Empire.—Part V.
Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads
of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son,
who reigned in the Western empire. Constans visited his British
dominions: but we may form some estimate of the importance of his
achievements, by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only
his triumph over the elements or, in other words, the good
fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to
the harbor of Sandwich. 112 The calamities which the afflicted
provincials continued to experience, from foreign war and
domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt
administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient
relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian, was
soon lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums
of gold and silver, which had been painfully collected, or
liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were
intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at
least, exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold;
the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of
their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent
desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the
highways were infested with robbers. 113 The oppression of the
good, and the impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to
diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and
every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a
reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted government
of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who detested the
pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their
domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the land and sea, the
Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid
and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores
of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of
convenience and luxury, which they were incapable of creating by
labor or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and
fruitful province of Britain. 114 A philosopher may deplore the
eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the
desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of
conquest. From the age of Constantine to the Plantagenets, this
rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy
Caledonians; but the same people, whose generous humanity seems
to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage
ignorance of the virtues of peace, and of the laws of war. Their
southern neighbors have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel
depredations of the Scots and Picts; 115 and a valiant tribe of
Caledonia, the Attacotti, 116 the enemies, and afterwards the
soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of
delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the
woods for prey, it is said, that they attacked the shepherd
rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most
delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they
prepared for their horrid repasts. 117 If, in the neighborhood of
the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals
has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the
Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized
life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas;
and to encourage the pleasing hope, that New Zealand may produce,
in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.
112 (return) [ Hyeme tumentes ac sævientes undas calcâstis Oceani
sub remis vestris;... insperatam imperatoris faciem Britannus
expavit. Julius Fermicus Maternus de Errore Profan. Relig. p.
464. edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. Fæl. See Tillemont, (Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 336.)]
113 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. xxxix. p. 264. This
curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British
antiquaries.]
114 (return) [ The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the
steeds, the lights, &c., of the _stranger_. See Dr. Blair’s
Dissertation on Ossian, vol ii. p. 343; and Mr. Macpherson’s
Introduction, p. 242-286.]
115 (return) [ Lord Lyttelton has circumstantially related,
(History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182,) and Sir David Dalrymple
has slightly mentioned, (Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69,) a
barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A.D. 1137) when law,
religion, and society must have softened their primitive
manners.]
116 (return) [ Attacotti bellicosa hominum natio. Ammian. xxvii.
8. Camden (Introduct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in
the text of Jerom. The bands of Attacotti, which Jerom had seen
in Gaul, were afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum,
(Notitia, S. viii. xxxix. xl.)]
117 (return) [ Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim
Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus;
et cum per silvas porcorum greges, et armentorum percudumque
reperiant, pastorum _nates_ et feminarum _papillas_ solere
abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the
evidence of Jerom, (tom. ii. p. 75,) whose veracity I find no
reason to question. * Note: See Dr. Parr’s works, iii. 93, where
he questions the propriety of Gibbon’s translation of this
passage. The learned doctor approves of the version proposed by a
Mr. Gaches, who would make out that it was the delicate parts of
the swine and the cattle, which were eaten by these ancestors of
the Scotch nation. I confess that even to acquit them of this
charge. I cannot agree to the new version, which, in my opinion,
is directly contrary both to the meaning of the words, and the
general sense of the passage. But I would suggest, did Jerom, as
a boy, accompany these savages in any of their hunting
expeditions? If he did not, how could he be an eye-witness of
this practice? The Attacotti in Gaul must have been in the
service of Rome. Were they permitted to indulge these cannibal
propensities at the expense, not of the flocks, but of the
shepherds of the provinces? These sanguinary trophies of plunder
would scarce’y have been publicly exhibited in a Roman city or a
Roman camp. I must leave the hereditary pride of our northern
neighbors at issue with the veracity of St. Jerom.—M.]
Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel, conveyed
the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of
Valentinian; and the emperor was soon informed that the two
military commanders of the province had been surprised and cut
off by the Barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, was
hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court of
Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate
the greatness of the evil; and, after a long and serious
consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was
intrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits
of that general, the father of a line of emperors, have been
celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age:
but his real merit deserved their applause; and his nomination
was received, by the army and province, as a sure presage of
approaching victory. He seized the favorable moment of
navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of
the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In his
march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated several
parties of the Barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and,
after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil,
established the fame of disinterested justice, by the restitution
of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens of
London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open
their gates; and as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the
court of Treves the important aid of a military lieutenant, and a
civil governor, he executed, with wisdom and vigor, the laborious
task of the deliverance of Britain. The vagrant soldiers were
recalled to their standard; an edict of amnesty dispelled the
public apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated the
rigor of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare
of the Barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of
the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit, and
consummate art, of the Roman general, were displayed in the
operations of two campaigns, which successively rescued every
part of the province from the hands of a cruel and rapacious
enemy. The splendor of the cities, and the security of the
fortifications, were diligently restored, by the paternal care of
Theodosius; who with a strong hand confined the trembling
Caledonians to the northern angle of the island; and perpetuated,
by the name and settlement of the new province of _Valentia_, the
glories of the reign of Valentinian. 118 The voice of poetry and
panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the
unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the
Picts; that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the
Hyperborean ocean; and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of
his naval victory over the Saxon pirates. 119 He left the
province with a fair, as well as splendid, reputation; and was
immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the
cavalry, by a prince who could applaud, without envy, the merit
of his servants. In the important station of the Upper Danube,
the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the armies of the
Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa.
118 (return) [ Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. l. xxvi.
4, xxvii. 8 xxviii. 3) the whole series of the British war.]
119 (return) [ Horrescit.... ratibus.... impervia Thule. Ille....
nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit. Scotumque vago mucrone secutus,
Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas. Claudian, in iii. Cons.
Honorii, ver. 53, &c—Madurunt Saxone fuso Orcades: incaluit
Pictorum sanguine Thule, Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.
In iv. Cons. Hon. ver. 31, &c. ——See likewise Pacatus, (in
Panegyr. Vet. xii. 5.) But it is not easy to appreciate the
intrinsic value of flattery and metaphor. Compare the _British_
victories of Bolanus (Statius, Silv. v. 2) with his real
character, (Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 16.)]
III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs the people
to consider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The military
command of Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and
his abilities were not inadequate to his station; but, as sordid
interest was the sole motive of his conduct, he acted, on most
occasions, as if he had been the enemy of the province, and the
friend of the Barbarians of the desert. The three flourishing
cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sobrata, which, under the name of
Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union, 120 were obliged,
for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostile
invasion; several of their most honorable citizens were surprised
and massacred; the villages, and even the suburbs, were pillaged;
and the vines and fruit trees of that rich territory were
extirpated by the malicious savages of Getulia. The unhappy
provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they soon
found that their military governor was not less cruel and
rapacious than the Barbarians. As they were incapable of
furnishing the four thousand camels, and the exorbitant present,
which he required, before he would march to the assistance of
Tripoli; his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might
justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the
annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies,
to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a
gold victory; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than
of gratitude, with their humble complaint, that they were ruined
by the enemy, and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of
Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen on
the guilty head of Romanus. But the count, long exercised in the
arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty messenger
to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of the
offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by
artifice; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At
length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by
the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was
sent from the court of Treves, to examine the state of Africa,
and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius
was easily disarmed: he was tempted to reserve for himself a part
of the public treasure, which he brought with him for the payment
of the troops; and from the moment that he was conscious of his
own guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence and
merit of the count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to
be false and frivolous; and Palladius himself was sent back from
Treves to Africa, with a special commission to discover and
prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against the
representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were managed with
so much dexterity and success, that he compelled the citizens of
Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege of eight days, to
contradict the truth of their own decrees, and to censure the
behavior of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronounced,
without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of
Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity
the distress of the province, was publicly executed at Utica;
four distinguished citizens were put to death, as the accomplices
of the imaginary fraud; and the tongues of two others were cut
out, by the express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by
impunity, and irritated by resistance, was still continued in the
military command; till the Africans were provoked, by his
avarice, to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor. 121
120 (return) [ Ammianus frequently mentions their concilium
annuum, legitimum, &c. Leptis and Sabrata are long since ruined;
but the city of Oea, the native country of Apuleius, still
flourishes under the provincial denomination of _Tripoli_. See
Cellarius (Geograph. Antiqua, tom. ii. part ii. p. 81,)
D’Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. iii. p. 71, 72,) and
Marmol, (Arrique, tom. ii. p. 562.)]
121 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 6. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. v. p 25, 676) has discussed the chronological difficulties
of the history of Count Romanus.]
His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the
Moorish princes, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But as
he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very numerous
posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly disputed; and
Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a domestic quarrel by his
brother Firmus. The implacable zeal, with which Romanus
prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder, could be ascribed
only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred; but, on this
occasion, his claims were just; his influence was weighty; and
Firmus clearly understood, that he must either present his neck
to the executioner, or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial
consistory, to his sword, and to the people. 122 He was received
as the deliverer of his country; and, as soon as it appeared that
Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the tyrant
of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of
Cæsarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious
Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the danger of
resistance; the power of Firmus was established, at least in the
provinces of Mauritania and Numidia; and it seemed to be his only
doubt whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king, or
the purple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy
Africans soon discovered, that, in this rash insurrection, they
had not sufficiently consulted their own strength, or the
abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain
intelligence, that the emperor of the West had fixed the choice
of a general, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the
mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed that the great
Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, had landed near
Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast; and the timid usurper
sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though
Firmus possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory
immediately reduced him to the use of those arts, which, in the
same country, and in a similar situation, had formerly been
practised by the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an
apparent submission, the vigilance of the Roman general; to
seduce the fidelity of his troops; and to protract the duration
of the war, by successively engaging the independent tribes of
Africa to espouse his quarrel, or to protect his flight.
Theodosius imitated the example, and obtained the success, of his
predecessor Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a
suppliant, accused his own rashness, and humbly solicited the
clemency of the emperor, the lieutenant of Valentinian received
and dismissed him with a friendly embrace: but he diligently
required the useful and substantial pledges of a sincere
repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the assurances of
peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an active
war. A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of
Theodosius; and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the public
indignation, which he had secretly excited. Several of the guilty
accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, according to ancient
custom, to the tumult of a military execution; many more, by the
amputation of both their hands, continued to exhibit an
instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred of the rebels was
accompanied with fear; and the fear of the Roman soldiers was
mingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless plains
of Getulia, and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was
impossible to prevent the escape of Firmus; and if the usurper
could have tired the patience of his antagonist, he would have
secured his person in the depth of some remote solitude, and
expected the hopes of a future revolution. He was subdued by the
perseverance of Theodosius; who had formed an inflexible
determination, that the war should end only by the death of the
tyrant; and that every nation of Africa, which presumed to
support his cause, should be involved in his ruin. At the head of
a small body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five
hundred men, the Roman general advanced, with a steady prudence,
devoid of rashness or of fear, into the heart of a country, where
he was sometimes attacked by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The
boldness of his charge dismayed the irregular Barbarians; they
were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly retreats; they
were continually baffled by the unknown resources of the military
art; and they felt and confessed the just superiority which was
assumed by the leader of a civilized nation. When Theodosius
entered the extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the
Isaflenses, the haughty savage required, in words of defiance,
his name, and the object of his expedition. “I am,” replied the
stern and disdainful count, “I am the general of Valentinian, the
lord of the world; who has sent me hither to pursue and punish a
desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be
assured, that if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible
sovereign, thou, and the people over whom thou reignest, shall be
utterly extirpated.” 12211 As soon as Igmazen was satisfied, that
his enemy had strength and resolution to execute the fatal
menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peace by the
sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed to
secure the person of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape;
and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the sense of
danger, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans, by
strangling himself in the night. His dead body, the only present
which Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown
upon a camel; and Theodosius, leading back his victorious troops
to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclamations of joy and
loyalty. 123
122 (return) [ The Chronology of Ammianus is loose and obscure;
and Orosius (i. vii. c. 33, p. 551, edit. Havercamp) seems to
place the revolt of Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and
Valens. Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p. 691) endeavors to
pick his way. The patient and sure-foot mule of the Alps may be
trusted in the most slippery paths.]
12211 (return) [ The war was longer protracted than this sentence
would lead us to suppose: it was not till defeated more than once
that Igmazen yielded Amm. xxix. 5.—M]
123 (return) [ Ammian xxix. 5. The text of this long chapter
(fifteen quarto pages) is broken and corrupted; and the narrative
is perplexed by the want of chronological and geographical
landmarks.]
Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by
the virtues of Theodosius; and our curiosity may be usefully
directed to the inquiry of the respective treatment which the two
generals received from the Imperial court. The authority of Count
Romanus had been suspended by the master-general of the cavalry;
and he was committed to safe and honorable custody till the end
of the war. His crimes were proved by the most authentic
evidence; and the public expected, with some impatience, the
decree of severe justice. But the partial and powerful favor of
Mellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to
obtain repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of
friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct, by
the additional guilt of fraud and forgery. About the same time,
the restorer of Britain and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his
name and services were superior to the rank of a subject, was
ignominiously beheaded at Carthage. Valentinian no longer
reigned; and the death of Theodosius, as well as the impunity of
Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the ministers, who
abused the confidence, and deceived the inexperienced youth, of
his sons. 124
124 (return) [ Ammian xxviii. 4. Orosius, l. vii. c. 33, p. 551,
552. Jerom. in Chron. p. 187.]
If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately
bestowed on the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have
traced, with eager curiosity, the distinct and domestic footsteps
of his march. But the tedious enumeration of the unknown and
uninteresting tribes of Africa may be reduced to the general
remark, that they were all of the swarthy race of the Moors; that
they inhabited the back settlements of the Mauritanian and
Numidian province, the country, as they have since been termed by
the Arabs, of dates and of locusts; 125 and that, as the Roman
power declined in Africa, the boundary of civilized manners and
cultivated land was insensibly contracted. Beyond the utmost
limits of the Moors, the vast and inhospitable desert of the
South extends above a thousand miles to the banks of the Niger.
The ancients, who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge of the
great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted to believe,
that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants;
126 and they sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant
space with headless men, or rather monsters; 127 with horned and
cloven-footed satyrs; 128 with fabulous centaurs; 129 and with
human pygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare against the
cranes. 130 Carthage would have trembled at the strange
intelligence that the countries on either side of the equator
were filled with innumerable nations, who differed only in their
color from the ordinary appearance of the human species: and the
subjects of the Roman empire might have anxiously expected, that
the swarms of Barbarians, which issued from the North, would soon
be encountered from the South by new swarms of Barbarians,
equally fierce and equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would
indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance with
the character of their African enemies. The inaction of the
negroes does not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or
of their pusillanimity. They indulge, like the rest of mankind,
their passions and appetites; and the adjacent tribes are engaged
in frequent acts of hostility. 131 But their rude ignorance has
never invented any effectual weapons of defence, or of
destruction; they appear incapable of forming any extensive plans
of government, or conquest; and the obvious inferiority of their
mental faculties has been discovered and abused by the nations of
the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked
from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native
country; but they are embarked in chains; 132 and this constant
emigration, which, in the space of two centuries, might have
furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of
Europe, and the weakness of Africa.
125 (return) [ Leo Africanus (in the Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i.
fol. 78-83) has traced a curious picture of the people and the
country; which are more minutely described in the Afrique de
Marmol, tom. iii. p. 1-54.]
126 (return) [ This uninhabitable zone was gradually reduced by
the improvements of ancient geography, from forty-five to
twenty-four, or even sixteen degrees of latitude. See a learned
and judicious note of Dr. Robertson, Hist. of America, vol. i. p.
426.]
127 (return) [ Intra, si credere libet, vix jam homines et magis
semiferi... Blemmyes, Satyri, &c. Pomponius Mela, i. 4, p. 26,
edit. Voss. in 8vo. Pliny _philosophically_ explains (vi. 35) the
irregularities of nature, which he had _credulously_ admitted,
(v. 8.)]
128 (return) [ If the satyr was the Orang-outang, the great human
ape, (Buffon, Hist. Nat. tom. xiv. p. 43, &c.,) one of that
species might actually be shown alive at Alexandria, in the reign
of Constantine. Yet some difficulty will still remain about the
conversation which St. Anthony held with one of these pious
savages, in the desert of Thebais. (Jerom. in Vit. Paul. Eremit.
tom. i. p. 238.)]
129 (return) [ St. Anthony likewise met one of _these_ monsters;
whose existence was seriously asserted by the emperor Claudius.
The public laughed; but his præfect of Egypt had the address to
send an artful preparation, the embalmed corpse of a
_Hippocentaur_, which was preserved almost a century afterwards
in the Imperial palace. See Pliny, (Hist. Natur. vii. 3,) and the
judicious observations of Freret. (Mémoires de l’Acad. tom. vii.
p. 321, &c.)]
130 (return) [ The fable of the pygmies is as old as Homer,
(Iliad. iii. 6) The pygmies of India and Æthiopia were
(trispithami) twenty-seven inches high. Every spring their
cavalry (mounted on rams and goats) marched, in battle array, to
destroy the cranes’ eggs, aliter (says Pliny) futuris gregibus
non resisti. Their houses were built of mud, feathers, and
egg-shells. See Pliny, (vi. 35, vii. 2,) and Strabo, (l. ii. p.
121.)]
131 (return) [ The third and fourth volumes of the valuable
Histoire des Voyages describe the present state of the Negroes.
The nations of the sea-coast have been polished by European
commerce; and those of the inland country have been improved by
Moorish colonies. * Note: The martial tribes in chain armor,
discovered by Denham, are Mahometan; the great question of the
inferiority of the African tribes in their mental faculties will
probably be experimentally resolved before the close of the
century; but the Slave Trade still continues, and will, it is to
be feared, till the spirit of gain is subdued by the spirit of
Christian humanity.—M.]
132 (return) [ Histoire Philosophique et Politique, &c., tom. iv.
p. 192.]