Empire.--Part VII.
The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply affected
by the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the season suspended
the execution of his designs till the ensuing spring. He marched in
person, with a considerable part of the forces of Gaul, from the banks
of the Moselle: and to the suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who
met him on the way, he returned a doubtful answer, that, as soon as he
reached the scene of action, he should examine, and pronounce. When he
arrived at Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrian
provinces; who loudly congratulated their own felicity under the
auspicious government of Probus, his PrÊtorian prÊfect. Valentinian, who
was flattered by these demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude,
imprudently asked the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid
sincerity, whether he was freely sent by the wishes of the province.
"With tears and groans am I sent," replied Iphicles, "by a reluctant
people." The emperor paused: but the impunity of his ministers
established the pernicious maxim, that they might oppress his subjects,
without injuring his service. A strict inquiry into their conduct would
have relieved the public discontent. The severe condemnation of the
murder of Gabinius, was the only measure which could restore the
confidence of the Germans, and vindicate the honor of the Roman name.
But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity which dares
to acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered only the
injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiate
thirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation, and promiscuous
massacre, of a savage war, were justified, in the eyes of the emperor,
and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation:
and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the consternation of the
enemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without the loss of a single
man. As he had resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi by
a second campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on the
Danube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations of war
were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an humble
attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at the earnest
persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into the
Imperial council. They approached the throne with bended bodies and
dejected countenances; and without daring to complain of the murder of
their king, they affirmed, with solemn oaths, that the late invasion
was the crime of some irregular robbers, which the public council of the
nation condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them but
little to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in the
most intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude, their
insolence. His eyes, his voice, his color, his gestures, expressed the
violence of his ungoverned fury; and while his whole frame was agitated
with convulsive passion, a large blood vessel suddenly burst in his
body; and Valentinian fell speechless into the arms of his attendants.
Their pious care immediately concealed his situation from the crowd;
but, in a few minutes, the emperor of the West expired in an agony
of pain, retaining his senses till the last; and struggling, without
success, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers, who
surrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four years of
age; and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish the twelve years
of his reign.
The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiastical
historian. "The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted into
her familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italian
governor: her admiration of those naked charms, which she had often seen
in the bath, was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise, that
the emperor was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; and
his public edict extended to all the subjects of the empire the same
domestic privilege which he had assumed for himself." But we may be
assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the
two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were
successively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission of
divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by
the church Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every
claim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western
empire. He was the eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign had
confirmed the free and honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before
he had attained the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received from
the hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with the
title of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and
applause of the armies of Gaul; and the name of Gratian was added to the
names of Valentinian and Valens, in all the legal transactions of the
Roman government. By his marriage with the granddaughter of Constantine,
the son of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of the
Flavian family; which, in a series of three Imperial generations, were
sanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At the
death of his father, the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of his
age; and his virtues already justified the favorable opinion of the army
and the people. But Gratian resided, without apprehension, in the palace
of Treves; whilst, at the distance of many hundred miles, Valentinian
suddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio. The passions, which had been
so long suppressed by the presence of a master, immediately revived in
the Imperial council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the name
of an infant, was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius,
who commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They
contrived the most honorable pretences to remove the popular leaders,
and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted the claims of the lawful
successor; they suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopes
of foreign and domestic enemies, by a bold and decisive measure. The
empress Justina, who had been left in a palace about one hundred miles
from Bregetio, was respectively invited to appear in the camp, with
the son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death of
Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only four years
old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions; and solemnly
invested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns of
supreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonably
prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. He
cheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared that he should
always consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and
advised the empress, with her son Valentinian to fix their residence at
Milan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed
the more arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian
dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace,
the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved with
tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded,
in the administration of the Western empire, the office of a guardian
with the authority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman world
was exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; but
the feeble emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder
brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of the
West.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part I.
Manners Of The Pastoral Nations.--Progress Of The Huns, From
China To Europe.--Flight Of The Goths.--They Pass The
Danube. --Gothic War.--Defeat And Death Of Valens.--Gratian
Invests Theodosius With The Eastern Empire.--His Character
And Success. --Peace And Settlement Of The Goths.
In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the
morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman
world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The impression
was communicated to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean were
left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea; great quantities of fish
were caught with the hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud; and a
curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating
the various appearance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since
the formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon
returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which
was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece,
and of Egypt: large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs of
houses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore; the people,
with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city of
Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand
persons had lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the
report of which was magnified from one province to another, astonished
and terrified the subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imagination
enlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the
preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and
Bithynia: they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of
still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to
confound the symptoms of a declining empire and a sinking world. It
was the fashion of the times to attribute every remarkable event to the
particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected,
by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the
human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, according
to the color of their respective prejudices, that the establishment
of heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that a deluge was the
inevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error. Without
presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of these lofty speculations,
the historian may content himself with an observation, which seems to
be justified by experience, that man has much more to fear from the
passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the
elements. The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a
hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable
portion to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now moderated by
the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse their own
leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice of
the military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations protect the
safety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizen
has seldom reason to complain, that his life, or even his fortune, is
exposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the
Roman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the
happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; and
the arts and labors of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians
of Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the
provinces of the West the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less than
forty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the
success of their arms, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes, more
savage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealed
in the remote countries of the North; and the curious observation of the
pastoral life of the Scythians, or Tartars, will illustrate the latent
cause of these destructive emigrations.
The different characters that mark the civilized nations of the globe,
may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason; which so variously
shapes, and so artificially composes, the manners and opinions of a
European, or a Chinese. But the operation of instinct is more sure and
simple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites
of a quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage
tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals,
preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. The
uniform stability of their manners is the natural consequence of the
imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situation, their
wants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same: and
the influence of food or climate, which, in a more improved state
of society, is suspended, or subdued, by so many moral causes, most
powerfully contributes to form, and to maintain, the national character
of Barbarians. In every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary,
have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose
indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spirit
disdains the confinement of a sedentary life. In every age, the
Scythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their invincible courage
and rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have been repeatedly overturned
by the shepherds of the North; and their arms have spread terror and
devastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe.
On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober historian is
forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision; and is compelled, with some
reluctance, to confess, that the pastoral manners, which have been
adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much
better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. To
illustrate this observation, I shall now proceed to consider a nation of
shepherds and of warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Their
diet; II. Their habitations; and, III. Their exercises. The narratives
of antiquity are justified by the experience of modern times; and
the banks of the Borysthenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga, will
indifferently present the same uniform spectacle of similar and native
manners.
I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and
wholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the
patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who dwell
between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality of
nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation of shepherds is
reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the
medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the
temper of the human mind may be affected by the use of animal, or of
vegetable, food; and whether the common association of carnivorous
and cruel deserves to be considered in any other light than that of an
innocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of humanity. Yet, if it be true,
that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the
sight and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe, that the horrid
objects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement, are
exhibited in their naked and most disgusting simplicity in the tent of
a Tartarian shepherd. The ox, or the sheep, are slaughtered by the same
hand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; and
the bleeding limbs are served, with very little preparation, on the
table of their unfeeling murderer. In the military profession, and
especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use of
animal food appears to be productive of the most solid advantages. Corn
is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, which
are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our troops, must be
slowly transported by the labor of men or horses. But the flocks and
herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a sure and
increasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far greater part of the
uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the grass is quick and luxuriant;
and there are few places so extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of
the North cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is multiplied
and prolonged by the undistinguishing appetite, and patient abstinence,
of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of those
animals that have been killed for the table, or have died of disease.
Horseflesh, which in every age and country has been proscribed by
the civilized nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar
greediness; and this singular taste facilitates the success of their
military operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed,
in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of
spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the
speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the Barbarians. Many are the
resources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp of
Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest part of their
cattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or dried in the sun. On
the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they provide themselves with a
sufficient quantity of little balls of cheese, or rather of hard curd,
which they occasionally dissolve in water; and this unsubstantial diet
will support, for many days, the life, and even the spirits, of the
patient warrior. But this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoic
would approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the
most voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate
are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that can
be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seems
to consist in the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor,
which possesses a very strong power of intoxication. Like the animals
of prey, the savages, both of the old and new world, experience the
alternate vicissitudes of famine and plenty; and their stomach is inured
to sustain, without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger
and of intemperance.
II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of soldiers
and husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an extensive and
cultivated country; and some time must elapse before the warlike youth
of Greece or Italy could be assembled under the same standard, either to
defend their own confines, or to invade the territories of the adjacent
tribes. The progress of manufactures and commerce insensibly collects
a large multitude within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no
longer soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil
society, corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral manners
of the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages of simplicity
and refinement. The individuals of the same tribe are constantly
assembled, but they are assembled in a camp; and the native spirit of
these dauntless shepherds is animated by mutual support and emulation.
The houses of the Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form,
which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth of
both sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a
size that they may be conveniently fixed on large wagons, and drawn by
a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, after
grazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire, on the approach of
night, within the protection of the camp. The necessity of preventing
the most mischievous confusion, in such a perpetual concourse of men and
animals, must gradually introduce, in the distribution, the order, and
the guard, of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As soon
as the forage of a certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather
army, of shepherds, makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and
thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life,
the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult
operations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by the difference
of the seasons: in the summer, the Tartars advance towards the North,
and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or, at least, in the
neighborhood of a running stream. But in the winter, they return to the
South, and shelter their camp, behind some convenient eminence, against
the winds, which are chilled in their passage over the bleak and icy
regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffuse,
among the wandering tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest.
The connection between the people and their territory is of so frail a
texture, that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp, and
not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within the
precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property,
are always included; and, in the most distant marches, he is still
surrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar in
his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the resentment of injury,
the impatience of servitude, have, in every age, been sufficient causes
to urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown
countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence
or a less formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently
determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostile
nations, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove, and been
driven, from the confines of China to those of Germany. These great
emigrations, which have been sometimes executed with almost incredible
diligence, were rendered more easy by the peculiar nature of the
climate. It is well known that the cold of Tartary is much more severe
than in the midst of the temperate zone might reasonably be expected;
this uncommon rigor is attributed to the height of the plains, which
rise, especially towards the East, more than half a mile above the level
of the sea; and to the quantity of saltpetre with which the soil is
deeply impregnated. In the winter season, the broad and rapid rivers,
that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian, or the Icy
Sea, are strongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of snow; and
the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may securely traverse, with their
families, their wagons, and their cattle, the smooth and hard surface of
an immense plain.
III. The pastoral life, compared with the labors of agriculture and
manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the most
honorable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the
domestic management of the cattle, their own leisure is seldom disturbed
by any servile and assiduous cares. But this leisure, instead of being
devoted to the soft enjoyments of love and harmony, is use fully spent
in the violent and sanguinary exercise of the chase. The plains of
Tartary are filled with a strong and serviceable breed of horses, which
are easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of
every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant
practice had seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposed
by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, to
drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting from their steeds. They
excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow
is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its
object with unerring aim and irresistible force. These arrows are often
pointed against the harmless animals of the desert, which increase and
multiply in the absence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the
goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the antelope.
The vigor and patience, both of the men and horses, are continually
exercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the plentiful supply of game
contributes to the subsistence, and even luxury, of a Tartar camp.
But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the
destruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly encounter the
angry wild boar, when he turns against his pursuers, excite the sluggish
courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbers
in the thicket. Where there is danger, there may be glory; and the mode
of hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valor,
may justly be considered as the image, and as the school, of war. The
general hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes,
compose an instructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circle
is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of
an extensive district; and the troops that form the circle regularly
advance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, surrounded
on every side, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march,
which frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb
the hills, to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without
interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They
acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote
object; of preserving their intervals of suspending or accelerating
their pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right and
left; and of watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. Their
leaders study, in this practical school, the most important lesson
of the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of
distance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the same patience
and valor, the same skill and discipline, is the only alteration which
is required in real war; and the amusements of the chase serve as a
prelude to the conquest of an empire.
The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance of
a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia,
distinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, assume the form of
a numerous and increasing family; which, in the course of successive
generations, has been propagated from the same original stock. The
meanest, and most ignorant, of the Tartars, preserve, with conscious
pride, the inestimable treasure of their genealogy; and whatever
distinctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequal
distribution of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and
each other, as the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The
custom, which still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful
of the captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this
extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious.
But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the sanction of time and
opinion, produces the effects of truth; the haughty Barbarians yield a
cheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and their
chief, or mursa, as the representative of their great father, exercises
the authority of a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the
original state of the pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we may
continue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief
of a large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar
territories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual consent.
But the constant operation of various and permanent causes contributed
to unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command
of a supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strong
were ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union,
oppressed and collected the divided force of the adjacent tribes;
and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages of
victory, the most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their
followers under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The
most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to
which he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of power.
He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his equals; and the
title of Khan expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the full
extent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was long
confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment
all the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are
the lineal descendants of the renowned Zingis. But, as it is the
indispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects
into the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and some
royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and valor, is intrusted with the
sword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are
levied on the tribes, to support the dignity of the national monarch,
and of their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amounts
to the tithe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartar
sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and as
his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much larger
proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic splendor of
his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most favored of his
followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the
obedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates of
authority. The manners of his subjects, accustomed, like himself, to
blood and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of
tyranny, as would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power
of a despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The
immediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits of his
own tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderated
by the ancient institution of a national council. The Coroultai, or
Diet, of the Tartars, was regularly held in the spring and autumn, in
the midst of a plain; where the princes of the reigning family, and the
mursas of the respective tribes, may conveniently assemble on horseback,
with their martial and numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, who
reviewed the strength, must consult the inclination of an armed
people. The rudiments of a feudal government may be discovered in
the constitution of the Scythian or Tartar nations; but the perpetual
conflict of those hostile nations has sometimes terminated in the
establishment of a powerful and despotic empire. The victor, enriched
by the tribute, and fortified by the arms of dependent kings, has spread
his conquests over Europe or Asia: the successful shepherds of the North
have submitted to the confinement of arts, of laws, and of cities; and
the introduction of luxury, after destroying the freedom of the people,
has undermined the foundations of the throne.
The memory of past events cannot long be preserved in the frequent and
remote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians. The modern Tartars are
ignorant of the conquests of their ancestors; and our knowledge of the
history of the Scythians is derived from their intercourse with the
learned and civilized nations of the South, the Greeks, the Persians,
and the Chinese. The Greeks, who navigated the Euxine, and planted their
colonies along the sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect discovery
of Scythia; from the Danube, and the confines of Thrace, as far as the
frozen MÊotis, the seat of eternal winter, and Mount Caucasus, which,
in the language of poetry, was described as the utmost boundary of
the earth. They celebrated, with simple credulity, the virtues of the
pastoral life: they entertained a more rational apprehension of the
strength and numbers of the warlike Barbarians, who contemptuously
baffled the immense armament of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. The
Persian monarchs had extended their western conquests to the banks of
the Danube, and the limits of European Scythia. The eastern provinces of
their empire were exposed to the Scythians of Asia; the wild inhabitants
of the plains beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, which
direct their course towards the Caspian Sea. The long and memorable
quarrel of Iran and Touran is still the theme of history or romance: the
famous, perhaps the fabulous, valor of the Persian heroes, Rustan and
Asfendiar, was signalized, in the defence of their country, against the
Afrasiabs of the North; and the invincible spirit of the same Barbarians
resisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms of Cyrus and
Alexander. In the eyes of the Greeks and Persians, the real geography of
Scythia was bounded, on the East, by the mountains of Imaus, or Caf; and
their distant prospect of the extreme and inaccessible parts of Asia was
clouded by ignorance, or perplexed by fiction. But those inaccessible
regions are the ancient residence of a powerful and civilized nation,
which ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries; and which
is able to verify a series of near two thousand years, by the perpetual
testimony of accurate and contemporary historians. The annals of China
illustrate the state and revolutions of the pastoral tribes, which
may still be distinguished by the vague appellation of Scythians, or
Tartars; the vassals, the enemies, and sometimes the conquerors, of a
great empire; whose policy has uniformly opposed the blind and impetuous
valor of the Barbarians of the North. From the mouth of the Danube to
the Sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred
and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than five
thousand miles. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be so
easily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the fortieth degree, which
touches the wall of China, we may securely advance above a thousand
miles to the northward, till our progress is stopped by the excessive
cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate, instead of the animated picture
of a Tartar camp, the smoke that issues from the earth, or rather from
the snow, betrays the subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and the
Samoides: the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by the
use of reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earth
insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive savages,
who tremble at the sound of arms.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part II.
The Huns, who under the reign of Valens threatened the empire of Rome,
had been formidable, in a much earlier period, to the empire of China.
Their ancient, perhaps their original, seat was an extensive, though dry
and barren, tract of country, immediately on the north side of the great
wall. Their place is at present occupied by the forty-nine Hords or
Banners of the Mongous, a pastoral nation, which consists of about two
hundred thousand families. But the valor of the Huns had extended the
narrow limits of their dominions; and their rustic chiefs, who assumed
the appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the conquerors, and the
sovereigns of a formidable empire. Towards the East, their victorious
arms were stopped only by the ocean; and the tribes, which are thinly
scattered between the Amoor and the extreme peninsula of Corea, adhered,
with reluctance, to the standard of the Huns. On the West, near the head
of the Irtish, in the valleys of Imaus, they found a more ample space,
and more numerous enemies. One of the lieutenants of the Tanjou subdued,
in a single expedition, twenty-six nations; the Igours, distinguished
above the Tartar race by the use of letters, were in the number of his
vassals; and, by the strange connection of human events, the flight of
one of those vagrant tribes recalled the victorious Parthians from the
invasion of Syria. On the side of the North, the ocean was assigned
as the limit of the power of the Huns. Without enemies to resist their
progress, or witnesses to contradict their vanity, they might securely
achieve a real, or imaginary, conquest of the frozen regions of Siberia.
The Northern Sea was fixed as the remote boundary of their empire. But
the name of that sea, on whose shores the patriot Sovou embraced the
life of a shepherd and an exile, may be transferred, with much more
probability, to the Baikal, a capacious basin, above three hundred miles
in length, which disdains the modest appellation of a lake and which
actually communicates with the seas of the North, by the long course of
the Angara, the Tongusha, and the Jenissea. The submission of so many
distant nations might flatter the pride of the Tanjou; but the valor
of the Huns could be rewarded only by the enjoyment of the wealth and
luxury of the empire of the South. In the third century before
the Christian Êra, a wall of fifteen hundred miles in length was
constructed, to defend the frontiers of China against the inroads of the
Huns; but this stupendous work, which holds a conspicuous place in the
map of the world, has never contributed to the safety of an unwarlike
people. The cavalry of the Tanjou frequently consisted of two or three
hundred thousand men, formidable by the matchless dexterity with which
they managed their bows and their horses: by their hardy patience in
supporting the inclemency of the weather; and by the incredible speed of
their march, which was seldom checked by torrents, or precipices, by the
deepest rivers, or by the most lofty mountains. They spread themselves
at once over the face of the country; and their rapid impetuosity
surprised, astonished, and disconcerted the grave and elaborate tactics
of a Chinese army. The emperor Kaoti, a soldier of fortune, whose
personal merit had raised him to the throne, marched against the Huns
with those veteran troops which had been trained in the civil wars of
China. But he was soon surrounded by the Barbarians; and, after a siege
of seven days, the monarch, hopeless of relief, was reduced to purchase
his deliverance by an ignominious capitulation. The successors of Kaoti,
whose lives were dedicated to the arts of peace, or the luxury of
the palace, submitted to a more permanent disgrace. They too hastily
confessed the insufficiency of arms and fortifications. They were too
easily convinced, that while the blazing signals announced on every side
the approach of the Huns, the Chinese troops, who slept with the helmet
on their head, and the cuirass on their back, were destroyed by the
incessant labor of ineffectual marches. A regular payment of money,
and silk, was stipulated as the condition of a temporary and precarious
peace; and the wretched expedient of disguising a real tribute, under
the names of a gift or subsidy, was practised by the emperors of China
as well as by those of Rome. But there still remained a more disgraceful
article of tribute, which violated the sacred feelings of humanity and
nature. The hardships of the savage life, which destroy in their infancy
the children who are born with a less healthy and robust constitution,
introduced a remarkable disproportion between the numbers of the two
sexes. The Tartars are an ugly and even deformed race; and while they
consider their own women as the instruments of domestic labor, their
desires, or rather their appetites, are directed to the enjoyment of
more elegant beauty. A select band of the fairest maidens of China was
annually devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns; and the alliance of
the haughty Tanjous was secured by their marriage with the genuine, or
adopted, daughters of the Imperial family, which vainly attempted
to escape the sacrilegious pollution. The situation of these unhappy
victims is described in the verses of a Chinese princess, who laments
that she had been condemned by her parents to a distant exile, under a
Barbarian husband; who complains that sour milk was her only drink, raw
flesh her only food, a tent her only palace; and who expresses, in
a strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish, that she were
transformed into a bird, to fly back to her dear country; the object of
her tender and perpetual regret.
The conquest of China has been twice achieved by the pastoral tribes
of the North: the forces of the Huns were not inferior to those of the
Moguls, or of the Mantcheoux; and their ambition might entertain the
most sanguine hopes of success. But their pride was humbled, and their
progress was checked, by the arms and policy of Vouti, the fifth emperor
of the powerful dynasty of the Han. In his long reign of fifty-four
years, the Barbarians of the southern provinces submitted to the laws
and manners of China; and the ancient limits of the monarchy were
enlarged, from the great river of Kiang, to the port of Canton. Instead
of confining himself to the timid operations of a defensive war, his
lieutenants penetrated many hundred miles into the country of the Huns.
In those boundless deserts, where it is impossible to form magazines,
and difficult to transport a sufficient supply of provisions, the armies
of Vouti were repeatedly exposed to intolerable hardships: and, of one
hundred and forty thousand soldiers, who marched against the Barbarians,
thirty thousand only returned in safety to the feet of their master.
These losses, however, were compensated by splendid and decisive
success. The Chinese generals improved the superiority which they
derived from the temper of their arms, their chariots of war, and
the service of their Tartar auxiliaries. The camp of the Tanjou was
surprised in the midst of sleep and intemperance; and, though the
monarch of the Huns bravely cut his way through the ranks of the enemy,
he left above fifteen thousand of his subjects on the field of battle.
Yet this signal victory, which was preceded and followed by many bloody
engagements, contributed much less to the destruction of the power of
the Huns than the effectual policy which was employed to detach the
tributary nations from their obedience. Intimidated by the arms,
or allured by the promises, of Vouti and his successors, the most
considerable tribes, both of the East and of the West, disclaimed the
authority of the Tanjou. While some acknowledged themselves the allies
or vassals of the empire, they all became the implacable enemies of
the Huns; and the numbers of that haughty people, as soon as they were
reduced to their native strength, might, perhaps, have been contained
within the walls of one of the great and populous cities of China. The
desertion of his subjects, and the perplexity of a civil war, at length
compelled the Tanjou himself to renounce the dignity of an independent
sovereign, and the freedom of a warlike and high-spirited nation. He
was received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the troops, the
mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honors that could adorn
and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. A magnificent palace was
prepared for his reception; his place was assigned above all the
princes of the royal family; and the patience of the Barbarian king
was exhausted by the ceremonies of a banquet, which consisted of eight
courses of meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music. But he performed,
on his knees, the duty of a respectful homage to the emperor of China;
pronounced, in his own name, and in the name of his successors, a
perpetual oath of fidelity; and gratefully accepted a seal, which was
bestowed as the emblem of his regal dependence. After this humiliating
submission, the Tanjous sometimes departed from their allegiance and
seized the favorable moments of war and rapine; but the monarchy of the
Huns gradually declined, till it was broken, by civil dissension, into
two hostile and separate kingdoms. One of the princes of the nation
was urged, by fear and ambition, to retire towards the South with eight
hords, which composed between forty and fifty thousand families. He
obtained, with the title of Tanjou, a convenient territory on the verge
of the Chinese provinces; and his constant attachment to the service of
the empire was secured by weakness, and the desire of revenge. From the
time of this fatal schism, the Huns of the North continued to languish
about fifty years; till they were oppressed on every side by their
foreign and domestic enemies. The proud inscription of a column, erected
on a lofty mountain, announced to posterity, that a Chinese army had
marched seven hundred miles into the heart of their country. The Sienpi,
a tribe of Oriental Tartars, retaliated the injuries which they had
formerly sustained; and the power of the Tanjous, after a reign of
thirteen hundred years, was utterly destroyed before the end of the
first century of the Christian Êra.
The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the various influence
of character and situation. Above one hundred thousand persons,
the poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, were
contented to remain in their native country, to renounce their peculiar
name and origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation of the Sienpi.
Fifty-eight hords, about two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more
honorable servitude, retired towards the South; implored the protection
of the emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard,
the extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory of
Ortous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns maintained,
in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. The
Western world was open to their valor; and they resolved, under the
conduct of their hereditary chieftains, to conquer and subdue some
remote country, which was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi,
and to the laws of China. The course of their emigration soon carried
them beyond the mountains of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinese
geography; but we are able to distinguish the two great divisions of
these formidable exiles, which directed their march towards the Oxus,
and towards the Volga. The first of these colonies established their
dominion in the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the
eastern side of the Caspian; where they preserved the name of Huns, with
the epithet of Euthalites, or Nepthalites. Their manners were softened,
and even their features were insensibly improved, by the mildness of the
climate, and their long residence in a flourishing province, which might
still retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece. The white Huns,
a name which they derived from the change of their complexions,
soon abandoned the pastoral life of Scythia. Gorgo, which, under the
appellation of Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary splendor, was the
residence of the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedient
people. Their luxury was maintained by the labor of the Sogdians;
and the only vestige of their ancient barbarism, was the custom which
obliged all the companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who had
shared the liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same
grave. The vicinity of the Huns to the provinces of Persia, involved
them in frequent and bloody contests with the power of that monarchy.
But they respected, in peace, the faith of treaties; in war, she
dictates of humanity; and their memorable victory over Peroses,
or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as well as the valor, of the
Barbarians. The second division of their countrymen, the Huns, who
gradually advanced towards the North-west, were exercised by the
hardships of a colder climate, and a more laborious march. Necessity
compelled them to exchange the silks of China for the furs of Siberia;
the imperfect rudiments of civilized life were obliterated; and the
native fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by their intercourse with
the savage tribes, who were compared, with some propriety, to the
wild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon rejected the
hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and while each horde was governed
by its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council directed the public
measures of the whole nation. As late as the thirteenth century, their
transient residence on the eastern banks of the Volga was attested by
the name of Great Hungary. In the winter, they descended with their
flocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty river; and their
summer excursions reached as high as the latitude of Saratoff, or
perhaps the conflux of the Kama. Such at least were the recent limits of
the black Calmucks, who remained about a century under the protection
of Russia; and who have since returned to their native seats on the
frontiers of the Chinese empire. The march, and the return, of those
wandering Tartars, whose united camp consists of fifty thousand tents or
families, illustrate the distant emigrations of the ancient Huns.
It is impossible to fill the dark interval of time, which elapsed, after
the Huns of the Volga were lost in the eyes of the Chinese, and before
they showed themselves to those of the Romans. There is some reason,
however, to apprehend, that the same force which had driven them from
their native seats, still continued to impel their march towards the
frontiers of Europe. The power of the Sienpi, their implacable enemies,
which extended above three thousand miles from East to West, must
have gradually oppressed them by the weight and terror of a formidable
neighborhood; and the flight of the tribes of Scythia would inevitably
tend to increase the strength or to contract the territories, of the
Huns. The harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes would offend
the ear, without informing the understanding, of the reader; but I
cannot suppress the very natural suspicion, that the Huns of the North
derived a considerable reenforcement from the ruin of the dynasty of
the South, which, in the course of the third century, submitted to the
dominion of China; that the bravest warriors marched away in search
of their free and adventurous countrymen; and that, as they had been
divided by prosperity, they were easily reunited by the common hardships
of their adverse fortune. The Huns, with their flocks and herds, their
wives and children, their dependents and allies, were transported to the
west of the Volga, and they boldly advanced to invade the country of the
Alani, a pastoral people, who occupied, or wasted, an extensive tract of
the deserts of Scythia. The plains between the Volga and the Tanais were
covered with the tents of the Alani, but their name and manners were
diffused over the wide extent of their conquests; and the painted tribes
of the Agathyrsi and Geloni were confounded among their vassals. Towards
the North, they penetrated into the frozen regions of Siberia, among the
savages who were accustomed, in their rage or hunger, to the taste
of human flesh; and their Southern inroads were pushed as far as the
confines of Persia and India. The mixture of Somatic and German blood
had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, * to whiten their
swarthy complexions, and to tinge their hair with a yellowish cast,
which is seldom found in the Tartar race. They were less deformed in
their persons, less brutish in their manners, than the Huns; but they
did not yield to those formidable Barbarians in their martial and
independent spirit; in the love of freedom, which rejected even the use
of domestic slaves; and in the love of arms, which considered war and
rapine as the pleasure and the glory of mankind. A naked cimeter, fixed
in the ground, was the only object of their religious worship; the
scalps of their enemies formed the costly trappings of their horses;
and they viewed, with pity and contempt, the pusillanimous warriors, who
patiently expected the infirmities of age, and the tortures of lingering
disease. On the banks of the Tanais, the military power of the Huns
and the Alani encountered each other with equal valor, but with unequal
success. The Huns prevailed in the bloody contest; the king of the Alani
was slain; and the remains of the vanquished nation were dispersed by
the ordinary alternative of flight or submission. A colony of exiles
found a secure refuge in the mountains of Caucasus, between the
Euxine and the Caspian, where they still preserve their name and their
independence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid courage,
towards the shores of the Baltic; associated themselves with the
Northern tribes of Germany; and shared the spoil of the Roman provinces
of Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the nation of the Alani
embraced the offers of an honorable and advantageous union; and the
Huns, who esteemed the valor of their less fortunate enemies, proceeded,
with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade the limits of the
Gothic empire.
The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the Baltic to the
Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age and reputation, the fruit
of his victories, when he was alarmed by the formidable approach of a
host of unknown enemies, on whom his barbarous subjects might, without
injustice, bestow the epithet of Barbarians. The numbers, the strength,
the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns, were felt,
and dreaded, and magnified, by the astonished Goths; who beheld
their fields and villages consumed with flames, and deluged with
indiscriminate slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surprise
and abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the uncouth
gestures, and the strange deformity of the Huns. * These savages of
Scythia were compared (and the picture had some resemblance) to the
animals who walk very awkwardly on two legs and to the misshapen
figures, the Termini, which were often placed on the bridges of
antiquity. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by
their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried
in the head; and as they were almost destitute of beards, they never
enjoyed either the manly grace of youth, or the venerable aspect of age.
A fabulous origin was assigned, worthy of their form and manners; that
the witches of Scythia, who, for their foul and deadly practices, had
been driven from society, had copulated in the desert with infernal
spirits; and that the Huns were the offspring of this execrable
conjunction. The tale, so full of horror and absurdity, was greedily
embraced by the credulous hatred of the Goths; but, while it gratified
their hatred, it increased their fear, since the posterity of dÊmons
and witches might be supposed to inherit some share of the prÊternatural
powers, as well as of the malignant temper, of their parents. Against
these enemies, Hermanric prepared to exert the united forces of the
Gothic state; but he soon discovered that his vassal tribes, provoked
by oppression, were much more inclined to second, than to repel, the
invasion of the Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani had formerly
deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel tyrant had condemned
the innocent wife of the traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses.
The brothers of that unfortunate woman seized the favorable moment
of revenge. The aged king of the Goths languished some time after the
dangerous wound which he received from their daggers; but the conduct of
the war was retarded by his infirmities; and the public councils of the
nation were distracted by a spirit of jealousy and discord. His death,
which has been imputed to his own despair, left the reins of government
in the hands of Withimer, who, with the doubtful aid of some Scythian
mercenaries, maintained the unequal contest against the arms of the Huns
and the Alani, till he was defeated and slain in a decisive battle. The
Ostrogoths submitted to their fate; and the royal race of the Amali will
hereafter be found among the subjects of the haughty Attila. But the
person of Witheric, the infant king, was saved by the diligence of
Alatheus and Saphrax; two warriors of approved valor and fidelity, who,
by cautious marches, conducted the independent remains of the nation of
the Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or Niester; a considerable river,
which now separates the Turkish dominions from the empire of Russia. On
the banks of the Niester, the prudent Athanaric, more attentive to his
own than to the general safety, had fixed the camp of the Visigoths;
with the firm resolution of opposing the victorious Barbarians, whom he
thought it less advisable to provoke. The ordinary speed of the Huns was
checked by the weight of baggage, and the encumbrance of captives;
but their military skill deceived, and almost destroyed, the army of
Athanaric. While the Judge of the Visigoths defended the banks of the
Niester, he was encompassed and attacked by a numerous detachment
of cavalry, who, by the light of the moon, had passed the river in a
fordable place; and it was not without the utmost efforts of courage
and conduct, that he was able to effect his retreat towards the hilly
country. The undaunted general had already formed a new and judicious
plan of defensive war; and the strong lines, which he was preparing to
construct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube, would have
secured the extensive and fertile territory that bears the modern name
of Walachia, from the destructive inroads of the Huns. But the hopes
and measures of the Judge of the Visigoths was soon disappointed, by the
trembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen; who were persuaded by
their fears, that the interposition of the Danube was the only barrier
that could save them from the rapid pursuit, and invincible valor, of
the Barbarians of Scythia. Under the command of Fritigern and Alavivus,
the body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the great river,
and implored the protection of the Roman emperor of the East. Athanaric
himself, still anxious to avoid the guilt of perjury, retired, with a
band of faithful followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland;
which appears to have been guarded, and almost concealed, by the
impenetrable forests of Transylvania. *
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part III.
After Valens had terminated the Gothic war with some appearance of glory
and success, he made a progress through his dominions of Asia, and at
length fixed his residence in the capital of Syria. The five years which
he spent at Antioch was employed to watch, from a secure distance, the
hostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the depredations of
the Saracens and Isaurians; to enforce, by arguments more prevalent than
those of reason and eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology; and
to satisfy his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the
innocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor was most
seriously engaged, by the important intelligence which he received from
the civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence of
the Danube. He was informed, that the North was agitated by a furious
tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race
of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliant
multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the
dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With
outstretched arms, and pathetic lamentations, they loudly deplored their
past misfortunes and their present danger; acknowledged that their only
hope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman government; and most
solemnly protested, that if the gracious liberality of the emperor would
permit them to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they should
ever hold themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty and
gratitude, to obey the laws, and to guard the limits, of the republic.
These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the Goths, *
who impatiently expected from the mouth of Valens an answer that must
finally determine the fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor of
the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder
brother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year;
and as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and
peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favorite resources of feeble
and timid minds, who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures
as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence. As long as the
same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war
and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the councils of
antiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of modern
deliberation. But the most experienced statesman of Europe has never
been summoned to consider the propriety, or the danger, of admitting,
or rejecting, an innumerable multitude of Barbarians, who are driven
by despair and hunger to solicit a settlement on the territories of
a civilized nation. When that important proposition, so essentially
connected with the public safety, was referred to the ministers of
Valens, they were perplexed and divided; but they soon acquiesced in the
flattering sentiment which seemed the most favorable to the pride, the
indolence, and the avarice of their sovereign. The slaves, who were
decorated with the titles of prÊfects and generals, dissembled or
disregarded the terrors of this national emigration; so extremely
different from the partial and accidental colonies, which had been
received on the extreme limits of the empire. But they applauded the
liberality of fortune, which had conducted, from the most distant
countries of the globe, a numerous and invincible army of strangers, to
defend the throne of Valens; who might now add to the royal treasures
the immense sums of gold supplied by the provincials to compensate their
annual proportion of recruits. The prayers of the Goths were granted,
and their service was accepted by the Imperial court: and orders were
immediately despatched to the civil and military governors of the
Thracian diocese, to make the necessary preparations for the passage and
subsistence of a great people, till a proper and sufficient territory
could be allotted for their future residence. The liberality of
the emperor was accompanied, however, with two harsh and rigorous
conditions, which prudence might justify on the side of the Romans; but
which distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths. Before they
passed the Danube, they were required to deliver their arms: and it was
insisted, that their children should be taken from them, and dispersed
through the provinces of Asia; where they might be civilized by the
arts of education, and serve as hostages to secure the fidelity of their
parents.
During the suspense of a doubtful and distant negotiation, the impatient
Goths made some rash attempts to pass the Danube, without the permission
of the government, whose protection they had implored. Their motions
were strictly observed by the vigilance of the troops which were
stationed along the river and their foremost detachments were defeated
with considerable slaughter; yet such were the timid councils of the
reign of Valens, that the brave officers who had served their country
in the execution of their duty, were punished by the loss of their
employments, and narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The Imperial
mandate was at length received for transporting over the Danube the
whole body of the Gothic nation; but the execution of this order was a
task of labor and difficulty. The stream of the Danube, which in those
parts is above a mile broad, had been swelled by incessant rains; and in
this tumultuous passage, many were swept away, and drowned, by the rapid
violence of the current. A large fleet of vessels, of boats, and of
canoes, was provided; many days and nights they passed and repassed with
indefatigable toil; and the most strenuous diligence was exerted by
the officers of Valens, that not a single Barbarian, of those who were
reserved to subvert the foundations of Rome, should be left on the
opposite shore. It was thought expedient that an accurate account
should be taken of their numbers; but the persons who were employed soon
desisted, with amazement and dismay, from the prosecution of the endless
and impracticable task: and the principal historian of the age most
seriously affirms, that the prodigious armies of Darius and Xerxes,
which had so long been considered as the fables of vain and credulous
antiquity, were now justified, in the eyes of mankind, by the evidence
of fact and experience. A probable testimony has fixed the number of the
Gothic warriors at two hundred thousand men: and if we can venture to
add the just proportion of women, of children, and of slaves, the whole
mass of people which composed this formidable emigration, must have
amounted to near a million of persons, of both sexes, and of all ages.
The children of the Goths, those at least of a distinguished rank, were
separated from the multitude. They were conducted, without delay, to
the distant seats assigned for their residence and education; and as the
numerous train of hostages or captives passed through the cities, their
gay and splendid apparel, their robust and martial figure, excited the
surprise and envy of the Provincials. * But the stipulation, the most
offensive to the Goths, and the most important to the Romans, was
shamefully eluded. The Barbarians, who considered their arms as the
ensigns of honor and the pledges of safety, were disposed to offer a
price, which the lust or avarice of the Imperial officers was easily
tempted to accept. To preserve their arms, the haughty warriors
consented, with some reluctance, to prostitute their wives or their
daughters; the charms of a beauteous maid, or a comely boy, secured the
connivance of the inspectors; who sometimes cast an eye of covetousness
on the fringed carpets and linen garments of their new allies, or who
sacrificed their duty to the mean consideration of filling their farms
with cattle, and their houses with slaves. The Goths, with arms in their
hands, were permitted to enter the boats; and when their strength was
collected on the other side of the river, the immense camp which was
spread over the plains and the hills of the Lower MÊsia, assumed a
threatening and even hostile aspect. The leaders of the Ostrogoths,
Alatheus and Saphrax, the guardians of their infant king, appeared
soon afterwards on the Northern banks of the Danube; and immediately
despatched their ambassadors to the court of Antioch, to solicit, with
the same professions of allegiance and gratitude, the same favor which
had been granted to the suppliant Visigoths. The absolute refusal of
Valens suspended their progress, and discovered the repentance, the
suspicions, and the fears, of the Imperial council.
An undisciplined and unsettled nation of Barbarians required the firmest
temper, and the most dexterous management. The daily subsistence of near
a million of extraordinary subjects could be supplied only by constant
and skilful diligence, and might continually be interrupted by mistake
or accident. The insolence, or the indignation, of the Goths, if they
conceived themselves to be the objects either of fear or of contempt,
might urge them to the most desperate extremities; and the fortune of
the state seemed to depend on the prudence, as well as the integrity,
of the generals of Valens. At this important crisis, the military
government of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whose
venal minds the slightest hope of private emolument outweighed every
consideration of public advantage; and whose guilt was only alleviated
by their incapacity of discerning the pernicious effects of their rash
and criminal administration. Instead of obeying the orders of their
sovereign, and satisfying, with decent liberality, the demands of the
Goths, they levied an ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of the
hungry Barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an extravagant price;
and, in the room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the markets
were filled with the flesh of dogs, and of unclean animals, who had died
of disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition of a pound of bread,
the Goths resigned the possession of an expensive, though serviceable,
slave; and a small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with ten
pounds of a precious, but useless metal, when their property was
exhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of their
sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom, which
animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the humiliating maxim,
that it was better for their children to be maintained in a servile
condition, than to perish in a state of wretched and helpless
independence. The most lively resentment is excited by the tyranny of
pretended benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of gratitude which
they have cancelled by subsequent injuries: a spirit of discontent
insensibly arose in the camp of the Barbarians, who pleaded, without
success, the merit of their patient and dutiful behavior; and loudly
complained of the inhospitable treatment which they had received from
their new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of a
fertile province, in the midst of which they suffered the intolerable
hardships of artificial famine. But the means of relief, and even of
revenge, were in their hands; since the rapaciousness of their tyrants
had left to an injured people the possession and the use of arms. The
clamors of a multitude, untaught to disguise their sentiments, announced
the first symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and guilty minds
of Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who substituted the
cunning of temporary expedients to the wise and salutary counsels of
general policy, attempted to remove the Goths from their dangerous
station on the frontiers of the empire; and to disperse them, in
separate quarters of cantonment, through the interior provinces. As they
were conscious how ill they had deserved the respect, or confidence, of
the Barbarians, they diligently collected, from every side, a military
force, that might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people, who
had not yet renounced the title, or the duties, of Roman subjects. But
the generals of Valens, while their attention was solely directed to
the discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships and the
fortifications which constituted the defence of the Danube. The fatal
oversight was observed, and improved, by Alatheus and Saphrax, who
anxiously watched the favorable moment of escaping from the pursuit
of the Huns. By the help of such rafts and vessels as could be hastily
procured, the leaders of the Ostrogoths transported, without opposition,
their king and their army; and boldly fixed a hostile and independent
camp on the territories of the empire.