The eloquence of Claudian 49 has celebra_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)

applause, the victory of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days

in the life of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse

bestows more genuine praise on the character of the Gothic king.

His name is, indeed, branded with the reproachful epithets of

pirate and robber, to which the conquerors of every age are so

justly entitled; but the poet of Stilicho is compelled to

acknowledge that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind,

which rises superior to every misfortune, and derives new

resources from adversity. After the total defeat of his infantry,

he escaped, or rather withdrew, from the field of battle, with

the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken. Without

wasting a moment to lament the irreparable loss of so many brave

companions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in chains the

captive images of a Gothic king; 50 and boldly resolved to break

through the unguarded passes of the Apennine, to spread

desolation over the fruitful face of Tuscany, and to conquer or

die before the gates of Rome. The capital was saved by the active

and incessant diligence of Stilicho; but he respected the despair

of his enemy; and, instead of committing the fate of the republic

to the chance of another battle, he proposed to purchase the

absence of the Barbarians. The spirit of Alaric would have

rejected such terms, the permission of a retreat, and the offer

of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a

limited and precarious authority over the independent chieftains

who had raised him, for their service, above the rank of his

equals; they were still less disposed to follow an unsuccessful

general, and many of them were tempted to consult their interest

by a private negotiation with the minister of Honorius. The king

submitted to the voice of his people, ratified the treaty with

the empire of the West, and repassed the Po with the remains of

the flourishing army which he had led into Italy. A considerable

part of the Roman forces still continued to attend his motions;

and Stilicho, who maintained a secret correspondence with some of

the Barbarian chiefs, was punctually apprised of the designs that

were formed in the camp and council of Alaric. The king of the

Goths, ambitious to signalize his retreat by some splendid

achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city of Verona,

which commands the principal passage of the Rhaetian Alps; and,

directing his march through the territories of those German

tribes, whose alliance would restore his exhausted strength, to

invade, on the side of the Rhine, the wealthy and unsuspecting

provinces of Gaul. Ignorant of the treason which had already

betrayed his bold and judicious enterprise, he advanced towards

the passes of the mountains, already possessed by the Imperial

troops; where he was exposed, almost at the same instant, to a

general attack in the front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In

this bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of Verona,

the loss of the Goths was not less heavy than that which they had

sustained in the defeat of Pollentia; and their valiant king, who

escaped by the swiftness of his horse, must either have been

slain or made prisoner, if the hasty rashness of the Alani had

not disappointed the measures of the Roman general. Alaric

secured the remains of his army on the adjacent rocks; and

prepared himself, with undaunted resolution, to maintain a siege

against the superior numbers of the enemy, who invested him on

all sides. But he could not oppose the destructive progress of

hunger and disease; nor was it possible for him to check the

continual desertion of his impatient and capricious Barbarians.

In this extremity he still found resources in his own courage, or

in the moderation of his adversary; and the retreat of the Gothic

king was considered as the deliverance of Italy. 51 Yet the

people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational

judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed to arraign

the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often

surrounded, and so often dismissed the implacable enemy of the

republic. The first momen of the public safety is devoted to

gratitude and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by envy

and calumny. 52

49 (return) [ Claudian and Prudentius must be strictly examined,

to reduce the figures, and extort the historic sense, of those

poets.]

50 (return) [

Et gravant en airain ses freles avantages De mes etats conquis

enchainer les images.

The practice of exposing in triumph the images of kings and

provinces was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithridates

himself was twelve feet high, of massy gold, (Freinshem.

Supplement. Livian. ciii. 47.)]

51 (return) [ The Getic war, and the sixth consulship of

Honorius, obscurely connect the events of Alaric’s retreat and

losses.]

52 (return) [ Taceo de Alarico... saepe visto, saepe concluso,

semperque dimisso. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p. 567. Claudian (vi.

Cons. Hon. 320) drops the curtain with a fine image.]

The citizens of Rome had been astonished by the approach of

Alaric; and the diligence with which they labored to restore the

walls of the capital, confessed their own fears, and the decline

of the empire. After the retreat of the Barbarians, Honorius was

directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, and to

celebrate, in the Imperial city, the auspicious era of the Gothic

victory, and of his sixth consulship. 53 The suburbs and the

streets, from the Milvian bridge to the Palatine mount, were

filled by the Roman people, who, in the space of a hundred years,

had only thrice been honored with the presence of their

sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the chariot where

Stilicho was deservedly seated by the side of his royal pupil,

they applauded the pomp of a triumph, which was not stained, like

that of Constantine, or of Theodosius, with civil blood. The

procession passed under a lofty arch, which had been purposely

erected: but in less than seven years, the Gothic conquerors of

Rome might read, if they were able to read, the superb

inscription of that monument, which attested the total defeat and

destruction of their nation. 54 The emperor resided several

months in the capital, and every part of his behavior was

regulated with care to conciliate the affection of the clergy,

the senate, and the people of Rome. The clergy was edified by his

frequent visits and liberal gifts to the shrines of the apostles.

The senate, who, in the triumphal procession, had been excused

from the humiliating ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial

chariot, was treated with the decent reverence which Stilicho

always affected for that assembly. The people was repeatedly

gratified by the attention and courtesy of Honorius in the public

games, which were celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence

not unworthy of the spectator. As soon as the appointed number of

chariot-races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was

suddenly changed; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various

and splendid entertainment; and the chase was succeeded by a

military dance, which seems, in the lively description of

Claudian, to present the image of a modern tournament.

53 (return) [ The remainder of Claudian’s poem on the sixth

consulship of Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and

the games, (330-660.)]

54 (return) [ See the inscription in Mascou’s History of the

Ancient Germans, viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet:

Getarum nationem in omne aevum domitam, &c.]

In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators 55

polluted, for the last time, the amphitheater of Rome. The first

Christian emperor may claim the honor of the first edict which

condemned the art and amusement of shedding human blood; 56 but

this benevolent law expressed the wishes of the prince, without

reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civilized nation

below the condition of savage cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps

several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great

cities of the empire; and the month of December, more peculiarly

devoted to the combats of gladiators, still exhibited to the eyes

of the Roman people a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty.

Amidst the general joy of the victory of Pollentia, a Christian

poet exhorted the emperor to extirpate, by his authority, the

horrid custom which had so long resisted the voice of humanity

and religion. 57 The pathetic representations of Prudentius were

less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, an

Asiatic monk, whose death was more useful to mankind than his

life. 58 The Romans were provoked by the interruption of their

pleasures; and the rash monk, who had descended into the arena to

separate the gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of

stones. But the madness of the people soon subsided; they

respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honors

of martyrdom; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the laws

of Honorius, which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the

amphitheater. 5811 The citizens, who adhered to the manners of

their ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of

a martial spirit were preserved in this school of fortitude,

which accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood, and to the

contempt of death; a vain and cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted

by the valor of ancient Greece, and of modern Europe! 59

55 (return) [ On the curious, though horrid, subject of the

gladiators, consult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius,

who, as an antiquarian, is inclined to excuse the practice of

antiquity, (tom. iii. p. 483-545.)]

56 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The

Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom. v. p. 396)

for the history of gladiators.]

57 (return) [ See the peroration of Prudentius (in Symmach. l.

ii. 1121-1131) who had doubtless read the eloquent invective of

Lactantius, (Divin. Institut. l. vi. c. 20.) The Christian

apologists have not spared these bloody games, which were

introduced in the religious festivals of Paganism.]

58 (return) [ Theodoret, l. v. c. 26. I wish to believe the story

of St. Telemachus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no altar has

been erected, to the only monk who died a martyr in the cause of

humanity.]

5811 (return) [ Muller, in his valuable Treatise, de Genio,

moribus et luxu aevi Theodosiani, is disposed to question the

effect produced by the heroic, or rather saintly, death of

Telemachus. No prohibitory law of Honorius is to be found in the

Theodosian Code, only the old and imperfect edict of Constantine.

But Muller has produced no evidence or allusion to gladiatorial

shows after this period. The combats with wild beasts certainly

lasted till the fall of the Western empire; but the gladiatorial

combats ceased either by common consent, or by Imperial

edict.—M.]

59 (return) [ Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum

nonnullis videri solet, et haud scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit.

Cicero Tusculan. ii. 17. He faintly censures the abuse, and

warmly defends the use, of these sports; oculis nulla poterat

esse fortior contra dolorem et mortem disciplina. Seneca (epist.

vii.) shows the feelings of a man.]

The recent danger, to which the person of the emperor had been

exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan, urged him to seek a

retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy, where he might

securely remain, while the open country was covered by a deluge

of Barbarians. On the coast of the Adriatic, about ten or twelve

miles from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the

Thessalians had founded the ancient colony of Ravenna, 60 which

they afterwards resigned to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who

had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, at the

distance of three miles from the old town, a capacious harbor,

for the reception of two hundred and fifty ships of war. This

naval establishment, which included the arsenals and magazines,

the barracks of the troops, and the houses of the artificers,

derived its origin and name from the permanent station of the

Roman fleet; the intermediate space was soon filled with

buildings and inhabitants, and the three extensive and populous

quarters of Ravenna gradually contributed to form one of the most

important cities of Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poured

a copious stream of the waters of the Po through the midst of the

city, to the entrance of the harbor; the same waters were

introduced into the profound ditches that encompassed the walls;

they were distributed by a thousand subordinate canals, into

every part of the city, which they divided into a variety of

small islands; the communication was maintained only by the use

of boats and bridges; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance

may be compared to that of Venice, were raised on the foundation

of wooden piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many

miles, was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial

causeway, which connected Ravenna with the continent, might be

easily guarded or destroyed, on the approach of a hostile army

These morasses were interspersed, however, with vineyards: and

though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town

enjoyed a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water. 61

The air, instead of receiving the sickly, and almost

pestilential, exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was

distinguished, like the neighborhood of Alexandria, as uncommonly

pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to

the regular tides of the Adriatic, which swept the canals,

interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and

floated, every day, the vessels of the adjacent country into the

heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left the

modern city at the distance of four miles from the Adriatic; and

as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era, the

port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards; and a

lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet

once rode at anchor. 62 Even this alteration contributed to

increase the natural strength of the place, and the shallowness

of the water was a sufficient barrier against the large ships of

the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and

labor; and in the twentieth year of his age, the emperor of the

West, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the

perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The

example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the

Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne

and palace of the emperors; and till the middle of the eight

century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government, and

the capital of Italy. 63

60 (return) [ This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (l.

v. p. 327,) Pliny, (iii. 20,) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce, p.

651, edit. Berkel,) Claudian, (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, &c.,)

Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. i. epist. 5, 8,) Jornandes, (de Reb.

Get. c. 29,) Procopius (de Bell, (lothic, l. i. c. i. p. 309,

edit. Louvre,) and Cluverius, (Ital. Antiq tom i. p. 301-307.)

Yet I still want a local antiquarian and a good topographical

map.]

61 (return) [ Martial (Epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of

the knave, who had sold him wine instead of water; but he

seriously declares that a cistern at Ravenna is more valuable

than a vineyard. Sidonius complains that the town is destitute of

fountains and aqueducts; and ranks the want of fresh water among

the local evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the stinging of

gnats, &c.]

62 (return) [ The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has

so admirably transplanted from Boccaccio, (Giornata iii. novell.

viii.,) was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from

Classis, the naval station which, with the intermediate road, or

suburb the Via Caesaris, constituted the triple city of Ravenna.]

63 (return) [ From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code

become sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy’s

Chronology of the Laws, tom. i. p. cxlviii., &c.]

The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were his

precautions without effect. While Italy rejoiced in her

deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among

the nations of Germany, who yielded to the irresistible impulse

that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern

extremity of the continent of Asia. The Chinese annals, as they

have been interpreted by the learned industry of the present age,

may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of

the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the

north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight of the

Huns, by the victorious Sienpi, who were sometimes broken into

independent tribes, and sometimes reunited under a supreme chief;

till at length, styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth,

they acquired a more solid consistence, and a more formidable

power. The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the

eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms; they

invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine discord; and

these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the

vanquished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned

near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of

the monarchy. Some generations before they ascended the throne of

China, one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a

slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valor, but who was

tempted, by the fear of punishment, to desert his standard, and

to range the desert at the head of a hundred followers. This gang

of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous

people, distinguished by the appellation of Geougen; and their

hereditary chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed

their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the

greatest of his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes

which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with

adversity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the

legislator of his nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His

troops were distributed into regular bands of a hundred and of a

thousand men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid

honors were proposed as the reward of valor; and Toulun, who had

knowledge enough to despise the learning of China, adopted only

such arts and institutions as were favorable to the military

spirit of his government. His tents, which he removed in the

winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched, during

the summer, on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests

stretched from Corea far beyond the River Irtish. He vanquished,

in the country to the north of the Caspian Sea, the nation of the

Huns; and the new title of Khan, or Cagan, expressed the fame and

power which he derived from this memorable victory. 64

64 (return) [ See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p.

179-189, tom ii p. 295, 334-338.]

The chain of events is interrupted, or rather is concealed, as it

passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through the dark interval

which separates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the

Roman, geography. Yet the temper of the Barbarians, and the

experience of successive emigrations, sufficiently declare, that

the Huns, who were oppressed by the arms of the Geougen, soon

withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The countries

towards the Euxine were already occupied by their kindred tribes;

and their hasty flight, which they soon converted into a bold

attack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and

level plains, through which the Vistula gently flows into the

Baltic Sea. The North must again have been alarmed, and agitated,

by the invasion of the Huns; 6411 and the nations who retreated

before them must have pressed with incumbent weight on the

confines of Germany. 65 The inhabitants of those regions, which

the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals, and the

Burgundians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning to the

fugitives of Sarmatia their woods and morasses; or at least of

discharging their superfluous numbers on the provinces of the

Roman empire. 66 About four years after the victorious Toulun had

assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another Barbarian, the

haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus, 67 marched from the northern

extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the

remains of his army to achieve the destruction of the West. The

Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed the strength of

this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found a hospitable

reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the

heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded

so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that by some

historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve

thousand warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble

birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; 68 and the

whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand

fighting men, might be increased, by the accession of women, of

children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand

persons. This formidable emigration issued from the same coast of

the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and

Teutones, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigor of the republic.

After the departure of those Barbarians, their native country,

which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long

ramparts, and gigantic moles, 69 remained, during some ages, a

vast and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by

the powers of generation, and the vacancy was filled by the

influx of new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an extent of

land which they are unable to cultivate, would soon be assisted

by the industrious poverty of their neighbors, if the government

of Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property.

6411 (return) [ There is no authority which connects this inroad

of the Teutonic tribes with the movements of the Huns. The Huns

can hardly have reached the shores of the Baltic, and probably

the greater part of the forces of Radagaisus, particularly the

Vandals, had long occupied a more southern position.—M.]

65 (return) [ Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. iii. p. 182)

has observed an emigration from the Palus Maeotis to the north of

Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient

history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error.]

66 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 331) uses the general description

of the nations beyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their situation,

and consequently their names, are manifestly shown, even in the

various epithets which each ancient writer may have casually

added.]

67 (return) [ The name of Rhadagast was that of a local deity of

the Obotrites, (in Mecklenburg.) A hero might naturally assume

the appellation of his tutelar god; but it is not probable that

the Barbarians should worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou,

Hist. of the Germans, viii. 14. * Note: The god of war and of

hospitality with the Vends and all the Sclavonian races of

Germany bore the name of Radegast, apparently the same with

Rhadagaisus. His principal temple was at Rhetra in Mecklenburg.

It was adorned with great magnificence. The statue of the gold

was of gold. St. Martin, v. 255. A statue of Radegast, of much

coarser materials, and of the rudest workmanship, was discovered

between 1760 and 1770, with those of other Wendish deities, on

the supposed site of Rhetra. The names of the gods were cut upon

them in Runic characters. See the very curious volume on these

antiquities—Die Gottesdienstliche Alterthumer der Obotriter—Masch

and Wogen. Berlin, 1771.—M.]

68 (return) [ Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180), uses the Greek

word which does not convey any precise idea. I suspect that they

were the princes and nobles with their faithful companions; the

knights with their squires, as they would have been styled some

centuries afterwards.]

69 (return) [ Tacit. de Moribus Germanorum, c. 37.]

Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part IV.

The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and

precarious, that the revolutions of the North might escape the

knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was

collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon

the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor of the West, if his

ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of the impending

danger, was satisfied with being the occasion, and the spectator,

of the war. 70 The safety of Rome was intrusted to the counsels,

and the sword, of Stilicho; but such was the feeble and exhausted

state of the empire, that it was impossible to restore the

fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous

effort, the invasion of the Germans. 71 The hopes of the vigilant

minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He

once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed

the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and

pusillanimously eluded; employed the most efficacious means to

arrest, or allure, the deserters; and offered the gift of

freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would

enlist. 72 By these efforts he painfully collected, from the

subjects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand

men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been

instantly furnished by the free citizens of the territory of

Rome. 73 The thirty legions of Stilicho were reenforced by a

large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were

personally attached to his service; and the troops of Huns and of

Goths, who marched under the banners of their native princes,

Huldin and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to

oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the confederate

Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the

Apennine; leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of

Honorius, securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on

the other, the camp of Stilicho, who had fixed his head-quarters

at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive

battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of

Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege of Florence, 74

by Radagaisus, is one of the earliest events in the history of

that celebrated republic; whose firmness checked and delayed the

unskillful fury of the Barbarians. The senate and people trembled

at their approach within a hundred and eighty miles of Rome; and

anxiously compared the danger which they had escaped, with the

new perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and

a soldier, the leader of a disciplined army; who understood the

laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had

familiarly conversed with the subjects of the empire in the same

camps, and the same churches. The savage Radagaisus was a

stranger to the manners, the religion, and even the language, of

the civilized nations of the South. The fierceness of his temper

was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally

believed, that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce

the city into a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the

most illustrious of the Roman senators on the altars of those

gods who were appeased by human blood. The public danger, which

should have reconciled all domestic animosities, displayed the

incurable madness of religious faction. The oppressed votaries of

Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable enemy of Rome,

the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they were

more apprehensive of the sacrifices, than of the arms, of

Radagaisus; and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their

country, which condemned the faith of their Christian

adversaries. 75 7511

70 (return) [

Cujus agendi Spectator vel causa fui, —-(Claudian, vi. Cons. Hon.

439,)

is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic

war, which he had seen somewhat nearer.]

71 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 331) transports the war, and the

victory of Stilisho, beyond the Danube. A strange error, which is

awkwardly and imperfectly cured (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom.

v. p. 807.) In good policy, we must use the service of Zosimus,

without esteeming or trusting him.]

72 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date

of this law A.D. 406. May 18 satisfies me, as it had done

Godefroy, (tom. ii. p. 387,) of the true year of the invasion of

Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding

year; but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and

respect, to St. Paulinus of Nola.]

73 (return) [ Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the

senate, on a sudden emergency, armed ten legions, 3000 horse, and

42,000 foot; a force which the city could not have sent forth

under Augustus, (Livy, xi. 25.) This declaration may puzzle an

antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquieu.]

74 (return) [ Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher,

the origin of Florence, which insensibly descended, for the

benefit of trade, from the rock of Faesulae to the banks of the

Arno, (Istoria Fiorentina, tom. i. p. 36. Londra, 1747.) The

triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius,

(Tacit. Annal. i. 79,) deserved the reputation and name of a

flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, &c.]

75 (return) [ Yet the Jupiter of Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor

and Woden, was very different from the Olympic or Capitoline

Jove. The accommodating temper of Polytheism might unite those

various and remote deities; but the genuine Romans ahhorred the

human sacrifices of Gaul and Germany.]

7511 (return) [ Gibbon has rather softened the language of

Augustine as to this threatened insurrection of the Pagans, in

order to restore the prohibited rites and ceremonies of Paganism;

and their treasonable hopes that the success of Radagaisus would

be the triumph of idolatry. Compare ii. 25—M.]

Florence was reduced to the last extremity; and the fainting

courage of the citizens was supported only by the authority of

St. Ambrose; who had communicated, in a dream, the promise of a

speedy deliverance. 76 On a sudden, they beheld, from their

walls, the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united

force, to the relief of the faithful city; and who soon marked

that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The apparent

contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat

of Radagaisus, may be reconciled without offering much violence

to their respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, who were

intimately connected by friendship and religion, ascribed this

miraculous victory to the providence of God, rather than to the

valor of man. 77 They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or

even of bloodshed; and positively affirm, that the Romans, whose

camp was the scene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress

of the Barbarians, slowly expiring on the sharp and barren ridge

of the hills of Faesulae, which rise above the city of Florence.

Their extravagant assertion that not a single soldier of the

Christian army was killed, or even wounded, may be dismissed with

silent contempt; but the rest of the narrative of Augustin and

Orosius is consistent with the state of the war, and the

character of Stilicho. Conscious that he commanded the last army

of the republic, his prudence would not expose it, in the open

field, to the headstrong fury of the Germans. The method of

surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which

he had twice employed against the Gothic king, was repeated on a

larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The examples of

Caesar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the

Roman warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrrachium, which

connected twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart

of fifteen miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which

might confine, and starve, the most numerous host of Barbarians.

78 The Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry, than

from the valor, of their ancestors; and if their servile and

laborious work offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could

supply many thousand peasants, who would labor, though, perhaps,

they would not fight, for the salvation of their native country.

The imprisoned multitude of horses and men 79 was gradually

destroyed, by famine rather than by the sword; but the Romans

were exposed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to

the frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the

hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the

fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge

the ardor of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to

assault the camp of the Germans; and these various incidents

might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts which dignify the

narrative of Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and

Marcellinus. 80 A seasonable supply of men and provisions had

been introduced into the walls of Florence, and the famished host

of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so

many warlike nations, after the loss of his bravest warriors, was

reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or in

the clemency of Stilicho. 81 But the death of the royal captive,

who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and

of Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was

sufficient to brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and

deliberate cruelty. 82 The famished Germans, who escaped the fury

of the auxiliaries, were sold as slaves, at the contemptible

price of as many single pieces of gold; but the difference of

food and climate swept away great numbers of those unhappy

strangers; and it was observed, that the inhuman purchasers,

instead of reaping the fruits of their labor were soon obliged to

provide the expense of their interment. Stilicho informed the

emperor and the senate of his success; and deserved, a second

time, the glorious title of Deliverer of Italy. 83

76 (return) [ Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros c. 50) relates this story,

which he received from the mouth of Pansophia herself, a

religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop soon ceased to

take an active part in the business of the world, and never

became a popular saint.]

77 (return) [ Augustin de Civitat. Dei, v. 23. Orosius, l. vii.

c. 37, p. 567-571. The two friends wrote in Africa, ten or twelve

years after the victory; and their authority is implicitly

followed by Isidore of Seville, (in Chron. p. 713, edit. Grot.)

How many interesting facts might Orosius have inserted in the

vacant space which is devoted to pious nonsense!]

78 (return) [

Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar Ducit opus: pandit

fossas, turritaque summis Disponit castella jugis, magnoque

necessu Amplexus fines, saltus, memorosaque tesqua Et silvas,

vastaque feras indagine claudit.!

Yet the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 44) is

far greater than the amplifications of Lucan, (Pharsal. l. vi.

29-63.)]

79 (return) [ The rhetorical expressions of Orosius, “in arido et

aspero montis jugo;” “in unum ac parvum verticem,” are not very

suitable to the encampment of a great army. But Faesulae, only

three miles from Florence, might afford space for the

head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the

circuit of the Roman lines.]

80 (return) [ See Zosimus, l. v. p. 331, and the Chronicles of

Prosper and Marcellinus.]

81 (return) [ Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180) uses an

expression which would denote a strict and friendly alliance, and

render Stilicho still more criminal. The paulisper detentus,

deinde interfectus, of Orosius, is sufficiently odious. * Note:

Gibbon, by translating this passage of Olympiodorus, as if it had

been good Greek, has probably fallen into an error. The natural

order of the words is as Gibbon translates it; but it is almost

clear, refers to the Gothic chiefs, “whom Stilicho, after he had

defeated Radagaisus, attached to his army.” So in the version

corrected by Classen for Niebuhr’s edition of the Byzantines, p.

450.—M.]

82 (return) [ Orosius, piously inhuman, sacrifices the king and

people, Agag and the Amalekites, without a symptom of compassion.

The bloody actor is less detestable than the cool, unfeeling

historian.——Note: Considering the vow, which he was universally

believed to have made, to destroy Rome, and to sacrifice the

senators on the altars, and that he is said to have immolated his

prisoners to his gods, the execution of Radagaisus, if, as it

appears, he was taken in arms, cannot deserve Gibbon’s severe

condemnation. Mr. Herbert (notes to his poem of Attila, p. 317)

justly observes, that “Stilicho had probably authority for

hanging him on the first tree.” Marcellinus, adds Mr. Herbert,

attributes the execution to the Gothic chiefs Sarus.—M.]

83 (return) [ And Claudian’s muse, was she asleep? had she been

ill paid! Methinks the seventh consulship of Honorius (A.D. 407)

would have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was

discovered that the state could no longer be saved, Stilicho

(after Romulus, Camillus and Marius) might have been worthily

surnamed the fourth founder of Rome.]

The fame of the victory, and more especially of the miracle, has

encouraged a vain persuasion, that the whole army, or rather

nation, of Germans, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic,

miserably perished under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was

the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful

companions, and of more than one third of the various multitude

of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who adhered to

the standard of their general. 84 The union of such an army might

excite our surprise, but the causes of separation are obvious and

forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of valor, the

jealousy of command, the impatience of subordination, and the

obstinate conflict of opinions, of interests, and of passions,

among so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or

to obey. After the defeat of Radagaisus, two parts of the German

host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thousand

men, still remained in arms, between the Apennine and the Alps,

or between the Alps and the Danube. It is uncertain whether they

attempted to revenge the death of their general; but their

irregular fury was soon diverted by the prudence and firmness of

Stilicho, who opposed their march, and facilitated their retreat;

who considered the safety of Rome and Italy as the great object

of his care, and who sacrificed, with too much indifference, the

wealth and tranquillity of the distant provinces. 85 The

Barbarians acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian

deserters, the knowledge of the country, and of the roads; and

the invasion of Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by

the remains of the great army of Radagaisus. 86

84 (return) [ A luminous passage of Prosper’s Chronicle, “In tres

partes, pes diversos principes, diversus exercitus,” reduces the

miracle of Florence and connects the history of Italy, Gaul, and

Germany.]

85 (return) [ Orosius and Jerom positively charge him with

instigating the in vasion. “Excitatae a Stilichone gentes,” &c.

They must mean a directly. He saved Italy at the expense of Gaul]

86 (return) [ The Count de Buat is satisfied, that the Germans

who invaded Gaul were the two thirds that yet remained of the

army of Radagaisus. See the Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de

l’Europe, (tom. vii. p. 87, 121. Paris, 1772;) an elaborate work,

which I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As

early as 1771, I find the same idea expressed in a rough draught

of the present History. I have since observed a similar

intimation in Mascou, (viii. 15.) Such agreement, without mutual

communication, may add some weight to our common sentiment.]

Yet if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes of

Germany, who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, their hopes were

disappointed. The Alemanni preserved a state of inactive

neutrality; and the Franks distinguished their zeal and courage

in the defence of the of the empire. In the rapid progress down

the Rhine, which was the first act of the administration of

Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar attention, to

secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the

irreconcilable enemies of peace and of the republic. Marcomir,

one of their kings, was publicly convicted, before the tribunal

of the Roman magistrate, of violating the faith of treaties. He

was sentenced to a mild, but distant exile, in the province of

Tuscany; and this degradation of the regal dignity was so far

from exciting the resentment of his subjects, that they punished

with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted to revenge his

brother; and maintained a dutiful allegiance to the princes, who

were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho. 87 When

the limits of Gaul and Germany were shaken by the northern

emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of

the Vandals; who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had

again separated their troops from the standard of their Barbarian

allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness; and twenty

thousand Vandals, with their king Godigisclus, were slain in the

field of battle. The whole people must have been extirpated, if

the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief, had not

trampled down the infantry of the Franks; who, after an honorable

resistance, were compelled to relinquish the unequal contest. The

victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last day

of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most

probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the

defenceless provinces of Gaul. This memorable passage of the

Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never

afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman

empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which

had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the

earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground. 88

87 (return) [

Provincia missos Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges Quos

dederis.

Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, &c.) is clear and

satisfactory. These kings of France are unknown to Gregory of

Tours; but the author of the Gesta Francorum mentions both Sunno

and Marcomir, and names the latter as the father of Pharamond,

(in tom. ii. p. 543.) He seems to write from good materials,

which he did not understand.]

88 (return) [ See Zosimus, (l. vi. p. 373,) Orosius, (l. vii. c.

40, p. 576,) and the Chronicles. Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9,

p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has

preserved a valuable fragment of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus,

whose three names denote a Christian, a Roman subject, and a

Semi-Barbarian.]

While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the

Franks, and the neutrality of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome,

unconscious of their approaching calamities, enjoyed the state of

quiet and prosperity, which had seldom blessed the frontiers of

Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze in the

pastures of the Barbarians; their huntsmen penetrated, without

fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the Hercynian wood.

89 The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tyber,

with elegant houses, and well-cultivated farms; and if a poet

descended the river, he might express his doubt, on which side

was situated the territory of the Romans. 90 This scene of peace

and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect

of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of

nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz

was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand Christians were

inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long

and obstinate siege; Strasburgh, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras,

Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and

the consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine

over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That

rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and

the Pyrenees, was delivered to the Barbarians, who drove before

them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the

virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars. 91 The

ecclesiastics, to whom we are indebted for this vague description

of the public calamities, embraced the opportunity of exhorting

the Christians to repent of the sins which had provoked the

Divine Justice, and to renounce the perishable goods of a

wretched and deceitful world. But as the Pelagian controversy, 92

which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predestination,

soon became the serious employment of the Latin clergy, the

Providence which had decreed, or foreseen, or permitted, such a

train of moral and natural evils, was rashly weighed in the

imperfect and fallacious balance of reason. The crimes, and the

misfortunes, of the suffering people, were presumptuously

compared with those of their ancestors; and they arraigned the

Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the common destruction

the feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion of the human

species. These idle disputants overlooked the invariable laws of

nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with

industry, and safety with valor. The timid and selfish policy of

the court of Ravenna might recall the Palatine legions for the

protection of Italy; the remains of the stationary troops might

be unequal to the arduous task; and the Barbarian auxiliaries

might prefer the unbounded license of spoil to the benefits of a

moderate and regular stipend. But the provinces of Gaul were

filled with a numerous race of hardy and robust youth, who, in

the defence of their houses, their families, and their altars, if

they had dared to die, would have deserved to vanquish. The

knowledge of their native country would have enabled them to

oppose continual and insuperable obstacles to the progress of an

invader; and the deficiency of the Barbarians, in arms, as well

as in discipline, removed the only pretence which excuses the

submission of a populous country to the inferior numbers of a

veteran army. When France was invaded by Charles V., he inquired

of a prisoner, how many days Paris might be distant from the

frontier; “Perhaps twelve, but they will be days of battle:” 93

such was the gallant answer which checked the arrogance of that

ambitious prince. The subjects of Honorius, and those of Francis

I., were animated by a very different spirit; and in less than

two years, the divided troops of the savages of the Baltic, whose

numbers, were they fairly stated, would appear contemptible,

advanced, without a combat, to the foot of the Pyrenean

Mountains.

89 (return) [ Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 221, &c., l. ii.

186) describes the peace and prosperity of the Gallic frontier.

The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i. p. 174) would read

Alba (a nameless rivulet of the Ardennes) instead of Albis; and

expatiates on the danger of the Gallic cattle grazing beyond the

Elbe. Foolish enough! In poetical geography, the Elbe, and the

Hercynian, signify any river, or any wood, in Germany. Claudian

is not prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries.]

90 (return) [—Germinasque viator Cum videat ripas, quae sit

Romana requirat.]

91 (return) [ Jerom, tom. i. p. 93. See in the 1st vol. of the

Historians of France, p. 777, 782, the proper extracts from the

Carmen de Providentil Divina, and Salvian. The anonymous poet was

himself a captive, with his bishop and fellow-citizens.]

92 (return) [ The Pelagian doctrine, which was first agitated

A.D. 405, was condemned, in the space of ten years, at Rome and

Carthage. St Augustin fought and conquered; but the Greek church

was favorable to his adversaries; and (what is singular enough)

the people did not take any part in a dispute which they could

not understand.]

93 (return) [ See the Mémoires de Guillaume du Bellay, l. vi. In

French, the original reproof is less obvious, and more pointed,

from the double sense of the word journee, which alike signifies,

a day’s travel, or a battle.]

In the early part of the reign of Honorius, the vigilance of

Stilicho had successfully guarded the remote island of Britain

from her incessant enemies of the ocean, the mountains, and the

Irish coast. 94 But those restless Barbarians could not neglect

the fair opportunity of the Gothic war, when the walls and

stations of the province were stripped of the Roman troops. If

any of the legionaries were permitted to return from the Italian

expedition, their faithful report of the court and character of

Honorius must have tended to dissolve the bonds of allegiance,

and to exasperate the seditious temper of the British army. The

spirit of revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age of

Gallienus, was revived by the capricious violence of the

soldiers; and the unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates,

who were the objects of their choice, were the instruments, and

at length the victims, of their passion. 95 Marcus was the first

whom they placed on the throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain

and of the West. They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus,

the oath of fidelity which they had imposed on themselves; and

their disapprobation of his manners may seem to inscribe an

honorable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they

adorned with the diadem and the purple; and, at the end of four

months, Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The

memory of the great Constantine, whom the British legions had

given to the church and to the empire, suggested the singular

motive of their third choice. They discovered in the ranks a

private soldier of the name of Constantine, and their impetuous

levity had already seated him on the throne, before they

perceived his incapacity to sustain the weight of that glorious

appellation. 96 Yet the authority of Constantine was less

precarious, and his government was more successful, than the

transient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger of leaving

his inactive troops in those camps, which had been twice polluted

with blood and sedition, urged him to attempt the reduction of

the Western provinces. He landed at Boulogne with an

inconsiderable force; and after he had reposed himself some days,

he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the

Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful sovereign. They obeyed

the summons without reluctance. The neglect of the court of

Ravenna had absolved a deserted people from the duty of

allegiance; their actual distress encouraged them to accept any

circumstances of change, without apprehension, and, perhaps, with

some degree of hope; and they might flatter themselves, that the

troops, the authority, and even the name of a Roman emperor, who

fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy country

from the rage of the Barbarians. The first successes of

Constantine against the detached parties of the Germans, were

magnified by the voice of adulation into splendid and decisive

victories; which the reunion and insolence of the enemy soon

reduced to their just value. His negotiations procured a short

and precarious truce; and if some tribes of the Barbarians were

engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises, to

undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive and uncertain

treaties, instead of restoring the pristine vigor of the Gallic

frontier, served only to disgrace the majesty of the prince, and

to exhaust what yet remained of the treasures of the republic.

Elated, however, with this imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer

of Gaul advanced into the provinces of the South, to encounter a

more pressing and personal danger. Sarus the Goth was ordered to

lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperor Honorius;

and the forces of Britain and Italy were unworthily consumed in

this domestic quarrel. After the loss of his two bravest

generals, Justinian and Nevigastes, the former of whom was slain

in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful but treacherous

interview, Constantine fortified himself within the walls of

Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked seven days; and the

Imperial army supported, in a precipitate retreat, the ignominy

of purchasing a secure passage from the freebooters and outlaws

of the Alps. 97 Those mountains now separated the dominions of

two rival monarchs; and the fortifications of the double frontier

were guarded by the troops of the empire, whose arms would have

been more usefully employed to maintain the Roman limits against

the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia.

94 (return) [ Claudian, (i. Cons. Stil. l. ii. 250.) It is

supposed that the Scots of Ireland invaded, by sea, the whole

western coast of Britain: and some slight credit may be given

even to Nennius and the Irish traditions, (Carte’s Hist. of

England, vol. i. p. 169.) Whitaker’s Genuine History of the

Britons, p. 199. The sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, which were

extant in the ninth century, must have contained as many thousand

lies; yet we may believe, that, in one of these Irish inroads the

future apostle was led away captive, (Usher, Antiquit. Eccles

Britann. p. 431, and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 45 782,

&c.)]

95 (return) [ The British usurpers are taken from Zosimus, (l.

vi. p. 371-375,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576, 577,)

Olympiodorus, (apud Photium, p. 180, 181,) the ecclesiastical

historians, and the Chronicles. The Latins are ignorant of

Marcus.]

96 (return) [ Cum in Constantino inconstantiam... execrarentur,

(Sidonius Apollinaris, l. v. epist. 9, p. 139, edit. secund.

Sirmond.) Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a pun, to

stigmatize a prince who had disgraced his grandfather.]

97 (return) [ Bagaudoe is the name which Zosimus applies to them;

perhaps they deserved a less odious character, (see Dubos, Hist.

Critique, tom. i. p. 203, and this History, vol. i. p. 407.) We

shall hear of them again.]

Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part V.

On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine might be

justified by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon

established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain;

which yielded to the influence of regular and habitual

subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the

Gallic praefecture. The only opposition which was made to the

authority of Constantine proceeded not so much from the powers of

government, or the spirit of the people, as from the private zeal

and interest of the family of Theodosius. Four brothers 98 had

obtained, by the favor of their kinsman, the deceased emperor, an

honorable rank and ample possessions in their native country; and

the grateful youths resolved to risk those advantages in the

service of his son. After an unsuccessful effort to maintain

their ground at the head of the stationary troops of Lusitania,

they retired to their estates; where they armed and levied, at

their own expense, a considerable body of slaves and dependants,

and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenean

Mountains. This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the

sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negotiate

with some troops of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the service of the

Spanish war. They were distinguished by the title of Honorians;

99 a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to

their lawful sovereign; and if it should candidly be allowed that

the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British

prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni could be tempted only by the

profuse liberality of the usurper, who distributed among the

Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honors of Spain. The

nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the

establishment of the Western empire, could not exceed the number

of five thousand men: yet this inconsiderable force was

sufficient to terminate a war, which had threatened the power and

safety of Constantine. The rustic army of the Theodosian family

was surrounded and destroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers

had the good fortune to escape by sea to Italy, or the East; the

other two, after an interval of suspense, were executed at Arles;

and if Honorius could remain insensible of the public disgrace,

he might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes of his

generous kinsmen. Such were the feeble arms which decided the

possession of the Western provinces of Europe, from the wall of

Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war

have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and imperfect view

of the historians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the

causes, and of the effects, of the most important revolutions.

But the total decay of the national strength had annihilated even

the last resource of a despotic government; and the revenue of

exhausted provinces could no longer purchase the military service

of a discontented and pusillanimous people.

98 (return) [ Verinianus, Didymus, Theodosius, and Lagodius, who

in modern courts would be styled princes of the blood, were not

distinguished by any rank or privileges above the rest of their

fellow-subjects.]

99 (return) [ These Honoriani, or Honoriaci, consisted of two

bands of Scots, or Attacotti, two of Moors, two of Marcomanni,

the Victores, the Asca in, and the Gallicani, (Notitia Imperii,

sect. xxxiii. edit. Lab.) They were part of the sixty-five

Auxilia Palatina, and are properly styled by Zosimus, (l. vi.

374.)]

The poet, whose flattery has ascribed to the Roman eagle the

victories of Pollentia and Verona, pursues the hasty retreat of

Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of

imaginary spectres, such as might hover over an army of

Barbarians, which was almost exterminated by war, famine, and

disease. 100 In the course of this unfortunate expedition, the

king of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss;

and his harassed forces required an interval of repose, to

recruit their numbers and revive their confidence. Adversity had

exercised and displayed the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his

valor invited to the Gothic standard the bravest of the Barbarian

warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the

desire of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he

soon accepted the friendship, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the

service of the emperor of the East, Alaric concluded, with the

court of Ravenna, a treaty of peace and alliance, by which he was

declared master-general of the Roman armies throughout the

praefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the

true and ancient limits, by the minister of Honorius. 101 The

execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated,

or implied, in the articles of the treaty, appears to have been

suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the

neutrality of the Gothic king may perhaps be compared to the

indifference of Caesar, who, in the conspiracy of Catiline,

refused either to assist, or to oppose, the enemy of the

republic. After the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his

pretensions to the provinces of the East; appointed civil

magistrates for the administration of justice, and of the

finances; and declared his impatience to lead to the gates of

Constantinople the united armies of the Romans and of the Goths.

The prudence, however, of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war,

and his perfect knowledge of the weakness of the state, may

countenance the suspicion, that domestic peace, rather than

foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and that his

principal care was to employ the forces of Alaric at a distance

from Italy. This design could not long escape the penetration of

the Gothic king, who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a

treacherous, correspondence with the rival courts; who

protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his languid operations

in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon returned to claim the

extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp

near Aemona, 102 on the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the

emperor of the West a long account of promises, of expenses, and

of demands; called for immediate satisfaction, and clearly

intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet if his conduct was

hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed

himself the friend of Stilicho, and the soldier of Honorius;

offered his person and his troops to march, without delay,

against the usurper of Gaul; and solicited, as a permanent

retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant

province of the Western empire.

100 (return) [

Comitatur euntem Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora

Luctus; et inferno stridentes agmine morbi. —-Claudian in vi.

Cons. Hon. 821, &c.]

101 (return) [ These dark transactions are investigated by the

Count de Bual (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vii. c.

iii.—viii. p. 69-206,) whose laborious accuracy may sometimes

fatigue a superficial reader.]

102 (return) [ See Zosimus, l. v. p. 334, 335. He interrupts his

scanty narrative to relate the fable of Aemona, and of the ship

Argo; which was drawn overland from that place to the Adriatic.

Sozomen (l. viii. c. 25, l. ix. c. 4) and Socrates (l. vii. c.

10) cast a pale and doubtful light; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 38,

p. 571) is abominably partial.]

The political and secret transactions of two statesmen, who

labored to deceive each other and the world, must forever have

been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if

the debates of a popular assembly had not thrown some rays of

light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity

of finding some artificial support for a government, which, from

a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to

negotiate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the

authority of the Roman senate; and the minister of Honorius

respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic.

Stilicho assembled the senate in the palace of the Caesars;

represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs;

proposed the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their

consideration the choice of peace or war. The senators, as if

they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred

years, appeared, on this important occasion, to be inspired by

the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors.

They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary

acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome to

purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian

king; and that, in the judgment of a magnanimous people, the

chance of ruin was always preferable to the certainty of

dishonor. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded

only by the voice of a few servile and venal followers, attempted

to allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct,

and even for the demands of the Gothic prince. “The payment of a

subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought

not (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered in the

odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransom, extorted by

the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted

the just pretensions of the republic to the provinces which were

usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople: he modestly required the

fair and stipulated recompense of his services; and if he had

desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed,

in his retreat, the peremptory, though private, letters of the

emperor himself. These contradictory orders (he would not

dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the

intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too

deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of

her adopted father; and the sentiments of nature had too easily

prevailed over the stern dictates of the public welfare.” These

ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues

of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by the authority of

Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm debate, the reluctant

approbation of the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom

subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was

granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of

Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths.

Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the

assembly, still persisted in his dissent; exclaimed, with a loud

voice, “This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude;” 103 and

escaped the danger of such bold opposition by immediately

retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church. [See Palace Of

The Caesars]

103 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. He repeats the words

of Lampadius, as they were spoke in Latin, “Non est ista pax, sed

pactio servi tutis,” and then translates them into Greek for the

benefit of his readers. * Note: From Cicero’s XIIth Philippic,

14.—M.]

But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end; and the proud

minister might perceive the symptoms of his approaching disgrace.

The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the

senate, so patiently resigned to a long servitude, rejected with

disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops,

who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman legions,

were exasperated by the partial affection of Stilicho for the

Barbarians: and the people imputed to the mischievous policy of

the minister the public misfortunes, which were the natural

consequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have

continued to brave the clamors of the people, and even of the

soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over the

feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of

Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion, and hatred. The

crafty Olympius, 104 who concealed his vices under the mask of

Christian piety, had secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose

favor he was promoted to the honorable offices of the Imperial

palace. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor, who had

attained the twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without

weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed

his timid and indolent disposition by a lively picture of the

designs of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his

sovereign, with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the

head of his son Eucherius. The emperor was instigated, by his new

favorite, to assume the tone of independent dignity; and the

minister was astonished to find, that secret resolutions were

formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his

interest, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace

of Rome, Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to

the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the

death of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to visit

Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a

guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius. 105 The

representation of the difficulty and expense of such a distant

expedition, checked this strange and sudden sally of active

diligence; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor to

the camp of Pavia, which was composed of the Roman troops, the

enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained

fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of

his confidant, Justinian, a Roman advocate, of a lively and

penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his

reputation and safety. His strenuous but ineffectual efforts

confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer

withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron.

104 (return) [ He came from the coast of the Euxine, and

exercised a splendid office. His actions justify his character,

which Zosimus (l. v. p. 340) exposes with visible satisfaction.

Augustin revered the piety of Olympius, whom he styles a true son

of the church, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles, Eccles. A.D. 408, No.

19, &c. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.) But

these praises, which the African saint so unworthily bestows,

might proceed as well from ignorance as from adulation.]

105 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 4.

Stilicho offered to undertake the journey to Constantinople, that

he might divert Honorius from the vain attempt. The Eastern

empire would not have obeyed, and could not have been conquered.]

In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, a mutiny of the

guards was excited and appeased by the secret policy of Stilicho;

who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, and

ascribed to his own intercession the merit of their pardon. After

this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minister

whom he now considered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to

the camp of Pavia; where he was received by the loyal

acclamations of the troops who were assembled for the service of

the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced,

as he had been taught, a military oration in the presence of the

soldiers, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of

Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At

the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the

most illustrious officers of the empire; two Prætorian praefects,

of Gaul and of Italy; two masters-general of the cavalry and

infantry; the master of the offices; the quaestor, the treasurer,

and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost; many houses

were plundered; the furious sedition continued to rage till the

close of the evening; and the trembling emperor, who was seen in

the streets of Pavia without his robes or diadem, yielded to the

persuasions of his favorite; condemned the memory of the slain;

and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their

assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the

mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehensions; and he

instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the

confederate leaders, who were attached to his service, and would

be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly

called aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a

moment’s delay, under the banners of a hero, whom they had so

often followed to victory; to surprise, to oppress, to extirpate

the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans; and perhaps to

fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of

executing a resolution, which might have been justified by

success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost. He

was still ignorant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the

fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal

consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians against

the soldiers and people of Italy. The confederates, impatient of

his timorous and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and

indignation. At the hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior,

renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his strength and

valor, suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the

baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who guarded his person,

and penetrated to the tent, where the minister, pensive and

sleepless, meditated on the dangers of his situation. Stilicho

escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths and, after

issuing a last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to

shut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his

despair, urged him to throw himself into Ravenna, which was

already in the absolute possession of his enemies. Olympius, who

had assumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed, that

his rival had embraced, as a suppliant the altar of the Christian

church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was

incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously affected to elude,

rather than to violate, the privilege of the sanctuary. Count

Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of

day, before the gates of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was

satisfied by a solemn oath, that the Imperial mandate only

directed them to secure the person of Stilicho: but as soon as

the unfortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy

threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution.

Stilicho supported, with calm resignation, the injurious names of

traitor and parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his

followers, who were ready to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and,

with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals,

submitted his neck to the sword of Heraclian. 106

106 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 336-345) has copiously, though

not clearly, related the disgrace and death of Stilicho.

Olympiodorus, (apud Phot. p. 177.) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 38, p.

571, 572,) Sozomen, (l. ix. c. 4,) and Philostorgius, (l. xi. c.

3, l. xii. c. 2,) afford supplemental hints.]

The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the

fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and the most

distant connection with the master-general of the West, which had

so lately been a title to wealth and honors, was studiously

denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple

alliance with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition

of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was

intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed

the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister

Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial

bed. 107 The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of

Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius; and

the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession

of a treasonable and sacrilegious conspiracy. They died in

silence: their firmness justified the choice, 108 and perhaps

absolved the innocence of their patron: and the despotic power,

which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatize his

memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial

suffrage of posterity. 109 The services of Stilicho are great and

manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language

of flattery and hatred, are obscure at least, and improbable.

About four months after his death, an edict was published, in the

name of Honorius, to restore the free communication of the two

empires, which had been so long interrupted by the public enemy.

110 The minister, whose fame and fortune depended on the

prosperity of the state, was accused of betraying Italy to the

Barbarians; whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at

Verona, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended design of

placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius, could not

have been conducted without preparations or accomplices; and the

ambitious father would not surely have left the future emperor,

till the twentieth year of his age, in the humble station of

tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho was

arraigned by the malice of his rival. The seasonable, and almost

miraculous, deliverance was devoutly celebrated by the applause

of the clergy; who asserted, that the restoration of idols, and

the persecution of the church, would have been the first measure

of the reign of Eucherius. The son of Stilicho, however, was

educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had

uniformly professed, and zealously supported. 111 1111 Serena had

borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta; 112

and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister,

by whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of Rome, had been

committed to the flames. 113 The pride and power of Stilicho

constituted his real guilt. An honorable reluctance to shed the

blood of his countrymen appears to have contributed to the

success of his unworthy rival; and it is the last humiliation of

the character of Honorius, that posterity has not condescended to

reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his

youth, and the support of his empire.

107 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 333. The marriage of a Christian

with two sisters, scandalizes Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs,

tom. v. p. 557;) who expects, in vain, that Pope Innocent I.

should have done something in the way either of censure or of

dispensation.]

108 (return) [ Two of his friends are honorably mentioned,

(Zosimus, l. v. p. 346:) Peter, chief of the school of notaries,

and the great chamberlain Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the

bed-chamber; and it is surprising that, under a feeble prince,

the bed-chamber was not able to secure him.]

109 (return) [ Orosius (l. vii. c. 38, p. 571, 572) seems to copy

the false and furious manifestos, which were dispersed through

the provinces by the new administration.]

110 (return) [ See the Theodosian code, l. vii. tit. xvi. leg. 1,

l. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 22. Stilicho is branded with the name of

proedo publicus, who employed his wealth, ad omnem ditandam,

inquietandamque Barbariem.]

111 (return) [ Augustin himself is satisfied with the effectual

laws, which Stilicho had enacted against heretics and idolaters;

and which are still extant in the Code. He only applies to

Olympius for their confirmation, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D.

408, No. 19.)]

112 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad

taste of the age, in dressing their statues with such awkward

finery.]

113 (return) [ See Rutilius Numatianus, (Itinerar. l. ii. 41-60,)

to whom religious enthusiasm has dictated some elegant and

forcible lines. Stilicho likewise stripped the gold plates from

the doors of the Capitol, and read a prophetic sentence which was

engraven under them, (Zosimus, l. v. p. 352.) These are foolish

stories: yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the

praise which Zosimus reluctantly bestows on his virtues. Note:

One particular in the extorted praise of Zosimus, deserved the

notice of the historian, as strongly opposed to the former

imputations of Zosimus himself, and indicative of he corrupt

practices of a declining age. “He had never bartered promotion in

the army for bribes, nor peculated in the supplies of provisions

for the army.” l. v. c. xxxiv.—M.]

1111 (return) [ Hence, perhaps, the accusation of treachery is

countenanced by Hatilius:—

Quo magis est facinus diri Stilichonis iniquum Proditor arcani

quod fuit imperii. Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes,

Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor. Dumque timet, quicquid se

fecerat ipso timeri, Immisit Latiae barbara tela neci. Rutil.

Itin. II. 41.—M.] Among the train of dependants whose wealth and

dignity attracted the notice of their own times, our curiosity is

excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed

the favor of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his

patron.]

Among the train of dependants whose wealth and dignity attracted

the notice of their own times, _our_ curiosity is excited by the

celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favor of

Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The

titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the

Imperial court: he was indebted to the powerful intercession of

Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the province

of Africa; 114 and the statute of Claudian, erected in the forum

of Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the

Roman senate. 115 After the praises of Stilicho became offensive

and criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful

and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence

of wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite

characters of two Prætorian praefects of Italy; he contrasts the

innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes resigned the

hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with the

interesting diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in

the pursuit of unjust or sacrilegious, gain. “How happy,”

continues Claudian, “how happy might it be for the people of

Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would

always sleep!” 116 The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by

this friendly and gentle admonition; but the cruel vigilance of

Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained,

from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an

obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the

tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dictates of

prudence rather than of honor, he addressed, in the form of an

epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended

praefect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal

indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly;

submits to the imitation of his adversary the generous examples

of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses

his hope that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a

defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and

poverty, and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the

death of his dearest friends. 117 Whatever might be the success

of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of

a few years levelled in the grave the minister and the poet: but

the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is

read with pleasure in every country which has retained, or

acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly

balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge that

Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. It

would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet

of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse that melts the heart or

enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of

Claudian, the happy invention, and artificial conduct, of an

interesting fable; or the just and lively representation of the

characters and situations of real life. For the service of his

patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives: and

the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his

propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These

imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the

poetical virtues of Claudian. He was endowed with the rare and

precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most

barren, and of diversifying the most similar, topics: his

coloring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and

splendid; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the

advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious fancy, an

easy, and sometimes forcible, expression; and a perpetual flow of

harmonious versification. To these commendations, independent of

any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit

which Claudian derived from the unfavorable circumstances of his

birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a native of Egypt,

118 who had received the education of a Greek, assumed, in a

mature age, the familiar use, and absolute command, of the Latin

language; 119 soared above the heads of his feeble

contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three

hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome. 120

114 (return) [ At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!)

all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts;

and the gods themselves enriched their favorite. Claudian had

neither flocks, nor herds, nor vines, nor olives. His wealthy

bride was heiress to them all. But he carried to Africa a

recommendatory letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy,

(Epist. ii. ad Serenam.)]

115 (return) [ Claudian feels the honor like a man who deserved

it, (in praefat Bell. Get.) The original inscription, on marble,

was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of

Pomponius Laetus. The statue of a poet, far superior to Claudian,

should have been erected, during his lifetime, by the men of

letters, his countrymen and contemporaries. It was a noble

design.]

116 (return) [ See Epigram xxx.

Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque: Insomnis Pharius sacra,

profana, rapit. Omnibus, hoc, Italae gentes, exposcite votis;

Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius.

Hadrian was a Pharian, (of Alexandrian.) See his public life in

Godefroy, Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 364. Mallius did not always

sleep. He composed some elegant dialogues on the Greek systems of

natural philosophy, (Claud, in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61-112.)]

117 (return) [ See Claudian’s first Epistle. Yet, in some places,

an air of irony and indignation betrays his secret reluctance. *

Note: M. Beugnot has pointed out one remarkable characteristic of

Claudian’s poetry, and of the times—his extraordinary religious

indifference. Here is a poet writing at the actual crisis of the

complete triumph of the new religion, the visible extinction of

the old: if we may so speak, a strictly historical poet, whose

works, excepting his Mythological poem on the rape of Proserpine,

are confined to temporary subjects, and to the politics of his

own eventful day; yet, excepting in one or two small and

indifferent pieces, manifestly written by a Christian, and

interpolated among his poems, there is no allusion whatever to

the great religious strife. No one would know the existence of

Christianity at that period of the world, by reading the works of

Claudian. His panegyric and his satire preserve the same

religious impartiality; award their most lavish praise or their

bitterest invective on Christian or Pagan; he insults the fall of

Eugenius, and glories in the victories of Theodosius. Under the

child,—and Honorius never became more than a child,—Christianity

continued to inflict wounds more and more deadly on expiring

Paganism. Are the gods of Olympus agitated with apprehension at

the birth of this new enemy? They are introduced as rejoicing at

his appearance, and promising long years of glory. The whole

prophetic choir of Paganism, all the oracles throughout the

world, are summoned to predict the felicity of his reign. His

birth is compared to that of Apollo, but the narrow limits of an

island must not confine the new deity—

... Non littora nostro Sufficerent angusta Deo.

Augury and divination, the shrines of Ammon, and of Delphi, the

Persian Magi, and the Etruscan seers, the Chaldean astrologers,

the Sibyl herself, are described as still discharging their

prophetic functions, and celebrating the natal day of this

Christian prince. They are noble lines, as well as curious

illustrations of the times:

... Quae tunc documenta futuri? Quae voces avium? quanti per inane

volatus? Quis vatum discursus erat? Tibi corniger Ammon, Et dudum

taciti rupere silentia Delphi. Te Persae cecinere Magi, te sensit

Etruscus Augur, et inspectis Babylonius horruit astris; Chaldaei

stupuere senes, Cumanaque rursus Itonuit rupes, rabidae delubra

Sibyllae. —Claud. iv. Cons. Hon. 141.

From the Quarterly Review of Beugnot. Hist. de la Paganisme en

Occident, Q. R. v. lvii. p. 61.—M.]

118 (return) [ National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a

Spaniard. But the first Epistle of Claudian proves him a native

of Alexandria, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191-202,

edit. Ernest.)]

119 (return) [ His first Latin verses were composed during the

consulship of Probinus, A.D. 395.

Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, Et Latiae cessit

Graia Thalia togae.

Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin

poet had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus,

Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, &c. It is more easy to supply the loss

of good poetry, than of authentic history.]

120 (return) [ Strada (Prolusion v. vi.) allows him to contend

with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and

Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar

Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the

rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds, or flowers, which spring

too luxuriantly in his Latian soil]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

Barbarians.—Part I.

Invasion Of Italy By Alaric.—Manners Of The Roman Senate And

People.—Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And At Length Pillaged, By The

Goths.—Death Of Alaric.—The Goths Evacuate Italy.—Fall Of

Constantine.—Gaul And Spain Are Occupied By The Barbarians.

—Independence Of Britain.

The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often

assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable

correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been

introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have

advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the

ministers of Honorius. 1 The king of the Goths would have

conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to destroy the

formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy, as well as in

Greece, he had been twice overthrown. Their active and interested

hatred laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the

great Stilicho. The valor of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his

personal, or hereditary, influence over the confederate

Barbarians, could recommend him only to the friends of their

country, who despised, or detested, the worthless characters of

Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of

the new favorites, these generals, unworthy as they had shown

themselves of the names of soldiers, 2 were promoted to the

command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic

troops. The Gothic prince would have subscribed with pleasure the

edict which the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and

devout emperor. Honorius excluded all persons, who were adverse

to the Catholic church, from holding any office in the state;

obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from

his religion; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and

most skilful officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who

had imbibed the opinions of Arianism. 3 These measures, so

advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and might

perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful, whether the

Barbarian would have promoted his interest at the expense of the

inhuman and absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the

direction, or at least with the connivance of the Imperial

ministers. The foreign auxiliaries, who had been attached to the

person of Stilicho, lamented his death; but the desire of revenge

was checked by a natural apprehension for the safety of their

wives and children; who were detained as hostages in the strong

cities of Italy, where they had likewise deposited their most

valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a common signal,

the cities of Italy were polluted by the same horrid scenes of

universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous

destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians.

Exasperated by such an injury, which might have awakened the

tamest and most servile spirit, they cast a look of indignation

and hope towards the camp of Alaric, and unanimously swore to

pursue, with just and implacable war, the perfidious nation who

had so basely violated the laws of hospitality. By the imprudent

conduct of the ministers of Honorius, the republic lost the

assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her

bravest soldiers; and the weight of that formidable army, which

alone might have determined the event of the war, was transferred

from the scale of the Romans into that of the Goths.

1 (return) [ The series of events, from the death of Stilicho to

the arrival of Alaric before Rome, can only be found in Zosimus,

l. v. p. 347-350.]

2 (return) [ The expression of Zosimus is strong and lively,

sufficient to excite the contempt of the enemy.]

3 (return) [ Eos qui catholicae sectae sunt inimici, intra

palatium militare pro hibemus. Nullus nobis sit aliqua ratione

conjunctus, qui a nobis fidest religione discordat. Cod. Theodos.

l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 42, and Godefroy’s Commentary, tom. vi. p.

164. This law was applied in the utmost latitude, and rigorously

executed. Zosimus, l. v. p. 364.]

In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the

Gothic king maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy,

whose seeming changes proceeded from the total want of counsel

and design. From his camp, on the confines of Italy, Alaric

attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the

progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect

of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appearance

of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho: to whose virtues,

when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute

of sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the

malecontents, who urged the king of the Goths to invade Italy,

was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he

might especially complain, that the Imperial ministers still

delayed and eluded the payment of the four thousand pounds of

gold which had been granted by the Roman senate, either to reward

his services, or to appease his fury. His decent firmness was

supported by an artful moderation, which contributed to the

success of his designs. He required a fair and reasonable

satisfaction; but he gave the strongest assurances, that, as soon

as he had obtained it, he would immediately retire. He refused to

trust the faith of the Romans, unless Ætius and Jason, the sons

of two great officers of state, were sent as hostages to his

camp; but he offered to deliver, in exchange, several of the

noblest youths of the Gothic nation. The modesty of Alaric was

interpreted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of

his weakness and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a

treaty, or to assemble an army; and with a rash confidence,

derived only from their ignorance of the extreme danger,

irretrievably wasted the decisive moments of peace and war. While

they expected, in sullen silence, that the Barbarians would

evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid

marches, passed the Alps and the Po; hastily pillaged the cities

of Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to

his arms; increased his forces by the accession of thirty

thousand auxiliaries; and, without meeting a single enemy in the

field, advanced as far as the edge of the morass which protected

the impregnable residence of the emperor of the West. Instead of

attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of

the Goths proceeded to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the

sea-coast of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the

ancient mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and

sanctity were respected by the Barbarians themselves, encountered

the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of

Heaven against the oppressors of the earth; but the saint himself

was confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt

a secret and praeternatural impulse, which directed, and even

compelled, his march to the gates of Rome. He felt, that his

genius and his fortune were equal to the most arduous

enterprises; and the enthusiasm which he communicated to the

Goths, insensibly removed the popular, and almost superstitious,

reverence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman name. His

troops, animated by the hopes of spoil, followed the course of

the Flaminian way, occupied the unguarded passes of the Apennine,

4 descended into the rich plains of Umbria; and, as they lay

encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter

and devour the milk-white oxen, which had been so long reserved

for the use of Roman triumphs. A lofty situation, and a

seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little

city of Narni; but the king of the Goths, despising the ignoble

prey, still advanced with unabated vigor; and after he had passed

through the stately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric

victories, he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome. 6

4 (return) [ Addison (see his Works, vol. ii. p. 54, edit.

Baskerville) has given a very picturesque description of the road

through the Apennine. The Goths were not at leisure to observe

the beauties of the prospect; but they were pleased to find that

the Saxa Intercisa, a narrow passage which Vespasian had cut

through the rock, (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 168,) was

totally neglected.

Hine albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus Victima, saepe tuo

perfusi flumine sacro, Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos.

—Georg. ii. 147.

Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan,

Silius Italicus, Claudian, &c., whose passages may be found in

Cluverius and Addison, have celebrated the triumphal victims of

the Clitumnus.]

6 (return) [ Some ideas of the march of Alaric are borrowed from

the journey of Honorius over the same ground. (See Claudian in

vi. Cons. Hon. 494-522.) The measured distance between Ravenna

and Rome was 254 Roman miles. Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 126.]

During a period of six hundred and nineteen years, the seat of

empire had never been violated by the presence of a foreign

enemy. The unsuccessful expedition of Hannibal 7 served only to

display the character of the senate and people; of a senate

degraded, rather than ennobled, by the comparison of an assembly

of kings; and of a people, to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus

ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra. 8 Each of the

senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplished his term

of the military service, either in a subordinate or a superior

station; and the decree, which invested with temporary command

all those who had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave

the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and

experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman

people consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an

age to bear arms. 9 Fifty thousand had already died in the

defence of their country; and the twenty-three legions which were

employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia,

Sicily, and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But

there still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent

territory, who were animated by the same intrepid courage; and

every citizen was trained, from his earliest youth, in the

discipline and exercises of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by

the constancy of the senate, who, without raising the siege of

Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected his

approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance

of three miles from the city; and he was soon informed, that the

ground on which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate

price at a public auction; 911 and that a body of troops was

dismissed by an opposite road, to reenforce the legions of Spain.

10 He led his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found three

armies in order of battle, prepared to receive him; but Hannibal

dreaded the event of a combat, from which he could not hope to

escape, unless he destroyed the last of his enemies; and his

speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans.

7 (return) [ The march and retreat of Hannibal are described by

Livy, l. xxvi. c. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; and the reader is made a

spectator of the interesting scene.]

8 (return) [ These comparisons were used by Cyneas, the

counsellor of Pyrrhus, after his return from his embassy, in

which he had diligently studied the discipline and manners of

Rome. See Plutarch in Pyrrho. tom. ii. p. 459.]

9 (return) [ In the three census which were made of the Roman

people, about the time of the second Punic war, the numbers stand

as follows, (see Livy, Epitom. l. xx. Hist. l. xxvii. 36. xxix.

37:) 270,213, 137,108 214,000. The fall of the second, and the

rise of the third, appears so enormous, that several critics,

notwithstanding the unanimity of the Mss., have suspected some

corruption of the text of Livy. (See Drakenborch ad xxvii. 36,

and Beaufort, Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 325.) They did not

consider that the second census was taken only at Rome, and that

the numbers were diminished, not only by the death, but likewise

by the absence, of many soldiers. In the third census, Livy

expressly affirms, that the legions were mustered by the care of

particular commissaries. From the numbers on the list we must

always deduct one twelfth above threescore, and incapable of

bearing arms. See Population de la France, p. 72.]

911 (return) [ Compare the remarkable transaction in Jeremiah

xxxii. 6, to 44, where the prophet purchases his uncle’s estate

at the approach of the Babylonian captivity, in his undoubting

confidence in the future restoration of the people. In the one

case it is the triumph of religious faith, in the other of

national pride.—M.]

10 (return) [ Livy considers these two incidents as the effects

only of chance and courage. I suspect that they were both managed

by the admirable policy of the senate.]

From the time of the Punic war, the uninterrupted succession of

senators had preserved the name and image of the republic; and

the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their

descent from the heroes who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal,

and subdued the nations of the earth. The temporal honors which

the devout Paula 11 inherited and despised, are carefully

recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her conscience, and the

historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus,

which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a

Grecian origin; but her mother, Blaesilla, numbered the Scipios,

Aemilius Paulus, and the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors;

and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage

from Aeneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the

rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by these lofty

pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they

easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar; and were

countenanced, in some measure, by the custom of adopting the name

of their patron, which had always prevailed among the freedmen

and clients of illustrious families. Most of those families,

however, attacked by so many causes of external violence or

internal decay, were gradually extirpated; and it would be more

reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty generations,

among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful solitude of

Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune, of

danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each successive

reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy

adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or their vices,

usurped the wealth, the honors, and the palaces of Rome; and

oppressed, or protected, the poor and humble remains of consular

families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of their

ancestors. 12

11 (return) [ See Jerom, tom. i. p. 169, 170, ad Eustochium; he

bestows on Paula the splendid titles of Gracchorum stirps,

soboles Scipionum, Pauli haeres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiae

Papyriae Matris Africani vera et germana propago. This particular

description supposes a more solid title than the surname of

Julius, which Toxotius shared with a thousand families of the

western provinces. See the Index of Tacitus, of Gruter’s

Inscriptions, &c.]

12 (return) [ Tacitus (Annal. iii. 55) affirms, that between the

battle of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the senate was

gradually filled with new families from the Municipia and

colonies of Italy.]

In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously

yielded the preeminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of

their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of

the noble families, which contended only for the second place. 13

During the five first ages of the city, the name of the Anicians

was unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from

Praeneste; and the ambition of those new citizens was long

satisfied with the Plebeian honors of tribunes of the people. 14

One hundred and sixty-eight years before the Christian era, the

family was ennobled by the Prætorship of Anicius, who gloriously

terminated the Illyrian war, by the conquest of the nation, and

the captivity of their king. 15 From the triumph of that general,

three consulships, in distant periods, mark the succession of the

Anician name. 16 From the reign of Diocletian to the final

extinction of the Western empire, that name shone with a lustre

which was not eclipsed, in the public estimation, by the majesty

of the Imperial purple. 17 The several branches, to whom it was

communicated, united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and

titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and

in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an

hereditary claim. 18 The Anician family excelled in faith and in

riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced

Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was

afterwards consul and praefect of the city, atoned for his

attachment to the party of Maxentius, by the readiness with which

he accepted the religion of Constantine. 19 Their ample patrimony

was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician

family; who shared with Gratian the honors of the consulship, and

exercised, four times, the high office of Prætorian praefect. 20

His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the

Roman world; and though the public might suspect or disapprove

the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and

magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude

of his clients, and the admiration of strangers. 21 Such was the

respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus,

in their earliest youth, and at the request of the senate, were

associated in the consular dignity; a memorable distinction,

without example, in the annals of Rome. 22

13 (return) [

Nec quisquam Procerum tentet (licet aere vetusto Floreat, et claro

cingatur Roma senatu) Se jactare parem; sed prima sede relicta

Aucheniis, de jure licet certare secundo. —-Claud. in Prob. et

Olybrii Coss. 18.

Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has

amazed the critics; but they all agree, that whatever may be the

true reading, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the

Anician family.]

14 (return) [ The earliest date in the annals of Pighius, is that

of M. Anicius Gallus. Trib. Pl. A. U. C. 506. Another tribune, Q.

Anicius, A. U. C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet of

Praenestinus. Livy (xlv. 43) places the Anicii below the great

families of Rome.]

15 (return) [ Livy, xliv. 30, 31, xlv. 3, 26, 43. He fairly

appreciates the merit of Anicius, and justly observes, that his

fame was clouded by the superior lustre of the Macedonian, which

preceded the Illyrian triumph.]

16 (return) [ The dates of the three consulships are, A. U. C.

593, 818, 967 the two last under the reigns of Nero and

Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only

by his infamous flattery, (Tacit. Annal. xv. 74;) but even the

evidence of crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and

antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance, to prove the

genealogy of a noble house.]

17 (return) [ In the sixth century, the nobility of the Anician

name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. l. x. Ep. 10, 12) with

singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of Italy.]

18 (return) [

Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras Hac de

stirpe virum, certum est de Consule nasci. Per fasces numerantur

Avi, semperque renata Nobilitate virent, et prolem fata sequuntur.

(Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose

name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with

many consulships, from the time of Vespasian to the fourth

century.]

19 (return) [ The title of first Christian senator may be

justified by the authority of Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 553) and

the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont,

Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 183, v. p. 44. Baron. Annal.

A.D. 312, No. 78, A.D. 322, No. 2.]

20 (return) [ Probus... claritudine generis et potentia et opum

magnitudine, cognitus Orbi Romano, per quem universum poene

patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est

nostri. Ammian Marcellin. xxvii. 11. His children and widow

erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was

demolished in the time of Pope Nicholas V. to make room for the

new church of St. Peter Baronius, who laments the ruin of this

Christian monument, has diligently preserved the inscriptions and

basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A.D. 395, No. 5-17.]

21 (return) [ Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome, to

hear St. Ambrose, and to see Probus, (Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.)

Claudian (in Cons. Probin. et Olybr. 30-60) seems at a loss how

to express the glory of Probus.]

22 (return) [ See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two

noble youths.]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

Barbarians.—Part II.

“The marbles of the Anician palace,” were used as a proverbial

expression of opulence and splendor; 23 but the nobles and

senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that

illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which

was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven

hundred and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honorable

citizens. 24 Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse

the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a multitude of

palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city: since it

included within its own precincts every thing which could be

subservient either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes,

temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial

aviaries. 25 The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state

of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths, 26 continues to

observe, that several of the richest senators received from their

estates an annual income of four thousand pounds of gold, above

one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without computing

the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold,

might have equalled in value one third of the money. Compared to

this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or

fifteen hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more

than adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank, which

required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several

examples are recorded, in the age of Honorius, of vain and

popular nobles, who celebrated the year of their praetorship by a

festival, which lasted seven days, and cost above one hundred

thousand pounds sterling. 27 The estates of the Roman senators,

which so far exceeded the proportion of modern wealth, were not

confined to the limits of Italy. Their possessions extended far

beyond the Ionian and Aegean Seas, to the most distant provinces:

the city of Nicopolis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal

monument of the Actian victory, was the property of the devout

Paula; 28 and it is observed by Seneca, that the rivers, which

had divided hostile nations, now flowed through the lands of

private citizens. 29 According to their temper and circumstances,

the estates of the Romans were either cultivated by the labor of

their slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to

the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity

strenuously recommend the former method, wherever it may be

practicable; but if the object should be removed, by its distance

or magnitude, from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer

the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the

soil, and interested in the produce, to the mercenary

administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, steward. 30

23 (return) [ Secundinus, the Manichaean, ap. Baron. Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 390, No. 34.]

24 (return) [ See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89, 498, 500.]

25 (return) [

Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia sylvas; Vernula queis vario

carmine ludit avis.

Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the

time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate palace would have covered

Cincinnatus’s farm of four acres (Val. Max. iv. 4.) In laxitatem

ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a judicious note of

Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. i. p. 562, last 8vo edition.]

26 (return) [ This curious account of Rome, in the reign of

Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus,

ap. Photium, p. 197.]

27 (return) [ The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus,

spent, during their respective praetorships, twelve, or twenty,

or forty, centenaries, (or hundred weight of gold.) See

Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. This popular estimation allows some

latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian

Code, (l. vi. leg. 5,) which fixes the expense of the first

praetor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000, and of the third at

15,000 folles. The name of follis (see Mem. de l’Academie des

Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 727) was equally applied to a purse

of 125 pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the value

of 1/2625 part of that purse. In the former sense, the 25,000

folles would be equal to 150,000 L.; in the latter, to five or

six ponuds sterling The one appears extravagant, the other is

ridiculous. There must have existed some third and middle value,

which is here understood; but ambiguity is an excusable fault in

the language of laws.]

28 (return) [ Nicopolis...... in Actiaco littore sita

possessioris vestra nunc pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in Praefat.

Comment. ad Epistol. ad Titum, tom. ix. p. 243. M. D. Tillemont

supposes, strangely enough, that it was part of Agamemnon’s

inheritance. Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 85.]

29 (return) [ Seneca, Epist. lxxxix. His language is of the

declamatory kind: but declamation could scarcely exaggerate the

avarice and luxury of the Romans. The philosopher himself

deserved some share of the reproach, if it be true that his

rigorous exaction of Quadringenties, above three hundred thousand

pounds which he had lent at high interest, provoked a rebellion

in Britain, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii. p. 1003.) According to the

conjecture of Gale (Antoninus’s Itinerary in Britain, p. 92,) the

same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk and

another in the kingdom of Naples.]

30 (return) [ Volusius, a wealthy senator, (Tacit. Annal. iii.

30,) always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who

received this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the

subject. De Re Rustica, l. i. c. 7, p. 408, edit. Gesner.

Leipsig, 1735.]

The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited

by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the

occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure

to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome, commerce

was always held in contempt: but the senators, from the first age

of the republic, increased their patrimony, and multiplied their

clients, by the lucrative practice of usury; and the obselete

laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual inclinations and

interest of both parties. 31 A considerable mass of treasure must

always have existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the

empire, or in the form of gold and silver plate; and there were

many sideboards in the time of Pliny which contained more solid

silver, than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished

Carthage. 32 The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their

fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of

wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their

desires were continually gratified by the labor of a thousand

hands; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were

actuated by the fear of punishment; and of the various

professions of artificers and merchants, who were more powerfully

impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of

many of the conveniences of life, which have been invented or

improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and

linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of

Europe, than the senators of Rome could derive from all the

refinements of pompous or sensual luxury. 33 Their luxury, and

their manners, have been the subject of minute and laborious

disposition: but as such inquiries would divert me too long from

the design of the present work, I shall produce an authentic

state of Rome and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly

applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion. Ammianus

Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the

residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has

mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation

of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant. The

judicious reader will not always approve of the asperity of

censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression;

he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices, and personal

resentments, which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he

will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting

and original picture of the manners of Rome. 34

31 (return) [ Valesius (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) has proved, from

Chrysostom and Augustin, that the senators were not allowed to

lend money at usury. Yet it appears from the Theodosian Code,

(see Godefroy ad l. ii. tit. xxxiii. tom. i. p. 230-289,) that

they were permitted to take six percent., or one half of the

legal interest; and, what is more singular, this permission was

granted to the young senators.]

32 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 50. He states the silver

at only 4380 pounds, which is increased by Livy (xxx. 45) to

100,023: the former seems too little for an opulent city, the

latter too much for any private sideboard.]

33 (return) [ The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c.

p. 153) has observed with humor, and I believe with truth, that

Augustus had neither glass to his windows, nor a shirt to his

back. Under the lower empire, the use of linen and glass became

somewhat more common. * Note: The discovery of glass in such

common use at Pompeii, spoils the argument of Arbuthnot. See Sir

W. Gell. Pompeiana, 2d ser. p. 98.—M.]

34 (return) [ It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties

which I have taken with the text of Ammianus. 1. I have melted

down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the

fourth of the twenty-eighth book. 2. I have given order and

connection to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have softened

some extravagant hyperbeles, and pared away some superfluities of

the original. 4. I have developed some observations which were

insinuated rather than expressed. With these allowances, my

version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful and

exact.]

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 32 / 79 章

The eloquence of Claudian 49 has celebrated, with lavish