f Ex Ubris C. K. OGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES W- }- SHIPTON, THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. BY EDWARD GIBBON. WITH VARIORUM NOTES, INCLUDING THOSE OF GUIZOT, WENCK, SCHREITER, AND HUGO. VOL. IV. LONDON : GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1 8S+. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AKD CHAR1XG CROSS. a// PREFACE OF THE FOURTH VOLUME OF THE QUARTO EDITION. I NOW discharge my promise, and complete my design, of writing the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, both in the West and the East. The whole period extends from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second ; and includes a review of the crusades and the state of Rome during the middle ages. Since the publication of the first volume, twelve years have elapsed : twelve years, according to my wish, " of health, of leisure, and of perseverance." I may now congratulate my deliverance from a long and laborious service, and my satisfaction will be pure and perfect, if the public favour should be extended to the conclusion of my work. It was my first intention to have collected, under one view, the numerous authors, of every age and language, from whom I have derived the materials of this history ; and I am still convinced that the apparent ostentation would be more than compensated by real use. If I have renounced this idea ; if I have declined an undertaking which had obtained the approbation of a master- artist,* my excuse may be found in the extreme difficulty of assigning a proper measure to such a catalogue. A naked list of names and editions would not be satisfactory either to myself or my readers ; the characters of the principal authors of the Roman and Byzantine History have been occasionally connected with the events which they describe ; a more copious and critical inquiry might indeed deserve, but it would demand, an elaborate volume, which might swell by degrees into a general library of historical writers. For the present I shall content myself with renewing my serious protestation, that I have always endeavoured to draw from the fountain-head ; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals, and that, ii * See Dr. Robertson's Prcfare to his History of America IV PEEFACE TO THE FODBTH VOLUME OP they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend. I shall soon revisit the banks of the lake of Lausanne, a coun- try which I have known and loved from my early youth. Under a mild government, amidst a beauteous landscape, in a life of leisure and independence, and among a people of easy and elegant manners, I have enjoyed, and may again hope to enjoy, the varied pleasures of retirement and society. But I shall ever glory in the name and character of an Englishman : I am proud of my birth in a free and enlightened country, and the approba- tion of that country is the best and most honourable reward of my labours. Were I ambitious of any other patron than the Public, I would inscribe this work to a Statesman, who, in a long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate administration, had many political opponents, almost without a personal enemy; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disin- terested friends; and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigour of his mind, and the felicity of his in- comparable temper. LORD NORTH will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in the language of truth : but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favours of the crown. In a remote solitude, vanity may still whisper in my ear, that my readers, perhaps, may inquire, whether, in the conclusion of the present work, I am now taking an everlasting farewell. They shall hear all that I know myself, all that I could reveal to the most intimate friend. The motives of action or silence are now equally balanced, nor can I pronounce in my most secret thoughts on which side the scale will preponderate. I cannot dissemble that six ample quartos must have tried, and may have exhausted, the indulgence of the Public ; that in the repetition of similar attempts, a successful author has much more to lose than he can hope to gain ; that I am now descending into the vale of years ; and that the most respectable of my countrymen, the men whom I aspire to imitate, have resigned the pen of history about the same period of their lives. Yet I consider that the annals of ancient and modern times may afford many rich and interesting subjects ; that I am still possessed of health and leisure ; that by the practice of writing, some skill and facility must be acquired ; and that, in the ardent pursuit of truth and knowledge, I am not conscious of decay. To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labour ; and the first months of my liberty will be occupied and amused in the excursions of curiosity and taste. By such temptations I have been sometimes seduced from the rijpd duty even of a pleasing and voluntary task : but ray time will now be my own ; and in the use or abuse THE QTTAKTU EDITION. V of independence, I shall no longer fear my own reproaches or those of my friends. I am fairly entitled to a year of jubilee : next summer and the following winter will rapidly pass away ; and experience only can determine whether I shall still prefer the freedom and variety of study to the design and composition of a regular work, which .animates, while it confines, the daily application of the author. Caprice and accident may influence my choice ; but the dexterity of self-love will contrive to applaud either active industry or philosophic repose. DOWNING STREET, MAT 1, 1788. P.S. I shall embrace this opportunity of introducing two verbal remarks, which have not conveniently offered themselves to my notice. 1. As often as I use the definitions of beyond the Alps, the Rhine, the Danube, , PACK 370, Martin in Gaul 113 Causes of the rapid Progress of the Monastic Life . . 115 Obedience of the Monks . . ."'. . .116 Their Dress and Habitations . * . . .119 Their Diet 120 Their Manual Labour ....... 121 Their Riches . . . ' . . . .123 Their Solitude 124 Their Devotion and Visions . . . . . .125 The Coenobites and Anachorets . . . . .126 395451. Simeon Stylites 127 Miracles and Worship of the Monks .... 128 Superstition of the age . . . . . . .129 II. CONVERSION OP THE BARBARIANS .... 130 360, &c. Ulphilas, Apostle of the Goths 131 400, &c. The Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, &c. embrace Chris- tianity 133 Motives of their Faith 134 Effects of their Conversion . . . . . .135 They are involved in the Arian Heresy . . . .137 General Toleration . . . . . . .138 Arian Persecution of the Vandals . . . . .138 429477. Genseric 138 477. Hunneric 139 484. Gundamund 139 496. Thrasimund 139 523. Hilderic 139 630. Gelimer 140 A General View of the Persecution in Africa . . .140 Catholic Frauds 145 Miracles ......... 147 500 700. The Ruin of Arianism among the Barbarians . .149 577 584. Revolt and Martyrdom of Hermenegild in Spain . 150 586 589. Conversion of Recared and the Visigoths of Spain . 151 600, &c. Conversion of the Lombards of Italy . . . .153 612 712. Persecution of the Jews in Spain .... 154 Conclusion 155 CH. XXXVIII. REIGN AND CONVERSION OF CLOVIS. HIS VICTORIES OVER THE ALLEMANNI, BURG0NDIANS, AND VISIGOTHS. ESTABLISH- MENT OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY IN GAUL. LAWS OF THE BARBA- RIANS. STATE OF THE ROMANS. THE VISIGOTHS OF SPAIN. CON- QUEST OF BRITAIN BT THE SAXONS. The Revolution of Gaul . . . . * . .156 476 485. Euric, King of the Visigoths 158 481 511. Clovis, King of the Franks 159 486. His Victory over Syagrius ...... 160 496. Defeat and Submission of the Allemanni .... 163 CONTENTS. IX 4.D. PAGE 496. Conversion of Clovis 165 497, &c. Submission of the Armoricans and the Roman Troops . 168 499. The Burgundian War 170 500 Victory of Clovis 171 532. Final Conquest of Burgundy by the Franks . . .172 507. The Gothic War 174 Victory of Clovis 176 608. Conquest of Aquitain by the Franks . . . .177 510. Consulship of Clovis . . . . . . .179 536. Final Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul . 180 Political Controversy . . . . . . .182 Laws of the Barbarians . . . . . . .183 Pecuniary Fines for Homicide . . . . .185 Judgments of God 289 Judicial Combats . . . . . . . .190 Division of Land by the Barbarians . . . .191 Domain and Benefices of the Merovingians . .193 Private Uusurpations . . . . . . .195 Personal Servitude . . . . . . .196 Example of Auvergne ....... 198 Story of Attalus 200 Privileges of the Romans of Gaul . . . . .203 Anarchy of the Franks ....... 206 The Visigoths of Spain 208 Legislative Assemblies of Spain 209 Code of the Visigoths 211 Revolution of Britain ....... 212 4 49. Descent of the Saxons . . . . . . .213 455 582. Establishment of the Saxon Heptar-iay . . . 214 State of the Britons 216 Their Resistance 217 Their Flight 218 The fame of Arthur 221 Desolation of Britain . 223 Servitude of the Britons . . . . . .227 Manners of the Britons . . . . . . .228 Obscure or Fabulous State of Britain .... 230 Fall of the Roman Empire in the West . . . .231 (ierei. PAGE Jealousy of tne Roman Generals ... . 423 Death of Constantine ...... . 423 The Eunuch Narses ....... 424 Firmness and Authority of Belisarius . . . .425 538, 539. Invasion of Italy by the Franks .... 425 Destruction of Milan 426 Belisarius Besieges Ravenna . 539. Subdues the Gothic Kingdom of Italy Captivity of Vitiges .... 540. Return and Glory of Belisarius Secret History of his Wife Antonina Her Lover Theodosius .... Resentment of Belisarius and her Son Photiua Persecution of her Son .... Disgrace and Submission of Belisariua 428 429 429 431 432 434 436 437 438 CH. XLII. STATE OP THE BARBARIC WORLD. ESTABLISHMENT OP THE LOMBARDS ON THE DANUBE. TRIBES AND INROADS OP THE 8CLAVOMAXS. ORIGIN, EMPIRE, AND EMBASSIES OP THE TURKS. THE FLIGHT OP THE AVARS. CHOSROES I. OR NUSHIRVAN KING OP PERSIA. HIS PROSPEROUS REIGN AND WARS WITH THE ROMANS. THE COLCHIAN OB LAZIC WAR. THE .ETHOPIANS. 527 565. Weakness of the Empire of Justinian ... 439 State of the Barbarians ....... 441 The Gepidae 442 The Lombards 443 The Sclavonians . . . . . . . '.445 Their Inroads . . . . . . . .448. 545. Origin and Monarchy of the Turks in Asia . . . 451 The Avars Fly before the Turks, and approach the Empire . 454 558. Their Embassy to Constantinople ..... 456 569 582. Embassies of the Turks and Romans . . .458' 500530. State of Persia 461 531 579. Reign of Nushirvan, or Chosroes .... 463 His Love of Learning ....... 465 583539. Peace and War with the Romans .... 469 540. He Invades Syria 471 And Ruins Antioch ....... 473 541. Defence of the East by Belisarius ..... 474 Description of Colchos, Lazica, or Mingrelia . . . 476 Manners of the Katives ....... 479 Revolutions of Colchos ....... 480 Under the Persians, before Christ 500 .... 481 Under the Romans, before Christ 60 . . . .482 530. Visit of Arrian 483 522. Conversion of the Lazi . . . . . . .483 642 549. Revolt and Repentance of the Colcliians . . * 484 XiV CONTENTS. A.D. FAGK 549551. Siege of Petra 486 549556. The Colchkn or Lazic War 488 540 561. Negotiations and Treaties between Justinian and Chosroes ........ 490 522. Conquests of the Abyssinians . . . . . . 492 533. Their Alliance with Justinian 495 CH. XLIII. REBELLIONS OP AFRICA. RESTORATION OF THE GOTHIC KINGDOM OF TOTILA. LOSS AND RECOVERY OF HOME. FINAL CONQUEST OF ITALY BY NARSES. EXTINCTION OF THE OSTROGOTHS. DEFEAT OB THE FRANKS AND ALLEMANNI. LAST VICTORY, DISGRACE, AND DEATH OF BELISARIUS. DEATH AND CHARACTER OF JUSTINIAN. COMETS, EARTHQUAKES, AND PLAGUE. 535545. The Troubles of Africa 496 543558. Kebellion of the Moors 500 540. Kevolt of the Goths ' . 502 541544. Victories of Totila, King of Italy .... 503 Contrast of Greek Vice and Gothic Virtue . . . 504 544 548. Second Command of Belisarius in Italy . . . 506 546. Home Besieged by the Goths ...... 508 Attempt of Belisarius . . . . . . .509 Borne taken by the Goths . . . . . .511 647. Recovered by Belisarius ...... 513 548. Final Eecall of Belisarius 515 549. Rome again Taken by the Goths . . . . .517 549 551. Preparations of Justinian for the Gothic War . . 519 652. Character and Expedition of the Eunuch Narses . . 521 Defeat and Death of Totila 524 Conquest of Rome by Narses ...... 527 663. Defeat and Death of Teias, the last King of the Goths . 528 Invasion of Italy by the Franks and Allemanni . . 530 654. Defeat of the Franks and Allemanni by Narses . . . 534 554568. Settlement of Italy 537 559. Invasion of the Bulgarians 538 Last Victory of Belisarius ...... 539 561. His Disgrace and Death . . . . . .540 565. Death and Character of Justinian . . . . .542 531539. Comets 545 Earthquakes . . . . . . . .547 542. Plague its Origin and Nature 550 642594. Extent and Duration 65? THE HISTOEY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EOMAN EMPIEE. CHAPTER XXXV. INVASION OF GAUL BY ATTILA. HE IS REPULSED BY ^TIUS AND TBB VISIGOTHS. ATTILA INVADES AND EVACUATES ITALY. THE DEATHS OF ATTILA, .ffiTIUS, AND VALENTINIAN THE THIRD. IT was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided, as long as it is possible to preserve a secure and honourable peace ; but it was likewise his opinion, that peace cannot be honourable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillani- mous aversion to war. This temperate courage dictated his reply to the demands of Attila, who insolently pressed the payment of the annual tribute. The emperor signified to the barbarians, that they must no longer insult the majesty of Rome by the mention of a tribute ; that he was disposed to reward, with becoming liberality, the faithful friendship of his allies ; but that, if they presumed to violate the public peace, they should feel that he possessed troops, and arms, and resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language, even in the camp of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver the presents, till he had been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a Bense of dignity and a contempt of danger which Attila VOL. 17. * 2 CHARACTER AND ADMINISTBATIOlf [CH. XXXV, was not prepared to expect from the degenerate Romans.* He threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius ; but he hesitated whether he should first direct his invincible arms against the Eastern or the Western empire. While man- kind awaited his decision with awful suspense, he sent au equal defiance to the courts of Eavenna and Constantinople ; and his ministers saluted the two emperors with the same haughty declaration. " Attila, my lord, and thy lord, com- mands thee to provide a palace for his immediate recep- tion.'^ But as the barbarian despised, or affected to despise, the Romans of the east, whom he had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glorious and important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of those provinces ; but the particular motives and provoca- tions of Attila can only be explained by the state of the western empire under the reign of Valentinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the administration of .ZEtius. J After the death of his rival Boniface, ^tius had prudently retired to the tents of the Huns ; and he was indebted to their alliance for his safety and his restoration. Instead of the suppliant language of a guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at the head of sixty thousand barbarians ; and the empress Placidia confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency, was the effect of weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son Valentinian, and the Western empire, into the hands of an insolent subject ; nor could Placidia protect the son- in-law of Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian, * See Priscus, p. 39. 72. f The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which introduces this haughty message during the lifetime of Theodosius, may have anticipated the date ; but the dull annalist was incapable of inventing the original and genuine style of Attila. J The second book of the Histoire Critique de rEtablissement cle la Monarchic Fransoise, torn, i, p. 189424, throws great light on the state of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila : but the ingenious author, the Abbe" Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system and conjecture. Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. 1.1, c. 6, p. 8, edit. Ruinart) call? him, acer consilio et strenuus in bello ; but his courage, when he became unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness ; and Sebas- tian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of prceceps. (Sidon. Apollinar. Carmen 9. 181.) His adventures at Constantinople, in Sicily, Gaul, Spain, and Africa, are faintly marked in the Chronicles of Harcellinu* A.T>. 433-454.] OP JETITJS. 3 from the implacable persecution, which urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate ^Etius, who was immediately promoted to the rank of patrician and thrice invested with the honours of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the whole military power of the state ; and he is sometimes styled, by contemporary writers, the duke, or general, of the Romans of the "West. His prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple ; and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace and luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and a patriot, who supported near twenty years the ruins of the western empire. The Gothic histo- rian ingenuously confesses, that JEtius was born for the salvation of the Roman republic :* and the following por- trait, though it is drawn in the fairest colours, must be allowed to contain a much larger proportion of truth than of flattery. " His mother was a wealthy and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in the province of Scythia, gradually rose, from the station of a military domestic, to the dignity of master of the cavalry. Their son, who was enrolled almost in his infancy, in the guards, was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and afterwards to the Huns ; and he successively obtained the civil and military honours of the palace, for which he was . equally qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of JEtius was not above the middle stature: but his manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility ; and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food or of sleep ; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine courage that can despise not only dangers but injuries ; and it was impossible either to cor- rupt, or deceive, or intimidate, the firm integrity of his soul."f The barbarians, who had seated themselves in the and Idatius. In his distress, he was always followed by a numerous train ; since he could ravage the Hellespont and Propontis, and seize the city of Barcelona. * Reipublicae Romanae singulariter natus, qui superbiam Suevorum Francorumque barbariem immensia caedibus servire imperio Romano coegisset. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, p. 660. t This portrait ia drawn by Renatua 2 4 CONNECTION OT 1 .ETIUS WITH THE HUNS. [CH. XXXV. western provinces, were insensibly taught to respect the faith and valour of the patrician JEtius. He soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced their interests, and checked their ambition. A seasonable treaty, which he concluded with Genseric, protected Italy from the depre- dations of the Vandals ; the independent Britons implored and acknowledged his salutary aid : the imperial authority was restored and maintained in Gaul and Spain ; and he compelled the Pranks and the Suevi, whom he had van- quished in the field, to become the useful confederates of the republic. From a principle of interest as well as gratitude, uEtius assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns. While he resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his benefactor ; and the two famous antagonists appear to have been connected by a personal and military friendship, which they afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent em- bassies, and the education of Carpilio, the son of ..Etuis, ID the camp of Attila. By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the Scythian conqueror, who pressed the two empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold, which had been fraudu- lently embezzled, the civil and military governors of Noricum were immediately dispatched to satisfy his complaints :* and it is evident, from their conversation with Maxiinin and Priscus, in the royal village, that the valour and prudence of ./Etius had not saved the western Romans from the common ignominy of tribute. Tet his dexterous policy Profuturus Frigeridus, a contemporary historian, known only by some extracts, which are preserved by Gregory of Tours. (1. 2, c. 8, in torn, ii, p. 163.) It was probably the duty, or at least the interest, of Renatus, to magnify the virtues of ^Etius ; but he would have shewn more dexterity, if he had not insisted on his patient, forgiving dis- position. * The embassy consisted of Count Romulus ; of Promotus, president of Noricum ; and of Romanus, the military duke. They were accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio. in the same province, and father of Orestes, who had married the daughter of Count Romulus. See Priscus, p. 57. 65. Cassiodorus (Variar. 1. 4,) mentions another embassy, which was executed by hia father and Carpilio, the son of wiEtius ; and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their manly intrepid behaviour in his presence. A.D. 419-451.] THE VISIGOTHS IN GAUL. 5 prolonged the advantages of a salutary peace ; and a nume- rous army of Huns and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in the defence of Gaul. Two colonies of these barbarians were judiciously fixed in the territories of Valence and Orleans :* and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the Rhone and of the Loire These savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Borne. Their original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of conquest ; and the province through which they marched, was exposed to all the calamities of a hostile invasion. f Strangers to the emperor or the republic, the Alani of Gaul were devoted to the ambition of yEtius ; and though he might suspect, that, in a contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of their national king, the patrician laboured to restrain, rather than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks. The kingdom established by the Visigoths, in the southern provinces of Gaul, had gradually acquired strength and maturity ; and the conduct of those ambitious barbarians, either in peace or war, engaged the perpetual vigilance of ^Etius. After the death of Wallia, the Gothic sceptre devolved to Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric, J and his prosperous reign, of more than thirty years, over a turbu- lent people, may be allowed to prove, that his prudence was * Deserta Valentinae urbisrura Alanis partienda traduntur. Prosper. Tyronis Chron. in Historiens de France, torn, i, p. 639. A few lines afterwards Prosper observes, that lands in the ulterior Gaul were assigned to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of Dubos, ' x tom. i, p. 300,) the reasonable supposition of two colonies or garri- BCfus of Alani, will confirm his arguments, and remove his objections. f- See Prosper. Tyro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246) com- plains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country : Litorius Scythicos equites tune forte subacto Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen Per terras, Arverne, tuas, qui proxima quseque Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis, Delebant ; pacis fallentes nomen inane. Another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint : Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste. See Dubos, torn, i, p. 33C. J Theodoric II. the son of Theodoric I. declares to Avitus his reso- lution of repairing, or expiating, the faults which his grandfather had committed. 6 THE TISIGOTHS IN THE [CH. Xr supported by uncommon vigour, both of mind and body. Im- patient of his narrow limits, Theodoric aspired to the posses- sion of Aries, the wealthy seat of government and commerce ; but the city was saved by the timely approach of JEtius ; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy, to divert the martial valour of his subjects in a Spanish war. Tet Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized the favour- able moment of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne, while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians ; and the public safety was threatened on every side by the apparent union of the enemies of Rome. On every side, the activity of _3i!tius and his Scy- thian cavalry, opposed a firm and successful resistance. Twenty thousand Burgundians were slain in battle, and the remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent seat in the mountains of Savoy.* The walls of Narbonne had been shaken by the battering engines, and the inhabitants had endured the last extremities of famine, when count Litorius, approaching in silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two sacks of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the besiegers. The siege was imme- diately raised, and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of JEtius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily summoned to Italy by some public or private interest, count Litorius Quse noster peccavit avus, quern fuscat id unum, Quod te, Roma, capit. Sidon. Panegyric. Avit. 505. This character, applicable only to the great Alaric, establishes the genealogy of the Gothic kings, which has hitherto been unnoticed. [There is no evidence of Alaric having left a son, and the expression used by Sidonius is too indefinite to warrant the inference. Theodo- sius I. was an old man in 451, when he fell at the battle of Chalona (matura senectute, Jorn. c. 40). If he had been the rightful heir to the throne, he would not have been supplanted by his uncle Adolphus, in 410, nor by Wallia in 415. ED.] * The name of Sapaudia, the origin of Savoy, is first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus ; and two military posts are ascertained, by the Notitia, within the limits of that province ; a cohort was stationed at Grenoble in Dauphine ; and Ebreduaum, or Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the lake of Neufchatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D'Anville, Notice do 1'Ancienne Gaule, p. 284. 579. [The Burgundians ever aud anon come before us, slaughtered, exterminated, or expelled; yet re-appear in full streugtb. A..D. 519-151.] EEION OF THEODOEIC I. 7 succeeded to the command ; and his presumption soon dis- covered, that far different talents are required to lead a wing of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war. At the head of an army of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of Thoulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy, whom his misfortunes had rendered prudent, and his situation made desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic capital in triumph ; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan allies, encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the edifying con- trast of Christian piety and moderation ; nor did he lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm lor the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was obstinate, the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskilful rashness, was actually led through the streets of Thoulouse, not in his ow r n, but in a hostile triumph ; and the misery which he experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the compassion of the barba- rians themselves.* Such a loss, in a country whose spirit and finances were long since exhausted, could not easily be repaired ; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the senti- ments of ambition and revenge, would have planted their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the pre- sence of jEtius had not restored strength and discipline to the Romans-t The two armies expected the signal of a and maturity as often ; and the provinces where they settled, thirty years before this period (see vol. ii, p. 473) retained, through a long series of ages, the name then given to them. ED.] * Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of tha Deity ; a task which may be readily performed by supposing, that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous, trials. + Capto terrarum damna patebant Litorio, in Rhodanum proprios producere fines, Theudoridae fixum ; nee erat pugnare necesse, Sed migrare Getis ; rabidam trux asperat iram Victor ; quod sensit Scythicum sub mo2iiibus hostem Imputat, et nihil est gravius, si forsitan unquam Vincere coutingat, trepido. Tanegyr. Avit. 300, &o. 8 CEUELTT OP GESSEBIC. [CH. XXXV. decisive action ; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's force, and doubtful of their own superiority, pru- dently sheathed their swords in the field of battle ; and their reconciliation was permanent and sincere. Thedoric, king of the Visigoths, appears to have deserved the love of his subjects, the confidence of his allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne was surrounded by six valiant sons, who were educated with equal care in the exercises of the barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic schools : from the study of the Roman jurisprudence, they acquired the theory, at least, of law and justice ; and the harmonious sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their native manners.* The two daughters of the Gothic king were given in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi and of the Vandals, who reigned in Spain and Africa ; but these Hustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The queen of the Suevi bewailed the death of a husband, inhumanly massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the victim of a jealous tyrant, whom she called her father. The cruel Genseric suspected that his son's wife had conspired to poison him ; the sup- posed crime was punished by the amputation of her nose and ears ; and the unhappy daughter of Theodoric was igno- miniously returned to the court of Thoulouse in that de- formed and mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem incredible to a civilized age, drew tears from every spectator ; but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king, to revenge such irreparable injuries. The imperial ministers, who always cherished the discord of the barbarians, would have supplied the Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the African war ; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been fatal to himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the formidable power of the Huns. His rich gifts and pressing solicitations Sidonius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist, to transfer the whole merit from ^Etius, to his minister Avitus. * Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the character of hie preceptor. Mihi Romula dudum Per te jura placent : parvumque ediscere jussit Ad tua verba pater, docili quo prisca Muronis Carmine molliret Scythicos mihi pagina mores. Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 495, Sec. f T he willingness of the Goths to be educated, is here again manifest. ED.] A.D. 420-441.] THE PRANKS IN GAUL. 9 inflamed the ambition of Attila ; and the designs of and Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of Graul.* The Franks, whose monarchy was still confined to the neighbourhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely established the right of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians. f These princes were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military command,;}; and the royal fashion of long hair was the ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which they combed and dressed with singular care, hung down in flowing ringlets on their back and shoulders ; while the rest of the nation were obliged, either by law or custom, to shave the hinder part of their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to content themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. The * Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are, Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34. 36, and the Chronicles of Idatius, and the two Prospers, inserted in the Historians of France, torn, i, p. 612 640. To these we may add Salviau de Gubematione Dei, 1. 7, p. 243 245, and the Panegyric of Avitus, by Sidonius. j* Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, et ut ita dicam nobiliore Buorum farnilia. (Greg. Turon. 1. 2, c. 9, p. 166 of the second volume of the Historians of France.) Gregory himself does not mention the Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the beginning of the seventh century, as the distinctive appellation of the royal family, and even of the French monarchy. An ingenious critic has deduced the Merovingians from the great Maroboduus ; and he has clearly proved, that the prince, who gave his name to the first race, was more ancient than the father of Childeric. See the Memoires de 1'Acade'mie de3 Inscriptions, torn, xx, p. 52 90 ; torn, xxx, p. 557 587. [This " in- genious critic " was the Due de Nivernois. The hereditary right of a family to sovereignty has been already seen (ch. 31) as a very ancient Gothic custom or law. It is, therefore, probable that it existed among the Franks as early as the time of Maroboduus. But it was so modified among them, that the territories of a deceased monarch were equally divided among all his sons. Gibbon's observations on this subject in another note (see p. 12), may be compared with those of Mr. Hallam (vol. i, p. 5), which are to the same effect. The quarrel between Meroveus and his brother was probably about the extent of their respective shares. ED.] J This German custom, which may be traced from Tacitus to Gregory of Tours, was at length adopted by the emperors of Constantinople. From a MS. of the tenth century, Montfaucon has delineated the representation of a similar ceremony, which the ignorance of the age had applied to king David. See Monumens de la Monarchie Franchise, torn, i, Discours Pre"liminaire. Csesaries prolixa . . . crinium flagellis per terga dimissis, &c. See the preface to the third volume of the Histo- rians of France, and the Abbe" le Boeuf. (Dissertat. torn, iii, p. 47 7^.) This peculiar fashion of the Merovingians has been remarked bj 10 THE FBANKS UNDEE THE [CH. XXXV lofty stature of the Franks, and their blue eyes, denoted a Germanic origin ; their close apparel accurately expressed the figure of their limbs ; a weighty sword was suspended from a broad belt ; their bodies were protected by a large shield : and these warlike barbarians were trained, from their earliest youth, to run, to leap, to swim ; to dart the javelin or battle-axe with unerring aim ; to advance without hesitation against a superior enemy; and to maintain, either in life or death, the invincible reputation of their ancestors.* Clodion, the first of their long-haired kings, whose name and actions are mentioned in authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum,t a village or fortress, whose place may be assigned between Louvain and Brussels. Prom the report of his spies, the king of the Franks was informed that the defenceless state of the second Belgic must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valour of his subjects. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses of the Carbonarian forest,]; occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only cities which existed in the fifth century, and extended his conquests as far as the river Somme, over a desolate country, whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of more recent industry. While Clodion lay .encamped in the plains of Artods,^[ and celebrated, with vain and ostentatious security, the marriage, perhaps of his son, natives and strangers ; by Priscus (torn, i, p. 608), by Agathias (torn, ii, p. 49), and by Gregory of Tours (1. 3. 18. 6. 24. 8. 10, torn, ii, p. 196. 278. 316). * See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms, and temper of the ancient Franks in Sidonius Apollinaris (Panegyr. Majorian. 238 254) ; and such pictures, though coarsely drawn, have a real and intrinsic value. Father Daniel (Hist, de la Milice Frangoise, torn, i, p. 2 7) has illustrated the description. \- Dubos, Hist. Critique, &c. torn, i, p. 271, 272. Some geographers have placed Dispargum on the German side of the Rhine. See a note of the Benedictine editors to the Historians of France, torn, ii, p. 166. + The Carbonarian wood was that part of the great forest of the Ardennes, which lay between the Escaut, or Scheldt, and the Meuse. Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 126. Gregor Turon. 1. 2, c. 9, in torn, ii, p. 166, 167. Fredegar. Epitom. c. 9, p. 395. Gesta Reg. Francor. c. 5, in torn, ii, p. 544. Vit. St. Remig. ab Hincmar, in torn, iii, p. 373. U Francus qua Cloio patentes Atrebatum terras pervaserat Panegyr. Majorian. 212. The precise spot was a town, or village, called Vicus Helena, and both the name and the place are discovered by modern geographers at Leas. See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de la France, torn, ii, p. 88- A.D. 420-451.] MEBOVISGIAff KINGd. 11 the nuptial feast was interrupted by the unexpected and unwelcome presence of ^Etius, who had passed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The tables, which had been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the banks of a pleasant stream, were rudely overturned ; the Franks were oppressed before they could recover their arms, or their ranks; and their unavailing valour was fatal only to themselves. The loaded wagons which had followed their march, afforded a rich booty; and the virgin bride, with her female attendants, submitted to the new lovers who were imposed on them by the chance of war. This advantage, which had been obtained by the skill and activity of ^Etius, might reflect some disgrace on the military prudence of Clodion; but the king of the Pranks soon regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the possession of his Gallic kingdom from the Rhine to the Somme.* Under his reign, and most probably from the enterprising spirit of his subjects, the three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice. The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion of the same barbarians, who evacuated the ruins of Treves; and Treves, which in the space of forty years had been four times besieged and pillaged, was disposed to lose the memory of her afflictions in the vain amusements of the Circus. t The death of Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, exposed his kingdom * See a vague account of the action in Sidonius, Panegyr. Majorian. 212 230. The French critics, impatient to establish their monarchy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument from the silence of Sidonius, who dares not insinuate, that the vanquished Franks were compelled to repass the Rhine. Dubos, torn, i, p. 322. ) Salvian {de Gubernat. Dei, 1. 6), has expressed, in vague and declamatory lan- guage, the misfortunes of these three cities, which are distinctly ascer- tained by the learned Mascou, Hist, of the Ancient Germans, 9. 21. [Treves had been the residence of emperors, and had probably more to lose in such disastrous visitations, than other towns. If it experienced four such, in the space of forty years, it must have recovered rapidly from each, or it would have afforded no cause for repeated attacks. That it still possessed a Circus and the means of paying for the amuse- ments exhibited there, is not very convincing evidence of its ruin, which becomes more questionable, when we find that it was one of the places, which by ineffectual resistance, attempted to arrest the course of Attila. (Schmidt, 1. 175.) For an account of the ancient splen- dour of Treves, see Wyttenbach's Roman antiquities of the city of Treves, by Oawson Turner, 8vo. Lond. 1839. ED.] 12 THE ADVENTURES OF [CH. XXXV. to the discord and ambition of his two sons. Meroveus, the younger,* was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was received at the imperial court as the ally of Valentinian, and the adopted son of the patrician ^Etius ; and dismissed to his native country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances of friendship and support. During his absence, his elder brother had solicited with equal ardour, the formidable aid of Attila; and the king of the Huns embraced an alliance, which facilitated the passage of the Rhine, and justified by a specious and honourable pretence, the invasion of Gaul.f When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause of his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the same time, and almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch professed himself the lover and the champion of the princess Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace of Ravenna; and as her marriage might be productive of some danger to the state, she was raised by the title of Augusta^ above the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained the sixteenth year of her age, than she detested the importunate greatness which must for ever exclude her from the comforts of honourable love : in the midst of vain and unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to the impulse of nature, and threw herself into the arms of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and shame * Priscus, in relating the contest, does not name the two brothers^; the second of whom he had seen at Rome, a beardless youth, with long flow- ing hair. (Historians of France, torn, i, p. 607, 608.) The Benedictine editors are inclined to believe that they were the sons of some unknown king of the Franks, who reigned on the banks of the Neckar : but the arguments of M. de Foncemagne (M^m. de 1'Acad^mie, torn, viii, p. 464,) seem to prove, that the succession of Clodion was disputed by his two sons, and that the younger was Meroveus, the father of Childeric. ) Under the Merovingian race, the throne was hereditary ; but all the sons of the deceased monarch were equally entitled to their share of his treasures and territories. See the dissertations of M. de Fonce- magne, in the sixth and eighth volumes of the Me"m. de 1'Academie. A medal is still extant which exhibits the pleasing countenance of Honoria, with the title of Augusta ; and on the reverse, the improper legend of Salus Reipublicaz round the monogram of Christ. See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 67. 73. [Eckhel, (8. p. 189,) condemns most vehemently the flattering inscriptions on her coins. They were probably struck when she was only three years old. ED.] A.D. 420-451.] THE PBLNCESS HONOBIA. 13 (such is the absurd language of imperious man) were soon betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy : but the disgrace of the royal family was published to the world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia; who dismissed her daughter, after a strict and shameful confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The unhappy princess passed twelve or fourteen years in the irksome society of the sisters of Theodosius, and their chosen virgins ; to whose crown Honoria could no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, and vigils, she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of long and hopeless celibacy, urged her to embrace a strange and desperate resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at Constantinople ; and his frequent embassies entertained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and the imperial palace. In the pursuit of love, or rather of revenge, the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every duty and every pre- judice ; and offered to deliver her person into the arms of a barbarian, of whose language she was ignorant, whose figure was scarcely human, and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she transmitted to Attila a ring, the pledge of her affection; and earnestly conjured him to claim her as a lawful spouse, to whom he had been secretly betrothed. These indecent advances were received however, with coldness and disdain ; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply the number of his wives, till his love was awakened by the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion of Gaul was preceded and justified, by a formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the imperial patrimony. His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in the same hostile and peremptory manner, the daughters of China ; and the pretensions of Attila were not less offensive to the majesty of Home. A firm but temperate refusal was communicated to his ambassadors. The right of female succession, though it might derive a specious argument from the recent examples of Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously denied; and the indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to the claims of her Scythian lover.* On the discovery of * See Priscus, p. 39, 40. It might be fairly alleged, that if females could succeed to the throne, Valentinian himself, who had married the 14 ATTILA MARCHES WESTWARD. [CH. XXTV. her connection with the king of the Huns, the guilty princess had been sent away as an object of horror, from Constantinople to Italy: her life was spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was performed with some obscure and nominal husband, before she was immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the daughter of an emperor.* A native of G-aul, and a contemporary, the learned and elo- quent Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had made a promise to one of his friends, that he would compose a regular history of the war of Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting work,t the historian would have related, with the simplicity of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in vague and doubtful metaphors, has con- cisely alluded. J The kings and nations of Germany and Scytbia, from, the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the plains of Hungary, his standard moved towards the west ; and, after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Ehine and the JSTeckar ; where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to his ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of light barbarians, who daughter and heiress of the younger Theodosius, would have asserted her right to the eastern empire. * The adventures of Honoria are imperfectly related by Jornandes, de Successione Regn. c. 97, and de Reb. Get. c. 42, p. 674, and in the Chronicles of Prosper and Mar- cellinus ; but they cannot be made consistent or probable, unless we separate, by an interval of time and place, her intrigue with Eugenius, and her invitation of Attila. t Exegeras mini, ut promit- terem tibi, Attilse bellum stylo me posteris intimaturum . . . cceperam Bcribere, sed operis arrepti fasce perspecto, tseduit inchoasse. Sidon, ApolL L 8, epist. 15, p. 246. t Subito cum rupta tumultu Barbaries totas in te transfuderat .Arctos, Gallia. Pugnacem Rugum comitante Gelono Gepida trux sequitur ; Scyrum Burgundio cogit : Chuous, Bellonotus, Neurus, Basterna, Toringut, Bructerus, ulvosa vel quern Nicer abluit unda Prorumpit Francus. Cecidit cito secta bipenni Hercynia in lintres, et Rhenum texuit alno. Et jam terrificis diffuderat Attila turmis In campos se, Belga, tuos. Panegyr. Avit 319, &c. A.D. 420-451.] HE IJTVADES GAUL. 15 roamed in quest of plunder, might choose the winter for the convenience of passing the river on the ice ; but the innu- merable cavalry of the Huns required such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a milder season; the Hercynian forest supplied materials for a bridge of boats ; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless violence, into the Belgic provinces.* The consternation of Gaul was universal ; and the various fortunes of its cities have been adorned by tradition with martyrdoms and mira- cles.f Troyes was saved by the merits of St. Lupus ; St. Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not oehold the ruin of Tongres ; and the prayers of St. Gene- vieve diverted the march of Attila from the neighbourhood of Paris. But as the greatest part of the Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers, they were besieged and stormed by the Huns ; who practised, in the example of Metz,J their customary maxims of war. They involved, in a promiscuous massacre, the priests who served at the altar, * The most authentic and circumstantial account of this war is con- tained in Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 36 41, p. 662 672,) who has sometimes abridged, and sometimes transcribed, the larger history of Cassiodorus. Jornandes, a quotation which it would be super- fluous to repeat, may be corrected and illustrated by Gregory of Tours, 1. 2, c. 5 7, and the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, and the two Prospers. All the ancient testimonies are collected and inserted in the Historians of France ; but the reader should be cautioned against a supposed extract from the Chronicle of Idatius, (among the, fragments of Fredegarius. torn, ii, p. 462,) which often contradicts the genuine text of the Gallician bishop. [The numerous bands, led by Attila, must have forced a passage over the Rhine at many different points. Tongres, Worms, Mentz, Treves, Spires and Strasburg were almost simultaneously stormed. (Schmidt, 1. 175.) Near Rhenen, in Dutch Guelderland, the summit of a lofty hill is surrounded by an ancient rampart, which still bears the name of De Hunnen-Schants, or the Huns' Fort. This was probably erected and garrisoned by them to overawe the Batavi, whose island it commanded. ED.] + The ancient legendaries deserve some regard, as they are obliged to connect their fables with the real history of their own times. See the lives of St. Lupus, St. Anianus, the bishops of Metz, Ste. Genevieve, &c. in the Historians of France, torn, i, p. 644, 645, 649, torn, iii, p. 369. J The scepticism of the Count de Buat (Hist, des Peuples, torn, vii, p. 539, 540,) cannot be reconciled with any principles of reason or criticism. Is not Gregory of Toura precise and positive in his account of the destruction of Metz ? At the distance of no more than a hun- dred years, could he be ignorant, could the people be ignorant, of the fate of a city, the actual residence of hia sovereigns, the kings of Aus- 16 THE SIEGE OP OBLEA.NS. [CH. XXIT, and the infants, who, in the hour of danger, had been pro- vidently baptized by the bishop ; the flourishing city was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel of St. Stephen marked the place were it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul : crossed the Seine at Auxerre ; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. He was desirous of securing his conquests by the possession of an advantageous post, which commanded the passage of the Loire ; and he depended on the secret invitation of Sangiban, king of the Alani, who had promised to betray the city, and to revolt from the service of the empire. But this treach- erous conspiracy was detected and disappointed: Orleans had been strengthened with recent fortifications ; and the assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful valour of the soldiers or citizens, who defended the place. The pastoral diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and consummate prudence, exhausted every art of religious policy to support their courage, till the arrival of the expected succours. After an obstinate siege, the walls were shaken by the battering rams ; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs ; and the people, who were incapable of bearing arms, lay prostrate in prayer. Anianus, who anxiously counted the days and hours, dispatched a trusty messenger to observe, from the rampart, the face of the distant country. He returned twice, without any intelli- gence that could inspire hope or comfort ; but, in his third report, he mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the extremity of the horizon. " It is the aid of God !'' exclaimed the bishop, in a tone of pious confidence ; and the whole multitude repeated after him, " It is the aid of God ! " The remote object, on which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger and more distinct ; the Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived ; and a favour- able wind blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of JEtius and Theodoric, who pressed forward to the relief of Orleans. trasia ? The learned count, who seems to have undertaken the apo- logy of Attila and the barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, parceni civitatibus Germanise et Gallise ; and forgets that the true Idatius had explicitly affirmed, plurimse civitates effractcs, among which he enu- merates Metz. A.D. 420-451.] THE POLICY Or ATTILA. 17 The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy, as well as to the terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully mitigated by his private assurances ; he alter- nately soothed and threatened the Romans and the Goths ; and the courts of Ravenna and Thoulouse, mutually suspi- cious of each other's intentions, beheld, with supine indiffer- ence, the approach of their common enemy. ^Etius was the sole guardian of the public safety ; but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction, which, since the death of Placidia, infested the imperial palace : the youth of Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet ; and the barbarians, who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the cause of Attila, awaited, with doubtful and venal faith, the event of the war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name of an army.* But on his arrival at Aries, or Lyons, he was confounded by the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honourable exercise of the praetorian prefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he executed with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric, that an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the earth, could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance of the powers whom he laboured to oppress. The lively eloquence of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the description of the injuries which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns ; whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of every Christian to save, from sacrilegious violation, the churches of God and the relics of the saints ; that it was the interest of every barbarian, who had acquired a settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and vinevards which were cultivated for his use, -Vix liquerat Alpes B, tenue, et rarum sine milite ducens Robur, in auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen Incassum propriia prsesumena adfore castria. Panegyr. Avit. 328, fta TOL. IV. O 18 ALLIANCE OF ROMANS AND VISIGOTHS. [CH. XXXV. against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth ; adopted the measure at once the most prudent and the most honourable ; and declared, that, as the faithful ally of ^Etius and the Eomans, he was ready to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul.* The Visigoths, who, at that time, were in the mature vigour of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war ; prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged king, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theo- doric, to command in person his numerous and valiant people. The example of the Goths determined several tribes or nations, that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary service, and the rank of independent allies ; the Lseti, the Armoricans, the Breones, the Saxons, the Burgun- dians, the Sarmatians or Alani, the Bipuarians, and the Franks who followed Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was the various army, which, under the conduct of ^Etius and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches, to relieve Or- leans, and to give battle to the innumerable host of Attila.f * The policy of Attila, of ^Etius, and of the Visigoths, its imper- fectly described in the Panegyric of Avitus, and the thirty-sixth chapter of Jornandes. The poet and the historian were both biassed by personal or national prejudices. The former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus ; orbis, Avite, salus ! &c. The latter is anxious to shew the Goths in the most favourable light. Yet their agreement, when they are fairly interpreted, is a proof of their veracity. f- The review of the army of ^Etius is made by Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot., torn, ii, p. 23, of the Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine editor. The Lceti were a promiscuous race of barbarians, born or naturalized in Gaul ; and the Riparii, or Ripuarii, derived their name from their posts on the three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle ; the Armoricans possessed the independent cities between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of Saxons had been planted in the diocese of Bayeux ; the urgundians were settled in Savoy ; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhaetians, to the east of the lake of Constance. [The Burgundians are ranked by Jornandea in the army of JEtius, while, in a recent note (p. 14), the quotation from Sidonius places them under the command of Attila. Internal dis- cord had divided the Franks, and there was reason for posting some of them on each side But no such civil strife disunited t'he Burguu- l.D. 420-451.] ATTILA RETIRES INTO CHAMPAGNE. 19 On their approach, the king of the Huns immediately raised the siege, and sounded a retreat to recal the fore- most of his troops from the pillage of a city which they had already entered.* The valour of Attila was always guided by his prudence ; and as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had posted in the rear ; the hostile columns, in the dark- ness of the night and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and Gepidae, in which fifteen thousandf barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian fields J spread themselves round Chalons, and extend, according to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred miles, over the whole province, which is entitled to the appellation of a champaign, country. This spacious plain was dis- tinguished, however, by some inequalities of ground; and dians. The historian is a far better authority than the poet. Cassio- dorus was in a position to obtain positive information from some who were present at the battle. Sidonius, probably, had not in his list of names, another to supply the foot he wanted, so he used Burgundio, which may be taken to signify any other tribe quite as well. ED.] * Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio, nee direptio, 1. 5. Sidou. Apollin. 1. 8, epist. 15, p. 246. The preservation of Orleans might be easily turned into a miracle, obtained, and foretold, by the holy bishop. t The common editions read XCM. ; but there is some authority of manuscripts (and almost any authority is suffi- cient) for the more reasonable number of XVM. J Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni, had formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims, from whence it is distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 136. D'Anville, Notice de 1'Ancienne Gaule, p. 212. 279. [Niebuhr (Lectures 3. 340) says, " This great battle is commonly called that of Chalons, which I do not consider to be at all certain. The whole of Champagne had the name of Campi Catalaunici, and is of such extent, that the battle may have been fought at some distance from Chalons." ED.] The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently mentioned by Gregory of Tours ; and that great province, of which Kheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales, Notit. p. 120123. c 2 20 ATTILA HABJVXGUES HIS AEMY. [c.H. XiXV. the importance of a height, which commanded the camp of Attila, was understood and disputed by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns, who laboured to ascend from the opposite side; and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was reported, that after scrutinizing the entrails of victims and scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own defeat, with the death of his principal adversary ; and that the barbarian, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the superior merit of -ZEtius. But the unusual despondency which seemed to prevail among the Huns engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by a military oration ; and his language was that of a king who had often fought and conquered at their head.* He pressed them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future hopes. The same fortune which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their unarmed valour, which had laid so many warlike nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this memorable field for the consummation of their victories. The cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he artfully represented as the eifects not of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and nerves of the opposite army ; and the Huns might securely trample on the degenerate Eomans, whose close and com- pact order betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle. The doctrine of predestination, so favourable to martial virtue, was carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns ; who assured his subjects that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and invulnerable * I am sensible that these military orations are usually composed by the historian ; yet the old Ostrogoths, who had served under Attila, might repeat his discourse to Cassiodorus : the ideas, and even the expressions, have an original Scythian cast ; and I doubt whether an Italian of the sixth century would have thought of the hujus certa- minis gaudia. A I). 420-451.] BATTLE OF CHALONS. 21 amidst the darts of the enemy ; but that the unerring fatea would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. " I myself," continued Attila, " will throw the first javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign is devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the example, of their intrepid leader ; and Attila, yield- ing to their impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in person the centre of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thurin- gians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were extended, on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the Gepidse ; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over the Ostrogoths, were posted on the left, to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was regulated by a different principle. Singiban, the faithless king of the Alani, was placed in the centre ; where his motions might be strictly watched, and his treachery might be instantly punished. JEtius assumed the com' mand of the left, and Theodoric of the right wing ; while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights, which appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons; but many of these nations had been divided by faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns, which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war. The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic, when they are described by the same genius which conceived and executed them, may *end to improve (if such improvement can be wished) the art of destroying the human species. But the battle of Chalons can only excite our curiosity by the magnitude of the object ; since it was decided by the blind impetuosity of barbarians, and has been related by partial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorus, however, had 22 DEATH OF THEODOEIC. [CH. XXXV. familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable engagement; "a conflict," as they in- formed him, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled, either in the present, or in past ages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons ;* and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark, that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in the space of a single hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king, pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies, sepa- rated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole force again?t the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks, to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke from the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his horse. The wounded king was oppressed in the general disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry; and this important death served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of victory, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and verified the re- mainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had been thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the Alani, gradually restored their order of battle ; and the Huns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was com- * The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of Cassiodorus, are ex- tremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex, immane, pertinax, cui simile nulla usquam narrat antiquitas : ubi talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil esset quod in vita sua conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus miraculi pri- varetur aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 392, 393) attempts to reconcile the one hundred and sixty-two thousand of Jornandes with the three hundred thousand of Idatius and Isidore, by supposing, that the larger number included the total destruction of the war, tha effects of disease, the slaughter of the unarmed people, &c. [In such a battle, there must of course have been great slaughter ; but it is evident that its extent has been largely overrated, ^iebuhr remarks very justly, that "the numbers which have been given, of those who were kiFwl or taken prisoners, are beyond all belief." (Leer, 3, 341). ED.] A.D. 420-451.] BETBEAT OF ATTILA. 23 pelled to retreat. He had exposed his person with the rashness of a private soldier ; but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed forwards beyond the rest of the line ; their attack was faintly supported; their flanks were un- guarded; and the conquerors of Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They retired within the circle of wagons that fortified their camp ; and the' dismounted squadrons prepared them- selves for a defence, to which neither their arms nor their temper were adapted. The event was doubtl'ul : but Attila had secured a last and honourable resource. The saddles and rich furniture ot the cavalry were collected, by his order, into a funeral pile; and the magnanimous barbarian had resolved, if his intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the flames, and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they might have acquired by the death or captivity of Attila.* But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons. In the confusion of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse ; and the Gothic prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful strength and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not rescued him from, this dangerous situation. In the same manner, but on the left of the line, -/Etius himself, separated from his allies, ignorant of their victory and anxious for their fate, encoun- tered and escaped the hostile troops that were scattered over the plains of Chalons ; and at length reached the camp of the Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight rampart of shields till the dawn of day. The imperial general was soon satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained inactive within his intrenchments ; and when he contemplated the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had principally fallen on the bar- barians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with honourable * The count de Buat, (Hist, des Peuples, &c., tom.vii, p. 554 573,) etill depending on the false, and again rejecting the true, Idatius, baa divided the defeat of Attila into two great battles ; the former near Orleans, the latter in Champagne ; in the one Theodoric waa slain ; in the other he was revenged. 24 TOEISMOITD KING O"P THE GOTHS. [CH. wounds, was discovered under a heap of the slain: hia subjects bewailed the death of their king and father; but their tears were mingled with songs and acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy. The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his eldest son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their success; and the new king accepted the obligation of revenge, as a sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of their formidable antagonist ; and their historian has compared Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his hunters with redoubled fury. The kings and nations, who might have deserted his standard in the hour of dis- tress, were made sensible, that the displeasure of their monarch was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All his instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of defiance ; and the foremost troops, who advanced to the assault, were checked or de- stroyed by showers of arrows from every side of the intrench- ments. It was determined, in a general council of war, to besiege the king of the Huns in his camp, to intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a dis- graceful treaty, or an unequal combat. But the impatience of the barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures ; and the mature policy of .3tius was apprehen- sive, that, after the extirpation of the Huns, the republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the Gothic nation. The patrician exerted the superior ascendant of authority and reason to calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric considered as a duty ; represented, with seeming affection and real truth, the dangers of absence and delay ; and persuaded Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne and treasures of Thoulouse.* After the departure of the Goths, and the separation of the allied * Jornandes de Eebus Geticis, c. 41, p. 671. The policy of ^Etius, and the behaviour of Torismond, are extremely natural; and the patrician, according to Gregory of Tours, (1. 2, c. 7, p. 163,) dismissed the prince of the Franks, by suggesting to him a similar apprehension. The false Idatius ridiculously pretends, that JEtius paid a clandestine nocturnal visit to the kings of the Huns and of the Visigoths ; from each of whom La obtained a bribe ot ten thousand pieces oi gold, aa A.D. 420-451.] CEUELTY OF THE THURISGIAKS. 25 army, Attila was surprised at the vast silence that reigned over the plains of Chalons : the suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him several days within the circle of his wagons; and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the "Western empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent distance, and magnifying the opinion of their strength by the numerous fires which they kindled every night, con- tinued to follow the rear of the Huns, till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila : they traversed, both in their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks ; and it was perhaps in this war that they exercised the cruelties which, about four- score years afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis. They massacred their hostages, as well as their captives : two hundred young maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage ; their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were crushed under the weight of rolling wagons ; and their unburied limbs were aban- doned on the public roads as a prey to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage ancestors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilized ages.* the price of an undisturbed retreat. * These cruelties, which are passionately deplored by Theodoric, the son of Clovis, (Gre- gory of Tours, 1. 3, c. 10, p. 190,) suit the time and circumstances of the invasion of Attila. His residence in Thuringia was long attested by popular tradition ; and he is supposed to have assembled a cov/roultai, or diet, in the territory of Eisenach. See Mascou, 9. 30, who settles with nice accuracy the extent of ancient Thuringia, and derives its name from the Gothic tribe of the Thervingi. [We are justified in disbelieving the barbarities here related, till we are convinced by unquestionable evidence. The only authority, on which this grave imputation rests, is that of Gregory of Tours, who did not write till more than a hundred years after Attila's invasion of Gaul, and had no records before him, but merely repeated a tradition, said to have been recited by the son of Clovis, before Gregory himself was born. For the little reliance there is to be placed on his records of atrocities, see what is said of him by Mr. Hallam (vol. iii, p. 356) ; and for his credulity, see his own account of the miracles of Martin, Andrew, and others. The writer of his life in the Biographic Universelle, though proud that his country possessed such a history of its first kings, admits that it is characterized by " ignorance without simplicity, and credulity without imagination." Having no better testimony, we are called upon to reject a tale of horrors, repugnant alike to nature, to 20 INTASION OF ITALY [CH, XIXT. Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation of Attila were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. In tdie ensuing spring, he repeated his demand of the rincess Honoria and her patrimonial treasures. The emand was again rejected, or eluded : and the indignant lover immediately took the field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of barbarians. Those barbarians were unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which, even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least some prac- tice, of the mechanic arts. But the labour of many thou- sand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work. The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were assaulted by a formidable train of battering-rams, nioveable turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire :* and the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear, emulation, and interest to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime cities of the Hadriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries, who appear to have served under their native princes Alaric and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful resistance which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable barbarian who disgraced the majesty of the Eoman purple. Three months were consumed without effect in the siege of Aqui- leia ; till the want of provisions, and the clamours of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise, and reluctantly to issue his orders, that the troops should strike their tents the next morning, and begin their retreat. But, as he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, reason, and to humanity. ED.] * Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum generibus adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the thirteenth century, the Moguls battered the cities of China with large engines constructed by the Mahometans or Christians in their service, which threw stones from one hundred and fifty to three hun- dred pounds weight. In the defence of their country, the Chinese used gunpowder, and even bombs, above a hundred years before they were known in Europe ; yet even those celestial or infernal arms were insufficient to protect a pusillanimous nation. See Gaubil, Hist, dea A.D. 452.] BY ATTILA. 27 he observed a stork, preparing to leave her nest in one of the towers, and to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready penetration of a states- man, this trifling incident which chance had offered to superstition, and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats unless these towers had been devoted to impending ruin and solitude.* The favourable omen inspired an assurance of victory ; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigour ; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury ; and the suc- ceeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia.f After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march ; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Con- cordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted without resistance to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency, which pre- served from the flames the public as well as private build- ings, and spared the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin, or Modena may justly be suspected ; yet they concur with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy, which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine.| When he took pos- session of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised and Mongous, p. 70, 71. 155. 157, &c. * The same story is told by Jornandes, and by Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 4, p. 187, 188), nor is it easy to decide which is the original. But the Greek historian is guilty of an inexcusable mistake, in placing the siege of Aquileia after the death of ^Etius. f Jornandes, about a hun- dred years afterwards, affirms, that Aquileia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus vestigia, ut appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Eeb. Geticis, c. 42, p. 673. Paul. Diacon. 1. 2, c. 14, p. 785. Liutprand. Hist. 1. 3, c. 2. The name of Aquileia was sometimes applied to Forum Julii (Cividad del Friuli), the more recent capital of the Vene- tian province. % In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous, but so imperfectly known, I have taken for my guides two learned Italians, who considered the subject with some peculiar advantages ; Sigonius, de Imperio Occidentali, 1. 13, in his works, torn,!, p. 495502, and Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn, iv, p. 229236, 8v* 28 FOUNDATION OF THE [CH. XXXV, offended at the sight of a picture, which represented the Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet. The revenge, which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman vanity, was harmless and ingenious. He commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes ; and the emperors were delineated, on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before the throne of the Scy- thian monarch.* The spectators must have confessed the truth and propriety of the alteration ; and were, perhaps, tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and the man.f 'It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a republic, which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia,J was formerly diffused over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines of Pan- nonia to the river Addua, and from the Po to the Ehsetian and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the barbarians, fifty Venetian cities flourished in peace and prosperity : Aquileia was placed in the most conspicuous station : but edition. * This anecdote may be found under two different articles (jitSio\avov and Kopvicog) of the miscellaneous compilation of Suidas. f Leo respondit, humana hoc pictum manu : Videres hominem dejectum, si pingere Leones scirent. Appendix in Phaedrum. Fab. 25. The lion in Phsedrus very foolishly appeals from pictures to the amphitheatre : and I am glad to observe, that the native taste of La Fontaine (1. 3, fable 10) has omitted this most lame and impotent conclusion. J Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. 1. 2, c. 14, p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about the end of the eighth century. Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc Vene- tias dicimus, constat; sed ejus terminus a Pannonias finibua usque Adduam fluvium protelatur. The history of that province till the age of Charlemagne forms the first and most interesting part of the Verona Illustrata, (p. 1 388,) in which the Marquis Scipio Maffei has shewn himself equally capable of enlarged views and minute disquisitions. [The Veneti of Italy were a Celtic people, inhabiting the districts where the present Po, Adige, and Brenta, flowed through many chan- nels into the Hadriatic. In their own language they were Avainach, fiver or water-landers, a name, to which the Lathis, elsewhere as well A.D. 452.] BEPTTBLIC OF VENICE. 29 the ancient dignity of Padua was supported by agriculture and manufactures ; and the property of five hundred citi- zens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank, must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns, found a safe though obscure refuge in the neighbouring islands.* At the extremity of the gulf, where the Hadriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from the waves by several long slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels through some secret and narrow channels.f Till the middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost with- out a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new situation ; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus,J as here, gave the form of Veneti. ED.] * This emigration is not attested by any contemporary evidence : but the fact is proved by the event, and the circumstances might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of Aquileia retired to the isle of Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus Altus, or Rialto, where the city of Venice was afterwards built, &c. [These islands most probably did not exist at the period here referred to. From data collected by Malte Brun (7. 598), he cal- culates, that the sea has receded at this point more than 233 feet every year since the sixteenth century ; and says that " the deposits brought down by the Brenta, render it not improbable, that Venice may share the fate of Hadria," which is now eight leagues inland, though once washed by the waves of the gulph. In this process of accretion, the outer islands must have been among the more recent alluvial deposits, and cannot have been habitable in the fifth century, even if they had then risen above the waters. No ancient geo- grapher mentions them. Those in which the people of Aquileia took refuge, were holms, formed by the numerous channels into which the rivers divided, as they approached the sea. The Padus (Po) and Medoacus (Brenta) with the streams between them, were thus united in Pliny's time. H. N. 3, 21. ED.] t The topography and antiquities of the Venetian islands, from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately stated in the Dissertatio Chorographica de I tali Medii M\i, p. 151 155. J Cassiodor. Variar. 1. 12, epist. 24. Maffei (Verona lllustrata, part 1, p. 240 254) has translated and explained this curious letter, in the spirit of a learned antiquarian and a faithful subject, who considered Venice as the only legitimate offspring of the Roman republic. He fixes the date of the epistle, and consequently the prefecture, of Cassiodorus, A.D. 523, and the mar- quis's authority has the more weight, as he had prepared an edition ot 80 EAKLT HISTOEY OP VETTICE. [CH. XXXT. which describes their condition about seventy years after- wards, may be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. The minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of the waves ; and, though he allows that the Venetian provinces had formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, that they were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every rank : their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt, which they extracted from the sea ; and the exchange of that commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the neighbouring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or water, soon became alike familiar with the two elements ; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected with each other, pene- trated into the heart of Italy, by the secure, though laborious navigation of the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size and number, visited all the harbours of the gulf ; and the marriage, which Venice annually celebrates with the Hadriatic, was con- tracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the pratorian prefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes ; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate his works, and actually published a dissertation on the true ortho- graphy of his name. See Osservazioni Letterarie, torn, ii, p. 290 339. [M. Guizot has here quoted from Sismondi (Repub. Ital. du Moyen Age, torn, i, p. 203,) an account of Venice given by Count Figliasi (Memorie de' Veneti Primi e Secondi, torn, vi.), but it adds nothing material to what Gibbon has stated. The islands, there said to have constituted the Venetia Seconda, were the river-holms, nor is anything more proved by the letter of Cassiodorus, whose office of praetorian prefect, during which it was written, extended from A.D. 534 to 538. (Clinton, F. R. i, 761.) As the inhabitants of these quiet retreats mul- tiplied, they ascended the banks of the rivers, cultivated the fertile plains, and built towns. Of these Patavium (now Padua) was the capital, which in the time of Strabo (1. 5,) was the emporium of foreign commerce in northern Italy. About the seventh century the navigation of the Brenta was impeded, and the outer sand-banks had become permanent islanis, which offered more accessible landing-places to fishermen, sailors, and merchants. To these the commerce of Padua was trans- ferred and thus Venice arose. But till the beginning of the ninth cen- tury, the chief settlement was on the island o Malomocco. See Hallam, A.D. 452.] DIFFICULTIES OF JETIUB. 31 the zeal of their countrymen for the public service, -which required their assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition, that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian republic, under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attested by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual independence.* The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach of a formidable barbarian, whom they abhorred as the enemy of their religion as well as of their republic. Amidst the general consternation, ^Etius alone was incapa- ble of fear ; but it was impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits worthy of his former renown. The barbarians, who had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy ; and the succours promised by the eastern emperor were distant and doubtful. Since JEtius, at the head of his domestic troops, still main- tained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of Attila, he never shewed himself more truly great, than at the time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful people.f If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius, instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war; and his hasty retreat from Kavenna to Borne, from an impregnable fort- ress to an open capital, betrayed his secret intention of 1. 470. ED.] * See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie, Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, a translation of the famous Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its merits, is stained in every line with the disingenuous malevolence of party : but the principal evidence, genuine and apocryphal, is brought together, and the reader will easily choose the fair medium. t Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 19) has published a curious passage from the Chronicle of Prosper. Attila, redintegratis viribus, quas in Gallia amiserat, Italiam ingredi per Pannonias intendit ; nihil duce nostro ^Etio secundum prioris belli opera prospiciente, &c. He reproaches ^Etius with neglecting to guard the Alps, and with a design to abandon Italy; but this rash censure may at least be counter- balanced by the favourable testimonies of Idatius and Isidore. 82 AYIENUS, TRIGETIUS, AND LEO [CH. XXXV abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his imperial person. This shameful abdication was sus- pended, however, by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious tendency. The "Western emperor, with the senate andi people of Eome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and sup- pliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important com- mission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients, and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the Roman senate. The specious and artful character, of Avienus* was admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public or private interest : his colleague Trigetius had exercised the praetorian prefecture of Italy ; and Leo, bishop of Eome, consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The genius of "Leof was exercised and dis- played in the public misfortunes ; and he has deserved the appellation of great, by the successful zeal with which he laboured to establish his opinions and his authority, under the venerable names of orthodox faith and ecclesiastical dis- cipline. The Eoman ambassadors were introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of the lake Benacus,J and trampled, with the Scythian cavalry, the * See the original portraits of Avienus, and his rival Basilius, deli- neated and contrasted in the epistles (1. 9, p. 22) of Sidonius. He had studied the characters of the two chiefs of the senate ; but he attached himself to Basilius, as the more solid and disinterested friend. t The character and principles of Leo may be traced in one hun- dred and forty-one original epistles, which illustrate the ecclesiastical history of his long and busy pontificate, from A.D. 440 to 461. See Dupin, Bibliotheqae Eccle"siastique, torn, iii, part 2, p. 120 165. [Leo is painted in his true colours by Hallam (2. 228,) and Neander (3, 246. 4, 218). For fifteen years he ruled with unbounded sway the weak mind of Valentinian III., yet never checked in him a vice, implanted a virtue nor stimulated one effort for the redemption of a sinking empire. He used his influence only to establish the supre- macy of his church, and for this he obtained imperial edicts, which are not less justly than severely condemned by the above-named wri- ters. Leo ranks foremost among the destroyers of the Roman empire and the enslavers of Europe. ED.] tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat Mincius, et tenera preetexit arundine ripas A.D. 4.52.J TBEAT WITH ATTILA. S3 farms of Catullus and Virgil.* The barbarian inon&rcH Listened with favourable, and even respectful, attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army might facilitate the treaty and hasten his retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by thaasvealth and indolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the north, whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, indulged themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine, and of meat prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the injuries of the Italians.f When Attila declared his resolution of carry- ing his victorious arms to the gates of Rome, he was admo- nished by his friends as well as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long survived the conquest of the eternal city. His mind, superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors ; nor could he escape the influence of superstition, which had so often been subservient to his designs.^ The Anne lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque Fluctibus et fremitu assurgens Benace marine. * The Marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part 1, p. 95. 129. 221 ; part 2, p. 2. 6,) has illustrated with taste and learning this interesting topography. He places the interview of Attila and St. Leo near Ariolica, or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at the conflux of the lake and river; ascertains the villa of Catullus in the delightful peninsula of Sarmio, and discovers the Andes of Virgil in the village of Bandes, precisely situate qu;l " se subducere colles incipiunt," where the Veronese hills imperceptibly slope down into the plain of Mantua. [" A singular mistake" is here laid to Gibbon's charge by Dean Milman, who says, "the Mincius flows out of the Benaous at Peschiera, not into it." Gibbon's words do not refer to the direction of the current; but Bimply mean, that to a traveller advancing from Mantua, the view of the Mincius is lost in the Benacus ; the expression does not imply that it flows into it, nor is any river lost in a lake, which it merely traverses. The Rhine is not lost in the Lake of Constance, nor the Rhone in that of Geneva. M. Guizot's incorrect translation may perhaps have sug- gested the censure, here misapplied to the original. ED.] + Si Statim infesto agmine urbem petiissent, grande discrimen esset : sed in Venetia quo fere tractu Italia mollissima est, ipsa soli coelique cle- mentia robur elanguit. Ad hoc panis usu carnisque coctee, et dulcedine vini mitigates, &c. This passage of Florus (3, 3) is still more appli- cable to the Huns than to the Cimbri, and it may serve as a com- mentary on the celestial plague, with which Idatius and Isidore have afflicted the troops of Attila. $ The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the effect which this example produced on tJia mind of Attila. Jornandee, c. 42, p. 673. [Sciimidt (i, 176) seems to TOL. IV. 2> 34 MAEEIAGE OF ATTILA WITH ILDICO. [CH. pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect, and sacer- dotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the barbarian with instant death if he rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Eome might deserve the interposition of celestial beings ; and some indulgence is due to a fable, which has been represented by the pencil of Eaphael, and the chisel of Algardi.* Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threat- ened to return more dreadful and more implacable, if his bride, the princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambas- sadors within the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the meanwhile, Attila relieved his tender anxiety by add- ing a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives.f Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at his wooden palace beyond the Danube ; and the monarch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his Pleasures or his repose the greatest part of the ensuing ay, till the unusual silence alarmed their fears and sus- picions; and, after attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at length broke into the royal apartment. They found the trembling bride sitting by the have discerned the real motive of Alaric's retreat, which was that the troops, laden with booty, were satisfied and wished to place in security what they had acquired, without exposing themselves or their gains to farther danger. ED.] * The picture of Raphael is in the Vati- can ; the basso (or perhaps the alto) relievo of Algardi, on one of the altars of St. Peter. (See Dubos, Reflexions sur la Poe"sie et sur la Peinture, torn, i, p. 519, 520.) Baroniua (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 452. No. 57, 58) bravely sustains the truth of the apparition ; which is rejected, how- ever, by the most learned and pious Catholics. + Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suse tempore, puellam Ildico nomine, decoram valde, sibi matrimonium post innumerabiles uxores . . socians. Jornandes, c. 49, p. 683, 684. He afterwards adds, (c. 50, p. 686) : Filii Attilse, quorum per licentiam libidinis pcene populus fuit. Polygamy has been established among the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian wives is regulated only by their personal charms : and the faded matron prepares, without a murmur, the bed which is destined for her blooming rival. But in royal families the daughters of khans communicate to their sons a prior right of inheritance. Sea Genealogical History, p. 406 408. A.D. 453.] HIS DEATH. 35 bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger as well as the death of the king, who had expired during the night.* An artery had suddenly burst ; and as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suifocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the midst of the plain, under a silken pavilion, and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero glorious in his life, invincible in his death, the father of his people, the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the world. According to their national custom, the barbarians cut off a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains of Attila were inclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in the night : the spoils of nations were thrown into his grave ; the captives who had opened the ground were inhumanly massacred: and the same Huns who had indulged such excessive grief, feasted with dissolute and intemperate mirth about the recent sepulchre of their king. It was reported at Constantinople that, on the fortunate night on which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila broken asunder : and the report may be allowed to prove, how seldom the image of that formidable barbarian was absent from the mind of a Roman emperor.f The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sus- tained the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death the boldest chieftains aspired to the rank of kings ; the most powerful kings refused to acknowledge a superior ; and the numerous sons whom so many various mothers bore to the * The report of her guilt reached Constantinople, where it obtained a very different name ; and Marcellinus observes, that the tyrant of Europe was slain in the night by the hand and the knife of a woman. Corneille, who has adapted the genuine account to his tragedy, de- scribes the irruption of blood in forty bombast lines, and Attila exclaims, with ridiculous fury, S'il ne veut s'arreter (his blood), (Dit-il) on me payera ce qu'il m'en va couter. t The curious circumstances of the death and funeral of Attila are D 2 36 DESTRUCTION OF ATTILA*8 EMPIRE. [CH. XXXV. deceased monarch divided and disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of the nations of Ger- many and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and represented the disgrace of this servile partition ; and his subjects, the warlike Grepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to vindi- cate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and decisive conflict on the banks of the river Netad, in Pan- nonia, the lance of the Gepidffi, the sword of the Goths, the arrows of the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and the heavy weapons of the Alani, encoun- tered or supported each other ; and the victory of Ardaric was accompanied with the slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of Netad: his early valour had raised him to the throne of the Acatzires, a Scythian people whom he subdued ; and his father, who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of Ellac.* His brother Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila, with the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by Ardaric, king of the GepidaB.f The Pannonian conquests, from Vienna to Sirmium were occupied by the Ostrogoths ; and the settle- ments of the tribes who had so bravely asserted their native freedom were irregularly distributed, according to the measure of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude of his father's slaves, the king- dom of Dengisich was confined to the circle of his wagons ; his desperate courage urged him to invade the Eastern related by Jornandes (c. 49, p. 683 685), and were probably transcribed from Priscus. * See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50, p. 685 688. His distinction of the national arms is curious and im- portant. Nam ibi admirandum reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi cernere erat cunctis, pugnantem Gothum ense furentem. Gepidam in vulnere suoruin cuncta tela frangentem, Suevum pede, Hunnum sagitta prse- sumere, Alanum gravi, Herulum levi nrmatura aciem instruere. I am not precisely informed of the situation of the river .Netad. + [Who were the Gepidse ? We find them for a about a century per- forming an actual part on the stage of the world, after which they disappear, and this is all that we know of them. Yet this little set the X.D. 454.] DEATH OF DENGISICH. 37 empire; he fell in battle; and his head, ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or superstitiously believed, that Irnac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to perpetuate the glories of his race. The character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness of his brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining condition of the Huns ; and Irnac, with his subject hordes, retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon overwhelmed by a torrent of new barbarians, who followed the same road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The Geougen or Avars, whose residence is assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean, impelled the adjacent tribes ; till at length the Igours of the north, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the most valuable furs, spread themselves over the desert, as far as the Borysthenes and the Caspian gates ; and finally extinguished the empire of the Huns.* Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern empire, under the reign of a prince, who conciliated the friendship, without forfeiting the esteem of the bar- barians. But the emperor of the "West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, who had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of the patrician ^Etius. Prom the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally celebrated as the terror of the barbarians, and the support of the republic ; and his new favourite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of Placidia,f by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of ancients on imagining various origins for them, among which that of Jornandes (p. 39) is the most fabulous. They were evidently some Gothic band which, after a term of separation, merged among the Ostrogoths. ED.] * Two modern historians have thrown much new light on the ruin and division of the empire of Attila. M. de Buat, by his laborious and minute diligence (torn, viii, p. 3 31, 68 94), and M. de Guignes, by his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese language and writers. See Hisi. des Huns, torn, ii, p. 315 319. t Placidia died at Rome, November 27, A.D. 150. She was buried at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, and even her corpse, seated in a chair 38 TALENTIK1AN MtTEDEBS ^ETIUS [CH. XXXT. his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of barbarian followers, his powerful dependents, who filled the civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Graudentius, who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter, had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious designs of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as well as the resentment of Valentinian. JEtius himself, supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet behaviour. The patrician offended his sovereign by a hostile declara- tion ; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him to ratify with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and alliance ; he proclaimed his suspicions ; he neglected his safety ; and from a vain confidence that the enemy whom he despised, was incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in the palace of Eome. "Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate vehemence, the marriage of his son, Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the breast of a general who had saved his empire ; his courtiers and eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master ; and ^Etius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence. Boethius, the praetorian prefect, was killed at the same moment; and before the event could be divulged, the principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace, and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the specious, names of justice and necessity, was immediately com- municated by the emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and bis allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to jEtius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero ; the barbarians who had been attached to his service, dis- sembled their grief and resentment ; and the public con- tempt which had been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at once converted into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom pervade the walls of a palace ; yet the emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a Homan, whose approbation he had not disdained to solicit. " I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations ; I only of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The empress received many compliments from the orthodox clergy ; and St. Peter Chrysologus assured her, that her zeal for the Trinity had been recompensed by an A.D. 454.] AND BAVISHES THE WIFE OF MAXIMUS. 39 know, that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his left."* The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and frequent visits of Valentinian ; who was consequently more despised at Home, than in any other part of his dominions. A republican spirit was insensibly revived in the senate, as their authority, and even their supplies, became necessary for the support of his feeble government. The stately demeanour of an hereditary monarch offended their pride ; and the pleasures of Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honour of noble families. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own, and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of love, which her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a chaste and beautiful wife : her obstinate re- sistance served only to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to accomplish them either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the court; the emperor, who by chance or contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the debt ; and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order in her husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her litter to the imperial palace ; the emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her to a remote and silent bedchamber; and Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospi- august trinity of children. See Tillemont. Hist, des Emp. torn, vi, p. 240. * Aetium Placidus mactavit senrivir amens, is the expression of Sidonius. (Panegyr. Avit. 359.) The poet knew the world, and was not inclined to flatter a minister who had injured or disgraced Avitus and Majorian, the successive heroes of his song. [Niebuhr (Lectures, 3, 324) refers to Merobaudes, the Latin poet of that age, of whose compositions he was so fortunate as to discover an imperfect manuscript at St. Gall. He was an enthusiastic admirer of .^Etius, as his model, Claudian, was of Stilicho, and sang his praises in eome animated verse. The education of his hero, as a youthful hostage in the camp of Alaric, points out the school in which his future greatness was prepared. ^Etius was trained far from the fatal influ- ences that deadened the energies of Rome. Learning, of course, was not to be acquired among such teachers ; but there were formed his fearless nature and a miud full of resources. These availed him on 40 DEATH OP YALENTINIA^ III. [CH. XXXV. talitj. Her tears when she returned home ; her deep affliction ; and her bitter reproaches against her husband, whom she considered as the accomplice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge ; the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition ; and lie might reasonably aspire by the free suffrage of the Roman senate, to the throne of a detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who sup- posed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had imprudently admitted among his guards several domestics and followers of JEtius. Two of these, of barbarian race, were persuaded to execute a sacred and honourable duty, by punishing with death the assassin of their patron ; and their intrepid courage did not long expect a favourable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused himself in the field of Mars, with the spectacle of some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon him with drawn weapons, dispatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor to the heart, without the least opposi- tion from his numerous train, who seemed to rejoice in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate of Valentinian III.* the last Eoman emperor of the family of Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the innocence, which alleviate in their characters, the want of spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable, since he had passions without virtues ; even his religion was questionable; and though he never deviated into the paths of heresy, he scandalized the pious Christians by his attachment to the profane arts of magic and divination. As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Eoman augurs, that the twelve vultures, which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city.f This prophecy, every emergency, and led him. to the eminence he afterwards attained. ED.] * With regard to the cause and circumstances of the deaths of JEtius and Valentinian, our information is dark and imperfect. Procopius (de Bell. Vandal, lib. 1, c. 4, p. 186 188) is a fabulous writer for the events which precede his own memory. His narrative must therefore be supplied and corrected by five or six Chronicles, none of which were composed in Rome or Italy ; and which can only express in broken sentences, the popular rumours, aa they were conveyed to Gaul, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, or Alex- andria, t This interpretation of Vettius, a celebrated A.D. 454.] SYMPTOMS OF DECAY AND EUIK. 41 disregarded, perhaps, in the season of health and prosperity inspired the people with gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed;* and even posterity must acknowledge, with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance, has been seriously verified in the downfal of the Western empire. But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures; the Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.t The taxes were multiplied with the public distress ; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary ; and the injustice of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people, whom they defrauded of the indul- gences, that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition, which confiscated their goods and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Yalentinian augur, was quoted by Varro, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities. Censorinus, de Die Natali, c. 17, p. 90, 91, edit. Havercamp. [The scepticism of Niebuhr made both Romulus and Numa beings of fable. Of course, the vulture-augury is classed with these ; and the era of the city's foundation, the celebrated A.U.C., however convenient afterwards as a measure of time, becomes, as to its commencement, altogether apocryphal. To have questioned its correctness would have introduced immeasurable confusion into the computation of time in the days of Varro and Cicero, and however the latter might in private smile at the auguries in which he bore a part, still to have doubted those of antir quity would have rudely shocked the popular superstition. The inter- pretation given to that of the vultures would not be unfavourably received, when it promised the empire a farther term of five hundred years, and when the end of the term approached, the unmistakeable symptoms of decay might well recal the omen with despondent fore- bodings. ED.] * According to Varro, the twelfth century would expire A.D. 447 ; but the uncertainty of the true era of Rome might allow some latitude of anticipation or delay. The poets of the age, Claudian (de Bell. Getico, 265) and Sidonius (in Panegyr. Avit. 357) may be admitted as fair witnesses of the popular opinion. Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volatu Vulturis, incidunt properatis saecula metis, Jam prope fata tui bissenas vulturis alas Implebant ; scis namque tuos, scis Roma, labores. See Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 340 346. t The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic lamentations, and vehement invectives. His immoderate freedom serves to prove the weak- less as well as the corruption of the Roman government His book 42 BAPACITY OP THE YANDALS. [CH. XXXVI to prefer the more simple tyranny of the barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Eoman citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudse; and the imperial ministers pursued, with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made.* If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West : and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.t CHAPTER XXXVI. SACK OP ROME BY OENSERIC, KINO OF THE VANDALS. HIS NAVAL DEPREDATIONS. SUCCESSION OP THE LAST EMPERORS OP THE WEST, MAXIMUS, AVITUS, MAJORIAN, SEVERUS, ANTHEMIUS, OLTBRIUS, GLTCERIUS, NEPOS, AUGUSTULUS. TOTAL EX- TINCTION OP THE WESTERN EMPIRE. REIGN OP ODOACfcR, THE FIRST BARBARIAN KING OP ITALY. THE loss or desolation of the provinces, from the ocean to the Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of Eome ; her internal prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the sepa- ration of Africa. The rapacious Vandals confiscated the patrimonial estates of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies, which relieved the poverty, and encouraged was published after the loss of Africa (A.D. 439) and before Attila'a war (A.D. 451). * The Bagaudse of Spain, who fought pitched battles with the Roman troops, are repeatedly mentioned in the Chronicle of Idatius. Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in very forcible language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum . . . nunc ultro repudiatur ac fugitur, nee vile tamen sed etiam abomi- nabile poene habetur . . . . Et hinc est ut etiam hi qui ad barbaros non confugiunt, barbari tamen esse coguntur, scilicet ut est pars magna Hispanorum, et non minima Gallorum .... De Bagaudis nunc rnihi eermo est, qui per malos judices et cruentos spoliati, afflicti, necati, postquam jus Romanse libertatis amiserant, etiam honorem Roman! nominis perdiderunt .... Vocamus rebelles, vocamus perditos, quos esse compulimus criminosos. De Gubernat. Dei, lib. 5, p. 158, 159. t [Gibbon has here uttered forcibly a truth, which other historians confirm. See Schmidt (i, 188) and Niebuhr's Lectures (3, 343). 1..D. 430-455.] THEIE NAVAL POWEB. 43 the idleness of the plebeians. The distress of the Komans was soon aggravated by an unexpected attack ; and the province, so long cultivated for their use by industrious and obedient subjects, was armed against them by an ambitious barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who followed the suc- cessful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and fertile territory, which stretched along the coast above ninety days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli ; but their narrow limits were pressed and confined, on either side, by the sandy desert and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the black nations, that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Genseric : but he cast his eyes towards the sea ; he resolved to create a naval power, and his bold resolution was executed with steady and active perseverance. The woods of mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of timber ; his new sub- jects were skilled in the arts of navigation and ship-building; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a mode of warfare which would render every maritime country acces- sible to their arms ; the Moors and Africans were allured by the hopes of plunder ; and, after an interval of six cen- turies, the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were formed ; and armaments, expen- sive and ineffectual, were prepared for the destruction of the common enemy ; who reserved his courage to encounter those dangers which his policy could not prevent or elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and appa- rent concessions ; and the interposition of his formidable confederate, the king of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of Africa to the care of their domestic safety. The revolutions of the palace, which left the "Western empire without a defender, and without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and stimulated the avarice of Genseric. He immediately equipped a numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber, about three months after the death of Valentinian, and the elevation of Maximua to the imperial throne. 44 CHARACTEB AND EETGN [CH. IXXTI, The private life of the senator Petronius Maximus* wag often alleged as a rare example of human felicity. Hia birth was noble and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician family ; his dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in land and money ; and these advantages of' fortune were accompanied with liberal arts and decent man- ners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace and table was hospi- table and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public, he was surrounded by a train of grateful and obsequious clients : f and it is possible that, among these clients, he might deserve and possess some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the favour of the prince and senate : he thrice exercised the office of pratorian prefect of Italy ; he was twice invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank of patrician. These civil honours were not incom- patible with the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity ; his hours, according to the demands of pleasure or reason, were accurately distributed by a water-clock ; and this avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus entertained of his own happiness. The injury which he received from the emperor Valentinian, appears to excuse the most bloody revenge. Tet a philosopher might have reflected, that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have hesitated, before he plunged himself and his country into those inevitable calamities, which must follow the extinction of the royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considera- tions ; he gratified his resentment and ambition ; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and heard himself saluted emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively * Sidonius Apollirtaris composed the thirteenth epistle of the second book, to refute the paradox of his friend Serranus, who entertained a singular, though generows, enthusiasm for the deceased emperor. Thia epistle, with some indulgence, may claim the praise of an elegant com- position ; and it throws much light on the character of Maximus. f Clientum, prsevia, pedisequa, circumfusa, populositas, is the train which Sidonius himself (1. 1, epist. 9) assigns to another senator of consular rank. A.D. 455.] or MAXIMUS. 45 expression of Sidonius) in the palace ; and, after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation. Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he com- municated his anxious thoughts to his friend and qua?stor Fulgentius ; and when he looked back with unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, the emperor exclaimed, " fortunate Damocles,* thy reign began and ended with the same dinner ! " a well-known allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards repeated as an instructive lesson for princes and subjects. The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His hours, of which he had lost the command, were dis- turbed by remorse, or guilt, or terror ; and his throne was shaken by the seditions of the soldiers, the people, and the confederate barbarians. The marriage of his son Palladius with the eldest daughter of the late emperor, might tend to establish the hereditary succession of his family ; but the violence which he offered to the empress Eudoxia, could proceed only from the blind impulse of lust or revenge. His own wife, the cause of these tragic events, had been seasonably removed by death ; and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to submit to the embraces of a presumptuous usurper, whom she suspected as the assassin of her deceased husband. These suspicions were soon justified by the indis- creet confession of Maximus himself; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his reluctant bride, who was still con- scious that she wa? descended from a line of emperors. Prom the East, however, Eudoxia could not hope to obtain any effectual assistance ; her father and her aunt Pulcheria were dead ; her mother languished at Jerusalem in disgrace and exile ; and the sceptre of Constantinople was in the hands of a stranger. She directed her eyes towards Carthage ; secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals ; and * Districtus ensis cui super impia Cervice pendet, non Siculse dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem ; Non avium citharseque cantus Somnum reducent. Horat. Carm. 3. 1. Sidonius concludes his letter with the story of Damocles, which Cicero (Tusculan. v. 20, 21) had so inimitably told. 46 DEATH OF MAXIMUS. [CH. XXXVI. persuaded Genseric to improve the fair opportunity of dis- guising his rapacious designs by the specious names of honour, justice, and compassion.* Whatever abilities Max- imus might have shewn in a subordinate station, he was found incapable of administering an empire ; and though he might easily have been informed of the naval preparations which were made on the opposite shores of Africa, he ex- pected with supine indhTerence the approach of the enemy, without adopting any measures of defence, of negotiation, or of a timely retreat. When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of the Tiber, the emperor was suddenly roused from his lethargy by the clamours of a trembling and exas- perated multitude. The only hope which presented itself to his astonished mind was that of a precipitate flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the example of their prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the streets, than he was assaulted by a shower of stones ; a Roman, or a Burgundian soldier, claimed the honour of the first wound ; his mangled body was ignominiously cast into the Tiber ; the Roman people rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the author of the public calamities ; and the domestics of Eudoxia signalized their zeal in the service of their mistress.f On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless city. Instead of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued from the gates an unarmed and venerable procession of the bishop at the head of his clergy.J The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and eloquence, again mitigated the fierce- * Notwithstanding the evidence of Procopius, Evagrius, Idatius, Marcellinus, &c. the learned Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn, iv, p. 249) doubts the reality of this invitation, and observes, with great truth " Non si pud dir quanto sia facile il popolo a sognare e spacciar voci false." But his argument, from the interval of time and place, ia extremely feeble. The figs which grew near Carthage were produced to the senate of Rome on the third day. t - - - Infidoque tibi Burgundio ductu Extorquet trepidas mactandi principis iras. Sidon in Panegyr. Avit. 442. A. remarkable line, which insinuates that Eome and Maximus were betrayed by their Burgundian mercenaries. J The apparent success of pope Leo may be justified by Prosper, and the Historia Miscellan. ; but the improbable notion of Baronius (A.D. 455, no. 13) that Genseric spared the three apostolical churches, is not countenanced even by the doubtful testimony of the Liber Pontificalis. A.D. 455.] SACK OF HOME BY T&.E YAITDALS. 47 ness of a barbarian conqueror ; the king of the Vandals pro- mised to spare the unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, and to exempt the captives from tor- ture ; and although such orders were neither seriously given, nor strictly obeyed, the mediation of Leo was glorious to himself, and in some degree beneficial to his country. But Home and its inhabitants were delivered to the licentious- ness of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted four- teen days and nights ; and all that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was dili- gently transported to the vessels of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two temples, or rather of two religions, exhibited a memorable example of the vicissitudes of human and divine things. Since the abolition of Paga- nism, the capitol had been violated and abandoned ; yet the statues of the gods and heroes were still respected, and the curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for the rapacious hands of Genseric.* The holy instruments of the Jewish worship,f the gold table, and the gold candlestick with seven branches, originally framed according to the particular instructions of God himself, and which were placed in the sanctuary of his temple, had been ostentatiously displayed to the Eoman people in the triumph of Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the temple of Peace : and, at the end of four hundred years, the spoils of Jerusalem were trans- ferred from Home to Carthage, by a barbarian who derived his origin from the shores of the Baltic. These ancient monuments might attract the notice of curiosity, as well as * The profusion of Catulus, the first who gilt the roof of the Capitol, was not universally approved (Plin. Hist. Natnr. 33. 18); but it was far exceeded by the emperor's ; and the external gilding of the temple cost Domitian twelve thousand talents (2,400,000.) The expressions of Claudian and Rutilius (luce metalli cemula . . . fastigia, astris, and confunduntque vagos delubra micantia visus) manifestly prove that this splendid covering was not removed either by the Christians or the Goths. (See Donatus, Roma Antiqua, 1. 2, c. 6, p. 125). It should seem that the roof of the Capitol was decorated with gilt statues, and chariots drawn by four horses. [The " Capito- lium fulgens," which Horace (Carm. 3. 3) makes Juno utter, at the apotheosis of Romulus, must be regarded as prophetic of the splen- dour which Catulus and Augustus created seven centuries afterwards. ED.] f The curious reader may consult the learned and accurate treatise of Hadrian Reland, de Spoliis Templi Hierosolymitani in Arcft Titiano Romse conspicuis, in 12mo. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1716. 48 TREATMENT OF EUDOXfA. r JCH. XXXVI* of avarice. But the Christian churches, enriched and adorned by the prevailing superstition of the times, afforded more plentiful materials for sacrilege : and the pious liberality of pope Leo, who melted six silver vases, the gift of Constantine, each of a hundred pounds weight, is evidence of the damage which he attempted to repair. In the forty-five years that had elapsed since the Gothic inva- sion, the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some measure restored ; and it was difficult either to escape or to satisfy the avarice of a conqueror, who possessed leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The impe- rial ornaments of the palace, the magnificent furniture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy plate, were accumulated with disorderly rapine ; the gold and silver amounted to several thousand talents ; yet even the brass and copper were laboriously removed. Eudoxia herself, who advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon bewailed the impru- dence of her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her jewels ; and the unfortunate empress, with her two daugh- ters, the only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was compelled, as a captive, to follow the haughty Vandal ; who immediately hoisted sail, and returned with a prosperous navigation to the port of Carthage.* Many thousand Romans of both sexes, chosen for some useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly embarked on board the fleet of Grenseric ; and their distress was aggravated by the unfeel- ing barbarians, who, in the division of the booty, separated the wives from their husbands, and the children from their parents. The charity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage,t * The vessel which transported the relics of the Capitol, was the only one of the whole fleet that suffered shipwreck. If a bigoted sophist, a Pagan bigot, had mentioned the accident, he might have rejoiced that this cargo of sacrilege was lost in the sea. t See Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 8, p. 11, 12, edit. Euinart. Deogratias governed the church of Carthage only three years. If he had not been privately buried, his corpse would have been torn piecemeal by the mad devotion of the people. [" Deo Gratias," was a common salutation among the early Christians. It rarely occurs as a name, yet the benevolent bishop of Carthage, who bore it, made it honourable. For the space of fifteen years, no eccle- siastic would venture among the dreaded Vandals, and the sea remained vacant. Deogratias at last undertook its dangers and its duties. He is not exalted, as he ought to be, by the contrast wliicb. Gibbon has drawn between him and Hannibal. His services v/era rendered without regard to difference of creed, for he was an Aiiao, A.D. 455.1 CHABITY OF DEOGEATIA8, 49 was their only consolation and support. He generously sold the gold and silver plate of the church to purchase the freedom of some, to alleviate the slavery of others, and to assist the wants and infirmities of a captive multitude, whose health was impaired by the hardships which they had suffered in their passage from Italy to Africa. By his order two spacious churches were converted into hospitals : the sick were distributed in convenient beds, and liberally sup- plied with food and medicines; and the aged prelate repeated his visits, both in the day and night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength, and a tender sympathy which en- hanced the value of his services. Compare this scene with the field of Cannae ; and judge between Hannibal and the successor of St. Cyprian.* The deaths of JEtius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties which held the barbarians of Gaul in peace and subordi- nation. The sea-coast was infested by the Saxons ; the Allemanni and the Franks advanced from the Rhine to the Seine ; and the ambition of the Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent conquests. The emperor Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious choice, from the weight of these distant cares ; he silenced the solicitations and the victims of Genseric's irruption were Nicenists. Orthodox writers, therefore, coldly acknowledged the assistance which he so generously bestowed, and his own sect upbraided his tender mercies, for unbelievers. Gibbon might have raised him much higher by con- trasting his principle of action with that of Leo the great, on a very similar occasion. Among the Africans who sought an asylum at Roma when Carthage was attacked by the Vandals, there was a large propor- tion of Manichseans and Pelagians. Instead of commiserating the unfortunate outcasts, Leo ordered that their creeds should be strictly inquired into, directed his clergy and true believers to repel all heretics, and obtained an imperial decree, by which they were either banished, imprisoned, or otherwise treated with the most rigorous severity. (Zedler's Lexicon, 17, p. 155. Neander, Hist, of Chris. 4. 489, 490.) The name of Deogratias, which deserves to be placed far above that of Leo, can seldom be found on the page of an ancient writer, and has scarcely a place in modern ecclesiastical histories or in biographies of eminent men. The mere attempt to make it remem- bered, is a gratifying effort. ED.] * The general evidence for the death of Maximus, and the sack of Rome by the Vandals, ia comprised in Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 441 450), Procopius (de BelL Vandal. 1. 1, c. 4, 5, p. 183, 189, and 1. 2, c. 9, p. 255), Evagrius (1. 2, c. 7), Jornandes (De Reb. Geticis, c. 45, p. 677), and the Chronicles of Idatiu<> Prosper, Marcellinus, and Theophanes, under the proper year. VOL. IV. 50 AVITUS [CH. XXXVI. of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and promoted a stranger to the general command of the forces in Gaul. Avitus,* the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded, descended from a wealthy and honourable family in the diocese of Auvergne. The convulsions of the times urged him to embrace, with the same ardour, the civil and military professions ; and the indefatigable youth blended the studies of literature and jurisprudence with the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty years of his life were laudably spent in the public service ; he alternately displayed his talents in war and negotiation; and the soldier of ^Etius, after executing the most important embassies, was raised to the station of praetorian prefect of Gaul. Either the merit of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate, which he pos- sessed in the neighbourhood of Clermont. A copious stream, issuing from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a lake about two miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake. The baths, the porticoes, the summer and winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and use ; and the adjacent country aiforded the various prospects of woods, pastures, and mea- dows.f In this retreat, where Avitus amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of husbandry, and the society of his friends,! he received the imperial diploma, which constituted him master-general of the cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the military command ; the * The private live and elevation of Avitus must be deduced, with becoming suspicion, from the panegyric pronounced by Sidonius Apollinaris, his subject, and his son-in-law. t After the example of the younger Pliny, Sidonius (lib. 2, c. 2) has laboured the florid, prolix, and obscure description of his villa, which bore the name (Amtacum), and had been the property of Avitus. The precise situation is not ascertained. Consult however the notes of Savaron and Sirmond. Sidonius (lib. 2, epist. 9) has described the country life of the Gallic nobles, in a visit which he made to his friends, whose estates were in the neighbourhood of Nismes. The morning-hours were spent in the sphceristerium, or tennis- court ; or in the library, which was furnished with Latin authors, pro- fane and religious ; the former for the men, the latter for the ladies. The table was twice served, at dinner and supper, with hot meat (boiled and roast) and wine. During the intermediate time, the com- pany slept, took the air on horseback, and used the warm bath. A.D. 455. J ACCEPTS THE DIADEM. 51 barbarians suspended their fury ; and whatever means he might employ, whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the people enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate of Gaul depended on the Visigoths ; and the Roman general, less attentive to his dignity than to the public interest, did not disdain to visit Thoulouse in the character of an ambassador. He was received with cour- teous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of the Goths ; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was slain, and that Rome had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne, which he might ascend without guilt or danger, tempted his ambi- tion ;* and the Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by their irresistible suffrage. They loved the person of Avitus : they respected his virtues ; and they were not insensible of the advantage, as well as honour, of giving an emperor to the West. The season was now approaching, in which the annual assembly of the seven provinces was held at Aries : their deliberations might per- haps be influenced by the presence, of Theodoric and his martial brothers ; but their choice would naturally incline to the most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent resistance, accepted the imperial diadem from the representatives of Gaul ; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the barbarians and provincials. The formal consent of Marcian, emperor of the East, was solicited and obtained : but the senate, Rome, and Italy, though humbled by their recent calamities, submitted with a secret murmur to the presumption of the Gallic usurper. Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his elder brother Torismond ; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with the empire.t Such a crime might not * Seventy lines of panegyric (505 575) which describe the impor- tunity of Theodoric and of Gaul, struggling to overcome the modest reluctance of Avitus, are blown away by three words of an honesft historian, Romanum ambisset imperium. Greg. Turon. lib. 2, c. 11, in torn. ii. p. 168. + Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who was himself of the blood-royal of the Goths, acknowledges, and almost justifies (Hist. Goth. p. 718) the crime which their slave Jor- nancies had basely dissembled (c. 43, p. 673). 2 B2 CHABACTEE OF THEODOEIC II. [CH. XXXVI. be incompatible with the virtues of a barbarian ; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle and humane ; and pos* terity may contemplate without terror the original picture of a Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately observed ill the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator satisfies the curiosity of one of his friends in the following description:* "By the majesty of his appearance, Theo- doric would command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit ; and although he is born a prince, his merit would dignify a private station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears rather plump than fat, and in his well* froportioned limbs agility is united with muscular strength.f f you examine his countenance, you will distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy eye-brows, an aquiline nose, thin lips, a regular set of white teeth, and a fair complexion, that blushes more frequently from modesty than from anger. The ordinary distribution of his time, as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be concisely represented. Before day-break he repairs, with a small train, to his domestic chapel, where the service is performed by the Arian clergy; but those who presume to interpret his secret sentiments consider this assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and policy. The rest of the morning is employed in the administration of his kingdom. His chair is surrounded by some military officers of decent aspect and behaviour: the noisy crowd of his barbarian guards occupies the hall of audience ; but they are not permitted to stand within the veils, or curtains, that conceal the council-chamber from vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of the nations are successively introduced : Theodoric listens with attention, answers them with discreet brevity, and either announces or delays, according to the nature of their business, his final resolution. About eight (the second * This elaborate description (lib. 1, ep. 2, p. 2 7) was dictated by some political motive. It was designed for the public eye, and had been shown by the friends of Sidonius, before it was inserted in the collection of his epistles. The first book was published separately. See Tillemont, Mdmoires Boole's, torn, xvi, p 264. f I have suppressed in this portrait of Theodoric, several minute cir- cumstances and technical phrases, which could be tolerable, or indeed intelligible, to those only, who, like the contemporaries of Sidonius, bad frequented the markets where naked slaves were exposed to Bale. A..D. 453-466.] KKTG OF THE VISIGOTHS. 53 hour) he rises from his throne, and visits either his treasury or his stables. If he chooses to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on horseback, his bow is carried by a favourite youth ; but when the game is marked, he bends it with his own hand, and seldom misses the object of his aim : as a king, he disdains to bear arms in such ignoble warfare ; but, as a soldier, he would blush to accept any military service which he could perform himself. On common days, his dinner is not diiferent from the repast of a private citizen ; but every Saturday many honourable guests are invited to the royal table, which, on these occasions, is served with the elegance of Greece, the plenty of Gaul, and the order and diligence of Italy.* The gold or silver plate is less remarkable for its weight than for the bright- ness and curious workmanship ; the taste is gratified with- out the help of foreign and costly luxury ; the size and number of the cups of wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance ; and the respectful silence that prevails is interrupted only by grave and instructive conversation. After dinner Theodoric sometimes indulges himself in a short slumber ; and as soon as he wakes he calls for the dice and tables, encourages his friends to forget the royal majesty, and is delighted when they freely express the passions which are excited by the incidents of play. At this game, which he loves as the image of war, he alter- nately displays his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper. If he loses, he laughs ; he is modest and silent if he wins. Tet, notwithstanding this seeming indifference, his courtiers choose to solicit any favour in the moments of victory ; and I myself, in my applications to the king, have derived some benefit from my losses.f About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of business again returns, and flows incessantly till after sunset, when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of suppliants and pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast, buffoons and pantomimes are sometimes introduced Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 404. * Videas ibi elegantiam Graecam, abundantiam Gallicanam, celeritfttem Italam; publicam pompam, privatam diligentiam, regiam disciplinam. f Tune etiam ego aliquid obsecraturus feliciter vincor, et mihi tabula perit ut causa salvetur. Sidonius of Auvergne was not a sub- ject of Theodoric; but he might be compelled to solicit either justice 64 EXPEDITION OF THEDOBIC [CH. XXXVL to divert, not to offend, the company, by their ridiculous wit: but female singers, and the soft effeminate modes of music, are severely banished, and such martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of valour are alone grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires from table; and the nocturnal guards are immediately posted at the entrance of the treasury, the palace, and the private apartments." "When the king of the Visigoths encouraged Avitus to assume the purple, he offered his person and his forces as a faithful soldier of the republic.* The exploits of Theo- doric soon convinced the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike virtues of his ancestors. After the esta- blishment of the Goths in Aquitain, and the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi, who had fixed their kingdom in Grallicia, aspired to the conquest of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble remains of the Roman dominion. The provincials of Carthagena and Tarragona, afflicted by a hostile invasion, represented their injuries and their apprehensions. Count Pronto was dispatched, in the name of the emperor Avitus, with advantageous offers of peace and alliance ; and Theodoric interposed his weighty media- tion, to declare that, unless his brother-in-law, the king of the Suevi, immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of justice and of Rome. " Tell him," replied the haughty Reehiarius, " that I despise his friend- ship and his arms : but that I shall soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the walls of Thoulouse." Such a challenge urged Theodoric to prevent the bold designs of his enemy : he passed the Pyrenees at the head of the Visigoths; the Franks and Burgundians served under his standard; and though he professed himself the dutiful servant of Avitus, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors, the absolute possession of his Spanish conquests. The two armies, or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of the river Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga ; and the decisive victory of the Groths appeared for a while to have extirpated the or favour at the court of Thoulouse. * Theodoric himsell Lad given a solemn and voluntary promise of fidelity, which waa understood both in Gaul and Spain. Eomse sum, te duce, Amicus, l*rincipe te, MILES. Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 511, A.D. 456.] INTO SPAIN. 55 name and kingdom of the Suevi. Prom the field of battle Iheodoric advanced to Braga, their metropolis, which still retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and dignity.* His entrance was not polluted with blood, and the Goths respected the chastity of their female captives, more especially of the consecrated virgins ; but the greatest part of the clergy and people were made slaves, and even the churches and altars were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate king of the Suevi had escaped to one of the ports of the ocean ; but the obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight ; he was delivered to his implacable rival ; and Hechiarius, who neither desired nor expected mercy, received with manly constancy the death which he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody sacrifice to policy or resentment, Theodoric carried his victorious arms as far as Merida, the principal town of Lusitania, without meeting any resistance, except from the miraculous powers of St. Eulalia; but he was stopped in the full career of success, and recalled from Spain, before he could provide for the security of his conquests. In his retreat towards the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the country through which he passed ; and in the sack of Pallantia and Astorga he showed himself a faithless ally as well as a cruel enemy. "Whilst the king of the Visigoths fought and vanquished in the name of Avitus, the reign of Avitus had expired, and both the honour and the interest of Theodoric were deeply wounded by the disgrace of a friend whom he had seated on the throne of the western empire.f The pressing solicitations of the senate and people, per- * Quaeque sinu pelagi jactat se Bracara dives. Auson. de Claris Urbibus, p. 245. From the design of the king of the Suevi, it is evi- dent that the navigation from the ports of Gallicia to the Mediterra- nean was known and practised. The ships of Bracara, or Braga. cautiously steered along the coast, without daring to lose themselves in the Atlantic. [The Urbicus is the Orbega of the present day, which rises in the mountains of the Asturias, takes a southward course and is joined by the Esla, when the united streams, flowing by Leon, fall into the Douro at Zamora. Braga now one of the principal cities of Portugal, had the Roman name of Bracara Augusta. The place where Rechiarius embarked was probably Calle, at the mouth of the Douro, now the well-known harbour of Oporto. ED.] f* This Suevic war is the most authentic part of the Chronicle of Idatius, who, as bishop of Iria Flavia, was himself a spectator and a sufferer- Jornandes (c. 44, p. 675 677) has expatiated with pleasure 56 AVITTTS [CH XXXTL euaded tta emperor Avitus to fix his residence at Home, and to accept the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of January, his son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his praises in a panegyric of six hundred verses ; but this composition, though it was rewarded with a brass statue,* seems to contain a very moderate proportion either of genius or of truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit of a sovereign and a father ; and his prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when the imperial 'dignity was reduced to a pre-eminence of toil and danger, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian luxury ; age had not extinguished his amorous inclinations ; and he is accused of insulting, with indiscreet and ungene- rous raillery, the husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated.f But the Romans were not inclined either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the empire became every day more alienated from each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their legitimate claim in the election of an emperor ; and their authority, which had been originally derived from the old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed senate, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps inflamed, by Count Kicimef, one of the principal commanders of the barbarian troops, who formed the military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the mother of Eicimer ; but he was descended, on the father's side, from the nation of the Suevi ; J his pride or patriotism might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; on the Gothic victory. [Idatius was three months a captive in the hands of the Suevi, under Frumarius. Pallantia, called by him Palan- tina civitas, bears now the name of Polencia, to the north of Valladolid. The village of Padron, south of Santiago de Compostella, was the ancient Iria Flavia. ED.] * In one of the porticoes or galleries belonging to Trajan's library, among the statues of famous writers and orators. Sidon. Apoll. lib. 9, epist. 16, p. 284. Carm. 8, p. 350. + Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est, is the concise ex- pression of Gregory of Tours (1. 2, c. 11, in torn, ii, p. 168). An old .Chro- nicle in torn, ii, p. 649) mentions an indecent jest of Avitus, which seema more applicable to Home than to Treves. I Sidonius (Panegyr. A.nthem. 302, &c.) praises the royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, AS he chooses to insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms. A.D. 456.] IS DEPOSED. 57 and he obeyed with reluctance an emperor in whose eleva- tion he had not been consulted. His faithful and important services against the common enemy rendered him still more formidable ;* and after destroying, on the coast of Corsica, a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the appellation of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus that his reign was at an end ; and the feeble emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing struggle, to abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt of Bicimer,t he was permitted to descend from the throne to the more desirable station of bishop of Placentia; but the resentment of the senate was still unsatisfied ; and their inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death. He fled towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not of arming the Visi- goths in his cause, but of securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne.J Disease, or the hand of the executioner, ar- rested him on the road ; yet his remains were decently trans- ported to Brivas or Brioude, in his native province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the patrimony of his father-in-law ; lamenting, at the same time, the disappointment of his public and private expec- tations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least to countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul ; and the poet had contracted some guilt, which it * See the Chronicle ef Idatius. Jornandes (c. 44, p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et poene tune in Italia ad exer- citum singularem. -J- Parcens innocentise Aviti, is the compassionate but contemptuous language of Victor Tunnunensis (in Chron. apud Scaliger. Euseb.). In another place he calls him vir totius simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius. He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution of Diocletian. (Tillemont, Me"m. Boole's, torn, v, p. 279, 696.) Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory of Julian the Martyr an entire book (de Gloria Martyrum, lib. 2, in Max. Biblioth. Patrum, torn, xi, p. 861 871), in which he relates about fifty foolish miracles performed by his relics. Gregory of Tours (lib. 2. c. 11, p. 168) is concise, but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The words of Idatius, " caret imperio, caret et vita," seem to imply, that the death of Avitus was violent ; but it must have been secret, Evagrius (lib. 2, c. 7) could suppose that he died of the plague. 58 CHABACTEE AND ELEVATIOIT [CH. XXXVI. was incumbent on him to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding emperor.* The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honour of the human species. The emperor Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries, and of posterity ; and these praises may be strongly expressed in the words of a judicious and dis- interested historian : " That he was gentle to his subjects ; that he was terrible to his enemies ; and that he excelled in every virtue all his predecessors who had reigned over the Romans. "f Such a testimony may justify at least the panegyric of Sidonius ; and we may acquiesce in the assur- ance, that, although the obsequious orator would have flat- tered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion, within the bounds of truth. J Majorian derived his name from his maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great Theodosius, had commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a respectable oificer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and integrity; and gene- rously preferred the friendship of ^Etius to the tempting offers of an insidious court. His son, the future emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms, displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and * After a modest appeal to the examples of his brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the debt, and promises payment. Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte cadenti Jussisti placido victor ut essem animo. Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poetae, Atque inecc vitae laus tua sit pretium. Sidon. Apoll. carm. 4, p. 308. See Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 448, &c. t The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed ; ovrog yap 6 Mdtoplvof ZvfiiravTac roi't; Traivrort 'Pti)fiaiujv i3ff3aai\tvKOTag VTTipai- (>ti>v dperTJ irday ; and afterwards, dw/p TO, p'tv tig TOV VTTT^KOOVQ fikrpio^ ytyovo>e> 0o6tpoe fit rd i$ roi'c iroXtfiLovQ : (de Bell. Vandal, lib. 1, c. 7, p. 194) a concise but comprehensive definition of royal virtue. The panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the end of the year 458, while the emperor was still consul. It has more art than genius, and more labour than art. The ornaments are false or trivial, the expression is feeble and prolix ; and Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a strong and distinct light. The private life of Majorian occunies about twn hundred lines, 107 305. A.D. 457.] OF JIAJOEIAJf. 69 unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed tbe standard of JEtius, contributed to his success, shared, and sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the jea- lousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, \vho forced him to retire from the service.* Majorian, after the death of JStius, was recalled and promoted ; and his intimate con- nection with count Riciiner was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne of the western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious barbarian, whose birth excluded him from the imperial dignity, governed Italy, with the title of patrician ; resigned to his friend the conspicuous station of master- general of the cavalry and infantry ; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favour Majorian had solicited by a recent victory over the Allemanni.f He was invested with the purple at Ravenna ; and the epistle which he addressed to the senate will best describe his situation and his sentiments. " Tour election, conscript fathers ! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, have made me your emperor.^ May the * She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely satisfied with, his disgrace. It should seem, that ^Etius, like Belisarius and Marl- borough, was governed by his wife ; whose fervent piety, though it might work miracles (Gregor. Turon. lib. 2, c. 7, p. 162) was not in- compatible with base and sanguinary counsels. t The Allemanni had passed the Rhsetian Alps, and were defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula, to the Lago Maggiore. (Cluver. Italia Antiq. torn, i, p. 100, 101.) This boasted victory over nine hundred barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian. 373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy. Imperatorem me factum P. C. electionis vestrae arbitrio, et fortis- Eimi exercitus ordinatione agnoscite. (Novell. Majorian. tit. 3, p. 34, ad calcem Cod. Theodos.) Sidonius proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire. Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat ; plebs, curia, miles, Et collega simul. 386. This language is ancient and constitutional ; and we may observe, that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the state. [The loose expressions of a poet do not warrant an inference so strong aa this. In the common acceptation of the phrase, the Christian priest- hood had long constituted a " distinct order of the state." This is amply proved by Xeander (Hist, of Chris. voL iii, 195, 197, 207). Nor is the language of Sidonius here " constitutional." The constitution of impe- rial Rome never gave either the people or the army a voice in the elec- tion of an emperor; this was left to the senate, who*e \uioe, although CO EPISTLE OT MAJOEIAN TO THE SENATE, [en. XXXYI. propitious Deity direct and prosper the counsels and events of my administration to your advantage, and to the public welfare ! For my own part, I did not aspire, I have sub- mitted, to reign ; nor should I have discharged the obliga- tions of a citizen, if I had refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labours which were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom you have made ; partake the duties which you have enjoined ; and may our common endeavours promote the happiness of an empire, which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured, that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall become not only innocent, but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations,* which, as a sub- ject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies.t You now understand the maxims of my government ; you may con- fide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a prince, who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers ; who still glories in the name of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent of the judgment which you have pronounced in his favour." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty, which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous sentiments from his own heart, since they were not sug- gested to his imitation by the customs of his age, or the example of his predecessors.^ soon virtually nullified, was to the last formally respected. In the case of Avitus, the miles, to whom he owed his elevation, was the Gothic warrior of Theodoric, and in that of Marjorian, the foreign mercenary, whose interference no constitutional provisions could have authorized. ED.] * Either dtlationes, or delationes, would afford a tolerable reading; but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I have therefore given the preference. t Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus : by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus ; whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this occasion, Sidonius is fearful and obscure ; he describes the twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, &c., that he may escape the dangerous name of Avitus. (305 369.) J See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the senate. (Novell tit. 4, p. 34.) Yet the A.D. 457-461.J HIS SALUTABY LAWS. 61 The private and public actions of Majorian are very imperfectly known ; but his laws, remarkable for an original cast of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of a sovereign who loved his people, who sympa- thized in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was capable of applying (as lar as such reformation was practicable) judicious and effec- tual remedies to the public disorders.* His regulations concerning the finances manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the weary fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and superindictions.f With this view, he granted a universal amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand from the people. This wise derelic- tion of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and purified the sources of the public revenue; and the subject, who could now look back without despair, might labour with hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and collection of taxes, Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates ; and suppressed the extraordinary commissions which hadbeen introduced,in the name of the emperor himself, or of the praetorian prefects. The favourite servants, who obtained such irregular powers, were insolent in their beha- viour, and arbitrary in their demands : they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were discon- tented if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance 01 their extortion would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by the legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold : but they refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept only such ancient expression, regnum nostrum, bears some taint of the age, and does not mis kindly with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats. * See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number, but very long and various) at the end of the Theodosian Code, Novell lib. 4. p. 32 37. Godefroy has not given any commentary on these addi- tional pieces. t Fessas provincialium varia atque mul- tiplici tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscalium aolu- tionum oneribus attritas, &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. 4, p. 34.. 62 CORRECTION OF MAGISTERIAL ABUSES. [CH. XXXVI. pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious medals, had recourse to the expedient of com- pounding with their rapacious demands ; or, if he succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled, according to the weight and value of the money of former times.* III. " The municipal corporations (says the emperor), the lesser senates (so antiquity has justly styled them), deserve to be considered as the heart of the cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure exile." He urges, and even compels, their return to their respective cities ; but he removes the grievance which had forced them to desert the exercise of their municipal func- tions. They are directed, under the authority of the pro- vincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the whole sum assessed on their district, they are only required to produce a regular account of the payments which they have actually received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian was not igno- rant that these corporate bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and oppression which they had suf- fered; and he therefore revives the useful office of the defenders of cities. He exhorts the people to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the sanction of his name and authority. The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient Eome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and Vandals for the mischief which they had neither leisure nor power, nor perhaps inclination to perpetrate. The tempest of war might strike some lofty turrets to the * The learned Greaves (vol. 1. p. 329 331) has found by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only sixty -eight, English grains. Majo- rian gives currency to all gold coin, excepting only the Gallic solid**, from its deficiency, not in the weight, but in the standard. i..D. 461.] THE EDIFICES OF EOME. 63 ground ; but the destruction which undermined the founda- tions of those massy fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of ten centuries ; and the motives of interest that afterwards operated without shame or con- trol, were severely checked by the taste and spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city had gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified the desires of the people ; the temples, which had escaped the zeal of the Christians, were no longer inhabited either by gods or men; the diminished crowds of the Eomans were lost in the immense space of their baths and porticoes ; and the stately libraries and halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose repose was seldom disturbed either by study or business. The monuments of consular or imperial greatness were no longer revered, as the im- mortal glory of the capital : they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper and more con- venient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Eome, which stated the want of stones or bricks for some neces- sary service : the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced for the sake of some paltry or pretended repairs ; and the degenerate Eomans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument, demolished with sacrilegious hands the labours of their ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil.* He reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; im- posed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant * The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. 6, p. 35) is curious. " An- tiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio ; et ut aliquid repa- retur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio nascitur, ut etiam unus- quisque privatum sedificium construens, per gratiam judicum .... praesumere de publicis locis necessaria, et transferre non dubitet," &c. With equal zeal, but with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated the same complaints. (Vie de Petrarque, torn, i, p. 326, 327.) If I prosecute this history, I shall not be unmindful of the decline and fall of the city of Rome ; an interesting object, to which my plan was originally confined. [This edict of Majorian is an official contradiction of the indiscriminate havoc, alleged to have been perpe- trated by the barbarians, and on the other hand equally exposes th* 64 MAJOBIAU PBEPABES TO [CH. XXXVL eucli illegal and scandalous license; and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers by a severe whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last instance, the legislator might seem to iorget the proportion of guilt and punishment ; but his zeal arose from a generous principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of those ages in which he would have desired, and deserved to live. The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the number of his sub- jects; that it was his duty to guard the purity of the marriage-bed : but the means which he employed to accom- plish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and perhaps exceptionable kind. The pious maids who conse- crated their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest relations, or to the state. Unequal mar- riages were condemned or annulled. The punishment of con- fiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate to tho guilt of adultery, that if the criminal returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity.* While the emperor Majorian assiduously laboured to restore the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encoun- tered the arms of Genseric, from his character and situa- tion, their most formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of the Liris or Garigliano : but the imperial troops surprised and attacked the disorderly barbarians, who were encumbered with the spoils of Cam- pania ; they were chased with slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's brother-in-law, was found in the number of the slain.f Such vigilance might announce the character of the new reign ; but the strictest vigilance and the most numerous forces were insufficient to protect the long-extended coast of Italy from the depredations of a naval war. The public opinion had imposed a nobler and true authors of the mischief. ED.] * The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular of Tuscany, in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost like personal resentment. (Novell, tit. 9, p. 37.) The law of Majorian, which punished obstinate widows, was soon after repealed by his successor Severus. (Novell. Sever, tit. 1 p. 37.^ t Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 385440. A.D. 457.] INVADE AFBICA. 66 more arduous task on the genius of Majorian. Rome expected from him alone the restitution of Africa ; and the design which he formed of attacking the Vandals in their new settlements, was the result of bold and judicious policy. If the intrepid emperor could have infused his own spirit into the youth of Italy ; if he could have revived in the field of Mars the manly exercises in which he had always surpassed his equals ; he might have marched against G-en- seric at the head of a Roman army. Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the rising genera- tion ; but it is the misfortune of those princes who labori- ously sustain a declining monarchy, that, to obtain some immediate advantage or to avert some impending danger, they are forced to countenance, and even to multiply the most pernicious abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting barbarian auxiliaries in the place of his un- warlike subjects : and his superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigour and dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates who were already en- gaged in the service of the empire, the fame of his liberality and valour attracted the nations of the Danube, the Borys- thenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidse, the Ostrogoths, the Eugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by their mutual animosities.* They passed the Alps in a severe winter. The emperor led the way on foot, and in complete armour; sounding, with his long staff, the depth of the ice or snow, and encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by the cheerful assurance, that they should be satisfied with the heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their gates : they soon implored and experienced the clemency of Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and admitted to his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy of his arms. The bene- ficial though precarious reunion of the greatest part of * The review of the army, and passage of the Alps, contain the most tolerable passages of the Panegyric. (470 552.) M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuples, &c. torn, viii, p. 49 55) is a more satisfactory commentator thau either Savaron or Sirmond. TOL. IV. * 66 COTJEAQE OF MAJOBIAK. [CH. XXTVI. Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion aa we'J as of force ;* and the independent Bagaudse, who had escaped or resisted the oppression of former reigns, were disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was filled with barbarian allies ; his throne was supported by the zeal of an affectionate people ; but the emperor had foreseen, that it was impossible, without a maritime power, to achieve the conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war, the re- public had exerted such incredible diligence, that, within sixty days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the sea.f Under circumstances much 'less favourable, Majorian equalled the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The woods of the Apenniue were felled; the arsenals and manufactures of Eavenna and Misenum were restored ; Italy and Gaul vied with each other in liberal contributions to the public ser- vice ; and the imperial navy of three hundred large galleys, with an adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious harbour of Carthagena in Spain.J The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his troops with a confidence of victory ; and if we might credit the historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the state of the Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambas- sador : and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the dis- * Td piv ojrXotc, TO. ft Xoyoic, is the just and forcible distinction of Prisons (Excerpt. Legat. p. 42), in a short fragment which throws much light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed the defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly proclaimed in Gallicia ; and are marked in the Chronicle of Idatius. f Florus, lib. 2, c. 2. He amuses himself with the poetical fancy, that the trees had been transformed into ships ; and indeed the whole transaction, as it is related in the first book of Polybius, deviates too much from the probable course of human events. J Interea duplici texis dum littore classem Inferno superoque man, cadit omnis in aequor Sylva tibi, &c, Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 441 461. The number of ships, which Priscus fixes at three hundred, is mag- nified by an indefinite comparison with the fleets of Agamemnon, Xerxes, and Augustus. A..D. 457.] THE LOSS OF HIS FLEET. 67 covery, that lie had entertained and dismissed the emperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction ; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of a hero.* Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of his adversary. He practised his customary arts of fraud and delay ; but he practised them without success. His applica- tions for peace became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere ; but the inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Borne could not be safe, as long as Carthage existed in a hostile state. The king of the Vandals distrusted the valour of his native subjects, who were enervated by the luxury of the south ;t he suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, who abhor- red him as an Arian tyrant ; and the desperate measure which he executed, of reducing Mauritania into a desert,J could not defeat the operations of the Roman emperor, who was at liberty to land his troops on any part of the African coast. But Geuseric was saved from impending and in- evitable ruin, by the treachery of some powerful subjects, envious or apprehensive of their master's success. Guided by their secret intelligence, he surprised the unguarded fleet in the bay of Carthagena: many of the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the preparations of three years were destroyed in a single day. After this event, the behaviour of the two antagonists shewed them superior * Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 8, p. 194. When Genseric con- ducted his unknown guest into the arsenal of Carthage, the arms clashed of their own accord. Majorian had tinged his yellow locks with a black colour. Spoliisque potitus Immeusis, robur luxu jam perdidit omne, Quo valuit dum pauper erat. Panegyr. Majorian. 330. He afterwards applies to Genseric, unjustly as it should seem, the vices of his subjects. J He burnt the villages, and poisoned the springs. (Priscus, p. 42). Dubos (Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 475) observes, that the magazines, which the Moors buried in the earth, might escape his destructive search. Two or three hundred pits are sometimes dug in the same place ; and each pit contains at least four hundred bushels of corn. Shaw's Travels, p. 139. Idatius, who was safe in Gallicia from the power of Ricimer, boldly and honestly declares, Vaudali per proditores adnioniti, &C. He dissembles, however, the name of the traitor. 68 DEATH OF MAJOBIAN. [CH. XXXVI. to their fortune. The Vandal, instead of being elated bv this accidental victory, immediately renewed his solicita- tions for peace. The emperor of the West, who was capable of forming great designs, and of supporting heavy disap- pointments, consented to a treaty, or rather to a suspension of arms ; in the full assurance that before he could restore his navy, he should be supplied with provocations to justify a second war. Majorian returned to Italy, to prosecute his labours for the public happiness; and as he was conscious of his own integrity, he might long remain igno- rant of the dark conspiracy which threatened his throne and his life. The recent misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had dazzled the eyes of the multitude : almost every description of civil and military officers were exaspe- rated against the reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses which he endeavoured to sup- press ; and the patrician Ricimer impelled the inconstant passions of the barbarians against a prince whom he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could not protect him from the impetuous sedition which broke out in the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the Alps. He was compelled to abdicate the imperial purple; five days after his abdication, it was reported that he died of a dysentery,* and the humble tomb which covered his remains, was consecrated by the respect and gratitude of succeeding generations.f The private character of Majorian inspired love and respect. Malicious calumny and satire excited hia indignation, or, if he himself were the object, his contempt ; but he protected the freedom of wit, and in the hours which the emperor gave to the familiar society of his friends, he could indulge his taste for pleasantry, without degrading the majesty of his rank. J * Procop. de BelL Vandal, 1. 1, c. 8, p. 194. The testimony of Idatius ia fair and impartial : " Majorianum de Galliis Romam redeun- tem, et Romano imperio vel nomini res neceasarias ordinantem ; Richimer livore percitus, et invidorum conailio fultua, fraude interficit circumventum." Some read Suevorum, and I am unwilling to efface either of the words, &a they express the different accomplices who united in the conspiracy against Majorian. f See the Epigrams of Ennodius, No. 135, inter Sirmond. Opera, torn, i, p. 1903. It is flat and obscure ; but Ennodiua was made bishop of Pa via fifty years after the death of Majorian, and his praise deserves credit and regard. * Sidonius sives a tedious account (L 1, epist 11, A.D, 461-467.] LIBITJS SEVERUS. 69 It was not perhaps without some regret, that Ricimer sacrificed his friend to the interest of his ambition ; but he resolved in a second choice, to avoid the imprudent pre- ference of superior virtue and merit. At his command, the obsequious senate of Rome bestowed the imperial title on Libius Severus, who ascended the throne of the "West, with- out emerging from the obscurity of a private condition. History has scarcely deigned to notice his birth, his elevation, his character, or his death. Severus expired, as soon as his life became inconvenient to his patron,* and it would be useless to discriminate his nominal reign in the vacant interval of six years, between the death of Majorian and the elevation of Anthemius. During that period, the government was in the hands of Ricimer alone; and although the modest barbarian disclaimed the name of king, he accumulated treasures, formed a separate army, negotiated private alliances, and ruled Italy with the same independent and despotic authority which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman generals, Marcellinus and ^Egidius, maintained their allegiance to the republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled an emperor. Marcellinus still adhered to the old religion; and the devout Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church and state, applauded his profound skill in the science of divination. But he possessed the more valuable qualifications of learning, virtue, and courage ;f the study of the Latin literature had improved his taste; and his military talents had recommended him to the esteem p. 25 31) of a supper at Aries, to which, he was invited by Majorian a short time before his death. He had no intention of praising a deceased emperor ; but a casual disinterested remark : Subrisit Augustus; nt erat, auctoritate servata, cum se communion! dedisset, joci plenus," outweighs the six hundred lines of his venal panegyrio * Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 317) dismisses him to heaven. Auxerat Augustus naturae lege Severus Divorum numerum. And an old list of the emperors, composed about the time of Justinian, praises his piety, and fixes his residence at Rome. (Sirmond. Not. ad Sidon. p. Ill, 112.) -f- Tillemont, who is always scandalized by the virtues of infidels, attributes this advantageous portrait of Marcellinus (which Suidas has preserved) to the partial zeal of some Pagan historian. Hist, des Empereurs, torn, vi, p. 330. 70 BEYOLTS OF MAECELLimjS AND 2EGIDIUS. [CH. XXXVI. and confidence of the great JStius, in whose ruin he was involved. By a timely flight, Marcellinus escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his liberty amidst the convulsions of the Western empire. His voluntary or reluctant submission to the authority of Majorian, was rewarded by the government of Sicily, and the command of an army stationed in that island, to oppose or to attack the Vandals: but his barbarian mercenaries, after the emperor's death, were tempted to revolt by the artful liberality of Eicimer. At the head of a band of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus occupied the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of patrician of the West, secured the love of his subjects by a mild and equitable reign, built a fleet, which claimed the dominion of the Hadriatic, and alternately alarmed the coasts of Italy and of Africa.* jEgidius, the master-general of Gaul, who equalled, or at least who imitated, the heroes of ancient Eome,t proclaimed his immortal resentment against the assassins of his beloved master. A brave and numerous army was attached to his standard; and though he was prevented by the arts of Eicimer, and the arms of the Visigoths, from marching to the gates of Eome, he maintained his independent sove- reignty beyond the Alps, and rendered the name of ^Egidius respectable both in peace and war. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful follies of Childeric, elected the Boman general for their king ; his vanity, rather than his ambition, was gratified by that singular honour; and when the nation, at the end of four years, repented of the injury which they had offered to the Merovingian family, he patiently acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful prince. The authority of JEgidius ended only with his life ; and the suspicions of poison and secret violence, which derived some countenance from the character of Eicimer, were eagerly entertained by the passionate credulity of the Gauls.J * Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 6, p. 191. In various circum- stances of the life of Marcellinus, it is not easy to reconcile the Greek historian with the Latin Chronicles of the times. t I must apply to ^Egidius the praises which Sidonius (Panegyr. Majorian. 553) bestows on a nameless master-general, who commanded the rear-guard of Majorian. Idatius, from public report, commenda his Christian piety ; and Priscus mentions (p. 42) his military virtues. t Greg. Turon. L 2, c. 12, in torn, ii, p. 168. The Pere Daniel, whose ideas were superficial and modern, has started some objection* A,D. 461-467.] NAVAL "WAS OF THE VANDALS. 71 The kingdom of Italy, a name to which the Western empire was gradually reduced, was afflicted, under the reign of Kicimer, by the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates.* In the spring of each year they equipped a for- midable navy in the port of Carthage ; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were con- cealed with impenetrable secrecy, till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot, what course he should steer; "Leave the determination to the winds," replied the barbarian, with pious arrogance ; " they will transport us to the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice." But if Genseric himself deigned to issue more precise orders, he judged the most wealthy to be the most criminal. The Vandals repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily : they were tempted to subdue the island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the centre of the Mediterranean ; and their arms spread desolation, or terror, from the columns of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile. As they were more ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom attacked any fortified cities, or engaged any regular troops in the open field. But the celerity of their motions enabled them, almost at the same time, to threaten against the story of Childeric (Hist, de France, torn, i, Preface His- torique, p. 78, &c.), but they have been fairly satisfied by Dubos (Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 460 510) and by two authors who disputed the prize of the Academy of Soissons (p. 131177. 310339). With regard to the term of Childeric's exile, it is necessary either to prolong the life of ^Egidius beyond the date assigned by the Chronicle of Idatius, or to correct the text of Gregory, by reading quarto anno, instead of octavo. * The naval war of Genseric is described by Priscus (Excerpta Legation, p. 42), Procopius (de Bell. VandaL 1. 1, c. 5, p. 189, 190, and c. 22, p. 228), Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 17, and Ruiuart, p. 467 481), and in the three pane- gyrics of Sidonius, whose chronological order is absurdly transposed in the editions both of Savaron and Sirmond. (Avit. Carm. 7. 441 451 Majorian. Carm. 5. 327350. 385. 440. Anthem. Carm. 2. 348. 386.) In one passage the poet seems inspired by bis subject, and expresses a strong idea by a lively image : Hinc Vandalus hostis Urget ; et in nostrum numeros^ classe quotannia Militat excidium ; conversoque ordine Fati Torrida Caucaseos infert mini Byrsa furores 72 NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE [CH. XXXVI, and to attack the most distant objects which attracted their desires ; and as they always embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no sooner landed, than they swept the dismayed country with a body of light cavalry. Yet, not- withstanding the example of their king, the native Vandals and Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and perilous warfare ; the hardy generation of the first conquerors was almost extinguished, and their sons, who were born in Africa, enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which had been acquired by the valour of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied by a various multitude of Moors and Bo- mans, of captives and outlaws ; and those desperate wretches who had already violated the laws of their country, were the most eager to promote the atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of Genseric. In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice, and sometimes indulged his cruelty ; and the massacre of five hundred noble citizens of Zante, or Zacynthus, whose mangled bodies he cast into the Ionian sea, was imputed, by the public indignation, to his latest posterity. Such crimes could not be excused by any provocations ; but the war, which the king of the Vandals prosecuted against the Roman empire, was justified by a specious and reasonable motive. The widow of Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from Eome to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the Theodosian house ; her elder daughter, Eudocia, became the reluctant wife of Hunneric, his eldest son; and the stern father, asserting a legal claim, which could not easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a just proportion of the imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at least a valuable compensation, was offered by the Eastern emperor, to purchase a necessary peace. Eudoxia, and her younger daughter, Placidia, were honourably restored, and the fury of the Vandals was confined to the limits of the Western empire. The Italians, destitute of a naval foree, which alone was capable of protecting their coasts, implored the aid of the more fortunate nations of the East ; who had formerly acknowledged, in peace and war, the supremacy of Rome. But the perpetual division of the two empires had alienated their interest and their inclinations ; the faith of a recent treaty was alleged; and the western Romans, instead of arms and ships, could only obtain the assistance A.D. 462.] EASTEBN EMPIEE. 73 of a cold and ineffectual mediation. The haughty Ricimer, who had long struggled with the difficulties of his situation, was a length reduced to address the throne of Constan- tinople, in the humble language of a subject; and Italy submitted, as the price and security of the alliance, to accept a master from the choice of the emperor of the East.* It is not the purpose of the present chapter, or even of the present volume, to continue the distinct series of the Byzan- tine history ; but a concise view of the reign and character of the emperor Leo, may explain the last efforts that were attempted to save the falling empire of the "West, f Since the death of the younger Theodosius, the domestic repose of Constantinople had never been interrupted by war or faction. Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, and the sceptre of the East, on the modest virtue of Marcian : he gratefully reverenced her august rank and virgin chastity ; and, after her death, he gave his people the example of the religious worship, that was due to the memory of the imperial saint. J Attentive to the prosperity of his own dominions, Marcian seemed to behold, with indifference, the misfortunes of Rome ; and the obstinate refusal of a brave and active prince to draw his sword against the Vandals, was ascribed to a secret promise which had formerly been exacted from him when he was a captive in the power of Genseric. The death of Marcian, after a reign of seven * The poet himself is compelled to acknowledge the distress of Ricimer Prseterea invictus Ricimer, quern publica fata Respiciunt, proprio solus vix Marte repellit Piratam per rura vagum Italy addresses her complaint to the Tiber ; and Rome, at the solici- tation of the river god, transports herself to Constantinople, renounces her ancient claims, and implores the friendship of Aurora, the goddess of the East. This fabulous machinery, which the genius of Claudian had used and abused, is the constant and miserable resource of the muse of Sidonius. "f The original authors of the reigns of Marcian, Leo, and Zeno, are reduced to some imperfect fragments, whose deficiencies must be supplied from the more recent compilations of Theophanes, Zonaras, and Cedrenus. J St. Pulcheria died A.D. 453, four years before her nominal husband ; and her festival is celebrated on the 10th of September by the modern Greeks : she bequeathed an immense patrimony to pious, or at least to ecclesiastical, uses. See Tillemont, Memoires Eccle"s. torn, xv, p. 181. 184. See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 4, p. 185. [There ia omething truth-like in the story of Marcian's captivity and promise. 74 LEO, EMPEEOB OP THE EAST. [CH. XXXVI, years, would have exposed the East to the danger of a popular election ; if the superior weight of a single family had not been able to incline the balance in favour of the candidate whose interest they supported. The patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on his own head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene creed.* During three generations, the armies of the East were successively commanded by his father, by himself, and by his son Ardaburius : his barbarian guards formed a military force that overawed the palace and the capital; and the liberal distribution of his immense treasures, rendered Aspar as popular as he was powerful. He recommended the obscure name of Leo of Thrace, a military tribune, and the principal steward of his household. His nomination was unanimously ratified by the senate : and the servant of Aspar received the imperial crown from the hands of the patriarch or bishop, who was permitted to express, by this unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity ,f This emperor, the first of the name of Leo, has been distin- guished by the title of " the Great ; " from a succession of princes, who gradually fixed, in the opinion of the Greeks, a very humble standard of heroic, or at least of royal, perfec- tion. Yet the temperate firmness with which Leo resisted the oppression of his benefactor, shewed that he was con- scious of his duty and of his prerogative. Aspar was Although not a youth, as ^Etiua was among the Goths, still, like him, he acquired from his rude masters, the qualities which fitted him to fill the high station to which he rose, with a dignity that eclipses the degenerate posterity of Theodosius. Nor did he experience the harsh treatment reported to have been the usual lot of those who were made prisoners by the Vandals. As he was one day reposing in the open air and beneath a sunny sky, Genseric came up and saw an eagle hovering over the sleeping captive. The Vandal king regarded it as a fortunate omen, awoke the drowsy favourite of fate, and restored him to liberty, on the sole condition of a solemn oath, that, when emperor, he would never make war upon the Vandals. This anecdote throws a softer hue over the character of Genseric, divests his warfare of some ghastly features by which it has been disfigured, and again proves that the spirit of civilization was rather revived and invigorated, than depressed, by communion with rough barbarians. ED.] * From this disability of Aspar to ascend the throne, it may be inferred that the stain of heresy was perpetual and indelible, while that of barbarism disappeared in the second generation. t Theophanes, p. 95. This appears to be the first origin of a cere- mony which all the Christian princes of the world have since adopted ; and from which the clergy have deduced the most formidable con- JLD. 467-474.] HIS QUAEBEL WITH ASPAB. 75 astonished to find that his influence could no longer appoint a prefect of Constantinople ; he presumed to reproach hia sovereign with a breach of promise ; and, insolently shaking his purple, " It is not proper," said he, " that the man, who is invested with this garment, should be guilty of lying." " Nor is it proper," replied Leo, " that a prince should be compelled to resign his own judgment, and the public interest, to the will of a subject."* After this extraordinary scene, it was impossible that the reconciliation of the em- peror and the patrician could be sincere ; or, at least, that it could be solid and permanent. An army of Isauriansf was secretly levied and introduced into Constantinople ; and while Leo undermined the authority, and prepared the dis- grace of the family of Aspar, his mild and cautious behaviour restrained them from any rash and desperate attempts, which might have been fatal to themselves or their enemies. The measures of peace and war were affected by this internal revolution. As long as Aspar degraded the majesty of the throne, the secret correspondence of religion and interest engaged him to favour the cause of Q-enseric. When Leo had delivered himself from that ignominious servitude, he listened to the complaints of the Italians ; resolved to extir- pate the tyranny of the Vandals ; and declared his alliance with his colleague Anthemius, whom he solemnly invested with the diadem and purple of the West. The virtues of Anthemius have perhaps been magnified, since the imperial descent, which he could only deduce from the usurper Procopius, has been swelled into a line of em- perors. J But the merit of his immediate parents, their honours, and their riches, rendered Anthemius one of the most illustrious subjects of the east. His father, Procopius, (sequences. * Cedrenus, (p. 345, 346,( who was conversant with the writers of better days, has preserved the remarkable words of Aspar, BacriXtv, rbv ravTtjv Trjv d\ovpyiSa irt(>tfitfi\riii.kvov ov Xpij dia-d/Eviffdai. -\- The power of the Isaurians agitated the eastern empire in the two succeeding reigns of Zeno and Anas- tasius : but it ended in the destruction of those barbarians, who main- tained their fierce independence about two hundred and thirty years. + Tali tu civis ab urbe Procopio genitore micas ; cui prisca propago Augustis venit a proavu. The poet (Sidon. Panegyr. Anthem. 67 306) then proceeds to relate the private life and fortunes of the future emperor, with which h 76 ANTHEMIUS, EMPEEOB OF THE "WEST. [CH. XIXTI. obtained, after his Persian embassy, the rank of general and Eatrician ; and the name of Anthemius was derived from is maternal grandfather, the celebrated prefect, who pro- tected, with so much ability and success, the infant reign of Theodosius. The grandson of the prefect was raised above the condition of a private subject, by his marriage with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor Marcian. This splendid alliance, which might supersede the necessity of merit, hastened the promotion of Anthemius to the succes- sive dignities of count, of master-general, of consul, and of patrician ; and his merit or fortune claimed the honours of a victory, which was obtained, on the banks of the Danube, over the Huns. Without indulging an extravagant ambi- tion, the son-in-law of Marcian might hope to be his suc- cessor ; but Anthemius supported the disappointment with courage and patience; and his subsequent elevation was universally approved by the public, who esteemed him worthy to reign till he ascended the throne.* The emperor of the "West marched from Constantinople, attended by several counts of high distinction, and a body of guards, almost equal to the strength and numbers of a regular army: he entered Borne in triumph, and the choice of Leo was confirmed by the senate, the people, and the barbarian con- federates of Italy.f The solemn inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of his daughter and the patri- cian Eicimer ; a fortunate event, which was considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of the state. The wealth of two empires was ostentatiously displayed : and many senators completed their ruin by an expensive effort to disguise their poverty. All serious business was suspended during this festival; the courts of justice were shut ; the streets of Borne, the theatres, the places of public and private resort resounded with hymeneal songs and dances ; and the royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a crown on her bead ; was conducted to the palace of Bicimer, who had changed his military dress for the habit of a consul must have been very imperfectly acquainted. * Sidoniua discovers with tolerable ingenuity, that this disappointment added new lustre to the virtues of Anthemius (210, &c.), who declined one sceptre, and reluctantly accepted another. (22, &c.) f The poet again celebrates the unanimity of all orders of the tate (15 22) : and the Chronicle oi Idatius mentions the forces A.D. 468.] PANEGYRIC OF SIDONIFS. 77 and a senator. On this memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose early ambition had been so fatally blasted, appeared as the orator of Auvergne, among the provincial deputies who addressed the throne with congratulations or complaints ;* The calends of January were now approaching, and the venal poet, who had loved Avitus, and esteemed Majorian, was persuaded, by his friends, to celebrate, in heroic verse, the merit, the felicity, the second consulship, and the future triumphs of the emperor Anthemius. Sidonius pronounced with assurance and success, a panegyric which is still ex- tant ; and whatever might be the imperfections, either of the subject or of the composition, the welcome flatterer was immediately rewarded with the prefecture of Rome ; a dig- nity which placed him among the illustrious personages of the empire, till he wisely preferred the more respectable character of a bishop and a saint.f The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and Catholic faith of the emperor whom they gave to the West ; nor do they forget to observe, that when he left Constantinople, he converted his palace into the pious foundation of a public bath, a church, and a hospital for old men.J Yet some sus- picious appearances are found to sully the theological fame of Anthemius. Prom the conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he had imbibed the spirit of religious toleration ; and the heretics of Rome would have assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement censure which pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter, had not obliged even him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. which attended his march. * Intervene autem nuptiis patrieii Ricimeris, cui filia perennis Augusti in spem publicse securitatis copu- labatur. The journey of Sidonius from Lyons, and the festival of Rome, are described with some spirit. Lib. 1, epist. 5, p. 9 13 ; epist. 9, p. 21. f Sidonius (1. 1, epist. 9, p. 23, 24) very fairly states his motive, his labour, and his reward. " Hie ipse Panegyricus, si non judicium, certe eventum, boni operis accepit." He was made bishop of Clermont, A.D. 471. Tillemont, Me"m. Eccle"s. torn, xvi, p. 750. The palace of Anthemius stood on the banks of the Propontis. In the ninth century, Alexius, the son-in-law of the emperor Theo- philus, obtained permission to purchase the ground, and ended his days in a monastery which he founded on that delightful spot. Ducauge, Constantinopolis Christiana, p. 117. 152. Papa Hila- rus . . . apud beatum Petrum Apostolum, palam ne id fieret, clara voce constrinxit, in tantum ut non ea facienda cum interpositione juramenti idem promitteret Imperator. Gelasius, Epistol. ad Andro- nicum, apud Baron. A.D. 467, No. 3. The cardinal observes, with 78 FESTIVAL OF THE LTJPEECALIA. [CH. XIXTI. Even the Pagans, a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some vain hopes from the indifference, or partiality, of An- themius; and his singular friendship for the philosopher Severus, whom he promoted to the consulship, was ascribed to a secret project of reviving the ancient worship of the gods.* These idols were crumbled into dust ; and the mytho- logy which had once been the creed of nations, was so universally disbelieved, that it might be employed without scandal, or at least without suspicion, by Christian poets.f Yet the vestiges of superstition were not absolutely oblite- rated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had pre- ceded the foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the reign of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were expres- sive of an early state of society before the invention of arts and agriculture. The rustic deities, who presided over the toils and pleasures of the pastoral life, Pan, Paunus, and their train of satyrs, were such as the fancy of shepherds might create, sportive, petulant, and lascivious ; whose power was limited, and whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the offering the best adapted to their character and attributes ; the flesh of the victim was roasted on willow spits ; and the riotous youths, who crowded to the feast, ran naked about the fields, with leather thongs in their hands, communi- cating, as it was supposed, the blessing of fecundity to the women whom they touched. J The altar of Pan was erected, perhaps by Evander the Arcadian, in a dark recess in the side eonie complacency, that it was much easier to plant heresies at Con- stantinople than at Rome. [This pope Hilary has an otherwise obscure name. But in any hands, ecclesiastical power was then more than a match for the civiL The impotence of the latter was never more manifest, than when it presumed to favour free thought and liberate opinion from political fetters. ED.] * Damascius, in the life of the philosopher Isidore, apud Photium, p. 1049. Damas- cius, who lived under Justinian, composed another work, consisting of five hundred and seventy preternatural stories of souls, demons, apparitions, the dotage of Platonic Paganism. [For a more particular notice of Damascius, see the conclusion of c. 40. ED.] t In the poetical works of Sidonius, which he afterwards condemned (1. 9, epist. 16, p. 285), the fabulous deities are the principal actors. If Jerome was scourged by the angela for only reading Virgil, the bishop of Clermont, for such a vile imitation, deserved an additional whipping from the Muses. J Ovid (Fast. L 2, 267 452) has given an amusing description of the follies of antiquity, which still inspired so much respect, that a grave magistrate, running naked through the streets, was not an object A.D. 468.] PBEPABATIONS AGAINST THE VANDALS. 79 of the Palatine hill, watered by a perpetual fountain, and shaded by a hanging grove. A tradition, that, in the same place, Komulus and Eemus were suckled by the wolf, ren- dered it still more sacred and venerable in the eyes of the Eomans ; and this sylvan spot was gradually surrounded by the stately edifices of the Forum.* After the conversion of the imperial city, the Christians still continued, in the month of February, the annual celebration of the Luper- calia ; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious in- fluence on the genial powers of the animal and vegetable world. The bishops of Home were solicitous to abolish a profane custom, so repugnant to the spirit of Christianity ; but their zeal was not supported by the authority of the civil magistrate : the inveterate abuse subsisted till the end of the fifth century, and pope Gelasius, who purified the Capitol from the last stain of idolatry, appeased, by a formal apology, the murmurs of the senate and people.f In' all his public declarations, the emperor Leo assumes the authority, and professes the affection, of a father, for his son Anthemius, with whom he had divided the administra- tion of the universe. J The situation, and perhaps the cha- racter, of Leo, dissuaded him from exposing his person to the toils and dangers of an African war. But the powers of the Eastern empire were strenuously exerted to deliver Italy and the Mediterranean from the Vandals ; and Grenseric, who had so long oppressed both the land and sea, was threatened from every side with a formidable invasion. The campaign was opened by a bold and successful enterprise of of astonishment or laughter. * See Dionys. Halicarn. L 1, p. 25. 65, edit. Hudson. The Eoman antiquaries, Donatus (1. 2, c. 18, p. 173, 174), and Nardini (p. 386, 387), have laboured to ascertain the true situation of the Lupercal. + Baronius published, from the MSS. of the Vatican, this epistle of pope Gelasius, (A.D. 496, No. 28 45,) which ia entitled Adversus Andromachum Senatorem, cseteros- que Romanos, qui Lupercalia secundum morem pristinum colenda (xyistituebant. Gelasius always supposes that his adversaries are nominal Christians ; and, that he may not yield to them in absurd prejudice, he imputes to this harmless festival all the calamities of the age. J Itaque nos quibus totius mundi regimen commisifc superna provisio Pius et triumphator semper Augustus filius noster Anthemius, licet Divina Majestas et nostra creatio pietati ejus plenam Imperil commiserit potestatem, &c Such is the dignified style of Leo, whom Anthemius respectfully names, Dominus et Pater meus Princeps sacratissimus Leo. See Novell Anthem, tit. 2, 3, p. 38, 80 WEALTH OF THE EMPIHE. [CH. XXXYI. the prefect Heraclius.* The troops of Egypt, Tbebais, and Libya, were embarked under his command ; and the Arabs, with a train of horses and camels, opened the roads of the desert. Heraclius landed on the coast of Tripoli, surprised and subdued the cities of that province, and prepared, by a laborious march, which Cato had formerly executed,! to join the imperial army under the walls of Carthage. The intelli- gence of this loss extorted from Genseric some insidious and inffectual propositions of peace ; but he was still more seriously alarmed by the reconciliation of Marcellinus with the two empires. The independent patrician had been persuaded to acknowledge the legitimate title of Anthe- mius, whom he accompanied in his journey to Rome ; the Dalmatian fleet was received into the harbours ot Italy ; the active valour of Marcellinus expelled the Vandals from the island of Sardinia ; and the languid efforts of the West added some weight to the immense preparations of the eastern Romans. The expense of the naval armament, which Leo sent against the Vandals, has been distinctly ascer- tained; and the curious and instructive account displays the wealth of the declining empire. The royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied seventeen thou- sand pounds of gold ; forty-seven thousand pounds of gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into the treasury by the praetorian prefects. But the cities were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent cal- culation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just or merciful administration. The whole expense, by whatsoever means it was defrayed, of the African campaign, amounted to the sum of one hun- dred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions ad calcem Cod. Theod. * The expedition of Heraclius is clouded with difficulties (Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn, vi, p. 640), and it requires some dexterity to use the circumstances afforded by Theophanes, without injury to the more respectable evi- dence of Procopius. f The march of Cato from Berenice, in the province of Cyrene, was much longer than that of Heraclius from Tripoli He passed the deep sandy desert in thirty days, and it was found necessary to provide, besides the ordinary supplies, a great number of skins filled with water, and several Psylli, who were sup- posed to possess the art of sucking the wounds which had been made by the serpents of their native country. See Plutarch in Catoa Uticeua. torn, iv, p. 275. Strabon. Geograph. L 17, p. 1193. A.D. 4G8.] BASILISCUS APPOINTED TO COMMAND. 81 two hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money appears, from the comparative price of corn, to have been somewhat higher than in the present age.* The fleet that sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, con- sisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Verina, was intrusted with this important command. His sister, the wife of Leo, had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against the Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was reserved for the African war ; and his friends could only save his military reputation, by asserting, that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Geu- seric, and to betray the last hope of the Western empire. Experience has shown, that the success of an invader most commonly depends on the vigour and celerity of his operations. The strength and sharpness of the first impres- sion are blunted by delay ; the health and spirit of the troops insensibly languish in a distant climate ; the naval and military force, a mighty effort which perhaps can never be repeated, is silently consumed ; and every hour that is wasted in negotiation, accustoms the enemy to contemplate and examine those hostile terrors, which, on their first appearance, he deemed irresistible. The formidable navy of Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from the Thra- cian Bosphorus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops at Cape Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about forty miles from Carthage.f The army of Heraclius, and the fleet of Marcellinus, either joined or seconded the imperial lieutenant ; and the Vandals, who opposed his progress by sea or land, were successively vanquished.;}: If Basiliscus * The principal sum is clearly expressed by Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 6, p. 191) ; the smaller constituent parts, whiih Tille- niont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn, vi, p. 396) has laboriously collected from the Byzantine writers, are less certain, and less important. The historian Malchus laments the public misery ; (Excerpt ex Suida in Corp. Hist. Byzant. p. 58,) but he is surely unjust when he charges Leo with hoarding the treasures which he extorted from the people. t This promontory is forty miles from Carthage, (Procop. L 1, c. 6, p. 192,) and twenty leagues from Sicily. (Shaw's Travels, p. 89.) Scipio landed farther in the bay, at the fair promontory ; see the ani- mated description of Livy, 29. 26, 27. J Theophanes (p. 100,) affirms, that many ships of the Vandala were sunk. The assertion TOL. IV. O 82 FAILURE OP THE EXPEDITION. [dl. XXXYI. had seized the moment of consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital, Carthage must have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was extinguished*. Genseric beheld the danger with firmness, and eluded it with his veteran dexterity. He protested, in the most respectful language, that he was ready to submit his person, and his dominions, to the will of the emperor ; but he requested a truce of five days to regulate the terms of his submission ; and it wag universally believed, that his secret liberality contributed to the success of this public negotiation. Instead of obsti- nately refusing whatever indulgence his enemy so earnestly solicited, the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus, consented to the fatal truce ; and his imprudent security seemed to proclaim, that he already considered himself as the con- queror of Africa. During this short interval, the wind became favourable to the designs of Genseric. He manned liis largest ships of war with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals ; and they towed after them many large barks, filled with combustible materials. In the obscurity of the night, these destructive vessels were impelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by the sense of their instant danger. Their close and crowded order assisted the progress of the fire, which was communicated with rapid and irresistible violence ; and the noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the disso- nant cries of the soldiers and mariners, who could neither command nor obey, increased the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they laboured to extricate themselves from the fire-ships, and to save at least a part of the navy, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them with temperate and dis- ciplined valour ; and many of the Romans, who escaped the fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the victorious Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous night, the heroic, or rather desperate, courage of John, one of the principal oflicers of Basiliscus, has rescued his name from oblivion. When the ship, which he had bravely defended, was almost consumed, he threw himself in his armour into the sea, disdainfully rejected the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of Genseric, who pressed him to accept honourable quarter, and sunk under the waves ; exclaiming with his last of Jornandes, (de Succesaione Regn.) that Basiliscus attacked Cai thage, must be understood in a very qualified sense. A.D. 468.] BASILISCrS BETUBNS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 83 breath, that he would never fall alive into the hands ol those impious dogs. Actuated by a far different spirit, Basiliscus, whose station was the most remote from danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the engagement, returned to Constantinople with the loss of more than half of his fleet and army, and sheltered his guilty head in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tears and entreaties, could obtain his pardon from the indignant emperor. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert ; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Eicimer, by one of his own captains ; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the Eomans themselves should remove from the world his most formidable antagonists.* After the failure of this great expedition, Genseric again became the tyrant of the sea : the coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were again exposed to his revenge and avarice ; Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his obedience ; he added Sicily to the number of his provinces ; and, before he died, in the fulness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire of the West.f During his long and active reign, the African monarch had studiously cultivated the friendship of the barbarians of Europe, whose arms he might employ in a seasonable and effectual diversion against the two empires. After the deavh of Attila, he renewed his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul ; and the sons of the elder Theodoric, who succes- sively reigned over that warlike nation, were easily per- suaded by the sense of interest to forget the cruel affront which Genseric had inflicted on their sister. The death Damascius in Vit. Isidor. apul Phot. p. 1048. It will appear, by comparing the three short chronicles of the times, that Marcellinus had fought near Carthage, and was killed in Sicily. + For the African war, see Procopius (De Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 6, p. 191193), Theophanes (p. 99101), Cedrenus (p. 349, 350), ami Zonaras, (torn, ii, 1. 14, p. 50, 51.) Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, &c. c. 20, torn, iii, p. 497) has made a judicious observation on the failure of these great naval armaments. Jornandes is our best guide through the reigns of Theodoric II. and Euric. (De Rebus Geticis, c. 44 47, p. 675 6S1.) Idatius ends too soon, and Isidore is too sparing of the information which he might have given on the affairs of Spain. The events that relate to Gaul are laboriously illustrated in the third book of the abbe" Dubos. Hist, 62 84 CONQUESTS OF THE VISIGOTHS [CH. XXXVT. of the emperor Majorian delivered Theodoric II. from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honour ; he violated his recent treaty with the Romans, and the ample territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united to his dominions, became the immediate reward of his perfidy. The selfish policy of Ricimer encouraged him to invade the provinces which were in the possession of a^Egidius, his rival ; but the active count, by the defence of Aries, and the victory of Orleans, saved Gaul, and checked, during his lifetime, the progress of the Visigoths. Their ambition was soon rekindled ; and the design of extinguishing the Eoman empire in Spain and G-aul, was conceived, and almost completed, in the reign of Euric, who assassinated his brother Theodoric, and displayed, with a more savage temper, superior abilities, both in peace and war. He passed the Pyrenees at the head of a numerous army, subdued the cities of Saragossa and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial nobles of the Tarragonese province, carried his victorious arms into the heart of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain.* The efforts of Euric were not less vigorous or less successful in Gaul; and throughout the country that extends from the Pyrenees to the Rhone and the Loire, Berry and Au- rergne were the only cities or dioceses which refused to acknowledge him as their master.t In the defence of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabitants of Auvergne sustained, with inflexible resolution, the miseries of war, pestilence, and famine ; and the Visigoths, relinquishing the fruitless siege, suspended the hopes of that important conquest. The youth of the province were animated by the heroic, and almost incredible, valour of Ecdicius, the eon of the emperor Avitus,J who made a desperate sally with only eighteen horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic army, and, after maintaining a flying skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls of Clermont. His charity was equal to his courage : in a time of extreme scarcity, Critique, torn, i, p. 424 620. * See Mariana, Hist. Hispan. torn, i, 1. 5, c. 5, p. 162. f An imperfect, but original, picture of Gaul, more especially of Auvergne, is shown by Sidonius ; who as a senator, and afterwards as a bishop, was deeply interested in the fate of his country. See 1. 5, epist. 1. 5. 9, &c. Sidonius, 1. 3, epist. 3, p. 65 68. Greg. Turon. 1. 2, c. !i4, in torn, ii, p. 174. Jornaodes, c. 45, p. 675. Perhaps Ecdicius was only the son-in-law of Avitus, hia A.D. 462-472.] IN SPAIN AND GAUL. 85 four thousand poor were fed at his expense; and his private influence levied an army of Burgundians for the deliverance of Auvergne. From Ms virtues alone, the faithful citizens of Gaul derived any hopes of safety or freedom ; and even such virtues were insufficient to avert the impending ruin of their country, since they were anxious to learn, from his authority and example, whether they should prefer the alternative of exile or servitude.* The public confidence was lost : the resources of the state were exhausted ; and the Gauls had too much reason to believe, that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy, was incapable of protecting his dis- tressed subjects beyond the Alps. The feeble emperor could only procure for their defence the service of twelve thousand British auxiliaries. Kiothamus, one of the inde- pendent kings or chieftains of the island, was persuaded to transport his troops to the continent of Gaul ; he sailed up the Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where the people complained of these oppressive allies, till they were destroyed or dispersed by the arms of the Visigoths.f One of the last acts of jurisdiction which the Eoman senate exercised over their subjects of Gaul was the trial and condemnation of Arvandus, the praetorian prefect. wife's son by another husband. * Si nullae a republica vires, nulla praeeidia, si nullse, quantum rumor est, Anthemii principis opes, statuit, te, auctore, nobilitas seu patriam dimittere, seu capillos. (Sidon. 1. 2, epist. 1, p. 33.) The last words (Sirmond, Not. p. 25) may likewise denote the clerical tonsure, which was indeed the choice of Sidonius himself. ) The history of these Britons may be traced in Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 678) Sidonius, (1. 3, epiatol. 9, p. 73, 74) and Gregory of Tours, (1. 2, c, 18, in torn, ii, p. 170.) Sidonius (who styles these mercenary troops argutos, armatos, tumultuosos, virtute numero, contubern-io, contumaces) addresses their general in a tone oi friendship arid familiarity. (The Britons who were in those days struggling for their own existence, had no auxiliary force of 12,000 men^, under one of their kings, to spare for the relief of the distressed empire, to which they had themselves just before so piteously appealed. These alleged Britons were Bretones of Armorica. In the brief state- ment of Jornandes, there is not one word to disprove this; and on the other hand, it may be deduced from all that Sidonius has said. The epistle, Riothamo suo, was evidently addressed, not to a stranger landed from a distant country, but to one with whom the writer had long been on friendly terms during his peregrinations in Gaul ; and he then, as well as on other occasions, (Epist. 1. 1. 7, and 1. 9. 9) so spoke of the "Britannos" that his annotator, Sirmond (Not. p. 16) affirms them to be " Britoues Gallicos, Armoricos," and cautions readeri gainst supposing that they came from the Island of Britain. ED.] 86 TRIAL OF [CH. Sidonius, vrho rejoices that he lived under a reign in which he might pity and assist a state-criminal, has expressed, with tenderness and freedom, the faults of his indiscreet and unfortunate friend.* From the perils which he had escaped, Arvandus imbibed confidence rather than wisdom ; and such was the various, though uniform, imprudence of his behaviour, that his prosperity must appear much more surprising than his downfaL The second prefecture, which he obtained within the term of five years, abolished the merit and popularity of his preceding administration. His easy temper was corrupted by flattery, and exasperated by opposition ; he was forced to satisfy his importunate credi- tors with the spoils of the province ; his capricious inso- lence offended the nobles of Gaul, and he sank under the weight of the public hatred. The mandate of his disgrace summoned him to justify his conduct before the senate ; and he passed the sea of Tuscany with a favourable wind, the presage, as he vainly imagined, of his future fortunes. A decent respect was still observed for the prefectorian rank; and, on his arrival at Eome, Arvandus was committed to the hospitality, rather than to the custody, of Flavius Asellus, the count of the sacred largesses, who resided in the Capitol.f He was eagerly pursued by his accusers, the lour deputies of Gaul, who were all distinguished by their birth, their dignities, or their eloquence. In the name of a great province, and according to the forms of Eoman jurisprudence, they instituted a civil and criminal action, requiring such restitution as might compensate the losses of individuals, and such punishment as might satisfy the justice of the state. Their charges of corrupt oppression were numerous and weighty ; but they placed their secret dependence on a letter, which they had intercepted, and which they could prove, by the evidence of his secretary, to have been dictated by Arvandus himself. The author of this letter seemed to dissuade the king of the Goths from a peace with the Greek emperor ; he suggested the attack * See Sidonius, L 1, epist. 7, p. 1520, with Sirmond's notes. This letter does honour to his heart, &B well as to his understanding. The prose of Sidonius, however vitiated by a false and afiected taste, is much superior to his insipid verses. t When the capitol ceased to be a temple, it was appropriated to the use of the civil magistrate ; and it is still the residence of the Roman senator. The travellsra. &c. might be allowed to expose their precious wares in th* A.D. 468.] ABVANDTTS. 87 of the Britons on the Loire ; and he recommended a divi- sion of Gaul, according to the law of nations, between the Visigoths and the Burgundians.* These pernicious schemes, which a friend could only palliate by the re- proaches of vanity and indiscretion, were susceptible of a treasonable interpretation : and the deputies had artfully resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons till the decisive moment of the contest. But their intentions were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He immediately apprized the unsuspecting criminal of his danger; and sincerely lamented, without any mixture of anger, the haughty presumption of Arvandus, who rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of his friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus shewed himself in the Capitol in the white robe of a candidate, accepted indiscriminate salutations and offers of service, examined the shops of the merchants, the silks and gems, sometimes with the indif- ference of a spectator, and sometimes with the attention of a purchaser ; and complained of the times, of the senate, of the prince, and of the delays of justice. His complaints were soon removed. An early day was fixed for his trial ; and Arvandus appeared with his accusers before a nume- rous assembly of the Roman senate. The mournful garb which they affected excited the compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by the gay and splendid dress of their adversary ; and when the prefect Arvandus, with the first of the Gallic deputies, were directed to take their places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of pride and modesty was observed in their behaviour. In this memo- rable judgment, which presented a lively image of the old republic, the Gauls exposed with force and freedom the grievances of the province ; and as soon as the minds of the audience were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the fatal epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the strange supposition, that a subject could not be convicted of treason, unless he had actually conspired to assume the Eurple. As the paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a )ud voice, acknowledged it for his genuine composition; porticoes. * Hsec ad regem Gotliorum charta videbafcur emitti, pacem cuin Gneco Imperatore dissuadens, Britannos super Ligerim sitos impugnari oportere demotistrans, cum Burgundionibua jure gentium Gallias dividi debere confirmana. 88 BANISHMENT OF ABVANDUS. [CH. XXXVI. and his astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded from the rank of a prefect to the obscure condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the public prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death ; but while he expected, in the island of ^Esculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors,* his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and the prefect of Gaul obtained the milder punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might deserve compassion ; but the impunity of Seronatus accused the justice of the republic, till he was condemned, and executed, on the complaint of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline of his age and country, held a secret correspondence with the Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed ; his industry was continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences ; and his extravagant vices would have inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear and abhorrence.f Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice ; but whatever might be the guilt of Eicimer, that powerful bar- barian was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince, whose alliance he had condescended to accept. The peace- ful and prosperous reign which Anthemius had promised to the "West was soon clouded by misfortune and discord. Eicimer, apprehensive, or impatient, of a superior, retired from Rome, and fixed his residence at Milan ; an advan- tageous situation, either to invite, or to repel, the warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and the Danube. J * Senates conxullum Tiberianum (Sirmond, Not. p. 17) ; but that law allowed only ten days between the sentence and execution ; the remain- ing twenty were added in the reign of Tbeodosius. [The law was enacted by Theodosius, as a safeguard against hasty ebullitions of passion like that which caused the massacre of Thessalonica. See ch, 27, vol. 8, p. 259. ED.] f Catilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, 1. '2, epist. 1, p. 33 ; L 5, epist. 13, p. 143; L 7, epist. 7, p. 185. He execrates the crimes, and applauds the punishment, of Seronatus, perhaps with the indignation of a virtuous citizen, perhaps with the resentment of a personal enemy. * Richner, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated and slew in battle Beorgor, king of the AlanL (Jornandes, A.D. 471.] DISCOED OF ANTHEMIUS AND BICIMEE. 89 Italy was gradually divided into two independent and hostile kingdoms ; and the nobles of Liguria, who trembled at the near approach of a civil war, fell prostrate at the feet of the patrician, and conjured him to spare their unhappy country.. " For my own part," replied Kicimer, in a tone of insolent moderation, " I am still inclined to embrace the friendship of the Gralatian ;* but who will undertake to appease his anger, or to mitigate the pride, which always rises 'in pro- portion to our submission?" They informed him, that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia,f united the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove ; and appeared con- fident, that the eloquence of such an ambassador must prevail against the strongest opposition, either of interest or passion. Their recommendation was approved; and Epiphanius, assuming the benevolent office of mediation, proceeded without delay to Rome, where he was received with the honours due to his merit and reputation. The c. 45, p. 678.) His sister had married the king of the Burgundians, and he maintained an intimate connection with the Suevic colony established in Pannonia and Noricum. * Galatam concitatum. Sirmond (in his notes to Eunodius) applies this appellation to Antbe- inius himself. The emperor was probably born in the province of Galatia, whose inhabitants, the Gallo -Grecians, were supposed to unite the vices of a savage and a corrupted people. [Ricimer was confessedly coarser in his manners than most of the Goths of his time. When addressing the Ligurians, of an ancient Gallic or Celtic race, he pro- bably gave vent to a low ethnical antipathy, by a contemptuous sneer at one who belonged to this family. In their early days, the Galatiana had the character of restless disturbers and faithless mercenaries, But it does n*t appear that after their submission to the Romans, any national stigma attached to them. From that time "they lived quietly and hellenized themselves." Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. ii, p. 182, 183. ED.] " i 1 Epiphanius was thirty years bishop of Pavia. (A.D. 467 197, see Tillemont, Mem. Boole's, torn, xvi, p. 788.) Hi name and actions would have been unknown to posterity, if Ennodius, one of his successors, had not written his life (Sirmond, Opera, torn. : p. 1647 1692); in which he represents him as one of the greatest, characters of the age. [The events of the times appear to corroborate much that is said of Epiphanius by his biographer. If not a shining, he seems to have been an amiable, character. He assisted, with his own revenues in repairing the injuries which Pavia had sustained, redeemed captives from miserable servitude, employed himself willingly in promoting peace, and sometimes reconciled hostile leaders. That other ecclesiastical writers have made no mention of him, is in hia favour ; he had not raised himself to eminence by any act of religious intolerance, for which they deemed him worthy to be canonized. ED.] 90 MEDIATION OF EPIPHANIUS. [CH. XXXTI. oration of a bishop in favour of peace may be easily sup- posed; he argued, that in all possible circumstances, the forgiveness of injuries must be an act of mercy, or magna- nimity, or prudence ; and he seriously admonished the emperor to avoid a contest with a fierce barbarian, which might be fatal to himself, and must be ruinous to his dominions. Anthemius acknowledged the truth of his maxims ; but he deeply felt, with grief and indignation, the behaviour of Bicimer ; and his passion gave eloquence and energy to his discourse. " What favours (he warmly ex- claimed) have we refused to this ungrateful man ? "What provocations have we not endured? Eegardless of the majesty of the purple, I gave my daughter to a Groth ; I sacrificed my own blood to the safety of the republic. The liberality which ought to have secured the eternal attachment of Eicimer, has exasperated him against his benefactor. What wars has he not excited against the empire ? flow often has he instigated and assisted the fury of hostile nations ? Shall I now accept his perfidious friendship? Can I hope that Tie will respect the engage- ments of a treaty, who has already violated the duties of a son?" But the anger of Anthemius evaporated in these passionate exclamations ; he insensibly yielded to the pro- posals of Epiphanius ; and the bishop returned to his diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of Italy, by a reconciliation,* of which the sincerity and continuance might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the emperor was extorted from his weakness ; and Eicimer suspended his ambitious designs till he had secretly pre- pared the engines with which he resolved to subvert the throne of Anthemius. The mask of peace and moderation was then thrown aside. The army of Eicimer was fortified by a numerous reinforcement of Burgundians and oriental Suevi : he disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek emperor, marched from Milan to the gates of Eome, and fixing his camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival of Olybrius, his imperial candidate. The soaator Olybrius, of the Anician family, might esteem /amself the lawful heir of the Western empire. He * Ennodius (p. 1659 1664) has related this embassy of Epiphanius , and his narrative, verbose and turgid as it must appear, illustrate! ome curious passages in the fall of the Western empire. A.D. 479.] OI.YBKIUS EMPEBOR OF THE WEST. 91 had married Placidia, the younger daughter of Valentinian, after she was restored by Grenseric ; who still detained her sister Eudocia, as the wife, or rather as the captive, of his son. The king of the Vandals supported, by threats and solicitations, the fair pretensions of his Roman ally; and assigned, as one of the motives of the war, the refusal of the senate and people to acknowledge their lawful prince, and the unworthy preference which they had given to a stranger.* The friendship of the public enemy might render Olybrius still more unpopular to the Italians : but when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor Anthemius, he tempted, with the offer of a diadem, the candidate who could justify his rebellion by an illustrious name, and a royal alliance. The husband of Placidia, who, like most of his ancestors, had been invested with the consular dignity, might have continued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune in the peaceful residence of Constantinople; nor does he appear to have been tormented by such a genius, as cannot be amused or occupied, unless by the administration of an empire. Yet Olybrius yielded to the importunities of his friends, perhaps of his wife; rashly plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil war ; and with the secret connivance of the emperor Leo, accepted the Italian purple, which was bestowed and resumed, at the capricious will of a barbarian. He landed without obstacle (for Grenseric was master of the sea) either at Ravenna or the port of Ostia, and immediately proceeded to the camp of Ricimer, where he was received as the sovereign of the western world.f The patrician, who had extended his posts from the Anio to the Milvian bridge, already possessed two quarters of Rome, the Vatican and the Janiculum, which are separated by the Tiber from the rest of the city ; J and it may be con- * Priscus, Excerpt. Legation, p. 74. Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 6, p. 191. Eudoxia and her daughter were restored after the death of Majorian. Perhaps the consulship of Olybrius (A.D. 464) was bestowed as a nuptial present. + The hostile appearance of Olybrius is fixed (notwithstanding the opinion of Pagi) by the duration of his reign. The secret connivance of Leo is acknowledged by Theophanes and the Paschal Chronicle. We are ignorant of his motives ; but in this obscure period, our ignorance extends to the most public and important facts. Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which Rome was divided by Augustus, only one, the Janiculum, lay on the Tuscan side of the Tiber. But, in the fifth century, the Vatican suburb formed a considerable city ; and in the 92 DEATH OP ANTHEMITJS AND EICIMEE. [CH. XXXVI. jectured, that an assembly of seceding senators imitated, in the choice of Olybrius, the forms of a legal election. But the body of the senate and people firmly adhered to the cause of Anthemius ; and the more effectual support of a Gothic army enabled him to prolong his reign, and the public distress, by a resistance of three months, which pro- duced the concomitant evila of famine and pestilence. At length, Eicimer made a furious assault on the bridge ol Hadrian, or St. Angelo ; and the narrow pass was defended with equal valour by the Goths, till the death of Gilimer their leader. The victorious troops, breaking down every barrier, rushed with irresistible violence into the heart of the city, and Rome (if we may use the language of a contempo- rary pope) was subverted by the civil fury of Anthemius and Eicimer.* The unfortunate Anthemius was dragged from his concealment and inhumanly massacred by the com- mand of his son-in-law ; who thus added a third, or perhaps a fourth, emperor to the number of his victims. The soldiers, who united the rage of factious citizens with the savage manners of barbarians, were indulged, without con- trol, in the licence of rapine and murder : the crowd of slaves and plebeians, who were unconcerned in the event, could only gain by the indiscriminate pillage ; and the face of the city exhibited the strange contrast of stern cruelty, and dissolute intemperance. t Forty days after this calami- tous event, the subject, not of glory, but of guilt, Italy was delivered, by a painful disease, from the tyrant Eicimer, who bequeathed the command of his army to his nephew Gundo- bald, one of the princes of the Burgundians. In the same ecclesiastical distribution, which had been recently made by Simplicius, the reigning pope, two of the seven regions, or parishes of Rome, depended on the church of St. Peter. See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 67. It would require a tedious dissertation to mark the circumstances, in which I am inclined to depart from -the topography of that learned Roman. * Nuper Anthemii et Ricimeris civili furore subversa est. Gelasrus in Epist. ad Andromach. apud Baron. A.D. 496, No. 42. Sigonius, (torn, i, 1. 14, de Occidentali Imperio, p. 542, 543) and Muratori, (Annali d'ltalia, torn, iv, p. 308, 309) with the aid of a less imperfect MS. of the Historia Miscella. have illustrated this dark and bloody transaction. ( Such had been the saova ac deformis urbe tota facies, when Rome was assaulted and stormed by the troops of Vespasian (see Tacit. Hist. 3. 82, 83) ; and every cause of mischief had since acquired much additional energy. The revolution of ages may bring round the same- calamities ; but ages may revolve, without A.D. 472-475.] JULIUS NEPOS AND GLYCEBIUS. 93 year, all the principal actors in this great revolution were removed from the stage ; and the whole reign of Olybrius, whose death does not betray any symptoms of violence, is included within the term of seven months. He left one daughter, the offspring of his marriage with Placidia ; and the family of the great Theodosius, transplanted from Spain to Constantinople, was propagated in the female line as far as the eighth generation.* Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to law- less barbarians,t the election of a new colleague was seriously agitated in the council of Leo. The empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness of her own family, had married one of her nieces to Julius Nepos, who succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in the sovereignty of Dal- matia, a more solid possession than the title which he wag persuaded to accept, of emperor of the "West. But the measures of the Byzantine court were so languid and irresolute, that many months elapsed after the death of Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor could show himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects. During that interval, Glycerins, an obscure soldier, was invested with the purple by his patron Gundobald; but the Burgundian prince was unable, or unwilling, to support his nomination by a civil war: the pursuits of domestic ambition recalled him beyond the Alps,! and his client was permitted to exchange the Roman sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After extinguishing such a competitor, the emperor Nepos was acknowledged by the senate, by the Italians,, and by the provincials of Gaul ; his moral virtues, and military talents, were loudly cele- brated ; and those who derived any private benefit from his producing a Tacitus to describe them. * See Ducange, Familise Byzantin. p. 74, 75. Areobindus, who appears to have married the niece of the emperor Justinian, was the eighth descendant of the elder Theodosius. f The last revolutions of the western empire are faintly marked in Theophanes (p. 102), Jornandes (c. 45, p. 679), the Chronicle of Marcellinus, and the fragments of an anonymous writer, published by Valesius at the end of Ammianus (p. 716, 717). If fchotius had not been so wretchedly concise, we should derive much information from the contemporary histories of Malchus and Can- didus. See his Extracts, p. 172179. See Greg. Turon. 1. 2, c. 28, in torn, ii, p. 175. Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn, i, p. 613. By the murder, or deal.h, of his two brothers, Gundobald acquired the sole possession of the kingdom of Burgundy, whose ruin was hastened 94 ABDICATION OF NEPOS. [CH. XTTTL government, announced, in prophetic strains, the restora- tion of the public felicity.* Their hopes (if such hopes had been entertained) were confounded within the term of a single year ; and the treaty of peace, which ceded Auvergne to the Visigoths, is the only event of his short and inglorious reign. The most faithful subjects of Gaul were sacrificed by the Italian emperor, to the hope of domestic security ;t but his repose was soon invaded by a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the command of Orestes, their general, were in full march from Home to Ravenna, Nepos trembled at their approach; and, instead of placing a just confidence in the strength of Ravenna, he hastily escaped to his ships, and retired. to his Dalmatian princi- pality, on the opposite coast of the Hadriatic. By thia shameful abdication, he protracted his life about five years, in a very ambiguous state, between an emperor and an exile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the ungrateful Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps M the reward of his crime, to the archbishopric of Milan. J The nations who had asserted their independence after the death of Attila, were established, by the right of pos- session or conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube ; or in the Roman provinces between the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the army of confederates, who formed the defence and the terror of Italy ; and in this promiscuous multitude, the by their discord. * Julius Nepos armis pariter summua Augustus ac moribus. Sidonius, L 5, ep. 16, p. 146, Nepos had given to Ecdicius the title of patrician, which Anthemius had promised, decessoris Anthemii fidem absolvit. See L 8, ep. 7, p. 224. t Epiphanius was sent ambassador from Nepos to the Visigoths, for the purpose of ascertaining the fines Imperil Italici. (Etinodius in Sinnond. torn, i, p. 1665 1669.) His pathetic discourse concealed the disgraceful secret, which soon excited the just and bitter com- plaints of the bishop of Clermont. Malchus, apud Phot. p. 172. Ennod. Epigram. L 82, in Sinnond Oper. torn, i, p. 1879. Some doubt may however be raised on the identity of the emperor and the archbishop. [According to Zedler, who may be trusted, because bis authorities are always good, the ex-emperor Glycerius died bishop of Salona, in the year 480. (Lexicon. 10. 1729.) But (Ib. 23. 1750) he instigated the murder of Julius Nepos. Marcellinus (Chron. ad cons. Basilii) says that this deed was perpetrated by two of his comitet, Viator and Ovida. The latter is named Odiva by Cassiodorus. ED.] Our knowledge of these mercenaries, who subverted the Western wnpire, is derived from Procopius (De EclL Gothico, L 1, c. 1, p. 308). A.D. 475.] OEESTES. 95 names of the Heruli, the Seym, the Alani,'the Turcilingi, and the Eugians, appear to have predominated. The example of these warriors was imitated by Orestes,* the son of Tatul- lus, and the father of the last Eoman emperor of the "West. Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this history, had never deserted his country. His birth and fortunes rendered him one of the most illustrious subjects of Pan- nonia. When that province was ceded to the Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign, obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the person, and signify the commands, of the imperious monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him to his freedom, and Orestes might honourably refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian princes, the successors of Valen- tinian ; and, as he possessed the qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with rapid steps in the military profession, till he was elevated, by the favour of Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician, and master- general of the troops. These troops had been long accus- tomed to reverence the character and authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their own language, and was intimately connected with their national chieftains, by long habits of familiarity and friend- ship. At his solicitation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, who presumed to claim their obedience; and when Orestes, from some secret motive, declined the purple, they consented, with the same facility, to acknowledge his son Augustulus, as the emperor of the West. By the abdi- The popular opinion, and the recent historians, represent Odoacer in the false light of a stranger and a king, who invaded Italy with an army of foreigners, his native subjects. [Gibbon's subsequent sketch of the early life and rise of Odoacer, explains this note. The origin of the popular error which made him a king of the Heruli, will be shown at ch. 39. In this stage of history, it is desirable to observe, as closely as possible, every ascertained bearing on the minds that rode aloft in the whirlwind of change and directed the storm. ED.] * Orestes, qui eo tempore quando Attila ad Italiam venit, se illi junxit, et ejus notarius factus fuerat. Anonym. Vales, p. 716. He is mistaken in the date ; but we may credit his assertion, that tha secretary of Attila was the father of Augustulu*. 96 AUGTTSTULTJS, LAST WESTERN EMPEBOE. [CH. XXTVI. cation of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the summit of his ambitions hopes ; but he soon discovered, before the end of the first year, that the lessons of perjury and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be retorted against him- self ; and that the precarious sovereign of Italy was only permitted to choose, whether he would be the slave, or the victim, of his barbarian mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last remains of Eoman freedom and dignity. At each revolu- tion, their pay and privileges were augmented ; but their insolence increased in a still more extravagant degree ; they envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted on their peremptory demand, that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit which, in another situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose rather to encounter the rage of an armed multitude, than to subscribe the ruin of an innocent people. He rejected the audacious demand; and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer; a bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers, that, if they dared to associate under his command, they might soon extort the justice which had been denied to their dutiful petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy, the confederates, actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes, im- patiently flocked to the standard of this popular leader ; and the unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily retreated to the strong city of Pavia, the episcopal seat of the holy Epiphanius. Pavia was immediately besieged, the fortifications were stormed, the town was pil- laged; and although the bishop might labour with much zeal and some success, to save the property of the church, and the chastity of female captives, the tumult could only be appeased by the execution of Orestes.* His brother Paul was slain in an action near Kavenna ; and the helpless Augustulus, who could no longer command the respect, was reduced to implore the clemency, of Odoacer. That successful barbarian was the son of Edecon ; who, * See Ennodiua (in Vit. Epiphan. Sirmond, torn, i, p. 1669, 1670.1 He adds weight to the narrative of Procopius, though we may douot whether the devil actually coatrived the siege of Pavia, to distress the JL.D. 476-490.] ODOACEB, KIKG OF ITALY. 97 in some remarkable transactions, particularly described in a preceding chapter, had been the colleague of Orestes himself. The honour of an ambassador should be exempt from suspicion ; and Edecon had listened to a conspiracy against the life of his sovereign. But this apparent guilt was expiated by his merit or repentance ; his rank was eminent and conspicuous ; he enjoyed the favour of Attila ; and the troops under his command', who guarded, in their turn, the royal village, consisted of a tribe of Scyrri, his immediate and hereditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they still adhered to the Huns ; and, more than twelve years afterwards, the name of Edecon is honourably mentioned, in their unequal contest with the Ostrogoths ; which was terminated, after two bloody battles, by the defeat and dispersion of the Scyrri.* Their gallant leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left two sons, Onulf and Odoacer, to struggle with adversity, and to main- tain as they might, by rapine or service, the faithful fol- lowers of their exile. Onulf directed his steps towards Constantinople, where he sullied, by the assassination of a generous benefactor, the fame which he had acquired in arms. His brother Odoacer led a wandering life among the barbarians of Noricum, with a mind and a fortune suited to the most desperate adventures ; and when he had fixed his choice, he piously visited the cell of Severinus, the popular saint of the country, to solicit his approbation and blessing. The lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer : he was obliged to stoop ; but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the symptoms of his future greatness ; and addressing him in a prophetic tone, " Pur- sue," said he, "your design; proceed to Italy; you will soon cast away this coarse garment of skins ; and your wealth will be adequate to the liberality of your mind."f The barbarian, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified the bishop and his flock. * Jornandes, c. 53, 54, p. 692 695. M. de Buat (Hist, dea Peuples de 1'Europe, torn, viii, p. 221 228) has clearly explained the origin and adventures of Odoacer. I am almost inclined to believe that he was the same who pillaged Angers, and commanded a fleet of Saxon pirates on the ocean. Greg. Turon. 1. 2, c. 18, in torn, ii, p. 170. ( Vade ad Italiam, vade vilissimia nunc pellibus coopertis : sed multis cito plurima largiturus. Anonym, Vales, p. 717. He quotes the life of St. Severinus, which is extant, and contains much unknown and valuable history ; it was coicposed VOL. IV. H 98 EXTINCTION OF THE [CH. XXXVI. prediction, was admitted into the service of the "Western empire, and soon obtained an honourable rank in the guards. His manners were gradually polished, his military skill waa improved, and the confederates of Italy would not have elected him for their general, unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high opinion of his courage and capacity.* Their military acclamations saluted him with the title of King : but he abstained, during his whole reign, from the use of the purple and diadem,t lest he should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their accidental mixture, had formed the victorious army which time and policy might insensibly unite into a great nation. Eoyalty was familiar to the barbarians, and the submis- sive people of Italy was prepared to obey, without a mur- mur, the authority which he should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the West. But Odoacer had resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office : and such is the weight of antique prejudice, that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace ; he signified his resignation to the senate ; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Eoman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom, and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo ; who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They solemnly " disclaim the necessity, or even the wish, of continuing any longer the imperial succession by his disciple Eugippius (A.D. 511), thirty years after his death. See Tillemont, Me"m. Eccle"s. torn, xvi, p. 168 181. * Theophanes, who calls him a Goth, affirms, that he was educated and nursed (rpacdtiTo.,-) in Italy (p. 102); and as this strong expression will not bear a literal interpretation, it must be explained by long service in the imperial guards. ) Nomen regis Odoacer as*umpsit, cum tamen iieque purpura nee regalibus uteretur insiguibus. Cassiodor. in Chron. A.D. 476. He seems to have assumed the abstract title of a king, without applying it to any particular nation or country. [It has been said that Odoacer never exercised the prerogative of coin- ing money. One of his silver pieces exists, however, in the imperial cabinet at Vienna. It was among the numismatic treasures discovered in Hungary in the years 1797 and 1805, of which M. Steinbiichel, the successor of Eckhel, published an account in 1826. See the Notes of Eckhel's Editor, Num. Vet. vol. viii, p. 82. 203.- ED.] A.D. 47G OB 479.] WESTERN EMPIBE. f)9 in Italy; since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and protect, at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name, and in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constan- tinople ; and they basely renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet remained of the authority which had given laws to the world. The republic," they repeat that name without a blush, "might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request, that the emperor would invest him with the title of patrician, and the administration of the diocese of Italy." The deputies of the senate were received at Con- stantinople with some marks of displeasure and indignation; and when they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he sternly reproached them with their treatment of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the East had suc- cessively granted to the prayers of Italy. " The first," continued he, "you have murdered; the second you have expelled ; but the second is still alive, and whilst he lives he is your lawful sovereign." But the prudent Zeno soon, deserted the hopeless cause of his abdicated colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of sole emperor, and by the statues erected to his honour in the several quarters of Rome; he entertained a friendly, though ambiguous, correspondence with the patrician Odoacer ; and he grate- fully accepted the imperial ensigns, the sacred ornaments of the throne and palace, which the barbarian was not unwilling to remove from the sight of the people.* In the space of twenty years since the death of Valenti- nian nine emperors had successively disappeared ; and the son of Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign, which was marked by the extinction of the Roman empire in the West, did not leave a memorable era in the history of mankind.f The patrician Orestes had married * Malchus, whose loss excites our regret, has preserved (in Excerpt Legat. p. 93) this extraordinary embassy from the senate to Zeno. The anonymous fragment (p. 717), and the extract from Candidas, (apud Phot. p. 176) are likewise of some use. f The precise year in which the Western empire was extinguished is Dot positively ascertained. The vulgar era of A.D. 476, appeart to 11 2 100 ATTGTJSTULTJS IS BANISHED TO [CH. XXTVT. the daughter of count Bomulus, of Petovio m Noricum: the name of Augustus, notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was known at Aquileia as a familiar surname ; and the appel- lations of the two great founders of the city and of the monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their successors.* The son of Orestes assumed and disgraced the names of Eomulus Augustus; but the first was cor- rupted into Momylus, by the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the Latins into the contemptible diminu- tive Augustulus. The life of this inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer ; who dis- missed him, with his whole family, from the imperial palace, fixed his annual allowance at six thousand pieces of gold, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in Campania, for the place of his exile or retirement.f As soon as the Romans breathed from the toils of the Punic war, they were attracted by the beauties and the pleasures of Campania; and the country-house of the elder Scipio, at Liternum, exhibited a have the sanction of authentic chronicles. But the two dates assigned by Jornandes (c. 46, p. 680), would delay that great event to the year 479 : and though M. de Buat has overlooked Ms evidence, he produces (torn, viii, p. 261 288) many collateral circumstances in support of the same opinion. [Clinton (F. R. i. 684) cites Jornandes (Get. c. 44, and De Regn. p. 709) as a concurrent authority with Cassiod. Chron. for the year 476. The date is determined by the second consulship of Basiliscus, whose usurpation ended in 477. Eckhel (8. 203) has no coins ot Romulus later than Aug. 22, A.D. 476. ED.] * See his medals in Ducange (Fam. Byzantin. p. 81), Priscus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 56.) Maffei (Osservazioni Letterarie, torn, ii, p. 314.) We may allege a famous and similar case. The meanest subjects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of patricius, which, by the conversion of Ireland, has been communicated to a whole nation. [The medals of the son of Orestes exhibit only Romulus as his real name, and Augustus as the usual imperial title. There was here no unusual or affected assumption of names. Those of Augustulus, Momulus, or Momylus, were mockeries, by which the contempt of his subjects was expressed ; they were never recorded on coins. Eckhel, 8. 203. Gibbon has too hastily adopted his illustration of the similarly assumed illus- trious name of Patricius. The apostle of Ireland was not a subject of the Roman empire. As already observed, (ch. 30) he was born in Scot- land, and through all the first years of his life, known only by the name of Succoth. That of Patricius, afterwards adopted, could scarcely give him importance among the people of Ireland, by whom its mean- ing was not understood. ED.] t Ingrediens autem Ravennam deposuit Augustulum de regno, cujus infantiam misertus concessit ei sanguined ; et quia pulcher erat, tamea A.D 476 OB 479.] THE LUCULLAN VILLA. 101 lasting model of their rustic simplicity.* The delicious shores of the bay of Naples were crowded with villas ; and Sylla applauded the masterly skill of his rival, who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of Misenum, that commands, on every side, the sea and land, as far as the boundaries of the horizon.t The villa of Marius was pur- chased, within a few years, by Lucullus, and the price had increased from two thousand five hundred, to more than fourscore thousand, pounds sterling. | It was adorned by the new proprietor with Grecian arts and Asiatic treasures; and the houses and gardens of Lucullus obtained a dis- tinguished rank in the list of imperial palaces. When the Vandals became formidable to the sea-coast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory of Misenum, gradually assumed the strength and appellation of a strong castle, the obscure retreat of the last emperor of the West. About twenty years after that great revolution, it was converted into a church and monastery, to receive the bones of St. Severinus. They securely reposed, amidst the broken trophies of Cimbrie and Armenian victories, till the beginning of the tenth century ; when the fortifications, which might afford a dangerous shelter to the Saracens, were demolished by the people of Naples.^" donavit ei reditum sex millia solidoa, et misit eum intra Catnpaniam cum parentibus suis libere vivere. Anonym. Vales, p. 716. Jornandes says (c. 46, p. 680), in Lucullano Campanise castello exilii poena damnavit. * See the eloquent Declamation of Seneca, (epist. 86.) The philosopher might have recollected, that all luxury is relative ; and that the elder Scipio, whose manners were polished by study and conversation, was himself accused of that vice by his ruder contem- poraries. (Livy, 29. 19.) -f- Sylla, in the language of a soldier, praised his peritia castrametandi. (Plin. Hist. Natur. 18. 7.) Phsedrus, who makes its shady walks (Iceta viridia) the scene of an insipid fable, (2. 5) has thus described the situation : Caesar Tiberius quum petens Neapolim, In Misenensem villam venisset suam; Quae monte summo posita Luculli manu Prospectat Sieulum et prospicit Tuscum mare. J From seven myriads and a half to two hundred and fifty myriads of drachmae. Yet even in the possession of Marius, it was a luxurious retirement. The Romans derided his indolence : they soon bewailed his activity. See Plutarch, in Mario, torn, ii, p. 524. Lucullus had other villas of equal though various magnificence, at Baiae, Naples, Tusculum, &c. He boasted that he changed his climate with the storks and cranes. Plutarch, in Lucull. torn, iii, p. 193. *G Sererinus died in Koiicum, A.D. 432. Six years afterwards, his 102 DECAY OF THE KOMAN SPIRIT. [CH XXXVI. Odoacer was the first barbarian who reigned in 11%, over a people who had once asserted their just superiority above the rest of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans still excites our respectful compassion, and we fondly sympathize with the imaginary grief and indignation of their degenerate posterity. But the calamities of Italy had gradually sub- dued the proud consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue, the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws, of the republic ; till those laws were subverted by civil discord, and both the city and the provinces became the senile property of a tyrant. The forms of the constitution, which alleviated or disguised their abject slavery, were abolished by time and violence ; the Italians alternately lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereigns, whom they detested or despised ; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various evils of military licence, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppres- sion.* During the same period, the barbarians had emerged from obscurity and contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into the provinces, as the servants, the allies, and at length the masters, of the Romans, whom they insulted or protected. The hatred of the people was suppressed by fear ; they respected the spirit and splendour of the martial chiefs who were invested with the honours of the empire ; and the fate of Rome had long depended on the sword of those formidable strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had exercised the power, without assuming the title, of a king ; and the patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknow- ledge the royalty of Odoacer and his barbaric successors. The king of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to which his valour and fortune had exalted him ; his savage manners were polished by the habits of conversation ; and body, which scattered miracles as it passed, was transported by hia disciples into Italy. The devotion of a Neapolitan lady invited the eaint to the Lucullan villa, in the place o a Augustulus, who was pro- bably no more. See Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 50, 51) and Tillemont, Me"m. Boole's, torn, xvi, p. 178181) irom the original life by Eugippius. The narrative of the last migration of Severinus to Naples, is likewise an authentic piece. * [This concise recapitulation of the evils to which Gibbon attributes Rome's decay, may here permit a repetition of the remark, that these could not of themselves have produced such dire consequences, had not the public mind been previously enfeebled. Sacerdotal tyranny, cloaking itself A.D. 476-490.] CHABACTEB OP ODOACEB. 103 he respected, though a conqueror and a barbarian, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his subjects. After an interval of seven years, Odoacer restored the consulship of the West. For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an honour which was still accepted by the emperors of the East ; but the curule chair was successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators ;* and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues claimed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. f The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil administration ol Italy was still exercised by the praetorian prefect, and his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue ; but he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence. J Like the rest of the barbarians, he had been instructed in the Ariaii heresy ; but he revered the monastic and episcopal charac- ters ; and the silence of the Catholics attests the toleration which they enjoyed. The peace of the city required the interposition of his prefect Basilius in the choice of a Koman pontiff: the decree which restrained the clergy from alienating their lands, was ultimately designed for the benefit of the people, whose devotion would have been, taxed to repair the dilapidations of the church. Itaty was protected by the arms of its conqueror ; and its frontiers were respected by the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, in the reverend mantle of Christianity, had everywhere exacted the submission, and gradually destroyed the resources, of self-dependent intellect. ED.] * The consular Fasti may be found in Pagi or Muratori. The consuls named by Odoacer, or perhaps by the Roman senate, appear to have been acknowledged in the Eastern empire. "f- Sidonius Apollinaris (1. 1, epist. 9, p. 22, edit. Sirmond) has compared the two leading senators of his time (A.D. 468), Gennadius Avienus and Csecina Basilius. To the former he assigns the specious, to the latter the solid, virtues of public and private life. A Basilius junior, possibly his son, was consul in the year 480. J Epiphanius interceded for the people of Pavia ; and the king first granted an indulgence of five years, and afterwards relieved them from the oppression of Pelagius, the praetorian prefect. (Ennodius, in Vit. St. Epiphan. in Sirmond. Oper. torn, i, p. 1670. 1672.) See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 483, No. 10 15. Sixteen yeara afterwards, the irregular proceedings of Basilius were condemned by pope Symmachus in a Roman synod. [Pope Symmachus must not be confounded with his contemporary the senator of the same name and father-in-law of Eoethius. The zeal and determination of this pontiff 101 DEFEAT OF THE TUGTANS. [CH. X1XY1. who had BO long insulted the feeble race of Theodpsius. Odoacer passed the Hadriatic, to chastise the assassins of the emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the remains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The king was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner ; a numerous colony of captives and subjects was transplanted into Italy ; and Rome, after a long period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her barbarian master.* Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his kingdom exhibited the sad prospect of misery and desola- tion. Since the age of Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy ; and it was a just subject of complaint, that the life of the Roman people depended on the accidents of the winds and waves.f In the division and the decline of the empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn ; the numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of subsistence ; and the country was exhausted by the irretrievable losses of war, famine,J to extend the power of the church, are ably shown in Zedler's Lexicon, 41. 711. ED.] * The wars of Odoacer are concisely men- tioned by Paul the deacon, (De Gest. Langobard. 1. 1, c. 19, p. 757, edit. Grot.) and in the two Chronicles of Cassiodorus and Cuspinian. The life of St. Severinus, by Eugippius, which the count de Buat (Hist, des Peuples, &i\tpti)Ta.Tov yap TI \pi]fia IIQ avdpwTrovs iXOovrra irapa QEOV r) rotavrr] 0i\offo0ia. These are the expressive words of Sozomen, who copiously and agreeably describes (1. 1, c. 1214) the origin and progress of this monkish philosophy. (See Suicer. Thesaur. Eccles. torn, ii, p. 1441.) Some modern writers, Lipsius, (torn, iv, p. 448. Manuduct. ad Philos. Stoic. 3. 13) and La Mothe le Vayer (torn, ix, de la Vertu des Payens, p. 228 262), have compared the Carmelites to the Pythagoreans, and the Cynics to the Capuchins. + The Carmelites derive their pedigree, in regular succession, from the prophet Elijah. (See the Theses of Beziers, A.D. 1682, in Bayle's Nouvelles de la Re"publique des Lettres, CEuvres, torn, i, p. 82, &c, and. ihe prolix irony of the Ordres Monastiques, an anonymous work, torn, i, p. 1 433, Berlin, 1751.) Rome and the inquisition of Spain Bilenced the profane criticism of the Jesuits of Flanders (Helyot, Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, torn, i, p. 282 300) ; and the statue of Elijah, the Carmelite, has been erected in the church of St. Peter. (Voyages du P. Labat. torn, iii, p. 87.) Plin. Hist. Natur. 5. 15. Gens sola, et in toto orbe prater cseteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecuuia, socia palmarum. Ita per seculorum millia (incredibile dictu) gens aeterna est in qua nemo nascitur. Tarn ffficunda illis aliorum vitse pcenitentia est. He places them just beyond the noxious influence of the lake, and names Engaddi and Masada as the nearest towns. The Laura, and monastery of St. Sabas, could not be far distant from this place. See Reland. Palestin. torn, i, p. 295; torn, ii, p. 763. 874. 880. 890. See Athanas. Op. torn, n, p. 450505, and the Vit. Patrum, p. 2674, with Rosweyde'a Annotations. The iormer is the Greek original; the latter, a very ncient Latin version by Evagrius, the friend of St. Jerome. U Tpa^ara /up pdQtiv OVK rji/saxfro. Athanaa. torn, ii, in Vifc, A.D. 305.] MONKS OF EGYPT. 109 of the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony,* de- serted his family and native home, and executed bis monastic penance with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful noviciate among the tombs and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile ; discovered a lonely spot, which pos- sessed the advantages of shade and water, and fixed his last residence on mount Colzim near the Red Sea; where an St. Anton, p. 452, and the assertion of his total ignorance has been received by many of the ancients and moderns. But Tillemont (Me'm. Eccle"s. torn, vii, p. 666) shows, by some probable arguments, that Antony could read and write in the Coptic, his native tongue ; and that he was only a stranger to the Greek letters. The philosopher Synesius (p. 51) acknowledges that the natural genius of Antony did not require the aid of learning. [Neander (vol. iii, p. 323) supplies a more correct account of Antony's first movements, and the origin of a regular monastic lite. " In the fourth century, men were not agreed on the question as to who was to be considered the founder of monasti- cism, whether Paul or Antony. If by this was to be understood the individual from whom the spread of this mode ot life proceeded, the name was unquestionably due to the latter, for if Paul was the first Christian hermit, yet, without the influence of Antony, he must have remained unknown to the rest of the Christian world, and would have found no followers. Before Antony, there may have been many who by inclination or by peculiar circumstances, were led to adopt this mode of life ; but they remained at least unknown. The first, who is named by tradition which in this case it must be confessed is entitled to little confidence and much distorted by fable is the above-mentioned Paul. He is said to have been moved by the Decian persecution, to withdraw himself, when a young man, to a grotto in a remote mountain. To this mode of life he became attached, and was supplied with food and raiment by a neighbouring palm tree. Antony having heard of him, visited him and made him known to others." After reciting this story, Neander questions its authenticity. Yet Athanasius, in his Life of Antony, states, that the excited youth " heard of a venerable old man, who was living as an ascetic, on the border of a neighbouring village. He sought him out and made him his pattern." Whether the old man's name was Paul or not, is quite unimportant ; we see how Antony's early propensity for solitude became more decided. He first breathed a spirit into the inert mass of asceticism ; and Atha- nasius, ever quick in discerning and improving advantages, accelerated, regulated, and directed the movement. The patriarch of Alexandria, if not the actual parent, was, by his patronage, the godfather and rearer of monasticism. ED.] * Arurce autem erant ;i trecentae uberes, et valde optimse. (Vit. Patr. 1. 1, p. 36.) It the Arura be a square measure of a hundred Egyptian cubits, (Rosweyde, Onomasticon ad Vit. Patrum, p. 1014, 1015) and the Egyptian cubit of all ages be equal to twenty-two English inches (Greaves, vol. i, p. 233), the arura will consist of about three quarters of an English acre. 110 pAcnoiiius. L CH ancient monastery still preserves the name and memory of the saint.* The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert ; and when he was obliged to appear at Alex- andria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Atha- nasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain and adjacent desert of Nitria, were peopled by five thousand anachorets ; and the traveller may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony, f In the Upper Thebais. the vacant island of TabenneJ was occupied by Pachomius, and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine * The description of the monastery is given by Jerome (torn, i, p. 248, 249, in Vit. Hilarion.) and the P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, torn, v, p. 122 200.) Their accounts cannot always be reconciled : the father painted from his fancy, and the Jesuit from his experience. + Jerome, torn, i, p. 146, ad Eustochium. Hist. Lausiac. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 712. The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, torn, ii, p. 29 79) visited, and has described, this desert, which now contains four monasteries, and twenty or thirty monks. See D'Anville, Description de 1'Egypte, p. 74. [M. Guizot, quoting Planck (Hist. Ecc. 1. 14. 3) says that, " The persecutions of Diocletian contributed largely to fill the desert with Christian fugitives, who preferred safety as anchorites, to glory as martyrs." To which it may be added from Neander, that Antony was born in 251, and consequently more than fifty years of age when Diocletian's decrees were issued. It is, therefore, very probable that the example of his security attracted many at that time to seek such an asylum. In the year 311, his reputation for Bauctity was so great, that having occasion to visit Alexandria during the persecution, renewed by Maximin, "while other monks who had come into the city concealed themselves, Antony appeared in public, yet no one dared to touch him." ED.] Tabenne is a small island in the Nile, in the diocese of Tentyra or Dendera, between the modern town of Girge and the ruins of ancient Thebes. (D'Anville, p. 194.) M. de Tillemont doubts whether it was An isle ; but I may conclude, from his own facts, that the primitive name was afterwards transferred to the great monastery f Bau or Pabau. (Mdm, Boole's, torn, vii, p. 678. 638.) A..D. 341.] MONASTIC LIFE IN HOME. Ill monasteries of men, and one of "women ; and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons, \vho followed his angelic rule of discipline.* The stately and populous city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses ; and the bishop, who might preach in twelve churches, com- puted ten thousand females, and twenty thousand males, of the monastic profession.f The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope, and to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the remainder of the people,^ and posterity might repeat the saying, which had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the same country, that, in Egypt, it was less difficult to find a god than a man. Athanasius introduced into Eome the knowledge and practice of the monastic life ; and a school of this new philosophy was opened by the ^disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited at first horror and contempt, and at length applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and fillas into religious houses ; and the narrow institution of six vestals was eclipsed by the frequent monasteries which were seated on the ruins of ancient temples, and in the midst of the Roman Forum. Inflamed by the example of * See, in the Codex Regularum (published by Lucas Holstenius, Rome, 1661), a preface of St. Jerome to his Latin version of the Rule of Pachomius, torn, i, p. 61. t Rufin. c. 5, in Vit. Patrum, p. 459. He calls it, civitas ampla valde et populosa, and reckons twelve churches. Strabo (1. 17, p. 1166) and Ammianus (22. 16) have made honourable mention of Oxyrinchus, whose inhabitants adored a small fish in a magnificent temple. J Quanti populi habeutur inurbibus, tantse psene habentur in desertis multitudines monachorum. Rufin. c. 7, in Vit. Patrum, p. 461. He congratulates the fortunate change. The introduction of the monastic life into Rome and Italy is occasionally mentioned by Jerome (torn, i, p. 119, 120. 199). [Monastic institutions were largely indebted, during their early growth, to the vigorous intellect of Athanasius. His biography of Antony proves the interest which he took in them, and reveals hia guiding hand. In the year 352, he ordered the patriarch of asceticism, then a hundred years old, to visit Alexandria, that he might assist in putting down Arianism, favoured and supported by the emperor 112 BA.SIL IN PONTUS. [CH. XXXVII, Antony, a Syrian youth whose name was Hilarion,* fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between the sea and a morass, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere pen- ance, in which he persisted forty-eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm ; and the holy man was followed by a train ot two or three thousand anachorets, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil t is immortal in the monastic history of the east. With a mind that had tasted the learning and eloquence of Athens; with an ambition, scarcely to be satisfied by the archbishopric of Ca3sarea, Basil retired to a savage solitude in Pontus ; and deigned for awhile to give Constantius. The appearance of the archbishop's celebrated friend made so great a sensation, that even Pagans crowded to church that they might see " the man of God," and the diseased pressed round him to touch his garments, in the hope of being healed. In the few days of his residence, more were converted to Christianity and ortho- doxy, than during a year at other times. (Neander, 3, p. 231.) The six years of his next exile (356 361) were passed by Athanasius in the deserts of Thebais. Antony was dead, but the primate of Egypt was welcomed and sheltered in the numerous monasteries that had risen there ; nor can it be doubted that he employed himself in dis- ciplining their inmates, and digesting for them the rules of Pacho- mius. The monks were, on all occasions, his faithful guardians, cunning emissaries, and discreet ministers. In the West, monachism was altogether introduced and recommended by him. It found at first little favour there, but his powerful intervention soon secured for it a warm reception. " Athanasius was the first who, during his residence at different times, when banished from the East, among the Western people, introduced among them a better knowledge of the Oriental monachism. His biographical account of the monk Antony, which was early translated into the Latin, had a great influence in this matter." (Neander, 3. 367.) He made the bishops sensible of the advantages to be derived from it, and the most eminent leaders of the Western church continued during the next eighty years, to aid its progress. Eusebius ol Vercelli, Ambrose of Milan, Martin of Tours, Jerome and Augustin, all " contributed still farther to awaken and diffuse this tendency of the Christian spirit in Italy, in Gaul, and in Africa." ED.] * See the life of Hilarion, by St. Jercme (torn, i, p. 241. 252.) The stories ot Paul, Hilarion, and Malchus, by the same author, are admirably told ; and the only defect of these pleasing compositions is the want ol truth and common sense. f His original retreat was in a small village on the banks of the Iris, not far from Neo-Csesarea. The ten or twelve years of his monastic life were disturbed by long and frequent avocations. Some critics have disputed the authenticity of his ascetic rules; but the external evidence is weighty, and they can only prove that it is the vork of a real or aflected enthusiast. See Tillemont, Me"m. Eccle"s. A.D. 370.] MAETITT IN GAUL. 113 laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely scattered along the coast of the Black sea. In the west, Martin of Tours,* a soldier, a hermit, a bishop, and a saint, established the monasteries of Gaul : two thousand of his disciples followed him to the grave; and his eloquent historian challenges the deserts of Thebais to produce, in a more favourable climate, a champion of equal virtue. The pro- gress of the monks was not less rapid or universal than that of Christianity itself. Every province, and, at last, every city of the empire was filled with their increasing multitudes ; and the bleak aud barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arise out of the Tuscan sea, were chosen by the anachorets for the place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and land connected the provinces of the Eoman world; and the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the island of Cyprus.f The Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Home. The pilgrims who visited Jerusalem eagerly copied, in the most distant climates of the earth, the faithful model of the monastic life. The disciples of Antony spread them- selves beyond the tropic, over the Christian empire of JEthiopia.J The monastery of Banchor, in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the barbarians of Ireland,^" and lona, one of Hebrides, which was planted by the Irish torn, ix, p. 636 644. Helyot, Hist, des Ordres Monastiques, torn, i, p. 175 181. * See his Life, and the Three Dialogues by Sulpicius Severus, who asserts (Dialog. 1. 16) that the booksellers of Rome were delighted with the quick and ready sale of his popular work. 1* When Hilarion sailed from Parsetonium to Cape Pachynus, he offered to pay his passage with a book of the Gospels. Posthumian, a Gallic monk, who had visited Egypt, found a merchant- ship bound from Alexandria to Marseilles, and performed the voyage in thirty days. (Sulp. Sever. Dialog. 1. 1.) Athanasius, who addressed his Life of St. Antony to the foreign monks, was obliged to hasten the composition, that it might be ready for the sailing of the fleets (torn, ii, p. 451). See Jerome (torn, i, p. 126), Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient, torn, iv, p. 92. p. 857919), and Geddes (Church History of .^Ethiopia, p. 29 31.) The Abyssinian monks adhere very strictly to the primitive institution. Camden's Britannia, vol. i, p. 666, 667. IT All that learning can extract from the rubbish of the dark ages is copiously stated by archbishop Usher, in hia Britnn^-arum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, cap. 16, p. 425 503. VOL. IT. I 114 CAUSES or THE BAPID [OH XXXVII. monks, diffused over the northern regions a doubtful ray of science and superstition.* These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the dark and implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution was supported by the example of millions, of either sex, of every age, and of every rank ; and each pro- selyte, who entered the gates of a monastery, was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happi- ness.f But the operation of these religious motives was variously determined by the temper and situation of man- kind. Eeason might subdue, or passion might suspend, their influence ; but they acted most forcibly on the infirm minds of children and females ; they were strengthened by secret remorse, or accidental misfortune ; and they might derive some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest. It was naturally supposed that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their salvation, were the best quali- fied for the spiritual government of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his cell and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people, on the episcopal throne : the monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the east, supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops ; and ambition soon * This small, though not barren, spot, lona, Hy, or ColumbkilL. only two miles in length, and one mile in breadth, has been distin- guished, 1. By the monastery of St. Columba, founded A.D. 566, whose abbot exercised an extraordinary jurisdiction over the bishops of Caledonia. 2. By a classic library, which afforded some hopes of an entire Livy ; and, 3. By the tombs of sixty kings, Scots, Irish, and Norwegians; who reposed in holy ground. See Usher (p. 311. 360 370) and Buchanan (Rer. Scot. 1. 2, p. 15, edit. Ruddiman). [The original accounts of Columba and his monastery are to be found in the Chron. Sax. A.D. 565, and in Bede's Ecc. Hist. 1. iii c. 4. (Bohn's edit. p. 113, 114, 313.) Columbkill was a name, not of the island, but of the saint. (Ib. p. 248.) He has by some been confounded with his contemporary Columbanus, who founded the monasteries of Luxo- vium in Gaul, and of Bobium in Lombardy. Clinton, F. R. ii. 484. ED.] t Chrysostom (in the first tome of the Benedictine edition) has consecrated three books to the praise and defence of the monastic life. He is encouraged, by the example of the ark, to presume, that none but the elect (the monks) can possibly be saved (1. 1, p. 55, 56). Else- where, indeed, he becomes more merciful, (1. 3, p. 83, 84) and allows different degrees of glory, like the sun, moon, and stars. In his lively comparison of a king and a monk, (1. 3, p. 116121) he supposes (what ia hardly fair) that the king will be more sparingly rewarded A.D. 370.] PEOGEESS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE. 115 discovered the secret road which led to the possession of wealth and honours.* The popular monks, whose reputa- tion was connected with the fame and success of the order, assiduously laboured to multiply the number of their fellow- captives. They insinuated themselves into noble and opulent families; and the specious arts of flattery and seduction were employed to secure those proselytes, who might bestow wealth or dignity on the monastic profession. The indig- nant father bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son ;? the credulous maid was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature ; and the matron aspired to imaginary per- fection, by renouncing the virtues of domestic life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of Jerome ;| and the profane title of mother-in-law of G-od, tempted that illus- trious widow to consecrate the virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company of her spiritual guide, Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son, retired to the holy village of Bethlem, founded a hospital and four monasteries, and acquired, by her alms and pen- ance, an eminent and conspicuous station in the Catholic and more rigorously punished. * Thomassin (Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn, i, p. 1426 1469) and Mabillon. (CEuvres Posthumes, torn, ii, p. 115 158.) The monks were gradually adopted as a part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. [This was the regular course, of pro- gressive management. Through successive ages, cathedral and monas- tery rose side by side ; bishops, mitred abbots, and priors, acted in concert to rivet the chains of ignorance on the passive laity. ED.] )- Dr. Middleton (vol. i, p. 110) liberally censures the conduct and writings of Chrysostom, one of the most eloquent and successful advocates for the monastic life. Jerome's devout ladies form a very considerable portion of his works: the particular treatise which he styles the Epitaph of Paula (torn, i, p. 169 192) is an elaborate and extravagant panegyric. The exordium is ridiculously turgid : " If all the members of my body were changed into tongues, and if all my limbs resounded with a human voice, yet should I be incapable," &c. [Such abuses were prohibited by the first statutes that regulated the organization of monasteries. Of a wedded pair, one could not embrace the monastic life without the consent of the other. (Basil. Reg. maj. qu. 12.) A minor was not admitted with- out parental concurrence. (Ib. qu. 15. Cone. Gangr. c. 16.) The owner's leave must be obtained, before a slave could join the fraternity. But the emperor Justinian removed these restraints, and allowed slaves, children, and wives, to be received into monasteries even against the will of masters, parents, and husbands. (Xovell. , c. 2. Cod. Just. 1. 1, torn, iii, leg. 53. 55.) GUIZOT.] Socrus Dei esse ccepisti (Jerome, torn, i, p. 140, ad Eustochium). Rufinus (in Hieronym. Op* I 2 116 OBEDIENCE OP [CH. XXXVU. church. Such rare and illustrious penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of their age ; but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject plebeians,* who gained in the cloister much more than than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and mechanics might escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and honourable profession; whose apparent hardships were mitigated by custom, by popular applause, and by the secret relaxation of disciplined The subjects of Kome, whose persons and fortunes were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the oppres- sion of the imperial government; and the pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the dangers of a military, life. The affrighted provincials, of every rank, who fled before the barbarians, found shelter and subsist- ence; whole legions were buried in these religious sanc- tuaries ; and the same cause, which relieved the distress of individuals, impaired the strength and fortitude of the empire.J The monastic profession of the ancients was an act of torn. iv. p. 223) who was justly scandalized, asks his adversary, From what Pagan poet he had stolen an expression so impious and absurd ? * Nunc autem veniunt plerumque ad hanc professionem servitutis Dei, et ex couditione servili, vel etiam liberati, vel propter hoc a Dominis liberati sive liberandi ; et ex vita rusticana, et ex opificma exercitatione, et plebeio labore. Augustin. de Oper. Monach. c. 22, ap. Thomassin, Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn, iii, p. 1094. The Egyptian, who blamed Arsenius, owned that he led a more comfortable life as a monk, than as a shepherd. See Tillemont, Me"m. Eccle's. torn, xiv, p. 679. t A Dominican friar (Voyages du P. Labat, torn, i, p. 10) who lodged at Cadiz in a convent of his brethren, soon understood that their repose was never interrupted by nocturnal devotion : " quoiqu'on ne laisse pas de sonner pour 1'ldification du peuple." t See a very sensible preface of Lucas Holstenius to the Codex Regularum. The emperors attempted to support the obligation of public and private duties ; but the feeble dykes were swept away by the torrent of superstition ; and Justinian surpassed the most sanguine wishes of the monks. (Thomassin, torn, i, p. 1782 1799, and Bing- ham, 1. 7, c. 3, p. 253.) [A law of the emperor Valens was particularly directed " Contra ignavise quosdam sectatores, qui, desertis civitatum muneribus, captant solitudines ac secreta, et specie religionis, ccetibua monachorum cougregantur." (Cod. Theod. 1. 12, tit. 1, leg. 63. GCIZOT.] [The laws, canons, and rules to which Guizot, in this and his preceding note, refers as palliatives of the evil, were not of long duration ; the influence and perseverance of the priesthood, at no distant period, accomplished their abrogation. ED.] " The A.B. 370.] THE MONKS. 117 voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted : but the doors of the monastery were still open for repen- tance. Those monks, whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion, were at liberty to resume the character of men and citizens ; and even the spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earthly lover.* The exam- ples of scandal, and the progress of superstition, suggested the propriety of more forcible restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice was secured by a solemn and perpetual vow ; and his irrevocable engagement was ratified by the laws of the church and state. A guilty fugitive was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual prison ; and the interposition of the magistrate oppressed the freedom and merit, which had alleviated, in some degree, the abject slavery of the monastic discipline.f The actions of a monk, his words, and even his thoughts, were determined by an inflexible rule,J or a capricious superior: the slightest oft'ences were corrected by disgrace or confinement, extra- ordinary fasts or bloody flagellation ; and disobedience, murmur, or delay, were ranked in the catalogue of the most heinoixs sins. A blind submission to the commands of the abbot, however absurd, or even criminal, they might seem, was the ruling principle, the first virtue of the Egyp- monasiic institutions, particularly those of Egypt, about the year 400, are described by four curious and devout travellers; Rufinus, Vit. Patrum L 2, 3, p. 424536), Posthumian (Sulp. Sever. Dialog. 1), Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac. in Vit. Patrum. p. 709 863), and Cassian (see in torn, vii, Bibliothec. Max. Patrum, his four first books of Institutes, and the twenty-four Collations or Conferences.) * The example of Malchus (Jerome, torn, i, p. 256), and the design of Cassian and his friend (Collation 24. "1) are incontestable proofs of their freedom ; which is elegantly described by Erasmus in his Life of St. Jerome. See Chardon (Hist des Sacremens, torn, vi, p. 279 300). t See the laws of Justinian (Novel. 123, No. 42), and of Lewis the Pious, (in the Historians of France, torn, vi, p. 427) and the actual jurisprudence ot France, in Deniss&rt. (Decisions, &c. torn, iv, p. 855, &c.) J The ancient Codex Regularum, collected by Benedict Anianinus, the reformer of the monks in the beginning of the ninth century, and published in the seventeenth by Lucas Holstenius, con- tains thirty different rules for men and women. Of these seven were composed in Egypt, one in the East, one in Cappadocia, one in Italy, one in Africa, four in Spain, eight in Gaul or France, and one in England. The rule oi Columbanus, so prevalent in the 118 FREEDOM OF THE MHTD DESTROYED. [CH. XXXVII. tian monks; and their patience was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials. They were directed to remove an enormous rock ; assiduously to water a barren staff, that was planted in the ground, till, at the end of three years, it should vegetate and blossom like a tree ; to walk into a fiery furnace ; or to cast their infant into a deep pond; and several saints, or madmen, have been immor- talized in monastic story by their thoughtless and fearless obedience.* The freedom of the mind, the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of credulity and submission ; and the monk, con- tracting the vices of a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions of his ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the eastern church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics, inca- pable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and the imperial troops acknowledged, without shame, that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest bar- barians.f West, inflicts one hundred lashes for very slight offences. (Cod. Reg. part 2, p. 174.) Before the time of Charlemagne, the abbots indulged themselves in mutilating their monks, or putting out their eyes ; a punishment much less cruel than the tremendous vade in pace (the subterraneous dungeon or sepulchre), which was afterwards invented. See an admirable discourse of the learned Mabillon (GEuvres Post- humes, torn, ii, p. 321 336), who, on this occasion, seems to be inspired by the genius of humanity. For such an effort, I can forgive his defence of the holy tear ot Vendome (p. 361 399). * Sulp. Sever. Dialog. 1. 12, 13, p. 532, &c. Cassian. Institut. 1. 4, c. 26, 27. "Prsecipua ibi virtus et prima est obedientia." Among the Verba Seniorum (in Vit. Patrum, 1. 5, p. 617) the fourteenth libel or discourse is on the subject of obedience ; and the Jesuit Rosweyde, who published that huge volume for the use of convents, has collected all his scattered passages in his two copious indexes. + Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv, p. 161) has observed the scandalous valour of the Cappadocian monks, which was exemplified in the banishment of Chrysostom. [Not too dark are the colours in which Gibbon has here painted the process of destroying " the freedom of the mind, the source of every generous and rational sentiment." To the force of his description nothing can be added ; but it may be remarked that the mischievous delusions, which he exposes and condemns, were not the offspring of religion, but the arts employed by its faithless and treacherous ministers. Before the intro- duction of the monastic expedient, society, as has been shown, had gradually lost its energetic tone. But when this engine was brought to bear, the work went on rapidly. The influence of this new move- ment was not confined to the cloister and the cell The example of A.D. 370.] DRESS AND HABITATIONS OF THE MONKS. 119 Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fan- tastic garments of the monks :* bat their apparent singu- larity sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind. The father of the Benedictines expressly disclaims all idea of choice or merit ; and soberly exhorts his disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient dress of the countries which they may inhabit. f The monastic habits of the ancients varied with the climate, and their mode of life : and they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheepskin of the Egyptian peasants, or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a cheap and domestic manufacture ; but in the West, they rejected such an expensive article of foreign luxury. It was the practice of the monks either to cut or shave their hair ; they wrapped their heads in a cowl, to escape the sight of profane objects ; their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme cold of winter ; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long staff. The aspect of a genuine Anachoret was horrid and disgusting : every sensation that is offensive to man was thought acceptable to God ; and the angelic rule of Tabenne condemned the salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water, and of anointing them with oil. The austere monks slept on the abandoned duties, the contagion of indolent habits, the soporific atmosphere of ignorance, the lessons of abject servility, the warning penalties of refractory insubordination, and the honours paid to sainted folly, involved all classes in one common hallucination, and invested subservient stupidity with the merit of pious docility. Under those auspices was achieved that conquest of the state which is falsely called the triumph of Christianity. It was the triumph of a power that trampled Christianity under foot and scorned every sacred obliga- tion. In less than a hundred and fifty years after this, it made all weak but itself, subverted everything but its own domination, and planting its throne on the wreck, reigned for ten centuries in clouds and dark- ness. ED.] * Cassian has simply, though copiously, described the monastic habit of Egypt (Institut. 1.1), to which Sozomen (1. 3, c. 14) attributes such allegorical meaning and virtue. f- Regul. Benedict. No. 55, in Cod. Regul. part 2, p. 51. J See the Rule of Ferreolus, bishop of Usez, (No. 31, in Cod. Regul. part 2, p. 136,) and of Isidore, bishop of Seville, (No. 13, in Cod. Regul. part 2, p. 214.) Some partial indulgences were granted for the hands and feet. " Totum autem corpus nemo ungue 120 DIET OF THE MONKS. [CH. XXXTII. ground, on a hard mat, or a rough blanket ; and the same bundle of palm-leaves served them as a seat in the day, and a pillow in the night. Their original cells were low narrow huts, built of the slightest materials ; which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing within the common wall, a church, a hospital, perhaps a library, some necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate discipline and diet; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty famib'es. Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks ; and they had discovered, by experience, that rigid fasts and abstemious diet are the most effectual pre- servatives against the impure desires of the flesh.* The rules of abstinence which they imposed, or practised, were not uniform or perpetual: the cheerful festival of the Pentecost was balanced by the extraordinary mortification of Lent; the fervour of new monasteries was insensibly relaxed ; and the voracious appetite of the G-auls could not imitate the patient and temperate virtue of the Egyptians. t The disciples of Antony and Pachomius were satisfied with their daily pittance J of twelve ounces of bread, or rather biscuit, which they divided into two frugal repasts of nisi causft infirmitatis, nee lavabitur aqua nudo corpore, nisi languor perspicuus sit." (Regul. Pachom. 92, part 1, p. 78). * St. Jerome, in strong, but indiscreet language, expresses the most important use of fasting and abstinence. " Non quod Deus univer- eitatis Creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostrorum nigitu, et : ^ii- tate ventris, pulmonisque ardore delectetur, sed quod aliter pu ,,atia tuta esse non possit." (Op. torn, i, p. 1S7, ad Eustochium.) Se the twelfth and twenty-second Collations of Cassian, de Casfitate, and de lllusionibus Nocturnit. f Edacitas in Grsecis gula est, in Gallis natura. (Dialog. 1, c. 4, p. 521.) Cassian fairly owns, that the perfect model of abstinence cannot be imitated in Gaul, on account of the aerum temperies, and the qualitas nostrae fragilitatia. (Institut. 4. 11.) Among the western rules, that of Columbanus is the most austere ; he had been educated amidst the poverty of Ireland, as rigid perhaps, and inflexible, as the abstemious virtue of Egypt. The rule of Isidore of Seville is the mildest : on holidays he allows the use of flesh. ^ ; " Those who drink only water, and have no nutri- tious liquor, ought, at least, to have a pound and a half (twenty-four ounces) of bread every day." State of Prisons, p. 40, by Mr. Howard. _ See Cassian. Collat. 1. 2, 1921. The small loaves, or biscuit, of aix ounces each, had obtained the name of paximacia. (Ro A.D. 370.] THEIB MANUAL LABOUR. 121 the afternoon and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, and almost a duty, to abstain from the boiled vege- tables which were provided for the refectory; but the extraordinary bounty of the abbot sometimes indulged them with the luxury of cheese, fruit, salad, and the small dried fish of the Nile.* A more ample latitude of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or assumed ; but the use of flesh was long confined to the sick or travellers ; and when it gradually prevailed in the less rigid monasteries of Europe, a singular distinction was introduced ; as if birds, whether wild or domestic, had been less profane than the grosser animals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent beverage of the primitive monks ; and the founder of the Benedictines regrets the daily portion of half a pint of wine, which had been extorted from him by the intem- perance of the age.f Such an allowance might be easily supplied by the vineyards of Italy; and his victorious disciples, who passed the Alps, the Hhine, and the Baltic, required, in the place of wine, an adequate compensation of strong beer or cyder. The candidate who aspired to the virtue of evangelical poverty, abjured, at his first entrance into a regular com- munity, the idea, and even the name, of all separate, or exclusive, possession. J The brethren were supported by their manual labour ; and the duty of labour was strenu- Onomasticon, p. 1045.) Pachomius, however, allowed his monks some latitude in the quantity of their food ; but he made them work in proportion as they ate. (Pallad. in Hist. Lausiac. c. 38, 39, in Vit. Patrum, 1. 8, p. 736, 737.) [The proper term for one of these six-ounce portions was paximatium. See Du Cange, 5. 307. He gives it the meaning of " panis subcinericius vel recoctus." Biscuit is therefore its correct designation. Suidas derived the name from one Paxamus, by whom it was said to have been invented. ED.] * See the banquet to which Caesian (Collation 8. 1,) was invited by Serenus, an Egyptian abbot. t See the Rule of St. Benedict, No. 39, 40, (in Cod. Reg. part 2, p. 41, 42.) Licet legamus vinum omnino mona chorum non esse, sed quia nostris temporibus id monachis persuader! non potest ; he allows them a Roman hemina, a measure which may be ascertained from Arbuthnot's Tables. J Such expressions as my book, my cloak, my shoes, (Cassian. Institut. 1. 4, c. 13,) were not less severely prohibited among the Western monks, (Cod. Regul. part 2, p. 174. 235. 288), and the Rule of Columbanus punished them with six lashes. The ironical author of the Ordres Monastiques, who laughs at the foolish nicety of modern convents, seems ignorant that 122 LITEEAEY LABOTJB8. [CH. XXXVII. ously recommended as a penance, as an exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their daily subsistence.* The garden, and fields, which the industry of the monks had often rescued from the forest or the morass, were diligently cultivated by their hands. They performed, without re- luctance, the menial offices of slaves and domestics ; and the several trades that were necessary to provide their habits, their utensils, and their lodging, were exercised within the precincts of the great monasteries. The monastic studies have tended for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some learned solitaries has cultivated the ecclesiastical, and even the profane, sciences ; and posterity must grate- fully acknowledge, that the monuments of Greek and Roman literature have been preserved and multiplied by their indefatigable pens.f But the more humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, was contented with the silent, sedentary occupation, of making wooden sandals, or of twisting the leaves of the palm-tree into mats and baskets, The superfluous stock, which was not consumed in domestic use, supplied, by trade, the wants of the community: the boats of Tabenne, and the other monasteries of Thebais, descended the Nile as far as Alexandria ; and, in a Christian market, the sanctity of the workmen might enhance the intrinsic value of the work. the ancients were equally absurd. * Two great masters of ecclesiastical science, the P. Thomassin, (Discipline d'Eglise, torn, iii, p. 10901139,) and the P. Mabillon, (Etudes Monastiques, torn, i, p. 116 155,) have seriously examined the manual labour of the monks, which the former considers as a merit, and the latter as a duty. j- Mabilion (Etudes Monastiques, torn. i. p. 47 55,) has collected many curious facts to justify the literary labours of his predecessors, both in the East and West. Books were copied in the ancient monas- teries of Egypt, (Cassian. Institut. 1. 4, c. 12,) and by the disciples of St. Martin. (Sulp. Sever, in Vit. Martin, c. 7, p. 473.) Cassiodorus has allowed an ample scope for the studies of the monks ; and vie shall not be scandalized, if their pen sometimes wandered from Chrysostom and Augustin, to Homer and Virgil. [It would indeed have been strange, if among the millions of monks, in so many ages, a few had not relieved by study the monotony of their lives, and even betaken them- selves by choice to literary pursuits. Yet what is the sum of their labours ? Gibbon has truly said, that they " tended for the most part rather to darken than dispel the cloud of superstition." That they have preserved for us some portions of ancient literature, is but an equivocal merit. How were the rest destroyed ? The praise of having " led Europe A.D. 370.] MONASTIC ETCHES. 123 But the necessity of manual labour was insensibly super- seded. The novice was tempted to bestow his fortune on the saints, in whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder of his life ; and the pernicious indulgence of the laws permitted him to receive, for their use, any future accessions of legacy or inheritance.* Melania contributed her plate (three hundred pounds weight of silver), and Paula contracted an immense debt, for the relief of their favourite monks ; who kindly imparted the merits of their prayers and penance to a rich and liberal sinner.f Time continually increased, and accidents could seldom diminish, the estates of the popular monasteries, which spread over the adjacent country and cities ; and, in the first century of their institution, the infidel Zosimus has maliciously ob- served, that, for the benefit of the poor, the Christian monks had reduced a great part of mankind to a state of beggary. J As long as they maintained their original fervour, they approved themselves, however, the faithful and benevolent stewards of the charity which was intrusted to their care. But their discipline was corrupted by prosperity ; they gradually assumed the pride of wealth, and at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public luxury might be ex- cused by the magnificence of religious worship, and the decent motive of erecting durable habitations for an immortal society. But every age of the church has accused the licentiousness of the degenerate monks; who no longer remembered the object of their institution, embraced the vain and sensual pleasures of the world, which they had forth from the dark ages," has been of late ostentatiously claimed for them by some, and inconsiderately accorded by others ; but we must bear in mind, that it is to them we owe those dark ages. ED.] * Thomassin (Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn, iii, p. 118. 145. 146. 171 179,) has examined the revolution of the civil, canon, and common law. Modern France confirms the death which monks have inflicted on themselves, and justly deprives them of all right of inheritance. t See Jerome, torn, i, p. 176. 183. The monk Pambo made a sublime answer to Melania, who wished to specify the value of her gift. " Do you ofier it to me, or to God ? If to God, HE who suspends the mountains in a balance, need not be informed of the weight of your plate." (Pallad. Hist. Lausiac. c. 10, in the Vit. Patrum, 1. 8, p. 715.) J To TTO\V fJikpoQ rriQ -yjyg wKtiwffavro, Trpo^aaa rov ptTaftdovai TTCLVTO. TTTW^OIC, iravTdQ (wg eiTTtlv) TTTW^OVQ KaraarrinarTtc. Zosim. lib. 5, p.325. Yet the wealth of the Eastern monks was far sur- passed by the princely greatness of the Benedictines. 124 SOLITUDE OF THE MONKS. [CH. XXXYII. renounced,* and scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the austere virtues of their founders.f Their natural descent, from such painful and dangerous virtue, to the common vices of humanity, will not, perhaps, excite much grief or indignation in the mind of a philo- sopher. The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude ; undisturbed by the various occupa- tions which fill the time, and exercise the faculties, of reasonable, active, and social beings. Whenever they were permitted to step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual guards and spies of each other's actions ; and, after their return, they were condemned to forget, or, at least to suppress, whatever they had seen or heard in the world. Strangers, who professed the orthodox faith, were hospitably entertained in a separate apartment ; but their dangerous conversation was restricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence, the monastic slave might not receive the visits of his friends or kindred; and it was deemed highly meritorious, if he afflicted a tender sister, or an aged parent, by the obstinate refusal of a word or look.J The monks themselves passed their lives without personal attachments, among a crowd which had been formed by accident, and was detained in the same prison by force of prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate ; a special licence of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their familiar visits ; and, at their silent meals, they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible * The sixth general council (the Quinisext in Trullo, Canon 47, in Beveridge, torn, i, p. 213,) restrains women from passing the night in a male, or men in a female, monastery. The seventh general council (the second Nicene, Canon 20, in Beveridge, torn, i, p. 325) prohibits the erection of double or promiscuous monasteries of both sexes ; but it appears from Balsamon, that the prohibition was not effectual.' On the irregular pleasures and expenses of the clergy and monks, see Thomassin, torn, iii, p. 13341368. f I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot " My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year ; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity. J Prior, an Egyptian monk, allowed his sister to see him; but he shut his eyes during the whole visit. See Vit. Patrum, 1. 3, p. 504. A.D. 370.] THEIE DEVOTION AND VISIONS. 125 and almost invisible to each other.* Study is the resource of solitude : but education had not prepared and qualified for any liberal studies the mechanics and peasants, who filled the monastic communities. They might work; but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to disdain the exercise of manual labour ; and the industry must be faint and languid, which is not excited by the sense of personal interest. According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the day, which they passed in their cells, either in vocal or mental prayer : they assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in the night, for the public worship of the monastery. The precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt; and a rustic horn or trumpet, the signal of devotion, twice interrupted the vast silence of the desert, f Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured ; the vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled along, without business or pleasure ; and before the close of each day, he had repeatedly accused the tedious progress of the sun.J In this comfortless state, superstition still pursued and tor- mented her wretched votaries. The repose which they had sought in the cloister was disturbed by tardy repentance, profane doubts, and guilty desires ; and, while they con- sidered each natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottom- less abyss. From the painful struggles of disease and despair, these unhappy victims were sometimes relieved by Many such examples might be added. * The seventh, eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-fourth, fifty-seventh, six- tieth, eighty-sixth, and ninety -fifth, articles of the Rule of Pachomiua impose most intolerable laws of silence and mortification. f The diurnal and nocturnal prayers of the monks are copiously discussed by Cassian in the third and fourth books of his Institutions ; and he constantly prefers the liturgy, which an angel had dictated to the monasteries of Tabenne. J Cassian, from his own experience, describes the acedia, or listlessness of mind and body, to which a monk was exposed, when he sighed to find himself alone. Ssepiusque egreditur et ingreditur cellam, et solem velut ad occasum tardius properantem crebrius intuetur. (Institut. 10. 1.) The temptations and sufferings of Stagirius were communicated by that unfortunate youth to his friend St. Cbrysostom. See Middle- ton's Works, vol. i, p. 107 110. Something similar introduces the life of every saint ; and the famous Inigo, or Ignatius, the founder of 126 CCEN03ITES AND ANACHOBETS. [CH. XXXYH. madness or death ; and, in the sixth century, a hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion of the austere penitents, who were deprived of their senses.* Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged term of frenzy, have afforded ample materials of super- natural history. It was their firm persuasion, that the air which they breathed was peopled with invisible enemies; with innumerable demons, who watched every occasion, and assumed every form, to terrify, and above all to tempt, their unguarded virtue. The imagination, and even the senses, were deceived by the illusions of distempered fanaticism ; and the hermit, whose midnight prayer was oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily confound the phantoms of horror or delight, which had occupied his sleeping, and his waking, dreains.f The monks were divided into two classes : the Coenobites, who lived under a common, and regular, discipline ; and the Anachorets, who indulged their unsocial, independent fana- ticism. J The most devout, or the most ambitious, of the spiritual brethren, renounced the convent, as they had renounced the world. The fervent monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, were surrounded by a Laura, a distant circle of solitary cells ; and the extravagant penance of the hermits was stimulated by applause and emulation.^ They the Jesuits (Vie d'Inigo de Guipuscoa, torn, i, p. 29 38) may serve as a memorable example. * Fleury, Hist. Eccl^siastique, torn, vii, p. 46. I have read, somewhere in the Vitae Patrum, but I cannot recover the place, that several, I believe many, of the monks, who did not reveal their temptations to the abbot, became guilty of suicide. -f- See the seventh and eighth Collations of Cassian, who gravely examines, why the demons were grown loss active and numerous since the time of St. Antony. Rosweyde's copious index to the Vitse Patrum will point out a variety of infernal scenes. The devils were most formidable in a fomale shape. J For the distinction of the Coenobites and the Hermits, especially in Egypt, see Jerome (torn, i, p. 45, ad Rusticum), the first Dialogue of Sulpiciua Severus ; Rufinus (c. 22, in Vit. Patrum, 1. 2, p. 478), Palladius, (c.7. 69, in Vit. Patrum, 1.8, p. 712. 758,) and, above all, the eighteenth and nineteenth Collationn of Cassian. Those writers who compare the common and solitary lift*, reveal the abuse and danger of the latter. _ Suicer, Thesaur. Ecclesiast. torn, ii, p. 205. 218. Thomassin (Dis- cipline de 1'Eglise, torn, i, p. 1501, 1502) gives a good account of these cells. When Gerasimus founded his monastery, in the wilderness of Jordan, it was accompanied by a Laura of seventy cells. H Theodoret, in a large volume (the Philotheus, in Vit. Patrum, I 9, A.D. 395^51.] SIMEON STTLITES. 127 sank under the painful weight of crosses and chains ; and their emaciated limbs were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and greaves of massy and rigid iron. All super- fluous incumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away ; and some savage saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely distinguished above his kindred animals : and a numerous sect of Anachorets derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd.* They often usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble ; they buried them- selves in some gloomy cavern which art or nature had scooped out of the rock ; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed with the monuments ot their penance.f The most perfect hermits are supposed to have passed many days without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without speaking ; and glorious was the man (I abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or seat, of a peculiar construction, which might expose him in the most incon- venient posture, to the inclemency of the seasons. Among these heroes of the monastic life, the name and genius of Simeon StylitesJ have been immortalized by the singular invention of an aerial penance. At the age of thirteen the young Syrian deserted the profession of a shepherd, and threw himself into an austere monastery. After a long and painful noviciate, in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his resi- dence on a mountain about thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandra, or circle of stones, to which he had attached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which was successively raised p. 793 863,) has collected the lives and miracles of thirty anachorets. Evagrius (L 1, c. 12) more briefly celebrates the monks and hermits of Palestine. * Sozomen, 1. 6, c. 33. The great St. Ephrem composed a panegyric on these floaicoi, or grazing monks. (Tillemont, Mem. Boole's, torn, viii, p. 292.) + The P. Sicard (Missions du Levant, torn, ii, p. 217 223) examined the caverns of the Lower Thebais with wonder and devotion. The inscriptions are in the old Syriac character, which was used by the Christians of Abyssinia. See Theodoret (in Vit. Patrum, L 9, p. 848854), Antony (hi Vit. Patrum, 1. 1, p. 107 177), Cosmas (in Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental. tom.1, p. 239253), Evagrius (L 1, c. 13, 14), and Tillemont (Me"m. 128 MIHACLES AND WORSHIP [CH. XXXTIL from the height of nine, to that of sixty feet, from the ground.* In this last, and lofty station, the Syrian ana- choret resisted the heat of thirty summers, and'the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the different postures of devo- tion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his out-stretched arms in the figure of a cross ; but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton irom the forehead to the feet ; and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thighf might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life ; and the patient hermit expired, without descending from his column. A prince who should capriciously inflict such tortures, would be deemed a tyrant; but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibility both of the mind and body ; nor can it be presumed that the fanatics, who torment them- selves, are susceptible of any lively affection for the rest of mankind. A cruel unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks of every age and country : their stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred ; and their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the holy office of the inquisition. The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a philosopher, were respected, and almost adored, by the prince and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeon ; the tribes of Saracens disputed in arms the honour of his bene- diction; the queens of Arabia and Persia gratefully con- fessed his supernatural virtue; and the angelic hermit Boole's, torn, xv, p. 347392). * The narrow circumference of two cubits, or three feet, which Evagrius assigns for the summit of the column, is inconsistent with reason, with facts, and with the rules of architecture. The people who saw it from below might be easily deceived. -f I must not conceal a piece of ancient scandal concerning the origin of this ulcer. It has been reported, that the devil, assuming an angelic form, invited him to ascend, like Elijah, into a fiery chariot. The saint too hastily raised his foot, and Satan eized the moment of inflicting this chastisement on his vanity 4.D. 395-451.] OF THE MONKS. 129 was consulted by the younger Theodosius, in the most important concerns of the church and state. His remains were transported from the mountain of Telenissa, by a solemn procession of the patriarch, the master-general of the East, six bishops, twenty-one counts or tribunes, and six thousand soldiers ; and Antioch revered his bones, as her glorious ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these recent and popular anachorets ; the Christian world ftll prostrate before their shrines ; and the miracles ascribed to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the spiritual exploits of their lives. But the golden legend of their lives* was embellished by the artful credulity of their interested brethren ; and a believing age was easily persuaded, that the slightest caprice of an Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. The favourites of Heaven were accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, a word, or a distant message ; and to expel the most obstinate demons from the souls or bodies which they possessed. They familiarly accosted, or imperiously commanded, the lions and serpents of the desert; infused vegetation into a sapless trunk ; suspended iron on the surface of the water ; passed the Nile on the back of a crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant tales, which display the fiction, without the genius, of poetry, have seriously affected the reason, the faith, and the morals of the Christians. Their credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind; they corrupted the evidence of history ; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science. Every mode of religious worship which had been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they believed, was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks. If it be possible to measure the interval between * I know not how to select or specify the miracles contained in the VitcB Patrwm of Rosweyde, as the number very much exceeds the thousand pages of that voluminous work. An elegant specimen may be found in the Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, and his life of St. Martin. He reveres the monks of Egypt ; yet he insults them with the remark, that they never raised the dead ; whereas the bishop of Tours had restored three dead men to life. VOL. IV. K 130 CONTEESION OF THE BAEBAEIANS. [CH. XXXVII. the philosophic writings of Cicero and the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of Cato and that of Simeon, we may appreciate the memorable revolution which was accomplished in the Roman empire within a period of five hundred years.* II. The progress of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and luxurious citizens oi the Roman empire ; and over the warlike bar- barians of Scythia and Germany, who subverted the empire, and embraced the religion, of the Romans. The Goths were the foremost of these savage proselytes; and the nation was indebted for its conversion to a countryman, or, at least, to a subject, worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the remembrance and gratitude of posterity. A great number of Koman pro- vincials had been led away into captivity by the Gothic bands, who ravaged Asia in the time of Gallienus: and of these captives, many were Christians, and several belonged to the ecclesiastical order. Those involuntary missionaries, dispersed as slaves in the villages of Dacia, successively laboured for the salvation of their masters. The seeds which they planted, of the evangelic doctrine, were gradually propagated ; and before the end of a century, the pious work was achieved by the labours of Ulphilas, whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube, from a small town of Cappadocia. Ulphilas, the bishop and apostle of the Goths,t acquired * [The term of five hundred years is too long and begins too early. The degeneracy of Roman character and talent does not date from the age that immediately followed that of Cicero and Cato. No marked deterioration is perceptible till after the beginning of the second century. The change then came on gradually. It may be more accurately measured, by comparing Theodoret and Prosper with Pliny or Tacitus, and seeing Simeon Stylites on his pillar more revered than Antonine on his throne. It is important to mark the date, for it will be found, that Roman decay began soon after the Chris- tian priesthood erected themselves into a hierarchy, received endow- ments, coveted more, manoeuvred for the acquisition of wealth, and used ignorance and superstition as their purveyors. Public debase- ment and episcopal aggrandizement went on together, "passibus lequis." ED.] f On the subje.-t of Ulphilas, and the con- version of the Goths, see Sozomen, 1. 6, c. 37 ; Socrates, 1. 4, c. 33 ; Theodoret, 1. 4, c. 37 ; Philostorg. 1. 2, c. 5. The heresy of Philo-' torgius appears to have given him superior means of information. JL.D. 360.] TJLPHILAS. 131 their love and reverence by his blameless life and inde* t'atigable zeal ; and they received, with implicit confidence, he doctrines of truth and virtue, which he preached and practised. He executed the arduous task of translating the Scriptures into their native tongue, a dialect of the German or Teutonic language ; but he prudently suppressed the four books ot Kings, as they might tend to irritate the fierce and sanguinary spirit of the barbarians. The rude, [Most ancient and many modern writers huve been so occupied in debating, whether and why Ulphilas was an Arian, whether he lived in the time of Constantine or of Valens, and whether he was the inventor 01 the alphabet used in his translation of the Scriptures, that they have overlooked the most instructive lesson to be gathered from what we know of him. These discussions may be found in Neander's Hist, of Chris, vol. iii, p. 177, and Mallet's Northern Ant. with Bishop Percy's Notes, p. 223, edit. Bonn. Wolff or Wolfel, the real name of Ulphilas, is manifestly Gothic. Yet, as Neander suggests, it may have been adopted by him, though of a Cappadocian family, to ingratiate himself with the Moesian colony among whom he was born and had long been resident. He certainly acquired great influence over them, and by his translation ol the Scriptures into their language, marked an important era in the history of their progress. It was the first book that they ever possessed. The manuscript, mentioned by Gibbon, was discovered in the abbey of Werden, in Westphalia, and is believed to be the " identical version of Ulphilas." It is preserved in the library of Upsal under the name of the " Codex Argenteus," the let- ters being all of silver, with gold initials, on a violet-coloured vellum. They are stamped with hot metal types, like titles on the backs of books, and show that at that early period the art of printing was all but invented. Other fragments have been discovered in the library at Wolfenbuttel and by Cardinal Mai at Rome, by means of which a complete edition was published in 1836, at Leipzig. In these manu- scripts, the letters are quite different from the Runic, and bishop Percy admits that they must have been invented by Ulphilas, as ancient writers expressly assert. Niebuhr (Lectures, 3. 317) ascribes to them a rather earlier origin, for he says that when the Visigoths crossed the Danube, in the time of the emperor Valens, "they had a national civilization of their own, and already possessed an alphabet, invented for them by Ulphilas." No discordant statements can how- ever cloud or conceal the fact which here stands prominent to fix our attention. Intercourse with the Roman world had so far improved the Goths, that the first preliminary step to all education and enlight- enment was decidedly taken, and they were fit to receive the means of acquiring and diffusing knowledge. All their alleged incapacity and aversion for learning is here at once disproved. Yet such were the obstacles by which this progress was impeded, that the Gothic mind had to struggle against them for a thousand years, after the days of Ulphilas, before it could assert its native privilege of working freely. ED.] X 2 132 CHAEACTJEE OF ULPfllLAS. [CH. XXXTII. imperfect idiom of soldiers and shepherds, so ill qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and modu- lated by his genius ; and Ulphilas, before he could frame his version, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty- four letters; four of which he invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the Greek and Latin pronunciation.* But the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon afflicted by war and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by religion as well as by interest. Fritigern, the friend of the Komans, became the proselyte of Ulphilas ; while the haughty soul of Athanaric disdained the yoke of the empire, and of the gospel. The faith of the new converts was tried by the persecution which he exgited. A wagon, bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor, per- haps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession through the streets of the camp ; and the rebels, who refused to worship the God of their fathers, were immedi- ately burnt, with their tents and families. The character of Ulphilas recommended him to the esteem of the Eastern court, where he twice appeared as the minister of peace ; he pleaded the cause of the distressed Goths, who implored the protection of Valens ; and the name of Moses was applied to this spiritual guide, who conducted his people, through the deep waters of the Danube, to the Land of Promise.f The devout shepherds, who were attached to his person, and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in their settle- ment, at the foot of the Mcesian mountains, in a country of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks and herds, and enabled them to purchase the corn and wine of the wore plentiful provinces. These harmless barbarians multi- plied in obscure peace, and the profession of Christianity. J * A mutilated copy of the four gospels, in the Gothic version, was published A.D. 1665, and is esteemed the most ancient monu- ment of the Teutonic language, though Wetstein attempts, by some frivolous conjectures, to deprive Ulphilas of the honour of the work. Two of the four additional letters express the W, and our own Tk. See Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, torn, ii, p. 219 223. Mill, Prolegom. p. 151, edit. Kuster; Wetstein, Prolegom. tom.i, p. 11 4. t Philpstorgius erroneously places this passage under the reign of Constantino ; but I am much inclined to believe that it preceded the great emigration. J We are obliged to Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 51, p. 688) for a short and lively picture of these lesser Goths. Gothi minores, populus immensus, cum suo Pontifice ipsoque primate Wulfila. The last words, if they are not mere tautology, imply some A..D 400. J CONVERSION OF THE GOTHIC NATIONS. 133 Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, uni- versally adopted the religion of the Bomans, with whom they maintained a perpetual intercourse of war, of friend- ship, or of conquest. In their long and victorious march from the Danube to the Atlantic ocean, they converted their allies ; they educated the rising generation ; and the devotion which reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of Thoulouse, might edify, or disgrace, the palaces of Rome and Constantinople.* During the same period, Christianity was embraced by almost all the barbarians, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western empire ; the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries, that raised Odoacer to the throne of Italy. The Pranks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors of Paganism ; but the Pranks obtained the monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis; and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome. These barbarian proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the propagation of the faith. The Merovingian kings, and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws and victories, the dominion of the cross. England produced the apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually diffused from the neighbour- hood of the Rhine, to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic.f The different motives which influenced the reason, or the passions, of the barbarian converts, cannot easily be ascer- tained* They were often capricious and accidental: a dream, an omen, the report of a, miracle, the example of some priest or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the fortunate event of a prayer or vow, which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. J The early prejudices of education were in- temporal jurisdiction. * At non ita Gothi, non ita Vandali ; mails licet doctoribus instituti, meliores tamen etiam in hftc parte quam nostri. Salvian de Gubern. Dei, 1. 7, p. 243. t Mosheim has slightly sketched the progress of Christianity in the North, from the fourth to the fourteenth century. The subject would afiord materials for an ecclesiastical, and even philosophical, history. J To such a cause has Socrates (1. 7, c. 30) ascribed the conversion of the Burgundians, whose Christian piety is celebrated by Orosiua, 134 MOTIVES Of THEIB FAITH. [CH. XXXVII. sensibly erased by the habits of frequent and familiar society ; the moral precepts of the gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of the monks ; and a spiritual theology was supported by the visible power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the rational and ingenious mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop* sug- gested to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed by the missionaries, who laboured for the conversion of infidels. " Admit," says the sagacious disputant, "whatever they are pleased to assert oi the tabulous and carnal genealogy of their gods and goddesses, who are propagated from each other. From this principle deduce their imperfect nature and human infirmities, the assurance they were born, and the probability that they will die. At what time, by what means, trom what cause, were the eldest of the gods or goddesses produced ? Do they still continue, or have they ceased, to propagate ? If they have ceased, summon your antagonists to declare the reason oi this strange alteration. If they still continue, the number of the gods must become infinite ; and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet worship of some impotent deity, to excite the resentment of his jealous superior ? The visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe, which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or eternal ? If created, how, or where, could the gods themselves exist before the creation ? If eternal, how could they assume the empire of an independent and pre- existing world ? Urge these arguments with temper and moderation ; insinuate, at seasonable intervals, the truth and beauty of the Christian revelation ; and endeavour to make the unbelievers ashamed, without making them a^ngry." This metaphysical reasoning, too refined perhaps for the barbarians of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of authority and popular consent. The advantage oi tem- poral prosperity had deserted the Pagan cause, and passed (1. 7, c. 19.) * See an original and curious epistle from .Daniel, the first bishop of Winchester, (Beda, Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, 1. 5, o. 18, p. 203, edit. Smith), to St. Boniiace, who preached the gospel among the savages of Hesse and Thuringia. Epistol. Boni- facii, 67, in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, torn, xiii, p. 93. [Daniel was the first bishop of Winchester, after the division of Wessex into two dioceses, and the erection ol a separate see at Sherborne, about A.D. 705. There had been five preceding bishops of Winchester. Bede, Ecc. Hist. lib. iii. c. 7, iv. c. 12, p. 119, 191, edit Bohn. ED.] A.D. 400.] EFFECTS OF THEIE CONVERSION. 135 over to the service of Christianity. The Romans them- selves, the most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient superstition ; and, if the ruin ol their empire seemed to accuse the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved by the con- version of the victorious Groths. The valiant and fortunate barbarians, who subdued the provinces of the West, succes sively received, and reflected, the same edifying example. Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe might exult in the exclusive possession of the tem- perate climates, of the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and oil ; while the savage idolaters, and their helpless idols, were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen regions of the north.* Christianity, which opened the gates of heaven to the barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and political condition. They received, at the same time, the use of letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book ; and, while they studied the divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view oi history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite, among their clergy, some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the church, and to examine, in the writings of the fathers, the chain of eccle- siastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inesti mable monuments of ancient learning. The immortal pro- ductions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of Augustus, and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state ; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the western world. In the most corrupt state of Christianity, the barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel; and it the knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or to * The sword of Charlemagne added weight to the argument ; but when Daniel wrote this episfcle (A.D. 723,) the Mahometans, who reigned troin India to Spain, might have retorted it against the Christiana. 136 THE BARBARIANS INVOLVED [CH. XXXVII. regulate their passions, they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion was less effectual than the holy communion which united them with their Christian brethren in spiritual friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance, of the Romans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the downfal of the empire, a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Eome. In the days of Paganism, the priesta of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, and con- trolled the jurisdiction of the magistrates ; and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample, measure of devout obedience, to the pontiffs of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their temporal possessions ; they obtained an honourable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen ; and it was their interest, as well as their duty, to mollify, by peace- ful counsels, the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The per- petual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian republic ; and gradually produced the similar manners, and common jurisprudence, which have distinguished from the rest of mankind, the independent, and even hostile, nations of modern Europe. But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the unfortunate accident, which infused a deadly poison into the cup of salvation. "Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ulphilas, his connections with the empire and the church were formed during the reign ot Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the creed of Rimini; professed with freedom, and perhaps with sin- cerity, that the SON was not equal, or con-substantial to the FATHER ;* communicated these errors to the clergy and people; and infected the barbaric world with a heresy ,f * The opinions of Ulphilas and the Goths inclined to Semi-Arianism, since they would not say that the Son was a creature, though they held communion with those who maintained that heresy. Their apostle represented the whole controversy as a question of trifling moment, which had been raised by the passions of the clergy. Theo doret, L 4, c. 37. f The Ariauism of the Goths has been A.D. 400. j IN THE AEIAN HEEEST. 137 which the great Theodosiua proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to metaphysical subtleties ; but they strenuously maintained what they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the Scriptures in the Teutonic language, promoted the apostolic labours of Ulphilas and his successors ; and they ordained a competent number of bishops and presbyters, for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin clergy,* preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the warlike converts, who were seated on the ruins of the Western empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of jealousy and hatred ; and the reproach of barbarian was embittered by the more odious epithet of heretic. The heroes of the north, who had submitted, with some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors were in hell,t were astonished and exasperated to learn, that they themselves had only changed the mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of the smooth applause, which Christian kings are accustomed to expect from their loyal prelates, the orthodox bishops and their clergy were in a state of opposition to the Arian courts ; and their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might sometimes be dangerous. J The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of sedition, resounded with the imputed to the emperor Valens. " Itaque justo Dei judicio ipsi eum vivum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui, vitio erroris ar.su ri aunt." Orosius, 1. 7, c. 33, p. 554. This cruel sentence is confirmed by Tillemont (Me'm. Eccles. torn. 6, p. 604 610), who coolly observes, " un seul homme entralna dans 1'enfer un noinbre infiui de Septen- trionaux," &c. Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, 1. 5, p. 150, 151.) pities and excuses their involuntary error. * Orosius affirms, in the year 416 (1. 7, c. 41, p. 580), that the churches of Christ (of the Catholics) were filled with Huns, Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians. j- Radbod, king of the Prisons, was so much scandalized by thia rash declaration of a missionary, that he drew back his foot after he had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Boole's, torn, ix, p. 167. The Epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the Visi- goths, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the Burgundians, explain, sometimes in dark hints, the general dispositions of the Catholics. Th history of Clovis and Theodoric will suggest some particular facts. 138 AEIAN PEESECUTION OF [CH. XXXVII. names of Pharaoh and Holofernes ;* the public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a glorious deliver- ance ; and the seditious saints were tempted to promote the accomplishment of their own predictions. Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics of Gaul, Spain, and Italy, enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free and peaceful exercise of their religion. Their haughty masters respected the zeal of a numerous people, resolved, to die at the foot of their altars ; and the example of their devout constancy was admired and imitated by the barbarians themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or confession of fear, by attributing their toleration to the liberal motives of reason and humanity ; and while they affected the language, they imperceptibly imbibed the spirit, of genuine Christianity. The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were indiscreet, the barbarians were impatient ; and the partial acts of severity or injustice, which had been recommended by the Arian clergy, were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths ; who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of episcopal functions; and punished the popular bishops of Aquitain with imprison- ment, exile, and confiscation.t But the cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people, was undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself, in his early youth, had renounced the orthodox communion ; and the apostate could neither grant, nor expect, a sincere for- giveness. He was exasperated to find, that the Africans, who had fled before him in the field, still presumed to dis- pute his will in synods and churches ; and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear, or ol compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant laws, and arbitrary punishments. The language of Genseric was furious and formidable ; the knowledge of his intentions might justify the most unfavourable interpretation of his actions ; and the * Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with which he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor Vitensis, 1. 7, p. 10. t Such are the contemporary complaints of Sidonius, bishop oi Clermont (1. 7, c. 6, p. 182, &c., edit. Sirmond). Gregory of Tours, who quotes this epistle, (1. 2, c. 25, in torn, ii, p. 174,) extorts an unwarrantable assertion, that of the nine vacancies in Aquitain, some had been produced by episcopal martyrdoms. A..D. 429-477.] THE VANDALS. 139 Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which stained the palace, and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the monarch of the sea. But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only his vices, tormented the Catho- lics with the same unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends and favourites of his father; and even to the Arian patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt ah>e in the midst of Carthage. The religious war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce ; persecution was made the serious and important business of the Vandal court ; and the loathsome disease, which hastened the death of Hunneric, revenged the inju- ries, without contributing to the deliverance, of the church. The throne of Africa was successively filled by the two nephews of Hunneric ; by Ghmdamuud, who reigned about twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation above twenty-seven, years. Their administration was hostile and oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate, or even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle; and, if at length he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom of Athanasian worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful clemency. Instead oi threats and tortures, he employed the gentle, but efficacious, powers of seduction. Wealth, dignity, and the royal favour, were the liberal rewards of apostacy ; the Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase their pardon by the renunciation of their faith : and whenever Thrasimund meditstod any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till the indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious opportunity. Bigotry was his last senti- ment in the hour of death ; and he exacted from his suc- cessor a solemn oath, that he would never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor, Hilderic, the gentle son of the savage Hunneric, preferred the duties of humanity and justice, to the vain obligation of an impious oath ; and his accession was gloriously marked by the resto- ration of peace and universal freedom. The throne of that 140 PEBSECUTIOX IK AFRICA. [CH. XXXYIL virtuous, though feeble monarch, was usurped by his cousin G-elimer, a zealous Arian ; but the Vandal kingdom, before he could enjoy or abuse his power, was subverted by the arms of Be'lisarius ; and the orthodox party retaliated the injuries which they had endured.* The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole historians of this persecution, cannot afford any distinct series of causes and events; any impartial view of characters, or counsels; but the most remarkable circumstances that deserve either credit or notice, may be reterred to the following heads. I. In the original law, which is still extant, t Hunneric expressly declares, and the declaration appears to be correct, that he had faithfully transcribed the regulations and penalties of the imperial edicts, against the heretical congregations, the clergy, and the people, who dissented from the established religion. If the rights of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must have condemned their past conduct, or acquiesced in their actual sufferings. But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence which they claimed. While they trembled under the lash of persecution, they praised the laudable severity of Hun- neric himself, who burnt or banished great numbers of Manichaeans ;J and they rejected with horror, the ignomi- * The original monuments of the Vandal persecution are preserved in the five books of the history of Victor Vitensis (de Persecutione Vandalica), a bishop who was exiled by Hunneric ; in the Life of St. Fulgentius, who was distinguished in the persecution of Thrasi- mund, (in Biblioth. Max. Patrum, torn, ix, p. 4 16,) and in the first book of the Vandalic War, by the impartial Procopius, (c. 7, 8, p. 196 199.) Dom. Ruinart, the last editor of Victor, has illustrated the whole subject with a copious and learned apparatus of notes and sup- plement (Paris, 1694.) f Victor, 4.2, p. 65. Hunneric t-efuses the name of Catholics to the Homoousians. He describes, aa the veri Divinse Majestatis cultores, his own party, who professed the faith, confirmed by more than a thousand bishops, in the synods of Rimini and Selsucia. [These recitals, even after making much allow- ance for the exaggerations of the injured and irritated, only prove what it was that the converted barbarians were taught to regard aa Christianity. Neander (4. 92) traces the joint influence of example and instigation. " The Vandal princes wished to retaliate the oppres- sions which their companions in the faith had to suffer in the Roman empire; those among their subjects, who agreed in faith with the Roman Christians, were also objects of suspicion to them ; and in part they were led on by the rude fanatical Arian clergy." ED.] Victor. 2. 1, p. 21, 22. Laudabilior . . . videbatur. In the MSS A.D. 530.] PEBSECUTTON IN AFEICA. 141 nious compromise, that the disciples of Arius, and of Athanasius, should enjoy a reciprocal and similar toleration in the territories of thf> Romans, and in those of the Vandals.* II. The practice of a conference, which the Catholics had so frequently used, to insult and punish their obstinate antagonists, was retorted against themselves.f At the command of Hunneric, four hundred and sixty-six orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage ; but when they were admitted into the hall of audience, they had the mortification of beholding the Arian Cyrila exalted on the patriarchal throne The disputants were separated after the mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and silence, of delay and precipitation, of military force and of popular clamour. One martyr and one confessor were selected among the Catholic bishops ; twenty-eight escaped by flight, and eighty-eight by conformity ; forty-six were sent into Corsica to cut timber for the royal navy ; and three hundred and two were banished to the different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their enemies, and carefully deprived of all the temporal and spiritual comforts of life.J The hardships of ten years exile must have reduced their numbers ; and if they had complied with the law of Thrasi- mund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the orthodox church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its actual members. They disobeyed ; and their dis- obedience was punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into Sardinia ; where they languished fifteen years, till the accession of the gracious Hilderic. which omit this word, the passage is unintelligible. See Ruinart, Not. p. 164. * Victor. 2. 2, p. 22, 23. The clergy of Carthage called these conditions periculosce ; and they seem, indeed, to have been proposed as a snare to entrap the Catholic bishops. f See the narrative of this conference, and the treatment of the bishops, in Victor. 2. 13 18, p. 35 42, and the whole fourth book, p. 63 171. The third book, p. 42 62, is entirely filled by their apology or confession of faith. + See the list of the African bishops, in Victor, p. 117 140, and Ruinart's notes p. 215 397. The schismatic name of Donattla frequently occurs, and they appear to have adopted (like our fanatics of the last age) the pious appellations of Deodatus, Deogratias, Quid- vultdeut, ffabetdeum, &c. [The Deogratias,of whom honourable mention has been made (c. 36) was an Arian bishop. The prevalent spirit of the times, as here depicted, shows us why his kindness to the suffering orthodox made him obnoxious to all parties. ED.] Fulgent. Vit. c. 16 29. Thrasimund affected the praise of moderation and learning ; and Fule;entius addressed three books of controversy to tne 112 PERSECUTION IN AFEICA. [CH. XXXTII- The two islands were judiciously chosen by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca, from his own experience, has deplored and exaggerated the miserable state of Corsica,* and the plenty ot Sardinia was overbalanced by the un- wholesome quality ot the air.f III. The zeal of Genseric, and his successors, for the conversion of the Catholics, must have rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the Vandal faith. Before the churches were finally shut, it was a crime to appear in a barbarian dress ; and those who presumed to neglect the royal mandate, were rudely dragged backwards by their long hair.J The palatine officers, who refused to profess the religion of their prince, were ignomi- niously stripped of their honours and employments; banished to Sardinia and Sicily ; or condemned to the servile labours of slaves and peasants in the fields ot Utica. In the districts which had been peculiarly allotted to the Vandals, the exercise of the Catholic worship was more strictly pro- hibited; and severe penalties were denounced against the guilt, both of the missionary and the proselyte. By these arts, the faith of the barbarians was preserved, and their zeal was inflamed ; they discharged, with devout fury, the office of spies, informers, or executioners ; and whenever their cavalry took the field, it was the favourite amusement of the march, to defile the churches, and to insult the clergy of the adverse faction. IV. The citizens, who had been educated in the luxury of the Roman province, were delivered, with exquisite cruelty, to the Moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful Arian tyrant, whom he styles piissime Bex. Biblioth. Maxim. Patrum, torn, ix, p. 41. Only sixty bishops are mentioned as exiles in the life of Fulgentius; they are increased to one hundred and twenty by Victor Tunnunensis and Isidore ; but the number of two hundred and twenty is specified in the Historia Miscella, and a short authentic chronicle of the times. See Ruinart, p. 570, 571. * See the base and insipid epigrams of the Stoic, who could not support exile with more fortitude than Ovid. Corsica might not produce corn, wine, or oil ; but it could not be destitute of grass, water, and even fire, t Si ob gravitatem coali interissent, vile damnum. Tacit. AnnaL 2. 85. In this application, Thrasimund would have adopted the reading of some critics, utile damnum. J See these preludes of a general persecution, in Victor. 2, 3, 4, 7, and the two edicts of Hun- neric, 1. 2, p. 35 ; L 4, p. 64. See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. 1. 1, c. 7, p. 197, 198. A Moorish prince endeavoured to propitiate .Jie God of the Christians, by his diligeu:e to erase the marks di the A.D. 530.] PEESECUTION IN AFRICA. 143 crowd of four thousand and ninety-six persona, whose guilt is not precisely ascertained, were torn from their native homes by the command ot Hunneric. During the night, they were confined, like a herd ot cattle, amidst their own ordure ; during the day they pursued their march ovei the burning sands ; and if they fainted under the heat and fatigue, they were goaded, or dragged along, till they expired in the hands of their tormentors.* These unhappy exiles, when they reached the Moorish huts, might excite the com- passion of a people, whose native humanity was neither im- proved by reason, nor corrupted by fanaticism; but if they escaped the dangers, they were condemned to share the distress, of a savage life. V. It is incumbent on the authors of persecution previously to reflect, whether they are deter- mined to support it in the last extreme. They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish ; and it soon becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy, as well as the crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is unable or unwilling to discharge, exposes his person to the severity of the law ; and his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and pro- priety of capital punishment. Through the veil of fiction and declamation, we may clearly perceive that the Catholics, more especially under the reign of Hunneric, endured the most cruel and ignominious treatment. t Respectable citi- zens, noble matrons, and consecrated virgins, were stripped naked, and raised in the air by pulleys, with a weight sus- pended at their feet. In this painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with scourges, or burnt in the most tender parts with red-hot plates of iron. The amputation of the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the right hand, was inflicted by the Arians ; and although the precise number cannot be defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a bishopj and a proconsul may be named, were entitled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honour has been as- Vandal sacrilege. * See this story in Victor. 2, 8 12, p. 30 34. Victor describes the distress of these confessors as an eye-witness. t See the fifth book of Victor. His passionate complaints are con firmed by the sober testimony of Procopius, and the public decla- ration of the emperor Justinian. (Cod. 1. 1, tit. 27.) T Victor. 2. 18, p. 41. Victor. 5. 4, p. 74, 75. His name was Victorianus, and he was a wealthy citizen of Adrumetum, who enjoyed the confidence of the king; by whose favour he had obtained the office, or at least the title, of Proconsul of Africa. 144 PEE8PCUTION TS AFBICA. [CH. XXXVII. cribed to the memory of count Sebastian, who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken constancy ; and Grenseric might detest, as a heretic, the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival.* VI. A new mode of conversion, which might subdue the feeble, and alarm the timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by fraud or violence, the rites of baptism ; and punished the apostacy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this odious and profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the will, and the unity of the sacrament.f The hostile sects had formally allowed the validity of each other's baptism ; and the innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed only to the example and advice of the Donatists. VII. The Arian clergy surpassed, in religious cruelty, the king and his Vandals ; but they were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard, which they were so desirous to pos- sess. A patriarch J might seat himself on the throne of Carthage ; some bishops, in the principal cities, might usurp the place of their rivals ; but the smallness of their num- bers, and their ignorance of the Latin language, disqualified the barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry of a great church ; and the Africans, after the loss of their orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of Christianity. VIII. The emperors were the natural protectors of the Homoousian doctrine : and the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and as Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the usurpation of the barbarous heretics. During an interval of peace and friendship, Hunneric re- stored the cathedral of Carthage, at the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the east, and of Placidia, the daughter and relict of emperors, and the sister of the queen of the * Victor, i. 6, p. 8, 9. After relating the firm resistance and dex- terous reply of count Sebastian, he adds, quare alio generis argumento postea bellicosum virum occidit. t Victor. 5. 12, 13. Tillemont, Mem. Boole's, torn, vi, p. 609. Primate was more properly the title of the bishop of Carthage ; but the name of patriarch was given by the sects and nations to their principal ecclesiastic. See Thomassin, Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn, i, p. 155, 158. The patriarch Cyrila himself publicly declared, that he did not understand Latin (Victor, ii, 18, p. 42) : Nescio Latine ; and he might converse with tolerable ease, without being capable of disputing or preaching in that language. His Vandal clergy were still mor ignorant ; and small confidence could be placed A..D. 530.] CATHOLIC IBAUDS, 146 Vandals.* But tins decent regard was of short duration ; and the haughty tyrant displayed his contempt for the religion of the empire, by studiously arranging the bloody images of persecution, in all the principal streets through which the Roman ambassador must pass in his way to the palace.f An oath was required from the bishops, who were assembled at Carthage, that they would support the succession of his son Hilderic, and that they would renounce all foreign or transmarine correspondence. This engage- ment, consistent as it should seem with their moral and religious duties, was refused by the more sagacious members J of the assembly. Their refusal, faintly coloured by the pretence that it is unlawful for a Christian to swear, must provoke the suspicions of a jealous tyrant. The Catholics, oppressed by royal and military force, were far superior to their adversaries in numbers and learning. With the same weapons which the Greek and Latin fathers had already provided for the Arian controversy, they repeat- edly silenced, or vanquished, the fierce and illiterate succes- sors of Ulphilas. The consciousness of their own superiority might have raised them above the arts and passions of religious warfare. Tet, instead of assuming such honourable pride, the orthodox theologians were tempted, by the assu- rance of impunity, to compose fictions, which must be stigmatized with the epithets of fraud and forgery. They ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of Christian antiquity ; the characters of Athanasius and Augustin were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and his disciples,1[ and the famous creed, which so clearly ex- in the Africans who had conformed. * Victor. 2, 1, 2, p. 22. t Victor. 5, 7, p. 77. He appeals to the ambassador himself, whose name was Uranius. J Astutiores, Victor. 4, 4, p. 70. He plainly intimates that their quotation of the Gospel, " Non jurabitisin toto," was only meant to elude the obligation of an inconvenient oath. The forty-six bishops who refused were banished to Corsica ; the three hundred and two who swore, were distributed through the provinces of Africa. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspse, in the Byzacene province, was of a senatorial family, and had received a liberal educa- tion. He could repeat all Homer and Menander before he was allowed to study Latin, his native tongue. (Vit. Fulgent, c. 1.) Many African bishops might understand Greek, and many Greek theologians were translated into Latin. U Compare the two prefaces to the Dialogue of Vigilius of Thapsus (p. 118, 119, edit. Chiflet). H VOL. IV. Ii 140 CATHOLIC FEATTDS [CH. XXXVII. pounds the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, is deduced, with strong probability, from this African school.* Even the Scriptures themselves were profaned by their rash and sacrilegious hands. The memorable text, which asserts the unity of the Three who bear witness in heaven,t is con- demned by the universal silence of the orthodox fathers, ancient versions, and authentic manuscripts. J It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom Hunneric summoned to the conference of Carthage. An allegorical interpreta- tion, in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, invaded the text of the Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in a dark period of ten centuries.^" After the invention oi might amuse his learned reader with an innocent fiction ; but the sub- ject was too grave, and the Africans were too ignorant. * The P. Quesnel started this opinion, which has been favourably received. But the three following truths, however surprising they may seem, are mm universally acknowledged. (Gerard Vossius, torn, vi, p. 516522. Tillemont, Me"m. Eccl^s. torn, viii, p. 667671.) 1. St. Athanasius is not the author of the creed, which is so frequently read in our churches. 2. It does not appear to have existed within a cen- tury after his death. 3. It was originally composed in the Latin tongue, and, consequently, in the Western provinces. Gennadius, patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by this extraor- dinary composition, that he frankly pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man. Petav. Dogmat. Theologica, torn. ii,lib. 7, c. 8. p. 687. 1 1 John, v, 7. See Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, part 1, c. 18, p. 203 218, and part 2, c. 9, p. 99121, and the elaborate Prolegomena and Annotations of Dr. Mill and Wetstein to their editions of the Greek Testament. In 1689, the Papist Simon strove to be free ; in 1707, the Protestant Mill wished to be a slave ; in 1751, the Arminian Wetstein used the liberty of his times, and of his sect. Of all the MSS. now extant, above fourscore in number, some of which are more than twelve hundred years old (Wetstein ad loc.). The orthodox copies of the Vatican, of the Complutensian editors, of Robert Stephens, are become invisible ; and the two MSS. of Dublin and Berlin are unworthy to form an exception. See Emlyn's Works, vol. ii, p. 227255, 269299, and M. de Missy's four ingenious letters, in torn, viii and ix, of the Journal Britannique. Or more properly, by the four bishops who composed and pub- lished the profession of faith in the name of their brethren. They style this text, luce clarius. (Victor Vitensii de Persecut. Vandal, lib. 3, c. 11, p. 54.) It is quoted soon afterwards by the African polemics, Vigilius and Fulgentius. U In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Bibles were corrected by Lanfranc, archbishop of Can- terbury, and by Nicolas, cardinal and librarian of the Roman church, fcocun-lum orthodoxam fidem. (Wetstein, Prolegom. p. 84, 85.) Moir A.D. 530.] AND MIEACLEB. 147 printing,* the editors of the Greek Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or to those of the times,t and the pious fraud, which was embraced with equal zeal at Rome and at Geneva, has been infinitely multiplied in every country and every language of modern Europe. The example of fraud must excite suspicion ; and the specious miracles by which the African Catholics have de fended the truth and justice of their cause, may be ascribed, with more reason, to their own industry, than to the visible protection of Heaven. Tet the historian, who views this religious conflict with an impartial eye, may condescend to mention one preternatural event, which will edify the devout, and surprise the incredulous. Tipasa,J a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to the east of Caesarea, had been distinguished in every age, by the orthodox zeal of its inha- bitants. They had braved the fury of the Donatists, they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians. The town was deserted on the approach of an heretical bishop : most withstanding these corrections, the passage is still wanting in twenty- five Latin MSS. (Wetstein, ad loc.) the oldest and the fairest ; two qualities seldom united, except in manuscripts. * The art which the Germans had invented was applied in Italy to the profane writers of Rome and Greece. The original Greek of the New Testament was published about the same time (A. D. 1514, 1516, 1520) by the industry of Erasmus, and the munificence of cardinal Ximenes. The Complutensian Polyglot cost the cardinal fifty thousand ducats. See Maittaire, Annal. Typograph. torn, ii, p. 2 8, 125 133, and Wetstein, Prolegomena, p. 116 127. f- The three witnesses have been established in our Greek Testaments by the prudence of Erasmus ; the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors ; the typographical fraud, or error, of Robert Stephens, in the placing a crotchet ; and the deliberate falsehood, or strange misap- prehension, of Theodore Beza. [In his edition of the New Testament, in 1539, Robert Stephens made a parenthesis of the passage " in heaven on earth,'' to indicate that it was not to be found in the Latin manuscript ; but in the edition of 1550, only the words "in heaven" are placed between brackets as suspicious, instead of the whole passage, as it ought to have been. GERM. EDIT.] [Any further observations on this subject are rendered unnecessary by Person's Letters to Travis, which completely establish Gibbon's position, that the verse respecting the " three witnesses " was the interpolation of a later age. ED.] I Plin. Hist. Natural. 5, 1. Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 15. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. torn, ii, part. 2, p. 127. This Tipasa (which must not be confounded with another in Numidia) was a town of some note, since Vespasian endowed it with the right cf Latiurn. Gptatus Milevitanus de Schism. Donatist. lib. 2, p. 38. i 2 148 THE MIRACLES AT TIPASA. [CH. XXXVII. of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of Spain ; and the unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper, still presumed to hold their pious, but illegal assemblies. Their disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was dispatched from Carthage to Tipasa : he collected the Catholics in the Forum, and, in the presence of the whole province, deprived the guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors continued to speak without tongues ; and this miracle is attested by Victor, an African bishop, who published a history of the persecution within two years after the event.* "If any one," says Victor, "should doubt of the truth, let him repair to Constantinople, and listen to the clear and perfect language of Restitutus, the sub-deacon, one of these glorious sufferers, who is now lodged in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and is respected by the devout empress." At Constantinople we are astonished to find a cool, a learned, and unexceptionable witness, without interest, and without passion. ^Eneas of Gaza, a Platonic philosopher, has accurately described his own observations on these African sufferers. " I saw them myself: I heard them speak ; I diligently inquired by what means such an articu- late voice could be formed without any organ of speech : I used my eyes to examine the report of my ears : I opened their mouth, and saw that the whole tongue had been com- pletely torn away by the roots ; an operation which the physicians generally suppose to be mortal, "t The testimony of ^Eneas of Gaza might be confirmed by the superfluous erddence of the emperor Justinian, in a perpetual edict ; of count Marcellinus, in his chronicle of the times ; and of pope Gregory I. who had resided at Constantinople, as the min- ister of the Eoman pontiff". J They all lived within the * Victor Vitensia, 5, 6, p. 76. Ruinart, p. 483487. t .. 510.] CONSULSHIP OF CLOVIS. 179 After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the honours of the Roman consulship. The emperor Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival of Theo- doric, the title and ensigns of that eminent dignity ; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the Fasti either of the East or "West.* On the solemn day, the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested in the church of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence he proceeded on horseback to the cathedral of Tours ; and, as he passed through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a donative of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, who incessantly repeated their acclamations of Consul and Augustus. The actual or legal authority of Clovis could not receive any new accessions from the consular dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant ; and if the conqueror had been instructed to claim the ancient prero- gatives of that high office, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration. But the Romans were dis- posed to revere, in the person of their master, that antique title which the emperors condescended to assume : the bar- barian himself seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect the majesty of the republic ; and the successors of Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship, tacitly forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul. Twenty-five years after the death of Clovis, this important concession was more formally declared, in a treaty between his sons and the emperor Justinian. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their distant acquisitions, had re- signed to the Franks the cities of Aries and Marseilles : of Aries, still adorned with the seat of a praetorian prefect, and of Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. t This transaction was confirmed by the im- * The Fasti of Italy would naturally reject a consul, the enemy ot wheir sovereign ; but any ingenious hypothesis, that might explain t ha silence of Constantinople and Egypt (the Chronicle of Marcellinus, an d the Paschal), is overturned by the similar silence of Marius bishop of Avenche, who composed his Fasti in the kingdom of Burgundy. Ii, the evidence of Gregory of Tours were less weighty and positive (1. 2 c. 38, in torn, ii, p. 183), I could believe that Clovis, like Odoacer' received the lasting title and honours of Patrician. (Pagi Critica' torn, ii, p. 474. 492.) } Under the Merovingian kings Marseilles still imported from the East, paper, wine, oil, linen, silk precious stones, spices, &c. The Gauls, or Franks, traded to Syria s 2 180 FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [CH. XXXY1IJ. perial authority ; and Justinian, generously yielding to the Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the Alps, which they already possessed, absolved the provincials from their allegiance ; and established on a more lawful though not more solid, foundation, the throne of the Merovingians.* From that era, they enjoyed the right of celebrating at Aries the games of the circus ; and by a singular privilege, which was denied even to the Persian monarch, the gold coin, impressed with their name and image, obtained a legal currency in the empire.f A Greek historian of that age has praised the private and public virtues of the Franks, with a partial enthusiasm, which cannot be sufficiently and the Syrians were established in Gaul. See M. de Guignes, Me"m. de 1'Academie, torn, xxxvii, p. 471 475. * Ov yap TTors, tjjovro FaXXiag %i>v T(J> aaipakti KiKTijaOai ^pavyoi, fir) TOV avroKCiaropoQ TO ipyov tTTioQayiaavToi; TOVTO ye. This strong declaration of Procopius (De Bell. Gothic. 1. 3, cap. 33, in torn, ii, p. 41) would almest suffice to justify the abb^ Dubos. [Mr. Hallam takes a different view of this subject, on which he says : " The theory of Dubos, who considers Clovis as a sort of lieutenant of the emperors, and as governing the Roman part of his subjects by no other title, has justly seemed extravagant to later critical inquirers into the history of France. But it may nevertheless be true, that the connec- tion between him and the empire, and the emblems oi Roman magis- tracy which he bore, reconciled the conquered to their new masters. This is judiciously stated by the due de Nivernois, Me"m. de 1'Acad. des Inscrip. torn, xx, p. 174." (Europe in the Mid. Ages, vol. i, p. 3, note.) The ready submission of the conquered is better accounted for in a subsequent part ol this chapter, by their improved condition under their new masters. ED.] f The Franks, who probably used the mints of Treves, Lyons, and Aries, imitated the coinage of the Roman emperors of seventy-two solidi, or pieces, to the pound of gold. But as the Franks established only a decuple proportion of gold and silver, ten shillings will be a sufficient valuation of their solidus of gold. It was the common standard of the barbaric fines, and contained forty denarii, or silver threepences. Twelve of these denarii made a solidus or shilling, the twentieth part of the ponderal and numeral livre, or pound of silver, which has been so strangely reduced in modern France. See Le Blanc, Traite Historique des Monnoyes de France, P- 37 43, &c. [Amalarich issued gold money in Spain at the same time. The "aureae monetee" of Ermenigild, during his rebellion (A.D. 580) are mentioned by Mariana (1. 5, c. 12). This coinage, both in Spain and Gaul, consisted chiefly of trientes, which form an interesting series. The triens was equal to one-third of the Byzantine solidus (long known in later times as a Bezant) and had generally a small, not ill-executed head of the king, with his name, though sometimes the name was that of the moneyer. On the reverse was a cross, with the name of the city where the coin was minted. Humphreys' Manual 53G.] FBENCH MONAKCHY IN GAUL. 181 justified by their domestic annals.* He celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government and orthodox religion ; and boldly asserts, that these barbarians eould be distinguished only by their dress and language irom the subjects of Eome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social disposition and lively graces which in every age have disguised their vices, and sometimes concealed their intrinsic merit. Perhaps Agathias and the Greeks were dazzled by the rapid progress oi their arms, and the splendour of their empire. Since the conquest of Bur- gundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province of Septimania, was subject, in its whole extent, to the sons of Clovis. They had extinguished the German kingdom of Thuriugia, and tkeir vague dominion penetrated beyond the Rhine, into the heart of their native forests. The Allemanni and Bavarians, who had occupied the Roman provinces of Rhsetia, and Noricum to the south of the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vassals of the Franks; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable of resisting their ambition. When the last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the inheritance and conquests of the Merovingians, his kingdom extended far beyond the limits of modern France. Yet modern France, such has been the progress of arts and policy, far surpasses in wealth, populousness, and power, the spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or Dagobert.f The Franks, or French, are the only people of Europe who can deduce a perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Western empire. But their conquest of Gaul was followed by ten centuries of anarchy and ignorance. On the revival of learning, the students, who had been formed in the schools of Athens and Eome, disdained their barbarian ancestors ; and a long period elapsed beiore patient labour eould provide the requisite materials to satisfy, or rather to of Coins, edit. Bonn, p. 517. 531. ED.] * Agathias, in torn, ii, p. 47. Gregory of Tours exhibits a very different picture. Perhaps it would not be easy within the same historical space, to find more vice and less virtue. We are continually shocked by the union of savage and corrupt manners. [In a continuation of the just quoted note, Mr. Hallam observes, that " In. the sixth century, the Greeks appear to have been nearly ignorant of Clovis's countrymen. Nothing can be made out of a passage in Procopius ; and Agathias gives a strangely romantic account of the Franks one would almost believe him ironical." ED.] f-M.de Foncemagne has traced in a correct and elegant dissertation (Mem. de 1'Acadeinie, torn, viii, p. 505 528) the extent and limits of 182 POLITICAL CONTBOVEBSY. [CII. IXXTIII. excite, the curiosity of more enlightened times.* At length the eye ot criticism and philosophy was directed to the antiquities of France; but even philosophers have been tainted by the contagion of prejudice and passion. The most extreme and exclusive systems of the personal servi- tude of the Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks, have been rashly conceived, and obsti- nately defended : and the intemperate disputants have accused each other of conspiring against the prerogative of the crown, the dignity of the nobles, or the freedom of the people. Yet the sharp conflict has usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and genius ; and each antagonist, alternately vanquished and victorious, has extirpated some ancient errors, and established some interesting truths. An impartial stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same original materials, the state of the Eoman provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovin- gian kings, f the French monarchy. * The abbe" Dubos (Histoire Critique, torn, i, p. 29 36) has truly and agreeably represented the slow progress of these studies ; and he observes, that Gregory of Tours was only once printed before the year 1560. According to the complaint of Heineccius, (Opera, torn, iii, Sylloge 3, p. 248, &c.) Germany received with indifference and contempt the codes of barbaric laws, which were published by Heroldus, Lindenbrogius, &c. At present those laws (as far as they relate to Gaul), the history of Gregory of Tours, and all the monuments of the Merovingian race, appear in a pure and perfect state in the first four volumes of the Historians of France. ["Ten centuries of anarchy and ignorance !" What a prospect to open before the student of history entering on this part of his course ? Yet nothing better can be looked for in ages when the instructors of the world taught none to read or write but their own order, and not even all of these. In such times we cannot expect to find faithful records or works of genius. We, who have emerged from the darkness, can now perceive that progress is the natural, the essential attribute of mind. But while we exult in the vigour of liberated intellect, we feel conscious that we are far below the point which we might have reached. Had the human mind been allowed to continue unchecked and unrestrained, the advance which it had accomplished during the eighteen hundred years before the age of Augustus, how much more elevated might now have been its position, how much wider its percep- tions, how much more vivid its enjoyments and its happiness .' ED.] t In the space of thirty-years, (1728 1765) this interesting subject has been agitated by the free spirit of the count de Boulainvilliers, lMe"moires Historiques sur 1'Etat de la France, particularly torn, i, P- !> * 9 )> the learned ingenuity of the abbe" Dubos (Histoire Critique d rEtabli*"><"it de la Monarchic Frangoise dans les Gaules, two volat A.D. 536.] LAWS OF THE BABBARIANS. 183 The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society, is regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules. "When Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of public and private life, which were preserved by faithful tradition, till the introduction of the art of writing, and of the Latin tongue.* Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful tribe, or nation, of the Franks, appointed four venerable chieftains to compose the Salic laws ;t and their labours were examined and approved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with Christianity : the Salic law was again amended by his sons ; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the cus- toms of the Riptiarians were transcribed and published; and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and country, bad accurately studied the two national laws, which still pre- vailed among the Franks. J The same care was extended to In 4to.), the comprehensive genius of the president de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, particularly 1. 28. 30, 31), and the good sense and diligence of the Abbe" de Mably (Observations sur 1'Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12mo.) * I have derived much instruction from two learned works of Heineccius, the History and the Elements of the Germanic law. In a judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse, the defects of that barbarous jurisprudence. f Latin appears to have been the original language of the Salic law. It was probably composed in the beginning of the fifth century, before the era (A.D. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond. The preface mentions the four cantons which produced the four legislators ; and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant, &c. have elaimed them as their own. See an excellent Dissertation of Heinec- cius, de Lege Salica, torn, iii, Sylloge 3, p. 247 267. J Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, c. 29, in torn, v, p. 100. By these two laws, most critics understand the Salic and the Ripuarian. The former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire (torn, iv, D. 151) ; and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rhine (torn, iv, p. 222). [It may be doubted whether the high anti- quity claimed by Gibbon for the Salic laws, can be conceded. Such a code can scarcely have been " preserved by ancient tradition till the introduction of the art of writing and of the Latin tongue." Some customs that had the force of laws, were probably so transmitted ; but their digested form having been originally Latin, Mr. Hallam's opinion seems to be more correct, that they " appear to have been framed by a Christian prince, and after the conquest of GauL They are, therefore. 18-4 LAWS OP THE BABBABIANS. [CH. IXXVIII. their vassals ; and the rude institutions of the Allemanni and Bavarians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and JBurgundians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, showed less impatience to attain one of the principal benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes who expressed in writing the manners and customs of his people ; and the composition of the Bur- gundian laws was a measure of policy rather than of justice ; to alleviate the yoke, and regain the affections, of their Gallic subjects-* Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless institutions, at a time when the elaborate system of Roman jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws, and the Pandects of Justinian, we may compare the first rudiments, and the full maturity, of civil wisdom ; and whatever prejudices may be suggested in favour of barbarism, our calmer reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, not only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Tet the laws of the barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their occupations and their capacity ; and they all contributed to preserve the peace, and promote the improve- ments of the society for whose use they were originally established. The Merovingians, instead of imposing a unitorm rule of conduct on their various subjects, permitted each people, and each family of their empire, freely to enjoy their domestic institutions ;f nor were the Romans excluded not older than Clovis. Nor can they be much later, since they were altered by one of his sons." The Ripuarian law is called by the same writer " the code of a tribe of Franks settled upon the banks of the Rhine, and differing rather in words than in substance from the Salic law, which it serves to illustrate." Middle Ages, 1. 145. ED.] * Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several codes in the fourth volume of the Historians of France. The original prologue to the Salic law, expresses (though in a foreign dialect) the genuine spirit of the Franks more forcibly than the ten books of Gregory of Tours. f The Ripuarian law declares, and defines, this indulgence in favour of the plaintiff (tit. 31, in torn, iv, p. 240) ; and the same toleration is understood, or expressed, in all the codes, excepfa that of the Visigoths of Spain. Tanta diversitas legum, (says Agobard, in the ninth century) quanta non solum in regionibus, aut civitatibus, Bed etiam in multis domibus habetur. Nam plerumque contingit ut simul eant aut sedeant quinque homines, et nullus eorum communem, legem cum altero habeat (in torn, vi, p. 356). He foolishly proposes ta introduce a uniformity of law as well as of faith. A.D. 536.] PECTJXIAET TINES TOE HOMICIDE. 185 from the common benefits of this legal toleration.* The children embraced the law of their parents, the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his patron ; and, in all causes, where the parties were of different nations, the plaintiff, or accuser, was obliged to follow the tribunal of the defendant, who may always plead a judicial presumption of right or innocence. A more ample latitude was allowed, if every citizen, in the presence of the judge, might declare the law under which he desired to live, and the national society to which he chose to belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial distinctions of victory ; and the Roman provincials might patiently acquiesce in the hardships of their condition ; since it depended on themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the character, of free and warlike barbarians. f When justice inexorably requires the death of a murderer, each private citizen is fortified by the assurance, that the laws, the magistrate, and the whole community, are the guardians of his personal safety. But in the loose society of the Germans, revenge was always honourable, and often meritorious ; the independent warrior chastised, or vindi- cated, with his own hand, the injuries which he had offered or received ; and he had only to dread the resentment of the sons and kinsmen of the enemy, whom he had sacrificed to his selfish or angry passions. The magistrate, conscious of his weakness, interposed, not to punish, but to reconcile; and he was satisfied if he could persuade or compel the con- tending parties to pay, and to accept, the moderate fine * Inter Romanes negotia causarum Romania legibus prsecipimus terminari. Such are the words of a general constitution promulgated by Clotaire the son of Clovis, and sole monarch ol the Franks, (in torn, iv, p. 116) about the year 560. + This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced (Esprit des Loix, 1. 28. 2) from a constitution of Lothaire I. (Leg. Langobard. 1. 2, tit. 57, in Codex Lindenbrog. p. 664) though the example is too recent and partial. From a various reading in the Salic law (tit. 44, not 45) the abbe" de Mably (torn, i, p. 290 293) has conjectured, that, at first, a barbarian only, and afterwards any man (consequently a Roman), might live according to the law of the Franks. I am sorry to offend this ingenious conjecture by observing, that the stricter sense (barbarum) is expressed in the reformed copy of Charlemagne ; which is confirmed by the Royal and Wolfenbuttle MSS. The looser interpretation (hominem) is authorised only by the MS. of Fulda, from whence Heroldus published his edition. See the four original texts of the Salic law, in tom.iv. p. 147. 186 INEQUALITY OP [CH. XXXVIIT. which had been ascertained as the price of blood.* The fierce spirit of the Franks would have opposed a more rigorous sentence ; the same fierceness despised these inef- fectual restraints : and when their simple manners had been corrupted by the wealth of Gaul, the public peace was con- tinually violated by acts of hasty or deliberate guilt. In every just government, the same penalty is inflicted, or at least is imposed, for the murder of a peasant or a prince. But the national inequality, established by the Franks in their criminal proceedings, was the last insult and abuse of 173. 196. 220. [Montesquieu's inference from Lothaire's law, which Gibbon doubts, Mr. Hallam accepts. The words which he quotes, are as explicit as could be used. " Volumus, ut cunctus populus Romanus interrogetur, quali lege vult vivere, ut tali, quali professi f uerint vivere velle, vivant." (It is our will that all Romans should be asked what law the,y wish to live under, and that they should live under that which they choose.) Though the date be 824, it is very improbable that any change should have been introduced at that period, but that an old custom was confirmed. The conquerors, who had never from the first imposed their laws on their new subjects, but left them free to enjoy their own, would not have denied them the lesser liberty of submitting themselves, if they wished it, to the code of their rulers. By degrees the latter prevailed, especially to the north of the Loire, where the feudal customs of succession and the pecuniary atonements for crime " contributed to extirpate the Roman jurisprudence." In the south of France the distinction was much longer maintained. Hallam, i. 149. ED.] * In the heroic times of Greece, the guilt of murder was expiated by a pecuniary satisfaction to the family of the deceased. (Feithius, Antiquitat. Homeric. 1. 2, c. 8.) Heinec- cius, in his preface to the Elements of Germanic Law, favourably suggests, that at Rome and Athens homicide was only punished with exile. It is true : but exile was a capital punishment for a citizen of Rome or Athens. [The Roman law on this subject is clearly explained by Niebuhr (Lectures, i, p. 316.) who says : " It is a generally received opinion, that every Roman citizen had the right of saving aimself from the punishment of death by exile. If such had been the case, it might well be wondered why capital punishments, of which the old Roman laws have so many, were instituted at all. The deposition of witnesses to a delictum, was sufficient to have the accused instantly arrested and dragged before the magistrate. If it was no delictum manifestum, and he was a plebeian, he applied to the tribune and gave bail. Should he thus manage to get free, he might leave his sureties in the lurch and go into exile. But if he had been caught in a delictum manifestum in flagranti, and the testes locupletes asserted that they had been present, thereby identifying his person, no trial was allowed, but he was, obtorto collo, with his toga drawn over his head, conducted before the magistrate, who then at once gave judgment. The passages which prove this, are to be iound in Livy and Cicero." ED.] A.D. 536.] CRIMINAL PEOCEEDINGS. 187 conquest.* In the calm moments of legislation, they solemnly pronounced that the life of a Roman was of smaller value than that of a barbarian. The Antrustion,^ a name expres- sive of the most illustrious birth or dignity among the Franks, was appreciated at the sum of six hundred pieces of * This proportion is fixed by the Salic (tit. 44, in torn, ir, p. 147) and the Ripuarian (tit. 7. 11. 36, in torn, iv, p. 237. 241) laws : but the latter does not distinguish any difference of Romans. Yet the orders of the clergy are placed above the Franks themselves, and the Bur- gundians and Allemanni between the Franks and the Romans. [Gibbon ought to have added here what he afterwards states, that the weregild of a priest was equal to that of an Antrustion, six hundred pieces of gold, but that of a bishop nine hundred. The relative places of individuals in the social scale, and their respective degrees of influence, cannot be more lucidly marked. It should also be remem- bered, that almost all the bishops and clergy were Romans, to whom in any other capacity, the very lowest rank would have been assigned. Hallam, vol. i, p. 147, and note. ED.] f 1 The Antrustiones, qui in truste dominica sunt, leudi, fideles, un- doubtedly represent the first order of Franks ; but it is a question whether their rank was personal or hereditary. The abbe" de Mably (torn, i, p. 334 347) is not displeased to mortify the pride of birth, (Esprit, 1. 30, c. 25) by dating the origin of French nobility from the reign of Clotaire II. (A.D. 615.) [The rude, hall-settled form of govern- ment, in those days, was no more, as Schmidt justly observes, than the sapling, which was to grow up into the oak of after ages ; and by this he endeavoured to reconcile the praises of Grotius with the censures of Leibnitz, on the earliest laws of their Gothic progenitors. (Geschichte der Deutschen, 1. 199.) Vanity alone would seek there for an hereditary nobility. This, Mr. Hallam considers on good grounds (vol. i, p. 157) to have been unknown among the Franks, till long after their settlement in Gaul. The Antrustion, undoubtedly then their highest title, was clearly a personal distinction, and has not left even such traces of perpetuated rank, as Dux and Comes sub- sequently introduced. Ducange (1. 539) gives it the meaning of "fidelis domino," and derives it from Trustis. This (6.1325) he makes equi- valent with fides or fiducia, and the latinized form of the German Trost. Here Adelung steps in and tells us (4. 1073) that, though the German word now denotes only consolation, in ancient times it ex- pressed Zuversicht, Vertrauen, (confidence) and it is pleasant to follow him through the etymological windings, by which (p. 1032. 1054) he discovers its root in the adjective treu (our true or faithful) which Ulphilas used in the uncouth shape of triggwa. The Antrustion was, therefore, the trusted, the confidant, from whom his king sought advice on important occasions, and may be considered to be now represented by our privy councillor, or cabinet councillor. It was, therefore, a right honourable designation, but so far from being hereditary, it was most probably resumable whenever the sovereign's displeasure declared th holder of it be untrustworthy. How nearly the ancient term and 188 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. [CH. XXXVIII. fold ; while the noble provincial, who was admitted to the ing's table, might be legally murdered at the expense of three hundred pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient for a Frank of ordinary condition ; but the meaner Romans were exposed to disgrace and danger by a trifling compen- sation of one hundred, or even fifty pieces ot gold. Had these laws been regulated by any principle of equity or reason, the public protection should have supplied in just proportion the want ol personal strength. But the legisla- tor had weighed in the scale, not of justice, but of policy, the loss of a soldier against that of a slave ; the head of an insolent and rapacious barbarian was guarded by a heavy fine ; and the slightest aid was afforded to the most defence- less subjects. Time insensibly abated the pride of the conquerors, and the patience of the vanquished ; and the boldest citizen was taught by experience, that he might suffer more injuries than he could inflict. As the manners ot the Franks became less ferocious, their laws were rendered more severe; and the Merovingian kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigour of the Visigoths and Burgun- dians.* Under the empire of Charlemagne, murder was universally punished with death ; and the use of capital punishments has been liberally multiplied in the juris- prudence of modern Europe. f The civil and military professions, which had been sepa- rated by Constantine, were again united by the barbarians. The harsh sound of the Teutonic appellations was mollified into the Latin titles of duke, of count, or of prefect ; and the same officer assumed, within his district, the command its sense are seen combined in our English phrase "A trusty one." ED.] * See the Burgundian laws (tit. 2, in torn, iv, p. 257), the Code of the Visigoths (1. 6, tit. 5, in torn, iv, p. 384), and the constitution of Ckildebert, not of Paris, but most evidently of Aus- trasia (in torn, iv, p. 112). Their premature severity was sometimes rash and excessive. Childebert condemned not only murderers but robbers : quomodo sine lege involavit, sine lege moriatur ; and even the negligent judge was involved in the same sentence. The Visigoths abandoned an unsuccessful surgeon to the iamily i>f his deceased patient, ut quod de eo facere voluerint habeant potestatem (1. 11, tit. 1, in torn, iv, p. 435). ) See in the sixth volume of the works of Heineccius, the Elementa Juris Germanici, 1. 2, p. 2, No. 261, 262. 280 283. Yet some vestiges of these pecuniary compositions for murder have been traced in Germany, as late as the sixteenth century, A.D. 536.] THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 189 of the troops, and the administration of justice.* But the fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified to dis- charge the duties of a judge, which require all the faculties of a philosophic mind, laboriously cultivated by experience and study ; and his rude ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple and visible methods of ascertaining the cause of justice. In every religion, the Deity has been invoked to confirm the truth, or to punish the falsehood, of human testimony; but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abused, by the simplicity of the German legislators. The party accused might justify his innocence, by producing before their tribunal a number of friendly witnesses, who solemnly declared their belief, or assurance, that he was not guilty. According to the weight of the charge this legal number of compurgators was multiplied ; seventy-two voices were required to absolve an incendiary, or assassin ; and when the chastity of a queen of France was suspected, three hundred gallant nobles swore, without hesitation, that the infant prince had been actually begotten by her deceased husband.f The sin and scandal of manifest and frequent perjuries engaged the magistrates to remove these dangerous temptations ; and to supply the defects of human testimony, by the famous experiments of fire and water. These extra- ordinary trials were so capriciously contrived, that, in some cases, guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved without the interposition of a miracle. Such miracles were readily provided by fraud and credulity ; the most intricate causes were determined by this easy and infallible method ; and the turbulent barbarians, who might have disdained the sentence of the magistrate, submissively acquiesced in the judgment of Grod.J * The whole subject of the Germanic judges and their jurisdiction, is copiously treated by Heineccius. (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. 3, No. 1 72.) I cannot find any proof that, under the Merovingian race, the tcabini, or assessors, were chosen by the people. f- Gregor. Turon. 1. 8, c. 9, in torn, ii, p. 316. Montesquieu observes, (Esprit des Loix, 1. 28, c. 13) that the Salic law did not admit these negative proofs so universally established in the barbaric codes. Yet this obscure concubine (Fredegundis), who became the wife of the grandson of Clovis, must have followed the Salic law. J Muratori, in the Antiquities of Italy, has given two Dissertations (38, 39) on the judgments of God. It was expected that fire would not burn the innocent and that the pure element of water would not 190 JUDICIAL COMBATS [CH. XXXTITT. But the trials by single combat gradually obtained supe- rior credit and authority among a warlike people, who could not believe that a brave man deserved to suffer, or that a coward deserved to live.* Both in civil and criminal pro- ceedings, the plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or even the witness, were exposed to mortal challenge from the antagonist who was destitute of legal proofs ; and it was incumbent on them either to desert their cause, or publicly to maintain their honour in the lists of battle. They fought either on foot or on horseback, according to the custom of their nation ;f and the decision of the sword or lance was ratified by the sanction of Heaven, of the judge, and of the people. This sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by the Burgundians ; and their legislator, Gundobald,J con- descended to answer the complaints and objections of his subject Avitus. " Is it not true (said the king of Burgundy to the bishop) that the event of national wars and private combats is directed by the judgment of God ; and that his providence awards the victory to the juster cause ?" By such prevailing arguments, the absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had been peculiar to some tribes of Germany, was propagated and established in all the monarchies of Europe from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of ten centuries, the reign of legal violence was not totally extinguished ; and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes, and of synods, may seem to prove, that the influence of superstition is weakened by its unnatural allow the guilty to sink into its bosom. * Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. 28, c. 17) has condescended to explain and excuse " la maniere de penser de nos peres," on the subject of judicial com- bats. He follows this strange institution from the age of Gundobald to that of St. Louis ; and the philosopher is sometimes lost in the legal antiquarian. f In a memorable duel at Aix-la-Chapelle, (A.D. 820) before the emperor Louis the Pious, his biographer observes, eecundum legem propriam, utpote quia uterque Gothus erat, equestri pugna congresaus est (Vit. Lud. Pii, c. 33, in torn, vi, p. 103.) Ermol- dus Nigellus, (1. 3, 543628, in torn, vi, p. 4850) who describes the duel, admires the ars nova of fighting on horseback, which was unknown to the Franks. J In his original edict published at Lyons, (A.D. 501,) Gundobald establishes and justifies the use of judicial combat. (Leg. Burgund. tit 45, in torn, ii, p. 267, 268.) Three hundred years afterwards, Agobard, bishop of Lyons, solicited Louia the Pious to abolish the law oi an Arian tyrant (in torn, vi, p. 356 868). He relates the converaition of Gundobald aud Avitus. A D. 580.] DIVISION OF LANDS BY Tim BABBABIAU8. 191 alliance with reason and humanity. The tribunals were stained with the blood, perhaps, of innocent and respectable citizens ; the law which now favours the rich, then yielded to the strong ; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm were condemned, either to renounce their fairest claims and pos- sessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal conflict,* or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary champion. This oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of Gaul, who complained of any injuries in their persons and property. Whatever might be the strength or courage of individuals, the victorious barbarians excelled in the love and exercise of arms; and the vanquished Roman was unjustly summoned to repeat in his own person the bloody contest which had been already decided against his country.f A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand Germans had formerly passed the Rhine under the com- mand of Ariovistus. One-third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was appropriated to their use; and the con- queror soon repeated his oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony of twenty- four thousand barbarians, whom he had invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul.J At the distance of five hundred years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of two-thirds of the subject lands. But this distribution, instead of spreading over the province, may be reasonably confined to the peculiar districts where the victorious people had been planted by their own choice, or by the policy of their * " Accidit (says Agobard) ut non solum valentes viribus, sed etiam infirmi et senes lacessantur ad pugnam, etiam pro vilissimis rebus. Quibus foralibus certaminibus contingunt homicidia injusta ; et cru- deles ac perversi eventus judiciorum." Like a prudent rhetorician, he suppresses the legal privilege of hiring champions. f* Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, 28, c. 14,) who understands why the judicial combat was admitted by the Burgundians, Ripuarians, Allemanni, Bavarians, Lombards, Thuringians, Frisons, and Saxons, is satisfied (and Agobard seems to countenance the assertion) that it was not allowed by the Salic law. Yet the same custom, at least in casea of treason, is mentioned by Ermoldus Nigellus, (1. 3, 543, in torn, vi, p. 48,) and the anonymous biographer of Louis the Pious, (c. 46, in torn, vi, p. 112,) as the " mos antiquua Francorum, more Francis solito." &c., expressions too general to exclude the noblest of their tribes. J Caesar de Bell. Gall. L 1, c. 31, in torn, i, p. 213. 192 TOLICT OF CLOVIS. [CH. xxxvm, leader. In these districts, each barbarian was connected by the ties of hospitality with some Eoman provincial. To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor was compelled to abandon two-thirds of his patrimony: but the German, a shepherd and a hunter, might sometimes content himself with a spacious range of wood and pasture, and resign the smalle'st, though most valuable, portion to the toil of the industrious husbandman.* The silence of ancient and authentic testimony has encouraged an opinion, that the rapine of the Franks was not moderated or disguised by the forms of a legal division ; that they dispersed them- selves over the provinces of Gaul without order or control ; and that each victorious robber, according to his wants, hia avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword the extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sovereign, the barbarians might indeed be tempted to exer- cise such arbitrary depredation; but the firm and artful policy of Clovis must curb a licentious spirit, which would , aggravate the misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the conquerors. The memorable vase of Soissons is a monument and a pledge of the regular distribution of the Gallic spoils. It was the duty and the interest ot Clovis to provide rewards for a successful army, and settlements for a numerous people ; without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries on the loyal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might lawfully acquire of the imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and Gothic usur- pations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and confiscation; and the humble provincials would more * The obscure hints of a division of lands occasionally scattered in the laws ot the Burgundians (tit. liv. No. 1, 2, in torn, iv, p. 271, 272,) and Visigoths, (1. 10, tit. 1, No. 8. 9, 16, in torn, iv, p. 428 430,) are skilfully explained by the president Montesquieu. (Esprit des Loix, 1. 30, c. 7 9.) I shall only add, that, among the Goths, the division seems to have been ascertained by the judgment ol the neighbour- hood ; that the barbarians frequently usurped the remaining third, and that the Romans might recover their right, unless they were barred by a prescription oi fifty years. [The Franks, who took pos- session of Gaul, appear to have been, for the most part, an army of adventurous young men ; not a colony followed by families and dependents. (Schmidt, 1. 192.) This idea has been taken up by Sis- mondi (Hist, des Francois, 1. p. 197), who deduced from it many con- sequences. It must be borne in mind, tor it will account for much that was peculiar in their laws, in their more matured institutions, 1..D.536.] DOMAIN OF THE MEEOTIKGIANS. 193 patiently acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their loss.* The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they still delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; the cities were abandoned to solitude and decay ; and their coins, their charters, and their synods are still inscribed with the names of the villas, or rural palaces, in which they successively resided. One hundred and sixty of these palaces, a title which need not excite any unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, were scattered through the provinces of their kingdom ; and if some might claim the honours of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable farms. The mansion of the long- haired kings was surrounded with convenient yards and stables for the cattle and the poultry ; the garden was planted with useful vegetables ; the various trades," the labours of agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing, were exercised by servile hands, for the emolument of the sovereign ; his magazines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or consumption ; and the whole administration was conducted by the strictest maxims of private economy.f This ample patrimony was appro- end in the general character subsequently appertaining to the people of France. ED.] * It is singular enough, that the president de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. 30, c. 7), and the Abbe de Mably, (Observations, torn, i, p. 21, 22), agree in this strange supposition of arbitrary and private rapine. The count de Boulainvilliers, (Etat de la France, torn, i, p. 22, 23,) shews a strong understanding, through a cloud of ignorance and prejudice. f See the rustic edict, or rather code, of Charlemagne, which contains seventy distinct and minute regulations of that great monarch (in torn, v, p. 652 657). He requires an account of the horns and skins of the goats ; allows his fish to be sold; and carefully directs, that the larger villas (Capi- tanece) shall maintain one hundred hens and thirty geese ; and the smaller (Mansionales) fifty hens and twelve geese. Mabillon (de Re Diplomatica) has investigated the names, the number, and the situation of the Merovingian villas. [A ruined wall now shows where one of these stood, in the depths of a forest, a few miles to the west of the University of Marburg, in Hesse Cassel. It still bears the name of Dagobertshaus. When the writer visited the spot, there was also an aged oak, which is said to be mentioned in some ancient chronicle, as having sheltered the building in the days of its royal owner. The hollow trunk was so capacious, that it was used as a shed for his cattle, by a peasant who lived near. There is no villa in Mabillon'a long list YOL. IV. O 194 COMMENCEMENT OP FEUDALISM. [CH. XXXVIII. priated to supply the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his successors ; and to reward the fidelity of their brave com- panions, who, both in peace and war, were devoted to their personal service. Instead of a horse, or a suit of armour, each companion, according to his rank, or merit, or favour, was invested with a benefice, the primitive name, and most simple form of the feudal possessions. These gifts might be resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign ; and his feeble prerogative derived some support from the influence of his liberality. But this dependent tenure was gradually abolished* by the independent and rapacious nobles of France, who established the perpetual property and here- ditary succession of their benefices ; a revolution salutary to the earth, which had been injured or neglected by its precarious masters. t Besides these royal and beneficiary estates, a large proportion had been assigned, in the divi- sion of Gaul, of allodial and Salic lands : they were exempt from tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male descendants of the Franks. J that answers to this. It was probably an outlying hunting-lodge, for he says (p. 273) that every royal seat had many dependencies and was always situated (p. 254) in the neighbourhood of an extensive forest, where the monarch might pursue tha pleasures of the chase. Dago- bertshaus might be such an appendage either to the villa at Frankfort on the Maine (p. 293,) or to that at Wasal, Wesel, or St. Goar, (p. 356.) ED.] * From a passage of the Burgundian law, (tit. 1, No. 4, in torn, iv, p. 257,) it is evident, that a deserving son might expect to hold the lauds which his father had received from the royal bounty of Gundobald. The Burgundians would firmly maintain their privilege, and their example might encourage the beneficiaries of France, f- The revolutions of the benefices and fiefs are clearly fixed by the Abbe" de Mably. His accurate distinction of times gives him a merit to which even Montesquieu is a stranger. J See the Salic law (Tit. 62, intom.iv, p. 156.) The origin and nature of these Salic lands, which in times of ignorance were perfectly understood, now perplex our most learned and sagacious critics. [The explanation of the disputed terms, benefices, allodial and salic lands, given by Mr. Hallam (vol. i, p. 144 166,) is the most satisfactory and consonant to the course taken by the new occupants. "A people not very numerous," he says, " spread over the spacious provinces of Gaul, wherever lands were assigned to or seized by them ;" and he refers to a passage, in which Du Bos maintains that there were not more than three or four thousand Franks in the army of Clovis. Still every soldier, of whatever tribe, had for his reward a considerable estate ; and these allotments to the leudcn or people, were called allodial, to distinguish them from the fiscal lands, appropriated to the king. They were independent freeholds, to which 4.D. 536.] PEITATE USUBPATIONS. 195 In the bloody discord arid silent decay of the Mero- vingian line a new order of tyrants arose in the provinces, who, under the appellations of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right to govern, and a licence to oppress, the subjects of their peculiar territory. Their ambition might be checked by the hostile resistance of an equal ; but the laws were extinguished ; and the sacrilegious barbarians, who dared to provoke the vengeance of a saint or bishop,* would seldom respect the landmarks of a profane and defenceless neighbour. The common or public rights of nature, such as they had always been deemed by the Eoman juris- prudence^ were severely restrained by the German con- querors, whose amusement, or rather passion, was the exercise of hunting. The vague dominion which MAN has assumed over the wild inhabitants of the earth, the air, and the waters, was confined to some fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was again overspread with woods; and the animals, who were reserved for the use or pleasure of the lord, might ravage with impunity the fields of his industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian trans- gressors were legally chastised with stripes and imprison- ment ; J but in an age which admitted a slight composition the owner had an indefeasible right. But " to secure the military ser- vice of every proprietor," females were prohibited from inheriting these lands. Few of the Franks having then families, for whom they were interested, this law was adopted by general consent ; but it did not extend to any additional properties, which by any means they subse- quently acquired. These were also called allodial, and the original grants, in consequence of the rule of descent to which they were sub- ject, received the name of Salic. The benefices were portions of the fiscal lands, distributed at will by the sovereign, as stated by Gibbon, and were the first commencement of the feudal system. But Mr. Hallam (p. 161) shows them to have been hereditary on certain con- ditions, and only resumable " when some delinquency could be imputed to the vassal." ED.] * Many of the two hundred and six miracles of St. Martin (Greg. Turon. in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, torn, xi, p. 896 932,) were repeatedly performed to punish sacrilege. Audite hsec omnes (exclaims the bishop of Tours) potestatem habentes, after relating how some horses ran mad, that had been turned into a sacred meadow. t Heinec. Element. Jur. Germ. 1. 2, p. 1, No. 8. Jonas, bishop of Orleans (A.D. 821 826. Cave, Hist. Literaria, p. 443,) censures the legal tyranny of the nobles. Pro feris, quas cura hominum non aluit, sed Deus in commune mortalibus ad utendum concessit, pauperes a potentioribus spoliantur, flagellantur, ergastulia O 2 196 PEBSONAL SEEVITTTDE. [CH. for the life of a citizen, it was a capital crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts of the royal forests.* According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror became the lawful master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spared ;t and the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which had been almost suppressed by the peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived and multiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the independent barbarians. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned from a successful expedition, dragged after him a long train of sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, whom he treated with the same brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant form and ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic service ; a doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the favourable or cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and silver, &c.) employed their skill for the use or profit of their master. But the Eoman captives, who were desti- tute of art, but capable of labour, were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to tend the cattle and cultivate the lands of the barbarians. The number of the hereditary bondsmen who were attached to the Gallic estates, was continually increased by new supplies; and the servile people, according to the situation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently depressed by capricious despotism.^ An abso- dotruduntur, et multa alia patiuntur. Hoc enim qui faciunt, lege mundi se facere juste posse contendant. De Institutione Laicorum, 1. 2, c. 23. apud Thomassin, Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn, iii, p. 1348. * On a mere suspicion, Chundo, a chamberlain of Gontran, king of Burgundy, was stoned to death. (Greg. Turon. 1. 10, c. 10, in torn, ii, p. 369.) John of Salisbury (Polycrat. 1. 1, c. 4,) asserts the rights of nature, and exposes the cruel practice of the twelfth century. See Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Germ. 1. 2, p. 1, No. 51 57. t The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was totally extinguished in the thirteenth century, by the prevailing influence of Christianity : but it might be proved, from frequent passages of Gregory of Tours, &c., that it was practised without censure, under the Merovingian race ; and even Grotiua himself (de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1. 3, c. 7,) as well as his commentator Barbeyrac, have laboured to reconcile it with the laws of nature and reason. J The state, professions, &c., of the German, Italian, and Gallic slaves, during the middle ages, are explained by Heineccius, (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. 1, No. 2847); A.D. 536.] POWEB OP THE LOBDS. 197 lute power of life and death was exercised by these lords; and when they married their daughters, a train of useial servants, chained on the wagons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial present into a distant country.* The majesty of the Roman laws protected the liberty of each citizen against the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom ; and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is expressed in terms most dis- graceful and afflicting to the dignity of human nature.f The example of the poor, who purchased life by the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was gradually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter themselves under the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these temporal or spiritual patrons; and the hasty transaction irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and that of their latest posterity. From the reign of Clovis, daring five successive centuries, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of personal servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate ranks of society; and left an obscure and narrow interval between the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has been transformed by pride and prejudice into a national distinction, universally established by the arms and the laws of the Merovingians. The nobles, who claimed their genuine or fabulous descent from the independent and victorious Franks, have asserted and abused the indefeasible right of conquest over a prostrate crowd of slaves and Muratori (Dissert. 14, 15); Ducange (Gloss, sub. voce Servi); and the Abbe" de Mably (Observations, torn, ii, p. 3, &c., p. 237, &u.) * Gregory of Tours (1. 6, c. 45, in torn, ii, p. 289) relates a memor- able example, in which Chilperic only abused the private rights of a master. Many families which belonged to his domus fiscales in the neighbourhood of Paris, were forcibly sent away into Spain. t Licentiam habeatis mihi qualemeunque volueritis disciplinam ponere : vel venumdare, aut quod voois placuerit de me facere. Marculf. Formul. 1. 2, 28, in torn, iv, p. 497. The formula of Linden- brogius (p. 559), and that of Anjou (p. 565), are to the same effect. Gregory of Tours (1. 7, c. 45, in torn, ii, p. 311), speaks of many persons, who sold themselves for bread, in a great famine. 198 EXAMPLE [CH. plebeians, to whom they imputed the imaginary disgrace of a Gallic or Roman extraction. The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly maintained a just pre-eminence among the independent states and cities of G-aul. The brave and numerous inhabitants displayed a singular trophy ; the sword of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls of Gergovia.* As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans ;f and if each province had imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the "Western empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly maintained the fidelity which they had reluc- tantly sworn to the Visigoths; but when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle of Poitiers, they accepted without resistance a victorious and Catholic sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved and possessed by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis : but the remote pro- vince was separated from his Austrasian dominions by the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which formed, after their father's death, the inheritance of his three brothers. The king of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the neighbourhood and beauty of Auvergne.J The Upper country, which rises towards the south into the mountains of the Ceverfnes, presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures ; the sides of the hills were clothed with vines, and each eminence was crowned with * When Caesar saw it, he laughed (Plutarch, in Caesar, in torn, i, p. 409) ; yet he relates his unsuccessful siege of Gergovia with less frankness than we might expect from a great man to whom victory was familiar. He acknowledges, however, that in one attack he lost forty-six centurions and seven hundred 'men. (De Bell. Gallico, 1. 6, c. 44 53, in torn, i, p. 270 272.) t Audebant se quondam fratres Latio dicere, et sanguine ab Iliaco populos computare. (Sidon. Ajoollinar. 1. 7, epist. 7, in torn, i, p. 799.) I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this fabulous pedigree. + Either the first, or second, partition among the sons of Clovis, had given Berry to Childebert. (Greg. Turon. 1. 3, c. 12, in torn, ii, p. 192.) Velim (said he) Arvernam Lemanem, qa.se tant jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis cernere. (1. 3, c. 9, p. 191.) The face of the country was concealed by a thick fog, when the king of Paris rnada A.D. 536.] OF ATJVEBGNE. 199 a villa or castle. In the lower Auvergne the river Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne ; and the inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and still supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repe- tition of the same harvests.* On the false report that their lawful sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris. Childebert enjoyed this clandestine victory ; and the free subjects of Theodoric threatened to desert his standard if he indulged his private resentment while the nation was engaged in the Burgundian war. But the Franks of Austrasia soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of their king. " Follow me," said Theodoric " into Auvergne : I will lead you into a province where you may acquire gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious apparel, to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise ; I give you the people, and their wealth, as your prey ; and you. may transport them at pleasure into your own country." By the execution of this promise, Theodoric justly forfeited the allegiance of a people whom he devoted to destruction. His troops, reinforced by the fiercest bar- barians of Grermany,t spread desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne ; and two places only, a strong castle and a holy shrine, were saved, or redeemed, from their licentious fury. The castle of Meroliac J was seated on a lofty rock, which rose a hundred feet above the surface of the plain; and a large reservoir of fresh water was enclosed, with some arable lands, within the circle of its fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair this impregnable his entry into Clermont. * For the description of Auvergne, Bee Sidonius (1. 4, epist. 21, in torn, i, p. 793), with the notes of Savaron and Sirmond (p. 279, and 51, of their respective editions). Boulain- villiers (Etat de la France, torn, ii, p. 242 268), and the Abbe" de la Longuerue (Description de la France, part 1, p. 132 139). f- Furorem gentium, quse de ulteriore Rheni amnis parte venerant, superare non poterat, (Greg. Turon. 1. 4, c. 50, in torn, ii, 229,) was the excuse of another king of Austrasia, (A.D. 574,) for the ravages which his troops committed in the neighbourhood of Paris. J From the name and situation, the Benedictine editors of Gregory of Tours (in torn, ii, p. 192) have fixed this fortress at a place named Castel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac in the upper Auvergne. In this description, I translate infra as if I read infra ; the two pre- positions are perpetually confounded by Gregory or his transcribers; 200 BTOEY OF [CH. XXXTIII. fortress: but they surprised a party of fifty stragglers; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their captives, they fixed, at a trifling ransom, the alternative of life or death for these wretched victims, whom the cruel barbarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as Brivas, or Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Julian. The doors of the church resisted the assault, but a daring soldier entered through a window of the choir and opened a passage to his companions. The clergy and people, the sacred and the profane spoils, were rudely torn from the altar; and the sacrilegious division was made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. But this act of impiety was severely chastised by the devout son of Clovis. He punished with death the most atrocious offenders ; left their secret accom- plices to the vengeance of St. Julian ; released the captives ; restored the plunder ; and extended the rights of sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy martyr.* Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theo- doric exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose just hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of Childebert, and of their countrymen. On the first rumour of war or conspiracy, these guiltless youths were reduced to a state of servitude; and one of them, Attalus,t whose adventures are more particularly related, and the sense must always decide. * See these revolutions and wars of Auvergne in Gregory of Tours (1. 2, c. 37, in torn, ii, p. 183, and L 3, c. 9. 12, 13, p. 191, 192, de Miraculis St. Julian, c. 13, in torn, ii, p. 466.) He frequently betrays his extraordinary attention to his native country. [Of all the miracles fabricated in that age, so prolific of such wonders, there is not one, which had not the obvious design of either protecting or increasing the wealth of the church. ED.] ) The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of Tours (1. 3, c. 16, in torn, ii, p. 193195.) His editor, the P. Ruinart, confounds this Attains, who was a youth (puer) in the year 532, with a friend of Sidonius of the same name, who was count of Autun fifty or sixty years before. Such an error, which cannot be imputed to igno- rance, is excused, in some degree, by its own magnitude. [If this unfortunate land had been so depopulated, deprived of all means of resistance, and all its inhabitants given up to be transported by the conquerors to their own country, how could there have been found J..D. 536.] ATTALUS. 201 kept'his master's horses in the diocese of Treves. After a painful search he was discovered, in this unworthy occupa- tion, by the emissaries of his grandfather, Gregory, bishop of Langres ; but his offers of ransom were sternly rejected by the avarice of the barbarian, who required an exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy strata- gem of Leo, a slave belonging tq the kitchens of the bishop of Langres.* An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family. The barbarian purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of gold ; and was pleased to learn, that he was deeply skilled in the luxury of an episco- pal table. " Next Sunday (said the Frank) I shall invite my neighbours and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force them to confess, that they have never seen or tasted such an entertainment, even in the king's house." Leo assured him, that if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes should be satisfied. The master, who already aspired to the merit of elegant hospitality, assumed as his own, the praise which the voracious guests unani- mously bestowed on his cook; and the dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and management of his house- hold. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight, the intemperate guests retired from table ; and the Frank's son-in-law, whom Leo attended to his apartment with a nocturnal potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this dangerous raillery, entered his master's bedchamber ; removed his spear and " a select band of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators," to be delivered to Theodoric as hostages ? The story of Attalus must be a fiction, or the devastation of Auvergne grossly exaggerated. ED.] * This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of Tours, (in torn, ii, p. 197. 490) lived ninety-two years; of which he passed forty as count of Autun, and thirty-two as bishop of Langres. According to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal merit in these different stations. Nobilis antiqua decurrens prole parentum, Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. Arbiter ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos, Quos damuit judex fovit srnore patria. 202 STOET Cf ATTALTTS. [CH. XXXVIII. shield ; silently drew the fleetest horses from the stable ; unbarred the ponderous gates ; and excited Attalus to save his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their appre- hensions urged them to leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse ; * they swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent forest, and subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard the noise of horses ; they were terrified by the angry countenance of their master, and they anxiously listened to his declaration, that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on a gibbet. At length Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the friendly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting strength with bread and wine, con- cealed them from the search of their enemy, and safely conducted them, beyond the limits of the Austrasian king- dom, to the episcopal palace of Langres. Gregory em- braced his grandson with tears of joy, gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this singular adventure, which is marked with so many circum- stances of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself to his cousin or nephew, the first historian of the Pranks. Gregory of Tours t was born about sixty years after the death of Sidonius Apollinaris ; and their situation was almost similar, since each of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul ; and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mind had lost of its energy and refinement.! * As M. de Valois, and the P. Ruinart, are determined to change the Mosella of the text into Mosa, it becomes me to acquiesce in the alte- ration. Yet after some examination of the topography, I could defend the common reading. ( The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius Georgius) were of noble extraction (natalibus .... illustres), and they possessed large estates (latif undid) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born in the year 539, was consecrated bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 593, or 595, soon after he had terminated his history. See his life by Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in torn, ii, p. 129 135,) and a new life in the Memoires de I'Acad^mie, &c., torn, xxvi, p. 598637. I Becedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cultura literarum, c., (in prafat. in A.D. 536.] PHIVILEG.ES OP THE EOMANS OF GAUL. 203 "We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and per- haps artful, misrepresentations, which have softened or exaggerated the oppression, of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the Merovingians. The conquerors never pro- mulgated any universal edict of servitude or confiscation : but a degenerate people, who excused their weakness by the specious names of politeness and peace, was exposed to the arms and laws of the ferocious barbarians, who contemp- tuously insulted their possessions, their freedom, and their safety. Their personal injuries were partial and irregular ; but the great body of the Komans survived the revolution, and still preserved the property and privileges of citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use of the Franks ; but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from tribute ; * and the same irresistible violence which swept torn, ii, p. 137,) is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he fully verifies by his own work. His style is equally devoid of elegance and simplicity. In a conspicuous station he still remained a stranger to his own age and country ; and in a prolix work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted almost everything that posterity desires to learn. I have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of pronouncing this imfavourable sentence. [Gaul, in its decay, was a specimen of the whole empire. One uniform scene presents itself through all its bounds, with this remarkable attendant circum- stance, that the progress of decline was the same in young and vigorous communities, not long civilized, as in old countries, which had commenced their course twelve or fifteen centuries before. No caducity of age then brought on a change so universal, nor was it the consequence of barbarian sway. Schmidt speaks the language of all history, when he says (1. 184), "Das Wahre und Schone gewinnt nach und nach die Herrschaft, auch \iber die rauhesten Gemiither ;" (the true and the beautiful gain an ascendancy, by degrees, even over the roughest natures); and he then goes on to show, that this did not take place with the conquerors of the Roman empire, because on their entrance into it, they found none who took delight themselves in the cultivation of the mind, or could inspire a love for it in others. As an evidence of the depraved taste of the age he cites the same Sidonius Apollinaris, from whom Gibbon traces during the next sixty years, the farther course of debasement, down to the weaker and more insipid writings of Gregory of Tours. ED.] * The Abb de Mably (torn, i, p. 247267) has diligently confirmed this opinion of the president de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. 30, c. 13). [We have already seen the condition of Spain improved under Gothic dominion (c. 31,) and here we find the same in Gaul. Schmidt (1. 192) shows how the old inhabitants were relieved from their former burdens, and the proof afforded of their happier state, by the fact, that though so superior in numbers to their new masters, they never in any instance evinced any disposition 204 PEIVILEGES OF THE [CH. XXXTIII. away the arts and manufactures of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of imperial despotism. The provincials must frequently deplore the savage jurispru- dence of the Salic or Eipuarian laws ; but their private life, in the important concerns of marriage, testaments, or in- heritance, was still regulated by the Theodosian Code ; and a discontented Roman might freely aspire or descend to the title and character of a barbarian. The honours of the state were accessible to his ambition : the education and temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them for the offices of civil government ; and, as soon as emulation had rekindled their military ardour, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or even at the head of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt to enumerate the generals and magistrates, whose names * attest the liberal policy of the Merovingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of Patrician, was successively intrusted to three Romans ; and the last and most powerful, Mummolus,t who alternately saved and disturbed the monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of Autun, and left a treasure of thirty talents of gold, and two hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate bar- barians were excluded, during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the orders, of the church. J The clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provin- cials : the haughty Franks fell prostrate at the feet of their subjects, who were dignified with the episcopal character ; and the power and riches, which had been lost in war, were insensibly recovered by superstition. In all temporal to rebel or resist. ED.] * See Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchic Frau^oise, torn. ii,l. 6, c. 9, 10. The French antiquarians establish as a principle, that the Romans and barbarians may be dis- tinguished by their names. Their names undoubtedly form a reason- able presumption ; yet in reading Gregory of Tours, I have observed Gondulphus, of senatorial or Roman extraction (1. 6, c. 11, in torn, ii, p. 273^, and Claudius, a barbarian (1. 7, c. 29, p. 303). t Lunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory of Tours, from the fourth (c. 42, p. 224) to the seventh (c. 40, p. 310), book. The computation by talents is singular enough ; but if Gregory attached any meaning to that obsolete word, the treasures of Mum- molus must have exceeded one hundred thousand pounds sterling. J See Fleury, discours 3, sur 1'Histoire Ecclesiastique. The bishop of Tours himseli has recorded the complaint of Chil peric, the grandson of Clovis. Ecc pauper remausit Fiscus noster A.D 536.] EOMANS OF GAUL. 205 affairs, the Theodosian Code was the universal law of the clergy ; but the barbaric jurisprudence had liberally pro- vided for their personal safety : a subdeacon was equivalent to two Franks ; the animation, and priest, were held in similar estimation ; and the life of a bishop was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of nine hundred pieces of gold.* The Romans communicated to their con- querors the use of the Christian religion and Latin lan- guage^ but their language and their religion had alike degenerated from the simple purity of the Augustan and apostolic age. The progress of superstition and barbarism was rapid and universal ; the worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of the Christians ; and the rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of sacred ecce divitise nostrse ad ecclesias sunt translates : nulli penitus nisi soli episcopi regnant. (1. 6, c. 46, in torn, ii, p. 291.) [The services of the Church continued to be invariably conducted in Latin. (Schmidt, 1. 185.) Barbarians were therefore incompetent to enter the priest- hood, unless they acquired a knowledge of that language, which none were encouraged or assisted to undertake and few willingly attempted. The Franks, suddenly elevated to be possessors of wide domains, abandoned themselves to the enjoyments, which these afforded, par- ticularly hunting, or prepared themselves for military duties, if called upon. They were taught nothing, but that the ceremonies of religion and gifts to the altar purchased eternal salvation. Satisfied to acquiesce in this, they listened with awe to words which they did not under- stand ; and the less they knew, the more they wondered and believed. The field was therefore left open to the bishops, who boldly seized whatever ambition or interest coveted, and attained the greatness of which Chilperic complained. There is scarcely an historian who does not notice the vast increase of their power at this period ; but there is not one, not even Gibbon, who points out, with sufficient emphasis, the prostration of the general mind, by effecting which they from the first acquired their power, and then extended and maintained it. ED.] * See the Ripuarian Code, (tit 36, in torn, iv, p. 241.) The Salic law does not provide for the safety of the clergy, and we might suppose, on the behalf of the more civilized tribe, that they had not foreseen such an impious act as the murder of a priest. Yet Prsetextatus, archbishop of Rouen, was assas- sinated by the order of Queen Fredegundis before the altar. (Greg. Turon. 1. 8, c. 31, in torn, ii, p. 326.) f M. Bonamy (Me"m. de 1' Academic des Inscriptions, torn, xxiv, p. 582 670) has ascertained the Lingua JRomana Rustica, which, through the medium of the Romance, has gradually been polished into the actual form of the French language. Under the Carlovingian race, the kings and noblea of France still understood the dialect of their German ancestors. 206 ANABCHY OP [CH. XXXVIIL and social communion eradicated the distinctions of birth and victory ; and the nations of Gaul were gradually con- founded under the name and government of the Franks. The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might have imparted the most valuable of human gifts a spirit and system of constitutional liberty. Under a king hereditary but limited, the chiefs and counsellors might have debated, at Paris, in the palace of the Caesars : the adjacent field, where the emperors reviewed their mercenary legions, would have admitted the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors ; and the rude model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany,* might have been polished and improved by the civil wisdom of the Romans. IBut the careless barbarians, secure of their personal inde- pendence, disdained the labour of government : the annual assemblies of the mouth of March were silently abolished; and the nation was separated, and almost dissolved, by the conquest of Gaul.f The monarchy was left without any * Ce beau syste"me a 6t6 trouv dans les bois. Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. 11, c. 6. -\- See the Abbd de Mably, Observa- tions, &c., torn, i, p. 34 56. It should seem, that the institution of national assemblies, which are coeval with the French nation, have never been congenial to its temper. [Accurate observation of the past, and sage prescience of the future, are combined in this note. If Gibbon had witnessed all that has occurred in France during the last sixty -four years, he could not, in so few words, have described it more correctly. This defect in national character, as compared with the people of some other countries, may be traced to the circumstances under which the conquest of Gaul was achieved by the Franks. The physiological and psychological distinctions of different races are shown in Mr. Blackwell's judicious observations on Bishop Percy's Preface to Mallet's Northern Antiquities (Bonn's edition). Of the Gothic mind the most marked features are energy in contending with difficulties, and an insuperable desire of mental freedom. In the Celtic the prevailing characteristics are excitability, an alert prompt- ness in yielding to the impulse of the moment, without any clearly perceived and definite aim, or perseverance for its attainment. There is not a country in Europe, in which the character of the people has not been formed by the proportion, in which the Gothic mind was introduced among them. The band of Franks carried a very small infusion of it into the Gallic population whom they subdued. Where there ia a large preponderance of the Gothic, with a small stimulating admixture of the Celtic, the best national character is formed. It is by the reverse of this, that instability and versatility have become the reproach of France ; that ardour in the first movements of pursuit, and ferociousness in the first paroxysm of irritation, have evaporated in A..D. 536.] THE FRANKS. 207 regular establishment of justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis wanted resolution to assume, OP strength to exercise, the legislative and executive powers, which the people had abdicated : the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample privilege of rapine and murder ; and the love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of impunity. Seventy-five years after the death of Clovis, his grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched without discipline, under the banners of German, or Gallic counts ; their attack was feeble and unsuccessful ; but the friendly and hostile provinces were desolated with indiscriminate rage. The corn-fields, the villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire ; the inhabi- tants were massacred or dragged into captivity; and, in the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious Gontran reproached the guilt, or neglect, of their leaders, and threatened to inflict not a legal sen- tence, but instant and arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incurable corruption of the people. "No one," they said, " any longer fears or respects his king, hia duke, or his count. Each man loves to do evil, and freely indulges his criminal inclinations. The most gentle cor- rection provokes an immediate tumult ; and the rash magis- trate, who presumes to censure or restrain his seditioiis subjects, seldom escapes alive from their revenge."* It has been reserved for the same nation to expose, by their in- temperate vices, the most odious abuse of freedom ; and to fruitless efforts ; that " national assemblies have never been congenial to its temper ;" and that the evanescence of some score of ready-made abortions has never yet taught the patient abiding of events, out of which " a Constitution grows." ED.] * Gregory of Tours (1. 8, c. 30, in torn, ii, p. 325, 326) relates, with much indifference, the crimes, the reproof, and the apology. Nullus regem metuit, nullus ducem, nullus comitem reveretur; et si fortassis alicui ista displicent, et ea pro longsevitate vitae vestrse, emendare conatur, statim seditio in populo, statim tumultus exoritur, et in tantum unusquisque contra seniorem sseva intention grassatur, ut vis se credat evadere, si tandem 208 VISIGOTHS OF SPAIK. [CH. XXXVIli. supply its loss by the spirit of honour and humanity, whick now alleviates and dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign.* The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their Gallic possessions ; but their loss was amply compen- sated by the easy conquest, and secure enjoyment, of the provinces of Spain. Prom the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive some national vanity : but the historian of the Koman Empire is neither invited, nor com- pelled, to pursue the obscure and barren series of their annals. t The Goths of Spain were separated from the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenean mountains : their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to the Germanic tribes, have been already explained. J have anticipated, in the preceding chapter, the most im- portant of their ecclesiastical events, the fall of Arianism, and the persecution of the Jews ; and it only remains to observe some interesting circumstances, which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom. After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Franks and the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal submission, the inherent evils, and the accidental benefits, of superstition. But the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the Merovingian race, had degene- rated into fighting and hunting barbarians. They disdained the use of synods ; forgot the laws of temperance and chastity ; and preferred the indulgence of private ambition and luxury, to the general interest of the sacerdotal profes- Bilere nequiverit. * [In this passage, written and published some ten years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, we may discern the germs of the sentiments with which Gibbon regarded that event. It accords with all that he afterwards avowed in the "Memoirs of his Life and Writings," (p. 269) and in many of his letters, (p. 304, &c.) ED.] f Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours ; the Saxons or Angles, a Bede ; the Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, &c. But the history of the Visigoths is contained in the short and imper- fect chronicles of Isidore of Seville, and John of Biclar. [When few can read, few will write. No demand, no supply. The little that was written in those ages, was adapted, too, to the capacities, credu- lities, and views of the sacerdotal and monastic orders. No authentic materials for history existed. Some loosely scattered facts may have been gleaned from charters, deeds of gift, and such documents. Jiut A.D. 536.] LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 209 sion.* The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and were respected by the public : their indissoluble union dis- guised their vices, and confirmed their authority : and the regular discipline of the church introduced peace, order, and stability, into the government of the state. From the reign of Eecared, the first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate predecessor of the unfortunate Eoderic, six- teen national councils were successively convened. The six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville, Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to their respective seni- ority ; the assembly was composed of their suffragan bishops, who appeared in person or by their proxies ; and a place was assigned to the most holy or opulent of the Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation, as long as they agitated the ecclesiastical questions of doctrine and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their debates ; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity. But on the. morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the Gothic nobles ; and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the consent of the people. The same rules were observed in the provincial assemblies, the annual synods which were empowered to hear complaints, and to redress grievances ; and a legal government was sup- ported by the prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The bishops, who in each revolution were prepared to flatter the victorious, and to insult the prostrate, laboured with diligence and success to kindle the flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above the crown. Yet the national the general fund was furnished by rumour, hearsay, the lamentations of despoiled fugitives, the narratives of superstitious pilgrims, the tales of itinerant merchants and the like untrustworthy informants. From them the writers selected only what suited their purpose, and freely invented whatever more they wanted. John Biclar was so called from his having founded the Biclarensian monastery at the foot of the Pyrenees. He had afterwards the name of Gerundensis, when he became bishop of Gerunda (Girona). Mariana, de Rebus Hisp., L 5, p. 201. His Chronicle extends from A.D. 566 to 590. ED.] * Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and the reformer of Gaul, in torn, iv, p. 94. The fourscore years, which he deplores, of licence and corruption, would seem to insi- nuate that the barbarians were admitted into the clergy about the year 660. [The first English archbishop of Canterbury was Berthwald, VOL. iv. r 210 PRIY1LEGE OF THE CLEEGY. [CH. XXXYTH. councils of Toledo, in which the free spirit of the barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal policy, have est*< blished some prudent laws for the common benefit of the king and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by the choice of the bishops and palatines ; and, after the failure of the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their lawful prince, always ^recom- mended, and sometimes practised, the duty of allegiance ; and the spiritual censures were denounced on the heads of the impious subjects, who should resist his authority, con- spire against his life, or violate, by an indecent union, the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself, when he ascended the throne, was bound, by a reciprocal oath to God and his people, that he would faithfully execute his important trust. The real or imaginary faults of his ad- ministration were subject to the control of a powerful aris- tocracy : and the bishops and palatines were guarded by a fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded, im- prisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or confis- cation, vuless by the free and public judgment of their peers.* A.D. 690 : all his predecessors had been supplied from Rome. He had been previously abbot of Reculver. (Chron. Sax. p. 331, edit. Bohn.) Some Saxon names occur among the bishops, of an earlier date. ED.] * The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the most authentic records of the church and constitution of Spain. The following pas- sages are particularly important. (3. 17, 18 ; 4. 75 ; 5. 2 5. 8 ; 6. 11 14. 17, 18; 7. 1 ; 13. 2, 3. 6.) I have found Mascou (Hist, of the Ancient Germans, 15. 29, and Annotations, 26. 33) and Ferreras (Hist. Ge'ne'- rale de 1'Espagne, torn, ii) very useful and accurate guides. [The Visigoths carried into Spain a much larger infusion of the Gothic mind than Gaul had received from the Franks. This may be per- ceived in all their first institutions. But this earlier settlement of their polity afforded opportunities for a more regular organization of the hierarchy, which gave " the prelates a still more commanding influence in temporal government." (Hallam, 2. 2.) To this the spirit of the people succumbed, as it did in all other countries ; and before it could recover its elastic energy, the conquests of the Saracens repressed it by an additional yoke. The heroic stand made by the remnant of the Goths in their Asturian fastnesses, exhibits all the cha- racteristics of their race. Cooped up for ages in that mountainous tract, when their persevering valour regained possession of the whole land, they bore a very small proportion to the population which had in the mean time grown up there. Their language proves that they were fundamentally Celtic-Roman, but Saracens and Jews had inter- mingled largely with them. The Gothic portion had for the moat A..D. 536.] CODE OF THE TI3IGOTH8. 211 One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified the code of laws which had been compiled by a suc- cession of Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric to the devout Egica. As long as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied with the rude customs of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of Aquitain and Spain in the enjoyment of the E -..man law. Their gradual improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in religion, encouraged them to imitate and to supersede these foreign institutions ; and to compose a code of civil and criminal jurisprudence for the use of a great and united people. The same obligations, and the same privileges, were communicated to the nations of the Spanish monarchy ; and the conquerors, insensibly renounc- ing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of equity, and exalted the Romans to the participation of freedom. The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were long separated from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable difference of religion. After the conver- sion of Recared had removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the ocean ana Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern emperors ; who secretly excited a discontented people to reject the yoke of the barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that they hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by revolution ; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the praise of wisdom and moderation.* While the kingdoms of the Franks and Visigoths were established in Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the con- part fled or been suppressed. The splendours of Cordova and Granada gleamed only over popular servility ; and with the restoration of Chris- tianity, the priesthood resumed a more absolute and coercive power. Even in the days of Spain's brief pre-eminence among European States, she was not exalted by an intelligent, active people, but by the stern resolution of a few iron-handed despots, urged to exhaustive efforts for the sole object of maintaining ecclesiastical oppression. ED.] * The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into twelve books, Has been correctly published by Dom Bouquet, in torn, iv, p. 273 460. It has been tr"- l "