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 HISTORY OF THE FAI^L. 
 of tbe ,^ ^ llT 
 
 lSIOIJ & SETTLEMEKT OIF THE BAB.® Alii AH S , 
 
 '2^ ^. -2^. a^ciy^y:mi^///z/.^ 
 
 In two Yolume s . 
 
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 IBISTEU I'OE l.l.NOMiH.KKEB.uHMF.BKUWN ; ■ 
 ASB JOHM TAYLOR, r;
 
 CABINET CYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 CONDUCTED BY THE 
 
 REV. DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL.D. F.R.S. L. &E. 
 
 M.RI.A. F.R.A.S. F.L.S. F.Z.S. Hon. F.C.P.S. &c. &c. 
 
 ASSISTED BY 
 
 EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN. 
 
 ^i&totp. 
 
 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 A VIEW OF THE INVASION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE 
 BARBARIANS. 
 
 BY J. C. L. DE SISMONDI. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN, 
 
 PATKRNOSTER.ROW ; 
 
 AND JOHN TAYLOR, 
 
 UPPER OOWER STREET. 
 
 1834..
 
 ay 
 
 ! 9 - -i' 
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 TABLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. GRAKDEUR AND WEAKNESS OF THE ROMAN 
 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 Page 
 Importance of political Studies, or the Theory of Society 1 
 Divisions of those Sciences which have as their End the 
 
 greatest social Good - - - - 2 
 
 Doubts, Uncertainties, and opposed Systems in all these 
 
 Sciences - - , - - - 3 
 
 These Doubts ought not to diminish our Efforts, as we 
 
 are continually obliged to choose between Systems - 5 
 It is from Experience that we must seek Light in all 
 
 Sciences . - - - - 7 
 
 . In the social Sciences it is necessary to wait for Expe- 
 rience, not to lead it -_ - - - 7 
 Project of the Emi)eror Gallicnus - - - 8 
 History, the Collection of all social Experiments . 7 
 Indulgence which it should teach us - 9 
 Lessons to besought in the History of the World, from 
 
 the fourth to the tenth Century . - 10 
 
 Connection between the Romans, their Conquerors, and 
 
 ourselves - . - - - II 
 
 Grandeur attached to the Recollections of the Roman 
 
 Empire, even in its Decline - . - 12 
 
 Fixedness of the Limits of the Empire; Extent of the 
 
 Roman Territory - . . - 13 
 
 Frontiers of the Empire; Border Nations - - 14 
 
 DiTision of the Empire into four Prefectures ; Gaul, II. 
 
 lyricum, Italy, and the East - - .16 
 
 Number of great Cities; their great Buildings, all destined » 
 
 for public Utility - - . - 17 
 
 Calamities of the Empire ; its Vastncss had destroyed 
 
 Patriotism ■ . . - 19 
 
 A .3 
 
 19C955S
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Page 
 
 No Community of Language ; Greek and Latin; pro- 
 vincial Dialects . . . - 19 
 
 State of the Population great Cause of Weakness ; |six 
 different Classes . . . - 21 
 
 Oppression of the rural Population and Slaves ; Depopu- 
 lation . . . . .21 
 
 Predatory Life of runaway Slaves ; Extinction of the 
 Middle Class - . . .23 
 
 Population of great Cities ; their Recklessness ; fed and 
 amused at the Expense of the State - - 24 
 
 CHAP. n. 
 
 THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Cursory View of the Roman Empire before the Period 
 
 at which this History commences - .26 
 
 Division into four Periods : the Julian Emperors, the 
 (B.C. A.D.) Flavian, the Soldiers of Fortune, the Colleagues . 27 
 
 30 — 68. Emperors of the Julian Family during ninety.eight Years ; 
 
 their Character - - - - 28 
 
 Organisation of the Army ; Division of the Legions - 29 
 
 Oppression in Rome ; Prosperity of the Provinces . 30 
 
 Republican Senate ; Fidelity of the Army . .31 
 
 69—192. Emperors of the Flavian Family ; nine Princes in 123 
 
 Years ; their Virtues . . - - 32 
 
 Barrenness of History during this peaceful Period - 33 
 
 Prosperity ; Progress of Civilisation ; fatal Effects of Lati- 
 
 fundi'a . - - - - 34 
 
 Only warlike Population on the Frontiers ; Munificence 
 
 of Herodes Atticus - - - - 35 
 
 192—284. Soldiers of Fortune usurp the Empire . - 36 
 
 Thirty-two Princes in ninety-two Years - - 37 
 
 All Legitimacy being destroyed, the Soldiers sole Masters 
 
 of the State ; their Excesses . - - 38 
 
 253 — 268. Reign of Gallian ; Invasion of the Barbarians on all the 
 
 Frontiers - - - - - 38 
 
 The Soldiers, feeling their Danger, choose more worthy 
 
 Chiefs - . - - - 40 
 
 Depopulation of the Empire ; Colonies of Barbarians called 
 
 into the Interior . - - - 41 
 
 284—328. Colleagues ; great Character and Talents of Diocletian ; 
 
 two Augusti and two Csesars set over the Empire . 42 
 
 Harshnessof the Government ; Persecutions - .44 
 
 Abdication of Diocletian j Anarchy - • 46
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE BARBARIANS BEFORE THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 We are Heirs of the joint Inheritance of Romans and 
 
 Barbarians ; we ought to study both - - 48 
 
 Division of Barbarians on the three Frontiers of Africa, 
 
 Asia, and Europe - - - - 49 
 
 The Bereberi, Getulae, and Moors, after being subjugated, 
 
 drive back the Komans to the Coast - - 50 
 
 Barbarians of the Desert ; Monks of the Thebais - 51 
 
 The Arabs, commercial and predatory ; Grandeur of Pal- 
 (b.c. a.d.) myra ; Zenobia - - - - 52 
 
 25^-226. Empire of the Parthians from the Caspian Sea to the 
 
 Persian Gulf - - - - 54 
 
 226. Revolt of the Persians under Ardschir; the Sassanides ; 
 A.D. imperfect Civilisation of the Persians - - .'55 
 
 297 342. Armenians ; their brilliant Period under Tiridates^ - 56 
 
 Scythians or Tartars ; their Manners ; their Ferocity in 
 
 War; their Liberty ; their pastoral Life fits them for 
 
 Conquests - - - - - 5~ 
 
 Fall of the Monarchy of the Huns, which drives their 
 
 Immigration upon Europe - - - 60 
 
 Barbarians of Europe ; the Celtic, Slavonic, and Germanic 
 
 Races - - - - - 61 
 
 Ancient Territory of the Celts ; Druids ; the Increase of 
 
 the Race - - - - - 62 
 
 The Slavonic Race; Extent of its Territory; its Subju- 
 gation - - - - - 63 
 The Germans ; they stop short in Civilisation to preserve 
 
 their Liberty - - - - 64 
 
 Government of the Germans ; Power and Dangers of their 
 
 Kings - - - - - 66 
 
 Influence of Women and of Priests among the Germans - 66 
 Different Nations and Confederations of Germans, Franks, 
 
 Almains, Saxons, Goths, &c. - - - 68 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 CONSTANTINE, HIS SONS AND HIS NEPHEWS. DIVISION OF 
 
 THE FOURTH CENTURY INTO THREE PEKIOns. REIGN OF 
 
 CONSTANTINE, OF HIS FAJIILY, AND OF THAT OF VALEN- 
 TINIAN. 
 
 306. July 25th. Constantine nominatetl by the Army to succeed 
 
 his Father, Constantius Chlorus - - 71 
 
 Character of Constantine; he hcsit.ites between the two 
 Religions; his Cruelty to his Brothers - - 73 
 
 A 4
 
 VUl ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 310. Six Emperors at once ; Constantine puts to Death his 
 
 Father-in-law Maximian - - - 75 
 
 323. Constantine reunites the Empire, and destroys all his 
 
 Rivals . - - - . 76 
 
 Foundation of Constantinople; Constantine abjures the 
 Roman Character - - - - 77 
 
 Constantine puts to Death almost all his Kindred; his 
 Prodigality to the Church ; his Death - - 78 
 
 337. Partition of the Empire among the three Sons of Con- 
 stantine ; their civil Wars ; they massacre their Cou- 
 sins; Constantius alone survives; he devotes all his 
 Attention to religi mis Disputes - - 80 
 
 Donatists ; Circoncellions ; religious Suicides - 81 
 
 Arians and Trinitarians ; the Church equally divided 
 between them - - - - 83 
 
 Favour shown by Constantius to the Arians; Resistance 
 of St. Athanasius - - - - 85 
 
 Conquests of Sapor II. in the East; of the Franks and 
 Almains in the West - - - - 86 
 
 355. Constantius, being childless, intrusts the Defence of the 
 West to his Nephew Julian ; Character of Julian ; Vic- 
 tories of Julian ; his Recall into the East, Novembers. 
 361 ; he succeeds Constantius - - - 87 
 
 363. Re-establishment of Polytheism - - - 8S 
 
 Campaign of Julian against Sapor II. - - 89 
 
 June 26. Julian mortally wounded in repulsing the Per- 
 sians - - - - - 91 
 
 His last Words reported by Ammianus Marcellinus - 93 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 VALENTINIAN AND THEODOSIUS. INVASION OF EASTERN EUROPE 
 
 BY THE GOTHS. 364 395. 
 
 363. Decline of the Empire accelerated by every Change; 
 
 Jovian; Degradation of the Pagans - - 94 
 
 Election of Valentinian ; his Talents and his Severity ; he 
 
 divides the Government with his Brother Valens - 96 
 
 Overwhelming Weight of Taxation; Oppression of the 
 Curial Magistracy - - - - 97 
 
 364 — 375. Victories of Valentinian ; Success of Theodosius the An- 
 
 cient against the Scots and the Moors . - 98 
 
 Feebleness of Valens ; he tries to conciliate the Persians 
 
 and the Goths ; Greatness of Hertnanric in Dacia - 99 
 
 Death of Valentinian ; Gratian and Valentinian II. suc- 
 ceed him ; Approach of the Huns - - 101 
 Death of Hermanric ; Fall of the Empire of the Goths ; 
 their Terror at the Invasion of the Huns - - 102 
 376. The Goths obtain from Valens Permission to cross the 
 
 Danube, and to establish themselves within the Empire 103 
 378. They revolt in consequence of their ill Treatment by the
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. IX 
 
 A. u. Page 
 
 Romans ; Valeiis killed in an Engagement with them at 
 
 Adrianople .... 104 
 
 Eastern Europe ravaged by the Goths ; Massacre of Gothic 
 
 Hostages in Asia .... 1O6 
 
 Vengeance of Fritigern, King of the Goths ; the East 
 
 without an Emperor .... 107 
 
 379. Jan. 19. Gratian gives the Empire of the East to Theo- 
 
 dosius ; Prudence and Moderation of Theodosius -108 
 
 382. Oct. 30. He induces the Goths to lay down their Arms . 109 
 He cedes Moesia to them ; Civilisation of the Goths in 
 
 MoEsia - . - - .110 
 
 Influence of the Franks at the Court of Gratian ; Death 
 
 of Gratian ; Maximus in Britain and Gaul . . Ill 
 
 Virtues of Theodosius ; his Orthodoxy . -112 
 
 Persecution of the Arians ; St. Gregory Nazianzen ; St. 
 
 Ambrose; St. Martin . . .113 
 
 Violence of Theodosius; Pardon of Antioch; Massacre 
 
 of Thcssalonica .... 114 
 
 Penance imposed on Theodosius by St. Ambrose - 115 
 
 Defeat and Death of Maximus ; of Valentinian II. and 
 
 Eugenius ; Death of Theodosius . - .116 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS. INVASION OF THE WEST BY THE 
 
 GERMANIC NATIONS. A. D. 395 423. 
 
 Theodosius unjustly accftsed of the Corruption and Ef- 
 feminacy of the Romans ; 'Progress of Decay . -117 
 
 Final Degradation caused by the Adversity which de- 
 stroyed tlie Middle Class - . - 118 
 
 The Populace and the Senators sought Forgetfulness of 
 their Miseries in sensual Pleasure and Vice - - 120 
 
 The Massacre of Thcssalonica furnishes a Proof of this 
 State of constant Intoxication - - -121 
 
 395. Jan. 17. Partition of tlie two Empires ; the East to Ar- 
 
 cadius, the VVcst to Honorius - - - 122 
 
 Arcadius, aged eighteen, confided to the Care of Rufinus ; 
 betrays him to Death - - - 123 
 
 Honorius, aged eleven, under the Guardianship of Sti- 
 licho ; Greatness of Mind of the latter - -123 
 
 Africa subject to the Children of Nabal the Moor, Pro. 
 prictor of immense Domains ... 124 
 
 39G. Alaric, King of the Visigoths, ofTcndcd by Arcadius ; he 
 
 invades Greece .... - 126 
 
 Campaign of Stilicho in Greece aga:nst Alaric ; the Ar. 
 scnalsoflUyricum surrendered to Alaric - .127 
 
 402. Incapacity cf Honorius : Alaric invades Italy ; Resistance 
 
 of Stilicho - . . - - 128 
 
 Defeat of Alaric; Triumph of Honorius at Rome; he 
 shuts himself up at Ravenna - - - 129
 
 X ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 406. Great Invasion of the Germans ; Radogast in Italy ; de- 
 
 stroyed by Famine at Fiesole, by Stilicho - - 130 
 
 ■K)6. Dec. .jI. All the Germanic Tribes pass the Khine and 
 
 ravage Gaul . - - - - 132 
 
 409. Oct. I,). Invasion of Spain by the Suevi, the Vandals, and 
 
 the Alans . - - - - - 132 
 
 408. Honorius distrusts Stilicho, and wants to govern by himself 133 
 408. Aug. 23. Stilicho killed at Ravenna by Order of Hono- 
 rius ; Massacre of the Hostages of the Confederates ; 
 
 fresh War with Alaric ... 135 
 
 Alaric before Rome ; imprudent Provocations of Honorius 136 
 4!0. Aug. 24. Taking and Sack of Rome by Alaric - - 138 
 
 Death of Alaric; Peace with the Visigoths, to whom 
 
 Honorius cedes Aquitaine . . - 139 Q^ 
 
 Ataulphus, Son-in-law and Successor of Alaric, marries a 
 
 Sister of the Emperor - - - 140 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 THE BARBARIANS ESTABLISHED IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. IN- 
 VASION OF ATTILA. A. D. 412 453. 
 
 Strange and motley Aspect of the Empire, from the Inter- 
 mixture of the Barbarian with fhe Roman Population - 142 
 
 The Legions withdrawn from Britain ; the Cities called 
 upon to defend themselves . . - 143 
 
 Armorica, abandoned in like Manner by the Romans, 
 forms a Celtic League - - - - 144 
 
 The Franks remain Soldiers of the Empire; the Bur- 
 gundians on the Rhone ; the Visigoths behind the Loire 145 
 
 Twofold Government; that of the Roman Prefects, and 
 of the Barbaric Kings and National Assemblies - 146 
 
 Domination of the Priests at Tours ; Paganism prevalent 
 in the Country ; State of Spain - . . 147 
 
 State of Italy, Pannonia, and Africa ; Universal Suffer- 
 ing - - - - . -147 
 
 Last Years of Arcadius and Honorius; Minorities of 
 Theodosius II. and of Valentinian III. - - 14S 
 
 Dynasties of Barbaric Kings; Frequency of Crime; 
 Fratricides ----- I49 
 
 Fabulous Ancestry of the Frankic Kings. — Succession of 
 Visigothic Kings - - - - 151 
 
 Suevi, Alans, and Vandals of Spain ; Genseric, King of 
 the Vandals - - - . - 152 
 
 429. Genseric lands in Africa ; called in by Count Boniface, the 
 
 Rival of .J:tius - - - - 153 
 
 Conquest of Africa by the Vandals ; their Ferocity ; 
 Takingof Carthage, Oct. 9. 429. - - -155 
 
 433. Attila, the .Scourge of God, King of the Huns; Formation 
 
 of that Monarchy . - . . 156
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, XI 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Treaty of Attila with Theodosius II.; The whole North 
 of Europe and of Asia subject to Attila - - 157 
 
 ■ tl — 446. War of Attila against the Eastern Empire; Submission 
 
 of the Greeks; their Embassy to his Camp - . 159 
 
 451. Attila crosses the Rhine, and enters Gaul ; Efforts of 
 
 .(Etius to arrest his Progress ... 160 
 
 Victory obtained by ^Etius over Attila, in the Plains of 
 Chalons-sur-Marne . . - . 162 
 
 452. Invasion of Upper Italy by Attila ; Formation of Venice 
 
 by the Fugitives ... - 163 
 
 453. Death of Attila in Dacia ; Dissolution of his Empire - 164 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 FALL OF THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST. THE FRANKS IN GAUL. 
 
 — A. D. 476—511. 
 
 Vital Energy of Political Bodies analogous to that of Indi- 
 viduals . - - . - 165 
 Vast Empires sustain themselves by their Mass, but suffer 
 
 also in proportion to their Mass - - 166 
 
 The Western Empire might have endured as long as the 
 Eastern, but perished through the Faults of its Chiefs - IC7 
 455. June ;]2. Taking and Pillage of Rome by Genseric, 
 
 called in by Eudoxia, Widow of Valentinian III. - 169 
 
 455 — 476. Ten Emperors in twenty-three Years ; Ricimer - . 170 
 
 Odoacer. — Suppression of the Western Empire (a. n. 476.) 171 
 This Revolution did not appear so important as it was in 
 
 fact; Italy under Odoacer - - 171 
 
 Several Provinces of the West continue to acknowledge 
 the Emperors of the East - . - 173 
 
 486. Syagrius, Count of Soissons, conquered by Clovis, King of 
 
 the Salian Franks - - - - 174 
 
 The History of the Franks ought to be confined to what 
 Gregory of Tours relates . . - - 176 
 
 493. Marriage of Clovis to Chlotilde of Burgundy, brought 
 
 about by the orthodox Bishops ... 177 
 496. Chlotilde converts Clovis ; Battle of Tolbiac; Baptism of 
 
 Clovis - .... 179 
 
 Joy of the Clergy ; Union of the Confederates and the 
 Armoricans with the Franks ... iso 
 
 500. War of Clovis with the Burgundians ; Treachery of 
 
 Godegisel ; Flight of Gondcbald . - .181 
 
 507. War of Clovis with the Visigoths, whom he first deceives 
 
 by a Treaty ; Battle of VougU' - . 182 
 
 Clovis puts to Death all the long-haired Kings of his 
 Family . . - . 184
 
 XU ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Page 
 
 A. D. Favour shown by Clovis to the Church ; Miracles attri- 
 buted to him - - - - - 185 
 
 The Army of the Franks always united; its Power very 
 superior to that of the King - - -186 
 
 Death of Clovis - - - 188 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 THE GOTHS AND THE FRANKS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTH 
 CEXTUKY. A. D. 493 561. 
 
 The Barbarians had marched through Europe from East 
 
 to West, and yet Constantinople had escaped them - 189 
 Succession of Emperors of the East, of the Sassanides in 
 
 Persia, and of the Ostrogothic Kings - -190 
 
 Education of Tiieodoric in the Greek Empire ; his War 
 with the Emperor Zeno . - . - 192 
 
 489 — 193. Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, conquers Italy from 
 
 Odoacer ; his Moderation - . - 193 
 
 493 — 5i26. Italy recovers her Prosperity under Theodoric's Govern- 
 
 ment - . - - ' - - 195 
 
 The Monuments of Rome protected ; Religious Toler- 
 ation ; Severity of the early Part of his Reign - 195 
 Extent of his Domination ; Letters of his Secretary Cas- 
 
 siodorus - - . - - 197 
 
 Theodoric protects his Grandson by means of one of his 
 Daughters. — Amalaric King of the Visigoths - - 198 
 526 — 554. Athalaric, Son of another Daughter, succeeds him in Italy ; 
 
 Line of Ostrogothic Kings ... 199 
 
 Monarchy of the Franks ; they despise and oppress con- 
 quered Nations ----- 200 
 The Franks easily incorporate the other Barbarians with 
 their own Forces ; The whole of Germany submits to 
 them . . - - - .201 
 
 The Thuringians ; their Fratricides ; they are conquered 
 by the Franks - ... - 203 
 
 511—561. Reigns of the Four Sons of Clovis j Thierry, Chlodomir, 
 
 ChUdebert, and Chlothaire - - - 203 
 
 War of the Franks in Italy j War with the Burgun- 
 
 dians; End of their Monarchy - - -205 
 
 Reign of Gondebald - . . - 206 
 
 Chlothaire and Childebert murder the Sons of their Brother 
 
 Chlodomir . . . - . 207 
 
 Partiality of the Priests for the Sons of Clovis ; they permit 
 
 them to practice Polygamy - - . 208 
 
 Chlothaire causes his Son Chramne, with his Children, to 
 
 perish in the Flames . _ . . 209 
 
 Death of Chlothaire j the Crown passes to his four Sons 210
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 JUSTINIAN. A. D. 527 565. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Brilliant Light thrown on the Reign of Justinian by two 
 
 Greek Historians - . . - 211 
 
 Parallel in the Splendour and the Misery which cha. 
 
 racterise the Reigns of Justinian and of Louis XIV. - 212 
 Intolerance ; Abolition of the Schools of Athens, and 
 
 the Consulate and Senate of Rome - . 213 
 
 Great Calamities ; Invasion of Barbarians ; Earthquakes; 
 
 Pestilence . . - - 214 
 
 Justinian, Nephew of a Soldier, was not a General j his 
 
 Ambition of Conquest - - - - 215 
 
 Wars of the Bulgarians and the Slavonians; Persian 
 
 War ; Peace of 531 with Chosrocs I. . - 216 
 
 467—533. Kingdom of the African Vandals afler the Death of 
 
 Genscric - - - - - 217 
 
 Belisarius chosen by Justinian to carry on the War against 
 
 the Vandals - - - - 219 
 
 533. Expedition of Belisarius into Africa : Victory over the 
 
 Vandals ; Taking of Carthage - - - 220 
 
 Conquest of Africa; Captivity of the King of the Van- 
 dals; Annihilation of his Nation; Recall of Belisarius 221 
 526—535. Xhe Ostrogoths in Italy after the Death of Thcodoric ; 
 
 Amalasonta - - - - 223 
 
 535. Belisarius sent against the Ostrogoths;" his Landing in 
 
 Sicily ; Vitigcs Successor to Thcodatus - - 224 
 
 536. Dreadful Calamities inflicted on Italy by two Heroes, 
 
 Vitiges and Belisarius ... 225 
 
 536 — 540. Taking and Rotaking of Rome ; Belisarius ill supported 
 
 by Justinian ; Incursions of the Franks - . 226 
 
 539. Vitiges Captive ; Recall of Belisarius ; Ruin of Africa 
 
 after his Departure ... -227 
 
 £41—544. Ruin of Italy after his Recall - - - 228 
 
 Power and Prosjierity of the Ostrogoths restored by Totila 228 
 ',H — 553. Belisarius .sent again to oppose Totila ; his second Recall ; 
 
 the Goths defeated by Narses - - - 229 
 
 559 — 563. Last Victory of Belisarius; Injustice and Ingratitude of 
 
 Justinian ; Beli-sarius reduced to Beggary . -231 
 
 Glory of Justinian as a Legislator - - . £31 
 
 The Empire torn by the Factions of the Blues and Greens ; 
 great Sedition of 532 ... 232 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 THE r,OMHAiins and tuv. i-uanks. — a. n. 561 — GI3. 
 
 From the Time of Justinian our Interest is divided be- 
 
 twoen the Greek Eini)ire anil the Franks . - 234 
 
 Series of Greek Emjierors ; Birth of Mohammed - 235 
 
 Reign of Chusrocs II. in Persia . - - 236
 
 Xiv ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Narses, Exarch of Italy ; the Gepidae and the Lombards 
 
 between the Alps and the Danube - - 236 
 
 Romantic Adventures of Alboin ; his Conquest of the 
 
 Kingdom of the GepidcB, which he cedes to the Avars - 237 
 568. Alboin invades Italy at the Head of the Lombards ; Re. 
 
 sistance of the Cities - - . - 240 
 
 The maritime Towns of Italy governed by their Curise, 
 
 under the Protection of the Greeks - - 241 
 
 Independence of the maritime Towns of Spain, Africa, 
 
 and lUyricum ; Growth of municipal Liberties - 242 
 
 Independence of the Lombards ; Interregnum ; their 
 
 thirty Dukes in Italy - - . - 243 
 
 561. The four Frankic Kings, Sons of Chlothaire; territorial 
 
 Aristocracy formed among the Franks - - 243 
 
 The Mord Dom (erroneously called Major Domus), or 
 
 Chief Justiciary of the Franks; the four Kingdoms of 
 
 Germany .... 244 
 
 Characters of the four Brothers; Gontran, surnamed 
 
 'the Good;' Chilperic, the Nero of France - - 246 
 
 Fredegunde, Wife of Chilperic - - - 247 
 
 Brunechilde, Wifeof Siegbert - - -248 
 
 Progress of Aristocracy in Austrasia ; Efforts of Gontran 
 
 to check it - . . . 249 
 
 584. Curious Picture of the Plaids, Parliament or National 
 
 Assembly of Austrasia, given by Gregory of Tours - 250 
 Mutual Insults of King Gontran and the Austrasian 
 
 Nobles . . . - - 251 
 
 Childebert II. arrived at Man's Estate ; his Ferocity ; his 
 
 Death . - . - - 252 
 
 696. Three Kings in their Minority under the Wardship of 
 
 Queens Fredegunde and Brunechilde - - 253 
 
 Strengtii of Character and Talents of Brunechilde equal- 
 led by her Ferocity . - . . 254 
 Victories and Ascendancy of Brunechilde ; she is at length 
 
 conquered by Chlothaire 11. . - - 255 
 
 Her miserable Death, A. D. 613 . - -256 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 THE EAST AND THE WEST IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY, AND 
 DOWN TO THE ATTACKS OF THE MUSULMANS. 
 
 Obscurity of the History of the seventh Century - 257 
 
 Total Absence of historical Authorities both in the East 
 
 and the AVest - - - - 258 
 
 568—774. Firm Settlement of the Lombards in Italy, and their rapid 
 
 Advance in Civilisation - - - - 258 
 
 613 — 638. Extent of the Frankic Empire under Chlothaire II. and 
 
 D.igobert . . . - - 259 
 
 State of Commerce; the Merchant King, Samo - 260 
 
 Character of Dagobert ; contradictory Qualities attributed 
 
 to him . - - . - 261
 
 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XV 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Cruelty and Sensuality of Dagobert ; his Friendship for 
 
 St. Eloi and St. Ouen ; his Bounties to the Monks - 262 
 638 — 752. Succession of the Thirteen Faineant Kings ; they die of 
 
 Debauchery in early Youth - . . 263 
 
 Grand Struggle between the Nobles and the Freeraen ; 
 
 Ebrouin, Chief of the latter - - - 264 
 
 Rivalry of Ebrouin and of Leger Bishop of Autun - 265 
 
 Victory of Ebrouin at Pont St. Maxence - . 266 
 
 687. St. Leger put to Death as a Regicide ; Victory of Pepin of 
 
 Heristal at Testry . - - - 266 
 
 Triumph of the Aristocracy at Testry succeeded by the 
 
 Restoration of Germanic Customs and Language ."267 
 
 567—642. The East during the Reigns of Justin II., Tiberius IL, 
 
 Maurice, Phocas, and Heraclius - . . 268 
 
 Explanation of their Revolutions to besought in the Dis. 
 
 putes of the Church concerning the two Natures . 269 
 
 Controversies of the Monophysites, Monothelites, &c. . 270 
 To escape Persecution, they throw tliemselves into the 
 
 Arms of the Enemies of the Empire . -272 
 
 567 — 574. Wars of Justin IL against Chosroes Nushirvan, King of 
 
 Persia, and against the Avars - - - - 273 
 
 574 — 602. Virtues of Tiberius II., who is nominated by Justin II. 
 
 as his Successor; Talents of Maurice, who succeeds 
 
 him ----- 274 
 
 Dangers of the War with the Avars ; War of Maurice 
 
 against Hormouz, King of Persia - • . 275 
 
 Maurice replaces Chosroes II. , Son of Hormouz, on the 
 
 Throne ; Assassination of Maurice - . 276 
 
 602 — 610. Reign of Phocas; his Ferocity; he is attacked by Chos. 
 
 roes II. - - . - . 277 
 
 610 — 642. Reign of Heraclius ; Chosroes wrests the whole of Asia 
 
 and Egypt from him . . - . 278 
 
 The Malecontents repent of having called in the Persians ; 
 
 they recall Heraclius into Asia - . . 279 
 
 Heraclius conquers or lays waste Persia, whilst the Per- 
 sians occupy the whole of Roman Asia - - 280 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 MOHAMMED. A. D. 569 632. 
 
 Extent and physical Constitution of Arabia ; Want of 
 Water almost universal - . . 282 
 
 Oases ; Yemen ; free Cities of the Red Sea ; peculiar 
 Characteristics of the Arabs - - . 283 
 
 The Poverty of the Arab the Guarantee of his Liberty, 
 which is complete - - . . 284 
 
 The Arab docs not recognise the Rights of territorial 
 Property ; he is at War with every Stranger . 285 
 
 Genealogies ; hereditary Vengeance ; Poetry and Elo- 
 quence . . . - - 286
 
 XVI ANALYTICAL ANO CnRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. Page 
 
 Influence of Religion among the Arabs ; Toleration of 
 all Sects ; Worship of the Kaaba - - 287 
 
 569—609. Birth of Mohammed ; his Marriage %vih Kadijah ; his re- 
 ligious Studies . - - - 288 
 Mohammed preached the true God to Idolaters; ought 
 
 he to be called an Impostor? - - -289 
 
 Respect of Jlohammed for the written Word; Publication 
 
 and Beauty of the Koran - - - 291 
 
 Laws of Charity, of ; Prayer, of Cleanliness; Sobriety; 
 
 Fasts; greater Indulgence for the Pleasures of Love - 292 
 Hell of a limited Duration; Paradise; Fatalism as to the 
 Hour of Death - ,. - - 294 
 
 609. Preachings of Mohammed; his first Disciples; the Inha- 
 bitants of Mecca are irritated - - -295 
 622. Flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, where his 
 
 Keign commences - . - . 296 
 
 622 Military Spirit of Mohammed ; his Frugality ; his early 
 
 Battles - . - - - -:297 
 
 629. Conquest of Mecca; Conquest of the Rest of Arabia - 299 
 
 Declaration of AVar against the Romans - - 300 
 
 Decline of Mohammed's Health - - - 300 
 
 Last Words of Mohammed ; his Death - . 301 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 117. line 18. before " Adolf" insert the words " Ataulphus, or." 
 I49 14 7 
 
 ISl! :" ll.and 16. from bottom, j'"°'^"^'^o^"''ea<l" Ataulphus." 
 
 15a ... 2. for "439" read " 4'J9." 
 
 168. ... 19. from bottom, the final e has fallen out from the word 
 
 " degree." 
 
 184. ... 11. for " Siegebert" read " Siegbert." 
 203. in the head-line, the folio is wrongly put " 303." 
 
 217. ... 3. from bottom, 7, „, „ .o„„ _„ , «ro^» 
 oii .. Hor o2o read 533. 
 
 234. at the end of chapter head, " a. d. 561 — 613." should have 
 
 been inserted. 
 275. ... 4. and 18. for " Ormouz" read " Hormouz." 
 27& ... 16. for " A. D. 610—643" read " a.d. 610—642."
 
 HISTORY 
 
 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 VALUE OF HISTORY AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MORAL AND POLITICAL 
 
 SCIENCES. DIFFICULTY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF 
 
 THOSE SCIENCES. PERIOD OF HISTORY EMBRACED BY THE 
 
 FOLLOWING WORK; THE STRUGGLES BETWEEN THE BARBA- 
 RIANS AND THE ROMANS, THE FINAL DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 EMPIRE OF THE WEST, AND THE SUCCEEDING DARK AGES, DOWN 
 
 TO THE COJIMENCEMENT OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. EXTENT, 
 
 MAGNIFICENCE, AND WEAKNESS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 FRONTIER LINE OF THE ROMAN TERRITORY FROM THE TIME 
 OF AUGUSTUS TO THAT OF CONSTANTINE. — WHAT IT INCLUDED. 
 DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE INTO FOUR TR^TORIAL PREFECT- 
 URES. ENUMERATION OF PROVINCES. EXTERNAL GRANDEUR 
 
 CONTRASTED WITH INTERNAL DECAY. WANT OF NATIONAL 
 
 UNITY. STATE OF THE POPULATION. ENORJIOUS WEALTH 
 
 OF THE SENATORIAL CLASS. JIISERABLE AND AliJECT CON- 
 DITION OF THE PEASANTilY AND SLAVES. DECLINE OF PO- 
 PULATION. ENTIRE DEUASEMENT OF THE ROMAN CHARACTER. 
 
 Among the studies calculated to elevate the heart, or to 
 enlighten the mind, few can be classed above that of 
 history, when it is considered, not as a barren catalogue 
 of incidents, persons, and dates, but as an essential part 
 of the great s)stcm of moral and political science ; as 
 the collection of all the facts and experiments which 
 tend to throw light on the theory of the public weal. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 The social instinct, the need of combination, is a 
 ■necessary consequence of the weakness of man ; of his 
 inability to resist, by his own unaided force, all the 
 sufferings and the dangers by which he is perpetually 
 surrounded. He unites with his fellow men to obtain 
 from them that assistance which he offers to them in 
 return; he seeks from them a defence against the infirm- 
 ities of infancy, old age, and disease ; he asks their co- 
 operation in repelling the hostile powers of nature; in 
 protecting the efforts made by each for his own well- 
 being ; in securing the enjoyment of the property he 
 has acquired, the leisure he has earned, and the use he 
 makes of that leisure for the developement of his moral 
 existence. Two objects perfectly distinct present them- 
 selves to his mind as soon as he is capable of reflecting; 
 first, the satisfaction and happiness he can enjoy with 
 the faculties with which he feels himself endowed ; 
 secondly, the improvement of those faculties, and his 
 progress towards a more perfect state of being. He 
 seeks not only to be happy ; he seeks to render himself 
 worthy of happiness of a more exalted nature. Hap- 
 piness and virtue are the twofold end, — first, of aU the 
 individual efforts of man ; secondly, of all his combined 
 efforts. He seeks in his family, in his class, in his 
 country, the means of making this twofold progress ; 
 nor can any association completely fulfil his wishes, 
 unless it place these means within his reach. 
 
 The theory of these associations, that theory of uni- 
 versal utility, is what has sometimes been designated 
 as the social science ; sometimes denoted by the name 
 of the moral and political sciences. 
 
 Considered in its full extension, moral science em- 
 braces all that human society can effect for the ge- 
 neral advantage, and for the moral developement of 
 man : considered in its various branches, we may 
 number among moral and political sciences, constitu- 
 tional polity, legislation, the science of administration, 
 political economy, the science of war and of national 
 defence, the science of education, and, lastly, the most
 
 CHAP. r. IMPORTANCK OP MORAL SCIENCES. 3 
 
 profound and important of all, that of the moral edu- 
 cation of the mature man — religion. 
 
 Wiih all these sciences, some of them of a specu- 
 lative nature, history isinseparably connected, as forming 
 the practical part, the common register of the pheno- 
 mena and experiments of all these sciences. We know 
 that the mere name of politics suggests recollections often 
 bitter or afflicting ; and that many cannot regard, with- 
 out a kind of terror, the study of a science which, to 
 their imaginations, is characterised much more by the 
 animosities it has engendered than by the good it has 
 produced. 
 
 Before, however, we declare our aversion for political 
 science, let us remember that such an aversion would 
 imply indifference to the happiness, the intelligence, 
 and the virtue of the human race. 
 
 On the one hand, it is necessary to discover how the 
 superior intellectual powers and resources of the few 
 can be best employed for the improvement and advan- 
 tage of all ; how virtue can best be honoured, vice most 
 effectually discouraged, and crime prevente<l; how, even 
 in the punishment of crime, the greatest sum of good can 
 be secured to society with the gi-eatest economy of evil. 
 On the other hand, it is important to know how wealtli 
 is created and distributed; how the physical comforts 
 which that wealth procures can be diffused over the 
 greatest possible number of persons ; how it may be made 
 available to their enjoyments; — questions intimately 
 affecting not only the common weal, but the domestic 
 comfort and prosperity; the happiness of the interior of 
 every house and of every family. After such a survey of 
 the topics lying witliin the domain of political science, 
 wiio will dare to say that he detests it? who will dare to 
 say that he despises it? 
 
 But is this science, important as it must be ad- 
 mitted to be in its aim, this science so intimately con- 
 nected with all that is most noble in the destiny of 
 man, is it as unerring as it is important and elevated ? 
 Does it really lead us to that goal to wliicli it affects to 
 B 2
 
 4 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. 1. 
 
 direct our efforts? Are its principles established in 
 such a manner that they can never be shaken ? We 
 must confess that this is very far from being the case. 
 Social science is divided into a great number of branches, 
 each of -which amply suffices to occupy the life of 
 the most studious man. But there is not one of these 
 branches in which rival sects have not sprung up ; 
 in which they do not contest the first principles on 
 which all their doctrines are founded. In speculative 
 politics, liberals and serviles dispute the fundamental 
 basis of society. In legislation, the schools of law have 
 not been less opposed to each other ; the one always 
 looks to what has been, the other, to what ought to 
 be ; and in the countries which have adopted the 
 Roman law, as well as in those which assume custom 
 as the groundwork of their legislation, these two parties 
 are in open hostility. In political economy, contradic- 
 tory doctrines are maintained with equal warmth as to 
 the very basis of the science ; and the two contending 
 parties are not yet got beyond the question, whether the 
 increase of production, or of population, be always a 
 good, or whether they be sometimes an evil. In the 
 theory of education, all the means of diflfusing instruc- 
 tion, nay, the advantage of instruction itself, are still 
 disputed points ; and there are still persons to be found 
 who recommend ignorance as the surest guardian of the 
 virtue and the happiness of the mass of mankind. The 
 most sublime of social sciences, the most beneficent 
 (when it attains its end), — religion, is also the most 
 fruitful of controversy and debate ; and the hostile sects 
 too often transform a bond of peace and love into a 
 weapon of aggression and hostility. Never, perhaps, 
 were principles more continually and warmly appealed 
 to, in all the social sciences, than in this age ; never 
 were principles more misunderstood ; never was it 
 more impossible to enounce a single one with the hope 
 of its obtaining universal assent. 
 
 This is not the case witli regard to the other subjects 
 cf our knowledge : physical facts, and the first princi-
 
 CHAP. I. IMPORTANCE OF MORAL SCIENCES. O 
 
 pies which are deduced from them, are universally es- 
 tablished and recognised. In what are called the 
 natural sciences, we proceed from proof to proof ; and 
 if some long admitted explanatory theory is sometimes 
 contested, the greater part of the discoveries in the field 
 of physics are not the less safe from all controversy. 
 In fact, in the moral sciences, our doubts are far less di- 
 rected against the forms of argumentation, than against 
 the facts from which we affect to draw our conclusions. 
 Among these facts there is scarcely one sufficiently 
 firmly established to serve as a groundwork for prin- 
 ciples. This is easily accounted for, if we consider, 
 that in the physical sciences the facts are scientific ex- 
 periments made with a definite purpose, and circum- 
 scribed by that purpose : whereas, in the moral and 
 political sciences, the facts are the independent and 
 infinitely varied actions of human beings. 
 
 Ought we, however, to suffer ourselves to be utterly 
 discouraged by the afflicting uncertainty which hangs 
 about every part of moral and political science ? Ought 
 we, because truth has not yet been demonstrated, to re- 
 nounce the search after it ? Ought we to abandon all 
 hope of finding it .^ Were we even to wish it, we 
 could not. These sciences are of such daily appli- 
 cation to the events and objects of life, that we cannot 
 set a step without recurring to their aid. We may 
 renounce the search after speculative truth, but we 
 cannot cease to act. Since, however, every one of our 
 actions reacts on our fellow men, every one ought to be 
 regulated by the grand laws of human association — by 
 those very moral and political sciences which some 
 persons affect to despise. 
 
 When the astronomers of antiquity placed the earth 
 in the centre of the universe, and maile the sun rise and 
 the firmament revolve around it, their error could only 
 extend to pajier spheres ; the celestial bodies moved on 
 their glorious course, undisturbed by the systems of 
 Ptolemy or of Tycho Brahe. Galileo himself, when 
 compelled by the holy office to abjure his subUme theory, 
 B 3
 
 6 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 could not help exclaiming, " Eppur si miiove!" The 
 inquisition might stop the progress of the human mind, 
 hut could not arrest the revolution of the earth. But 
 even were the study of the moral and political sciences 
 utterly prohibited, their practice could not be suspended 
 for a single moment. There are nations in which the 
 theory of government has never formed a subject of re- 
 flection or of discussion ; but have they therefore found 
 it possible to dispense with all government ? No : they 
 have adopted at random some one of the systems which 
 they ought to have chosen after mature deliberation. 
 Whether in Morocco or in Athens, in Venice or in Uri, at 
 Constantinople or at London, men have, doubtless, always 
 desired that their governments should facilitate their way 
 to virtue and to happiness. All have the same end in 
 view, and all act. jVIust they act without regard to this 
 end ? Must they walk without endeavouring to ascertain 
 whether they advance or recede ? It is impossible to 
 propose to any sovereign, or to any council, measures 
 whether political, military, administrative, financial, or 
 religious, from which good or evil will not result to 
 masses of men ; which, consequently, ought not to be 
 judged in accordance with social science. Determin- 
 ations the most multifold, the most important, must be 
 made in one direction or another ; — is it necessary they 
 should always be made blindfold } And if we prefer 
 what we have, if we resolve to stop where we are, that 
 also is just as much choice as the contrary line of action. 
 Must we then always choose without knowing why we 
 choose.^ The social sciences are obscure — let us then 
 seek to throw light upon them : they are uncertain — let 
 us endeavour to fix them: they are speculative — let 
 us try to establish them on experience. This is our 
 duty as men — the law which ought to regulate all our 
 conduct — the principle of the good or the evil we may 
 do : indifference on such questions is a crime. 
 
 In order to carry the social sciences to their utmost 
 extent, it is unquestionably necessary to divide them ; 
 to direct the whole force of a speculative mind to one
 
 CHAP. I. VALUE OF HISTORY. 7 
 
 single branch, as the only means of pushing the know- 
 ledge of details and the concatenation or sequence of 
 principles, as far as human infirmity will permit. A 
 man who sincerely desires the advancement of the science 
 to which he mainly addicts himself, must content him- 
 self with excellence in that science ; — be it the science 
 of government, of jurisprudence^ of political economy, 
 of morals, or of education. But since all men are sub- 
 ject 10 the operation of the social sciences ; since all, in 
 turn, exercise some influence over their fellow men ; 
 since all judge and are judged, it is of importance that 
 all should arrive at certain general residts : it is of im- 
 portance that all should understand and appreciate the 
 consequences of human institutions and human actions. 
 These consequences are to be found in history. 
 
 History is the general storehouse of the experiments 
 which have been made in all the social sciences. Un- 
 questionably, the physical sciences — chemistry, agri- 
 culture, medicine, are experimental ; so are legislation, 
 political economy, finance, war, education, religion. Ex- 
 perience alone can teach us how far what has been in- 
 vented to serve, to unite, to defend, to enlighten human 
 society, to raise the moral dignity of man, or to augment 
 his enjoyments, has attained its end, or has produced a 
 contrary effect. 
 
 But there remains an important difference. In the 
 ))hysical sciences we muJiK experiments ; in the moral 
 and political, we can only wait and watch for them. 
 Via must take them such as they have been furnished 
 to us by past ages ; we can neither choose nor direct 
 them ; for an abortive experiment involves destruction 
 to the virtue and the happiness of our fellow men ; and 
 not of a few individuals only, but of thousands or mil- 
 lions of men. We know of but one example of a pro- 
 ject for the advancement of political science by means 
 of experiments, undertaken with the express aim, not 
 of the interests of the governed, but of the instruction 
 of the governors. 
 
 About the year 2()0 of the Christian era, tlie em-
 
 b FALL OP THE ROMAN EBIPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 peror Gallienus, one of those in the long line of Caesars 
 who, perhaps, by his indolence and his levity, con- 
 tributed the most to the ruin of the Roman empire, 
 took it into his head that he was a philosopher ; and of 
 course found the high opinion he had formed of his 
 taste and aptitude for science amply confirmed by the 
 testimony of his courtiers : he accordingly resolved to 
 select certain cities of the empire as experimental com- 
 munities, to be submitted to the various forms of go- 
 vernment and polity invented by philosophers, with a 
 view to the increase of the sum of human happiness. 
 In one, the philosopher Plotinus was commissioned to 
 organise a republic on Plato's model. Meanwhile the 
 barbarians advanced ; the thoughtless Gallienus opposed 
 no resistance; and they successively devastated all the 
 countries in which the experimental cities were to be 
 founded. Thus vanished this imperial dream. 
 
 Unquestionably no man has a right thus to make 
 human beings the subject of experiment ; yet a Roman 
 emperor might be nearly sure that any theory of any 
 philosopher would be better than the practice of his 
 pretorian prefects, or his governors ; and we have reason 
 to regret that Gallienus's singular project was aban- 
 doned. But for all, save a Roman emperor, the expe- 
 rimental study of the social sciences can be made in the 
 past alone ; there, the results of all institutions stand 
 disclosed before us, though unhappily so complicated, 
 so embarrassed in each other, that neither causes nor 
 effects present themselves distinctly to our eyes. Ge- 
 nerally, they are severed by a long interval of time ; we 
 must look back several generations for the origin of the 
 opinions, the passions, the weaknesses, the consequences 
 of which become manifest after the lapse of ages. 
 
 Often, too, these long-existing causes have been in- 
 adequately observed, and many are veiled in darkness 
 which it is absolutely impossible to penetrate. But the 
 main source of the confusion and uncertainty which 
 hang around moral or political science is, that several 
 causes always concur to produce one effect ; that, fre-
 
 CHAP. I. VALUE OF HISTORY. [) 
 
 quently, it is even necessary to seek in another branch 
 of political science the origin of a phenomenon which 
 presents itself to us in the one which presently engages 
 our attention. We are struck by the tactics of the Ro- 
 mans ; but perhaps it is rather to the education they 
 received from their earliest infancy, than to the per- 
 fection of military science, that we ouglit to ascribe their 
 success in war. "\V^e wish to adopt the English trial by 
 jury; perhaps it will be found to be devoid of equity or 
 of independence, if it be not supported by the religious 
 opinion of the country. We talk of the fidelity of the 
 Austrians to their government ; perhaps their attach- 
 ment is not to the government, but to the economical 
 laws which are in force among them. We ought not, 
 therefore, to be surprised if the social sciences are in a 
 backward state; if their principles are uncertain; if they 
 do not offer a single question which has not been the 
 subject of controversy. They are sciences of fact, and 
 there is not a single one of the facts on which they are 
 founded which some one is not disposed to deny. They 
 are sciences of observation ; and how few are the accu- 
 rate or complete observations which have as yet been 
 collected for the purposes of induction. We ought rather 
 to be surprised that men should hate and insult each 
 other for what they understand so imperfectly. There 
 is, perhaps, not one denomination of a sect, whether in 
 politics, philosophy, or religion, which has not, at some 
 time or other, become a term of reproach. There has 
 not been one opinion, of the many held on subjects so 
 difficult, so complicated, by men who had no other end 
 in view than the gooil of their species, which has not in 
 turn been anathematised, and the profession of it treated 
 as evidence of dishonesty and vice. Poor apprentices 
 as we are in the theory of social existence, how dare we 
 to affirm that the adoption of this or that principle 
 proves a corrupt heart, when we camiot even demonstrate 
 that it shows an error of judgment? Let us study: 
 thus only shall we learn the extent of our ignorance. 
 Let us study ; and by learning to appreciate the difficul-
 
 10 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 ties, we shall learn to conceive how they may have given 
 birth to systems the most widely opposed. 
 
 History, however profoundly studied, will still, per- 
 haps, leave us in doubt as to the rules which ought to 
 regulate our own conduct, or our share in the general 
 conduct of society, of which we are members ; but it 
 will leave us none as to the boundless indulgence we owe 
 to the opinions of other men. "W^hen we see that science 
 is so complicated ; that truth is so far removed from us, 
 so shrouded from our ken ; that every step in our work 
 offers fresh difficulties to our investigation, raises fresh 
 questions for solution ; when we are not sure of our 
 own footing, how shall we pronounce sentence on those 
 who differ from us ? 
 
 Our purpose in the following work is not to establish 
 any particular system; not to maintain or to demolish any 
 set of opinions, principles, or institutions ; but honestly 
 to demand of the past an account of what has existed, 
 and of the causes which have combined to bring it into 
 existence. The portion of history of which we shall 
 endeavour to give a rapid sketch is, indeed, more rich 
 in instructive warnings than in glorious examples. 
 
 In the first two centuries of the Christian era, the 
 known world was united under an almost universal 
 monarchy, and seemed to have Avithin its reach all the 
 fruits of the highest civilisation to which antiquity had 
 attained. Commencing our researches at this period, 
 we shall endeavour to point out the germs of destruction 
 which this immense body contained within itself. We 
 shall then give a brief view of the mighty struggle be- 
 tween the barbarians and the Romans, and shall show 
 the empire of the West crumbling to pieces under 
 reiterated strokes. The barbarians then endeavoured to 
 reconstruct what they had destroyed. The Merovingian 
 Franks, the Saracens, the Carlovingian Franks, and the 
 Saxons, laboured in turn at the establishment of a uni- 
 versal monarchy. Their efforts contributed still farther 
 to the dissolution of the ancient order of society, and 
 buried civilisation under the ruins. The empires of
 
 CHAP. I. PERIOD OP HISTORY TREATED OF. 11 
 
 Dagobert, of the Khalifs, of Charlemagne, and of Otho 
 the Great, fell in succession before the end of the tenth 
 century. These great convulsions at length destroyed 
 the tendency which mankind seemed to have preserved 
 toward the reconstruction of a universal monarchy. 
 At the end of the tenth century, human society had 
 resolved itself into its primary elements — associations of 
 citizens in towns and cities. AV'e shall take our stand 
 at the year 1000, on the dust of the successive empires 
 of antiquity. That is the true epoch whence modern 
 history ought to date. 
 
 The period of barbarism and destruction which we 
 design to examine is little generally known. The 
 greater number of readers hasten to turn their eyes 
 from so dark and troubled a picture ; nor, through its 
 whole duration, does it afford a single author worthy to 
 be placed on the same rank with the great writers of 
 antiquity. The confusion of facts; our incurable ig- 
 norance concerning a great number of details, concern- 
 ing some entire periods, concerning many of the causes 
 which gave rise to the most important revolutions ; the 
 absence of philosophy, often of good sense, in those 
 who relate events ; the enormous number of crimes by 
 which this period is deformed, and the extremity of 
 wretchedness to which the human race was reduced, 
 unquestionably detract much from the interest which 
 its history might otherwise excite. These circumstances 
 ought not, however, to deter us from endeavouring to 
 obtain a more accurate knowledge of it. 
 
 Indeed, the period which it is our intention to consi- 
 der is much more nearly allied to our own than that 
 which we are accustomed to study with the greatest 
 ardour. It is nearer to us, not only in the order of 
 dates, but also in that of interests. We are the chil- 
 dren of the men whose history and character we are about 
 to exannne : we are not the descendants of the Greeks 
 or of the llomans. A\'ith them arose the tongues we 
 speak; the laws which we have obeyed, or whose autho- 
 rity we still acknowledge; the opinions, the prejudices.
 
 12 FALIi OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAF. I. 
 
 more powerful than laws, before which we bow, and 
 which will, perhaps, retain their dominion over our 
 latest posterity. The nations and tribes who will 
 pass in review before us, professed the Christian reli- 
 gion ; but in this respect the difference is far more 
 striking than the resemblance. The centuries which 
 elapsed from the fourth to the tenth are those in which 
 the church was the most deeply affected by the fatal influ- 
 ences of ignorance, of increasing barbarism, and of 
 worldly ambition. In them we can hardly trace a ves- 
 tige of the plire religion we now profess. The direc- 
 tion given to the education of youth, the study of a 
 language then expiring and now no longer in existence, 
 and of the master-works it contained, date from the 
 same epoch ; as do also the establishment of various 
 universities and schools, which keep alive in Europe the 
 spirit of past ages. Lastly, it was at that period that 
 the states of modern Europe, many of which stiU subsist, 
 were constructed out of the ruins of the Roman empire. 
 We are about to watch the birth of the nations to which 
 we are bound by the various ties of blood and interest. 
 
 The fall of the Roman empire in the West is the 
 first spectacle that presents itself to us, and is pregnant 
 with instruction. Nations or tribes which have at- 
 tained to a like degree of civiUsation perceive that a 
 certain kindred subsists between them. The life of 
 a private citizen in the time of Constantine or of Theodo- 
 sius has a greater resemblance to our own than that of 
 our barbarous ancestors of Germany, or than that of those 
 virtuous and austere citizens of the republics of Greece 
 and Italy, whose works we admire, but of whose man- 
 ners we have a very imperfect knowledge. It is only 
 by acquiring an accurate conception of the resemblance 
 and the difference between the organisation of the em- 
 pire and that of modern Europe, that we can venture 
 to foretel whether the calamities by which the former 
 was destroyed, menace us with ruin. 
 
 The mere name of the Roman empire calls up in our 
 minds every image of grandeur, power, and magnifi-
 
 CHAP. I. BOUNDARIES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 13 
 
 cence. By a very natural confusion of ideas, we bring 
 together the most remote, and often dissimilar times, to 
 concentrate around it a halo of splendour and glory. 
 The Roman republic had produced men who, in moral 
 dignity and force, were, perhaps, never surpassed on 
 earth. They had transmitted their names, if not their 
 virtues, to their descendants ; and even to the very 
 close of the empire, the men who, sunk in slavery and 
 baseness, still called themselves Roman citizens, seemed 
 to live in the midst of their shades, and to be encom- 
 passed by the atmosphere of their glory. The laws 
 had changed their spirit ; but the changes had been slow, 
 and scarcely perceptible to the people : the manners were 
 no longer the same; but the memory of the antique virtue 
 of Rome still survived. The literature had been preserved 
 with tlie language ; and it established a community of 
 opinions, of emotions, of prejudices, between the Ro- 
 mans of the time of Claudian and the contemporaries 
 of Virgil. The magistrates and officers of tlie state 
 had, generally speaking, preserved their ancient names 
 and insignia, although their power had fled. And 
 nine hundred years after the institution of the consulates, 
 the people of Rome still respected the fasces of the lie- 
 tors, Avho preceded the consul, habited in the purple of 
 his office. 
 
 From the time of Augustus to that of Constantine 
 the world of Rome was bounded by nearly the same 
 frontiers. The god Terminus had not yet learned to re- 
 cede, and still guarded the ancient boundaries, as in the 
 days of the republic. To this there was but one ex- 
 ception. Dacia, conquered by Trajan, lying to the 
 north of the Danube, and without tbe natural limits of 
 the empire, was abandoned, after being held for a cen- 
 tury and a half. Rut tlie aggressive warfare which 
 the Romans of the first century were continually push- 
 ing beyond their frontiers, was, in the fourth, almost 
 invariably retaliated upon them within their own terri- 
 tory by the barbarians wliom they had formerly 
 attacked. The emperors could no longer defend the
 
 14 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 provinces which they still affected to rule ; and they 
 frequently saw, without regret, valiant enemies become 
 their guests, and occupy the desert regions of their 
 empire. 
 
 This fixedness of the boundaries of the territory 
 subject to Rome, was in part to be ascribed to the saga- 
 city with which, at the period of her highest power, 
 her leaders had voluntarily stopped short in the career 
 of conquest, at the point where they found the best mi- 
 litary frontier. Great rivers, which afford little obstacle 
 to the armies of civilised nations, are generally a barrier 
 against the incursions of barbarians ; and great rivers, 
 the sea, mountains, deserts, formed, in fact, natural 
 frontiers to this immense empire. 
 
 According to a vague calculation, it has been asserted 
 that the Roman territory measured six hundred leagues 
 from north to south, upwards of a thousand from east 
 to west, and extended over a surface of a hundred and 
 eighty thousand square leagues. But the idea conveyed 
 by numbers is too abstract to leave any distinct picture 
 on the mind. We shall understand more clearly the 
 immense extent of its possessions in the richest and 
 most fertile countries in the world, by following the line 
 of its frontiers. On the north, the empire was bounded 
 by the wall of the Caledonians or Picts, the Rhine, the 
 Danube, and the Black Sea. The Picts' wall, which 
 transected Scotland at its narrowest point, left the Ro- 
 mans in possession of the Lowlands of that country, 
 and of the whole of England. The Rhine and the 
 Danube, which rise at nearly the same point, and take 
 their course, the one to the west, the other to the east, 
 separated barbaric from civilised Europe. The Rhine 
 formed the frontier of Gaul, which then comprised 
 Helvetia and Belgium. The Danube covered the two 
 great peninsulas of Italy and lUyricum. It divided 
 countries, some of which are now regarded as Ger- 
 manic, others as Slavonic. On its right bank the Ro- 
 mans possessed Rhsetia, Noricum, Pannonia, and Mcesia: 
 which answer pretty nearly to Suabia, Bavaria, part of
 
 CHAP. I. BOUNDARIES OP THE ROMAN E5IPIRE. 15 
 
 Austria and of Hungary, and Bulgaria. The narrow 
 space between the sources of the Danube and the Rhine, 
 above Basel, was defended by a line of fortifications. 
 The Black Sea protected Asia Minor. To the north 
 and east, a few Greek colonies preserved a doubtful sort 
 of independence, under the protection of the empire. 
 A Greek prince reigned at CafFa, on the Cimmerian 
 Bosphorus. Greek colonies in the countries of Lazica 
 or Colchis were alternately subject or tributary. The 
 Romans possessed the whole southern bank of the Black 
 Sea, from the mouths of the Danube to Trebisond. 
 
 On the east, the empire was bounded by the moun- 
 tains of Armenia, by a part of the course of the 
 Euphrates, and by the deserts of Arabia. One of the 
 loftiest mountain-ranges of the globe, the Cauca- 
 sian, stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian, 
 touching Thibet at one extremity, and at the other the 
 mountains of the centre of Asia Minor, separated the 
 Scythians of Upper Asia from the Persians and the 
 Romans. The wildest part of these mountains belonged 
 to the Iberians, who maintained their independence. 
 The part the most susceptible of cultivation was inhabited 
 by the Armenians, who submitted alternately to the 
 yoke of the Romans, the Parthians, and the Persians, 
 but as tributaries rather than as subjects. The Tigris 
 and the Euphrates, which rise in the Armenian moun- 
 tains, and empty themselves into the Persian Gulf, 
 flowed through the plains of Mesopotamia. Along 
 the whole of this part of the eastern boundary, down 
 to the sandy deserts which, farther to the south, divide 
 the banks of the Euphrates from the fertile hills of 
 Syria, the frontiers of the empire had not been traced 
 by the hand of nature ; and we accordingly see the two 
 great monarchies of the Romans and of the Parthians, 
 or their successors, the Persians, alternately wresting 
 from each other several of the provinces of Armenia or 
 of Mesopotamia. The deserts of Arabia formed the 
 defence of Syria along a line of two hundred leagues, 
 while the Red Sea bounded Egypt.
 
 16 
 
 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 To the south, the deserts of Libya and Zahara ; to 
 the west, the Atlantic Ocean, were at once the limits 
 of the Roman empire and of the habitable globe. 
 
 Having traced the frontier line of the empire, we will 
 pause for a moment over the catalogue of the provinces 
 of which it consisted. About the year 292, Diocletian 
 had divided it into four pretorian prefectures, with a 
 view to provide better for its defence, by giving it four 
 heads or leaders. These prefectures were Gaul, II- 
 lyricum, Italy, and the East. The residence of the pre- 
 fect of Gaul was at Treves. He had under his orders 
 the three vicars of the Gallic provinces, Spain, and 
 Britain. The former were divided, according to the 
 ancient language of the inhabitants, into Narbonese, 
 Aquitanian, Celtic, Belgic, and Germanic Gaul. Spain 
 was divided into three provinces, Lusitania, Bfetica, and 
 Tarraconia. Lastly, Britain comprehended the whole 
 island, as far north as the Friths of Forth and Clyde. 
 
 The Illyrian prefecture consisted of that immense 
 triangle of which the Danube is the base, and the 
 Adriatic and the ^gean and Euxine seas the two sides. 
 It comprehended nearly the whole existing empire of 
 Austria, and the whole of Turkey in Europe. It was 
 divided into the provinces of Rhatia, Noricum, and Pan- 
 nonia ; Dalmatia, IMoesia, Thrace, jNIacedonia, and 
 Greece. The prefect resided at Sirmium, not far from 
 Belgrade and from the Danube, or at Thessalonica. 
 
 The prefecture of Italy included, besides that pro- 
 vince whence the conquerors of the world had sprung, 
 the whole of Africa, from the western frontiers of Egypt 
 to the present empire of Morocco. The provinces bore 
 the names of Libya, Africa, Numidia, Csesarian JMauri- 
 tania, and Tingitanian Mauritania. Rome and Milan 
 were alternately the residence of the prefect of Italy, 
 but Carthage was the capital of all the African pro- 
 vinces. It equalled Rome in population as well as in 
 magnificence ; and in the time of their prcsperity, the 
 African provinces alone w'ere more than equal to three 
 times the territory of France.
 
 / 
 
 CHAP. I. AnCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT ROME. 17 
 
 The prefecture of the East, bounded by the Black 
 Sea, the kingdom of Persia, and the Desert, was yet 
 more extensive, more wealthy, and more populous than 
 either of the others. It contained the provinces of 
 Asia Minor, Bithynia, and Pontus ; Cilicia, Syria, 
 Phoenicia, and Palestine; Egypt, with a part of Col- 
 chis, of Armenia, of Mesopotamia, and of Arabia. 
 The residence of the prefect was at Antioch, but several 
 other capitals, particularly Alexandria in Egypt, almost 
 rivalled that city in population and in wealth. 
 
 The imagination is confounded by this enumeration 
 of the provinces of Rome ; by the comparison of them 
 with any existing empires ; and our astonishment is 
 heightened when we call to mind the vast and splendid 
 cities by which each of these provinces was adorned ; 
 cities, several of which equalled, if they did not sur- 
 pass, our largest capitals in population and in opulence; 
 cities such as Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, within 
 whose walls a whole nation seemed enclosed. The Gallic 
 provinces alone numbered one hundred and fifteen 
 towns distinguished by the name of cities. The ruins 
 of some are yet standing, and surpass all those of mo- 
 dern times in magnificence. 
 
 The aspect of these ruins still excites our admiration, 
 even when we meet with them in provinces where they 
 are not associated with any glorious recollections. At 
 Nismes we behold the Mai.son cari'ce, the Arense, the 
 Pont du Gard, with reverential emotion. 'W'ith the 
 same feelings Ave visit the remains of Roman grandeur 
 at Aries and Narbonne : yet what do we find there, 
 except models of art ? No great historical recollections 
 arc attached to them : these noble edifices were raised 
 at a time when Rome had lost its liberty, its virtues, 
 and its glory. A\'hen wo succeed in fixing the date of 
 their construction, we find it during the reign of em- 
 perors whose names have been handed down to the ex- 
 ecration of all successive generations. 
 
 Nevertheless, these monuments, even in the most 
 remote provinces, the most obscure cities, still bear the 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 18 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 antique Roman stamp — the stamp of vastness and 
 magnificence. Moral habits and impressions are some- 
 times perpetuated in works of art, even after they are 
 obliterated from the soul of the artist. Even at the 
 atest ]ieriods of the decline of the empire, the Roman 
 artist lived surrounded by the time-hallowed witnesses of 
 the pastj which kept him in the right path; he felt 
 himself compelled to work for eternity. He continued 
 to impress on his creations that character of power and 
 durability, which give them a preeminence over all that 
 have succeeded them. The imposing architecture of 
 Rome has a strength and a grandeur which remind us of 
 that of Upper Egypt. It differs from that, however, in 
 its object : the Egyptians laboured only for their gods 
 
 — the Romans, even during the period of their enslave- 
 ment, worked mainly for the people. All their great edi- 
 fices were evidently intended for the enjoyment of all. 
 In the times of the republic, the chief object was the 
 public utility, to which the aqueducts and magnificent 
 roads of that period were destined to contribute. In 
 the days of the empire, it was rather the public plea- 
 sure that was consulted : the result was, circuses and 
 theatres. Even in the temples, the Egyptian architect 
 seems to have thought only of the presence of the Deity 
 
 — the Roman, of the adoration of the people. 
 
 In the midst of all this magnificence, the empire^ 
 whose fall we are about to contemplate, was lingering 
 in its fourth century of incurable decay. The north 
 poured down upon it her flood of warriors. From the 
 extremity of Scandinavia to the frontiers of China^ 
 nation after nation appeared, the new pressing upon the 
 older-settled, crushing it, and marking its onivard pass- 
 age with blood and devastation. The calamities which 
 afflicted the human race at that period exceed, in 
 extent of desolation, in number of victims, in in- 
 tensity of suffering, all that has ever been presented to our 
 affrighted imagination. We dare not calculate the mil- 
 lions upon millions of human beings who perished be- 
 fore the downfall of the Roman empire was accom-
 
 CHAP. I. LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN THE EMPIRE. IQ 
 
 plished. Yet its ruin was not caused by the bar- 
 barians : it had long been corroded by an internal 
 ulcer. Vai'ious causes had, doubtless, contributed to de- 
 stroy, among the subjects of the Caesars, the patriotism 
 of tlie people, the military virtues, the opulence of the 
 provinces, and the means of resistance. But we shall 
 now confine ourselves to an endeavour to elucidate those 
 which arose from the state of the population ; since upon 
 that must repose every system of national defence. 
 
 That sentiment so pure, so elevated, that public vir- 
 tue which sometimes soars to the highest pitch of hero- 
 ism, and renders the citizen capable of the most noble 
 sacrifices; that patriotism which had long been the glory 
 and the power of Rome, found no food in the empire 
 of tlie world. An edict of Caracalla (a. d. 211-217) 
 had rendered common to all the inhabitants of the em- 
 pire, not only the prerogatives, but the titles and the 
 duties, of a Roman citizen. Thus the Gaul and the 
 Briton were nominally the fellow-citizens of the Mau- 
 ritanian and the Syrian ; the Greek and the Egyptian, 
 of the Spaniard and the Hun. It is evident, however, 
 that the more such a faggot is enlarged, tlie looser is 
 the tie that binds it. "WHiat glory or distinction could 
 attach to a prerogative become so common.'^ What 
 recollections could be awakened by the name of coun- 
 try ? a name no longer endeared by any local image, by 
 any association of ideas, by any participation in all that 
 had thrown radiance and glory around the social body ? 
 
 Thus national recollections, national feelings, were 
 obhterated in imperial Rome. They were feebly re- 
 placed by two distinctions between the inhabitants of 
 the empire ; that of language, and that of rank. 
 
 Language is the most powerful symbol to a nation of 
 its own unity : it is blended with every association of 
 tlie mind ; it lends its colour to every feeling and to every 
 thought ; it forms an indivisible part of our memory, 
 of all that has made us love life, of all that has tauglit 
 us to know happiness. When it reveals to us a fellow- 
 countryman in the midst of a strange people, it makes 
 c 2
 
 20 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. I. 
 
 our heart beat with all the emotions of home and father- 
 land. But, so far from serving as a bond of union be- 
 tween the citizens of the Roman empire, language only 
 served to sever them. A great division between the 
 Greek and the Latin soon placed the empires of the 
 East and of the West in opposition. These two tongues, 
 which had already shone in the zenith of their literary 
 glory, had been adopted by the governments, by the 
 wealthy classes, by all who pretended to education, and 
 by most of the citizens of the great towns. Latin was 
 spoken in the Gallic prefecture, in Africa, Italy, 
 and half of the lUyrian prefecture, and along the Da- 
 nube ; Greek, in all the southern portion of the Illy- 
 rian prefecture, and throughout the prefecture of the 
 East. 
 
 But the great mass of the rural population, except in 
 spots cultivated exclusively by_ slaves brought from a 
 distance, had preserved its provincial language. Thus, 
 Celtic was spoken throughout Armorica and the island of 
 Britain ; Illyrian, in the greater part of Illyricum ; 
 Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, in the several provinces 
 ■whence these languages had taken their names. "VV'here 
 the people were the most enslaved and oppressed, they 
 made the greatest efforts to learn the language of their 
 masters ; the latter, on the contrary, had to make the 
 advances, where the people were the most numerous and 
 strong. Throughout the empire, however, there was 
 a continual shifting of the population, from the im- 
 mense traffic in slaves, from the military service, and 
 from the pursuit of civil offices. Hence every province 
 presented, in the lower classes, the strangest mixture of 
 various patois and dialects. Thus, in Gaul, we know that, 
 towards the end of the fifth century, Saxon was spoken 
 at Bayeux, Tartarian in the district of Tifauge in Poi- 
 tou, Gaelic at Vannes, Alan at Orleans, Frankic at 
 Tournai, and Gothic at Tours ; and every century affords 
 a fresh combination. 
 
 But it is more especially in the condition of indivi- 
 duals, that we must seek the causes of the extreme
 
 CriAP. I. rOPULATlOX OF THE EMPIRE. 21 
 
 weakness of the Roman empire. We may distinguish 
 six classes of inhabitants. First, we shall find senato- 
 rial families, proprietors of immense territories and 
 immense wealth, who had successively encroached on 
 the possessions of all the smaller landed proprietors. 
 Secondly, the inhabitants of large towns, a mixture of 
 artizans and freed slaves, who lived on the luxury of 
 the rich, and shared in their corruption ; who made 
 themselves formidable to the government by their re- 
 volts, — never to the enemy by their valour in the field. 
 The inhabitants of small towns, poor, despised, and 
 oppressed. The husbandmen and the slaves, who tilled 
 the fields. Lastly, a sort of banditti, who, as a means 
 of escaping from oppression, betook themselves to the 
 woods, and lived a life of brigandage. 
 
 The higher classes of a nation may impress upon the 
 government a character of wisdom and virtue, if them- 
 selves are wise and virtuous ; but they cannot give it 
 strength, for strength must ahvays come from the 
 mass. But in imperial Rome this mass, so varied in 
 its language, its manners, its religion, its habits ; so 
 savage in the midst of civihsation ; so oppressed and 
 brutified, was scarcely perceived by those who lived on 
 its toils: it is hardly mentioned by historians ; it pined 
 in wretchedness, it perished and disappeared in some 
 provinces, while no one condescended to notice its ex- 
 tinction ; and it is only by a series of comparisons that 
 we can discover its fate. In the present state of Eu- 
 rope, the class of husbandmen — those who live by the 
 manual labour of agriculture — forms four fifths of the 
 whole population, England alone excepted. We may 
 conclude that, in the Roman empire, the agricultural po- 
 pulation was proportionally larger, since manufactures 
 and commerce were in a less advanced state than with 
 us. But, whatever were their numbers, they formed no 
 part of the nation. Tliey were regarded as scarcely 
 superior to the domestic animals whose labours they 
 shared. The higher classes would have dreaded to liear 
 them pronounce the name of country ; dreaded to call 
 c 3
 
 23 FALL OP THE ilOJIAN EMPIRE. CIlAP. I. 
 
 forth tlieir moral or intellectual faculties ; above all, 
 that courage which they might have turned against their 
 oppressors. 'I'he peasantry were rigorously deprived of 
 arms, and were incapacitated from contributing to the 
 defence of their country, or from opposing resistance to 
 any enemy, foreign or domestic. 
 
 The rural population of the empire was divided into 
 two classes, free coloni and slaves ; differing, however, 
 far more in name than in any positive rights. The 
 former cultivated the earth for certain fixed wages, 
 generally paid in kind ; but, as they were severed from 
 their masters by an impassable distance ; as they were 
 immediately dependent on some favourite slave or free- 
 man ; as their complaints were unheard, and the law 
 afforded them no security, their condition became more 
 and more deplorable ; the payment exacted from them 
 more and more ruinous : and if, rendered desperate by 
 misery, they abandoned their fields, their dwellings, 
 their family, and fled to take refuge under the protection 
 of some other proprietor, the constitutions of the 
 emperors had provided a summary process by which they 
 could be reclaimed, and seized wherever they were 
 found. Such was the condition of the free cultivators 
 of the soil. 
 
 The slaves were again subdivided into two classes ; 
 those who were born on tbeir master's estate, — and who, 
 having consequently no other place of abode, no other 
 home or country, inspired a larger share of confidence, — 
 and those who had been purchased. The former lived in 
 huts, in the farm-buildings or homesteads, under the 
 eyes of their inspector or bailiff, nearly like the negroes 
 on a ^Vest India estate. But, as their numbers were 
 continually decreasing from bad treatment, from the 
 avarice of their superiors, from misery and despair, a 
 continual and active trade was carried on throughout the 
 empire to recruit them from among the prisoners of 
 war. The victories of the Roman arms, — frequently, 
 also, the conflicts of the barbarians among each other, 
 or the punishments inflicted by the emperors or their
 
 CHAP. I. DESTRUCTION OF SMALIi mOPRIETORS. 23 
 
 lieutenants on revolted cities or provinces, the vrhole 
 population of which was sold under the spear of the 
 prator, — kept the market constantly supplied with slaves; 
 but at the expense of all that would have been the most 
 valuable part of the population. These wretched beings 
 worked almost constantly with chains on their feet : 
 they were worn down with fatigue, in order to crush 
 their spirit, and were shut up nightly in subterraneous 
 holes. 
 
 The frightful sufferings of so large a portion of the 
 population, its bitter hatred against its oppressors, pro- 
 duced their natural consequences ; continual servile in- 
 surrections, plots, assassinations, and poisonings. In 
 vain did a sanguinary law condemn to death all tiie slaves 
 of a master who had been assassinated; vengeance and 
 despair multiplied crime and violence. Those who had 
 already satisfied their revenge, those who had failed in 
 their attempt to do so, but over whose head suspicion 
 hung, fled to the forests and lived by rapine and plun- 
 der. In Gaul and Spain they were called Eagauda-, in 
 Asia Minor they were confounded with the Isauri ; in 
 Africa with the Gaetuli, who pursued the same course of 
 life. Their numbers were so considerable, that their at- 
 tacks frequently assumed the character of civil war, rather 
 than of the violences of a band of robbers. Tiiey were 
 like the Marroons of the West India Islands. By their 
 irruptions they aggravated the miseries of those who 
 were lately their companions in misfortune. AV'hole 
 districts, whole provinces, were successively abandoned 
 by the cultivators, and forest and heath usurped the place 
 of corn and pasture. 
 
 The wealthy senator sometimes obtained compensation 
 for liis losses, or the aid of the authorities in defence of 
 his property ; but the small land-owner, who cuhivated 
 his own field, could not escape amid so much violence 
 and outrage. His fortune and his life were in continual 
 danger. He hastened, therefore, to get rid of his pa- 
 trimony at any price, whenever he could find an opulent 
 neighbour willing to buy it; nay, he frequently aban- 
 c 4
 
 24 FAIiL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CIIAP. 1. 
 
 (loned it without any compensation. Often he was driven 
 from it by fiscal exactions, and the overwhehning 
 weight of the pubhc charges. Thus the whole of this 
 independent class, among whom love of country exists 
 in peculiar force and intensity, whose vigorous arm is 
 best able to defend the soil it tills, was soon entirely 
 extirpated. The number of proprietors diminished to 
 such a degree, that an opulent man, a man of senatorial 
 family, had often a distance of ten leagues to traverse 
 before he could reach the habitation of a neighbour and 
 equal. Some of them, proprietors of whole provinces, 
 were accordingly already regarded as petty sovereigns. 
 
 In the midst of this general desolation, the existence 
 of large cities is a phenomenon not easily explained; 
 but we find the same extraordinary state of things in 
 our own times, in Barbary, Turkey, throughout the 
 East; — wherever, in short, despotism crushes isolated 
 man, and where he can only find safety from outrage by 
 losing himself in a crowd. These great cities were, 
 in a great measure, peopled by artizans, Avho were sub- 
 jected to a very rigorous yoke ; and by freed-men and 
 slaves ; but it is to be remembered, that they also con- 
 tained a greater number of persons who were satis- 
 fied wiih bare necessaries, provided they could pass 
 their time in utter indolence, than are to be found in 
 our days. The whole of this population was, like 
 the peasantry, disarmed ; was equally deprived of the 
 feeling of country, was rendered equally fearful of the 
 enemy ; equally incapable of self-defence. But, as 
 it was congregated into a mass, it commanded some 
 respect from those in poAver. In all the cities of the 
 first class, there were gratuitous distributions of provi- 
 sions, and gratuitous games, chariot races, and theatri- 
 cal exhibitions. The levity, the love of pleasure, the 
 forgelfulness of the future, Avhich have always charac- 
 terised the jJopulace of large cities, clung to the pro- 
 vincial Romans through all the final calamities of the 
 empire. Treves, the capital of the Gallic prefecture, 
 was not the only city which was surprised and pillaged
 
 CHAP. I. DEBASEMENT OF ROMAN CHARACTER. 25 
 
 by the barbarians^ while its citizens^ crowned with chap- 
 lets^ were rapturously applauding the games of the 
 circus. 
 
 Such was the interior of the empire at the beginning 
 of the fourth century ; such was the population called 
 upon to resist the universal invasion of the barbarians, 
 who often left them no other choice than that of dying 
 with arms in their hands, or dying like slaves and 
 cowards. And the descendants of those haughty and 
 daring Romans, the heirs of such high renown, acquired 
 by so many virtues, had been so enfeebled, so debased 
 and degraded by the tyranny to Avhich they had been 
 subjected, that, when this alternative was offered them, 
 they constantly preferred the death of cowards and 
 of slaves.
 
 26 FALI, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THREE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. FROM THE 
 
 BATTLE OP ACTIUM TO THE REIGN OF CONSTANTIXE. UNIN- 
 TERRUPTED PROGRESS OF DECAY. THESE THREE CENTURIES 
 
 DIVIDED INTO FOUR PERIODS : 1. OF THE JULIAN RACE ; 2. OP 
 THE FLAVIAN ; 3. OF THE SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE ; 4. OF THE 
 
 COLLEAGUES, OR CO-EMPERORS. STATE OF ROME UNDER THE 
 
 JULIAN FA5IILT. LIMITS OF THE EMPIRE NEARLY UN- 
 CHANGED. MILITARY FORCE. ARTS LITERATURE. DE- 
 GRADED STATE OF THE PEOPLE. VIRTUOUS EMPERORS OF THE 
 
 FLAVIAN RACE. OPULENCE AND SPLENDOUR OF THE PRO- 
 VINCIAL CITIES. INCREASING DISPROPORTION BETWEEN THE 
 
 WEALTH OF THE FEW'AND THE MISERY OF THE MASS. RAPID 
 
 DIMINUTION OF POPULATION. DIFFICULTY OF RECRUITING 
 
 THE ARMIES. DEATH OF COMMODUS. COMMENCEMENT OF 
 
 THIRD PERIOD. TYRANNY AND RAPACITY OF THE PRjETO- 
 
 RIANS. CIVIL WARS. ASSASSINATIONS. SUCCESSFUL IN- 
 VASION OF BARBARIANS. JUDICIOUS MILITARY ELECTIONS. 
 
 DIOCLETIAN. DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE BY HIM INTO FOUR. 
 
 PREFECTURES, GOVERNED BY TWO AUGUSTI AND TWO C.«SARS. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have endeavoured to show 
 what was the condition, what were the internal circum- 
 stances, of the Roman empire at the beginning of the 
 fourth century ; but, in order to the understanding 
 of the events which fohowed, it will be necessary 
 briefly to recall to the memory of our readers by what 
 steps, by what series of revolutions, the empire reached 
 that point of decline of which we have tried to convey 
 some idea. The space assigned to this work will render 
 it necessary to condense into one chapter three centuries 
 and a half of the existence of the civilised world ; three 
 centuries and a half prolific in great events and in 
 great men, many of whom have, probably, already a 
 powerful hold on the imagination of our readers. In a 
 work professedly treating of the middle ages, it is im- 
 possible to trace the long decay of the empire which 
 preceded the reign of Constantiue, since that reign
 
 CHAP. II. LINE OF EBIPERORS. 27 
 
 must be the point from which we start. Perhaps, 
 however, by strongly marking the epochs of this long 
 history, by classifying the events and the princes which 
 give it its character and its direction, by thus reviving 
 the recollections which are associated in the minds of our 
 readers with their earlier studies, we may succeed in 
 enabling them to embrace with a glance the period 
 which we must leave behind us, but which exercised a 
 powerful influence over that which we are about to 
 follow out in greater detail. 
 
 The power of an individual had been definitively es- 
 tablished over the Roman world by the victory which 
 Octavius, better known under the name of Augustus, 
 obtained over Marc Anthony at Actium, on the second 
 of September in the year 723 of Rome — thirty years 
 before the birth of Christ. Constantine the Great, with 
 whom we shall begin our narrative, was invested with 
 the purple in Gaul, a. d. 306'; but he was not acknow- 
 ledged by the whole empire until the year 323 — tbree 
 hundred and fifty-three years after the battle of Ac- 
 tium. 
 
 During this long space of time, the feebleness and 
 exhaustion of the Roman empire made gradual and 
 uninterrupted progress. This empire, which had threat- 
 ened the whole earth with subjugation, which had united 
 civilisation to extent, wealth to military virtue, talents 
 to strength, advanced towards its downfall, but with 
 unequal steps ; its infirmities were not always the same, 
 and the calamities which threatened it changed their 
 character and aspect. It suffered alternately from the 
 two extremes of the excess and the dissolution of power: 
 it paid the penalty even of its prosperity. Without mi- 
 nutely following the history of its domestic tyrannies, or 
 its foreign wars, let us endeavour to trace this change 
 in its character in the series of events. 
 
 These three centuries and a half may be divided into 
 four periods, each of which had its peculiar vices, its 
 characteristic weaknesses ; each of which contributed, 
 though in a different manner, to the grand work of
 
 28 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. 11. 
 
 destruction which was going on. We shall designate 
 them after the names or the characters of the chiefs of 
 the empire ; since the whole power of Rome was then 
 lodged in the hands of those chiefs, and they were in 
 fact the sole representatives of that republic whose 
 name still continued to be vainly invoked. The first 
 period is that of the reign of the Julian family^ from 
 the year 30 before Christ, to the year 68 after his 
 nativity. The second is marked by the reign of the 
 Flavian family, which, by its own influence, and after- 
 wards by adoption, kept possession of the throne from 
 the year 69 to 192. The third is that of the soldiers 
 of fortune, who alternately wrested the sceptre from 
 each other's hands, from the year 19~ to the year 284. 
 The fourth is that of the colleagues who divided the 
 sovereignty, without dissolving the unity of the empire^ 
 from the year 284 to the year 323. 
 
 The Julian family is that of the dictator Csesar ; his 
 name was transmitted, by adoption, out of the direct line, 
 but always within the circle of his kindred, to the five 
 first heads of the Roman empire ; Augustus reigned 
 from the year 30 b.c. to the year 14 of our era; 
 Tiberius, from 14 to 37 a. d.; Caligula, from 37 to 41; 
 Claudius, from 41 to 54; Nero, from 54 to 68. Their 
 names alone, with the exception of the first, concerning 
 ■whom there still exists some diversity of opinion, recall 
 every thing that is shameful and perfidious in man, — 
 every thing that is atrocious in the abuse of absolute 
 power. Never had the world been astounded by such 
 a variety and enormity of crime; never had so fatal an 
 attack been made on every virtue, every principle, which 
 men had been accustomed to hold in reverence. Out- 
 raged nature seemed to deny to these men the power of 
 perpetuating their race : not one of them left children ; 
 neverless, the order of succession among them was legi- 
 mate, according to the meaning now given to that 
 word. The first head of that house had been invested 
 with supreme power by the sole depositaries of the 
 national authority, the senate and the people of Rome ;
 
 CHAP. II. MILITARY FORCK. 29 
 
 after him the transmission of the sovereignty was al- 
 ways regular, conformable to the laws of inheritance, 
 recognised by all the several bodies of the state, and 
 was not disputed by any pretender to the crown. 
 The adoptive son, occupying in every respect the place 
 of the natural son, was admitted, without hesitation or 
 opposition, to the place of his father. 
 
 During this period of ninety-eight years, the limits 
 of the Roman empire remained nearly unchanged, with 
 the sole exception of the conquest of Great Britain in 
 the reign of Claudius. Military glory had overthrown 
 the republic and raised up the dictatorship ; the attach- 
 ment of the soldiery to the memory of the hero who 
 had led them on to battle, had founded the sovereignty 
 of his family; but Augustus and Tiberius, heirs of the 
 greatest military power which the world had ever 
 known, distrusted, while they caressed, this instrument 
 of their supremacy : they owed all their power to the 
 army ; they feared only the more to owe their ruin to 
 it. They wanted the selfish, and not the generous, pas- 
 sions of the army. They dreaded the virtuous enthu- 
 siasm which is easily excited among large bodies of 
 men ; they took care to economise both the heroism and 
 the victories of their legions ; nor would tliey give them 
 leaders whose example or whose ap{)robation they might 
 prefer to the largesses of their emperors. Augustus and 
 Tiberius would not attempt what the Republic Avould 
 have accomplished, — what Charlemagne eflected with 
 far inferior means, — the conquest and civilisation of 
 Germany. They thought they liad done enough when 
 they had protected their territory with a strong mili- 
 tary frontier, against neighbours who regarded war as a 
 virtue : they bequeathed to their successors all the dan- 
 gers of attack and invasion. 
 
 At this epoch the military force of the Roman empire 
 consisted of thirty legions. The complement of each, 
 including its auxiliaries, levied from among the allies of 
 Rome, was 12, .'300 men, among whom were reckoned 
 COOO men of that admirable infantry of the hue, so
 
 so FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 heavily armed, yet so easily disposable, which had 
 achieved the conquest of the world : a corps of Roman 
 cavalry, 726" strong, was attached to it ; the rest was 
 composed of auxiliary troops, and wore the arms of the 
 several countries which furnished them. In time of 
 peace, the legions did not inhabit towns or fortresses : 
 they occupied intrenched camps on the principal fron- 
 tiers, where no civil occupation was ever suffered to 
 interfere with the great profession of arms ; where the 
 exercises imposed on the legionary soldier, to fortify his 
 body and keep him in full activity and vigour, had 
 always war for their object; and where the severity of 
 discipline was never relaxed. Three of these legions 
 were stationed in Britain, south of the Caledonian wall; 
 five in Rhenish Gaul ; eleven on the Danube, from its 
 source in Rhstia down to its mouth in the Black Sea ; 
 six in Syria, and two in Cappadocia, for the defence of 
 the Persian frontier. The pacific provinces of P^gypt, 
 Africa, and Spain, had each but one legion. Italy and 
 the city of Rome, on the tranquilhty of which the safety 
 of the emperor depended, Avere kept in awe by a body 
 of 20,000 soldiers, distinguished from the rest of the 
 army by higher pay, by the emperor's peculiar favour, 
 and by immunity for every licence. They were called 
 the Prffitorian Guard ; they were encamped without the 
 gates of Rome, and never quitted the prastorium or the 
 residence of the emperor. The aggregate of the legions 
 formed an army of .^75,000 men. Including the prsse- 
 torians, the entire military establishment of the empire, 
 at its greatest power, never exceeded 400,000 men. 
 
 The domination of the Julian family was disastrous 
 to Rome, to the senators, to all men distinguished for 
 opulence, for moral elevation, for ambition, or for at- 
 tachment to the memory and the fame of their fore- 
 fathers ; disastrous to all the antique virtues of Rome, 
 to all noble sentiments and aspirations, which it crushed 
 and stifled for ever. But the provinces, rarely visited 
 by the emperors, never invaded by the barbarians, 
 enjoved all the advantages of peace,, of an immense com-
 
 CHAP. II. STATE OF THE PROVINCES. SI 
 
 merce, of easy and safe communication^ of laws generally 
 equal and just. In times of which the memory is al- 
 most exclusively odious and shameful for the capital, the 
 population of the recently acquired provinces — of Gaul 
 and Spain, for instance, which had been almost devast- 
 ated or reduced to slavery at the time of their conquest — 
 rapidly recovered and increased in strength and num- 
 bers. It was at this and the subsequent period that 
 most of those stately cities which adorned the provinces 
 were built or enlarged ; that the arts of Rome and of 
 Greece were borne by commerce to the ends of the 
 empire, and that the monuments which still excite our 
 wonder, which throw a lustre over spots unconsecrated 
 by any glorious recollections, bridges, aqueducts, cir- 
 cuses, theatres, were undertaken or constructed. The 
 subjects of Rome sought to drown all thought of the 
 future; to forget crimes which did not reach themselves; 
 to sever themselves from a country of whose chiefs they 
 could not think without blushing; to deter their chil- 
 dren from entering on any ])ublic career, where they 
 would be beset by dangers, and to enjoy the advantages 
 offered them by arts, opulence and leisure. 
 
 Republican sentiments were still cherished by all the 
 men who possessed the public confidence and esteem. 
 We find them in all their pristine energy in the poet 
 Lucan, in the historian Tacitus, in the jurisconsult 
 Antistius Labeo. The name of republic, which had 
 been preserved ; the laws and customs of ancient Rome, 
 many of which still subsisted, rendered it impossible to 
 speak of the past otherwise than with reverence. Ne- 
 vertheless, for a century, during which four execrable 
 men filled the throne, one of whom was an idiot, and 
 two madmen, not one important battle was fought for 
 the recovery of freedom, — no revolt — no civil war. The 
 reason for this is, that the love of liberty was confined 
 to the higher aristocracy. The senators knew how to die 
 with sufficient courage to save themselves from infamy; 
 but they could make no resistance. The ])eople of Rome, 
 almost entirely fed by the largesses of the emperors, con-
 
 32 FALL OP TfiE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 tinually amused and intoxicated by shows and games, 
 looked on the successive fall of the heads of the illus- 
 trious men they had feared or envied, as another variety 
 of exhibition : the people of the provinces, strangers to 
 the antique liberty, perceived no difference between the 
 republic and the empire ; the army, confounding fidelity 
 to a standard with the duty of citizens, and blind obe- 
 dience with patriotism, attached themselves to the Julian 
 family with implicit and unhesitating devotion. The 
 excesses of the fury and frenzy of Nero at length brought 
 about its fall; but its power was, even then, so firmly 
 established, that it was the attachment of the soldiery 
 to the extinct race of the Julii which enkindled the first 
 civil war : they would neither have the republic, nor 
 the emperor chosen by the senate. As no law nor usage 
 existed determining the succession to the sovereignty, 
 the supreme power was necessarily the prey of the 
 strongest or the miOst dextrous. Each army wislied to 
 invest its own chief with the purple. Galba, Otho, 
 Vitellius, Vespasian, and other less fortunate pretenders, 
 struggled for supremacy; but the habits of subordination 
 were still so strong, that, after this storm, which endured 
 scarcely eighteen months, every thing returned into its 
 wonted order ; and the senate, the provinces, the armies, 
 obeyed the conqueror Vespasian, as they would have 
 obeyed one of Julian blood. 
 
 We have designated the second period of the empire 
 by the name of the Flavian family — the family of Ves- 
 pasian. The nine emperors who were successively in- 
 vested with the purple, in the space of the 123 years 
 from his accession, were not all, however, of Flavian 
 race, even by the rites of adoption, which in Rome was 
 become a second nature ; but the respect of the world 
 for the virtues of Flavins Vespasian induced them all 
 to assume his name, and most of them showed them- 
 selves worthy of such an affiliation. 
 
 Vespasian had been invested with the purple at Alex- 
 andria, on the 1st of July, a. n. 6"9 : he died in 79- 
 His two sons reigned in succession after him ; Titus,
 
 CHAP. 11. FLAVIAN RACE. 03 
 
 from 79 to 81 ; Domitian, from 81 to QG. The latter 
 having been assassinated, Nerva, then an old man, was 
 raised to the throne by the senate (a. d. 9^ — 98). He 
 adopted Trajan (98 — 117) ; who adopted Adrian (117 
 — ],'J8). Adrian adopted Antoninus Pius (138 — l6l); 
 who adopted Marcus Aurelius (l6l — 180); and Corn- 
 modus succeeded his father, Marcus Aurelius (180 — 
 192). No period in history presents such a succession 
 of good and great men upon any throne : two monsters, 
 Domitian and Commodus, interrupt and terminate it ; 
 the virtues of their fathers could not save them from 
 the corrupting effect of an education received at the foot 
 of a throne. It is worthy of note, that the natural 
 succession gave but one single virtuous man to the em- 
 pire of the world; — Titus, surnamed the delight of man- 
 kind ; whose short reign, hoAvever, hardly afforded a 
 sufficient trial of his character. All the others were 
 called to the throne by a glorious election, sanctioned 
 by the rites of adoption, by which the prince consulted 
 the public voice, and voluntarily transmitted his sceptre 
 to the most worthy. 
 
 History throws little light on this period. Abroad, 
 the enterprises of the Romans were confined to some 
 wars against the Parthians, which produced no per- 
 manent change in the frontiers of the two empires ; to 
 the wars of Trajan beyond the Danube (a. n. 102 — 
 107), in which he conquered Dacia, now Wallachia 
 and Transylvania ; and to the wars of Marcus Aurelius 
 against the Quadi and the Marcomanni, who had suc- 
 ceeded in forming a confederation of the whole of Ger- 
 many, for the purpose of attacking the Roman empire. 
 
 Tlie j)illars of Trajan and of Antonine, which are 
 still standing and covered with bas-reliefs, are monu- 
 ments of these two glorious expeditions. At home, the 
 attention of historians was exclusively directed to the 
 imperial palace ; and they had only to commemorate 
 the virtues of the sovereign, and the happiness of the 
 subjects. This happiness, the result of universal peace, 
 of equal protection, equal security for all, was, doubt- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 FALt, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 less, great, and has been often celebrated. One symp- 
 tom of it was a fresh dawn of hterature; feeble, indeed, 
 compared with that of the age which has lent its 
 glory to the name of Augustus, though it derived all 
 its splendour from men formed during the latter years 
 of the republic. The reign of Adrian was peculiarly 
 marked by the flourishing state of art ; those of the 
 Antonines, by great ardour in the cultivation of phi- 
 losophy. Yet in these 123 years, history records few acts 
 of public virtue, few noble or distinguished characters. 
 
 This was the period at which, more especially, the 
 provincial cities attained the highest pitch of opulence^ 
 and were adorned with the most remarkable edifices. 
 Adrian had a strong taste for the arts, and for all the 
 enjoyments of life; he was continually travelling through 
 the provinces of his vast empire ; he excited emulation 
 among the several large cities and the wealthier citizens; 
 and he carried to the farthest extremities of the Roman 
 dominions that luxury and taste for decoration which^ 
 before his time, was the exclusive distinction of those 
 magnificent cities Avhich seemed the depositories of the 
 civilisation of the world. 
 
 But it was during this same period that peace and 
 prosperity fostered the colossal growth of a few fortunes; 
 of those latifundia, or vast domains, which, according 
 to Pliny the elder, were the destruction of Italy and of 
 the empire. A single proprietor gradually became pos- 
 sessed of provinces which had furnished the republic 
 with the occasion of decreeing more than one triumph 
 to its generals. While he amassed wealth so dispro- 
 portionate to the wants of a single man, he cleared all 
 the country he got within his grasp, of that numerous 
 and respectable class of independent cultivators, hitherto 
 so happy in their mediocrity. Where thousands of free 
 citizens had formerly been found ready to defend the 
 soil they tilled with their own hands, nothing was to be 
 seen but slaves. Even this miserable population rapidly- 
 diminished, because its labour was too expensive ; and 
 the proprietor found it answer better to turn his land
 
 CHAP. II. DECLINE OF . POPULATION. 35 
 
 into pasture. The fertile fields of Italy ceased to supply 
 food for their inhabitants ; the provisioning of Rome 
 depended on fleets, which brought corn from Sicily, 
 from Egypt, and from Africa : from the capital to the 
 uttermost provinces, depopulation followed in the train 
 of overgrown wealth ; and it was in the midst of this 
 universal prosperity, before a single barbarian had crossed 
 the frontiers of the empire, that the difficulty of recruit- 
 ing the legions began to be felt. In the war against 
 the Quadi and the Marcomanni, which was preceded by 
 so long a peace, Marcus Aurelius was reduced to the 
 necessity of enrolling the slaves and the robbers of 
 Rome. The frontier provinces, those most exposed to 
 the attacks of the barbarians, those which suffered the 
 most from the presence and the military vexations of the 
 legions, did not suffer so much from the rapid decline 
 of population, and of the warlike virtues, as the more 
 wealthy provinces of the interior. The levies of troops 
 were no longer made in Rome; they were raised almost 
 exclusively in northern Gaul, and along the right bank 
 of the Danube. This long Illyrian frontier, in par- 
 ticular, for more than two centuries preserved the repu- 
 tation of furnishing more soldiers to the empire than 
 all the rest of the provinces combined. This border 
 country had offered little temptation to the cupidity of 
 Roman senators : they cared not to have their property 
 in a province constantly harassed by the enemy. The 
 land which the senators would not buy, remained in the 
 possession of its old proprietors ; there, consequently, a 
 population, numerous, free, robust, and hardy, still 
 maintained itself. It long furnished the army with 
 soldiers ; it soon supplied it with chiefs. 
 
 History, which, during the whole of this period, 
 rarely fixes our attention on any individual, has, how- 
 ever, celebrated the virtues, and still more the mu- 
 nificence, of a subject of the Antonines, IlerodcsAtticus, 
 consul in the year 143. He lived almost constantly at 
 Athens, in philosophical retirement. Several of the 
 monuments with wliich he adorned the cities situated 
 V 2
 
 36 FALL OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 in the midst of his immense domains, are still standing ; 
 they give us some idea, not only of the liberality, but 
 of the wealth of a Roman of that period : and every 
 province contained some citizen who resembled Herod 
 n magnificence. Adrian appointed him prefect of the 
 free cities of Asia. He obtained from that emperor 
 a grant of 3,000,000 drachmie (100,000/.) for the 
 construction of an aqueduct at the city of Troy ; but, 
 to render it more magnificent, he doubled the sum from 
 his own private fortune. At Athens, where he presided 
 over the public games, he built a stadium of white 
 marble, 600 feet in length, and of sufficient size to con- 
 tain the whole body of the people. Shortly afterwards, 
 having lost his wife Regilla, he consecrated to her me- 
 mory a theatre which was unmatched through the whole 
 extent of the empire. The only timber used was cedar, 
 which was exquisitely carved. The Odeon, built in 
 the time of Pericles, had fallen into ruin : Herodes 
 Atticus rebuilt it, at his own cost, in all its ancient 
 splendour. Greece was likewise indebted to him for 
 the restoration of the temple of Neptune, in the isthmus 
 of Corinth; for the construction of a theatre at Corinth; 
 for a stadium at Delphi ; a bath at Thermopylae ; and 
 Italy for an aqueduct at Canusium. Many other cities of 
 Epirus, Thessalia, Eubcea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus, 
 were likewise adorned through his liberality. We can- 
 not refuse the tribute of praise due to this illustrious 
 citizen, but we must pity the country where such for- 
 tunes can be accumulated; where one man of enormous 
 wealth, and tliousands of dependent slaves, must have 
 taken the place of millions of men, free, happy, and 
 virtuous. 
 
 The tyranny of Commodus, the last of the Flavii, his 
 vices and his abominations, were punished by the do- 
 mestic assassination which delivered the world of a 
 monster. But with his death (December 31. 192) 
 commenced the third and most calamitous period ; that 
 which we have characterised as the period of upstarts — 
 soldiers of fortune, who usurped the imperial power.
 
 CHAP. n. ELECTION OP EMPERORS. 3J 
 
 It lasted ninety-two years, A. d. 192 — 284. During 
 that time thirty-two emperors, and twenty-seven pre- 
 tenders to the empire, alternately hurled each other from 
 the throne by incessant civil warfare. It was during 
 this period that we find the praetorians putting the 
 sovereignty of the world to auction ; the legions of the 
 East and of the West disputing the fatal honour of de- 
 corating with the purple the chiefs who soon perished by 
 assassination ; men taken from the lowest ranks of so- 
 ciety, without genius, without education, raised by the 
 brutal caprice of their comrades above all that the world 
 had been accustomed to hold in reverence. Such was 
 the Moor Macrinus, who, in 217, succeeded to Cara- 
 calla, whom he had caused to be assassinated. Such 
 was the Goth Maximin, distinguished only by his 
 gigantic stature, his ignorance, his strength, and his 
 brutality ; who was, in like manner, the assassin and 
 the successor of Alexander Severus. (a. d. 255.) Such 
 was the Arab Philip, a robber by education and pro- 
 fession, and raised to the throne by the murder of 
 Gordian. 
 
 When an absolute monarch is hurled from the throne 
 in consequence of his tyranny, and dies without na- 
 tural heirs, there exists neither law nor public opinion 
 according to which the transmission of power may 
 be regulated : there is no authority generally recognised 
 as legitimate. Force alone decides ; and what force 
 has raised, force is just as likely to overthrow. Des- 
 potism, therefore, gives a character of greater distrust 
 and greater cruelty to civil war, and to those who di- 
 rect it ; since it eradicates every feeling of duty which 
 might serve as a protection to themselves or to their 
 adversaries. Ninety-two years of nearly incessant 
 civil war taught the world on what a frail and unstable 
 foundation the virtue of the Antonines had reared 
 the felicity of the empire. The people took no share 
 whatever in these intestine wars ; the sovereignty had 
 passed into the hands of the legions, and they <lis- 
 posed of it at their pleasure ; while the cities, indifferent 
 » 3
 
 38 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. H. 
 
 to the claims of tlie pretenders, having neither gar- 
 risons, fortifications, nor armed population, awaited the 
 decision of the legions without a thought of resistance. 
 Yet their helpless and despicable neutrality did not 
 save them from the ferocity or the rapacity of the com- 
 batants, who wanted other enemies than soldiers, richer 
 plunder than that of a camp ; and the slightest mark of 
 favour shown by a city to one pretender to the empire, 
 was avenged by his successful competitor by military 
 executions, and often by the sale of the whole body of 
 the citizens as slaves. 
 
 The very soldiers were sometimes weary of their own 
 tyranny. They had not a single Roman sentiment ; no 
 memory of liberty or of the republic ; no reverence for 
 the senate or for the laws. Their sole notion of legiti- 
 mate government was the inheritance of power ; but, 
 during this disastrous period, every attempt to return to 
 the principle of hereditary succession was calamitous. 
 To that, the empire owed the ferocity of Caracalla, son 
 of Septimius Severus (a.d. 211 — 217); the pollution of 
 HeUogabalus, his nephew (a.d. 218 — 222); and the in- 
 capacity of Gallienus, son of Valerius (a.d. 253 — 26S). 
 The name of Gallienus is associated with the shameful 
 period in Avhich Rome, heretofore the terror of the bar- 
 barians, began to tremble before them. The legions, 
 enfeebled, and reduced to less than 6000 men, had been 
 withdrawn from the frontiers, and opposed to each 
 other in continually renewed conflicts. Their disciphne 
 was utterly destroyed ; their leaders neither merited 
 nor obtained their confidence. After a defeat, it was 
 found impossible to recruit the army ; at the moment 
 o*f an attack it was with the greatest difficulty they could 
 be induced to march. The barbarians, witnesses of this 
 anarchy and of these conflicts, no longer beholding on 
 their frontiers those formidable camps of legions which 
 had so long held them in awe, as if by common con- 
 sent, made incursions at all points at once, from the 
 extremities of Caledonia to those of Persia. 
 
 The Franks, a new confederation of Germanic tribes.
 
 CHAP. II. INCURSIONS OP BARBARIANS. 39 
 
 who had established themselves near the mouths of the 
 Rhine, ravaged the whole of Gaul, Spain, and a part of 
 Africa, from the year 2.53 to 2()"8. The Allemanni, 
 another new confederation, established on the Upper 
 Rhine, traversed Rhaetia, and advanced as far as Ra- 
 venna, pillaging Italy in their course. The Goths, after 
 driving the Romans out of Dacia, pillaged Moesia, mas- 
 sacred 100,000 of the inhabitants of Phihppopolis in 
 Thrace; then, spreading along the coasts of the Euxine, 
 ventured upon this unknown sea in vessels they had 
 taken from maritime towns, plundered the cities of Col- 
 chis and Asia Minor, and at length penetrated, by the 
 Bosphorus and the Hellespont, into Greece, which they 
 laid waste from one extremity to the other. At the 
 same time, the Persians of the new dynasty of the 
 Sassanides menaced the East. Sapor (or, according to 
 Persian pronunciation. Shah Poor) had conquered Ar- 
 menia. The emperor Valerian, father and colleague 
 of Gallienus, inarched to meet him in jMesopotamia. 
 He was defeated and made prisoner jn the year 260. 
 The Persian monarch then ravaged Syria, Cilicia, and 
 Cappadocia ; and his progress was only arrested on the 
 confines of Arabia, by Odenatus, the wealthy senator of 
 Palmyra, and his wife, the celebrated Zenobia. 
 
 This first universal discomfiture of the Roman arms, 
 coming after such unrivalled power and success, gave 
 a blow to the empire from which it never recovered. 
 In all their invasions, the barbarians preserved the re- 
 collection of, the long terrors and the long resentment 
 with which the Romans had inspired them. Their 
 hatred was still too fresh and fervent to allow them to 
 show any pity to their vanquislied foes. Till then they 
 had seen nothing of the Romans but their soldiers ; but 
 when they suddenly penetrated into the midst of these 
 magnificent and poj)ulous cities, at first they feared 
 that they should be crushed by a multitude so superior 
 to their own ; but, when they saw and understood the 
 cowardice of these enervated masses, their fear was 
 changed into the deepest scorn. Their cruelty was 
 I) 4
 
 40 FALIi OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 in proportion to these two sentiments, and their object 
 was rather destruction than conquest. The population, 
 which had been thinned by tlie operation of wealth and 
 luxury, was now further reduced by that of poverty. 
 The human species seemed to vanish before the sword 
 of the barbarians. Sometimes they massacred all the 
 inhabitants of a town: sometimes they sent them into 
 slavery, far from the country of their birth. After such 
 calamities, fresh fears, fresh oppression, fresh miseries, 
 effectually checked the growth of the population. Vast 
 deserts formed themselves in the heart of the empire, 
 and the wisest and most virtuous of the emperors en- 
 deavoured to entice new colonies to settle there. 
 
 The military elections, however, which had brought the 
 empire into so perilous a condition, at length furnished 
 it with defenders. The formidable armed democracy 
 which had consulted only its cupidity or its caprice, in 
 investing its unworthy favourites with the purple, so 
 long as its sole object was to share the spoil of the 
 state ; when its own safety was threatened, its own ex- 
 istence compromised, together with that of the empire, 
 had at least a distinct perception of the sort of merit 
 which might avail to save it. Without great military 
 talenrs it was impossible to gain the esteem of the Ro- 
 man army, even in its decline. When the soldiers 
 wanted great men, they knew where to find them ; and, 
 to keep the barbarians in check, they at length made 
 elections which did them honour. 
 
 It was the soldiery that elected Claudius (a. d. 
 268 — 270), who obtained so great a victory over the 
 Goths, and for a time saved the empire ; Aurelian 
 (A.D.27O — 275), who re-established the unity of power, 
 and crushed all rival pretensions to the throne, which 
 had divided the army and the provinces ; who subju- 
 gated the East, and led captive that Zenobia who had 
 carried Greek civilisation to Palmyra, and had accus- 
 tomed Arabs to triumph over Romans and Persians. 
 It was the soldiery that chose Tacitus, whose virtues 
 were manifest even in a reign of six months (a. d. 275);
 
 CHAP. II. EMPERORS ELECTED BY THE SOLDIERY. 41 
 
 Probus (a. D. 276 — 282), who defeated nearly all the 
 German tribes in succession, and drove them out of 
 Gaul and the provinces of the Danube. Lastly, it was 
 the soldiery who gave the crown to Diocletian, who put 
 an end to this long period of anarchy. This succession 
 of great captains sufficiently proved that valour was not 
 extinct; that military talents were still at command; and 
 that the soldiers, when they really wished to save the 
 state, were no bad judges of the quahties demanded by 
 the public weal. 
 
 But such a succession of invasions and civil wars, so 
 much suffering, disorder, and crime, had brought the 
 empire into a state of mortal languor, from which it 
 never revived. The necessities of the state had in- 
 creased with its dangers. The impoverished provinces 
 were compelled to double the taxes which had been too 
 heavy for them even in their greatest prosperity ; sur- 
 vivors were obliged to pay for the dead. The distress 
 and despair which urged the peasantry to abandon their 
 land and seek refuge in flight, constantly increased, and 
 the deserts spread with frightful rapidity. The wise 
 and victorious Probus was reduced to the necessity of 
 repeopling his provinces with the enemies he had sub- 
 dued, and of recruiting his legions with captives. He 
 transported a colony of Vandals into England ; he 
 planted Gepidae on the banks of the Rhine ; Franks on 
 those of the Danube ; other Franks in Asia Minor, and 
 Bastarna; in Thrace : but, though he took care to place 
 each barbarous nation at an immense distance from its 
 home, with very few exceptions they soon disdained the 
 enjoyments of civilised life which were offered them, 
 and the lands which were allotted to them ; they re- 
 volted, plundered the unarmed natives of the province, 
 crossed the empire in every direction, and at length 
 regained their natal soil. The most daring of these 
 rebellions was that of tlie Franks settled on the Kuxine. 
 They seized some vessels in a port of tlie Black Sea, 
 descended the Hellespont, pillaged Greece and Sicily, 
 sailed through tlie Straits of CadiZj and_, after laying
 
 42 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 waste the coast of Spain and Gaul, landed in Fries- 
 land amid their kindred tribes. 
 
 Probus had likewise required from the Germans an 
 annual levy of 6000 recruits, whom he incorporated 
 into the different legions. It was his endeavour, as 
 he said, that the Roman should feel the aid of the 
 barbarian, but should not see it. But a disgraceful 
 succour cannot long be concealed. The Roman saw 
 that the barbarian was capable of occupying his place 
 in the camp, and gladly threw aside his buckler. By a 
 scandalous decree, Gallienus had forbidden the senators 
 to serve in the army ; nor did one of them, either 
 during his reign or that of his successors, ever protest 
 against this degrading exclusion, though it deprived 
 them of all share in the administration of public affairs, 
 and of all chance of ascending the throne. From that 
 time the highest class of society ceased to be respected 
 by others, or by itself. It sought only to lose all 
 thought of the evils which beset the state, in vice and 
 dissipation ; luxury and effeminacy increased with the 
 public calamities ; and those whom fate threatened with 
 the most intense sufferings, sought no better prepara- 
 tion for them than in the most shameful pleasures. 
 
 We have, at length, come to the fourth period, the 
 last of those into which we divided the history of the 
 empire — that of the colleagues who shared the sove- 
 reignty from the year 284 to the year 328. It is 
 shorter than those which preceded it, and we shall, 
 therefore, pass over it more briefly ; the rather, that a 
 part of this period wiU require our attention hereafter. 
 
 Diocletian, who was proclaimed emperor by the army 
 of Persia, on the 17th of September, 284, was an lUy- 
 rian soldier, whose parents were slaves, and who had 
 probably been a slave liimself in his youth. This man, 
 whose own strength had enabled him to ascend from 
 the most abject to the highest station in society, proved 
 to the world that he was still more distinguished for the 
 vigour of his genius, the prudence of his counsels, his 
 empire over his own passions and over the minds of
 
 CHAI-. ir. DIOCLETIAN. ' 43 
 
 Others, than by his personal bravery. He felt that the 
 empire, decrepicl and tottering on its ancient base, re- 
 quired a new form, a new constitution. Neither his 
 servile birth, his education, nor the examples he saw 
 around him, were of a kind to inspire him with much 
 esteem for men. He expected little from them. He 
 did not even appear to understand that liberty which 
 had once inspired the Romans with such heroic valour. 
 All the recollections of the republic were degraded and 
 defaced, nor did he attempt to turn them to any advan- 
 tage : he saw nothing but the danger of the invasion of 
 barbarians ; he thought of nothing but the means of 
 resistance; and he organised a military government, 
 strong, prompt, and energetic. But he reflected that 
 the head of such a government was placed by his very 
 isolation, by the immense distance that severed him from 
 all other men, in a situation of peculiar peril; and that 
 community of interest, combination for mutual defence, 
 was the basis of all security. He, therefore, associated 
 with himself colleagues in whom he hoped to find de- 
 fenders in time of danger, and avengers if he fell. Thus 
 he founded a despotism on that balance of power which 
 is the essence of free government. 
 
 To this end he traced that division of the empire, 
 which we have already described, into the four great 
 prefectures of liaul, lllyricum, Italy, and the East. He 
 entrusted the administration of the two most j)eaceful, 
 rich, and civilised, Italy and the East, to two Augusti, 
 while two Cicsars were called to defend tJaul and lllyri- 
 cum. He oftered the two Csesars, as a definite and le- 
 gitimate object of ambition, the succession of the two 
 Augusti, to whom they were bound by rites of adoption. 
 All the armies being thus attached to his system, and 
 commanded by liis colleagues, he had no longer to dread 
 revolt. He gave tlieni a new organisation and new names; 
 he strengthened their discipline, while he made some 
 concessions to the degeneracy of the age, by lightening 
 their armour and increasing the proportion of the 
 cavalry and hght infantry to the infantry of the line.
 
 44 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. II. 
 
 With these new armies he drove the barbarians beyond 
 th^ frontiers at all points, and once more rendered the 
 empire formidable. Diocletian reserved to himself the 
 government of the East. He established his court, not 
 at Antioch, though that was the capital of the prefec- 
 ture, but at Nicomedia on the Propontis, nearly oppo- 
 site the spot on which Constantinople was afterwards 
 built. He affected an oriental splendour, which was 
 neither in keeping with his soldier-like habits, nor with 
 the vigour of his mind and character. He gave Italy to 
 Augustus Maximian, an lUyrian peasant like himself, 
 and his old companion in arms, whom he commissioned 
 to humble the senate and city of Rome. Cassar Gale- 
 rius was charged with the government of Illyricum, and 
 CfBsar Constantius Chlorus with that of Gaul. Des- 
 potism, which trains men to regard all resistance as a 
 crime, or as a dangerous revolt, renders them cruel and 
 sanguinary. The soldier-like education of Diocletian and 
 his colleagues, the rank whence they had been elevated, 
 the habit of seeing blood flow, increased this ferocity. 
 The government of the colleagues was stained with nu- 
 merous executions ; but the character of these acts of 
 violence was not the same as that of the atrocities of 
 the earlier Ctesars. In Tiberius and his successors, Ave 
 find that cruelty which is almost invariably united with 
 cowardice and effeminacy ; in Diocletian and his col- 
 leagues, that ferocity v,fhich the lower orders of the 
 people often display in their abuse of power. j\Iaxi- 
 mian and Galerius had preserved all the habits of brutal 
 and illiterate peasants. Severus and Maximin, Avho 
 were afterwards joined to them in power, were from 
 the same class. Constantius Chlorus alone belonged to 
 a more distinguished family, and in him we find proofs 
 of more humane sentiments. 
 
 It was much more the indignation which all resist- 
 ance, all independence of mind, excite in tyrants, than 
 any superstitious prejudice, that induced Diocletian and 
 his colleagues to set on foot a violent persecution of the 
 Christians. The new rehgion had spread in silence.
 
 CHAP. II. PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 45 
 
 and had made considerable progress throughout the 
 Iloman empire; though it had hardly excited the atten- 
 tion of the government, or that of the Roman historians, 
 who, during the three first centuries, seem hardly to 
 have remarked its existence. It had had no share in 
 the revolutions, no public or political influence ; the 
 philosophers had not thought it worth their while to 
 engage in controversies with obscure sectaries. The 
 priests of the ancient gods were doubtless indignant at 
 seeing their altars neglected by a set of men who were 
 daily becoming more numerous; but these priests did not 
 form a body in the state. Those of each divinity thought 
 they had separate interests ; they had little influence, 
 and small means of injuring. The first persecutions, 
 therefore, as they are called, were little more than 
 random acts of violence, extending to few victims, 
 and over a short space of time. But when brutal sol- 
 diers, impatient of all opposition, had been invested 
 with the purple, and when order had been sufficiently 
 re-established throughout the empire for them to per- 
 ceive all that trangressed the limits of despotism, they 
 were indignant at the existence of a new religion, as a 
 violation of uniformity of obedience. They looked upon 
 it much more as a breach of discipline, than of piety ; 
 and they persecuted the Christians, not as enemies to 
 their gods, but as rebels to their own authority. The 
 more absolute they were, the more exasperated were they 
 at that new power of the soul which rendered it insen- 
 sible to pain, triumphant in torture ; which calmly and 
 unresistingly rose above the reach of their power. The 
 struggle between the fury of despotism and the heroism 
 of conviction, between executioners and martyrs, is 
 worthy of eternal remembrance. It endured, with little 
 interruption, up to the end of the fourth period, or the 
 union of the whole empire under Constantine. 
 
 Diocletian, as if to secure the perpetuity of the sys- 
 tem of goveriunent of which he was the author, deter- 
 mined to become, as it were, witness of his own 
 succession. In his four-headed despotism he had
 
 4(5 FALL OF THE ROJIAN EilPIRE. CHAP. 11. 
 
 reckoned on what he had found in liimself — the as- 
 cendancy of superior genius over ordinary men. So long 
 as he retained the purple, he was the real, the only head 
 of the government. AVlien he resolved to retire from the 
 world, and to call the two Caesars, Galerius and Con- 
 stantius Chlorus, to the places of the Augusti, he had suf- 
 cient influence over his colleague, Maximian (though 
 by no means disgusted with power) to induce him to 
 lay aside the purple at Milan, on the 1st of May, 305, 
 at the same time that he himself resigned it at Nico- 
 media. ^Vith a strength of mind which absolute sway 
 had not enfeebled, he confined himself for nine years 
 within the narrow enclosure of private life, without 
 evincing a regret ; and found in the care of his garden 
 at Salona, a serenity and content which he had never 
 known as emperor. But, from the time of his retire- 
 ment, the division of the sovereign power brought about 
 its ruin. During the republic, the consuls had shared 
 the command of the armies without jealousy, because 
 both were subject to a superior power — that of the 
 senate and the people. In like manner, the colleagues 
 of Diocletian had always felt that in him alone resided 
 the whole majesty of ancient Rome ; but as soon as 
 they recognised nothing above themselves, they thought 
 only of their personal greatness ; and the remainder of 
 the fourth period, as we shall contemplate it during the 
 reign of Constantine, was a scene of perpetual tumult 
 and intestine warfare.
 
 47 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 BARBARIANS ANTERIOR TO THE FOURTH CENTURY. REVIEW 
 
 OF THE BARBAROUS NATIONS BORDERING ON THE ROMAN 
 
 TERRITORY. 1. BARBARIANS OF AFRICA J BEREBERI, G^TULI, 
 
 MOORS. 2. OF ASIA; ARABS. SPLENDOUR OF PALMYRA. 
 
 ZENOBIA. PARTHIAN EMPIRE. REVOLT OF THE PERSIANS. 
 
 — THEIR IMPERFECT CIVILISATION. ARMENIANS. SCY- 
 THIANS, OR TARTARS. THEIR UNALTERED CHARACTER. 
 
 WARLIKE HABITS OF NOMADIC TRIBES. OVERTHROW OF THE 
 
 EMPIRE OF THE HUNS BY THE SIENPl, CAUSE OF THEIR MI- 
 GRATION WESTWARD. ALANS. TAIFAL^S. 3. BARBAROUS 
 
 NATIONS OF EUROPE. THREE GREAT TRIBES, CELTS, SLAVO- 
 NIANS, GERMANS. EXTENT OF TERRITORY, HABITS, AND RELI- 
 GION OF THE CELTS. SLAVONIC TRIBES. GERJIANIC TRIBES. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THEIR MANNERS AND INSTITUTIONS ON MO- 
 DERN EUROPE. THEIR SUPERIORITY TO THE OTHER RACES. 
 
 .^CHARACTER AND HABITS. ATTACHMENT TO FREEDOM. 
 
 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. KINGS. POPULAR ASSEMBLIES, 
 
 — REVERENCE FOR WOMEN. RELIGION. 
 
 We have endeavoured, as far as was consistent with 
 the narrow hmits prescribed to us, to place before our 
 readers the condition and progress of that part of the 
 human species over which civilisation had been diffused 
 by the (ireek and Roman arms. This vast population 
 was subject to laws still in force in our own tribunals ; 
 it had begun to acknowledge the religion we still pro- 
 fess ; it studied, and strove to imitate, the same master- 
 pieces of literature and art which are still the objects 
 of our highest admiration ; in the culture of the mental 
 faculties it pursued a system from which we have not 
 widely deviated. Even the manners of the large cities 
 of the Roman empire had considerable resemblance to 
 our own. 
 
 We must now transfer our attention to another im- 
 portant portion of mankind ; — to that which was in- 
 cluded under the common denomination of barbarian ; 
 and which, at a period whose events we are about to
 
 48 FALL OP THE ROMAN E3[PIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 trace, utterly overthrew that government which the 
 civilised world had so long obeyed. From the time of 
 this great revolution, a new race of men took possession 
 of the regions we now inhabit, bringing with them other 
 laws, other religious opinions, other manners, other notions 
 of the perfection of man, and, by consequence, of the 
 ends to be sought in education. The intermixture of 
 the two races was not accomplished till after long suf- 
 ferings, nor without the destruction of a great part of 
 that progress towards improvement which mankind had 
 made during a course of ages. It was, however, this 
 intermixture which made us what we are : we are heirs 
 of the double inheritance of the Romans and the bar- 
 barians ; we have engrafted the laws, institutions, man- 
 ners, and opinions of the one race on those of the 
 other. If we would know ourselves, we must go back 
 to the study of our progenitors ; of those who transmitted 
 to us their culture, no less than of those who sought to 
 destroy it. 
 
 It is not our object to pass in review the various 
 tribes of the whole civilised world ; we shall confine 
 our attention to those who came into collision with the 
 Roman world ; who were preparing to appear as actors 
 in the terrible drama we are about to behold. We 
 shall have very few names of illustrious individuals, 
 very few dates, with which to encumber the memory of 
 our readers. The state of savage man must be studied 
 as part of the natural history of the species ; but it is 
 subject to few diversities, or those diversities are of a 
 kind easily to elude our observation. History begins 
 with civilisation. So long as man has to struggle with 
 physical wants, he concentrates his whole attention on 
 the present ; for him there is no past, no memory of 
 events, no history. Not only the migrations of tribes, 
 the virtues, the errors, or the crimes of their leaders, 
 are not handed down from age to age ; their internal 
 poUcy, their manners, even at the moment of their 
 coming in contact with civilised nations, are very im- 
 perfectly, often very unfaithfully, represented. The
 
 CHAP. III. BARBARIC TRIBES OF AFRIC^, 49 
 
 barbarians did not describe themselves ; they have left 
 no record of their own sentiments, or of their own 
 thoughts; and those who have described them saw them 
 through the medium of their prejudices. In order to 
 introduce some arrangement into our remarks on the 
 barbarous nations which contributed to the overthrow 
 of the Roman empire, we sball fohow the frontier hne 
 of that empire ; setting out from the southern point, 
 and proceeding eastward and along the north. We shall 
 thus pass in review the border nations of Africa, Asia, 
 and Europe. We shall begin with the nations which 
 exercised the least influence over the destinies of Rome, 
 and end with the most important. Following this order, 
 we find the Goetuli, the Moors, the Arabs, the Persians, 
 the Armenians, tlie nomadic or shepherd tribes of 
 Tartary, and the three main stems or races of ancient 
 Europe, the Celtic or Keltic, the Slavonic, and the Teu- 
 tonic or Germanic. 
 
 The most obscure and feeble among the neighboui'S 
 of the empire were the tribes inhabiting Africa south of 
 the Roman provinces ; on this frontier, as well as on 
 all the others, tlie Romans had begun by imposing a 
 tribute on the border countries, in order to keep their 
 kings in a state of dependence : then, after accustoming 
 them for some time to obedience, they incorporated the 
 whole people with the empire. Caligula reduced ]\Iau- 
 ritania to the condition of a Roman province ; and, 
 under the reign of the emperor Claudius, the Romans 
 founded colonies up to the verge of the great desert. 
 (Jne of the most southerly of their cities, Salee, situated 
 in the present kingdom of Morocco, was exposed to 
 frequent incursions of wild elephants : wild beasts were, 
 indeed, almost the only enemies they had to fear on 
 this frontier ; for the Roman power extended nearly as 
 far as the habitable country : generals, and men of 
 consular dignity, had penetrated into all the gorges of 
 Mount Atlas. Tlie wandering troops of Berbers, of 
 (iiL'tuIi, or of Moors, alone traversed the deserts, as 
 merchants or as robbers. Some cultivated the oases, 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 which, watered by some perennial spring, rose like 
 verdant islands in the midst of the sands ; others, with 
 their camels laden with ivory, and often with slaves, 
 crossed the Zahara, and established a communication 
 between Nigritia and the Roman province. "Without 
 fixed dwelling-places, without regular government, they 
 remained free because they were wanderers. The Ro- 
 mans had not conquered them because they could not 
 conquer nature. They asked of them only the ivory 
 and the citrons witli which their caravans were laden ; 
 the murex which the GaetuU gathered on their rocks ; 
 the lions, tigers, and all the monsters of Libya, which 
 were taken at great cost to Rome and the other great 
 cities of the empire, for the savage combats of the am- 
 phitheatre. A very active trade penetrated much farther 
 into central Africa than that of the Europeans of the 
 present day. Pliny expresses his wonder that, although 
 so many merchants continually traversed these regions, 
 so many Roman magistrates had penetrated as far as 
 Mount Atlas or the desert, he had found it difficult to 
 collect any thing relating to the country but fables. 
 
 But the Africans did not always remain at so re- 
 spectful a distance, nor in so pacific an attitude. In 
 proportion as the oppression of magistrates, the weight 
 of taxation, and the disasters of the empire, thinned the 
 population of the Roman province, the Moors and the 
 Gffituli poured down from Mount Atlas, or issued forth 
 from the desert, and drove their flocks and herds to 
 feed in the neglected fields. Constantly armed, but still 
 timorous ; regarding property as an usurpation, and ci- 
 vilisation as a foe; professing no religion but vengeance, 
 and denying the right of their enemies to exercise over 
 them a judicial restraint which they would not tolerate 
 from their own chiefs, they plundered the more remote 
 and unprotected lands, and, when they found resistance, 
 fled. They I'egarded the punishment of their robberies 
 as a wrong and an insult to their nation ; and waited 
 in silence the opportunity of taking ruthless revenge. 
 Their depredations gradually became more formidable.
 
 CHAP. III. BARBAROUS NATIONS OP AFRICA. 51 
 
 and drove the Romans nearer and nearer to the coast. 
 At the commencement of the fourth century, Mauri- 
 tanian princes had begun to form anew small tributary 
 states between Carthage and the desert, and civilisation 
 had almost disappeared at the foot of Mount Atlas 
 while the people still remained in a state of subjection. 
 Egypt was likewise girt round by savage tribes, 
 who had sought the freedom of the wilderness Avithin 
 the boundaries of the Roman territory. The Nasamonian 
 Moors approached the western bank of the Nile, the 
 Arabs the eastern ; and the two races were hard to dis- 
 tinguish. Abyssinia and Nubia, wdiich, two centuries 
 later, were converted to Christianity by the Egyptians, 
 had, at the time we are treating of, little communication 
 ■with the Romans. Egypt was by much the most south- 
 erly of the Roman possessions : one of its largest cities, 
 Syene, was situated under the tropic of Cancer. The pro- 
 digious monuments of its early civilisation, on the origin 
 of which history affords us no light, are found mingled 
 with remains of Roman art. For the first time, the 
 works of the masters of the world appeared petty and 
 contemptible by the side of temples whose construction 
 passes our comprehension. Lower Egypt had adopted 
 the language and manners of Greece ; Upper Egypt 
 preserved the use of the ancient Egyptian tongue — 
 the Coptic ; and the deserts of Thebais already con- 
 cealed in their inhospitable wastes a new and strange 
 nation — a nation barbarous in aspect and in manners; 
 from which women and the joys of domestic life were 
 banished ; perpetuated only by the misanthropy or the 
 fanaticism of its neighbours. St. Anthony, an illiterate 
 peasant of the ThebaTs, had retired into the desert, to a 
 distance of three days' journey from the habitable coun- 
 try, lie chose a spot where a living spring supplied 
 him with drink, and depended on the charity of his 
 neighbours for food : he lived more than a century 
 (from A.]), 251, to A. d. 356). Before his death, 
 .'3000 monks, following his example, had retired into the 
 deserts of Nitria. They took vows of poverty, solitudo 
 E 2
 
 52 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 prayer, dirt, and ignorance ; they entered with passion 
 into theological disputes ; and their irruptions, in which 
 they enforced their dognnas with clubs and stones, much 
 more than with arguments, disturbed the tranquillity 
 of the capital of Egypt before it was exposed to the 
 attacks of the barbarians. 
 
 The great peninsula of Arabia, lying between Egypt 
 and Persia, was imperfectly known to the Romans : this 
 region, four times as extensive as France, was not 
 formed by nature to sustain a numerous population, nor 
 to admit of a state of civilisation resembling our own. 
 The Romans kept vip some communication through it 
 with India, but left to the Arabs the toil and peril of 
 conducting caravans through the desert. They saw with 
 amazement a nation permanently combining trade with 
 pillage ; they already designated by the name of Sa- 
 racens those daring robbers who issued from the desert 
 and infested the plains of Syria, forming a cavalry un- 
 matched in the world, especially for the indomitable 
 ardour and the docility of their horses. But they did 
 not guess the qualities which lay dormant in the Arab 
 character ; qualities which we shall see in full strength 
 and activity three centuries later, when this nation girded 
 itself up for the conquest of the world. 
 
 It was in the midst of these deserts, 500 miles from 
 Seleucia, on the Tigris, one of the largest cities of 
 Persia, 200 miles from the frontiers of Syria, that the 
 city of Palmyra arose, as if by enchantment, in a fertile 
 country, watered by plenteous springs, and thickly 
 studded with waving palms. Immense plains of sand 
 surrounded it on all sides, serving as a barrier against 
 the Parthians and the Romans, and pervious only to 
 the caravans of the Arabs, who exchanged the trea- 
 sures of the East and of the West between these two 
 nations, and reposed after their toilsome march in this 
 sumptuous city. 
 
 Palmyra, jieopled by a colony of Greeks and of 
 Arabs, united the manners of both. Its government 
 was republican, and it maintained its independence
 
 CHAP, HI. ZENOBIA. 53 
 
 during the time of the greatest power of Rome. The 
 Parthians and the Romans were equally anxious to se- 
 cure its alliance in all their wars. After his victories 
 over the Parthians, Trajan united this republic to the 
 Roman empire. Commerce, however, did not abandon 
 Palmyra ; its wealth continued to increase, and its 
 opulent citizens covered their paternal soil with those 
 superb specimens of Greek architecture, which still 
 astound the traveller who beholds them, rising in lonely 
 grandeur out of the sands of the desert. Nothing re- 
 mains of Palmyra but these ruins, and the brilliant and 
 romantic story of Zenobia. This extraordinary woman 
 was the daughter of an Arab scheik; she declared herself 
 descended from Cleopatra, whom she, however, far 
 surpassed in dignity and in virtue. Zenobia owed her 
 power only to the services she rendered to her country. 
 During the reign of Gallienus, when the empire was 
 attacked on every side, when Valerian was prisoner to 
 the king of Persia, and Asia was inundated with his 
 armies, Zenobia emboldened her husband Odenatus, a 
 rich senator of Palmyra, to resist the invasion of tl;e 
 Persians, of liis own authority, and with no other aid 
 than that of his fellow-citizens and the Arabs of the 
 desert. She shared all her husband's toils and dangers, 
 whether in the field, or in his favourite sport, lion- 
 hunting. She defeated Sapor, pursued him twice up 
 to the very gates of Ctesiphon, and reigned, at first, in 
 conjunction with Odenatus, and, after his death, alone, 
 over Syria and Egypt, which were hers by conquest. 
 Trebellius Pollio, a contemporary writer, who saw her 
 on that fatal occasion when she was led in triumph to 
 Rome (a. n. 273), paints her thus : it is the ideal of 
 a lofty Arab beauty : — 
 
 " Zenobia received those who came to pay her ho- 
 mage with Persian pomp, exacting the sort of adoration 
 paid to eastern monarchs ; but at table she followed the 
 Roman customs. "NVHien she addressed the people, she 
 appeared with a helmet on her head and her arms bare; 
 but a mantle of purple, adorned with gems, partly co- 
 E 3
 
 54 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. ill. 
 
 vered her person. Her countenance was of an aquiline 
 cast ; her complexion was not brilliant, but her black 
 eyes, of singular radiance, were animated with a ce- 
 lestial fire, and an inexpressible grace. Her teeth 
 were of such dazzling whiteness, that it was commonly 
 thought she had substituted pearls for those nature had 
 given her. Her voice was clear and harmonious, yet 
 manly. On occasion, she knew how to show a tyrant's 
 severity ; but she delighted rather in the clemency of 
 good princes. Beneficent with wisdom and moderation, 
 she husbanded her treasure in a manner little common 
 among women. She was to be seen at the head of her 
 armies in her car, on horseback, or foot, but rarely in a 
 more luxurious carriage." 
 
 Such was the woman who vanquished Sapor, and 
 who gave her confidence to the sublime Longinus, the 
 instructor of her children, and her prime minister. 
 
 Up to the year 226 of the Christian era, the Roman 
 territory was bounded by Parthia on its eastern border : 
 after that period, the Persian Sassanides were their 
 neighbours on the same frontier. The Parthians, a 
 Celtic tribe, sprung from Bactriana, had founded their 
 empire 256 years before Christ. They had conquered 
 Persia from the Caspian Sea up to the Persian Gulf. 
 This vast territory, bounded by two seas, by lofty 
 mountains, and sandy deserts, has almost always formed 
 an independent state difficult to attack, and almost in- 
 capacitated from acquiring or maintaining distant pos- 
 sessions. For nearly five centuries of domination, the 
 Parthians remained strangers amid the subject Persians. 
 They had given to their monarchy a form somewhat 
 resembling the feudal governments of Europe. Their 
 kings, of the family of the Arsacides, had gi-anted 
 small tributary sovereignties to a great number of the 
 princes of their house, and to other men of high birth. 
 All this nobihty, indeed the whole of the victor race, 
 were mounted for the field. Several Greek colonies 
 preserved their republican institutions and their inde- 
 pendence in the midst of the monarchy ; but the Per-
 
 CHAP. III. CHARACTER OF THE PERSIANS. 55 
 
 sians Avere not trusted either with civil power, or with 
 the use of arms, and were held in complete sub- 
 jection. 
 
 These Persians were urged to revolt by Artaxerxes, 
 or Ardshir, founder of the dynasty of the Sassanides; 
 who, after his victories, declared himself descended 
 from those kings of Persia who had bowed to the vic- 
 torious arms of Alexander the Great. He was yet 
 more powerfully seconded by religious enthusiasm, than 
 by the feeling of national honour or independence. The 
 ancient reUgion of Zoroaster was once more placed on 
 the throne. The belief in the two principles, Ormusd 
 and Ahriman, the revelation of the Zenda Vesta ; the 
 worship of fire or light, as the representative of the 
 Good Principle; the horror of temples and images; the 
 power of the magi, which extended to the most indif- 
 ferent actions of every true believer ; the spirit of per- 
 secution (cruelly displayed against the Christians when 
 tliey began to spread over Persia), were re-established 
 by a national council, in which 80,000 magi assembled 
 on the convocation of Artaxerxes. 
 
 The Persians affirmed that the sceptre of these kings 
 extended over 40,000,000 of subjects ; but tlie popu- 
 lation of the countries of the East has always been 
 imperfectly J known. The numbers usually given in 
 liistory have been taken from the liyperbolical reports 
 of their writers, and not from any statistical documents. 
 The Persians can neither be classed with civilised na- 
 tions, nor with barbarians ; though the Greeks and 
 Romans always gave them the latter appellation. They 
 had acquired those arts which minister to luxury and 
 effeminacy, but not those wliich refine or elevate the 
 taste ; they had laws, emanating from despotic power, 
 which preserve order, but which secure to a nation 
 neither justice nor happiness ; they had that literary 
 culture which feeds the imagmation, but docs not en- 
 lighten the understanding ; their religion, that of the 
 two principles, and their aversion for idolatry, satisfied 
 the reason, but did not purify the heart. It was at this 
 , E 4
 
 56 FALL Of THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. HI- 
 
 Stage of civilisation^ which contains within itself an 
 obstacle to all further progress, that the people of the 
 East founded great empires, while man never attained 
 the highest excellence and dignity of which he is ca- 
 pable. Artaxerxes (a. d. 226 — 238), and his son 
 Sapor (a. d. 238 — 26"9)j achieved great victories over 
 nations protected by the Romans, and even over the 
 Romans themselves. But their monarchy experienced 
 the fate of all despotic governments, until its total 
 subversion by the Mussulmans in 651. Its history is 
 composed of treachery and massacre in the royal family, 
 the members of which hurled each other from the throne 
 in rapid succession ; of long periods devoted to vice, 
 or to an effeminate indolence, broken only by flashes of 
 ambition, leading to desolating wars. 
 
 The Parthians had conquered Armenia, ■which lay 
 between their territory and that of the Romans, and 
 had placed on the throne of Artaxata, the Armenian 
 capital, a younger branch of their own kings, the Arsa- 
 cides. Liberty has ever been unknown in Armenia. 
 The lofty mountains which surround the country failed 
 to inspire the inhabitants with the courage which is the 
 ordinary characteristic of mountaineers. The Arme- 
 nians were patient, industrious, but always subdued and 
 dependent. At the time of the fall of the Parthian 
 empire, they were conquered by Artaxerxes and by 
 Sapor. Nevertheless, Tiridates, heir of their ancient 
 line of kings, threw off the Persian yoke in the year 
 297, and, with the aid of the Romans, rendered Ar- 
 menia independent. His reign (a. d. 297 — 342) is 
 regarded by the Armenians as the period of their glory. 
 It was at this time that they adopted the Christian 
 religion, which cemented their alliance with the Ro- 
 mans ; it was then thai they invented the written 
 character still in use among them • that they produced 
 a literature which they still regard with admiration, 
 
 — an admiration, however, confined to themselves ; 
 
 — lastly, that they began to translate the Bible and 
 some Greek works, which have been found among
 
 CHAP. III. TARTAR TRIBES. 5? 
 
 them in our own times. This prosperity was not of 
 long continuance. At the death of Tiridates, thtir fate 
 was that which must ever await a nation which risks its 
 happiness, its existence, on the chances of succession of 
 an absolute monarchy. 
 
 Such were the countries of Asia which bordered on the 
 Roman territory. But to the north of Caucasus, of 
 Thibet, and of the mountains of Armenia, a race of 
 men existed entirely different from those we have de- 
 scribed ; a race free and untamed ; not bound to the soil 
 they inhabited ; a terror to all their neighbours, and 
 destined to exercise a disastrous influence over the fate 
 of Home. This was the countless ncmad people 
 comprehended under the name of Scythians, or Tartars. 
 The Tartar race was spread over the whole extent of 
 country (measuring from west to east) from the shores 
 of the Black Sea, where it touches on the Slavonic 
 tribes, to the sea of Japan and the Kurile Islands, or 
 to the great wall of China ; and, from north to south, 
 from the neighbourhood of the frozen sea, to the lofty 
 chain of Thibet, which separates the cold regions of 
 northern from the burning climes of southern Asia, 
 leaving no temperate district between. The centre of 
 Asia seems to be composed of a vast table-land, which 
 rises to the level of our highest mountains, and which 
 its temperature unfits for any very varied cultivaiion, 
 though its boundless steppes are clothed by nature with 
 a luxuriant vegetation. In these boundless plains, the 
 Tartar tribes have, from the most remote antiquity, 
 preserved the same manners and the same mode of life. 
 They have invariably despised the labours of tillage; 
 have subsisted solely on the produce of their herds and 
 flocks ; and have as invariably shown the utmost readi- 
 ness to follow, not as an organised army, but as an 
 armed nation, any chieftain who would lead tliem on to 
 the plunder of more temperate regions, and of more 
 civilised nations. The men live on horseback, or in 
 their tents, holding nothing honourable but war, nothing 
 venerable but the sword^ which was formerly the emblem
 
 58 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IH< 
 
 of their sanguinary divinity. The women follow the 
 men in covered cars, which contain their families and 
 all their wealth, and which are, during half the year^ 
 their only dwelling place. Their contempt for the se- 
 dentary arts is unchangeable : they esteem it an honour 
 or a duty to destroy, to extirpate, the civilisation which 
 they detest, and regard as hostile ; and if a chief, 
 endowed with the talents of Attila, Zengis, or Timur, 
 were now to spring up among them, they would be as 
 eager as ever to rear the horrible trophies which marked 
 their conquests — the pyramids of heads for which Timur, 
 the most humane of the three, ordered the massacre of 
 70,000 inhabitants of Ispahan, and 90,000 of Bagdad, 
 Now, as then, they would, perhaps, propose to rase 
 every edifice, every wall, that, to use their favourite ex- 
 pression, no obstacle might arrest the career of their 
 lightning-footed steeds. 
 
 But though their character is unaltered, their num- 
 bers are no longer the same ; the inhabitants of Siberia, 
 and of all the borders of the frozen ocean, subdued by 
 the rigour of the climate and by their necessities, have 
 established themselves in permanent dwellings, and sub- 
 mitted to the Russian yoke. The inhabitants of the 
 valleys of Thibet, subjugated by a stern theocracy, 
 have lost their energy in the convents of the grand lama. 
 Independent Tartary, the country of the Kalmucs, the 
 Usbecs, the Mongols, is very much narrowed : it occu- 
 pies only a third of the space it occupied in the time of 
 the Romans ; still, however, its extent is prodigious, 
 and its population may yet visit Asia with new re- 
 volutions. 
 
 ' The Tartars have continued free. It would be difficult 
 to estabhsh a despotism in the midst of boundless 
 plains; unsupported by fortresses or prisons, by standing 
 armies, by police, or courts of justice. The sovereignty 
 resides in the Couroultai, or assembly of the nation, to 
 which all the free men repair on horseback. Here they 
 decide on peace and war ; frame and promulge laws, 
 and administer justice. Domestic slavery has, in all
 
 CHAP. III. MANNERS OP THE TARTAR TRIBES. SQ 
 
 ages, formed a part of their system of manners : the 
 absence of all cultivation of the land, is a security 
 for the slave's obedience ; his only food is what he 
 receives from the hand of his master; he has no means 
 of existing without the milk and the flesh of the herds 
 he tends; and, if he attempted to flee into the boundless 
 steppes where nature has provided no sustenance for 
 man, he would soon perish from hunger. Besides, al- 
 though the Tartar has the right of life and death over 
 his slave, he usually treats him with considerable mild- 
 ness, and regards him as a member of his family: he 
 even trusts him with arms for the defence of his camp 
 and his flocks. "W^here civilisation has not refined the 
 manners, and separated the ranks of society by an im.. 
 passable distance, similar occupations, common wants, 
 and common toils, compel man to recognise man in his 
 slave ; while the boundless extent given to the paternal 
 authority confounds the son with the slave, and thus 
 tends yet further to obliterate the distinction. The chief, 
 or khan, of a Tartar family rejoices in the increase of 
 his children and of his serfs, as much as in that of his 
 flocks and herds. Thus, without emerging from a 
 private station, he sometimes finds himself at the head 
 of an army ; he has yearly to remove his tents from 
 summer to winter pastures, and thus, in the exercise 
 of his domestic economy, to plan and conduct great 
 military marches. His children and his slaves are ready 
 to second him in all his quarrels, to revenge all insults 
 to his honour, if he receive any aggression or affront 
 from a neighbour or from a superior. These petty feuds 
 have often been the first cause of the great revolutions 
 of Asia. Often, we may observe a chief, encouraged by 
 his victories over some personal enemy, turn his arms 
 against the rich cities of Sogdiana or Bactriana ; pillage 
 Bocchara or Samarcantl, and, at length, march to the 
 conquest of Persia, of India, China, or the AVest. 
 Often, too, we see a vanquished warrior, nay, a fugitive 
 slave, traverse the desert to escape from the vengeance 
 of his adversary; fall in with some wandering horde; go
 
 60 
 
 FALL OP THE B03IAN EMPIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 on increasing the number of his troop; and^ at length, 
 appear as a conqueror on the frontiers of civilised 
 countries. 
 
 Every incident of pastoral life is a preparation for 
 war. The constant habit of braving the inclemency of 
 the seasons, and the attacks of wild beasts ; the science ' 
 of the encampments, and the marches which form a 
 part of daily life ; habitual temperance, and yet great 
 facility in obtaining food; for the flocks of the Tartars 
 follow the armies, which are but bands of their shep- 
 herds. In fact, in the Scythian tribes^ every man is a 
 soldier, and the foe whom they attack or invade has 
 not an army, but a nation to contend with. This ex- 
 plains the phenomenon, which appears at first sight 
 inexplicable, of a desert pouring down, upon popular 
 and civilised countries, torrents of armed men. This 
 northern region, which has been called the jNIother of 
 Nations, does not teem v^ith such a superabundance of 
 life. A shepherd can hardly exist on the quantity of 
 land which would feed twenty husbandmen ; but when 
 a million of inhabitants issue forth from a region far 
 superior to Europe in extent, there would be among 
 them at least 200,000 men capable of bearing arms ; 
 and this number is frequently sufficient to overthrow an 
 empire. The country they have abandoned remains a 
 desert, and there is no proof that it has ever contained 
 more inhabitants than it could support. 
 
 The stream of emigration from Grand Tartary has 
 taken its course, alternately, to the east, the west, and 
 the south. At the time of the overthrow of the Roman 
 empire, the whole force of the Tartar tribes seemed 
 directed towards the west. An empire formerly power- 
 ful, the first monarchy of the Huns, had been over- 
 thrown by the Sienpi, at a distance of 500 leagues from 
 the Roman frontier, and near to that of China, in the 
 first century of the Christian era. Driven from their 
 own country, the Huns had invaded their neighbours, 
 and had pushed them onwards towards the west. But 
 their wars and their conquests would have been con-
 
 CHAP. III. BARBAnOUS NATIONS OF EUROPE. Cl 
 
 fined within the wide plains of Tartary, had not the 
 thousands of Roman captives, and the immense treasure 
 carried off by the northern tribes, during the disastrous 
 reign of Gallienus, been diffused by commerce over the 
 whole north of Asia. The dexterity and talents of the 
 slaves, the splendour of the costly stuffs exposed to sale 
 in the markets of Tartary, tempted this warlike race to 
 go in quest of similar treasures in the countries where 
 they were to be bought, not with gold, but with blood ; 
 and the recollection of former pillage was the great cause 
 of the repetition of such incursions. 
 
 The Tartar race is remarkable in the eyes of all others 
 for its ugliness. A large head, a dun yellow com- 
 plexion, small and sunken eyes, a flat nose, a thin and 
 feeble beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body, 
 are the physical characteristics of the nation. The Tar- 
 tars seem conscious of their own deformity : in all their 
 treaties with conquered nations, they invariably exacted 
 an annual tribute of young girls ; and this intermixture 
 of races has gradually corrected the hideousness of form 
 among those established in milder climates. 
 
 The first of this race known to the Romans were the 
 Alani. In the fourth century they pitched their tents 
 in the country between the Volga and the Tanais, at 
 an equal distance from the Black Sea and the Caspian. 
 It does not appear that they struck the Europeans by 
 their ugliness. But when the Taifala?, the ifuns, 
 the Hungarians, the Turks, successively showed them- 
 selves upon their frontiers, the Greek writers expressed 
 a feeling of horror at their as])ect, which their southern 
 neighbours, the Negroes and Abyssinians, had never 
 excited among them. 
 
 We now come to the barbarous tribes of Europe ; — 
 those with whom we are more immediately connected, 
 and whose history it imports us the most to know. 
 Three great races of men, differing in language, habits, 
 and religion, appear to have originally shared between 
 them this western and northern portion of the antient 
 world — the Celts or Kelts^ the Slavonians, and the Ger-
 
 62 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 mans. Historians have often confounded them, from 
 that strange national vanity which led them to attribute 
 to their progenitors the conquests and ravages of the 
 neighbouring race : as if their own did not furnish them 
 with enough of crimes and of cruelties. Of these three 
 races, two, the Celtic and the Slavonic, were almost com- 
 pletely subjugated in the third century ; the third, on 
 the contrary, was destined to triumph over Rome. The 
 Celtic race had in part peopled Italy and Spain, where 
 it had been blended Avith the Iberian, which was pro- 
 bably of African extraction. It had also spread over 
 Gaul and Great Britain. It had emerged from the first 
 stage of barbarism ; had built towns, had practised agri- 
 culture and some of the arts of life, had amassetl riches, 
 and established gradations of rank in cities, which in- 
 dicate a structure of society, if not very scientific, at 
 least very ancient. But the progress of the Celts in 
 the career of improvement had been stopped by their 
 submission to the oppressive yoke of a strongly organised 
 body of priests. The Druids, jealous of every authority 
 that did not emanate from themselves, established a 
 reign of terror over a people whom it was their policy to 
 render ferocious. Their deities required continual 
 streams of human blood to be shed upon their altars. 
 Their worship, performed in the depth of forests im- 
 pervious to the sun, or in subterranean caverns, W"as 
 marked by the most horrible rites. The country of the 
 Carnuti, now called Chartres, was the centre of their 
 power and the sanctuary of their religion. The misle- 
 toe was regarded as the type of the divinity, and was 
 gathered by them yearly with solemn ceremonies. But 
 the Celtic race had seldom been able to withstand the 
 Roman arms. Augustus had forbidden the Druids to 
 sacrifice human victims. Claudius had broken up their 
 associations, abolished their institutions, and destroyed 
 their sacred woods. All the men of the higher classes 
 in Gaul, Spain, and Britain, had received a Roman edu- 
 cation. They had renounced the language and the faith 
 of their fathers; the agricultural population, whose
 
 SLAVONIC TniBES. 
 
 63 
 
 condition was little better than that of slaves, had either 
 perished from want, or had learned the language of 
 their oppressors ; and the Celtic race, once spread over 
 a third part of Europe, had nearly disappeared. Their 
 manners and their language were to be found only in a 
 part of Armorica, or Little Britain, in the western parts 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, where the Roman domi- 
 nation was comparatively recent, and the numbers small ; 
 and lastly, in the mountains of Caledonia, inhabited 
 by the Scots, the only people of Celtic or Gaelic blood, 
 who have retained their independence from the ear- 
 liest times to the present day. 
 
 The fate of the Slavonic tribes had not been much 
 more prosperous : they originally occupied the Avhole 
 Illyrian peninsula, with the exception of Greece : its 
 language is, in consequence, still called Illyrican. They 
 had extended from the banks of the Danube and the 
 Black Sea to the frozen ocean. Possessors of the most 
 extensive plains of Europe, — plains which had been fer- 
 tilised by deposits of the mud of mighty rivers, — the 
 Slaves were tillers of the ground from the remotest pe- 
 riod. But the soil which fed, served to enchain them. 
 They were not strong enough to defend its fruits, earned 
 by the sweat of their brow, and they did not choose to 
 lose them. They were invaded by all their neighbours; 
 to the south by the Romans, to the east by the Tartars, 
 to the west by the Germans ; and their very name, which, 
 in their own tongue, signifies glorious, is become, in all 
 modern languages, the badge of servitude ; a remarkable 
 monument of the oppression of a great people, and of 
 the abuse of victory on the jiart jof all its neighbours. 
 
 All the Slavonic nations, to the south of the Danube, 
 had been subjugated by the Romans. It is possible, 
 however, that, in the lofty mountains of Bosnia, Croatia, 
 and Morlachia, a portion of tliis race whicli had never 
 been civilised, might have preserved a wild kind of in- 
 dependence. Indeed, after the fall of the empire we find 
 traces of such a people ; and it has retained to this day 
 the language, the passion for war, the habits of violence
 
 6i FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. III. 
 
 and plunder, proper to the Slavonic tribes. To the north 
 of the Black Sea, the Russians, one of the most power- 
 ful nations of this race, had not defended their fruitful 
 plains against the invasion of the Alans, who were soon 
 followed by the Huns, and other Tartar tribes. The 
 Slavonians who occupied Russia and a part of Poland, 
 were subject to the incursions of various tribes of the Go- 
 thic or Germanic family, wliich had issued forth from 
 Scandinavia. In the fourth century, the Romans knew no 
 other independent Slavonic people than the Quadi, the 
 Sarmati and tlie Gepida?, who with difficulty preserved 
 some remnant of their ancient territory in Bohemia and 
 Poland. At that period the Sarmatian horseman was 
 esteemed more formidable for the extreme rapidity of 
 his movements, than for his valour. He had usually 
 two or three led horses, and changed as often as the one 
 he rode was fatigued. In the absence of iron, he pointed 
 his spears with bone hardened, and often poisoned. His 
 cuirass was composed of lamins of horn placed closely 
 over each other, like the scales of fish. Like the Cosack 
 of the present day, he preceded the most formidable 
 armies, and shared in their successes, and in their plun- 
 der ; but he exhibited little bravery in attack,^ittle firm- 
 ness in defence, and inspired little terror. 
 
 Lastly, the whole north of Europe was occupied by 
 that great Germanic race from which the nations of 
 modern Europe more immediately derive their origin. 
 The Tartars had issued forth to destroy — the Germans 
 advanced to conquer and to reconstruct : their very 
 names are connected with cur present existence. Saxons, 
 Franks, Almains *, Bujgundians, Lombards, either al- 
 ready occupied, or were on the point of occupying, the 
 countries in which we find them still ; they spoke a lan- 
 guage which many among them still speak; they brought 
 with them opinions, prejudices, customs, of which there 
 are abundant traces around us. Throughout the vast 
 extent of Germania, in which Scandinavia must be in- 
 
 * I have used this nearly obsolete translation of Allcmands — which 
 name of a tribe the French use to represent the whole race. — [Trans.)
 
 CHAP. III. GERMANIC TRIBES. 65 
 
 eluded, the sentiment of haughty independence was 
 predominant over every other, and had determined the 
 national constitution and manners. The Germans were 
 barbarians, but it was in some degree because they 
 resolved to be so : they had set those first steps in the 
 career of civilisation which are generally the most dif- 
 ficult; and there they stopped short, from the fear 
 of compromising their liberty. The example of the 
 Romans, with whom continual conflicts had brought 
 them acquainted, had persuaded them that it was im- 
 possible to unite elegance and the pleasures of life, with 
 the haughty and resolute independence they prized 
 above all other possessions. They were not ignorant of 
 the useful arts : they knew how to work in metal, and 
 were expert and ingenious in the fabrication of their 
 weapons; but they looked on every sedentary occupation 
 with contempt. They did not choose to shut themselves 
 up within the walls of cities, which appeared to them 
 the prisons of despotism. The Burgundians, who were 
 then established on the shores of the Baltic, lost the 
 respect of their countrymen, because they had consented 
 to inhabit hurgs (whence they derive their name), and 
 to exercise mechanical employments. The Germans 
 practised agriculture ; but, lest the labourer should be- 
 come too strongly attached to the soil ; lest by seizing 
 his property, it might be possible to secure his person ; 
 lest wealth should become the object of his desires, 
 instead of military glory ; not only did they resolve that 
 the land should be distributed among all the citizens in 
 equal portions, they also decreed that the portion each 
 cultivated should be annually determined by lot, so as to 
 render impossible any local attachment. The effect of 
 this was, of course, to render equally impossible any 
 permanent improvement. The Teutonic tribes appear to 
 have possessed a kind of written character, the Runic, 
 but it seems that they used it only for inscriptions on 
 wood or stone. The length of time required for works 
 of this kind would, of course, render the use of it ex- 
 tremely rare ; the inanimate object which, by the aid of 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 66 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. Ill, 
 
 these inscriptions, seemed to speak a language known 
 only to the sage, appeared to the people endowed with 
 a supernatural power ; and the knowledge of the Runes 
 was looked upon as a branch of magic. 
 
 The government of the Germans, so long as they 
 inhabited their_ own country, was the freest of which 
 we have any record. They had kings : the Ro- 
 mans, at least, translated the title konig by their own 
 word 7-ex, though the functions were widely different. 
 They were frequently hereditary, or were, at least, 
 always chosen out of one family, the only one which 
 had a common name. These kings, distinguished from 
 their subjects by their long flowing hair, were, however, 
 in fact, only presidents of the councils of war or of 
 justice, in which every citizen had a voice. They com- 
 manded all warlike expeditions ; they presided over the 
 distribution of the spoil ; they proposed to the people 
 the measures for their consideration ; they kept up inter- 
 course with neighbouring nations ; but, if any weakness 
 or vice rendered them unworthy to lead freemen, the 
 war-axe soon executed justice upon them : for it seems 
 to have been the opinion among them, that preeminent 
 honour must be bought by exposure to preeminent 
 danger ; and that the life of a king ought not to be 
 hedged in with so many securities as that of a subject. 
 In fact, almost every page of German history is stained 
 by the murder of a king. But private citizens were 
 not exposed to the same risks. Not only had the king 
 no right to put them to death, but even the sovereign 
 power of the Mallum, or assembly of the people, did 
 not extend to that. The man from whom society with- 
 drew its protection, was still at liberty to quit the 
 country. Exile was the severest punishment the sove- 
 reign power could inflict. 
 
 The Germans were obedient to no authority but that 
 of their women and their priests. In the former they 
 acknowledged somewhat of a divine nature : they 
 thought beauty must have a kind of inspiration, and 
 they received the voice of their prophetesses as the
 
 CHAP. III. RELIGION OF THE GERMANS. 67 
 
 voice of Heaven. The priests owed their influence as 
 much to their own policy as to the superstitious temper of 
 the people. The northern divinities were warlike, and their 
 example and their worship were more calculated to form 
 the minds of their votaries to valour and independence 
 than to fear. The unknown world, peopled with spi- 
 rits who rose from the grave, who sat upon the clouds, 
 whose wailings were heard floating in the night winds, 
 and mingled with the voice of the storm, had been 
 created or clothed with all their terrors by the German 
 imagination. Nevertheless, this was not, strictly speak- 
 ing, religion. These superhuman powers were not 
 those of the Deity ; their possessors were malevolent 
 beings, whose perfidy was as much to be dreaded as 
 their force ; they were foes against whom it was ne- 
 cessary to contend; and the priests of Odin seemed 
 hardly to have any succour to offer against that pale 
 shadow, the dread king of the spirits of the forest, or 
 the terrible Valkyries, who spun the thread of human 
 destiny. 
 
 The German priests were not united into a compact 
 body ; they had not that rigorous organisation and dis- 
 cipline which rendered the Druids so terrible, and gave 
 such stability to their power. Nor did the German peo- 
 ple seem to hold to their religion with very ardent zeal: 
 they were easily converted to Christianity, whenever 
 their kings set them the example ; and it is remarkable 
 that, in the history of their conversions, we find no 
 tradition of the opposition which it would have been 
 natural to expect from tlieir priests. But the chiefs 
 themselves appear to have turned the sacerdotal power 
 to political account. They placed the police of the 
 public meetings under the immediate protection of the 
 gods ; and the jiriest alone, under the authority of the 
 kingj ventured to inflict the punishment of death on 
 any man who disturbetl the deliberations of tlie na- 
 tional assembly or Mallum. Tliis was only to be 
 effected by treating the offence as sacrilege, for no insult
 
 68 FAIL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IH. 
 
 to the civil power would have subjected him to the 
 sword of the law. 
 
 The Germans who attacked the empire appeared under 
 various names ; and these names, sometimes abandoned, 
 and sometimes resumed after a considerable lapse of 
 time, throw a great confusion over the geography of 
 ancient Germany, and the classification of nations who 
 frequently shifted their place of abode. We shall only 
 endeavour to recall to the minds of our readers a small 
 number of the most remarkable. On the lower Rhine 
 were the Franks ; on the upper, the Allemans ; near the 
 mouths of the Elbe, the Saxons : these three nations, 
 who held possession of the land of their fathers, were all 
 formed of confederations of small states, or tribes more 
 ancient still, which had united for their common de- 
 fence, and had dropped their original name about the 
 middle of the third century, and taken generic names, 
 such as Franken, or free men ; Allemannen, or all men ; 
 Sachsen or Sassen, cultivators *, or, to take a cognate 
 , word in our own tongue, settlers. There were also 
 Schwaben t, or wandering men. In each of these feder- 
 ative nations there were as many kings as small states; 
 and, almost, as villages : but, for their most important 
 expeditions, or most dangerous wars, they all united 
 round one common leader. 
 
 On the shores of the Baltic, in Prussia and Central 
 Germany, were found the Vandals, the Heruli, the 
 Lombards, and the Burgundians, who were regarded as 
 originally sprung from the same stem, and differing 
 from the more western Germans in their dialect and in 
 the form of their government; this was more purely 
 military, and seemed to have been consolidated during 
 migrations of which they retained only vague and un- 
 certain traditions. 
 
 Lastly, in Poland, and, more recently, in Transyl- 
 vania, we find the great race of the Goths, who, issuing 
 id three divisions from Scandinavia, first planted them- 
 
 * Saas, an inhabitant 
 
 f Schweben, to iloat, (Modern German). Translator.
 
 CHAP. III. GERMANIC TRIBES. 69 
 
 selves near the mouths of the Vistula, and afterwards 
 advanced southward as far as the banks of the Danube. 
 The Wisigoths or West Goths, the Ostrogoths, or East 
 Goths, and Gepidae (draggers), formed these three di- 
 visions, who were distinguished among the Germanic 
 tribes by superior cultivation of mind, gentler manners, 
 and a greater disposition to advance in the career of 
 civihsation. We shall soon, however, see what was this 
 gentleness, and what was the condition of civihsed na- 
 tions when they were reduced to place their last hope in 
 Ostrogoths and Wisigoths. 
 
 F 3
 
 70 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 DIVISION OF THE FOURTH CENTURT INTO THREE PERIODS J 
 1. REIGN OF CONSTANTINE. 2. REIGNS OF HIS SONS AND 
 
 NEPHEWS. 3. REIGNS OF VALENTINIAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS, 
 
 DOWN TO THEODOSIOS. CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE. HIS 
 
 WAVERINGS BETWEEN PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITT. HIS 
 
 CRUELTIES. SIX EMPERORS AT ONCE. FINAL UNION OF THE 
 
 EMPIRE UNDER CONSTANTINE. EXTERMINATION OP ALL HIS 
 
 RIVALS FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. MURDER OF ALL 
 
 HIS KINDRED BY CONSTANTINE. HIS ZEAL FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 HIS DEATH. DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE AMONG HIS THREE 
 
 SONS.— THEIR WARS. CONSTANTIUS, THE SURVIVOR, EXCLU- 
 SIVELY OCCUPIED WITH RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES. DONATIST 
 
 AND CIRCONCELLION SECTS, THEIR QUARRELS AND ATROCITIES. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SUICIDES. ARIAN CONTROVERSY. — THE CHURCH 
 
 EQUALLY DIVIDED. COUNCIL OF NICE. FAVOURS SHOWED 
 
 BY CONSTANTIUS TO ARIANISM. OPPOSITION OF ST. ATHAN- 
 
 ASIUS.— CONQUESTS OF SAPOR II. IN THE EAST, AND OF THE 
 FRANKS AND ALLEMANS IN THE WEST. CONSTANTIUS CON- 
 FIDES TO HIS NEPHEW JULIAN THE DEFENCE OF THE WEST. 
 
 CHARACTER OF JULIAN. HIS ATTACHMENT TO THE ANCIENT 
 
 KELIGION. HIS VICTORIES AND DEATH. 
 
 After endeavouring to give some general notion of the 
 internal state of the Roman empire in its decline, of the 
 revolutions it had passed through, of the barbarians 
 ■who hung over its frontiers, and menaced its exist- 
 ence, we come at length to the epoch which we have 
 marked at the starting-point, whence to proceed in 
 our examination of this portion of the middle or dark 
 ages. This is, the coronation of the emperor Con- 
 stantine by the legions of Britain, at York, on the 25th 
 of July, A. n. 306. 
 
 The hmits assigned to works belonging to this series, 
 do not, however, permit us to lay before our readers a 
 complete, detailed narrative of the faU of the Roman 
 empire, and the establishment of the barbaric mon- 
 archies. This is to be found in several celebrated
 
 CHAP. IV. CONST ANTINE. 71 
 
 writers, to whose voluminous works we might refer our 
 readers, or, still better, to the study and comparison of 
 the ancient authorities. History can be effectually 
 studied only in the seclusion of the closet ; in the 
 patient examination of original writers, and the accu- 
 rate collation of evidence. All that we can affect to 
 accomplish in the narrow space assigned to us is, to 
 bring together the most striking pictures, to try to 
 arrange them distinctly in the mind, and to show the 
 general tendency of events. The most brilliant periods, 
 the reigns which can be most easily studied in works 
 devoted expressly to them, are precisely those which we 
 shall think ourselves justified in passing over the most: 
 rapidly. But all have not leisure for such a course of 
 study ; and, perhaps, even for those who have passed 
 through it, a brief recapitulation of the general facts 
 will be useful, and may repair the losses, or correct the 
 inaccuracies, of memory. 
 
 The fourth century may be naturally divided into 
 three periods, of nearly equal length. The reign of 
 Constantine, from the year 306 to 337 ; that of his 
 sons and his nephews, from 337 to 36'3 ; and the 
 reigns of Valentinian, of his sons, and of Theodosius, 
 from 364 to 395. During the first, the ancient 
 empire of Rome, the empire of Augustus, gave place 
 to a new monarchy, whose throne stood on the con- 
 fines of Europe and of Asia, Avith other manners, 
 another character, and another religion. During the 
 second, this religion, passing from a state of persecu- 
 tion to one of sovereignty, experienced the fatal effects 
 almost invariably attached to a prosperity too rapid, 
 a power too recent. The violence of religious dissen- 
 sions, during this period, silenced all secular controver- 
 sies, all political passions. During the third period, 
 the empire, shaken anew by the general attack of the 
 barbarians, narrowly escaped complete subversion. The 
 following chapter is intended to give a sketch of the 
 first two periods only. 
 
 We have seen that Diocletian, after appointing four 
 F 4
 
 72 FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XV. 
 
 heads to the military despotism which ruled the empire,, 
 induced his colleague, Maximian, to abdicate the throne 
 at the same time with himself, on the 1st of May, A. d. 305. 
 The two Caesars, Constantius Chlorus in Gaul, and Ga- 
 lerius in Illyricum, were then elevated to the rank of Au- 
 gusti ; while two new Caesars, Severus and Maximin, 
 were appointed to second them. But from the moment 
 that Diocletian ceased to moderate the hatred and the 
 jealousy of the subalterns whom he thought fit to ho- 
 nour with the name of colleagues, the government which 
 he had given to the empire was a scene of constant 
 confusion and civil war, till the period at which all the 
 colleagues fell in succession, and gave place, in the year 
 323, to the soUtary rule of Constantine. 
 
 Constantine had not been called to the succession. 
 Diocletian, partial to Galerius, his son-in-law, had left 
 the nomination of the two new Caesars to him. Con- 
 stantius Chlorus, who had led a division of the Galhc 
 legions into Britain to oppose the incursions of the 
 Caledonians, was then ill; and Galerius, sure of the sup- 
 port of his two creatures, waited impatiently for the 
 death of his rival, to unite the whole Roman empire 
 under his own sway. But the moderation and justice 
 of Constantius had rendered him the more dear to the 
 soldiers and the provincials under his command, from 
 their contrast with the ferocity of his colleagues. At 
 the moment of his death, the legions stationed at York, 
 as a tribute of gratitude and affection to his memory, 
 saluted his son Constantine with the title of Caesar, and 
 decorated him with the purple. WTiatever resentment 
 Galerius felt at this, he soon perceived the danger of 
 engaging in a civil war. As the eldest of the empe- 
 rors, and the representative of Diocletian, he recognised 
 the authority of the colleague imposed upon him by 
 the legions. He left him the administration of Gaul 
 and Britain, but assigned to him only the fourth 
 rank among the rulers of the empire, and the title of 
 Caesar. Under this title Constantine administered the 
 prefecture of Gaul for six years (a. d. 306 — 312),
 
 CHAP. IV. CONSTANTINE. 73 
 
 perhaps the most glorious and the most virtuous period 
 of his life. 
 
 Nature had endowed Constantine, then thirty years 
 old, with qualities that command respect. His person 
 was dignified, his countenance noble and gracious, 
 his strength remarkable even among legionaries, and 
 his courage brilliant even in the estimation of the 
 bravest. Although his mind had not been formed by a 
 liberal education, it was quick and facile ; his convers- 
 ation was lively, only he was too much addiced to 
 raillery for a man whom it is impossible to rally in 
 return. The grandeur of his conceptions, the firmness 
 of his character, and his consummate talents for war, 
 gave him a high rank among generals and statesmen. 
 Happy would it have been for him, if fortune, which 
 with a rare constancy, favoured all his enterprises, had 
 not, by her indulgence, fostered and revealed his vices ; 
 if the height to which he attained had not made him 
 giddy ; if the drunkenness of absolute power had not 
 altered his character ; and if every advance towards the 
 acquisition of a new power had not been outweighed by 
 the loss of a virtue. 
 
 From the time of his elevation to the throne, Con- 
 stantine wavered between paganism and Christianity ; 
 and throughout his prefecture he granted perfect tolera- 
 tion to all religious opinions. In this he only followed 
 the example of his father, who had sheltered the pro- 
 vinces under his rule from the persecutions of Diocle- 
 tian. Gaul was, indeed, the part of the empire in 
 which we find the fewest martyrs. The Christian re- 
 ligion had made very little progress there ; but the 
 tolerance of Constantine, contrasted with the ferocity of 
 the persecutions of Galerius and the two Casars, at- 
 tracted a great number of refugees to the countries 
 under his sway, and thus caused a rapid spread of the 
 new religion in the West. 
 
 After pacifying Britain, Constantine had led back 
 his army into Gaul. He had lessened the weight of 
 taxation ; and we learn that the town of Autun ex-
 
 74 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 pressed its gratitude to him, for lightening the pressure 
 of the capitation, or poll-tax. The moment the Franks 
 encamped on the banks of the Rhine, learned the death 
 of his father, they crossed the river, and laid waste a 
 part of Gaul. Constantme marched against them at 
 the head of the British legions ; defeated them ; made a 
 great number of prisoners ; and, at the celebration of 
 the games in his capital of Treves, he caused these 
 captives to be thrown to wild beasts. They were de- 
 voured before the eyes of a people by whom this spec- 
 tacle was hailed with rapturous applause. Among the 
 victims, the most remarkable were two Prankish kings, 
 Ascaric and Regais. This is the earliest tradition we 
 have of the first race of sovereigns of France. 
 
 It did not enter the mind of Constantine, nor of 
 those by whom he was surrounded, that any humanity 
 could be due to the vanquished, any compassion to bar- 
 baric kings. In a panegyric addressed to him, and 
 recited in his presence, this act is especially celebrated ; 
 and the torture inflicted on these two Frankish kings is 
 extolled above the most glorious of his victories. But 
 Constantine was hereafter, and repeatedly, to shed blood 
 far more sacred in his eyes ; his ambition was untem- 
 pered by pity, and his jealousy of power stifled the most 
 powerful feelings of nature in his breast. 
 
 During this time the senate and the people of Rome^ 
 abandoned by all the emperors, who had fixed their 
 residence in the provinces, irritated by the announce- 
 ment of fresh taxes, conferred the rank of Augustus 
 on Maxentius, son of Maximian (a. d. 306), who, 
 like Constantine, had not been raised by Galerius to the 
 rank of Csesar, to which he seemed to have claims. At 
 this intelligence the aged Maximian, who had been 
 reluctantly drawn into an abdication to Avhich his con- 
 stant restlessness continually gave the lie, hastened to 
 resume the purple, in order to protect his son and to as- 
 sist him with his counsels. He gave his daughter Fausta 
 in marriage to Constantine, and conferred on him the title 
 of Augustus ; and he claimed from the whole "West, go-
 
 CHAP. IV. CONSTANTINE. / -» 
 
 verned by his son and his son-in-law, that deference 
 which those two princes owed to the eldest head of the 
 empire, and the author of their own greatness. But 
 love of power can ill be reconciled in royal minds with 
 the plebeian virtues of filial affection and gratitude. 
 The veteran, illustrious from his numerous victories, 
 was driven out of Italy by his son Maxentius; repulsed 
 from Illyricum by his ancient colleague, Galerius ; and 
 permitted to take refuge in Gaul by Constantine, only 
 on condition that he would a second time renounce the 
 supreme power he had resumed. He lived for some 
 time in the Narbonnese province ; but on the report of 
 the death of Constantine (probably spread by Maxi- 
 mian himself), he once more resumed the purple. Con- 
 stantine put himself at the head of his legions, and 
 instantly marched to Marseilles, where he besieged 
 Maximian, caused him to be deUvered into his hands 
 by the soldiers of the town, and to be strangled (Feb. 
 A.J). 310). 
 
 For two whole years the empire had had six em- 
 perors at a time, all recognised as legitimate. But the 
 death of Maximian was followed by that of Galerius, 
 in May, 311, after a dreadful illness. Four Augusti, of 
 equal rank, now once more shared the four prefectures. 
 Scarcely, however, had they proclaimed to the empire 
 their union, when they began to plan each other's de- 
 thronement. Maxentius had exercised an odious tyranny 
 over Italy and Africa; he had plundered, persecuted, and 
 dishonoured the senate, which had placed him on the 
 throne ; and, while he gave himself up without reserve 
 to shameful pleasures, he lavished the money he ex- 
 torted from the citizens by infamous confiscations, on 
 the soldiers, on whom he placed his sole reliance. Maxi- 
 min, who reigned over the East, was neither less 
 cruel, nor less hateful to the people. Constantine 
 offered his alliance, and the hand of his sister, to Lici- 
 nius, the third of the Augusti, who governed Illyricum, 
 and abandoned to him the conquest of the East, reserving 
 to himself that of Italy and Africa. He passed the Alps
 
 76 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 at the head of the Gallic legions; gained three great 
 victories, at Turin, at Verona, and before the gates of 
 Rome, over those of Maxentius, which that dastardly 
 and effeminate ruler did not venture to command in 
 person. After the third, which took place on the 3d 
 of October, 312, the head of Maxentius, for whom 
 Constantine had little reason to feel as a brother-in-law, 
 was exhibited to the people, severed from the trunk. 
 Constantine was received in Rome with acclamations ; 
 Africa acknowledged him, as well as Italy ; and an 
 edict of religious toleration, issued at MUan, extended 
 the advantages, hitherto enjoyed by Gaul alone, to this 
 prefecture. Licinius was not less successful against 
 Maximin, and the use he made of his victory per- 
 haps spared Constantine the commission of some crimes. 
 Licinius put to death all the sons of Maximin, aU the 
 sons of Galerius, and all the sons of Severus, that none 
 might remain to carry into a private station the me- 
 mory of their father's power. Even the wife and 
 daughter of Diocletian, who were known to him only by 
 the benefits he had received at their hands, and by the 
 respect of the people, fell victims to his ruthless am- 
 bition. He would suffer no rival claims to the throne, and 
 he left nothing for Constantine to do in the work of ex- 
 termination. The two allies and brothers-in-law, thus 
 left masters of the field, immediately prepared for com- 
 bat. In the first civil war, a. d. 31 5, Constantine 
 wrested lUyricum from Licinius. After an interval of 
 eight years, war was renewed. Licinius was beaten 
 before Adrian ople, on the 3d of July, 323, and the 
 whole empire recognised Constantine the Great as its 
 monarch. 
 
 Constantine was a native of the western provinces. 
 He spoke their language ; there he first distinguished 
 himself by his victories, and by a beneficent administra- 
 tion ; there his name, and that of his father, were en- 
 deared to the people and to the soldiers. Nevertheless, 
 one of the first uses he made of his victory was, to 
 abandon these provinces for Greece, whither he went to
 
 CHAP. IV. CONSTANTINE. 77 
 
 build a new Rome, to which he laboured to transfer all 
 the luxury and the privileges of the ancient city. The 
 latter had long been regarded with jealousy by the 
 emperors. They dreaded a residence in a town in which 
 the people still remembered that the sovereign power 
 had resided in them ; in which every senator felt him- 
 self of higher nobility than the monarch; more familiar 
 with those elegancies and refinements of manners which 
 are the indelible mark of aristocratic birth, and the ob- 
 ject of humiliating desire to those who can never acquire 
 them. Constantine wished to have a capital more 
 modern than the imperial dignity, a senate more recent 
 than despotism. He wished for the pomp of Rome, 
 without her recollections, without her means of resist- 
 ance. He chose Byzantium, on the Bosphorus of 
 Thrace ; and the new capital, which took its name 
 from him, standing on the confines of Europe and of 
 Asia, with a magnificent port open to the commerce of 
 the Black Sea and of the Mediterranean, has shown, 
 by its long prosperity, by the invincible resistance it 
 offered to its barbarian aggressors for a thousand 
 years, how admirably sagacious was the choice of its 
 founder. 
 
 But it was while occupied in watching the infant 
 growth of Constantinople (a. d. 329), during the four- 
 teen years of peace which closed his reign, that the 
 hero descended to the common level of kings. As he 
 approached the East, he adopted oriental manners ; he 
 affected the gorgeous purple of the monarchs of Persia; 
 he decorated his head with false hair of different colours, 
 and with a diadem covered with pearls and gems. He 
 substituted flowing silken robes, embroidered with flow- 
 ers, for the austere garb of Rome, or the unadorned 
 purple of the first Roman emperors. He filled his 
 palace with eunuchs, and lent an ear to their perfidious 
 calumnies ; he became the instrument of their base in- 
 trigues, their cupidity, and their jealousy. He multi- 
 plied spies, an<l subjected the palace and the empire, 
 alike, to a suspicious police. He lavished the wealth of
 
 78 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 Rome on the sterile pomp of stately buildings. He re- 
 duced the legions from 6OOO men to 1000 or 1500, 
 through jealousy of those to whom he must have given 
 the command of these formidable bodies. Lastly, he 
 poured out the best and noblest blood in torrents, more 
 especially of those nearly connected with himself. 
 
 The most illustrious victim of his tyranny was Cris- 
 pus, his son by his first wife, whom he had made the 
 partner of his empire, and the commander of his ar- 
 mies. Crispus was at the head of the administration 
 of Gaul, where he gained the hearts of the people by his 
 virtue. In the war against Licinius he had displayed 
 singular talents, and had secured victory to the arms of 
 Constantine. From that moment, a shameful and un- 
 natural jealousy stifled every paternal feeling in the 
 bosom of the monarch. The acclamations of the people 
 sounded in his ears like the triumphs of a rival, and not 
 the successes of a son. He detained Crispus within 
 the palace, he surrounded him with spies and informers. 
 At length, in the month of July, 326, he ordered him 
 to be arrested in the midst of a grand festival, to be 
 carried oflf to Pola in Istria, and there to be put to 
 death. A cousin of Crispus, the son of Licinius and of 
 Constantine's favourite sister, was, at the same time, 
 sent, without trial, without even accusation, to the 
 block. His mother implored his life in vain, and died 
 of grief. Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, the wife 
 of Constantine, and the mother of the three princes 
 who succeeded him, was shortly after stifled in the bath 
 by order of her husband. 
 
 In a palace which he had made a desert, the murderer 
 of his father-in-law, his brothers-in-law, his sister, his 
 wife, his son, and his nephew, must have felt the stings 
 of remorse, if hypocritical priests and courtier bishops 
 had not lulled his conscience to rest. We still possess 
 the panegyric in which they represent him as a favourite 
 of Heaven, a saint %vorthy of our highest veneration ; 
 we have also several laws by which Constantine atoned 
 for all his crimes, in the eyes of the priests, by heaping
 
 CHAP. IV. SONS OF CONSTANTINE. 79 
 
 boundless favours on the church. The gifts he be- 
 stowed on it, the immunities he granted to persons and 
 to property connected with it, soon directed ambition 
 entirely to ecclesiastical dignities. The men who had 
 so lately been candidates for the honours of martyrdom, 
 now found themselves depositaries of the greatest wealth 
 and the highest power. How was it possible that their 
 characters should not undergo a total change ? Never- 
 theless, Constantine himself was hardly a Christian. 
 Up to the age of forty (a. d. 314), he had continued to 
 make public profession of paganism, although he had 
 long favoured the Christians. His devotion was divided 
 between Apollo and Jesus ; and he adorned the temples 
 of the ancient gods and the altars of the new faith with 
 equal offerings. Cardinal Baronius severely censures 
 the edict by which (a. d. 321) he commanded that the 
 haruspices should be consulted. But as he advanced in 
 age, Constantine's confidence in the Christians increased: 
 he gave up to them the undivided direction of his con- 
 science and the education of his children. When he 
 felt the attacks of the disease which terminated his life 
 at the age of sixty-three, he was formally received into 
 the bosom of the church as a catechumen, and a few 
 days afterwards was baptised, immediately before his 
 death. He expired at Nicomedia, May 22. 337, after 
 a reign of thirty-one years from the death of his father, 
 and of fourteen from the conquest of the East. 
 
 During the whole course of his reign CJonstantine had 
 struggled to reunite the divided members of the empire. 
 His own experience had taught him what jealousy ab- 
 solute power excited among colleagues ; what a feeble 
 security is given to treaties between princes by the ties 
 of blood : yet, at his death, he once more divided the 
 empire. Indeed, for several years, he had sent his 
 three sons and two nephews to serve their apprentice- 
 ship in the art of ruling, at the expense of the provinces 
 they were hereafter to govern as independent cliiefs. 
 Constantine, the eldest of the young princes, twenty-one
 
 80 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 years of age, reigned in the province of Gaul. Con- 
 stantius, a year younger, remained with his father, and 
 was the destined ruler of the East. Constans, a youth 
 of seventeen, was sent into Italy, which, together with 
 Africa, was to be subject to him. Dalmatius and Han- 
 nibalianus, the emperor's two nephews, were to inherit 
 Thrace and Pontus as their share. Scarcely had he 
 breathed his last, when his two elder sons set about to 
 destroy his work. Constantius artfully enticed his two 
 cousins to his court, and excited the jealousy of the 
 army against them. The bishop of Nicomedia produced 
 a forged will of the emperor, in which he expressed a 
 suspicion that he had been poisoned by his brothers, 
 and recommended his son to avenge him. Under pre- 
 text of obeying this injunction, in less than four months 
 after his father's death, Constantius put to death two of 
 his uncles, seven of his cousins, among whom were his 
 two colleagues, and a great number of other distinguished 
 persons, allied in some way or other to the imperial 
 family. Two children alone, Gallus and Juhan, ne- 
 phews of Constantine the Great, were snatched by a 
 pious hand from this butchery. 
 
 Constantius had thus usurped the inheritance of his 
 two cousins. Constantine II. determined on seizing 
 that of his youngest brother. In the third year of his 
 reign he made a descent upon Italy, in order to dethrone 
 Constans ; but, having been surprised by an ambuscade, 
 he was put to death, by order of his brother, on the 9th 
 of April, 340. Constans was consequently acknow- 
 ledged emperor of Gaul as well as of Italy. After a 
 reign of ten years, he was assassinated in the Pyrenees, 
 February 27- 350, by Magnentius, the captain of his 
 guards, who succeeded him. It was not till three years 
 afterwards that Constantius succeeded in recovering the 
 West, the empire of his two brothers, from Mag- 
 nentius. 
 
 This chronology of murders is nearly all that remains 
 of the civil history of these three princes. Neither pa- 
 triots, nor men whose object was personal aggrandise-
 
 CHAP. IV. DONATIST CONTROVERSY. 81 
 
 ment, could find any satisfaction in devoting themselves 
 to political affairs. During the whole of this period, 
 therefore, they were forgotten, and the minds of men 
 were completely engrossed by the religious disputes 
 which presented new fuel to the passions. It was by 
 sectarian violence alone that a man could gain affection 
 from the people or consideration from the court. It 
 was by theological subtleties alone, that he could hope to 
 move the popular passions. Those who could not be 
 induced, nor constrained, to take up arms to defend 
 property, life, or honour against the barbarians, eagerly 
 seized them to force their fellow-citizens to think with 
 themselves. All the temples of paganism Avere still 
 standing, more than half the subjects of the empire 
 still professed the ancient faith ; and yet already does 
 the history of the people over whom the sons of Con- 
 stantine reigned, consist of little else than the contentions 
 between sects of Christians. 
 
 Two great theological dissensions had broken out at 
 the very moment at which Constantine put a stop to 
 persecution, and while Licinius was still endeavouring 
 to crush the church in the East. Both had a long and 
 fatal influence on the destinies of the empire ; yet the 
 first, that of the Donatists of Africa, seems so futile, 
 that it is impossible to explain the importance attached 
 to it by the people, except from the novelty of religious 
 disputes, and the universal disposition towards religious 
 fanaticism which had been excited by passionate decla- 
 mation. The Donatist controversy was not one of doc- 
 trine, but of ecclesiastical discipline ; the contested 
 election for tlie archbishopric of Carthage. Two 
 competitors, Cecilius and Donatus, had been concur- 
 rently elected while the church was yet in a depressed 
 state, and Africa suliject to the tyrant Maxentius. 
 Scarcely had Constantine subdued that province, when 
 the two rivals referred their dis{)ute to him. Constan- 
 tine, who still publicly professed paganism, but had 
 shown himself very favourable to the Christians, insti- 
 tuted a carefid examination of their respective claims 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 82. FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 which lasted from the year 312 to 315, and finally de- 
 cided in favour of Cecilius. Four hundred African 
 bishops protested against this decision ; from that time 
 they were designated by the name of Donatists. Their 
 number shows the progress the new faith had already 
 made in Mauritania and Numidia. We must observe, 
 however, that it appears nearly certain that, in Africa, 
 every parish was under the spiritual government, not of 
 a curate, but of a bishop. 
 
 In compliance with an order of the emperor, solicited 
 by Cecilius, the property of the Donatists was seized 
 and transferred to the antagonist body of the clergy. 
 They revenged themselves by pronouncing sentence of 
 excommunication against all the rest of the Christian 
 world ; and declaring, that whoever did not believe the 
 election of Donatus to be canonical, would be everlast- 
 ingly damned. They even compelled aU whom they con- 
 verted from the hostile sect to be rebaptized, as if they 
 Avere not Christians. Persecution on the one side, and 
 fanaticism on the other, were perpetuated through three 
 centuries, up to the period of the extinction of Chris- 
 tianity in Africa. The wandering preachers of the 
 Donatist faction had no other means of living than the 
 alms of their flocks ; their influence and consideration, 
 therefore, depended solely on their power of heating the 
 imaginations and working on the fears of the feeble- 
 minded, and thus gradually diffusing over the whole 
 congregation that moral contagion which they began by 
 exciting in women and children. As might be expected, 
 they outdid each other in extravagance, and soon gave 
 into the most frantic ravings : thousands of peasants, 
 drunk with the effect of these exhortations, forsook their 
 ploughs and fled to the deserts of Getulia. Their bishops, 
 assuming the title of captains of the saints, put themselves 
 at their head, and they rushed onwards, carrying death 
 and desolation into the adjacent provinces ; they were 
 distinguished by the name of Circumcelliones : Africa 
 was devastated by their ravages. They, in their turn, 
 were delivered over to the most cruel torments whenever
 
 CHAP. IV. TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY. 83 
 
 they fell into the hands of the imperial officers or the 
 orthodox party^ in the hope that the severity of these ex- 
 amples would intimidate their followers. Such measures, 
 however, were perfectly unsuccessful, since the palm of 
 martyrdom was the object of their most ardent desires. 
 Persuaded that the most acceptable offering they could 
 make to the Deity was their own lives, they frequently 
 stopped the affrighted traveller, and, holding a dagger 
 to his breast, demanded of him to put them to death. 
 Often with arms in their hands they forced their way 
 into the courts of justice, and compelled the judges to 
 send them to torture and to death. Often they put an 
 end to their own existence. Those who thought them- 
 selves sufficiently prepared for martyrdom, assembled 
 their numerous congregations at the foot of some rock 
 or lofty tower; and there, in the midst of prayers and 
 the chanting of litanies, they threw themselves, one after 
 another, from the height, and expired on the ground 
 below. 
 
 The other theological contest arose out of causes 
 more elevated and weighty, but at the same time more 
 inscrutable, and impossible to determine. It has divided 
 the church from the second century of its existence ; 
 it will, perhaps, divide it to the end of time. This is, 
 the controversy on the mystery of the Trinity. The 
 word Trinity is found neither in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures nor in the writings of the first Christians ; l)ut it 
 had been employed from the beginning of the second 
 century, when a more metaphysical turn had been given 
 to the minds of men, and theologians had begun to at- 
 tempt to explain the divine nature. Alexandria was 
 one of the first cities in which the Christian religion 
 nad made proselytes among the higher classes of society. 
 Those who had received tlieir education in the I'latonic 
 schools which flourished in that great city, sought in 
 the Scriptures a new light on the questions which had re- 
 cently been agitated among them. The dogma of a mys- 
 terious trinity, which constituted the divine essence, 
 had been taught by the pagan Platonists of Alexandria. 
 G 2
 
 84 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 It seems to have sprung from the astonishment which 
 the mathematical properties of numbers had excited in 
 the minds of students of the abstract sciences. They 
 thought they discovered something divine in these pro- 
 perties ; and the power which numbers exercised over 
 calculations appeared to them to extend over regions far 
 removed from their actual influence. This illusion has 
 been revived in every age of imperfect science. The 
 new Platonic converts employed the terms of their pecu- 
 iar system of philosophy, in the exposition of the dogmas 
 of the Christian faith. 
 
 But whatever were the origin of these speculations, 
 the question had no sooner descended from the lofty 
 regions of metaphysical abstraction, to be applied to an 
 explanation of the nature of Jesus Christ, than it ac- 
 quired an importance which no Christian can contest. 
 The Founder of the new religion, the Being who had 
 brought upon earth a divine light, was he God, was he 
 man, was he of an intermediate nature, and, though 
 superior to all other created beings, yet himself created.'^ 
 This latter opinion was held by Arius, an Alexandrian 
 pi'iest, Avho maintained it in a series of learned contro- 
 versial works between the years 318 and 325. As soon 
 as the discussion had quitted the walls of the schools, 
 and been taken up by the people, mutual accusations of 
 the gravest kind took the place of metaphysical subtleties. 
 The orthodox party reproached the Arians with bla- 
 spheming the Deity himself, by refusing to acknowledge 
 him in the person of Christ. The Arians accused the 
 orthodox of violating the fundamental law of religion, by 
 rendering to the creature the worship due only to the 
 Creator. Both maintained, with a show of reason, that 
 their adversaries overturned the very foundations of Chris- 
 tianity, — the one party by denying the divinity of the 
 Redeemer, the other the unity of the Governor of the uni- 
 verse. The two opinions appeared so nicely balanced, that 
 they were alternately triumphant, and it was difficult to 
 decide which numbered the largest body of followers ; 
 but the ardent enthusiastic spirits, the populace in all the
 
 CHAP. IV. STATE OP THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 85 
 
 great cities (and especially at Alexandria), the women, 
 and the newly-founded order of the monks of the desert, 
 who had subjugated the force of their reason by a life 
 of continual solitude and contemplation, were almost 
 without exception partisans of the faith which has since 
 been declared orthodox. The contrary opinion appeared 
 to them an insult to the object of their most passionate 
 devotion. That opinion, — the Arian heresy, as it was 
 called, — was embraced by all the new Christians of the 
 Germanic tribes ; by the people of Constantinople, and 
 by a large portion of Asia ; by the great majority of the 
 dignitaries of the church, and by the depositaries of the 
 civil authority. 
 
 Constantino thought this question of dogma might 
 be decided by an assembly of the whole church. In 
 the year 325, he convoked the council of Nice, at which 
 300 bishops pronounced in favour of the equality of the 
 Son with the Father, or the doctrine generally regarded 
 as orthodox, and condemned the Arians to exile, and their 
 books to the flames. In spite of this decision, the Arian 
 opinion appeared three years afterwards to prevail among 
 the whole clergy of the East. It was sanctioned by a synod 
 at Jerusalem, and protected by the emperor. ^V^hen Con- 
 stantius ascended the throne, all the bishops and courtiers 
 by whom he was surrounded had adopted the opinions 
 of Arius, and had communicated them to him. The 
 emperor, abandoning all other cares, in order to devote 
 himself exclusively to religious controversy, became a 
 mere theologian, and remained so during the whole of 
 his long reign. He emi)loycd his court and wore out 
 his own intellect in finding expressions fitted for the 
 shades of his belief, and the fluctuations of his senti- 
 ments. Every year he convoked some fresh synod or 
 council ; he removed bishops from their flocks ; he 
 destroyed religion in favour of theology; and as the 
 bishops whom he was continually summoning from 
 one province to another travelled at the public cost, 
 the multiplicity of councils became a ruinous charge 
 on the imperial treasury. But a formidable adversary 
 o 3
 
 86 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 appeared, who opposed him Avith firmness, and rendered 
 his efforts powerless. This was St. Athanasius, arch- 
 bishop of Alexandria, who was regarded as head of the 
 orthodox party from the year 326 to 373. He met 
 persecution Avith unshaken constancy, communicated his 
 own zeal to the fanatical populace of Alexandria and 
 the monks of the desert ; and, after a long struggle 
 between popular commotions and mihtary persecutions, 
 at length secured victory to his party. 
 
 During the whole of the reigns of the three sons of 
 Constantine, historians scarcely seem to have regarded 
 any thing as worthy of their notice save ecclesiastical 
 disputes; nor did the sovereign seem to think his 
 station and office imposed any duty upon him more 
 imperative than that of engaging in the ranks of contro- 
 versy. But the people had more than one occasion to 
 feel that they needed protection from other perils than 
 those of heresy. During the whole of tliis period the 
 East was exposed to the attacks of Sapor II., king of 
 Persia, whose long reign, from 310 to 380, by a sin- 
 gular destiny, had begun some months before his birth. 
 On the death of his father Hormidas, his mother de- 
 clared herself pregnant. She was presented to the 
 adoration of the people reclining on a bed of state ; and 
 the crown, which was placed on the bed by the magi, 
 was supposed to cover the head of the child the nation 
 hoped to receive from her. Sapor II. evinced much 
 more talents and courage than could be expected from a 
 king born on the throne. He made repeated incursions 
 into the Roman provinces of the East. In 348, he 
 defeated Constantius in a great battle at Singara, near 
 the Tigris. But his invasions were always checked by 
 the fortress of Nisibis, the bulwark of the East. Thrice 
 he besieged it with all his forces, and was thrice re- 
 pulsed. 
 
 From the time of the death of the two brothers of 
 Constantius, the ^Fest had suffered yet more severely. 
 In order to reconquer it from the usurper IMagnentius, 
 that emperor had incited the Germanic nations to attack
 
 CnAP. IV. JULIAN. 87 
 
 the northern frontier of Gaul, at the moment when civil 
 war compelled Magnentius to leave the Rhine unpro- 
 tected, and to march his legions into Illyricum. The 
 Franks and AUemans consequently poured down, the 
 former on Belgium, the latter on Alsace, and plun- 
 dered and burnt forty-five of the most flourishing cities 
 of either Gaul. Their cruelty inspired such terror, 
 that no one throughout the remainder of the province 
 dared to quit the shelter of the cities. Within the 
 walls, the inhabitants cultivated portions of land amid 
 the ruins, and trusted for subsistence to the produce of 
 fields thus cleared by the devastating hand of the in- 
 vader. But 13,000 soldiers remained to defend the 
 whole extent of Gaul against these torrents of barba- 
 rians ; all the magazines, all the arsenals were emptied ; 
 the treasury was exhausted ; the persons upon whom the 
 burdens of the state rested, reduced to the uttermost 
 distress, fled and abandoned their lands, rather than 
 submit any longer to fiscal vexations. The defence of 
 the West seemed to have become nearly impossible, 
 when, in the year 355, Constantius entrusted it to his 
 cousin Julian. The fury of persecution which he had 
 exercised against his family had vented itself. He had 
 promised to suffer his two cousins to live ; and as he 
 had now reached the middle of life without natural 
 successors, he had resolved on delegating some au- 
 thority to these his nearest relatives. In 351, he had 
 granted the dignity of Ciesar to Gallus, the brother of 
 Julian, and had sent him to Antioch ; but as the power 
 with which he was invested had called forth nothing but 
 vice, Constantius recalled him in December 354, and 
 caused him to be beheaded in prison. A few months 
 afterwards he invested the last survivor of this once 
 numerous family with a similar authority, and gave him 
 Gaul to govern. 
 
 Julian had known nothing of his exalted station but 
 
 its exposure to more terrible calamity ; but this had 
 
 tried )iis courage, and fortified his soul. He had sought 
 
 consolation in the philosophy of Greece, and in the 
 
 G 4
 
 0» FALL OF TOE R03IAX EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 Study of antiquity. He had compared the virtues of 
 former ages with the vices and crimes of his own 
 time, and of the race wlience he sprang ; and^ from a 
 spirit of opposition to all that surrounded him, he had 
 attached himself the more ardently to the religion of his 
 fathers. He embraced polytheism with a fervour rare 
 among its followers; with a superstitious devotion seem- 
 ingly incompatible with his philosophical turn. But 
 his religion had undergone a refining process, of which 
 himself was not conscious, from its collision with 
 Christianity. He had adopted many of the sublimest 
 truths of the very faith he combated ; and he thought 
 he found them slightly veiled beneath the allegories of 
 paganism. To him the interpreters of the antique gods 
 Avere not the vulgar oracles of priests, but the divine 
 Avritings of Plato and other philosophers ; and the faith 
 so lately dominant was endeared to him by its present 
 persecutions; — as the unfortunate become objects of 
 sympathy to generous minds, even at the expense of 
 justice and of reason. 
 
 In the schools of Athens, in the pursuit of philoso- 
 phy, and in the study of the ancients, Julian had ac- 
 quired a knowledge of men and of things which none 
 but a vast and commanding genius can obtain from 
 theory alone. Passing from the most profound retire- 
 ment to the command of an army and the government 
 of a disorganised province, surrounded by spies and in- 
 formers, Avho watched that they might destroy him, ill 
 obeyed by his subalterns, ill seconded by his cousin's 
 government, he raised up the humbled majesty of the 
 empire in two glorious campaigns (a. d. 356 — 357). 
 He defeated the AUemans at Strasburg, and drove them 
 across the Rhine : during the three following years, he 
 penetrated three several times into Germany : he struck 
 terror into the Allemans, recalled the Franks to their, 
 ancient alliance, and admitted the bravest of their sol- 
 diers into his own ranks. He also enlisted the Gauls, 
 who at length felt the necessity of defending • their 
 country and their personal existence. He restored
 
 CHAP. IV. JULIAN. 89 
 
 ruined cities, filled the treasury, while he reduced the 
 most oppressive taxes by two-thirds, and inspired the 
 inhabitants of the West with an enthusiasm which was 
 not unattended with danger to himself. The court of 
 Byzantium had begun by ridiculing the philosopher 
 turned general ; but this soon gave way, in the mind 
 of Constantius, to a feeling of bitter jealousy. In the 
 account he rendered to the provinces of the victories 
 obtained in Gaul, the emperor, who had never quitted 
 the walls of Constantinople, took the credit of all these 
 successes. It was he, as his proclamations affirmed, 
 who, by his prudence, his valour, and his military ta- 
 lents, had repulsed the Germans. Julian was not even 
 named. 
 
 The emperor's jealousy soon displayed itself by other 
 signs. Sapor still hovered over the eastern frontier, 
 and menaced it with fresh invasions. Constantius or- 
 dered the Gallic legions to abandon the Rhine, and 
 march to defend the Euphrates. This was to leave 
 both countries without defence during a whole cam- 
 paign ; for it was impossible to accomplish such a 
 march in less time. But Constantius was mainly bent 
 on separating the Cscsar from his old companions in 
 arms ; and he anticipated a sweet revenge from the 
 discontent of the legions, compelled to quit the chilling 
 plains of Belgium for tlie burning sands of Mesopotamia. 
 But he had not calculated on all the effects of this mea- 
 sure. The barbarians, whose enthusiasm for Julian 
 had led them to enlist under his banner, tlie Gauls, 
 who had shaken off their habitual sloth in defence of 
 their hearths, refused to traverse the entire Roman 
 world at the capricious order of the emperor. They , 
 mutinied, saluted Julian with the title of Augustus, 
 raised him aloft on a buckler, encircled his brow with 
 the collar of a soldier, in default of a diadem ; and then 
 declared that they were ready to march into the East, 
 not to gratify the vengeance of a jealous master, but to 
 escort their adored chief as victor. Julian yielded to 
 their enthusiasm. He set out towards lUyricum; but the
 
 90 FALL OF THE R03IAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IV. 
 
 death of Constantius, which happened on the 3d of 
 November, 36 1, and which he learned half-way, 
 averted the horrors of a civil war. Juhan was acknow- 
 ledged with joy throughout the empire. 
 
 He publicly returned thanks for his success to the 
 ancient gods, and restored the pomp of pagan worship, 
 which had not yet become an object of the persecution 
 directed against heretics. He admitted all the contending 
 sects of Christians to an equal tolerance ; but this toler- 
 ance was mingled with sarcasms and expressions of con- 
 tempt ; and he endeavoured to undermine the foundations 
 of a church which he dared not attempt to overthrow 
 by violence. He prohibited Christians from entering 
 the schools of grammar and of rhetoric ; removed them 
 from places of trust, and apportioned his favour to the 
 zeal displayed in favour of polytheism. He soon 
 achieved numerous conversions among those who are the 
 faithful followers of power, and who have no other re- 
 ligion than the pleasure of the master. 
 
 Meanwhile Juhan was nnpatient to drive the bar- 
 barians from the East, as he had already expelled them 
 from the West. The whole remaining portion of his 
 short reign was devoted to the preparations for his cam- 
 paign against Sapor. To this end he repaired to An- 
 tioch, where he passed the winter of the year 362. At 
 the commencement of the year 363, he marched to the 
 invasion of Mesopotamia. But it was already obvious 
 that he had not escaped the corrupting influence of 
 power and prosperity. Deceived by the blind obedience 
 of courtiers, he thought he could exercise the same 
 haughty sway over those who were not dependent upon 
 him. He offended the Arabs, at the very moment when 
 he stood in need of their aid, by refusing the customary 
 presents, and alienated the Armenians by openly con- 
 temning their religious opinions. He even fancied he 
 could rise superior to the laws of nature, and command 
 the elements. In spite of the remonstrances of his ge- 
 nerals, he advanced into the sandy deserts, in which 
 his army was exposed to thirst, fatigue, and a burning
 
 CHAP. IV. JULIAN. 91 
 
 sun. It is true that these dangers once more revealed 
 the great and heroic quahties which prosperity had ob- 
 scured. On every occasion he set his soldiers an example 
 of that courage which endures privations, as well as of 
 tliat which braves the fight. Never did he meet the 
 enemy without defeating him. But Sapor, who did 
 not choose to face the formidable and victorious legions 
 of Gaul, harassed them with his light cavalry, and 
 retreated without suffering the enemy to come up 
 with him. After passing the Tigris, Juhan, v/ith 
 his panting legions, traversed the whole territory of 
 Bagdad, where he was misled by treacherous guides. 
 On tlie verge of the horizon he saw a village or a city, 
 in which he hoped to find some repose, some provisions ; 
 but as soon as he approached, devouring flames, kindled 
 by the inhabitants themselves, consumed dwellings and 
 stores, and he found only a heap of ashes. At length, 
 on the l6'th of June, 363, he was compelled to order a 
 retreat. This was the signal for the approach of the 
 Persians ; the light cavalry was seconded by elei^hants, 
 and by the heavy iron-barbed cavalry. Every march 
 was a combat; every wood, every hill, concealed an am- 
 buscade. On the 26"th of June, the Romans being still 
 at a considerable distance from the Tigris, a general 
 attack led Julian to hope that he might still conquer 
 the enemy who had always avoided the open fields. 
 AV'hile with his advanced guard, he received the intelli- 
 gence that his rear-guard had been thrown into disorder 
 by a charge of cavalry. He flew to its succour with 
 no other arms than his buckler. The Persians fled, 
 but Julian was struck by an arrow from the bow of one 
 of those horsemen, who were never more formidable 
 than in their flight. It had passed through the ribs, 
 and transfixed the liver. As he tried to draw it out of 
 the wound, another arrow pierced his fingers. He fell 
 from his horse, fainting and bathed in his blood, and in 
 that state was carried to his tent. As soon as he reco- 
 vered his senses he called for his horse and his arms, 
 and insisted on going to cheer on his comrades, many
 
 92 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CUAP. IV. 
 
 of whom lie had seen trampled and crushed under the 
 feet of the elephants. But it was too late : the blood 
 which flowed in fresh torrents, soon exhausted his re- 
 maining strength. Being unable to raise himself, and 
 conscious that the feebleness of death was upon him, 
 he asked the name of the country where he had fallen. 
 Phrygia, was the reply. — " It is there that my death 
 was foretold/' said he. " My destiny is accom- 
 plished." 
 
 His friends pressed around him. He to whom we 
 are indebted for all these details, — the last of the illus- 
 trious soldiers who wrote in Latin the contemporaneous 
 history of the Romans, Ammianus Marcellus, was pre- 
 sent. They were in tears ; and yet news had come to 
 his tent that the Romans, infuriated at his loss, had 
 already worthily revenged him ; that Sapor's army had 
 taken to flight; that his two generals, fifty satraps, 
 most of the elephants, and the bravest warriors of 
 Persia were slain ; that if Julian could once more lead 
 on the army, the victory would be decisive. 
 
 " Friends and brothers-in-arms," said Julian, " the 
 time for me to retire from life is come. As an ho- 
 nourable debtor I ought to render back to nature, who 
 claims her own, that soul which she entrusted to me. 
 I have too well learned of philosophy how superior is 
 the soul to the body now to afflict myself, nay, rather 
 not to rejoice, that the nobler part regains its li- 
 berty. Have not the gods themselves sometimes 
 granted death to the most pious of mortals, as the 
 highest recompence of their virtue ? This favour I 
 am very sensible they have granted me to-day, that 
 I might not sink under the difficulties which surround 
 us — that I might not fall into any base or pro- 
 strate condition. As to the pains of the body, they 
 overcome cowards, but they yield to the force of the 
 will. I do not repent of my actions ; I feel not in my 
 conscience remorse for any great crime — neither when, 
 hidden in the shade, I laboured to form my character 
 and correct my faults, nor since the empire has been
 
 CHAP. IV. DEATH OF JULIAN. Q3. 
 
 bestowed upon me. I flatter myself that I have kept 
 spotless this soul which we receive from heaven, and 
 which has its source and its kindred there. I have 
 sought to exercise moderation in civil government, nor 
 have I ever undertaken or declined war without a careful 
 examination of my rights. But success depends not on 
 our counsels ; it is for the celestial powers to chrect the 
 event of what we do but begin. I have ever thought 
 that the end of a just authority ought to be the ad- 
 vantage and safety of those who obey ; I have, there- 
 fore, sought to guard all my actions from that arbitrary 
 licence which is equally injurious to affairs and cor- 
 rupting to morals. I render thanks to that eternal 
 divinity Avhich decreed before my birth that I should 
 not fall a victim to clandestine toils, nor to the pains, 
 the diseases, or the violent deaths which have been the lot 
 of all my race; but has granted me a glorious exit from 
 this world in the midst of a career of prosperity. My 
 ebbing strength does not permit me to say more. I 
 think it prudent not to influence your choice in the 
 nomination of an emperor. I might fail to distinguish 
 the most worthy. I might expose to peril him whom I 
 should point out to your suffrages, and whom you might 
 not approve. JMy only desire is, that the republic may 
 have a worthy head." 
 
 With his small remaining strength Julian endea- 
 voured to distribute his effects among the friends who 
 surrounded him. He did not see among them Anato- 
 lius, to whom he wished to leave some token of remem- 
 brance. He also is happy, replied Sallustius ; and 
 Julian shed, for the fate of his friend, those tears which 
 he denied to his own. All attempts to stop a fresh 
 effusion of blood had been vain. Julian asked for a cup 
 of cold water, and having drunk it, instantly expired. 
 
 Jovian, whom the army appointed his successor, 
 bought the permission to effect a disastrous retreat, by 
 abandoning to Sapor five provinces of Armenia, with 
 the fortress of Nisibis, the bulwark of the Eastern em- 
 pire.
 
 Q4> FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 JOVIAN. DEPRESSION OF THE PAGANS. CALAMITOUS PERIOD 
 
 EMBRACED BT THIS CHAPTER. DEATH OF JOVIAN. ELECTION 
 
 OF VALENTINIAN. HIS CHARACTER. GRINDING TAXATION. 
 
 SUCCESSES OF THE ROMAN ARMS. FEEBLENESS OF VALENS.^ 
 
 HERMANRIC. GOTHIC EMPIRE IN DACIA. ■ DEATH OF VA- 
 LENTINIAN. GRATIAN, EMPEROR OF THE V.'EST. INVASION 
 
 OF DACIA BY THE HUNS. HORROR INSPIRED BY THEIR ASPECT. 
 
 DEFEAT OF THE GOTHS. THEY CROSS THE DANUBE AND 
 
 TAKE REFUGE IN THE EJIPIRE. PERFIDY AND CRUELTY OF 
 
 VALENS. REVOLT OF THE GOTHS. DEATH OF VALENS. 
 
 MASSACRE OF THE GOTHIC HOSTAGES. VENGEANCE TAKEN BY 
 
 FRITIGERN. THE EASTERN EMPIRE WITHOUT A HEAD. THEO- 
 
 DOSIUS THE GREAT CHOSEN AS COLLEAGUE, AND PROCLAIMED 
 BY GRATIAN. HIS TALENTS AND WISDOM. THE GOTHS IN- 
 DUCED TO LAY DOWN AR5IS. MCESIA CEDED TO THEM. 
 
 THEIR CIVILISATION. ULPHILAS. INFLUENCE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 AT THE COURT OF GRATIAN. DEATH OF GRATIAN. CHA- 
 RACTER OF THEODOSIUS. PERSECUTION OF THE ARIANS. 
 
 DISCOURAGEMENT OF PAGANISM. ST. GREGORY OF NAZI- 
 
 ANZEN. ST. AMBROSE. ST. MARTIN. DEATH OF THEO- 
 DOSIUS. — A. D. 364 — 395. 
 
 Every fresh revolution that agitated the empire, urged 
 it another downward step into the abyss which was 
 destined soon to ingulf it. Julian's imprudent en- 
 deavour to re-establish a religion which had received its 
 death-stroke, to weaken the influence of one which he 
 attacked by a covert persecution, and by a system of 
 injustice, excited the most violent resentment among his 
 Christian subjects, and exposed his name to accusations 
 and calumnies which have stained his memory to this 
 day. ^Vhen his successor, Jovian, who did not reign 
 long enough to lead back to Constantinople the army 
 which he had marched from the banks of the Tigris, 
 made public profession of Christianity, he, at the same 
 time, displaced a great number of brave officers and able 
 functionaries, whom Julian had promoted in proportion
 
 CHAP. V. DOWNFALL OP PAGANISM. QS 
 
 to their zeal for paganism. From that period, up to 
 the fall of the empire, a hostile sect, which regarded it- 
 self as unjustly stripped of its ancient honours, invoked 
 the vengeance of the gods on the heads of the govern- 
 ment, exulted in the public calamities, and probably 
 hastened them by its intrigues, though inextricably in- 
 volved in the common ruin. 
 
 The pagan faith, which was not attached to a body of 
 doctrine, nor supported by a corporation of priests, nor 
 heightened by the fervour of novelty, scarcely ever dis- 
 played itself in open revolt, or dared the perils of mar- 
 tyrdom ; but pagans still occupied the foremost rank in 
 letters: — the orators, the philosophers (or, as they were 
 otherwise called, sophists) the historians, belonged, almost 
 without an exception, to the ancient religion. It still kept 
 possession of the most illustrious schools, especially those 
 of Athens and Alexandria ; the majority of the Roman 
 senate were still attached to it; and in the breasts of the 
 common people, particularly the rural population, it 
 maintained its power for several centuries, branded, how- 
 ever, with the name of magic, a name eagerly given to 
 a fallen religion which persecution forces into conceal- 
 ment. If the pagans wished that their dishonoured 
 faith should be avenged on their fellow citizens and on 
 themselves, they might enjoy this melancholy consola- 
 tion in the thirty-two years, the events of which we are 
 now about to retrace — the years which elapsed from 
 the death of Julian to that of the great Theodosius 
 (a. d. ']6'A — f>95)- This period, though it produced 
 some distinguished leaders, was marked by dreadful and 
 atrocious calamities. The talents, even the genius, of 
 some emperors no longer sufficed to save the civilised 
 world from the attacks of its barbarian foes, or from the 
 more formidable peril of its own internal corruption. 
 The vigour displayed by Valentinian in defence of the 
 AV'cst, from the year ')()!• to 'A7-^> ', the imprudence of 
 Valens, who laid open the interior of the empire to the 
 Gothic nations, and the disasters which resulted from 
 this, from 375 to 379 ; lastly, the policy of Theodosius
 
 Q6 fall of the ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 the Great, who, from 379 to 395, succeeded in disarm- 
 ing enemies whom he could not subdue, will successively 
 form the subject of our reflections. 
 
 Less than eight months after his elevation to the 
 throne, on the 17th of February, 364, Jovian died in a 
 small town of Galatia. After the expiration of ten daySj 
 the army which he was leading home from Persia, at a 
 solemn assembly held at Nice, in Bithynia, chose as his 
 successor the son of a captain from a little village of Pan- 
 nonia, the f-ountValentinian, whom his valour and bodily 
 prowess had raised to one of the highest posts of the 
 army. Valentinian, who had distinguished himself in 
 Gaul^ knew no language but Latin, no science but that 
 of war. Having given proofs of independence of cha- 
 racter in a subordinate condition, he thought to preserve 
 a certain consistency of virtue by showing himself firm, 
 inflexible, prompt, often cruel, in his judgments. He 
 forgot that to resist power, demands courage; to crush 
 weakness, needs only brutality. Spite of his savage 
 rudeness, and the furious violence of his temper, the 
 Roman empire found in him an able chief at the mo- 
 ment of its greatest need. Unhappily, the extent of the 
 empire required, at least, two rulers. The army felt 
 this, and demanded a second. " If you think of your 
 country," said a brave officer to him, " choose a colleague 
 from among her children ; if you think only of yourself, 
 you have a brother." Valentinian showed no irritation, 
 but he chose his brother, ^'alens, with whom he shared 
 his power, had the weak, timid, and cruel character 
 which ordinarily distinguishes cowards, ^'alentinian, born 
 in the ^Vest, speaking only the language, and attached to 
 the manners and the climate of the 'West, reserved the 
 government of it to himself. He ceded to his brother a 
 part of Illyricum on the Danube, and the whole of the 
 East. He established universal toleration by law, and 
 took no part in the sectarian controversies which divided 
 Christendom. A'alens adopted the Arian faith, and per- 
 secuted the orthodox party. 
 
 The finances of the empire demanded a reform, which
 
 CBAP. V. VALENTINIAN. 97 
 
 neither of the emperors was in a condition to undertake. 
 They wanted money, and they were ignorant where to 
 seek the long exhausted sources of pubUc weaUh. Three 
 direct taxes, equally ruinous, pressed upon the citizens ; 
 the indictions, or territorial impost, calculated on the 
 third of the income, and often doubled or tripled by 
 superindictions, which the necessities of the provinces 
 compelled the government to exact ; the capitation or 
 poll tax, which sometimes amounted to a sum equivalent 
 to twelve pounds sterling per head, and the heavy 
 gratuitous labours imposed for the service of the land, 
 and the transport of the commodities belonging to the 
 revenue. These taxes had so utterly ruined the land- 
 holders, that in all parts of the country they aban- 
 doned estates, which no longer produced enough to pay 
 the charges upon them. Vast provinces in the interior 
 Avere deserted ; enUstments daily became more scanty 
 and difficult ; the magistrates of the curicB or muni- 
 cipalities, who were responsible both for the contributions 
 and the levies of their respective towns, sought by a 
 thousand subterfuges to escape the perilous honour of 
 the raagistrature. Some were seen taking refuge on 
 the estates of some powerful senator, concealing them- 
 selves among his slaves, voluntarily submitting to 
 the brand of infamy, in the hope that it would dis- 
 qualify them from charges so ruinous. In vain ; they 
 were forcibly dragged from their ignominious retreat, and 
 reinvested with the marks of these dreaded dignities. 
 Then, Avhen any disorder excited the anger of V'alen- 
 tinian, he called them to account for it with transports 
 of fury. On one occasion lie ordered the lictors to bring 
 him the heads of three magistrates of each town through- 
 out a whole ])rovince. " Will your clemency be pleased 
 to order," said the prefect Florentius, '• what we are to 
 do in the case of towns which do not contain three 
 magistrates ? " The order was revoked. Though the 
 emperor v.'as a Christian, the people and the monks 
 almost always inscribed in the list of martyrs those who 
 fell victims to his brutal rage. During the whole of the
 
 98 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 reigns of Constantine and his sons, the internal suffering 
 of the empire had continued to increase. The mitiga- 
 tion of it effected by Julian was but temporary, and 
 confined to a small number of provinces ; and his fatal 
 expedition into Syria, which destroyed the finest army 
 of the empire, increased the necessities of the govern- 
 ment, and forced it to have recourse to still more dis- 
 astrous expedients. 
 
 During the twelve years that Valentinian reigned over 
 the West (a.d. Sb'-i — 376), he redeemed his cruelties 
 by several brilliant victories. He drove the Allemans 
 out of Gaul and Rhastia, which they had invaded and 
 laid waste, and pursued them into their own country, 
 where he again conquered them. He then excited a war 
 between them and the Burgundians, whom he persuaded 
 to come as far as the banks of the Rhine to avenge a, 
 quarrel they had had with the Allemans concerning 
 certain salt-works. Valentinian had undertaken the 
 defence of Gaul in person, and generally resided at 
 Treves, then the capital of that vast prefecture ; but at 
 the time he was thus occupied, invasions not less 
 formidable had devastated the other provinces of the 
 West. The different tribes of Scots, forefathers of 
 those Highlanders who were still so nearly in a savage 
 state, when they invaded England in 1745, marched 
 across the whole extent of Britain. Their path was 
 marked by cruelties so atrocious, that it was believed at 
 the time, and recorded by St. Jerome, that they lived 
 on human flesh. London, even, was threatened by them, 
 and the whole island, which, like all the other provinces 
 df the empire, had lost every spark of military virtue, 
 was incapable of opposing any resistance to them. 
 Theodosius, a Spanish ofBcer, and father of the great 
 man of the same name who was afterwards associated 
 in the empire, was charged by Valentinian with the de- 
 fence of Britain. He forced the Scots to fall back 
 (a. d. 367 — 370), but without having been able to 
 bring them to an engagement. Scarcely had he deli- 
 vered the Britons from these savage enemies, when Va-
 
 CHAP. V. VALENS. QQ 
 
 lentiniaii entrusted to him the conduct of a war of equal 
 difficulty against the Moors, whom intolerable oppres- 
 sion had driven to revolt, and who had found in 
 Firmus, one of their native princes, tributary to Rome, 
 an able and experienced leader. Theodosius pursued 
 him with undaunted ardour and perseverance across the 
 burning plains of Gsetulia and the gorges of Mount 
 Atlas. He gave him no rest ; and after defeating him 
 in several battles, left him no other resource than a vo- 
 luntary death. But Theodosius experienced the fate 
 frequently reserved to eminent men under the tyrants of 
 Rome. He wrote to the emperor that the revolt of the 
 Moors was the work of the prefect Romanus, whose 
 insupportable tyranny had reduced them to a state of 
 desperation. He urged his recall, as the only means of 
 saving the province. To complain, on whatever ground 
 or whatever provocation, is to call in question the virtue 
 or the wisdom of the despot. The emperor resented 
 tliis offence. He caused his virtuous general to be be- 
 headed at Carthage, and rewarded Romanus for his 
 crimes. 
 
 At this period Valens reigned over the Greeks, whose 
 language he did not understand (a. d. .'^64 — 378). His 
 eastern frontier was menaced by the Persians, his north- 
 ern by the Goths. It is true, that, observing with still 
 greater timidity than real weakness, the shameful peace 
 which Jovian had concluded with the former, he endea- 
 voured to disarm Sapor, to whom the strong places on 
 the frontier had been given up. But one of the dis- 
 graceful conditions of a treaty imposed on the Romans, 
 was the desertion of the king of Armenia, and his 
 neighbour the king of Iberia. Both were attacked by 
 Sapor, The former, deceived by an artful negotiation, 
 was treacherously invited to a feast, where he was 
 loaded with chains and afterwards massacred. The 
 latter was compelled to flee. Armenia and Iberia be- 
 came subject to Persia ; but as the people of both these 
 countries were Christian, they remained faithful to the 
 interests of Rome, though conquered by her enemy, 
 u 2
 
 100 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIKE. CHAP. V. 
 
 A son of the king of Armenia, named Para^ found his 
 father's subjects ever ready to take up arms in his fa- 
 vour : the frequent revolts of the Armenians kept the 
 Persian frontier in a state of insecurity and disquiet, 
 and occupied the arms of Sapor in his old age. Para 
 •would, indeed, eventually have triumphed, and have 
 established the independence of Armenia, had not the 
 emperor Valens, by a policy wholly inexplicable, caused 
 him to be assassinated, in the year 374, in the midst of 
 an entertainment which he gave his generals. 
 
 The dominion of the Goths extended along the shores 
 of the Danube and the Black Sea, and thirty years had 
 elapsed since they had made any incursion into the 
 Roman territory. But during that period they had gone 
 on increasing in greatness and in power. The aged 
 Herraanric, the most illustrious of the Amalian race, 
 reigned over the whole nation ; his power had extended 
 from the Ostrogoths to the Visigoths, then to the 
 Gepidse. He had pushed his conquests to the shores 
 of the Baltic ; the Esthonians and the Russians, or 
 Roxolani, were among his subjects, as well as the He- 
 netes of the plains of Poland, and the Heruli of the 
 Palus Maeotides. At the beginning of the reign of 
 Valens, an attempt of Procopius, a distant relation of 
 Juhan, to get himself crowned at Constantinople, had 
 drawn the Goths, his allies, to the south of the Danube. 
 They were, however, repulsed in three campaigns 
 (a. d. 367 — 369)? and peace was re-established on that 
 frontier. Spite of the formidable neighbourhood of the 
 Goths and the Persians — spite of the cowardice and 
 the incapacity of Valens — the East had remained at 
 peace, protected by the mere name of Valentinian, 
 whose miUtary talents, promptitude, and severity were 
 known to all the barbarian tribes. But the career of 
 this remarkable man, so dreaded by his enemies and by 
 his subjects, had now reached its term. He was carry- 
 ing war into Pannonia against the Quadi, and having 
 granted an audience to the ambassadors of that nation, 
 who came as suppliants to demand peace, gave way to
 
 CHAP. V. IRRUPTION OF THE HUNS. 101 
 
 SO violent a fit of rage against them^ that he burst a 
 blood-vessel in his chesty and died in their presence, 
 stifled by his own blood, which gushed in torrents from 
 his mouth (Nov. 17- 375). His two sons, — Gratian, 
 who was scarcely come to manhood, and Valentinian, 
 still a child, — shared the West between them; while 
 Valens, who had been thought incompetent to fill the 
 second place, now remained in possession of the supreme 
 power in the East. 
 
 Never, however, was the empire in greater need of 
 an able and vigorous head. The entire nation of the 
 Huns, abandoning to the Sienpi its ancient pastures 
 bordering on China, had traversed the whole north of 
 Asia by a march of 1300 leagues. This immense 
 horde, swelled by all the conquered nations whom it 
 carried along in its passage, bore down on the plains of 
 the Alans, and defeated them on the banks of the Ta- 
 nais in a great battle. It received into its body a part 
 of the vanquished tribe, accompanied by which it con- 
 tinued to advance towards the West ; while other Alans, 
 too haughty to renounce their independence, had re- 
 treated, some into Germany, whence we shall see them 
 afterwards pass into Gaul ; others into the Caucasian 
 mountains, where they preserve their name to this day. 
 The Goths who bordered on the Alans had fertilised 
 by their labours the rich plains which lie to the north 
 of the Danube and of the Black Sea. More civilised 
 than any of the kindred Germanic tribes, they began to 
 make rapid progress in the social sciences. They ad- 
 dicted themselves to agriculture ; they cultivated the 
 arts ; they improved their language ; they collected the 
 traditions, sung, or perhaps inscribed, in the Runic 
 character, which preserved the memory of their migra- 
 tions, and of the exploits of their fathers ; they kept 
 up an advantageous intercourse with Greece, by means 
 of which Christianity began to find its way among 
 them ; and, while they had gained more extensive 
 knowledge, and more humane manners, they had lost 
 nothing of their love of liberty, nor of their bravery. 
 H 3
 
 102 FALL OF THE ROBIAN EBIPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 This comparatively fortunate state of things was sud- 
 denly interrupted by the appearance of the Huns, — the 
 unlooked-for arrival of that savage nation, which, from 
 the moment it crossed the Borysthenes, or the Dnieper, 
 began to burn their villages and their crops; to massacre, 
 without pity, men, women, and children ; to devastate 
 and destroy whatever came within the reach of a Scy- 
 thian horseman. Their language was understood by 
 none; the Goths even doubted whether its shrill and dis- 
 sonant sounds were those of any human speech. Their 
 name had never been heard in Europe. Northern su- 
 perstition soon accounted for the sudden apparition of 
 these armed myriads, by supposing them the offspring 
 of infernal spirits, — the only fit consorts, they said, of 
 women, the outcasts of Europe, who had been driven 
 into deserts for the practice of arts of magic. 
 
 The hideous aspect of the Huns gave colour to this 
 devilish genealogy. " They put to flight," says Jor- 
 nandes, the Gothic historian, " by the terror inspired 
 by their countenance, those whom their bravery would 
 never have subdued. The livid colour of their skin had 
 something frightful in it; it was not a face, but a form- 
 less mass of flesh, in which two black and sinister spots 
 filled the place of eyes. Their cruelty wreaked itself 
 upon their own children, whose cheeks they lacerated 
 with iron before they had tasted their mothers' milk. 
 For this reason no down shaded their chin in youth, no 
 beard gave dignity to their old age." Their bodies 
 seemed no less disgusting than their faces. " Their 
 aspect was not that of men," says Ammianus Marcel- 
 linus, " but of beasts standing on their hind legs, as 
 it were in mockery of our species." 
 
 The great Hermanric, whose kingdom extended from 
 the Baltic to the Black Sea, would not have abandoned 
 his sceptre to the Huns without a struggle, but at this 
 very time he was murdered by a domestic enemy. The 
 nations he had subjugated prepared on every side for 
 rebellion. The Ostrogoths, after a vain resistance, broke 
 their alliance with the Visigoths ; while the latter, like
 
 CHAP. V. IRRUPTION OF THE HUNS. 103 
 
 an affrighted flock of sheep, trooping together from all 
 parts of their vast territory to the right bank of the 
 Danube, refused to combat those superhuman beings by 
 whom they were pursued. They stretched out their 
 supplicating hands to the Romans on the other bank, 
 entreating that they might be permitted to seek a refuge 
 from the butchery which threatened them, in those wilds 
 of Moesia and Thrace which were almost valueless to 
 the empire. They promised to bring them into a state 
 of cultivation, to pay the taxes on the land, and to 
 defend it with their arms. Valens, who for five years 
 had fixed his residence at Antioch, learned with sur- 
 prise that an empire equal to his own in extent, su- 
 perior in valour, and so long the object of his terror, 
 had suddenly crumbled into dust, and that his most 
 formidable enemies were now imploring to become his 
 subjects. 
 
 Humanity, enjoined him to grant the petition of the 
 Goths ; perhaps even policy dictated it ; but baser mo- 
 tives determined the emperor, his counsellors, and the 
 subalterns charged with the execution of his orders. 
 Their sordid cupidity soon rendered odious the hospi- 
 tality they offered to the Goths. The emperor had 
 imposed two conditions on their reception ; the one, 
 that they should lay down their arms, the other, that 
 they should give up their children as hostages. The 
 officers charged with the duty of receiving the arms, 
 suffered themselves to be seduced by bribes into a con- 
 nivance at the non-execution of this order. Yet, when 
 the transport, not of an army, but of a nation, was ac- 
 comj)lished, when 200,000 warriors, exclusive of women 
 and children, had crossed the Danube, which, on the 
 north of M(rsia, is above a mile in width; the imperial 
 officers tried to profit by a famine, real or feigned, to 
 strip those of gold whom they had left in possession of 
 steel. All the necessaries of life were sold to them at 
 the prices of an exorbitant monopoly. Never was avarice 
 more blind ; never did besotted government more effect- 
 ually prepare its own ruin, 
 
 ir 4
 
 104 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 So long as the most vile and unwholesome food could 
 be purchased at the price of money, of effects, of slaves, 
 the Goths consented to strip themselves. The fear of 
 endangering their hostages sustained their endurance to 
 its utmost terra : they even sold the children who were 
 left them, and whom they could no longer feed, to buy 
 sustenance for a few days. But when the distrust of 
 the Romans, increasing with their injuries, led them to 
 take measures for dispersing the Goths over the whole 
 empire, and troops were assembled to crush them if 
 they offered resistance, this very attempt to sever, did 
 but strengthen the ties that united them. Their chief, 
 Friti£;ern, formerly designated by the title of Judge, 
 began to take upon himself the character and functions 
 of sovereign ; and a violent quarrel having broken out 
 at Marcianople, the capital of Lower Moesia, between 
 the oppressed and the oppressors, Lupicinus, the general 
 of Valens, was defeated, his army put to flight, and the 
 oppressed guests of the Romans found themselves mas- 
 ters of Moesia. 
 
 The first success secured nearly all that were to fol- 
 low. At the news of it, the Ostrogoths, who had main- 
 tained their independence against the Huns, passed the 
 Danube arms in hand, and joined the Visigoths. Long 
 before the invasion of the Huns, a great number of 
 young Goths had entered the Roman service as an ad- 
 vantageous and honourable career : they now raised the 
 standard of revolt, and went over to their countrymen. 
 But the most dangerous of the auxiUaries of the bar- 
 barian army were the slaves, who fled in all directions 
 from their inhuman masters, especially those who had 
 been condemned to labour in the mines of Mount Rho- 
 dope: they craved vengeance at the hands of the stranger, 
 and, in return, communicated their knowledge of the 
 country, and the secret intelligence they had means of 
 procuring. Notwithstanding these advantages, war was 
 carried on for two years with various success. On the 
 side of Valens, Roman discipline, and the possession of 
 arsenals, magazines, and fortresses, counterbalanced the
 
 CHAP. V. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF VALENS. 105 
 
 bravery of the Gotlis and the talents of Fritigern. But 
 the pride of the emperor of the East could only be 
 satisfied by a victory pained under his auspices. He 
 marched in person against the Goths with a most bril- 
 liant army ; he would not wait for Gratian, who was 
 advancing from the W^est to his assistance. His defeat 
 at Adrianople, on the 9th of August, 37 S, after which 
 he perished in the flames of a hovel in which he had 
 sought refuge, left the empire without a defender. 
 
 The forces of the East were nearly annihilated at the 
 terrible battle of Adrianople : more than 60,000 Roman 
 soldiers perished in the fight or in the pursuit ; and the 
 time was long past when such a loss could have been 
 easily repaired by fresh levies. Nevertheless, even after 
 this frightful massacre, the walls of Adrianople still op- 
 posed an unconquerable resistance to the barbarians. 
 Valour may supply the place of military ecience in the 
 open field, but civilised nations recover all the advantages 
 of the art of war in the attack or defence of fortified 
 towns. Fritigern quitted Adrianople, declaring that he 
 made no war upon stones. But, with the exception of 
 a few great cities, the Romans had neglected the forti- 
 fications of the provincial towns : to defend them, it 
 would have been necessary to arm the citizens, to train 
 them to war, to place within their reach means of re- 
 sistance which they might have turned to the purposes 
 of revolt or of civil war. Empires are nodding to their 
 fall, when their rulers are more in dread of subjects than 
 of external foes : this dread is almost invariably the 
 proof of injuries, by which they have earned the hatred 
 and vengeance of the people. The Goths, leaving 
 Adrianople in their rear, advanced, ravaging all around 
 them, to the foot of the walls of Constantinople ; and, 
 after some unimportant skirmishes, returned westward 
 through Macedonia, Epirus, and Dalmatia. From the 
 Danube to the Adriatic, their passage was marked by 
 conflagration and blood. 
 
 Whilst the European provinces of the Greek empire 
 sunk under these calamities, the Asiatic provinces took
 
 106 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 a horrible vengeance on the authors of them. We have 
 said, that before the Goths were permitted to pass the 
 Danube, they were compelled to give up their children 
 as hostages ; that those whom their parents had been 
 able to retain at that time, were afterwards sold for any 
 sum that would purchase present sustenance for their 
 famishing fathers ; that the peril of these children had 
 long been the only tie that had withheld the army of 
 the barbarians, who, even in selling them, had sought 
 to save them from starvation. When their patience 
 was at length utterly exhausted, — when the whole East 
 resounded with the noise of their exploits, — these devoted 
 children, with a daring far beyond their strength, un- 
 armed as they were, and dispersed through all the towns 
 of Asia, celebrated the triumph of their fathers ; they sang 
 the songs of their country ; they would speak no lan- 
 guage but their native tongue ; they exulted in the hope 
 that they should soon share in these victories, — soon join 
 the ranks of their countrymen. The inhabitants of 
 the East, alarmed or incensed, saw, or pretended to see, 
 in these imprudent demonstrations of youthful feeling, 
 threatenings of a general revolt. Julius, commander- 
 in-chief of the forces of the East, denounced them to 
 the senate of Constantinople, as conspirators, and asked 
 for orders; for the empire had remained, since the death 
 of Valens, without a head. The senate imprudently 
 recurred to the arbitrary constitutions of that republic, 
 the tutelary provisions of which they completely dis- 
 regarded. It authorised Julius to take care that the 
 republic received no detriment {caveant consules ne quid, 
 &c.). The young Goths were allured, by treacherous 
 promises, into the capital of each province. Scarcely 
 were they assembled in the Forum, when all the avenues 
 were invested by guards, bowmen appeared on the roofs 
 of all the houses, and, at a given signal, on the same 
 day and hour throughout all the cities of Asia, the 
 whole body of this noble and ardent youth was assailed, 
 unarmed and defenceless, by a shower of darts, and then 
 slaughtered without mercy.
 
 CHAP. V. ALLIANCE OF THE HUNS AND GOTHS. 107 
 
 An atrocious act of cruelty is almost always a sign of 
 cowardice, not of courage. The Orientals, who, in thus 
 massacring thousands of young men, seemed resolved to 
 destroy all possibility of a reconciliation with their fa- 
 thers, never dared to meet those fathers in the field. The 
 same terror with which the Huns had so lately inspired 
 the Goths, they in their turn struck into the Greeks. Nay, 
 the hostile races, Scythian and Teutonic, had united for 
 the destruction of the Roman empire. The Huns, who 
 had penetrated into Dacia, had stopped there, and had 
 pitched their tents. The captain who had led them 
 thither was dead ; civil discords broke out in their 
 hordes ; and it was no longer in pursuit of a general 
 war, but in the quest of private adventures, that seve- 
 ral divisions of Huns and Alans crossed the Danube, 
 contracted an alliance with Fritigern, and seconded the 
 steady and thoughtful valour of the Goths by a nume- 
 rous and active cavalry. 
 
 No general in the East attempted to take advantage 
 of the anarchy in favour of his own ambition ; no army 
 offered the purple to its chief ; all dreaded the responsi- 
 bility of command at so tremendous a crisis. All eyes 
 were turned on the court of Treves, the only point 
 whence help was hoped for. But Gratian, eldest son 
 of Valentinian, and emperor of the West, was only 
 nineteen. He had, indeed, even at that early age, ac- 
 quired some renown in arms, especially through the 
 counsels of an ambitious Frank named Merobaudes, 
 one of the kings of that warlike people, who had not 
 scorned the title of count of the domestics of the impe- 
 rial court, and who, uniting his influence over his 
 countrymen to the arts and intrigues of a courtier, had 
 become the arbiter of the ^V^est. (Jratian marched upon 
 Illyricum with his army, when he learned the event of the 
 battle of Adrianople, and the death of X'aions, who had 
 been so eager to secure the undivided honours of victory, 
 that he would not wait for his arrival. Incapable of con- 
 fronting such a tempest, he retreated to Sirnnum. The 
 news of an invasion of the Allemans into Gaul recailecl
 
 108 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 him to the defence of his own territory. Danger started 
 up on every hand at once. The empire stood in need 
 of a new chief, and one of approved valour. Gratian 
 had the singular generosity to choose from among his 
 enemies^ and from a sense of merit alone. Theodosius 
 the Spaniard, his father's general, who had successively 
 vanquished the Scots, and afterwards the Moors, and 
 who had been unjustly condemned to the scaffold at *the 
 beginning of Gratian's reign, had left a son thirty-three 
 years of age, who bore his name. The younger Theo- 
 dosius had distinguished himself in the command he held 
 in Moesia, but was living in retirement and disgrace on 
 his estates in Spain, when, with the confidence of a 
 noble mind, Gratian chose him out^ presented him to 
 the army on the IQih of January, 379> and declared 
 him his colleague, and emperor of the East. 
 
 The task imposed on the great Theodosius was in- 
 finitely difficult. The abandonment of the Danube had 
 opened the entrance of the empire not only to the 
 Goths, but to all the tribes of Germany and Scythia. 
 They overran the immense lUyrian peninsula from one 
 end to the other^ unresisted, yet with unabated fury. 
 The blood of the young Goths which had been shed in 
 Asia was daily avenged with interest over all that re- 
 mained of Mcesian, Thrasian, Dalmatian, or Grecian 
 race. It was more particularly during these four years 
 of extermination that the Goths acquired the fatal 
 celebrity attached to their name, which is still that of 
 the destroyers of civilisation. Theodosius began by 
 strengthening the fortified cities, recruiting the garrisons, 
 and exercising his soldiers in small engagements when- 
 ever he felt assured of success : he then waited to take 
 advantage of circumstances ; he sought to divide his 
 enemies by intrigue, and, above all, strenuously dis- 
 avowed the rapacity of the ministers of Valens, or the 
 cruelty of Julius ; he took every occasion of declaring 
 his attachment and esteem for the Gothic people, and 
 at length succeeded in persuading them that his friend- 
 ship was sincere : happy in the peaceful state of his
 
 CHAP. V. THEODOSIUS. 109 
 
 Asian frontier; happy that the aged Sapor II., or his 
 effeminate successor Artaxerxes II., did not attempt an 
 attack on the Roman empire, which would infallibly 
 have succeeded. 
 
 The very victories of the Goths, their pride, their 
 intemperance, at length impaired their energy. Fri- 
 tigern, who, in the most difficult moments, had led 
 them on with so much abiUty, was dead : the jealousies 
 of independent tribes were rekindled ; they refused to 
 obey a common chief. The people of Scythia, the 
 Huns, the Alans, who had shared in the plunder of the 
 empire, now separated themselves from the Germans. 
 They contemned the Goths for their flight ; and the 
 Goths felt their antipathy to them to be strong as ever. 
 Theodosius dexterously profited by these seeds of dis- 
 cord ; he drew successively into his service several 
 leaders of the malecontents ; he soon convinced the bar- 
 barians that they would find more riches, more enjoy- 
 ment, in the pay of the emperor, than they could conquer 
 by the sword in provinces laid waste by the fury of 
 merciless invaders. He was careful to afford so much 
 countenance and support to those whom he had received 
 imder his banners, that the example became contagious. 
 It was by a series of treaties with as many independent 
 chieftains, that the nation was at length induced to lay 
 down its arms : the last of these treaties was concluded 
 on the 30th of October, 382. It restored peace to the 
 Eastern empire, six years after the Goths crossed the 
 Danube. 
 
 This formidable nation was thus finally established 
 within the boundary of the empire of the East. The 
 vast regions they had ravaged were abandoned to them, 
 if not in absolute sovereignty, at least on terms little at 
 variance witli their independence. The Goths settled 
 in the bosom of the empire had no kings ; their here- 
 ditary chiefs were consulted under the name of judges, 
 but their power was unchanged ; they were still the 
 military commanders, the presidents of popular assem- 
 blies, who administered justice and government. The
 
 110 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 Goths gave a vague sort of recognition to the sovereignty 
 of the Roman emperor ; but they submitted neither to 
 his laws, his magistrates, nor his taxes. They en- 
 gaged to maintain 40,000 men for the service of Theo- 
 dosius ; but they Avere to remain a distinct army, to obey 
 no leaders but such as they chose themselves, to be in no 
 way confounded with the Roman soldiery, and to be 
 distinguished by the title of federated troops. The 
 labours of agriculture, which they had been forced to 
 abandon in Dacia, they now resumed in Mcesia and aU 
 the country lying on the right of the Danube. They 
 portioned out waste lands. By their intermixture with 
 the original inhabitants, they acquired new branches of 
 knowledge, and followed up the progress they had 
 already made in civilisation. It was, probably, at this 
 period that their apostle, bishop Ulphilas, who had 
 translated the Gospels into their tongue, invented the 
 Moeso-Gothic character, which bears the name of their 
 new abode. Occupying the border country between the 
 two empires and the two languages, they borrowed 
 sometliing from each, even in their alphabet. At the 
 same time that they were virtual masters of these pro- 
 vinces, their leaders offered themselves as candidates for 
 all posts and employments at the court of Constanti- 
 nople. From these they passed to the command of 
 provinces ; and the great Theodosius found himself com- 
 pelled to decorate several Goths with the consulate; for 
 the two emperors yearly agreed on the election of those 
 ancient magistrates of the republic, now without func- 
 tions, and serving little other purpose than to give their 
 names to the year in the consular fasti. 
 
 Thus, then, the empire still subsisted, but the bar- 
 barians possessed both the force of arms and the autho- 
 rity of magistratures ; already were they established as 
 a compact national body within her frontiers. The- 
 odosius conferred the consulate on Goths, and his 
 colleague Gratian on Franks — among others on Mero- 
 baudes, chief of that warlike nation. The Frankish 
 people had contracted a useful alliance with the empire.
 
 CHAP. V. '' GRATIAN. Ill 
 
 It supplied nearly the whole of the armies of the West, 
 and exclusively guided the counsels of the court. About 
 this epoch, however, the young Gratian, who had early 
 obtained a brilliant reputation, having delivered Gaul 
 from a formidable invasion by a decisive victory ob- 
 tained over the AUemans, near Colmar, in the month of 
 May, 378, began to lose his popularity and the sup- 
 port of his Germanic allies. Passionately addicted to 
 the chase, he was struck with admiration at the superior 
 skill of the Scythian archers. He took into his pay a 
 considerable body of those Alans who had been obliged 
 to leave the Huns on the banks of the "Wolga. He es- 
 tablished tliem on the Seine, made them the companions 
 of his sports and exercises, formed them into a body 
 guard, and even wore their dress. The Romans, and 
 the Franks their confederates, equally regarded this 
 preference as an insult. The legions of Britain revolted, 
 and placed the purple on the senator Maximus : those 
 of Gaul deserted Gratian ; and the young emperor, con- 
 strained to flee, was killed at Lyons on the 25th of 
 August, 383. Theodosius, at that time occupied by a 
 new aggression of the Ostrogoths and the Gruthun- 
 gians, whom he defeated, and Valentinian II., who, 
 while yet a child, wielded the sceptre of Italy and 
 Africa, were both compelled to acknowledge Maximus 
 as the colleague whom the will of the soldiery had 
 given them. (a. d. 383—387.) 
 
 The history of the reign of Theodosius is very im- 
 perfectly known. Cotemporary historians, either of the 
 Eastern or Western empire, are wholly wanting to that 
 period. Nevertheless, the title of Great has been 
 handed down to bespeak the admiration of posterity. 
 So far as we can judge, he seems to have merited this 
 title, in the first place, by his military talents, always 
 the surest claim to vulgar distinction ; and secondly, by 
 a considerable degree of prudence in the difficult 
 government of a tottering state ; by a generosity wliich 
 broke forth with singular lustre on some occasions, and 
 by domestic virtues and aflPections^ purity of niannerSj
 
 112 FALL OF THE ROJIAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 and gentleness in his social relations, — qualities always 
 rare in an exalted stationj rarest of all on the throne 
 of Constantinople. Yet it was neither his victories, nor 
 his talents, nor his virtues, that procured him the title 
 of Great, or tlie zeal with which his name has been cele- 
 brated from age to age : it was, above all, the protec- 
 tion he afforded to the orthodox church, — a protection 
 which extended its triumph over heretics and pagans, 
 but which, in accordance with the spirit of his age, was 
 stained with the most odious intolerance. 
 
 When Theodosius ascended the throne of the East, 
 Arianism, favoured by Valens, was the dominant faith, 
 especially at Constantinople. The patriarch was Arian ; 
 the majority of the clergy, and the monks, and the great 
 mass 3 of the people, were attached to that form of 
 Christianity. Theodosius, trained in the opposite 
 creed, decUned engaging in the subtle disputes of the 
 Greeks, or examining for himself the different con- 
 fessions of faith, or the evidence by which they were 
 supported. He deemed it more prudent to make choice 
 of two living symbols, — two prelates, whom, in his 
 first religious edict (a. d. 380), he declared to be " the 
 treasures of the true doctrine." Their names were 
 Damasus, bishop of Rome, and Peter, bishop of Alex- 
 andria. Those whose faith was in conformity with 
 that of these two luminaries of the church, were de- 
 clared the sole orthodox, the sole Catholic, and were to 
 remain sole possessors of all the churches, of all the 
 ecclesiastical foundations, and of all property bequeathed 
 to the clergy. All others were rejected as outcasts from 
 the bosom of the church ; sentenced, in fifteen successive 
 edicts, to punishments continually increasing in seve- 
 rity ; deprived of the exercise of their civil rights, — 
 among others, of that of bequest ; they were driven 
 from their houses, then into exile; and lastly, those 
 guilty of certain heresies, as, for instance, the Quarto- 
 decimans, who celebrated Easter on the same days as it 
 is observed by the Jews, instead of celebrating it on a 
 Sunday, as Christians do, were sentenced to death. At
 
 CHAP. V. STATE OF THE CHURCH. 113 
 
 the same time a new magistrature, — that of inquisitors 
 of the faithj — was instituted by Theodosius, to act at 
 once as spies, and as judges of the secret opinions of his 
 subjects. 
 
 A sort of instinct of justice withheld these magistrates, 
 for the present, from exacting from pagans as rigid an 
 account of their thoughts as from heretics ; they seemed 
 to recognise the rights of long possession, the sacredness 
 of time-hallowed opinions, and the potency of habit. 
 Many of the most distinguished senators, orators, and 
 philosophers of Rome still publicly professed the antique 
 faith. Theodosius did not venture to attach any punish- 
 ment to the manifestation of their sentiments ; he con- 
 tented himself with prohibiting the most essential act 
 of the primitive religion : he declared a sacrifice to the 
 gods to be an act of high treason, and in consequence, 
 punishable with death. 
 
 That church, which had so lately escaped fronn the 
 persecutions of the pagans, now demanded, with a 
 deplorable zeal, to be permitted to persecute in its turn. 
 Three men who lived in the reign of Theodosius^ rise 
 distinguished from the ranks of the clergy, and sur- 
 pass all their rivals in talent, force of character, and 
 even in virtue; — St. Gregory Nazianzen, for a time 
 patriarch of Constantinople; St. Ambrose, archbishop of 
 Milan ; and St. Martin, archbishop of Tours. All 
 three powerfully contributed to fan the flame of per- 
 secution. St. Gregory, installed by soldiers in the 
 cathedral of Constantinople, in defiance of the oppo- 
 sition of the whole flock intrusted to his care, lent his 
 aid to the expulsion of the Arian clergy, having first 
 stripped them of their functions, and substituted others 
 in their places; and when he had himself abdicated that 
 exalted station, he continued to exhort his successor, 
 Nectarius, not to relax in zeal against the heretics. 
 At Milan, St. Ambrose would not extend the benefit of 
 toleration so much as to his own emperor, A^alen- 
 tiiiian II., who had been educated by his mother, Jus- 
 tina, regent of Italy and of Africa, in Arian opinions. 
 
 VOL. I. ' I
 
 114 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. V. 
 
 Ambrose refused the emperor, liis mother, and the 
 Gothic soldiers who formed his body guard, the use 
 of a single church ; he assembled the people in the 
 Basilica (a. d. 386), to defend it against the soldiers. 
 To this popular resistance the celebrated Ambrosian 
 chant owes its origin. The ceaseless chanting of the 
 psalms, which intermitted not day or night, was the 
 means of preserving the wakeful watch cf the multitude 
 who guarded the holy places. Lastly, St. Martin, who 
 may be regarded as the great apostle of the Gauls, 
 placed himself at the head of a ti-oop of armed people, 
 and undertook the destruction of the idols and their 
 sanctuaries throughout his neighbourhood (a. d. 38.9). 
 The peasants sometimes attempted resistance, but they 
 soon paid for their temerity with their Uves. On this 
 occasion a judicial investigation was set on foot ; but 
 the saints declared, and the judges admitted, that the 
 blood of the pagans had not been shed by the armed 
 multitude led on by St. Martin to the attack of their 
 temples, but that devils and angels had combated in 
 these places, and the idolaters had merely shared the 
 fate of the infernal spirits with whom they were 
 leagued. 
 
 The influence which religion exercised over Theo- 
 dosius was more worthy of her, and more consolatory 
 to those who watch the effects of her power over men, 
 in the penance enjoined upon him by St. Ambrose in 
 expiation of a heavy crime. Theodosius was subject 
 to the most violent transports of rage ; and that mild- 
 ness for which he is extolled, vanished before the fits of 
 anger which troubled his reason. Twice he was thus 
 exasperated by the sedition of tw^o of the largest cities 
 of his states. Antioch, capital of Syria and of the whole 
 Levant, one of the most flourishing towns of the 
 empire, revolted, on the 26th of February, 387, against 
 an edict enforcing fresh taxes, and dragged the statues of 
 the emperor in the mud. The city was soon reduced 
 to submission, but four and twenty hours elapsed be- 
 fore it was known w'hat punishment was decreed by
 
 CHAP. V. THEODOSIUS. 115 
 
 Theodosius, who was then at Constantinople. His 
 first orders were cruel : a great number of senators were 
 to be beheaded, many wealthy citizens to be stripped 
 of their property, all the distributions of bread were to 
 be stopped, and the capital of the East to surrender all 
 its privileges, and be reduced to the rank of a village. 
 The magistrates, however, were slow in the execution 
 of these orders, they even interceded with Theodosius^ 
 who, after considerable delay, granted full pardon. The 
 fate of Thessalonica was more cruel. That powerful 
 city, capital of the whole Illyrian province, rose in 
 insurrection, on an occasion so insignificant as certain 
 games of the Circus, to obtain the liberty of a skilful 
 charioteer who had been imprisoned (a. d. SpO). 
 Botheric, commandant of the city, was killed, together 
 with several of his officers, while endeavouring to sup- 
 press the sedition, and his body treated with the greatest 
 indignity by the populace. Theodosius, who was then 
 at ]\Iilan with Valentinian II., immediately gave orders 
 that 7000, or, according to some, 1 5,000, Thessalonian 
 heads should fall as a punishment for this rebellion. 
 The inhabitants were invited to the Circus, as if to the 
 celebration of new games : while they were waiting for 
 the signal for the departure of the chariots, a body of 
 soldiers rushed in upon them, and slaughtered without 
 distinction of innocence or guilt, of sex or age. This 
 horrible butchery lasted three hours, when the tribute 
 of heads exacted by the emperor was collected. 
 
 When the news of this massacre reached St. Ambrose 
 at Milan, he manifested the liveliest grief. He wrote 
 to Theodosius, on no account to show himself in a 
 church, stained as he was with innocent blood. Theo- 
 dosius, having disregarded this intenhct, was stopped 
 by St. Ambrose, at the head of his clergy, on the 
 portico of the temple which lie was about to enter. 
 '' David, the king who was well pleasing to God," said 
 the emperor, " was much more guilty than I, for he 
 joined adultery to murder." — " If you have imitated 
 David in his guilt, imitate him in his repentance," 
 I 2
 
 1 1 6 FALL OP THE RO.irAN E3IP1RE. CHAP. V. 
 
 replied the archbishop. His courageous remonstrances 
 intimidated the monarch, who submitted to the chas- 
 tisement of the church. He laid aside the imperial 
 ornaments, and confessed his sins with the deepest 
 sorrow and humiliation in the presence of the people ; 
 nor was it till after eight months of penitence that he 
 was restored to the bosom of the church. 
 
 The authority of Theodosius did not extend over 
 the West. His residence at Milan was only the eon- 
 sequence of the succour he had afforded to his colleague, 
 Valentinian II., who had been attacked by surprise and 
 driven out of Italy, in 387, by Maximus, emperor of 
 Gaul. Maximus was defeated on the banks of the 
 Save, in June, 388, and beheaded by order of Theo- 
 dosius, who at the same time ceded to Valentinian, who 
 had become his brother-in-law, Gaul, and all the re- 
 maining countries of the West. The new reign of this 
 young prince was not of long duration. He removed 
 the seat of his court to Vienne on the Rhone, Avhere 
 he was assassinated, on the 15th of May, 392, by 
 order of Arbogastes, general of the Franks, whose 
 authority had long predominated over that of his 
 master. Two years elapsed before Theodosius was 
 able to return to the West, to avenge his colleague. On 
 the 6th of September, 394, at the foot of the Julian 
 Alps, he vanquished Eugenius the grammarian, whom 
 Arbogastes had set up as a phantom emperor. After 
 this victory he was acknowledged, without a rival or a 
 colleague, throughout the Roman empire. But already 
 his life was drawing to its close. He was attacked by 
 a dropsy, which appears to have been the consequence 
 of his intemperance, and survived his victory but four 
 months. He died at Milan on the i7th of January, 
 395, aged fifty years, leaving the Roman world exposed 
 to a host of calamities, which his talents and his courage 
 had hardly sufficed to avert or to suspend.
 
 117 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 DEGRADATION OF THE ROMAN SOLDIERY. DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 
 MIDDLE CLASSES. RECKLESSNESS AND CORRUPTION OF THE 
 
 HIGHER AND THE LOWER. MASSACRE OF THESSALONICA. 
 
 ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS, SONS OF THEODOSIUS; THEIR IM- 
 BECILITY. STILICHO ; HIS GREAT QUALITIES. STATE OF THE 
 
 WEST UNDER ARCADIUS. INVASION OF GREECE, BY ALARIC 
 
 KING OF THE VISIGOTHS. ITALY INVADED BY ALARIC; DE- 
 FENDED BY STILICHO. DEFEAT OF ALARIC. COWARDICE OF 
 
 HONORUIS. GREAT AND FINAL INVASION OF THE ALLIED 
 
 BARBARIANS^ — CAUSES OF THE SIMULTANEOUS MOVEMENT 
 
 AMONG THE GERMANIC NATIONS. THEY CROSS THE RHINE, 
 
 AND RAVAGE GAUL. INVASION OF SPAIN BY THE SUEVl, VAN- 
 DALS, AND ALANS. CONDUCT OF HONORIUS TO STILICHO. 
 
 MASSACRE OF THE BARBARIAN HOSTAGES. SECOND WAR 
 
 WITH ALARIC. ROME TAKEN AND PILLAGED BY ALARIC — 
 
 HIS DEATH. PEACE WITH THE VISIGOTHS. CESSION OF AQUl- 
 
 TAINE. MARRIAGE OF ALARIc's SUCCESSOR, ADOLF, W1TH-- 
 
 FLACIDIA, A SISTER OF THE EMPEROR. A. D. 395 423. 
 
 The great Theodosius, who had frequently been seen 
 to pass from the energetic activity of a warrior to the 
 indolence and luxurious indulgence of a Sybarite, is 
 accused, by Zosimus, of having corrupted the manners 
 of his age, and precipitated the fall of the empire. 
 Zosimus constantly writes under the influence of a 
 feeling of personal hostility ; and, certainly, when we 
 recollect who and what were the predecessors of Theo- 
 dosiuKj — what the Romanswere under Tiberius and Nero, 
 what they were under Gallienus, — it does appear that 
 there was very little to corrupt ; and that Theodosius, who 
 was faithful to his domestic obligations, a good father and 
 a good husband, even during those intervals of luxu- 
 rious ease with which he is reproached, can scarcely be 
 regarded as a corrupter. Nevertheless, it is incontestable 
 that, during his reign, a last step was made towards 
 that utter degradation of mind, that prostration of spirit,,
 
 118 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 which manifested itself during the shameful reign of 
 his two sonSj and which shook the colossus of the 
 Roman empire to its base. Then it was, that soldiers, 
 who did not blush to call themselves Romans, laid down 
 their arms in the field; then it was, that that awful 
 infantry, which had been used to flight foot to foot, and 
 to rush, armed with its terrible short sword, on the 
 ranks it had broken with its hurled spear, was trans- 
 formed into a troop of timid bowmen, destitute of all 
 defensive armour, and compelled to flee from every 
 near attack of the enemy. Then it was, that, in the 
 cities, the citizens showed the most invincible repug- 
 nance to undertaking any public functions, which they 
 avoided by the most disgraceful expedients. Then it 
 was, that magistrates and senators begai#to pay their 
 court to barbarian kings ; to transport the arts of in- 
 trigue and of adroit flattery into the camps of Gothic 
 or Frankic warriors, whom they regarded as their in- 
 feriors, but feared as the arbiters of their fortune. 
 Then it was, above all, that the doctrine of the divine 
 right of kings, of the criminality of all resistance on 
 the part of the people, gained currency and credit in all 
 ranks of society. The prelates, still full of gratitude 
 for the support afforded them by Theodosius, taught 
 that the power of God and of his ministers could 
 alone set bounds to the power of kings. If, however, 
 there is a great lesson to be gathered from the degrad- 
 ing revolutions of the empire, it is, that absolute power 
 is fatal to him who wields, and to him who is subject 
 to it. We have seen, we are about again to see, sove- 
 reigns, who, on the whole, do not deserve to be called 
 wicked, afflict mankind with calamities surpassing those 
 which have been most continually held up to our terror 
 and aversion, as the offspring of the stormy passions of 
 the people. 
 
 The utter corruption into which the Romans fell, 
 during the fourth century, may also teach us this truth, 
 — that adversity may be more fatal to the virtue of a 
 nation than prosperity. Doubtless the period of the
 
 CHAP. VI. DESTRUCTION OP THE MIDDLE CLASSES. 119 
 
 irruption of the Allemans into Gaul, of the Caledonians 
 into Britain, of the Moors into Africa, of the Sarma- 
 tians into Pannonia, and of the Goths into the whole 
 province of lUyricum, was not that in Avhich mankind 
 was lulled to slumber in the lap of ease and pleasure. 
 But one effect of the long duration of states, and of their 
 extended power, is, to separate the inhabitants into two 
 classes, between whom the distance is constantly widen- 
 ing, and gradually to destroy the intermediate class, 
 togetherwith which all the social virtues are graduallyup- 
 rootcd and annihilated. From the time that this gulf is 
 once opened between the two extremes of society, every 
 successive revolution does but contribute to widen it: 
 the progress of wealth had been favourable to the rich, 
 the progress of distress favours them still more. The 
 middle class had been unable to stand the competition 
 with them during prosperity ; in adverse times it is 
 crushed under those calamities which only the very 
 wealthy can stand against. The corruption of Rome 
 had begun from the time of the republic, from the time 
 that tlie middle class ceased to impress its own peculiar 
 character on the whole nation : this corruption increased 
 in proportion as the intermediate ranks disappeared; 
 it was carried to its highest pitch when the whole empire 
 consisted of men of enormous wealth, and populace. 
 
 It is, in fact, in the middle classes that the domes- 
 tic virtues — economy, forethought, and the spirit of 
 association, — mainly reside. It is in them that a certain 
 degree of energy is incessantly called into operation, 
 either as a means of rising, or of keeping the position 
 already acquired. It is in them alone that the senti- 
 ment of social equality, on which all justice is based, 
 can be kept alive. We must see our equals, live with 
 them, meet tlicm daily and hourly, encounter their in- 
 terests and their passions, before we can get the liabit 
 of seeking our own advantage in the common weal alone. 
 Grandeur isolates a man ; vast opulence accustoms each 
 individual to look upon himself as a distinct power. 
 He feels that he can exist independently of his coun- 
 I 4
 
 120 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 try ; that his elevation^ or his fall, may be distinct ; 
 and, ere long, the servile dependants, by whom a man 
 who spends as much as a petty state is sure to be sur- 
 rounded, succeed in persuading him that his pleasures, 
 his pains, nay, his slightest caprices, are more import- 
 ant than the welfare of the thousands of families whose 
 means of subsistence he engrosses. 
 
 The morality of a nation is preserved by associating 
 its sentiments with all that is stable and permanent : 
 it is destroyed by whatever tends to concentrate them 
 on the present inoment. So long as our recollections 
 are dear to us, we shall take care that our hopes be 
 worthy of them ; but a people who sacrifice the memory 
 of their ancestors, or the welfare of their children, to the 
 pleasures of a day, are but sojourners in a country, — 
 they are not citizens. In the Roman enipire, at the 
 time of the great Theodosius, the only two remaining 
 classes of society were equally ashamed of the past, 
 equally afraid of the future, equally driven to drown all 
 reflection in the present. At the bottom of the social 
 scale, the populace, recently emerged from slavery, or 
 ready to sink into it again, lived on the public distribu- 
 tions of provisions, or on a daily largess, beyond which 
 they saw nothing. Without hope for the future, these 
 men had nothing to lose but their lives ; and even these 
 they were not permitted to ensure to themselves the 
 power of defending. What remained for them, but to 
 render themselves brutishly reckless of calamities they 
 had no means of averting, and which, whenever they 
 did come, Avould bring with them the final insensibility 
 to all suffering ? At the other extremity of the scale, 
 the senators were nurtured in the same indifference. 
 Their possessions were almost invariably situated in 
 remote provinces : he who learned that his harvests 
 in Gaul had been burned, could still reckon on his 
 granaries in Spain or Africa ; he who coiUd not protect 
 his Thracian fields from the ravages of the Goth, cal- 
 culated that his Syrian olive grounds, at least, were safe 
 from the incuisions of the Persian. However severe
 
 CHAP. VI. DEGRADATION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLK. 121 
 
 the losses they sustained, they scarcely ever amounted 
 to ruin. They sometimes made him renounce mar- 
 riage, (and, indeed, all the illustrious families of Rome 
 ■were rapidly becoming extinct,) but never did they 
 cause him to change his luxurious habits. The 
 princes of Poland reposed on a security similar in nature, 
 though on a far less extended scale, previous to the first 
 partition of that unhappy country. The frightful ravages 
 of the Zaporove Cosacks did not, indeed, ruin a de- 
 scendant of the Jagellons ; but, with him, the security 
 of fortune, united to the sentiment of patriotism, con- 
 stituted a motive to dare every thing ; with the Roman 
 senator, the same security, joined with selfishness, fur- 
 nished merely a reason for not fearing the worst. 
 
 Improvidence, and an unbridled appetite for pleasure, 
 equally characterising the highest and the lowest class, are 
 visible in every page of the Roman history of this period. 
 We find a singular instance of it in the massacre of 
 Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the capital of that great 
 Illyrian prefecture, which, for years, had been subject to 
 the horrible ravages of the Goths. Peace, it is true, had 
 prevailed for eight years ; but the Gothic army and 
 nation had remained masters of the country. Not 
 four years, moreover, had elapsed since a fresh invasion, 
 that of the Gruthungians, had struck terror into the 
 whole province. It was under these circumstances 
 that the people of this great city, which had never re- 
 sisted either foreign conquest or domestic tyranny, 
 revolted on account of a charioteer of the circus, and 
 massacred the lieutenant, the officers, and soldiers, of 
 their emperor. Nay, so universal was the rage for these 
 sjjcctacles, that, after having irritated a monarch whose 
 terrible violence was well known, the crowd, childish as 
 ferocious, rushed again, with blind unsuspecting eager- 
 ness, to the circus, and expected games when vengeance 
 awaited it. The same tastes pervaded all the capitals ; 
 the same fury for scenic games, the only one of all their 
 public passions which the Romans retained to the last. 
 Distributions of bread among the mob often exempted
 
 12^ FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 them from all necessity for labour ; and, as they knew 
 no other luxury, as they desired no other enjoyment, 
 life, suiTOunded by public misery, was consumed in 
 base and brutal pleasures. 
 
 The succession of the two sons of Theodosius, be- 
 tween whom the empire was divided (Jan. 17- .^95), 
 was not an event of a character to rouse the Roman 
 world from its lethargy. Two children, who never 
 became men, were heirs to the inheritance of a hero. 
 Arcadius, whose portion was the East, was eighteen ; 
 Honorius was only eleven. The former reigned thir- 
 teen years (a.d. 395 — 408), the latter twenty-eight 
 (a.d. 395 — 423). It was never possible to discern the 
 moment at which either arrived at the age of reason. 
 But the imbecility of the elder was more immediately 
 felt by the empire, because it Avas impossible not to 
 pay some deference to his will and to his taste ; and. 
 the court, modelled on the nullity of its master, was, 
 from his very accession, the scene of base intrigues, of 
 feebleness, and of fraud ; whereas the infancy of the 
 younger left the first place in the state for thirteen 
 years in the occupation of him who was most worthy of 
 it — the great Stihcho. (a.i>. 395—408.) 
 
 Theodosius had intrusted his two sons to his two 
 ablest ministers ; he had hoped they would second each 
 other, and that the unity of the empire would be pre- 
 served under the sway of two old colleagues, guiding 
 two minor brothers. On the contrary, the first feeling 
 displayed by these ministers was one of jealousy ; the 
 rancour of the weaker against the stronger mind sought 
 an ally in popular prejudice. The East, whose language 
 was Greek, was incited to distrust the "\^''est, where 
 Latin prevailed. Difference of manners was blended 
 with difference of language ; two nations were set in 
 opposition to each other ; the unity of the Roman em- 
 pire was broken; and two empires, that of the East and 
 that of the AVest, were taught to think that they had 
 nothing in common. 
 
 Rufinus, an able Gallic jurisconsult, whom Theodo-
 
 CHAP. VI. ARCADIUS. 123 
 
 sius had raised to the rank of prefect of the East, was 
 charged with the direction of the counsels of ArcadiuiS 
 and of the court of Constantinople. He had long been 
 accused of avarice and cruelty ; his vices had, however, 
 been controlled by the eye of the master : as soon as 
 he felt himself without a superior, they broke forth 
 without restraint. He already thought his fortune se- 
 cured, beyond all chance of a reverse, by a marriage 
 between his only daughter and his sovereign. Arcadius 
 appeared to acquiesce. The day was fixed for the cere- 
 mony: the pompous nuptial train Avas on its way to the 
 palace of the prefect, to fetch the new empress. But, in 
 passing before the house of tlie beautiful Eudoxia, Ar- 
 cadius suddenly stopped, declared that she was the bride 
 he had chosen, and took her home to the palace, instead 
 of the daughter of the prefect. It wa.s, however, from 
 no project originating in his own breast, from no pas- 
 sion which led him to disregard all other considerations, 
 that the monarch of the East was imluced thus to dupe 
 his prime minister. He was but the tool of a court in- 
 trigue, conducted by the eunuch Eutropius : in this 
 instance, as in every succeeding one of his reign, he 
 yielded to the insinuations of his servants, — the only 
 portion of his subjects whom he ever knew. Shortly 
 after, llufinus was murdered at his master's feet (Nov. 
 27. .".9.5), by order of the Goth Gainas, who had led 
 the legions of Theodosius back from the West ; and 
 Arcadius, a stranger to all the duties and functions of 
 empire, abandoned the reins of government to the vile 
 favourites whom fraud or violence alternately raised to 
 the domination of the palace. 
 
 Stilicho, a soldier of fortune, who is believed to 
 have been the son of a Vandal, and who, under the 
 reign of Theodosius, had already evinced great talents 
 for war, was at the head of the army of the AVest at 
 the moment of the emperor's death, and remained sole 
 guardian of Honorius. Stilicho is the hero of Ciaudian, 
 tlie last of the great poets of Rome : his poem is almost 
 the only document of the history of the guardian of
 
 124 FALL OF THE RO.MAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 Honorius. We can gather but an indistinct concep- 
 tion of him from this sort of testimony, unsupported 
 by that of historians ; we have no materials for form- 
 ing an opinion of the character of a great man, but the 
 writings of his panegyrists, or of the calumniators whom 
 we know to have been paid by the emperor. Yet, even 
 from representations so contradictory and so doubtful, 
 we gather enough to see in Stilicho a great and awful 
 shade, worthy of that empire whose ruins he defended. 
 His military genius secured him victories, though he no 
 longer found Roman soldiers to command ; he showed 
 not only courage, but self-devotion, on behalf of a 
 country which was already but a name ; and, to crown 
 all, he tried to interest in the national defence, the 
 Roman senate, the men of high rank, the deputies of 
 provinces : but he found in them only unmeaning de- 
 clamation, and a pompous display of affected sentiment, 
 in the place of patriotism. 
 
 This ^Vestern empire, which Stilicho was called to 
 defend in the moment of its extremest danger, was now 
 little more than a vast desert, where no soldiers were to 
 be found, where the regular operation of the laws was 
 suspended, and where only two authorities were recog- 
 nised^ — that of a territorial aristocracy invested with no 
 legal power, but beyond the reach of law ; and that of 
 a fanatical clergy, which swayed the multitude at its 
 pleasure. 
 
 Italy and Gaul had still officers nominated by the 
 emperor, and municipal magistrates elected by the cities; 
 but both were alike impotent to carry the execution of 
 the laws into the vast domains of a senator, who was 
 the proprietor of entire provinces. 
 
 Africa, the live provinces of which extended over 
 thirty degrees of longitude, or more than six hundred 
 leagues along the Mediterranean coast, had fallen entirely 
 into the hands of the children of the Moor Nabal, its 
 wealthiest proprietor. The slaves of this family, its 
 creatures, its clients, gave it a power against which the 
 emperor himself could not contend. Firmus, whose
 
 CHAP. VI. STATE OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 125 
 
 revolt we have noticed in another place, was one of 
 these children, after him came Gildo his brother, who 
 from 386' to 39S formed to himself almost an inde- 
 pendent sovereignty of this vast region. When at length 
 Stilicho tried to reduce him to obedience, he destined 
 an army of five thousand men to conquer a country at 
 least twice as large as France ; nor was this all ; he 
 thought himself unable to attempt the enterprise with- 
 out allying the animosity of a personal enemy to the 
 imperial power. Mascezel had been robbed of his in- 
 heritance by his brother Gildo, who had also massaci'ed 
 his children : he cherished all a Moor's thirst for re- 
 venge against his brother. It was for him that the con- 
 quest of Africa was reserved. He made a descent upon 
 it in 398, with the five thousand soldiers which had 
 been given him to combat his brother; and after he had 
 avenged himself, his unexpected death in crossing a 
 bridge, over wliich his horse threw him, put an end to 
 this patrimonial power, which had its source neither in 
 the choice of the monarch nor in that of the people. 
 On another occasion, we learn from the disasters of the 
 reign of Honorius, that the brothers of Theodosius, as 
 the richest proprietors of Lusitania, exercised a power 
 in Spain as great as that Gildo had possessed in Africa. 
 The reign of the sons of Theodosius was fatally 
 marlced by the settlement of the barbarians in the "W'^est. 
 On the one hand, the Visigoths, setting out from Avhat 
 is now called Servia, after ravaging Greece and then 
 Italy, obtained a fixed abode at tlie foot of the Pyre- 
 nees, and there founded the monarchy, which soon ex- 
 tended over the whole of Spain. On the other, the 
 Germans crossed tlie Rhine, and, spreading over Gaul 
 and Spain, founded the monarchies of the Burgundians, 
 the Suevi, the Lusitanians, and the Vandals of liictica. 
 The acts of this great drama must be exhibited in their 
 order. We are called upon alternately to watch the 
 march of history, and to reason upon its results : we 
 implore the indulgence of our readers for the dry detail 
 of facts with which we are compelled occasionally to 
 burthen their memories.
 
 126 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 Sufficient time had already elapsed for the Visigoths, 
 established in McEsia from the year 382, to recover 
 from the evils of a war in which they had lost their 
 ancient country and conquered a new one ; for a nation 
 in the vigour of youth rapidly recruits its strength dur- 
 ing repose : while the empire in its decrei)itude was 
 gradually becoming feebler by the mere lapse of time. 
 The young men longed to rival their fathers in feats of 
 arms; and, thouglv solicited to enter the service of Arca- 
 dius, they despised military rewards which were not 
 awarded by bravery, and coidd not endure to see the 
 valour of the soldiers dishonoured by the cowardice of 
 the leaders, or the fortune of adventurers dependent on 
 the favour of courts. Alaric, a prince of the royal house 
 of the Balthi, had, like the rest of his countrymen, made 
 his first campaigns in the armies of the emperor, but 
 when he had subsequently demanded promotion pro- 
 portionate to the rank he held in his own nation, or to 
 the ability he had displayed in the service of Rome, he 
 received an insulting refusal. He soon taught the feeble 
 son of Theodosius what an enemy he had thus impru- 
 dently made : the Visigoths, whose warlike passions 
 he had aroused, raised him on a shield, saluted him as 
 king, and called upon him to lead them on to those rich 
 provinces, in which glory, wealth, and all the enjoy- 
 ments it procures, would be the prize of their valour. 
 As soon as Alaric announced that he was about to attack 
 the empire, numerous hordes of Scythians marched across 
 the frozen Danube and joined his standard : at the be- 
 ginning of the year 396, a formidable host, whose pro- 
 gress no line of fortifications could arrest, advanced as 
 far as Constantinople, laying waste the whole country 
 in its line of march. 
 
 Till then, Greece had escaped the invasion of bar- 
 barians, which rarely extended south of Constantinople ; 
 but Alaric held out to his soldiers the hope of dividing 
 the yet untouched spoil of those illustrious regions. The 
 defiles of Thermopylae, at the foot of ilount CEta, were 
 abandoned to him by the cowardice of the soldiers :
 
 CHAP. VI. STILICHO AND ALARIC. 127 
 
 during a long peace all the fortifications of the cities of 
 Achaia had fallen into decay ; and the \^isigoths now 
 penetrated into the sanctuary of ancient civilisation 
 (a. d. 396). He granted a capitulation to Athens; but 
 he gave up the whole of the rest of this country, en- 
 riched with the glory and the beauty of former ages^ 
 and hallowed by the memory of the highest moral and 
 intellectual culture which human nature ever attained, 
 to the fury and rapacity of a savage soldiery : then it 
 was that the temple of Ceres Eleusis was pillaged, and 
 the mysteries which had been celebrated there for 
 eighteen centuries were interrupted. 
 
 Then, too, began the memorable struggle between the 
 skilful tactics of Stilicho and the headlong courage of 
 Alaric. The former, who had passed the Adriatic with 
 the legions of Italy, knew that his soldiers would never 
 withstand the valour of the Goths : he consequently 
 employed all his art in enticing them into a district of 
 mountain gorges, in which he hemmed them up by a 
 war of posts, always avoiding a battle, and tims as it 
 were besieging them on a mountain, and there reducing 
 them by hunger. Such was the address Stilicho dis- 
 played on several occasions, not only against Alaric, 
 but other barbarian generals : bv.t in the campaign of 
 Greece his measures were defeated by those upon whose 
 assistance he might reasonably have calculated. The 
 base courtiers of Constantinople were more afraid of 
 the influence a great man might acquire over their 
 monarch by a signal service, than of the sword of the 
 enemy which hung over their heads : they prevailed on 
 Arcadius to command the general of the West to evacuate 
 his empire ; at the same time the emperor demanded 
 peace of Alaric, and purchased it by appointing him 
 master-general of the infantry in eastern lllyricum. 
 
 The vices inlierent in despotic government had gra- 
 dually dried up all the resources of the empire ; but in 
 these last calamities it was more esfjccially the imme- 
 diate act^of the sovereign which brought the most dread- 
 ful evils upon his people. "When Arcadius, instigated
 
 128 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 by the basest jealousy, granted to his most dangerous 
 foe the command of the province he liad just laid waste^, 
 he placed at his disposal the four great arsenals of the 
 Illyrian prefecture, at Margus, Ratiaria, Naissus, and 
 Thessalonica. For four years, the most skilful armour- 
 ers of the empire were employed in the workshops of 
 these four towns in forging arms for the Goths. For 
 four years, Alaric was industriously training his goldiers 
 according to Roman discipline, and to the use of arms 
 so superior to those they had been accustomed to bear ; 
 and when, with the aid of the Greeks, he had rendered 
 his subjects far more formidable than they could ever 
 have become without these advantages, he called upon 
 them to show the Romans what use they could make of 
 the lessons they had received from other subjects of the 
 empire. In the autumn of the year 402, he traversed 
 the Julian Alps and entered Italy by the Frioul (Forum 
 Julii). 
 
 Even were the campaigns of these two great captains, 
 Alaric and Stilicho, known to us sufficiently in detail to 
 throw any light on the art of war, this would not be 
 the place to follow them out ; still less would it profit 
 us to pause over the scenes of suffering and of misery 
 in which that history is but too abundant. One thing 
 alone deserves our attention : the new proofs which 
 every step brings to view of the exhaustion, the death- 
 like state, of an empire,] which still numbered among 
 its members Italy, Spain, France, England, Belgium, 
 Africa, and the half of Germany, — an empire still 
 governed by a great warrior and statesman, yet who, 
 with all his genius, could not impart any vigour to the 
 worn-out frame. Stilicho was, in fact, the real mon- 
 yj arch of the "West. Honorius, who had attained the 
 ^ age of eighteen, fixed his residence at Milan. His 
 \ chief pleasure was to breed chickens in the palace, which 
 i knew his voice, and fed from his hand. There was 
 \ certainly no harm in this. It was a very innocent plea- 
 sure, and in no respect interfered with the administration 
 of the empire. That nothing might interfere with that
 
 CHAP. VI. STILICHO AND ALARIC. 129 
 
 of his poultry-yard^ his courtiers had been careful never 
 to pronounce the name of Alaric in his ears^ nor to per- 
 mit any signs of the danger which menaced him, to 
 appear before him, up to the very moment when the king 
 of the Goths had reached the Adige. On the news of 
 the enemy's approach, the emperor's first and only 
 thought was to save his person. 
 
 Stilicho, who feared the panic that the flight of the 
 youthful sovereign would spread throughout Italy, with 
 extreme difficulty withheld him, by a promise that he 
 would return very shortly with an army powerful 
 enough to defend him. The winter, during which the 
 Goths had gone into quarters in the neighbourhood of 
 Treviso, gave him a little time to recruit his army. 
 But soldiers were not to be found in Italy ; Stilicho 
 was obliged to fetch them from Gaul, and even from 
 Britain. He abandoned to the good faith of barbarians 
 both the banks of the Rhine and the Caledonian 
 wall. He incorporated into his army all the ancient 
 enemies of Rome who were willing to enlist under his 
 banner, and with 40,000 or 50,000 men he recrossed 
 the Alps, in the spring of 403. Alaric, who had 
 crossed the Adige, pursued Honorius, and was already 
 besieging him in Asti, when Stilicho marched to the 
 emperor's relief; compelled the haughty king of the Goths 
 to raise the siege ; and took advantage of his devotion 
 to attack him at Pollen tia, during the solemnity of Easter. 
 He defeated him in a bloody engagement on the 2.9th 
 of March, 403 ; stopped him as he attempted to cross 
 the Apennines and to lay waste southern Italy; forced 
 him to retreat towards the Alps, and there beat him 
 again in the neighbourhood of Verona ; and, after all 
 these victories, thought himself happy v;hen the terrible 
 Alaric evacuated Italy, and retired into Pannonia. 
 
 Honorius claimed the honours of a triumph in cele- 
 bration of Stilicho's victories ; and this solemnity of 
 ancient Rome was, for the last time, stained with the 
 bloody combats of gladiators. They were soon after 
 abolished for ever, by an edict of Honorius. But that 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 ]30 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 emperor, who had visited Rome with great pomp 
 (a.d.404); who, in compUance with the counsels of 
 Stilicho, had paid the senate and the people a de- 
 ference they had long been unaccustomed to receive 
 from the masters of the world ; had not sufficient re- 
 liance on the victories he was thus celebrating, to dare 
 to fix his abode either in the ancient capital, or in the 
 metropolis of Lombardy. His first care was to seek 
 in his states a city secure from the attacks of all his 
 enemies. He made choice of Ravenna. This city, 
 originally built on piles, intersected with canals, sur- 
 rounded with marshes, presented the appearance we 
 now see in Venice, and was no less inaccessible to at- 
 tack from the land. Scarcely had he retired thither, 
 when the West was alarmed by the march of Radogast, 
 and by the great and final invasion of the barbarians, 
 who from that time never more evacuated the empire. 
 
 The general agitation of Germany has been attributed, 
 by some writers, to new movements among the Scythian 
 tribes, to the victories of Touloun, Khan of the Georgians, 
 over the Huns. (a.d. 400.) It appears to us more pro- 
 bable, that the last invasion of the Western empire is to 
 be traced to causes residing in the Germans themselves. 
 Already had several generations of their young warriors 
 successively left their native woods to seek glory and 
 spoil within the boundaries of the empire : it was be- 
 come a habit ; the minds of men were turned in that 
 direction. Each successive expedition more clearly re- 
 vealed the feebleness of the adversaries the Germans 
 hoped to plunder ; and when they saw the Goths 
 establish themselves south of the Danube, ravage Italy 
 and Greece, and threaten the ancient capital of the 
 world, they feared, perhaps, that Alaric would leave 
 them nothing to take. Radogast, king of one of the 
 nations which inhabited the southern shores of the 
 Baltic, (the country now called Mecklenburg,) declared 
 that he had made a vow never to return his sword to 
 its scabbard till he had levelled the walls of Rome, and 
 divided its treasures among his soldiers. A host of
 
 CHAP. VI. GENERAL IRRUPTION OF GOTHS. 131 
 
 warriors, nay, whole nations, were eager to second him ; 
 so that it is difficult to ascertain which was the tribe 
 more immediately subject to his orders. The Burgun- 
 dians, the Vandals, the Silingi, the Gepidse, the Suevi, 
 and the Alans, took arms at the same time ; more than 
 i^00,000 warriors flocked from all parts of Germany, 
 and composed these great armies. In many provinces 
 they were accompanied by their women and children, 
 and the country they left behind them was a desert. 
 
 StiUcho had been unable to send the legions he had 
 summoned from the frontiers of the empire to repulse 
 Alaric, back to their original stations. He detained 
 them under his command in Italy ; but the whole 
 military force of this gigantic monarchy scarcely exceeded 
 3.5,000 men, — so great had been the loss of soldiers 
 in the late wars, and so great the difficulty of recruit- 
 ing. The Lower Danube was abandoned to the Goths, 
 the Upper Danube was exposed ; the Upper Rhine was 
 confided to the doubtful faith of the Allemans, and 
 the Lower to that of the Franks. Radogast entered 
 Pannonia, without difficulty, at the head of one of the 
 great armies (a.d. 406) ; nor did he experience any 
 resistance on his passage of the Alps, or of the Po, or 
 even of the Apennines. The trembling Honorius shut 
 himself up in Ravenna. Stilicho could hardly collect 
 his soldiers at Pavia. At length he marched in pursuit 
 of Radogast, came up with him near Florence, and, 
 with the same ability with which he had twice attacked 
 and defeated Alaric, drove him back from post to post, 
 shut him up within his fortifications, without ever 
 giving him an opportunity of fighting a battle, and at 
 length besieged him on the arid heights of Fiesole, 
 where, after losing the greater part of his army by 
 hunger, thirst, and disease, he was compelled to surren- 
 der at discretion. The vanquished foe, who trusted to 
 the generosity of Honorius, had small ground for hope. 
 The emperor put to death the captive before whom he 
 had trembled. 
 
 But the defeat of Radogast did not deUvcr the 
 K 2
 
 132 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 empire. Two other armies advanced upon Gaul. One 
 led on by Gondecar king of the Burgundians, crossed 
 the Upper Rhine, bore along the AUemans with him, 
 and devastated the whole of eastern Gaul. The other, 
 commanded by Godegisela king of the Vandals, marched 
 to the Lower Rhine ; they encountered the Franks, who 
 opposed a vigorous resistance : but, after an obstinate 
 combat, during which the Alans came up to the suc- 
 cour of the Vandals just as they were giving way before 
 the enemy, the passage of the Rhine was effected on 
 the 31st of December, 406, and the whole torrent of the 
 barbarous tribes of Germany poured at once, with equal 
 fury, over every part of Gaul. During three whole 
 years massacre, pillage, fire, spread from province to 
 province; while the wretched inhabitants were unable 
 to offer any resistance ; while the government made not 
 an effort to defend them ; while the conquerors wearied 
 not in their savage work. But as, in their first blind 
 fury, they had destroyed treasures which they now 
 vainly regretted, and had burned storehouses, which 
 would have preserved them frohi the famine which now 
 threatened them, the remaining spoil was insufficient 
 to satisfy their cupidity. On the 1 3th of October, 409, 
 a body of Suevi, Vandals, and Alans forced the passes 
 of the Pyrenees, and Spain shared the fate of Gaul. 
 At length these hordes began to feel the need of 
 repose. They fixed their quarters in the provinces 
 they had conquered, in such a manner that each sove- 
 reign army could exercise a systematic oppression over the 
 provincials, who were no longer treated as enemies, but 
 as slaves. About the year 410, Spain was portioned 
 out among its Germanic conquerors : the Suevi and the 
 Vandals shared the ancient Gallicia ; the Alans had 
 Lusitania ; the Silingi, Boetica ; whUst in Gaul the 
 Burgundians advanced from the Moselle to the Rhone ; 
 the Allemans established themselves in Eastern Hel- 
 vetia ; and the Franks extended their quarters into 
 Belgium. Nevertheless, the Germans made no imme- 
 diate allotment or distribution of lands : they did not
 
 CHAP. VI. STILICHO. i.33 
 
 choose to become citizens at the expense of ceasing to 
 be soldiers. 
 
 It may appear matter of astonishment that the great 
 StiHcho did nothing for the defence of the empire : 
 but his power had already been shaken by court in- 
 trigues. From the time of his flight from Milan, 
 Honorius had begun to think himself a great captain; and 
 nis confidence in his own military talents had been 
 raised by the triumph he had decreed himself. He 
 deemed himself of an age to govern alone ; and his first 
 essay in the art of government was to thwart all the 
 operations of his general. A vile favourite, whom he 
 had taken from the situation of illuminator of the 
 palace to place him near his person, had found means 
 to rouse his pride. He continually repeated to him, 
 that people were astonished that, at twenty-five, the 
 emperor should not be his own master. From the 
 time the courtiers remarked the decline of Stilicho's 
 influence, they industriously accumulated obstacles in 
 his way. This illustrious man, worthy of a better 
 age, had tried to restore the dignity of the senate, and 
 to rouse its members to fresh interest in the affairs of the 
 republic. But he had found only rhetors, far more intent 
 on catching popularity by making a display of fine 
 sentiments, or by aping the expressions of their fore- 
 fathers, than on understanding the state of affairs, their 
 means of defence, or their resources. He had been 
 forced to strive for a long time before he could bring 
 them to sign a treaty with Alaric, which was become 
 absolutely necessary, but which they pronounced un- 
 worthy the ancient majesty of Rome. Stilicho had 
 been no less indefatigable in his efforts to raise the 
 courage of the army, and to restore its discipline ; but 
 experience had taught him, that it was vain to look for 
 intrepidity, for constancy under privation, for strength 
 to support fatigue, except among his barbarian auxi- 
 liaries. The favours he granted, the politic means by 
 which he endeavoured to recruit the ranks of tie de- 
 fenders of Rome from among her enemies, caused 
 K 3
 
 1S4 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 discontent among the soldiers who called themselves 
 Romans. Honorius, and his favourite Olympius, strove 
 to heighten the animosity, and to embitter the accusa- 
 tions against Stilicho. The former seized the moment 
 of his general's absence to review his army at Pavia, 
 and addressed them in a speech calculated to exasperate 
 them against their chief. His aim was, to incite his 
 soldiers to demand the dismissal of a man whom he 
 accused of having abused his confidence. But the 
 sedition he excited burst out with a violence he had 
 not calculated on. The soldiers massacred two prae- 
 tonian prefects^ two masters-general of cavalry and in- 
 fantry, and almost all their generals and officers, because 
 they had been appointed by Stilicho. Honorius, with 
 trembling haste, published a decree, in which he con- 
 demned the memory of the dead, and applauded the 
 conduct and fidelity of the insurgent troops. The 
 moment this news was carried to the camp of the con- 
 federate army at Bologna, where Stilicho then was, 
 the leaders of the barbarian soldiers, with one accord, 
 offered to defend, to avenge him, and even to seat him 
 upon the throne. He would not expose the empire to 
 the horrors of civil war for his own security or advan- 
 tage. He refused their offers : he even warned the 
 Roman cities to be on their guard against the con- 
 federate troops ; and, proceeding straight to Ravenna, 
 seated himself at the foot of the altar of the great 
 church, thus invoking the protection of superstition in 
 default of that he had a right to claim from gratitude 
 But he could not avert the fate by which greatness in a 
 subject is generally "rewarded by baseness on a throne. 
 The count Heradius, who was sent by the emperor to 
 arrest the noble soldier, would have been withheld by 
 scruples from violating the sanctuary : he had none in de- 
 ceiving the bishop of Ravenna by a false oath. Having 
 thus induced him to deliver up Stilicho into his hands, 
 he struck off his head with his own sword before the 
 porch of the church (August 23d, 408). 
 
 Stilicho had too much greatness of soul not to ap-
 
 CHAP. VI. CONDUCT OF HONORIUS.* 135 
 
 preciate that quality in others : he honoured his adver- 
 sary Alaric ; he knew what he had to fear from him, 
 and he had employed his utmost policy to keep at peace 
 with him during the invasion of Radogast. The mean 
 and cowardly Honorius, on the contrary, who was beyond 
 the reach of danger in his retreat at Ravenna, thought 
 that a display of arrogance was a proof of strength, 
 and that to insult an enemy, was to intimidate him. 
 He displaced the bravest and most renowned barbarian 
 captains from the commands they held in his armies; 
 removed all who professed religious opinions different 
 from his own, from every public office ; thus depriving 
 himself and the state of the services of a great many 
 distinguished pagan or Arian functionaries ; and, to 
 complete the purification of his army, ordered a general 
 massacre of all the women and children of the barba- 
 rians, whom the soldiers in his service had delivered up 
 as hostages. In one day and hour these innocent vic- 
 tims were given up to slaughter, and their property to 
 pillage. 
 
 These hostages had been left in all the Italian cities 
 by the barbarian confederates, as a guarantee for their 
 fidelity to Rome ; when they learned that the whole 
 had perished, in the midst of peace, in contempt of all 
 oaths, one furious and terrific cry of vengeance arose, 
 and thirty thousand soldiers, who had been the faithful 
 servants of the empire, at once passed over to the camp 
 of Alaric, and urged him to lead them on to Rome. 
 
 Alaric, in language the moderation of which Hono- 
 rius and his ministers ascribed to fear, demanded re- 
 paration for the insults offered him, and strict observance 
 of the treaties concluded with him. The only answer 
 he obtained was couched in terms of fresh insult, and con- 
 tained an order to evacuate all the provinces of the em- 
 pire. It might have been supposed that great armies were 
 ready to support such insolent pretensions ; yet, when 
 Alaric crossed the Alps, in the month of October, tOS, 
 he traversed Friuli, the towns of Aquilea, Concordia, 
 Altino, and Cremona, and came up before the walls of 
 K 4
 
 136 FAIIL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CUAP. VI. 
 
 Ravenna without meeting a single foe. He had no hope 
 of reducing that city by siege; but no one attemjited to 
 arrest his march across llomagna when he continued his 
 route; and he at length arrived before Rome ()19 years 
 after that city had been threatened by Hannibal. 
 During that long interval her citizens had never looked 
 down from her walls upon the banner of an enemy 
 waving in their plains. 
 
 But this long terra of peace and prosperity had ad- 
 ded nothing to their means of defence : in vain did they 
 count 17S0 senatorial houses, or palaces enriched with 
 every luxury ; in vain did they boast that the revenue 
 of more than one of their senators exceeded 4000 pounds 
 weight of goldj — l60,000/. sterlings (for it is well to 
 compare this enormous wealth with that of the country 
 which approaches the most nearly to it) ; all their opu- 
 lence, all their splendour, were insufficient to procure 
 them the defence of brave soldiers. The people had 
 long been regarded with distrust ; — the people, whom the 
 general organisation of society rendered miserable, and 
 who cared for nothing but public distributions of bread, 
 meat, and oil. The mob, wlio had for generations been 
 withheld from the use of arms, and whom the higher 
 classes would have trembled to see brought into military 
 training, was devoid of strength and of courage when 
 the enemy appeared without the walls. Alaric did not 
 attempt to take Rome by assault : he blockaded the 
 gates, stopped the navigation of the Tiber, and soon 
 famine took possession of a city which was eighteen 
 miles in circumference, and contained above a million 
 of inhabitants. The Romans were reduced to feed on 
 the vilest and most revolting aliments ; we are assured, 
 that these men, who dared not fight, dared to cover 
 their tables with human flesh, nay, even the flesh of 
 their children. That no supernatural aid might be neg- 
 lected, not only did they first invoke all the celestial 
 powers, by means of the ceremonies of the church, but, 
 on the 1st of INIarch, -tOf), they had recourse to the 
 gods of paganism, and to the infernal spirits with whom
 
 CHAP. VI. CONDUCT OF HONORIUS. 137 
 
 those gods had been confounded ; these they strove to 
 propitiate by forbidden sacrifices. Honorius ceased 
 not to promise succours, which it was not in his power 
 to grant, and which, indeed, he did not so much as at- 
 tempt to collect ; this deluded expectation cost the 
 besieged thousands of lives. At length, the Romans had 
 recourse to the clemency of Alaric ; and, by means of a 
 ransom of five thousand pounds of gold and a great 
 quantity of precious effects, the army was induced to 
 retire into Tuscany. 
 
 But it seemed as if Honorius had determined on the 
 destruction of Rome, which the barbarians consented to 
 spare ; new favourites supplanted each other in rapid 
 succession in the favour of the monarch, and in the 
 possession of supreme power. A certain road was open 
 to them ; — to flatter his pride, to boast his resources, to 
 repel every idea of concession to the enemies of the 
 state ; while Alaric, in the heart of Italy, reinforced by 
 forty thousand slaves of Germanic extraction, who had 
 fled from Rome, still more powerfully reinforced by 
 the valiant Ataulphus, his brother-in-law, who had led a 
 fresh army from the shores of the Danube, asked only 
 a province, in which to establish his nation in peace. 
 Honorius successively broke off every negotiation begun 
 by his own orders ; obstinately refused what he had 
 already promised, and, at length, exacted a solemn oath 
 from all the officers of the army, who swore on the 
 head of the emperor, that never, and under no circum- 
 stances, would they lend an ear to any treaty with the 
 pubHc enemy. 
 
 Notwithstanding the thousand provocations he re- 
 ceived from the imbecile and imprudent Honorius, 
 Alaric had tiie generosity to spare tlie capital of the 
 world, for wliich lie felt an involuntary reverence. But, 
 taking possession of the mouth of the Tiber, and the 
 city of Porto, which contained the chief granaries, he 
 sent word to the senate, that, if they wished to save 
 Rome from famine, they must choose a new emperor. 
 The senate made choice of Attalus, a pnctorian prefect.
 
 138 FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 who made peace with Alaric, and named him general of 
 all the armies of the empire. But the new emperor was 
 neither less incapable^ nor less presumptuous than Hon- 
 norius : he would not follow the advice of Alaric ; he 
 neglected to cause himself to be recognised in Africa : 
 in a word, he committed so many faults, that, after 
 allowing him to wield the sovereign power for a year, 
 Alaric was compelled to depose him. He again offered 
 peace to Honorius ; was again repulsed with insult, and 
 then, for the third time, led back his army to the gates 
 of Rome; and, on the 24th of April, 410, the year ll63 
 from the foundation of the august city, the Salarian 
 gate was opened to him in the night, and the capital of 
 the world, the queen of nations, was abandoned to the 
 fury of the Goths. 
 
 Yet this fury was not without some tinge of pity ; 
 Alaric granted a peculiar protection to the churches, 
 which were preserved from all insult, together with 
 their sacred treasures, and all those who had sought 
 refuge within their walls. 
 
 While he abandoned the property of the Romans to 
 pillage, he took their lives under his protection; and it 
 is affirmed, that only a single senator perished by the 
 sword of the barbarians. The number of plebeians who 
 were sacrificed appears not to have been thought a 
 matter of sufficient importance even to be mentioned. 
 At the entrance of the Goths, a small part of the city 
 was given up to the flames ; but Alaric soon took pre- 
 cautions for the preservation of the rest of the edifices. 
 Above all, he had the generosity to withdraw his army 
 from Rome on the sixth day, and to march it into 
 Campania, loaded, however, with an immense booty. 
 Eleven centuries later, the army of the Constable de 
 Bourbon showed less moderation. 
 
 A religious veneration for the city which had van- 
 quished the world, for the capital of civilisation, seemed 
 to have protected Rome against her most puissant enemy. 
 Yet, it might soon have been imagined that even this 
 generous foe was punished for daring first to lay a
 
 CHAP. VI. DEATH OF ALARIC. 139 
 
 sacrilegious hand on her majesty ; for^ at the end of a 
 few months, Alaric fell ill and died, in the full career of 
 victory, and full of the projected conquest of Sicily and 
 Africa. Alaric was buried in the bed of the Bisentiura, 
 a little river which flows beneath the walls of Cozenza ; 
 and the captives who had been employed to dig his 
 grave, to turn the course of the river, and afterwards 
 lead it into its former bed, were all massacred, that 
 none might be able to reveal the spot where reposed 
 the body of the conqueror of Rome. 
 
 In fact, the Goths, always wandering, could not 
 protect the graves of their illustrious men. They 
 thought with pain that, at their death, they would leave 
 their bones entombed in hostile ground, and that the 
 dastardly inhabitants, who never dared to meet them 
 face to face, would revenge themselves on their remains, 
 for the terror they had inspired. Satisfied with unin- 
 terrupted conquest, and gorged with spoil, they once 
 more demanded a country and a home ; and Ataulphus, 
 brother-in-law of Alaric, whom they raised on their 
 shields and proclaimed king, seconded their wishes, and 
 renewed those negotiations with the court of Ravenna, 
 which Alaric had been unable to bring to a conclusion. 
 The terror caused by the sack of Rome had at length 
 shaken even the stubborn pride of the emperor : his 
 ministers, liberated from their oath by the death of 
 Alaric, eagerly represented to him that, in adopting the 
 the Gothic king's army as soldiers of the republic, he 
 would augment his power, and would avenge himself of 
 his enemies ; that Ataulphus appeared disposed to rid 
 Gaul of the barbarians, in consideration of obtaining a 
 small part of the deserts of that province ; that he offered 
 to render a still more important service in warring against 
 the usurpers who had dared to assume the purple ; — foes 
 infinitely more dangerous and more criminal than the 
 public enemy, since they assailed the majesty of the 
 emperor himself, whilst the others directed their hos- 
 tilities against the common and ignoble herd of subjects. 
 A treaty was actually concluded, by which Ataulphus and
 
 140 FALL OF THE R03IAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VI. 
 
 the Visigothic nation engaged to combat the enemies 
 of Honorius in Gaul and Spain; in consideration of 
 "vvhich, the latter should cede to them the provinces of 
 Aquitanian and Xarbonnese Gaul, in which they were 
 to establish themselves, and to found a new Gothland, 
 an independent people. In 412 Ataulphus marched back 
 his army and his nation from the extremity of Cam- 
 pania into southern Gaul : the cities of Narbonne, 
 Toulouse, and Bordeaux were open to them; and the 
 ^'isigoths at length hailed with joy the land in which 
 they were at length to find a resting place and a home. 
 Ataulphus, the first of the Visigoths who had led his 
 countrymen into southern Gaul and Spain, appears to 
 have had another motive for his reconciliation with the 
 Romans, which belongs rather to romance than to his- 
 tory. Among the captives carried off from Rome^ and 
 compelled to follow the camp of the Visigoths^ was 
 Placidia, the sister of Honorius, who was very superior 
 to either of her brothers in talents and in ambition. 
 Ataulphus fell in love with her, and regarded an alliance 
 with the daughter of the great Theodosius, and the sister 
 of the two reigning emperors, as a new glory to himself. 
 Among the Romans the reigning family was not distinct 
 from all others, as among the Germanic tribes; the title 
 of princess was unknown ; and Placidia had no other 
 alternative than celibacy, or a union with one of her 
 brother's subjects ; yet such an alHance still appeared 
 to a Roman, far superior to one with a barbaric king. 
 An invincible prejudice had hitherto severed the Ro- 
 mans from all other nations ; and the first proposals for 
 this marriage, addressed to the court of Honorius, were 
 regarded as an insult. Placidia thought otherwise; she be- 
 held Ataulphus, whose noble countenance seemed formed 
 to efface the ancient prejudices of Rome. Before the 
 Goths quitted Italy, she married their leader and sovereign 
 at Forli ; but the royal nuptials were celebrated anew 
 with greater splendour at Narbonne, the capital of 
 the new kingdom won by Gothic valour. " A hall 
 was decorated after the Roman fashion," says Olym-
 
 CHAP. VI. MARRIAGE OF ADOLF AND PLACXDL4. 141 
 
 piodoruSj a contemporary historian^ '■' in the house of 
 Ingenuus, one of the first citizens of the tovni : the 
 place of honour ■was reserved for Placidia, while Ataul- 
 phus. clad in a Roman toga, seated himself at her side : 
 fifty beautiful youths, attired in silken garments, whom 
 he destined as a gift to his bride, then advanced, each 
 presenting to her two cups, the one filled with gold, the 
 other vnih gems, — a part of the spoil of Rome. At the 
 same time Attains, that Atulus whom Alaric had 
 created emperor, appeared and sang the epithalamium." 
 Thus did the calamities of the world furnish tro- 
 phies to decorate the festivals of its masters.
 
 142 FALL OF THE ROaiAN EMPIRE. CIIAP. VII. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 THE BARBARIANS ESTABLISHED IN THE EMPIRE.- — STATE OK BRI- 
 TAIN, AND OF ARMORICA. SETTLEMENTS OF THE FRANKS ON 
 
 THE RHINE, THE BURGUNDIANS ON THE RHONE, THE VISIGOTHS 
 
 ON THE LOIRE. MIXED GOVERNMENTS J ROMAN PREFECTS, 
 
 BARBARIAN KINGS AND ASSEMBLIES. STATE OF SPAIN, OF 
 
 ITALY, OF PANNONIA, AND OF AFRICA. UNIVERSAL SUFFER- 
 ING. DEATHS OF ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS. DYNASTIES OF 
 
 THE BARBARIC KINGS. FREQUENCY OF ATROCIOUS CRIMES. 
 
 FABULOUS ACCOUNT OF FRANKIC KINGS. VISIGOTHS, SUEVI, 
 
 ALANS, VANDALS. CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE VANDALS 
 
 UNDER GENSEKIC. THEIR FEROCITY. FALL OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 KINGDOM OF THE HUNS. ATTILA. HIS TREATY WITH THEO- 
 
 DOSIUS II. HIS NORTHERN CONQUESTS. HIS ATTACK ON 
 
 THE EMPIRE. SUBMISSION OF THE GREEKS. EMBASSY TO 
 
 HIS CAMP. PASSAGE OF THE RHINE. — DEFEAT OF ATTILA 
 
 BY iETIUS AT CHALONS. INVASION OF ITALY BY ATTILA. 
 
 FOUNDATION OF VENICE. DEATH OF ATTILA. DISSOLUTION 
 
 OF HIS EMPIRE. A. V. 412 453. 
 
 From the time the barbarians had established them- 
 selves in all parts of the empire, this vast portion of the 
 world, heretofore subject to the levelling influence of a 
 despotism which had broken down all distinctions and 
 all differences, now presented the wildest assemblage of 
 tlissimilar manners, opinions, languages, religions, and 
 governments. Spite of the habits of servility which 
 were hereditary among the subjects of the empire, their 
 subordination was broken up; the law no longer reached 
 them ; oppression or protection no longer emanated from 
 Rome or from Constantinople. The supreme power, 
 in its impotence, had called upon them to govern 
 themselves ; and ancient national manners, ancient 
 local opinions, began to reappear under the borrowed 
 garb of Rome. But this strange motley of provincial- 
 isms was nothing compared to that introduced by the 
 barbarians who had pitched their camps in the midst
 
 CHAP. VII. BRITAIN. AB.MORICA. 143 
 
 of Roman cities, and whose kings were constantly in- 
 termingled with senators and with bishops. 
 
 At one extremity of the Roman dominions, the island 
 of Britain escaped from the power which had civilised 
 but enervated it. Stilicho had withdrawn the legions 
 from it for the defence of Italy. The usurper Con- 
 stantino, who had revolted against Honorius between 
 the years 407 and 411, and who, after reducing Britain, 
 had attempted the conquest of Gaul, led thither all the 
 soldiers who still remained in the island. After he was 
 defeated, and his head sent to Ravenna, Honorius did 
 not choose to deprive himself of any portion of his 
 troops for the defence of so remote a province: he wrote 
 to the cities of Britain as if they already formed an 
 independent confederation, and exhorted them to pro- 
 vide for their own defence. Fourteen of these cities 
 were considerable ; several had already made great pro- 
 gress in arts and commerce, and, above all, in that 
 Roman luxury which so rapidly tamed and deadened 
 the fiercest courage. London was a large and flourish- 
 ing town; but, among its numerous inhabitants, not one 
 was found who dared to take up arms. Its municipal 
 government, established on the Roman system, like those 
 of York, Canterbury, Cambridge, &c., would have given 
 them the advantages of a republican administration, if 
 they had preserved a little more public spirit ; but the 
 poison of a foreign domination had sapped the vital 
 energies of the country. It was in the country, and not 
 in the towns, that we must look for the first symptoms 
 of the revival of a national feeling. The Celtic lan- 
 guage, which was almost extinct in Gaul, had been 
 preserved in Britain, — a proof that the rural popuhition 
 was not utterly crushed. It seems tliat the ricli pro- 
 prietors, the British senators, were aware that their 
 security and their power depended wholly on their union 
 with the people ; it is probable that they lived in the 
 midst of their peasantry, and learned their language : 
 at all events, we find them reappearing under British, 
 and not under Roman names, in that struggle which
 
 144 FALL OF THE ROMAN EJIPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 they were soon called upon to sustain with the Picts 
 and ScotSj and, at a later period, with the Saxons. 
 
 The condition of Armorica, or Little Britain, was 
 nearly similar, both in the nature of its population, 
 which had likewise preserved the Celtic language and 
 manners, and in its remoteness from the centre of the 
 empire. The Armorican cities also formed a league 
 which raised a sort of militia for their own defence, 
 and inspired some respect up to the time of the Frankic 
 invasion. The vigour of the fierce Osismians, who in- 
 habited the farther coast of Britany ; their courage, 
 their agility, thefr attachment to their hereditary chief- 
 tains, recalled to the rest of the Gauls what their fathers 
 had been. They resembled those mountaineers of Scot- 
 land whom a great poet has so admirably depicted, such 
 as they remained scarcely more than half a century ago. 
 
 In spite of the prohibitory laws of Augustus and 
 Claudius, many of them adhered to the primitive worship 
 of the gods of the Druids ; those atrocious divinities, 
 whose altars were buried in the depths of forests, and 
 stained with human blood. Others had embraced Chris- 
 tianity, and, during four centuries, they furnished a 
 great number of saints to the church of Rome. So 
 long as the British heroes, such as Hoel, Allan, Ju- 
 dicael (to whom several churches were dedicated), re- 
 tained the vigour of youth or manhood, they knew no 
 other passion than that for war ; they poured down by 
 night on the nearest Roman or Gaulish villages, which 
 they pillaged and burned : but, when their ferocity was 
 tamed by age and began to give place to the terrors of 
 a future judgment, they shut themselves up in convents 
 and lived a life of the severest penance. 
 
 The Franks had begun to cross over from the right 
 to the left bank of the Rhine, and had made some set- 
 tlements in Belgium; but, faithful to their alliance with 
 the empire, which had made the greatest exertions and 
 sacrifices to preserve their friendship, they every where 
 appeared in the character of soldiers of the emperors ; 
 their numerous petty sovereigns solicited imperial dig-
 
 CHAP. VII. VISIGOTHS. BURGUNDIANS. 145 
 
 nities ; their highest ambition was to rise at the court 
 of the sons of Theodosius; and they had learned how to 
 combine the arts of intrigue with valour. If they op- 
 pressed and despoiled the peasantry upon whom they 
 were quartered ; if, in a sudden burst of fury, or in a 
 fit of rapacity, they fell upon large cities; if even Treves, 
 the capital of all the Gauls, and Cologne, the chief town 
 of Lower Germany, were on several occasions pillaged 
 by them, the emperors and their prefects were too 
 sensible of the importance of their Frankic allies to 
 cherish long resentment, and peace was soon concluded 
 at the expense of the defenceless sufferers. 
 
 The Burgundians in eastern Gaul, the Visigoths in 
 southern, also called themselves the soldiers of the em- 
 perors. Their condition was, however, very different 
 from that of the P'ranks ; the entire nation had trans- 
 migrated into a new abode, without acknowledging any 
 fixed limits : it had extended its dominion wherever it 
 could make its power feared. The king of the Bur- 
 gundians sometimes held his court at Vienne, on the 
 Rhone, sometimes at Lyons or Geneva ; the kings of 
 the Visigoths at Narbonne, at Bordeaux, or oftener at 
 Toulouse : the city was subject to them, yet Roman 
 magistrates still continued to regulate the police, and to 
 administer justice according to Roman laws, and in 
 favour of Roman subjects. The Visigoths and the Bur- 
 gundians had appropriated lands either waste, or taken 
 from the original proprietors witliout many formalities ; 
 these were abandoned to their flocks and herds, or oc- 
 casionally cultivated by their slaves ; but negligently 
 and without any outlay which must await a tardy re- 
 turn. They chose to be ready to quit the fields they 
 had sown, the next year, if needful. The two nations 
 had not yet taken root in the soil. The Visigoths some- 
 times passed over from Aquitaine into Spain ; the Bur- 
 gundians from the banks of the Rhine to those of the 
 Moselle. The habits of a wandering life, confirmed by 
 half a century, could not be broken through at once : 
 all the Visigoths were Christians,' but of the Arian sect, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 FALL OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. CHAP. Vir. 
 
 as were also the Burgundians. The bishops hated heresy 
 far more tlian paganism, and they sedulously nourished 
 in their flocks an aversion which the violence of these 
 arrogant guests was sufficient to excite, and which some- 
 times burst forth in formidable commotions. Never- 
 theless, the priests understood too well where the power 
 of the sword lay, to dispute the authority of these bar- 
 baric kings as they had lately disputed that of the 
 emperors. At Toulouse and at Vienne, they paid their 
 court conjointly with the senators ; the prelates, in all 
 the pomp of their ecclesiastical ornaments, and the se- 
 nators, still wearing the once awe-inspiring toga, mingled 
 with the rude warriors whom they hated and despised, 
 but whose favour they sought and gained by dexterous 
 flattery. 
 
 The same form of civil administration still subsisted. 
 A praetorian prefect still resided at Treves; a vicar of 
 the seventeen Gallic provinces at Aries : each of these 
 provinces had its Roman duke ; each of the hundred and 
 fifteen cities of Gaul had its count ; each city its curia, or 
 municipality. But, collaterally with this Roman organis- 
 ation, the barbarians, assembled in their malliim, of which 
 their kings were presidents, decided on peace and war, 
 made laws, or administered justice. Each division of the 
 army had its Graf Jarl, or Count ; each subdivision its 
 centenary, or hundred-man ; and all these fractions of the 
 free population had the same right of deciding by suffi-age 
 in their own mallums, or peculiar couit>, all their com- 
 mon affairs. In cases of opposition between the bar- 
 barian and the Roman jurisdiction, the overbearing ar- 
 rogance of the one, and the abject baseness of the other, 
 soon decided the question of supremacy. 
 
 In some provinces the two powers were not concur- 
 rent : there were no barbarians between the Loire and the 
 Meuse, nor between the Alps and the Rhone ; but the 
 feebleness of the Roman government was only the more 
 conspicuous. A few great proprietors cultivated a part 
 of the province with the aid of slaves ; the rest was 
 desert, or only inhabited by Bagauda?, runaway slaves.
 
 CHAP. VII. VISIGOTHS. BURGUNDIANS. 147 
 
 who lived by robbery. Some towns still maintained a 
 show of opulence, but not one gave the slightest sign of 
 strength ; not one enrolled its militia, nor repaired its 
 fortifications. Tours, renowned for the tomb of St. 
 Martin, and the miracles attributed to it, appeared to 
 be a capital of priests : nothing was to be seen within 
 its walls but processions, churches, chapels, and books 
 of devotion exposed for sale. Treves and Aries had not 
 lost their ancient passion for the games of the circus, 
 and the crowd could not tear themselves from the theatre 
 when the barbarians were at their gates. Other towns, 
 and still more the villages, remained faithful to their 
 ancient gods ; and, spite of the edicts of successive em- 
 perors, many temples were still consecrated to paganism ; 
 many continued so, even to the end of the following 
 century. Honorius wished to confer on the cities of 
 southern Gaul a diet, at which they might have de- 
 liberated on public affairs : he did not even find public 
 spirit enough to accept the offered privilege. It is true 
 that they suspected, and, probably, not without reason, 
 that his edict concealed some projects of financial ex- 
 tortion. 
 
 The description we have given of the state of Gaul 
 applies equally to that of Spain, where the kings of the 
 Suevi, the Vandals, the Alans, the Silingi, were en- 
 camped with their troops and their followers in the 
 midst of Roman subjects, who had long ceased to offer 
 resistance, yet whose abject submission had not earned 
 for them the peace of slaves. A great jiortion of Spain 
 was still Roman ; but the districts which the barbarians 
 had not yet entered had no communication with each 
 other, i-.or with the seat of government : they could 
 hope for no protection from any neighbouring aggression. 
 Besides, if the barbarians occasionally plundered them 
 with rapacity, or even, at their first coming, butchered 
 the inhabitants most exposed to their fury, they after- 
 wards protected the remaining population against the 
 extortions of tax-gatherers; and the demands of the state 
 were so excessive, that the people often preferred the 
 L 2
 
 148 FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 sword of the Vandal to the staff of the lictor. Even 
 Italy^ which was^, perhaps, more uncultivated than any 
 of the distant provinces, — Italy, whose richest plains 
 were disfigured by wild forests, or unwholesome marshes^ 
 — was not exempt from the barbarian yoke. Although no 
 longer occupied by a conqueror, she found hard masters 
 in the confederates, or auxiliary troops of Germans and 
 Scythians, of which the armies were almost entirely 
 composed. Their tyranny, which was that of the sword, 
 did not, however, preserve the inhabitants from the 
 more oppressive power of the Roman magistrates. Pan- 
 nonia and the banks of the Danube were no sooner 
 evacuated by the Goths, than they were occupied by 
 other nations of barbarians. The Moors and the Gaetuli, 
 and still more the fanatical Donatists and Circoncellians, 
 kept Africa in a continued state of alarm. In short, 
 there was not a single province of the Western empire 
 in which a uniform government was maintained, or in 
 which, under a common protection, man could live se- 
 curely among his fellow-men. 
 
 The influence of the early events of the reign of Ar- 
 cadius and Honorius was universal, and their conse- 
 quences may, in some respects, be perceived to this 
 day. Very different was the close of the reign of these 
 indolent, vain, and cowardly princes. "We should 
 gain but little instruction from any attempt to under- 
 stand the base intrigues of their palace ; and, with re- 
 gard to the competitors for the empire, who arose 
 successively in Britain, in Gaul, in Spain, and at Rome, 
 it would be useless to record their names. But it is 
 remarkable that, in five years, seven pretenders to the 
 throne, all very superior to Honorius in courage, talents, 
 and virtues, were in turn sent captive to Ravenna, 
 or punished with death ; that the people constantly 
 applauded the sentence passed upon them, and main- 
 tained their allegiance to the legitimate authority. So 
 much progress had already been made by the doctrine 
 of the divine right of kings, which the bishops had 
 begun to preach under Theodosius ; and so fully do-
 
 CLOSE OF THE REIGNS OF ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS. 149 
 
 termined did the Roman world appear, to perish with 
 an imbecile monarchy rather than choose for themselves 
 a deliverer. 
 
 Arcadius, who was governed alternately by his mi- 
 nisters, his eunuchs, and his wife, died at the age of 
 thirty-one, on the 1st of May, 408, and left, at the head 
 of the empire of the East, his son, Theodosius II., who 
 was yet a child, with a council of women to direct him. 
 The life of Honorius was of longer duration ; he lived 
 till the 15th of August, 423; but he also left his empire 
 to a child, Valentinian III., who was his nephew. This 
 young prince was under the guidance of his mother : 
 she was the same Placidia, the sister to Honorius and 
 Arcadius, who had married Adolf, king of the Visi- 
 goths. Her second husband was Constantius, one of 
 the best generals of the Western empire, who obtained 
 the title of Caesar. He was the father of Valentinian III., 
 and died before Honorius. 
 
 Never could the helm of the state have passed into 
 the feeble hands of women and of children under more 
 unfavourable circumstances. The great revolution which 
 was slowly taking place throughout the West, was 
 hastened by the minority of the two emperors ; yet the 
 government of Placidia, though weak, was honourable : 
 she had the talent of selecting and attracting to her 
 court some great men, though she had not the power to 
 restrain their passions, nor to make them act consistently 
 for the public good. After her death, the world learned 
 to estimate her loss by the vice and coAvardice of her 
 son. (a.d. 450 — 455.) 
 
 As we shall not bestow on these weak emperors the 
 attention which it would require to become acquainted 
 with aU the scandalous details of their reigns, neither 
 shall we attach to the barbarian kings of the same 
 period a degree of importance of which they are equally 
 unworthy. These kings, powerful as long as war lasted, 
 while their whole nation was in action and relied impli- 
 citly upon the prudence of the leader of their choice, 
 ceased to be persons of importance as soon as peace was 
 L 3
 
 150 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 concluded. From that moment every German deter- 
 mined to be his own defender, his own avenger^ and to 
 decide alone, and without advice, on whatever he judged 
 advantageous ; he was little influenced in his determin- 
 ations by public authority, and less still by that of kings; 
 for the little which was done for the common weal was 
 done by the assembly of the people. Thus the kings are 
 only conspicuous by their private conduct, or rather, by 
 their crimes and vices ; for their virtues could only have 
 been displayed in the administration of government, and in 
 this they had no part. To the pride of riches they added 
 the consciousness of b^ing above the law ; while the 
 encouragements of the flatterers who surrounded them, 
 especially of their Roman subjects, who excelled the bar- 
 barians in the arts of intrigue, carried to an unheard-of 
 pitch the corruption of these chiefs of the people. It 
 would be diffieult to find, in any class of men, even 
 among those whom public justice has consigned to the 
 hulks and the galleys, so many examples of atrocious 
 crimes, assassinations, poisonings, and, above all, fratri- 
 cides, as these royal families afforded during the fifth, 
 sixth, and seventh centuries. It would be unjust to 
 the nations they governed to judge of them by the 
 example of their chiefs, who alone occupy a conspicuous 
 station in history. It is not the fact, that all feel- 
 ings of respect for virtue, love of kindred, compassion 
 for inferiors, — in a word, that justice and human- 
 ity were generally extinct among the barbarians, not- 
 withstanding all the horrors we find in their annals, 
 and of which we have suggested but a small part. But 
 these nations were accustomed to consider their kings 
 as a race apart, distinguished from themselves by their 
 long hair ; a race not subject to the same laws, nor 
 moved by the same feehngs, nor protected by the same 
 securities. These kings, keeping themselves aloof from 
 all other men, were singular in having family names, 
 and in intermarrying only with each other ; and we owe 
 to them the introduction of that system of relationship
 
 CHAP. VII. VISIGOTHS. SUEVI. 151 
 
 between crowned heads which was before unknown in 
 the world. 
 
 We have no authentic account of the kings of the 
 Franks during the greater part of the fifth century. 
 The reigns of Pharamond, Clodion, Merovaeus, and even 
 Childeric (a.d.420 — 486), which are found registered in 
 the histories of France, have scarcely any foundation in 
 truth. The chronicle which contains their names says, 
 that they reigned over the Franks ; but, if the fact is 
 true, it is still uncertain whether they governed the 
 whole of the nation ; the country where tliey resided is 
 unknown ; and, in short, no authentic history of their 
 race can be traced earlier than the reign of Clovis. 
 Neither do we know any thing of Gondecar, who is 
 supposed to have been king of the Burgundians from 
 406 to 463 : the crimes of his four sons, three of whom 
 perished in the most horrible manner by fratricide, will 
 be noticed hereafter. 
 
 The succession of the Visigothic kings is better known. 
 More civilised than any other of the Germanic tribes, 
 the Visigoths permitted a greater stability of the royal 
 authority, and formed a united body, even in time of 
 peace. They had also some historians. 
 
 Adolf, who had led the Visigoths into Aquitaine 
 and into Spain, who liad contracted an alliance with 
 the Romans and had married I'lacidia, was assassinated 
 at Barcelona, in the month of August, 415, by one of 
 his own domestics. His successor Siegeric put to death 
 six children of Adolf by a former wife, reduced Pla- 
 cidia to the wretched state of a captive, and made her 
 walk before his horse twelve miles through mhy ways, 
 with the rest of the Roman women. He was killed 
 in his turn, after a few days. Wallia, his successor, 
 made a new alliance with the Romans, restored I'la- 
 cidia to her brother, and declared war upon the other 
 barbarians who had invaded Spain. He conquered 
 them in a succession of engagements, exterminated the 
 Silingi, and compelled the Suevi, the Alans, and the 
 Vandals to retreat into the mountains of Gallicia ; he 
 L 4
 
 152 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. Vfl. 
 
 then restored the rest of Spain to the empire, and 
 finally settled himself in peace at Toulouse, in Aqui- 
 taine, where he died, towards the end of the year 
 418. Dietrich, or, according to the Roman corrup- 
 tion, Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric, was 
 elected in the room of Wallia, by the free choice of his 
 soldiers. During a reign of thirty-three years he es- 
 tablished the dominion of the Visigoths in the south of 
 Gaul and in Spain. He was killed in 451, in the battle 
 of the plains of Champagne, where Attila was de- 
 feated. His eldest son, Thorismund, who succeeded 
 him, was assassinated two years after by his brother, 
 Theodoric II., who ascended the throne; and he also, 
 after a reign of thirteen years (a. d. 453 — 466), was 
 murdered by another brother named Euric, who reigned 
 from 466 to 484. In these times, fratricide was so 
 common a crime among those of royal blood, that, 
 although stained with it, Theodoric II. and Euric are 
 justly considered as the two best and greatest kings who 
 mounted the throne of the Visigoths. 
 
 The history of the Suevi in Gallicia and part of 
 Lusitania, is little known ; but, at the same period, 
 we discover in it sons revolting against fathers, and 
 brothers assassinating brothers. The Suevi kept their 
 ground for more than half a century in Spain, before 
 they embraced the Christian religion and became Arians. 
 Being surrounded on all sides by the Visigoths, their 
 history contains merely an account of the wars which 
 they had to maintain against these neighbours : they 
 were long and bloody ; l64 years were passed in fight- 
 ing, before they could be brought to yield. In 573, 
 Leovigild, king of the Visigoths, united them to the 
 monarchy of Spain. 
 
 In the same province, the Alans had been almost 
 destroyed by Wallia, in 418. The fate of the Vandals 
 was more remarkable : it had a more durable influence 
 upon civilisation, and a closer connection with the his- 
 tory of the Roman empire. Like the Suevi and Alans 
 they had been conquered by ^Vallia, and driven among
 
 CHAP. VII. THE VANDALS. GENSERIC. 153 
 
 the mountains of Gallicia; but when Spain was restored 
 to the officers of Honorius, and afterwards to those of 
 Valentinian III., the Vandals, led by their king, Gon- 
 deric, again spread themselves in Bretica, took Seville 
 and Carthagena, and added to the command which they 
 had obtained of the plains, the possession of a fleet 
 which they found in the latter city. About this time 
 Gonderic died, and Genseric, his illegitimate brother, 
 succeeded him. He was small in stature, lame in con- 
 sequence of an accident, and austere in his manners and 
 habits, disdaining the luxuries of the people he con- 
 quered. He spoke slowly and cautiously, inspiring 
 reserve when he was silent, and terror when he gave 
 way to the transports of anger. His ambition was 
 without bounds, and without scruple : his policy, not 
 less refined than that of the civilised people Avhom he 
 opposed, prompted him to employ every kind of stra- 
 tagem : he knew how to captivate the passions of men, 
 while he embraced the whole world in the extent of his 
 projects. He had not long been master of Carthagena^ 
 when the count Boniface, general of the Romans in 
 Africa, sent him an invitation to cross over to that 
 country. 
 
 Placidia, who governed the court, and what remained 
 of the empire, in the name of her son Valentinian III., 
 had chosen two men to direct her councils and her 
 armies who Avere undoubtedly possessed of great ta- 
 lents, high character, and as much virtue as it was 
 possible to preserve under such a government. One of 
 these — the patrician iEtius, son of a Scythian who 
 had died in the service of the empire — was brought 
 up as a hostage at the court of Alaric : he governed 
 Italy and Roman (Jaul more by his influence over the 
 barbarians than by his authority as a Roman magis- 
 trate. The other, count Boniiace, who Avas the friend 
 of St. Augustin, and reckoned among the protectors of 
 the church, governed Africa. iEtius was jealous of his 
 colleague, and resolved to destroy him by driving him 
 to acts of rebellion. With the blackest perfidy he en-
 
 154! FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 gaged Placitlia to recall Boniface^ and at the same time 
 entreated Boniface not to return^ but to fly to arras if 
 he would preserve his head. Boniface imagined he had 
 no resource but in appealing to the enemies of his 
 country. His crime, which in its nature was inexcus- 
 able, appears to us still more so from the extent of its 
 consequences. 
 
 By thus opening Africa to the Vandals, he not only 
 hastened the fall of the empire, but he annihilated the 
 resources of an immense country, which, in conse- 
 quence of this first invasion, has been lost to Chris- 
 tendom and to civilisation ; preserving to this day the 
 name of Barbary, with a government worthy of the 
 name. The repentance of Boniface, however, the fa- 
 vour of the church, and the friendship of St. Au- 
 gustin, have transmitted his name to posterity without 
 that %veight of infamy which would have attached to 
 it, if the rights of country had been understood in his 
 day. 
 
 Genseric landed upon the shores of Africa in the 
 month of May, 429, with about 50,000 men, col- 
 lected not only among the Vandals, but from all the 
 other Germanic adventurers who were willing to follow 
 his standard. He invited the Moors, who, at the de- 
 cline of the empire, had recovered some portion of 
 their independence and boldness, and seized with joy an 
 opportunity for pillage and revenge. He also ranged 
 under his colours the Donatists and Circoncellions, who 
 had been driven by persecution to the highest pitch of 
 fanaticism ; and who, reckoning among them three hun- 
 dred bishops, and several thousands of priests, were able to 
 carry with them a large part of the population. With 
 these formidable auxiliaries Genseric advanced into Africa, 
 less as a conqueror wishing to subdue a rich kingdom, 
 than as a ravager bent on destruction. Furious in his 
 hostility to an effeminacy which he despised, to riches 
 which might be employed against him, to a population 
 which, though subjugated, might keep him in dread of 
 revolt, he resolved to lay waste the whole country.
 
 CHAP. VII. CONQUEST OF AFRICA. 155 
 
 His excesses have, doubtless, been exaggerated by the 
 hatred and terror of the Africans ; but the total ruin of 
 Africa, and the annihilation, as it may almost be 
 called, of the population of so vast a country, are 
 facts of which succeeding events leave not the smallest 
 doubt. 
 
 Boniface having discovered the perfidy of ^tius, and 
 terrified at the crime he had himself been led to com- 
 mit, made vain efforts to remedy the frightful , evils he 
 had occasioned ; but it was too late. After being 
 beaten by Genseric in a great battle, he concentrated 
 the Roman forces in the three cities of Carthage, 
 Hippo, and Artha ; the rest of Africa became a prey to 
 the Vandals. Boniface himself withdrew into Hippo, 
 and joined his friend, St. Augustin, who died during 
 the siege of that town, the 28th of August, 430. Some 
 'reinforcements which Boniface received from Italy and 
 the East at the same time, enabled him once more to 
 take the field. He marched against Genseric ; but he 
 was conquered, and obliged to evacuate Hippo. He 
 then retired into Italy, where he soon after died of the 
 consequences of a wound whicli he had received in an 
 engagement with -fl^tius. 
 
 Between the taking of Hippo and the final reduction 
 of Africa, eight years elapsed, during which Genseric 
 seemed more occupied in shedding the blood of his 
 relations than that of his enemies. The race of 
 Vandal kings could not escape the common fate of bar- 
 baric monarchs. Gonderic, the brother of Genseric, 
 had left a wife and children whose right to the throne 
 was superior to his own. He beheaded the sons and 
 cast their mother into a river of Africa. But it was 
 not without a struggle of some duration that he ruined 
 or destroyed all their adherents. Placidia believed him 
 to be constantly occupied in parrying or avoiding the 
 poignard of tlic assassin ; she depeiuled upon a treaty 
 she had made with liiin ; while (ienseric was, in fact, 
 preparing his forces to surprise Carthage. This great 
 city, the Rome of the African world (as a contemporary
 
 156 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 calls it), opened its gates to the Vandals on the 9th of 
 October, 439. The cruelty which had stained the tri- 
 umph of Genseric in the six provinces of Africa, was 
 not less conspicuous in the capture of the capital. After 
 a sea of blood had been shed, every kind of property 
 was pillaged ; even the houses and estates near the 
 city were divided among the conquerors ; and Genseric 
 made it an unpardonable crime for a Carthaginian or 
 Roman to preserve any part of his possessions. 
 
 The loss of Africa was, perhaps, one of the greatest 
 calamities which could have overtaken the Western 
 empire : it was the only province the defence of which 
 had hitherto been attended with no difficulty ; the only 
 one which supplied money, arms, and soldiers, without 
 requiring any in return. Africa was also the granary 
 of Rome and of Italy. The gratuitous distribution of 
 corn among the people of Rome, of Milan, and of Ra- 
 venna, had put an end to the cultivation of land 
 throughout the peninsula. It was impossible for the 
 cost of production to be paid in Italy, while govern- 
 ment levied the taxes in kind from the plains of Africa, 
 and thus obtained sufficient for the support of the Ro- 
 man people. The cessation of this annual tribute, 
 instead of reviving agriculture, caused a dreadful fa- 
 mine, and a farther diminution of the population. The 
 part which iEtius had borne in the ruin of Africa, by 
 the shameful treachery which had been brought to light, 
 must have rendered him an object of aversion to Placi- 
 dia. But a danger now threatened the empire far 
 more alarming than any it had known before ; one 
 which involved the whole population ; the existence of 
 all the cities ; the property and the Ufe of every indivi- 
 dual ; and it was impossible to part with the only 
 general who was capable of inspiring the troops with 
 confidence, or of uniting into one body the forces of the 
 Romans and of the barbarians : — Attila was at hand. 
 
 Attila, the Scourge of God, — such was the name in 
 which he delighted, — was the son of Mundzuk, and 
 the nephew of Rugilas, whom he succeeded on the
 
 CHAP. VII. ATTILA. 157 
 
 throne of the Huns, in 433. That inundation of 
 Tartar hordes which had driven before it the Alans, 
 the Goths, and perhaps all the Germanic nations on 
 the frontiers of the Roman empire, had made a volun- 
 tary halt. Having arrived at Dacia (the modern 
 Hungary), the Huns had been enjoying the riches of the 
 country which they had wrested from the Goths and 
 their immediate neighbours. At the time when they 
 stayed their conquests, they had ranged themselves 
 under different chiefs, who all bore the title of king, 
 and who acted in a manner wholly independent of each 
 other. Rugilas himself had several brothers, who had, 
 by turns, made war upon the Greeks, the Sarmatians, 
 and the Germans, their neighbours. Attila also had a 
 brother named Bleda, who shared the throne with him ; 
 but he proved, by becoming his assassin, that the man- 
 ners of the Scythians resembled those of the Germans. 
 He now stood alone at the head of that puissant nation 
 of shepherds, which would neither enjoy nor endure 
 the possession of civihsation or of fixed abode ; and he 
 began to make the world tremble anew. 
 
 Attila took advantage of the terror with which his 
 uncle Rugilas had inspired the Greeks, to impose upon 
 Theodosius II., at Margus, the most shameful treaty 
 that ever monarch signed. All those among the unfor- 
 tunate subjects of Attila, or of the kings he had con- 
 quered, who had sought an asylum on the soil of the 
 empire, were delivered up by the Greek ambassador to 
 their furious master, and were crucified before his eyes. 
 In like manner all the Romans who had escaped from 
 his bondage, were restored to him, unless they could 
 ransom themselves by paying twelve pieces of gold. 
 The empire of Constantinople engaged to pay an an- 
 nual tribute of 700 pounds of gold to the empire of 
 Scythia : on these conditions Attila allowed Theodosius 
 still to reign, while he employed himself in the con- 
 quest of the North. 
 
 Tliis conquest was the most extensive that had ever 
 been accompUshed by armies in the course of one reign.
 
 158 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 Attila brought into subjection the whole of Scythia 
 and Germania. His authority appears to have been 
 acknowledged from the confines of China to the At- 
 lantic. We are ignorant, however, of the particulars of 
 his warlike expeditions, as well as of the victories ob- 
 tained by his lieutenants. When he ascended the throne 
 he was already past the prime of life, and was distin- 
 guished from his fellow-countrymen much more by his 
 political sagacity than by his personal valour or activity. 
 Among the Tartar portion of his subjects he had ex- 
 cited a high degree of superstitious enthusiasm, by pre- 
 tending that he had found the sword of the God of 
 War ; this became his symbol, and, being fixed on the 
 summit of an immense pile of wood, received divine 
 honours from the Scythians. To subjugate the Ger- 
 mans, a different language and other artifices were 
 required. But it is not very difficult for a barbarian 
 conqueror to obtain the voluntary submission of the 
 warlike and savage nations whom he invites to share 
 his conquests, without asking them to change their laws, 
 of which he is ignorant and reckless, or to pay him a 
 tribute which their poverty could not supply. In pro- 
 posing to them to follow his standard to the field, he does 
 but invite them to their favourite sport. 
 
 It was for this reason, no doubt, that Attila suc- 
 ceeded, in a few years, and with no great difficulty, in 
 causing himself to be acknowledged King of kings, by 
 the very nations who had trodden under foot the 
 Roman empire. And he was truly the king of kings ; 
 for his court was formed of chiefs, who, in offices of 
 command, had learned the art of obedience. There 
 were three brothers of the race of the Amales, all of 
 them kings of the Ostrogoths ; Ardaric, king of the 
 ■ Gepida?, his principal confidant ; a king of the ^lero- 
 vingian Franks ; kings of the Burgundians, Thurin- 
 giansj Rugians, and Heruli, who commanded that part 
 of their nation which had remained at home, when the 
 other part crossed the Rhine half a century before. The 
 names of a great number of other nations who inha-
 
 CHAP. VII. ATTILA. 159 
 
 bited the vast regions of Tartary, Russia^, and Sarmatia^ 
 are not even come down to us. 
 
 After so many victories, which left no trophies to 
 posterity, Attila turned his arms once more against the 
 countries of the South. He asserted that the treaty 
 which he had concluded at ]\Iargus, with the emperor of 
 the East, had been violated by the Greeks; and, putting 
 in motion simultaneously the immense multitude of 
 warriors who followed his banners, he crossed the Da- 
 nube at every point, from high Pannonia to the Black 
 Sea. He advanced upon the whole extent of the Illy- 
 rian peninsula, destroying every thing in his way (a. d. 
 441 — 44f)). Seventy cities were levelled to the ground 
 by his army ; villages, houses, harvests, all were burnt; 
 and such of the wretched inhabitants as escaped the 
 sword, were carried away captive beyond the Danube. 
 The Greeks were defeated in three pitched battles, and 
 the army of the Huns advanced to the very Avails of 
 Constantinople, which had recently been shaken by an 
 earthquake, and fifty-eight of their towers thrown down. 
 
 Yet the empire of the East survived even this devas- 
 tation : some of its provinces were secure from inva- 
 sion. Theodosius II. showed great patience under the 
 sufferings of others. He rebuilt the walls of his ca- 
 pital ; and, shut up within the precincts of his palace, 
 he scarcely perceived the war that raged without. Ne- 
 vertheless, one negotiator after another was sent to the 
 camp of Attila ; and, by dint of abject concessions, and 
 of money distributed among his ministers, the Greeks 
 induced him to retire beyond the Danube. Thither 
 their ambassadors followed him. In their way to his 
 camp they had to pass over those cities of Mcesia, 
 where the inhabitants were slain, and the houses razed ; 
 where the place of the streets was only marked by 
 ruins, and ashes, and dead bodies. Among the remains 
 of the churches, however, they discovered some sick 
 and wounded wretches, wlio had not had strength to 
 crawl away, and who still dragged on a miserable 
 existence. The ambassadors were moved to tears as
 
 l60 FALL OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 they gave alms to the wretched beings who Ungered 
 among the ruins of Naissus, formerly one of the great 
 arsenals of the empire. They crossed the Danube in 
 boats, or canoes, formed of a single tree hollowed out ; 
 for the arts of civilised life had already disappeared, and 
 the earth, hke its inhabitants, had relapsed into savage- 
 ness. 
 
 At the court of Attila, in an obscure village of Hun- 
 gary, the ambassadors from the East found, among the 
 crowd of barbarians and of conquered kings, the am- 
 bassadors from the ^\^est, who were come to appease 
 the terrible monarch and to endeavour to maintain peace. 
 What formed the strangest, the most incredible con- 
 trast, was, the paltriness of the motive which brought 
 them there. It was for the sake of some golden vessel 
 belonging to the church of Sirmium, which Attila pre- 
 tended to have been taken from him at the conquest of 
 that city, that iEtius, or Valentinian III., sent ambas- 
 sadors from Rome, and that the world was threatened 
 with a war between Tartary and Europe. One of the 
 ambassadors of Theodosius was secretly instructed by 
 his master to bribe the prime minister of Attila, and 
 persuade him to assassinate the dreaded conqueror. The 
 Scythian monarch was not ignorant of this treacherous 
 plot; but, though he manifested his indignation by some 
 violent expressions, and treated the Roman name with 
 profound contempt, he respected, even in these traitors, 
 the rights of ambassadors, and left Theodosius in peace. 
 
 About the time when Theodosius II. died (28th of 
 June, 450), and when the Greeks, from an incon- 
 ceivable veneration for the royal blood, bestowed the 
 crown on his sister Pulcheria and the husband she 
 might marry (she married jMarcian, an old senator), 
 Attila advanced from the banks of the Danube to those 
 of the Rhine, to occupy Gaul, at the head of the Ger- 
 manic nations. 
 
 At the confluence of the Rhine and the Neckar, he 
 met a party of Franks, who had submitted to his au- 
 thority, and with whom he passed the river, took and
 
 CHAP. VII. ATTILA. l6l 
 
 burned the city of Metz, and destroyed all its inha- 
 bitants : in like manner he laid waste Tongres, and, 
 crossing the country as far as the Loire, laid siege to 
 Orleans. 
 
 The patrician ^tius, who governed the West in the 
 name of Valentinian III., had estabUshed his repu- 
 tation in Gaul by victories over the Franks, the Bur- 
 gundians, and the Visigoths. He had scarcely any 
 Roman soldiers in his ranks ; but he sedulously culti- 
 vated the friendship of the Scythians and Alans, from 
 whose race he sprang, and had engaged numerous bands 
 of them in the service of the empire. He had been 
 careful to conciliate the favour of Attila himself, to 
 whom he had entrusted his son, perhaps as a hostage, 
 or, possibly, in order to secure his being brought up 
 far from the dangers of the imperial court. Never- 
 theless, he did not hesitate to undertake to defend Gaul 
 against him. The ancient inhabitants, the Romans, 
 were without power to resist such an enemy : the bar- 
 barians of German race who were established in Gaul, 
 were terrified at the idea of a Tartar invasion, which 
 threatened to change into a desert that country in 
 which they began to taste the tranquil enjoyments of 
 life. /Etius visited successively the kings of the Franks, 
 the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, who were able to 
 afford him powerful assistance. He likewise had re- 
 course to the smaller tribes, who wandered at will 
 throughout Gaul, encouraging them to assemble under 
 his standard. The TaifaliE, in Poitou ; the Saxons, in 
 Bayeux ; the Breones, in Rhstia ; the Alans, in Or- 
 leans and at Valence ; the Sannatians, who were dis- 
 persed over all the provinces, promised him their as- 
 sistance. Other barbarians, who did not form any 
 national body, engaged themselves in the mercenary 
 troops of letes and confederates. Even the Armo- 
 ricans furnished soldiers ; and of this collection of 
 troops, among whom were to be found every variety of 
 arms and of language, iEtius formed the army of the 
 em])irc.
 
 l62 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP VII. 
 
 But in military skill, and in the power of tactics, 
 the Roman empire retained its superiority to the last 
 stage of its decay. When an able general had drawn 
 up his troops and inspired them with courage, he was 
 not appalled by the numbers of the enemy. Attila was 
 said to have invaded the Gauls with 500,000 men. 
 Whatever was the real strength of his army, the multi- 
 tude of these hungry warriors was to him an incum- 
 brance, while to ^tius it was an advantage. The 
 king of the barbarians vainly wished to take advantage 
 of the most extensive plains of Gaul, to draw out all his 
 battalions : he retreated from the environs of Orleans 
 to the neighbourhood of Chalons, in Champagne, 
 ^tius pursued him, and fiercely disputed with him 
 the possession of a small eminence which commanded 
 the rest of the plain, and seemed to both generals ^an 
 important position. At length, Thorismund, the eldest 
 son of the king of the Visigoths, remained master of it. 
 Jornandes relates, that the rivulet which flowed at the 
 foot of this hill was swollen Avith blood, till it overflowed 
 its banks like a torrent. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, 
 was killed at the commencement of the battle, and lay 
 buried under heaps of slain. His son Thorismund and 
 ^tius were separated from the main body of their 
 army, and were very near falling into the hands of the 
 Huns ; but Attila, meanwhile, was so alarmed at the 
 prodigious losses he had experienced, that he hemmed 
 himself in with a wall of Scythian chariots, which he 
 opposed as a fortification to the assailants. Night 
 closed in before it was possible to know on which side 
 victory lay. Attila's quiescence in the morning showed 
 that he considered himself conquered. If the account 
 of an almost contemporary historian may be credited, 
 162,000 men lay dead on the field of battle. 
 
 This victory was the last that adorned the annals of 
 Rome : if it did not preserve her from ruin, we, at least, 
 have been saved by it ; — saved from Tartar barbarism 
 and Russian civilisation. If the empire of Attila 
 had been perpetuated, if it had spread over Gaul and
 
 OHAP. Vir. BATTLE OP CHALONS. l63 
 
 the temperate regions of Europe, perhaps the nature of 
 the country would have led the Huns to renounce their 
 pastoral life, as the Moguls renounced it in India, and 
 the Mantchou Tartars in China : but the vices of the 
 nation, stamped upon it by servitude, would have been 
 perpetuated, as they have been in Russia — as they have 
 been wherever the Tartar has ruled ; and the nations 
 which at this day diffuse light and knowledge through- 
 out the globe, would scarcely have been in a condi- 
 tion to receive what might have reached them from 
 without. 
 
 It is, indeed, with astonishment and admiration, 
 that we contemplate the most formidable power which 
 ever affrighted the world, dashed to pieces against the 
 last ruins of ancient civilisation. The Roman empire 
 had declined so rapidly, that it is difficult to imagine 
 how it furnished aspirants to a throne so surrounded 
 Avith danger and disgrace. But the dominion of Attila 
 was overthrown to the very dust, before that of Theo- 
 dosius fell, ^tius did not care to disturb the retreat of 
 the Scythian conqueror, who was formidable even in 
 defeat : he waited until he ventured to seek his revenge, 
 and to attack the Romans anew. In the campaign 
 which followed (a.d.452), Attila poured forth his troops 
 from Pannonia, passed the Julian Alps, and advanced 
 to the siege of Aquileia. The extent of his ravages, 
 and the certainty of having no mercy from the barbarian, 
 produced an effect upon the people of Italy that led to 
 the erection of a splendid monument, which has perpe- 
 tuated to our days the memory of the terror he inspired. 
 All the inhabitants of that rich part of the plain of Italy 
 which is situated at the mouths of the great rivers, and 
 called Venetia, took refuge in the low lands, upon the 
 islands, almost covered with water, which choke the 
 mouths of the Adige, the Po, the Brenta, and the Taglia- 
 mento. There they sheltered themselves under huts made 
 of branches, and transported thither a small part of their 
 wealth. In a short time they constructed more com- 
 modious habitations, and several small cities were seen 
 M 2
 
 164 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VII. 
 
 to rise as it were out of the waters. Such was the 
 origin of Venice j and that haughty republic justly 
 called herself the eldest daughter of the Roman em- 
 pire. She was founded by the Romans while the 
 empire was yet standing, and the independence which 
 characterised her early years was still inviolate to our 
 own time. 
 
 Aquileia withstood a lengthened siege ; but all the 
 other cities of northern Italy, — Milan, Pavia, \'erona, 
 and, perhaps, even Turin, as well as Como, at the foot 
 of the Helvetian and Gallic Alps, — opened their gates to 
 the conqueror. Disease, the natural consequence of 
 the intemperance, the violence, and the vices of a bar- 
 barian army, avenged, as they may again avenge, the 
 Italians ; and Attila began to feel the pressing neces- 
 sity of leading back his companions in arms to a coun- 
 try less pernicious to natives of a northern clime, when 
 the ambassadors of Valentinian and the senate of Rome 
 came to demand peace. They were accompanied by 
 pope Leo I. The striking figure and calm self-possession 
 of the venerable pontiff inspired the people with respect, 
 and struck awe into every heart, not even excepting that 
 of the pagan king, although he had professed himself a 
 prophet. With a moderation unknown to him, per- 
 haps the effect, in some measure, of religious fear, he 
 granted peace to the empire. In the following year 
 (a.d.453), Attila died in Dacia, during the intoxication 
 of a banquet. His empire fell with him. Ardaric, his 
 favourite, established the monarchy of the Gepid^e in 
 Dacia, between the Carpathian mountains and the Black 
 Sea, in the very spot which had been regarded by Attila 
 as the seat of his power. The Ostrogoths took posses- 
 sion of Pannonia, between Vienna and Sirmium ; and 
 Irnak, the youngest son of Attila, retired with the 
 Huns into Little Tartary, where the remnant of this 
 people were enslaved, some years after, by the Igours, 
 who issued from the plains of Siberia.
 
 165 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. ROME TAKEN AND SACKED BY 
 
 GENSERIC, CALLED IN BY EUDOXIA, WIDOW OF VALENTINIAN III. 
 
 TEN EMPERORS IN TWENTY-THREE YEARS. ODOACER. 
 
 FINAL EXTINCTION OF TH* FORM OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 
 
 — CHANGE UNIMPORTANT TO THE PEOPLE. THEIR WRETCHED 
 
 CONDITION. SOME CITIES OF THE WEST RETAIN THEIR ALLE- 
 GIANCE TO THE EASTERN EMPIRE. GROWTH OF THE FRANKIC 
 
 MONARCHY. CHLODWIG, COMMONLY CALLED CLOVIS. HIS 
 
 VICTORY OVER SYAGRIUS. HIS MARRIAGE WITH CHLOTILDE 
 
 OF BURGUNDY. HIS CONVERSION. BATTLE OP TOLBIAC. 
 
 HIS BAPTISM. HIS WARS WITH THE BURGUNDIANS, AND WITH 
 
 THE VISIGOTHS. HIS TREACHERY. HIS ASSASSINATION OF 
 
 ALL THE KINGS OF HIS FAMILY. HIS PROTECTION OF THE 
 
 CHURCH. MIRACLES ATTRIBUTED TO HIM. LIMITED POWER 
 
 OF THE FRANKIC KINGS. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE ARMY. 
 
 STATE OF GOVERNMENT. DEATH OF CLOVIS. A. D. 476 511. 
 
 It is impossible not to remark^ in communities and in 
 nations^ a principle of vitality^ a power of resistance, 
 which is brought into action after great calamities, and 
 prolongs the existence of sinking states when they 
 seemed on the brink of annihilation. This power has, 
 in its effects, a resemblance to the vital energy which 
 exists in man and other organised beings ; but it is not, 
 like that, one of the mysteries of nature. On the con- 
 trary, the principle of which we are speaking is the 
 necessary, the easily anticipated consequence of those 
 efforts which each individual makes to improve his con- 
 dition, and to defend himself from the common cala- 
 mities, or to meet them with the smallest possible injury : 
 in thus providing for his own security, he is really 
 labouring for the preservation of the community to 
 which he belongs. 
 
 On every side, the empire of Rome had been sur- 
 rounded by causes which conspired to work its ruin. 
 M 3
 
 l66 FALL OP THE ROMAN EBIPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 During the three first centuries, it had constantly been 
 declining; and when we recollect that^ in the century and 
 half which followed, — a period which we have examined 
 in detail, — the empire was assailed by attacks^ any of 
 •which seemed sufficient to overthrow it, our only wonder 
 will be how it continued to exist. 
 
 The vital principle exhibited in the human frame 
 often repairs the ravages of disease, or entirely sur- 
 mounts them. Although, in some cases, it does but pro- 
 long the sufferings of the body, we are not permitted 
 to endeavour to abridge these sufferings ; for we know 
 not but the moral may become perfect through the pains 
 of the physical being. It would be a fiction of the 
 fancy, however, to attribute to social bodies the proper- 
 ties or the sensitiveness of individual natures ; and we 
 must not allow our pity and regret for the long decline 
 of Rome, nor our reverence for all its grandeur and its 
 glory — for the thousand recollections about to be obliter- 
 ated, — to make us forget that truer compassion which we 
 owe to men like ourselves ; to whole generations that 
 endured the lingering torments of their country's ex- 
 piring state, and the burden of all its calamities. 
 
 The revolution which overthrew the Roman empire, 
 and swept away the ancient forms of civilisation from 
 the earth, made room for new combinations and new 
 social institutions, and led to progress of another kind. 
 It was, perhaps, the most important of all the con- 
 vulsions which have agitated the human race. It was 
 time for this great change to take place ; it was time 
 that the universal languor and feebleness of soul which 
 lowered the character of humanity should give place to 
 a new principle of virtue, or, at least, to a new principle 
 of action. 
 
 Large empires derive a power of self-preservation 
 from their size : it is their privilege to be able to endure 
 bad government in proportion to their extent. Ancient 
 Greece afforded instances of odious tyrants, whose 
 names are for ever covered with infamy. Yet, neither 
 Dionysius of Syracuse, nor Phalaris, nor Pisistratus,
 
 CHAP. VIII. VITALITY OF EMPIRES. l67 
 
 would have been able to inflict upon their fellow citi- 
 zens such calamities as those to which the subjects of 
 the bad emperors were exposed. Never would those 
 men have thought of confounding the innocent with the 
 guilty in one universal proscription ; of rasing a city to 
 the ground, or putting all its inhabitants to the sword : 
 such conduct would have been their own destruction, 
 since the city was their whole domain. On the con- 
 trary, the merciless acts committed by the emperors, 
 the national chastisements which they inflicted, as well 
 as the calamities resulting from the wars in which they 
 engaged, were extensive in proportion to the size of their 
 territory. 
 
 But man does not become the less sensible of his 
 sufferings, because the state to which he belongs is of 
 vast dimension ; and the number of victims to a single 
 act of cruelty, or a single fault, exceeded all beUef. In 
 like manner, the conduct of a weak, vain monarch, 
 who persisted in a disastrous war, produced conse- 
 quences not in proportion to the character of the man, 
 but to the extent of his kingdom. The obstinacy of 
 Theodosius II. within the walls of Constantinople, or 
 of Honorius at Ravenna, which they mistook for noble 
 daring, produced the entire devastation of Illyricum, 
 Gaul, and Italy. No empire but that of Rome could 
 have withstood such shocks. From the time when the 
 monarchy of Attila had fallen, and the Goths and 
 Vandals, established in their new country, had begun to 
 exchange the work of destruction for that of preserv- 
 ation, the empire of the West had regained a chance of 
 prolonging its languishing existence ; for that of the 
 East, which was scarcely less enfeebled, or less surrounded 
 by powerful foes, maintained itself a thousand years 
 longer. Ravenna, the seat of government, was equally 
 sheltered from foreign invasion ; and if the empire had 
 enjoyed a period of tranquillity like that which Italy 
 obtained a few years after the extinction of the A\^estern 
 emperors, so great is the predilection of every people for 
 an old established authority, and so strong their prefer- 
 31 4
 
 l6'8 FALL OF THE KOMAN EBIPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ence for evils with which they are familiar, to untried 
 and doubtful reform, that in all probability the alter- 
 ations which had been the result of force, would have 
 been admitted into the frame-work of society. A new 
 organisation would have brought about a closer con- 
 nection between the centre of government and those 
 provinces which were not conquered ; and the state, 
 superior in extent to any in modern Europe, would have 
 recovered the means of resistance. 
 
 But monarchical states are not only subject to the 
 calamities which assail them from without, through the 
 jealousy or hatred of their neighbours ; they have also 
 the chance of falling under the sway of the most stupid, 
 or the basest of mankind. These chances of succession 
 were fatal to the empire of the ^Fest. From the death 
 of Attila, in 453, to the extinction of the imperial 
 dignity, in 475, ten emperors, in the space of twenty- 
 three years, succeeded each other on the throne ; and 
 the ten revolutions which hurled them from it were 
 more than so frail a structure could resist. 
 
 These revolutions were in a great degre attributable 
 to the last descendant of the great Theodosius. Valen- 
 tinian III. had reached the age of manhood ; his mother 
 was dead, Boniface was dead, Attila was dead. Valen- 
 tinian imagined the highest privilege of the imperial 
 dignity to be that of securing impunity for all the vices 
 which subject private individuals to the punishment of 
 the laws. The greatness and renown of -Sltius were 
 irksome to him ; and the first time his coward hand 
 brandished a sword, he employed it, with the help of his 
 eunuchs and courtesans, to kill the general who had 
 saved, and who alone could still save, the empire. In 
 less than a year after (March l6'. 455), he was assas- 
 sinated, in his turn, by Petronius Maximus, a senator, 
 whose wife he had insulted. 
 
 Maximus was then acknowledged emperor ; but the 
 people found in him nothing deserving of supreme 
 power. It was equally impossible for the Romans not 
 to despise the descendants of Theodosius, and not to
 
 CHAP. VIII. VALENTINIAN III. MAXIMUS. ISQ 
 
 extend their contempt to those men who, devoid of 
 either virtues or talents, took advantage of the fall of 
 these princes to raise themselves to the thi-one. 
 
 As nothing indicated clearly where the right to sove- 
 reign power resided, the road to it was again laid open 
 to ambition, intrigue, and crime. The sufferings and 
 the ignominy of the Roman empire were increased by a 
 new calamity which happened in the year of Valentinian's 
 death. Eudoxia, the widow of that emperor, who had 
 afterwards become the wife of INIaximus, avenged the 
 murder of her first husband, by plotting against her 
 second ; reckless how far she involved her country in 
 the ruin. She invited to Rome Genseric, king of the 
 Vandals, who, not content with having conquered and 
 devastated Africa, made every effort to give a new 
 direction to the rapacity of his subjects, by accustoming 
 them to maritime warfare, or, more properly speaking, 
 piracy. His armed bands, who, issuing from the shores 
 of the Baltic, had marched over the half of Europe, 
 conquering wherever they went, embarked in vessels 
 which they procured at Carthage, and spread desolation 
 over the coasts of Sicily and Italy. On the 12th of 
 June, i'55, they landed at Ostia. iNIaximus was killed 
 in a seditious tumult excited by his wife. Defence was 
 impossible ; and from the 1 ;)th to the 29th of June, the 
 ancient capital of the world was pillaged by the Vandals 
 with a degree of rapacity and cruelty to which Alaric 
 and the Goths had made no approach. The ships of 
 the pirates were moored along the quays of the Tiber, 
 and were loaded Avith a booty which it would have been 
 impossible for the soldiers to carry off by land. 
 
 The unhappy Romans were compelled, by protracted 
 tortures, to discover all their hidden treasures : neither 
 were they secure from the cupiility of Genseric's troops 
 when stripped of all they possessed. The hope of ex- 
 torting a ransom from their relations or friends led to 
 thousands of noble captives being carried over to Car- 
 thage. Eudoxia herself shared in the miseries which 
 she had brought upon Rome : Genseric forcibly carried
 
 170 FALL OF THE ROMAN EBIPIRE. CHAP. VUI. 
 
 her off, with her two daughters, the only survivors of 
 the race of Theodosius the Great, in one of his vessels ; 
 and in spite of the attachment the Romans had recently 
 shown to the hereditary claims of this family, they 
 found themselves, against their wishes, reinvested with 
 the power of bestowing the crown on a ruler of their 
 choice. This prerogative falling to a people alike devoid 
 of national spirit and of protecting institutions, of respect 
 for justice or for virtue, could not fail to prove fatal. 
 The Gauls, the Greeks, the confederate barbarians who 
 composed the army, all in turn contended for the privi- 
 lege of giving a chief to the empire ; and the favourite 
 of one party was no sooner invested with the purple, 
 than a hostile faction rose up to dethrone him. 
 
 In the calamitous period of twenty-one years, which 
 embraces the last convulsive sti-uggles of the Western 
 empire (a.d. 455 — 476), one man signalised himself 
 above all those ephemeral emperors whom he created or 
 dethroned at his wiU, without having it in his power to 
 occupy their place. This was the patrician Ricimer, a 
 Swabian or Suevus by birth, and the son of the daughter 
 of WaUia king of the Visigoths. A popular sentiment, 
 which it is surprising to discover in a country where there 
 could not be said to be a people, rose in opposition to 
 this barbarian, when he would have assumed the purple; 
 though the men he nominated to wear it were sure to be 
 elected. The haughty Swabian, disdaining to obey those 
 whom he considered as his own creatures, accomplished 
 their downfall before they were well seated on the throne. 
 He thus destroyed the very root of civil authority and 
 obedience. He died the 20th of August, 472. At this 
 period, the provinces of the West acknowledged no other 
 power than that of the barbarian troops, who took the 
 name of Confederates ; these men governed Italy. Two 
 of their chiefs, who came in the train of the king of 
 the Huns, next contended for the empire. 
 
 Orestes, a Patricius of Pannonian extraction, who 
 had long served Attila as secretary and ambassador, 
 placed upon the throne his own son Romulus Augustus,
 
 CHAP. VIII. ODOACER. 171 
 
 who, in mockery of his youth, Avas calleil Augustulus ; 
 while Odoacer, the son of Edecon, another minister of 
 Attila, excited the Confederates to revolt against the chief 
 they had just elected. He promised them a third of the 
 soil of Italy to divide amongst them ; caused Orestes to 
 be put to death, and shut up his son in LucuUus's villa, in 
 Campania, without choosing to appoint his successor. 
 
 Thus, in 476, was accomplished the extinction of the 
 empire of the West. But this revolution, so important 
 in our eyes, which forms so marked an epoch in history, 
 was so disguised from the view of contemporaries, that 
 they did not foresee its consequences. Odoacer com- 
 pelled the senate of Rome to send away the imperial 
 insignia to Zeno, emperor of Constantinople ; declaring^ 
 that one ruler was sufficient to govern the whole em- 
 pire. He conveyed a request to this emperor, that he 
 might himself be allowed to govern the diocese of Italy, 
 under the title of Patricius. It is true, he also took 
 the appellation of King. This was a barbaric dignity, 
 which had not been held incompatible with the com- 
 mand of an army, or of a Roman province. It rather 
 denoted a ruler of men, than of territory. It w^as con- 
 ferred on Odoacer by his soldiers, among whom the 
 Heruli were, probably, the most numerous ; whence he 
 is often represented as king of the Heruli. Meanwhile 
 the imperial government was little changed from what 
 it had been during the last century in Italy ; that is to 
 say, the power was completely in the hands of armed 
 barbarians ; while, at the same time, the senate of Rome 
 continued to assemble as usual ; the consuls were ap- 
 pointed yearly, one by the East, the other by Italy ; 
 the imperial laws were proclaimed in Italy, and re- 
 spected as before ; and none of the municipal or pro- 
 vincial authorities were changed. It is difficult to dis- 
 cover what that public opinion was, and under what 
 form it was expressed, which had still power to pre- 
 vent the sovereign of Italy and of the army from taking 
 upon himself the title of Roman Emperor, and to con- 
 vince him that he was too weak to attempt the sup-
 
 172 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 pression of rights and claims which he was unable to 
 assert for himself, although he could not endure to see 
 them granted to another. We should look in vain for 
 Romans, or for Italians, who had still so far preserved 
 the dignity of their ancient prejudices as to repel a 
 master who should adopt the title of King of Rome or 
 of Italy. Odoacer, however, felt that such a power 
 existed, and took care not to oppose it. He founded 
 anew the kingdom of Italy, and called it by another 
 name. He was independent, without daring to appear 
 so. By the distribution of lands in Italy among the 
 confederate soldiers, he satisfied their cupidity without 
 relaxing their discipline ; and as he no longer recruited 
 his army with the barbarian adventurers who had yearly 
 flocked to his standard, he kept it within moderate 
 limits, though sufficiently powerful to guard his fron- 
 tiers. He made no attempt to extend his dominions 
 beyond Italy, from which Sicily and Sardinia had 
 ah-eady been separated by the invasions of Genseric : on 
 one occasion, however, he made war against lUyricum, 
 and on another against Noricum, with equal success. 
 The whole extent of country between the Alps and the 
 Danube had been fertilised by Roman agriculture, and 
 enriched by Roman commerce, and by the residence of 
 Roman legions : it was looked upon as the nursery of 
 the best soldiers of the empire. But it had been so 
 devastated by successive invasions, that the race of its 
 Roman inhabitants was nearly extinct, and was suc- 
 ceeded by barbarians of whose history nothing is known. 
 The Rugians, who possessed it at the time of which 
 we are speaking, were conquered by Odoacer, and 
 great numbers of them brought captive into Italy, to 
 assist in the cultivation of the deserts of that country. 
 Deserts they might tridy be called. The population 
 had been swept away by every scourge under heaven ; 
 war, plague, famine, pubUc tyranny, and domestic 
 slavery. Throughout the preceding century, the exist- 
 ence of the people had been entirely artificial. They 
 were principally supported by the distributions of corn.
 
 CHAP. VIII. ODOACER. 173 
 
 which the emperors had bound themselves to conti- 
 nue at Romej Milan, and other great towns where 
 the court resided. These largesses had ceased with 
 the loss of Africa and the ruin of Sicily. Odoacer 
 did not attempt to renew them. Meanwhile most of' 
 the landed proprietors had ceased to cultivate their 
 estates : there was little encouragement to incur great 
 expense in growing corn, which was afterwards given 
 away in the market-place. The rearing of cattle had 
 for a time superseded the cultivation of grain ; but 
 both the herds, and the slaves who tended them, had 
 been carried off by continual incursions of barbarians. 
 The desolation of these regions is frequently expressed 
 in simple yet affecting language in the contemporary 
 letters of the saints. Pope Gelasius (a. d. 496) speaks 
 of Emilia, Tuscany, and other provinces, in which the 
 human race was almost extinct. St. Ambrose, of the 
 towns of Bologna, Modena, Reggio, Piacenza, which 
 remained deserted, together with the adjacent country. 
 Those who have seen the Campagna di Roma in our own 
 days, have witnessed the desolation of a country ruined 
 by bad laws, even more than by foreign aggression. Let 
 them imagine the gloomy scenery which now surrounds 
 the capital, extended over every part of Italy, and they 
 will have some idea of the kingdom of Odoacer. 
 
 The usurpation of Odoacer had relaxed, but not 
 severed, the tie which united the more distant western 
 provinces to the empire. Several districts of Spain, 
 and particularly the sea-coast, had preserved their inde- 
 pendence against the Suevi and the Visigoths ; some 
 towns in Africa had escaped the attacks of the Vandals ; 
 and there were provinces in the centre of Gaul which 
 obeyed neither the Franks, Burgundians, nor Visigoths. 
 In those territories which had been occupied by the 
 barbarians, they were looked upon (according to the 
 legal expression which assigned them their quarters) 
 as guests, rather than as masters. The inhabitants diil 
 not cease to consider themselves as Romans ; and they 
 long retained their name, their language, their customs.
 
 174 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 and their laws. The eyes of all were turned towards 
 Constantinople ; they all recognised as their emperor, 
 Zeno (a. d. 474 — 491), who had succeeded to Leo 
 (a. d. 457 — 474) upon the Eastern throne. The 
 Greek emperors escaped the storm which raged around 
 them^ by their good fortune more than by their wisdom. 
 They were unacquainted with the languages of the 
 Western provinces, which they despised as barbarian ; 
 and they were alike ignorant of their condition and of 
 their interests. They had no means of defending, 
 scarcely any of governing them ; and, as they had no 
 chance of drawing supplies from them, they abandoned 
 their administration to men of wealth and rank, who 
 assumed the title of Count of the several cities. These 
 counts flattered the emperor in their correspondence, and 
 were flattered in return by imperial titles : the power 
 they exercised was that of independent sovereigns. 
 
 ^gidius, count of Soissons, seems to have been one 
 of the most powerful of these nobles of Gaul, who, 
 during the decline of the empire, were indebted to their 
 wealth for a kind of sovereignty. He gained several 
 advantages over the Visigoths, at the head of an army 
 of Franks accustomed to serve in the pay of Rome ; a 
 circumstance which has caused it to be said that he 
 reigned over the Franks during the exile of Childeric, 
 the father of Clovis. His son, Afranius Syagrius, also 
 governed Soissons with the title of Count, during the ten 
 years which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire 
 (a.d. 476 — 486"). He was by these means brought into 
 the neighbourhood of the Franks, who were ancient allies 
 of the empire, and accustomed to fight under its banner 
 for payment ; but he had nothing left to offer them, — 
 neither battles nor spoils. The Franks, however, with- 
 out making war, had contrived to extend their frontier 
 in Belgium. They were become masters of Tournai, 
 Cambray, Terouane, and Cologne ; and in each of 
 these cities they had a different king. All these petty 
 kings ascribed their origin to MeroviEus (Meer-wig, 
 or Sea Hero), for the date of whose half fabulous
 
 CHAP. VIII. THE FRANKS. 175 
 
 existence we must rather go back to the first appearance 
 of the Franks, about the year 250, than to the middle of the 
 fifth century, where it is commonly placed. There was 
 one among them, — a young man, scarcely twenty years 
 of age, — who was greatly distinguished by his personal 
 appearance, and by his bravery, and who had already 
 reigned five years over the Franks of Tournai. His name 
 was Clovis*: he was the son of Childeric, who had been 
 banished on account of the licentiousness of his man- 
 ners ; but who was afterwards recalled by his tribe when 
 age had calmed his passions. Like all the rest of his 
 race, he worshipped the gods of Germania ; but his 
 enthusiastic mind was ever ready to credit all the pro- 
 digies which were related to him by the priests of a dif- 
 ferent religion, who easily won him over to their belief. 
 In 486, he proposed to the warriors of Tournai, of the 
 tribe of the Salian Franks, to go and share the riches of 
 their Roman neighbours, who neither knew how to 
 defend them, nor how to bestow them upon other de- 
 fenders. Not more than 3000 or 4000 Franks answered 
 his appeal, and took up their francisque or war hatchet, 
 ready to follow him. Ragnacar, another king of the 
 Franks, at Cambray, came with his followers to join the 
 standard of Clovis. They sent a message of defiance 
 to Syagrius. The Roman count was not so formidable 
 as to make it necessary to resort to surprise ; neverthe- 
 less, he occupied the frontier, and all the soldiers 
 north of the Seine, calling themselves Roman or legion- 
 ary, or letes or federal, assembled at his order. The 
 armies met ; Syagrius was beaten, and the Franks 
 took and pillaged Soissons. Syagrius in his flight 
 crossed the Seine ; but the cities along this river and 
 the Loire, although calling themselves Roman, had taken 
 no thouglit about their future safety. They possessed 
 no soldiers, no treasure, no means of resistance. 
 
 Syagrius could obtain no succour from them ; he 
 therefore passed the Loire, and advanced to Toulouse, to 
 
 * The Roman corruption of Chlodwig, or, in modern German, Ludwig ; 
 H modern Ir'rench, Louis. — (TraiNsJ)
 
 176 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 crave the assistance of Alaric II., who had reigned for 
 two years over the Visigoths. The councillors of this 
 king, who was yet a child, thought the moment favour- 
 able for extinguishing the last remains of Roman power. 
 They took Syagrius, therefore, and, loading him with 
 chains, sent him back to Clovis, who suffered him to 
 die in prison. 
 
 And this is nearly all that we can ever know concern- 
 ing the combats which finally annihilated the dominion 
 of the Romans in Gaul, and laid the foundation of the 
 French monarchy. The task of the historian is no 
 longer what it was, Avhen, following the annals of 
 Rome, he had to choose from rich and varied materials ; 
 to combine, to reconcile, to select. Grief and shame 
 had reduced almost all the West of Europe to silence. 
 Who, indeed, could wish to preserve the details of 
 revolutions, every crisis of which exposed to view the 
 vices of the people and of the government .'' The 
 Germans could not write, the Romans would not. One 
 man alone, a prelate and a saint, — Gregory, bishop of 
 Tours, — undertook, at the end of the following century, 
 to make known to us the origin of the French mon- 
 archy ; and, by his work, he affords the only light 
 that has been thrown upon the other countries of the 
 West. It has been abridged, and copied, and amplified, 
 by turns, from the seventh century to our own time : 
 but commentaries serve only to mislead us ; we must 
 consult the original, if we wish to come at truth. This 
 rude narrative ought to satisfy us ; it exhibits at 
 once the manners of the age, and the opinions of the 
 church ; and though it consists almost entirely of a 
 tissue of crimes, we ought not hastily to turn from its 
 perusal. It is right to know what we have to dread 
 from the various revolutions of human society. We 
 shall set a higher value on the virtues of our contem- 
 poraries, and on the happiness we enjoy, and we shall 
 endure Avith greater patience the evils which accom- 
 pany all human institutions, when Ave know what our 
 ancestors really were.
 
 CHAP. VIII, ■ ST. GREGOmr OP TOURS. 177 
 
 Clovis had fixed himself at Soissons. The rich booty 
 which he had divided among his victorious warriors, 
 and which, according to the custom of the Franks, had 
 been distributed by lot in equal portions amongst all the 
 soldiers, had drawn fresh adventurers to their standards. 
 There was no other king of the Franks who seemed to 
 equal him in activity and courage ; and the German 
 was always free to choose the chief with whom he pre- 
 ferred to share the dangers of the war. Nearly a third 
 part of Gaul, from the Oise to the Loire, was given up 
 without defence to the pillage or conquest of the Franks, 
 "We have no record of their progress in these provinces. 
 Whatever may have been the weakness and cowardice 
 of the Romans, it was impossible for an army of 4000 
 men to occupy at once their rural domains and their 
 cities. Fourteen years elapsed between the first victory 
 of Clovis over Syagrius, and the time when the Loire, 
 the Mozelle, the Jura, and the Rhine, formed the 
 boundaries of his kingdom. During this period, from 
 48() to .500, the Romans negotiated with him, in hopes 
 of lightening the yoke which they were forced to bear. 
 They sent a deputation to the conqueror, and, by the 
 payment of tribute money, bought his protection. 
 
 The bishops, on their side, were intent on the con- 
 version of the king who was to reign over them. They 
 found his mind accessible to that fanaticism with which 
 they wished to inspire it; and as he was not yet a 
 Christian, nor consequently imbued with a sectarian 
 partiality, they imagined he would be more favourable 
 to orthodox opinions than the kings of the Burgundians 
 and Visigoths, who were Arians. They resolved to 
 take advantage of his fondness for women, to gain him 
 over to their side ; and after causing him to divorce his 
 wife — who was a Frank and a pagan, and the mother of 
 his eldest son, — Aurelian, a (iaul, the Christian adviser 
 of Clovis, negotiated his marriage with Chlotilde. 
 
 The barbarian kings intermarried with none but 
 women of royal blood ; and Clovis would have scorned 
 the daughter of a subject. He was not yet powerful 
 
 VOL. I. ^
 
 178 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 enough to obtain the daughter of a king of the Vandals, 
 the Burgundians, or the Visigoths ; but Chlotilde was at 
 the same time of royal descent, and persecuted. Gondicar, 
 king of the Burgundians, who died in 4^63, had left 
 four sons, each of them bearing the title of king, com- 
 manding the armies, and sharing the conquests of their 
 nation. But Gondebald, the eldest of these four princes, 
 took away the life of his three brothers in succession. 
 Having surprised two of them, Chilperic and Godemar, 
 in their residence at Vienne, he killed Chilperic, who 
 had surrendered himself his prisoner, with his own 
 hand; ordered his wife to be thrown into the Rhone 
 with a stone tied round her neck ; and her two sons to 
 be beheaded, and their bodies cast into a well. 
 
 Two daughters remained captive : one of these was 
 Chlotilde. Godemar, the other brother, had taken re- 
 fuge in a tower ; but the savage Gondebald had the 
 lower part filled with combustibles, and burned him 
 alive. The fourth brother, Godegesil, perished ten years 
 later. 
 
 Chlotilde, who escaped the disastrous fate of her 
 house, is supposed to have been in confinement at 
 Geneva. She had been educated by an orthodox bishop. 
 She was handsome, and enthusiastic ; and she felt it an 
 act of piety to hate her persecutor. She abhorred 
 him as the murderer of her nearest kindred, and, still 
 more, because he was an Arian ; but she dissembled 
 her hatred at the moment of her marriage. Gonde- 
 bald, like many other kings, thought his crimes for- 
 gotten, as soon as he could forget them himself ; and 
 consented to the marriage of his niece with Clovis, as a 
 bond of union between the two nations. Ste. Chlotilde, 
 as she was called by the priests, was very imperfectly 
 known to her uncle Gondebald. No length of time, 
 no attempts at reconciliation, no benefits conferred, 
 could eradicate from her heart the hatred she had con- 
 ceived. Her marriage was celebrated in 493 ; and, 
 thirty years after, she demanded and obtained the ven- 
 geance for which, she had constantly panted. The
 
 CHAP. VIII. CLOVIS. CHLOTILDE. 179 
 
 confidence which the bishops of Gaul had placed in 
 the charms of Chlotilde was fully justified. She con- 
 verted her husband ; persuaded him first to have his 
 children baptised ; and afterwards prevailed on hirn to 
 seek the protection of her God in a moment of danger. 
 
 In 490, the Allemans had invaded all the country 
 which lies between the Moselle and the j\Ieuse. To 
 the Franks, this was a national war ; all their tribes 
 assembled, and gave battle to the aggressors at Tolbiac, 
 four leagues from Cologne. They were repulsed, how- 
 ever, and seemed upon the point of being routed, when 
 Clovis invoked thd God of Chlotilde: animated with 
 fresh courage, he again attacked the enemy ; the Alle- 
 man chief was slain ; and his soldiers immediately 
 offered to join the standard of Clovis, and acknowledge 
 him as their king. The two nations spoke the same 
 language, their origin was the same, and their manners 
 and customs were similar ; they were, therefore, easily 
 united ; and Clovis returned from the field of Tolbiac 
 at the head of an army much more numerous than that 
 which he had led thither, or than any which he had ever 
 before commanded. He Avas acknowledged king by his 
 enemies, and suzerain or chief by the otlier kings of 
 the Franks, who till then had been liis equals. 
 
 On his return to Soissons, his seat of empire, Clovis 
 became one of the catechumens of St. Remi, the arch- 
 bishop of Rheims : his soldiers, carried away like him- 
 self by tlie universal behef of the people amongst whom 
 they lived, by the miracles which they heard attested, 
 and by the magnificence of the catholic worship, readily 
 followed his example. On Christmas-day, 49^)", he 
 repaired, with an army of only SOOO soldiers, to tlie 
 cathedral of Rheims, where St. Remi poured upon him 
 the water of baptism, uttering these words, which have 
 been handed down to us : — " Row down thy head, oh ! 
 Sicambrian, with 'humility. Adore what thou hast 
 burnt, and burn wliat thou hast adored." The joy of 
 tlie clergy throughout Gaul was boundless, when they 
 heard of the conversion of kiiig Clovis. In him, the 
 N 2
 
 180 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 orthodox believers gained a defender, and an avenger ; 
 a persecutor of their rivals, at the moment when their 
 heed was greatest. For the emperor Zeno at Constan- 
 tinople, and all the barbarian kings, — at Ravenna, at 
 Vienne, at Toulouse, at Carthage, in Spain and in 
 Germany, — were either heretic or pagan. Hence it is, 
 that the king of the Franks has been called the eldest 
 son of the church. St. Avitus, archbishop of Vienne, 
 on the Rhone, wrote to Clovis, — " Your faith is our vic- 
 tory." This prelate was a Burgundian subject ; but he 
 rejoiced in the expectation that Clovis would attack the 
 rulers of his nation ; and all the clergy of Gaul, 
 whether they were subject to the Burgundians or Visi- 
 goths, showed the same zeal for the future triumph of 
 Clovis. At the same time, the confederated towns of 
 Armorica, which hitherto had defended themselves 
 against the barbarians by the force of their own arms, 
 offered to treat with Clovis. They entered into an 
 alliance with him, or, rather, became incorporated in his 
 nation ; and the Armoricans were placed upon an equal 
 footing with the Franks. AU the barbarian soldiers 
 that remained scattered throughout Gaul, who till then 
 had followed the standards of Rome, under the name of 
 Letes or Confederates, were in like manner adopted by 
 the Frankic nation ; the new king saw his empire 
 extending to the ocean ; to the Loire, which separated 
 it from the Visigoths ; to the mountains around Lan- 
 gres, the boundary of the Burgundian territory ; and 
 to the Rhine, which divided it from the independent 
 Franks. 
 
 Such an extent of conquest might have sufficed to 
 satisfy the ambition of the little chieftain of 3000 
 warriors. But Clovis knew that he co'ild only main- 
 tain his influence over his companions in arms by new 
 victories, and by holding out fresh booty to their ra- 
 pacity. Many of the soldiers lamented the submission 
 of the Roman provinces. Each of those protected by 
 Clovis was rescued from the cupidity of plunderers : 
 but he endeavoured to persuade them, that whatever ad-
 
 CHAP. VIII. CLOVIS. 181 
 
 ditions he had made to his territory, there would always 
 remain in Gaul provinces to pillage, estates to parcel 
 out, and inhabitants to reduce to slavery. 
 
 Clovis sought an occasion of quarrel with the two 
 nations which shared with him the empire of Gaul ; but 
 with that policy to which he owed success, even more 
 than to his valour, he began by giving them insidious 
 counsels before he attempted to surprise them. 
 
 The Burgundians were first the object of his attack. 
 They were governed by the two brothers of Chlotilde : 
 Godegesil, who had fixed his seat at Geneva; and Gon_ 
 dibard, who resided at Vienne. The kingdom was not 
 divided between them, but each had endeavoured to 
 secure a large number of warriors, or Leudes : this 
 name, which answers to lieges*, describes those parti- 
 sans attached to their chiefs by benefits conferred. 
 Each of the brothers, in distrust of the other, had re- 
 tired to as great a distance as possible, to escape from 
 perfidious snares, and to enjoy at liberty the pleasures 
 then attached to kingly power. From this mutual 
 dread proceeded the custom so universal among bar- 
 barians, of designating kings by the name of their capitals, 
 rather than by that of their provinces. One was king at 
 Vienne, the other king at Geneva, but both of them 
 were kings of the Burgundians. In the year 500, 
 Clovis gained over Godegesil : he persuaded him to 
 separate himself from his brother at the moment when 
 the Franks were giving battle to his countrymen ; and 
 as a reward for his compliance, he promised to assist him 
 in gaining sole possession of the throne of the Burgun- 
 dians. He then declared war upon this people, and 
 led on his Franks to the combat. The two nations 
 met upon the banks of the Ousche, near Dijon ; but at 
 the very moment when the battle was about to begin, 
 Godegesil, with all his forces, deserted the national 
 banner, and joined that of Clovis. Gondebald, in dis- 
 
 • Leule — people. (Gennaii.) — (TransL) 
 N 3
 
 182 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 may, took to flight, and could not believe himself safe 
 until he had shut himself up in Avignon. Godegesil 
 lost no time in reaching his brother's palace at Vienne, 
 and taking possession of all the riches it contained ; 
 while Clovis pursued his ravages into Provence, 
 where, tearing up the vines and burning the olive trees, 
 he forcibly carried off the peasants, and loaded his sol- 
 diers with booty. But when he endeavoured to render 
 himself master of Avignon, he found the walls too 
 strong for warriors so ignorant of the art of besieging : 
 he was obliged, therefore, to enter into a compromise Avith 
 Gondebald, and to consent to retire to the banks of the 
 Seine, with all the spoils which his troops had obtained. 
 
 Gondebald being delivered from the fear of the Franks, 
 immediately marched to Vienne with a great body of 
 Burgundians, who were indignant at the treachery 
 of Godegesil. He gained entrance through an aque- 
 duct, and having found his brother, who in terror 
 had sought refuge in a church, he put him to 
 death, as well as the bishop who had granted him 
 asylum. He destroyed by horrible tortures all those 
 whom he accused of participating in his brother's trea- 
 son, and caused his authority again to be acknowledged 
 throughout the army of the Burgundians. 
 
 Clovis, in the mean time, had not been making con- 
 quests ; possibly, this was not his object ; but he had 
 been enriching his army. At the end of a few years, 
 he led it forth on another expedition. Alaric II. reigned 
 over the Visigoths, and between him and the Franks 
 there had been some disputes. Clovis proposed to him 
 to hold a conference in an island on the Loire, near 
 Amboise : here he settled all their differences, removed 
 all Alaric's anxiety about his own projects, and a lasting 
 peace was confirmed between the Visigoths and the 
 Franks by mutual oaths. On his return home, he assem- 
 bled his troops on the Champ de Mars, between 
 Soissons and Paris, in the spring of the year 507- 
 " I cannot bear," he said, " that those Arians (the
 
 CHAP. VIII. CLOVIS. 183 
 
 Visigoths) should possess the best part of Gaul : let us 
 go forth against them, and when, by God's help, we 
 have overcome them, we will reduce their country under 
 our dominion^ and their persons to slavery." A longer 
 harangue was not required to excite the Franks to war- 
 fare. They made the air resound with the clang of their 
 arms, and followed their king to the field. 
 
 Clovis had deceived his enemy by a shameful perjury ; 
 but, in order to gain the blessing of heaven upon his 
 arms, he caused it to be proclaimed that any soldier 
 would be punished with death who should carry off so 
 much as a blade of grass from the territory of Tours 
 without paying for it, this country being under the 
 immediate protection of St. Martin. The church, at 
 that time, did not hesitate between the two kinds of 
 merit — liberality toward monks, or probity. St. Gre- 
 gory of Tours assures us that the march of Clovis 
 was constantly directed and aided by miracles. The 
 perpetual chorus of monks, — the Ff<nlleuthim, who 
 night and day sang psalms in the church of Tours, 
 announced his victory by a prophecy. A fawn guided 
 his passage across the waters- of the Vienne ; a column 
 of fire led his army on to Poictiers. At the distance of 
 ten leagues from this city, Clovis encountered the Visi- 
 goths, commanded by Alaric II. He vanquished their 
 in the plains of Vougle (a.d. 507); their king was killed^ 
 and their whole army routed. The greater part of the 
 territory of the Visigoths, between the Loire and the 
 Pyrenees, was ravaged by the Franks, who spent a con- 
 siderable time in conquering these provinces ; but during 
 a four years' war, of which we have no details, they lost 
 a part of what they had gained, and at the end of the 
 reign of Clovis, in 511, his authority was acknowledged 
 by little more than the half of Aquitaine. 
 
 The other Frankic kings could certainly no longer 
 be considered as the equals of Clovis ; some of them 
 had, indeed, fought by his side, but not one had dis- 
 covered the talents of a great general, or a great poli- 
 N 4
 
 184 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 tician. All of them had given themselves up to that 
 effeminacy which so rapidly corrupts uncivilised man in 
 affluence. Nevertheless^ Clovis still regarded them as 
 rivals ; he feared the inconstancy of the people, who 
 might at some future time seek among the other kings 
 a protector against himself ; and he dreaded the develope- 
 ment of talents dangerous to his power in them or 
 their children, or the comparison that might be made 
 between their mildness and his own cruelty. He 
 therefore came to the resolution of getting rid of them, 
 and began with Siegebert, king of the Ripuarians, his 
 companion in arms, who reigned at Cologne. In the 
 year 509, he persuaded Chloderic, the son of this unfor- 
 tunate king, who had accompanied him in his war 
 against the Visigoths, to assassinate his father ; pro- 
 mising that he would afterwards assist him to reap the 
 fruits of his parricide. The crime was committed; 
 but Clovis made no attempt to screen the perpetrator, 
 whom he caused to be assassinated in his turn ; and 
 immediately assembled the Ripuarians, who raised 
 him upon a shield and proclaimed him their king. 
 Shortly after, Clovis laid snares for Cararic, who 
 reigned at Terouane. Having obtained possession 
 of his person, he compelled him and his son to assume 
 holy orders, after which he cut off both their heads. 
 He seduced the Leudes of Ragnacar, who reigned at 
 Cambray, by presents ; and having commanded him 
 and his brother to be brought before him in chains ; 
 " Art thou not ashamed," said he, " of disgracing our 
 descent by allowing thyself to be thus manacled .'' thou 
 oughtest to have died honourably." Then raising his 
 arm, with one blow of his axe he cut off his head. 
 " And as for thee," said he to the brother of Ragnacar, 
 " hadst thou defended thy brother, thou wouldst not 
 now be a captive with him." And immediately, 
 by a mortal blow, he laid him prostrate in his turn. 
 He also procured the death of several other long-haired 
 kings who reigned over smaller tribes ; then pretending
 
 CHAP. VIII. CLOVIS. 185 
 
 to repent of his barbarity, he offered his protection 
 to all those who had escaped the massacre. He 
 hoped thus to discover any of his relations whose 
 lives might have been preserved, that he might rid 
 himself of them also : but they had all perished, and 
 his work was accomphshed. So says St. Gregory, from 
 whom we have borrowed the history of all these horrors ; 
 and whose sentiments, even better than his narrative, 
 pourtray the spirit of the age he hved in. " Thus 
 did God every day cause some among his enemies 
 to fall into his hands, and increased the limits of his 
 kingdom; because he walked with an upright heart be- 
 fore the Lord, and did that which was pleasing in his 
 sight, (b. ii. c. 40.) 
 
 There can be no doubt that, by the larger part of the 
 clergy of Gaul, Clovis was considered a saint. His 
 success was attributed to a succession of miracles, 
 which enabled him to lay the foundation of the French 
 monarchy : one of these, more famous than the rest, 
 has been commemorated ever since, at the consecration 
 of the kings of France. It was asserted that a phial, 
 called La Sainte Ampoulle, was brought from heaven 
 by a white dove to St. Remi, and contained the holy 
 oil with which he was to anoint the king. This story, 
 however, did not gain much credit until the ninth century. 
 Nothing could exceed the respect and deference which 
 Clovis testified on all occasions for the clergy, in re- 
 turn for the zeal with which they espoused his cause. 
 We learn, from letters which have been preserved in the 
 collection of the councils, that, in every country which 
 was the seat of war, he had taken under his special 
 protection not only the persons and property of bishops 
 and priests, but even of their mistresses and their child- 
 ren. He had freed the property of the church from 
 every kind of tax, and had consulted the ecclesiastical 
 council upon the administration of his kingdom. 
 
 We should fall into a great error, if we compared 
 this administration with any of those wliich exist in mo-
 
 186 PALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. Vin. 
 
 dem monarchies. Clovis reigned without any ministry, 
 or civil establishment : he was not the king of Gaul, 
 but king of the Franks who dwelt in Gaul. He was 
 the captain of a sovereign army, both by choice and by 
 inheritance; for, on the one hand, none but a descendant 
 of Merovsus would have been exalted by the soldiers 
 to this high dignity ; and, on the other, they would not 
 have entrusted their lives and fortunes to any but the most 
 able and fortunate of the royal line. If Clovis had ap- 
 peared not to justify their choice, his head would soon 
 have fallen under the francisque, like those of the kings 
 whom he had removed out of his way. This sovereign 
 army, by whose aid he reigned, very much as the dey of 
 Algiers reigned among the janissaries, never quitted 
 arms for agriculture. They had not taken possession 
 of the estates or the persons of the Gauls ; for, by 
 spreading themselves over a large territory, they would 
 have been lost ; they kept together, or at least their can- 
 tonments were always in the neighbourhood of Paris or 
 of Soissons, according as the residence of Clovis was in 
 one or the other of these cities. The soldiers were ge- 
 nerally quartered upon the citizens : they lived in the 
 enjoyment of luxury and brutal pleasures, such as 
 barbarians could relish, until the wealth acquired in 
 former expeditions was dissipated, and then urgetl their 
 king to lead them against some new enemy. As the 
 nation of Franks had never emigrated in a body, Uke 
 that of the Burgundians and Visigoths, there were no 
 families to be planted, no partitions of land to be made. 
 By degrees only, as the veteran soldier retiring from 
 ser\'ice asked the grant of some uncultivated spot, the 
 king was called upon to distribute land, and he had 
 always more to give than he found claimants for. Often, 
 indeed, the soldier helped himself, and, with the aid of his 
 francisque, got rid of the proprietor whose dwelling or 
 whose land he coveted : aware that, if he chanced to be 
 pursued and condemned for this murder, the law re- 
 quired nothing but a mulct or widergeld of 100 sols of
 
 CHAP. VIII. INSTITUTIONS OF THE FRANKS. 1 87 
 
 gold (equal to 50/. sterling) for the murder of a Roman 
 landholder. 
 
 The army, thus kept together, was summoned to de- 
 liberate not only in what was properly called the Champ 
 de Mars, where the review took place at the commence- 
 ment of spring, but on all public occasions, whether for 
 peace or for war, — to make laws, or to pass sentence. 
 The Romans were not admitted to these assemblies ; 
 they had no part in the sovereignty ; but they had all 
 the resources of court intrigue and flattery ; all the 
 places of finance or of correspondence, in which their 
 education and literary acquirements were indispensable ; 
 and all offices in the ecclesiastical hierarchy : in each 
 of these different careers they not only preserved, but 
 very often augmented, the fortune they had received from 
 their fathers, and their credit increased so much, that be- 
 fore long they enjoyed the special favour and confidence 
 of the Frankic kings. 
 
 The towns continued to be governed by the Roman 
 law, with their curia, or municipalities. To all those 
 places, however, which had put themselves under his 
 protection, Clovis sent a Frankic officer called Graf, or 
 Grafio, answering pretty nearly to the Roman Comes. He 
 superintended the municipality, collected certain royal 
 dues, and presided over the partial assemblies of the 
 Franks, — the courts where justice was administered 
 when any troop of Franks was settled in a town. 
 
 In the rural districts the people remained slaves, as 
 they were before the conquest. They laboured for the 
 proprietor of the estate upon which they happened to 
 live, whether he were Frank or Roman. War had ruined 
 many citizens, and greatly augmented the number of 
 captives : the common lot of prisoners was slavery ; and 
 a warlike expedition, crowned with brilliant success, was 
 often the cause of transporting from the banks of the 
 Rhone to those of the Seine whole droves of unhappy 
 beings destined to work for any masters who might be- 
 come their purchasers.
 
 188 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. VIU. 
 
 " After having done all these things/' continues Gre- 
 gory of Tours, " Clovis died at Paris on the 5th of 
 November, 511. He was buried in the church of the 
 Holy Apostles, now called Ste. Genevieve ; which, in 
 concert with queen Chlotilde, he had founded. He had 
 reigned in aU thirty years, — five since the battle of 
 Vougle ; and had completed the forty-fifth year of his
 
 189 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 COURSE OF BARBARIC INVASION FROM EAST TO WEST. THE 
 
 EASTERN EMPIRE, BY MERE GOOD FORTUNE, SURVIVES THE 
 
 WESTERN. EMPERORS OF THE EAST. — PERSIAN KINGS.— 
 
 OSTROGOTHS. THEIR KING DIETRICH, COMMONLY CALLED 
 
 THEODORIC ; HIS EDUCATION AT THE COURT OF ZENO. HIS 
 
 CONQUEST OF ITALY. HIS WISDOM AND MODERATION. 
 
 RESTORED PROSPERITY OF ITALY UNDER HIS RULE. RELIGIOUS 
 
 TOLERATION. EXTENT OF HIS TERRITORY. LETTERS OF HIS 
 
 SECRETARY CASSIODORUS. HIS WAR WITH CLOVIS. HIS 
 
 DEATH. HIS UNWORTHY SUCCESSORS. AGGRANDISEMENT 
 
 OF THE FRANKS, THE MOST BARBAROUS AND THE MOST POWER- 
 FUL OF THE GERMAN NATIONS. INCORPORATION OF OTHER 
 
 TRIBES WITH THEM. CONQUEST OF THE THURINGIANS. 
 
 REIGNS OF THE FOUR SONS OF CLOVIS ; THIERRY, CHLOTHAIRE, 
 
 CHILDEBERT, AND THEODEBERT. CONQUEST OF BURGUNDY. 
 
 GONDEBALD. ATROCITIES OF THE FRANKIC KINGS. DEATH 
 
 OF CHLOTHAIRE. A. D. 493 561. 
 
 The torrent of barbaric invasion had rolled its waves 
 from the East to the West : it had received its first im- 
 pulse in Scythia^ whence it had followed the shores of 
 the Black Sea, and laid waste that enormous Illyrian 
 isthmus, on the coast of which the new city of Constan- 
 tine was built. Almost all the tribes which had con- 
 quered the West, had previously vented their fury upon 
 the empire of the East : Goths of every denomination. 
 Vandals, Alans, and Huns : nevertheless, the Eastern 
 empire survived the tempest, while that of the West 
 perished in it. The former was certainly not more war- 
 like than the latter, nor better }:^overned, nor more peo- 
 pled, nor more wealthy; it had no f!;lorious recollections 
 of the past to recall, and it contained no sparks of 
 ancient patriotism which a virtuous administration might 
 have rekindled. The senate of Constantinople, an im- 
 perfect copy of that of Rome, was always despicable and
 
 IPO FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX- 
 
 timid. The character of the great was as servile as 
 that of the people. The emperors assumed the haughty 
 language of despotism^ and though they professed Chris- 
 tianity^ they continued to accept worship offered to 
 them as divinities. The ambassadors of Theodosius II. 
 engaged in a violent dispute with the ministers of 
 Attila, at the very time when they were about to sup- 
 plicate for peace at the feet of that monarch, declaring 
 that it was impious to compare Attila, who was only a 
 man, with their emperor Theodosius, who was a god. 
 If we compare the Greeks of the fifth century, who main- 
 tained their existence, with the Romans, who forfeited 
 theirs, we shall find them to have been superior neither 
 in talents, nor in virtue, nor in energy, but simply more 
 fortunate. 
 
 After the extinction of the race of the great Theo- 
 dosius (a. d. 450), the throne of Constantinople was 
 occupied, during a period of seventy-seven years, by 
 five emperors, down to the time of Justinian : — Marcian 
 (a. e. 450—437) ; Leo, till 474 ; Zeno, till 491 ; 
 Anastasius, till 518 ; and Justin, till 527. These were 
 almost all men advanced in age, equally feeble in mind 
 and in body, and raised to the throne by women who go- 
 verned in their names. History has but little to record of 
 them. We have probably lost some contemporary 
 writers, but the Uttle we know of these five reigns leaves 
 us no reason to regret that we do not know more. 
 Thrace and the European part of the empire were ex- 
 posed to frequent ravages during these seventy-seven 
 years ; but the extensive provinces of Asia, Egypt, and 
 the Greek islands suffered only from the vices of the 
 government. These vast regions could scarcely be at- 
 tacked, except from the frontier of the Euphrates ; and 
 as the government of the Sassanides, in Persia, was 
 characterised by an equal degree of pusillanimity, the 
 two empires remained at peace with one another. The 
 kings of Persia, Ferouz, (a.d. 457 — 488); Balasch, 
 491 ; Xobad, 531, are only known to us by name ; they 
 were engaged in dangerous wars with the ^Vhite Huns 
 or Euthalites to the north and east of the Caspian Sea,
 
 CHAP. IX." OSTROGOTHS. THEODORIC. IQl 
 
 Avhich left them no leisure to turn their arms against 
 the Romans. 
 
 But in the mean time a new people started from the 
 frontiers of the Eastern empire, to fall upon the provinces 
 which had belonged to the empire of the ^Vest, and to 
 effect another change in their condition. The conquest 
 of Italy by the Ostrogoths was connected with the 
 reigns of the emperors Zeno and Anastasius, and was 
 partly the result of their suggestions. 
 
 ^Vhilst a portion of the nation of the Goths, which had 
 inhabited the western regions, and were called Visigoths 
 (^Westgothen), had boldly entered the territory of the em- 
 pire, and had at length found an abode in part of Gaul and 
 in Spain ; the Goths of the East, or Ostrogoths (O.stgo- 
 theii), still remained beyond the Danube. They had sub- 
 mitted to Attila, but as they had neither treasures nor 
 cities to pillage, and nothing to offer to their new master 
 but brave soldiers, they were soon incorporated into the 
 Tartar's army, and honoured by the name of his sub- 
 jects. Three brothers, who were kings amongst the 
 Ostrogoths, ^Valamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, had 
 followed Attila in his expeditions against Thrace, and 
 afterwards against Gaul. After the death of the king 
 of the Huns, they had no difficulty in recovering their 
 independence. They occupied, at that time, the de- 
 solate plains of Pannonia (Austria and Hungary). The 
 impulse they had received from the Huns, the wars in 
 which they had been engaged, and the rapid marches 
 they had effected across Europe, had induced them to 
 abandon the arts of agriculture. The habits of indolence 
 and prodigality which they had contracted in the rich 
 provinces they had laid waste, unfitted them to resume 
 a life of industry ; so that, in the rich lands of Hungary, 
 where the slightest cultivation is rewarded by the most 
 abundant crops, a nation, less numerous than the popu- 
 lation of any one of the cities they had destroyed there, 
 or which exist there at the present time, was constantly 
 in dread of famine. Their cupidity was goaded by their 
 privations : the more they suffered, the more they op- 
 pressed the few wretched inhabitants who remained in
 
 192 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX, 
 
 these vast regions: they destroyed the last remnants of 
 the race, and after having consumed the substance of 
 the husbandmen who were their subjects, they relapsed 
 into their former misery. 
 
 Theodoric, the son of Theodemir, one of the three 
 brothers, had been given to the emperor Zeno as a 
 hostage, and brought up at Constantinople. The ex- 
 ample of that great empire, which still enjoyed im- 
 mense wealth, and exercised the most valuable of the 
 arts, was not lost upon him. His mind, open to in- 
 struction, did not fail to profit by whatever was still to 
 be learnt amongst the Romans in the arts of war and 
 administration ; he not choose, however, to submit to 
 Greek pedagogues, but educated himself, and would not 
 even be taught to write. About the year 475, he 
 succeeded his father, and as his two uncles were already 
 dead, he was then chief of the whole Ostrogothic na- 
 tion. He hastened to rescue his countrymen from the 
 miseries they were suffering in the deserts of Pannonia. 
 He invaded the empire of the East, and terrified Zeno 
 into a purchase of his friendship. He rendered many 
 important services to the emperor in the revolts which 
 troubled his reign ; but afterwards, being provoked by 
 some instance of bad faith, or urged by the mere incon- 
 stancy and impatience of his soldiers, he again turned 
 his arms against the empire, and ravaged Thrace with a 
 cruelty which has left a stain upon his memory. It was 
 said that, in this expedition, the Goths cut off the right 
 hands of the peasants they took prisoners, in order to 
 prevent them from holding the handle of the plough. 
 
 Theodoric could not live in peace, and Zeno, his ad- 
 versary, was at a loss for a pretext for terminating a 
 war which he was unable to carry on. At this juncture, 
 the king of the Ostrogoths proposed to the emperor of 
 Byzantium a negotiation by which he should be au- 
 thorised to conquer Italy, and to govern it according to 
 the laws, if not in the dependence, of the ampire. Zeno 
 was deUghted to deliver himself from so formidable an 
 enemy at any price ; he therefore abandoned Odoacer to
 
 CHAP. IX. THEODORIC. IQS 
 
 the arms of the Ostrogoths, and in the treaty which 
 he finally concluded with the king his vassal, expres- 
 sions were introduced sufficiently ambiguous to save tl:e 
 dignity of the empire, without compromising the inde- 
 pendence of Theodoric. The army of the Ostrogoths, 
 and with it the entire nation, left Thrace at the begin- 
 ning of the campaign of 489, intending to cross JNIoesia, 
 Pannonia, and the Julian Alps, in order to enter Italy. 
 
 ^randering tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidie, and Sar- 
 matians occupied these regions, which had once been 
 opulent and populous. The Ostrogoths were sometimes 
 obliged to maintain a running fight with them during a 
 march of 700 miles; but in other parts they were joined 
 by numerous adventurers, attracted by the fame of The- 
 odoric to serve under his banner. W^hen this formid- 
 able army descended the Alps of Friuli, Odoacer showed 
 himself to be nowise inferior to his reputation for 
 activity, skill, and bravery. He defended Italy better 
 than it had been defended for ages ; but after having 
 lost three pitched battles, he was obliged to quit the 
 open country, and to take refuge, with his most faithful 
 ])artisans, in the fortress of Ravenna, where he stood a 
 siege of three years. He was at length obliged to sur- 
 render, on the .'jth of March, 493 ; the conditions he 
 obtained were honourable and advantageous, but he soon 
 learned that good faith in treaties was a virtue scarcely 
 known amongst barbarians. The chiefs themselves 
 rarely hesitated between their interests and their engage- 
 ments, at a time when public opinion was without force, 
 and public morality without principle. Theodoric, who 
 may be looked upon as the most loyal and the most 
 virtuous of these barbarian conquerors, caused Odoacer 
 to be assassinated at the close of a banquet of recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 Tlie king of the Ostrogoths, when he had conquered 
 Italy, soon rendered himself master of the territory 
 lying between the Danube and the Alps, which formed 
 the outworks of the country he governed. He also ob- 
 tained from the \'andals the restitution of Sicily, by 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 FALL OF THE KOJIAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 the terror of his name alone. He then proceeded to 
 establish the wisest and most equitable institutions 
 ivhich any northern conqueror had ever granted to 
 the conquered countries of the south. Instead of 
 oppressing one people by means of the other, he strove 
 to hold the balance fairly between them, and to pre- 
 serve, or even to augment, the distinct privileges of 
 each. He consolidated the entire structure of the Ger- 
 manic liberties of the Goths ; their popular judicial 
 proceedings; their laws of Scandinavian origin; their in- 
 stitutions, at once civil and military, which assembled 
 the citizens of the same districts, to deliberate or to 
 judge in time of peace, and to take the field together in 
 time of war. He confided the defence of the state to 
 them exclusively, and towards the close of his life he 
 went so far as to prohibit the Romans from wearing 
 arms, (which they showed little eagerness to use,) and to 
 allow them only to the barbarians. At the same time, 
 he attempted to introduce the practice of agi-iculture 
 among the Ostrogoths, by giving them lands, which they 
 held on the ancient German tenure of military service. 
 There were deserted estates in Italy, at that time, suffi- 
 cient to have maintained thirty or forty thousand new fa- 
 milies, and it is not be doubted that Theodoric had 
 brought as many with him ; but these warriors had so far 
 lost the habit of labour, that they could not submit to the 
 task of bringing waste lands into cultivation : they were 
 therefore allowed to choose out of the estates of the 
 Romans, with the restriction, that no Roman citizen was 
 to lose more than the third of his inheritance. It is 
 also possible (for the expressions of Procopius on this 
 head are somewhat ambiguous) that he imposed on the 
 Roman husbandman the obligation of handing over to 
 his barbarian master one-third of his crop ; in which 
 case we must ascribe to Theodoric the merit of having 
 restored that system of partiary or metayer husbandry 
 to which Italy owes the prosperity of its agricultural 
 population. As legislator, he made great efforts to unite 
 in the Ostrogoth the domestic habits of the cultivator.
 
 CHAP. IX. THEODORIC. 1^5 
 
 with the exercises and discipline of the soldier. His wish 
 was to instruct his subjects in the arts, but not in the 
 science or literature of the Romans^ '• for," said he, "^he 
 who has trembled at the rod of a tutor, will always 
 tremble at the sight of a sword." 
 
 Theodoric indulged his Roman subjects in what they 
 called their liberties; that is to say, the names of the re- 
 public, the senate, the consuls, and the magistracy ; in 
 their laws, language, and dress. He was sufficiently ac- 
 quainted with the constitution of the empii-e, to perceive 
 the great advantages he might derive from this state of 
 things. The Romans would pay taxes, whilst the Goths 
 would remain free from contributions ; and he could not 
 fail to discern the security he might gain from their settled 
 obedience, and their great superiority over the Goths in 
 the science of administration, in foreign correspondence, 
 and in diplomacy. With the aid of Roman industry, 
 fostered by the protection of just laws, and by the ac- 
 tivity of a great mind, he worked some ancient gold 
 and iron mines in Pannonia and Istria ; he encouraged 
 improvements in agriculture ; he commenced the drain- 
 ing of the Pontine Marshes ; restored the spirit of 
 commerce and manufactures, and re-established the im- 
 perial posts, which were then exclusively destined to 
 the convenience of the government, and of such as could 
 obtain gratuitous orders for horses. In the year 500, 
 during a visit he made to the city of Rome, where he 
 received the compliments of the senate and the peo2>le, 
 he assigned an annual revenue for the preservation of 
 the Roman monuments from the depredations of builders, 
 who already looked upon them as quarries which were 
 to furnish materials for new edifices. He even reestab- 
 lished, on a less lavish, but still on an expensive 
 scale, the distributions of food to the Roman people, and 
 those public sjiorts which were not less dear to them 
 than bread. He did not, however, take up his residence 
 in the ancient capital, but divided his time between 
 Ravenna, the most important fortress of his kingdom, 
 his great arsenal and storehouse, and Verona, the city 
 o 2
 
 ]p6 FALL OF THE R05IAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 of his choice^ and that from which he was best enabled 
 to provide for the defence of Italy. Thence it is, that 
 in the Niebelungen Lied, the most ancient German 
 poem, he is designated as Dietrich von Berne, which 
 must be translated Theodoric of Verona, since Bern was 
 not then in existence. Although he had been brought 
 up in the Arian faith, Theodoric granted perfect tolera- 
 tion to the catholics, and even acceded to the wishes of 
 their clergy, in forbidding any but the catholic religion 
 amongst his conquered subjects. He distributed re- 
 Avards and benefices to the clergy with such judgment 
 and address, that they remained obedient and faithful to 
 him till nearly the close of his life. He had intended 
 to restore the glory of the Roman senate, and to attach 
 it to his monarchy : his success was complete at the be- 
 ginning of his reign, but the men whom he imagined he 
 had secured, eluded him towards the end of it. The 
 bishops and senators, deceived by the attentions he paid 
 them, thought themselves more important and more 
 formidable than they really were. The senators wei-e 
 still distinguished by their immense wealth; they dwelt 
 upon the antiquity of their race, with a degree of pride 
 which seemed to increase as the chances of raisii^g its 
 dignity by illustrious actions diminished. They still be- 
 lieved themselves to be ancient Romans, not only the 
 descendants, but the equals, of the masters of the 
 world: they dreamed of liberty without equality, public 
 strength, or courage ; and they entered into obscure 
 conspiracies to restore, not the republic, but the empire. 
 Theodoric, who had become irritable by prosperity and 
 suspicious by age, punished these men, whom he accused 
 of treacherous plans and intentions, more perhaps on 
 suspicion than on any proof of real guilt. The end of 
 his reign was suUied by the condemnation of Boethius 
 and Symmachus, both of whom were senators, men of 
 consular dignity, and eminently fitted to do honour to 
 the last age of Rome. Boethius languished for a long 
 time in his prison at Pavia ; before he perished by 
 a cruel death, he composed his work, " De Consolatione
 
 CHAP. IX. THEODORIC. 197 
 
 Philosopliise," Avhich is still read with pleasure. It is 
 said tliat Theodoric, exasperated by the persecution of 
 the Arians at Constantinople^ was about to set on foot 
 a persecution of the catholics in Italy, Avhen he died, on 
 the 30th of August, 526. 
 
 During a reign of thirty-three years Theodoric carried 
 on several successful wars, by means of his generals: he 
 repelled the attacks of the Greeks, of various barbaric 
 tribes from the Danube, of the Burgtindians, and of the 
 Franks. He was, however, less solicitous for the ex- 
 tension of his monarchy by conquest, than for its in- 
 ternal prosperity. The population of his kingdom 
 rapidly increased, thanks to the long peace it enjoyed, to 
 the wise laws which he had promulgated, and to the 
 immense resources of a country which had been thus 
 regenerated by the barbarians, and in which every kind 
 of labour ensured an ample recompence. At the close 
 of his reign the nation of the Ostrogoths was computed 
 to possess 200,000 men capable of bearing arms, which, 
 supposes a total population of nearly 1,000,000; we 
 must not, however, forget that it had been recruited 
 by the soldiers and adventurers of all the barbarous 
 nations who flocked to share the riches and the glory 
 with which Tlieodoric loaded it. It then occupied not 
 only Sicily and Italy, but the provinces of Rluctia and 
 Noricum to the Danube, Istria on the other side the 
 Adriatic, and the south of Gaul to the Rhone. We 
 have no positive information as to the Roman popu- 
 lation of these territories at the same time, but there is 
 reason to believe that it was also considerably increased. 
 
 The negotiations of Theodoric extended throughout 
 Germany, and even to Sweden, whence his countrymen 
 originally came, and whence he constantly received 
 fresh ^migrants. The voluminous collection of the let- 
 ters of his secretary Cassiodorus lias been preserved ; 
 and although the trutli often lies hid under the ])om- 
 pous style, cumbrous metaphors, or pedantic erudition 
 of that rhetorician, these twelve books furnisli us with 
 many precious documents, relating to the internal ud- 
 3
 
 198 FALL OF THE ROMAN E3IPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 ministration of the country^ the manners of the age, and 
 the diplomatic relations of the new states : it is worthy 
 of note that the Latin language was employed in these 
 last communications hy nations who did not under- 
 stand it themselves. We find letters addressed by 
 Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric to the kings of 
 the Warnes, of the Heruli, and of the Thuringians, who 
 were all completely barbarous, and who lived beyond 
 the Danube, begging them to interest themselves, as 
 well as the king of the Burgundians, in the defence of 
 his son-in-law Alaric II. against Clovis. These kings 
 had been compelled to acknowledge the advantages of 
 letters, and of the means of communication which they 
 afforded to men separated by enormous distances, 
 although united by the same interests ; but, as their 
 language had no alphabet, and neither they nor any 
 one else could write it, they took Roman slaves as 
 secretaries, and frequently maintained a correspondence 
 in a language which was equally unknown to both 
 parties. 
 
 Theodoric, who had obliged the Burgundians to cede 
 a great portion of Provence and the town of Aries, in 
 which he had established a prefect of Gaul in imitation 
 of the prefecture under the empire, had endeavoured 
 to protect his son-in-law Alaric II., king of the Visi- 
 goths in Spain and Aquitaine, Avhose territories ad- 
 joined his own at the mouth of the Rhone. Deceived 
 as much as his' young ally, by the oaths of Clovis, he 
 was unable to prevent the battle of Vougle and the ruin 
 of the Visigoths in Aquitaine, but he lost no time in 
 sending them assistance. A natural son of Alaric, who 
 was of age to bear arms, had been placed upon the 
 throne during the infancy of Amalaric, his legitimate 
 son by the daughter of Theodoric ; however valid this 
 motive might appear to the nation, it did not satisfy 
 the king of the Ostrogoths, who immediately caused his 
 grandson to be crowned, and assumed the government 
 of Spain and of the south of France as his guardian. 
 Amalaric in the meanwhile established his residence at
 
 CHAP. IX. WJEST AND EAST GOXniC KINGS. 199 
 
 Narbonne ; the lustre of his court, and of the officers 
 who attended him, served to remind the Visigoths that 
 they were still an independent nation ; while the con- 
 tinued advantages with which they carried on a border 
 war against the Franks, attached them to the powerful 
 protector who maintained the glory of their monarchy. 
 
 If Theodoric had had a son to whom he might have 
 transmitted the dominion over so large a portion of Eu- 
 rope, the Goths would probably have had the honour of 
 restoring the empire of the West; but fortune, who had 
 conferred more true greatness on this prince than on 
 any other barbaric monarch, refused him a male heir, 
 and had granted him only two daughters. He died on 
 the 30th of August, 526", and his reign passed like a 
 brilliant meteor, which disappears without exercising 
 any permanent influence on the seasons. The two nations 
 of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, which he had united, 
 were again divided at his death. Amalaric, who was 
 then twenty-five or twenty-six years old, remained at 
 Narbonne, whence he governed Spain, and that part of 
 Gaul which lies between the Rhone, the Loth, and the 
 Pyrenees. Athalaric, the grandson of Theodoric, then 
 only four or five years old, remained at Ravenna under 
 the guardianship of his mother Amalasonta, at the head 
 of the Ostrogoths in Italy and Provence. 
 
 As corruption advances with more rapid strides among 
 barbarians than among civilised nations, so also does 
 their ruin. Their virtues are owing to position rather 
 than to principle : they are sober, valiant and active, 
 because they are poor and hardy from their infiuicy. 
 Physical pleasure is all that wealth can give them ; 
 they are unable to share the intellectual enjoyments of 
 civilised men, so that, to tliem, opulence is the source* 
 of every vice. Tlie plan of this work does not compel 
 us to enter into tliese infamous details ; suffice it to 
 say, that froni the death of the great Theodoric, to the 
 reign of Athanagild, who transferred the seat of mo- 
 narchy to Toledo (a.]).526-.554), four kings successively 
 occupied the throne : Amalaric reigned from .'520' to 
 o 4
 
 200 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 531, Thendis died in 548, Thendisdi in 549, and Agila 
 in 554. Each was assassinated by the hand of his suc- 
 sessor. In Italy seven kings of the Ostrogoths suc- 
 ceeded Theodoric, till the destruction of that monarchy 
 by Belisarius in 554 : Athalaric reigned from 526 to 
 534, Theodatus to 536, Vitiges to 540, Hildebald 541, 
 Evaria 541, Totila 552, and Teja 554. The fate of 
 these monarchs was scarcely less tragical tlian that of 
 their contemporaries in Gaul : but we shall have occa- 
 sion to recur to them, in speaking of the conquests of 
 ■ Justinian, in a subsequent chapter. We shall at the 
 same time witness the fall of the Vandals in Africa: we 
 are about to record^ that of the Burgundians in Gattf. 
 No ray of light enables us as yet to discern the history 
 of the internal revolutions of Great Britain or of Ger- 
 many, so that, after the death of Theodoric, all the 
 interest of the West centers in the history of the Franks. 
 The sudden rise of the monarchy of the Franks is 
 the more remarkable, as, from the death of Clovis, that 
 nation was distinguished neither by the virtues or talents 
 of its chiefs, nor by its own merits. At the time of 
 the conquest of Gaul, the Franks were the most bar- 
 barous of the barbarians, and they long remained so : 
 they manifested an extreme contempt for the people 
 they had subdued, and treated them Avith excessive 
 rigour. The Visigoths had adopted a pretty copious 
 selection from the code of Theodosius (which was then 
 the law of the empire) as the law of their monarchy : 
 the Ostrogoths had promulgated laws of their own, 
 "which were not entirely dissimilar from those of the 
 Ptoman republic, and which attested the importance 
 they attached to legal science, and to the administration 
 of justice. The Burgundians, more rude than the Goths, 
 had retained their national laws, which were certainly 
 less polished than the preceding codes, but equitable in 
 spirit, and equally just to the conquerors and the 
 conquered. The Franks published their laws, which 
 were the most barbarous of all. The penal code of the 
 Germanic nations reduced itself to a scale of fines : every
 
 CHAP. IX. THE FRANKS. 201 
 
 oiFence might be atoned for by a pecuniary compen- 
 sation : wekrgeld was the money of defence, wiedergeld 
 the .money of compensation. But the Franks, both 
 SaHan and Ripuan, were the only people who valued 
 the blood of a Roman at half, or even less than half, 
 the value of the blood of a barbarian. Murder and 
 every other crime was punished in the same proportion. 
 This public insult offered by the legislature to the con- 
 quered people, was of a piece with the rest of their 
 conduct. They despised the learning of the Latins, as 
 ■well as their language, their arts, and their sciences : ■ 
 as governors, the Franks Avere violent, brutal, and piti- 
 less : their respect for the priests alone contributed to 
 render their yoke supportable. Their high veneration 
 for the church, and their rigorous orthodoxy, which 
 was the more easily preserved as they Avere entirely 
 ignorant of the disputes and controversies which had 
 arisen on matters of faith, induced the clergy to look 
 upon them as their firmest allies. They were ever ready 
 to detest, to combat, and to pillage the Arians, Avithout 
 listening to their arguments. The bishops, in their 
 turn, Avere not very strict in enforcing the moral obli- 
 gations of religion : they shut their eyes upon violence, 
 murder, and licentiousness ; they even seem to have 
 publicly authorised polygamy, and they preached the 
 divine right of kings, and the duty of passive obedience. 
 The Franks were, hoAvever, braA'e, numerous, — for their 
 population had increased rapidly in Gaul, — Avell ai-med, 
 tolerably well versed in the ancient Roman discipline, 
 from their long service in the imperial armies, and 
 almost always victorious in battle. The ties that united 
 them were so lax, their obedience to the king and to the 
 law so voluntary, their freedom from pecuniary and social 
 obligations so complete, that no barbarian thought he 
 forfeited any of his national privileges by entering into 
 their community. On the other hand, the Franks, Avho, 
 at their first establishment on the other side the Rhine, 
 had been composed of a confederation of several small 
 nations, Avere faraihar Avith the idea of admitting new
 
 202 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 confederates : all they asked of their associates was to 
 march under the same standard in time of war : they 
 did not interfere with their internal constitution; they 
 appointed no governor; they did not dismiss their dukes 
 or hereditary kings, and, without claiming from them 
 forced subsidies of men or of money, they admitted them 
 to participation in their glory and their power. In this 
 manner the whole of Germany, without having been 
 conquered, became engaged in the J'rankic confederation 
 in the course of that half century which comprised the 
 reigns of the four sons of Clovis. (a. d. 51 1 — 56l.) 
 
 The kingdom of Clovis, which had been founded by 
 soldiers of fortune in some of the towns of Belgium, 
 was bounded by the Rhine. His tribe consisted of 
 Salians, and, perhaps, of Sicambrians also, though it 
 is not at all certain that other Salians, independent of 
 Clovis, did not remain in their former settlements on 
 the right bank of the Rhine. The Chauci, the Che- 
 rusci, and the Chamavi, are not mentioned in the his- 
 tory of his reign, any more than the other ancient 
 Franks who belonged to the primitive confederation. 
 They had all retained their independence in a part of 
 Germany which is stiU called Frankenland (Franconia), 
 after them ; but in the following half century they gladly 
 entered into a new confederation, which, without abridg- 
 ing their rights, promised to ensure them many new 
 advantages. Beyond the Franks of the Rhine, and of 
 Franconia, dwelt the Frisons on the shores of the ocean, 
 and the Saxons at the mouth of the Elbe : both these 
 nations began to call themselves Franks, or at least to 
 march with the Frankic armies, at the beginning of the 
 sixth century. The Alemanni, or Swabians, from the 
 sources of the Rhine, and the Bavarians on the banks 
 of the Danube, contracted the same pacific engagements, 
 without in any way changing their respective insiitu- 
 tions ; except that their sovereigns probably abandoned 
 the title of king to Clovis, and assumed that of duke. 
 The Thuringians alone were subdued by force of arms. 
 They had laid the foundations of a powerful monarchy
 
 CHAP. IX. FBANKIC KINGS. SOS 
 
 from the banks of the Elbe and the Unstrut to those 
 of the Neckar; they had allied themselves with the 
 Varnes and the Heruli ; and they had a long rivalship 
 of glory to decide, as well as a long list of grievances 
 to redress, with the Franks. The Thuringian war is 
 believed to have occurred in the years 528 and 530. 
 The sons of Clovis took advantage of the dissensions of 
 its chiefs, and of those royal fratricides which stain the 
 annals of all the monarchies of that age, to attack this 
 nation. Three brothers governed the Thuringians — 
 Baderic, Hermanfrid, and Berthar ; they were recent 
 converts to Christianity, and Hermanfrid had married 
 a niece of the great Theodoric, king of Italy. This 
 princess, who was accustomed to the Gothic order of suc- 
 cession according to primogeniture, upbraided her hus- 
 band for consenting to occupy a divided throne. Her- 
 manfrid came one day into the banquet hall, where he 
 found the table partly uncovered : when he asked his 
 wife the cause, she said, " You complain of having only 
 half a table, and you submit quietly to having only half 
 a kingdom." Hermanfrid felt this reproach : to satisfy 
 his wife, he surprised and assassinated his brother Ber- 
 thar : he afterwards concerted the death of Baderic 
 with Thierry, one of the sons of Clovis ; but as he re- 
 fused to pay this prince the recompence he had pro- 
 mised, war was declared, in which Hermanfrid perished 
 with his whole family ; not, however, in battle, but by 
 treachery, in a conference Avith his enemy. 
 
 AVe have advanced in this history without mentioning 
 the names of the new kings of the Franks ; it is, in- 
 deed, repulsive to dwell upon the lives of princes whose 
 annals are one tissue of perfidy and of crime. Clovis 
 was succeeded by his four sons — Thierry, Chlodomir, 
 Childebert, and Chlothaire, the eldest of whom was 
 twenty-five, the youngest thirteen or fourteen years old. 
 All four were distinguished by their regal length of liair, 
 and all bore the title of king, but they lived in four distinct 
 though not very distant towns, — Paris, Orleans, Soissons, 
 and Metz, — in order to enjoy the pleasures of the throne
 
 204) FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 without restraint^ and to be more secure from the poison 
 or the dagger each dreaded from the other. The mo- 
 narchy, however, %vas not divided, though the royalty 
 was ; the Franks still formed one nation. In time of 
 peace the kings took so little part in the government, 
 that the division of the royal power was unperceived 
 by their subjects ; in war each had his own leudes or war- 
 riors, immediately depending upon his personal favour; 
 while, in their more important expeditions, the Franks 
 followed the king in whom they had the greatest confi- 
 dence. The provinces were divided amongst the bro- 
 thers, but in so strange a manner, that it is evident 
 the convenience of government was not the object they 
 had in view. The division apphed more to the tribute 
 of the Roman towns, and to the productions of the soil, 
 than to the territory itself : each prince chose to have 
 his share in the vines and olives of the south, as well as 
 in the forest or pasture lands of the north ; and their 
 possessions were so intermingled throughout Gaul, that 
 it Avas impossible to travel for ten leagues without pass- 
 ing a frontier. 
 
 The Uves of the four brothers w^ere not of equal 
 duration. Thierry, the eldest, who was not a son of 
 Chlotilde, but of a concubine or pagan mistress of Ciovis, 
 died in 534 : he was succeeded by his son Theodebert, 
 who died in 547, and was followed by Theodebald, his 
 son, who died in 55S without issue. Chlodomir, the 
 second of the Frankic kings, was slain in the Burgun- 
 dian war in b'-J.Q. Childebert, the third, died in 558 ; 
 and Chlothaire, who survived his brothers, inherited aU 
 their possessions, and reigned over the Franks till 56l. 
 It would be difficult and useless to fix this list of deaths 
 in the memory : the government of the four sons of 
 Ciovis properly forms but one reign, which lasted from 
 511 to 56l. These four princes laid snares for each 
 other, but they never broke out into open hostihty. Vie 
 shall shortly see that they were far from sparing of the 
 blood of their kindred, but they probably thought that 
 the Franks would refuse to make war upon each other.
 
 CHAP. IX. BURGUNDIAN KINGS. 205 
 
 They had but few opportunities of displaying their 
 military talents : they, however, made some warlike ex- 
 peditions ; Thierry and Chlothaire in Thuringia, Chilcle- 
 bert in Narbonnensian (iaul, and Theodebert in Italy; 
 they thus enriched their soldiers with booty, and kept 
 up the reputation of the valour of their nation. 
 
 The bravery of the Franks was more frequently called 
 into action in numerous voluntary expeditions, under- 
 taken by soldiers of fortune under captains of their own 
 choice, in order to share the spoils of Italy, which was 
 at that time the theatre of war between Belisarius, the 
 general of Justinian, and the Ostrogoths. These partial 
 expeditions would have had no consequences more im- 
 portant than the success, or the untimely death, of indi- 
 vidual warriors, had not the Ostrogoths surrendered the 
 occupation of Provence, by which means that important 
 part of Gaul was added to the empiie of the Franks. 
 A still more brilliant acquisition was that of Burgundy, 
 which was the consequence of a national war, and of a 
 family quarrel. 
 
 Gondebald, king of the Burgundians, who liad mas- 
 sacred his three brothers, continueil to reign alone over 
 that nation from the year 500 to 51 6'. St.Avitus, arch- 
 bishop of Vienne, his subject, exhorted him, in a letter 
 Avhich is still extant, to calm his remorse for this fra- 
 tricide ; he conjured him " to weep no longer with such 
 ineffable piety the death of his brothers, since it was 
 the good fortune of the kingdom which diminished the 
 number of persons invested with royal authority, and 
 preserved to the world such iiily as were necessary to 
 rule it." Gondebald, from the time of the commission 
 of this crime, governed with great wisdom and justice : 
 he protected his Roman subjects, and insured the future 
 observance of their rights. When he died, in 51 (i, his 
 son Sigismund succeeded him, after having embraced 
 the orthodox faith, and induced the majority of his 
 subjects to join in his conversion. 
 
 Sigismund was canonised by the Romish church, and 
 is to this day revered as a saint. He was the founder
 
 206 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 of the convent of St. Maurice in the Valais^ which he 
 endowed with immense revenues : we know nothing of 
 what occurred during his reign of eight years, except 
 this monastic institution, and the precipitation with 
 \vhich he caused his brother Siegeric to be strangled in 
 his sleep, on false suspicions. He lived in peace, fully 
 occupied with what were then called good works, such 
 as acts of penitence, and munificent almsgivings to the 
 monks. St. Chlotilde, the widow of Clovis, who had also 
 retired from the world to devote herself exclusively to 
 the exercises of religion at the tomb of St. IMartin at 
 Tours, came to Paris in the year 523, to meet her 
 three sons ; and, according to the holy bishop, Gregory 
 of Tours, she addressed them to the following effect: — 
 " I exhort you, my dear children, to live so that I may 
 never repent the tenderness with which I have brought 
 you up ; to resent with indignation the injury Avhich I 
 received thirty-three years ago, and to avenge, with 
 unflinching constancy, the death of my parents." The 
 three sons swore to perform the injunctions of their 
 mother : they attacked the Burgundians, defeated them 
 in battle, secured the person of St. Sigismund, Avho had 
 already assumed the monastic garb, and was retiring to 
 the convent of St. Maurice : after keeping him some 
 time prisoner, Chlodomir caused him to be thrown into 
 a well near Orleans, with his wife and his two children. 
 A brother of Sigismund, called Godemar, rallied the 
 fugitive Burgundians, put himself at their head, and 
 repelled the Franks. Chlodomir, who renewed the at- 
 tack in 524, was killed at the battle of Veserruce. The 
 Franks offered to treat with the Burgundians, and Go- 
 demar was allowed to reign in peace for eight years ; 
 but in 532 he was again assailed, taken prisoner, and 
 treated as captive kings were treated at that time : the 
 whole of Burgundy was subdued, and thenceforth 
 the Burgundians marched under the standard of the 
 Franks, though they retained their own laws and ma- 
 gistracy. 
 
 The revenge of St. Chlotilde was at length accomplished
 
 CHAP. IX. DESCENDANTS OF CLOVIS. 207 
 
 on the children and grandchildren of her enemies ; but 
 her satisfaction was embittered. Chlodomir was killed ; 
 and his brother, Chlothaire, though he had already two 
 wives, married his brother's widow, named Gondioca, 
 and sent his three infant children to be brought up by 
 St. Chlotilde. He feared, however, lest these sons of 
 Chlodomir should, at some future time, assert their claim 
 to their father's inheritance ; and accordingly summoned 
 his brother Childebert to Paris, to consult with him on 
 their common interests. They desired their mother to 
 seiul the three children to them, in order that they might 
 be shown to the people, and proclaimed kings. Chlotilde 
 accordingly sent them with a numerous train of officers, 
 and of young pages who were brought up with them. 
 Arcadius, a senator of Auvergne, and a confidential agent 
 of Childebert, shortly afterwards returned to her with a 
 pair of scissars and a drawn sword, calling upon her to 
 decide the fate of her grandchildren : in a paroxysm 
 of indignation and despair, Chlotilde exclaimed, that 
 " she had rather they should perish, than be shorn and 
 buried alive in a cloister." This answer was construed 
 into assent by her two sons: Chlothaire seized the eldest 
 of the princes, then about ten years old, by the arm, 
 threw him down, and plunged a dagger into his side : the 
 younger child then fell at the feet of Childebert and 
 implored mercy: Childebert, touched by his supplications^ 
 with tears in his eyes intreated liis brother to stay his 
 hand ; but Chlothaire exclaimed furiously, " thou hast 
 urged me on, and now thou desertest me ; give up the 
 boy, or perish in his stead;" on which Childebert 
 flung the supplicant down, and (Jhlothaire slew him on 
 the ground. 7^11 the pages and attendants were mas- 
 sacred at the same time, and ("hildebert divided the 
 inheritance of Chlodomir with his surviving brother. 
 Chlodoald, the youngest of these unhappy children, es- 
 caped the pursuit of his uncles : for a long time he re- 
 mained in concealment; when he was grown uji he cut off 
 his hair with his own hands, and assumed the monkish 
 garb: returning to France after the death of Chlothaire,
 
 208 FALL OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 he built the monastery of St. Cloudy which hears his 
 name. 
 
 After recording the crimes of the early kings of the 
 Franks, we long to hear that speedy vengeance overtook 
 them, but this was too rarely the case. Nations are 
 quickly chastised for their- vices and their crimes ; for 
 them, morality is identical with good policy ; but indi- 
 viduals, of whose existence we see but the beginning, 
 await a different retribution. The powerful frequently 
 find means to hush the upbraidings of conscience, of 
 public opinion, and of posterity. Childebert and.Chlo- 
 thaire had risen above the scruples of remorse; they were 
 assisted in recovering their tranquillity of mind by the 
 assurances of the monks, whom they loaded with wealth. 
 '^' When," says Chlothaire in the diploma which was given 
 to the convent of Riom in 515", " we listen with a de- 
 vout soul to the supplications of our priests, as to what 
 regards the advantage of the churches, we are certain 
 that Jesus Christ will remunerate us for all the good we 
 do thera."* Such was the Christianity which was 
 taught to Chlothaire, and such the confidence in which 
 he was educated, whilst his eyes were closed to the 
 atrocity of the murders we have seen, and are yet to see ; 
 and whilst he was allowed to marry, at the same time, 
 Rhadegunde, the daughter of the king of the Thurin- 
 gians whom he had slain, Chemsene, the mother of his 
 son Chramne, Gondioca, the widow of his brother Chlo- 
 domir, Wuttrade, the widow of his nephew Theodewald, 
 Ingunde, and Aregunde. It should be mentioned that 
 the bishops objected to his marriage with "Wuttrade, and 
 that he was obliged at the end of a few months to give 
 her up to Gariwald duke of Bavaria ; but as to the 
 other marriages, the bishop of Tours relates them in the 
 language of the Old Testament : — 
 
 '• Chlothaire had already espoused Ingunde," says St. 
 Gregory, and " he loved her alone, when she proffered 
 a request to him, and said, ' My lord hath done with his 
 
 * Diplom. torn. iv. p. 616.
 
 CHAP. IX. DESCENDANTS OP CLOVIS. 209 
 
 servant that which hath seemed good to him, and hath 
 called her to his bed, but now that the kindness of my 
 lord and king be complete, let him listen to the prayer 
 of his handmaiden. Choose, I pray thee, for Aregunde 
 my sister, his servant, a man wise and rich, so that I 
 be not humbled by her alliance, but exalted on the con- 
 trary, and that I may serve my lord with greater faith- 
 fulness.' Chlothaire heard what she said, and as he was 
 extremely sensual, he burned with love for Aregunde. 
 He speedily repaired to the country-house where she 
 dwelt, and took her to wife ; after this he returned to 
 Ingunde and said, ' I have provided for that which 
 thou hast sought of me ; thou hast asked a husband for 
 thy sister both rich and wise, and I have found no one 
 better than myself; know then that I have married her, 
 and that I would not have thee be displeased thereat.' 
 Then Ingunde answered ; ' Let my lord do that which 
 is good in his sight, so that his handmaid find favour 
 in the eyes of her king.' " 
 
 The end of Chlothaire's career was worthy of its 
 commencement : after having shared the throne with 
 his brothers for forty-seven years, he survived the last 
 of them three years. Chiklebert died at Paris in 558, 
 leaving no son ; Chlothaire immediately drove his wife 
 and two daughters from the country, and sought to 
 wreak his revenge on his own son Chramne, who had 
 attached himself to Chiklebert by choice. Chramne 
 took refuge with the Britons in Armorica, a people 
 who had refused to submit to the Franks, and who 
 readily took up arms in defence of the young prince ; 
 the Britons were however defeated, and Chramne again 
 took to flight. " He had vessels ready upon the sea," 
 continues Gregory of Tours, " but as he tarried to place 
 his wife and his daughters in safety, the soldiers of his 
 father came up with him, and cast him into cliains. 
 When this was told to king Chlothaire, he ordered his 
 son to be burnt in fire, together with his wife and 
 daughters : thereupon they were shut up in the hovel 
 of a poor man ; Chramne was stretched out and bound 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. IX. 
 
 upon a bench, with a cloth taken from an altar (orarium), 
 and the house was set on fire, so that he perished in it 
 with his wife and daughters." 
 
 " Now when the king Chlothaire had reached the 
 fiftieth year of his reign, he went to the gates of the 
 shrine of St, Martin with very rich presents ; and when 
 he came to Tours, at the tomb of that bishop, he con- 
 fessed all the actions in which he had any negligence to 
 reproach himself with ; he lifted up his voice and groaned 
 exceedingly, begging the holy confessor to obtain the 
 mercy of the Lord, and to efface by his intercession 
 whatever might have been sinful in his conduct. After 
 his return, he was hunting one day in the forest of 
 Cuise, when he was attacked by a fever, so that he re- 
 turned to his palace at Compiegne ; being cruelly tor- 
 mented by the fever, he cried, ' What are we to think 
 of this king of heaven, who kills the kings of earth in 
 this wise?' But he expired in this suffering. His four 
 sons carried his body in great pomp to Soissons, and in- 
 terred it in the church of St. Medard : he died on the 
 day after the anniversary of that on which his son 
 Chramne had been put to death."
 
 211 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN, ILLUSTRATED BY TWO HISTORIANS, 
 PROCOPIUS AND AGATHIAS, AND DISTINGUISHED FOR GREAT 
 
 MEN. CHARACTER OF JUSTINIAN. HIS INTOLERANCE. 
 
 ABOLITION OF THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS ; OF THE CONSULATE 
 AND THE SENATE OF ROME. CONTRAST BETWEEN THE BRIL- 
 LIANCY AND THE CALAMITY OF THIS PERIOD. WARS WITH 
 
 THE BULGARIANS, SLAVONIANS, AND PERSIANS. — PEACE WITH 
 
 CHOSROES II. KINGDOM OF THE VANDALS IN AFRICA, FROM 
 
 THE DEATH OF GENSERIC. AFRICAN WAR. — BELISARIUS. 
 
 TAKING OF CARTHAGE. CONQUEST OF AFRICA. RECALL 
 
 OF BELISARIUS. THE OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY, FROM THE 
 
 DEATH OF THEODORIC. — AMALASONTA. EXPEDITION OF 
 
 BELISARIUS AGAINST THE OSTROGOTHS. VITIGES. ROME 
 
 TAKEN AND RETAKEN. CONDUCT OF JUSTINIAN TO BELI- 
 SARIUS. INCURSIONS OF THE FRANKS. RECALL OF BELI- 
 SARIUS FROM ITALY. —RUINOUS CONSEQUENCES. SUCCESSES 
 
 OF THE OSTROGOTHS UNDER TOTILA. EXPEDITION OF BELI- 
 SARIUS AGAINST HIM. DEFEAT OF THE GOTHS BY NARSES. 
 
 LAST VICTORY OF BELISARIUS. INGRATITUDE OF THE EM- 
 PEROR. DEATH OF BOTH. JUSTINIAN AS LAWGIVER. A. D. 
 
 527—565. 
 
 In the midst of the darkness through which we have 
 groped our way ; after having seen the lights of history 
 die out in the East and in the West ; after having lost 
 sight of all the historians of Rome, and of the school 
 of rhetoricians and philosophers which had been formed 
 during the reigns of Constantine and of Julian, we are 
 all at once surrounded by a flood of historic light, 
 spreading from the East to the ^^'est, and showing how 
 the face of things was changed, when the prince of 
 legislators published that digest of laws which is still 
 used in many of the tribunals of n odern Europe. 
 The reign of Justinian, from 527 to 565, is one of the 
 most brilliant periods of the history of the lower em- 
 pire. It has been celebrated by two Greek writers, 
 Procopius and Agathias^ the former of whom, especi- 
 p 2
 
 212 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 ally, is worthy to tread in the footsteps of the fathers 
 of Grecian history, whom he took for his models. One 
 of the greatest men who ever adorned the annals of 
 the world, — Belisarius, whose virtues and whose talents 
 were alike strangers at the court of Byzantium, and in. 
 explicable in the midst of the universal turpitude and 
 crime, — wrenched from the barbarians both Africa, 
 Sicily and Italy ; provinces in which the foundations of 
 powerful monarchies had been laid, and which seemed 
 to defy the contemptible attacks of the Greeks. A code 
 of laws, acknowledged throughout western Europe, in 
 countries which had never belonged to the empire, or 
 which had long since thrown off its yoke, though re- 
 jected centuries ago by the nations for which it was 
 specially designed, has survived that empire, and has 
 obtained, in our days, the appellation of " written rea- 
 son." Monuments of art, worthy of admiration, began 
 to rise in Constantinople and in the provinces, after the 
 lapseof two centuries, during which construction had been 
 utterly at a stand, and nations seemed solely intent upon 
 destroying what existed. The reign of Justinian, from 
 its length, its glory, and its disasters, may, on more 
 than one account, be compared to the reign of LouisXIV. 
 which exceeded it in length, and equalled it in glory and 
 in disaster. The great emperor, like " the great king," 
 was handsome in his person, graceful and dignified in 
 his manners, and impressed aU who approached him 
 with a sense of that majesty to which both of them 
 so ardently aspired. Justinian displayed the same 
 sagacity as Louis in choosing his ministers, and in em- 
 ploying them in the career most fitted to their talents, 
 Belisarius, Narses, and many others, whose names, 
 though less celebrated, are not less worthy of renown, 
 gained victories for him which conferred upon the 
 monarch the glory of a conqueror. John of Cappa- 
 docia, who was employed to regulate the finances, 
 brought them into perfect order, at the same time that 
 he carried to the highest perfection the art of draining 
 the purse of the subject. Tribonian, to whom he
 
 CHAP. X. JUSTINIAN. 213 
 
 confided the task of legislation, brought to his service 
 his prodigious erudition, his sagacious understanding, 
 and his knowledge of jurisprudence, to which was 
 united all the servility of a courtier, whose object it 
 was to sanction despotism by law. The magnificence 
 of the edifices built by Justinian, which are more re- 
 markable for their splendour than for the purity of 
 their style, exhausted his treasury ; and though these 
 monuments still illustrate his memory, the erection of 
 them w^as more disastrous to his people than war itself. 
 The fortresses with Avhich he covered his frontiers, and 
 which he built on every side, at an immense expense, 
 could not check the invasions of his enemies in his old 
 age. Justinian was the protector of commerce. For 
 the first time in the history of antiquity, we find a go- 
 vernment paying some attention to the science of eco- 
 nomy ; and though it is extremely doubtful whether the 
 real wealth and happiness of his subjects were increased 
 by tlie encouragement he gave to manufactures, it must 
 be acknowledged that we owe to him the introduction of 
 the silkworm, the cultivation of the mulberry-tree, and 
 the fabric of silk, imported from China ; and that by his 
 negotiations in Abyssinia and in Sogdiana, he attempted 
 to open a new route for the commerce of India, and to 
 render his subjects independent of Persia. Justinian, 
 believing that kings are more enlightened in matters of 
 faith than the common run of men, determined on estab- 
 lishing his creed throughout the empire. lie persecuted 
 all who differed from him, and thus deprived himself 
 of the assistance of many millions of citizens, who took 
 refuge with his enemies, and introduced the arts of 
 Greece amongst them. His reign may be signalised as 
 the fatal epoch at which several of the noblest insti- 
 tutions of antiquity were abolished. He shut the 
 schools of Athens (a. d. 52.9), in which an uninter- 
 rupted succession of philosophers, supported by a public 
 stipend, had taught the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, 
 Zeno, and Epicurus, ever since the time of the Anto- 
 nines. They were, it is true, still attached to paganism, 
 p 3
 
 214 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 and even to the arts of magic. In 541 he abolished 
 the titular consulate of Rome, which was become an 
 office of ruinous expense, from the magnificence of the 
 games which those who held it thought themselves 
 obliged to give to the people. These pageants frequently 
 cost each candidate a sura of 80,000/. sterling. In a 
 few years afterwards, (about 552), the senate of Rome 
 also ceased to exist. The ancient capital of the world 
 was taken and retaken five times during the reign of 
 Justinian, each assault being marked by increased atro- 
 city. It was now completely ruined, and the ancient 
 senatorial famiHes were so thinned by the sword, by 
 want, and by capital punishments, that they no longer 
 attempted to support the dignity of their ancient name. 
 The brilliant reign of Justinian proves, even more 
 clearly than that of Louis XIV., that a period of glory 
 is seldom one of happiness. Never did a man furnish 
 more brilliant pictures to his panegyrists, who, as they 
 looked but on one side of things, lavished their praises 
 on his extensive conquests, his wise laws, his splendid 
 court, his magnificent edifices, and even on the progress 
 of the useful arts. Never did a man leave a more 
 grievous reverse to be described by the historian, nor 
 the recollection of calamities more general, or more de- 
 structive of the human race. Justinian conquered the 
 kingdoms of the Vandals and of the Ostrogoths ; but 
 both these nations were in a manner annihilated by their 
 defeat : and before he recovered a province, it was re- 
 duced to a desert by the excesses of his armies. He 
 extended the Hmits of his empire ; but he was unable 
 to defend the territory he had received from his prede- 
 cessors. Every one of the thirty-eight years of his 
 reign was marked by an invasion of the barbarians ; 
 and it has been said, that reckoning those who fell by 
 the sword, who perished from want, or were led into 
 captivity, each invasion cost 200,000 subjects to the 
 empire. Calamities, which human prudence is unable 
 to resist, seemed to combine against the Romans, as if 
 to compel them to expiate their ancient glory. Their
 
 CHAP. X. JUSTINIAN. 215 
 
 cities were overwhelmed by earthquakes, more frequent 
 than at any other period of history. Antioch, the me- 
 tropolis of Asia, was entirely destroyed, on the 20th of 
 May, 526, at the very time when the inhabitants of the 
 adjacent country were assembled to celebrate the festival 
 of the Ascension ; and it is affirmed that 250,000 per- 
 sons were crushed by the fall of its sumptuous edifices. 
 This was the beginning of a scourge, which was re- 
 newed at short intervals till the end of that century. 
 The plague was brought from Pelusium, in Egypt, in 
 SiS, and attacked the Roman world with such fury, 
 that it did not finally disappear till 594 ; so that the 
 very period which gave birth to so many monuments of 
 greatness, ^may be looked back upon with horror, as 
 that of the widest desolation and the most terrific mor- 
 tality. 
 
 Justinian was born in 482 or 483, near Sophia, in 
 modern Bulgaria, or ancient Dardania. He came of a 
 family of common labourers. His uncle Justin, who 
 had enlisted as a private soldier in the guards of the 
 emperor Leo, rose by his valour alone from rank to 
 rank, till he reached the highest dij^nity of the state. 
 He obtained the purple on the 10th of July, 518, when 
 he was already sixty-eight years of age ; but he had 
 long since summoned to his counsels his nephew, to 
 whom he intended to leave his inheritance, and whose ta- 
 lents and activity might sustain his declining years. 'Four 
 months before his death, on the 1st of April, 527, Justi- 
 nian was allowed to share the imperial dignity. He was 
 then forty-five years old: he was well acquainted Avith the 
 policy of his uncle's court ; but though the nephew of a 
 successful soldier of fortune, he was personally unknown 
 to the army, and unaccustomed to actual warfare. 
 After he was seated upon the throne, his advancing 
 years, the etiquette of the court of Byzantium, and the 
 fears his courtiers expressed for his safety, kept him 
 aloof from the army ; and though he made war for 
 thirty-eight years, he never put himself at the head of 
 his soldiers. 
 
 p 4>
 
 2l6 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 •Justinian was, hoAvever, extremely ambitious of 
 military fame, even from the commencement of his 
 reign. The situation of the empire, the dangers which 
 surrounded him, and the menacing attitude of the bar- 
 barians upon all his frontiers, made it his duty to 
 adopt the most expeditious means of defence, by re- 
 storing the discipline of his troops, by encouraging a 
 warlike spirit among his subjects, and especially by 
 creating an active militia from among the population of 
 his vast territories. The love of a military glory like this 
 would have been no less honourable to the sovereign 
 than advantageous to the subjects of the empire, but 
 such was not the policy Justinian adopted. Like his 
 predecessors, he strictly forbade his citizens to carry 
 arms ; and though some few, hoarded in private 
 families, might escape the vigilance of domestic inqui- 
 sition, every kind of military exercise was positively 
 forbidden the people, by the timidity and jealousy of 
 the emperor ; so that, notwithstanding the immense ex- 
 tent of the empire and the dense population of the 
 western provinces, levies of men were rendered almost 
 impossible. The great generals of Justinian under- 
 took their most brilliant expeditions with armies of 
 no more than 20,000 men ; and these troops consisted 
 chiefly of enemies to the empire enlisted under its 
 standard. The cavalry and the archers of Belisarius Avere 
 composed of Scythians or Massagetes, and of Persians ; 
 the infantry of Heruli, Vandals, Goths, and a small 
 number of Thracians, who were the only subjects of 
 the empire that retained the slightest military ardour. 
 The citizens and peasants were not only incapable of 
 fighting for life or property in the open field ; they dared 
 not even defend the ramparts of cities, the fortresses 
 which the emperor had constructed for them on all 
 the frontiers, nor the long line of Malls which covered 
 the Thracian Chersonesus, Thermopylae, or the isthmus 
 of Corinth. The Bulgarians, who appear to be of Sla- 
 vonic origin, with a mixture of Tartar blood, took up 
 their abode in the valley of the Danube, where they
 
 CHAP. X. JUSTINIAN. 217 
 
 united themselves to other Slavonians who had always- 
 dwelt there, and who had bent, like a reed, beneath 
 the waves of the inundation, and risen again when it 
 had passed over them. These united tribes at length 
 became sufficiently powerful to devastate the empire. 
 They were distinguished neither by their arms, their 
 discipline, nor their military virtues ; but they fearlessly 
 crossed the Danube every year to make prisoners and 
 carry off booty ; they frequently advanced 300 miles 
 into the country, and Justinian looked upon it as a 
 victory, when he succeeded in obliging them to retire 
 with their plunder. 
 
 Another portion of the empire was threatened by a 
 far more formidable enemy, who had at his disposal 
 numerous armies, immense wealth, and almost all 
 the arts of civilisation, though he made war with the 
 atrocious ferocity of a barbarian. The great Chosroes 
 Nushirran, king of Persia, was contemporary with Justi- 
 nian, and his reign was even longer than that of the 
 emperor (531 — 579). When he ascended the throne, 
 hostilities had broken out between the two nations ; but 
 his kingdom was enfeebled by civil wars, and by the 
 inroads of the "W^hite Huns, so that its need of a peace- 
 ful and judicious government was not less urgent than 
 that of the empire. In 531, Chosroes signed a treaty 
 of peace with Justinian, which both monarchs called 
 perpetual ; and the Greek emperor, instead of taking 
 advantage of it to strengthen his frontiers against the 
 frequent aggressions of his ancient foes, turned his 
 arms to the conquest of distant provinces, which he 
 could scarcely hope to defend. 
 
 The ambitious views of Justinian were first at- 
 tracted to Africa. Genseric died on the 24th of January, 
 477j after a reign of thirty-seven years over Carthage. 
 The crown of the Vandals had passed successively to 
 Hunneric, who died in 484, to Gunthamond till 4.96, 
 and to Thrasamond till 523 : these three monarchs were 
 all sons of Genseric, and all zealous enemies of the 
 catholic faith. They carried on the most cruel perse-
 
 218 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 cutions in the name of the Arian faith : they are ac- 
 cused of having caused the tongues of a considerable 
 number of bishops to be torn up by tTie roots ; but we 
 are assured by eye-witnesses (not of the punishment 
 but of the miracle) that these prelates continued to 
 preach with greater eloquence than before, without suf- 
 fering the least inconvenience. In 523, Hilderic, the 
 grandson of Genseric, succeeded his uncle Thrasamond ; 
 he recalled the exiled bishops, and during seven years the 
 Roman subjects in Africa lived under a more paternal 
 rule. The Vandals, however, soon regretted the tyranny 
 which they were accustomed to exercise over the nations 
 they had subdued. They accused their monarch of 
 indolence and effeminacy, while they were themselves 
 open to the charge of having too soon yielded to the 
 enervating influence of those sultry regions ; the wealth 
 they had acquired by the sabre was dissipated without 
 restraint and without shame ; they were constantly 
 surrounded by slaves, like the jNIamelukes of our own 
 times ; and though their amusements were all of a 
 martial kind, they delighted in the pomp rather than 
 in the fatigue of warlike exercise. Gelimer, of the 
 royal blood of the Vandals, embittered their resentment; 
 he headed a conspiracy against Hilderic, threw that 
 prince into a dungeon, and took possession of his 
 throne. 
 
 The war of Africa was undertaken by Justinian under 
 pretence of restoring the legitimate succession to the 
 throne, and of delivering Hilderic from prison. The 
 emperor was encouraged in his designs by the state of 
 anarchy in which Africa was plunged. A lieutenant of 
 Gelimer had raised the standard of revolt in Sardinia, 
 and had caused himself to be crowned king : on the 
 other hand, an African Roman had incited his country- 
 men of Tripoli, in the name of the Athanasian creed, 
 and had raised the banner of the empire. Justinian 
 was encouraged by the prophecies of the orthodox 
 bishops, which all promised him success; and by putting
 
 CHAP. X. BELISARIUS. AFRICAN WAR. 219 
 
 Belisarius at the head of the expedition, he adopted the 
 means most Hkely to ensure it. 
 
 Belisarius, who was born among the peasants of 
 Thrace, had begun his career in the guards of the em- 
 peror Justin. He had already distinguished himself in 
 the Persian war, at a juncture of considerable difficulty ; 
 after a defeat, for which he was not to blame, he dis- 
 played more ability than is usually shown in victory, and 
 saved the army which was entrusted to him. He was 
 about the same age as the emperor, and like him he 
 was governed by his wife ; like him, he was faithful to 
 one who was destitute both of the modesty and the 
 gentleness of her sex. Justinian, on his accession, has- 
 tened to share the honours of his new dignity with 
 Theodora, the daughter of a charioteer in the public 
 circus, who had united the infamy of a vicious life to 
 the degradation of her father's occupation, until the 
 emperor raised her to the throne. Henceforward her 
 manners were irreproachable ; her advice was frequently 
 courageous and energetic ; but her cruelty and her 
 avarice contributed to render the emperor odious. An- 
 tonina, the wife of Belisarius, was also the daughter of 
 a public charioteer ; her conduct had been as irregular 
 as that of the empress, her character was equally firm 
 and audacious : unlike Theodora, however, she did not 
 conquer her early propensities ; but though a faithless 
 wife, she was a faithful friend to her husband. Ad- 
 mitted to the confidence of the empress, sbe led the way 
 to Belisarius's future greatness, she defended him by her 
 influence, and maintained him at the head of the army, 
 in spite of the intrigues of his rivals. 
 
 Not more than 10,000 foot and .5000 horse were 
 embarked at Constantinople for the conquest of Africa, 
 under the command of Belisarius, in tiie month of June 
 533. The fleet which conveyed this army was unable 
 to make the whole voyage without taking in provisions ; 
 it was received with indiscreet hospitality in a Sicilian 
 port, then dependent on the Ostrogoths. The barbaric
 
 220 FALL OF THE B0.1IAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 kings who had partitioned out the provinces of the 
 Roman empire, would have done well to recollect that 
 their cause was a common one ; their means of resist- 
 ance would then have been far superior to any means 
 of attack possessed by the Greeks : private offences and 
 family quarrels had, however, disturbed their mutual 
 relations ; the marriages of kings with the daughters of 
 kings began to exercise their fatal influence, by em- 
 broiling those they were intended to unite ; so that the 
 Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Franks, and the Vandals, 
 blindly rejoiced in each other's disasters. 
 
 Belisarius landed in September 533, at Caput Vadse, 
 which is about five days' journey from Carthage. The 
 Vandals were so little prepared for this invasion, that 
 the brother of Gelimer was at that very time with 
 the best troops of the army in Sardinia, wdiere he 
 was endeavouring to quell the insurrection. This cir- 
 cumstance induced Gelimer to avoid a battle for some 
 days. But while he was thus temporising, he afforded 
 Belisarius an opportunity of impressing the inhabitants 
 of the provinces (the Africans, who were still called 
 Romans) with a high idea of the discipline of his army, 
 of the liberal protection he was inclined to afford them, 
 and of the mildness of his own character. Belisarius 
 founded his hopes of conquest on the sympathies of the 
 people ; he displayed such a paternal benevolence to- 
 wards these provincials, whom he came to protect and 
 not to subdue; he so carefully respected their rights, and 
 so scrupulously spared their property, that the Africans, 
 who had long been oppressed, humiliated, and robbed 
 by their barbarian masters, no sooner hailed the Roman 
 eagles, than they imagined that the days of their 
 greatest prosperity under the Antonines were returned. 
 Before the arrival of Belisarius, Gelimer reigned over 
 seven or eight millions of subjects, in a country which 
 had perhaps contained 80,000,000 ; on a sudden he 
 found himself alone with his Vandals in the midst of a 
 Roman population. The historian Procopius, who seeks
 
 CHAP. X. BELISARIUS. — AFRICAN WAR. 221 
 
 to exaggerate the number of the conquered, in order to 
 enhance the glory of the conquest, asserts that the nation 
 did not possess fewer than 160,000 men capable of bear- 
 ing arms ; — a considerable number certainly, and one 
 which supposes a rapid increase since the former con- 
 quest; but extremely small if it be taken to denote a 
 nation and not an army. 
 
 Gelimer attacked Belisarius with all the troops he 
 had been able to muster, on the 14th of September, at 
 about ten miles from Carthage : his army was routed, 
 his brother and his nephew were killed, and he himself 
 was obliged to fly to the deserts of Numidia, after 
 having caused his predecessor Hilderic to be murdered 
 in prison. On the morrow Belisarius entered Car- 
 thage, and that great capital, in which the Romans still 
 far outnumbered the Vandals, received him as a deli- 
 verer. 
 
 Never was there a more rapid conquest than that of 
 the vast kingdom of the Vandals : never did the dis- 
 2)roportion between the number of the conquerors and 
 the conquered, more clearly show that tyranny is 
 the worst policy, and that the abuse of victory by those 
 who govern with the sword, hollows a sepulchre beneath 
 their thrones. In the beginning of September Beli- 
 sarius had landed in Africa ; before the etid of Novem- 
 ber Gelimer had recalled his second brother from Sar- 
 dinia, collected another army, fought and lost another 
 battle ; Africa was conquered, and the kingdom of the 
 Vandals destroyed. The army of Belisarius would have 
 required much more time merely to advance along the 
 coast, but the Roman fleet transported to Ceuta the 
 tribunes of the soldiers who were to take the command 
 of the towns ; they were every where received with ac- 
 clamation ; every where the Vandals were intimidated, 
 submitted without resistance, and disappeared. Geli- 
 mer, who had retired into a distant fortress of Numidia, 
 with a small retinue, capitulated in the following spring, 
 and the terms of his submission were most honourably 
 observed by Justinian. Gelimer received ample pos-
 
 222 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 sessions in Galatia, where he was allowed to grow old 
 in peace, surrounded by his friends and kinsfolk. The 
 observance of faith plighted to a rival was too rare a 
 virtue in those times for us to pass it by in silence. 
 The bravest of the Vandals enlisted in the troops of the 
 empire, and served under the immediate orders of Beli- 
 sarius. The remainder of the nation was involved in 
 the convulsions of Africa which we shall shortly men- 
 tion, and ere long entirely disappeared. 
 
 Justinian demanded trophies from his generals, but 
 he grudged them their successes. His jealousy at the 
 rapid victories of Belisarius was intense. Before the 
 close of that same autumn of 534 which had sufficed 
 for the conquest of a kingdom, too soon for the welfare 
 of Africa, he ordered him to return to Constantinople. 
 In the matchless character of Belisarius, the virtues them- 
 selves seemed adapted to the despotism under which he 
 served. The will of his sovereign, and^not the welfare of 
 the empire, was the sole end of his actions, and the sole 
 standard of what he judged to be good or evil. He 
 foresaw that his recall would be the ruin of Africa, but 
 he did not hesitate to obey the mandate. As he was 
 embarking at Carthage, he saw the flames which were 
 already lighted by the insurgent Moors in the provinces 
 which he had reconquered, and he predicted that his 
 work would be undone as rapidly as it had been accom- 
 plished ; but the will of the emperor seemed to him to 
 be the will of fate. His prompt obedience allayed the 
 jealousy which his remarkable success had excited, and 
 Justinian allowed him the honours of a triumph, and 
 the consulate for the ensuing year. This triumph was 
 the first which Constantinople had ever seen conferred 
 upon a subject. 
 
 The conquest of Africa was no sooner accomplished, 
 than Justinian projected that of Italy, and he designed 
 to subdue the Ostrogoths by the same general who had 
 acquired so much glory in defeating the Vandals. A 
 Roman emperor may be supposed to have thought his 
 honour interested in the possession of Rome and of
 
 CHAP. X. BELISARIUS. ITALIAN WAR. 223 
 
 Italy, but the West had no reasons for wishing hira 
 success. The Vandals had rendered themselves odious 
 by their cruelty, their religious persecutions, and their 
 piracies ; but the Goths had better claims on public 
 esteem : they were the wisest, the most temperate, and 
 the most virtuous of the Germanic tribes, and they gave 
 substantial grounds of hope to the nations which they 
 had regenerated. Their glory did not terminate with 
 the reign of Theodoric, but to the very close of the 
 struggle in which they perished they displayed virtues 
 which we look for in vain amongst the other bar- 
 barians. 
 
 We have seen that upon the death of the great Theo- 
 doric (a. d. 526), the crown of Italy descended to his 
 grandson Athalaric, who was then only ten years old, 
 under the regency of his mother Amalasonta. This 
 princess, who had lost her husband before her father's 
 death, attempted to procure for her son, the only hope of 
 his family and of his nation, those advantages of a liberal 
 education which she had herself enjoyed. But Athalaric, 
 who felt the irksomeness of study more than its advan- 
 tages, easily found young courtiers who persuaded him 
 that the protecting care of his mother was degrading to 
 him. The old warriors of the nation had not lost 
 their prejudices against Roman instruction, and Roman 
 manners ; Athalaric was removed from his mother's 
 guardianship, and before Ke was sixteen, drunkenness 
 and debauchery brought him to the grave (a. d. 534). 
 Out of respect for the blood of Theodoric, and the 
 grief of Amalasonta, she was allowed by the Goths to 
 choose the future partner of her throne from amongst her 
 kindred. She accordingly bestowed her hand on Theo- 
 datus, who, like herself, preferred studious pursuits to 
 the boisterous revelry of the Goths ; who passed for a 
 philosopher ; whom she believed to be destitute of am- 
 bition, and who had, indeed, sworn to her that, grateful 
 for so signal a favour, he would respect her commands 
 and allow her to rule alone, whilst he shared her throne 
 in appearance. No sooner, however, was he crowned.
 
 224 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 than he caused his benefactress to be arrested (30th of 
 April, 535), conveyed as a prisoner to an island in the 
 lake of Bolsena, and a few months afterwards strangled 
 in her bath. Justinian embraced the cause of Amala- 
 sonta, as he had embraced that of Hilderic, to avenge, 
 though not to protect her. Belisarius received orders 
 to prepare for the conquest of Italy, but the army with 
 which he was entrusted for this important enterprise, 
 amounted only to 4500 barbarian horsemen, and 3000 
 Isaurian foot-soldiers. Belisarius landed in Sicily in 
 535, and in the first campaign of the Gothic war he 
 subdued that island ; the city of Palermo alone offered 
 him some resistance. 
 
 In the following year Belisarius transported his army 
 to Reggio in Calabria, marching along the coast, accom- 
 panied by his fleet, till he arrived at Naples : no forces 
 were sent to oppose his progress ; he was assisted by the 
 same favourable circumstances as in Africa, and his 
 humanity and moderation procured for him the same 
 advantages in Italy as in that country. On a sudden 
 the Goths perceived, with consternation, that they were 
 in an isolated position, in the midst of a people which 
 invoked their enemies as its liberators. All their 
 plans of defence were confounded, treason began to 
 show itself in their ranks, and a relation of Theodatus, 
 to whom the government of Calabria had been entrusted, 
 passed over to the standard of the emperor. The 
 cowardice of their king was, however, the chief cause of 
 the ruin of the Goths. Theodatus had shut himself 
 up in Rome, whilst Belisarius besieged Naples, and 
 entered it by means of an aqueduct. The nation of the 
 Goths, which still reckoned 250,000 warriors, dispersed, 
 indeed, from the Danube and the Rhone to the extre- 
 mities of Italy, would no longer submit to so degrading 
 a yoke. Vitiges, a brave general, who had been ordered 
 to secure the approaches to Rome, was suddenly pro- 
 claimed king by the soldiers, and raised upon the buckler ; 
 whilst Theodatus, as soon as he heard of this revolt,
 
 CHAP. X. BELISARIUS. ITALIAtNT WAR. 225 
 
 took flight, and was slain by the hand of a private enemy, 
 against whom he did not even attempt to defend himself 
 (August, 536"). 
 
 After the election of Vitiges, the war of the Ostro- 
 goths assumed a new character. The struggle was no 
 longer one of cowardice and improvidence with talent ; 
 it lay between two great men, both of them masters of 
 the art of war, both equally worthy of the love and of 
 the confidence of their respective nations ; both contend- 
 ing against insurmountable difficulties. Behsarius was, 
 as he had been in Africa, just, humane, generous, and 
 brave ; he won the hearts of the Italians ; but his court 
 ke[)t him without money, and almost without an army. 
 The hard law of necessity, the orders he received from 
 Constantinople, and the rapacious colleagues who were 
 sent out to him, compelled him to sustain the war by 
 plunder, and to strip those whom he would have willingly 
 protected. Vitiges was still at the head of a powerful 
 and martial people ; but his kingdom was disorganised, 
 time was needed to collect his scattered battalions, and 
 to revive the confidence of his soldiers, who believed that 
 they were surrounded by traitors. He found it neces- 
 sary to evacuate Rome, (which Belisarius occupied on the 
 10th of December, 536',) and even to quit the lower part 
 of Italy, and fall back upon Ravenna, in order to re- 
 store the discipline of his army. As soon as he had 
 organised his forces, he returned, in the month of JNIarch 
 following, to besiege Belisarius in the ancient capital 
 which he had ceded to him. 
 
 Our prescribed limits do not allow us to give any 
 detailed account of the military operations even of the 
 greatest general. A succinct abridgment like the pre- 
 sent docs not profess to afford any instruction in the 
 art of war. We merely design to present in one pic- 
 ture the fall of the ancient empire, and the dispersal of 
 those elements out of which the modern world was 
 to arise, referring to other works for details. Nor 
 would it be without repugnance that we should dwell 
 upon the sufferings of humanity, or the unparalleled 
 v(ii>. I. y
 
 226 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 calamities which were caused by two virtuous chiefs. 
 The spectacle of the excesses of tyranny is far less 
 painful^ for then our indignation relieves our sympathy. 
 In recording the crimes of the sons of Clovis, the 
 horror these monsters inspire, leaves no room for pity. 
 But when Vitiges besieged Belisarius in Rome during 
 a whole year, two heroes sacrificed two nations to their 
 animosity. Belisarius kept up the courage of his feeble 
 garrison by his intrepidity, his patience, and his per- 
 severance, whilst the entire population of Rome was 
 perishing by famine : Vitiges, equally inflexible, 
 led back the battalions of his Goths to the walls 
 of Rome, until the assailants were all destroyed by the 
 sword, or by pestilential diseases. His courage and his 
 ability shone conspicuous in this deadly war ; if he 
 had succeeded, the independence of his nation was 
 secured ; but it perished in these fatal conflicts. 
 
 Justinian had desired that Italy should again be 
 classed amongst the provinces of the Roman empire. 
 But his vanity was satisfied by the mere possession of 
 the soil on which the Romans had raised their power ; 
 and he purchased it by the sacrifice of all that made it 
 glorious or valuable. Rome was defended ; but during 
 the long famine to which it was reduced it lost almost 
 all its inhabitants. The Goths were conquered ; but 
 they were destroyed, not subdued, and the void they 
 left in the energetic and warlike population of Italy was 
 never repaired. The Italians were delivered from a 
 yoke which they thought debasing, but they fell under 
 one a thousand times worse. The long continuance of 
 the war, and the pressure of want, did violence to the 
 natural moderation of Belisarius, and, moreover, gave 
 him time to receive direct orders from Justinian, in- 
 stead of following his own impulses. 
 
 The extortions practised on the Roman subjects were 
 rigorous in the extreme, and that population, which had 
 repaired its losses during the protecting reign of Theo- 
 doric, was swept off" by famine, pestilence, and the 
 avenging sword of the Goths : the glorious monuments
 
 CHAP. X. SIEGE OF ROME. 22? 
 
 of Italy^ — the very stones, — were not rescued from de- 
 struction. The master-works of art were used as mili- 
 tary engines, and the statues which adorned the mole 
 of Adrian were hurled down upon the besiegers. In his 
 utmost need, Vitiges had demanded the succour of the 
 Franks, and a dreadful invasion of that barbarian people, 
 which was marked by the destruction of Milan and 
 Genoa (a.d. 538-539), taught the Goths, that these fierce 
 warriors, thirsting for booty and for blood, did not even 
 care to distinguish their allies from their enemies. On 
 the same day they cut to pieces the army of the Goths, 
 and the army of the Greeks, which had both reckoned 
 upon their assistance ; at length they almost all perished 
 from want in the Cisalpine country, Avhich they had 
 devastated ; and when soldiers like these perish from 
 hunger, it is easy to infer that nothing remains either 
 to the peasant or to the citizen, which their oppressors 
 can pillage or destroy. 
 
 In March 538, when the Goths were obliged to raise 
 the siege of Rome, Belisarius profited by their dis- 
 couragement, their sufferings, and their faults ; he laid 
 siege in his turn to Ravenna, and forced Vitiges to give 
 up that town, and to surrender himself prisoner (De- 
 cember, 53(}). Vitiges was as deeply indebted to the 
 generosity of Justinian, as Gelimer had been ; he passed 
 his days in affluence at Constantinople : Belisarius was 
 at the same time recalled from Italy. 
 
 Justinian hastened to recall his general after each 
 victory, and Belisarius was not less prompt in his obcr 
 dience ; but every time he quitted the command, the 
 ])rovinces he abandoned were exposed to the most 
 dreadful calamities ; and the wliole empire had ample 
 reason to regret that the fate of several millions of men 
 depended on the caprices of a court, on the mistrust or 
 the envy of a haughty woman, or of a jealous despot. 
 Five years before, at the very time when Belisarius was 
 leaving Africa, in obedience to the orders of Justinian, 
 a rebellion broke out among the Moors, and the liero, 
 who was submissively leaving those shores in the nio- 
 <j 2
 
 928 FALL OF THE BOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 DQcnt of danger, could see from his vessel the fires which 
 were kindled over the country by the very enemy from 
 ■whose attacks he had hitherto protected it. The mi- 
 nisters of Justinian seemed studiously to increase, by 
 their vexatious enactments, the resentment of the armed 
 population of Africa, the weakness and the degradation 
 of the unarmed. The wandering Moor, whose habits 
 were, even in that age, not unlike those of the Bedouin 
 Arab, endeavoured to destroy all cultivation, all per- 
 manent dwellings, and industrious arts, and drove 
 civilisation back to the sea coast : there it was restricted 
 to the maritime towns and their narrow suburbs; so that 
 during the remainder of Justinians reign it was esti- 
 mated that the province of Africa barely equalled one 
 tliird of the province of Italy. 
 
 The retirement of Belisarius after the capture of 
 Vitiges was followed by similar calamities ; Pavia was 
 tlie only town of importance which still resisted the 
 Roman yoke. It was defended by a thousand Goths, 
 who proclaimed their chief Hildebald king : he, as well 
 as his successor Eraric, was assassinated within the year, 
 and was succeeded by Totila, a young kinsman of 
 Vitiges, whose excellent abilities were only equalled by 
 his bravery and his humanity. This new king repaired 
 the dilapidated fortunes of the Goths by his remarkable 
 "virtues as much as by his victories : he recalled to the 
 army the sons of those who had already fallen in its 
 ranks ; he harassed, attacked, and routed successively 
 eleven generals, to whom Justinian had entrusted the 
 defence of the different towns of Italy : he crossed the 
 whole peninsula from Verona to Naples, in order to col- 
 lect the scattered warriors of his nation, who had been 
 obliged to submit in every province, and in the course 
 of three years (a.d. 541-544) the kingdom of the Ostro- 
 goths became, under his command, as extensive, if not 
 as powerful, as it was when the war began. Justinian 
 occasionally sent reinforcements to his generals in Italy, 
 but these scanty supplies served only to prolong a con- 
 test which they could not hope to terminate. The
 
 CHAP. X. ITALIAN WAR. 229 
 
 arrival of 200 men from Constantinople was looked upon 
 as an event ; and such was the universal desolation of 
 Italy, that bands of one or two hundred soldiers crossed 
 its whole extent, without meeting any sufficient obstacle 
 to their progress. In 544, Justinian sent back Belisarius, 
 but without an army ; so that for four years this hero was 
 compelled to struggle with his adversary, more like a 
 captain of banditti than a distinguished general ; the 
 extent of the havoc was disproportioned to their scanty 
 resources, and a handful of soldiers on either side 
 burnt and destroyed what they were unable to defend. 
 
 Totila besieged Rome for a long time, and obtained 
 possession of it on the 17th of December, 546; he 
 determined to destroy a city which had displayed such 
 inveterate hostility to the Goths ; he rased the walls, 
 and forced the inhabitants to seek a refuge in the Cam- 
 pania. For forty days the ancient capital of the world 
 remained deserted. Belisarius took advantage of this 
 occurrence to re-enter it, and fortify himself in it once 
 more ; but he was again obliged to quit it. Justinian, 
 in leaving this great man, to contend, almost without 
 money and without troops, against an enemy infinitely 
 superior to him in strength, seemed to be labouring to 
 destroy a reputation of which he was jealous. When 
 he recalled Belisarius for the second time, Italy was 
 ravaged for four years by the conflicting fury of civil 
 and foreign war ; the Franks and Germans made an- 
 other incursion without the authority of their govern- 
 ment, without leaders, and with the sole object of 
 plundering on a large scale. At length, in 552, Justinian 
 formed an army of .30,000 men ; he appointed a man 
 to command it, in whom we scarcely expect to find the 
 talents or the character of a hero ; but the eunuch 
 Narses, who had passed his youth in directing the tasks 
 of the women in the palace, and had gained experience 
 in various embassies in his later years, fully justified 
 the choice of Justinian, when placed at the head of the 
 army. In the month of July, 552, he gained a great 
 victory over the Goths in the neighbourhood of Rome, 
 Q 3
 
 230 PAtIi OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 when Totila was slain : in the month of March, 553, 
 he won another battle near Naples, in which Teia, who 
 had been chosen to succeed Totila, was also killed : and 
 thus was accomplished the overthrow of the monarchy 
 of the Ostrogoths, the almost total destruction of that 
 nation, and the submission to the emperor of the sad de- 
 serts of that Italy, in which all that was most delicious and 
 magnificent in the world had so long been accumulated. 
 
 After the victories of Narses, Italy was governed, in 
 the name of the emperor of Constantinople, by Exarchs, 
 who resided at Ravenna, though indeed the government 
 of the country scarcely remained sixteen years under the 
 control of the empire of the East : the fortified town of 
 Ravenna, however, and the Pentapolis, which is now 
 called La Romagna, not in memory of Rome, but of the 
 Greeks who affected to call themselves Romans, long 
 formed part of its possessions. La Romagna and some 
 other smaller provinces continued for two centuries, that 
 is, until 752, to be governed by the exarch of Italy ; 
 another exarch governed Africa, and resided at Car- 
 thage. Justinian had even extended his conquests to 
 some cities in Spain, and had contributed to keep alive 
 anarchy in that great peninsula ; but as the Roman 
 province which he had recovered was not sufficiently 
 important to deserve a third exarch, Greek dukes were 
 appointed to such of the Spanish towns as opened their 
 gates to the generals of Justinian, and of his successors, 
 from 550 to 620. 
 
 The wars which Justinian carried on in the East 
 against Chosroes occasioned as much misery as his ex- 
 pedition in the West. Syria was entirely occupied, and 
 the frontiers of Armenia were devastated by the Per- 
 sians, whilst Colchis was disputed with the greatest ob- 
 stinacy, for sixteen years, by the two empires (a.d. 540 — 
 556). After a prodigious ivaste of human life, the 
 frontiers of the Romans and the Persians remained much 
 the same as they were before the war : as those countries 
 have remained in a barbarous state ever since, they the 
 less merit our notice.
 
 CHAP. X. PERSIAN WAR. 231 
 
 Justinian was nearly eighty years of age, when he 
 was obliged to have recourse for the last time to the 
 valour and ability of his general, who was not less aged 
 than himself, in order to repel an invasion of the Bul- 
 garians, who, in 559, advanced to the gates of Con- 
 stantinople. The venerable Belisarius was looked upon 
 as the only safeguard of the empire ; he with difficulty 
 collected 300 of those soldiers, who, in happier years, 
 had shared his toils ; to these was added a timorous 
 troop of peasants and recruits, who refused to fight. He 
 succeeded, however, in repulsing the Bulgarians ; but 
 this success, and the enthusiasm of the people, excited 
 the jealousy and the fears of Justinian, who had in- 
 variably punished his general for the victories he gained. 
 In 5iO he had been condemned to a fine amounting to 
 120,000/. sterling: in 563 a conspiracy against the 
 emperor was discovered, Belisarius was implicated in 
 it, and whilst his pretended accomplices were executed, 
 Justinian affected to pardon his old servant ; but he 
 caused his eyes to be torn out, and confiscated his whole 
 fortune. This account is adopted by the young and 
 learned biographer of Belisarius, lord JMahon, though it 
 only rests upon the authority of historians of the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries. The general who had conquered 
 two kingdoms was to be seen, blind, and led by a child, 
 holding out a wooden cup before the convent of Lauros 
 to crave the pittance of an obolus. It appears, however, 
 that the disapprobation of the people cavxsed Justinian 
 to repent his severity, and Belisarius was restored to his 
 palace, where he died on the 13th of March, 5()5 : 
 Justinian also expired on the 1 tth of September in the 
 same year. 
 
 The glory which Justinian derives from the collection 
 and publication of the ancient Roman laws, is more solid 
 and more durable than that of his conquests. The 
 Pandects and the Code, which were arranged and i)ro- 
 inulgated by his authority, contain the immense store 
 of the wisdom of preceding ages ; and we cannot but be 
 astonished at finding so much respect for law in tlie 
 Q 4
 
 232 FALIi OF THE RO.UAN EMPIRE. CHAP. X. 
 
 character of a despot ; so much virtue in so corrupt an 
 age ; so deep a reverence for antiquity, at a time when 
 every institution was overthrown ; and, lastly, a system 
 of legislation entirely Latin, pubHshed by a Greek in 
 the midst of Greeks. For, although Justinian sometimes 
 substituted the stamp of servility for the noble and-, 
 primitive character of the ancient law ; though he oc- 
 casionally deranged a system which had been slowly 
 matured by the jurists, to satisfy the whim of the mo- 
 ment, or his own personal interest, it cannot be denied 
 that the work he sanctioned is a valuable monument of 
 justice and of reason, of which he was, though not the 
 author, the preserver. 
 
 That absolute government w^hich had corrupted every 
 Roman virtue, did not, in the time of Justinian, even 
 give internal peace to the people in exchange for their 
 lost liberty. Despotism may render civil war and popular 
 commotions dishonourable, but it cannot suppress them. 
 There was no longer sufficient virtue in Constantinople 
 to induce a man to expose his life in the defence of his 
 civil rights, for the honour of his country, orfor the laws 
 which he regarded as sacred ; but battles %vere fought 
 for the charioteers of the circus. Chariot-racing, Avhich 
 had been a favourite amusement of the Romans, was in- 
 troduced into Constantinople, and afterwards into all the 
 great towns of the empire ; the prizes were contended 
 for by charioteers dressed either in a blue or a green uni- 
 form : the entire population was divided into two parties 
 distinguished by these colours. Two hostile factions 
 broke out throughout the empire ; religion, politics, 
 morality, liberty, and all the lofty sentiments of human 
 nature, had no part in their animosity ; but the Greens 
 and the Blues, who Avere only contending for the prizes 
 of the circus, could not be satisfied without shedding 
 each other's blood. Justinian himself, worked upon by 
 an ancient enmity of Theodora, embraced the cause of 
 the Blues, and during his reign the Greens could never 
 obtain justice. The judges, who were to pass sentence on 
 the property, the good name, or the lives of the citizenSj
 
 CHAP. X. STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 233 
 
 examined less into their conduct and their rights than 
 into the colour of their party. On several occasions 
 private violence assumed the character of open sedition; 
 but in 532, during the most terrible of these revolts, 
 which is called Nika, or victory, from the cry which was 
 adopted, the capital remained for five days in the power 
 of an infuriated mob : the cathedral, several churches, 
 baths, theatres, palaces, and a large portion of the town, 
 was reduced to ashes. Justinian, who was on the point 
 of taking flight, was only maintained upon the throne 
 by the firmness of his wife Theodora. Torrents of blood 
 were shed by men who were too cowardly to defend 
 their country against barbarians, or their rights against 
 internal oppression.
 
 234 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 SUCCESSION OF GREEK EMPERORS. NARSES, EXARCH OF ITALY. 
 
 THE GErlDiE AND THE LOMBARDS, BETWEEN THE ALPS AND 
 
 THE DANUBE. ROMANTIC STORY OF ALBOIN, KING OF THE 
 
 LOMBARDS ; HIS CONQUEST OF THE GEPID-E ; HIS INVASION 
 
 OF ITALY. RESISTANCE OF THE MARITIME CITIES OF ITALY ; 
 
 THEIR INTERNAL GOVERNMENT. MARITIME CITIES OF SPAIN, 
 
 AFRICA, AND ILLYRICUM. GROWTH OF MUNICIPAL LIBERTIES. 
 
 INDEPENDENCE OF THE LOMBARDS; THEIR THIRTY DUKES 
 
 IN ITALY. THE FOUR FRANKIC KINGS, SONS OF CHLOTHAIRE. 
 
 GROWTH OF A TERRITORIAL ARISTOCRACY. THEMORD DOM, 
 
 OR SUPREME JUDGE OF THE FRANKS. THE FOUR KINGDOMS 
 
 OF GERMANY. GONTRAN, SURNAMED "THE GOOD." 
 
 CHILPERIC, THE NERO OF FRANCE. FREDEGUNDE. BRUNE- 
 
 CHILDE. EFFORTS OF GONTRAN TO KEEP DOWN THE NOBLES. 
 
 SCENE IN THE NATIONAL ASSESIBLY OF THE FRANKS, FROM 
 
 GREGORY OF TOURS. CHILDEBERT II. ; HIS FEROCITT. ■ 
 
 ENERGY, TALENTS, AND CRUELTY OF BRUNECHILDE. HER 
 
 SUCCESSES. HER DEFEAT AND MISERABLE DEATH. 
 
 At the time when the empire of the West was over- 
 thrown^ when each of its provinces was occupied by a 
 different people, and when as many kingdoms were 
 founded as there were daring chiefs at the head of 
 a horde of barbarians, the world presented a scene of 
 such complex and conflicting interests, that it seemed a 
 very difficult task to follow the general progress of events. 
 This difficulty has, however, ceased in a great measure, 
 as far as we are concerned. From the reign of Jus- 
 tinian the interest of European history lies almost en- 
 tirely between the Greek empire and the kingdom of 
 the Franks, which, although it had not yet acquired 
 the title of empire, stood at the head of the whole of 
 western Europe. This exclusive interest, this almost 
 universal monarchy of the Franks in the ^Vest, continued 
 until the end of the reign of Louis le Debonnaire, and 
 the civil wars between his children in 840. 
 
 During these three centuries, the history of the Latin
 
 CHAP. XI. SUCCESSORS OF JUSTINIAN. 2.'?5 
 
 world is frequently obscure, generally barbarous, and 
 always incomplete ; but it is constantly connected with 
 the progressive revolutions of that great people which will 
 be the principal object of our observations. During the 
 same period the history of the East became extremely 
 complicated ; the sceptre of Justinian passed successively 
 to his nephew, Justin the younger (a. d. 565 — 57-t) ; 
 from him to Tiberius II. (57 t — 582) ; to Maurice 
 (582—602) ; to I'hocas (6"02— (ilO) ; and to Heraclius 
 (6 10 — f)42). Three of these princes, Tiberius, Mau- 
 rice, and Heraclius, were distinguished by their virtues ; 
 and the claim of this period to the epithet of glorious, is 
 at least equal to that of the reign of Justinian. It Avould 
 probably be esteemed so, if the events were better known ; 
 but, in monarchies, the interest excited by public con- 
 cerns is not .sufficiently strong to induce many men of 
 distinguished talents to devote themselves to the severe 
 labours of the historian. Annals are seldom continued 
 from the zeal of their authors alone: the vanity of the 
 monarch may, indeed, lead him to appoint an historio- 
 grapher, but at the same time it forbids the salaried 
 historian to tell the truth. Events are then oidy recorded 
 in panegyrics, which inspire no confidence, or in dry and 
 insipid chronicles, which excite no interest. The good 
 fortune by which the reign of Justinian possessed a great 
 historian was rare indeed in the history of Byzantium. 
 
 This same period answers to that of the birth and 
 education of a man, who was destined in his maturer 
 years to change the face of the world. Justinian died 
 in 5G5, and Mohammed was born in 5f)9; yet, until his 
 flight to Medina in 6'22, the remainder of the world, and 
 even Arabia itself, was almost unconscious of his exist- 
 ence ; and as the ten last years of iiis life (a. n. 622 — 
 6.32), after he had obtained the sovereign power, were 
 devoted to the conquest of that great peninsula, the 
 empire only learned the mighty revolution which had 
 taken place, wlien (a.d. 628 — 6.32) it was called upon 
 for the first time to meet the Musulmauns in the field. 
 
 Before we engage in the history of the founder of the
 
 236 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 new religion^ we shall^ in another chapter^ survey the 
 state of the East, and the conquests and defeats of 
 Chosroes II., whose memorable reign cast a lustre, 
 which was but the harbinger of its fall, over the 
 monarchy of the Sassanian Persians. Our present object 
 has been simply to recall the concordance of events in 
 the different parts of the world, before we return to the 
 history of the West. 
 
 That country, which had so long been looked upon 
 as the queen of the earth, — that Italy, which had been 
 ruined and desolated by the wars of the Greeks, and by 
 the annihilation of the monarchy of the Ostrogoths, 
 soon underwent another revolution. The eunuch Xarses, 
 who had conquered, was appointed to govern it ; in his 
 extreme old age he administered for fifteen years (a. d. 
 553 — 568) the affairs of a country, which, perhaps, 
 stood in need of a younger and more active ruler. This 
 extraordinary man, who is said to have attained the age of 
 ninety-five, had established himself at Ravenna, ivhence 
 he once more imposed the laws of the empire on the Ita- 
 lians ; laws of which they knew little, except the grievous 
 imposts heaped upon them in their name. Narses 
 was the avaricious servant of an avaricious master ; 
 he was accused of amassing excessive wealth by draining 
 the people, who enjoyed no advantages which might com- 
 pensate for the costliness of their government. The fugi- 
 tives who had been dispersed by the Greek and Gothic 
 armies gradually congregated in the towns; IMilan arose 
 from its ruins, and the other cities recovered a part of 
 their population ; but the country was entirely deserted, 
 and the crops which sustained the remnant of the Ita- 
 lians were probably raised by the hands of citizens : no 
 one dared to inhabit the rural districts, at a time when 
 public force was extinct, and no protection was ensured 
 to the agriculturist. The events which occurred at the 
 close of the administration of Narses, showed that there 
 was no army in Italy ; although barbarous and hostile 
 nations, who were acquainted with the roads throughout 
 the country, were besieging its approaches.
 
 CHAP. XI. LOMBARDS. ALBOI.V. 237 
 
 Narses was driven from his post in the most insulting 
 manner by the empress Sophia^ wife of Justin II., 
 who sent him a distafT, and told him that he ought to 
 resume those feminine occupations for which he was 
 fitted. He has been accused of having summoned the 
 barbarians to assist him in avenging himself, but it is 
 certain that such an invitation was unnecessary. 
 
 In that district, which had once been Roman, extend- 
 ing from the foot of the Alps to the Danube, the Gepida?, 
 of Gothic, and the Lombards, of Vandal, race, had 
 taken up their abode : both of these tribes were said 
 to surpass in ferocity any of the preceding enemies of 
 the empire ; both of them had accepted the alliance of 
 the Greeks for the sake of tribute, disguised under the 
 name of pension. The Gepidre were to guard the en- 
 trance to Italy : the Lombards had contributed to the 
 conquest of that country, by the valiant auxiliaries 
 they had furnished to Narses. The most virulent ani- 
 mosity divided these two nations, wliich had been kept 
 alive by the romantic and, perhaps, fabulous adventures 
 related of their kings. The historians of a barbarous 
 people are always unacquainted with, or indifferent to, 
 the domestic events of their country : kings alone ap- 
 pear upon the scene ; their adventures take the place 
 of national exploits ; and even the fictions of which 
 they are the heroes merit some attention, as they show 
 us the bent of the popular imagination. 
 
 Alboin, the young heir to the throne of the Lom- 
 bards, had already displayed his valour in an expedition 
 against the Gepida?, and had slain with his own hand 
 the son of their king; nevertheless his father would not 
 consent to admit him to his table until he had received 
 his arms from the hands of some foreign sovereign. 
 Such was the invariable custom of their nation, after- 
 wards incorporated into the laws of chivalry, and called 
 the arming of a knight. This custom is attested by 
 Paul W'arnefrid, a Lombard liistorian, contemporary 
 Avith Charlemagne. Alboin, witli forty of his bravest 
 comj)anions, did not hesitate to ask his knightly arms
 
 238 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 at the hands of Thurisund, king of the Gepidse, and 
 father of the prince whom he had slain. The duties of 
 hospitaUty were more sacred in the eyes of the okl king 
 than those of vengeance, and the prince was received at 
 the table of the monarch of the Gepidie ; he was ar- 
 rayed in new armour, and protected amid the disorder 
 of a banquet, at which Cunimund, another son of Thu- 
 risund, attempted to avenge his brother. This warlike 
 hospitality, with which so many vindictive and hostile 
 feelings were mingled, gave Alboin an opportunity of 
 inflicting a fresh outrage on the royal house of the 
 Gepidae : he carried off Rosamunde, the daughter of 
 Cunimund, but he was overtaken before he could escape; 
 the princess was taken from him, his offer of marri- 
 age rejected, and the two kings, as well as the two 
 nations, excited by mutual aggressions, mutually de- 
 termined on each other's destruction. Their hostility 
 broke out when Alboin and Cunimund had both suc- 
 ceeded to their aged parents. The Lombard king, per- 
 ceiving that he was the weaker, sought for foreign 
 assistance ; he enlisted the Saxons under his standard, 
 and he more especially strengthened his forces by an 
 alliance with the khan of the Avars, a nomadic people, 
 which had descended from the mountains of Tartary 
 and had crossed all the Slavonian and Sarmatian deserts, 
 in its flight from the vengeance of the Turks. The 
 Avars had threatened the frontiers of the Greeks, in- 
 vaded the territory of several German nations subject to 
 the Franks, and had afterwards roamed over the north 
 of Europe with their flocks, seeking to possess them- 
 selves of some territory by the sword. Alboin united 
 his desire of vengeance on the Gepidie, to a design 
 which he cherished of conquering Italy and establishing 
 his people in that country. The valley of the Danube 
 had been so cruelly devastated by successive barbarous 
 hordes, that every trace of its ancient civilisation was 
 effaced. Its rich pastures were peculiarly adapted to a 
 pastoral people ; but the Germans were unwilling to 
 perform the drudgery of the mechanical or agricultural
 
 CHAP. XI. ALBOIN. INVASION OP ITALY. 239 
 
 arts, though they had learned to appreciate the enjoy- 
 ments they procure : they accordingly wished to subdue 
 a country in which the conquered people should work 
 for them, and they concluded a singular treaty with the 
 Avars, by which it was stipulated that they should 
 attack the Gepidse, destroy their monarchy, and divide 
 their spoils in common ; but that, after this conquest, 
 the Lombards should abandon their own country, as 
 well as that of their subdued enemies, to their allies, 
 and start themselves to seek their fortune elsewhere. 
 These extraordinary conditions were literally fulfilled ; 
 the kingdom of the Gepidae was overrun ; their army 
 was defeated by Alboin in a great battle (a. d. 566) ; 
 their wealth was divided between the conquerors ; the 
 inhabitants of the country were reduced to slavery, and 
 the princess Rosamunde Avas given back to Alboin, who 
 married her. At the same time the Lombards prepared 
 to abandon to the Avars Pannonia and Noricum, where 
 they liad dwelt for forty-two years. They gathered toge- 
 ther their wives, their children, their old men, and their 
 slaves together, removed all their valuables, and, having 
 set fire to their houses, migrated towards the Italian Alps. 
 Alboin, who united in his own character all the virtues 
 and all the vices of a barbarian, was not less remarkable 
 for his prudence and his valour, than for his ferocity 
 and intemperance. The nation of the Lombards, of 
 which he was the leader, had been distinguished above 
 all the nations of Germany for its bravery ever since the 
 time of Tacitus, but it was far from numerous. Before 
 he invaded Italy, he endeavoured to secure some rein- 
 forcements. He had formerly been connected with the 
 Saxons, and as his previous conduct had won their con- 
 fidence, twenty thousand of their warriors joined his 
 army as soon as he summoned them to his standard. 
 He liberated all the Gepid;c who had fallen to his lot, 
 and enrolled them in his battalions. He also invited 
 several other Germanic nations to join him ; amongst 
 them were the Bavarians, who had recently settled in 
 the country which has since borne their name.
 
 240 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 It was not an army, but an entire nation, which de- 
 scended the Alps of Friuli in the year 568. The exarch 
 Lorginus, who had succeeded Narses, shut himself up 
 within the walls of Ravenna, and offered no other resist- 
 ance. Pavia, which had been well fortified by the kings of 
 the Ostrogoths, closed its gates, and sustained a siege of 
 four years. Several other towns, Padua, Monzelice, and 
 Mantua, opposed their isolated forces, but with less 
 perseverance. The Lombards advanced slowly into the 
 country, but still they advanced ; at their approach, 
 the inhabitants fled to the fortified towns upon the 
 sea coast, in the hope of being relieved by the Greek 
 fleet, or at least of finding a refuge in the ships, if it 
 became necessary to surrender the place. It was known 
 that Alboin had bound himself by an atrocious vow to 
 put to the sword all the inhabitants of Pavia, whenever 
 it surrendered, and the resistance of that place, which 
 it was impossible to relieve, was foreseen to be the pre- 
 lude to dreadful calamities. The islands of Venice re- 
 ceived the numerous fugitives from Venetia, and at their 
 head the patriarch of Aquileia, who took up his abode 
 at Grado : Ilavenna opened its gates to the fugitives 
 from the two banks of the Po ; Genoa to those from 
 Liguria ; the inhabitants of La Romagna, between Ri- 
 mini and Ancona, retired to the cities of the Pentapolis ; 
 Pisa, Rome, Gaeta, Naples, Amalfi, and all the maritime 
 towns of the south of Italy were peopled at the same 
 time by crowds of fugitives. The Lombards, who were 
 ignorant of the arts used in sieges, could only reduce the 
 cities which opposed them by famine, or by threats of a 
 general massacre. This manner of attack was infallible 
 for the places in the interior, but it was unsuccessful 
 for those which lay upon the coast, all of which re- 
 mained faithful to the Greeks. 
 
 But the Greeks, who were ignorant of the Latin lan- 
 guage, indifferent to the welfare of remote countries 
 whose geography even they had forgotten, and too much 
 occupied with the wars of the Avars, the Persians, and 
 the Arabs, to send succour to a few fortresses scattered
 
 CHAP. XI. RISE OF ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 241 
 
 along a distant shore, contented themselves with an 
 honorary allegiance. They gave up the revenues of 
 each town for its defence, and they thought themselves 
 generous ; indeed they were so, for while they gave 
 nothing, they exacted nothing. Each city had pre- 
 served its curia, and its municipal institutions. As 
 long as the ruling power had been close at hand, and 
 perpetually despotic, this curia had been only a 
 means of oppression, but it became a means of sal- 
 vation to cities forgotten by their sovereign, and left 
 entirely to their own resources. Their constitution was 
 purely republican ; the confidence of the citizens, and 
 the necessity of union, restored them to new vigour and 
 dignity. The Greek emperor placed a duke at the head 
 of each curia; he found it more economical to give 
 that title to one of the citizens of these distant towns, 
 and he generally followed the suggestion of the muni- 
 cipal senate in his choice. Thenceforward this duke or 
 doge was nothing more than a republican magistrate, 
 commanding a republican militia; disposing of finances, 
 which were formed by almost voluntary contributions, 
 and reviving in the breasts of the Italians, virtues which 
 had been extinct for centuries. 
 
 This happy revolution which was silently taking place 
 in the maritime towns, was so little perceived by the 
 Greek writers, that they continued to put into the mouths 
 of the free Venetians, the declaration, that they were the 
 slaves of theem.pire, and that they desired to remain so. 
 But this change, which gradually raised the most des- 
 picable of men from the depths of baseness and of crime 
 to be an example to the world, was not confined to the 
 maritime cities of Italy. 
 
 Throughout the west, the Greek empire possessed scat- 
 tered points along the coast, which it was too weak to 
 protect ; and it appealed to that virtue which it could 
 not know, and to tliat patriotism wiiich it couhl not 
 understand, to defend those walls which it was itself un- 
 able to guard. In Spain, the civil wars during the reign 
 of Loevvegild (a. u. 57-2 — 586), and of Rccasede (a. i>. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. pHAP. XI. 
 
 586 — fiOl), which had been excited by themutualintoler- 
 ance of the catholics and the Arians, opened a great num- 
 ber of maritime places to the Greeks, and established in 
 them municipal governments, which afterwards became 
 glorious examples for the free cities of Catalonia and 
 Aragon. In Africa, the invasions of the Gaetuli and the 
 Moors, by cutting off all land communication between 
 the maritime cities, converted them, into so many little 
 isolated republics ; these were shortly after destroyed 
 by the great conquest of the Arabs. On the Illyrian 
 coast, opposite to Italy, the inhabitants, driven to the 
 cliffs which overhang the sea, found refuge against 
 the risings of the Slavonians, and the inroads of the 
 Bulgarians ; — the celebrated league of the free cities of 
 Istria and Dalmatia, in which Ragusa obtained a dis- 
 tinguished place, had enjoyed an independent existence 
 of several centuries, before its voluntary union with 
 Venice in 997- The Greeks obtained no footing upon 
 the coast of France, but the example of Genoa, Pisa, 
 and Naples, was not lost upon the cities of Aries, 
 Marseilles, and Montpellier, which traded with them ; 
 a circumstance which explains the preservation of muni- 
 cipal privileges in the south of France, at a time when 
 they were almost abolished in the north. 
 
 If the Lombards revived the spirit of social liberty, 
 they also gave their subjects an example of the in- 
 dividual liberty and savage freedom of a nation which 
 is more averse to servitude than to public disorder. 
 Alboin did not long remain at the head of their armies ; 
 after a reign of three years and a half from the capture of 
 Pavia, (which he had spared, notwithstanding his vow), 
 he was assassinated by that Rosamunde, whose father he 
 had slain, whose people he had destroyed, and whom he 
 had married after he had outraged her honour. In the 
 intoxication of a banquet he sent her a cup which he 
 had caused to be made of the scull of Cunimund, inlaid 
 with gold, and ordered her to drink with her father. 
 Rosamunde dissembled her resentment, but she employed 
 that beauty which had been the source of her misfor-
 
 CHAP. XI. LOMBARDS. FRANKS. 243 
 
 tunes and her crimes, to corrupt two of the guards of 
 Alboin, whom she armed with daggers against the life 
 of her Imsband. After the death of Alboin, at Verona, 
 (a.d. 573), Clef was elected by the suffrages of the 
 Lombards, and raised upon the buckler : but after a 
 reign of eighteen months he was killed by one of his 
 pages, and the nation, which had already extended itself 
 over a great portion of Italy, elected no successor to the 
 throne for ten years. In every province where the 
 Lombards had formed a settlement, their general as- 
 sembly sufficed to administer justice, and to regu- 
 late the affairs of the government ; it elected dukes as 
 presidents, the number of whom amounted to thirty, for 
 the whole of Italy. At length, however, the weaker 
 members of the community began to feel the want of an 
 authority which should control that of the dukes, and 
 protect the rights of the people; whilst the danger of 
 foreign wars, and the intrigues of the Greeks, rendered 
 it advisable to name a chief. After an interregimm of 
 ten years, Antharic was raised to the throne, probably 
 in the year 584 ; and before the middle of the following 
 century, the Lombards had acquired the habit of trans- 
 mitting the crown from father to son, though they had 
 not formally renounced the right of electing their kings. 
 
 The Lombards had scarcely completed the conquest 
 of that part of Italy which is called Lombardy after 
 them, when they crossed the Provenij-al Alps to pillage 
 the territory of the kings of the Franks, or perhaps with 
 the intention of effecting a settlement there. 
 
 After the death of Chlothaire I., which happened in 
 561, the Frankic monarchy was governed by his fcur 
 sons, Charibert, (Jontran, Chilperic, and Siegbert. This 
 was only the second generation of the conquerors, for 
 these ])rinces were the grandsons of Clovis : yet Gon- 
 tran, who survived all his brotliers, did not die till the 
 year 5[)3, exactly a century after the marriage of C'iovis 
 with Chlotilde. This century had witnessed very im- 
 portant changes in the administration and in the opin- 
 ions of the Franks. The warriors, who were all equal 
 11 2
 
 244 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XT. 
 
 when they arrived in Gaul, had soon found in the abuse 
 of victory, means of acquiring iniquitous possessions, 
 virhich could not be restrained within the bounds of 
 equaUty. As the soil was cultivated by slaves, or by 
 those classes of men, intermediate between slaves and 
 free-born men, who are designated in their laws as tri- 
 butaries, lidi, or fiscal dependants, the extent of their 
 estates appeared to them no obstacle to their cultivation. 
 The smaller the number of proprietors in proportion to 
 the extent of their conquest, the more alarming was 
 their usurpation. They did not, indeed, rob the wealthy 
 Romans of their property by a general measure of 
 spoliation, nor did they reduce them to slavery; but 
 they constantly resorted to the law of the strongest, in a 
 country where there was, in fact, no government — no 
 protection for the weak. The poor freeman of Frankic 
 extraction was not less exposed to this oppression than 
 the Roman. The Franks still held their provincial as- 
 semblies for the administration of justice, but they were 
 unable to enforce the decrees they issued ; the rich, who 
 then first began to be styled great, gathered around 
 them a certain number of retainers called leudes, by 
 means of grants of land, and with these followers they 
 were enabled to drown the voice of justice; to intimidate, 
 to harass, and to plunder the freemen, and thus to induce 
 them also to enlist in their bands of leudes. Hencefor- 
 ward, the great alone resorted to the general assemblies 
 of the nation ; they alone were known to the sovereign ; 
 they alone were intrusted with the command of the array, 
 when the ban was called out : in a short time they alone 
 constituted the nation ; he who was rich was sure to 
 become more so, and he who was poor was sure to be 
 stripped of the little he possessed : in less than a century 
 the turbulent democracy of the Franks was transformed 
 into a landed aristocracy of the most oppressive kind. 
 
 France, properly so called, was at that time divided 
 into four provinces, which bore the name of kingdoms ; 
 Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy, and Aquitaine. The 
 Franks inhabited only the two former of these districts ;
 
 CHAP. XI. GERMANY. 245 
 
 they frequently called the inhabitants of the southern 
 provinces Romans, although the nobles, the freemen, and 
 almost all who bore arms, were nearly all of Burgundian 
 or Visigothic race : but as they found themselves in a 
 minority amongst the Gauls, they had already aban- 
 doned the Germanic languages and adopted the Latin 
 tongue. The assemblies of the Frankic people were 
 still held at Metz, or Soissons, the capitals of Austrasia 
 and Neustria, with sufficient frequency to prevent the 
 people from being crushed under the weight of oppres- 
 sion. It was probably to protect the freemen against 
 their more powerful countrymen, that the office of mord 
 dom, or chief judge of murder, was instituted about that 
 time. This functionary was the supreme minister of 
 justice, and, as his authority was superior to that of the 
 tribunals, he was able to inflict punishment on such 
 as were too powerful to fall under the ordinary laws. 
 The resemblance of the Teutonic name, mord dom, to 
 the Latin major domus, caused the latter expression to 
 be applied to this great officer, and it was afterwards 
 translated Manor of the palace, which confused and 
 obscured the true derivation of the word, as well as the 
 nature of the office. The Alord Dom was chosen by the 
 people, not by the king ; his duty was to administer 
 justice, and not to superintend the royal revenues. His 
 office was not perpetual, but he was nominated when- 
 ever the people stood in need of him, — in times of 
 faction, or during a minority ; the Lraci/r, or arm of 
 justice, was carried before him, and this arm frequently 
 fell upon the heads of criminals of the highest rank. 
 
 Germany, which had been united to the confederation 
 of the Franks, was also divided into four kingdoms ; 
 Franconia, or German France, Allemania, or Swabia, 
 Bavaria, and Thuringia. Christianity was only begin- 
 ning to penetrate into these barbarous countries ; letters 
 were entirely neglected, and hence their history as ■well 
 as their institutions are totally unknown. It appears, 
 however, that each of these great nations marched under 
 the command of an hereditary duke, and that the only 
 B 3
 
 246 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 connection they had with the PVanks was that of making 
 war in common. Twice in the course of the reigns of 
 Chlothaire's sons, these Germanic nations were invited 
 into France by one of the kings, and devastated the 
 country wherever they passed. The sons of Chlothaire 
 hated each other as cordially, and formed as many trea- 
 cherous designs against each other, as the sons of Clovis 
 had done. They found, however, the nation more willing 
 to adopt their quarrels as grounds of civil war. 
 
 Of the four sons of Chlothaire, Charibert, who had 
 fixed his residence at Paris, and who was the sovereign 
 of Aquitaine, passed his short life in the pursuit of 
 sensual enjoyments, and in the grossest debauchery, 
 — a kind of vice then so common among kings that 
 it scarcely excited any censure. He had four wives at 
 once, two of whom were sisters ; one of them, Marco- 
 vesa, had previously taken the veil, but this was no 
 obstacle to the king. Charibert died in 567, and the 
 division of his kingdom of Aquitaine amongst his three 
 brothers was one of the great causes of the civil wars of 
 tltat century. 
 
 Gontran, the second of these kings, who survived all 
 the others, (his reign lasted from 56l to 503), and 
 who had received Burgundy for his kingdom, and Or- 
 leans for his residence, is styled by Gregory of Tours, 
 in opposition to his brothers, " the good king Gon- 
 tran." His morality, indeed, passed for good: he is only 
 known to have had two wives and one mistress, and he 
 repudiated the first before he married the second : his 
 temper was, moreover, reputetl to be a kindly one ; for, 
 with the exception of his wife's physician, who was 
 hewn in pieces because he was unable to cure her ; of 
 his two brothers-in-law, whom he caused to be assas- 
 sinated ; and of his bastard brother Gondebald, who 
 was slain by treachery ; no other act of cruelty is re- 
 corded of him, than that he razed the town of Co- 
 minges to the ground, and massacred all the inhabitants, 
 men, women, and children. He was, however, in ge- 
 neral, disposed to pardon offences ; and he displayed
 
 CHAP. xr. CHILPERIC. FREDEGUNDE. 247 
 
 incredible forbearance in favour of his sister-in-law, 
 Fredegunde, who more than once attempted his life. 
 
 In opposition to the good king Gontran, his third 
 brother, Chilperic, has been called the Nero of France ; 
 and, indeed, this barbarian, who aspired to the reputation 
 of a poet, a grammarian, and a theologian, who was am- 
 bitious of every kind of success except that of gaining the 
 affections of his subjects, may, on more than one account, 
 be compared to the Roman tyrant. Soissons and Neus- 
 tria had fallen to his share, and he reigned over them 
 from 561 to 584. His habits were more grossly licen- 
 tious than those of any other French prince, and the 
 number of queens and mistresses he collected in his pa- 
 lace was so great that they were never enumerated. 
 Amongst them, however, was the infamous Fredegunde, 
 a worthy consort for such a monster. She was of low 
 extraction, and had lived with Chilperic many years as 
 his mistress before he married her; at length, however, 
 she acquired an absolute ascendancy over him, which she 
 employed to rid herself of all her rivals. Queen Galsuin- 
 tha was strangled ; queen Andovera was executed, after 
 languishing for some time in exile; the others were driven 
 from the palace. The children of these unfortunate wo- 
 men shared the same fate ; three grown-up sons of An- 
 dovera perished successively by the order, or at least with 
 the consent, of their father. The fate of their sister 
 was even more cruel ; Fredegunde abandoned her to the 
 brutal lust of her pages, before she was put to death. 
 
 A king who shed the blood of his children with so 
 little remorse, was not likely to spare that of his 
 people. France was full of unhappy victims whose 
 eyes Chilperic had caused to be torn out, or whose arms 
 he had cut off; assassins, hired by Fredegunde, kept 
 the country in a constant state of alarm ; they pursued 
 her enemies beyond her own territory, and frequently 
 murdered them in the palaces of kings, or in the 
 assemblies of the people. The young pages and 
 priests whom she brought up in her palace, were the 
 ministers of her vengeance or of her policy. They 
 R 4
 
 248 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 committed the most horrible crimes with the persuasion 
 that heaven would be open to them, if they succeeded 
 not upon earth. " Go/' said she, as she armed them 
 with poisoned knives, " go ; and if you return alive, 
 great shall be the honour of yourselves and all your 
 race ; if you fall, I will distribute abundant alms at the 
 tombs of the saints for the welfare of your souls!" 
 The contemporary author who relates these words, does 
 not seem to doubt the efficacy of such alms. Chilperic 
 was assassinated in 584; but Fredegunde, who was left 
 a widow with a child only four months old, Chlothairell., 
 succeeded in maintaining that infant prince on the 
 throne of Neustria, and lived till the year 598 in glory 
 and prosperity. 
 
 The fourth son, Siegbert, to whose share Austrasia 
 had fallen, with Metz as a residence, was younger than 
 his brothers when he mounted the throne, but his con- 
 duct was far more decorous, as he never had any other 
 wife than the celebrated Brunechilde, daughter of Atha- 
 nagild, the king of the Visigoths. The allegiance of 
 the Germanic nations beyond the Rhine was so uncer- 
 tain, that, without paying attention to their number or 
 to the extent of country which they occupied, they had 
 all been included in the share of this prince, although 
 he was the youngest and consequently entitled to the 
 smallest portion. But Siegbert soon taught the other 
 Franks how formidable these lawless nations really 
 were. Twice, in his disputes with Chilperic, he led 
 them into the heart of France, and twice the banks of 
 the Seine and the environs of Paris were devastated 
 with inconceivable fury : Siegbert already considered 
 himself master of Neustria, and had dismissed his 
 Teutonic auxiliaries, laden with plunder, when, in 575, 
 he was assassinated by two pages of Fredegunde. His 
 crown passed to a minor, Childebert II. Nine years 
 afterwards, as we have already observed, the crown of 
 Neustria passed to another minor, Chlothaire II. Cha- 
 ribert had died without heirs, and Gontran, who was still 
 alive, was also childless; and as he was not allowed to
 
 CHAP. XI. GONTRAN. 249 
 
 be the guardian of his nephews^ the three kingdoms of 
 Austrasia^ Neustria, and Burgundy, began to be looked 
 upon, even by the Franks, as totally distinct. The mi- 
 nority of the kings, and the implacable hostility of their 
 fathers, had enabled the nobility to usurp the supreme 
 power. Thenceforth the government of Austrasia may 
 be looked upon as an aristocracy feebly controlled by 
 the authority of the Mord Dom, otherwise called the 
 mayor of the palace. Neustria was approaching the 
 same state, but by slower steps. King Gontran, who 
 was indolent and capricious in his habits, and who lived, 
 in perpetual dread of the poniard, was unable to stay 
 the progress of aristocratical power even in Burgundy ; 
 though he was not the guardian of his nephews, he 
 still thought that he was necessary to their defence. 
 One day, just as the priest who was about to celebrate 
 mass in the cathedral at Paris, had imposed silence on 
 the assembled crowd, Gontran, who had come to that 
 city a short time after the death of Chilperic, with 
 the intention of restoring peace in Neustria, addressed 
 them in the following language : — " Men and wo- 
 men here assembled ! 1 conjure you not to break the 
 faith which you have plighted to me, and not to cause 
 my death, as you have recently caused that of my 
 brothers: I ask only for three years; but three years 
 are absolutely necessary to enable me to bring up my 
 nephews, whom I look upon as my adopted children. 
 Let us beware, and may God forbid that at my death 
 you should perish together with these children, since 
 there no longer remains an individual of my race, who 
 is of an age to protect you." Instead of three, " good 
 king Gontran" lived ten years longer, and died at length 
 a natural death ; but it may be doubted whether his life 
 or his death were matters of such extreme importance to 
 his family and to the nation as he supposed. 
 
 A natural son of Chlothaire, a brother whom Gontran 
 refused to acknowledge, took advantage of the death of 
 almost all the heads of his family to endeavour to get 
 himself proclaimed king by the Franks. During this
 
 250 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 civil war, Gontran summoned the national assembly to 
 meet at Paris. Gregory of Tours, who was doubtless 
 present on this occasion, gives us an animated descrip- 
 tion of all that passed there, which pourtrays the state 
 of France far better than a long detail of the high feats 
 performed in war. With a view, therefore, to throw 
 light on this period, we shall borrow his language, with- 
 out attempting to restrict ourselves to the national annals, 
 or the chronological order of events. France was making 
 no foreign conquests, and her relations with other nations 
 were unchanged; but an insight into her national assem- 
 blies enables us to appreciate, not the events of a day, 
 but the spirit of an age. 
 
 " In the year 584, the kingdom of Austrasia," says 
 Gregory of Tours, " deputed to this assembly, in the 
 name of Childebert, Egidius bishop of Rheims, 
 Gontran-Boson, and Siegwald (the chief ministers 
 of the young prince), who were accompanied by a 
 great multitude of Austrasian nobles. As soon as they 
 had come in, the bishop said to king Gontran, ' We 
 render thanks to Almighty God, that after so many 
 toils he both restored thee to thy provinces, and to thy 
 kingdom.' — 'It is indeed,' answered Gontran, ' to 
 him who is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, that 
 thanks are due ! He it is who hath done these things in 
 his great mercy, and not thou, who by thy perfidious 
 and perjured advice causedst the destruction of my pro- 
 vinces last year ; thou, whose plighted faith hath never 
 been kept to any man ; thou, whose snares are spread on 
 every side, more befitting an enemy of this realm, than 
 a priest of God.' The bishop shook with rage at this 
 discourse, but he made no answer ; thereupon another 
 deputy got up, and said, 'Thy nephew Childebert beg- 
 geth thee to order the cities which his father possessed to 
 be restored to him.' To which the king answered, ' I 
 have already told you, that they were conferred on me 
 by treaty, and that I will not give them up.' Another 
 deputy then said, ' Thy nephew demandeth that the 
 wicked Fredegunde, who hath killed so many kings, be
 
 CHAP. XI. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF PARIS. 251 
 
 given over to him, that he may avenge the death of his 
 father, of his uncle, and of his cousins." Gontran an- 
 swered, ' I have no power to deliver her into his hands, 
 since she is herself the mother of a king : moreover I do 
 not believe in the truth of your accusations against her.' 
 
 " After all these, Gontran-Boson approached the king, 
 as if he had something to say; but as it was already noised 
 abroad that Gondewald had been proclaimed king, Gon- 
 tran interrupted him, and said, ' Enemy of this land, 
 and of our realm ! why didst thou go into the East some 
 years ago to fetch back this Ballomer into our states .'' 
 (for so he always called Gondewald, who pretended to be 
 his brother.) Thou art a traitor, and thou hast never 
 kept any one promise thou hast made.' Then Gontran- 
 Boson replied. Thou art our lord and our king, seated 
 upon a throne, so that no one dares answer thy charges ; 
 nevertheless I protest that I am innocent of all thou 
 sayest : and if any one of my own rank has accused me 
 of these things covertly, let him come forth and speak this 
 day ; and thou, O king ! shalt submit this cause to the 
 judgment of God, who will decide between us in open 
 fight in one field.' 
 
 " Thereupon every one was silent, and the king re- 
 joined, ' It is a thing which ought to inflame all your 
 hearts, to drive this stranger from our frontiers, whose 
 father was nothing better than the master of a mill, 
 — ay ! his father held the comb, and carded wool.' 
 Now, though it is very possible for one man to 
 have two trades, a deputy answered the reproaches of 
 the king, and said, ' 'What, then, dost thou affirm that 
 this man had two fathers, — one a miller, and the other 
 a wool-comber ? Take care, C) king ! of what thou 
 sayest ; for, except in spiritual matters, we have never yet 
 heard that a man can have two fathers at once.' At 
 these words many of the deputies laughed aloud, and one 
 of them said, ' We take our leave, O king ! for since 
 thou wilt not restore the cities which belong to thy ne- 
 phew, we know that the axe which laid thy brothers low, 
 is not broken, and will fall upon thy head also.'
 
 2^2 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 " In this scandalous manner the assembly broke up, 
 and the king, irritated by their language, ordered the 
 deputies to be pelted with horse-dung, straw, rotten 
 hay, and the mud of the streets. They reached their 
 homes with clothes begrimed with filth ; the indignities 
 and insults they received were immense." 
 
 The causes of the animosity which existed between 
 Gontran and the deputies of Austrasia, are devoid of in- 
 terest to us, and its consequences terminated with the 
 generation that witnessed its commencement ; but the 
 relation in which the king stood to the nobles, their 
 mutual threats and recriminations, and the insulting 
 vengeance which the sovereign took, teach us, what the 
 titles of the actors incessantly lead us to forget, namely, 
 the real character of kings and nobles at that time. We 
 here discover what we ought to understand by " that 
 constitution Avhich has stood unchanged for fourteen 
 centuries, whose stability is so often held up to our ad- 
 miration ;" just as if the monarchy had not been mo- 
 dified by each succeeding generation, and as if there was 
 the slightest resemblance between the prerogatives of 
 Gontran, those of Charlemagne, and those of Lewis XIV. 
 
 Childebert II. had arrived at man's estate before the 
 death of Gontran ; he was endowed with more energy, 
 and perhaps with more talent, than had been displayed 
 for a long time by any of the race of Clovis, but he 
 also surpassed his predecessors in ferocity and cruelty. 
 He felt that he was coerced on every side by the Aus- 
 trasian aristocracy, which had silently usurped all the 
 influence both of the people and of the crown. The 
 country was divided into vast districts, which a few nobles 
 claimed as their property ; they parceled out their land 
 amongst such of their former companions in arms, the 
 Frankic freemen, as consented to take the title of leudes, 
 and to bind themselves by special oaths to second all the 
 enterprises of their lord. With their assistance, these 
 chieftains were sure of always retaining the government 
 of the duchies, although they were nominally in the 
 gift of the king or of the people : by law, every office
 
 CHAP. XI. FREDEGUNDE. BHUNECHILDE. 253 
 
 and dignity was elective^ but, in fact_, they were all he- 
 reditary. Childebert struggled against this aristocracy, 
 sometimes with the aid of his uncle Gontran, but at 
 others he had recourse to the surer expedients of the 
 dagger or the axe. Those nobles who thought them- 
 selves the most secure of his friendship were sometimes 
 murdered by his side, in the midst of the gayest fes- 
 tivals : we shudder as we read of the ferocious joy 
 with which he excited the boisterous merriment of duke 
 Magnorald at a bull-fight, whilst the headsman was 
 silently advancing behind him ; in the midst of his 
 laughter his head was struck off, and fell into the 
 circus. A great number of Austrasian nobles perished by 
 the orders of Childebert II. : at the same time he took 
 possession of the inheritance of his uncle Gontran, and 
 drove the young Chlothaire, who was still governed by 
 his mother Fredegunde, to the very confines of Neustria. 
 He thought that he was securely seated upon his throne; 
 but this can never be the case with a monarch who is 
 hated by an entire people. He escaped a great many 
 secret conspiracies, and repressed as many open revolts ; 
 but in 5!)() he perished by poison, and his murderers 
 were sufficiently wary to escape those enquiries which, 
 indeed, are not very active after the death of a man 
 who is generally detested. 
 
 At this epoch, exactly a hundred years after the con- 
 version of Clovis, the warlike nation of the Franks was 
 subject to the government of three kings in their mi- 
 nority, and to the regency of two ambitious and cruel 
 women, equally hardened in crime. In Neustria, Frede- 
 gunde was the guardian of Chlothaire, who was then 
 scarcely eleven years old. In Austrasia, and in Bur- 
 gundy, Brunechilde was the guardian of Tlieodebert II. 
 and of Thierry, her grandsons — the one ten, the other 
 nine, years old. Brunechilde had probably contributed 
 to inspire her son, Childebert II., with that hatred of 
 the aristocracy, and that ardent desire to crush it by the 
 most violent means, which had at length brought him 
 to the grave. This haughty woman, who was endowed
 
 254 FAIX OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 with great talents, great knowledge of mankind, and 
 an invincible firmness of character, had^ at various 
 periods of her life, risen above calamities which would 
 have crushed a feebler being. She had been twice 
 married; first to Siegbert king of Austrasia, secondly 
 to Merovaeus (Meerwig) the son of Chilperic, and both 
 her husbands had fallen by the dagger of assassins com- 
 missioned by Fredegunde : she had been the prisoner 
 of her enemies; and she lived in the midst of powerful 
 nobles, who had sworn her ruin. After the death of 
 her son, she was even more fiercely threatened by the 
 dukes of Austrasia, who Avere angry at not being able 
 to resist her ascendancy, and indignant at her endea- 
 vours to corrupt the morals of her grandchildren, in 
 order to govern longer in their stead; but who, spite 
 of all their menaces and reproaches, never failed in 
 the end to acknowledge her remarkable sagacity, and 
 to yield to the authority which she exercised over 
 them. She had long been possessed of extraordinary 
 beauty ; and she employed that beauty, (which is ever 
 enhanced by a crown,) to its latest period, as a means 
 of attaching to her service the most zealous of her 
 partisans. But as she was a grandmother, and even 
 a great-grandmother, before her death, the common 
 arms of women must have become powerless in her 
 hands. " Away from us, O woman!" said duke Ursis 
 to her ; " away, or the hoofs of our steeds shall tread 
 thee to earth." But Brunechilde stood her ground ; 
 she remained seventeen years in Austrasia after having 
 been thus threatened ; she continued to govern men 
 who refused to acknowledge her even as their equal ; 
 she laid out the revenues of the kingdom in raising 
 monuments which perpetuated her renown ; — for the 
 roads and towers, which long bore her name, might 
 have been taken for Roman works ; she vigorously se- 
 conded the exertions of pope Gregory the Great, in his 
 missions for the conversion of Britain, which was then 
 divided amongst the Anglo-Saxons ; and, if we may 
 believe the letters of the pope, it is to her zealous and
 
 CHAP. Xr. BRUNECHILDE. 255 
 
 constant efforts that England owes the introduction of 
 Christianity. The country which she governed with so 
 much power, soon displayed signs of that prosperity 
 which is always the result of energy united to talent. 
 
 But the dukes of Austrasia could not consent to 
 submit : they found means to gain king Theodebert, 
 who was almost imbecile, over to their side, as well as 
 the slave whom Brunechilde had given him as a mis- 
 tress, and whom he had subsequently married. With 
 his consent, they carried off Brunechilde, in oQS, from 
 her palace, and left her alone, on foot, and without 
 money, on the frontier of Burgundy. The haughty 
 queen arrived at the court of the youngest of her grand- 
 sons, Thierry II., who reigned at Chalons-sur-Saone, as 
 a suppliant. Her ambition was influenced by an ardent 
 thirst for vengeance; she wished to govern Burgundy, but 
 she wished it chiefly that she might turn its arms against 
 Austrasia, and destroy her other grandson. Years passed 
 ere she had acquired the necessary influence over the 
 mind of Thierry, and over the character of the people : 
 several assassinations were committed, to rid her of such 
 as might have crossed her purposes ; but she was still 
 obliged patiently to submit to the oj)en resistance of the 
 Franks to a civil war, and to consent to temporary ar- 
 rangements which in her heart she cursed. After an 
 interval of fourteen years, the wished-for moment of 
 vengeance arrived. In ()12, Thierry II. declared war 
 against his brother, and defeated him in two great 
 battles ; Theodebert himself fell into his hands, and he 
 was put to death by the pitiless Brunechilde, as well as 
 his infant son jMerova-us, whose head was dashed to pieces 
 against a stone. The triumph, however, of this bar- 
 barous queen over her descendants, was shortly followed 
 by her own ruin. Chlotliaiie II., the son of her mortal 
 enemy, had grown to manhood in an obscure district of 
 Neustria, to which he had been driven by his more 
 powerful cousins. The great lords of Austrasia, and 
 amongst them the ancestors of the house of Charle- 
 magne, who began to distinguish themselves in their
 
 256 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XI. 
 
 paternal possessions on the banks of the Meuse^ were 
 incensed at the thought of falling under the yoke of 
 Brunechilde, and they had recourse to Chlothaire II. to 
 effect their deliverance. Thierry II. suddenly died in 
 the midst of his victories ; for the terrible science of 
 poisons is the first branch of chemistry which is suc- 
 cessfully cultivated by barbarous nations. The army 
 which Brunechilde collected for the defence of her four 
 great-grandsonSj to whom she destined the crown, al- 
 ready meditated her destruction. The Austrasians, 
 together with the Burgundians, met the Neustrians 
 between the Marne and the Aisne in 6l3 ; but, at the 
 first call of the trumpet to battle, the whole army of 
 Brunechilde either took to flight, or passed over to the 
 enemy's side. The queen herself, with her grand- 
 daughter and her great-grandsons, was brought before 
 Chlothaire II., who immediately condemned to death aU 
 the remaining descendants of Clovis, so that he himself 
 was the sole survivor of that race. Brunechilde un- 
 derwent various torments for three days, and was led 
 about on a camel in the presence of the whole army. 
 Clothaire afterwards ordered her to be tied by the hair, 
 by one leg, and one arm, to the tail of a wild horse, 
 and abandoned her to the kicks of the frantic animal, so 
 that the fields were strewn with the lacerated limbs of 
 the wretched mother of a line of kings.
 
 257 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 OBSCURITV OF THE HISTORY OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. WANT? 
 
 OF HISTORICAL SOURCES. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LOMBARDS 
 
 IN ITALY. THEIR RAPID CIVILISATION. EXTENT OF THK 
 
 FRANKIC EMPIRE UNDER CHLOTH AIRE 11. ; ITS COMMERCIAL PROS- 
 PERITY. DAGOBERT ; HIS CHARACTER, HIS CRUELTIES, HIS 
 
 LIBERALITIES TO THE MONKS ST. ELOI AND ST. OUEN. SUC- 
 CESSION OF THIRTEEN FAINEANS KINGS ; THEIR PREMATURE 
 DEATHS. STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE NOBLES AND THE FREE- 
 
 ' MEN. EBROIN. ST. LEGER. PEPIN OF HERISTAL. — 
 
 BATTLE OF TESTRY. CHANGE OF DYNASTY. RESTORATION 
 
 OF GERMAN LANGUAGE AND INSTITUTIONS. THE EAST EX- 
 
 . HAUSTED BY RELIGIOUS WARS AND PERSECUTIONS. — GREEK 
 
 EMPERORS. WARS OF JUSTIN II. WITH CHOSROES NUSHIRVAN. 
 
 VIRTUES OF TIBERIUS II. TALENTS OF MAURICE. HIS CAM- 
 PAIGNS AGAINST THE AVARS AND THE PERSIANS ; HIS ASSASSIN- 
 ATION. HERACLIUS ; HIS EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER ; HIS 
 
 SUCCESSES AGAINST PERSIA. 
 
 There are certain periods in the history of the world, 
 when a thick veil appears to overspread the earth ; when 
 all authentic documents and impartial witnesses disappear, 
 and we are at a loss for a clue by which to trace the course 
 of events. VVe are now arrived at one of these obscure 
 periods — the seventh century ; when the historians of 
 the Eastern and Western empires are mute ; when vast 
 revolutions are in preparation, or drawing near to their 
 accomplishment, without our having the means of de- 
 tecting their peculiar circumstances, or their progressive 
 steps. The night which shrouds in one common dark- 
 ness the history of the Franks or Latins, and that of the 
 Greeks, lasted till the moment when a new and unex- 
 pected light broke from Arabia; when a nation of 
 shepherds and robbers appeared as the depositary of
 
 258 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. Xll. 
 
 letters, after they had been allowed to escape from the 
 guardianship of every civilised people. 
 
 The principal historical luminary of the West, after 
 the fall of the Roman empire, was Gregory, bishop of 
 Tours, who died in 595. His ecclesiastical history, 
 carried down to the year 591, is the only source from 
 which, notwithstanding his ignorance and intolerance, 
 and the want of order in his narrative, we derive any 
 knowledge of the manners, the opinions, and the form 
 of government of the period of which he treats. After 
 him, another author^ far more barbarous, and more con- 
 cise, whose name is beheved to have been Fredegaire^ 
 continued the history of the Franks to the year 641 ; 
 and he, like his predecessor, has shed a feeble light, not 
 only upon Gaul, but upon Germany, Italy, and Spain. 
 After Fredegaire, nothing is to be found which deserves 
 the name of history, until the time of Charlemagne. A 
 century and a half passed away, during which we pos- 
 sess nothing concerning the whole empire of the West, 
 except dates and conjectures. 
 
 For the East, in like manner, after the disappearance 
 of the great light thrown upon history by the two con- 
 temporaries of Justinian, — Procopius and Agathias, 
 our only resource is the narrative of Theophylact Si- 
 mocatta, which is diffuse without being complete ; in- 
 flated and loaded with superfluous ornaments, while it 
 is barren of facts ; and, as it ends about the year 603, 
 we are then obliged to descend to the chronicles and 
 abstracts of Theophanes and Nicephorus, both of whom 
 died after Charlemagne, and who resemble each other 
 in being occupied solely with chronology, not with the 
 causes or effects of events. 
 
 This long and almost unknown period was not, 
 however, without importance either in the East or in the 
 West. Italy, under[the dominion of the Lombards, whose 
 first historian, Paul Warnefrid, was contemporary with 
 Charlemagne, slowly recovered from its calamities. The 
 Lombard kings^ who were at first elective, and afterwards
 
 CHAP. XII. liOMBABDS, FRANKS. 259 
 
 hereditary, showed some respect for the liberty of their 
 subjects, whether of Roman or Teutonic origin. Their 
 laws, considered as the laws of a barbarous people, were 
 wise and equal : their dukes, or provincial rulers, early 
 acquired a sentiment of pride and independence, 
 which made them seek support in the affection of their 
 subjects. 
 
 We shall not here set forth the chronology of the one 
 and twenty Lombard kings, who succeeded each other 
 during the space of two hundred and six years — from the 
 conquest of Alboin in 568, to the renewal of their mon- 
 archy by Charlemagne in 774. Their names would soon 
 escape from the memory, and their history is not circum- 
 stantial enough for us to fix them in our minds by reflec- 
 tions suggested by facts. We only know, that during 
 this period, the population of Italy began once more to in- 
 crease ; that the race of the conquerors took root and 
 throve in the soil, without entirely superseding that of 
 the conquered natives, whose language still prevailed ; 
 that the rural districts were cultivated anew, and towns 
 rebuilt — particularly Pavia, the capital of the kingdom, 
 and Benevento, the capital of the most powerful duchy 
 of Lombardy, extending over great part of the kingdom 
 of Naples ; — that those arts which sweeten life were 
 once more exercised by the inhabitants of Italy ; and 
 that the Lombards, who began their career of civilisation 
 later than the Franks, outstripped them in it, and soon 
 brought themselves to consider their neighbours as bar- 
 barians. 
 
 This period would be still more important in the his- 
 tory of the Franks, if it were better known. Chlothaire II., 
 the son of Chilperic, and the great grandchild of Clovis, 
 had been proclaimed king, in ()13, by the whole mon- 
 archy. His power extended not only over all the 
 Gauls to the Pyrenees, but was acknowledged throughout 
 Germany, even by those Saxons whom (Jharlcmagne 
 had afterwards so much difficulty in subduing. The 
 kingdom of the Franks had become the boundary of the 
 new empire which the Avars had established in Tran- 
 s 2
 
 260 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 sylvania and Hungary, and which, at Constantinople, 
 threatened the Greeks with total ruin. During the 
 fifteen years of his reign over this vast Frankic empire 
 (a. D. 6l3 — 628), Chlothaire seems to have been little 
 disturbed by foreign war. He reposed upon his strength, 
 his neighbours feared him, and the Lombards themselves 
 had consented to pay him a tribute. From the number 
 of temples and convents with which the piety of Chlo- 
 thaire and his son covered the kingdom, and from the 
 silk, stuffs, and jewellery with which these buildings were 
 decorated, it appears that the arts had made considerable 
 progress in Gaul. Commerce had also acquired fresh 
 activity : a desire for the spices of the Indies, and the 
 manufactures of Greece, was universally felt by those 
 magnates among the Franks whose wants were not 
 satisfied by the natural products of their immense do- 
 mains. Some of these chiefs undertook to carry on trade 
 with arms in their hands, and to establish a communi- 
 cation between France and Greece by the valley of the 
 Danube. The merchants set out from Bavaria, which 
 was at the extremity of the empire of the Franks, and 
 advanced to the Euxine, passing between the Avars and 
 the Bulgarians, incessantly threatened with pillage, 
 but always ready to defend with the sword the convoys 
 which they escorted across those wild countries. A 
 Frank merchant, by name Samo, was conspicuous 
 for bravery in protecting these caravans : he rendered 
 important services to the Venedi, a Slavonic people, who 
 inhabited Bohemia ; they rewarded him by making him 
 their king, in which office he continued thirty-five 
 years. 
 
 But notwithstanding the vast extent of the Frankic 
 empire, the royal authority was hardly felt out of the 
 presence of the king. All the Germanic nations had 
 hereditary dukes, who paid an obedience, scarcely more 
 than nominal, to Chlothaire, and his successor Dagobert. 
 The southern provinces of Gaul were governed by the 
 authority of their dukes, whom the king undoubtedly pos- 
 «essed the right of changing, but whom, in fact, he rarely
 
 DAGOBERT. 
 
 261 
 
 ventured to dismiss. It was only in the two provinces 
 of Austrasia and Neustria that he felt himself completely 
 king. He resided in the latter, generally at Paris ; and, 
 to maintain his authority in the former, he sent thither 
 the elder of his sons, Dagobert, whom he created king 
 in 622, when this young prince was but fifteen years of 
 age. Dagobert fixed his residence at Metz, under the 
 protection of Arnolf and Pepin, two of the most power- 
 ful lords of Austrasia beyond the Rhine, and ancestors 
 of the Carlovingian line. 
 
 In 628, Chlothaire II. died, and Dagobert succeeded 
 him. Chlothaire allotted the kingdom of Aquitaine 
 to a younger son, named Charibert, whom he had by 
 another wife ; but he did not retain it. Dagobert had sole 
 dominion over the empire of the Franks from 628 to 
 638, and exercised a degree of power almost equal to 
 that which Charlemagne possessed at a later period. 
 
 Dagobert is described as having qualities which it 
 is impossible to reconcile : first, we hear of his ex- 
 treme moderation, of his mildness, of his deference to 
 the authority of Pepin and St. Arnolf, bishop of Metz ; 
 yet, at the very same period, we find him causing the 
 assassination of Chrodoald, one of the dukes of Bavaria, 
 who had been powerfully recommended to him by his 
 father. Mention is made of a progress which he un- 
 dertook throughout his kingdom on taking possession of 
 it, and of the manifestations of his love of justice and 
 humanity ; but let us attend to the words of Fredegaire 
 himself. " From thence he took the road for Dijon 
 and St. Jean de Losne, where he abode for some days, 
 with a firm resolution to judge the people of his king- 
 dom according to justice. Full of this beneficent desire, 
 he yielded not his eyes to sleep, nor did he satisfy him- 
 self with food ; having no other object of his thoughts, 
 than the hope that all might retire from his presence 
 satisfied after having obtained justice. The same day, 
 when he was leaving St. Jean de Losne for Chalons, he 
 went into the bath before it was well day ; and at the 
 same time he ordered Brodulf, the uncle of his brother 
 s 3
 
 262 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 Charibert, to be put to death." The same historian de- 
 clares Brodulf to have been one of the most estimable 
 men of his kingdom. 
 
 In hke manner, we are told of his wisdom, and the 
 purity of his morals ; but it is added, that a great 
 change took place in this respect within the first year of 
 his reign, when, according to Fredegaire, " he gave 
 himself up to voluptuousness, and had, like king Solomon, 
 three queens and a great number of concubines. The 
 queens were Nantechilde, Wolfegonde, and Berchilde; 
 as for the names of the mistresses, as they were very 
 numerous, I have shrunk from the fatigue of inserting 
 them in this chronicle." 
 
 Two cruel actions of Dagobert, which are not ac- 
 counted for, have left a deeper stain upon his memory 
 than the licentiousness of his manners. On the death of 
 his brother, he caused his nephew, who was still a child, 
 to be killed, lest he should one day claim his inherit- 
 ance. The other is a deed of still greater atrocity : 
 in one night he massacred nine thousand Bulgarians to 
 whom he had granted hospitality, lest his sheltering them 
 should give offence to the Avars, from whose sword these 
 unhappy fugitives had escaped. 
 
 Dagobert was the benefactor of the abbey of St. Denis, 
 and the founder of a great number of rich convents. Of 
 course, his piety has been celebrated by the monks ; 
 but it was piety according to the interpretation of the 
 seventh century, and displayed itself in nothing but in 
 the largesses he bestowed on convents. This piety had 
 united Dagobert to two saints whom France still venerates, 
 though little acquainted with their claims to canonisation. 
 The first was St. Eloi, the king's jeweller ; who, under 
 his eyes, and according to his orders, made all the or- 
 naments of the church of St. Denis, and who thought 
 himself permitted to commit saintly robbery upon the 
 royal treasury, in order to enrich the convent of Solignac, 
 which he himself had founded. The second was St. 
 Ouen, formerly referendary of the court, afterwards 
 bishop of Rouen. Dagobert lived alternately with these
 
 CHAP. Xir. FAINEANS KINGS. 26*3 
 
 two holy men, whose counsels he blindly followed ; 
 with the monks of St. Denis, in whose choir he sang ; 
 and among his numerous mistresses. His devotion to 
 St. Denis was so exclusive, that he several times coun- 
 tenanced the pillage of other churches in his states, in 
 order to enrich his favourite saint. 
 
 At tlie death of Dagobert begins the succession of 
 the Fahieans kings, which lasted for a hundred and four- 
 teen years (a. d. 638 — 752), during which period thir- 
 teen sovereigns reigned successively over the whole of 
 France, or over a part of that monarchy; though only two 
 of them attained to man's estate, and not one to the full 
 developement of his intellectual powers. The great justi- 
 ciary, the Mord Dom, commonly called the mayor of the 
 palace, and whose office had been instituted at a very 
 early period in the three monarchies of Austrasia, Neu- 
 stria, and Burgundy, could not, like the king, be a 
 minor or an idiot, since he was elected by the people. 
 The increase of his power was commensurate to the 
 incapacity of his nominal chief. The minority of the 
 two sons of Dagobert afforded a favourable opportunity 
 to the mayor of making himself known to the nation, 
 and of increasing his own influence. The inactivity 
 in which the sovereign lived, the corrupting influence 
 of power, and the example of his predecessors, soon led 
 him into the most shameless excesses. There was 
 not a Merovingian king that was not a father before the 
 age of fifteen, and decrepit at thirty. This great stipend- 
 iary of the nation, who took no part in the government, 
 except in as much as the uncontrolled disposalof the lands 
 and estates of the crown was concerned, lived in a state of 
 continual intoxication : he was known to his subjects 
 only by his vices ; yet the rapidity with which one child 
 succeeded another upon the throne, appears to have ex- 
 cited no suspicions in the minds of the Franks as to the 
 causes of this constant recurrence of premature deaths. 
 
 A new subject of discussion began about this time to 
 divide the Frankic nation : the small land-owners, 
 who were called Arirnans, or freemen, had hitherto 
 s 4
 
 264 FALL OP THE HOMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 allowed the nobles and the dukes to usurp their rights. 
 They had for a long while submitted to be plundered, one 
 by one ; and had even aided the cause of their oppressors, 
 becoming their leudes or followers, upon a promise of 
 mutual assistance. But about the middle of the seventh 
 century, some more open aggression on the part of the 
 nobles, or some more audacious attempts to rob the 
 freemen of their estates and of their rights, drove them 
 to combine for their common defence. They had 
 already given up the struggle in Austrasia, where the 
 family of Charlemagne (which, as it has no other 
 name, we shall henceforward style the Carlovingian 
 race) was at the head of the high aristocracy. This 
 family had acquired immense power ; and had suc- 
 ceeded in rallying the majority of the freemen around 
 its standard, in the capacity of leudes : in Neustria, on 
 the contrary, the freemen had preserved their inde- 
 pendence; they attended the national assemblies, and 
 decided the election of the ]\Iord Dom, who seems to 
 have been appointed for the express purpose of protect- 
 ing the lower orders, and who was perhaps chosen from 
 their ranks, like the Justiza of Aragon. In 65G, they 
 succeeded in raising Ebroin to this important station ; a 
 man of great talents and energy, and a determined foe 
 to the increasing influence of the aristocracy, whose 
 sole object, as judge, as general, and as statesman, was to 
 weaken the dukes, and to ruin the nobles. 
 
 The two factions soon perceived that it was expedient 
 to extend their alliances from one kingdom to the other. 
 The freemen of Austrasia, being oppressed by the 
 mayor Wulfoad, who was of a ducal family, had re- 
 course to the protection of Ebroin, and frequently 
 joined his standard : whilst the dukes of Neustria and 
 Burgundy, and the leader of their party, Leger bishop 
 of Autun, intrigued against Ebroin, and kept up a cor- 
 respondence with the nobles of Austrasia. They turned 
 their attention particularly towards young Pepin of 
 Heristal, maternal grandson of Pepin, the minister of 
 Dagobert, and grandfather of Pepin le Bref, king of
 
 CHAP, XII. CHILDERIC II. 265 
 
 France. The administration of Ebroin (a. d. 656 — 
 689) was marked by frequent wars in both the king- 
 doms. Several kings were deposed on both sides^ al- 
 though, from their tender age, they had scarcely taken 
 any other part in passing events than the giving them 
 the sanction of their name. The nobility, however, were 
 not satisfied with dethroning a sovereign who was dis- 
 pleasing to them. Their victories in Austrasia and 
 Neustria were followed by regicide. Dagobert II. was 
 attacked by the nobles in Austrasia in 678, and being 
 condemned by a council, was put to death. St. Wilfrid, 
 who had offered him hospitality in his infancy, was 
 arrested by the army of Austrasians who returned from 
 accomplishing this revolution ; and a bishop who re- 
 cognised him, addressed him thus : — " With what 
 rash confidence do you venture to traverse the land of 
 the Franks; you, who are worthy of death for having 
 contributed to send back from his exile that king, who 
 was the destroyer of our cities, and the contemner of 
 his nobles' counsels ; who, like Rehoboam, the son of 
 Solomon, oppressed the people with exactions ; who 
 respected not the churches of God, nor the bishops. — 
 Now he has paid the penalty of his crimes ; he is slain, 
 and his body lies unburied on the earth." 
 
 The same party, headed by the bishops and nobles, 
 were equally merciless to Childeric II. At the period 
 when this Neustrian king arrived at the age of twenty- 
 one, and gave himself up to that unbridled love of 
 pleasure, which was the hereditary propensity of his 
 race, Ebroin, and Leger bishop of Autun, who were 
 the chiefs of the two parties, were confined in the 
 same convent at Luxeuil, the superior of which had 
 compelled them to be reconciled. But, within the 
 walls of a cloister, the holy bishop did not abandon the 
 cause of his party. He planned a conspiracy of which 
 his brother Gaerin was the leader. Childeric II. was 
 surprised (in Gj'i) as he was hunting in the forest of 
 Livry, and, with his wife and infant son, put to death. 
 This seemed to confirm the power of the aristocracy.
 
 266 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 Ebroin, however^ who had been released at the time 
 of the Revolution, found means to reassemble an army 
 of freemen, and surprised the nobles at Pont St. 
 Maxence : he defeated them several times, and took 
 prisoner almost all those who had borne a part in the 
 death of Childeric II., which he avenged by putting 
 them to the torture. St. Leger, after being exposed 
 to cruel torments, was preserved alive ; his biogra- 
 phers assert that all his wounds closed instantaneously 
 and miraculously, and that, when his lips and tongue 
 were slit, he spoke with greater eloquence than before. 
 Deprived of sight, and mutilated in all his limbs, St 
 Leger was already venerated as a martyr by the people. 
 Ebroin's anger redoubled, when he perceived that all 
 the evil he had inflicted on his enemy redounded to his 
 glory. He resolved to have St. Leger degraded by the 
 bishops of France, whom he assembled in council in 
 678, and cited the saint to confess before all the pre- 
 lates that he was an accomplice in the murder of Chil- 
 deric II. The holy St. Leger neither chose to stain 
 the close of his life by an act of perjury, nor to bring 
 upon himself new sufferings by avowing his partici- 
 pation in the regicide ; he, therefore, made no other 
 answer to all the questions put to him, than that God 
 alone could read the secrets of his heart. The bishops, 
 being able to extort no other answer from him, tore 
 his tunic from top to bottom, as a mark of degradation, 
 and delivered him up to the count of the palace, who 
 ordered him to be beheaded. The commemoration of 
 the martyrdom of the holy regicide is kept on the 2d of 
 October ; and there are few of the cities of France in 
 which some church has not been raised in honour of 
 him. 
 
 After the death of Ebroin, which took place in 681, 
 the mayors, who were appointed his successors by the 
 free party, possessed neither the same energy nor the 
 same talent. War was renewed between Austrasia and 
 Neustria. From the time of the murder of Dago- 
 bert II., the former had been without a king, and had
 
 CHAP. XII. PEPIN CHANGE OF DYNASTY. 26? 
 
 obeyed Pepin of Heristal, who took the title of duke, 
 and governed with the assistance of the nobility. A 
 great battle was fought between the two nations and the 
 two parties in 687, at Testry, in Vermandois. The 
 nobles were triumphant. The mayor of the freemen 
 was killed, and their king, Thierry III., fell into the 
 hands of the nobles. Pepin, v/ho thought it still neces- 
 sary that there should be the phantom of a king, in- 
 stead of dethroning him, attached him to his own party, 
 and caused him to be acknowledged in Austrasia, as well 
 as in Neustria, at the same time retaining all authority 
 in his own hands. He elevated his son to the dignity of 
 mayor of Neustria, and reduced the king to the con- 
 dition of captive of his own subject. 
 
 The great revolution, which transmitted the sove- 
 reignty of the Franks from the first to the second race, 
 takes its date from the battle of Testry. In the 
 year 687, the royal power was vested in the se- 
 cond Pepin, although his grandson, the third of the 
 name, was the first who assumed the crown (a. d. 752). 
 This revolution has been erroneously considered as an 
 usurpation on the part of the mayors of the palace : 
 it was, on the contrary, their defeat ; their old adver- 
 saries were victorious, and decorated themselves with 
 their title. The Mord Dom, or elective head of the 
 freemen, chief magistrate of Neustria, and represent- 
 ative of a country in which the Franks had begun to 
 blend with the Romans and adopt their language, gave 
 place to the hereditary duke of Austrasia, captain of his 
 leudes, or men voluntarily devoted to a service equally 
 hereditary, and requited by grants of land. This duke 
 was seconded by all the other dukes who fought for 
 aristocracy, and against royalty and the people. His 
 victory was signalised by a second triumph of the Teu- 
 tonic language over the Latin ; by the re-establishment 
 of diets or assemblies of the nation, whicli were, from 
 that period, held in a far more regular manner, and 
 gradually got possession of all the rights of sovereignty; 
 but in which the nobles alone represented the nation :
 
 26'8 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 lastly, by the almost entire dissolution of the national 
 bond. The dukes who had seconded Pepin had in view, 
 not to become his subjects, but to reign conjointly with 
 him ; accordingly, all the nations beyond the Rhine re- 
 nounced their obedience to the Franks ; Aquitaine, Pro- 
 vence, and Burgundy, governed by their several dukes, 
 became, in some sort, foreign provinces; and Pepin, 
 satisfied with leaving either his son or one of his lieu- 
 tenants at Paris to watch the king, transported the 
 actual seat of government to his duchy of Austrasia, 
 and fixed his residence by turns at Cologne, and at He- 
 ristal, near Liege. 
 
 It was towards the close of the administration of 
 Pepin of Heristal that the Musulmans began to 
 threaten Western Europe. They conquered Spain, be- 
 tween the years 711 and 7 14, and Pepin died on the l6th 
 of December, 714, after having governed France twenty - 
 seven years and a half, from the day of the battle of 
 Testry. But, before we attempt to trace the rise and 
 progress of the Musulman empire ; before we examine 
 how Charles Martel, the son of Pepin, saved the West 
 from their dominion, we must follow the obscure revo- 
 lutions of the Eastern empire up to the time when her 
 mortal struggle with the invaders began. 
 
 It is not the only disadvantage attending the study of 
 the arid period which now engages our attention, that 
 we are forced to carry our eyes over the whole world, 
 from its eastern to its western bounds, and to pass in 
 review persons who had no relation to each other. The 
 brief chronicles to which we are reduced, devoid of all 
 historical criticism or judgment, heap up before our 
 eyes events of which we cannot see the connection, and 
 which appear rather to contradict than to support each 
 other ; becoming, of course, difficult to remember, in 
 proportion to their barrenness and obscurity. 
 
 The history of the East, during the five reigns of 
 Justin II., Tiberius II., Maurice, Phocas, and Heraclius 
 (a. d. 567 — 642), presents us rather with the phantoms 
 of a bad dream than with a train of real events. The three
 
 CHAP. XII. HISTORY OF THE EAST. 269 
 
 former^ it is true, offer a contrast to which we ought to 
 be accustomed, — that of sovereigns virtuous, or repre- 
 sented as being so, and a miserable people. It is, in- 
 deed, generally thus that the historians of monarchies 
 have performed their tasks. But the tyranny of Phocas, 
 the defeats and afterwards the victories of Heraclius, 
 have no resemblance to any course of events with which 
 we are acquainted, and afford no internal explanation. 
 In a war, of which the details are wholly unknown to us, 
 the Persians, under the orders of Chosroes II., conquered 
 all the Asian provinces of the Eastern empire. Hera- 
 clius, in his turn, conquered the whole of Persia, up to 
 the frontiers of India ; and, after expeditions, the nar- 
 ratives of which wear the air of fables, the two empires, 
 equally exhausted, were unable to contend with a new 
 enemy, whose existence they had not even suspected. 
 
 Though reduced to conjecture as to the origin of 
 these sudden revolutions, we can at least discover that 
 a great cause of weakness had arisen in the Eastern 
 empire, along with the new systems of religious 
 belief, and the unrelenting persecutions they engen- 
 dered. The minds of men became irritated against 
 each other, and ill-disposed towards their government. 
 The oppressed sects not only refused to defend their 
 country, they intrigued with their country's enemies, 
 and delivered into their hands the strongest and richest 
 provinces of the empire. In the discussions on the 
 mysteries of the Christian faith must be sought the 
 key to the Persian and Musulman conquests. 
 
 The groundwork of the new revolutions which broke 
 out at the end of the sixth century was laid in the 
 reign of Justinian. The ancient dispute between the 
 catholics and the Arians concerning the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ had been succeeded by others far more frivolous 
 and unintelligible, more foreign to all human actions, 
 and to the influence of faith upon conduct, — those con- 
 cerning the union of the two natures and two wills in 
 the person of the Saviour. 
 
 It was not without reason that the question, whether
 
 270 FALI^ OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 the Redeemer was God, or whether he was a created 
 being, was regarded as fundamental in the Christian 
 rehgion. For, according to the explanation given of this 
 mystery, one sect reproached the other with refusing, if 
 not to Deity itself, certainly to one of its manifest- 
 ations, the worship which is its due ; while the opposing 
 sect accused its adversaries of violating the first of the 
 commandments, the very basis of religion, by adoring 
 him who had expressly taught them to worship the Father 
 only, the King of kings. But, though the dogma of the 
 divinity of Christ had prevailed in the catholic church, 
 the explanation of the incomprehensible union of the 
 Deity with man was absolutely null as to its consequences : 
 it might be enounced in words, but human reason was 
 unable to grasp it ; still less could it have any effect 
 in guiding the actions of men. 
 
 Nevertheless, two explanations of this mystery had 
 been brought forward ; the one, that of the Monophy- 
 sites, represented the Deity as being the soul which 
 animated the human body of Jesus Christ. According 
 to this system, the soul of the Saviour possessed but 
 one nature, and that divine; his body, also, was of 
 one nature, and that human. This system, which did 
 not escape the charge of heresy, had been embraced by 
 Justinian, and, more warmly still, by his wife Theodora, 
 in whom licentiousness and cruelty had not extinguished 
 theological zeal. The bishops, the monks, and the 
 laity, who refused to subscribe to it, were exposed to a 
 bloody persecution. The orthodox system, on the con- 
 trary, acknowledged in Jesus Christ the union of two 
 complete natures ; that is, of the human soul and human 
 body of Jesus the son of Mary, with the divine soul and 
 divine body of the Christ, one of the three persons of 
 the Deity. These two complete and distinct beings 
 were, however, so intimately united, that nothing could 
 be attributed to the Man, wiiich was not, at the same 
 time, attributed to the God. 
 
 From this explanation arose a new dispute about words. 
 It was asked, whether this twofold Being was animated
 
 CHAP. XII. THEOLOGICAL DISSENSIONS. 271 
 
 by a single will ; the divine soul prevailing so completely 
 over the human, as undividedly to govern the actions 
 of Christ. In the opinion of the Monothelites it was so. 
 This was declared heretical, and the orthodox dogma was 
 established, that the human soul of Jesus had a full and 
 entire will, but that it remained in perpetual conformity 
 to the full and entire will of the divine soul of Christ. 
 
 With the utmost stretch of attention, we are scarcely 
 able to seize these subtle distinctions, which aim at setting 
 in opposition unknown causes, whose effects are always 
 the same. The examination of them fatigues the 
 reason, and appears a sort of blasphemy against that 
 inscrutable Being, who is thus submitted to a kind of 
 moral dissection. With more difficulty still should we 
 pursue the different shades of these opinions, and all 
 the various sects to which they gave rise. But the in- 
 fluence of these subtle questions was fatal to the empire : 
 every sect persecuted in its turn, and the orthodox, — 
 that is to say, the victorious — abused, more cruelly 
 than the others, the power which they were longer able 
 to retain. The first dignitaries of the church were ex- 
 pelled from their seats ; many perished in exile, many 
 in prison, many were even sentenced to death. Those 
 who held the forbidden opinions were denied the liberty 
 of worship ; while the property of the condemned 
 churches was seized, and thousands of monks, fighting 
 with staves and stones, excited tumults in which rivers 
 of blood were shed. Large towns were given up to 
 pillage, and to all the outrages of a brutal soldiery ; 
 and all this as a punishment for an attachment to words 
 rather than to ideas. At the end of the sixth cen- 
 tury, the greater part of the empire, especially the 
 eastern, longed for a foreign deliverer, — even for the 
 yoke of a heathen or a magian, so that they might 
 escape from the intolerance of tlie orthodox party and 
 of the emperors. 
 
 The Nestorians, who carried farther than the or- 
 thodox themselves tlie separation between the two 
 natures ; who placed in stronger opposition than the
 
 27^ FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP, XII. 
 
 catholics the Man Jesus and the God Christ, were the 
 first objects of persecution : they completely aban- 
 doned the empire, and several hundred thousands of the 
 subjects of Justinian emigrated into Persia, carrying 
 with them arts and manufactures, and a knowledge of 
 Roman tactics and engines of war. The conquests of 
 Chosroes were seconded by their arms, and by the trea- 
 chery of their secret adherents, who deUvered up to the 
 enemy several of the fortresses of Asia. 
 
 The Eutychians, the most zealous of the Monophy- 
 sites, who, in order to maintain the unity of Christ's 
 nature, denied that his divine soul had been invested 
 with a human body, were crushed by persecution. They 
 have survived only in Armenia, where their church 
 flourishes to this day : but this heresy destroyed the 
 ancient attachment of the Armenians to the Greeks, and 
 produced in these old allies of the empire an implacable 
 hatred, which has also been perpetuated. A modified 
 sect of Monophysites, the Jacobites, sought refuge in 
 Persia, in Arabia, and in Upper Egypt. They, too, united 
 with the enemies of their country. In the mountains 
 of Lebanon, the Monothelites, or those who admit only 
 one will in Christ, raised the standard of revolt. These 
 are still known by the name of Maronites. The Mono- 
 physites, who were oppressed and destroyed in the rest 
 of the empire, raised an invincible resistance in Egypt, 
 where the whole mass of the people shared their opi- 
 nions. But these people, persecuted, stripped, and 
 doomed to see the dignities of their church, their own 
 possessions, and all their civil rights, torn from them, 
 gave up at once the language of the Greeks, and their 
 adherence to its church. Then arose the Coptic sect, 
 and its independent church, which spread over Abys- 
 sinia and Nubia. They seconded with all their might 
 the arms of Chosroes ; and when he, in his turn, was 
 conquered, they implored the aid of the Musulmans. 
 
 Such was the state of the East, and such were the 
 only passions which seemed to agitate the people, during 
 the five reigns which filled the interval from the death
 
 CHAP. XII. JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS. 273 
 
 of Justinian, in 567, to the conquests of the Musul- 
 mans, in 632. We shall now give a succinct account 
 of these five reigns, on which our scanty materials would 
 not permit us to enlarge, even if we desired it. 
 
 The sceptre of Justinian had been transmitted, in 
 5()7, to his nephew Justin II., a prince of a mild and 
 benevolent disposition, but weak : he saw the errors of 
 his uncle's administration, and promised to remedy 
 them ; but he was constantly confined to his palace 
 by bodily infirmity, and surrounded by Avoraen and 
 eunuchs. Counsellors like these gave to his government 
 a character of intrigue, of feebleness, of distrust. Dur- 
 ing his reign, Italy was lost by the conquest of the 
 Lombards. The Avars, being driven by the aboriginal 
 Turks from the neighboui-hood of Thibet, and becoming 
 conquerors as soon as they had passed from Asia into 
 Europe, had founded their empire in the valley of the 
 Danube, nearly on the same spot which Attila had for- 
 merly chosen as the seat of his government. From 
 thence they extended their devastations throughout the 
 Illyrian peninsula. Towards the end of the reign of 
 the great Chosroes Nushirvan, the Persians carried their 
 ravages to the very outskirts of Antioch, and reduced to 
 ashes the city of Apamea. At the end of his reign, 
 however, Justin II. reahsed the hopes which he had ex- 
 cited at its commencement. He chose a successor, not 
 in his own family, but in his people. Finding in the 
 captain of his guards, Tiberius, the most virtuous, brave, 
 and humane of his subjects, he raised him to the crown 
 in December 574, and resigned to him the reins of 
 government, without any attempt, during the four years 
 which he survived tiiis act of abdication, to recover the 
 power he had resigned. 
 
 It is supposed that the empress Sophia, wife of 
 Justin II., had some influence upon the choice of her 
 husband. Tiberius was not only the bravest, but the 
 handsomest of the courtiers. It was not known that he 
 was marrietl ; and though Justin, as he placed him on 
 the throne, said, " lleverence the empress Sophia as your 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIl. 
 
 mother," Sophia is thought to have indulged a hope that 
 she should attach him to herself by a different tie, and 
 should bestow her hand, as well as a crown, upon the new 
 emperor. But Tiberius now brought forward his wife 
 Anastatia, whose existence had been hitherto concealed. 
 From this time he strove, by his respectful attentions and 
 filial affection to the empress, to make her forget the 
 mortification she had endured. He found excuses for 
 her resentment, and pardoned even the conspiracies into 
 which her irritation led her ; and he granted, — what was 
 then without example in the history of the empire, — a 
 complete amnesty to all those who had taken up arms 
 and proclaimed another emperor, as well as to the rival 
 whom they had decorated with the purple. The reign of 
 Tiberius is the first, since the conversion of Constantine, 
 ■which gives us an idea of Christian virtues adorning the 
 throne: — mildness, moderation, patience, charity.— 
 Unhappily, this excellent prince survived Justin only 
 four years : but, finding himself attacked by a mortal 
 disease, he chose, in the same way in which he had 
 been chosen, — not one of his family, but the man he 
 thought most worthy, to inherit the supreme power. 
 The successor and adopted son of Tiberius was Maurice 
 (a. t>. 582 — 602), a general who had commanded the 
 army in the war against the Persians. He was then 
 forty-three years of age ; and, though his virtue was less 
 pure than that of his predecessor, and his character had 
 some taint of pride, of cruelty, of weakness, and of 
 avarice, he was nevertheless worthy of the preference 
 which had been given to him. 
 
 Maurice, who owed his elevation to his military cha- 
 racter, and who had so deeply studied the art of war as 
 to write a treatise upon tactics which has come down 
 to our own time, did not attempt to lead his armies in 
 person ; so completely had the effeminate life of Con- 
 stantinople rendered the profession of the soldier in- 
 compatible with the dignity of the sovereign. He 
 opposed but a feeble resistance to the Lombards, and 
 was satisfied with merely strengthening the garrisons in
 
 CHAP, XII, SIAURICE. 275 
 
 the small number of towns which lie still held in Italy. 
 His most formidable enemy, therefore, was Baian, the 
 Khan of the Avars (a. d. 570 — GOO), who seemed to 
 have taken Attila for his model, and occupied his coun- 
 try, if not his palace. In the vast plains of Bulgaria, 
 of ^Vallachia, and Pannonia, where he prevented all 
 cultivation of the earth, it Avas almost impossible for a 
 regular army to check or chastise the ravages of his 
 wandering troops : they penetrated with impunity into 
 the richest provinces of the empire, and almost every 
 year carried terror to the walls of (,'onstantinople ; 
 plundering in their course the treasures of the Greeks, 
 and carrying oft' thousands of cajjtives. After having 
 insolently bartered peace for a tribute, and insulted the 
 messengers of the emperor in liis own country, — insulted 
 Constantinople through the lips of her own ambassa- 
 dors, — Baian made it his sport to violate the treaties 
 which he had sworn to keep. 
 
 The relations of Maurice with the Persian empire 
 were more advantageous. The great Chosroes Nushir- 
 van had died in 579> having lived upwards of eighty 
 years. His son Ormouz, who succeeded him (a. d. 
 579 — 590), rendered himself odious by every vice which 
 could exhaust the patience even of Orientals. His 
 avarice disgusted the troops ; his caprice degraded the 
 satraps of Persia, and his pretended justice had immo- 
 lated, as he himself boasted, thirteen thousand victims. 
 An insurrection broke out against him in the principal 
 provinces of Persia : Maurice seconded it by sending 
 a Roman army into Mesopotamia and Assyria ; the 
 Turks of Tliibet advanced at the same time into Klio- 
 rasan and Bactriana ; and the monarchy of the Persians 
 seemed already on tlie brink of ruin. Bahram, or 
 Varanes, a general who had distinguished himself, under 
 Nushirvan, by his skill and valour, saved the state by 
 disobeying the orders of Ormouz. Alone, lie umier- 
 took the wars against the 'I'urks and against the Ko- 
 mans : he conquered the former, and although he was 
 less fortunate in his enterprise against the latter, lie 
 T 2
 
 276 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 still preserved his influence over the Persians. Ormouz 
 having sent him an insulting message, implying that 
 his services were no longer wanted, he raised the" 
 standard of revolt, took his sovereign j)risoner, and ex- 
 hibited to Persia the unwonted sight of a pubHc trial, 
 at which the captive son of Nushirvan pleaded his own 
 cause before the nobles of the land. The unfortunate 
 prince was by their orders deposed, blinded, and cast 
 into prison, where he was strangled a short time after- 
 wards by a personal enemy (a. t>. 590). 
 
 One party among the Persians wished to transmit 
 the crown to Chosroes IL, son of Ormouz ; but Bah- 
 ram refused to recognise him, and he was obliged to 
 flee at the peril of his life, and to take refuge with the 
 Romans. Maurice received the fugitive in a manner 
 no less politic than generous, and spared him the fatigue 
 and humiliation of a journey to Constantinople. He 
 collected a considerable army on the frontiers of Armenia 
 and Syria, the command of which he entrusted to 
 Narses, a general of Persian origin, who is not to be 
 confounded with the conqueror of Italy. The popular 
 passions of the Persians were already kindled for a 
 counter-revolution ; the magi had declared themselves 
 against Bahram ; an army of the partisans of Chosroes 
 had joined that of the Romans, which advanced to Zab on 
 the frontiers of Media ; and the standards of the declining 
 empire penetrated into regions which the Roman eagles 
 had never beheld, either during the republic, or the reign 
 of Trajan. Bahram was conquered in two battles, and 
 perished in the eastern extremity of Persia : Chosroes 
 was seated upon the throne, and, according to the custom 
 of oriental despots, he cemented his restoration with 
 the blood of numerous victims. He, however, stiU re- 
 tained the aimy of auxiliaries which Maurice had fur- 
 nished him with. He assumed the title of adopted 
 son of the Roman emperor ; he restored several con- 
 tested fortresses to Maurice ; he granted to the Chris- 
 tians of Persia that liberty of conscience which the 
 magi had always refused them ; and the Greeks exulted
 
 CHAP, XII. PERSIAN WAR. 277 
 
 in the part they hail taken in this revolution, as one of 
 the most fortunate occurrences in their history. 
 
 They soon perceived, however, that a solid alliance 
 must be based upon the friendship of nations, not 
 merely on that of sovereigns. In the month of 
 October, 602, Maurice attempted to reduce the pay of 
 his soldiers, and to make them winter in the country of 
 the Avars : a sedition instantly broke out, and the in- 
 furiated soldiers invested with the purple one of their 
 centurions, named Phocas, who was only distinguished 
 by the violence of his imprecations against the emperor. 
 The monarch still hoped to defend himself in Constan- 
 tinople ; but the people were no less exasperated at his 
 parsimony than the army, and received him with a 
 shower of stones. A monk ran through the streets 
 sword in hand, denouncing him as the object of the 
 wrath of God. Maurice, however, was accused of no 
 heresy ; and, in an age where the affairs of the church 
 were mingled with those of the state, he alone seems to 
 have kept aloof from ecclesiastical quarrels. He fled 
 to Chalcedonia, where he was soon taken by the officers 
 of Phocas, who had just entered Constantinople in 
 triumph. His five sons were butchei'ed before his eyes : 
 he himself perished the last ; and the six heads were 
 exposed to the insults of the populace in the Hippo- 
 drome of Constantinople. A few months afterwards, 
 the widow of Maurice and his three daughters were 
 slaughtered in the same manner : but this was only the 
 prelude to the execrable tyranny which Phocas was 
 about to exercise over the empire for eight years 
 (a. D. 602 — ()10), during a reign not less remarkable 
 for atrocity than those of Nero and Caligula. 
 
 Chosroes might, possibly, consider himself bound in 
 gratitude to avenge the prince who had restored him to 
 his throne. ]ie that as it may, his policy eagerly seized 
 this pretext for declaring war on the llomans ; and the 
 most opulent cities of the empire were laid waste by the 
 sword of the Persians, to expiate a crime in which they 
 had nowise participated. Chosroes II. employed several
 
 278 FALL OF THE ROMAN E3IPIRE. CHAP. XII. 
 
 campaigns in rendering himself master of the border 
 towns ; and, as long as Phocas reigned^ he did not pass the 
 limits of the Euphrates. But Phocas himself fell ; the 
 crime which Chosroes affected to avenge met its punish- 
 ment : Heraclius, son of the exarch of Carthage, sailed 
 with an African fleets and was received in the port of 
 Constantinople on the .'5th of October, 6 10, with the title 
 of Augustus. Phocas was given over to the most cruel 
 tortures, and was afterwards beheaded ; but the new 
 emperor in vain demanded of the Persian monarch a 
 restoration of that peace between the two empires, which 
 he had now no just cause for withholding. 
 
 It was precisely at this period that Chosroes, leaving 
 the shores of the Euphrates, undertook the conquest of 
 the Roman empire ; whilst Heraclius, whose long reign 
 (a. d. 610 — 643,) we are only acquainted with through 
 imperfect documents, passed twelve years in a state of 
 inactivity and depression, which forms a strange contrast 
 with the brilliant expeditions by Avhich he afterwards 
 distinguished himself. In 6ll, Chosroes occupied the 
 most important cities of Syria, — Hierapolis, Chalcis, 
 Bersa, and Aleppo. He took Antioch, the capital of 
 the East : Casarea, the capital of Cappadocia, fell shortly 
 afterwards. Chosroes devoted several campaigns to the 
 conquest of Roman Asia ; but history does not furnish us 
 with the details of any battle offered to check his pro- 
 gress, nor of any obstinate siege, nor with the name of 
 any Roman general, distinguished even by his reverses. 
 In 6l4, Palestine was invaded by the Persian armies; 
 Jerusalem opened its gates ; the churches were pillaged, 
 90,000 Christians were massacred, and the fire of the 
 magi succeeded to the worship which had been offered on 
 the altars of the true God. In 616, Egypt was also con- 
 quered : the Persians advanced into the deserts of Libya, 
 and destroyed the remains of the ancient Greek colony of 
 Cyrene, in the neighbourhood of Tripoli. During the 
 same year another army crossed Asia Minor, to Chalce- 
 donia, which yielded after a long siege ; and a Persian 
 army maintained its position for ten years, within sight
 
 CHAP. XII. HERACLIUS. 279 
 
 of Constantinople, on the Bosphorus of Thrace. The 
 whole empire seemed to be reduced within the walls of 
 the capital ; for, about the same time, the Avars recom- 
 menced their ravages with more ferocity than ever, and 
 occupied or laid waste the whole European continent, 
 down to the long wall, which, at a distance of only 
 thirty miles from Constantinople, separated that ex- 
 tremity of Thrace from the mainland. Certain ma- 
 ritime towns, sprinkled at vast distances over all the 
 coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, still recognised the 
 nominal authority of the emperors ; but their own 
 situation was so precarious, that they could neither fur- 
 nish money nor troops for distant expeditions. The 
 final overthrow of the throne of Herachus seemed only 
 to be deferred for a few years. 
 
 Then it was that the man, whose effeminate habits 
 and depressed spirits had hitherto inspired nothing but 
 contempt, all at once displayed the vigour of a young 
 soldier, the energy of a hero, and the talents of a con- 
 queror. The meagre chronicles Avhich relate the annals 
 of the reign of Heraclius, neither explain his successes^ 
 nor throw light on his previous reverses : they neither 
 tell us why he seemed to slumber for twelve years upon 
 a throne which was crumbUng to dust beneath him, nor 
 why he suddenly awoke, in all the greatness of his 
 energy, to crush the Persians in the course of six years 
 (a. d. 622 — 627) ; nor how he came to relapse into the 
 same apathy, and to lose, by the arms of the jMusuI- 
 mans,' during the last fourteen years of his reign, all 
 that he had before regained (a. d. 628 — 642). 
 
 Ileduced as we are to a merely conjectural solution 
 of this historical problem, we are led to imagine that 
 the reverses of the empire were owing to the universal 
 discontent of its subjects ; to the prevalence of religious 
 animosities, and to a resentment for unjust persecution, 
 ■which induced the heretics of every j)rovince to desire a 
 bold avenger even more than a gootl king. IJut after 
 the Monophysites, the Monothehtes, the Eutychians, 
 the Nestorians, the Jacobites, and the Maronites, liad 
 T 4
 
 280 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XII- 
 
 gratified their hatred of the church and of the state by 
 delivering their fortresses and tlieir country into the 
 hands of the magi^ the ruin of their former enemy soon 
 ceased to console them for their present oppression. 
 They regretted that national independence and that 
 country which they had lost ; they appealed to that 
 Heraclius whom they had betrayed. The emperor had 
 been destined by nature for the part of a great man ; 
 and^ although the pomp of royalty, the influence of 
 courtiers, eunuchs, and women, had lulled him in the' 
 lap of luxury, he readily perceived the real weakness of 
 an empire whose resources were weakened by conquest. 
 He saw that it was impossible for the Persian armies, 
 which were dispersed over the immense extent of the 
 Roman provinces, to arrive in time to succour each 
 other ; that they must be in constant dread of a re- 
 bellion ; and that the troops would not dare to leave 
 their remote quarters to support the central forces. In- 
 stead of attacking the Persian army, which lay before 
 his eyes in Chalcedonia, at the very gates of his capital, 
 he embarked with all the soldiers he could muster, and 
 landed in Cilicia, at the angle which Asia ]\Iinor forms 
 with Syria. Ten years of magian oppression had taught 
 the inhabitants to regret the sway of the Eastern em- 
 pire. Heraclius reinforced his army with such of the 
 natives as had courage to shake off the yoke. Instead of 
 seeking to meet the Persians, he attempted to cut them 
 off in their rear ; and, with a degree of skill and boldness 
 which deserves to be better known, he long avoided 
 them, and ravaged the very countries which they had 
 left behind them. Whilst the whole empire of the 
 East was occupied by the Persians, he led the Roman 
 armies into the heart of Persia : he even penetrated into 
 regions of whose existence the Greeks had hitherto been 
 ignorant, and where no European conqueror had ever 
 set foot. After having laid waste the shores of the 
 Caspian Sea, he successively attacked, took, and burned 
 the several capitals of Chosroes, even as far as Ispahan : 
 he extinguished the eternal fire of the magi ; he loaded
 
 CHAP. XII. HERACLIUS. 281 
 
 his troops with an enormous booty ; and he retaliated 
 on Persia the same disasters which Chosroes had^ for 
 ten years, inflicted upon the empire. 
 
 HeracHus did not cease to offer peace, even in the 
 midst of this career of destruction ; while the haughty 
 m.onarch as constantly rejected it, in the midst of his 
 disasters and defeats. The Persians at length refused 
 to submit to the extreme sufferings which were the 
 consequences of his obstinacy, and of his weakness. An 
 insurrection broke out against the king, on the 25th of 
 February, 628, and Chosroes was assassinated, with 
 eighteen of his sons. One only of his offspring, Siroes, 
 w^as allowed to live, and to occupy his father's throne. 
 Peace Avas restored between Constantinople and Persia ; 
 and the ancient boundaries of the two empires on the 
 Euphrates were recognised by both parties. But the 
 whole of Asia had been devastated by this double in- 
 vasion ; and the conqueror, Avho, meantime, was gather- 
 ing strength in Arabia, met with but slight resistance, 
 when, in the following year (629), he began to inundate 
 the exhausted land with the victorious torrent of the 
 Musulraan armies. 
 
 lAu-o«-V Va.^^ .^laaJR, £iuJ^u^
 
 282 FALL OF THE R03IAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 rHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ARABIA. TEMEN. REPUBLICS OF THE 
 
 RED SEA. —-ARAB CHARACTER, INSTITUTIONS, POETRY, AND 
 
 RELIGION. —WORSHIP OF THE KAABA AT MECCA. BIRTH OF 
 
 MOHAMMED. HIS MARRIAGE. HIS RELIGIOUS STUDIES. PUB- 
 LICATION OF THE KORAN. CHARACTER OF HIS RELIGION. 
 
 HIS PUBLIC PREACHING. HIS EARLY DISCIPLES. IRRITATION 
 
 OF THE INHABITANTS OF MECCA. FLIGHT OF MOHAMMED TO 
 
 MEDINA ; HEGIRA, OR ERA OF THE MUSULMAN RELIGION. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF HIS REIGN. HIS MILITARY TALENTS. 
 
 CONQUEST OF MECCA. CONQUEST OF THE REST OF ARABIA. 
 
 DECLARATION OF WAR WITH THE EMPIRE. DECLINE OF MO- 
 
 HAMMEd's HEALTH. —HIS LAST WORDS. HIS DEATH, (a. D. 
 
 569—632.) 
 
 The great peninsula of Arabia, which extends from 
 the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, and from the frontiers 
 of Syria to the shores of the Southern Ocean, forms a 
 distinct world, in which man and beast, the heavens and 
 the earth, wear a peculiar aspect, and are governed by 
 peculiar laws : — every thing recalls the eternal inde- 
 pendence of an autochthonous people : the ancient tra- 
 ditions are purely national, and a civilisation of a cha- 
 racter entirely peculiar, has been attained without any 
 impulse or assistance from foreign nations. 
 
 The extent of Arabia is nearly four times that of 
 France ; but this vast continent, through which no 
 river takes its course ; in which no mountain raises its 
 head high enough to collect the clouds, or to disperse 
 them in rain, or to garner up the snows for the re- 
 freshment of these burning plains, is scorched with 
 perpetual drought. The very earth is parched; scan- 
 tily clothed with a short-lived vegetation during the 
 rainy season, it is reduced to dust as soon as the sun 
 regains his unclouded power. The winds, which sweep
 
 CHAP. XIII. ARABIA. 283^ 
 
 across its boundless plains, bear along mountains of 
 sand, which constantly threaten to swallow up the 
 works of man, and often bury the traveller in a living 
 grave. A few springs, which the industry of man or 
 the instinct of animals has discovered, and whose 
 waters have been carefully collected and sheltered in 
 cisterns or deep wells by that antique charity, that dis- 
 interested benevolence, which prompts an individual to 
 labour for an unknown posterity, mark, at long intervals, 
 the spots where the life of man may be preserved. They 
 are as distant as the cities of Europe ; and in the itine- 
 rary of the various caravans, more than half the daily 
 stations are without water. Besides these cisterns, how- 
 ever, other springs which have escaped the eye of 
 man, or have not been sheltered by his labours, pre- 
 serve their waters for the wild beasts of the desert ; for 
 the lions and tigers whose thirst is more frequently 
 quenched with blood ; and for the antelopes which flee 
 at their approach. 
 
 The mountains, seared and stripped by the fervour of 
 the sun and the violence of the winds, here and there 
 rear tlieir naked heads ; but if any of them are lofty 
 enough to attract the clouds and to draw down re- 
 freshing showers, or if any slender rivulet trickles 
 down its barren sides before it loses itself in the bound- 
 less sands, a luxuriant fertility marks its whole track : 
 there, the power of a burning sun vivifies what it else- 
 where destroys ; an island of verdure arises in the midst 
 of the desert ; groves of palms cover the sacred source ; 
 all the lower animals assemble there, unawed by man, 
 whose empire appears to them less formidable than that 
 of the desert from which they have fled, and they sub- 
 mit to his control with a readiness unknown in other 
 climes. These mountains, these living springs, these 
 oases, are scattered but rarely over the vast surface of 
 Arabia ; but along the coasts of the Red Sea some 
 spots are marked by more abundant waters, and here 
 flourishing cities have arisen from the earliest anti- 
 quity ; whilst, at the extremity of the peninsula, on the
 
 284 FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 shores of the ocean, the kingdom of Yemen, and the 
 part called by Europeans Arabia the Happy, are 
 watered by copious streams, carefully cultivated, covered 
 with coffee-trees, and spice and incense bearing shrubs, 
 whose perfumes are said to be wafted out to sea, and 
 to salute the approaching mariner. 
 
 The race of men who inhabit this region, so unlike 
 every other, are gifted by nature with the vigour and 
 endurance necessary to triumph over the obstacles and 
 the evils with which they have to struggle. Muscular, 
 agile, sober, patient, the Arab, like his faithful com- 
 panion the camel, can endure thirst and hunger ; a few 
 dates, or a little ground barley, which he steeps with 
 water in his hand, suffice for his nourishment. Fresh and 
 pure water is for him so rare, it seems to him so great 
 a bounty of Heaven, that he thinks not of ardent liquors. 
 His faculties are employed in becoming thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the region he has to subjugate ; and the 
 pathless desert, the moving columns of sand, the parch- 
 ing and poisonous breath of the Samum, strike him 
 neither with amazement nor with dread. He boldly 
 traverses the desert in search of whatever riches are to 
 be found in it; he subdues all the animals that 
 dwell in it ; or rather, he shares with them, as friends, 
 whatever can be wrested from a niggard nature. He 
 guides their intelligence to collect and to preserve the 
 scanty food which Arabia produces ; and while he pro- 
 fits by their labours, he preserves the nobleness of their 
 character. The horse lives in the midst of his children ; 
 his intelligence is constantly called forth by the society 
 of man, and he obeys rather from affection than from 
 fear. The camel lends him his strength, and his patience, 
 and enables him to carry on an active commerce in a 
 country which nature seemed to have cut off from all 
 communication with the rest of the world. 
 
 It is only by the triumph of industry and of courage 
 that man can exist in Arabia, in a constant struggle 
 with nature ; he could not exist if he had likewise 
 to struggle against despotism. The Arab has always
 
 CHAP. XIII. ARAB CHARACTER. 285 
 
 been free, he will always be free ; for, with him, the loss 
 of liberty would be almost immediately followed by the 
 loss of existence. How could the maintenance of kings 
 or of armies be extracted out of the labour which scarcely 
 suffices to supply himself with the means of subsistence ? 
 The inhabitant of Arabia Felix alone has not received 
 from nature this stern security for freedom. In Yemen 
 there are absolute kings. Indeed this country has more 
 than once been exposed to foreign conquest; but the cities 
 on the banks of the Red Sea are republics, and the Arab 
 of the desert knows no other government than the patri- 
 archal one. The scheik, the patriarch of the tribe, is re- 
 garded as father; all the members of it call themselves his 
 children ; a figure of speech adopted by other govern- 
 ments, but in Arabia alone, little removed from reality. 
 The scheik counsels his children, he does not command 
 them ; the resolutions of the tribe are formed in the as- 
 sembly of elders ; and he who dissents from them, 
 turns his horse's head to the desert, and goes on his so- 
 litary way. It is but here and there that a spot of 
 Arabia is susceptible of cultivation. There alone can 
 territorial property exist. Elsewhere the earth, like the 
 air, belongs alike to all, and the fruits which she bears 
 without culture are common to all. The frequent con- 
 flicts of the Beduin, who acknowledges no territorial 
 property, with those who portioned out fields, enclosed 
 them and claimed them as their own, have accustomed 
 the former to pay little respect to the laws of property in 
 general. Indeed he acknowledges none but those which 
 govern his tribe ; the property of his brother, or that 
 for which his brother has pledged his word, is alone 
 sacred in his eyes : all other he regards as lawful prey ; 
 and he exercises the profession of a robber without in- 
 jury to his self respect, or to his own sense of morality 
 or of law. He assails and partitions whatever foreign 
 property comes within his reach. With him the words 
 stranger and enemy are synonymous, unless the stranger 
 have acquired the claims of a guest, have eaten salt at 
 his table, or have come to seat himself with generous
 
 286 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 confidence at his hearth. Then the person of the 
 stranger becomes sacred in his eyes ; he will share his last 
 morsel of bread, his last cup of water with him, and 
 will defend him to the last moment of his own life. 
 
 Among other nations nobility is only the transmission 
 of ancient wealth and power ; but the Beduin has none 
 but moveable wealth, Avhich he seldom long preserves ; 
 he scorns to obey, and does not seek to command ; 
 if, then, he respects antiquity of blood, if he carefully 
 preserves his own genealogy, and that of his noble 
 horses, it is only from reverence for the past, from the 
 power of memory, and that force of imagination which 
 is nourished by long solitude and leisure. The Arab is^ 
 of all mankind, the one whose mind is kept in the most 
 constant activity. The history of his tribe is the rule 
 of his conduct. Thrown by his wanderings into contact 
 with men of all nations, he never forgets the evil or the 
 good which his fathers have received at the hands of the 
 fathers of those he encounters. In the total absence of 
 all social power, of all guarantee for personal security- 
 afforded by magistrates or by laws, gratitude and revenge 
 become the fundamental rules of his conduct. Educa- 
 tion and habit have conspired to place them beyond the 
 domain of reason, under the guardianship of honour and 
 of a kind of religion. His gratitude is boundless in its 
 devotion, his vengeance unchecked by pity ; it is as pa- 
 tient and artful as it is cruel, because it is kept alive by 
 a sense of duty rather than by passion ; the study of 
 past times, even the record of the genealogies of his 
 race, serves as fuel to these two sentiments. 
 
 But the memory of the Arab is enriched by other re- 
 collections. The most intense of all the national pleasures 
 is that of poetry ; a poetry very different from ours, 
 breathing more impetuous desires, more burning passions, 
 and uttered in a language more figurative, adorned with 
 an imagination more unbridled. We are bad judges of 
 its beauties or of its defects ; we ought, however, to ad- 
 mit that it is not the poetry of an uncivilised nation, 
 but of a nation which, following a road to civilisation
 
 CHAP. XIII. ARAB CHARACTER. 287 
 
 different from that we have trod, has advanced as far 
 as climate and other insurmountable obstacles would per- 
 mit. The Arabic language has been constructed and 
 polished with care, and the wanderer of the desert is 
 sensible to the slightest want of delicacy, of purity, of 
 expression. Eloquence had been cultivated as well as 
 poetry ; and before that of the expositors of the law had 
 acquired its full maturity under the reigns of the kaliphs, 
 political eloquence had attained to a high perfection, 
 both in the councils of the republics of the Red Sea^ 
 and under the tents of the desert, where the chieftains 
 needed its aid to persuade those whom they knew it to 
 be impossible to command. 
 
 Religion had still deeper influence over the imagin- 
 ations of the Arabs than poetry ; this grave and ardent 
 people, incessantly struggling with difficulties, having 
 death always before their eyes, often exposed to those 
 long and austere privations which exalt the soul of the 
 cenobite, had, from all times, turned their meditations 
 towards the remote and mysterious destinies of man, 
 and his connection with the invisible world. The eldest 
 religion of the earth, Judaism, had its birth almost 
 within the limits of Arabia. Palestine is on its fron- 
 tiers ; the Hebrews long inhabited the desert ; one of 
 the sacred books (that of Job) was written by an 
 Arab, in his native tongue ; and the origin of the Arabic 
 nation, the descent from Ismael, the son of Abraham ; 
 flattered the national pride. Numerous and powerful 
 colonies of Jews were scattered over Arabia, where they 
 freely exercised their religion. Still more numerous 
 colonies of (Christians had been successively introduced, 
 by the furious persecutions set on foot in the empii-e 
 against all the sects which had successively fallen off 
 from orthodoxy in the long dissensions on the Arian 
 controversy, and that of the two natures. Arabia was 
 so completely free, that absolute toleration necessarily 
 existed ; and all these refugee sects, and all the prose- 
 lytes they could make among the Arabs, were on a foot- 
 ing of perfect equality. Finding it irapcssible to injure
 
 / 
 
 288 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 each other, they were forced to hve in peace ; and those 
 who on the other side the frontier were incessantly 
 occupied in denouncing each other to the tribunals, in 
 reciprocally stripping each other of the rights of citizens 
 and of men, seemed in Arabia to be restored to some 
 feeling of charity. 
 
 But though Arabia had received within her bosom 
 Jews, Christians of all sects. Magi, and Sabseans, she 
 had also a national religion, a polytheism peculiar to 
 herself. Its principal temple was the Kaaba at Mecca, 
 where a black stone which had fallen from heaven was 
 the object of veneration to the faithful, and the temple 
 in which it was deposited was likewise adorned with 
 three hundred and sixty idols. The guardianship of 
 the Kaaba was entrusted to the family of the Korei- 
 shites, the most ancient and most illustrious race of the 
 republic of Mecca; and this sacerdotal dignity confer- 
 red on the head of the family the presidency over the 
 councils of the republic. Pilgrims from all parts of 
 Arabia devoutly repaired to Mecca to adore the sacred 
 stone, and to deposit their offerings in the Kaaba ; and 
 the inhabitants of Mecca, whose city, deprived of water 
 and surrounded by a sterile region, had owed its pro- 
 sperity to superstition rather than to commerce, were 
 attached to the national faith with a zeal heightened by 
 personal interest. 
 
 In the year .569 of our era, was born, of one of the 
 most distinguished families of Arabia, a man who com- 
 bined all the qualities which characterise his nation. 
 Mohammed, the son of Abdallah, was of the race of the 
 Koreishites, and of the particular branch of Hussein, 
 to which the guardianship of the Kaaba and the presi- 
 dency of the republic of Mecca were attached. Abd-al- 
 Motalleb, the grandfather of Mohammed, had held these 
 high dignities ; but he, as well as his son Abdallah, 
 died before Mohammed arrived at man's estate. The 
 presidency of Mecca passed to Abu Taleb, the eldest of 
 his sons ; and Mohammed's portion of the paternal in- 
 heritance was reduced to five camels and a single slave.
 
 CHAP. xril. MOHAMMED. 289 
 
 At the age of twenty-five he engaged in the service of 
 a rich and noble widow, named Khadijah, for whose com- 
 mercial interests he made two journeys into Syria. 
 His zeal and intelligence were soon rewarded with the 
 hand of Khadijah. His wife was no longer young; and 
 Mohammed, who was reputed the handsomest of the 
 Koreishite race, and who had a passion for women 
 which Arab morality does not condenm, and which 
 polygamy, established by law, has sanctioned, proved 
 the sincerity and tenderness of his gratitude, by his 
 fidelity during a union of twenty-four years. As long 
 as she lived, he gave her no rival. 
 
 Restored by his marriage to opulence and repose, 
 Mohammed, whose character was austere, whose im- 
 agination was ardent, and whom his extreme sobriety, 
 exceeding that of most anchorets, disposed to religious 
 meditations and lofty reveries, had now no other thought, 
 no other occupation, than to fix his own belief, to dis- 
 engage it from the grosser superstitions of his country, 
 and to elevate his mind to the knowledge of God. 
 Grandson and nephew of the high priest of an idol, 
 powerful and revered for his connection with the 
 temple of the black stone, Mohammed beheld the 
 divinity neither in this rude emblem nor in the idols 
 m^de by the hand of man which surrounded it. He 
 sought it in his soul ; he recognised its existence as an 
 eternal spirit, omnipresent, beneficent, and incapable of 
 being represented by any corporeal image. After brood- 
 ing over this sublime idea for fifteen years in solitude, 
 after ripening it by meditation, after perhaps exalting 
 his imagination by reveries, at the age of forty he re- 
 solved to become the reformer of his nation ; he be- 
 lieved himself — so, at least, he affirmed — called to this 
 work by a special mission of the divinity. 
 
 It would be an act of extreme injustice to persist in 
 regarding as a mere impostor, and not as a reformer, the 
 man who urged a whole nation onwards in the most im- 
 portant of all steps ill tlie knowledge of truth ; who led 
 it from an absurd and degrading idolatry, from a 
 
 VOL. I. V
 
 2Q0 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII, 
 
 priestly slavery which compromised morality and opened 
 a market for the redemption of every vice by expiations, 
 to the knowledge of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and 
 supremely good Being ; — of the true God, in short ; for 
 since his attributes are the same, and he is acknow- 
 ledged the sole object of worship, the God of the 
 Musulmans is the God of the Christians. The pro- 
 fession of faith which Mohammed taught to his disciples, 
 and which has been preserved unaltered to this day, is, 
 that there is but one God, and that Mohammed is his 
 prophet. Was he an impostor because he called himself 
 a prophet ? 
 
 Even on this head, a melancholy experience of human 
 weakness — of that mixture of enthusiasm and artifice 
 which in all ages has characterised leaders of sects, and 
 which we might perhaps find in our own times, and at 
 no great distance from us, in men whose persuasion is 
 undoubtedly sincere and whose zeal ardent, yet who 
 assert or insinuate a claim to supernatural gifts which 
 they do not possess — ought to teach us indulgence. An 
 intense persuasion is easily confounded with an internal 
 revelation ; the dreams of an excited imagination become 
 sensible appearances ; faith in a future event seems to 
 us like a prophecy ; we hesitate to remove an error 
 which has ai'isen spontaneously within the mind of a 
 true believer, when we think it favourable to his sal- 
 vation ; after sparing his illusions, the next thing is to 
 encourage them, and thus we arrive at pious frauds, 
 which we fancy justified by their end, and by their 
 effect. We easily persuade ourselves of what we have 
 persuaded others ; and we believe in ourselves when those 
 we love believe in us. Mohammed never pretended to 
 the gift of miracles; we need not go far to find preachers 
 of our own days, who have founded no empires and 
 yet are not so modest. 
 
 But the most perfect probity aflfbrds no security 
 against the dangers of fanaticism, the intolerance which 
 it engenders, nor the cruelty to which it leads. Mo- 
 hammed was the reformer of the Arabs; he taught them.
 
 CHAP. XIII. THE KORAN. Spi 
 
 and he wished to teach them, the knowledge of the true 
 God. Nevertheless, from the time he adopted the new 
 character of prophet, his life lost its purity, his temper 
 its mildness ; policy entered into his religion, fraud 
 mingled more and more with his conduct; and, at the 
 close of his career, we can hardly explain to ourselves 
 how he could be in good faith with himself. 
 
 Mohammed could not read ; letters were not essential 
 in Arabia to a good education : but his memory was 
 adorned with all the most brilliant poetry of his native 
 tongue, his style was pure and elegant, and his elo- 
 quence forcible and seductive. The Koran, which he 
 dictated, is esteemed the masterpiece of Arabian lite- 
 rature ; and the sublimity of the language affords to 
 Musulmans sufficient evidence of the inspired character 
 of its author, though, to readers of another faith, the 
 traces of inspiration are not manifest. An admiration 
 acquired in the earliest infancy for a work constantly 
 present to the memory, constantly recalled by all the 
 allusions of national literature, soon creates the very 
 beauty it seems to find. The rarity of literary edu- 
 cation seems to have inspired Mohammed with a sort of 
 rehgious reverence for every book which pretended to 
 inspiration. The authority of The Book, the authority 
 of every thing written, is always great among semi- 
 barbarous people ; it is peculiarly so among the JMusul- 
 mans. The books of the Jews, of the Christians, even 
 of the Magi, raise those who make them the rule of 
 their faith, above the rank of infidels in the eyes of the 
 followers of Mohammed ; and he himself, while he 
 claimed the character of the greatest ])rophet of God, 
 the Paraclete promised in Holy Writ, admitted six 
 successive divine revelations — those of Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham, Moses, and Christ, and, as the final accom- 
 plishment of all, his own. 
 
 The religion of Mohammed does not consist in belief 
 
 in dogmas alone, but in the practice of morality — in 
 
 justice and charity. He has, it is true, shared the fate 
 
 of other legislators who have tried to subject the vir- 
 
 u 2
 
 2,92 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 tues of the heart to positive rules ; — the form has taken 
 the place of the substance. Of all acts of religious le- 
 gislation, the Koran is the one which has erected 
 almsgiving into the most rigorous duty, and has given 
 to it the most precise limits : it exacts from a tenth to 
 a fifth of the income of every true believer, for works 
 of charity. But the rule has been substituted for the 
 sentiment ; the charity of the Musulman is an affair 
 of personal calculation, directed entirely to his own sal- 
 vation ; and the man who has scrupulously performed 
 the duty of almsgiving, is not the less hard and cruel 
 to his fellow-men. 
 
 Outward observances were especially necessary in a 
 religion which, admitting no religious ceremonies, and 
 even no order of priesthood except the guardians of the 
 laws, seemed peculiarly exposed to danger from coldness 
 and indifference. Preacliing was the social observance ; 
 prayer, ablution, fast, the individual observances, en- 
 joined on Musulmans. To the very end of his life, 
 Mohammed constantly preached to his people, either on 
 Friday, the day he had specially set apart for religious 
 worship, or on solemn occasions, — in all moments of 
 danger, in all moments of inspiration. His inspiring 
 and seductive eloquence contributed to increase the 
 number of his followers, and to animate their zeal. 
 After him, the early kaliphs, and all who enjoyed any 
 authority among the faithful, continued these preach- 
 ings or exhortations, often at the head of armies whose 
 martial ardour they heightened by the aid of religious 
 enthusiasm. Five times a day the Musulman is bound 
 10 utter a short and fervent prayer, expressed in words 
 of his own, unfettered by any form or liturgy. As a 
 means of fixing his attention, he is commanded to turn 
 his face towards Mecca while he prays — towards that 
 very temple of the Kaaba which was consecrated to 
 idols, but which Mohammed, after having purified and 
 hallowed it to the true God, regarded with the vener- 
 ation it had so long commanded from his nation and 
 his family. Personal cleanliness was prescribed as a
 
 CHAP. XIII. MORALITY OF THE KORAN. 29" 
 
 duty to the true believer who was about to present 
 himself as a supplicant before God ; and ablution of the 
 face and hands was the necessary preparation for every 
 prayer. Yet^ as Islamism was first proclaimed to a 
 nation which dwelt in deserts where water was not to 
 be found, the Koran permits tlie faithful, in case of 
 extreme need, to substitute ablutions with sand. The 
 fasts were very rigid, and admitted of no exception ; 
 they bore the character of the sober and austere man 
 who imposed them on his disciples. At all times and 
 in all places, he forbade them the use of wine and of 
 every sort of fermented liquor ; and during one month 
 of the year, the Ramadan, which, according to the lunar 
 calendar, falls in every month in succession, the Musul- 
 mans, from sunrise to sunset, may neither eat nor 
 drink, neither enjoy the luxury of the bath nor of per- 
 fumes, nor, in short, any gratification of the senses. Ne- 
 vertheless, Mohammed, who imposed so rigid a penance 
 on his disciples, was no advocate for an ascetic life ; he 
 did not permit his companions to bind themselves by 
 vows, nor would he suffer any monks in his religion : 
 it was not till three hundred years after his death, that 
 fakirs and derricks arose, and this is one of the most 
 important changes Islamism has undergone. 
 
 But the kind of abstinence on which Christian doc- 
 tors have insisted the most, was that to whicli JNIoham- 
 med was indifferent, or which he regarded with the 
 greatest indulgence. Before his time the Arabs had 
 enjoyed unbounded licence in love and marriage. Mo- 
 hammed forbade incestuous unions ; he punished adul- 
 tery and dissoluteness, and diminished the facility of 
 divorce ; but he permitted every jMusulman to have 
 four wives or concubines, whose rights and privileges 
 he defined by law. Raising himself alone, above the 
 laws he had imposed on others, after the death of 
 his first wife Khadijah, he married fifteen, or, accord- 
 ing to other writers, seventeen \vives in succession, 
 all widows, with the exception of Ayesha, daughter 
 of Abubekr. A fresh chapter of the Koran was 
 u 3
 
 294 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII- 
 
 brought him by an angel to dispense him from sub- 
 mission to a law which^ to us^ seems so little severe. 
 
 His indulgence for this burning passion of the Ara- 
 bian temperament, which he shared with his country- 
 men, further displayed itself in the nature of the future 
 rewards he proclaimed as the sanctions of his religion. 
 He described the forms of the judgment to come ; in 
 which the body, uniting itself anew to the soul, the 
 sins and the good works of all who believed in God 
 would be weighed, and rewarded or punished. With 
 a tolerance rare in the leader of a sect, he declared, or 
 at least he did not deny, that the followers of every 
 religion might be saved, provided their actions were 
 virtuous. But to the Musulman he promised, that 
 whatever might have been his conduct, he would finally 
 be received into paradise, after expiating his sins or his 
 crimes in a state of purgatory, which would not exceed 
 seven thousand years. The picture which he drew of pur- 
 gatory and of hell differed little from those which other 
 religions have presented to the terror of mankind. But 
 his paradise was painted by an Arab imagination : 
 groves, rivulets, flowers ; perfumes under the shade of 
 fresh and verdant groves ; seventy black-eyed houris, 
 gifted with immortal youth and dazzling beauty, solely 
 occupied in' administering to the enjoyments of each 
 true believer ; — such were the rewards promised to the 
 faithful. Although some of Mohammed's most zealous 
 disciples had been women, he abstained from declaring 
 what sort of paradise was in store for them. 
 
 Among the articles of faith which Mohammed strove 
 to inculcate on the minds of his followers, was one which 
 acquired greater importance when he united the character 
 of conqueror to that of prophet. In his endeavours to re- 
 concile the inscrutable union of divine prescience with 
 human hberty, he had leaned towards fatalism ; but he 
 never denied the influence of human will on human 
 actions : he only taught his soldiers that the hour of 
 death was determined aforehand, and that he who 
 sought to escape it on the field of battle, would meet
 
 CHAP. XIII. PROGRESS OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 295 
 
 it in his bed. But disjoining this idea from all others, 
 by insisting little on any other kind of constraint imposed 
 by divine prescience on the freewill of man, and incul- 
 cating this single position with undivided force (though 
 fatalism to be rational ought to extend to every action 
 of our lives), he inspired the Musulmans with an in- 
 difference to danger, he gave a security to their bra- 
 very, which we should seek in vain among soldiers, 
 animated only by the nobler sentiments of honour and 
 patriotism. 
 
 It was in the year 60Q, when Mohammed was already 
 forty, that he began to preach his new doctrine at 
 Mecca. He sought his first proselytes in his own 
 family, and the influence he obtained over their minds 
 affords sufficient evidence of the excellence of his 
 domestic character. Khadij ah was his first convert; then 
 Seid, his slave ; Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, his cousin ; 
 and Abubekr, one of the most considerable citizens of 
 Mecca. Ten years were employed by Mohammed in 
 slowly disseminating the new doctrine among his coun- 
 trymen. Ali who adopted it became inflamed with the 
 ardent faith of new converts. The prophet — that was 
 the only name by which Mohammed was known among 
 his disciples — seemed to them to speak the immediate 
 word of the Divinity ; he left not a doubt on their minds 
 either as to the truths he revealed, or as to the fulfil- 
 ment of his promises. 
 
 In the fourth year of his declared mission he 
 appointed his cousin Ali, then not more than four- 
 teen years old, his vizir ; the empire he had to go- 
 vern did not then extend over more than twenty 
 followers. 
 
 Mohammed did not address himself to the citizens of 
 Mecca alone. He waited at the Kaaba for the pilgrims 
 who resorted thither from all parts of Arabia; he 
 represented to them the incoherence and the grossness 
 of the religious rites they came to practise ; he ap- 
 pealed to their reason, and implored them to acknow- 
 ledge the one God, invisible, all good, all powerful, — the 
 u 4
 
 296 PALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 ruler of the universe, — instead of the black stone or the 
 lifeless idols before which they prostrated themselves. 
 The eloquence of Mohammed gained him proselytes ; 
 but the citizens of Mecca were indignant at this attack 
 on the sanctity of their peculiar temple; this blow at 
 the prosperity of their city, no less than at the authority 
 of their religion, by the gi-andson of their high priest, 
 the nephew of their chief magistrate. They called 
 upon Abu Taleb to put an end to this scandal. Mo- 
 hammed's uncle, at the same time that he opposed 
 every possible resistance to the spread of his nephew's 
 doctrine, would not suffer his life or his hberty to be 
 attacked. Mohammed, supported by the family of 
 Hashem against the remaining Koreishites, refused to 
 submit to a decree of excommunication pronounced 
 against him and fixed up in the temple. Aided by his 
 disciples, he sustained a siege in his own house, re- 
 pulsed the assailants, and kept his ground at Mecca till 
 the death of Abu Taleb and of Khadijah. But when 
 Abu Sophyan, of the branch of the Omraaiades, suc- 
 ceeded to the dignities of head of the republic and of 
 religion, Mohammed clearly saw that flight was his 
 only resource ; for already his enemies had agreed 
 that he should be struck at the same instant by the 
 sword of one member of every tribe, so that none 
 might be peculiarly obnoxious to the vengeance of the 
 Hashemites. 
 
 A refuge, however, was already prepared for Mo- 
 hammed. His religion had made some progress in the 
 rest of Arabia ; and the city of Medina, sixty miles to 
 the north of Mecca, on the Arabian Gulf, had declared 
 itself ready to receive him, and to acknowledge him as 
 prophet and sovereign. But the flight was difficult — 
 that celebrated flight called the Hegira, and which forms 
 the grand era of the Musulman religion. The Ko- 
 reishites watched Mohammed with the utmost vigilance; 
 they were, however, deceived by the brave and faithful 
 Ali. In the full conviction that he was devoting him- 
 self to the poniards of the implacable foes of his leader
 
 CHAP. XIII. THE HEGIRA. 297 
 
 and friend, he placed himself in Mohammed's bed. 
 Mohammed and Abubekr fled alone. In the deserts of 
 Arabia, where there are few objects to break the mo- 
 notonous line of the horizon, it is not easy to escape 
 the eye of enemies well mounted and eager in pursuit. 
 The two fugitives were on the point of falling into the 
 hands of the Koreishites, when they found an asylum 
 in the cavern of Thor, where they passed three days. 
 Their pursuers advanced to the mouth of the cave ; but 
 seeing the web of a spider hanging unbroken across 
 it, they concluded that no human being could have 
 entered, and passed on. It was not till the heat of 
 the pursuit had subsided, that Mohammed and Abubekr, 
 mounted on tivo dromedaries which their partisans had 
 procured, and accompanied by a chosen band of fugitives 
 from Mecca, made their entry into Medina, on the 10th 
 of October, a. d. 622, sixteen days after they had quitted 
 the former city. 
 
 From this time Mohammed, who was now fifty-three 
 years of age, was regarded not only as a i)rophet, but 
 as a military sovereign. His religion assumed a dif- 
 ferent spirit ; he no longer contented himself with the 
 arts of persuasion, he assumed a tone of command. 
 He declared that the season of long-suffering and pa- 
 tience was over ; and that his mission, and that of every 
 true believer, was to extend the empire of his religion 
 by the sword, to destroy the temples of infidels, to 
 obliterate all the monuments of idolatry, and to pursue 
 unbelievers to the ends of the earth, without resting 
 from so holy a work even on the days specially conse- 
 crated to religion. 
 
 " The sword," said he, " is the key of heaven and 
 of hell ; a drop of blood shed in the cause of («od, a 
 night passed under arms on his behalf, will be of more 
 avail hereafter to the faithful, than two months of fast- 
 ing and prayer. To whomsoever falls in battle, his sins 
 shall be pardoned ; at the day of judgment his wounds 
 will shine with the splendour of vermilion ; they will 
 emit the fragrance of musk and of ambergris ; and the
 
 298 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIIK 
 
 wings of angels and of the cherubim shall be the sub- 
 stitutes for the limbs he may have lost." 
 
 Nor were the glories of heaven the only rewards 
 offered to the valour of the Musulraans : the riches of 
 earth were also to be divided among them ; and Mo- 
 hammed from that time began to lead them on to the 
 attack of the rich caravans which crossed the desert. 
 His rehgion thus attracted the wandering Beduin, less 
 from the sublime dogmas of the unity and spirituality 
 of God, which it promulgated, than from the sanction 
 it gave to pillage, and the rights it conferred on con- 
 querors, not only over the wealth, but over the women 
 and slaves of the conquered. 
 
 Yet at the very time that Mohammed shared the 
 treasures won by the combined force of the beUevers, 
 in his own person he did not depart from the antique 
 simplicity of his hfe. His house and his mosque at 
 Medina were wholly devoid of ornament ; his garments 
 were coarse ; his food consisted of a few dates and a 
 little barley bread; and he preached to the people every 
 Friday, leaning on the trunk of a palm tree. It was 
 not till after the lapse of many years, that he allowed 
 himself the luxury of a wooden chair. 
 
 Mohammed's first battle was fought in 623, against 
 the Koreishites in the valley of Bedr. He had tried 
 to get possession of a rich caravan, headed by Abu 
 Sophyan ; the inhabitants of Alecca had assembled in a 
 number greatly superior to that he commanded, with a 
 view to deliver it : 350 Musulmans were opposed to 
 850 Koreishite infantry, seconded by 100 horse. 
 
 Such were the feeble means with which a war was 
 carried on, which was soon to decide the fate of a large 
 portion of the globe. The fanatical ardour of the 
 Musulmans triumphed over the numerical superiority of 
 their enemies. They believed that the succour of three 
 thousand angels, led by the archangel Gabriel, had decided 
 the fate of the battle. But Mohammed had not made 
 the faith of his people dependent on success ; the same 
 year he was beaten at Ohud, six miles from Medina,
 
 CHAP. XIII. CONQUKST OF MECCA. 299 
 
 and himself wounded. In a public discourse he an- 
 nounced his defeat, and the death of seventy martyrs, 
 who, he declared, had already entered into the joys of 
 paradise. 
 
 Mohammed was indebted to the Jews for a part of 
 his knowledge and of his religion, yet he entertained 
 that hatred of them which seems to become more bitter 
 between religious sects, in proportion as their differences 
 are few, and their points of agreement many. Powerful 
 colonies of that nation, rich, commercial, and utterly 
 devoid of all the warlike virtues, had established them- 
 selves in Arabia, at a Uttle distance from Medina : 
 Mohammed attacked them in succession, from the year 
 6'23 to 627. He was not satisfied with partitioning 
 their property, he gave up almost all the conquered to 
 tortures which, in his other wars, rarely sullied the lustre 
 of his arms. 
 
 But the object of Mohammed's most ardent desires 
 was the conquest of Mecca. This city was, in his eyes, 
 both the future seat of his religion, and his true country. 
 There it was that he wished to restore the glory of his 
 ancestors, and to surpass it by that which he had won 
 for himself. His first attempts had little success, but 
 every year added to the number of his proselytes : 
 Omar, Khaled, Amru, who had distinguished them- 
 selves in the ranks of his enemies, successively went 
 over to his banner ; 1 0,000 Arabs of the desert swelled 
 his ranks ; and, in 629, Abu Sophyan was compelled to 
 surrender to him the keys of the city. Eleven men 
 and six women, who had been conspicuous among his 
 ancient foes, were proscribed by Mohammed. This 
 was little for the vengeance of an Arab. The Koreish- 
 ites threw themselves at his feet. " What mercy can 
 you expect," said he, " from a man whom you have so 
 deeply offended ?" — " We trust," replied they, " to 
 the generosity of our kinsman." — " And you shall not 
 trust in vain," said he ; " you are free." The Kaaba 
 was purified by his orders ; all the inhabitants of Mecca 
 embraced the religion of the Koran ; and a perpetual
 
 300 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 law prohibited any unbeliever from setting foot within 
 the holy city. 
 
 Every step gained by the victor-prophet rendered the 
 succeeding one less difficult ; and after the conquest of 
 Mecca, that of the rest of Arabia cost him only three 
 years (from 629 to 0"32). It was marked by the great 
 victory of Hunain, and by the siege and the reduction 
 of Tayef, His lieutenants advanced from the shores of 
 the Red Sea to those of the ocean and of the Persian 
 Gulf ; and at the period of Mohammed's last pilgrim- 
 age to the Kaaba, in 632, a hundred and fourteen thou- 
 sand Musulmans marched under his banner. 
 
 During the six years of his reign, Mohammed fought 
 in person at nine sieges or battles, and his lieutenants 
 led on the army of the faithful in fifteen military ex- 
 peditions. Almost all these were confined within the 
 limits of Arabia ; but, in 629 or 630, Seid marched at 
 the head of a Musulman army into Palestine ; and 
 Heraclius, at the moment of his return from his bril- 
 liant campaigns, was attacked by an unknown enemy. 
 The following year Mohammed advanced in person, at 
 the head of 20,000 foot and 10,000 horse, on the road 
 to Damascus, and formally declared war upon the Ro- 
 man empire. It does not appear, however, that any 
 battle was fought ; and perhaps his declining health 
 induced him to tlisband his army. 
 
 Mohammed had now reached his sixty-third year : 
 for four years the vigour of body which he had for- 
 merly displayed had seemed to desert him, yet he 
 continued to discharge all the functions of a king, a ge- 
 neral, and a prophet. A fever, which lasted a fortnight, 
 accompanied with occasional delirium, was the immediate 
 cause of his death. As he felt his danger, he recom- 
 mended himself to the prayers of the faithful, and to 
 the forgiveness of all whom he might have offended. 
 " If," said he, in his last public discourse, " there be 
 any one here whom I have struck unjustly, I submit 
 myself to be struck by him in return ; if I have in- 
 jured the reputation of any Musulman, let him in his
 
 CHAP. Xin. DEATH OF MOHAMMED. 301 
 
 turn disclose all my sins ; if I have despoiled any one, 
 behold I am ready to satisfy his claims." — " Yes," re- 
 plied a voice from the crowd, " thou owest me three 
 drachms of silver, which have never been repaid me." 
 Mohammed examined the debt, discharged it, and 
 thanked his creditor for demanding it in this world, 
 rather than at the tribunal of God. - lie tlien enfran- 
 chised his slaves, gave minute directions for his burial, 
 calmed the lamentations of his friends, and pronounced 
 a benediction upon them. Till within three days of 
 his death he continued to perform his devotions in the 
 mosque. A\'hen, at length, he was too feeble, he charged 
 Abubekr with this duty ; and it was thought that he 
 thus intended to point out his old friend as his successor. 
 But he expressed no opinion, no desire, on this subject, 
 and seemed to leave it entirely to the decision of the 
 assembly of the faithful. lie contemplated the ap- 
 proach of death with perfect calmness ; but mingling to 
 the last the doubtful j)retensions of a prophet with the 
 lively faith of an enthusiast, he repeated the words 
 which he declared he heard from the archangel tiabriel, 
 who visited the earth for the last time on his behalf. 
 He repeated what he had before affirmed — that the 
 angel of death would not bear away his soul without 
 first solemnly asking his permission ; and this permis- 
 sion he granted aloud. Extended on a carpet which 
 covered the floor, his head during his last agony rested 
 on the bosom of Ayesha, the best beloved of his wives. 
 He fainted from excess of pain ; but on recovering his 
 senses, he fixed his eyes on the ceiling, and distinctly 
 pronounced these his last words : — " Oh God, pardon 
 my sins ! I come to rejoin my brethren in heaven." 
 He expired on the 2.5th of May, or, according to an- 
 other calculation, the 3d of June, ()32. 
 
 Despair filled the breasts of liis disciples throughout 
 the city of Medina, where he breathed liis last, i'iio 
 fiery Omar, drawing his sword, declared that he would 
 strike off the head of the infidel who should dare to 
 assert that the prophet was no more. l?ut Abubekr, the
 
 302 FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. XIII. 
 
 faithful friend and the earliest disciple of Mohammed, 
 addressing himself to Omar, and to the multitude, said, 
 " Is it Mohammed, or the God of Mohammed, that we 
 worship ? The God of Mohammed lives for ever : but 
 his prophetwas a mortal like ourselves ; and, as he had 
 predicted to us, he has undergone the common lot of 
 humanity." 
 
 By these words the tumult was appeased ; and Mo- 
 hammed was buried by his kindred and by his cousin 
 and son-in-law Ali, in the very spot where he expired. 
 
 END OF THK FIRST VOLUME. 
 
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