46 (return) [ Mohammed, sultan of Carizm_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

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]

68 (return) [ Eunapius and Zosimus curiously specify these

articles of Gothic wealth and luxury. Yet it must be presumed,

that they were the manufactures of the provinces; which the

Barbarians had acquired as the spoils of war; or as the gifts, or

merchandise, of peace.]

An undisciplined and unsettled nation of Barbarians required the

firmest temper, and the most dexterous management. The daily

subsistence of near a million of extraordinary subjects could be

supplied only by constant and skilful diligence, and might

continually be interrupted by mistake or accident. The insolence,

or the indignation, of the Goths, if they conceived themselves to

be the objects either of fear or of contempt, might urge them to

the most desperate extremities; and the fortune of the state

seemed to depend on the prudence, as well as the integrity, of

the generals of Valens. At this important crisis, the military

government of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in

whose venal minds the slightest hope of private emolument

outweighed every consideration of public advantage; and whose

guilt was only alleviated by their incapacity of discerning the

pernicious effects of their rash and criminal administration.

Instead of obeying the orders of their sovereign, and satisfying,

with decent liberality, the demands of the Goths, they levied an

ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of the hungry

Barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an extravagant price;

and, in the room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the

markets were filled with the flesh of dogs, and of unclean

animals, who had died of disease. To obtain the valuable

acquisition of a pound of bread, the Goths resigned the

possession of an expensive, though serviceable, slave; and a

small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with ten pounds of

a precious, but useless metal, 69 when their property was

exhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of

their sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of

freedom, which animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to

the humiliating maxim, that it was better for their children to

be maintained in a servile condition, than to perish in a state

of wretched and helpless independence. The most lively resentment

is excited by the tyranny of pretended benefactors, who sternly

exact the debt of gratitude which they have cancelled by

subsequent injuries: a spirit of discontent insensibly arose in

the camp of the Barbarians, who pleaded, without success, the

merit of their patient and dutiful behavior; and loudly

complained of the inhospitable treatment which they had received

from their new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and

plenty of a fertile province, in the midst of which they suffered

the intolerable hardships of artificial famine. But the means of

relief, and even of revenge, were in their hands; since the

rapaciousness of their tyrants had left to an injured people the

possession and the use of arms. The clamors of a multitude,

untaught to disguise their sentiments, announced the first

symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and guilty minds of

Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who substituted

the cunning of temporary expedients to the wise and salutary

counsels of general policy, attempted to remove the Goths from

their dangerous station on the frontiers of the empire; and to

disperse them, in separate quarters of cantonment, through the

interior provinces. As they were conscious how ill they had

deserved the respect, or confidence, of the Barbarians, they

diligently collected, from every side, a military force, that

might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people, who had not

yet renounced the title, or the duties, of Roman subjects. But

the generals of Valens, while their attention was solely directed

to the discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships and

the fortifications which constituted the defence of the Danube.

The fatal oversight was observed, and improved, by Alatheus and

Saphrax, who anxiously watched the favorable moment of escaping

from the pursuit of the Huns. By the help of such rafts and

vessels as could be hastily procured, the leaders of the

Ostrogoths transported, without opposition, their king and their

army; and boldly fixed a hostile and independent camp on the

territories of the empire. 70

69 (return) [ _Decem libras;_ the word _silver_ must be

understood. Jornandes betrays the passions and prejudices of a

Goth. The servile Geeks, Eunapius and Zosimus, disguise the Roman

oppression, and execrate the perfidy of the Barbarians. Ammianus,

a patriot historian, slightly, and reluctantly, touches on the

odious subject. Jerom, who wrote almost on the spot, is fair,

though concise. Per avaritaim aximi ducis, ad rebellionem fame

_coacti_ sunt, (in Chron.) * Note: A new passage from the history

of Eunapius is nearer to the truth. ‘It appeared to our

commanders a legitimate source of gain to be bribed by the

Barbarians: Edit. Niebuhr, p. 82.—M.]

70 (return) [ Ammianus, xxxi. 4, 5.]

Under the name of Judges, Alavivus and Fritigern were the leaders

of the Visigoths in peace and war; and the authority which they

derived from their birth was ratified by the free consent of the

nation. In a season of tranquility, their power might have been

equal, as well as their rank; but, as soon as their countrymen

were exasperated by hunger and oppression, the superior abilities

of Fritigern assumed the military command, which he was qualified

to exercise for the public welfare. He restrained the impatient

spirit of the Visigoths till the injuries and the insults of

their tyrants should justify their resistance in the opinion of

mankind: but he was not disposed to sacrifice any solid

advantages for the empty praise of justice and moderation.

Sensible of the benefits which would result from the union of the

Gothic powers under the same standard, he secretly cultivated the

friendship of the Ostrogoths; and while he professed an implicit

obedience to the orders of the Roman generals, he proceeded by

slow marches towards Marcianopolis, the capital of the Lower

Mæsia, about seventy miles from the banks of the Danube. On that

fatal spot, the flames of discord and mutual hatred burst forth

into a dreadful conflagration. Lupicinus had invited the Gothic

chiefs to a splendid entertainment; and their martial train

remained under arms at the entrance of the palace. But the gates

of the city were strictly guarded, and the Barbarians were

sternly excluded from the use of a plentiful market, to which

they asserted their equal claim of subjects and allies. Their

humble prayers were rejected with insolence and derision; and as

their patience was now exhausted, the townsmen, the soldiers, and

the Goths, were soon involved in a conflict of passionate

altercation and angry reproaches. A blow was imprudently given; a

sword was hastily drawn; and the first blood that was spilt in

this accidental quarrel, became the signal of a long and

destructive war. In the midst of noise and brutal intemperance,

Lupicinus was informed, by a secret messenger, that many of his

soldiers were slain, and despoiled of their arms; and as he was

already inflamed by wine, and oppressed by sleep he issued a rash

command, that their death should be revenged by the massacre of

the guards of Fritigern and Alavivus.

The clamorous shouts and dying groans apprised Fritigern of his

extreme danger; and, as he possessed the calm and intrepid spirit

of a hero, he saw that he was lost if he allowed a moment of

deliberation to the man who had so deeply injured him. “A

trifling dispute,” said the Gothic leader, with a firm but gentle

tone of voice, “appears to have arisen between the two nations;

but it may be productive of the most dangerous consequences,

unless the tumult is immediately pacified by the assurance of our

safety, and the authority of our presence.” At these words,

Fritigern and his companions drew their swords, opened their

passage through the unresisting crowd, which filled the palace,

the streets, and the gates, of Marcianopolis, and, mounting their

horses, hastily vanished from the eyes of the astonished Romans.

The generals of the Goths were saluted by the fierce and joyful

acclamations of the camp; war was instantly resolved, and the

resolution was executed without delay: the banners of the nation

were displayed according to the custom of their ancestors; and

the air resounded with the harsh and mournful music of the

Barbarian trumpet. 71 The weak and guilty Lupicinus, who had

dared to provoke, who had neglected to destroy, and who still

presumed to despise, his formidable enemy, marched against the

Goths, at the head of such a military force as could be collected

on this sudden emergency. The Barbarians expected his approach

about nine miles from Marcianopolis; and on this occasion the

talents of the general were found to be of more prevailing

efficacy than the weapons and discipline of the troops. The valor

of the Goths was so ably directed by the genius of Fritigern,

that they broke, by a close and vigorous attack, the ranks of the

Roman legions. Lupicinus left his arms and standards, his

tribunes and his bravest soldiers, on the field of battle; and

their useless courage served only to protect the ignominious

flight of their leader. “That successful day put an end to the

distress of the Barbarians, and the security of the Romans: from

that day, the Goths, renouncing the precarious condition of

strangers and exiles, assumed the character of citizens and

masters, claimed an absolute dominion over the possessors of

land, and held, in their own right, the northern provinces of the

empire, which are bounded by the Danube.” Such are the words of

the Gothic historian, 72 who celebrates, with rude eloquence, the

glory of his countrymen. But the dominion of the Barbarians was

exercised only for the purposes of rapine and destruction. As

they had been deprived, by the ministers of the emperor, of the

common benefits of nature, and the fair intercourse of social

life, they retaliated the injustice on the subjects of the

empire; and the crimes of Lupicinus were expiated by the ruin of

the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the conflagration of their

villages, and the massacre, or captivity, of their innocent

families. The report of the Gothic victory was soon diffused over

the adjacent country; and while it filled the minds of the Romans

with terror and dismay, their own hasty imprudence contributed to

increase the forces of Fritigern, and the calamities of the

province. Some time before the great emigration, a numerous body

of Goths, under the command of Suerid and Colias, had been

received into the protection and service of the empire. 73 They

were encamped under the walls of Hadrianople; but the ministers

of Valens were anxious to remove them beyond the Hellespont, at a

distance from the dangerous temptation which might so easily be

communicated by the neighborhood, and the success, of their

countrymen. The respectful submission with which they yielded to

the order of their march, might be considered as a proof of their

fidelity; and their moderate request of a sufficient allowance of

provisions, and of a delay of only two days was expressed in the

most dutiful terms. But the first magistrate of Hadrianople,

incensed by some disorders which had been committed at his

country-house, refused this indulgence; and arming against them

the inhabitants and manufacturers of a populous city, he urged,

with hostile threats, their instant departure. The Barbarians

stood silent and amazed, till they were exasperated by the

insulting clamors, and missile weapons, of the populace: but when

patience or contempt was fatigued, they crushed the undisciplined

multitude, inflicted many a shameful wound on the backs of their

flying enemies, and despoiled them of the splendid armor, 74

which they were unworthy to bear. The resemblance of their

sufferings and their actions soon united this victorious

detachment to the nation of the Visigoths; the troops of Colias

and Suerid expected the approach of the great Fritigern, ranged

themselves under his standard, and signalized their ardor in the

siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance of the garrison informed

the Barbarians, that in the attack of regular fortifications, the

efforts of unskillful courage are seldom effectual. Their general

acknowledged his error, raised the siege, declared that “he was

at peace with stone walls,” 75 and revenged his disappointment on

the adjacent country. He accepted, with pleasure, the useful

reenforcement of hardy workmen, who labored in the gold mines of

Thrace, 76 for the emolument, and under the lash, of an unfeeling

master: 77 and these new associates conducted the Barbarians,

through the secret paths, to the most sequestered places, which

had been chosen to secure the inhabitants, the cattle, and the

magazines of corn. With the assistance of such guides, nothing

could remain impervious or inaccessible; resistance was fatal;

flight was impracticable; and the patient submission of helpless

innocence seldom found mercy from the Barbarian conqueror. In the

course of these depredations, a great number of the children of

the Goths, who had been sold into captivity, were restored to the

embraces of their afflicted parents; but these tender interviews,

which might have revived and cherished in their minds some

sentiments of humanity, tended only to stimulate their native

fierceness by the desire of revenge. They listened, with eager

attention, to the complaints of their captive children, who had

suffered the most cruel indignities from the lustful or angry

passions of their masters, and the same cruelties, the same

indignities, were severely retaliated on the sons and daughters

of the Romans. 78

71 (return) [ Vexillis de _more_ sublatis, auditisque _triste

sonantibus classicis_. Ammian. xxxi. 5. These are the _rauca

cornua_ of Claudian, (in Rufin. ii. 57,) the large horns of the

_Uri_, or wild bull; such as have been more recently used by the

Swiss Cantons of Uri and Underwald. (Simler de Republicâ Helvet,

l. ii. p. 201, edit. Fuselin. Tigur 1734.) Their military horn is

finely, though perhaps casually, introduced in an original

narrative of the battle of Nancy, (A.D. 1477.) “Attendant le

combat le dit cor fut corné par trois fois, tant que le vent du

souffler pouvoit durer: ce qui esbahit fort Monsieur de

Bourgoigne; _car deja à Morat l’avoit ouy_.” (See the Pièces

Justificatives in the 4to. edition of Philippe de Comines, tom.

iii. p. 493.)]

72 (return) [ Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 26, p. 648, edit.

Grot. These _splendidi panni_ (they are comparatively such) are

undoubtedly transcribed from the larger histories of Priscus,

Ablavius, or Cassiodorus.]

73 (return) [ Cum populis suis longe ante suscepti. We are

ignorant of the precise date and circumstances of their

transmigration.]

74 (return) [ An Imperial manufacture of shields, &c., was

established at Hadrianople; and the populace were headed by the

Fabricenses, or workmen. (Vales. ad Ammian. xxxi. 6.)]

75 (return) [ Pacem sibi esse cum parietibus memorans. Ammian.

xxxi. 7.]

76 (return) [ These mines were in the country of the Bessi, in

the ridge of mountains, the Rhodope, that runs between Philippi

and Philippopolis; two Macedonian cities, which derived their

name and origin from the father of Alexander. From the mines of

Thrace he annually received the value, not the weight, of a

thousand talents, (200,000l.,) a revenue which paid the phalanx,

and corrupted the orators of Greece. See Diodor. Siculus, tom.

ii. l. xvi. p. 88, edit. Wesseling. Godefroy’s Commentary on the

Theodosian Code, tom. iii. p. 496. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq.

tom. i. p. 676, 857. D Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.

336.]

77 (return) [ As those unhappy workmen often ran away, Valens had

enacted severe laws to drag them from their hiding-places. Cod.

Theodosian, l. x. tit xix leg. 5, 7.]

78 (return) [ See Ammianus, xxxi. 5, 6. The historian of the

Gothic war loses time and space, by an unseasonable

recapitulation of the ancient inroads of the Barbarians.]

The imprudence of Valens and his ministers had introduced into

the heart of the empire a nation of enemies; but the Visigoths

might even yet have been reconciled, by the manly confession of

past errors, and the sincere performance of former engagements.

These healing and temperate measures seemed to concur with the

timorous disposition of the sovereign of the East: but, on this

occasion alone, Valens was brave; and his unseasonable bravery

was fatal to himself and to his subjects. He declared his

intention of marching from Antioch to Constantinople, to subdue

this dangerous rebellion; and, as he was not ignorant of the

difficulties of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of

his nephew, the emperor Gratian, who commanded all the forces of

the West. The veteran troops were hastily recalled from the

defence of Armenia; that important frontier was abandoned to the

discretion of Sapor; and the immediate conduct of the Gothic war

was intrusted, during the absence of Valens, to his lieutenants

Trajan and Profuturus, two generals who indulged themselves in a

very false and favorable opinion of their own abilities. On their

arrival in Thrace, they were joined by Richomer, count of the

domestics; and the auxiliaries of the West, that marched under

his banner, were composed of the Gallic legions, reduced indeed,

by a spirit of desertion, to the vain appearances of strength and

numbers. In a council of war, which was influenced by pride,

rather than by reason, it was resolved to seek, and to encounter,

the Barbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile

meadows, near the most southern of the six mouths of the Danube.

79 Their camp was surrounded by the usual fortification of

wagons; 80 and the Barbarians, secure within the vast circle of

the enclosure, enjoyed the fruits of their valor, and the spoils

of the province. In the midst of riotous intemperance, the

watchful Fritigern observed the motions, and penetrated the

designs, of the Romans. He perceived, that the numbers of the

enemy were continually increasing: and, as he understood their

intention of attacking his rear, as soon as the scarcity of

forage should oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their

standard his predatory detachments, which covered the adjacent

country. As soon as they descried the flaming beacons, 81 they

obeyed, with incredible speed, the signal of their leader: the

camp was filled with the martial crowd of Barbarians; their

impatient clamors demanded the battle, and their tumultuous zeal

was approved and animated by the spirit of their chiefs. The

evening was already far advanced; and the two armies prepared

themselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only

till the dawn of day.

While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted courage of the

Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation of a solemn oath;

and as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude songs, which

celebrated the glory of their forefathers, were mingled with

their fierce and dissonant outcries, and opposed to the

artificial harmony of the Roman shout. Some military skill was

displayed by Fritigern to gain the advantage of a commanding

eminence; but the bloody conflict, which began and ended with the

light, was maintained on either side, by the personal and

obstinate efforts of strength, valor, and agility. The legions of

Armenia supported their fame in arms; but they were oppressed by

the irresistible weight of the hostile multitude the left wing of

the Romans was thrown into disorder and the field was strewed

with their mangled carcasses. This partial defeat was balanced,

however, by partial success; and when the two armies, at a late

hour of the evening, retreated to their respective camps, neither

of them could claim the honors, or the effects, of a decisive

victory. The real loss was more severely felt by the Romans, in

proportion to the smallness of their numbers; but the Goths were

so deeply confounded and dismayed by this vigorous, and perhaps

unexpected, resistance, that they remained seven days within the

circle of their fortifications. Such funeral rites, as the

circumstances of time and place would admit, were piously

discharged to some officers of distinguished rank; but the

indiscriminate vulgar was left unburied on the plain. Their flesh

was greedily devoured by the birds of prey, who in that age

enjoyed very frequent and delicious feasts; and several years

afterwards the white and naked bones, which covered the wide

extent of the fields, presented to the eyes of Ammianus a

dreadful monument of the battle of Salices. 82

79 (return) [ The Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 226, 227, edit.

Wesseling) marks the situation of this place about sixty miles

north of Tomi, Ovid’s exile; and the name of _Salices_ (the

willows) expresses the nature of the soil.]

80 (return) [ This circle of wagons, the _Carrago_, was the usual

fortification of the Barbarians. (Vegetius de Re Militari, l.

iii. c. 10. Valesius ad Ammian. xxxi. 7.) The practice and the

name were preserved by their descendants as late as the fifteenth

century. The _Charroy_, which surrounded the _Ost_, is a word

familiar to the readers of Froissard, or Comines.]

81 (return) [ Statim ut accensi malleoli. I have used the literal

sense of real torches or beacons; but I almost suspect, that it

is only one of those turgid metaphors, those false ornaments,

that perpetually disfigure to style of Ammianus.]

82 (return) [ Indicant nunc usque albentes ossibus campi. Ammian.

xxxi. 7. The historian might have viewed these plains, either as

a soldier, or as a traveller. But his modesty has suppressed the

adventures of his own life subsequent to the Persian wars of

Constantius and Julian. We are ignorant of the time when he

quitted the service, and retired to Rome, where he appears to

have composed his History of his Own Times.]

The progress of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful event

of that bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whose army would

have been consumed by the repetition of such a contest, embraced

the more rational plan of destroying the Barbarians by the wants

and pressure of their own multitudes. They prepared to confine

the Visigoths in the narrow angle of land between the Danube, the

desert of Scythia, and the mountains of Hæmus, till their

strength and spirit should be insensibly wasted by the inevitable

operation of famine. The design was prosecuted with some conduct

and success: the Barbarians had almost exhausted their own

magazines, and the harvests of the country; and the diligence of

Saturninus, the master-general of the cavalry, was employed to

improve the strength, and to contract the extent, of the Roman

fortifications. His labors were interrupted by the alarming

intelligence, that new swarms of Barbarians had passed the

unguarded Danube, either to support the cause, or to imitate the

example, of Fritigern. The just apprehension, that he himself

might be surrounded, and overwhelmed, by the arms of hostile and

unknown nations, compelled Saturninus to relinquish the siege of

the Gothic camp; and the indignant Visigoths, breaking from their

confinement, satiated their hunger and revenge by the repeated

devastation of the fruitful country, which extends above three

hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to the straits of the

Hellespont. 83 The sagacious Fritigern had successfully appealed

to the passions, as well as to the interest, of his Barbarian

allies; and the love of rapine, and the hatred of Rome, seconded,

or even prevented, the eloquence of his ambassadors. He cemented

a strict and useful alliance with the great body of his

countrymen, who obeyed Alatheus and Saphrax as the guardians of

their infant king: the long animosity of rival tribes was

suspended by the sense of their common interest; the independent

part of the nation was associated under one standard; and the

chiefs of the Ostrogoths appear to have yielded to the superior

genius of the general of the Visigoths. He obtained the

formidable aid of the Taifalæ, 8311 whose military renown was

disgraced and polluted by the public infamy of their domestic

manners. Every youth, on his entrance into the world, was united

by the ties of honorable friendship, and brutal love, to some

warrior of the tribe; nor could he hope to be released from this

unnatural connection, till he had approved his manhood by

slaying, in single combat, a huge bear, or a wild boar of the

forest. 84 But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were

drawn from the camp of those enemies who had expelled them from

their native seats. The loose subordination, and extensive

possessions, of the Huns and the Alani, delayed the conquests,

and distracted the councils, of that victorious people. Several

of the hords were allured by the liberal promises of Fritigern;

and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight and energy to the

steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry. The

Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian,

enjoyed and increased the general confusion; and a seasonable

irruption of the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged

the attention, and diverted the forces, of the emperor of the

West. 85

83 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 8.]

8311 (return) [ The Taifalæ, who at this period inhabited the

country which now forms the principality of Wallachia, were, in

my opinion, the last remains of the great and powerful nation of

the Dacians, (Daci or Dahæ.) which has given its name to these

regions, over which they had ruled so long. The Taifalæ passed

with the Goths into the territory of the empire. A great number

of them entered the Roman service, and were quartered in

different provinces. They are mentioned in the Notitia Imperii.

There was a considerable body in the country of the Pictavi, now

Poithou. They long retained their manners and language, and

caused the name of the Theofalgicus pagus to be given to the

district they inhabited. Two places in the department of La

Vendee, Tiffanges and La Tiffardière, still preserve evident

traces of this denomination. St. Martin, iv. 118.—M.]

84 (return) [ Hanc Taifalorum gentem turpem, et obscenæ vitæ

flagitiis ita accipimus mersam; ut apud eos nefandi concubitûs

fœdere copulentur mares puberes, ætatis viriditatem in eorum

pollutis usibus consumpturi. Porro, siqui jam adultus aprum

exceperit solus, vel interemit ursum immanem, colluvione

liberatur incesti. Ammian. xxxi. 9. ——Among the Greeks, likewise,

more especially among the Cretans, the holy bands of friendship

were confirmed, and sullied, by unnatural love.]

85 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 8, 9. Jerom (tom. i. p. 26)

enumerates the nations and marks a calamitous period of twenty

years. This epistle to Heliodorus was composed in the year 397,

(Tillemont, Mém. Eccles tom xii. p. 645.)]

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part IV.

One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction of

the Barbarians into the army and the palace, was sensibly felt in

their correspondence with their hostile countrymen; to whom they

imprudently, or maliciously, revealed the weakness of the Roman

empire. A soldier, of the lifeguards of Gratian, was of the

nation of the Alemanni, and of the tribe of the Lentienses, who

dwelt beyond the Lake of Constance. Some domestic business

obliged him to request a leave of absence. In a short visit to

his family and friends, he was exposed to their curious

inquiries: and the vanity of the loquacious soldier tempted him

to display his intimate acquaintance with the secrets of the

state, and the designs of his master. The intelligence, that

Gratian was preparing to lead the military force of Gaul, and of

the West, to the assistance of his uncle Valens, pointed out to

the restless spirit of the Alemanni the moment, and the mode, of

a successful invasion. The enterprise of some light detachments,

who, in the month of February, passed the Rhine upon the ice, was

the prelude of a more important war. The boldest hopes of rapine,

perhaps of conquest, outweighed the considerations of timid

prudence, or national faith. Every forest, and every village,

poured forth a band of hardy adventurers; and the great army of

the Alemanni, which, on their approach, was estimated at forty

thousand men by the fears of the people, was afterwards magnified

to the number of seventy thousand by the vain and credulous

flattery of the Imperial court. The legions, which had been

ordered to march into Pannonia, were immediately recalled, or

detained, for the defence of Gaul; the military command was

divided between Nanienus and Mellobaudes; and the youthful

emperor, though he respected the long experience and sober wisdom

of the former, was much more inclined to admire, and to follow,

the martial ardor of his colleague; who was allowed to unite the

incompatible characters of count of the domestics, and of king of

the Franks. His rival Priarius, king of the Alemanni, was guided,

or rather impelled, by the same headstrong valor; and as their

troops were animated by the spirit of their leaders, they met,

they saw, they encountered each other, near the town of

Argentaria, or Colmar, 86 in the plains of Alsace. The glory of

the day was justly ascribed to the missile weapons, and

well-practised evolutions, of the Roman soldiers; the Alemanni,

who long maintained their ground, were slaughtered with

unrelenting fury; five thousand only of the Barbarians escaped to

the woods and mountains; and the glorious death of their king on

the field of battle saved him from the reproaches of the people,

who are always disposed to accuse the justice, or policy, of an

unsuccessful war. After this signal victory, which secured the

peace of Gaul, and asserted the honor of the Roman arms, the

emperor Gratian appeared to proceed without delay on his Eastern

expedition; but as he approached the confines of the Alemanni, he

suddenly inclined to the left, surprised them by his unexpected

passage of the Rhine, and boldly advanced into the heart of their

country. The Barbarians opposed to his progress the obstacles of

nature and of courage; and still continued to retreat, from one

hill to another, till they were satisfied, by repeated trials, of

the power and perseverance of their enemies. Their submission was

accepted as a proof, not indeed of their sincere repentance, but

of their actual distress; and a select number of their brave and

robust youth was exacted from the faithless nation, as the most

substantial pledge of their future moderation. The subjects of

the empire, who had so often experienced that the Alemanni could

neither be subdued by arms, nor restrained by treaties, might not

promise themselves any solid or lasting tranquillity: but they

discovered, in the virtues of their young sovereign, the prospect

of a long and auspicious reign. When the legions climbed the

mountains, and scaled the fortifications of the Barbarians, the

valor of Gratian was distinguished in the foremost ranks; and the

gilt and variegated armor of his guards was pierced and shattered

by the blows which they had received in their constant attachment

to the person of their sovereign. At the age of nineteen, the son

of Valentinian seemed to possess the talents of peace and war;

and his personal success against the Alemanni was interpreted as

a sure presage of his Gothic triumphs. 87

86 (return) [ The field of battle, _Argentaria_ or

_Argentovaria_, is accurately fixed by M. D’Anville (Notice de

l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 96—99) at twenty-three Gallic leagues, or

thirty-four and a half Roman miles to the south of Strasburg.

From its ruins the adjacent town of _Colmar_ has arisen. Note: It

is rather Horburg, on the right bank of the River Ill, opposite

to Colmar. From Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustrata. St. Martin, iv.

121.—M.]

87 (return) [ The full and impartial narrative of Ammianus (xxxi.

10) may derive some additional light from the Epitome of Victor,

the Chronicle of Jerom, and the History of Orosius, (l. vii. c.

33, p. 552, edit. Havercamp.)]

While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his subjects,

the emperor Valens, who, at length, had removed his court and

army from Antioch, was received by the people of Constantinople

as the author of the public calamity. Before he had reposed

himself ten days in the capital, he was urged by the licentious

clamors of the Hippodrome to march against the Barbarians, whom

he had invited into his dominions; and the citizens, who are

always brave at a distance from any real danger, declared, with

confidence, that, if they were supplied with arms, _they_ alone

would undertake to deliver the province from the ravages of an

insulting foe. 88 The vain reproaches of an ignorant multitude

hastened the downfall of the Roman empire; they provoked the

desperate rashness of Valens; who did not find, either in his

reputation or in his mind, any motives to support with firmness

the public contempt. He was soon persuaded, by the successful

achievements of his lieutenants, to despise the power of the

Goths, who, by the diligence of Fritigern, were now collected in

the neighborhood of Hadrianople. The march of the Taifalæ had

been intercepted by the valiant Frigeric: the king of those

licentious Barbarians was slain in battle; and the suppliant

captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate the lands of

Italy, which were assigned for their settlement in the vacant

territories of Modena and Parma. 89 The exploits of Sebastian, 90

who was recently engaged in the service of Valens, and promoted

to the rank of master-general of the infantry, were still more

honorable to himself, and useful to the republic. He obtained the

permission of selecting three hundred soldiers from each of the

legions; and this separate detachment soon acquired the spirit of

discipline, and the exercise of arms, which were almost forgotten

under the reign of Valens. By the vigor and conduct of Sebastian,

a large body of the Goths were surprised in their camp; and the

immense spoil, which was recovered from their hands, filled the

city of Hadrianople, and the adjacent plain. The splendid

narratives, which the general transmitted of his own exploits,

alarmed the Imperial court by the appearance of superior merit;

and though he cautiously insisted on the difficulties of the

Gothic war, his valor was praised, his advice was rejected; and

Valens, who listened with pride and pleasure to the flattering

suggestions of the eunuchs of the palace, was impatient to seize

the glory of an easy and assured conquest. His army was

strengthened by a numerous reenforcement of veterans; and his

march from Constantinople to Hadrianople was conducted with so

much military skill, that he prevented the activity of the

Barbarians, who designed to occupy the intermediate defiles, and

to intercept either the troops themselves, or their convoys of

provisions. The camp of Valens, which he pitched under the walls

of Hadrianople, was fortified, according to the practice of the

Romans, with a ditch and rampart; and a most important council

was summoned, to decide the fate of the emperor and of the

empire. The party of reason and of delay was strenuously

maintained by Victor, who had corrected, by the lessons of

experience, the native fierceness of the Sarmatian character;

while Sebastian, with the flexible and obsequious eloquence of a

courtier, represented every precaution, and every measure, that

implied a doubt of immediate victory, as unworthy of the courage

and majesty of their invincible monarch. The ruin of Valens was

precipitated by the deceitful arts of Fritigern, and the prudent

admonitions of the emperor of the West. The advantages of

negotiating in the midst of war were perfectly understood by the

general of the Barbarians; and a Christian ecclesiastic was

despatched, as the holy minister of peace, to penetrate, and to

perplex, the councils of the enemy. The misfortunes, as well as

the provocations, of the Gothic nation, were forcibly and truly

described by their ambassador; who protested, in the name of

Fritigern, that he was still disposed to lay down his arms, or to

employ them only in the defence of the empire; if he could secure

for his wandering countrymen a tranquil settlement on the waste

lands of Thrace, and a sufficient allowance of corn and cattle.

But he added, in a whisper of confidential friendship, that the

exasperated Barbarians were averse to these reasonable

conditions; and that Fritigern was doubtful whether he could

accomplish the conclusion of the treaty, unless he found himself

supported by the presence and terrors of an Imperial army. About

the same time, Count Richomer returned from the West to announce

the defeat and submission of the Alemanni, to inform Valens that

his nephew advanced by rapid marches at the head of the veteran

and victorious legions of Gaul, and to request, in the name of

Gratian and of the republic, that every dangerous and decisive

measure might be suspended, till the junction of the two emperors

should insure the success of the Gothic war. But the feeble

sovereign of the East was actuated only by the fatal illusions of

pride and jealousy. He disdained the importunate advice; he

rejected the humiliating aid; he secretly compared the

ignominious, at least the inglorious, period of his own reign,

with the fame of a beardless youth; and Valens rushed into the

field, to erect his imaginary trophy, before the diligence of his

colleague could usurp any share of the triumphs of the day.

88 (return) [ Moratus paucissimos dies, seditione popularium

levium pulsus Ammian. xxxi. 11. Socrates (l. iv. c. 38) supplies

the dates and some circumstances. * Note: Compare fragment of

Eunapius. Mai, 272, in Niebuhr, p. 77.—M]

89 (return) [ Vivosque omnes circa Mutinam, Regiumque, et Parmam,

Italica oppida, rura culturos exterminavit. Ammianus, xxxi. 9.

Those cities and districts, about ten years after the colony of

the Taifalæ, appear in a very desolate state. See Muratori,

Dissertazioni sopra le Antichità Italiane, tom. i. Dissertat.

xxi. p. 354.]

90 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 11. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 228—230. The

latter expatiates on the desultory exploits of Sebastian, and

despatches, in a few lines, the important battle of Hadrianople.

According to the ecclesiastical critics, who hate Sebastian, the

praise of Zosimus is disgrace, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,

tom. v. p. 121.) His prejudice and ignorance undoubtedly render

him a very questionable judge of merit.]

On the ninth of August, a day which has deserved to be marked

among the most inauspicious of the Roman Calendar, 91 the emperor

Valens, leaving, under a strong guard, his baggage and military

treasure, marched from Hadrianople to attack the Goths, who were

encamped about twelve miles from the city. 92 By some mistake of

the orders, or some ignorance of the ground, the right wing, or

column of cavalry arrived in sight of the enemy, whilst the left

was still at a considerable distance; the soldiers were

compelled, in the sultry heat of summer, to precipitate their

pace; and the line of battle was formed with tedious confusion

and irregular delay. The Gothic cavalry had been detached to

forage in the adjacent country; and Fritigern still continued to

practise his customary arts. He despatched messengers of peace,

made proposals, required hostages, and wasted the hours, till the

Romans, exposed without shelter to the burning rays of the sun,

were exhausted by thirst, hunger, and intolerable fatigue. The

emperor was persuaded to send an ambassador to the Gothic camp;

the zeal of Richomer, who alone had courage to accept the

dangerous commission, was applauded; and the count of the

domestics, adorned with the splendid ensigns of his dignity, had

proceeded some way in the space between the two armies, when he

was suddenly recalled by the alarm of battle. The hasty and

imprudent attack was made by Bacurius the Iberian, who commanded

a body of archers and targeteers; and as they advanced with

rashness, they retreated with loss and disgrace. In the same

moment, the flying squadrons of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose

return was anxiously expected by the general of the Goths,

descended like a whirlwind from the hills, swept across the

plain, and added new terrors to the tumultuous, but irresistible

charge of the Barbarian host. The event of the battle of

Hadrianople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire, may be

described in a few words: the Roman cavalry fled; the infantry

was abandoned, surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful

evolutions, the firmest courage, are scarcely sufficient to

extricate a body of foot, encompassed, on an open plain, by

superior numbers of horse; but the troops of Valens, oppressed by

the weight of the enemy and their own fears, were crowded into a

narrow space, where it was impossible for them to extend their

ranks, or even to use, with effect, their swords and javelins. In

the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and of dismay, the emperor,

deserted by his guards and wounded, as it was supposed, with an

arrow, sought protection among the Lancearii and the Mattiarii,

who still maintained their ground with some appearance of order

and firmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and Victor, who

perceived his danger, loudly exclaimed that all was lost, unless

the person of the emperor could be saved. Some troops, animated

by their exhortation, advanced to his relief: they found only a

bloody spot, covered with a heap of broken arms and mangled

bodies, without being able to discover their unfortunate prince,

either among the living or the dead. Their search could not

indeed be successful, if there is any truth in the circumstances

with which some historians have related the death of the emperor.

By the care of his attendants, Valens was removed from the field

of battle to a neighboring cottage, where they attempted to dress

his wound, and to provide for his future safety. But this humble

retreat was instantly surrounded by the enemy: they tried to

force the door, they were provoked by a discharge of arrows from

the roof, till at length, impatient of delay, they set fire to a

pile of dry magots, and consumed the cottage with the Roman

emperor and his train. Valens perished in the flames; and a

youth, who dropped from the window, alone escaped, to attest the

melancholy tale, and to inform the Goths of the inestimable prize

which they had lost by their own rashness. A great number of

brave and distinguished officers perished in the battle of

Hadrianople, which equalled in the actual loss, and far surpassed

in the fatal consequences, the misfortune which Rome had formerly

sustained in the fields of Cannæ. 93 Two master-generals of the

cavalry and infantry, two great officers of the palace, and

thirty-five tribunes, were found among the slain; and the death

of Sebastian might satisfy the world, that he was the victim, as

well as the author, of the public calamity. Above two thirds of

the Roman army were destroyed: and the darkness of the night was

esteemed a very favorable circumstance, as it served to conceal

the flight of the multitude, and to protect the more orderly

retreat of Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the general

consternation, maintained the advantage of calm courage and

regular discipline. 94

91 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 12, 13) almost alone describes the

councils and actions which were terminated by the fatal battle of

Hadrianople. We might censure the vices of his style, the

disorder and perplexity of his narrative: but we must now take

leave of this impartial historian; and reproach is silenced by

our regret for such an irreparable loss.]

92 (return) [ The difference of the eight miles of Ammianus, and

the twelve of Idatius, can only embarrass those critics (Valesius

ad loc.,) who suppose a great army to be a mathematical point,

without space or dimensions.]

93 (return) [ Nec ulla annalibus, præter Cannensem pugnam, ita ad

internecionem res legitur gesta. Ammian. xxxi. 13. According to

the grave Polybius, no more than 370 horse, and 3,000 foot,

escaped from the field of Cannæ: 10,000 were made prisoners; and

the number of the slain amounted to 5,630 horse, and 70,000 foot,

(Polyb. l. iii. p 371, edit. Casaubon, 8vo.) Livy (xxii. 49) is

somewhat less bloody: he slaughters only 2,700 horse, and 40,000

foot. The Roman army was supposed to consist of 87,200 effective

men, (xxii. 36.)]

94 (return) [ We have gained some faint light from Jerom, (tom.

i. p. 26 and in Chron. p. 188,) Victor, (in Epitome,) Orosius,

(l. vii. c. 33, p. 554,) Jornandes, (c. 27,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p.

230,) Socrates, (l. iv. c. 38,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 40,) Idatius,

(in Chron.) But their united evidence, if weighed against

Ammianus alone, is light and unsubstantial.]

While the impressions of grief and terror were still recent in

the minds of men, the most celebrated rhetorician of the age

composed the funeral oration of a vanquished army, and of an

unpopular prince, whose throne was already occupied by a

stranger. “There are not wanting,” says the candid Libanius,

“those who arraign the prudence of the emperor, or who impute the

public misfortune to the want of courage and discipline in the

troops. For my own part, I reverence the memory of their former

exploits: I reverence the glorious death, which they bravely

received, standing, and fighting in their ranks: I reverence the

field of battle, stained with _their_ blood, and the blood of the

Barbarians. Those honorable marks have been already washed away

by the rains; but the lofty monuments of their bones, the bones

of generals, of centurions, and of valiant warriors, claim a

longer period of duration. The king himself fought and fell in

the foremost ranks of the battle. His attendants presented him

with the fleetest horses of the Imperial stable, that would soon

have carried him beyond the pursuit of the enemy. They vainly

pressed him to reserve his important life for the future service

of the republic. He still declared that he was unworthy to

survive so many of the bravest and most faithful of his subjects;

and the monarch was nobly buried under a mountain of the slain.

Let none, therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the

Barbarians to the fear, the weakness, or the imprudence, of the

Roman troops. The chiefs and the soldiers were animated by the

virtue of their ancestors, whom they equalled in discipline and

the arts of war. Their generous emulation was supported by the

love of glory, which prompted them to contend at the same time

with heat and thirst, with fire and the sword; and cheerfully to

embrace an honorable death, as their refuge against flight and

infamy. The indignation of the gods has been the only cause of

the success of our enemies.” The truth of history may disclaim

some parts of this panegyric, which cannot strictly be reconciled

with the character of Valens, or the circumstances of the battle:

but the fairest commendation is due to the eloquence, and still

more to the generosity, of the sophist of Antioch. 95

95 (return) [ Libanius de ulciscend. Julian. nece, c. 3, in

Fabricius, Bibliot Græc. tom. vii. p. 146—148.]

The pride of the Goths was elated by this memorable victory; but

their avarice was disappointed by the mortifying discovery, that

the richest part of the Imperial spoil had been within the walls

of Hadrianople. They hastened to possess the reward of their

valor; but they were encountered by the remains of a vanquished

army, with an intrepid resolution, which was the effect of their

despair, and the only hope of their safety. The walls of the

city, and the ramparts of the adjacent camp, were lined with

military engines, that threw stones of an enormous weight; and

astonished the ignorant Barbarians by the noise, and velocity,

still more than by the real effects, of the discharge. The

soldiers, the citizens, the provincials, the domestics of the

palace, were united in the danger, and in the defence: the

furious assault of the Goths was repulsed; their secret arts of

treachery and treason were discovered; and, after an obstinate

conflict of many hours, they retired to their tents; convinced,

by experience, that it would be far more advisable to observe the

treaty, which their sagacious leader had tacitly stipulated with

the fortifications of great and populous cities. After the hasty

and impolitic massacre of three hundred deserters, an act of

justice extremely useful to the discipline of the Roman armies,

the Goths indignantly raised the siege of Hadrianople. The scene

of war and tumult was instantly converted into a silent solitude:

the multitude suddenly disappeared; the secret paths of the woods

and mountains were marked with the footsteps of the trembling

fugitives, who sought a refuge in the distant cities of Illyricum

and Macedonia; and the faithful officers of the household, and

the treasury, cautiously proceeded in search of the emperor, of

whose death they were still ignorant. The tide of the Gothic

inundation rolled from the walls of Hadrianople to the suburbs of

Constantinople. The Barbarians were surprised with the splendid

appearance of the capital of the East, the height and extent of

the walls, the myriads of wealthy and affrighted citizens who

crowded the ramparts, and the various prospect of the sea and

land. While they gazed with hopeless desire on the inaccessible

beauties of Constantinople, a sally was made from one of the

gates by a party of Saracens, 96 who had been fortunately engaged

in the service of Valens. The cavalry of Scythia was forced to

yield to the admirable swiftness and spirit of the Arabian

horses: their riders were skilled in the evolutions of irregular

war; and the Northern Barbarians were astonished and dismayed, by

the inhuman ferocity of the Barbarians of the South.

A Gothic soldier was slain by the dagger of an Arab; and the

hairy, naked savage, applying his lips to the wound, expressed a

horrid delight, while he sucked the blood of his vanquished

enemy. 97 The army of the Goths, laden with the spoils of the

wealthy suburbs and the adjacent territory, slowly moved, from

the Bosphorus, to the mountains which form the western boundary

of Thrace. The important pass of Succi was betrayed by the fear,

or the misconduct, of Maurus; and the Barbarians, who no longer

had any resistance to apprehend from the scattered and vanquished

troops of the East, spread themselves over the face of a fertile

and cultivated country, as far as the confines of Italy and the

Hadriatic Sea. 98

96 (return) [ Valens had gained, or rather purchased, the

friendship of the Saracens, whose vexatious inroads were felt on

the borders of Phœnicia, Palestine, and Egypt. The Christian

faith had been lately introduced among a people, reserved, in a

future age, to propagate another religion, (Tillemont, Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. v. p. 104, 106, 141. Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p.

593.)]

97 (return) [ Crinitus quidam, nudus omnia præter pubem,

subraunum et ugubre strepens. Ammian. xxxi. 16, and Vales. ad

loc. The Arabs often fought naked; a custom which may be ascribed

to their sultry climate, and ostentatious bravery. The

description of this unknown savage is the lively portrait of

Derar, a name so dreadful to the Christians of Syria. See

Ockley’s Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 72, 84, 87.]

98 (return) [ The series of events may still be traced in the

last pages of Ammianus, (xxxi. 15, 16.) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 227,

231,) whom we are now reduced to cherish, misplaces the sally of

the Arabs before the death of Valens. Eunapius (in Excerpt.

Legat. p. 20) praises the fertility of Thrace, Macedonia, &c.]

The Romans, who so coolly, and so concisely, mention the acts of

_justice_ which were exercised by the legions, 99 reserve their

compassion, and their eloquence, for their own sufferings, when

the provinces were invaded, and desolated, by the arms of the

successful Barbarians. The simple circumstantial narrative (did

such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the

misfortunes of a single family, 100 might exhibit an interesting

and instructive picture of human manners: but the tedious

repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the

attention of the most patient reader. The same censure may be

applied, though not perhaps in an equal degree, to the profane,

and the ecclesiastical, writers of this unhappy period; that

their minds were inflamed by popular and religious animosity; and

that the true size and color of every object is falsified by the

exaggerations of their corrupt eloquence. The vehement Jerom 101

might justly deplore the calamities inflicted by the Goths, and

their barbarous allies, on his native country of Pannonia, and

the wide extent of the provinces, from the walls of

Constantinople to the foot of the Julian Alps; the rapes, the

massacres, the conflagrations; and, above all, the profanation of

the churches, that were turned into stables, and the contemptuous

treatment of the relics of holy martyrs. But the Saint is surely

transported beyond the limits of nature and history, when he

affirms, “that, in those desert countries, nothing was left

except the sky and the earth; that, after the destruction of the

cities, and the extirpation of the human race, the land was

overgrown with thick forests and inextricable brambles; and that

the universal desolation, announced by the prophet Zephaniah, was

accomplished, in the scarcity of the beasts, the birds, and even

of the fish.” These complaints were pronounced about twenty years

after the death of Valens; and the Illyrian provinces, which were

constantly exposed to the invasion and passage of the Barbarians,

still continued, after a calamitous period of ten centuries, to

supply new materials for rapine and destruction. Could it even be

supposed, that a large tract of country had been left without

cultivation and without inhabitants, the consequences might not

have been so fatal to the inferior productions of animated

nature. The useful and feeble animals, which are nourished by the

hand of man, might suffer and perish, if they were deprived of

his protection; but the beasts of the forest, his enemies or his

victims, would multiply in the free and undisturbed possession of

their solitary domain. The various tribes that people the air, or

the waters, are still less connected with the fate of the human

species; and it is highly probable that the fish of the Danube

would have felt more terror and distress, from the approach of a

voracious pike, than from the hostile inroad of a Gothic army.

99 (return) [ Observe with how much indifference Cæsar relates,

in the Commentaries of the Gallic war, _that_ he put to death the

whole senate of the Veneti, who had yielded to his mercy, (iii.

16;) _that_ he labored to extirpate the whole nation of the

Eburones, (vi. 31;) _that_ forty thousand persons were massacred

at Bourges by the just revenge of his soldiers, who spared

neither age nor sex, (vii. 27,) &c.]

100 (return) [ Such are the accounts of the sack of Magdeburgh,

by the ecclesiastic and the fisherman, which Mr. Harte has

transcribed, (Hist. of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 313—320,)

with some apprehension of violating the _dignity_ of history.]

101 (return) [ Et vastatis urbibus, hominibusque interfectis,

solitudinem et _raritatem bestiarum_ quoque fieri, _et

volatilium, pisciumque:_ testis Illyricum est, testis Thracia,

testis in quo ortus sum solum, (Pannonia;) ubi præter cœlum et

terram, et crescentes vepres, et condensa sylvarum _cuncta

perierunt_. Tom. vii. p. 250, l, Cap. Sophonias and tom. i. p.

26.]

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part V.

Whatever may have been the just measure of the calamities of

Europe, there was reason to fear that the same calamities would

soon extend to the peaceful countries of Asia. The sons of the

Goths had been judiciously distributed through the cities of the

East; and the arts of education were employed to polish, and

subdue, the native fierceness of their temper. In the space of

about twelve years, their numbers had continually increased; and

the children, who, in the first emigration, were sent over the

Hellespont, had attained, with rapid growth, the strength and

spirit of perfect manhood. 102 It was impossible to conceal from

their knowledge the events of the Gothic war; and, as those

daring youths had not studied the language of dissimulation, they

betrayed their wish, their desire, perhaps their intention, to

emulate the glorious example of their fathers. The danger of the

times seemed to justify the jealous suspicions of the

provincials; and these suspicions were admitted as unquestionable

evidence, that the Goths of Asia had formed a secret and

dangerous conspiracy against the public safety. The death of

Valens had left the East without a sovereign; and Julius, who

filled the important station of master-general of the troops,

with a high reputation of diligence and ability, thought it his

duty to consult the senate of Constantinople; which he

considered, during the vacancy of the throne, as the

representative council of the nation. As soon as he had obtained

the discretionary power of acting as he should judge most

expedient for the good of the republic, he assembled the

principal officers, and privately concerted effectual measures

for the execution of his bloody design. An order was immediately

promulgated, that, on a stated day, the Gothic youth should

assemble in the capital cities of their respective provinces;

and, as a report was industriously circulated, that they were

summoned to receive a liberal gift of lands and money, the

pleasing hope allayed the fury of their resentment, and, perhaps,

suspended the motions of the conspiracy. On the appointed day,

the unarmed crowd of the Gothic youth was carefully collected in

the square or Forum; the streets and avenues were occupied by the

Roman troops, and the roofs of the houses were covered with

archers and slingers. At the same hour, in all the cities of the

East, the signal was given of indiscriminate slaughter; and the

provinces of Asia were delivered by the cruel prudence of Julius,

from a domestic enemy, who, in a few months, might have carried

fire and sword from the Hellespont to the Euphrates. 103 The

urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly

authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that, or

any other, consideration may operate to dissolve the natural

obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I

still desire to remain ignorant.

102 (return) [ Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 20) foolishly

supposes a præternatural growth of the young Goths, that he may

introduce Cadmus’s armed men, who sprang from the dragon’s teeth,

&c. Such was the Greek eloquence of the times.]

103 (return) [ Ammianus evidently approves this execution,

efficacia velox et salutaris, which concludes his work, (xxxi.

16.) Zosimus, who is curious and copious, (l. iv. p. 233—236,)

mistakes the date, and labors to find the reason, why Julius did

not consult the emperor Theodosius who had not yet ascended the

throne of the East.]

The emperor Gratian was far advanced on his march towards the

plains of Hadrianople, when he was informed, at first by the

confused voice of fame, and afterwards by the more accurate

reports of Victor and Richomer, that his impatient colleague had

been slain in battle, and that two thirds of the Roman army were

exterminated by the sword of the victorious Goths. Whatever

resentment the rash and jealous vanity of his uncle might

deserve, the resentment of a generous mind is easily subdued by

the softer emotions of grief and compassion; and even the sense

of pity was soon lost in the serious and alarming consideration

of the state of the republic. Gratian was too late to assist, he

was too weak to revenge, his unfortunate colleague; and the

valiant and modest youth felt himself unequal to the support of a

sinking world. A formidable tempest of the Barbarians of Germany

seemed ready to burst over the provinces of Gaul; and the mind of

Gratian was oppressed and distracted by the administration of the

Western empire. In this important crisis, the government of the

East, and the conduct of the Gothic war, required the undivided

attention of a hero and a statesman. A subject invested with such

ample command would not long have preserved his fidelity to a

distant benefactor; and the Imperial council embraced the wise

and manly resolution of conferring an obligation, rather than of

yielding to an insult. It was the wish of Gratian to bestow the

purple as the reward of virtue; but, at the age of nineteen, it

is not easy for a prince, educated in the supreme rank, to

understand the true characters of his ministers and generals. He

attempted to weigh, with an impartial hand, their various merits

and defects; and, whilst he checked the rash confidence of

ambition, he distrusted the cautious wisdom which despaired of

the republic. As each moment of delay diminished something of the

power and resources of the future sovereign of the East, the

situation of the times would not allow a tedious debate. The

choice of Gratian was soon declared in favor of an exile, whose

father, only three years before, had suffered, under the sanction

of _his_ authority, an unjust and ignominious death. The great

Theodosius, a name celebrated in history, and dear to the

Catholic church, 104 was summoned to the Imperial court, which

had gradually retreated from the confines of Thrace to the more

secure station of Sirmium. Five months after the death of Valens,

the emperor Gratian produced before the assembled troops _his_

colleague and _their_ master; who, after a modest, perhaps a

sincere, resistance, was compelled to accept, amidst the general

acclamations, the diadem, the purple, and the equal title of

Augustus. 105 The provinces of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, over

which Valens had reigned, were resigned to the administration of

the new emperor; but, as he was specially intrusted with the

conduct of the Gothic war, the Illyrian præfecture was

dismembered; and the two great dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia

were added to the dominions of the Eastern empire. 106

104 (return) [ A life of Theodosius the Great was composed in the

last century, (Paris, 1679, in 4to-1680, 12mo.,) to inflame the

mind of the young Dauphin with Catholic zeal. The author,

Flechier, afterwards bishop of Nismes, was a celebrated preacher;

and his history is adorned, or tainted, with pulpit eloquence;

but he takes his learning from Baronius, and his principles from

St. Ambrose and St Augustin.]

105 (return) [ The birth, character, and elevation of Theodosius

are marked in Pacatus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 10, 11, 12,)

Themistius, (Orat. xiv. p. 182,) (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 231,)

Augustin. (de Civitat. Dei. v. 25,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 34,)

Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 2,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 2,) Theodoret, (l.

v. c. 5,) Philostorgius, (l. ix. c. 17, with Godefroy, p. 393,)

the Epitome of Victor, and the Chronicles of Prosper, Idatius,

and Marcellinus, in the Thesaurus Temporum of Scaliger. * Note:

Add a hostile fragment of Eunapius. Mai, p. 273, in Niebuhr, p

178—M.]

106 (return) [ Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 716,

&c.]

The same province, and perhaps the same city, 107 which had given

to the throne the virtues of Trajan, and the talents of Hadrian,

was the orignal seat of another family of Spaniards, who, in a

less fortunate age, possessed, near fourscore years, the

declining empire of Rome. 108 They emerged from the obscurity of

municipal honors by the active spirit of the elder Theodosius, a

general whose exploits in Britain and Africa have formed one of

the most splendid parts of the annals of Valentinian. The son of

that general, who likewise bore the name of Theodosius, was

educated, by skilful preceptors, in the liberal studies of youth;

but he was instructed in the art of war by the tender care and

severe discipline of his father. 109 Under the standard of such a

leader, young Theodosius sought glory and knowledge, in the most

distant scenes of military action; inured his constitution to the

difference of seasons and climates; distinguished his valor by

sea and land; and observed the various warfare of the Scots, the

Saxons, and the Moors. His own merit, and the recommendation of

the conqueror of Africa, soon raised him to a separate command;

and, in the station of Duke of Mæsia, he vanquished an army of

Sarmatians; saved the province; deserved the love of the

soldiers; and provoked the envy of the court. 110 His rising

fortunes were soon blasted by the disgrace and execution of his

illustrious father; and Theodosius obtained, as a favor, the

permission of retiring to a private life in his native province

of Spain. He displayed a firm and temperate character in the ease

with which he adapted himself to this new situation. His time was

almost equally divided between the town and country; the spirit,

which had animated his public conduct, was shown in the active

and affectionate performance of every social duty; and the

diligence of the soldier was profitably converted to the

improvement of his ample patrimony, 111 which lay between

Valladolid and Segovia, in the midst of a fruitful district,

still famous for a most exquisite breed of sheep. 112 From the

innocent, but humble labors of his farm, Theodosius was

transported, in less than four months, to the throne of the

Eastern empire; and the whole period of the history of the world

will not perhaps afford a similar example, of an elevation at the

same time so pure and so honorable. The princes who peaceably

inherit the sceptre of their fathers, claim and enjoy a legal

right, the more secure as it is absolutely distinct from the

merits of their personal characters. The subjects, who, in a

monarchy, or a popular state, acquire the possession of supreme

power, may have raised themselves, by the superiority either of

genius or virtue, above the heads of their equals; but their

virtue is seldom exempt from ambition; and the cause of the

successful candidate is frequently stained by the guilt of

conspiracy, or civil war. Even in those governments which allow

the reigning monarch to declare a colleague or a successor, his

partial choice, which may be influenced by the blindest passions,

is often directed to an unworthy object But the most suspicious

malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure solitude

of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes, of an

ambitious statesman; and the name of the Exile would long since

have been forgotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues had

not left a deep impression in the Imperial court. During the

season of prosperity, he had been neglected; but, in the public

distress, his superior merit was universally felt and

acknowledged. What confidence must have been reposed in his

integrity, since Gratian could trust, that a pious son would

forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder of his father!

What expectations must have been formed of his abilities to

encourage the hope, that a single man could save, and restore,

the empire of the East! Theodosius was invested with the purple

in the thirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with

admiration on the manly beauty of his face, and the graceful

majesty of his person, which they were pleased to compare with

the pictures and medals of the emperor Trajan; whilst intelligent

observers discovered, in the qualities of his heart and

understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and

greatest of the Roman princes.

107 (return) [ _Italica_, founded by Scipio Africanus for his

wounded veterans of _Italy_. The ruins still appear, about a

league above Seville, but on the opposite bank of the river. See

the Hispania Illustrata of Nonius, a short though valuable

treatise, c. xvii. p. 64—67.]

108 (return) [ I agree with Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom.

v. p. 726) in suspecting the royal pedigree, which remained a

secret till the promotion of Theodosius. Even after that event,

the silence of Pacatus outweighs the venal evidence of

Themistius, Victor, and Claudian, who connect the family of

Theodosius with the blood of Trajan and Hadrian.]

109 (return) [ Pacatas compares, and consequently prefers, the

youth of Theodosius to the military education of Alexander,

Hannibal, and the second Africanus; who, like him, had served

under their fathers, (xii. 8.)]

110 (return) [ Ammianus (xxix. 6) mentions this victory of

Theodosius Junior Dux Mæsiæ, prima etiam tum lanugine juvenis,

princeps postea perspectissimus. The same fact is attested by

Themistius and Zosimus but Theodoret, (l. v. c. 5,) who adds some

curious circumstances, strangely applies it to the time of the

interregnum.]

111 (return) [ Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 9) prefers the

rustic life of Theodosius to that of Cincinnatus; the one was the

effect of choice, the other of poverty.]

112 (return) [ M. D’Anville (Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 25)

has fixed the situation of Caucha, or Coca, in the old province

of Gallicia, where Zosimus and Idatius have placed the birth, or

patrimony, of Theodosius.]

It is not without the most sincere regret, that I must now take

leave of an accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the

history of his own times, without indulging the prejudices and

passions, which usually affect the mind of a contemporary.

Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminates his useful work with the

defeat and death of Valens, recommends the more glorious subject

of the ensuing reign to the youthful vigor and eloquence of the

rising generation. 113 The rising generation was not disposed to

accept his advice or to imitate his example; 114 and, in the

study of the reign of Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate

the partial narrative of Zosimus, by the obscure hints of

fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or

panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ecclesiastical

writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to

despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation.

Conscious of these disadvantages, which will continue to involve

a considerable portion of the decline and fall of the Roman

empire, I shall proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet I

may boldly pronounce, that the battle of Hadrianople was never

revenged by any signal or decisive victory of Theodosius over the

Barbarians: and the expressive silence of his venal orators may

be confirmed by the observation of the condition and

circumstances of the times. The fabric of a mighty state, which

has been reared by the labors of successive ages, could not be

overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power

of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the

calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the

plains of Hadrianople, might have been soon recruited in the

populous provinces of the East, which contained so many millions

of inhabitants. The courage of a soldier is found to be the

cheapest, and most common, quality of human nature; and

sufficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe might have

been speedily taught by the care of the surviving centurions. If

the Barbarians were mounted on the horses, and equipped with the

armor, of their vanquished enemies, the numerous studs of

Cappadocia and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of

cavalry; the thirty-four arsenals of the empire were plentifully

stored with magazines of offensive and defensive arms: and the

wealth of Asia might still have yielded an ample fund for the

expenses of the war. But the effects which were produced by the

battle of Hadrianople on the minds of the Barbarians and of the

Romans, extended the victory of the former, and the defeat of the

latter, far beyond the limits of a single day. A Gothic chief was

heard to declare, with insolent moderation, that, for his own

part, he was fatigued with slaughter: but that he was astonished

how a people, who fled before him like a flock of sheep, could

still presume to dispute the possession of their treasures and

provinces. 115 The same terrors which the name of the Huns had

spread among the Gothic tribes, were inspired, by the formidable

name of the Goths, among the subjects and soldiers of the Roman

empire. 116 If Theodosius, hastily collecting his scattered

forces, had led them into the field to encounter a victorious

enemy, his army would have been vanquished by their own fears;

and his rashness could not have been excused by the chance of

success. But the _great_ Theodosius, an epithet which he

honorably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself

as the firm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his

head-quarters at Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian

diocese; 117 from whence he could watch the irregular motions of

the Barbarians, and direct the operations of his lieutenants,

from the gates of Constantinople to the shores of the Hadriatic.

The fortifications and garrisons of the cities were strengthened;

and the troops, among whom a sense of order and discipline was

revived, were insensibly emboldened by the confidence of their

own safety. From these secure stations, they were encouraged to

make frequent sallies on the Barbarians, who infested the

adjacent country; and, as they were seldom allowed to engage,

without some decisive superiority, either of ground or of

numbers, their enterprises were, for the most part, successful;

and they were soon convinced, by their own experience, of the

possibility of vanquishing their _invincible_ enemies. The

detachments of these separate garrisons were generally united

into small armies; the same cautious measures were pursued,

according to an extensive and well-concerted plan of operations;

the events of each day added strength and spirit to the Roman

arms; and the artful diligence of the emperor, who circulated the

most favorable reports of the success of the war, contributed to

subdue the pride of the Barbarians, and to animate the hopes and

courage of his subjects. If, instead of this faint and imperfect

outline, we could accurately represent the counsels and actions

of Theodosius, in four successive campaigns, there is reason to

believe, that his consummate skill would deserve the applause of

every military reader. The republic had formerly been saved by

the delays of Fabius; and, while the splendid trophies of Scipio,

in the field of Zama, attract the eyes of posterity, the camps

and marches of the dictator among the hills of the Campania, may

claim a juster proportion of the solid and independent fame,

which the general is not compelled to share, either with fortune

or with his troops. Such was likewise the merit of Theodosius;

and the infirmities of his body, which most unseasonably

languished under a long and dangerous disease, could not oppress

the vigor of his mind, or divert his attention from the public

service. 118

113 (return) [ Let us hear Ammianus himself. Hæc, ut miles

quondam et Græcus, a principatu Cæsaris Nervæ exorsus, adusque

Valentis inter, pro virium explicavi mensurâ: opus veritatem

professum nun quam, ut arbitror, sciens, silentio ausus

corrumpere vel mendacio. Scribant reliqua potiores ætate,

doctrinisque florentes. Quos id, si libuerit, aggressuros,

procudere linguas ad majores moneo stilos. Ammian. xxxi. 16. The

first thirteen books, a superficial epitome of two hundred and

fifty-seven years, are now lost: the last eighteen, which contain

no more than twenty-five years, still preserve the copious and

authentic history of his own times.]

114 (return) [ Ammianus was the last subject of Rome who composed

a profane history in the Latin language. The East, in the next

century, produced some rhetorical historians, Zosimus,

Olympiedorus, Malchus, Candidus &c. See Vossius de Historicis

Græcis, l. ii. c. 18, de Historicis Latinis l. ii. c. 10, &c.]

115 (return) [ Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 344, edit. Montfaucon. I

have verified and examined this passage: but I should never,

without the aid of Tillemont, (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 152,)

have detected an historical anecdote, in a strange medley of

moral and mystic exhortations, addressed, by the preacher of

Antioch, to a young widow.]

116 (return) [ Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legation. p. 21.]

117 (return) [ See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws. Codex

Theodos tom. l. Prolegomen. p. xcix.—civ.]

118 (return) [ Most writers insist on the illness, and long

repose, of Theodosius, at Thessalonica: Zosimus, to diminish his

glory; Jornandes, to favor the Goths; and the ecclesiastical

writers, to introduce his baptism.]

The deliverance and peace of the Roman provinces 119 was the work

of prudence, rather than of valor: the prudence of Theodosius was

seconded by fortune: and the emperor never failed to seize, and

to improve, every favorable circumstance. As long as the superior

genius of Fritigern preserved the union, and directed the motions

of the Barbarians, their power was not inadequate to the conquest

of a great empire. The death of that hero, the predecessor and

master of the renowned Alaric, relieved an impatient multitude

from the intolerable yoke of discipline and discretion. The

Barbarians, who had been restrained by his authority, abandoned

themselves to the dictates of their passions; and their passions

were seldom uniform or consistent. An army of conquerors was

broken into many disorderly bands of savage robbers; and their

blind and irregular fury was not less pernicious to themselves,

than to their enemies. Their mischievous disposition was shown in

the destruction of every object which they wanted strength to

remove, or taste to enjoy; and they often consumed, with

improvident rage, the harvests, or the granaries, which soon

afterwards became necessary for their own subsistence. A spirit

of discord arose among the independent tribes and nations, which

had been united only by the bands of a loose and voluntary

alliance. The troops of the Huns and the Alani would naturally

upbraid the flight of the Goths; who were not disposed to use

with moderation the advantages of their fortune; the ancient

jealousy of the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths could not long be

suspended; and the haughty chiefs still remembered the insults

and injuries, which they had reciprocally offered, or sustained,

while the nation was seated in the countries beyond the Danube.

The progress of domestic faction abated the more diffusive

sentiment of national animosity; and the officers of Theodosius

were instructed to purchase, with liberal gifts and promises, the

retreat or service of the discontented party. The acquisition of

Modar, a prince of the royal blood of the Amali, gave a bold and

faithful champion to the cause of Rome. The illustrious deserter

soon obtained the rank of master-general, with an important

command; surprised an army of his countrymen, who were immersed

in wine and sleep; and, after a cruel slaughter of the astonished

Goths, returned with an immense spoil, and four thousand wagons,

to the Imperial camp. 120 In the hands of a skilful politician,

the most different means may be successfully applied to the same

ends; and the peace of the empire, which had been forwarded by

the divisions, was accomplished by the reunion, of the Gothic

nation. Athanaric, who had been a patient spectator of these

extraordinary events, was at length driven, by the chance of

arms, from the dark recesses of the woods of Caucaland. He no

longer hesitated to pass the Danube; and a very considerable part

of the subjects of Fritigern, who already felt the inconveniences

of anarchy, were easily persuaded to acknowledge for their king a

Gothic Judge, whose birth they respected, and whose abilities

they had frequently experienced. But age had chilled the daring

spirit of Athanaric; and, instead of leading his people to the

field of battle and victory, he wisely listened to the fair

proposal of an honorable and advantageous treaty. Theodosius, who

was acquainted with the merit and power of his new ally,

condescended to meet him at the distance of several miles from

Constantinople; and entertained him in the Imperial city, with

the confidence of a friend, and the magnificence of a monarch.

“The Barbarian prince observed, with curious attention, the

variety of objects which attracted his notice, and at last broke

out into a sincere and passionate exclamation of wonder. I now

behold (said he) what I never could believe, the glories of this

stupendous capital! And as he cast his eyes around, he viewed,

and he admired, the commanding situation of the city, the

strength and beauty of the walls and public edifices, the

capacious harbor, crowded with innumerable vessels, the perpetual

concourse of distant nations, and the arms and discipline of the

troops. Indeed, (continued Athanaric,) the emperor of the Romans

is a god upon earth; and the presumptuous man, who dares to lift

his hand against him, is guilty of his own blood.” 121 The Gothic

king did not long enjoy this splendid and honorable reception;

and, as temperance was not the virtue of his nation, it may

justly be suspected, that his mortal disease was contracted

amidst the pleasures of the Imperial banquets. But the policy of

Theodosius derived more solid benefit from the death, than he

could have expected from the most faithful services, of his ally.

The funeral of Athanaric was performed with solemn rites in the

capital of the East; a stately monument was erected to his

memory; and his whole army, won by the liberal courtesy, and

decent grief, of Theodosius, enlisted under the standard of the

Roman empire. 122 The submission of so great a body of the

Visigoths was productive of the most salutary consequences; and

the mixed influence of force, of reason, and of corruption,

became every day more powerful, and more extensive. Each

independent chieftain hastened to obtain a separate treaty, from

the apprehension that an obstinate delay might expose _him_,

alone and unprotected, to the revenge, or justice, of the

conqueror. The general, or rather the final, capitulation of the

Goths, may be dated four years, one month, and twenty-five days,

after the defeat and death of the emperor Valens. 123

119 (return) [ Compare Themistius (Orat, xiv. p. 181) with

Zosimus (l. iv. p. 232,) Jornandes, (c. xxvii. p. 649,) and the

prolix Commentary of M. de Buat, (Hist. de Peuples, &c., tom. vi.

p. 477—552.) The Chronicles of Idatius and Marcellinus allude, in

general terms, to magna certamina, _magna multaque_ prælia. The

two epithets are not easily reconciled.]

120 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 232) styles him a Scythian, a

name which the more recent Greeks seem to have appropriated to

the Goths.]

121 (return) [ The reader will not be displeased to see the

original words of Jornandes, or the author whom he transcribed.

Regiam urbem ingressus est, miransque, En, inquit, cerno quod

sæpe incredulus audiebam, famam videlicet tantæ urbis. Et huc

illuc oculos volvens, nunc situm urbis, commeatumque navium, nunc

mœnia clara pro spectans, miratur; populosque diversarum gentium,

quasi fonte in uno e diversis partibus scaturiente unda, sic

quoque militem ordinatum aspiciens; Deus, inquit, sine dubio est

terrenus Imperator, et quisquis adversus eum manum moverit, ipse

sui sanguinis reus existit Jornandes (c. xxviii. p. 650) proceeds

to mention his death and funeral.]

122 (return) [ Jornandes, c. xxviii. p. 650. Even Zosimus (l. v.

p. 246) is compelled to approve the generosity of Theodosius, so

honorable to himself, and so beneficial to the public.]

123 (return) [ The short, but authentic, hints in the _Fasti_ of

Idatius (Chron. Scaliger. p. 52) are stained with contemporary

passion. The fourteenth oration of Themistius is a compliment to

Peace, and the consul Saturninus, (A.D. 383.)]

The provinces of the Danube had been already relieved from the

oppressive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, by the

voluntary retreat of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose restless spirit

had prompted them to seek new scenes of rapine and glory. Their

destructive course was pointed towards the West; but we must be

satisfied with a very obscure and imperfect knowledge of their

various adventures. The Ostrogoths impelled several of the German

tribes on the provinces of Gaul; concluded, and soon violated, a

treaty with the emperor Gratian; advanced into the unknown

countries of the North; and, after an interval of more than four

years, returned, with accumulated force, to the banks of the

Lower Danube. Their troops were recruited with the fiercest

warriors of Germany and Scythia; and the soldiers, or at least

the historians, of the empire, no longer recognized the name and

countenances of their former enemies. 124 The general who

commanded the military and naval powers of the Thracian frontier,

soon perceived that his superiority would be disadvantageous to

the public service; and that the Barbarians, awed by the presence

of his fleet and legions, would probably defer the passage of the

river till the approaching winter. The dexterity of the spies,

whom he sent into the Gothic camp, allured the Barbarians into a

fatal snare. They were persuaded that, by a bold attempt, they

might surprise, in the silence and darkness of the night, the

sleeping army of the Romans; and the whole multitude was hastily

embarked in a fleet of three thousand canoes. 125 The bravest of

the Ostrogoths led the van; the main body consisted of the

remainder of their subjects and soldiers; and the women and

children securely followed in the rear. One of the nights without

a moon had been selected for the execution of their design; and

they had almost reached the southern bank of the Danube, in the

firm confidence that they should find an easy landing and an

unguarded camp. But the progress of the Barbarians was suddenly

stopped by an unexpected obstacle a triple line of vessels,

strongly connected with each other, and which formed an

impenetrable chain of two miles and a half along the river. While

they struggled to force their way in the unequal conflict, their

right flank was overwhelmed by the irresistible attack of a fleet

of galleys, which were urged down the stream by the united

impulse of oars and of the tide. The weight and velocity of those

ships of war broke, and sunk, and dispersed, the rude and feeble

canoes of the Barbarians; their valor was ineffectual; and

Alatheus, the king, or general, of the Ostrogoths, perished with

his bravest troops, either by the sword of the Romans, or in the

waves of the Danube. The last division of this unfortunate fleet

might regain the opposite shore; but the distress and disorder of

the multitude rendered them alike incapable, either of action or

counsel; and they soon implored the clemency of the victorious

enemy. On this occasion, as well as on many others, it is a

difficult task to reconcile the passions and prejudices of the

writers of the age of Theodosius. The partial and malignant

historian, who misrepresents every action of his reign, affirms,

that the emperor did not appear in the field of battle till the

Barbarians had been vanquished by the valor and conduct of his

lieutenant Promotus. 126 The flattering poet, who celebrated, in

the court of Honorius, the glory of the father and of the son,

ascribes the victory to the personal prowess of Theodosius; and

almost insinuates, that the king of the Ostrogoths was slain by

the hand of the emperor. 127 The truth of history might perhaps

be found in a just medium between these extreme and contradictory

assertions.

124 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252.]

125 (return) [ I am justified, by reason and example, in applying

this Indian name to the the Barbarians, the single trees hollowed

into the shape of a boat. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 253. Ausi Danubium

quondam tranare Gruthungi In lintres fregere nemus: ter mille

ruebant Per fluvium plenæ cuneis immanibus alni. Claudian, in iv.

Cols. Hon. 623.]

126 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252—255. He too frequently

betrays his poverty of judgment by disgracing the most serious

narratives with trifling and incredible circumstances.]

127 (return) [—Odothæi Regis _opima_ Retulit—Ver. 632. The

_opima_ were the spoils which a Roman general could only win from

the king, or general, of the enemy, whom he had slain with his

own hands: and no more than three such examples are celebrated in

the victorious ages of Rome.]

The original treaty which fixed the settlement of the Goths,

ascertained their privileges, and stipulated their obligations,

would illustrate the history of Theodosius and his successors.

The series of their history has imperfectly preserved the spirit

and substance of this single agreement. 128 The ravages of war

and tyranny had provided many large tracts of fertile but

uncultivated land for the use of those Barbarians who might not

disdain the practice of agriculture. A numerous colony of the

Visigoths was seated in Thrace; the remains of the Ostrogoths

were planted in Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were

supplied by a distribution of corn and cattle; and their future

industry was encouraged by an exemption from tribute, during a

certain term of years. The Barbarians would have deserved to feel

the cruel and perfidious policy of the Imperial court, if they

had suffered themselves to be dispersed through the provinces.

They required, and they obtained, the sole possession of the

villages and districts assigned for their residence; they still

cherished and propagated their native manners and language;

asserted, in the bosom of despotism, the freedom of their

domestic government; and acknowledged the sovereignty of the

emperor, without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the

laws and magistrates of Rome. The hereditary chiefs of the tribes

and families were still permitted to command their followers in

peace and war; but the royal dignity was abolished; and the

generals of the Goths were appointed and removed at the pleasure

of the emperor. An army of forty thousand Goths was maintained

for the perpetual service of the empire of the East; and those

haughty troops, who assumed the title of _Fæderati_, or allies,

were distinguished by their gold collars, liberal pay, and

licentious privileges. Their native courage was improved by the

use of arms and the knowledge of discipline; and, while the

republic was guarded, or threatened, by the doubtful sword of the

Barbarians, the last sparks of the military flame were finally

extinguished in the minds of the Romans. 129 Theodosius had the

address to persuade his allies, that the conditions of peace,

which had been extorted from him by prudence and necessity, were

the voluntary expressions of his sincere friendship for the

Gothic nation. 130 A different mode of vindication or apology was

opposed to the complaints of the people; who loudly censured

these shameful and dangerous concessions. 131 The calamities of

the war were painted in the most lively colors; and the first

symptoms of the return of order, of plenty, and security, were

diligently exaggerated. The advocates of Theodosius could affirm,

with some appearance of truth and reason, that it was impossible

to extirpate so many warlike tribes, who were rendered desperate

by the loss of their native country; and that the exhausted

provinces would be revived by a fresh supply of soldiers and

husbandmen. The Barbarians still wore an angry and hostile

aspect; but the experience of past times might encourage the

hope, that they would acquire the habits of industry and

obedience; that their manners would be polished by time,

education, and the influence of Christianity; and that their

posterity would insensibly blend with the great body of the Roman

people. 132

128 (return) [ See Themistius, Orat. xvi. p. 211. Claudian (in

Eutrop. l. ii. 112) mentions the Phrygian colony:——Ostrogothis

colitur mistisque Gruthungis Phyrx ager——and then proceeds to

name the rivers of Lydia, the Pactolus, and Herreus.]

129 (return) [ Compare Jornandes, (c. xx. 27,) who marks the

condition and number of the Gothic _Fæderati_, with Zosimus, (l.

iv. p. 258,) who mentions their golden collars; and Pacatus, (in

Panegyr. Vet. xii. 37,) who applauds, with false or foolish joy,

their bravery and discipline.]

130 (return) [ Amator pacis generisque Gothorum, is the praise

bestowed by the Gothic historian, (c. xxix.,) who represents his

nation as innocent, peaceable men, slow to anger, and patient of

injuries. According to Livy, the Romans conquered the world in

their own defence.]

131 (return) [ Besides the partial invectives of Zosimus, (always

discontented with the Christian reigns,) see the grave

representations which Synesius addresses to the emperor Arcadius,

(de Regno, p. 25, 26, edit. Petav.) The philosophic bishop of

Cyrene was near enough to judge; and he was sufficiently removed

from the temptation of fear or flattery.]

132 (return) [ Themistius (Orat. xvi. p. 211, 212) composes an

elaborate and rational apology, which is not, however, exempt

from the puerilities of Greek rhetoric. Orpheus could _only_

charm the wild beasts of Thrace; but Theodosius enchanted the men

and women, whose predecessors in the same country had torn

Orpheus in pieces, &c.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 28 / 79 章

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