35 (return) [ The scepticism of the count de Buat (Hist. des

Peuples, tom. vii. p. 539, 540) cannot be reconciled with any

principles of reason or criticism. Is not Gregory of Tours

precise and positive in his account of the destruction of Metz?

At the distance of no more than a hundred years, could he be

ignorant, could the people be ignorant of the fate of a city, the

actual residence of his sovereigns, the kings of Austrasia? The

learned count, who seems to have undertaken the apology of Attila

and the Barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, parcens

Germaniae et Galliae, and forgets that the true Idatius had

explicitly affirmed, plurimae civitates effractoe, among which he

enumerates Metz.]

The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of

Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy, as well as to the

terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully

mitigated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and

threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna

and Thoulouse, mutually suspicious of each other’s intentions,

beheld, with supine indifference, the approach of their common

enemy. Ætius was the sole guardian of the public safety; but his

wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction, which, since the

death of Placidia, infested the Imperial palace: the youth of

Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the Barbarians,

who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the cause of

Attila, awaited with doubtful and venal faith, the event of the

war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some troops,

whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name of an army.

36 But on his arrival at Arles, or Lyons, he was confounded by

the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the

defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own

territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to

despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of

the Prætorian praefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne,

was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he executed

with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric, that an

ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the earth,

could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance of the

powers whom he labored to oppress. The lively eloquence of Avitus

inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the description of the injuries

which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns; whose

implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the foot of

the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of every

Christian to save, from sacrilegious violation, the churches of

God, and the relics of the saints: that it was the interest of

every Barbarian, who had acquired a settlement in Gaul, to defend

the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated for his use,

against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric

yielded to the evidence of truth; adopted the measure at once the

most prudent and the most honorable; and declared, that, as the

faithful ally of Ætius and the Romans, he was ready to expose his

life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul. 37 The Visigoths,

who, at that time, were in the mature vigor of their fame and

power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war; prepared their

arms and horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged

king, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and

Theodoric, to command in person his numerous and valiant people.

The example of the Goths determined several tribes or nations,

that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans. The

indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the

troops of Gaul and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged

themselves the subjects, or soldiers, of the republic, but who

now claimed the rewards of voluntary service, and the rank of

independent allies; the Læti, the Armoricans, the Breones, the

Saxons, the Burgundians, the Sarmatians, or Alani, the

Ripuarians, and the Franks who followed Meroveus as their lawful

prince. Such was the various army, which, under the conduct of

Ætius and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches to relieve

Orleans, and to give battle to the innumerable host of Attila. 38

36 (return) [

Vix liquerat Alpes Ætius, tenue, et rarum sine milite ducens

Robur, in auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen Incassum propriis

praesumens adfore castris. —-Panegyr. Avit. 328, &c.]

37 (return) [ The policy of Attila, of Ætius, and of the

Visigoths, is imperfectly described in the Panegyric of Avitus,

and the thirty-sixth chapter of Jornandes. The poet and the

historian were both biased by personal or national prejudices.

The former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus; orbis,

Avite, salus, &c.! The latter is anxious to show the Goths in the

most favorable light. Yet their agreement when they are fairly

interpreted, is a proof of their veracity.]

38 (return) [ The review of the army of Ætius is made by

Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23, of the

Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine editor.

The Loeti were a promiscuous race of Barbarians, born or

naturalized in Gaul; and the Riparii, or Ripuarii, derived their

name from their post on the three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse,

and the Moselle; the Armoricans possessed the independent cities

between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of Saxons had been

planted in the diocese of Bayeux; the Burgundians were settled in

Savoy; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhaetians, to the

east of the Lake of Constance.]

On their approach the king of the Huns immediately raised the

siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his troops

from the pillage of a city which they had already entered. 39 The

valor of Attila was always guided by his prudence; and as he

foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul,

he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains of

Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the

operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary

retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually

pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had posted

in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night

and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other

without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and

Gepidae, in which fifteen thousand 40 Barbarians were slain, was

a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian

fields 41 spread themselves round Chalons, and extend, according

to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one

hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred miles, over the

whole province, which is entitled to the appellation of a

champaign country. 42 This spacious plain was distinguished,

however, by some inequalities of ground; and the importance of a

height, which commanded the camp of Attila, was understood and

disputed by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond

first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible

weight on the Huns, who labored to ascend from the opposite side:

and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the

troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The

anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and

haruspices. It was reported, that, after scrutinizing the

entrails of victims, and scraping their bones, they revealed, in

mysterious language, his own defeat, with the death of his

principal adversary; and that the Barbarians, by accepting the

equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the superior

merit of Ætius. But the unusual despondency, which seemed to

prevail among the Huns, engaged Attila to use the expedient, so

familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by

a military oration; and his language was that of a king, who had

often fought and conquered at their head. 43 He pressed them to

consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future

hopes. The same fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of

Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so many warlike

nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this

memorable field for the consummation of their victories. The

cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alliance, and their

advantageous posts, he artfully represented as the effects, not

of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength

and nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns might securely

trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close and compact order

betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of

supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle. The

doctrine of predestination, so favorable to martial virtue, was

carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his

subjects, that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and

invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring

Fates would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious

peace. “I myself,” continued Attila, “will throw the first

javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his

sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death.” The spirit of the

Barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the

example of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their

impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head

of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in person the centre

of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the

Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were

extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian

fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the

Gepidae; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over the

Ostrogoths, were posted on the left to oppose the kindred tribes

of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was regulated by

a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king of the Alani,

was placed in the centre, where his motions might be strictly

watched, and that the treachery might be instantly punished.

Ætius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric of the right

wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which

appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of

the Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic

were assembled on the plain of Chalons; but many of these nations

had been divided by faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the

appearance of similar arms and ensigns, which threatened each

other, presented the image of a civil war.

39 (return) [ Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio,

nec direptio, l. v. Sidon. Apollin. l. viii. Epist. 15, p. 246.

The preservation of Orleans might easily be turned into a

miracle, obtained and foretold by the holy bishop.]

40 (return) [ The common editions read xcm but there is some

authority of manuscripts (and almost any authority is sufficient)

for the more reasonable number of xvm.]

41 (return) [ Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni,

had formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims from whence

it is distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales, Notit. Gall. p.

136. D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 212, 279.]

42 (return) [ The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently

mentioned by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which

Rheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales.

Notit. p. 120-123.]

43 (return) [ I am sensible that these military orations are

usually composed by the historian; yet the old Ostrogoths, who

had served under Attila, might repeat his discourse to

Cassiodorus; the ideas, and even the expressions, have an

original Scythian cast; and I doubt, whether an Italian of the

sixth century would have thought of the hujus certaminis gaudia.]

The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an

interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study

of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic,

when they are described by the same genius which conceived and

executed them, may tend to improve (if such improvement can be

wished) the art of destroying the human species. But the battle

of Chalons can only excite our curiosity by the magnitude of the

object; since it was decided by the blind impetuosity of

Barbarians, and has been related by partial writers, whose civil

or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the knowledge of

military affairs. Cassiolorus, however, had familiarly conversed

with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable

engagement; “a conflict,” as they informed him, “fierce, various,

obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in

the present or in past ages.” The number of the slain amounted to

one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another

account, three hundred thousand persons; 44 and these incredible

exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to

justify the historian’s remark, that whole generations may be

swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single

hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons,

in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their superior

dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were

furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under

the eyes of their king pierced through the feeble and doubtful

centre of the allies, separated their wings from each other, and

wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole

force against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks,

to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke from the

javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from

his horse. The wounded king was oppressed in the general

disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry; and

this important death served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of

the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of

victory, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and

verified the remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had

been thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the

Alani, gradually restored their order of battle; and the Huns

were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to

retreat. He had exposed his person with the rashness of a private

soldier; but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed

forwards beyond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly

supported; their flanks were unguarded; and the conquerors of

Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from

a total defeat. They retired within the circle of wagons that

fortified their camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared

themselves for a defence, to which neither their arms, nor their

temper, were adapted. The event was doubtful: but Attila had

secured a last and honorable resource. The saddles and rich

furniture of the cavalry were collected, by his order, into a

funeral pile; and the magnanimous Barbarian had resolved, if his

intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the flames,

and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they might have

acquired, by the death or captivity of Attila. 45

44 (return) [ The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of

Cassiodorus, are extremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex,

immane, pertinax, cui simile nulla usquam narrat antiquitas: ubi

talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil esset quod in vita sua

conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus miraculi privaretur

aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392, 393) attempts to

reconcile the 162,000 of Jornandes with the 300,000 of Idatius

and Isidore, by supposing that the larger number included the

total destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the

slaughter of the unarmed people, &c.]

45 (return) [ The count de Buat, (Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom.

vii. p. 554-573,) still depending on the false, and again

rejecting the true, Idatius, has divided the defeat of Attila

into two great battles; the former near Orleans, the latter in

Champagne: in the one, Theodoric was slain in the other, he was

revenged.]

But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and

anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to

urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few

followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons. In the confusion

of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the

Gothic prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful

strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not

rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner,

but on the left of the line, Ætius himself, separated from his

allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious for their fate,

encountered and escaped the hostile troops that were scattered

over the plains of Chalons; and at length reached the camp of the

Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight rampart of

shields, till the dawn of day. The Imperial general was soon

satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained inactive

within his intrenchments; and when he contemplated the bloody

scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had

principally fallen on the Barbarians. The body of Theodoric,

pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the

slain: his subjects bewailed the death of their king and father;

but their tears were mingled with songs and acclamations, and his

funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy.

The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his eldest

son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their

success; and the new king accepted the obligation of revenge as a

sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths

themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of

their formidable antagonist; and their historian has compared

Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his

hunters with redoubled fury. The kings and nations who might have

deserted his standard in the hour of distress, were made sensible

that the displeasure of their monarch was the most imminent and

inevitable danger. All his instruments of martial music

incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of defiance; and

the foremost troops who advanced to the assault were checked or

destroyed by showers of arrows from every side of the

intrenchments. It was determined, in a general council of war, to

besiege the king of the Huns in his camp, to intercept his

provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a disgraceful

treaty or an unequal combat. But the impatience of the Barbarians

soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures; and the

mature policy of Ætius was apprehensive that, after the

extirpation of the Huns, the republic would be oppressed by the

pride and power of the Gothic nation. The patrician exerted the

superior ascendant of authority and reason to calm the passions,

which the son of Theodoric considered as a duty; represented,

with seeming affection and real truth, the dangers of absence and

delay and persuaded Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy

return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy

the throne and treasures of Thoulouse. 46 After the departure of

the Goths, and the separation of the allied army, Attila was

surprised at the vast silence that reigned over the plains of

Chalons: the suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him

several days within the circle of his wagons, and his retreat

beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in

the name of the Western empire. Meroveus and his Franks,

observing a prudent distance, and magnifying the opinion of their

strength by the numerous fires which they kindled every night,

continued to follow the rear of the Huns till they reached the

confines of Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of

Attila: they traversed, both in their march and in their return,

the territories of the Franks; and it was perhaps in this war

that they exercised the cruelties which, about fourscore years

afterwards, were revenged by the son of Clovis. They massacred

their hostages, as well as their captives: two hundred young

maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their

bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were

crushed under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied

limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey to dogs and

vultures. Such were those savage ancestors, whose imaginary

virtues have sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilized

ages. 47

46 (return) [ Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 41, p. 671. The

policy of Ætius, and the behavior of Torismond, are extremely

natural; and the patrician, according to Gregory of Tours, (l.

ii. c. 7, p. 163,) dismissed the prince of the Franks, by

suggesting to him a similar apprehension. The false Idatius

ridiculously pretends, that Ætius paid a clandestine nocturnal

visit to the kings of the Huns and of the Visigoths; from each of

whom he obtained a bribe of ten thousand pieces of gold, as the

price of an undisturbed retreat.]

47 (return) [ These cruelties, which are passionately deplored by

Theodoric, the son of Clovis, (Gregory of Tours, l. iii. c. 10,

p. 190,) suit the time and circumstances of the invasion of

Attila. His residence in Thuringia was long attested by popular

tradition; and he is supposed to have assembled a couroultai, or

diet, in the territory of Eisenach. See Mascou, ix. 30, who

settles with nice accuracy the extent of ancient Thuringia, and

derives its name from the Gothic tribe of the Therungi]

Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.—Part III.

Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation, of

Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. In

the ensuing spring he repeated his demand of the princess

Honoria, and her patrimonial treasures. The demand was again

rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the

field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with

an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those Barbarians were

unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which,

even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least

some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labor of many

thousand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed

without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work.

The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the

destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were

assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, movable

turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; 48 and

the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope,

fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which

delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one of

the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime

cities of the Adriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries, who

appeared to have served under their native princes, Alaric and

Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens

still remembered the glorious and successful resistance which

their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian,

who disgraced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three months were

consumed without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the

want of provisions, and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila

to relinquish the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his

orders, that the troops should strike their tents the next

morning, and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the walls,

pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing

to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and to fly with her

infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready

penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which chance

had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and

cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached

to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats,

unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and

solitude. 49 The favorable omen inspired an assurance of victory;

the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a large

breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had

taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with

irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely

discover the ruins of Aquileia. 50 After this dreadful

chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the

cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were reduced into heaps

of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and

Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan

and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their

wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from

the flames the public, as well as private, buildings, and spared

the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of

Comum, Turin, or Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur

with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread his

ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are

divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine. 51 When

he took possession of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised

and offended at the sight of a picture which represented the

Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia

prostrate at their feet. The revenge which Attila inflicted on

this monument of Roman vanity, was harmless and ingenious. He

commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and

the emperors were delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a

suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before

the throne of the Scythian monarch. 52 The spectators must have

confessed the truth and propriety of the alteration; and were

perhaps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the

well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and the man. 53

48 (return) [ Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum

generibus adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the thirteenth

century, the Moguls battered the cities of China with large

engines, constructed by the Mahometans or Christians in their

service, which threw stones from 150 to 300 pounds weight. In the

defence of their country, the Chinese used gunpowder, and even

bombs, above a hundred years before they were known in Europe;

yet even those celestial, or infernal, arms were insufficient to

protect a pusillanimous nation. See Gaubil. Hist. des Mongous, p.

70, 71, 155, 157, &c.]

49 (return) [ The same story is told by Jornandes, and by

Procopius, (de Bell Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 187, 188:) nor is it

easy to decide which is the original. But the Greek historian is

guilty of an inexcusable mistake, in placing the siege of

Aquileia after the death of Ætius.]

50 (return) [ Jornandes, about a hundred years afterwards,

affirms, that Aquileia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus

vestigia, ut appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Reb.

Geticis, c. 42, p. 673. Paul. Diacon. l. ii. c. 14, p. 785.

Liutprand, Hist. l. iii. c. 2. The name of Aquileia was sometimes

applied to Forum Julii, (Cividad del Friuli,) the more recent

capital of the Venetian province. * Note: Compare the curious

Latin poems on the destruction of Aquileia, published by M.

Endlicher in his valuable catalogue of Latin Mss. in the library

of Vienna, p. 298, &c.

Repleta quondam domibus sublimibus, ornatis mire, niveis, marmorels,

Nune ferax frugum metiris funiculo ruricolarum.

The monkish poet has his consolation in Attila’s sufferings in

soul and body.

Vindictam tamen non evasit impius destructor tuus Attila sevissimus,

Nunc igni simul gehennae et vermibus excruciatur—P. 290.—M.]

51 (return) [ In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous,

but so imperfectly known, I have taken for my guides two learned

Italians, who considered the subject with some peculiar

advantages; Sigonius, de Imperio Occidentali, l. xiii. in his

works, tom. i. p. 495-502; and Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.

iv. p. 229-236, 8vo. edition.]

52 (return) [ This anecdote may be found under two different

articles of the miscellaneous compilation of Suidas.]

53 (return) [

Leo respondit, humana, hoc pictum manu: Videres hominem dejectum,

si pingere Leones scirent. —Appendix ad Phaedrum, Fab. xxv.

The lion in Phaedrus very foolishly appeals from pictures to the

amphitheatre; and I am glad to observe, that the native taste of

La Fontaine (l. iii. fable x.) has omitted this most lame and

impotent conclusion.]

It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the

grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet the

savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a republic,

which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art and spirit

of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice, or

Venetia, 54 was formerly diffused over a large and fertile

province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the River

Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps. Before

the irruption of the Barbarians, fifty Venetian cities flourished

in peace and prosperity: Aquileia was placed in the most

conspicuous station: but the ancient dignity of Padua was

supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of

five hundred citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank,

must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million

seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua,

and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns,

found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighboring islands.

55 At the extremity of the Gulf, where the Adriatic feebly

imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are

separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from

the waves by several long slips of land, which admit the entrance

of vessels through some secret and narrow channels. 56 Till the

middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots

remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost

without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their

arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new

situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, 57 which

describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may be

considered as the primitive monument of the republic. 571 The

minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory

style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of

the waves; and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had

formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, that they

were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble

poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of

every rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt,

which they extracted from the sea: and the exchange of that

commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the

neighboring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people,

whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or

water, soon became alike familiar with the two elements; and the

demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The

islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected

with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the

secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland

canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size

and number, visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage

which Venice annually celebrates with the Adriatic, was

contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the

Prætorian praefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes; and he

exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal of

their countrymen for the public service, which required their

assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the

province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous

office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition, that,

in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were

created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the

Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attested

by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim

of original and perpetual independence. 58

54 (return) [ Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 14,

p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about the end of the

eighth century Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc

Venetias dicimus, constat; sed ejus terminus a Pannoniae finibus

usque Adduam fluvium protelatur. The history of that province

till the age of Charlemagne forms the first and most interesting

part of the Verona (Illustrata, p. 1-388,) in which the marquis

Scipio Maffei has shown himself equally capable of enlarged views

and minute disquisitions.]

55 (return) [ This emigration is not attested by any contemporary

evidence; but the fact is proved by the event, and the

circumstances might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of

Aquileia retired to the Isle of Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus

Altus, or Rialto, where the city of Venice was afterwards built,

&c.]

56 (return) [ The topography and antiquities of the Venetian

islands, from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately

stated in the Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi. p.

151-155.]

57 (return) [ Cassiodor. Variar. l. xii. epist. 24. Maffei

(Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 240-254) has translated and

explained this curious letter, in the spirit of a learned

antiquarian and a faithful subject, who considered Venice as the

only legitimate offspring of the Roman republic. He fixes the

date of the epistle, and consequently the praefecture, of

Cassiodorus, A.D. 523; and the marquis’s authority has the more

weight, as he prepared an edition of his works, and actually

published a dissertation on the true orthography of his name. See

Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii. p. 290-339.]

571 (return) [ The learned count Figliasi has proved, in his

memoirs upon the Veneti (Memorie de’ Veneti primi e secondi del

conte Figliasi, t. vi. Veneziai, 796,) that from the most remote

period, this nation, which occupied the country which has since

been called the Venetian States or Terra Firma, likewise

inhabited the islands scattered upon the coast, and that from

thence arose the names of Venetia prima and secunda, of which the

first applied to the main land and the second to the islands and

lagunes. From the time of the Pelasgi and of the Etrurians, the

first Veneti, inhabiting a fertile and pleasant country, devoted

themselves to agriculture: the second, placed in the midst of

canals, at the mouth of several rivers, conveniently situated

with regard to the islands of Greece, as well as the fertile

plains of Italy, applied themselves to navigation and commerce.

Both submitted to the Romans a short time before the second Punic

war; yet it was not till after the victory of Marius over the

Cimbri, that their country was reduced to a Roman province. Under

the emperors, Venetia Prima obtained more than once, by its

calamities, a place in history. * * But the maritime province was

occupied in salt works, fisheries, and commerce. The Romans have

considered the inhabitants of this part as beneath the dignity of

history, and have left them in obscurity. * * * They dwelt there

until the period when their islands afforded a retreat to their

ruined and fugitive compatriots. Sismondi. Hist. des Rep.

Italiens, v. i. p. 313.—G. ——Compare, on the origin of Venice,

Daru, Hist. de Venise, vol. i. c. l.—M.]

58 (return) [ See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie,

Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, a translation of the famous

Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its

merits, is stained, in every line, with the disingenuous

malevolence of party: but the principal evidence, genuine and

apocryphal, is brought together and the reader will easily choose

the fair medium.]

The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms,

were surprised, after forty years’ peace, by the approach of a

formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their

religion, as well as of their republic. Amidst the general

consternation, Ætius alone was incapable of fear; but it was

impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any

military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians who

had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy; and

the succors promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and

doubtful. Since Ætius, at the head of his domestic troops, still

maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of

Attila, he never showed himself more truly great, than at the

time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful

people. 59 If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any

generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his

example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius,

instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war;

and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an impregnable

fortress to an open capital, betrayed his secret intention of

abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his

Imperial person. This shameful abdication was suspended, however,

by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to

pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious

tendency. The Western emperor, with the senate and people of

Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a

solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important

commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and

riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients,

and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the Roman

senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus 60 was

admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public or

private interest: his colleague Trigetius had exercised the

Prætorian praefecture of Italy; and Leo, bishop of Rome,

consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The

genius of Leo 61 was exercised and displayed in the public

misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation of Great, by the

successful zeal with which he labored to establish his opinions

and his authority, under the venerable names of orthodox faith

and ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman ambassadors were

introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place

where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of

the Lake Benacus, 62 and trampled, with his Scythian cavalry, the

farms of Catullus and Virgil. 63 The Barbarian monarch listened

with favorable, and even respectful, attention; and the

deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or

dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army might

facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. Their martial

spirit was relaxed by the wealth and idolence of a warm climate.

The shepherds of the North, whose ordinary food consisted of milk

and raw flesh, indulged themselves too freely in the use of

bread, of wine, and of meat, prepared and seasoned by the arts of

cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the

injuries of the Italians. 64 When Attila declared his resolution

of carrying his victorious arms to the gates of Rome, he was

admonished by his friends, as well as by his enemies, that Alaric

had not long survived the conquest of the eternal city. His mind,

superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors; nor

could he escape the influence of superstition, which had so often

been subservient to his designs. 65 The pressing eloquence of

Leo, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal robes, excited the

veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians.

The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who

menaced the Barbarian with instant death, if he rejected the

prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest legends of

ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome might deserve the

interposition of celestial beings; and some indulgence is due to

a fable, which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael, and

the chisel of Algardi. 66

59 (return) [ Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 19) has

published a curious passage from the Chronicle of Prosper.

Attila, redintegratis viribus, quas in Gallia amiserat, Italiam

ingredi per Pannonias intendit; nihil duce nostro Aetio secundum

prioris belli opera prospiciente, &c. He reproaches Ætius with

neglecting to guard the Alps, and with a design to abandon Italy;

but this rash censure may at least be counterbalanced by the

favorable testimonies of Idatius and Isidore.]

60 (return) [ See the original portraits of Avienus and his rival

Basilius, delineated and contrasted in the epistles (i. 9. p. 22)

of Sidonius. He had studied the characters of the two chiefs of

the senate; but he attached himself to Basilius, as the more

solid and disinterested friend.]

61 (return) [ The character and principles of Leo may be traced

in one hundred and forty-one original epistles, which illustrate

the ecclesiastical history of his long and busy pontificate, from

A.D. 440 to 461. See Dupin, Bibliothèque Ecclesiastique, tom.

iii. part ii p. 120-165.]

62 (return) [

Tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat Mincius, et tenera praetexit

arundine ripas ———- Anne lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque

Fluctibus, et fremitu assurgens Benace marino.]

63 (return) [ The marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p.

95, 129, 221, part ii. p. 2, 6) has illustrated with taste and

learning this interesting topography. He places the interview of

Attila and St. Leo near Ariolica, or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at

the conflux of the lake and river; ascertains the villa of

Catullus, in the delightful peninsula of Sirmio, and discovers

the Andes of Virgil, in the village of Bandes, precisely situate,

qua se subducere colles incipiunt, where the Veronese hills

imperceptibly slope down into the plain of Mantua. * Note: Gibbon

has made a singular mistake: the Mincius flows out of the Bonacus

at Peschiera, not into it. The interview is likewise placed at

Ponte Molino. and at Governolo, at the conflux of the Mincio and

the Gonzaga. bishop of Mantua, erected a tablet in the year 1616,

in the church of the latter place, commemorative of the event.

Descrizione di Verona a de la sua provincia. C. 11, p. 126.—M.]

64 (return) [ Si statim infesto agmine urbem petiissent, grande

discrimen esset: sed in Venetia quo fere tractu Italia mollissima

est, ipsa soli coelique clementia robur elanquit. Ad hoc panis

usu carnisque coctae, et dulcedine vini mitigatos, &c. This

passage of Florus (iii. 3) is still more applicable to the Huns

than to the Cimbri, and it may serve as a commentary on the

celestial plague, with which Idatius and Isidore have afflicted

the troops of Attila.]

65 (return) [ The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the

effect which this example produced on the mind of Attila.

Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673]

66 (return) [ The picture of Raphael is in the Vatican; the basso

(or perhaps the alto) relievo of Algardi, on one of the altars of

St. Peter, (see Dubos, Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la

Peinture, tom. i. p. 519, 520.) Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D.

452, No. 57, 58) bravely sustains the truth of the apparition;

which is rejected, however, by the most learned and pious

Catholics.]

Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to

return more dreadful, and more implacable, if his bride, the

princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within

the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the mean while, Attila

relieved his tender anxiety, by adding a beautiful maid, whose

name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. 67 Their

marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity, at his

wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with

wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the banquet to the

nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures,

or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing day, till the

unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and, after

attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at

length broke into the royal apartment. They found the trembling

bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and

lamenting her own danger, as well as the death of the king, who

had expired during the night. 68 An artery had suddenly burst:

and as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a

torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the

nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was

solemnly exposed in the midst of the plain, under a silken

pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in

measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a

hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his death, the father

of his people, the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the

world. According to their national custom, the Barbarians cut off

a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds,

and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the

tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains of

Attila were enclosed within three coffins, of gold, of silver,

and of iron, and privately buried in the night: the spoils of

nations were thrown into his grave; the captives who had opened

the ground were inhumanly massacred; and the same Huns, who had

indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dissolute and

intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of their king. It

was reported at Constantinople, that on the fortunate night on

which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila

broken asunder: and the report may be allowed to prove, how

seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was absent from the

mind of a Roman emperor. 69

67 (return) [ Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis

suae tempore, puellam Ildico nomine, decoram, valde, sibi

matrimonium post innumerabiles uxores... socians. Jornandes, c.

49, p. 683, 684.

He afterwards adds, (c. 50, p. 686,) Filii Attilæ, quorum per

licentiam libidinis poene populus fuit. Polygamy has been

established among the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian

wives is regulated only by their personal charms; and the faded

matron prepares, without a murmur, the bed which is destined for

her blooming rival. But in royal families, the daughters of Khans

communicate to their sons a prior right. See Genealogical

History, p. 406, 407, 408.]

68 (return) [ The report of her guilt reached Constantinople,

where it obtained a very different name; and Marcellinus

observes, that the tyrant of Europe was slain in the night by the

hand, and the knife, of a woman Corneille, who has adapted the

genuine account to his tragedy, describes the irruption of blood

in forty bombast lines, and Attila exclaims, with ridiculous

fury,

S’il ne veut s’arreter, (his blood.) (Dit-il) on me payera ce qui

m’en va couter.]

69 (return) [ The curious circumstances of the death and funeral

of Attila are related by Jornandes, (c. 49, p. 683, 684, 685,)

and were probably transcribed from Priscus.]

The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns,

established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained

the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest

chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; the most powerful kings

refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so

many various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and

disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of

the nations of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and

represented the disgrace of this servile partition; and his

subjects, the warlike Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the

conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to

vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and

decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia,

the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of the Goths, the arrows of

the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and

the heavy weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each

other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the

slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest

son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of

Netad: his early valor had raised him to the throne of the

Acatzires, a Scythian people, whom he subdued; and his father,

who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of

Ellac. 70 His brother, Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still

formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above

fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila,

with the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the

Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by

Ardaric, king of the Gepidae. The Pannonian conquests from Vienna

to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the settlements

of the tribes, who had so bravely asserted their native freedom,

were irregularly distributed, according to the measure of their

respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude of

his father’s slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich was confined to the

circle of his wagons; his desperate courage urged him to invade

the Eastern empire: he fell in battle; and his head ignominiously

exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful spectacle to the

people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or superstitiously

believed, that Irnac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to

perpetuate the glories of his race. The character of that prince,

who attempted to moderate the rashness of his brother Dengisich,

was more suitable to the declining condition of the Huns; and

Irnac, with his subject hordes, retired into the heart of the

Lesser Scythia. They were soon overwhelmed by a torrent of new

Barbarians, who followed the same road which their own ancestors

had formerly discovered. The Geougen, or Avares, whose residence

is assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean,

impelled the adjacent tribes; till at length the Igours of the

North, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the

most valuable furs, spread themselves over the desert, as far as

the Borysthenes and the Caspian gates; and finally extinguished

the empire of the Huns. 71

70 (return) [ See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50, p. 685,

686, 687, 688. His distinction of the national arms is curious

and important. Nan ibi admirandum reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi

cernere erat cunctis, pugnantem Gothum ense furentem, Gepidam in

vulnere suorum cuncta tela frangentem, Suevum pede, Hunnum

sagitta praesumere, Alanum gravi Herulum levi, armatura, aciem

instruere. I am not precisely informed of the situation of the

River Netad.]

71 (return) [ Two modern historians have thrown much new light on

the ruin and division of the empire of Attila; M. de Buat, by his

laborious and minute diligence, (tom. viii. p. 3-31, 68-94,) and

M. de Guignes, by his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese

language and writers. See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 315-319.]

Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern

empire, under the reign of a prince who conciliated the

friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians. But

the emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian,

who had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age

of reason or courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine

the foundations of his own throne, by the murder of the patrician

Ætius. From the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he hated the

man who was universally celebrated as the terror of the

Barbarians, and the support of the republic; 711 and his new

favorite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor from the

supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life of

Placidia, 72 by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Ætius,

his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of

Barbarian followers, his powerful dependants, who filled the

civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius,

who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor’s daughter,

had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious

designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as

well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Ætius himself, supported

by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his

innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet

behavior. The patrician offended his sovereign by a hostile

declaration; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him to

ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and

alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety;

and from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was

incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in

the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate

vehemence, the marriage of his son, Valentinian, drawing his

sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the

breast of a general who had saved his empire: his courtiers and

eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master; and Ætius,

pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence.

Boethius, the Prætorian praefect, was killed at the same moment,

and before the event could be divulged, the principal friends of

the patrician were summoned to the palace, and separately

murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the specious names of

justice and necessity, was immediately communicated by the

emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and his allies. The

nations, who were strangers or enemies to Ætius, generously

deplored the unworthy fate of a hero: the Barbarians, who had

been attached to his service, dissembled their grief and

resentment: and the public contempt, which had been so long

entertained for Valentinian, was at once converted into deep and

universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom pervade the walls of

a palace; yet the emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a

Roman, whose approbation he had not disdained to solicit. “I am

ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know, that

you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his

left.” 73

711 (return) [ The praises awarded by Gibbon to the character of

Ætius have been animadverted upon with great severity. (See Mr.

Herbert’s Attila. p. 321.) I am not aware that Gibbon has

dissembled or palliated any of the crimes or treasons of Ætius:

but his position at the time of his murder was certainly that of

the preserver of the empire, the conqueror of the most dangerous

of the barbarians: it is by no means clear that he was not

“innocent” of any treasonable designs against Valentinian. If the

early acts of his life, the introduction of the Huns into Italy,

and of the Vandals into Africa, were among the proximate causes

of the ruin of the empire, his murder was the signal for its

almost immediate downfall.—M.]

72 (return) [ Placidia died at Rome, November 27, A.D. 450. She

was buried at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, and even her corpse,

seated in a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The

empress received many compliments from the orthodox clergy; and

St. Peter Chrysologus assured her, that her zeal for the Trinity

had been recompensed by an august trinity of children. See

Tillemont, Uist. Jer Emp. tom. vi. p. 240.]

73 (return) [ Aetium Placidus mactavit semivir amens, is the

expression of Sidonius, (Panegyr. Avit. 359.) The poet knew the

world, and was not inclined to flatter a minister who had injured

or disgraced Avitus and Majorian, the successive heroes of his

song.]

The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and frequent

visits of Valentinian; who was consequently more despised at Rome

than in any other part of his dominions. A republican spirit was

insensibly revived in the senate, as their authority, and even

their supplies, became necessary for the support of his feeble

government. The stately demeanor of an hereditary monarch

offended their pride; and the pleasures of Valentinian were

injurious to the peace and honor of noble families. The birth of

the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own, and her charms and

tender affection deserved those testimonies of love which her

inconstant husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours.

Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician family, who

had been twice consul, was possessed of a chaste and beautiful

wife: her obstinate resistance served only to irritate the

desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to accomplish them,

either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of

the court: the emperor, who, by chance or contrivance, had gained

from Maximus a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring

as a security for the debt; and sent it by a trusty messenger to

his wife, with an order, in her husband’s name, that she should

immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of

Maximus was conveyed in her litter to the Imperial palace; the

emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her to a remote and

silent bed-chamber; and Valentinian violated, without remorse,

the laws of hospitality. Her tears, when she returned home, her

deep affliction, and her bitter reproaches against a husband whom

she considered as the accomplice of his own shame, excited

Maximus to a just revenge; the desire of revenge was stimulated

by ambition; and he might reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage

of the Roman senate, to the throne of a detested and despicable

rival. Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was

devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had

imprudently admitted among his guards several domestics and

followers of Ætius. Two of these, of Barbarian race were

persuaded to execute a sacred and honorable duty, by punishing

with death the assassin of their patron; and their intrepid

courage did not long expect a favorable moment. Whilst

Valentinian amused himself, in the field of Mars, with the

spectacle of some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon him

with drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed

the emperor to the heart, without the least opposition from his

numerous train, who seemed to rejoice in the tyrant’s death. Such

was the fate of Valentinian the Third, 74 the last Roman emperor

of the family of Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the

hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, without

inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the innocence, which

alleviate, in their characters, the want of spirit and ability.

Valentinian was less excusable, since he had passions, without

virtues: even his religion was questionable; and though he never

deviated into the paths of heresy, he scandalized the pious

Christians by his attachment to the profane arts of magic and

divination.

74 (return) [ With regard to the cause and circumstances of the

deaths of Ætius and Valentinian, our information is dark and

imperfect. Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186, 187,

188) is a fabulous writer for the events which precede his own

memory. His narrative must therefore be supplied and corrected by

five or six Chronicles, none of which were composed in Rome or

Italy; and which can only express, in broken sentences, the

popular rumors, as they were conveyed to Gaul, Spain, Africa,

Constantinople, or Alexandria.]

As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of

the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures which Romulus had

seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal

period of his city. 75 This prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the

season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy

apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace

and misfortune, was almost elapsed; 76 and even posterity must

acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation

of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously

verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was

announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the

Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its

enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. 77 The taxes

were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected

in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the

rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people,

whom they defrauded of the indulgences that might sometimes have

alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition which confiscated

their goods, and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects

of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the

Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the

vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and

abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had formerly excited

the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the

greatest part of Spain, were-thrown into a state of disorderly

independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the

Imperial ministers pursued with proscriptive laws, and

ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made. 78 If all the

Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their

total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West:

and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of

virtue, and of honor.

75 (return) [ This interpretation of Vettius, a celebrated augur,

was quoted by Varro, in the xviiith book of his Antiquities.

Censorinus, de Die Natali, c. 17, p. 90, 91, edit. Havercamp.]

76 (return) [ According to Varro, the twelfth century would

expire A.D. 447, but the uncertainty of the true era of Rome

might allow some latitude of anticipation or delay. The poets of

the age, Claudian (de Bell Getico, 265) and Sidonius, (in

Panegyr. Avit. 357,) may be admitted as fair witnesses of the

popular opinion.

Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volatu Vulturis, incidunt

properatis saecula metis. ....... Jam prope fata tui bissenas

Vulturis alas Implebant; seis namque tuos, scis, Roma, labores.

—See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 340-346.]

77 (return) [ The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic

lamentations and vehement invectives. His immoderate freedom

serves to prove the weakness, as well as the corruption, of the

Roman government. His book was published after the loss of

Africa, (A.D. 439,) and before Attila’s war, (A.D. 451.)]

78 (return) [ The Bagaudae of Spain, who fought pitched battles

with the Roman troops, are repeatedly mentioned in the Chronicle

of Idatius. Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in

very forcible language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum... nunc

ultro repudiatur ac fugitur, nec vile tamen sed etiam abominabile

poene habetur... Et hinc est ut etiam hi quid ad Barbaros non

confugiunt, Barbari tamen esse coguntur, scilicet ut est pars

magna Hispanorum, et non minima Gallorum.... De Bagaudis nunc

mihi sermo est, qui per malos judices et cruentos spoliati,

afflicti, necati postquam jus Romanae libertatis amiserant, etiam

honorem Romani nominis perdiderunt.... Vocamus rabelles, vocamus

perditos quos esse compulimua criminosos. De Gubernat. Dei, l. v.

p. 158, 159.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.—Part I.

Sack Of Rome By Genseric, King Of The Vandals.—His Naval

Depredations.—Succession Of The Last Emperors Of The West,

Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius,

Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus.—Total Extinction Of The Western

Empire.—Reign Of Odoacer, The First Barbarian King Of Italy.

The loss or desolation of the provinces, from the Ocean to the

Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of Rome: her internal

prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of

Africa. The rapacious Vandals confiscated the patrimonial estates

of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies, which

relieved the poverty and encouraged the idleness of the

plebeians. The distress of the Romans was soon aggravated by an

unexpected attack; and the province, so long cultivated for their

use by industrious and obedient subjects, was armed against them

by an ambitious Barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who followed

the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and

fertile territory, which stretched along the coast above ninety

days’ journey from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits

were pressed and confined, on either side, by the sandy desert

and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the Black

nations, that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not

tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes

towards the sea; he resolved to create a naval power, and his

bold resolution was executed with steady and active perseverance.

The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of

timber: his new subjects were skilled in the arts of navigation

and ship-building; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a

mode of warfare which would render every maritime country

accessible to their arms; the Moors and Africans were allured by

the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries,

the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed

the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the

conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent

descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother

of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were

formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual, were prepared,

for the destruction of the common enemy; who reserved his courage

to encounter those dangers which his policy could not prevent or

elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly

baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and apparent

concessions; and the interposition of his formidable confederate,

the king of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of

Africa to the care of their domestic safety. The revolutions of

the palace, which left the Western empire without a defender, and

without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and

stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediately equipped a

numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth

of the Tyber, about three months after the death of Valentinian,

and the elevation of Maximus to the Imperial throne.

The private life of the senator Petronius Maximus 1 was often

alleged as a rare example of human felicity. His birth was noble

and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician family; his

dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in land and money;

and these advantages of fortune were accompanied with liberal

arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable

gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace and table

was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public,

he was surrounded by a train of grateful and obsequious clients;

2 and it is possible that among these clients, he might deserve

and possess some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the

favor of the prince and senate: he thrice exercised the office of

Prætorian praefect of Italy; he was twice invested with the

consulship, and he obtained the rank of patrician. These civil

honors were not incompatible with the enjoyment of leisure and

tranquillity; his hours, according to the demands of pleasure or

reason, were accurately distributed by a water-clock; and this

avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus

entertained of his own happiness. The injury which he received

from the emperor Valentinian appears to excuse the most bloody

revenge. Yet a philosopher might have reflected, that, if the

resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still

inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had

consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have

hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those

inevitable calamities which must follow the extinction of the

royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded

these salutary considerations; he gratified his resentment and

ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet;

and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of

the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the

last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively

expression of Sidonius) in the palace; and after passing a

sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his

wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation.

Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he communicated his

anxious thoughts to his friend and quaestor Fulgentius; and when

he looked back with unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of

his former life, the emperor exclaimed, “O fortunate Damocles, 3

thy reign began and ended with the same dinner;” a well-known

allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards repeated as an instructive

lesson for princes and subjects.

1 (return) [ Sidonius Apollinaris composed the thirteenth epistle

of the second book, to refute the paradox of his friend Serranus,

who entertained a singular, though generous, enthusiasm for the

deceased emperor. This epistle, with some indulgence, may claim

the praise of an elegant composition; and it throws much light on

the character of Maximus.]

2 (return) [ Clientum, praevia, pedisequa, circumfusa,

populositas, is the train which Sidonius himself (l. i. epist. 9)

assigns to another senator of rank]

3 (return) [

Districtus ensis cui super impia Cervice pendet, non Siculoe dapes

Dulcem elaborabunt saporem: Non avium citharaeque cantus Somnum

reducent. —Horat. Carm. iii. 1.

Sidonius concludes his letter with the story of Damocles, which

Cicero (Tusculan. v. 20, 21) had so inimitably told.]

The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His hours, of

which he had lost the command, were disturbed by remorse, or

guilt, or terror, and his throne was shaken by the seditions of

the soldiers, the people, and the confederate Barbarians. The

marriage of his son Paladius with the eldest daughter of the late

emperor, might tend to establish the hereditary succession of his

family; but the violence which he offered to the empress Eudoxia,

could proceed only from the blind impulse of lust or revenge. His

own wife, the cause of these tragic events, had been seasonably

removed by death; and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to

violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to

submit to the embraces of a presumptuous usurper, whom she

suspected as the assassin of her deceased husband. These

suspicions were soon justified by the indiscreet confession of

Maximus himself; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his

reluctant bride, who was still conscious that she was descended

from a line of emperors. From the East, however, Eudoxia could

not hope to obtain any effectual assistance; her father and her

aunt Pulcheria were dead; her mother languished at Jerusalem in

disgrace and exile; and the sceptre of Constantinople was in the

hands of a stranger. She directed her eyes towards Carthage;

secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals; and

persuaded Genseric to improve the fair opportunity of disguising

his rapacious designs by the specious names of honor, justice,

and compassion. 4 Whatever abilities Maximus might have shown in

a subordinate station, he was found incapable of administering an

empire; and though he might easily have been informed of the

naval preparations which were made on the opposite shores of

Africa, he expected with supine indifference the approach of the

enemy, without adopting any measures of defence, of negotiation,

or of a timely retreat. When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth

of the Tyber, the emperor was suddenly roused from his lethargy

by the clamors of a trembling and exasperated multitude. The only

hope which presented itself to his astonished mind was that of a

precipitate flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the

example of their prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the

streets, than he was assaulted by a shower of stones; a Roman, or

a Burgundian soldier, claimed the honor of the first wound; his

mangled body was ignominiously cast into the Tyber; the Roman

people rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the

author of the public calamities; and the domestics of Eudoxia

signalized their zeal in the service of their mistress. 5

4 (return) [ Notwithstanding the evidence of Procopius, Evagrius,

Idatius Marcellinus, &c., the learned Muratori (Annali d’Italia,

tom. iv. p. 249) doubts the reality of this invitation, and

observes, with great truth, “Non si puo dir quanto sia facile il

popolo a sognare e spacciar voci false.” But his argument, from

the interval of time and place, is extremely feeble. The figs

which grew near Carthage were produced to the senate of Rome on

the third day.]

5 (return) [

Infidoque tibi Burgundio ductu Extorquet trepidas mactandi

principis iras. —-Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 442.

A remarkable line, which insinuates that Rome and Maximus were

betrayed by their Burgundian mercenaries.]

On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced from

the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless city. Instead

of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued from the gates an

unarmed and venerable procession of the bishop at the head of his

clergy. 6 The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and

eloquence, again mitigated the fierceness of a Barbarian

conqueror; the king of the Vandals promised to spare the

unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, and to

exempt the captives from torture; and although such orders were

neither seriously given, nor strictly obeyed, the mediation of

Leo was glorious to himself, and in some degree beneficial to his

country. But Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the

licentiousness of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions

revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted fourteen

days and nights; and all that yet remained of public or private

wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported

to the vessels of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid relics

of two temples, or rather of two religions, exhibited a memorable

example of the vicissitudes of human and divine things.

Since the abolition of Paganism, the Capitol had been violated

and abandoned; yet the statues of the gods and heroes were still

respected, and the curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for

the rapacious hands of Genseric. 7 The holy instruments of the

Jewish worship, 8 the gold table, and the gold candlestick with

seven branches, originally framed according to the particular

instructions of God himself, and which were placed in the

sanctuary of his temple, had been ostentatiously displayed to the

Roman people in the triumph of Titus. They were afterwards

deposited in the temple of Peace; and at the end of four hundred

years, the spoils of Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to

Carthage, by a Barbarian who derived his origin from the shores

of the Baltic. These ancient monuments might attract the notice

of curiosity, as well as of avarice. But the Christian churches,

enriched and adorned by the prevailing superstition of the times,

afforded more plentiful materials for sacrilege; and the pious

liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six silver vases, the gift of

Constantine, each of a hundred pounds weight, is an evidence of

the damage which he attempted to repair. In the forty-five years

that had elapsed since the Gothic invasion, the pomp and luxury

of Rome were in some measure restored; and it was difficult

either to escape, or to satisfy, the avarice of a conqueror, who

possessed leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the wealth

of the capital. The Imperial ornaments of the palace, the

magnificent furniture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy

plate, were accumulated with disorderly rapine; the gold and

silver amounted to several thousand talents; yet even the brass

and copper were laboriously removed. Eudoxia herself, who

advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon bewailed the

imprudence of her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her

jewels; and the unfortunate empress, with her two daughters, the

only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was compelled, as

a captive, to follow the haughty Vandal; who immediately hoisted

sail, and returned with a prosperous navigation to the port of

Carthage. 9 Many thousand Romans of both sexes, chosen for some

useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly embarked on board

the fleet of Genseric; and their distress was aggravated by the

unfeeling Barbarians, who, in the division of the booty,

separated the wives from their husbands, and the children from

their parents. The charity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, 10

was their only consolation and support. He generously sold the

gold and silver plate of the church to purchase the freedom of

some, to alleviate the slavery of others, and to assist the wants

and infirmities of a captive multitude, whose health was impaired

by the hardships which they had suffered in their passage from

Italy to Africa. By his order, two spacious churches were

converted into hospitals; the sick were distributed into

convenient beds, and liberally supplied with food and medicines;

and the aged prelate repeated his visits both in the day and

night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength, and a

tender sympathy which enhanced the value of his services. Compare

this scene with the field of Cannae; and judge between Hannibal

and the successor of St. Cyprian. 11

6 (return) [The apparant success of Pope Leo may be justified by

Prosper, and the Historia Miscellan.; but the improbable notion

of Baronius A.D. 455, (No. 13) that Genseric spared the three

apostolical churches, is not countenanced even by the doubtful

testimony of the Liber Pontificalis.]

7 (return) [ The profusion of Catulus, the first who gilt the

roof of the Capitol, was not universally approved, (Plin. Hist.

Natur. xxxiii. 18;) but it was far exceeded by the emperor’s, and

the external gilding of the temple cost Domitian 12,000 talents,

(2,400,000 L.) The expressions of Claudian and Rutilius (luce

metalli oemula.... fastigia astris, and confunduntque vagos

delubra micantia visus) manifestly prove, that this splendid

covering was not removed either by the Christians or the Goths,

(see Donatus, Roma Antiqua, l. ii. c. 6, p. 125.) It should seem

that the roof of the Capitol was decorated with gilt statues, and

chariots drawn by four horses.]

8 (return) [ The curious reader may consult the learned and

accurate treatise of Hadrian Reland, de Spoliis Templi

Hierosolymitani in Arcu Titiano Romae conspicuis, in 12mo.

Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1716.]

9 (return) [ The vessel which transported the relics of the

Capitol was the only one of the whole fleet that suffered

shipwreck. If a bigoted sophist, a Pagan bigot, had mentioned the

accident, he might have rejoiced that this cargo of sacrilege was

lost in the sea.]

10 (return) [ See Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c.

8, p. 11, 12, edit. Ruinart. Deogratius governed the church of

Carthage only three years. If he had not been privately buried,

his corpse would have been torn piecemeal by the mad devotion of

the people.]

11 (return) [ The general evidence for the death of Maximus, and

the sack of Rome by the Vandals, is comprised in Sidonius,

(Panegyr. Avit. 441-450,) Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c.

4, 5, p. 188, 189, and l. ii. c. 9, p. 255,) Evagrius, (l. ii. c.

7,) Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 45, p. 677,) and the

Chronicles of Idatius, Prosper, Marcellinus, and Theophanes,

under the proper year.]

The deaths of Ætius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties which

held the Barbarians of Gaul in peace and subordination. The

sea-coast was infested by the Saxons; the Alemanni and the Franks

advanced from the Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of the

Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent conquests.

The emperor Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious choice, from

the weight of these distant cares; he silenced the solicitations

of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and promoted a

stranger to the general command of the forces of Gaul.

Avitus, 12 the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded,

descended from a wealthy and honorable family in the diocese of

Auvergne. The convulsions of the times urged him to embrace, with

the same ardor, the civil and military professions: and the

indefatigable youth blended the studies of literature and

jurisprudence with the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty years

of his life were laudably spent in the public service; he

alternately displayed his talents in war and negotiation; and the

soldier of Ætius, after executing the most important embassies,

was raised to the station of Prætorian praefect of Gaul. Either

the merit of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous

of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate, which he

possessed in the neighborhood of Clermont. A copious stream,

issuing from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud

and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a lake about two

miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the

margin of the lake. The baths, the porticos, the summer and

winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and

use; and the adjacent country afforded the various prospects of

woods, pastures, and meadows. 13 In this retreat, where Avitus

amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of

husbandry, and the society of his friends, 14 he received the

Imperial diploma, which constituted him master-general of the

cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the military command;

the Barbarians suspended their fury; and whatever means he might

employ, whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the

people enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate

of Gaul depended on the Visigoths; and the Roman general, less

attentive to his dignity than to the public interest, did not

disdain to visit Thoulouse in the character of an ambassador. He

was received with courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of

the Goths; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid

alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the

intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was slain, and that Rome

had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne, which he might

ascend without guilt or danger, tempted his ambition; 15 and the

Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by their

irresistible suffrage. They loved the person of Avitus; they

respected his virtues; and they were not insensible of the

advantage, as well as honor, of giving an emperor to the West.

The season was now approaching, in which the annual assembly of

the seven provinces was held at Arles; their deliberations might

perhaps be influenced by the presence of Theodoric and his

martial brothers; but their choice would naturally incline to the

most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent

resistance, accepted the Imperial diadem from the representatives

of Gaul; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the

Barbarians and provincials. The formal consent of Marcian,

emperor of the East, was solicited and obtained; but the senate,

Rome, and Italy, though humbled by their recent calamities,

submitted with a secret murmur to the presumption of the Gallic

usurper.

12 (return) [ The private life and elevation of Avitus must be

deduced, with becoming suspicion, from the panegyric pronounced

by Sidonius Apollinaris, his subject, and his son-in-law.]

13 (return) [ After the example of the younger Pliny, Sidonius

(l. ii. c. 2) has labored the florid, prolix, and obscure

description of his villa, which bore the name, (Avitacum,) and

had been the property of Avitus. The precise situation is not

ascertained. Consult, however, the notes of Savaron and Sirmond.]

14 (return) [ Sidonius (l. ii. epist. 9) has described the

country life of the Gallic nobles, in a visit which he made to

his friends, whose estates were in the neighborhood of Nismes.

The morning hours were spent in the sphoeristerium, or

tennis-court; or in the library, which was furnished with Latin

authors, profane and religious; the former for the men, the

latter for the ladies. The table was twice served, at dinner and

supper, with hot meat (boiled and roast) and wine. During the

intermediate time, the company slept, took the air on horseback,

and need the warm bath.]

15 (return) [ Seventy lines of panegyric (505-575) which describe

the importunity of Theodoric and of Gaul, struggling to overcome

the modest reluctance of Avitus, are blown away by three words of

an honest historian. Romanum ambisset Imperium, (Greg. Turon. l.

ii. c. 1l, in tom. ii. p. 168.)]

Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had

acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his elder brother

Torismond; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design

which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with

the empire. 16 Such a crime might not be incompatible with the

virtues of a Barbarian; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle

and humane; and posterity may contemplate without terror the

original picture of a Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately

observed, in the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an

epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator satisfies

the curiosity of one of his friends, in the following

description: 17 “By the majesty of his appearance, Theodoric

would command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit;

and although he is born a prince, his merit would dignify a

private station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears

rather plump than fat, and in his well-proportioned limbs agility

is united with muscular strength. 18 If you examine his

countenance, you will distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy

eyebrows, an aquiline nose, thin lips, a regular set of white

teeth, and a fair complexion, that blushes more frequently from

modesty than from anger. The ordinary distribution of his time,

as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be concisely

represented. Before daybreak, he repairs, with a small train, to

his domestic chapel, where the service is performed by the Arian

clergy; but those who presume to interpret his secret sentiments,

consider this assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and

policy. The rest of the morning is employed in the administration

of his kingdom. His chair is surrounded by some military officers

of decent aspect and behavior: the noisy crowd of his Barbarian

guards occupies the hall of audience; but they are not permitted

to stand within the veils or curtains that conceal the

council-chamber from vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of the nations

are successively introduced: Theodoric listens with attention,

answers them with discreet brevity, and either announces or

delays, according to the nature of their business, his final

resolution. About eight (the second hour) he rises from his

throne, and visits either his treasury or his stables. If he

chooses to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on horseback,

his bow is carried by a favorite youth; but when the game is

marked, he bends it with his own hand, and seldom misses the

object of his aim: as a king, he disdains to bear arms in such

ignoble warfare; but as a soldier, he would blush to accept any

military service which he could perform himself. On common days,

his dinner is not different from the repast of a private citizen,

but every Saturday, many honorable guests are invited to the

royal table, which, on these occasions, is served with the

elegance of Greece, the plenty of Gaul, and the order and

diligence of Italy. 19 The gold or silver plate is less

remarkable for its weight than for the brightness and curious

workmanship: the taste is gratified without the help of foreign

and costly luxury; the size and number of the cups of wine are

regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance; and the

respectful silence that prevails, is interrupted only by grave

and instructive conversation. After dinner, Theodoric sometimes

indulges himself in a short slumber; and as soon as he wakes, he

calls for the dice and tables, encourages his friends to forget

the royal majesty, and is delighted when they freely express the

passions which are excited by the incidents of play. At this

game, which he loves as the image of war, he alternately displays

his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper.

If he loses, he laughs; he is modest and silent if he wins. Yet,

notwithstanding this seeming indifference, his courtiers choose

to solicit any favor in the moments of victory; and I myself, in

my applications to the king, have derived some benefit from my

losses. 20 About the ninth hour (three o’clock) the tide of

business again returns, and flows incessantly till after sunset,

when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of

suppliants and pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast,

buffoons and pantomimes are sometimes introduced, to divert, not

to offend, the company, by their ridiculous wit: but female

singers, and the soft, effeminate modes of music, are severely

banished, and such martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of

valor are alone grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires from

table; and the nocturnal guards are immediately posted at the

entrance of the treasury, the palace, and the private

apartments.”

16 (return) [ Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who was himself of

the blood royal of the Goths, acknowledges, and almost justifies,

(Hist. Goth. p. 718,) the crime which their slave Jornandes had

basely dissembled, (c 43, p. 673.)]

17 (return) [ This elaborate description (l. i. ep. ii. p. 2-7)

was dictated by some political motive. It was designed for the

public eye, and had been shown by the friends of Sidonius, before

it was inserted in the collection of his epistles. The first book

was published separately. See Tillemont, Mémoires Eccles. tom.

xvi. p. 264.]

18 (return) [ I have suppressed, in this portrait of Theodoric,

several minute circumstances, and technical phrases, which could

be tolerable, or indeed intelligible, to those only who, like the

contemporaries of Sidonius, had frequented the markets where

naked slaves were exposed to sale, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom.

i. p. 404.)]

19 (return) [ Videas ibi elegantiam Græcam, abundantiam

Gallicanam; celeritatem Italam; publicam pompam, privatam

diligentiam, regiam disciplinam.]

20 (return) [ Tunc etiam ego aliquid obsecraturus feliciter

vincor, et mihi tabula perit ut causa salvetur. Sidonius of

Auvergne was not a subject of Theodoric; but he might be

compelled to solicit either justice or favor at the court of

Thoulouse.]

When the king of the Visigoths encouraged Avitus to assume the

purple, he offered his person and his forces, as a faithful

soldier of the republic. 21 The exploits of Theodoric soon

convinced the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike

virtues of his ancestors. After the establishment of the Goths in

Aquitain, and the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi,

who had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the conquest

of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble remains of the

Roman dominion. The provincials of Carthagena and Tarragona,

afflicted by a hostile invasion, represented their injuries and

their apprehensions. Count Fronto was despatched, in the name of

the emperor Avitus, with advantageous offers of peace and

alliance; and Theodoric interposed his weighty mediation, to

declare, that, unless his brother-in-law, the king of the Suevi,

immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of

justice and of Rome. “Tell him,” replied the haughty Rechiarius,

“that I despise his friendship and his arms; but that I shall

soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the

walls of Thoulouse.” Such a challenge urged Theodoric to prevent

the bold designs of his enemy; he passed the Pyrenees at the head

of the Visigoths: the Franks and Burgundians served under his

standard; and though he professed himself the dutiful servant of

Avitus, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors,

the absolute possession of his Spanish conquests. The two armies,

or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of

the River Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga; and the

decisive victory of the Goths appeared for a while to have

extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi. From the field of

battle Theodoric advanced to Braga, their metropolis, which still

retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and

dignity. 22 His entrance was not polluted with blood; and the

Goths respected the chastity of their female captives, more

especially of the consecrated virgins: but the greatest part of

the clergy and people were made slaves, and even the churches and

altars were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate

king of the Suevi had escaped to one of the ports of the ocean;

but the obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight: he was

delivered to his implacable rival; and Rechiarius, who neither

desired nor expected mercy, received, with manly constancy, the

death which he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody

sacrifice to policy or resentment, Theodoric carried his

victorious arms as far as Merida, the principal town of

Lusitania, without meeting any resistance, except from the

miraculous powers of St. Eulalia; but he was stopped in the full

career of success, and recalled from Spain before he could

provide for the security of his conquests. In his retreat towards

the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the country

through which he passed; and, in the sack of Pollentia and

Astorga, he showed himself a faithless ally, as well as a cruel

enemy. Whilst the king of the Visigoths fought and vanquished in

the name of Avitus, the reign of Avitus had expired; and both the

honor and the interest of Theodoric were deeply wounded by the

disgrace of a friend, whom he had seated on the throne of the

Western empire. 23

21 (return) [ Theodoric himself had given a solemn and voluntary

promise of fidelity, which was understood both in Gaul and Spain.

Romae sum, te duce, Amicus, Principe te, Miles. Sidon. Panegyr.

Avit. 511.]

22 (return) [ Quaeque sinu pelagi jactat se Bracara dives. Auson.

de Claris Urbibus, p. 245. ——From the design of the king of the

Suevi, it is evident that the navigation from the ports of

Gallicia to the Mediterranean was known and practised. The ships

of Bracara, or Braga, cautiously steered along the coast, without

daring to lose themselves in the Atlantic.]

23 (return) [ This Suevic war is the most authentic part of the

Chronicle of Idatius, who, as bishop of Iria Flavia, was himself

a spectator and a sufferer. Jornandes (c. 44, p. 675, 676, 677)

has expatiated, with pleasure, on the Gothic victory.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.—Part II.

The pressing solicitations of the senate and people persuaded the

emperor Avitus to fix his residence at Rome, and to accept the

consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of January, his

son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his praises in a

panegyric of six hundred verses; but this composition, though it

was rewarded with a brass statue, 24 seems to contain a very

moderate proportion, either of genius or of truth. The poet, if

we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit of a

sovereign and a father; and his prophecy of a long and glorious

reign was soon contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when

the Imperial dignity was reduced to a preeminence of toil and

danger, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian luxury: age

had not extinguished his amorous inclinations; and he is accused

of insulting, with indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the

husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated. 25 But the

Romans were not inclined either to excuse his faults or to

acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the empire became

every day more alienated from each other; and the stranger of

Gaul was the object of popular hatred and contempt. The senate

asserted their legitimate claim in the election of an emperor;

and their authority, which had been originally derived from the

old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a

declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted

the votes of an unarmed senate, if their discontent had not been

supported, or perhaps inflamed, by the Count Ricimer, one of the

principal commanders of the Barbarian troops, who formed the

military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the

Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on

the father’s side, from the nation of the Suevi; 26 his pride or

patriotism might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his

countrymen; and he obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor in whose

elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important

services against the common enemy rendered him still more

formidable; 27 and, after destroying on the coast of Corsica a

fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer

returned in triumph with the appellation of the Deliverer of

Italy. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus, that his reign

was at an end; and the feeble emperor, at a distance from his

Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing

struggle to abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the

contempt, of Ricimer, 28 he was permitted to descend from the

throne to the more desirable station of bishop of Placentia: but

the resentment of the senate was still unsatisfied; and their

inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death. He fled

towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not of arming the

Visigoths in his cause, but of securing his person and treasures

in the sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of

Auvergne. 29 Disease, or the hand of the executioner, arrested

him on the road; yet his remains were decently transported to

Brivas, or Brioude, in his native province, and he reposed at the

feet of his holy patron. 30 Avitus left only one daughter, the

wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the patrimony of his

father-in-law; lamenting, at the same time, the disappointment of

his public and private expectations. His resentment prompted him

to join, or at least to countenance, the measures of a rebellious

faction in Gaul; and the poet had contracted some guilt, which it

was incumbent on him to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to

the succeeding emperor. 31

24 (return) [ In one of the porticos or galleries belonging to

Trajan’s library, among the statues of famous writers and

orators. Sidon. Apoll. l. ix. epist, 16, p. 284. Carm. viii. p.

350.]

25 (return) [ Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est,

is the concise expression of Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. xi. in

tom. ii. p. 168.) An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649) mentions

an indecent jest of Avitus, which seems more applicable to Rome

than to Treves.]

26 (return) [ Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 302, &c.) praises the

royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, as he chooses to

insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms.]

27 (return) [ See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv.

p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et pene tune

in Italia ad ex ercitum singularem.]

28 (return) [ Parcens innocentiae Aviti, is the compassionate,

but contemptuous, language of Victor Tunnunensis, (in Chron. apud

Scaliger Euseb.) In another place, he calls him, vir totius

simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more

solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius]

29 (return) [ He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution

of Diocletian, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 279, 696.)

Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory

of Julian the Martyr an entire book, (de Gloria Martyrum, l. ii.

in Max. Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xi. p. 861-871,) in which he

relates about fifty foolish miracles performed by his relics.]

30 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. xi. p. 168) is concise,

but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The words of

Idatius, “cadet imperio, caret et vita,” seem to imply, that the

death of Avitus was violent; but it must have been secret, since

Evagrius (l. ii. c. 7) could suppose, that he died of the

plaque.]

31 (return) [ After a modest appeal to the examples of his

brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the

debt, and promises payment.

Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte cadenti Jussisti placido Victor

ut essem animo. Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poetae, Atque

meae vitae laus tua sit pretium. —Sidon. Apoll. Carm. iv. p. 308

See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, &c.]

The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a great

and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a degenerate

age, to vindicate the honor of the human species. The emperor

Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries, and of

posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in the

words of a judicious and disinterested historian: “That he was

gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his enemies; and

that he excelled, in every virtue, all his predecessors who had

reigned over the Romans.” 32 Such a testimony may justify at

least the panegyric of Sidonius; and we may acquiesce in the

assurance, that, although the obsequious orator would have

flattered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the

extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion,

within the bounds of truth. 33 Majorian derived his name from his

maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great Theodosius,

had commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his

daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a respectable

officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and

integrity; and generously preferred the friendship of Ætius to

the tempting offer of an insidious court. His son, the future

emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms, displayed,

from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and

unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed the

standard of Ætius, contributed to his success, shared, and

sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the jealousy

of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced him to retire

from the service. 34 Majorian, after the death of Ætius, was

recalled and promoted; and his intimate connection with Count

Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne of

the Western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the

abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian, whose birth

excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed Italy with the

title of Patrician; resigned to his friend the conspicuous

station of master-general of the cavalry and infantry; and, after

an interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of

the Romans, whose favor Majorian had solicited by a recent

victory over the Alemanni. 35 He was invested with the purple at

Ravenna: and the epistle which he addressed to the senate, will

best describe his situation and his sentiments. “Your election,

Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army,

have made me your emperor. 36 May the propitious Deity direct and

prosper the counsels and events of my administration, to your

advantage and to the public welfare! For my own part, I did not

aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor should I have discharged

the obligations of a citizen if I had refused, with base and

selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labors, which

were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom

you have made; partake the duties which you have enjoined; and

may our common endeavors promote the happiness of an empire,

which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured, that, in our

times, justice shall resume her ancient vigor, and that virtue

shall become, not only innocent, but meritorious. Let none,

except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations, 37

which, as a subject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince,

will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father,

the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all military affairs, and

provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved

from foreign and domestic enemies. 38 You now understand the

maxims of my government; you may confide in the faithful love and

sincere assurances of a prince who has formerly been the

companion of your life and dangers; who still glories in the name

of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent the

judgment which you have pronounced in his favor.” The emperor,

who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world, revived the ancient

language of law and liberty, which Trajan would not have

disclaimed, must have derived those generous sentiments from his

own heart; since they were not suggested to his imitation by the

customs of his age, or the example of his predecessors. 39

32 (return) [ The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed

(de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 194;) a concise but

comprehensive definition of royal virtue.]

33 (return) [ The Panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the

end of the year 458, while the emperor was still consul. It has

more art than genius, and more labor than art. The ornaments are

false and trivial; the expression is feeble and prolix; and

Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a

strong and distinct light. The private life of Majorian occupies

about two hundred lines, 107-305.]

34 (return) [ She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely

satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem that Ætius, like

Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife; whose

fervent piety, though it might work miracles, (Gregor. Turon. l.

ii. c. 7, p. 162,) was not incompatible with base and sanguinary

counsels.]

35 (return) [ The Alemanni had passed the Rhaetian Alps, and were

defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through

which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula to the

Lago Maggiore, (Cluver Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 100, 101.) This

boasted victory over nine hundred Barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian.

373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy.]

36 (return) [ Imperatorem me factum, P.C. electionis vestrae

arbitrio, et fortissimi exercitus ordinatione agnoscite, (Novell.

Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem. Cod. Theodos.) Sidonius

proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire:—

Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plebs, curia,

nules, —-Et collega simul. 386.

This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe,

that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of

the state.]

37 (return) [ Either dilationes, or delationes would afford a

tolerable reading, but there is much more sense and spirit in the

latter, to which I have therefore given the preference.]

38 (return) [ Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus:

by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus;

whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this

occasion, Sidonius is fearful and obscure; he describes the

twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, &c., that he may escape

the dangerous name of Avitus (805-369.)]

39 (return) [ See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the

senate, (Novell. tit. iv. p. 34.) Yet the expression, regnum

nostrum, bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly

with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats.]

The private and public actions of Majorian are very imperfectly

known: but his laws, remarkable for an original cast of thought

and expression, faithfully represent the character of a sovereign

who loved his people, who sympathized in their distress, who had

studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was

capable of applying (as far as such reformation was practicable)

judicious and effectual remedies to the public disorders. 40 His

regulations concerning the finances manifestly tended to remove,

or at least to mitigate, the most intolerable grievances. I. From

the first hour of his reign, he was solicitous (I translate his

own words) to relieve the weary fortunes of the provincials,

oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and

superindictions. 41 With this view he granted a universal

amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all arrears of

tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the fiscal

officers might demand from the people. This wise dereliction of

obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and

purified the sources of the public revenue; and the subject who

could now look back without despair, might labor with hope and

gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment

and collection of taxes, Majorian restored the ordinary

jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates; and suppressed the

extraordinary commissions which had been introduced, in the name

of the emperor himself, or of the Prætorian praefects. The

favorite servants, who obtained such irregular powers, were

insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary in their demands: they

affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were

discontented, if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the

sum which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One

instance of their extortion would appear incredible, were it not

authenticated by the legislator himself. They exacted the whole

payment in gold: but they refused the current coin of the empire,

and would accept only such ancient pieces as were stamped with

the names of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject, who was

unprovided with these curious medals, had recourse to the

expedient of compounding with their rapacious demands; or if he

succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled, according

to the weight and value of the money of former times. 42 III.

“The municipal corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser

senates, (so antiquity has justly styled them,) deserve to be

considered as the heart of the cities, and the sinews of the

republic. And yet so low are they now reduced, by the injustice

of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their

members, renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken

refuge in distant and obscure exile.” He urges, and even compels,

their return to their respective cities; but he removes the

grievance which had forced them to desert the exercise of their

municipal functions. They are directed, under the authority of

the provincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the

tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the whole sum

assessed on their district, they are only required to produce a

regular account of the payments which they have actually

received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted to the

public. IV. But Majorian was not ignorant that these corporate

bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and

oppression which they had suffered; and he therefore revives the

useful office of the defenders of cities. He exhorts the people

to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of discretion and

integrity, who would dare to assert their privileges, to

represent their grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny

of the rich, and to inform the emperor of the abuses that were

committed under the sanction of his name and authority.

40 (return) [ See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in

number, but very long, and various) at the end of the Theodosian

Code, Novell. l. iv. p. 32-37. Godefroy has not given any

commentary on these additional pieces.]

41 (return) [ Fessas provincialium varia atque multiplici

tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscalium

solutionum oneribus attritas, &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. iv. p.

34.]

42 (return) [ The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has

found, by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed

one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only

sixty-eight, English grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold

coin, excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not

in the weight, but in the standard.]

The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient

Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and Vandals,

for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor power, nor

perhaps inclination, to perpetrate. The tempest of war might

strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the destruction

which undermined the foundations of those massy fabrics was

prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of ten

centuries; and the motives of interest, that afterwards operated

without shame or control, were severely checked by the taste and

spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city had

gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus and

theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the

desires of the people: the temples, which had escaped the zeal of

the Christians, were no longer inhabited, either by gods or men;

the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense

space of their baths and porticos; and the stately libraries and

halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose

repose was seldom disturbed, either by study or business. The

monuments of consular, or Imperial, greatness were no longer

revered, as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only

esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper, and more

convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were

continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, which

stated the want of stones or bricks, for some necessary service:

the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced, for the

sake of some paltry, or pretended, repairs; and the degenerate

Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument,

demolished, with sacrilegious hands, the labors of their

ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of

the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. 43 He

reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the

extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient

edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand

pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant

such illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise

the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe

whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last

instance, the legislator might seem to forget the proportion of

guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous

principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of

those ages, in which he would have desired and deserved to live.

The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the

number of his subjects; and that it was his duty to guard the

purity of the marriage-bed: but the means which he employed to

accomplish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and

perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated

their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil

till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age

were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five

years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest

relations, or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or

annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so

inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal

returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of

Majorian, be slain with impunity. 44

43 (return) [ The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35)

is curious. “Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio;

et ut aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio

nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum aedificium construens,

per gratiam judicum..... praesumere de publicis locis necessaria,

et transferre non dubitet” &c. With equal zeal, but with less

power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated the same

complaints. (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327.) If I

prosecute this history, I shall not be unmindful of the decline

and fall of the city of Rome; an interesting object to which any

plan was originally confined.]

44 (return) [ The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular

of Tuscany in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost

like personal resentment, (Novell. tit. ix. p. 47.) The law of

Majorian, which punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards

repealed by his successor Severus, (Novell. Sever. tit. i. p.

37.)]