<h2><SPAN name="chap30.4"></SPAN> Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part IV. </h2>
<p>The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and
precarious, that the revolutions of the North might escape the knowledge
of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was collected along
the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper
Danube. The emperor of the West, if his ministers disturbed his amusements
by the news of the impending danger, was satisfied with being the
occasion, and the spectator, of the war. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.70"
name="linknoteref-30.70" id="linknoteref-30.70">70</SPAN> The safety of Rome
was intrusted to the counsels, and the sword, of Stilicho; but such was
the feeble and exhausted state of the empire, that it was impossible to
restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous
effort, the invasion of the Germans. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.71"
name="linknoteref-30.71" id="linknoteref-30.71">71</SPAN> The hopes of the
vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He
once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed the new
levies, which were rigorously exacted, and pusillanimously eluded;
employed the most efficacious means to arrest, or allure, the deserters;
and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the
slaves who would enlist. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.72" name="linknoteref-30.72" id="linknoteref-30.72">72</SPAN> By these efforts he painfully collected, from
the subjects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand men,
which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been instantly
furnished by the free citizens of the territory of Rome. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.73" name="linknoteref-30.73" id="linknoteref-30.73">73</SPAN>
The thirty legions of Stilicho were reenforced by a large body of
Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were personally attached to his
service; and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who marched under the
banners of their native princes, Huldin and Sarus, were animated by
interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of
the confederate Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and
the Apennine; leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of Honorius,
securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on the other, the camp
of Stilicho, who had fixed his head-quarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who
seems to have avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his distant
forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege of
Florence, <SPAN href="#linknote-30.74" name="linknoteref-30.74" id="linknoteref-30.74">74</SPAN> by Radagaisus, is one of the earliest events
in the history of that celebrated republic; whose firmness checked and
delayed the unskillful fury of the Barbarians. The senate and people
trembled at their approach within a hundred and eighty miles of Rome;
and anxiously compared the danger which they had escaped, with the new
perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and a soldier,
the leader of a disciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who
respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had familiarly conversed with
the subjects of the empire in the same camps, and the same churches. The
savage Radagaisus was a stranger to the manners, the religion, and even
the language, of the civilized nations of the South. The fierceness of his
temper was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally
believed, that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce the city
into a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the most illustrious of
the Roman senators on the altars of those gods who were appeased by human
blood. The public danger, which should have reconciled all domestic
animosities, displayed the incurable madness of religious faction. The
oppressed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable
enemy of Rome, the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they
were more apprehensive of the sacrifices, than of the arms, of Radagaisus;
and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which condemned
the faith of their Christian adversaries. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.75"
name="linknoteref-30.75" id="linknoteref-30.75">75</SPAN> <SPAN href="#linknote-30.7511" name="linknoteref-30.7511" id="linknoteref-30.7511">7511</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.70" id="linknote-30.70">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
70 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.70">return</SPAN>)<br/> [</p>
<p>Cujus agendi<br/>
Spectator vel causa fui,<br/>
—-(Claudian, vi. Cons. Hon. 439,)<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which
he had seen somewhat nearer.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.71" id="linknote-30.71">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
71 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.71">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 331)
transports the war, and the victory of Stilisho, beyond the Danube. A
strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured (Tillemont, Hist.
des Emp. tom. v. p. 807.) In good policy, we must use the service of
Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.72" id="linknote-30.72">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
72 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.72">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Codex Theodos. l. vii.
tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law A.D. 406. May 18 satisfies me, as
it had done Godefroy, (tom. ii. p. 387,) of the true year of the invasion
of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year;
but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and respect, to St.
Paulinus of Nola.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.73" id="linknote-30.73">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
73 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.73">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Soon after Rome had
been taken by the Gauls, the senate, on a sudden emergency, armed ten
legions, 3000 horse, and 42,000 foot; a force which the city could not
have sent forth under Augustus, (Livy, xi. 25.) This declaration may
puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquieu.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.74" id="linknote-30.74">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
74 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.74">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Machiavel has
explained, at least as a philosopher, the origin of Florence, which
insensibly descended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of Faesulae
to the banks of the Arno, (Istoria Fiorentina, tom. i. p. 36. Londra,
1747.) The triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius,
(Tacit. Annal. i. 79,) deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing
city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, &c.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.75" id="linknote-30.75">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
75 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.75">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Yet the Jupiter of
Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor and Woden, was very different from the
Olympic or Capitoline Jove. The accommodating temper of Polytheism might
unite those various and remote deities; but the genuine Romans ahhorred
the human sacrifices of Gaul and Germany.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.7511" id="linknote-30.7511">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
7511 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.7511">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Gibbon has rather
softened the language of Augustine as to this threatened insurrection of
the Pagans, in order to restore the prohibited rites and ceremonies of
Paganism; and their treasonable hopes that the success of Radagaisus would
be the triumph of idolatry. Compare ii. 25—M.]</p>
<p>Florence was reduced to the last extremity; and the fainting courage of
the citizens was supported only by the authority of St. Ambrose; who had
communicated, in a dream, the promise of a speedy deliverance. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.76" name="linknoteref-30.76" id="linknoteref-30.76">76</SPAN>
On a sudden, they beheld, from their walls, the banners of Stilicho, who
advanced, with his united force, to the relief of the faithful city; and
who soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The
apparent contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat
of Radagaisus, may be reconciled without offering much violence to their
respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, who were intimately
connected by friendship and religion, ascribed this miraculous victory to
the providence of God, rather than to the valor of man. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.77" name="linknoteref-30.77" id="linknoteref-30.77">77</SPAN>
They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of bloodshed; and
positively affirm, that the Romans, whose camp was the scene of plenty and
idleness, enjoyed the distress of the Barbarians, slowly expiring on the
sharp and barren ridge of the hills of Faesulae, which rise above the city
of Florence. Their extravagant assertion that not a single soldier of the
Christian army was killed, or even wounded, may be dismissed with silent
contempt; but the rest of the narrative of Augustin and Orosius is
consistent with the state of the war, and the character of Stilicho.
Conscious that he commanded the last army of the republic, his prudence
would not expose it, in the open field, to the headstrong fury of the
Germans. The method of surrounding the enemy with strong lines of
circumvallation, which he had twice employed against the Gothic king, was
repeated on a larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The
examples of Caesar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the
Roman warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrrachium, which connected
twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen miles,
afforded the model of an intrenchment which might confine, and starve, the
most numerous host of Barbarians. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.78"
name="linknoteref-30.78" id="linknoteref-30.78">78</SPAN> The Roman troops had
less degenerated from the industry, than from the valor, of their
ancestors; and if their servile and laborious work offended the pride of
the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many thousand peasants, who would
labor, though, perhaps, they would not fight, for the salvation of their
native country. The imprisoned multitude of horses and men <SPAN href="#linknote-30.79" name="linknoteref-30.79" id="linknoteref-30.79">79</SPAN>
was gradually destroyed, by famine rather than by the sword; but the
Romans were exposed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to the
frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the hungry
Barbarians would precipitate them against the fortifications of Stilicho;
the general might sometimes indulge the ardor of his brave auxiliaries,
who eagerly pressed to assault the camp of the Germans; and these various
incidents might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts which dignify the
narrative of Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.80" name="linknoteref-30.80" id="linknoteref-30.80">80</SPAN>
A seasonable supply of men and provisions had been introduced into the
walls of Florence, and the famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn
besieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike nations, after the loss of
his bravest warriors, was reduced to confide either in the faith of a
capitulation, or in the clemency of Stilicho. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.81"
name="linknoteref-30.81" id="linknoteref-30.81">81</SPAN> But the death of the
royal captive, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of
Rome and of Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was
sufficient to brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and deliberate
cruelty. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.82" name="linknoteref-30.82" id="linknoteref-30.82">82</SPAN> The famished Germans, who escaped the fury of
the auxiliaries, were sold as slaves, at the contemptible price of as many
single pieces of gold; but the difference of food and climate swept away
great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and it was observed, that the
inhuman purchasers, instead of reaping the fruits of their labor were soon
obliged to provide the expense of their interment. Stilicho informed the
emperor and the senate of his success; and deserved, a second time, the
glorious title of Deliverer of Italy. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.83"
name="linknoteref-30.83" id="linknoteref-30.83">83</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.76" id="linknote-30.76">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
76 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.76">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Paulinus (in Vit.
Ambros c. 50) relates this story, which he received from the mouth of
Pansophia herself, a religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop soon
ceased to take an active part in the business of the world, and never
became a popular saint.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.77" id="linknote-30.77">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
77 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.77">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Augustin de Civitat.
Dei, v. 23. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p. 567-571. The two friends wrote in
Africa, ten or twelve years after the victory; and their authority is
implicitly followed by Isidore of Seville, (in Chron. p. 713, edit. Grot.)
How many interesting facts might Orosius have inserted in the vacant space
which is devoted to pious nonsense!]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.78" id="linknote-30.78">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
78 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.78">return</SPAN>)<br/> [</p>
<p>Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar<br/>
Ducit opus: pandit fossas, turritaque summis<br/>
Disponit castella jugis, magnoque necessu<br/>
Amplexus fines, saltus, memorosaque tesqua<br/>
Et silvas, vastaque feras indagine claudit.!<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
Yet the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 44) is far greater
than the amplifications of Lucan, (Pharsal. l. vi. 29-63.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.79" id="linknote-30.79">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
79 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.79">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The rhetorical
expressions of Orosius, “in arido et aspero montis jugo;” “in unum ac
parvum verticem,” are not very suitable to the encampment of a great army.
But Faesulae, only three miles from Florence, might afford space for the
head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the circuit
of the Roman lines.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.80" id="linknote-30.80">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
80 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.80">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Zosimus, l. v. p.
331, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.81" id="linknote-30.81">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
81 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.81">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Olympiodorus (apud
Photium, p. 180) uses an expression which would denote a strict and
friendly alliance, and render Stilicho still more criminal. The paulisper
detentus, deinde interfectus, of Orosius, is sufficiently odious. * Note:
Gibbon, by translating this passage of Olympiodorus, as if it had been
good Greek, has probably fallen into an error. The natural order of the
words is as Gibbon translates it; but it is almost clear, refers to the
Gothic chiefs, “whom Stilicho, after he had defeated Radagaisus, attached
to his army.” So in the version corrected by Classen for Niebuhr’s edition
of the Byzantines, p. 450.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.82" id="linknote-30.82">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
82 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.82">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Orosius, piously
inhuman, sacrifices the king and people, Agag and the Amalekites, without
a symptom of compassion. The bloody actor is less detestable than the
cool, unfeeling historian.——Note: Considering the vow, which
he was universally believed to have made, to destroy Rome, and to
sacrifice the senators on the altars, and that he is said to have
immolated his prisoners to his gods, the execution of Radagaisus, if, as
it appears, he was taken in arms, cannot deserve Gibbon’s severe
condemnation. Mr. Herbert (notes to his poem of Attila, p. 317) justly
observes, that “Stilicho had probably authority for hanging him on the
first tree.” Marcellinus, adds Mr. Herbert, attributes the execution to
the Gothic chiefs Sarus.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.83" id="linknote-30.83">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
83 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.83">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ And Claudian’s muse,
was she asleep? had she been ill paid! Methinks the seventh consulship of
Honorius (A.D. 407) would have furnished the subject of a noble poem.
Before it was discovered that the state could no longer be saved, Stilicho
(after Romulus, Camillus and Marius) might have been worthily surnamed the
fourth founder of Rome.]</p>
<p>The fame of the victory, and more especially of the miracle, has
encouraged a vain persuasion, that the whole army, or rather nation, of
Germans, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic, miserably perished
under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was the fate of Radagaisus
himself, of his brave and faithful companions, and of more than one third
of the various multitude of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians,
who adhered to the standard of their general. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.84"
name="linknoteref-30.84" id="linknoteref-30.84">84</SPAN> The union of such an
army might excite our surprise, but the causes of separation are obvious
and forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of valor, the jealousy of
command, the impatience of subordination, and the obstinate conflict of
opinions, of interests, and of passions, among so many kings and warriors,
who were untaught to yield, or to obey. After the defeat of Radagaisus,
two parts of the German host, which must have exceeded the number of one
hundred thousand men, still remained in arms, between the Apennine and the
Alps, or between the Alps and the Danube. It is uncertain whether they
attempted to revenge the death of their general; but their irregular fury
was soon diverted by the prudence and firmness of Stilicho, who opposed
their march, and facilitated their retreat; who considered the safety of
Rome and Italy as the great object of his care, and who sacrificed, with
too much indifference, the wealth and tranquillity of the distant
provinces. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.85" name="linknoteref-30.85" id="linknoteref-30.85">85</SPAN> The Barbarians acquired, from the junction of
some Pannonian deserters, the knowledge of the country, and of the roads;
and the invasion of Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by the
remains of the great army of Radagaisus. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.86"
name="linknoteref-30.86" id="linknoteref-30.86">86</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.84" id="linknote-30.84">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
84 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.84">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ A luminous passage of
Prosper’s Chronicle, “In tres partes, pes diversos principes, diversus
exercitus,” reduces the miracle of Florence and connects the history of
Italy, Gaul, and Germany.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.85" id="linknote-30.85">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
85 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.85">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Orosius and Jerom
positively charge him with instigating the in vasion. “Excitatae a
Stilichone gentes,” &c. They must mean a directly. He saved Italy at
the expense of Gaul]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.86" id="linknote-30.86">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
86 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.86">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The Count de Buat is
satisfied, that the Germans who invaded Gaul were the two thirds that yet
remained of the army of Radagaisus. See the Histoire Ancienne des Peuples
de l’Europe, (tom. vii. p. 87, 121. Paris, 1772;) an elaborate work, which
I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As early as 1771,
I find the same idea expressed in a rough draught of the present History.
I have since observed a similar intimation in Mascou, (viii. 15.) Such
agreement, without mutual communication, may add some weight to our common
sentiment.]</p>
<p>Yet if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes of Germany,
who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, their hopes were disappointed. The
Alemanni preserved a state of inactive neutrality; and the Franks
distinguished their zeal and courage in the defence of the of the empire.
In the rapid progress down the Rhine, which was the first act of the
administration of Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar
attention, to secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the
irreconcilable enemies of peace and of the republic. Marcomir, one of
their kings, was publicly convicted, before the tribunal of the Roman
magistrate, of violating the faith of treaties. He was sentenced to a
mild, but distant exile, in the province of Tuscany; and this degradation
of the regal dignity was so far from exciting the resentment of his
subjects, that they punished with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted
to revenge his brother; and maintained a dutiful allegiance to the
princes, who were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.87" name="linknoteref-30.87" id="linknoteref-30.87">87</SPAN>
When the limits of Gaul and Germany were shaken by the northern
emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of the
Vandals; who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had again separated
their troops from the standard of their Barbarian allies. They paid the
penalty of their rashness; and twenty thousand Vandals, with their king
Godigisclus, were slain in the field of battle. The whole people must have
been extirpated, if the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief,
had not trampled down the infantry of the Franks; who, after an honorable
resistance, were compelled to relinquish the unequal contest. The
victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last day of the
year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most probably frozen,
they entered, without opposition, the defenceless provinces of Gaul. This
memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the
Burgundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall
of the Roman empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers,
which had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the
earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.88" name="linknoteref-30.88" id="linknoteref-30.88">88</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.87" id="linknote-30.87">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
87 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.87">return</SPAN>)<br/> [</p>
<p>Provincia missos<br/>
Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges<br/>
Quos dederis.<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, &c.) is clear and satisfactory.
These kings of France are unknown to Gregory of Tours; but the author of
the Gesta Francorum mentions both Sunno and Marcomir, and names the latter
as the father of Pharamond, (in tom. ii. p. 543.) He seems to write from
good materials, which he did not understand.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.88" id="linknote-30.88">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
88 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.88">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Zosimus, (l. vi. p.
373,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576,) and the Chronicles. Gregory of
Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of
France) has preserved a valuable fragment of Renatus Profuturus
Frigeridus, whose three names denote a Christian, a Roman subject, and a
Semi-Barbarian.]</p>
<p>While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the Franks,
and the neutrality of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome, unconscious of
their approaching calamities, enjoyed the state of quiet and prosperity,
which had seldom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds
were permitted to graze in the pastures of the Barbarians; their huntsmen
penetrated, without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the
Hercynian wood. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.89" name="linknoteref-30.89" id="linknoteref-30.89">89</SPAN> The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like
those of the Tyber, with elegant houses, and well-cultivated farms; and if
a poet descended the river, he might express his doubt, on which side was
situated the territory of the Romans. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.90"
name="linknoteref-30.90" id="linknoteref-30.90">90</SPAN> This scene of peace
and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the
smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the
desolation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz was surprised and
destroyed; and many thousand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the
church. Worms perished after a long and obstinate siege; Strasburgh,
Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression
of the German yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread from the banks
of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul.
That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the
Pyrenees, was delivered to the Barbarians, who drove before them, in a
promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the
spoils of their houses and altars. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.91"
name="linknoteref-30.91" id="linknoteref-30.91">91</SPAN> The ecclesiastics, to
whom we are indebted for this vague description of the public calamities,
embraced the opportunity of exhorting the Christians to repent of the sins
which had provoked the Divine Justice, and to renounce the perishable
goods of a wretched and deceitful world. But as the Pelagian controversy,
<SPAN href="#linknote-30.92" name="linknoteref-30.92" id="linknoteref-30.92">92</SPAN>
which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predestination, soon became
the serious employment of the Latin clergy, the Providence which had
decreed, or foreseen, or permitted, such a train of moral and natural
evils, was rashly weighed in the imperfect and fallacious balance of
reason. The crimes, and the misfortunes, of the suffering people, were
presumptuously compared with those of their ancestors; and they arraigned
the Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the common destruction the
feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion of the human species. These idle
disputants overlooked the invariable laws of nature, which have connected
peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valor. The
timid and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recall the Palatine
legions for the protection of Italy; the remains of the stationary troops
might be unequal to the arduous task; and the Barbarian auxiliaries might
prefer the unbounded license of spoil to the benefits of a moderate and
regular stipend. But the provinces of Gaul were filled with a numerous
race of hardy and robust youth, who, in the defence of their houses, their
families, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would have deserved
to vanquish. The knowledge of their native country would have enabled them
to oppose continual and insuperable obstacles to the progress of an
invader; and the deficiency of the Barbarians, in arms, as well as in
discipline, removed the only pretence which excuses the submission of a
populous country to the inferior numbers of a veteran army. When France
was invaded by Charles V., he inquired of a prisoner, how many days Paris
might be distant from the frontier; “Perhaps twelve, but they will be days
of battle:” <SPAN href="#linknote-30.93" name="linknoteref-30.93" id="linknoteref-30.93">93</SPAN> such was the gallant answer which checked the
arrogance of that ambitious prince. The subjects of Honorius, and those of
Francis I., were animated by a very different spirit; and in less than two
years, the divided troops of the savages of the Baltic, whose numbers,
were they fairly stated, would appear contemptible, advanced, without a
combat, to the foot of the Pyrenean Mountains.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.89" id="linknote-30.89">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
89 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.89">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Claudian (i. Cons.
Stil. l. i. 221, &c., l. ii. 186) describes the peace and prosperity
of the Gallic frontier. The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i.
p. 174) would read Alba (a nameless rivulet of the Ardennes) instead of
Albis; and expatiates on the danger of the Gallic cattle grazing beyond
the Elbe. Foolish enough! In poetical geography, the Elbe, and the
Hercynian, signify any river, or any wood, in Germany. Claudian is not
prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.90" id="linknote-30.90">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
90 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.90">return</SPAN>)<br/> [—Germinasque
viator Cum videat ripas, quae sit Romana requirat.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.91" id="linknote-30.91">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
91 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.91">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Jerom, tom. i. p. 93.
See in the 1st vol. of the Historians of France, p. 777, 782, the proper
extracts from the Carmen de Providentil Divina, and Salvian. The anonymous
poet was himself a captive, with his bishop and fellow-citizens.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.92" id="linknote-30.92">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
92 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.92">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The Pelagian doctrine,
which was first agitated A.D. 405, was condemned, in the space of ten
years, at Rome and Carthage. St Augustin fought and conquered; but the
Greek church was favorable to his adversaries; and (what is singular
enough) the people did not take any part in a dispute which they could not
understand.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.93" id="linknote-30.93">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
93 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.93">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the Mémoires de
Guillaume du Bellay, l. vi. In French, the original reproof is less
obvious, and more pointed, from the double sense of the word journee,
which alike signifies, a day’s travel, or a battle.]</p>
<p>In the early part of the reign of Honorius, the vigilance of Stilicho had
successfully guarded the remote island of Britain from her incessant
enemies of the ocean, the mountains, and the Irish coast. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.94" name="linknoteref-30.94" id="linknoteref-30.94">94</SPAN>
But those restless Barbarians could not neglect the fair opportunity of
the Gothic war, when the walls and stations of the province were stripped
of the Roman troops. If any of the legionaries were permitted to return
from the Italian expedition, their faithful report of the court and
character of Honorius must have tended to dissolve the bonds of
allegiance, and to exasperate the seditious temper of the British army.
The spirit of revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age of Gallienus,
was revived by the capricious violence of the soldiers; and the
unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates, who were the objects of
their choice, were the instruments, and at length the victims, of their
passion. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.95" name="linknoteref-30.95" id="linknoteref-30.95">95</SPAN> Marcus was the first whom they placed on the
throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain and of the West. They violated,
by the hasty murder of Marcus, the oath of fidelity which they had imposed
on themselves; and their disapprobation of his manners may seem to
inscribe an honorable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they
adorned with the diadem and the purple; and, at the end of four months,
Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The memory of the great
Constantine, whom the British legions had given to the church and to the
empire, suggested the singular motive of their third choice. They
discovered in the ranks a private soldier of the name of Constantine, and
their impetuous levity had already seated him on the throne, before they
perceived his incapacity to sustain the weight of that glorious
appellation. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.96" name="linknoteref-30.96" id="linknoteref-30.96">96</SPAN> Yet the authority of Constantine was less
precarious, and his government was more successful, than the transient
reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger of leaving his inactive troops
in those camps, which had been twice polluted with blood and sedition,
urged him to attempt the reduction of the Western provinces. He landed at
Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and after he had reposed himself
some days, he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of
the Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful sovereign. They obeyed the
summons without reluctance. The neglect of the court of Ravenna had
absolved a deserted people from the duty of allegiance; their actual
distress encouraged them to accept any circumstances of change, without
apprehension, and, perhaps, with some degree of hope; and they might
flatter themselves, that the troops, the authority, and even the name of a
Roman emperor, who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy
country from the rage of the Barbarians. The first successes of
Constantine against the detached parties of the Germans, were magnified by
the voice of adulation into splendid and decisive victories; which the
reunion and insolence of the enemy soon reduced to their just value. His
negotiations procured a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of
the Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises,
to undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive and uncertain
treaties, instead of restoring the pristine vigor of the Gallic frontier,
served only to disgrace the majesty of the prince, and to exhaust what yet
remained of the treasures of the republic. Elated, however, with this
imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the provinces
of the South, to encounter a more pressing and personal danger. Sarus the
Goth was ordered to lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperor
Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy were unworthily consumed in
this domestic quarrel. After the loss of his two bravest generals,
Justinian and Nevigastes, the former of whom was slain in the field of
battle, the latter in a peaceful but treacherous interview, Constantine
fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually
attacked seven days; and the Imperial army supported, in a precipitate
retreat, the ignominy of purchasing a secure passage from the freebooters
and outlaws of the Alps. <SPAN href="#linknote-30.97" name="linknoteref-30.97" id="linknoteref-30.97">97</SPAN> Those mountains now separated the dominions
of two rival monarchs; and the fortifications of the double frontier were
guarded by the troops of the empire, whose arms would have been more
usefully employed to maintain the Roman limits against the Barbarians of
Germany and Scythia.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.94" id="linknote-30.94">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
94 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.94">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Claudian, (i. Cons.
Stil. l. ii. 250.) It is supposed that the Scots of Ireland invaded, by
sea, the whole western coast of Britain: and some slight credit may be
given even to Nennius and the Irish traditions, (Carte’s Hist. of England,
vol. i. p. 169.) Whitaker’s Genuine History of the Britons, p. 199. The
sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, which were extant in the ninth century,
must have contained as many thousand lies; yet we may believe, that, in
one of these Irish inroads the future apostle was led away captive,
(Usher, Antiquit. Eccles Britann. p. 431, and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.
xvi. p. 45 782, &c.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.95" id="linknote-30.95">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
95 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.95">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The British usurpers
are taken from Zosimus, (l. vi. p. 371-375,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p.
576, 577,) Olympiodorus, (apud Photium, p. 180, 181,) the ecclesiastical
historians, and the Chronicles. The Latins are ignorant of Marcus.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.96" id="linknote-30.96">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
96 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.96">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Cum in Constantino
inconstantiam... execrarentur, (Sidonius Apollinaris, l. v. epist. 9, p.
139, edit. secund. Sirmond.) Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a
pun, to stigmatize a prince who had disgraced his grandfather.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-30.97" id="linknote-30.97">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
97 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-30.97">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Bagaudoe is the name
which Zosimus applies to them; perhaps they deserved a less odious
character, (see Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 203, and this History,
vol. i. p. 407.) We shall hear of them again.]</p>
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