and discontent, disguised the
hostile aspect of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular
appearance of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho: to whose virtues,
when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute of
sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the malecontents,
who urged the king of the Goths to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively
sense of his personal injuries; and he might especially complain, that the
Imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the payment of the four
thousand pounds of gold which had been granted by the Roman senate, either
to reward his services, or to appease his fury. His decent firmness was
supported by an artful moderation, which contributed to the success of his
designs. He required a fair and reasonable satisfaction; but he gave the
strongest assurances, that, as soon as he had obtained it, he would
immediately retire. He refused to trust the faith of the Romans, unless
Ætius and Jason, the sons of two great officers of state, were sent as
hostages to his camp; but he offered to deliver, in exchange, several of
the noblest youths of the Gothic nation. The modesty of Alaric was
interpreted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of his
weakness and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a treaty, or to
assemble an army; and with a rash confidence, derived only from their
ignorance of the extreme danger, irretrievably wasted the decisive moments
of peace and war. While they expected, in sullen silence, that the
Barbarians would evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and
rapid marches, passed the Alps and the Po; hastily pillaged the cities of
Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to his arms;
increased his forces by the accession of thirty thousand auxiliaries; and,
without meeting a single enemy in the field, advanced as far as the edge
of the morass which protected the impregnable residence of the emperor of
the West. Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent
leader of the Goths proceeded to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the
sea-coast of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the ancient
mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and sanctity were
respected by the Barbarians themselves, encountered the victorious
monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of Heaven against the
oppressors of the earth; but the saint himself was confounded by the
solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt a secret and 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,
descended into the rich
plains of Umbria; and, as they lay encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus,
might wantonly slaughter and devour the milk-white oxen, which had been so
long reserved for the use of Roman triumphs. A lofty situation, and a
seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of
Narni; but the king of the Goths, despising the ignoble prey, still
advanced with unabated vigor; and after he had passed through the stately
arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories, he pitched his camp
under the walls of Rome.
4 (
return
[ 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, (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 168,) was totally
neglected.
Hine albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus
Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro,
Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos.
—Georg. ii. 147.
Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan, Silius
Italicus, Claudian, &c., whose passages may be found in Cluverius and
Addison, have celebrated the triumphal victims of the Clitumnus.]
6 (
return
[ Some ideas of the march
of Alaric are borrowed from the journey of Honorius over the same ground.
(See Claudian in vi. Cons. Hon. 494-522.) The measured distance between
Ravenna and Rome was 254 Roman miles. Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 126.]
During a period of six hundred and nineteen years, the seat of empire had
never been violated by the presence of a foreign enemy. The unsuccessful
expedition of Hannibal
served only to display the character of the
senate and people; of a senate degraded, rather than ennobled, by the
comparison of an assembly of kings; and of a people, to whom the
ambassador of Pyrrhus ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra.
Each of the senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplished his
term of the military service, either in a subordinate or a superior
station; and the decree, which invested with temporary command all those
who had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave the republic the
immediate assistance of many brave and experienced generals. In the
beginning of the war, the Roman people consisted of two hundred and fifty
thousand citizens of an age to bear arms.
Fifty thousand had
already died in the defence of their country; and the twenty-three legions
which were employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia,
Sicily, and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But there
still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent territory, who
were animated by the same intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained,
from his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercises of a soldier.
Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of the senate, who, without
raising the siege of Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected
his approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of
three miles from the city; and he was soon informed, that the ground on
which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate price at a public
auction;
911
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.
7 (
return
[ The march and retreat of
Hannibal are described by Livy, l. xxvi. c. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; and the
reader is made a spectator of the interesting scene.]
8 (
return
[ 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. tom. ii. p. 459.]
9 (
return
[ 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.]
911 (
return
[ 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.—M.]
10 (
return
[ Livy considers these
two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I suspect that
they were both managed by the admirable policy of the senate.]
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, perhaps, of the glory of their
ancestors.
12
11 (
return
[ 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 Gruter’s Inscriptions, &c.]
12 (
return
[ 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 sixty-eight years before the
Christian era, the family was ennobled by the Prætorship of Anicius, who
gloriously terminated the Illyrian war, by the conquest of the nation, and
the captivity of their king.
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 Prætorian 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, without
example, in the annals of Rome.
22
13 (
return
Nec quisquam Procerum tentet (licet aere vetusto
Floreat, et claro cingatur Roma senatu)
Se jactare parem; sed prima sede relicta
Aucheniis, de jure licet certare secundo.
—-Claud. in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 18.
Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has amazed the
critics; but they all agree, that whatever may be the true reading, the
sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family.]
14 (
return
[ 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) places the Anicii below the great
families of Rome.]
15 (
return
[ 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.]
16 (
return
[ The dates of the three
consulships are, A. U. C. 593, 818, 967 the two last under the reigns of
Nero and Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only
by his infamous flattery, (Tacit. Annal. xv. 74;) but even the evidence of
crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted,
without reluctance, to prove the genealogy of a noble house.]
17 (
return
[ In the sixth century,
the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. l. x.
Ep. 10, 12) with singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of
Italy.]
18 (
return
Fixus in omnes
Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras
Hac de stirpe virum, certum est de Consule
nasci. Per fasces numerantur Avi, semperque
renata Nobilitate virent, et prolem fata sequuntur.
(Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose name
seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships,
from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century.]
19 (
return
[ 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. 183, v. p. 44. Baron. Annal.
A.D. 312, No. 78, A.D. 322, No. 2.]
20 (
return
[ 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 basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A.D.
395, No. 5-17.]
21 (
return
[ Two Persian satraps
travelled to Milan and Rome, to hear St. Ambrose, and to see Probus,
(Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.) Claudian (in Cons. Probin. et Olybr. 30-60)
seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus.]
22 (
return
[ See the poem which
Claudian addressed to the two noble youths.]
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part
II.
“The marbles of the Anician palace,” were used as a proverbial expression
of opulence and splendor;
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
23 (
return
[ Secundinus, the
Manichaean, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 390, No. 34.]
24 (
return
[ See Nardini, Roma
Antica, p. 89, 498, 500.]
25 (
return
Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia sylvas;
Vernula queis vario carmine ludit avis.
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.]
26 (
return
[ This curious account of
Rome, in the reign of Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian
Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197.]
27 (
return
[ 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 150,000 L.; 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.]
28 (
return
[ 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 was part of Agamemnon’s
inheritance. Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 85.]
29 (
return
[ 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
Bury, in Suffolk and another in the kingdom of Naples.]
30 (
return
[ 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. 7, p. 408, edit.
Gesner. Leipsig, 1735.]
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
31 (
return
[ 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, this permission was granted to the young
senators.]
32 (
return
[ Plin. Hist. Natur.
xxxiii. 50. He states the silver at only 4380 pounds, which is increased
by Livy (xxx. 45) to 100,023: the former seems too little for an opulent
city, the latter too much for any private sideboard.]
33 (
return
[ The learned Arbuthnot
(Tables of Ancient Coins, &c. 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 empire, the use of linen and glass
became somewhat more common. * Note: The discovery of glass in such common
use at Pompeii, spoils the argument of Arbuthnot. See Sir W. Gell.
Pompeiana, 2d ser. p. 98.—M.]
34 (
return
[ 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 twenty-eighth 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, not literal indeed, but
faithful and exact.]
“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 rent-roll of the estates which they possess in all the
provinces, from the rising to the setting sun, provokes the just
resentment of every man, who recollects, that their poor and invincible
ancestors were not distinguished from the meanest of the soldiers, by the
delicacy of their food, or the splendor of their apparel. But the modern
nobles measure their rank and consequence according to the loftiness of
their chariots,
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 post-horses; and the example of
the senators is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered
carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the city and
suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction condescend to visit
the public baths, they assume, on their entrance, a tone of loud and
insolent command, and appropriate to their own use the conveniences which
were designed for the Roman people. If, in these places of mixed and
general resort, they meet any of the infamous ministers of their
pleasures, they express their affection by a tender embrace; while they
proudly decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not
permitted to aspire above the honor of kissing their hands, or their
knees. As soon as they have indulged themselves in the refreshment of the
bath, they resume their rings, and the other ensigns of their dignity,
select from their private wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might
suffice for a dozen persons, the garments the most agreeable to their
fancy, and maintain till their departure the same haughty demeanor; which
perhaps might have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest
of Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous
achievements; they visit their estates in Italy, and procure themselves,
by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the chase.
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 of a celestial power.”
35 (
return
[ Claudian, who seems to
have read the history of Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a
much less courtly style:—
Postquam jura ferox in se communia Caesar
Transtulit; et lapsi mores; desuetaque priscis
Artibus, in gremium pacis servile recessi.
—De Be. Gildonico, p. 49.]
36 (
return
[ 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.]
37 (
return
[ 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 axle-tree, and were exposed, for the most part, to the
inclemency of the weather.]
38 (
return
[ In a homily of
Asterius, bishop of Amasia, M. de Valois has discovered (ad Ammian. xiv.
6) that this was a new fashion; that bears, wolves lions, and tigers,
woods, hunting-matches, &c., were represented in embroidery: and that
the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some favorite
saint.]
39 (
return
[ See Pliny’s Epistles,
i. 6. Three large wild boars were allured and taken in the toils without
interrupting the studies of the philosophic sportsman.]
40 (
return
[ 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, &c. Antonii Sanfelicii
Campania, p. 13, 88—Note: Compare Lyell’s Geology, ii. 72.—M.]
41 (
return
[ The regna Cumana et
Puteolana; loca caetiroqui valde expe tenda, interpellantium autem
multitudine paene fugienda. Cicero ad Attic. xvi. 17.]
42 (
return
[ 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.]
43 (
return
[ 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 and frost.]
44 (
return
[ 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.
256,) on solemn occasions, of consulships, marriages, &c.]
45 (
return
[ 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. p. 453. epud Barbou, 1779.)—Note: Is it not the dormouse?—M.]
46 (
return
[ 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.]
47 (
return
[ 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.]
48 (
return
[ This satire is probably
exaggerated. The Saturnalia of Macrobius, and the epistles of Jerom,
afford satisfactory proofs, that Christian theology and classic literature
were studiously cultivated by several Romans, of both sexes, and of the
highest rank.]
49 (
return
[ Macrobius, the friend
of these Roman nobles, considered the siara as the cause, or at least the
signs, of future events, (de Somn. Scipion l. i. c 19. p. 68.)]
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part
III.
In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the
middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the
dexterity or labor of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the
most useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the
community. But the plebeians of Rome, who disdained such sedentary and
servile arts, had been oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of
debt and usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military
service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm.
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 thirty-five
tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three 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 beyond the precincts
of the Eternal City.
52
50 (
return
[ 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 so undeservedly praised.]
51 (
return
[ 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
exaggerate, the misery of the common people.]
52 (
return
[ 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, &c.
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 twenty-eight
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.
53 (
return
[ Almost all that is said
of the bread, bacon, oil, wine, &c., 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 sixteenpence the gallon.]
54 (
return
[ 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 multum foras. Proptor quod est in montibus, cujus
aescam animalium rariam, &c.]
55 (
return
[ See Novell. ad calcem
Cod. Theod. D. Valent. l. i. tit. xv. This law was published at Rome, June
29th, A.D. 452.]
56 (
return
[ 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. 86.]
57 (
return
[ His design was to plant
vineyards along the sea-coast of Hetruria, (Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p.
225;) the dreary, unwholesome, uncultivated Maremme of modern Tuscany]
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 sensuality.
60
58 (
return
[ Olympiodor. apud Phot.
p. 197.]
59 (
return
[ 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 as,
about one eighth of an English penny.]
60 (
return
[ 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
61 (
return
[ Juvenal. Satir. xi.
191, &c. 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 country on these occasions
flocked to the city.]
62 (
return
[ Sometimes indeed they
composed original pieces.
Vestigia Graeca
Ausi deserere et celeb rare domestica facta.
Horat. Epistol. ad Pisones, 285, and the learned, though perplexed note of
Dacier, who might have allowed the name of tragedies to the Brutus and the
Decius of Pacuvius, or to the Cato of Maternus. The Octavia, ascribed to
one of the Senecas, still remains a very unfavorable specimen of Roman
tragedy.]
63 (
return
[ 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 Oratoribus, c. 9, 11, and Plin. Epistol.
vii. 17.)]
64 (
return
[ 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
Mémoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 127, &c.) has
given a short history of the art of pantomimes.]
65 (
return
[ 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 fabulae
theatrales.]
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 twenty-one
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. House-rent was
therefore immoderately dear: the rich acquired, at an enormous expense,
the ground, which they covered with palaces and gardens; but the body of
the Roman people was crowded into a narrow space; and the different
floors, and apartments, of the same house, were divided, as it is still
the custom of Paris, and other cities, among several families of
plebeians. IV. The total number of houses in the fourteen regions of the
city, is accurately stated in the description of Rome, composed under the
reign of Theodosius, and they amount to forty-eight thousand three hundred
and eighty-two.
71
The two classes of domus and of insulæ, into
which they are divided, include all the habitations of the capital, of
every rank and condition from the marble palace of the Anicii, with a
numerous establishment of freedmen and slaves, to the lofty and narrow
lodging-house, where the poet Codrus and his wife were permitted to hire a
wretched garret immediately under the tiles. If we adopt the same average,
which, under similar circumstances, has been found applicable to Paris,
72
and indifferently allow about twenty-five persons for each house, of every
degree, we may fairly estimate the inhabitants of Rome at twelve hundred
thousand: a number which cannot be thought excessive for the capital of a
mighty empire, though it exceeds the populousness of the greatest cities
of modern Europe.
73
7311
66 (
return
[ 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.]
67 (
return
[ Olympiodor. ap. Phot.
p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. tom. ix. p. 400.]
68 (
return
[ 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
comprehensive.]
69 (
return
[ The successive
testimonies of Pliny, Aristides, Claudian, Rutilius, &c., prove the
insufficiency of these restrictive edicts. See Lipsius, de Magnitud.
Romana, l. iii. c. 4.
Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant;
Tu nescis; nam si gradibus trepidatur ab imis
Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula sola tuetur
A pluvia. —-Juvenal. Satir. iii. 199]
70 (
return
[ Read the whole third
satire, but particularly 166, 223, &c. The description of a crowded
insula, or lodging-house, in Petronius, (c. 95, 97,) perfectly tallies
with the complaints of Juvenal; and we learn from legal authority, that,
in the time of Augustus, (Heineccius, Hist. Juris. Roman. c. iv. p. 181,)
the 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 extent, and high value, of those common buildings.]
71 (
return
[ This sum total is
composed of 1780 domus, or great houses of 46,602 insulæ, or plebeian
habitations, (see Nardini, Roma Antica, l. iii. p. 88;) and these numbers
are ascertained by the agreement of the texts of the different Notitioe.
Nardini, l. viii. p. 498, 500.]
72 (
return
[ 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.]
73 (
return
[ This computation is not
very different from that which M. Brotier, the last editor of Tacitus,
(tom. ii. p. 380,) has assumed from similar principles; though he seems to
aim at a degree of precision which it is neither possible nor important to
obtain.]
7311 (
return
[ 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 subterranean dwellings under the public edifices. 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 the same roof. 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 fellow-creatures, whom they had
secretly murdered; and even mothers, (such was the horrid conflict of the
two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human breast,) even
mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants!
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 Paganism.
78
74 (
return
[ 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, l. xii. c. 3, and Godefroy,
Dissertat. p. 467-475.]
75 (
return
[ The mother of Laeta was
named Pissumena. Her father, family, and country, are unknown. Ducange,
Fam. Byzantium, p. 59.]
76 (
return
[ 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]
77 (
return
[ 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 and
his thunder on Mount Aventine.
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 Eusebe Salverte, des Sciences Occultes, l. xxiv. Paris,
1829.—M.]
78 (
return
[ 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 not to believe, that a pope could be guilty
of such impious condescension.]
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 of Alaric.
81
79 (
return
[ 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 Philosophique, &c., tom. i. p. 457.]
80 (
return
[ 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.]
81 (
return
[ The treaty between
Alaric and the Romans, &c., 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.]
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part
IV.
At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with relating
the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome, without presuming to
investigate the motives of their political conduct. In the midst of his
apparent prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of some secret
weakness, some internal defect; or perhaps the moderation which he
displayed, was intended only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of
the ministers of Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared, that
it was his desire to be considered as the friend of peace, and of the
Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to
the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of hostages, and the
conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals, which he more clearly
expressed during the course of the negotiations, could only inspire a
doubt of his sincerity, as they might seem inadequate to the state of his
fortune. The Barbarian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the
armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and money; and
he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia, for the seat of
his new kingdom, which would have commanded the important communication
between Italy and the Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected,
Alaric showed a disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even
to content himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and
impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians
of Germany.
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 road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers.
83
82 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367
368, 369.]
83 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. v. p. 360,
361, 362. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending
calamities of the city. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573.]
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 Prætorian 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 master-general of Dalmatia,
Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhaetia, seemed to revive the discipline and
spirit of the republic. From a life of idleness and want, his troops were
soon habituated to severe exercise and plentiful subsistence; and his
private generosity often supplied the rewards, which were 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 bed-chamber and of the guards; and the
mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers was the cause of their
mutual destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the domestics,
the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to death with sticks, before
the eyes of the astonished emperor; and the subsequent assassination of
Allobich, in the midst of a public procession, is the only circumstance
of his life, in which Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of courage
or resentment. Yet before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had
contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the
conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish, and perhaps a
criminal, motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a personal interview
under the walls of Rimini. During the absence of Jovius, the emperor was
persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, such as neither
his situation, nor his character, could enable him to support; and a
letter, signed with the name of Honorius, was immediately despatched to
the Prætorian 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
invoked the name of the Deity, they would consult the public safety, and
trust their souls to the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the
sacred head of the emperor himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony,
that august seat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath
would expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and rebellion.
86
84 (
return
[ For the adventures of
Olympius, and his successors in the ministry, see Zosimus, l. v. p. 363,
365, 366, and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181. ]
85 (
return
[ 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. Eccles. A.D. 409, No. 12, A.D. 410, No.
47, 48.]
86 (
return
[ 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 the Ancients, in the Mem de l’Academie
des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 208, 209.]
While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the security
of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they abandoned Rome, almost
without defence, to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was the moderation
which he still preserved, or affected, that, as he moved with his army
along the Flaminian way, he successively despatched the bishops of the
towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the
emperor, that he would save the city and its inhabitants from hostile
fire, and the sword of the Barbarians.
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 master-general
of the armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the
domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and the two
hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship and
alliance.
91
87 (
return
[ Zosimus, l. v. p. 368,
369. I have softened the expressions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too
florid a manner, on the history of Rome]
88 (
return
[ See Sueton. in Claud.
c. 20. Dion Cassius, l. lx. p. 949, edit Reimar, and the lively
description of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, &c. 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,
(Bergier, Hist. des grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. p. 356.)]
89 (
return
[ 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 570,000 acres;) and the
large topographical map of Ameti, in eight sheets.]
90 (
return
[ 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 cardinal-bishops of the
Roman church. See Eschinard, Deserizione di Roman et dell’ Agro Romano, p.
328. * Note: Compare Sir W. Gell. Rome and its Vicinity vol. ii p. 134.—M.]
91 (
return
[ 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 formal and
florid speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of the
republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt and the
East, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. Such
extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen with a just
contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper, whose elevation was
the deepest and most ignominious wound which the republic had yet
sustained from the insolence of the Barbarians. But the populace, with
their usual levity, applauded the change of masters. The public discontent
was 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 Prætorian 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
bed-chamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna, to
transport the abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the
emperor of the East.
92 (
return
[ 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, are very unfavorable to
the Christianity of the new emperor.]
93 (
return
[ 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
perhaps the treachery, of Jovius.]
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 camp, in the train of a
haughty and capricious Barbarian.
96
94 (
return
[ Procop. de Bell.
Vandal. l. i. c. 2.]
95 (
return
[ 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 usurper.]
96 (
return
[ In hoc, Alaricus,
imperatore, facto, infecto, refecto, ac defecto... Mimum risit, et ludum
spectavit imperii. Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 582.]
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 sixty-three years after the
foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so
considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of
the tribes of Germany and Scythia.
98
97 (
return
[ 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.]
98 (
return
[ 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 Moab capta est. nocte cecidit murus ejus, tom. i. p. 121, ad
Principiam.]
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
99 (
return
[ 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.]
100 (
return
[ See Augustin, de
Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 1-6. He particularly appeals to the examples of
Troy, Syracuse, and Tarentum.]
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 battle-axe.
The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the
rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and by
tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasure.
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
101 (
return
[ Jerom (tom. i. p.
121, ad Principiam) has applied to the sack of Rome all the strong
expressions of Virgil:—
Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando,
Explicet, &c.
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 Rome. Annal. Eccles. A.D.
410, No. 16-34.]
102 (
return
[ 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.]
103 (
return
[ 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 makes some curious distinctions between moral and physical
virginity.]
104 (
return
[ 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, &c. 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 various methods of torturing prisoners for gold.]
105 (
return
[ 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 I’lan of Modern Rome, by Nolli.]
106 (
return
[ 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.]
107 (
return
[ 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.]
Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part
V.
Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian rank, who perished
in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed that only one senator
lost his life by the sword of the enemy.
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 sea-coast of
Campania and Tuscany, the little island of Igilium, separated by a narrow
channel from the Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their
hostile attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers of
citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that sequestered
spot.
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.
108 (
return
[ 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 tortures.]
109 (
return
[ Multi... Christiani
incaptivitatem ducti sunt. Augustin, de Civ Dei, l. i. c. 14; and the
Christians experienced no peculiar hardships.]
110 (
return
[ See Heineccius,
Antiquitat. Juris Roman. tom. i. p. 96.]
111 (
return
[ 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 Honorius.]
112 (
return
[ Eminus Igilii sylvosa
cacumina miror; Quem fraudare nefas laudis honore suae.
Haec proprios nuper tutata est insula saltus;