Barbarians.—Part V.
Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian rank, who
perished in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed that
only one senator lost his life by the sword of the enemy. 108 But
it was not easy to compute the multitudes, who, from an honorable
station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced to the
miserable condition of captives and exiles. As the Barbarians had
more occasion for money than for slaves, they fixed at a moderate
price the redemption of their indigent prisoners; and the ransom
was often paid by the benevolence of their friends, or the
charity of strangers. 109 The captives, who were regularly sold,
either in open market, or by private contract, would have legally
regained their native freedom, which it was impossible for a
citizen to lose, or to alienate. 110 But as it was soon
discovered that the vindication of their liberty would endanger
their lives; and that the Goths, unless they were tempted to
sell, might be provoked to murder, their useless prisoners; the
civil jurisprudence had been already qualified by a wise
regulation, that they should be obliged to serve the moderate
term of five years, till they had discharged by their labor the
price of their redemption. 111 The nations who invaded the Roman
empire, had driven before them, into Italy, whole troops of
hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude
than of famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the
inhabitants to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant
places of refuge. While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and
desolation along the sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the
little island of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the
Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile
attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers of
citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that
sequestered spot. 112 The ample patrimonies, which many
senatorian families possessed in Africa, invited them, if they
had time, and prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country,
to embrace the shelter of that hospitable province. The most
illustrious of these fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, 113
the widow of the præfect Petronius. After the death of her
husband, the most powerful subject of Rome, she had remained at
the head of the Anician family, and successively supplied, from
her private fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three
sons. When the city was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba
supported, with Christian resignation, the loss of immense
riches; embarked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at
sea, the flames of her burning palace, and fled with her daughter
Laeta, and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias,
to the coast of Africa. The benevolent profusion with which the
matron distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates,
contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity.
But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the
rapacious oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in
matrimonial prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome to the lust
or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were
dispersed through the provinces, along the coast of Egypt and
Asia, as far as Constantinople and Jerusalem; and the village of
Bethlem, the solitary residence of St. Jerom and his female
converts, was crowded with illustrious beggars of either sex, and
every age, who excited the public compassion by the remembrance
of their past fortune. 114 This awful catastrophe of Rome filled
the astonished empire with grief and terror. So interesting a
contrast of greatness and ruin, disposed the fond credulity of
the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of
the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events the
lofty metaphors of oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to
confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of
the globe.
108 (return) [ Orosius (l. ii. c. 19, p. 142) compares the
cruelty of the Gauls and the clemency of the Goths. Ibi vix
quemquam inventum senatorem, qui vel absens evaserit; hic vix
quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens perierit. But there is an
air of rhetoric, and perhaps of falsehood, in this antithesis;
and Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) affirms, perhaps by an opposite
exaggeration, that many senators were put to death with various
and exquisite tortures.]
109 (return) [ Multi... Christiani incaptivitatem ducti sunt.
Augustin, de Civ Dei, l. i. c. 14; and the Christians experienced
no peculiar hardships.]
110 (return) [ See Heineccius, Antiquitat. Juris Roman. tom. i.
p. 96.]
111 (return) [ Appendix Cod. Theodos. xvi. in Sirmond. Opera,
tom. i. p. 735. This edict was published on the 11th of December,
A.D. 408, and is more reasonable than properly belonged to the
ministers of Honorius.]
112 (return) [ Eminus Igilii sylvosa cacumina miror; Quem
fraudare nefas laudis honore suae.
Haec proprios nuper tutata est insula saltus;
Sive loci ingenio, seu Domini genio. Gurgite cum modico
victricibus obstitit armis, Tanquam longinquo dissociata mari.
Haec multos lacera suscepit ab urbe fugates,
Hic fessis posito certa timore salus. Plurima terreno populaverat
aequora bello,
Contra naturam classe timendus eques: Unum, mira fides, vario
discrimine portum!
Tam prope Romanis, tam procul esse Getis.
—-Rutilius, in Itinerar. l. i. 325
The island is now called Giglio. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. l. ii.
]
113 (return) [ As the adventures of Proba and her family are
connected with the life of St. Augustin, they are diligently
illustrated by Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 620-635.
Some time after their arrival in Africa, Demetrias took the veil,
and made a vow of virginity; an event which was considered as of
the highest importance to Rome and to the world. All the Saints
wrote congratulatory letters to her; that of Jerom is still
extant, (tom. i. p. 62-73, ad Demetriad. de servand Virginitat.,)
and contains a mixture of absurd reasoning, spirited declamation,
and curious facts, some of which relate to the siege and sack of
Rome.]
114 (return) [ See the pathetic complaint of Jerom, (tom. v. p.
400,) in his preface to the second book of his Commentaries on
the Prophet Ezekiel.]
There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate
the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.
Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate
was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious
contemporaries were forced to confess, that infant Rome had
formerly received more essential injury from the Gauls, than she
had now sustained from the Goths in her declining age. 115 The
experience of eleven centuries has enabled posterity to produce a
much more singular parallel; and to affirm with confidence, that
the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from the banks
of the Danube, were less destructive than the hostilities
exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic prince,
who styled himself Emperor of the Romans. 116 The Goths evacuated
the city at the end of six days, but Rome remained above nine
months in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was
stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The
authority of Alaric preserved some order and moderation among the
ferocious multitude which acknowledged him for their leader and
king; but the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the
attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every
restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three
independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the
Germans. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners
of Italy exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of
mankind. They united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an
unsettled state of society, with the polished vices which spring
from the abuse of art and luxury; and the loose adventurers, who
had violated every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to
assault the palace of the Roman pontiff, must deserve to be
considered as the most profligate of the Italians. At the same
era, the Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New
World: but their high-spirited valor was disgraced by gloomy
pride, rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable
in the pursuit of fame and riches, they had improved, by repeated
practice, the most exquisite and effectual methods of torturing
their prisoners: many of the Castilians, who pillaged Rome, were
familiars of the holy inquisition; and some volunteers, perhaps,
were lately returned from the conquest of Mexico. The Germans were
less corrupt than the Italians, less cruel than the Spaniards;
and the rustic, or even savage, aspect of those Tramontane
warriors, often disguised a simple and merciful disposition. But
they had imbibed, in the first fervor of the reformation, the
spirit, as well as the principles, of Luther. It was their
favorite amusement to insult, or destroy, the consecrated objects
of Catholic superstition; they indulged, without pity or remorse,
a devout hatred against the clergy of every denomination and
degree, who form so considerable a part of the inhabitants of
modern Rome; and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the
throne of Anti-christ, to purify, with blood and fire, the
abominations of the spiritual Babylon. 117
115 (return) [ Orosius, though with some theological partiality,
states this comparison, l. ii. c. 19, p. 142, l. vii. c. 39, p.
575. But, in the history of the taking of Rome by the Gauls,
every thing is uncertain, and perhaps fabulous. See Beaufort sur
l’Incertitude, &c., de l’Histoire Romaine, p. 356; and Melot, in
the Mem. de l’Academie des Inscript. tom. xv. p. 1-21.]
116 (return) [ The reader who wishes to inform himself of the
circumstances of his famous event, may peruse an admirable
narrative in Dr. Robertson’s History of Charles V. vol. ii. p.
283; or consult the Annali d’Italia of the learned Muratori, tom.
xiv. p. 230-244, octavo edition. If he is desirous of examining
the originals, he may have recourse to the eighteenth book of the
great, but unfinished, history of Guicciardini. But the account
which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original, is
a little book, entitled, Il Sacco di Roma, composed, within less
than a month after the assault of the city, by the brother of the
historian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able
magistrate and a dispassionate writer.]
117 (return) [ The furious spirit of Luther, the effect of temper
and enthusiasm, has been forcibly attacked, (Bossuet, Hist. des
Variations des Eglises Protestantes, livre i. p. 20-36,) and
feebly defended, (Seckendorf. Comment. de Lutheranismo,
especially l. i. No. 78, p. 120, and l. iii. No. 122, p. 556.)]
The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the
sixth day, 118 might be the result of prudence; but it was not
surely the effect of fear. 119 At the head of an army encumbered
with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced
along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy,
destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting
himself with the plunder of the unresisting country. The fate of
Capua, the proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which
was respected, even in its decay, as the eighth city of the
empire, 120 is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent town of
Nola 121 has been illustrated, on this occasion, by the sanctity
of Paulinus, 122 who was successively a consul, a monk, and a
bishop. At the age of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth
and honor, of society and literature, to embrace a life of
solitude and penance; and the loud applause of the clergy
encouraged him to despise the reproaches of his worldly friends,
who ascribed this desperate act to some disorder of the mind or
body. 123 An early and passionate attachment determined him to
fix his humble dwelling in one of the suburbs of Nola, near the
miraculous tomb of St. Faelix, which the public devotion had
already surrounded with five large and populous churches. The
remains of his fortune, and of his understanding, were dedicated
to the service of the glorious martyr; whose praise, on the day
of his festival, Paulinus never failed to celebrate by a solemn
hymn; and in whose name he erected a sixth church, of superior
elegance and beauty, which was decorated with many curious
pictures, from the history of the Old and New Testament. Such
assiduous zeal secured the favor of the saint, 124 or at least of
the people; and, after fifteen years’ retirement, the Roman
consul was compelled to accept the bishopric of Nola, a few
months before the city was invested by the Goths. During the
siege, some religious persons were satisfied that they had seen,
either in dreams or visions, the divine form of their tutelar
patron; yet it soon appeared by the event, that Faelix wanted
power, or inclination, to preserve the flock of which he had
formerly been the shepherd. Nola was not saved from the general
devastation; 125 and the captive bishop was protected only by the
general opinion of his innocence and poverty. Above four years
elapsed from the successful invasion of Italy by the arms of
Alaric, to the voluntary retreat of the Goths under the conduct
of his successor Adolphus; and, during the whole time, they
reigned without control over a country, which, in the opinion of
the ancients, had united all the various excellences of nature
and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy had attained in the
auspicious age of the Antonines, had gradually declined with the
decline of the empire.
The fruits of a long peace perished under the rude grasp of the
Barbarians; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the
more elegant refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for
the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however,
claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and
cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected and consumed in
the Gothic camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas
and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the
beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons
and daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold
and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty
victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of
plane-trees, 126 artificially disposed to exclude the scorching
rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights
were enhanced by the memory of past hardships: the comparison of
their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the
frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube, added new charms to the
felicity of the Italian climate. 127
118 (return) [ Marcellinus, in Chron. Orosius, (l. vii. c. 39, p.
575,) asserts, that he left Rome on the third day; but this
difference is easily reconciled by the successive motions of
great bodies of troops.]
119 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) pretends, without any
color of truth, or reason, that Alaric fled on the report that
the armies of the Eastern empire were in full march to attack
him.]
120 (return) [ Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233, edit. Toll.
The luxury of Capua had formerly surpassed that of Sybaris
itself. See Athenaeus Deipnosophist. l. xii. p. 528, edit.
Casaubon.]
121 (return) [ Forty-eight years before the foundation of Rome,
(about 800 before the Christian era,) the Tuscans built Capua
and Nola, at the distance of twenty-three miles from each other;
but the latter of the two cities never emerged from a state of
mediocrity.]
122 (return) [ Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 1-46) has
compiled, with his usual diligence, all that relates to the life
and writings of Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own
pen, and by the praises of St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin,
Sulpicius Severus, &c., his Christian friends and
contemporaries.]
123 (return) [ See the affectionate letters of Ausonius (epist.
xix.—xxv. p. 650-698, edit. Toll.) to his colleague, his friend,
and his disciple, Paulinus. The religion of Ausonius is still a
problem, (see Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p.
123-138.) I believe that it was such in his own time, and,
consequently, that in his heart he was a Pagan.]
124 (return) [ The humble Paulinus once presumed to say, that he
believed St. Faelix did love him; at least, as a master loves his
little dog.]
125 (return) [ See Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30, p. 653.
Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. Augustin. de Civ. Dei, l.i.c. 10.
Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 410, No. 45, 46.]
126 (return) [ The platanus, or plane-tree, was a favorite of the
ancients, by whom it was propagated, for the sake of shade, from
the East to Gaul. Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions
several of an enormous size; one in the Imperial villa, at
Velitrae, which Caligula called his nest, as the branches were
capable of holding a large table, the proper attendants, and the
emperor himself, whom Pliny quaintly styles pars umbroe; an
expression which might, with equal reason, be applied to Alaric]
127 (return) [ The prostrate South to the destroyer yields
Her boasted titles, and her golden fields; With grim delight the
brood of winter view A brighter day, and skies of azure hue; Scent
the new fragrance of the opening rose, And quaff the pendent
vintage as it grows.
See Gray’s Poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197. Instead of
compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not
Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic
poem, of which he has left such an exquisite specimen?]
Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, were the object or Alaric,
he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardor, which could
neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by success. No
sooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy, than he was
attracted by the neighboring prospect of a fertile and peaceful
island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as
an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he
already meditated against the continent of Africa. The Straits of
Rhegium and Messina 128 are twelve miles in length, and, in the
narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad; and the
fabulous monsters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the
whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and
unskilful mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of the
Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk, or
scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by
the terrors of a new element; and the whole design was defeated
by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short
illness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious character
of the Barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose
valor and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the
labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course
of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of
Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils
and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the
waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the
secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was
forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners, who
had been employed to execute the work. 129
128 (return) [ For the perfect description of the Straits of
Messina, Scylla, Clarybdis, &c., see Cluverius, (Ital. Antiq. l.
iv. p. 1293, and Sicilia Antiq. l. i. p. 60-76), who had
diligently studied the ancients, and surveyed with a curious eye
the actual face of the country.]
129 (return) [ Jornandes, de Reb Get. c. 30, p. 654.]