Barbarians.—Part IV.
At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with
relating the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome, without
presuming to investigate the motives of their political conduct.
In the midst of his apparent prosperity, Alaric was conscious,
perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal defect; or
perhaps the moderation which he displayed, was intended only to
deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the ministers of
Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared, that it was
his desire to be considered as the friend of peace, and of the
Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent
ambassadors to the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of
hostages, and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals,
which he more clearly expressed during the course of the
negotiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as
they might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The
Barbarian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the
armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and
money; and he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and
Venetia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have
commanded the important communication between Italy and the
Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric showed a
disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to
content himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and
impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the
Barbarians of Germany. 82 But the hopes of peace were
disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or interested views, of the
minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary
remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under
the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of
honor, and too feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand
Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to
march from Ravenna to Rome, through an open country which was
occupied by the formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave
legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to
ministerial folly; their general, Valens, with a hundred
soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the
ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law
of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of
thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting
this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals
of peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which
derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop
of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a
detachment of Gothic soldiers. 83
82 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367 368, 369.]
83 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 360, 361, 362. The bishop, by
remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending calamities of the
city. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573.]
Olympius 84 might have continued to insult the just resentment of
a people who loudly accused him as the author of the public
calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues
of the palace. The favorite eunuchs transferred the government of
Honorius, and the empire, to Jovius, the Prætorian præfect; an
unworthy servant, who did not atone, by the merit of personal
attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of his administration.
The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olympius, reserved him for
more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced the adventures of an
obscure and wandering life; he again rose to power; he fell a
second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired
under the lash; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful
spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of
Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with religious
fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from the
impolitic proscription, which excluded them from the dignities of
the state. The brave Gennerid, 85 a soldier of Barbarian origin,
who still adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been
obliged to lay aside the military belt: and though he was
repeatedly assured by the emperor himself, that laws were not
made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused to accept any
partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable disgrace, till
he had extorted a general act of justice from the distress of the
Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid in the important
station to which he was promoted or restored, of master-general
of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhaetia, seemed to revive the
discipline and spirit of the republic. From a life of idleness
and want, his troops were soon habituated to severe exercise and
plentiful subsistence; and his private generosity often supplied
the rewards, which were denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the
court of Ravenna. The valor of Gennerid, formidable to the
adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian
frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a
reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines
of Italy, attended by such a convoy of provisions, and such a
numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient,
not only for the march of an army, but for the settlement of a
colony. But the court and councils of Honorius still remained a
scene of weakness and distraction, of corruption and anarchy.
Instigated by the præfect Jovius, the guards rose in furious
mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals, and of the two
principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise of
safety, were sent on shipboard, and privately executed; while the
favor of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at
Milan and Constantinople. Eusebius the eunuch, and the Barbarian
Allobich, succeeded to the command of the bed-chamber and of the
guards; and the mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers
was the cause of their mutual destruction. By the insolent order
of the count of the domestics, the great chamberlain was
shamefully beaten to death with sticks, before the eyes of the
astonished emperor; and the subsequent assassination of Allobich,
in the midst of a public procession, is the only circumstance of
his life, in which Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of
courage or resentment. Yet before they fell, Eusebius and
Allobich had contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by
opposing the conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish,
and perhaps a criminal, motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a
personal interview under the walls of Rimini. During the absence
of Jovius, the emperor was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of
inflexible dignity, such as neither his situation, nor his
character, could enable him to support; and a letter, signed with
the name of Honorius, was immediately despatched to the
Prætorian præfect, granting him a free permission to dispose of
the public money, but sternly refusing to prostitute the military
honors of Rome to the proud demands of a Barbarian. This letter
was imprudently communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who
in the whole transaction had behaved with temper and decency,
expressed, in the most outrageous language, his lively sense of
the insult so wantonly offered to his person and to his nation.
The conference of Rimini was hastily interrupted; and the
præfect Jovius, on his return to Ravenna, was compelled to
adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the
court. By his advice and example, the principal officers of the
state and army were obliged to swear, that, without listening, in
any circumstances, to any conditions of peace, they would still
persevere in perpetual and implacable war against the enemy of
the republic. This rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to
all future negotiation. The ministers of Honorius were heard to
declare, that, if they had only invoked the name of the Deity,
they would consult the public safety, and trust their souls to
the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the sacred head of the
emperor himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that
august seat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their
oath would expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and
rebellion. 86
84 (return) [ For the adventures of Olympius, and his successors
in the ministry, see Zosimus, l. v. p. 363, 365, 366, and
Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181. ]
85 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 364) relates this circumstance
with visible complacency, and celebrates the character of
Gennerid as the last glory of expiring Paganism. Very different
were the sentiments of the council of Carthage, who deputed four
bishops to the court of Ravenna to complain of the law, which had
been just enacted, that all conversions to Christianity should be
free and voluntary. See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 409, No.
12, A.D. 410, No. 47, 48.]
86 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367, 368, 369. This custom of
swearing by the head, or life, or safety, or genius, of the
sovereign, was of the highest antiquity, both in Egypt (Genesis,
xlii. 15) and Scythia. It was soon transferred, by flattery, to
the Caesars; and Tertullian complains, that it was the only oath
which the Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an
elegant Dissertation of the Abbe Mossieu on the Oaths of the
Ancients, in the Mem de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p.
208, 209.]
While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the
security of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they
abandoned Rome, almost without defence, to the resentment of
Alaric. Yet such was the moderation which he still preserved, or
affected, that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian
way, he successively despatched the bishops of the towns of Italy
to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the
emperor, that he would save the city and its inhabitants from
hostile fire, and the sword of the Barbarians. 87 These impending
calamities were, however, averted, not indeed by the wisdom of
Honorius, but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; who
employed a milder, though not less effectual, method of conquest.
Instead of assaulting the capital, he successfully directed his
efforts against the Port of Ostia, one of the boldest and most
stupendous works of Roman magnificence. 88 The accidents to which
the precarious subsistence of the city was continually exposed in
a winter navigation, and an open road, had suggested to the
genius of the first Caesar the useful design, which was executed
under the reign of Claudius. The artificial moles, which formed
the narrow entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly
repelled the fury of the waves, while the largest vessels
securely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basins,
which received the northern branch of the Tyber, about two miles
from the ancient colony of Ostia. 89 The Roman Port insensibly
swelled to the size of an episcopal city, 90 where the corn of
Africa was deposited in spacious granaries for the use of the
capital. As soon as Alaric was in possession of that important
place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion; and his
demands were enforced by the positive declaration, that a
refusal, or even a delay, should be instantly followed by the
destruction of the magazines, on which the life of the Roman
people depended. The clamors of that people, and the terror of
famine, subdued the pride of the senate; they listened, without
reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor on the
throne of the unworthy Honorius; and the suffrage of the Gothic
conqueror bestowed the purple on Attalus, præfect of the city.
The grateful monarch immediately acknowledged his protector as
master-general of the armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank
of count of the domestics, obtained the custody of the person of
Attalus; and the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the
closest bands of friendship and alliance. 91
87 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 368, 369. I have softened the
expressions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner, on
the history of Rome]
88 (return) [ See Sueton. in Claud. c. 20. Dion Cassius, l. lx.
p. 949, edit Reimar, and the lively description of Juvenal,
Satir. xii. 75, &c. In the sixteenth century, when the remains of
this Augustan port were still visible, the antiquarians sketched
the plan, (see D’Anville, Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,
tom. xxx. p. 198,) and declared, with enthusiasm, that all the
monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute so great a work,
(Bergier, Hist. des grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. p.
356.)]
89 (return) [ The Ostia Tyberina, (see Cluver. Italia Antiq. l.
iii. p. 870-879,) in the plural number, the two mouths of the
Tyber, were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral
triangle, whose sides were each of them computed at about two
miles. The colony of Ostia was founded immediately beyond the
left, or southern, and the Port immediately beyond the right, or
northern, branch of hte river; and the distance between their
remains measures something more than two miles on Cingolani’s
map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud deposited by the
Tyber had choked the harbor of Ostia; the progress of the same
cause has added much to the size of the Holy Islands, and
gradually left both Ostia and the Port at a considerable distance
from the shore. The dry channels (fiumi morti) and the large
estuaries (stagno di Ponente, di Levante) mark the changes of the
river, and the efforts of the sea. Consult, for the present state
of this dreary and desolate tract, the excellent map of the
ecclesiastical state by the mathematicians of Benedict XIV.; an
actual survey of the Agro Romano, in six sheets, by Cingolani,
which contains 113,819 rubbia, (about 570,000 acres;) and the
large topographical map of Ameti, in eight sheets.]
90 (return) [ As early as the third, (Lardner’s Credibility of
the Gospel, part ii. vol. iii. p. 89-92,) or at least the fourth,
century, (Carol. a Sancta Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47,) the Port
of Rome was an episcopal city, which was demolished, as it should
seem in the ninth century, by Pope Gregory IV., during the
incursions of the Arabs. It is now reduced to an inn, a church,
and the house, or palace, of the bishop; who ranks as one of six
cardinal-bishops of the Roman church. See Eschinard, Deserizione
di Roman et dell’ Agro Romano, p. 328. * Note: Compare Sir W.
Gell. Rome and its Vicinity vol. ii p. 134.—M.]
91 (return) [ For the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, l.
vi. p. 377-380, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8, 9, Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p.
180, 181, Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3, and Godefroy’s Dissertat. p.
470.]
The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of
the Romans, encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms, was
conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus
and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and military
dignities among his favorites and followers, Attalus convened an
assembly of the senate; before whom, in a formal and florid
speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of
the republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt
and the East, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of
Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen
with a just contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper,
whose elevation was the deepest and most ignominious wound which
the republic had yet sustained from the insolence of the
Barbarians. But the populace, with their usual levity, applauded
the change of masters. The public discontent was favorable to the
rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by his
persecuting edicts, expected some degree of countenance, or at
least of toleration, from a prince, who, in his native country of
Ionia, had been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had
since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an
Arian bishop. 92 The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair
and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent with an
inconsiderable body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa;
the greatest part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic
powers; and though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and
effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps
with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations,
the choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army,
Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of
Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of
Jovius, the Prætorian præfect, of Valens, master of the cavalry
and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian, the first
of the notaries, was introduced, with martial pomp, into the
Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they consented to
acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide
the provinces of Italy and the West between the two emperors.
Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and the refusal was
aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus, who condescended
to promise, that, if Honorius would instantly resign the purple,
he should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the
peaceful exile of some remote island. 93 So desperate indeed did
the situation of the son of Theodosius appear, to those who were
the best acquainted with his strength and resources, that Jovius
and Valens, his minister and his general, betrayed their trust,
infamously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and
devoted their treacherous allegiance to the service of his more
fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples of domestic treason,
Honorius trembled at the approach of every servant, at the
arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, who
might lurk in his capital, his palace, his bed-chamber; and some
ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna, to transport the
abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the
emperor of the East.
92 (return) [ We may admit the evidence of Sozomen for the Arian
baptism, and that of Philostorgius for the Pagan education, of
Attalus. The visible joy of Zosimus, and the discontent which he
imputes to the Anician family, are very unfavorable to the
Christianity of the new emperor.]
93 (return) [ He carried his insolence so far, as to declare that
he should mutilate Honorius before he sent him into exile. But
this assertion of Zosimus is destroyed by the more impartial
testimony of Olympiodorus; who attributes the ungenerous proposal
(which was absolutely rejected by Attalus) to the baseness, and
perhaps the treachery, of Jovius.]
But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of the
historian Procopius) 94 that watches over innocence and folly;
and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot
reasonably be disputed. At the moment when his despair, incapable
of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a
seasonable reenforcement of four thousand veterans unexpectedly
landed in the port of Ravenna. To these valiant strangers, whose
fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions of the court, he
committed the walls and gates of the city; and the slumbers of
the emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension of
imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which
was received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men,
and the state of public affairs. The troops and officers, whom
Attalus had sent into that province, were defeated and slain; and
the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own allegiance, and
that of his people. The faithful count of Africa transmitted a
large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of the Imperial
guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of corn
and oil, introduced famine, tumult, and discontent, into the
walls of Rome. The failure of the African expedition was the
source of mutual complaint and recrimination in the party of
Attalus; and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated
from the interest of a prince, who wanted spirit to command, or
docility to obey. The most imprudent measures were adopted,
without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and the
obstinate refusal of the senate, to allow, in the embarkation,
the mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and
distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither
generous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic king was
exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised
to the rank of patrician, and who afterwards excused his double
perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had only seemed
to abandon the service of Honorius, more effectually to ruin the
cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and in the
presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Barbarians,
the wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem and
purple; and those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as the
pledge of peace and friendship, to the son of Theodosius. 95 The
officers who returned to their duty, were reinstated in their
employments, and even the merit of a tardy repentance was
graciously allowed; but the degraded emperor of the Romans,
desirous of life, and insensible of disgrace, implored the
permission of following the Gothic camp, in the train of a
haughty and capricious Barbarian. 96
94 (return) [ Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.]
95 (return) [ See the cause and circumstances of the fall of
Attalus in Zosimus, l. vi. p. 380-383. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8.
Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3. The two acts of indemnity in the
Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 11, 12, which were
published the 12th of February, and the 8th of August, A.D. 410,
evidently relate to this usurper.]
96 (return) [ In hoc, Alaricus, imperatore, facto, infecto,
refecto, ac defecto... Mimum risit, et ludum spectavit imperii.
Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 582.]
The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to the
conclusion of the peace; and Alaric advanced within three miles
of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial ministers,
whose insolence soon returned with the return of fortune. His
indignation was kindled by the report, that a rival chieftain,
that Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the hereditary
foe of the house of Balti, had been received into the palace. At
the head of three hundred followers, that fearless Barbarian
immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna; surprised, and cut
in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; reentered the city in
triumph; and was permitted to insult his adversary, by the voice
of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric had
forever excluded him from the friendship and alliance of the
emperor. 97 The crime and folly of the court of Ravenna was
expiated, a third time, by the calamities of Rome. The king of
the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and
revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the capital; and the
trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by a
desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their country. But
they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their
slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were
attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the
Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were
awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven
hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the
Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a
part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the
tribes of Germany and Scythia. 98
97 (return) [ Zosimus, l. vi. p. 384. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 9.
Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. In this place the text of Zosimus is
mutilated, and we have lost the remainder of his sixth and last
book, which ended with the sack of Rome. Credulous and partial as
he is, we must take our leave of that historian with some
regret.]
98 (return) [ Adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat,
irrumpit. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573. He despatches this
great event in seven words; but he employs whole pages in
celebrating the devotion of the Goths. I have extracted from an
improbable story of Procopius, the circumstances which had an air
of probability. Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2. He supposes
that the city was surprised while the senators slept in the
afternoon; but Jerom, with more authority and more reason,
affirms, that it was in the night, nocte Moab capta est. nocte
cecidit murus ejus, tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam.]
The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a
vanquished city, discovered, however, some regard for the laws of
humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops boldly to seize
the rewards of valor, and to enrich themselves with the spoils of
a wealthy and effeminate people: but he exhorted them, at the
same time, to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and to
respect the churches of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, as
holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors of a
nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths displayed the
fervor of a recent conversion; and some instances of their
uncommon piety and moderation are related, and perhaps adorned,
by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers. 99 While the Barbarians
roamed through the city in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of
an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to the service of the
altar, was forced open by one of the powerful Goths. He
immediately demanded, though in civil language, all the gold and
silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness
with which she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate,
of the richest materials, and the most curious workmanship. The
Barbarian viewed with wonder and delight this valuable
acquisition, till he was interrupted by a serious admonition,
addressed to him in the following words: “These,” said she, “are
the consecrated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you presume to
touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on your conscience.
For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend.” The
Gothic captain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a
messenger to inform the king of the treasure which he had
discovered; and received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all
the consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported,
without damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. From the
extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the distant quarter
of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order
of battle through the principal streets, protected, with
glittering arms, the long train of their devout companions, who
bore aloft, on their heads, the sacred vessels of gold and
silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians were mingled
with the sound of religious psalmody. From all the adjacent
houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this edifying
procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of
age, or rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to escape to
the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned
work, concerning the City of God, was professedly composed by St.
Augustin, to justify the ways of Providence in the destruction of
the Roman greatness. He celebrates, with peculiar satisfaction,
this memorable triumph of Christ; and insults his adversaries, by
challenging them to produce some similar example of a town taken
by storm, in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able
to protect either themselves or their deluded votaries. 100
99 (return) [ Orosius (l. vii. c. 39, p. 573-576) applauds the
piety of the Christian Goths, without seeming to perceive that
the greatest part of them were Arian heretics. Jornandes (c. 30,
p. 653) and Isidore of Seville, (Chron. p. 417, edit. Grot.,) who
were both attached to the Gothic cause, have repeated and
embellished these edifying tales. According to Isidore, Alaric
himself was heard to say, that he waged war with the Romans, and
not with the apostles. Such was the style of the seventh century;
two hundred years before, the fame and merit had been ascribed,
not to the apostles, but to Christ.]
100 (return) [ See Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 1-6. He
particularly appeals to the examples of Troy, Syracuse, and
Tarentum.]
In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary examples of
Barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded. But the holy
precincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches, could
receive a very small proportion of the Roman people; many
thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns, who served under
the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at least
to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without any breach
of charity or candor, that in the hour of savage license, when
every passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed, the
precepts of the Gospel seldom influenced the behavior of the
Gothic Christians. The writers, the best disposed to exaggerate
their clemency, have freely confessed, that a cruel slaughter was
made of the Romans; 101 and that the streets of the city were
filled with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the
general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes
converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked by
opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble,
the innocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty
thousand slaves was exercised without pity or remorse; and the
ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received, were washed
away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The
matrons and virgins of Rome were exposed to injuries more
dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death itself; and
the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female
virtue, for the admiration of future ages. 102 A Roman lady, of
singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the impatient
desires of a young Goth, who, according to the sagacious remark
of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her
obstinate resistance, he drew his sword, and, with the anger of a
lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still
continued to brave his resentment, and to repel his love, till
the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, respectfully
conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six
pieces of gold to the guards of the church, on condition that
they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband.
Such instances of courage and generosity were not extremely
common. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites,
without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their
female captives: and a nice question of casuistry was seriously
agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly
refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had
lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. 103
Their were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and
more general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the
Barbarians were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous
outrages; and the want of youth, or beauty, or chastity,
protected the greatest part of the Roman women from the danger of
a rape. But avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since
the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to
the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by
the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just
preference was given to gold and jewels, which contain the
greatest value in the smallest compass and weight: but, after
these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent
robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their
splendid and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and
the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly
piled in the wagons, that always followed the march of a Gothic
army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly handled, or
wantonly destroyed; many a statue was melted for the sake of the
precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the
spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe.
The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of
the rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows,
and by tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of
hidden treasure. 104 Visible splendor and expense were alleged as
the proof of a plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was
imputed to a parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some
misers, who endured the most cruel torments before they would
discover the secret object of their affection, was fatal to many
unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash, for refusing to
reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices of Rome, though
the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from
the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian
gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march, and to
distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which
encountered no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed
many private and public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of
Sallust 105 remained, in the age of Justinian, a stately monument
of the Gothic conflagration. 106 Yet a contemporary historian has
observed, that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of
solid brass, and that the strength of man was insufficient to
subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may
possibly be concealed in his devout assertion, that the wrath of
Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and that the
proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods
and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning.
107
101 (return) [ Jerom (tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam) has applied
to the sack of Rome all the strong expressions of Virgil:—
Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando, Explicet, &c.
Procopius (l. i. c. 2) positively affirms that great numbers were
slain by the Goths. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 12, 13)
offers Christian comfort for the death of those whose bodies
(multa corpora) had remained (in tanta strage) unburied.
Baronius, from the different writings of the Fathers, has thrown
some light on the sack of Rome. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 410, No.
16-34.]
102 (return) [ Sozomen. l. ix. c. 10. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei,
l. i. c. 17) intimates, that some virgins or matrons actually
killed themselves to escape violation; and though he admires
their spirit, he is obliged, by his theology, to condemn their
rash presumption. Perhaps the good bishop of Hippo was too easy
in the belief, as well as too rigid in the censure, of this act
of female heroism. The twenty maidens (if they ever existed) who
threw themselves into the Elbe, when Magdeburgh was taken by
storm, have been multiplied to the number of twelve hundred. See
Harte’s History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 308.]
103 (return) [ See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 16, 18. He
treats the subject with remarkable accuracy: and after admitting
that there cannot be any crime where there is no consent, he
adds, Sed quia non solum quod ad dolorem, verum etiam quod ad
libidinem, pertinet, in corpore alieno pepetrari potest; quicquid
tale factum fuerit, etsi retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam
non excutit, pudorem tamen incutit, ne credatur factum cum mentis
etiam voluntate, quod fieri fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate
non potuit. In c. 18 he makes some curious distinctions between
moral and physical virginity.]
104 (return) [ Marcella, a Roman lady, equally respectable for
her rank, her age, and her piety, was thrown on the ground, and
cruelly beaten and whipped, caesam fustibus flagellisque, &c.
Jerom, tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam. See Augustin, de Civ. Dei,
l. c. 10. The modern Sacco di Roma, p. 208, gives an idea of the
various methods of torturing prisoners for gold.]
105 (return) [ The historian Sallust, who usefully practiced the
vices which he has so eloquently censured, employed the plunder
of Numidia to adorn his palace and gardens on the Quirinal hill.
The spot where the house stood is now marked by the church of St.
Susanna, separated only by a street from the baths of Diocletian,
and not far distant from the Salarian gate. See Nardini, Roma
Antica, p. 192, 193, and the great I’lan of Modern Rome, by
Nolli.]
106 (return) [ The expressions of Procopius are distinct and
moderate, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.) The Chronicle of
Marcellinus speaks too strongly partem urbis Romae cremavit; and
the words of Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 3) convey a false and
exaggerated idea. Bargaeus has composed a particular dissertation
(see tom. iv. Antiquit. Rom. Graev.) to prove that the edifices
of Rome were not subverted by the Goths and Vandals.]
107 (return) [ Orosius, l. ii. c. 19, p. 143. He speaks as if he
disapproved all statues; vel Deum vel hominem mentiuntur. They
consisted of the kings of Alba and Rome from Aeneas, the Romans,
illustrious either in arms or arts, and the deified Caesars. The
expression which he uses of Forum is somewhat ambiguous, since
there existed five principal Fora; but as they were all
contiguous and adjacent, in the plain which is surrounded by the
Capitoline, the Quirinal, the Esquiline, and the Palatine hills,
they might fairly be considered as one. See the Roma Antiqua of
Donatus, p. 162-201, and the Roma Antica of Nardini, p. 212-273.
The former is more useful for the ancient descriptions, the
latter for the actual topography.]