Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The

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 Prætorian præfect.

151 Valentinian, who was flattered by these demonstrations of

their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked the deputy of

Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity, 152 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: 153 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. 154

151 (return) [ Ammianus, (xxx. 5,) who acknowledges the merit,

has censured, with becoming asperity, the oppressive

administration of Petronius Probus. When Jerom translated and

continued the Chronicle of Eusebius, (A. D. 380; see Tillemont,

Mém. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 53, 626,) he expressed the truth, or at

least the public opinion of his country, in the following words:

“Probus P. P. Illyrici inquissimus tributorum exactionibus, ante

provincias quas regebat, quam a Barbaris vastarentur, _erasit_.”

(Chron. edit. Scaliger, p. 187. Animadvers p. 259.) The Saint

afterwards formed an intimate and tender friendship with the

widow of Probus; and the name of Count Equitius with less

propriety, but without much injustice, has been substituted in

the text.]

152 (return) [ Julian (Orat. vi. p. 198) represents his friend

Iphicles, as a man of virtue and merit, who had made himself

ridiculous and unhappy by adopting the extravagant dress and

manners of the Cynics.]

153 (return) [ Ammian. xxx. v. Jerom, who exaggerates the

misfortune of Valentinian, refuses him even this last consolation

of revenge. Genitali vastato solo et _inultam_ patriam

derelinquens, (tom. i. p. 26.)]

154 (return) [ See, on the death of Valentinian, Ammianus, (xxx.

6,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Victor, (in Epitom.,) Socrates, (l.

iv. c. 31,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 187, and tom. i. p. 26, ad

Heliodor.) There is much variety of circumstances among them; and

Ammianus is so eloquent, that he writes nonsense.]

The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an

ecclesiastical historian. 155 “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; 156 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. 157

155 (return) [ Socrates (l. iv. c. 31) is the only original

witness of this foolish story, so repugnant to the laws and

manners of the Romans, that it scarcely deserved the formal and

elaborate dissertation of M. Bonamy, (Mém. de l’Académie, tom.

xxx. p. 394-405.) Yet I would preserve the natural circumstance

of the bath; instead of following Zosimus who represents Justina

as an old woman, the widow of Magnentius.]

156 (return) [ Ammianus (xxvii. 6) describes the form of this

military election, and _august_ investiture. Valentinian does not

appear to have consulted, or even informed, the senate of Rome.]

157 (return) [ Ammianus, xxx. 10. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 222, 223.

Tillemont has proved (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 707-709)

that Gratian _reigned_ in Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. I have

endeavored to express his authority over his brother’s dominions,

as he used it, in an ambiguous style.]

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 1 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. 2 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. 3

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, 4 or Tartars, 5 will illustrate the latent cause of

these destructive emigrations.

1 (return) [ Such is the bad taste of Ammianus, (xxvi. 10,) that

it is not easy to distinguish his facts from his metaphors. Yet

he positively affirms, that he saw the rotten carcass of a ship,

_ad decundum lapidem_, at Mothone, or Modon, in Peloponnesus.]

2 (return) [ The earthquakes and inundations are variously

described by Libanius, (Orat. de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. x.,

in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. tom. vii. p. 158, with a learned note

of Olearius,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 2,)

Cedrenus, (p. 310, 314,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 186, and tom.

i. p. 250, in Vit. Hilarion.) Epidaurus must have been

overwhelmed, had not the prudent citizens placed St. Hilarion, an

Egyptian monk, on the beach. He made the sign of the Cross; the

mountain-wave stopped, bowed, and returned.]

3 (return) [ Dicæarchus, the Peripatetic, composed a formal

treatise, to prove this obvious truth; which is not the most

honorable to the human species. (Cicero, de Officiis, ii. 5.)]

4 (return) [ The original Scythians of Herodotus (l. iv. c.

47—57, 99—101) were confined, by the Danube and the Palus Mæotis,

within a square of 4000 stadia, (400 Roman miles.) See D’Anville

(Mém. de l’Académie, tom. xxxv. p. 573—591.) Diodorus Siculus

(tom. i. l. ii. p. 155, edit. Wesseling) has marked the gradual

progress of the _name_ and nation.]

5 (return) [ The _Tatars_, or Tartars, were a primitive tribe,

the rivals, and at length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the

victorious armies of Zingis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars

formed the vanguard; and the name, which first reached the ears

of foreigners, was applied to the whole nation, (Freret, in the

Hist. de l’Académie, tom. xviii. p. 60.) In speaking of all, or

any of the northern shepherds of Europe, or Asia, I indifferently

use the appellations of _Scythians_ or _Tartars_. * Note: The

Moguls, (Mongols,) according to M. Klaproth, are a tribe of the

Tartar nation. Tableaux Hist. de l’Asie, p. 154.—M.]

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. 6 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; 7 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. 8

6 (return) [ Imperium Asiæ _ter_ quæsivere: ipsi perpetuo ab

alieno imperio, aut intacti aut invicti, mansere. Since the time

of Justin, (ii. 2,) they have multiplied this account. Voltaire,

in a few words, (tom. x. p. 64, Hist. Generale, c. 156,) has

abridged the Tartar conquests.

Oft o’er the trembling nations from afar,

Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war.

Note *: Gray.—M.]

7 (return) [ The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious

though imperfect, portrait of the Scythians. Among the moderns,

who describe the uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulghazi

Bahadur, expresses his native feelings; and his genealogical

history of the Tartars has been copiously illustrated by the

French and English editors. Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubruquis (in

the Hist. des Voyages, tom. vii.) represent the Moguls of the

fourteenth century. To these guides I have added Gerbillon, and

the other Jesuits, (Description de la China par du Halde, tom.

iv.,) who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tartary; and that

honest and intelligent traveller, Bell, of Antermony, (two

volumes in 4to. Glasgow, 1763.) * Note: Of the various works

published since the time of Gibbon, which throw fight on the

nomadic population of Central Asia, may be particularly remarked

the Travels and Dissertations of Pallas; and above all, the very

curious work of Bergman, Nomadische Streifereyen. Riga, 1805.—M.]

8 (return) [ The Uzbecks are the most altered from their

primitive manners; 1. By the profession of the Mahometan

religion; and 2. By the possession of the cities and harvests of

the great Bucharia.]

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 carniverous and cruel deserves to be

considered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a

salutary, prejudice of humanity. 9 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.

9 (return) [ Il est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande

sont en général cruels et féroces plus que les autres hommes.

Cette observation est de tous les lieux, et de tous les temps: la

barbarie Angloise est connue, &c. Emile de Rousseau, tom. i. p.

274. Whatever we may think of the general observation, _we_ shall

not easily allow the truth of his example. The good-natured

complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic lamentations of Ovid,

seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility.]

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.

10 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. 11 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.

10 (return) [ These Tartar emigrations have been discovered by M.

de Guignes (Histoire des Huns, tom. i. ii.) a skilful and

laborious interpreter of the Chinese language; who has thus laid

open new and important scenes in the history of mankind.]

11 (return) [ A plain in the Chinese Tartary, only eighty leagues

from the great wall, was found by the missionaries to be three

thousand geometrical paces above the level of the sea.

Montesquieu, who has used, and abused, the relations of

travellers, deduces the revolutions of Asia from this important

circumstance, that heat and cold, weakness and strength, touch

each other without any temperate zone, (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii.

c. 3.)]

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 usefully 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. 12

12 (return) [ Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengiscan, l. iii. c. 6)

represents the full glory and extent of the Mogul chase. The

Jesuits Gerbillon and Verbiest followed the emperor Khamhi when

he hunted in Tartary, (Duhalde, Déscription de la Chine, tom. iv.

p. 81, 290, &c., folio edit.) His grandson, Kienlong, who unites

the Tartar discipline with the laws and learning of China,

describes (Eloge de Moukden, p. 273—285) as a poet the pleasures

which he had often enjoyed as a sportsman.]

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. 13 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 Coroulai, 14 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. 15

13 (return) [ See the second volume of the Genealogical History

of the Tartars; and the list of the Khans, at the end of the life

of Geng’s, or Zingis. Under the reign of Timur, or Tamerlane, one

of his subjects, a descendant of Zingis, still bore the regal

appellation of Khan and the conqueror of Asia contented himself

with the title of Emir or Sultan. Abulghazi, part v. c. 4.

D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orien tale, p. 878.]

14 (return) [ See the Diets of the ancient Huns, (De Guignes,

tom. ii. p. 26,) and a curious description of those of Zingis,

(Vie de Gengiscan, l. i. c. 6, l. iv. c. 11.) Such assemblies are

frequently mentioned in the Persian history of Timur; though they

served only to countenance the resolutions of their master.]

15 (return) [ Montesquieu labors to explain a difference, which

has not existed, between the liberty of the Arabs, and the

_perpetual_ slavery of the Tartars. (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii. c.

5, l. xviii. c. 19, &c.)]

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;

16 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

Mæotis, 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: 17 they entertained a more rational

apprehension of the strength and numbers of the warlike

Barbarians, 18 who contemptuously baffled the immense armament of

Darius, the son of Hystaspes. 19 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; 20 and the invincible spirit of the same

Barbarians resisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms of

Cyrus and Alexander. 21 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, 22 which

ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries; 23 and

which is able to verify a series of near two thousand years, by

the perpetual testimony of accurate and contemporary historians.

24 The annals of China 25 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. 26

16 (return) [ Abulghasi Khan, in the two first parts of his

Genealogical History, relates the miserable tales and traditions

of the Uzbek Tartars concerning the times which preceded the

reign of Zingis. * Note: The differences between the various

pastoral tribes and nations comprehended by the ancients under

the vague name of Scythians, and by Gibbon under inst of Tartars,

have received some, and still, perhaps, may receive more, light

from the comparisons of their dialects and languages by modern

scholars.—M]

17 (return) [ In the thirteenth book of the Iliad, Jupiter turns

away his eyes from the bloody fields of Troy, to the plains of

Thrace and Scythia. He would not, by changing the prospect,

behold a more peaceful or innocent scene.]

18 (return) [ Thucydides, l. ii. c. 97.]

19 (return) [ See the fourth book of Herodotus. When Darius

advanced into the Moldavian desert, between the Danube and the

Niester, the king of the Scythians sent him a mouse, a frog, a

bird, and five arrows; a tremendous allegory!]

20 (return) [ These wars and heroes may be found under their

respective _titles_, in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D’Herbelot.

They have been celebrated in an epic poem of sixty thousand

rhymed couplets, by Ferdusi, the Homer of Persia. See the history

of Nadir Shah, p. 145, 165. The public must lament that Mr. Jones

has suspended the pursuit of Oriental learning. Note: Ferdusi is

yet imperfectly known to European readers. An abstract of the

whole poem has been published by Goerres in German, under the

title “das Heldenbuch des Iran.” In English, an abstract with

poetical translations, by Mr. Atkinson, has appeared, under the

auspices of the Oriental Fund. But to translate a poet a man must

be a poet. The best account of the poem is in an article by Von

Hammer in the Vienna Jahrbucher, 1820: or perhaps in a masterly

article in Cochrane’s Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 1, 1835. A

splendid and critical edition of the whole work has been

published by a very learned English Orientalist, Captain Macan,

at the expense of the king of Oude. As to the number of 60,000

couplets, Captain Macan (Preface, p. 39) states that he never saw

a MS. containing more than 56,685, including doubtful and

spurious passages and episodes.—M. * Note: The later studies of

Sir W. Jones were more in unison with the wishes of the public,

thus expressed by Gibbon.—M.]

21 (return) [ The Caspian Sea, with its rivers and adjacent

tribes, are laboriously illustrated in the Examen Critique des

Historiens d’Alexandre, which compares the true geography, and

the errors produced by the vanity or ignorance of the Greeks.]

22 (return) [ The original seat of the nation appears to have

been in the Northwest of China, in the provinces of Chensi and

Chansi. Under the two first dynasties, the principal town was

still a movable camp; the villages were thinly scattered; more

land was employed in pasture than in tillage; the exercise of

hunting was ordained to clear the country from wild beasts;

Petcheli (where Pekin stands) was a desert, and the Southern

provinces were peopled with Indian savages. The dynasty of the

_Han_ (before Christ 206) gave the empire its actual form and

extent.]

23 (return) [ The æra of the Chinese monarchy has been variously

fixed from 2952 to 2132 years before Christ; and the year 2637

has been chosen for the lawful epoch, by the authority of the

present emperor. The difference arises from the uncertain

duration of the two first dynasties; and the vacant space that

lies beyond them, as far as the real, or fabulous, times of Fohi,

or Hoangti. Sematsien dates his authentic chronology from the

year 841; the thirty-six eclipses of Confucius (thirty-one of

which have been verified) were observed between the years 722 and

480 before Christ. The _historical_ period of China does not

ascend above the Greek Olympiads.]

24 (return) [ After several ages of anarchy and despotism, the

dynasty of the Han (before Christ 206) was the æra of the revival

of learning. The fragments of ancient literature were restored;

the characters were improved and fixed; and the future

preservation of books was secured by the useful inventions of

ink, paper, and the art of printing. Ninety-seven years before

Christ, Sematsien published the first history of China. His

labors were illustrated, and continued, by a series of one

hundred and eighty historians. The substance of their works is

still extant; and the most considerable of them are now deposited

in the king of France’s library.]

25 (return) [ China has been illustrated by the labors of the

French; of the missionaries at Pekin, and Messrs. Freret and De

Guignes at Paris. The substance of the three preceding notes is

extracted from the Chou-king, with the preface and notes of M. de

Guignes, Paris, 1770. The _Tong-Kien-Kang-Mou_, translated by P.

de Mailla, under the name of Hist. Génerale de la Chine, tom. i.

p. xlix.—cc.; the Mémoires sur la Chine, Paris, 1776, &c., tom.

i. p. 1—323; tom. ii. p. 5—364; the Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p.

4—131, tom. v. p. 345—362; and the Mémoires de l’Académie des

Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 377—402; tom. xv. p. 495—564; tom.

xviii. p. 178—295; xxxvi. p. 164—238.]

26 (return) [ See the Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii.,

and the Genealogical History, vol. ii. p. 620—664.]

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. 27 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. 28 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, 29

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. 30 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, 31 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 32 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 3211 before the Christian æra, a wall of fifteen hundred

miles in length was constructed, to defend the frontiers of China

against the inroads of the Huns; 33 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, 34 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. 35 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; 36 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. 37

27 (return) [ M. de Guignes (tom. ii. p. 1—124) has given the

original history of the ancient Hiong-nou, or Huns. The Chinese

geography of their country (tom. i. part. p. lv.—lxiii.) seems to

comprise a part of their conquests. * Note: The theory of De

Guignes on the early history of the Huns is, in general, rejected

by modern writers. De Guignes advanced no valid proof of the

identity of the Hioung-nou of the Chinese writers with the Huns,

except the similarity of name. Schlozer, (Allgemeine Nordische

Geschichte, p. 252,) Klaproth, (Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie,

p. 246,) St. Martin, iv. 61, and A. Remusat, (Recherches sur les

Langues Tartares, D. P. xlvi, and p. 328; though in the latter

passage he considers the theory of De Guignes not absolutely

disproved,) concur in considering the Huns as belonging to the

Finnish stock, distinct from the Moguls the Mandscheus, and the

Turks. The Hiong-nou, according to Klaproth, were Turks. The

names of the Hunnish chiefs could not be pronounced by a Turk;

and, according to the same author, the Hioung-nou, which is

explained in Chinese as _detestable slaves_, as early as the year

91 J. C., were dispersed by the Chinese, and assumed the name of

Yue-po or Yue-pan. M. St. Martin does not consider it impossible

that the appellation of Hioung-nou may have belonged to the Huns.

But all agree in considering the Madjar or Magyar of modern

Hungary the descendants of the Huns. Their language (compare

Gibbon, c. lv. n. 22) is nearly related to the Lapponian and

Vogoul. The noble forms of the modern Hungarians, so strongly

contrasted with the hideous pictures which the fears and the

hatred of the Romans give of the Huns, M. Klaproth accounts for

by the intermingling with other races, Turkish and Slavonian. The

present state of the question is thus stated in the last edition

of Malte Brun, and a new and ingenious hypothesis suggested to

resolve all the difficulties of the question.

Were the Huns Finns? This obscure question has not been

debated till very recently, and is yet very far from being

decided. We are of opinion that it will be so hereafter in

the same manner as that with regard to the Scythians. We

shall trace in the portrait of Attila a dominant tribe or

Mongols, or Kalmucks, with all the hereditary ugliness of

that race; but in the mass of the Hunnish army and nation

will be recognized the Chuni and the Ounni of the Greek

Geography. the Kuns of the Hungarians, the European Huns, and

a race in close relationship with the Flemish stock. Malte

Brun, vi. p. 94. This theory is more fully and ably

developed, p. 743. Whoever has seen the emperor of Austria’s

Hungarian guard, will not readily admit their descent from

the Huns described by Sidonius Appolinaris.—M]

28 (return) [ See in Duhalde (tom. iv. p. 18—65) a circumstantial

description, with a correct map, of the country of the Mongous.]

29 (return) [ The Igours, or Vigours, were divided into three

branches; hunters, shepherds, and husbandmen; and the last class

was despised by the two former. See Abulghazi, part ii. c. 7. *

Note: On the Ouigour or Igour characters, see the work of M. A.

Remusat, Sur les Langues Tartares. He conceives the Ouigour

alphabet of sixteen letters to have been formed from the Syriac,

and introduced by the Nestorian Christians.—Ch. ii. M.]

30 (return) [ Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv.

p. 17—33. The comprehensive view of M. de Guignes has compared

these distant events.]

31 (return) [ The fame of Sovou, or So-ou, his merit, and his

singular adventurers, are still celebrated in China. See the

Eloge de Moukden, p. 20, and notes, p. 241—247; and Mémoires sur

la Chine, tom. iii. p. 317—360.]

32 (return) [ See Isbrand Ives in Harris’s Collection, vol. ii.

p. 931; Bell’s Travels, vol. i. p. 247—254; and Gmelin, in the

Hist. Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii. 283—329. They all remark

the vulgar opinion that the _holy sea_ grows angry and

tempestuous if any one presumes to call it a _lake_. This

grammatical nicety often excites a dispute between the absurd

superstition of the mariners and the absurd obstinacy of

travellers.]

3211 (return) [ 224 years before Christ. It was built by

Chi-hoang-ti of the Dynasty Thsin. It is from twenty to

twenty-five feet high. Ce monument, aussi gigantesque

qu’impuissant, arreterait bien les incursions de quelques

Nomades; mais il n’a jamais empéché les invasions des Turcs, des

Mongols, et des Mandchous. Abe Remusat Rech. Asiat. 2d ser. vol.

i. p. 58—M.]

33 (return) [ The construction of the wall of China is mentioned

by Duhalde (tom. ii. p. 45) and De Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 59.)]

34 (return) [ See the life of Lieoupang, or Kaoti, in the Hist,

de la Chine, published at Paris, 1777, &c., tom. i. p. 442—522.

This voluminous work is the translation (by the P. de Mailla) of

the _Tong- Kien-Kang-Mou_, the celebrated abridgment of the great

History of Semakouang (A.D. 1084) and his continuators.]

35 (return) [ See a free and ample memorial, presented by a

Mandarin to the emperor Venti, (before Christ 180—157,) in

Duhalde, (tom. ii. p. 412—426,) from a collection of State papers

marked with the red pencil by Kamhi himself, (p. 354—612.)

Another memorial from the minister of war (Kang-Mou, tom. ii. p

555) supplies some curious circumstances of the manners of the

Huns.]

36 (return) [ A supply of women is mentioned as a customary

article of treaty and tribute, (Hist. de la Conquete de la Chine,

par les Tartares Mantcheoux, tom. i. p. 186, 187, with the note

of the editor.)]

37 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 62.]

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, 38 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. 39 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. 40 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 41 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, 42 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 æra. 43

38 (return) [ See the reign of the emperor Vouti, in the

Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 1—98. His various and inconsistent

character seems to be impartially drawn.]

39 (return) [ This expression is used in the memorial to the

emperor Venti, (Duhalde, tom. ii. p. 411.) Without adopting the

exaggerations of Marco Polo and Isaac Vossius, we may rationally

allow for Pekin two millions of inhabitants. The cities of the

South, which contain the manufactures of China, are still more

populous.]

40 (return) [ See the Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 150, and the

subsequent events under the proper years. This memorable festival

is celebrated in the Eloge de Moukden, and explained in a note by

the P. Gaubil, p. 89, 90.]

41 (return) [ This inscription was composed on the spot by

Parkou, President of the Tribunal of History (Kang-Mou, tom. iii.

p. 392.) Similar monuments have been discovered in many parts of

Tartary, (Histoire des Huns, tom. ii. p. 122.)]

42 (return) [ M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 189) has inserted a short

account of the Sienpi.]

43 (return) [ The æra of the Huns is placed, by the Chinese, 1210

years before Christ. But the series of their kings does not

commence till the year 230, (Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 21,

123.)]

The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the various

influence of character and situation. 44 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.

45 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. 4511

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, 46 which might still

retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece. 47 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. 48 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, the 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. 49

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, 50 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. 51

44 (return) [ The various accidents, the downfall, and the flight

of the Huns, are related in the Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 88, 91,

95, 139, &c. The small numbers of each horde may be due to their

losses and divisions.]

45 (return) [ M. de Guignes has skilfully traced the footsteps of

the Huns through the vast deserts of Tartary, (tom. ii. p. 123,

277, &c., 325, &c.)]

4511 (return) [ The Armenian authors often mention this people

under the name of Hepthal. St. Martin considers that the name of

Nepthalites is an error of a copyist. St. Martin, iv. 254.—M.]

46 (return) [ Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, reigned in Sogdiana

when it was invaded (A.D. 1218) by Zingis and his moguls. The

Oriental historians (see D’Herbelot, Petit de la Croix, &c.,)

celebrate the populous cities which he ruined, and the fruitful

country which he desolated. In the next century, the same

provinces of Chorasmia and Nawaralnahr were described by

Abulfeda, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.) Their actual

misery may be seen in the Genealogical History of the Tartars, p.

423—469.]

47 (return) [ Justin (xli. 6) has left a short abridgment of the

Greek kings of Bactriana. To their industry I should ascribe the

new and extraordinary trade, which transported the merchandises

of India into Europe, by the Oxus, the Caspian, the Cyrus, the

Phasis, and the Euxine. The other ways, both of the land and sea,

were possessed by the Seleucides and the Ptolemies. (See l’Esprit

des Loix, l. xxi.)]

48 (return) [ Procopius de Bell. Persico, l. i. c. 3, p. 9.]

49 (return) [ In the thirteenth century, the monk Rubruquis (who

traversed the immense plain of Kipzak, in his journey to the

court of the Great Khan) observed the remarkable name of

_Hungary_, with the traces of a common language and origin,

(Hist. des Voyages, tom. vii. p. 269.)]

50 (return) [ Bell, (vol. i. p. 29—34,) and the editors of the

Genealogical History, (p. 539,) have described the Calmucks of

the Volga in the beginning of the present century.]

51 (return) [ This great transmigration of 300,000 Calmucks, or

Torgouts, happened in the year 1771. The original narrative of

Kien-long, the reigning emperor of China, which was intended for

the inscription of a column, has been translated by the

missionaries of Pekin, (Mémoires sur la Chine, tom. i. p.

401—418.) The emperor affects the smooth and specious language of

the Son of Heaven, and the Father of his People.]

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, 52 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. 53 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 Samartic and German

blood had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, 5311

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. 54 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. 55 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.

52 (return) [ The Khan-Mou (tom. iii. p. 447) ascribes to their

conquests a space of 14,000 _lis_. According to the present

standard, 200 _lis_ (or more accurately 193) are equal to one

degree of latitude; and one English mile consequently exceeds

three miles of China. But there are strong reasons to believe

that the ancient _li_ scarcely equalled one half of the modern.

See the elaborate researches of M. D’Anville, a geographer who is

not a stranger in any age or climate of the globe. (Mémoires de

l’Acad. tom. ii. p. 125-502. Itineraires, p. 154-167.)]

53 (return) [ See Histoire des Huns, tom. ii. p. 125—144. The

subsequent history (p. 145—277) of three or four Hunnic dynasties

evidently proves that their martial spirit was not impaired by a

long residence in China.]

5311 (return) [ Compare M. Klaproth’s curious speculations on the

Alani. He supposes them to have been the people, known by the

Chinese, at the time of their first expeditions to the West,

under the name of Yath-sai or A-lanna, the Alanân of Persian

tradition, as preserved in Ferdusi; the same, according to

Ammianus, with the Massagetæ, and with the Albani. The remains of

the nation still exist in the Ossetæ of Mount Caucasus. Klaproth,

Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie, p. 174.—M. Compare Shafarik

Slawische alterthümer, i. p. 350.—M. 1845.]

54 (return) [ Utque hominibus quietis et placidis otium est

voluptabile, ita illos pericula juvent et bella. Judicatur ibi

beatus qui in prœlio profuderit animam: senescentes etiam et

fortuitis mortibus mundo digressos, ut degeneres et ignavos,

conviciis atrocibus insectantur. [Ammian. xxxi. 11.] We must

think highly of the conquerors of _such_ men.]

55 (return) [ On the subject of the Alani, see Ammianus, (xxxi.

2,) Jornandes, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 24,) M. de Guignes, (Hist.

des Huns, tom. ii. p. 279,) and the Genealogical History of the

Tartars, (tom. ii. p. 617.)]

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, 56 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. 5611 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. 57 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. 58 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 dæmons and witches

might be supposed to inherit some share of the præternatural

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 59 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 fiedlity, 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. 60 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, 61 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. 62 6211

56 (return) [ As we are possessed of the authentic history of the

Huns, it would be impertinent to repeat, or to refute, the fables

which misrepresent their origin and progress, their passage of

the mud or water of the Mæotis, in pursuit of an ox or stag, les

Indes qu’ils avoient découvertes, &c., (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 224.

Sozomen, l. vi. c. 37. Procopius, Hist. Miscell. c. 5. Jornandes,

c. 24. Grandeur et Décadence, &c., des Romains, c. 17.)]

5611 (return) [ Art added to their native ugliness; in fact, it

is difficult to ascribe the proper share in the features of this

hideous picture to nature, to the barbarous skill with which they

were self-disfigured, or to the terror and hatred of the Romans.

Their noses were flattened by their nurses, their cheeks were

gashed by an iron instrument, that the scars might look more

fearful, and prevent the growth of the beard. Jornandes and

Sidonius Apollinaris:—

Obtundit teneras circumdata fascia nares, Ut galeis cedant.

Yet he adds that their forms were robust and manly, their height

of a middle size, but, from the habit of riding, disproportioned.

Stant pectora vasta, Insignes humer, succincta sub ilibus alvus.

Forma quidem pediti media est, procera sed extat Si cernas

equites, sic longi sæpe putantur Si sedeant.]

57 (return) [ Prodigiosæ formæ, et pandi; ut bipedes existimes

bestias; vel quales in commarginandis pontibus, effigiati

stipites dolantur incompte. Ammian. xxxi. i. Jornandes (c. 24)

draws a strong caricature of a Calmuck face. Species pavenda

nigredine... quædam deformis offa, non fecies; habensque magis

puncta quam lumina. See Buffon. Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. 380.]

58 (return) [ This execrable origin, which Jornandes (c. 24)

describes with the rancor of a Goth, might be originally derived

from a more pleasing fable of the Greeks. (Herodot. l. iv. c. 9,

&c.)]

59 (return) [ The Roxolani may be the fathers of the the

_Russians_, (D’Anville, Empire de Russie, p. 1—10,) whose

residence (A.D. 862) about Novogrod Veliki cannot be very remote

from that which the Geographer of Ravenna (i. 12, iv. 4, 46, v.

28, 30) assigns to the Roxolani, (A.D. 886.) * Note: See, on the

origin of the Russ, Schlozer, Nordische Geschichte, p. 78—M.]

60 (return) [ The text of Ammianus seems to be imperfect or

corrupt; but the nature of the ground explains, and almost

defines, the Gothic rampart. Mémoires de l’Académie, &c., tom.

xxviii. p. 444—462.]

61 (return) [ M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vi.

p. 407) has conceived a strange idea, that Alavivus was the same

person as Ulphilas, the Gothic bishop; and that Ulphilas, the

grandson of a Cappadocian captive, became a temporal prince of

the Goths.]

62 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 3) and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis,

c. 24) describe the subversion of the Gothic empire by the Huns.]

6211 (return) [ The most probable opinion as to the position of

this land is that of M. Malte-Brun. He thinks that Caucaland is

the territory of the Cacoenses, placed by Ptolemy (l. iii. c. 8)

towards the Carpathian Mountains, on the side of the present

Transylvania, and therefore the canton of Cacava, to the south of

Hermanstadt, the capital of the principality. Caucaland it is

evident, is the Gothic form of these different names. St. Martin,

iv 103.—M.]

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 63 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;

64 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, 6411

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

præfects 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.

63 (return) [ The Chronology of Ammianus is obscure and

imperfect. Tillemont has labored to clear and settle the annals

of Valens.]

64 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 223. Sozomen, l. vi. c. 38. The

Isaurians, each winter, infested the roads of Asia Minor, as far

as the neighborhood of Constantinople. Basil, Epist. cel. apud

Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 106.]

6411 (return) [ Sozomen and Philostorgius say that the bishop

Ulphilas was one of these ambassadors.—M.]

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; 65 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, 66 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: 67 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. 6711

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, 68 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 Mæsia,

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.

65 (return) [ The passage of the Danube is exposed by Ammianus,

(xxxi. 3, 4,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 223, 224,) Eunapius in Excerpt.

Legat. (p. 19, 20,) and Jornandes, (c. 25, 26.) Ammianus declares

(c. 5) that he means only, ispas rerum digerere _summitates_. But

he often takes a false measure of their importance; and his

superfluous prolixity is disagreeably balanced by his

unseasonable brevity.]

66 (return) [ Chishull, a curious traveller, has remarked the

breadth of the Danube, which he passed to the south of Bucharest

near the conflux of the Argish, (p. 77.) He admires the beauty

and spontaneous plenty of Mæsia, or Bulgaria.]

67 (return) [

Quem sci scire velit, Libyci velit æquoris idem Discere quam multæ

Zephyro turbentur harenæ.

Ammianus has inserted, in his prose, these lines of Virgil,

(Georgia l. ii. 105,) originally designed by the poet to express

the impossibility of numbering the different sorts of vines. See

Plin. Hist. Natur l. xiv.]

6711 (return) [ A very curious, but obscure, passage of Eunapius,

appears to me to have been misunderstood by M. Mai, to whom we

owe its discovery. The substance is as follows: “The Goths

transported over the river their native deities, with their

priests of both sexes; but concerning their rites they maintained

a deep and ‘_adamantine_ silence.’ To the Romans they pretended

to be generally Christians, and placed certain persons to

represent bishops in a conspicuous manner on their wagons. There

was even among them a sort of what are called monks, persons whom

it was not difficult to mimic; it was enough to wear black

raiment, to be wicked, and held in respect.” (Eunapius hated the

“black-robed monks,” as appears in another passage, with the

cordial detestation of a heathen philosopher.) “Thus, while they

faithfully but secretly adhered to their own religion, the Romans

were weak enough to suppose them perfect Christians.” Mai, 277.

Eunapius in Niebuhr, 82.—M]