ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS SUCCEED THEODOSIUS
[Sidenote: [395-397 A.D.]]
The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius, the last of the successors of
Augustus and Constantine who appeared in the field at the head of their
armies, and whose authority was universally acknowledged throughout the
whole extent of the empire. The memory of his virtues still continued,
however, to protect the feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons.
After the death of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by
the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East and
of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by every order of
the state--the senates of old and new Rome, the clergy, the magistrates,
the soldiers, and the people. Arcadius, who then was about eighteen years
of age, was born in Spain, in the humble habitation of a private family.
But he received a princely education in the palace of Constantinople;
and his inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of
royalty, from whence he appeared to reign over the provinces of Thrace,
Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the lower Danube to the confines of
Persia and Ethiopia. His younger brother, Honorius, assumed, in the
eleventh year of his age, the nominal government of Italy, Africa, Gaul,
Spain, and Britain; and the troops, which guarded the frontiers of his
kingdom, were opposed on one side to the Caledonians, and on the other to
the Moors.
The great and martial prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the
two princes; the defence and possession of the provinces of Noricum,
Pannonia, and Dalmatia still belonged to the Western Empire;[64] but the
two large dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, which Gratian had intrusted
to the valour of Theodosius, were forever united to the empire of the
East. The boundary in Europe was not very different from the line which
now separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective advantages
of territory, riches, populousness, and military strength, were fairly
balanced and compensated. The hereditary sceptre of the sons of
Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature and of their father; the
generals and ministers had been accustomed to adore the majesty of the
royal infants. The gradual discovery of the weakness of Arcadius and
Honorius, and the repeated calamities of their reign, were not sufficient
to obliterate the deep and early impressions of loyalty.
Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the elevation of
Rufinus; an odious favourite, who, in an age of civil and religious
faction, has deserved, from every party, the imputation of every crime.
The strong impulse of ambition and avarice had urged Rufinus to abandon
his native country, an obscure corner of Gaul, to advance his fortune in
the capital of the East: the talent of bold and ready elocution qualified
him to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law; and his success in
that profession was a regular step to the most honourable and important
employments of the state. He was raised by just degrees to the station
of master of the offices. In the exercise of his various functions, so
essentially connected with the whole system of civil government, he
acquired the confidence of a monarch who soon discovered his diligence
and capacity in business, and who long remained ignorant of the pride,
the malice, and the covetousness of his disposition.
The character of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task of
hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained, the abuse of
power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent slumber
of a prince still capable of exerting the abilities and the virtue which
had raised him to the throne. But the absence, and soon afterwards the
death, of the emperor confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over
the person and dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious
prefect considered as his pupil rather than his sovereign. Regardless
of the public opinion, he indulged his passions without remorse and
without resistance; and his malignant and rapacious spirit rejected every
passion that might have contributed to his own glory or the happiness of
the people. His avarice, which seems to have prevailed in his corrupt
mind over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the East by
the various arts of partial and general extortion: oppressive taxes,
scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust confiscations, forced or
fictitious testaments, by which the tyrant despoiled of their lawful
inheritance the children of strangers or enemies; and the public sale
of justice, as well as of favour, which he instituted in the palace of
Constantinople.
The ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest
part of his patrimony, the honours and emoluments of some provincial
government; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people were abandoned
to the most liberal purchaser; the public discontent was sometimes
appeased by the sacrifice of an unpopular criminal, whose punishment
was profitable only to the prefect of the East, his accomplice and his
judge. The fate of Lucian proclaimed to the East that the prefect, whose
industry was much abated in the despatch of ordinary business, was
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son of the prefect
Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul and the enemy of Julian, had employed a
considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption,
to purchase the friendship of Rufinus and the high office of count of the
East. But the new magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of the
court and of the times; disgraced his benefactor by the contrast of a
virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to refuse an act of
injustice, which might have tended to the profit of the emperor’s uncle.
Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the supposed insult; and the
prefect of the East resolved to execute in person the cruel vengeance
which he meditated against this ungrateful delegate of his power. He
performed with incessant speed the journey of seven or eight hundred
miles from Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria
at the dead of the night, and spread universal consternation among a
people ignorant of his design but not ignorant of his character. The
count of the fifteen provinces of the East was dragged, like the vilest
malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the
clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the
voice of an accuser, Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to
suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant,
by the order and in the presence of their master, beat him on the neck
with leather thongs, armed at the extremities with lead; and when he
fainted under the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter,
to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No
sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his
expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and silent curses of a
trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was
accelerated by the hope of accomplishing without delay the nuptials of
his daughter with the emperor of the East.
But Rufinus soon experienced that a prudent minister should constantly
secure his royal captive by the strong though invisible chain of habit;
and that the merit, and much more easily the favour, of the absent are
obliterated in a short time from the mind of a weak and capricious
sovereign. While the prefect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret
conspiracy of the favourite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain
Eutropius, undermined his power in the palace of Constantinople. They
discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love the daughter of
Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for his bride; and
they contrived to substitute in her place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter
of Bauto, a general of the Franks in the service of Rome; and who was
educated, since the death of her father, in the family of the sons of
Promotus.
The young emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the
pious care of his tutor Arsenius, eagerly listened to the artful and
flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia: he gazed with impatient
ardour on her picture, and he understood the necessity of concealing
his amorous designs from the knowledge of a minister who was so deeply
interested to oppose the consummation of his happiness. Soon after the
return of Rufinus, the approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was
announced to the people of Constantinople, who prepared to celebrate,
with false and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his daughter. A
splendid train of eunuchs and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp, from
the gates of the palace; bearing aloft the diadem, the robes, and the
inestimable ornaments of the future empress. The solemn procession
passed through the streets of the city, which were adorned with garlands
and filled with spectators; but when it reached the house of the sons
of Promotus, the principal eunuch respectfully entered the mansion,
invested the fair Eudoxia with the imperial robes, and conducted her
in triumph to the palace and bed of Arcadius. The secrecy and success
with which this conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted imprinted
a mark of indelible ridicule on the character of a minister who had
suffered himself to be deceived in a post where the arts of deceit and
dissimulation constitute the most distinguished merit. He considered,
with a mixture of indignation and fear, the victory of an aspiring
eunuch, who had secretly captivated the favour of his sovereign; and the
disgrace of his daughter, whose interest was inseparably connected with
his own, wounded the tenderness, or at least the pride, of Rufinus. The
character of Rufinus seemed to justify the accusations that he conspired
against the person of his sovereign to seat himself on the vacant throne,
and that he had secretly invited the Huns and the Goths to invade the
provinces of the empire, and to increase the public confusion. The subtle
prefect, whose life had been spent in the intrigues of the palace,
opposed, with equal arms, the artful measures of the eunuch Eutropius;
but the timid soul of Rufinus was astonished by the hostile approach of a
more formidable rival--of the great Stilicho, the general, or rather the
master, of the empire of the West.
The celestial gift which Achilles obtained, and Alexander envied, of
a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of heroes, has been enjoyed by
Stilicho, in a much higher degree than might have been expected from the
declining state of genius and of art. The muse of Claudian, devoted to
his service, was always prepared to stigmatise his adversaries, Rufinus
or Eutropius, with eternal infamy; or to paint in the most splendid
colours the victories and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the
review of a period indifferently supplied with authentic materials, we
cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of Honorius from the invectives
or the panegyrics of a contemporary writer; but as Claudian appears to
have indulged the most ample privilege of a poet and a courtier, some
criticism will be requisite to translate the language of fiction or
exaggeration into the truth and simplicity of historic prose. His silence
concerning the family of Stilicho may be admitted as a proof that his
patron was neither able, nor desirous, to boast of a long series of
illustrious progenitors; and the slight mention of his father, an officer
of barbarian cavalry, in the service of Valens, seems to countenance the
assertion, that the general, who so long commanded the armies of Rome,
was descended from the savage and perfidious race of the Vandals. From
his earliest youth he embraced the profession of arms; his prudence and
valour were soon distinguished in the field; the horsemen and archers
of the East admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree of his
military promotions the public judgment always forestalled and approved
the choice of the sovereign. He was named by Theodosius to ratify a
solemn treaty with the monarch of Persia; he supported during that
important embassy the dignity of the Roman name; and after his return
to Constantinople, his merit was rewarded by an intimate and honourable
alliance with the imperial family. Theodosius had been prompted, by a
pious motive of fraternal affection, to adopt for his own the daughter
of his brother Honorius; the beauty and accomplishments of Serena were
universally admired by the obsequious court; and Stilicho obtained the
preference over a crowd of rivals, who ambitiously disputed the hand
of the princess and the favour of her adoptive father. The assurance
that the husband of Serena would be faithful to the throne which he
was permitted to approach, engaged the emperor to exalt the fortunes
and to employ the abilities of the sagacious and intrepid Stilicho.
He rose through the successive steps of master of the horse and count
of the domestics, to the supreme rank of master-general of all the
cavalry and infantry of the Roman, or at least of the Western, Empire;
and his enemies confessed that he invariably disdained to barter for
gold the rewards of merit, or to defraud the soldiers of the pay and
gratifications which they deserved or claimed from the liberality of the
state.
The virtues and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus;
and the arts of calumny might have been successful, if the tender and
vigilant Serena had not protected her husband against his domestic
foes, whilst he vanquished in the field the enemies of the empire.
Theodosius continued to support an unworthy minister, to whose diligence
he delegated the government of the palace and of the East; but when he
marched against the tyrant Eugenius, he associated his faithful general
to the labours and glories of the civil war; and, in the last moments of
his life, the dying monarch recommended to Stilicho the care of his sons
and of the republic. The ambition and the abilities of Stilicho were
not unequal to the important trust; and he claimed the guardianship of
the two empires, during the minority of Arcadius and Honorius. The first
measure of his administration, or rather of his reign, displayed to the
nations the vigour and activity of a spirit worthy to command. He passed
the Alps in the depth of winter; descended the stream of the Rhine, from
the fortress of Basilia (Bâle) to the marshes of Batavia; reviewed the
state of the garrisons; repressed the enterprises of the Germans; and,
after establishing along the banks a firm and honourable peace, returned
with incredible speed to the palace of Mediolanum. The person and court
of Honorius were subject to the master-general of the West; and the
armies and provinces of Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a regular
authority which was exercised in the name of their young sovereign. Two
rivals only remained to dispute the claims and to provoke the vengeance
of Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa, Gildo the Moor maintained a
proud and dangerous independence; and the minister of Constantinople
asserted his equal reign over the emperor and the empire of the East.
[Illustration: ROMAN WATER BOTTLE]
The impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common guardian of the
royal brothers, engaged him to regulate the equal division of the arms,
the jewels, and the magnificent wardrobe and furniture of the deceased
emperor. But the most important object of the inheritance consisted of
the numerous legions, cohorts, and squadrons of Romans, or barbarians,
whom the event of the civil war had united under the standard of
Theodosius. The various multitudes of Europe and Asia, exasperated by
recent animosities, were overawed by the authority of a single man; and
the rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of the citizen from
the rapine of the licentious soldiers. Anxious, however, and impatient
to relieve Italy from the presence of this formidable host, which could
be useful only on the frontiers of the empire, he listened to the just
requisition of the minister of Arcadius, declared his intention of
reconducting in person the troops of the East, and dexterously employed
the rumour of a Gothic tumult to conceal his private designs of ambition
and revenge. The guilty soul of Rufinus was alarmed by the approach
of a warrior and a rival, whose enmity he deserved; he computed, with
increasing terror, the narrow space of his life and greatness; and, as
the last hope of safety, he interposed the authority of the emperor
Arcadius.
Stilicho, who appears to have directed his march along the sea coast of
the Adriatic, was not far distant from the city of Thessalonica when he
received a peremptory message to recall the troops of the East, and to
declare that his nearer approach would be considered by the Byzantine
court as an act of hostility. The prompt and unexpected obedience of the
general of the West convinced the vulgar of his loyalty and moderation;
and as he had already engaged the affection of the eastern troops, he
recommended to their zeal the execution of his bloody design, which
might be accomplished in his absence, with less danger, perhaps, and
with less reproach. Stilicho left the command of the troops of the
East to Gainas the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly relied; with an
assurance, at least, that the hardy barbarian would never be diverted
from his purpose by any consideration of fear or remorse. The soldiers
were easily persuaded to punish the enemy of Stilicho and of Rome; and
such was the general hatred which Rufinus had excited, that the fatal
secret, communicated to thousands, was faithfully preserved during the
long march from Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople. As soon as
they had resolved his death, they condescended to flatter his pride; the
ambitious prefect was seduced to believe that those powerful auxiliaries
might be tempted to place the diadem on his head; and the treasures which
he distributed with a tardy and reluctant hand were accepted by the
indignant multitude as an insult rather than as a gift. At a distance
of a mile from the capital, in the Field of Mars, before the palace of
Hebdomon, the troops halted; and the emperor as well as his minister
advanced, according to ancient custom, respectfully to salute the power
which supported their throne.
As Rufinus passed along the ranks, and disguised with studied courtesy
his innate haughtiness, the wings insensibly wheeled from the right and
left, and enclosed the devoted victim within the circle of their arms.
Before he could reflect on the danger of his situation, Gainas gave the
signal of death; a daring and forward soldier plunged his sword into the
breast of the guilty prefect, and Rufinus fell, groaned, and expired at
the feet of the affrighted emperor. If the agonies of a moment could
expiate the crimes of a whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a
breathless corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity might perhaps
be affected by the horrid circumstances which accompanied the murder
of Rufinus. His mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fury of the
populace of either sex, who hastened in crowds from every quarter of the
city, to trample on the remains of the haughty minister, at whose frown
they had so lately trembled. His right hand was cut off and carried
through the streets of Constantinople, in cruel mockery, to extort
contributions for the avaricious tyrant, whose head was publicly exposed,
borne aloft on the point of a long lance. According to the savage maxims
of the Greek republics, his innocent family would have shared the
punishment of his crimes. The wife and daughter of Rufinus were indebted
for their safety to the influence of religion. Her sanctuary protected
them from the raging madness of the people; and they were permitted to
spend the remainder of their lives in the exercise of Christian devotion,
in the peaceful retirement of Jerusalem.
Even Stilicho did not derive from the murder of his rival the fruit which
he had proposed; and though he gratified his revenge, his ambition was
disappointed. Under the name of a favourite, the weakness of Arcadius
required a master; but he naturally preferred the obsequious arts of
the eunuch Eutropius, who had obtained his domestic confidence; and the
emperor contemplated, with terror and aversion, the stern genius of a
foreign warrior. Till they were divided by the jealousy of power, the
sword of Gainas and the charms of Eudoxia supported the favour of the
great chamberlain of the palace; the perfidious Goth, who was appointed
master-general of the East, betrayed without scruple the interest of his
benefactor; and the same troops which had so lately massacred the enemy
of Stilicho, were engaged to support against him the independence of the
throne of Constantinople. The life of Stilicho was repeatedly attempted
by the daggers of hired assassins; and a decree was obtained from the
senate of Constantinople to declare him an enemy of the republic, and
to confiscate his ample possessions in the provinces of the east. At a
time when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman name depended
on the firm union and reciprocal aid of all the nations to whom it had
been gradually communicated, the subjects of Arcadius and Honorius were
instructed by their respective masters to view each other in a foreign
and even hostile light; to rejoice in their mutual calamities, and to
embrace, as their faithful allies, the barbarians, whom they excited to
invade the territories of their countrymen. The natives of Italy affected
to despise the servile and effeminate Greeks of Byzantium, who presumed
to imitate the dress and to usurp the dignity of Roman senators; and the
Greeks had not yet forgotten the sentiments of hatred and contempt which
their polished ancestors had so long entertained for the rude inhabitants
of the west. The prudent Stilicho, instead of persisting to force the
inclinations of a prince and people who rejected his government, wisely
abandoned Arcadius to his unworthy favourites; and his reluctance to
involve the two empires in a civil war displayed the moderation of a
minister who had so often signalised his military spirit and abilities.
But if Stilicho had any longer endured the revolt of Africa, he would
have betrayed the security of the capital, and the majesty of the western
emperor, to the capricious insolence of a Moorish rebel. Gildo, the
brother of the tyrant Firmus, had preserved and obtained, as the reward
of his apparent fidelity, the immense patrimony which was forfeited by
treason; long and meritorious service in the armies of Rome raised him
to the dignity of a military count; the narrow policy of the court of
Theodosius had adopted the mischievous expedient of supporting a legal
government by the interest of a powerful family; and the brother of
Firmus was invested with the command of Africa. His ambition soon usurped
the administration of justice and of the finances without account, and
without control; and he maintained, during a reign of twelve years, the
possession of an office from which it was impossible to remove him,
without the danger of a civil war.
During those twelve years, the province of Africa groaned under the
dominion of a tyrant who seemed to unite the unfeeling temper of a
stranger with the partial resentments of domestic faction. The forms of
law were often superseded by the use of poison; and if the trembling
guests who were invited to the table of Gildo presumed to express their
fears, the insolent suspicion served only to excite his fury, and he
loudly summoned the ministers of death. Gildo alternately indulged the
passions of avarice and lust; and if his days were terrible to the
rich, his nights were not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The
image of the republic was revived, after a long interval, under the
reign of Honorius. The emperor transmitted an accurate and ample detail
of the complaints of the provincials and the crimes of Gildo, to the
Roman senate; and the members of that venerable assembly were required
to pronounce the condemnation of the rebel. Their unanimous suffrage
declared him the enemy of the republic; and the decree of the senate
added a sacred and legitimate sanction to the Roman arms. The prudence
of Stilicho conceived and executed without delay the most effectual
measure for the relief of the Roman people. A large and seasonable supply
of corn, collected in the inland provinces of Gaul, was embarked on the
rapid stream of the Rhone, and transported by an easy navigation from
the Rhone to the Tiber. During the whole term of the African war, the
granaries of Rome were continually filled, her dignity was vindicated
from the humiliating dependence, and the minds of an immense people were
quieted by the calm confidence of peace and plenty.
[Sidenote: [397-398 A.D.]]
The cause of Rome and the conduct of the African war were entrusted by
Stilicho to a general, active and ardent to avenge his private injuries
on the head of the tyrant. The spirit of discord which prevailed in the
house of Nabal had excited a deadly quarrel between two of his sons,
Gildo and Mascezel. The usurper pursued with implacable rage the life of
his younger brother, whose courage and abilities he feared; and Mascezel,
oppressed by superior power, took refuge in the court of Mediolanum,
where he soon received the cruel intelligence that his two innocent
and helpless children had been murdered by their inhuman uncle. The
affliction of the father was suspended only by the desire of revenge. The
vigilant Stilicho judged it advisable that Mascezel should attempt this
arduous adventure at the head of a chosen body of Gallic veterans, who
had lately served under the standard of Eugenius.
[Illustration: ROMAN LAMP]
Gildo was prepared to resist the invasion with all the forces of Africa.
By the liberality of his gifts and promises, he endeavoured to secure
the doubtful allegiance of the Roman soldiers whilst he attracted to his
standard the distant tribes of Gætulia and Ethiopia. He proudly reviewed
an army of seventy thousand men, and boasted, with the rash presumption
which is the forerunner of disgrace, that his numerous cavalry would
trample under their horses’ feet the troops of Mascezel, and involve
in a cloud of burning sand the natives of the cold regions of Gaul and
Germany. As Mascezel advanced before the front with fair offers of peace
and pardon, he encountered one of the foremost standard-bearers of the
Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm with his
sword. The arm, and the standard, sunk under the weight of the blow;
and the imaginary act of submission was hastily repeated by all the
standards of the line. At this signal, the disaffected cohorts proclaimed
the name of their lawful sovereign; the barbarians, astonished by the
defection of their Roman allies, dispersed, according to their custom,
in tumultuary flight; and Mascezel obtained the honours of an easy and
almost bloodless victory. The tyrant escaped from the field of battle to
the sea shore; and threw himself into a small vessel, with the hope of
reaching in safety some friendly port of the empire of the East; but the
obstinacy of the wind drove him back into the harbour of Thabraca, which
had acknowledged, with the rest of the province, the dominion of Honorius
and the authority of his lieutenant. The inhabitants, as a proof of their
repentance and loyalty, seized and confined the person of Gildo in a
dungeon; and his own despair saved him from the intolerable torture of
supporting the presence of an injured and victorious brother.
After he had finished an important war in a single winter, Mascezel
was received at the court of Mediolanum with loud applause, affected
gratitude, and secret jealousy; and his death, which perhaps was the
effect of accident, has been considered as the crime of Stilicho.
In the passage of a bridge, the Moorish prince who accompanied the
master-general of the West was suddenly thrown from his horse into the
river; the officious haste of the attendants was restrained by a cruel
and perfidious smile which they observed on the countenance of Stilicho;
and while they delayed the necessary assistance, the unfortunate Mascezel
was irrecoverably drowned.
The joy of the African triumph was happily connected with the nuptials of
the emperor Honorius and of his cousin Maria, the daughter of Stilicho;
and this equal and honourable alliance seemed to invest the powerful
minister with the authority of a parent over his submissive pupil.
Honorius was only in the fourteenth year of his age; Serena, the mother
of his bride, deferred by art or persuasion the consummation of the royal
nuptials; Maria died a virgin, after she had been ten years a wife; and
the chastity of the emperor was secured by the coldness, or perhaps the
debility, of his constitution. His subjects, who attentively studied the
character of their young sovereign, discovered that Honorius was without
passions, and consequently without talents; and that his feeble and
languid disposition was alike incapable of discharging the duties of his
rank, or of enjoying the pleasures of his age. In his early youth he made
some progress in the exercises of riding and drawing the bow: but he soon
relinquished these fatiguing occupations, and the amusement of feeding
poultry became the serious and daily care of the monarch of the West, who
resigned the reins of empire to the firm and skilful hand of his guardian
Stilicho.
The experience of history will countenance the suspicion that a prince
who was born in the purple received a worse education than the meanest
peasant of his dominions; and the ambitious minister suffered him to
attain the age of manhood without attempting to excite his courage or to
enlighten his understanding. The predecessors of Honorius were accustomed
to animate by their example, or at least by their presence, the valour of
the legions; and the dates of their laws attest the perpetual activity
of their motions through the provinces of the Roman world. But the son
of Theodosius passed the slumber of his life, a captive in his palace,
a stranger in his country, and the patient, almost the indifferent,
spectator of the ruin of the Western Empire, which was repeatedly
attacked, and finally subverted, by the arms of the barbarians. In the
eventful history of a reign of twenty-eight years, it will seldom be
necessary to mention the name of the emperor Honorius.
ALARIC INVADES GREECE
[Sidenote: [395-403 A.D.]]
If the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations to the
great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced how painfully the spirit
and abilities of their deceased emperor had supported the frail and
mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and
before the end of the winter of the same year the Gothic nation was in
arms.
The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind and headstrong passions
of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius of
Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the
Balti, which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali; he had
solicited the command of the Roman armies, and the imperial court
provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their refusal and the importance
of their loss. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the conquest of
Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an impracticable
enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a discontented people,
the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms: but
the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the strength of the city;
and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave
the impotent and random darts of the barbarians. Alaric disdained to
trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and
Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in
a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war.
The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had
devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public suspicion that
he had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic
invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable
father; and Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops, was much
better qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant than to
defend with courage and ability a country most remarkably fortified by
the hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without resistance, the plains
of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Œta, a steep and
woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry.
The troops which had been posted to defend the straits of Thermopylæ
retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb the secure
and rapid passage of Alaric; and the fertile fields of Phocis and Bœotia
were instantly covered by a deluge of barbarians; who massacred the
males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with
the spoil and cattle, of the flaming villages. As soon as the Athenians
heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to
deliver the greatest part of their wealth as the ransom of the city of
Minerva and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths,
and observed with mutual fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small and
select train, was admitted within the walls; he indulged himself in the
refreshment of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet which was provided
by the magistrate, and affected to show that he was not ignorant of the
manners of civilised nations. But the whole territory of Attica, from the
promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blasted by his baleful
presence; and if we may use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher,
Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered
victim.
Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the
Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved, by death,
from beholding the slavery of their families and the conflagration of
their cities.
The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms, their
gods, or their sovereign, was placed in the powerful assistance of the
general of the West; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse,
advanced to chastise, the invaders of Greece.[b]
It was impossible for Stilicho to remain quiet. He hastened to anticipate
a landing in Italy, and crossed over to Peloponnesus with his troops.
Alaric retreated before him to the mountains of Arcadia, and was there
closely hemmed in, but escaped the threatening danger of destruction. He
either availed himself of a momentary negligence on the part of the Roman
general, or else the latter allowed him to escape for political reasons.
The Goths went from Peloponnesus to Illyricum, and here suddenly, to the
astonishment of the world, the Gothic king was made commander-in-chief
of this border province, and his troops declared the auxiliaries of the
Eastern Roman Empire. In taking this course it was the intention of
Eutropius to make use of the Goths against the hated Stilicho.
The Eastern Roman Empire was then in a terrible condition. Most of the
provinces had been devastated by the Goths; Alans and other barbarians
had been settled in Asia for the defence of the northern frontier, and
incited by Tribigildus, one of their princes, they devastated the lands
entrusted to their charge. Tribigildus was led to do this by the Goth
Gainas, who sought to overthrow the minister Eutropius, and for this
purpose had contrived a plot in which he had persuaded Tribigildus to
join. An army sent by Eutropius against the latter was beaten; the
populace of Constantinople raised a furious outcry against the minister
on account of this defeat and of the devastation of Asia Minor, and
Gainas, who was to have marched against Tribigildus with his Gothic
troops, refused to obey unless Eutropius were dismissed. As the latter
had also quarrelled with the empress, he could no longer avoid the
threatening storm. He was dismissed and not only deprived of his property
but also of his life. He had sought refuge from his enemies in one of the
churches of the capital; in this sanctuary St. Chrysostom, who was then
patriarch of Constantinople, in vain sought to protect him. Eutropius had
to be given up, and was first banished to Cyprus, and then executed (399).
After his fall, the empress Eudoxia carried on the government; Gainas
now openly allied himself with Tribigildus, and together they committed
such fearful ravages in Asia Minor that the government had to submit
to negotiate with them and at their request to deliver up three
distinguished officials for execution. Fortunately Tribigildus soon died.
Gainas with his hordes inflicted terrible suffering on the capital and
the surrounding country, until finally the people took courage and killed
more than seven thousand Goths. Another Goth, Fravitta, who had been for
a long time in the service of Greece, and was summoned from Asia to help
against Gainas, completely defeated him, so that the devastator had to
retreat with his armies to the neighbourhood of the Danube. Soon after
this he was killed in a war with the Huns.
Meanwhile, Stilicho held the reins of the government of the West with a
powerful hand, and distinguished himself by brilliant achievements both
as statesman and general. He vindicated the fame of the Roman arms in war
against the Franks and Alamanni, and successfully and quickly suppressed
a dangerous rebellion by which Gildo, the brother of Firmus, had made
himself master of Africa. We know too little of the private life and
character of Stilicho to determine whether he, as some writers allege,
really plotted the overthrow of the emperor Honorius, so as to place his
own son on the throne.
Directly after Gildo’s victory, Stilicho had to protect the empire from
a new danger which was threatening it from a different quarter. The
title of general of the East Roman Empire, bestowed on Alaric, had been
utilised by him to such good purpose that he had completely equipped his
Goths with arms from the arsenals in Illyricum, and now, incited by the
court of Constantinople, he broke into the Western Empire, devastating
as he went (400). As, for unknown reasons, he only pushed forward into
Venetia, Stilicho had time to arm himself. He gathered troops from all
sides, and when, two years later, Alaric again appeared (402), Stilicho
alone did not lose courage, while all Italy trembled, and the emperor
fled from Mediolanum to the stronghold of Ravenna. Stilicho conducted the
war with much caution, and did not engage in battle until he could attack
under favourable circumstances. The opportunity offered itself at the
town of Pollentia in Liguria, and here, in the spring of 403, he accepted
battle.
[Sidenote: [403-406 A.D.]]
Both sides claimed the victory, but the chief advantage was undoubtedly
on the side of the Romans, who in this fight freed thousands of their
imprisoned countrymen and plundered the enemy’s baggage. But the Goths
were by no means conquered; for throughout the summer they maintained
themselves in the vicinity of the Apennines, and held the city of Rome in
constant fear. They only began to retire from Italy in the autumn; and
Stilicho let them depart with their booty, thinking it advisable to build
golden bridges for a flying enemy. Nevertheless he observed their march,
and tried to induce individual tribes who served under Alaric to leave
him; and delivered a second battle at Verona, which was more disastrous
to the king of the Goths than the battle of Pollentia, for it was with
only a small portion of his army that he reached his own country.
[Illustration: THE APPIAN WAY]
For a few years the Goths remained quiet; but soon after their departure,
other Germans visited Italy with far worse devastations than theirs had
been (406). Radagaisus, one of the German princes who had accompanied
Alaric in his first expedition to Italy, collected to the north of the
upper Danube a number of private adventurers and whole tribes, whom he
promised to lead to Rome itself, saying he had heard of an opportunity
and a way of getting there. His expedition resembled a national
migration, as women and children accompanied the army, which according
to the lowest computation amounted to two hundred thousand men, and
according to another and more probable one, to double that number.
Stilicho did not dare to oppose this flood, but rather tried to keep it
within bounds by the manner in which he divided and disposed his troops.
[Sidenote: [407-411 A.D.]]
Watched from all sides, the barbaric hordes advanced through Lombardy
and over the Apennines to the neighbourhood of Florence. Here Stilicho,
who had followed the expedition, took possession of all the approaches
to the mountains, threw reinforcements into the towns, had his own army
supplied from the sea, and quietly awaited the result of the want which
an innumerable and disorderly crowd must soon begin to feel. Hemmed in on
all sides by the Roman troops, in a short time the barbarians suffered
from famine, disease, and every kind of misery. Stilicho destroyed a part
of this great body, but the remaining and larger portion died from want.
Etruria resembled a vast grave; the leader of the unfortunate swarm in
vain tried to fight his way through--he was captured and executed.
Alan horsemen, Huns, Goths, and other barbarians, who were among the
Roman mercenaries, here did the best service. This is especially worthy
of attention, as it shows us that the inhabitants of the most beautiful
of countries, whose predecessors had conquered all nations of the earth,
had sunk so low that they actually called in barbarians to defend
them from other barbarians. On their weakness, their love of ease and
pleasure, every law of their own government was wrecked, even when the
latter sought to compel them to military service by severe punishments.
They even preferred to mutilate themselves, as many did at this time so
as to escape from serving in war, rather than risk dangers and hardships
for the sake of their country.
For the second time Stilicho had saved Italy; his merit was greater than
that of a Camillus or a Marius, as he had not, like these men, to lead
a warlike nation into battle, but had first to create his army. Besides
this, his whole life was not only a fight of civilisation with barbarism,
but at the same time the struggle of force with underhand intrigue.
For this reason we can no more weigh his private character against his
political merits than we can those of other Roman heroes, especially
of Camillus and Marius. Much of what has been made matter of reproach
against him should rather be counted to him for merit. For instance,
he kept his emperor under perpetual tutelage, but immediately after
Stilicho’s death the advantage of depriving Honorius of a personal share
in the government became apparent.
It is with still greater injustice that the ruin of the prosperity of
Gaul and Spain in the period immediately following the expedition of
Radagaisus has been attributed to him as a crime. Stilicho had brought
the Roman troops from Gaul and kept them with him after the liberation
of Italy, as he intended seeking out the Goths in Illyricum. The
barbarians in Germany seized this opportunity to invade Gaul (407). The
Quadi, Vandals, Suevi, Alani, Heruli, Saxons, Burgundiones, Franks, and
other barbarians broke into the unfortunate country, wasting it as they
advanced, whilst the Gepidæ, Sarmatæ, and Huns pressed into the Danubian
provinces which some of these peoples had hitherto occupied, and settled
there. Argentoratum (Strasburg), Noviomagus (Speier), Borbetomagus
(Worms), Mogontiacum, and other towns, which until then had opposed a
barrier to the barbarians, were destroyed, and like a rushing stream the
invaders poured themselves over all parts of Gaul.
The like misfortune overtook the province of Britain, whence Stilicho
had just recalled the Roman forces. In 407 the troops of this country,
amongst whom there were only a few Roman soldiers, finding themselves
thus abandoned to their fate, proclaimed one of their number,
Constantine, emperor, and under his leadership crossed over into
Gaul. Here Constantine was universally acknowledged as ruler by the
inhabitants, who stood in much need of help. An army under the general
Sarus, whom Honorius sent against him, was beaten, and Constantine also
fought the barbarians successfully. As, owing to the gravity of the
situation in Italy and Gaul, Honorius and his ministers could not for
the moment concern themselves with Spain, Constantine considered the
moment propitious to subject that country also. The religious dissensions
by which Spain as well as Africa was then rent, and the persecutions
which the Donatists and Arians had to suffer from the orthodox Honorius
and his court ecclesiastics, facilitated Constantine’s undertaking. The
Roman troops and militia were vanquished by him and almost the whole land
conquered. Unfortunately Constantine replaced the brave national militia
of the mountaineers, who until then had defended the passes of the
Pyrenees, by mercenaries of all nations, and these shortly after made
common cause with the barbarians who wandered across the mountains from
Gaul, and became their companions and guides.[c]
Zosimus[d] has said of Stilicho that, during the twenty-three years that
he commanded the army, never had he used the funds for his own profit,
nor did he resort to any dishonest means to advance the interests of his
only son. This son, however, was only twenty years old, and, although
Stilicho was faithful under Theodosius and during the first part of the
reign of Honorius, he might have later allowed himself to be corrupted
in his official capacity. Several writers have accused him of having
thought to elevate his son to the throne at the sacrifice of Honorius,
his prince, his pupil, and his son-in-law, and with this point in view to
have brought about the invasion of the barbarians which resulted in such
evil to the Romans. Olympiodorus[e] and Zosimus, both pagans, defend him
on this point: this they did because perhaps they would have been content
to see Eucher usurp the empire and re-establish paganism.
Zosimus does not hesitate to say that as his trust made him minister of
justice it was necessary to buy it from him either with money or with
favour; that “all the best and richest lands in the empire fell into his
hands either through fear of incurring his disfavour or in the desire
to lean upon his reputation to pillage the people; that he acquired
immense riches by despoiling the most illustrious families and ruining
the provinces.” One reads the same thing, and written in a more odious
manner, in Suidas,[f] who seems to have taken it from Eunape, a pagan
historian of that time. Zosimus also accuses Stilicho of amusing himself
“by pleasures unworthy of him and even criminal, just at the time when he
had most need to husband all his time.”[h]
Whilst these events were taking place, Italy was also a prey to the
barbarians. Stilicho had induced the Gothic king Alaric to quit the
service of the Greek Empire for that of the Latin, and had come to
some secret understanding with him, about which we are completely in
the dark. According to a highly improbable report, Stilicho wished to
employ Alaric’s Goths against his own master; according to another,
which is just as unreliable, he intended marching with the Goths against
Constantinople, and placing his son on the Greek throne. Whatever the
facts may have been, Stilicho and Alaric had come to some agreement;
for just as the former was marching against Constantine with his army,
Alaric suddenly appeared on the frontiers of Italy, complained that he
had been deceived, and demanded an indemnity. The Roman senate, which
was intrusted with the management of the affair, was extremely unwilling
to grant this shameful tribute and only consented at Stilicho’s urgent
request.
[Sidenote: [408 A.D.]]
The minister’s enemies seized this opportunity to bring about his fall,
and the weak Honorius listened to the miserable persons who in their
jealousy of Stilicho worked on the emperor’s timidity to make him
suspicious of the only man who could save the empire.[c]
Four days after the emperor had arrived at Pavia the soldiers, incited
by Olympius, revolted. Zosimus exaggerates this sedition as much as
possible. Sozomen, in speaking of it, says that all those were killed who
were believed to be accomplices of Stilicho.
Zosimus narrates at length the sorrow of Stilicho when he heard of this
revolt, the news of which reached him at Boulogne, and how he withdrew to
Ravenna where Honorius sent two separate orders; the one for his arrest,
the other for his death. When the officer who carried them handed in the
first, Stilicho took refuge in the church. The next day he came forth
and delivered himself into the hands of the soldiers, after they had
taken an oath, in the presence of the bishop, that they had orders only
to hold him as a prisoner. The officer however having given the second
order, he was beheaded the 23rd of August, according to Zosimus. In which
statement he is upheld by history.
Eucher, sometime before the death of his father, had retired to Rome,
where he also had sought refuge in a church, and, although orders had
been given to kill him wherever he was found, respect for the place
prevented the officers from using violence until a special order arrived
from the emperor commanding them to drag him forth. He was conducted out
of Rome, probably to the emperor, who condemned him to death, whereupon
he was sent back to Rome to be executed. He was almost rescued on the
way by the troops of Alaric, who, as we shall see, overran all Italy.
Eucher was finally executed before the first siege of Rome. “Thus,” says
Orosius,[g] “was the emperor Honorius and the church also (which had
everything to fear from Eucher) delivered from a great peril and avenged
with scarcely any noise and by the chastisement of but a few people.”[h]
Olympius, who took the place of the fallen minister, from the first used
his power to ruin the empire. He filled the positions in the army and
state with his creatures, put to death all Stilicho’s family, friends,
and clients, on whom he could lay hands, tried in every way to gratify
the ecclesiastics’ greed of power, and went so far in his hypocritical
piety that when Alaric threatened Rome he appointed not the bravest and
most experienced, but the most pious men as commanders.
At a time when unity was of the first necessity, he prevailed upon
the emperor to make a number of intolerant decrees. It was not only
ordained that no Arian was to fill a public office, but the persecution
of heretics on behalf of the state was made a duty binding upon all
magistrates; more than this, Honorius even gave the investigation of
heresies into the hands of the clergy, and set up a special inquisitorial
tribunal for the purpose. The Arian Goths in the Roman army were reduced
to despair by these measures, and as, after the murder of Stilicho, the
wives and children of barbarian soldiers whom the Romans held as security
for their fidelity had been put to death, many thousands of Goths, Alans,
and other foreigners belonging to the Roman army fled to Alaric, and
offered themselves to him as combatants and guides that they might take
vengeance on the Romans.[c]
FOOTNOTES
[64] [Legally the division was of the same nature as that made by
Diocletian; there was still one empire divided into two administrative
districts, and the two Augusti were colleagues, as before. The division
was not intended to be final, and we shall see (Volume VII) that it was
not absolutely so in fact; for after the abdication of Romulus, the
emperor at Constantinople not only claimed sovereignty over the whole
empire, but at times actually exercised his sovereignty over parts of the
West.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]