The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they could fairly be

transferred from private property to public dominion, would have

adjudged to the emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew,

till he had attained, at least, the fourteenth year of his age.

But the weakness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign,

disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such

was the absolute separation of the two monarchies, both in

interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed,

with less reluctance, the orders of the Persian, than those of

the Italian, court. Under a prince whose weakness is disguised by

the external signs of manhood and discretion, the most worthless

favorites may secretly dispute the empire of the palace; and

dictate to submissive provinces the commands of a master, whom

they direct and despise. But the ministers of a child, who is

incapable of arming them with the sanction of the royal name,

must acquire and exercise an independent authority. The great

officers of the state and army, who had been appointed before the

death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have

inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the

government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the

præfect Anthemius, 65 who obtained, by his superior abilities, a

lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of the

young emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and

his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an

infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians, was

encamped in the heart of Thrace; he proudly rejected all terms of

accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the

Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should alone

terminate the conquest of the Huns. But the desertion of his

confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and

liberality of the Imperial ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the

Danube: the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rear-guard,

was almost extirpated; and many thousand captives were dispersed

to cultivate, with servile labor, the fields of Asia. 66 In the

midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was protected by a

strong enclosure of new and more extensive walls; the same

vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the

Illyrian cities; and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in

the space of seven years, would have secured the command of the

Danube, by establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two

hundred and fifty armed vessels. 67

65 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. l. Anthemius was the grandson

of Philip, one of the ministers of Constantius, and the

grandfather of the emperor Anthemius. After his return from the

Persian embassy, he was appointed consul and Prætorian præfect

of the East, in the year 405 and held the præfecture about ten

years. See his honors and praises in Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom.

vi. p. 350. Tillemont, Hist. des Emptom. vi. p. 1. &c.]

66 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ix. c. 5. He saw some Scyrri at work

near Mount Olympus, in Bithynia, and cherished the vain hope that

those captives were the last of the nation.]

67 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xvi. l. xv. tit. i. leg.

49.]

But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a

monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the Imperial

family, who displayed any courage or capacity, was permitted to

ascend the vacant throne of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria, 68

who was only two years older than himself, received, at the age

of sixteen, the title of Augusta; and though her favor might be

sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern

the Eastern empire near forty years; during the long minority of

her brother, and after his death, in her own name, and in the

name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive either of

prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy; and

notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria, 69

this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia

and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublime

effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people,

the three daughters of Arcadius 70 dedicated their virginity to

God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a

tablet of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great

church of Constantinople. Their palace was converted into a

monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience,

the saints who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were

scrupulously excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, her two

sisters, and a chosen train of favorite damsels, formed a

religious community: they denounced the vanity of dress;

interrupted, by frequent fasts, their simple and frugal diet;

allotted a portion of their time to works of embroidery; and

devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercises of

prayer and psalmody. The piety of a Christian virgin was adorned

by the zeal and liberality of an empress. Ecclesiastical history

describes the splendid churches, which were built at the expense

of Pulcheria, in all the provinces of the East; her charitable

foundations for the benefit of strangers and the poor; the ample

donations which she assigned for the perpetual maintenance of

monastic societies; and the active severity with which she

labored to suppress the opposite heresies of Nestorius and

Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to deserve the peculiar

favor of the Deity: and the relics of martyrs, as well as the

knowledge of future events, were communicated in visions and

revelations to the Imperial saint. 71 Yet the devotion of

Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable attention from

temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants of the

great Theodosius, appears to have inherited any share of his

manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and familiar use which

she had acquired, both of the Greek and Latin languages, was

readily applied to the various occasions of speaking or writing,

on public business: her deliberations were maturely weighed; her

actions were prompt and decisive; and, while she moved, without

noise or ostentation, the wheel of government, she discreetly

attributed to the genius of the emperor the long tranquillity of

his reign. In the last years of his peaceful life, Europe was

indeed afflicted by the arms of war; but the more extensive

provinces of Asia still continued to enjoy a profound and

permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was never reduced to the

disgraceful necessity of encountering and punishing a rebellious

subject: and since we cannot applaud the vigor, some praise may

be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the administration of

Pulcheria.

68 (return) [ Sozomen has filled three chapters with a

magnificent panegyric of Pulcheria, (l. ix. c. 1, 2, 3;) and

Tillemont (Mémoires Eccles. tom. xv. p. 171-184) has dedicated a

separate article to the honor of St. Pulcheria, virgin and

empress. * Note: The heathen Eunapius gives a frightful picture

of the venality and a justice of the court of Pulcheria. Fragm.

Eunap. in Mai, ii. 293, in p. 97.—M.]

69 (return) [ Suidas, (Excerpta, p. 68, in Script. Byzant.)

pretends, on the credit of the Nestorians, that Pulcheria was

exasperated against their founder, because he censured her

connection with the beautiful Paulinus, and her incest with her

brother Theodosius.]

70 (return) [ See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 70. Flaccilla, the

eldest daughter, either died before Arcadius, or, if she lived

till the year 431, (Marcellin. Chron.,) some defect of mind or

body must have excluded her from the honors of her rank.]

71 (return) [ She was admonished, by repeated dreams, of the

place where the relics of the forty martyrs had been buried. The

ground had successively belonged to the house and garden of a

woman of Constantinople, to a monastery of Macedonian monks, and

to a church of St. Thyrsus, erected by Caesarius, who was consul

A.D. 397; and the memory of the relics was almost obliterated.

Notwithstanding the charitable wishes of Dr. Jortin, (Remarks,

tom. iv. p. 234,) it is not easy to acquit Pulcheria of some

share in the pious fraud; which must have been transacted when

she was more than five-and-thirty years of age.]

The Roman world was deeply interested in the education of its

master. A regular course of study and exercise was judiciously

instituted; of the military exercises of riding, and shooting

with the bow; of the liberal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and

philosophy: the most skilful masters of the East ambitiously

solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and several noble

youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his diligence

by the emulation of friendship. Pulcheria alone discharged the

important task of instructing her brother in the arts of

government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicions of

the extent of her capacity, or of the purity of her intentions.

She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to

walk, to hold his robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a

manner worthy of a great prince; to abstain from laughter; to

listen with condescension; to return suitable answers; to assume,

by turns, a serious or a placid countenance: in a word, to

represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman

emperor. But Theodosius 72 was never excited to support the

weight and glory of an illustrious name: and, instead of aspiring

to support his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to

measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of his

father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by

the guardian care of a parent, whose lessons were enforced by his

authority and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is born in

the purple, must remain a stranger to the voice of truth; and the

son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual infancy

encompassed only by a servile train of women and eunuchs. The

ample leisure which he acquired by neglecting the essential

duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements and

unprofitable studies. Hunting was the only active pursuit that

could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most

assiduously labored, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp,

in the mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and the

elegance with which he transcribed religious books entitled the

Roman emperor to the singular epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair

writer. Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil,

Theodosius trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who

were accustomed to amuse and flatter his indolence; and as he

never perused the papers that were presented for the royal

signature, the acts of injustice the most repugnant to his

character were frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor

himself was chaste, temperate, liberal, and merciful; but these

qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues when they

are supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom

beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to mankind.

His mind, enervated by a royal education, was oppressed and

degraded by abject superstition: he fasted, he sung psalms, he

blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines with which his faith

was continually nourished. Theodosius devoutly worshipped the

dead and living saints of the Catholic church; and he once

refused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an

excommunication on his sovereign, condescended to heal the

spiritual wound which he had inflicted. 73

72 (return) [ There is a remarkable difference between the two

ecclesiastical historians, who in general bear so close a

resemblance. Sozomen (l. ix. c. 1) ascribes to Pulcheria the

government of the empire, and the education of her brother, whom

he scarcely condescends to praise. Socrates, though he affectedly

disclaims all hopes of favor or fame, composes an elaborate

panegyric on the emperor, and cautiously suppresses the merits of

his sister, (l. vii. c. 22, 42.) Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 7)

expresses the influence of Pulcheria in gentle and courtly

language. Suidas (Excerpt. p. 53) gives a true character of

Theodosius; and I have followed the example of Tillemont (tom.

vi. p. 25) in borrowing some strokes from the modern Greeks.]

73 (return) [ Theodoret, l. v. c. 37. The bishop of Cyrrhus, one

of the first men of his age for his learning and piety, applauds

the obedience of Theodosius to the divine laws.]

The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted from a private

condition to the Imperial throne, might be deemed an incredible

romance, if such a romance had not been verified in the marriage

of Theodosius. The celebrated Athenais 74 was educated by her

father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and

so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher

entertained of his contemporaries, that he divided his patrimony

between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy

of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively confidence that her

beauty and merit would be a sufficient portion. The jealousy and

avarice of her brothers soon compelled Athenais to seek a refuge

at Constantinople; and, with some hopes, either of justice or

favor, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That sagacious

princess listened to her eloquent complaint; and secretly

destined the daughter of the philosopher Leontius for the future

wife of the emperor of the East, who had now attained the

twentieth year of his age. She easily excited the curiosity of

her brother, by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais;

large eyes, a well-proportioned nose, a fair complexion, golden

locks, a slender person, a graceful demeanor, an understanding

improved by study, and a virtue tried by distress. Theodosius,

concealed behind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was

permitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the modest youth

immediately declared his pure and honorable love; and the royal

nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of the capital

and the provinces. Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce

the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian

name of Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of

Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius had approved her

fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused, fifteen

years afterwards, the emperor of the West. The brothers of

Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but as

she could easily forgive their unfortunate unkindness, she

indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by

promoting them to the rank of consuls and præfects. In the

luxury of the palace, she still cultivated those ingenuous arts

which had contributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her

talents to the honor of religion, and of her husband. Eudocia

composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the

Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah; a

cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of

Christ, the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian

victories of Theodosius; and her writings, which were applauded

by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by

the candor of impartial criticism. 75 The fondness of the emperor

was not abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the

marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful

vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious

progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit

of Christian humility; she pronounced, from a throne of gold and

gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her

royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city, bestowed a

donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public

baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the

gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious

foundations exceeded the munificence of the great Helena, and

though the public treasure might be impoverished by this

excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of

returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the

right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the Virgin,

painted by St. Luke. 76 But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of

the glories of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmindful,

perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired

to the government of the Eastern empire; the palace was

distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last

decided, by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius.

The execution of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the

disgrace of Cyrus, Prætorian præfect of the East, convinced the

public that the favor of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her

most faithful friends; and the uncommon beauty of Paulinus

encouraged the secret rumor, that his guilt was that of a

successful lover. 77 As soon as the empress perceived that the

affection of Theodosius was irretrievably lost, she requested the

permission of retiring to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She

obtained her request; but the jealousy of Theodosius, or the

vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat;

and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish

with death two ecclesiastics, her most favored servants. Eudocia

instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count; the

furious passions which she indulged on this suspicious occasion,

seemed to justify the severity of Theodosius; and the empress,

ignominiously stripped of the honors of her rank, 78 was

disgraced, perhaps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The

remainder of the life of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent

in exile and devotion; and the approach of age, the death of

Theodosius, the misfortunes of her only daughter, who was led a

captive from Rome to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks

of Palestine, insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her

mind. After a full experience of the vicissitudes of human life,

the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired, at Jerusalem,

in the sixty-seventh year of her age; protesting, with her dying

breath, that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence

and friendship. 79

74 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 21) mentions her name,

(Athenais, the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist,) her

baptism, marriage, and poetical genius. The most ancient account

of her history is in John Malala (part ii. p. 20, 21, edit.

Venet. 1743) and in the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 311, 312.) Those

authors had probably seen original pictures of the empress

Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, Cedrenus, &c., have

displayed the love, rather than the talent of fiction. From

Nicephorus, indeed, I have ventured to assume her age. The writer

of a romance would not have imagined, that Athenais was near

twenty eight years old when she inflamed the heart of a young

emperor.]

75 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. 21, Photius, p. 413-420. The

Homeric cento is still extant, and has been repeatedly printed:

but the claim of Eudocia to that insipid performance is disputed

by the critics. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom. i. p. 357.

The Ionia, a miscellaneous dictionary of history and fable, was

compiled by another empress of the name of Eudocia, who lived in

the eleventh century: and the work is still extant in

manuscript.]

76 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 438, 439) is copious

and florid, but he is accused of placing the lies of different

ages on the same level of authenticity.]

77 (return) [ In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I

have imitated the caution of Evagrius (l. i. c. 21) and Count

Marcellinus, (in Chron A.D. 440 and 444.) The two authentic dates

assigned by the latter, overturn a great part of the Greek

fictions; and the celebrated story of the apple, &c., is fit only

for the Arabian Nights, where something not very unlike it may be

found.]

78 (return) [ Priscus, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 69,) a

contemporary, and a courtier, dryly mentions her Pagan and

Christian names, without adding any title of honor or respect.]

79 (return) [ For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long

residence at Jerusalem, her devotion, alms, &c., see Socrates (l.

vii. c. 47) and Evagrius, (l. i. c. 21, 22.) The Paschal

Chronicle may sometimes deserve regard; and in the domestic

history of Antioch, John Malala becomes a writer of good

authority. The Abbe Guenee, in a memoir on the fertility of

Palestine, of which I have only seen an extract, calculates the

gifts of Eudocia at 20,488 pounds of gold, above 800,000 pounds

sterling.]

The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the ambition

of conquest, or military renown; and the slight alarm of a

Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East.

The motives of this war were just and honorable. In the last year

of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a

bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of

the fire-temples of Susa. 80 His zeal and obstinacy were revenged

on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the

intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Varanes, or

Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some Christian

fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly

demanded, and generously refused; and the refusal, aggravated by

commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the rival

monarchies. The mountains of Armenia, and the plains of

Mesopotamia, were filled with hostile armies; but the operations

of two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive

or memorable events. Some engagements were fought, some towns

were besieged, with various and doubtful success: and if the

Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long-lost

possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls

of a Mesopotamian city, by the valor of a martial bishop, who

pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the

Apostle. Yet the splendid victories which the incredible speed of

the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of

Constantinople, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics.

From these panegyrics the historians 81 of the age might borrow

their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales; of the proud

challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and

despatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten

thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman

camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who were

impelled by a panic terror to throw themselves headlong into the

Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the

charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have

dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.

Boldly declaring, that vases of gold and silver are useless to a

God who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the

plate of the church of Amida; employed the price in the

redemption of seven thousand Persian captives; supplied their

wants with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their

native country, to inform their king of the true spirit of the

religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the

midst of war must always tend to assuage the animosity of

contending nations; and I wish to persuade myself, that Acacius

contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which

was held on the limits of the two empires, the Roman ambassadors

degraded the personal character of their sovereign, by a vain

attempt to magnify the extent of his power; when they seriously

advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the

wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this distant war. A

truce of one hundred years was solemnly ratified; and although

the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public

tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were

respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine

and Artaxerxes.

80 (return) [ Theodoret, l. v. c. 39 Tillemont. Mem. Eccles tom.

xii. 356-364. Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396,

tom. iv. p. 61. Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but

extols the constancy of his martyrdom. Yet I do not clearly

understand the casuistry which prohibits our repairing the damage

which we have unlawfully committed.]

81 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21) is the best

author for the Persian war. We may likewise consult the three

Chronicles, the Paschal and those of Marcellinus and Malala.]

Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on the

banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia 82 was alternately

oppressed by its formidable protectors; and in the course of this

History, several events, which inclined the balance of peace and

war, have been already related. A disgraceful treaty had resigned

Armenia to the ambition of Sapor; and the scale of Persia

appeared to preponderate. But the royal race of Arsaces

impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the turbulent

nobles asserted, or betrayed, their hereditary independence; and

the nation was still attached to the Christian princes of

Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia

was divided by the progress of war and faction; 83 and the

unnatural division precipitated the downfall of that ancient

monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned over the Eastern

and most extensive portion of the country; while the Western

province acknowledged the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the

supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. 8111 After the death of

Arsaces, the Romans suppressed the regal government, and imposed

on their allies the condition of subjects. The military command

was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of

Theodosiopolis 84 was built and fortified in a strong situation,

on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates;

and the dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose

dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The

less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and

envied the honors of their equals, were provoked to negotiate

their peace and pardon at the Persian court; and returning, with

their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes

8411 for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards,

Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under the

displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia; and

they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the room of an

unworthy king. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction

they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a

superstitious people. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable

vices of Artasires; and declared, that he should not hesitate to

accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian emperor, who would

punish, without destroying, the sinner. “Our king,” continued

Isaac, “is too much addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has

been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of

women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He may

deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted

Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his manners are

flagitious. I will never consent to abandon my sheep to the rage

of devouring wolves; and you would soon repent your rash exchange

of the infirmities of a believer, for the specious virtues of a

heathen.” 85 Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the factious

nobles accused both the king and the archbishop as the secret

adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the sentence

of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly

pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces were

degraded from the royal dignity, 86 which they had possessed

above five hundred and sixty years; 87 and the dominions of the

unfortunate Artasires, 8711 under the new and significant

appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the form of a

province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman

government; but the rising disputes were soon terminated by an

amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of

Armenia: 8712 and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might

have despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire of

the younger Theodosius.

82 (return) [ This account of the ruin and division of the

kingdom of Armenia is taken from the third book of the Armenian

history of Moses of Chorene. Deficient as he is in every

qualification of a good historian, his local information, his

passions, and his prejudices are strongly expressive of a native

and contemporary. Procopius (de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 1, 5)

relates the same facts in a very different manner; but I have

extracted the circumstances the most probable in themselves, and

the least inconsistent with Moses of Chorene.]

83 (return) [ The western Armenians used the Greek language and

characters in their religious offices; but the use of that

hostile tongue was prohibited by the Persians in the Eastern

provinces, which were obliged to use the Syriac, till the

invention of the Armenian letters by Mesrobes, in the beginning

of the fifth century, and the subsequent version of the Bible

into the Armenian language; an event which relaxed to the

connection of the church and nation with Constantinople.]

84 (return) [ Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 59, p. 309, and p. 358.

Procopius, de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 5. Theodosiopolis stands, or

rather stood, about thirty-five miles to the east of Arzeroum,

the modern capital of Turkish Armenia. See D’Anville, Geographie

Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 99, 100.]

8111 (return) [ The division of Armenia, according to M. St.

Martin, took place much earlier, A. C. 390. The Eastern or

Persian division was four times as large as the Western or Roman.

This partition took place during the reigns of Theodosius the

First, and Varanes (Bahram) the Fourth. St. Martin, Sup. to Le

Beau, iv. 429. This partition was but imperfectly accomplished,

as both parts were afterwards reunited under Chosroes, who paid

tribute both to the Roman emperor and to the Persian king. v.

439.—M.]

8411 (return) [ Chosroes, according to Procopius (who calls him

Arsaces, the common name of the Armenian kings) and the Armenian

writers, bequeathed to his two sons, to Tigranes the Persian, to

Arsaces the Roman, division of Armenia, A. C. 416. With the

assistance of the discontented nobles the Persian king placed his

son Sapor on the throne of the Eastern division; the Western at

the same time was united to the Roman empire, and called the

Greater Armenia. It was then that Theodosiopolis was built. Sapor

abandoned the throne of Armenia to assert his rights to that of

Persia; he perished in the struggle, and after a period of

anarchy, Bahram V., who had ascended the throne of Persia, placed

the last native prince, Ardaschir, son of Bahram Schahpour, on

the throne of the Persian division of Armenia. St. Martin, v.

506. This Ardaschir was the Artasires of Gibbon. The archbishop

Isaac is called by the Armenians the Patriarch Schag. St. Martin,

vi. 29.—M.]

85 (return) [ Moses Choren, l. iii. c. 63, p. 316. According to

the institution of St. Gregory, the Apostle of Armenia, the

archbishop was always of the royal family; a circumstance which,

in some degree, corrected the influence of the sacerdotal

character, and united the mitre with the crown.]

86 (return) [ A branch of the royal house of Arsaces still

subsisted with the rank and possessions (as it should seem) of

Armenian satraps. See Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 65, p. 321.]

87 (return) [ Valarsaces was appointed king of Armenia by his

brother the Parthian monarch, immediately after the defeat of

Antiochus Sidetes, (Moses Choren. l. ii. c. 2, p. 85,) one

hundred and thirty years before Christ. Without depending on the

various and contradictory periods of the reigns of the last

kings, we may be assured, that the ruin of the Armenian kingdom

happened after the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 431, (l. iii. c.

61, p. 312;) and under Varamus, or Bahram, king of Persia, (l.

iii. c. 64, p. 317,) who reigned from A.D. 420 to 440. See

Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396. * Note: Five

hundred and eighty. St. Martin, ibid. He places this event A. C

429.—M.——Note: According to M. St. Martin, vi. 32, Vagharschah,

or Valarsaces, was appointed king by his brother Mithridates the

Great, king of Parthia.—M.]

8711 (return) [ Artasires or Ardaschir was probably sent to the

castle of Oblivion. St. Martin, vi. 31.—M.]

8712 (return) [ The duration of the Armenian kingdom according to

M. St. Martin, was 580 years.—M]

Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.—Part I.

Death Of Honorius.—Valentinian III.—Emperor Of The East.

—Administration Of His Mother Placidia—Ætius And

Boniface.—Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.

During a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years,

Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship

of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over

the East; and Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference

and secret joy, the calamities of Rome. The strange adventures of

Placidia 1 gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the two

empires. The daughter of the great Theodosius had been the

captive, and the queen, of the Goths; she lost an affectionate

husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she

tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the treaty

of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her

return from Spain to Italy, Placidia experienced a new

persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a

marriage, which had been stipulated without her consent; and the

brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom he had

vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius himself, the

struggling and the reluctant hand of the widow of Adolphus. But

her resistance ended with the ceremony of the nuptials: nor did

Placidia refuse to become the mother of Honoria and Valentinian

the Third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion over

the mind of her grateful husband. The generous soldier, whose

time had hitherto been divided between social pleasure and

military service, was taught new lessons of avarice and ambition:

he extorted the title of Augustus: and the servant of Honorius

was associated to the empire of the West. The death of

Constantius, in the seventh month of his reign, instead of

diminishing, seemed to inerease the power of Placidia; and the

indecent familiarity 2 of her brother, which might be no more

than the symptoms of a childish affection, were universally

attributed to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base

intrigues of a steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness was

converted into an irreconcilable quarrel: the debates of the

emperor and his sister were not long confined within the walls of

the palace; and as the Gothic soldiers adhered to their queen,

the city of Ravenna was agitated with bloody and dangerous

tumults, which could only be appeased by the forced or voluntary

retreat of Placidia and her children. The royal exiles landed at

Constantinople, soon after the marriage of Theodosius, during the

festival of the Persian victories. They were treated with

kindness and magnificence; but as the statues of the emperor

Constantius had been rejected by the Eastern court, the title of

Augusta could not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few

months after the arrival of Placidia, a swift messenger announced

the death of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the

important secret was not divulged, till the necessary orders had

been despatched for the march of a large body of troops to the

sea-coast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of Constantinople

remained shut during seven days; and the loss of a foreign

prince, who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was

celebrated with loud and affected demonstrations of the public

grief.

1 (return) [ See vol. iii. p. 296.]

2 (return) [ It is the expression of Olympiodorus (apud Phetium

p. 197;) who means, perhaps, to describe the same caresses which

Mahomet bestowed on his daughter Phatemah. Quando, (says the

prophet himself,) quando subit mihi desiderium Paradisi, osculor

eam, et ingero linguam meam in os ejus. But this sensual

indulgence was justified by miracle and mystery; and the anecdote

has been communicated to the public by the Reverend Father

Maracci in his Version and Confutation of the Koran, tom. i. p.

32.]

While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the vacant

throne of Honorius was usurped by the ambition of a stranger. The

name of the rebel was John; he filled the confidential office of

Primicerius, or principal secretary, and history has attributed

to his character more virtues, than can easily be reconciled with

the violation of the most sacred duty. Elated by the submission

of Italy, and the hope of an alliance with the Huns, John

presumed to insult, by an embassy, the majesty of the Eastern

emperor; but when he understood that his agents had been

banished, imprisoned, and at length chased away with deserved

ignominy, John prepared to assert, by arms, the injustice of his

claims. In such a cause, the grandson of the great Theodosius

should have marched in person: but the young emperor was easily

diverted, by his physicians, from so rash and hazardous a design;

and the conduct of the Italian expedition was prudently intrusted

to Ardaburius, and his son Aspar, who had already signalized

their valor against the Persians. It was resolved, that

Ardaburius should embark with the infantry; whilst Aspar, at the

head of the cavalry, conducted Placidia and her son Valentinian

along the sea-coast of the Adriatic. The march of the cavalry was

performed with such active diligence, that they surprised,

without resistance, the important city of Aquileia: when the

hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confounded by the intelligence,

that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet; and that his

father, with only two galleys, was taken and carried a prisoner

into the port of Ravenna. Yet this incident, unfortunate as it

might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy. Ardaburius

employed, or abused, the courteous freedom which he was permitted

to enjoy, to revive among the troops a sense of loyalty and

gratitude; and as soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution,

he invited, by private messages, and pressed the approach of,

Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity transformed into an

angel, guided the eastern cavalry by a secret, and, it was

thought, an impassable road, through the morasses of the Po: the

gates of Ravenna, after a short struggle, were thrown open; and

the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the mercy, or rather to

the cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand was first cut off;

and, after he had been exposed, mounted on an ass, to the public

derision, John was beheaded in the circus of Aquileia. The

emperor Theodosius, when he received the news of the victory,

interrupted the horse-races; and singing, as he marched through

the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his people from the

Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the remainder of the day

in grateful devotion. 3

3 (return) [ For these revolutions of the Western empire, consult

Olympiodor, apud Phot. p. 192, 193, 196, 197, 200; Sozomen, l.

ix. c. 16; Socrates, l. vii. 23, 24; Philostorgius, l. xii. c.

10, 11, and Godefroy, Dissertat p. 486; Procopius, de Bell.

Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 182, 183, in Chronograph, p. 72, 73, and

the Chronicles.]

In a monarchy, which, according to various precedents, might be

considered as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, it was

impossible that the intricate claims of female and collateral

succession should be clearly defined; 4 and Theodosius, by the

right of consanguinity or conquest, might have reigned the sole

legitimate emperor of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes

were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway; but his indolent

temper gradually acquiesced in the dictates of sound policy. He

contented himself with the possession of the East; and wisely

relinquished the laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful

war against the Barbarians beyond the Alps; or of securing the

obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were

alienated by the irreconcilable difference of language and

interest. Instead of listening to the voice of ambition,

Theodosius resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather,

and to seat his cousin Valentinian on the throne of the West. The

royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the title of

Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before his departure from

Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of Caesar; and after the

conquest of Italy, the patrician Helion, by the authority of

Theodosius, and in the presence of the senate, saluted

Valentinian the Third by the name of Augustus, and solemnly

invested him with the diadem and the Imperial purple. 5 By the

agreement of the three females who governed the Roman world, the

son of Placidia was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of

Theodosius and Athenais; and as soon as the lover and his bride

had attained the age of puberty, this honorable alliance was

faithfully accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation,

perhaps, for the expenses of the war, the Western Illyricum was

detached from the Italian dominions, and yielded to the throne of

Constantinople. 6 The emperor of the East acquired the useful

dominion of the rich and maritime province of Dalmatia, and the

dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum, which had been

filled and ravaged above twenty years by a promiscuous crowd of

Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Bavarians. Theodosius and

Valentinian continued to respect the obligations of their public

and domestic alliance; but the unity of the Roman government was

finally dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of all

future laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar

author; unless he should think proper to communicate them,

subscribed with his own hand, for the approbation of his

independent colleague. 7

4 (return) [ See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, l. ii. c. 7. He

has laboriously out vainly, attempted to form a reasonable system

of jurisprudence from the various and discordant modes of royal

succession, which have been introduced by fraud or force, by time

or accident.]

5 (return) [ The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori,

Annali d’Italia tom. iv. p. 139) whether Valentinian received the

Imperial diadem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, I am

willing to believe, that some respect was shown to the senate.]

6 (return) [ The count de Buat (Hist. des Peup es de l’Europe,

tom. vii. p. 292-300) has established the reality, explained the

motives, and traced the consequences, of this remarkable

cession.]

7 (return) [ See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he

ratifies and communicates (A.D. 438) the Theodosian Code. About

forty years before that time, the unity of legislation had been

proved by an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the cities

of Apulia and Calabria, produced a law of the East to justify

their exemption from municipal offices, (Cod. Theod. l. xvi. tit.

viii. leg. 13;) and the Western emperor was obliged to

invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis

partibus esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit. i. leg. 158.]

Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no more

than six years of age; and his long minority was intrusted to the

guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim to the

succession of the Western empire. Placidia envied, but she could

not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of

Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and

successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was

jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; 8 she

reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the

character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the

suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute

education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly

and honorable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her

armies were commanded by two generals, Ætius 9 and Boniface, 10

who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their

union might have supported a sinking empire; their discord was

the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion

and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Ætius; and

though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival,

the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest

the military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle,

in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror

of the Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his friend

Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which had once

tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded his

spotless integrity; the army dreaded his equal and inexorable

justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A

peasant, who complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife

and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the

following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently

informed himself of the time and place of the assignation,

mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the

guilty couple, punished the soldier with instant death, and

silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the

next morning, with the head of the adulterer. The abilities of

Ætius and Boniface might have been usefully employed against the

public enemies, in separate and important commands; but the

experience of their past conduct should have decided the real

favor and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy

season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained

her cause with unshaken fidelity: and the troops and treasures of

Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the rebellion.

The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal and activity of

Ætius, who brought an army of sixty thousand Huns from the

Danube to the confines of Italy, for the service of the usurper.

The untimely death of John compelled him to accept an

advantageous treaty; but he still continued, the subject and the

soldier of Valentinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a

treasonable, correspondence with his Barbarian allies, whose

retreat had been purchased by liberal gifts, and more liberal

promises. But Ætius possessed an advantage of singular moment in

a female reign; he was present: he besieged, with artful and

assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark

designs with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at length

deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a subtle

conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not easily

suspect. He had secretly persuaded 11 Placidia to recall Boniface

from the government of Africa; he secretly advised Boniface to

disobey the Imperial summons: to the one, he represented the

order as a sentence of death; to the other, he stated the refusal

as a signal of revolt; and when the credulous and unsuspectful

count had armed the province in his defence, Ætius applauded his

sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion, which his own perfidy had

excited. A temperate inquiry into the real motives of Boniface

would have restored a faithful servant to his duty and to the

republic; but the arts of Ætius still continued to betray and to

inflame, and the count was urged, by persecution, to embrace the

most desperate counsels. The success with which he eluded or

repelled the first attacks, could not inspire a vain confidence,

that at the head of some loose, disorderly Africans, he should be

able to withstand the regular forces of the West, commanded by a

rival, whose military character it was impossible for him to

despise. After some hesitation, the last struggles of prudence

and loyalty, Boniface despatched a trusty friend to the court, or

rather to the camp, of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the

proposal of a strict alliance, and the offer of an advantageous

and perpetual settlement.

8 (return) [ Cassiodorus (Variar. l. xi. Epist. i. p. 238) has

compared the regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns

the weakness of the mother of Valentinian, and praises the

virtues of his royal mistress. On this occasion, flattery seems

to have spoken the language of truth.]

9 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy’s

Dissertat. p. 493, &c.; and Renatus Frigeridus, apud Gregor.

Turon. l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Ætius was

Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the province of Scythia,

and master-general of the cavalry; his mother was a rich and

noble Italian. From his earliest youth, Ætius, as a soldier and

a hostage, had conversed with the Barbarians.]

10 (return) [ For the character of Boniface, see Olympiodorus,

apud Phot. p. 196; and St. Augustin apud Tillemont, Mémoires

Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 712-715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at length

deplored the fall of his friend, who, after a solemn vow of

chastity, had married a second wife of the Arian sect, and who

was suspected of keeping several concubines in his house.]

11 (return) [ Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, 4, p.

182-186) relates the fraud of Ætius, the revolt of Boniface, and

the loss of Africa. This anecdote, which is supported by some

collateral testimony, (see Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. p.

420, 421,) seems agreeable to the practice of ancient and modern

courts, and would be naturally revealed by the repentance of

Boniface.]

After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had

obtained a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in the

province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had

fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile

independence. The Vandals prevailed; and their adversaries were

besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till

the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the

victorious Barbarians to remove the scene of the war to the

plains of Boetica. The rapid progress of the Vandals soon

acquired a more effectual opposition; and the master-general

Castinus marched against them with a numerous army of Romans and

Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior army, Castinus fled

with dishonor to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has

been represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect,

of his rash presumption. 12 Seville and Carthagena became the

reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the

vessels which they found in the harbor of Carthagena might easily

transport them to the Isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the

Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed

their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation,

and perhaps the prospect of Africa, encouraged the Vandals to

accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface;

and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the

bold enterprise. In the room of a prince not conspicuous for any

superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard

brother, the terrible Genseric; 13 a name, which, in the

destruction of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank with

the names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is

described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in

one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his

horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep

purposes of his soul; he disdained to imitate the luxury of the

vanquished; but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and

revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds and without

scruples; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark

engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to

his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred

and contention. Almost in the moment of his departure he was

informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to

ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon.

Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of

the Suevi as far as Merida; precipitated the king and his army

into the River Anas, and calmly returned to the sea-shore to

embark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported the

Vandals over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only

twelve miles in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards, who

anxiously wished their departure; and by the African general, who

had implored their formidable assistance. 14

12 (return) [ See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius. Salvian

(de Gubernat. Dei, l. vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608) ascribes the

victory of the Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted, they

prayed, they carried a Bible in the front of the Host, with the

design, perhaps, of reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of

their enemies.]

13 (return) [ Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura

mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone

rarus, luxuriae contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad

solicitandas gentes providentissimus, semina contentionum jacere,

odia miscere paratus. Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33, p. 657.

This portrait, which is drawn with some skill, and a strong

likeness, must have been copied from the Gothic history of

Cassiodorus.]

14 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a

Spaniard and a contemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in

the month of May, of the year of Abraham, (which commences in

October,) 2444. This date, which coincides with A.D. 429, is

confirmed by Isidore, another Spanish bishop, and is justly

preferred to the opinion of those writers who have marked for

that event one of the two preceding years. See Pagi Critica, tom.

ii. p. 205, &c.]

Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the

martial swarms of Barbarians that seemed to issue from the North,

will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army which

Genseric mustered on the coast of Mauritania. The Vandals, who in

twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were

united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned

with equal authority over the Alani, who had passed, within the

term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive

heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold enterprise had

excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and many

desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by

the same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various

multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and

though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength, by

appointing eighty chinarchs, or commanders of thousands, the

fallacious increase of old men, of children, and of slaves, would

scarcely have swelled his army to the number of four-score

thousand persons. 15 But his own dexterity, and the discontents

of Africa, soon fortified the Vandal powers, by the accession of

numerous and active allies. The parts of Mauritania which border

on the Great Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, were filled with a

fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage temper had been

exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of the Roman

arms. The wandering Moors, 16 as they gradually ventured to

approach the seashore, and the camp of the Vandals, must have

viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armor, the

martial pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had

landed on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blue-eyed

warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the

swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighborhood of

the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some measure

been removed, which arose from the mutual ignorance of their

respective language, the Moors, regardless of any future

consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of Rome; and a

crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and valleys of Mount

Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who had

injuriously expelled them from the native sovereignty of the

land.

15 (return) [ Compare Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.

190) and Victor Vitensis, (de Persecutione Vandal. l. i. c. 1, p.

3, edit. Ruinart.) We are assured by Idatius, that Genseric

evacuated Spain, cum Vandalis omnibus eorumque familiis; and

Possidius (in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart, p. 427)

describes his army as manus ingens immanium gentium Vandalorum et

Alanorum, commixtam secum babens Gothorum gentem, aliarumque

diversarum personas.]

16 (return) [ For the manners of the Moors, see Procopius, (de

Bell. Vandal. l. ii. c. 6, p. 249;) for their figure and

complexion, M. de Buffon, (Histoire Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 430.)

Procopius says in general, that the Moors had joined the Vandals

before the death of Valentinian, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.

190;) and it is probable that the independent tribes did not

embrace any uniform system of policy.]

The persecution of the Donatists 17 was an event not less

favorable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before he

landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by

the order of the magistrate. The Catholics were satisfied, that,

after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the

obstinacy of the schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary;

and the emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most

rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his

patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops, 18 with many

thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches,

stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the

islands, and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal

themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous

congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived

of the rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious

worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds

of silver, was curiously ascertained, according to the

distinction of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of assisting

at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five

times, without subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future

punishment was referred to the discretion of the Imperial court.

19 By these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of

St. Augustin, 20 great numbers of Donatists were reconciled to

the Catholic Church; but the fanatics, who still persevered in

their opposition, were provoked to madness and despair; the

distracted country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the

armed troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage

against themselves, or against their adversaries; and the

calendar of martyrs received on both sides a considerable

augmentation. 21 Under these circumstances, Genseric, a

Christian, but an enemy of the orthodox communion, showed himself

to the Donatists as a powerful deliverer, from whom they might

reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts

of the Roman emperors. 22 The conquest of Africa was facilitated

by the active zeal, or the secret favor, of a domestic faction;

the wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy of which

the Vandals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the fanaticism

of their allies; and the intolerant spirit which disgraced the

triumph of Christianity, contributed to the loss of the most

important province of the West. 23

17 (return) [ See Tillemont, Mémoires Eccles. tom. xiii. p.

516-558; and the whole series of the persecution, in the original

monuments, published by Dupin at the end of Optatus, p. 323-515.]

18 (return) [ The Donatist Bishops, at the conference of

Carthage, amounted to 279; and they asserted that their whole

number was not less than 400. The Catholics had 286 present, 120

absent, besides sixty four vacant bishoprics.]

19 (return) [ The fifth title of the sixteenth book of the

Theodosian Code exhibits a series of the Imperial laws against

the Donatists, from the year 400 to the year 428. Of these the

54th law, promulgated by Honorius, A.D. 414, is the most severe

and effectual.]

20 (return) [ St. Augustin altered his opinion with regard tosthe

proper treatment of heretics. His pathetic declaration of pity

and indulgence for the Manichæans, has been inserted by Mr.

Locke (vol. iii. p. 469) among the choice specimens of his

common-place book. Another philosopher, the celebrated Bayle,

(tom. ii. p. 445-496,) has refuted, with superfluous diligence

and ingenuity, the arguments by which the bishop of Hippo

justified, in his old age, the persecution of the Donatists.]

21 (return) [ See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 586-592,

806. The Donatists boasted of thousands of these voluntary

martyrs. Augustin asserts, and probably with truth, that these

numbers were much exaggerated; but he sternly maintains, that it

was better that some should burn themselves in this world, than

that all should burn in hell flames.]

22 (return) [ According to St. Augustin and Theodoret, the

Donatists were inclined to the principles, or at least to the

party, of the Arians, which Genseric supported. Tillemont, Mem.

Eccles. tom. vi. p. 68.]

23 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 428, No. 7, A.D.

439, No. 35. The cardinal, though more inclined to seek the cause

of great events in heaven than on the earth, has observed the

apparent connection of the Vandals and the Donatists. Under the

reign of the Barbarians, the schismatics of Africa enjoyed an

obscure peace of one hundred years; at the end of which we may

again trace them by the fight of the Imperial persecutions. See

Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 192. &c.]

The court and the people were astonished by the strange

intelligence, that a virtuous hero, after so many favors, and so

many services, had renounced his allegiance, and invited the

Barbarians to destroy the province intrusted to his command. The

friends of Boniface, who still believed that his criminal

behavior might be excused by some honorable motive, solicited,

during the absence of Ætius, a free conference with the Count of

Africa; and Darius, an officer of high distinction, was named for

the important embassy. 24 In their first interview at Carthage,

the imaginary provocations were mutually explained; the opposite

letters of Ætius were produced and compared; and the fraud was

easily detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented their fatal

error; and the count had sufficient magnanimity to confide in the

forgiveness of his sovereign, or to expose his head to her future

resentment. His repentance was fervent and sincere; but he soon

discovered that it was no longer in his power to restore the

edifice which he had shaken to its foundations. Carthage and the

Roman garrisons returned with their general to the allegiance of

Valentinian; but the rest of Africa was still distracted with war

and faction; and the inexorable king of the Vandals, disdaining

all terms of accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the

possession of his prey. The band of veterans who marched under

the standard of Boniface, and his hasty levies of provincial

troops, were defeated with considerable loss; the victorious

Barbarians insulted the open country; and Carthage, Cirta, and

Hippo Regius, were the only cities that appeared to rise above

the general inundation.

24 (return) [ In a confidential letter to Count Boniface, St.

Augustin, without examining the grounds of the quarrel, piously

exhorts him to discharge the duties of a Christian and a subject:

to extricate himself without delay from his dangerous and guilty

situation; and even, if he could obtain the consent of his wife,

to embrace a life of celibacy and penance, (Tillemont, Mem.

Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 890.) The bishop was intimately connected

with Darius, the minister of peace, (Id. tom. xiii. p. 928.)]

The long and narrow tract of the African coast was filled with

frequent monuments of Roman art and magnificence; and the

respective degrees of improvement might be accurately measured by

the distance from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple

reflection will impress every thinking mind with the clearest

idea of fertility and cultivation: the country was extremely

populous; the inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for

their own use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat,

was so regular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of

the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden the seven

fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by

the invasion of the Vandals; whose destructive rage has perhaps

been exaggerated by popular animosity, religious zeal, and

extravagant declamation. War, in its fairest form, implies a

perpetual violation of humanity and justice; and the hostilities

of Barbarians are inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit which

incessantly disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The

Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and

the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin

of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the

distinctions of age, or sex, or rank, they employed every species

of indignity and torture, to force from the captives a discovery

of their hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified

his frequent examples of military execution: he was not always

the master of his own passions, or of those of his followers; and

the calamities of war were aggravated by the licentiousness of

the Moors, and the fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not

easily be persuaded, that it was the common practice of the

Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit trees, of a

country where they intended to settle: nor can I believe that it

was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of their

prisoners before the walls of a besieged city, for the sole

purpose of infecting the air, and producing a pestilence, of

which they themselves must have been the first victims. 25

25 (return) [ The original complaints of the desolation of Africa

are contained 1. In a letter from Capreolus, bishop of Carthage,

to excuse his absence from the council of Ephesus, (ap. Ruinart,

p. 427.) 2. In the life of St. Augustin, by his friend and

colleague Possidius, (ap. Ruinart, p. 427.) 3. In the history of

the Vandalic persecution, by Victor Vitensis, (l. i. c. 1, 2, 3,

edit. Ruinart.) The last picture, which was drawn sixty years

after the event, is more expressive of the author’s passions than

of the truth of facts.]

The generous mind of Count Boniface was tortured by the exquisite

distress of beholding the ruin which he had occasioned, and whose

rapid progress he was unable to check. After the loss of a battle

he retired into Hippo Regius; where he was immediately besieged

by an enemy, who considered him as the real bulwark of Africa.

The maritime colony of Hippo, 26 about two hundred miles westward

of Carthage, had formerly acquired the distinguishing epithet of

Regius, from the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of

trade and populousness still adhere to the modern city, which is

known in Europe by the corrupted name of Bona. The military

labors, and anxious reflections, of Count Boniface, were

alleviated by the edifying conversation of his friend St.

Augustin; 27 till that bishop, the light and pillar of the

Catholic church, was gently released, in the third month of the

siege, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age, from the actual

and the impending calamities of his country. The youth of

Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors which he so

ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of his conversion to

that of his death, the manners of the bishop of Hippo were pure

and austere: and the most conspicuous of his virtues was an

ardent zeal against heretics of every denomination; the

Manichæans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, against whom he

waged a perpetual controversy. When the city, some months after

his death, was burnt by the Vandals, the library was fortunately

saved, which contained his voluminous writings; two hundred and

thirty-two separate books or treatises on theological subjects,

besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the gospel, and

a copious magazine of epistles and homilies. 28 According to the

judgment of the most impartial critics, the superficial learning

of Augustin was confined to the Latin language; 29 and his style,

though sometimes animated by the eloquence of passion, is usually

clouded by false and affected rhetoric. But he possessed a

strong, capacious, argumentative mind; he boldly sounded the dark

abyss of grace, predestination, free will, and original sin; and

the rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored, 30

has been entertained, with public applause, and secret

reluctance, by the Latin church. 31

26 (return) [ See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. part ii.

p. 112. Leo African. in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 70. L’Afrique de

Marmol, tom. ii. p. 434, 437. Shaw’s Travels, p. 46, 47. The old

Hippo Regius was finally destroyed by the Arabs in the seventh

century; but a new town, at the distance of two miles, was built

with the materials; and it contained, in the sixteenth century,

about three hundred families of industrious, but turbulent

manufacturers. The adjacent territory is renowned for a pure air,

a fertile soil, and plenty of exquisite fruits.]

27 (return) [ The life of St. Augustin, by Tillemont, fills a

quarto volume (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii.) of more than one thousand

pages; and the diligence of that learned Jansenist was excited,

on this occasion, by factious and devout zeal for the founder of

his sect.]

28 (return) [ Such, at least, is the account of Victor Vitensis,

(de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 3;) though Gennadius seems to

doubt whether any person had read, or even collected, all the

works of St. Augustin, (see Hieronym. Opera, tom. i. p. 319, in

Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.) They have been repeatedly printed;

and Dupin (Bibliothèque Eccles. tom. iii. p. 158-257) has given a

large and satisfactory abstract of them as they stand in the last

edition of the Benedictines. My personal acquaintance with the

bishop of Hippo does not extend beyond the Confessions, and the

City of God.]

29 (return) [ In his early youth (Confess. i. 14) St. Augustin

disliked and neglected the study of Greek; and he frankly owns

that he read the Platonists in a Latin version, (Confes. vii. 9.)

Some modern critics have thought, that his ignorance of Greek

disqualified him from expounding the Scriptures; and Cicero or

Quintilian would have required the knowledge of that language in

a professor of rhetoric.]

30 (return) [ These questions were seldom agitated, from the time

of St. Paul to that of St. Augustin. I am informed that the Greek

fathers maintain the natural sentiments of the Semi-Pelagians;

and that the orthodoxy of St. Augustin was derived from the

Manichaean school.]

31 (return) [ The church of Rome has canonized Augustin, and

reprobated Calvin. Yet as the real difference between them is

invisible even to a theological microscope, the Molinists are

oppressed by the authority of the saint, and the Jansenists are

disgraced by their resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while,

the Protestant Arminians stand aloof, and deride the mutual

perplexity of the disputants, (see a curious Review of the

Controversy, by Le Clerc, Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xiv. p.

144-398.) Perhaps a reasoner still more independent may smile in

his turn, when he peruses an Arminian Commentary on the Epistle

to the Romans.]

Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.—Part II.

By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of the

Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above fourteen months:

the sea was continually open; and when the adjacent country had

been exhausted by irregular rapine, the besiegers themselves were

compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The

importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of

the West. Placidia implored the assistance of her eastern ally;

and the Italian fleet and army were reenforced by Asper, who

sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as

the force of the two empires was united under the command of

Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of

a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He

embarked with the precipitation of despair; and the people of

Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy

the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were

either slain or made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose

fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might

enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon

removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with

gratitude the rank of patrician, and the dignity of

master-general of the Roman armies; but he must have blushed at

the sight of those medals, in which he was represented with the

name and attributes of victory. 32 The discovery of his fraud,

the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favor of

his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Ætius.

He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a retinue, or rather

with an army, of Barbarian followers; and such was the weakness

of the government, that the two generals decided their private

quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was successful; but he

received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his

adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such

Christian and charitable sentiments, that he exhorted his wife, a

rich heiress of Spain, to accept Ætius for her second husband.

But Ætius could not derive any immediate advantage from the

generosity of his dying enemy: he was proclaimed a rebel by the

justice of Placidia; and though he attempted to defend some

strong fortresses, erected on his patrimonial estate, the

Imperial power soon compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the

tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived, by their

mutual discord, of the service of her two most illustrious

champions. 33

32 (return) [ Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head

of Valentinian; on the reverse, Boniface, with a scourge in one

hand, and a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which

is drawn by four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags; an

unlucky emblem! I should doubt whether another example can be

found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an Imperial

medal. See Science des Medailles, by the Pere Jobert, tom. i. p.

132-150, edit. of 1739, by the haron de la Bastie. * Note: Lord

Mahon, Life of Belisarius, p. 133, mentions one of Belisarius on

the authority of Cedrenus—M.]

33 (return) [ Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 185)

continues the history of Boniface no further than his return to

Italy. His death is mentioned by Prosper and Marcellinus; the

expression of the latter, that Ætius, the day before, had

provided himself with a longer spear, implies something like a

regular duel.]

It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface,

that the Vandals would achieve, without resistance or delay, the

conquest of Africa. Eight years, however, elapsed, from the

evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of

that interval, the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of

apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he

gave his son Hunneric for a hostage; and consented to leave the

Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three

Mauritanias. 34 This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the

justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror.

His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the

baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his

nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he

sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the

deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river

Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and

frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have

shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in

the field of battle. 35 The convulsions of Africa, which had

favored his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power;

and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists

and Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the

unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards

Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops from the Western

provinces; the sea-coast was exposed to the naval enterprises of

the Romans of Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the

strong inland city of Corta still persisted in obstinate

independence. 36 These difficulties were gradually subdued by the

spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric; who

alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the

establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn

treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of

its continuance, and the moment of its violation. The vigilance

of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship,

which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length

surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years

after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger

Scipio. 37

34 (return) [ See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186.

Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the

distress of his Numidian and Mauritanian subjects; he discharged

them, in a great measure, from the payment of their debts,

reduced their tribute to one eighth, and gave them a right of

appeal from their provincial magistrates to the præfect of Rome.

Cod. Theod. tom. vi. Novell. p. 11, 12.]

35 (return) [ Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. ii. c. 5,

p. 26. The cruelties of Genseric towards his subjects are

strongly expressed in Prosper’s Chronicle, A.D. 442.]

36 (return) [ Possidius, in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart,

p. 428.]

37 (return) [ See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper,

and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days, for

the surprisal of Carthage.]

A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony;

and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of

Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the

splendor of Antioch, she still maintained the second rank in the

West; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of

the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis 38

displayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a flourishing

republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the

treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of civil

honors gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and

quarters of the city, to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate,

who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and

dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were

instituted for the education of the African youth; and the

liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were

publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings

of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was

planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and

capacious harbor, was subservient to the commercial industry of

citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and

theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the Barbarians.

The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of

their country, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to

their subtle and faithless character. 39 The habits of trade, and

the abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their

impious contempt of monks, and the shameless practice of

unnatural lusts, are the two abominations which excite the pious

vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age. 40 The king of the

Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and

the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these

expressions of Victor are not without energy) was reduced by

Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had

permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and

avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and

oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all persons,

without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels,

and valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the

attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was inexorably

punished with death and torture, as an act of treason against the

state. The lands of the proconsular province, which formed the

immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured, and

divided among the Barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for his

peculiar domain the fertile territory of Byzacium, and the

adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia. 41

38 (return) [ The picture of Carthage; as it flourished in the

fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expositio totius

Mundi, p. 17, 18, in the third volume of Hudson’s Minor

Geographers, from Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229; and

principally from Salvian, de Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p. 257,

258.]

39 (return) [ The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi

compares in his barbarous Latin, the country and the inhabitants;

and, after stigmatizing their want of faith, he coolly concludes,

Difficile autem inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci

boni esse possunt P. 18.]

40 (return) [ He declares, that the peculiar vices of each

country were collected in the sink of Carthage, (l. vii. p. 257.)

In the indulgence of vice, the Africans applauded their manly

virtue. Et illi se magis virilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui

maxime vires foeminei usus probositate fregissent, (p. 268.) The

streets of Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who

publicly assumed the countenance, the dress, and the character of

women, (p. 264.) If a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was

pursued with impious scorn and ridicule; de testantibus ridentium

cachinnis, (p. 289.)]

41 (return) [ Compare Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.

189, 190, and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut Vandal. l. i. c. 4.]

It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he had

injured: the nobility and senators of Carthage were exposed to

his jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused the

ignominious terms, which their honor and religion forbade them to

accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the

condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces

of the East, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives,

and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public compassion;

and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret still preserve the

names and misfortunes of Cælestian and Maria. 42 The Syrian

bishop deplores the misfortunes of Cælestian, who, from the

state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced,

with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a

foreign country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian

exile, and the philosophic temper, which, under the pressure of

such calamities, could enjoy more real happiness than was the

ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria, the

daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon, is singular and

interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was purchased from the

Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a

slave in their native country. A female attendant, transported in

the same ship, and sold in the same family, still continued to

respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level

of servitude; and the daughter of Eudaemon received from her

grateful affection the domestic services which she had once

required from her obedience. This remarkable behavior divulged

the real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop of

Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the generosity of some

soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret provided

for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the

deaconesses of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed,

that her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage,

exercised an honorable office in one of the Western provinces.

Her filial impatience was seconded by the pious bishop:

Theodoret, in a letter still extant, recommends Maria to the

bishop of Aegae, a maritime city of Cilicia, which was

frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West;

most earnestly requesting, that his colleague would use the

maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would

intrust her to the care of such faithful merchants, as would

esteem it a sufficient gain, if they restored a daughter, lost

beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent.

42 (return) [ Ruinart (p. 441-457) has collected from Theodoret,

and other authors, the misfortunes, real and fabulous, of the

inhabitants of Carthage.]

Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted

to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers; 43

whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger

Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa by the Vandals. 44 When

the emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths

of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side

of an adjacent mountain; where they were doomed to perish by the

tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly

secured by the a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into

a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged without injuring

the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and

eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the slaves of

Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended,

removed the stones to supply materials for some rustic edifice:

the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the Seven

Sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they

thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger;

and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should

secretly return to the city to purchase bread for the use of his

companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation)

could no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his native

country; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a

large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of

Ephesus. His singular dress, and obsolete language, confounded

the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the

current coin of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a

secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual

inquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were

almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from

the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy,

the magistrates, the people, and, as it is said, the emperor

Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven

Sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story,

and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this

marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and

credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may

be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of

Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years after the

death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two

hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the young men of

Ephesus. 45 Their legend, before the end of the sixth century,

was translated from the Syriac into the Latin language, by the

care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile communions of the East

preserve their memory with equal reverence; and their names are

honorably inscribed in the Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian

calendar. 46 Nor has their reputation been confined to the

Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn

when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced as

a divine revelation, into the Koran. 47 The story of the Seven

Sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations, from Bengal

to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion; 48 and some

vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the

remote extremities of Scandinavia. 49 This easy and universal

belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to

the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance

from youth to age, without observing the gradual, but incessant,

change of human affairs; and even in our larger experience of

history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of

causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But if

the interval between two memorable eras could be instantly

annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of

two hundred years, to display the new world to the eyes of a

spectator, who still retained a lively and recent impression of

the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish the

pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene could not

be more advantageously placed, than in the two centuries which

elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of Theodosius the

Younger. During this period, the seat of government had been

transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of the Thracian

Bosphorus; and the abuse of military spirit had been suppressed

by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The

throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of

Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous

gods of antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was

impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church,

on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman

empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and

armies of unknown Barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of

the North, had established their victorious reign over the

fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.

43 (return) [ The choice of fabulous circumstances is of small

importance; yet I have confined myself to the narrative which was

translated from the Syriac by the care of Gregory of Tours, (de

Gloria Martyrum, l. i. c. 95, in Max. Bibliotheca Patrum, tom.

xi. p. 856,) to the Greek acts of their martyrdom (apud Photium,

p. 1400, 1401) and to the Annals of the Patriarch Eutychius,

(tom. i. p. 391, 531, 532, 535, Vers. Pocock.)]

44 (return) [ Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by

Assemanni, (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. i. p. 336, 338,) place the

resurrection of the Seven Sleepers in the year 736 (A.D. 425) or

748, (A.D. 437,) of the era of the Seleucides. Their Greek acts,

which Photius had read, assign the date of the thirty-eighth year

of the reign of Theodosius, which may coincide either with A.D.

439, or 446. The period which had elapsed since the persecution

of Decius is easily ascertained; and nothing less than the

ignorance of Mahomet, or the legendaries, could suppose an

internal of three or four hundred years.]

45 (return) [ James, one of the orthodox fathers of the Syrian

church, was born A.D. 452; he began to compose his sermons A.D.

474; he was made bishop of Batnae, in the district of Sarug, and

province of Mesopotamia, A.D. 519, and died A.D. 521. (Assemanni,

tom. i. p. 288, 289.) For the homily de Pueris Ephesinis, see p.

335-339: though I could wish that Assemanni had translated the

text of James of Sarug, instead of answering the objections of

Baronius.]

46 (return) [ See the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Mensis

Julii, tom. vi. p. 375-397. This immense calendar of Saints, in

one hundred and twenty-six years, (1644-1770,) and in fifty

volumes in folio, has advanced no further than the 7th day of

October. The suppression of the Jesuits has most probably checked

an undertaking, which, through the medium of fable and

superstition, communicates much historical and philosophical

instruction.]

47 (return) [ See Maracci Alcoran. Sura xviii. tom. ii. p.

420-427, and tom. i. part iv. p. 103. With such an ample

privilege, Mahomet has not shown much taste or ingenuity. He has

invented the dog (Al Rakim) the Seven Sleepers; the respect of

the sun, who altered his course twice a day, that he might not

shine into the cavern; and the care of God himself, who preserved

their bodies from putrefaction, by turning them to the right and

left.]

48 (return) [ See D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 139; and

Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 39, 40.]

49 (return) [ Paul, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis

Langobardorum, l. i. c. 4, p. 745, 746, edit. Grot.,) who lived

towards the end of the eight century, has placed in a cavern,

under a rock, on the shore of the ocean, the Seven Sleepers of

the North, whose long repose was respected by the Barbarians.

Their dress declared them to be Romans and the deacon

conjectures, that they were reserved by Providence as the future

apostles of those unbelieving countries.]

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.—Part I.

The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The

Huns.—Death Of Theodosius The Younger.—Elevation Of Marcian To The

Empire Of The East.

The Western world was oppressed by the Goths and Vandals, who

fled before the Huns; but the achievements of the Huns themselves

were not adequate to their power and prosperity. Their victorious

hordes had spread from the Volga to the Danube; but the public

force was exhausted by the discord of independent chieftains;

their valor was idly consumed in obscure and predatory

excursions; and they often degraded their national dignity, by

condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist under the

banners of their fugitive enemies. In the reign of Attila, 1 the

Huns again became the terror of the world; and I shall now

describe the character and actions of that formidable Barbarian;

who alternately insulted and invaded the East and the West, and

urged the rapid downfall of the Roman empire.

1 (return) [ The authentic materials for the history of Attila,

may be found in Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 34-50, p.

668-688, edit. Grot.) and Priscus (Excerpta de Legationibus, p.

33-76, Paris, 1648.) I have not seen the Lives of Attila,

composed by Juvencus Caelius Calanus Dalmatinus, in the twelfth

century, or by Nicholas Olahus, archbishop of Gran, in the

sixteenth. See Mascou’s History of the Germans, ix., and Maffei

Osservazioni Litterarie, tom. i. p. 88, 89. Whatever the modern

Hungarians have added must be fabulous; and they do not seem to

have excelled in the art of fiction. They suppose, that when

Attila invaded Gaul and Italy, married innumerable wives, &c., he

was one hundred and twenty years of age. Thewrocz Chron. c. i. p.

22, in Script. Hunger. tom. i. p. 76.]

In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from the

confines of China to those of Germany, the most powerful and

populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge of the Roman

provinces. The accumulated weight was sustained for a while by

artificial barriers; and the easy condescension of the emperors

invited, without satisfying, the insolent demands of the

Barbarians, who had acquired an eager appetite for the luxuries

of civilized life. The Hungarians, who ambitiously insert the

name of Attila among their native kings, may affirm with truth

that the hordes, which were subject to his uncle Roas, or

Rugilas, had formed their encampments within the limits of modern

Hungary, 2 in a fertile country, which liberally supplied the

wants of a nation of hunters and shepherds. In this advantageous

situation, Rugilas, and his valiant brothers, who continually

added to their power and reputation, commanded the alternative of

peace or war with the two empires. His alliance with the Romans

of the West was cemented by his personal friendship for the great

Ætius; who was always secure of finding, in the Barbarian camp,

a hospitable reception and a powerful support. At his

solicitation, and in the name of John the usurper, sixty thousand

Huns advanced to the confines of Italy; their march and their

retreat were alike expensive to the state; and the grateful

policy of Ætius abandoned the possession of Pannonia to his

faithful confederates. The Romans of the East were not less

apprehensive of the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the

provinces, or even the capital. Some ecclesiastical historians

have destroyed the Barbarians with lightning and pestilence; 3

but Theodosius was reduced to the more humble expedient of

stipulating an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds

of gold, and of disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title

of general, which the king of the Huns condescended to accept.

The public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce

impatience of the Barbarians, and the perfidious intrigues of the

Byzantine court. Four dependent nations, among whom we may

distinguish the Barbarians, disclaimed the sovereignty of the

Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected by a Roman

alliance; till the just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas,

were effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his ambassador.

Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate: their decree was

ratified by the emperor; and two ambassadors were named,

Plinthas, a general of Scythian extraction, but of consular rank;

and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman, who

was recommended to that office by his ambitious colleague.

2 (return) [ Hungary has been successively occupied by three

Scythian colonies. 1. The Huns of Attila; 2. The Abares, in the

sixth century; and, 3. The Turks or Magiars, A.D. 889; the

immediate and genuine ancestors of the modern Hungarians, whose

connection with the two former is extremely faint and remote. The

Prodromus and Notitia of Matthew Belius appear to contain a rich

fund of information concerning ancient and modern Hungary. I have

seen the extracts in Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, tom.

xxii. p. 1-51, and Bibliothèque Raisonnée, tom. xvi. p. 127-175.

* Note: Mailath (in his Geschichte der Magyaren) considers the

question of the origin of the Magyars as still undecided. The old

Hungarian chronicles unanimously derived them from the Huns of

Attila See note, vol. iv. pp. 341, 342. The later opinion,

adopted by Schlozer, Belnay, and Dankowsky, ascribes them, from

their language, to the Finnish race. Fessler, in his history of

Hungary, agrees with Gibbon in supposing them Turks. Mailath has

inserted an ingenious dissertation of Fejer, which attempts to

connect them with the Parthians. Vol. i. Ammerkungen p. 50—M.]

3 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. 43. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36.

Tillemont, who always depends on the faith of his ecclesiastical

authors, strenuously contends (Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 136,

607) that the wars and personages were not the same.]

The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty. His

two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne of

their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the

ambassadors of Constantinople; but as they proudly refused to

dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spacious

plain near the city of Margus, in the Upper Maesia. The kings of

the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain honors,

of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of peace, and

each condition was an insult on the majesty of the empire.

Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on the banks

of the Danube, they required that the annual contribution should

be augmented from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred pounds

of gold; that a fine or ransom of eight pieces of gold should be

paid for every Roman captive who had escaped from his Barbarian

master; that the emperor should renounce all treaties and

engagements with the enemies of the Huns; and that all the

fugitives who had taken refuge in the court or provinces of

Theodosius, should be delivered to the justice of their offended

sovereign. This justice was rigorously inflicted on some

unfortunate youths of a royal race. They were crucified on the

territories of the empire, by the command of Attila: and as soon

as the king of the Huns had impressed the Romans with the terror

of his name, he indulged them in a short and arbitrary respite,

whilst he subdued the rebellious or independent nations of

Scythia and Germany. 4

4 (return) [ See Priscus, p. 47, 48, and Hist. de Peuples de

l’Europe, tom. v. i. c. xii, xiii, xiv, xv.]

Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps his regal,

descent 5 from the ancient Huns, who had formerly contended with

the monarchs of China. His features, according to the observation

of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his national origin; and

the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern

Calmuk; 6 a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated

eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad

shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though

of a disproportioned form. The haughty step and demeanor of the

king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of his superiority

above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of fiercely

rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he

inspired. Yet this savage hero was not inaccessible to pity; his

suppliant enemies might confide in the assurance of peace or

pardon; and Attila was considered by his subjects as a just and

indulgent master. He delighted in war; but, after he had ascended

the throne in a mature age, his head, rather than his hand,

achieved the conquest of the North; and the fame of an

adventurous soldier was usefully exchanged for that of a prudent

and successful general. The effects of personal valor are so

inconsiderable, except in poetry or romance, that victory, even

among Barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill with which

the passions of the multitude are combined and guided for the

service of a single man. The Scythian conquerors, Attila and

Zingis, surpassed their rude countrymen in art rather than in

courage; and it may be observed that the monarchies, both of the

Huns and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the

basis of popular superstition. The miraculous conception, which

fraud and credulity ascribed to the virgin-mother of Zingis,

raised him above the level of human nature; and the naked

prophet, who in the name of the Deity invested him with the

empire of the earth, pointed the valor of the Moguls with

irresistible enthusiasm. 7 The religious arts of Attila were not

less skillfully adapted to the character of his age and country.

It was natural enough that the Scythians should adore, with

peculiar devotion, the god of war; but as they were incapable of

forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation,

they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron

cimeter. 8 One of the shepherds of the Huns perceived, that a

heifer, who was grazing, had wounded herself in the foot, and

curiously followed the track of the blood, till he discovered,

among the long grass, the point of an ancient sword, which he dug

out of the ground and presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or

rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this

celestial favor; and, as the rightful possessor of the sword of

Mars, asserted his divine and indefeasible claim to the dominion

of the earth. 9 If the rites of Scythia were practised on this

solemn occasion, a lofty altar, or rather pile of fagots, three

hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious

plain; and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of

this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of

sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive. 10 Whether human

sacrifices formed any part of the worship of Attila, or whether

he propitiated the god of war with the victims which he

continually offered in the field of battle, the favorite of Mars

soon acquired a sacred character, which rendered his conquests more

easy and more permanent; and the Barbarian princes confessed, in

the language of devotion or flattery, that they could not presume

to gaze, with a steady eye, on the divine majesty of the king of

the Huns. 11 His brother Bleda, who reigned over a considerable

part of the nation, was compelled to resign his sceptre and his

life. Yet even this cruel act was attributed to a supernatural

impulse; and the vigor with which Attila wielded the sword of

Mars, convinced the world that it had been reserved alone for his

invincible arm. 12 But the extent of his empire affords the only

remaining evidence of the number and importance of his victories;

and the Scythian monarch, however ignorant of the value of

science and philosophy, might perhaps lament that his illiterate

subjects were destitute of the art which could perpetuate the

memory of his exploits.

5 (return) [ Priscus, p. 39. The modern Hungarians have deduced

his genealogy, which ascends, in the thirty-fifth degree, to Ham,

the son of Noah; yet they are ignorant of his father’s real name.

(De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 297.)]

6 (return) [ Compare Jornandes (c. 35, p. 661) with Buffon, Hist.

Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 380. The former had a right to observe,

originis suae sigua restituens. The character and portrait of

Attila are probably transcribed from Cassiodorus.]

7 (return) [ Abulpharag. Pocock, p. 281. Genealogical History of

the Tartars, by Abulghazi Bahader Khan, part iii c. 15, part iv

c. 3. Vie de Gengiscan, par Petit de la Croix, l. 1, c. 1, 6. The

relations of the missionaries, who visited Tartary in the

thirteenth century, (see the seventh volume of the Histoire des

Voyages,) express the popular language and opinions; Zingis is

styled the son of God, &c. &c.]

8 (return) [ Nec templum apud eos visitur, aut delubrum, ne

tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest; sed gladius

Barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem regionum quas

circumcircant praesulem verecundius colunt. Ammian. Marcellin.

xxxi. 2, and the learned Notes of Lindenbrogius and Valesius.]

9 (return) [ Priscus relates this remarkable story, both in his

own text (p. 65) and in the quotation made by Jornandes, (c. 35,

p. 662.) He might have explained the tradition, or fable, which

characterized this famous sword, and the name, as well as

attributes, of the Scythian deity, whom he has translated into

the Mars of the Greeks and Romans.]

10 (return) [ Herodot. l. iv. c. 62. For the sake of economy, I

have calculated by the smallest stadium. In the human sacrifices,

they cut off the shoulder and arm of the victim, which they threw

up into the air, and drew omens and presages from the manner of

their falling on the pile]

11 (return) [ Priscus, p. 65. A more civilized hero, Augustus

himself, was pleased, if the person on whom he fixed his eyes

seemed unable to support their divine lustre. Sueton. in August.

c. 79.]

12 (return) [ The Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe,

tom. vii. p. 428, 429) attempts to clear Attila from the murder

of his brother; and is almost inclined to reject the concurrent

testimony of Jornandes, and the contemporary Chronicles.]

If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized and the

savage climates of the globe; between the inhabitants of cities,

who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds, who

dwelt in tents, Attila might aspire to the title of supreme and

sole monarch of the Barbarians. 13 He alone, among the conquerors

of ancient and modern times, united the two mighty kingdoms of

Germany and Scythia; and those vague appellations, when they are

applied to his reign, may be understood with an ample latitude.

Thuringia, which stretched beyond its actual limits as far as the

Danube, was in the number of his provinces; he interposed, with

the weight of a powerful neighbor, in the domestic affairs of the

Franks; and one of his lieutenants chastised, and almost

exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine.

He subdued the islands of the ocean, the kingdoms of Scandinavia,

encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns

might derive a tribute of furs from that northern region, which

has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity of

the climate, and the courage of the natives. Towards the East, it

is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of Attila over the

Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured, that he reigned on the

banks of the Volga; that the king of the Huns was dreaded, not

only as a warrior, but as a magician; 14 that he insulted and

vanquished the khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent

ambassadors to negotiate an equal alliance with the empire of

China. In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the

sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, during his

lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths

were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the

personal merits of their chiefs. The renowned Ardaric, king of

the Gepidae, was the faithful and sagacious counsellor of the

monarch, who esteemed his intrepid genius, whilst he loved the

mild and discreet virtues of the noble Walamir, king of the

Ostrogoths. The crowd of vulgar kings, the leaders of so many

martial tribes, who served under the standard of Attila, were

ranged in the submissive order of guards and domestics round the

person of their master. They watched his nod; they trembled at

his frown; and at the first signal of his will, they executed,

without murmur or hesitation, his stern and absolute commands. In

time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national troops,

attended the royal camp in regular succession; but when Attila

collected his military force, he was able to bring into the field

an army of five, or, according to another account, of seven

hundred thousand Barbarians. 15

13 (return) [ Fortissimarum gentium dominus, qui inaudita ante se

potentia colus Scythica et Germanica regna possedit. Jornandes,

c. 49, p. 684. Priscus, p. 64, 65. M. de Guignes, by his

knowledge of the Chinese, has acquired (tom. ii. p. 295-301) an

adequate idea of the empire of Attila.]

14 (return) [ See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 296. The Geougen

believed that the Huns could excite, at pleasure, storms of wind

and rain. This phenomenon was produced by the stone Gezi; to

whose magic power the loss of a battle was ascribed by the

Mahometan Tartars of the fourteenth century. See Cherefeddin Ali,

Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. i. p. 82, 83.]

15 (return) [ Jornandes, c. 35, p. 661, c. 37, p. 667. See

Tillemont, Hist. dea Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 129, 138. Corneille

has represented the pride of Attila to his subject kings, and his

tragedy opens with these two ridiculous lines:—

Ils ne sont pas venus, nos deux rois! qu’on leur die Qu’ils se

font trop attendre, et qu’Attila s’ennuie.

The two kings of the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths are profound

politicians and sentimental lovers, and the whole piece exhibits

the defects without the genius, of the poet.]