Barbarians.—Part VI.
The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Barbarians
were suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs; and the
brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, was
unanimously elected to succeed to his throne. The character and
political system of the new king of the Goths may be best
understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen
of Narbonne; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the historian
Orosius. “In the full confidence of valor and victory, I once
aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face of the universe; to
obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion
of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the immortal fame of
the founder of a new empire. By repeated experiments, I was
gradually convinced, that laws are essentially necessary to
maintain and regulate a well-constituted state; and that the
fierce, untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of bearing
the salutary yoke of laws and civil government. From that moment
I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition;
and it is now my sincere wish that the gratitude of future ages
should acknowledge the merit of a stranger, who employed the
sword of the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and maintain,
the prosperity of the Roman empire.” 130 With these pacific
views, the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war;
and seriously negotiated with the Imperial court a treaty of
friendship and alliance. It was the interest of the ministers of
Honorius, who were now released from the obligation of their
extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of
the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service
against the tyrants and Barbarians who infested the provinces
beyond the Alps. 131 Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman
general, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the
southern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force or
agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne,
Thoulouse, and Bordeaux; and though they were repulsed by Count
Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their
quarters from the Mediterranean to the Ocean.
The oppressed provincials might exclaim, that the miserable
remnant, which the enemy had spared, was cruelly ravished by
their pretended allies; yet some specious colors were not wanting
to palliate, or justify the violence of the Goths. The cities of
Gaul, which they attacked, might perhaps be considered as in a
state of rebellion against the government of Honorius: the
articles of the treaty, or the secret instructions of the court,
might sometimes be alleged in favor of the seeming usurpations of
Adolphus; and the guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of
hostility might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth,
to the ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of
peace or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less effectual
to soften the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths;
and they had imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and
institutions, of civilized society. 132
130 (return) [ Orosius, l. vii. c. 43, p. 584, 585. He was sent
by St. Augustin in the year 415, from Africa to Palestine, to
visit St. Jerom, and to consult with him on the subject of the
Pelagian controversy.]
131 (return) [ Jornandes supposes, without much probability, that
Adolphus visited and plundered Rome a second time, (more
locustarum erasit) Yet he agrees with Orosius in supposing that a
treaty of peace was concluded between the Gothic prince and
Honorius. See Oros. l. vii. c. 43 p. 584, 585. Jornandes, de Reb.
Geticis, c. 31, p. 654, 655.]
132 (return) [ The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their
first transactions in Gaul, are dark and doubtful. I have derived
much assistance from Mascou, (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, l.
viii. c. 29, 35, 36, 37,) who has illustrated, and connected, the
broken chronicles and fragments of the times.]
The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and his
attachment to the cause of the republic was secured by the
ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and
understanding of the Barbarian king. Placidia, 133 the daughter
of the great Theodosius, and of Galla, his second wife, had
received a royal education in the palace of Constantinople; but
the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions
which agitated the Western empire under the reign of her brother
Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric,
Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age, resided in the
city; and her ready consent to the death of her cousin Serena has
a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the
circumstances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by
the consideration of her tender age. 134 The victorious
Barbarians detained, either as a hostage or a captive, 135 the
sister of Honorius; but, while she was exposed to the disgrace of
following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp, she
experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment. The
authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Placidia, may
perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence, the expressive
silence, of her flatterers: yet the splendor of her birth, the
bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the dexterous
insinuation which she condescended to employ, made a deep
impression on the mind of Adolphus; and the Gothic king aspired
to call himself the brother of the emperor. The ministers of
Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an alliance so
injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride; and repeatedly urged
the restitution of Placidia, as an indispensable condition of the
treaty of peace. But the daughter of Theodosius submitted,
without reluctance, to the desires of the conqueror, a young and
valiant prince, who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature,
but who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace and
beauty. The marriage of Adolphus and Placidia 136 was consummated
before the Goths retired from Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the
anniversary day of their nuptials was afterwards celebrated in
the house of Ingenuus, one of the most illustrious citizens of
Narbonne in Gaul. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman
empress, was placed on a throne of state; and the king of the
Goths, who assumed, on this occasion, the Roman habit, contented
himself with a less honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift,
which, according to the custom of his nation, 137 was offered to
Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her
country. Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes, carried a basin
in each hand; and one of these basins was filled with pieces of
gold, the other with precious stones of an inestimable value.
Attalus, so long the sport of fortune, and of the Goths, was
appointed to lead the chorus of the Hymeneal song; and the
degraded emperor might aspire to the praise of a skilful
musician. The Barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph;
and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered, by
the mild influence of love and reason, the fierce spirit of their
Gothic lord. 138
133 (return) [ See an account of Placidia in Ducange Fam. Byzant.
p. 72; and Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 260, 386,
&c. tom. vi. p. 240.]
134 (return) [ Zosim. l. v. p. 350.]
135 (return) [ Zosim. l. vi. p. 383. Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p.
576,) and the Chronicles of Marcellinus and Idatius, seem to
suppose, that the Goths did not carry away Placidia till after
the last siege of Rome.]
136 (return) [ See the pictures of Adolphus and Placidia, and the
account of their marriage, in Jornandes, de Reb. Geticis, c. 31,
p. 654, 655. With regard to the place where the nuptials were
stipulated, or consummated, or celebrated, the Mss. of Jornandes
vary between two neighboring cities, Forli and Imola, (Forum
Livii and Forum Cornelii.) It is fair and easy to reconcile the
Gothic historian with Olympiodorus, (see Mascou, l. viii. c. 46:)
but Tillemont grows peevish, and swears that it is not worth
while to try to conciliate Jornandes with any good authors.]
137 (return) [ The Visigoths (the subjects of Adolphus)
restrained by subsequent laws, the prodigality of conjugal love.
It was illegal for a husband to make any gift or settlement for
the benefit of his wife during the first year of their marriage;
and his liberality could not at any time exceed the tenth part of
his property. The Lombards were somewhat more indulgent: they
allowed the morgingcap immediately after the wedding night; and
this famous gift, the reward of virginity might equal the fourth
part of the husband’s substance. Some cautious maidens, indeed,
were wise enough to stipulate beforehand a present, which they
were too sure of not deserving. See Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix,
l. xix. c. 25. Muratori, delle Antichita Italiane, tom. i.
Dissertazion, xx. p. 243.]
138 (return) [ We owe the curious detail of this nuptial feast to
the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 185, 188.]
The hundred basins of gold and gems, presented to Placidia at her
nuptial feast, formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic
treasures; of which some extraordinary specimens may be selected
from the history of the successors of Adolphus. Many curious and
costly ornaments of pure gold, enriched with jewels, were found
in their palace of Narbonne, when it was pillaged, in the sixth
century, by the Franks: sixty cups, or chalices; fifteen patens,
or plates, for the use of the communion; twenty boxes, or cases,
to hold the books of the Gospels: this consecrated wealth 139 was
distributed by the son of Clovis among the churches of his
dominions, and his pious liberality seems to upbraid some former
sacrilege of the Goths. They possessed, with more security of
conscience, the famous missorium, or great dish for the service
of the table, of massy gold, of the weight of five hundred
pounds, and of far superior value, from the precious stones, the
exquisite workmanship, and the tradition, that it had been
presented by Ætius, the patrician, to Torismond, king of the
Goths. One of the successors of Torismond purchased the aid of
the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent gift. When
he was seated on the throne of Spain, he delivered it with
reluctance to the ambassadors of Dagobert; despoiled them on the
road; stipulated, after a long negotiation, the inadequate ransom
of two hundred thousand pieces of gold; and preserved the
missorium, as the pride of the Gothic treasury. 140 When that
treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was plundered by the
Arabs, they admired, and they have celebrated, another object
still more remarkable; a table of considerable size, of one
single piece of solid emerald, 141 encircled with three rows of
fine pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty-five feet of
gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of five hundred
thousand pieces of gold. 142 Some portion of the Gothic treasures
might be the gift of friendship, or the tribute of obedience; but
the far greater part had been the fruits of war and rapine, the
spoils of the empire, and perhaps of Rome.
139 (return) [ See in the great collection of the Historians of
France by Dom Bouquet, tom. ii. Greg. Turonens. l. iii. c. 10, p.
191. Gesta Regum Francorum, c. 23, p. 557. The anonymous writer,
with an ignorance worthy of his times, supposes that these
instruments of Christian worship had belonged to the temple of
Solomon. If he has any meaning it must be, that they were found
in the sack of Rome.]
140 (return) [ Consult the following original testimonies in the
Historians of France, tom. ii. Fredegarii Scholastici Chron. c.
73, p. 441. Fredegar. Fragment. iii. p. 463. Gesta Regis
Dagobert, c. 29, p. 587. The accession of Sisenand to the throne
of Spain happened A.D. 631. The 200,000 pieces of gold were
appropriated by Dagobert to the foundation of the church of St.
Denys.]
141 (return) [ The president Goguet (Origine des Loix, &c., tom.
ii. p. 239) is of opinion, that the stupendous pieces of emerald,
the statues and columns which antiquity has placed in Egypt, at
Gades, at Constantinople, were in reality artificial compositions
of colored glass. The famous emerald dish, which is shown at
Genoa, is supposed to countenance the suspicion.]
142 (return) [ Elmacin. Hist. Saracenica, l. i. p. 85. Roderic.
Tolet. Hist. Arab. c. 9. Cardonne, Hist. de l’Afrique et de
l’Espagne sous les Arabes tom. i. p. 83. It was called the Table
of Solomon, according to the custom of the Orientals, who ascribe
to that prince every ancient work of knowledge or magnificence.]
After the deliverance of Italy from the oppression of the Goths,
some secret counsellor was permitted, amidst the factions of the
palace, to heal the wounds of that afflicted country. 143 By a
wise and humane regulation, the eight provinces which had been
the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Picenum, Samnium,
Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lucania, obtained an indulgence
of five years: the ordinary tribute was reduced to one fifth, and
even that fifth was destined to restore and support the useful
institution of the public posts. By another law, the lands which
had been left without inhabitants or cultivation, were granted,
with some diminution of taxes, to the neighbors who should
occupy, or the strangers who should solicit them; and the new
possessors were secured against the future claims of the fugitive
proprietors. About the same time a general amnesty was published
in the name of Honorius, to abolish the guilt and memory of all
the involuntary offences which had been committed by his unhappy
subjects, during the term of the public disorder and calamity. A
decent and respectful attention was paid to the restoration of
the capital; the citizens were encouraged to rebuild the edifices
which had been destroyed or damaged by hostile fire; and
extraordinary supplies of corn were imported from the coast of
Africa. The crowds that so lately fled before the sword of the
Barbarians, were soon recalled by the hopes of plenty and
pleasure; and Albinus, præfect of Rome, informed the court, with
some anxiety and surprise, that, in a single day, he had taken an
account of the arrival of fourteen thousand strangers. 144 In
less than seven years, the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were
almost obliterated; and the city appeared to resume its former
splendor and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her
crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the storms of war; and
was still amused, in the last moment of her decay, with the
prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion. 145
143 (return) [ His three laws are inserted in the Theodosian
Code, l. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 7. L. xiii. tit. xi. leg. 12. L.
xv. tit. xiv. leg. 14 The expressions of the last are very
remarkable; since they contain not only a pardon, but an
apology.]
144 (return) [ Olympiodorus ap. Phot. p. 188. Philostorgius (l.
xii. c. 5) observes, that when Honorius made his triumphal entry,
he encouraged the Romans, with his hand and voice, to rebuild
their city; and the Chronicle of Prosper commends Heraclian, qui
in Romanae urbis reparationem strenuum exhibuerat ministerium.]
145 (return) [ The date of the voyage of Claudius Rutilius
Numatianus is clogged with some difficulties; but Scaliger has
deduced from astronomical characters, that he left Rome the 24th
of September and embarked at Porto the 9th of October, A.D. 416.
See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom, v. p. 820. In this
poetical Itinerary, Rutilius (l. i. 115, &c.) addresses Rome in a
high strain of congratulation:—
Erige crinales lauros, seniumque sacrati Verticis in virides,
Roma, recinge comas, &c.]
This apparent tranquillity was soon disturbed by the approach of
a hostile armament from the country which afforded the daily
subsistence of the Roman people. Heraclian, count of Africa, who,
under the most difficult and distressful circumstances, had
supported, with active loyalty, the cause of Honorius, was
tempted, in the year of his consulship, to assume the character
of a rebel, and the title of emperor. The ports of Africa were
immediately filled with the naval forces, at the head of which he
prepared to invade Italy: and his fleet, when it cast anchor at
the mouth of the Tyber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and
Alexander, if all the vessels, including the royal galley, and
the smallest boat, did actually amount to the incredible number
of three thousand two hundred. 146 Yet with such an armament,
which might have subverted, or restored, the greatest empires of
the earth, the African usurper made a very faint and feeble
impression on the provinces of his rival. As he marched from the
port, along the road which leads to the gates of Rome, he was
encountered, terrified, and routed, by one of the Imperial
captains; and the lord of this mighty host, deserting his fortune
and his friends, ignominiously fled with a single ship. 147 When
Heraclian landed in the harbor of Carthage, he found that the
whole province, disdaining such an unworthy ruler, had returned
to their allegiance. The rebel was beheaded in the ancient temple
of Memory; his consulship was abolished: 148 and the remains of
his private fortune, not exceeding the moderate sum of four
thousand pounds of gold, were granted to the brave Constantius,
who had already defended the throne, which he afterwards shared
with his feeble sovereign. Honorius viewed, with supine
indifference, the calamities of Rome and Italy; 149 but the
rebellious attempts of Attalus and Heraclian, against his
personal safety, awakened, for a moment, the torpid instinct of
his nature. He was probably ignorant of the causes and events
which preserved him from these impending dangers; and as Italy
was no longer invaded by any foreign or domestic enemies, he
peaceably existed in the palace of Ravenna, while the tyrants
beyond the Alps were repeatedly vanquished in the name, and by
the lieutenants, of the son of Theodosius. 150 In the course of a
busy and interesting narrative I might possibly forget to mention
the death of such a prince: and I shall therefore take the
precaution of observing, in this place, that he survived the last
siege of Rome about thirteen years.
146 (return) [ Orosius composed his history in Africa, only two
years after the event; yet his authority seems to be overbalanced
by the improbability of the fact. The Chronicle of Marcellinus
gives Heraclian 700 ships and 3000 men: the latter of these
numbers is ridiculously corrupt; but the former would please me
very much.]
147 (return) [ The Chronicle of Idatius affirms, without the
least appearance of truth, that he advanced as far as Otriculum,
in Umbria, where he was overthrown in a great battle, with the
loss of 50,000 men.]
148 (return) [ See Cod. Theod. l. xv. tit. xiv. leg. 13. The
legal acts performed in his name, even the manumission of slaves,
were declared invalid, till they had been formally repeated.]
149 (return) [ I have disdained to mention a very foolish, and
probably a false, report, (Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2,)
that Honorius was alarmed by the loss of Rome, till he understood
that it was not a favorite chicken of that name, but only the
capital of the world, which had been lost. Yet even this story is
some evidence of the public opinion.]
150 (return) [ The materials for the lives of all these tyrants
are taken from six contemporary historians, two Latins and four
Greeks: Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 581, 582, 583; Renatus
Profuturus Frigeridus, apud Gregor Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in the
Historians of France, tom. ii. p. 165, 166; Zosimus, l. v. p.
370, 371; Olympiodorus, apud Phot. p. 180, 181, 184, 185;
Sozomen, l. ix. c. 12, 13, 14, 15; and Philostorgius, l. xii. c.
5, 6, with Godefroy’s Dissertation, p. 477-481; besides the four
Chronicles of Prosper Tyro, Prosper of Aquitain, Idatius, and
Marcellinus.]
The usurpation of Constantine, who received the purple from the
legions of Britain, had been successful, and seemed to be secure.
His title was acknowledged, from the wall of Antoninus to the
columns of Hercules; and, in the midst of the public disorder he
shared the dominion, and the plunder, of Gaul and Spain, with the
tribes of Barbarians, whose destructive progress was no longer
checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees. Stained with the blood of the
kinsmen of Honorius, he extorted, from the court of Ravenna, with
which he secretly corresponded, the ratification of his
rebellious claims. Constantine engaged himself, by a solemn
promise, to deliver Italy from the Goths; advanced as far as the
banks of the Po; and after alarming, rather than assisting, his
pusillanimous ally, hastily returned to the palace of Arles, to
celebrate, with intemperate luxury, his vain and ostentatious
triumph. But this transient prosperity was soon interrupted and
destroyed by the revolt of Count Gerontius, the bravest of his
generals; who, during the absence of his son Constans, a prince
already invested with the Imperial purple, had been left to
command in the provinces of Spain. From some reason, of which we
are ignorant, Gerontius, instead of assuming the diadem, placed
it on the head of his friend Maximus, who fixed his residence at
Tarragona, while the active count pressed forwards, through the
Pyrenees, to surprise the two emperors, Constantine and Constans,
before they could prepare for their defence. The son was made
prisoner at Vienna, and immediately put to death: and the
unfortunate youth had scarcely leisure to deplore the elevation
of his family; which had tempted, or compelled him,
sacrilegiously to desert the peaceful obscurity of the monastic
life. The father maintained a siege within the walls of Arles;
but those walls must have yielded to the assailants, had not the
city been unexpectedly relieved by the approach of an Italian
army. The name of Honorius, the proclamation of a lawful emperor,
astonished the contending parties of the rebels. Gerontius,
abandoned by his own troops, escaped to the confines of Spain;
and rescued his name from oblivion, by the Roman courage which
appeared to animate the last moments of his life. In the middle
of the night, a great body of his perfidious soldiers surrounded
and attacked his house, which he had strongly barricaded. His
wife, a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani, and some
faithful slaves, were still attached to his person; and he used,
with so much skill and resolution, a large magazine of darts and
arrows, that above three hundred of the assailants lost their
lives in the attempt. His slaves when all the missile weapons
were spent, fled at the dawn of day; and Gerontius, if he had not
been restrained by conjugal tenderness, might have imitated their
example; till the soldiers, provoked by such obstinate
resistance, applied fire on all sides to the house. In this fatal
extremity, he complied with the request of his Barbarian friend,
and cut off his head. The wife of Gerontius, who conjured him not
to abandon her to a life of misery and disgrace, eagerly
presented her neck to his sword; and the tragic scene was
terminated by the death of the count himself, who, after three
ineffectual strokes, drew a short dagger, and sheathed it in his
heart. 151 The unprotected Maximus, whom he had invested with the
purple, was indebted for his life to the contempt that was
entertained of his power and abilities. The caprice of the
Barbarians, who ravaged Spain, once more seated this Imperial
phantom on the throne: but they soon resigned him to the justice
of Honorius; and the tyrant Maximus, after he had been shown to
the people of Ravenna and Rome, was publicly executed.
151 (return) [ The praises which Sozomen has bestowed on this act
of despair, appear strange and scandalous in the mouth of an
ecclesiastical historian. He observes (p. 379) that the wife of
Gerontius was a Christian; and that her death was worthy of her
religion, and of immortal fame.]
The general, (Constantius was his name,) who raised by his
approach the siege of Arles, and dissipated the troops of
Gerontius, was born a Roman; and this remarkable distinction is
strongly expressive of the decay of military spirit among the
subjects of the empire. The strength and majesty which were
conspicuous in the person of that general, 152 marked him, in the
popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the throne, which he
afterwards ascended. In the familiar intercourse of private life,
his manners were cheerful and engaging; nor would he sometimes
disdain, in the license of convivial mirth, to vie with the
pantomimes themselves, in the exercises of their ridiculous
profession. But when the trumpet summoned him to arms; when he
mounted his horse, and, bending down (for such was his singular
practice) almost upon the neck, fiercely rolled his large
animated eyes round the field, Constantius then struck terror
into his foes, and inspired his soldiers with the assurance of
victory. He had received from the court of Ravenna the important
commission of extirpating rebellion in the provinces of the West;
and the pretended emperor Constantine, after enjoying a short and
anxious respite, was again besieged in his capital by the arms of
a more formidable enemy. Yet this interval allowed time for a
successful negotiation with the Franks and Alemanni and his
ambassador, Edobic, soon returned at the head of an army, to
disturb the operations of the siege of Arles. The Roman general,
instead of expecting the attack in his lines, boldly and perhaps
wisely, resolved to pass the Rhone, and to meet the Barbarians.
His measures were conducted with so much skill and secrecy, that,
while they engaged the infantry of Constantius in the front, they
were suddenly attacked, surrounded, and destroyed, by the cavalry
of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had silently gained an
advantageous post in their rear. The remains of the army of
Edobic were preserved by flight or submission, and their leader
escaped from the field of battle to the house of a faithless
friend; who too clearly understood, that the head of his
obnoxious guest would be an acceptable and lucrative present for
the Imperial general. On this occasion, Constantius behaved with
the magnanimity of a genuine Roman. Subduing, or suppressing,
every sentiment of jealousy, he publicly acknowledged the merit
and services of Ulphilas; but he turned with horror from the
assassin of Edobic; and sternly intimated his commands, that the
camp should no longer be polluted by the presence of an
ungrateful wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and
hospitality. The usurper, who beheld, from the walls of Arles,
the ruin of his last hopes, was tempted to place some confidence
in so generous a conqueror. He required a solemn promise for his
security; and after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the
sacred character of a Christian Presbyter, he ventured to open
the gates of the city. But he soon experienced that the
principles of honor and integrity, which might regulate the
ordinary conduct of Constantius, were superseded by the loose
doctrines of political morality. The Roman general, indeed,
refused to sully his laurels with the blood of Constantine; but
the abdicated emperor, and his son Julian, were sent under a
strong guard into Italy; and before they reached the palace of
Ravenna, they met the ministers of death.
152 (return) [ It is the expression of Olympiodorus, which he
seems to have borrowed from Aeolus, a tragedy of Euripides, of
which some fragments only are now extant, (Euripid. Barnes, tom.
ii. p. 443, ver 38.) This allusion may prove, that the ancient
tragic poets were still familiar to the Greeks of the fifth
century.]
At a time when it was universally confessed, that almost every
man in the empire was superior in personal merit to the princes
whom the accident of their birth had seated on the throne, a
rapid succession of usurpers, regardless of the fate of their
predecessors, still continued to arise. This mischief was
peculiarly felt in the provinces of Spain and Gaul, where the
principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war
and rebellion. Before Constantine resigned the purple, and in the
fourth month of the siege of Arles, intelligence was received in
the Imperial camp, that Jovinus has assumed the diadem at Mentz,
in the Upper Germany, at the instigation of Goar, king of the
Alani, and of Guntiarius, king of the Burgundians; and that the
candidate, on whom they had bestowed the empire, advanced with a
formidable host of Barbarians, from the banks of the Rhine to
those of the Rhone. Every circumstance is dark and extraordinary
in the short history of the reign of Jovinus. It was natural to
expect, that a brave and skilful general, at the head of a
victorious army, would have asserted, in a field of battle, the
justice of the cause of Honorius. The hasty retreat of
Constantius might be justified by weighty reasons; but he
resigned, without a struggle, the possession of Gaul; and
Dardanus, the Prætorian præfect, is recorded as the only
magistrate who refused to yield obedience to the usurper. 153
When the Goths, two years after the siege of Rome, established
their quarters in Gaul, it was natural to suppose that their
inclinations could be divided only between the emperor Honorius,
with whom they had formed a recent alliance, and the degraded
Attalus, whom they reserved in their camp for the occasional
purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch. Yet in a
moment of disgust, (for which it is not easy to assign a cause,
or a date,) Adolphus connected himself with the usurper of Gaul;
and imposed on Attalus the ignominious task of negotiating the
treaty, which ratified his own disgrace. We are again surprised
to read, that, instead of considering the Gothic alliance as the
firmest support of his throne, Jovinus upbraided, in dark and
ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attalus; that,
scorning the advice of his great ally, he invested with the
purple his brother Sebastian; and that he most imprudently
accepted the service of Sarus, when that gallant chief, the
soldier of Honorius, was provoked to desert the court of a
prince, who knew not how to reward or punish. Adolphus, educated
among a race of warriors, who esteemed the duty of revenge as the
most precious and sacred portion of their inheritance, advanced
with a body of ten thousand Goths to encounter the hereditary
enemy of the house of Balti. He attacked Sarus at an unguarded
moment, when he was accompanied only by eighteen or twenty of his
valiant followers. United by friendship, animated by despair, but
at length oppressed by multitudes, this band of heroes deserved
the esteem, without exciting the compassion, of their enemies;
and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils, 154 than he was
instantly despatched. The death of Sarus dissolved the loose
alliance which Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of
Gaul. He again listened to the dictates of love and prudence; and
soon satisfied the brother of Placidia, by the assurance that he
would immediately transmit to the palace of Ravenna the heads of
the two tyrants, Jovinus and Sebastian. The king of the Goths
executed his promise without difficulty or delay; the helpless
brothers, unsupported by any personal merit, were abandoned by
their Barbarian auxiliaries; and the short opposition of Valentia
was expiated by the ruin of one of the noblest cities of Gaul.
The emperor, chosen by the Roman senate, who had been promoted,
degraded, insulted, restored, again degraded, and again insulted,
was finally abandoned to his fate; but when the Gothic king
withdrew his protection, he was restrained, by pity or contempt,
from offering any violence to the person of Attalus. The
unfortunate Attalus, who was left without subjects or allies,
embarked in one of the ports of Spain, in search of some secure
and solitary retreat: but he was intercepted at sea, conducted to
the presence of Honorius, led in triumph through the streets of
Rome or Ravenna, and publicly exposed to the gazing multitude, on
the second step of the throne of his invincible conqueror. The
same measure of punishment, with which, in the days of his
prosperity, he was accused of menacing his rival, was inflicted
on Attalus himself; he was condemned, after the amputation of two
fingers, to a perpetual exile in the Isle of Lipari, where he was
supplied with the decent necessaries of life. The remainder of
the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion; and it may be
observed, that, in the space of five years, seven usurpers had
yielded to the fortune of a prince, who was himself incapable
either of counsel or of action.
153 (return) [ Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. v. epist. 9, p. 139, and
Not. Sirmond. p. 58,) after stigmatizing the inconstancy of
Constantine, the facility of Jovinus, the perfidy of Gerontius,
continues to observe, that all the vices of these tyrants were
united in the person of Dardanus. Yet the præfect supported a
respectable character in the world, and even in the church; held
a devout correspondence with St. Augustin and St. Jerom; and was
complimented by the latter (tom. iii. p. 66) with the epithets of
Christianorum Nobilissime, and Nobilium Christianissime.]
154 (return) [ The expression may be understood almost literally:
Olympiodorus says a sack, or a loose garment; and this method of
entangling and catching an enemy, laciniis contortis, was much
practised by the Huns, (Ammian. xxxi. 2.) Il fut pris vif avec
des filets, is the translation of Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. v. p. 608. * Note: Bekker in his Photius reads something,
but in the new edition of the Bysantines, he retains the old
version, which is translated Scutis, as if they protected him
with their shields, in order to take him alive. Photius, Bekker,
p. 58.—M]