The Government and Death of Jovian—Election of Valentinian, who Associates His Brother Valens, and Makes the Final Division of the Eastern and Western Empires—Revolt of Procopius—Civil and Ecclesiastical Administration—Germany—Britain—Africa.—The East—The Danube—Death of Valentinian—His Two Sons, Gratian and Valentinian II., Succeed to the Western Empire
State of the church, A.D. 363.
THE death of Julian had left the public affairs of the
empire in a very doubtful and dangerous situation. The Roman
army was saved by an inglorious, perhaps a necessary,
treaty;(1) and the first moments of peace were consecrated by the pious Jovian to restore the domestic tranquillity of the
church and state. The indiscretion of his predecessor,
instead of reconciling, had artfully fomented the religious
war; and the balance which he affected to preserve between
the hostile factions served only to perpetuate the contest
by the vicissitudes of hope and fear, by the rival claims of
ancient possession and actual favour. The Christians had
forgotten the spirit of the Gospel, and the Pagans had
imbibed the spirit of the church. In private families the
sentiments of nature were extinguished by the blind fury of
zeal and revenge; the majesty of the laws was violated or
abused; the cities of the East were stained with blood; and
the most implacable enemies of the Romans were in the bosom
of their country. Jovian was educated in the profession of
Christianity; and as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the
banner of the Cross, the LABARUM of Constantine, which was
again displayed at the head of the legions, announced to the
people the faith of their new emperor. As soon as he
ascended the throne he transmitted a circular epistle to all
the governors of provinces, in which he confessed the divine
truth and secured the legal establishment of the Christian
religion. The insidious edicts of Julian were abolished, the
ecclesiastical immunities were restored and enlarged, and
Jovian condescended to lament that the distress of the times
obliged him to diminish the measure of charitable
distributions.(2) The Christians were unanimous in the loud
and sincere applause which they bestowed on the pious
successor of Julian; but they were still ignorant what creed
or what synod he would choose for the standard of orthodoxy,
and the peace of the church immediately revived those eager
disputes which had been suspended during the season of
persecution. The episcopal leaders of the contending sects,
convinced from experience how much their fate would depend
on the earliest impressions that were made on the mind of an
untutored soldier, hastened to the court of Edessa, or
Antioch. The highways of the East were crowded with
Homoousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and Eunomian bishops,
who struggled to outstrip each other in the holy race; the
apartments of the palace resounded with their clamours, and
the ears of the prince were assaulted, and perhaps
astonished, by the singular mixture of metaphysical argument
and passionate invective. (3) The moderation of Jovian, who
recommended concord and charity, and referred the disputants
to the sentence of a future council, was interpreted as a
symptom of indifference; but his attachment to the Nicene
Creed was at length discovered and declared by the reverence
which he expressed for the celestial (4) virtues of the
great Athanasius. The intrepid veteran of the faith, at the
age of seventy, had issued from his retreat on the first
intelligence of the tyrant's death. The acclamations of the
people seated him once more on the archiepiscopal throne,
and he wisely accepted or anticipated the invitation of
Jovian. The venerable figure of Athanasius, his calm courage
and insinuating eloquence, sustained the reputation which he
had already acquired in the courts of four successive
princes.(5) As soon as he had gained the confidence and
secured the faith of the Christian emperor, he returned in
triumph to his diocese, and continued, with mature counsels
and undiminished vigour, to direct, ten years longer,(6) the
ecclesiastical government of Alexandria, Egypt, and the
Catholic church. Before his departure from Antioch, he
assured Jovian that his orthodox devotion would be rewarded
with a long and peaceful reign. Athanasius had reason to
hope that he should be allowed either the merit of a
successful prediction, or the excuse of a grateful though
ineffectual prayer.(7)
Jovian proclaims universal toleration.
The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide
the natural descent of its object, operates with
irresistible weight; and Jovian had the good fortune to
embrace the religious opinions which were supported by the
spirit of the times, and the zeal and numbers of the most
powerful sect.(8) Under his reign Christianity obtained an easy and lasting victory; and as soon as the smile of royal patronage was withdrawn, the genius of Paganism, which had
been fondly raised and cherished by the arts of Julian, sunk
irrecoverably in the dust. In many cities the temples were
shut or deserted; the philosophers, who had abused their
transient favour, thought it prudent to shave their beards
and disguise their profession; and the Christians rejoiced
that they were now in a condition to forgive or to revenge
the injuries which they had suffered under the preceding
reign.(9) The consternation of the Pagan world was dispelled by a wise and gracious edict of toleration, in which Jovian explicitly declared that, although he should severely punish
the sacrilegious rites of magic, his subjects might
exercise, with freedom and safety, the ceremonies of the
ancient worship. The memory of this law has been preserved
by the orator Themistius, who was deputed by the senate of
Constantinople to express their loyal devotion for the new
emperor. Themistius expatiates on the clemency of the Divine
Nature, the facility of human error, the rights of
conscience, and the independence of the mind, and, with some
eloquence, inculcates the principles of philosophical
toleration, whose aid Superstition herself, in the hour of
her distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes
that in the recent changes both religions had been
alternately disgraced by the seeming acquisition of
worthless proselytes, of those votaries of the reigning
purple who could pass, without a reason and without a blush,
from the church to the temple, and from the altars of
Jupiter to the sacred table of the Christians.(10)
His progress from Antioch. A.D. 363, October
In the space of seven months the Roman troops, who were now
returned to Antioch, had performed a march of fifteen
hundred miles, in which they had endured all the hardships
of war, of famine, and of climate. Notwithstanding their
services, their fatigues, and the approach of winter, the
timid and impatient Jovian allowed only to the men and
horses a respite of six weeks. The emperor could not sustain
the indiscreet and malicious raillery of the people of
Antioch.(11) He was impatient to possess the palace of
Constantinople, and to prevent the ambition of some
competitor who might occupy the vacant allegiance of Europe;
but he soon received the grateful intelligence that his
authority was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to
the Atlantic ocean. By the first letters which he despatched
from the camp of Mesopotamia, he had delegated the military
command of Gaul and Illyricum to Malarich, a brave and
faithful officer of the nation of the Franks, and to his
father-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had formerly
distinguished his courage and conduct in the defence of
Nisibis. Malarich had declined an office to which he thought
himself unequal, and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in
an accidental mutiny of the Batavian cohorts.(12) But the
moderation of Jovinus, master-general of the cavalry, who
forgave the intention of his disgrace, soon appeased the
tumult and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers.
The oath of fidelity was administered and taken with loyal
acclamations, and the deputies of the Western armies(13)
saluted their new sovereign as he descended from Mount
Taurus to the city of Tyana, in Cappadocia. From Tyana he
continued his hasty march to Ancyra, capital of the province
of Galatia, A.D. 364. January 1. where Jovian assumed, with his infant son, the name and ensigns of the consulship. (14) Dadastana,(15) an obscure town, almost at an equal distance between Ancyra and
Nice, was marked for the fatal term of his journey and his
life.Death of Jovian, February 17. After indulging himself with a plentiful, perhaps an
intemperate supper, he retired to rest, and the next morning
the emperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause of
this sudden death was variously understood. By some it was
ascribed to the consequences of an indigestion, occasioned
either by the quantity of the wine or the quality of the
mushrooms which he had swallowed in the evening. According
to others, he was suffocated in his sleep by the vapour of
charcoal, which extracted from the walls of the apartment
the unwholesome moisture of the fresh plaster.(16) But the
want of a regular inquiry into the death of a prince whose
reign and person were soon forgotten appears to have been
the only circumstance which countenanced the malicious
whispers of poison and domestic guilt.(17) The body of Jovian
was sent to Constantinople to be interred with his
predecessors, and the sad procession was met on the road by
his wife Charito, the daughter of Count Lucillian, who still
wept the recent death of her father, and was hastening to
dry her tears in the embraces of an Imperial husband. Her
disappointment and grief were embittered by the anxiety of
maternal tenderness. Six weeks before the death of Jovian,
his infant son had been placed in the curule chair, adorned
with the title of Nobilissimus and the vain ensigns of the
consulship. Unconscious of his fortune, the royal youth, who
from his grandfather assumed the name of Varronian, was
reminded only by the jealousy of the government that he was
the son of an emperor. Sixteen years afterwards he was still
alive; but he had already been deprived of an eye, and his
afflicted mother expected, every hour, that the innocent
victim would be torn from her arms, to appease with his
blood the suspicions of the reigning prince.(18)
Vacancy of the throne. Feb. 17-26.
After the death of Jovian the throne of the Roman world
remained ten days (19) without a master. The ministers and
generals still continued to meet in council, to exercise
their respective functions, to maintain the public order,
and peaceably to conduct the army to the city of Nice in
Bithynia, which was chosen for the place of the election.(20)
In a solemn assembly of the civil and military powers of the
empire, the diadem was again unanimously offered to the
praefect Sallust. He enjoyed the glory of a second refusal;
and, when the virtues of the father were alleged in favour
of the son, the praefect, with the firmness of a
disinterested patriot, declared to the electors that the
feeble age of the one, and the inexperienced youth of the
other, were equally incapable of the laborious duties of
government. Several candidates were proposed, and, after
weighing the objections of character or situation, they were
successively rejected: Election and character of Valentinian. but as soon as the name of
Valentinian was pronounced, the merit of that officer united
the suffrages of the whole assembly, and obtained the
sincere approbation of Sallust himself. Valentinian(21) was
the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in Pannonia,
who from an obscure condition had raised himself, by
matchless strength and dexterity, to the military commands
of Africa and Britain, from which he retired with an ample
fortune and suspicious integrity. The rank and services of
Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the first steps of
the promotion of his son, and afforded him an early
opportunity of displaying those solid and useful
qualifications which raised his character above the ordinary
level of his fellow-soldiers. The person of Valentinian was
tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly countenance, deeply
marked with the impression of sense and spirit, inspired his
friends with awe, and his enemies with fear; and, to second
the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of Gratian had
inherited the advantages of a strong and healthy
constitution. By the habits of chastity and temperance,
which restrain the appetites and invigorate the faculties,
Valentinian preserved his own and the public esteem. The
avocations of a military life had diverted his youth from
the elegant pursuits of literature; he was ignorant of the
Greek language and the arts of rhetoric; but, as the mind of
the orator was never disconcerted by timid perplexity, he
was able, as often as the occasion prompted him, to deliver
his decided sentiments with bold and ready elocution. The
laws of martial discipline were the only laws that he had
studied, and he was soon distinguished by the laborious
diligence and inflexible severity with which he discharged
and enforced the duties of the camp. In the time of Julian
he provoked the danger of disgrace by the contempt which he
publicly expressed for the reigning religion; (22) and it
should seem, from his subsequent conduct, that the
indiscreet and unseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the
effect of military spirit rather than of Christian zeal. He
was pardoned, however, and still employed by a prince who
esteemed his merit, (23) and in the various events of the
Persian war he improved the reputation which he had already
acquired on the banks of the Rhine. The celerity and success
with which he executed an important commission recommended
him to the favour of Jovian, and to the honourable command
of the second school, or company, of Targeteers of the
domestic guards. In the march from Antioch he had reached
his quarters at Ancyra, when he was unexpectedly summoned,
without guilt and without intrigue, to assume, in the
forty-third year of his age, the absolute government of the
Roman empire.
He is acknowledged by the army, A.D. 364. February 26.
The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of
little moment, unless it were confirmed by the voice of the
army. The aged Sallust, who had long observed the irregular
fluctuations of popular assemblies, proposed, under pain of
death, that none of those persons whose rank in the service
might excite a party in their favour, should appear in
public on the day of the inauguration Yet such was the
prevalence of ancient superstition, that a whole day was
voluntarily added to this dangerous interval because it
happened to be the intercalation of the Bissextile.(24) At
length, when the hour was supposed to be propitious,
Valentinian showed himself from a lofty tribunal; the
judicious choice was applauded, and the new prince was
solemnly invested with the diadem and the purple, amidst the
acclamations of the troops, who were disposed in martial
order round the tribunal. But when he stretched forth his
hand to address the armed multitude, a busy whisper was
accidentally started in the ranks, and insensibly swelled
into a loud and imperious clamour, that he should name,
without delay, a colleague in the empire. The intrepid
calmness of Valentinian obtained silence and commanded
respect, and he thus addressed the assembly:
"A few minutes since it was in your power, fellow-soldiers, to have left me in the obscurity of a private station. Judging from the testimony of my past life that I deserved to reign, you have placed me on the throne. It is now my duty to consult the safety and interest of the republic. The weight of the universe is undoubtedly too great for the hands of a feeble mortal. I am conscious of the limits of my abilities and the uncertainty of my life, and, far from declining, I am anxious to solicit, the assistance of a worthy colleague. But, where discord may be fatal, the choice of a faithful friend requires mature and serious deliberation. That deliberation shall be my care. Let your conduct be dutiful and consistent. Retire to your quarters; refresh your minds and bodies; and expect the accustomed donative on the accession of a new emperor." (25)
The astonished troops, with a mixture of pride, of satisfaction, and of terror, confessed the voice of their master. Their angry clamours subsided into silent reverence, and Valentinian, encompassed with the eagles of the legions and the various banners of the cavalry and infantry, was conducted in warlike pomp to the palace of Nice. As he was sensible, however, of the importance of preventing some rash declaration of the soldiers, he consulted the assembly of the chiefs and their real sentiments were concisely expressed by the generous freedom of Dagalaiphus.
"Most excellent prince," said that officer, "if you consider only your family, you have a brother; if you love the republic, look round for the most deserving of the Romans." (26)
The emperor, who suppressed his displeasure without altering his intention, slowly proceeded from Nice to Nicomedia and Constantinople. Associates his brother Valens. A.D. 364. March 28 In one of the suburbs of that capital, (27) thirty days after his own elevation, he bestowed the title of Augustus on his brother Valens: and as the boldest patriots were convinced that their opposition, without being serviceable to their country, would be fatal to themselves, the declaration of his absolute will was received with silent submission. Valens was now in the thirty-sixth year of his age, but his abilities had never been exercised in any employment, military or civil, and his character had not inspired the world with any sanguine expectations. He possessed, however, one quality which recommended him to Valentinian, and preserved the domestic peace of the empire: a devout and grateful attachment to his benefactor, whose superiority of genius, as well as of authority, Valens humbly and cheerfully acknowledged in every action of his life.(28)
The final division of the eastern and western empires. A.D. 364. June.
Before Valentinian divided the provinces, he reformed the
administration of the empire. All ranks of subjects who had
been injured or oppressed under the reign of Julian were
invited to support their public accusations. The silence of
mankind attested the spotless integrity of the praefect
Sallust,(29) and his own pressing solicitations that he might
be permitted to retire from the business of the state were
rejected by Valentinian with the most honourable expressions
of friendship and esteem. But among the favourites of the
late emperor there were many who had abused his credulity or
superstition, and who could no longer hope to be protected
either by favour or justice. (30) The greater part of the
ministers of the palace and the governors of the provinces
were removed from their respective stations, yet the eminent
merit of some officers was distinguished from the obnoxious
crowd, and, notwithstanding the opposite clamours of zeal
and resentment, the whole proceedings of this delicate
inquiry appear to have been conducted with a reasonable
share of wisdom and moderation. (31) The festivity of a new
reign received a short and suspicious interruption from the
sudden illness of the two princes, but as soon as their
health was restored they left Constantinople in the
beginning of the spring. In the castle or palace of Mediana,
only three miles from Naissus, they executed the solemn and
final division of the Roman empire.(32) Valentinian bestowed
on his brother the rich praefecture of the East, from the
Lower Danube to the confines of Persia; whilst he reserved
for his immediate government the warlike praefectures of
Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul, from the extremity of Greece to
the Caledonian rampart and from the rampart of Caledonia to
the foot of Mount Atlas. The provincial administration
remained on its former basis, but a double supply of
generals and magistrates was required for two councils and
two courts; the division was made with a just regard to
their peculiar merit and situation, and seven
master-generals were soon created either of the cavalry or
infantry. When this important business had been amicably
transacted, Valentinian and Valens embraced for the last
time. The emperor of the West established his temporary
residence at Milan, and the emperor of the East returned to
Constantinople to assume the dominion of fifty provinces, of
whose language he was totally ignorant.(33)
Revolt of Procopius. A.D. 365. September 28.
The tranquillity of the East was soon disturbed by rebellion
and the throne of Valens was threatened by the daring
attempts of a rival whose affinity to the emperor Julian(34)
was his sole merit, and had been his only crime. Procopius
had been hastily promoted from the obscure station of a
tribune and a notary to the joint command of the army of
Mesopotamia; the public opinion already named him as the
successor of a prince who was destitute of natural heirs;
and a vain rumour was propagated by his friends or his
enemies, that Julian, before the altar of the Moon at
Carrhae, had privately invested Procopius with the Imperial
purple.(35) He endeavoured, by his dutiful and submissive
behaviour, to disarm the jealousy of Jovian, resigned
without a contest his military command, and retired, with
his wife and family, to cultivate the ample patrimony which
he possessed in the province of Cappadocia. These useful and
innocent occupations were interrupted by the appearance of
an officer with a band of soldiers, who, in the name of his
new sovereigns, Valentinian and Valens, was despatched to
conduct the unfortunate Procopius either to a perpetual
prison or an ignominious death. His presence of mind
procured him a longer respite and a more splendid fate.
Without presuming to dispute the royal mandate, he requested
the indulgence of a few moments to embrace his weeping
family, and, while the vigilance of his guards was relaxed
by a plentiful entertainment, he dexterously escaped to the
seacoast of the Euxine, from whence he passed over the
country of Bosphorus. In that sequestered region he remained
many months, exposed to the hardships of exile, of solitude,
and of want; his melancholy temper brooding over his
misfortune, and his mind agitated by the just apprehension
that, if any accident should discover his name, the
faithless barbarians would violate, without much scruple,
the laws of hospitality. In a moment of impatience and
despair, Procopius embarked in a merchant-vessel which made
sail for Constantinople, and boldly aspired to the rank of a
sovereign because he was not allowed to enjoy the security
of a subject. At first he lurked in the villages of
Bithynia, continually changing his habitation and his
disguise. (36) By degrees he ventured into the capital,
trusted his life and fortune to the fidelity of two friends,
a senator and an eunuch, and conceived some hopes of success
from the intelligence which he obtained of the actual state
of public affairs. The body of the people was infected with
a spirit of discontent: they regretted the justice and the
abilities of Sallust, who had been imprudently dismissed
from the praefecture of the East. They despised the
character of Valens, which was rude without vigour, and
feeble without mildness. They dreaded the influence of his
father-in-law, the patrician Petronius, a cruel and
rapacious minister, who rigorously exacted all the arrears
of tribute that might remain unpaid since the reign of the
emperor Aurelian. The circumstances were propitious to the
designs of an usurper. The hostile measures of the Persians
required the presence of Valens in Syria; from the Danube to
the Euphrates the troops were in motion, and the capital was
occasionally filled with the soldiers who passed or repassed
the Thracian Bosphorus. Two cohorts of Gauls were persuaded
to listen to the secret proposals of the conspirators, which
were recommended by the promise of a liberal donative; and
as they still revered the memory of Julian, they easily
consented to support the hereditary claim of his proscribed
kinsman. At the dawn of day they were drawn up near the
baths of Anastasia, and Procopius, clothed in a purple
garment more suitable to a player than to a monarch,
appeared, as if he rose from the dead, in the midst of
Constantinople. The soldiers, who were prepared for his
reception, saluted their trembling prince with shouts of joy
and vows of fidelity. Their numbers were soon increased by a
sturdy band of peasants collected from the adjacent country,
and Procopius, shielded by the arms of his adherents, was
successively conducted to the tribunal, the senate, and the
palace. During the first moments of his tumultuous reign he
was astonished and terrified by the gloomy silence of the
people, who were either ignorant of the cause or
apprehensive of the event. But his military strength was
superior to any actual resistance; the malcontents flocked
to the standard of rebellion; the poor were excited by the
hopes, and the rich were intimidated by the fear, of a
general pillage; and the obstinate credulity of the
multitude was once more deceived by the promised advantages
of a revolution. The magistrates were seized, the prisons
and arsenals broke open, the gates and the entrance of the
harbour were diligently occupied, and, in a few hours,
Procopius became the absolute, though precarious, master of
the Imperial city. The usurper improved this unexpected
success with some degree of courage and dexterity. He
artfully propagated the rumours and opinions the most
favourable to his interest, while he deluded the populace by
giving audience to the frequent but imaginary ambassadors of
distant nations. The large bodies of troops stationed in the
cities of Thrace and the fortresses of the Lower Danube were
gradually involved in the guilt of rebellion, and the Gothic
princes consented to supply the sovereign of Constantinople
with the formidable strength of several thousand
auxiliaries. His generals passed the Bosphorus, and subdued,
without an effort, the unarmed but wealthy provinces of
Bithynia and Asia. After an honourable defence the city and
island of Cyzicus yielded to his power, the renowned legions
of the Jovians and Herculians embraced the cause of the
usurper whom they were ordered to crush, and, as the
veterans were continually augmented with new levies, he soon
appeared at the head of an army whose valour, as well as
numbers, were not unequal to the greatness of the contest.
The son of Hormisdas, (37) a youth of spirit and ability,
condescended to draw his sword against the lawful emperor of
the East, and the Persian prince was immediately invested
with the ancient and extraordinary powers of a Roman
proconsul. The alliance of Faustina, the widow of the
emperor Constantius, who intrusted herself and her daughter
to the hands of the usurper, added dignity and reputation to
his cause. The princess Constantia, who was then about five
years of age, accompanied, in a litter, the monarch of the
army. She was shown to the multitude in the arms of her
adopted father, and, as often as she passed through the
ranks, the tenderness of the soldiers was inflamed into
martial fury:(38) They recollected the glories of the house
of Constantine, and they declared, with loyal acclamation,
that they would shed the last drop of their blood in the
defence of the royal infant.(39)
His defeat and death, A.D. 366. May 28
In the meanwhile Valentinian was alarmed and perplexed by
the doubtful intelligence of the revolt of the East. The
difficulties of a German war forced him to confine his
immediate care to the safety of his own dominions; and, as
every channel of communication was stopped or corrupted, he
listened, with doubtful anxiety, to the rumours which were
industriously spread that the defeat and death of Valens had
left Procopius sole master of the Eastern provinces. Valens
was not dead but on the news of the rebellion, which he
received at Casarea, he basely despaired of his life and
fortune, proposed to negotiate with the usurper, and
discovered his secret inclination to abdicate the Imperial
purple. The timid monarch was saved from disgrace and ruin
by the firmness of his ministers, and their abilities soon
decided in his favour the event of the civil war. In a
season of tranquillity Sallust had resigned without a
murmur, but, as soon as the public safety was attacked, he
ambitiously solicited the pre-eminence of toil and danger,
and the restoration of that virtuous minister to the
praefecture of the East was the first step which indicated
the repentance of Valens, and satisfied the minds of the
people. The reign of Procopius was apparently supported by
powerful armies and obedient provinces. But many of the
principal officers, military as well as civil, had been
urged, either by motives of duty or interest, to withdraw
themselves from the guilty scene, or to watch the moment of
betraying and deserting the cause of the usurper. Lupicinus
advanced by hasty marches to bring the legions of Syria to
the aid of Valens. Arintheus, who in strength, beauty, and
valour excelled all the heroes of the age, attacked with a
small troop a superior body of the rebels. When he beheld
the faces of the soldiers who had served under his banner,
he commanded them, with a loud voice, to seize and deliver
up their pretended leader, and such was the ascendant of his
genius that this extraordinary order was instantly obeyed.
(40) Arbetio, a respectable veteran of the great Constantine,
who had been distinguished by the honours of the consulship,
was persuaded to leave his retirement, and once more to
conduct an army into the field. In the heat of action,
calmly taking off his helmet, he showed his grey hairs and
venerable countenance, saluted the soldiers of Procopius by
the endearing names of children and companions, and exhorted
them no longer to support the desperate cause of a
contemptible tyrant, but to follow their old commander, who
had so often led them to honour and victory. In the two
engagements of Thyatira (41) and Nacolia the unfortunate
Procopius was deserted by his troops, who were seduced by
the instructions and example of their perfidious officers.
After wandering some time among the woods and mountains of
Phrygia, he was betrayed by his desponding followers,
conducted to the Imperial camp, and immediately beheaded. He
suffered the ordinary fate of an unsuccessful usurper, but
the acts of cruelty which were exercised by the conqueror,
under the forms of legal justice, excited the pity and
indignation of mankind.(42)
Severe inquisition into the crime of magic at Rome and Antioch, A.D. 373, etc
Such indeed are the common and natural fruits of despotism
and rebellion. But the inquisition into the crime of magic,
which, under the reign of the two brothers, was so
rigorously prosecuted both at Rome and Antioch, was
interpreted as the fatal symptom, either of the displeasure
of Heaven or of the depravity of mankind.(43) Let us not
hesitate to indulge a liberal pride that, in the present
age, the enlightened part of Europe has abolished(44) a cruel
and odious prejudice, which reigned in every climate of the
globe and adhered to every system of religious opinions.(45)
The nations and the sects of the Roman world admitted, with
equal credulity and similar abhorrence, the reality of that
infernal art(46) which was able to control the eternal order
of the planets and the voluntary operations of the human
mind. They dreaded the mysterious power of spells and
incantations, of potent herbs and execrable rites, which
could extinguish or recall life, inflame the passions of the
soul, blast the works of creation, and extort from the
reluctant daemons the secrets of futurity. They believed,
with the wildest inconsistency, that this preternatural
dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell was exercised,
from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled
hags and itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives
in penury and contempt. (47) The arts of magic were equally
condemned by the public opinion and by the laws of Rome,
but, as they tended to gratify the most imperious passions
of the heart of man, they were continually proscribed and
continually practised.(48) An imaginary cause is capable of
producing the most serious and mischievous effects. The dark
predictions of the death of an emperor or the success of a
conspiracy were calculated only to stimulate the hopes of
ambition and to dissolve the ties of fidelity, and the
intentional guilt of magic was aggravated by the actual
crimes of treason and sacrilege. (49) Such vain terrors
disturbed the peace of society and the happiness of
individuals, and the harmless flame which insensibly melted
a waxen image might derive a powerful and pernicious energy
from the affrighted fancy of the person whom it was
maliciously designed to represent. (50) From the infusion of
those herbs which were supposed to possess a supernatural
influence it was an easy step to the use of more substantial
poison, and the folly of mankind sometimes became the
instrument and the mask of the most atrocious crimes. As
soon as the zeal of informers was encouraged by the
ministers of Valens and Valentinian, they could not refuse
to listen to another charge too frequently mingled in the
scenes of domestic guilt, a charge of a softer and less
malignant nature, for which the pious though excessive
rigour of Constantine had recently decreed the punishment of
death.(51) This deadly and incoherent mixture of treason and
magic, of poison and adultery, afforded infinite gradations
of guilt and innocence, of excuse and aggravation, which in
these proceedings appear to have been confounded by the
angry or corrupt passions of the judges. They easily
discovered that the degree of their industry and discernment
was estimated by the Imperial court according to the number
of executions that were furnished from their respective
tribunals. It was not without extreme reluctance that they
pronounced a sentence of acquittal, but they eagerly
admitted such evidence as was stained with perjury or
procured by torture to prove the most improbable charges
against the most respectable characters. The progress of the
inquiry continually opened new subjects of criminal
prosecution; the audacious informer, whose falsehood was
detected, retired with impunity; but the wretched victim who
discovered his real or pretended accomplices was seldom
permitted to receive the price of his infamy. From the
extremity of Italy and Asia the young and the aged were
dragged in chains to the tribunals of Rome and Antioch.
Senators, matrons, and philosophers expired in ignominious
and cruel tortures. The soldiers who were appointed to guard
the prisons declared, with a murmur of pity and indignation,
that their numbers were insufficient to oppose the flight or
resistance of the multitude of captives. The wealthiest
families were ruined by fines and confiscations; the most
innocent citizens trembled for their safety; and we may form
some notion of the magnitude of the evil from the
extravagant assertion of an ancient writer, that in the
obnoxious provinces the prisoners, the exiles, and the
fugitives formed the greatest part of the inhabitants.(52)
The cruelty of Valentinian and Valens. A.D. 364-375.
When Tacitus describes the deaths of the innocent and
illustrious Romans who were sacrificed to the cruelty of the
first Caesars, the art of the historian, or the merit of the
sufferers, excites in our breasts the most lively sensations
of terror, of admiration, and of pity. The coarse and
undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus has delineated his
bloody figures with tedious and disgusting accuracy. But as
our attention is no longer engaged by the contrast of
freedom and servitude, of recent greatness and of actual
misery, we should turn with horror from the frequent
executions which disgraced, both at Rome and Antioch, the
reign of the two brothers.(53) Valens was of a timid,(54) and
Valentinian of a choleric, disposition.(55) An anxious regard
to his personal safety was the ruling principle of the
administration of Valens. In the condition of a subject, he
had kissed, with trembling awe, the hand of the oppressor;
and when he ascended the throne, he reasonably expected that
the same fears which had subdued his own mind should secure
the patient submission of his people. The favourites of
Valens obtained, by the privilege of rapine and
confiscation, the wealth which his economy would have
refused.(56) They urged, with persuasive eloquence, that in all cases of treason, suspicion is equivalent to proof; that the power supposes the intention of mischief; that the intention is not less criminal than the act; and that a
subject no longer deserves to live, if his life may threaten the safety, or disturb the repose, of his sovereign. The judgment of Valentinian was sometimes deceived, and his confidence abused; but he would have silenced the informers with a contemptuous smile, had they presumed to alarm his fortitude by the sound of danger. They praised his inflexible love of justice; and, in the pursuit of justice, the emperor was easily tempted to consider clemency as a weakness, and passion as a virtue. As long as he wrestled with his equals in the bold competition of an active and ambitious life, Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with impunity: if his prudence was arraigned, his
spirit was applauded; and the proudest and most powerful generals were apprehensive of provoking the resentment of a fearless soldier. After he became master of the world, he unfortunately forgot that, where no resistance can be made, no courage can be exerted; and instead of consulting the dictates of reason and magnanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his temper, at a time when they were disgraceful to himself, and fatal to the defenceless objects of his displeasure. In the government of his household, or of his
empire, slight, or even imaginary offences — a hasty word, a casual omission, an involuntary delay — were chastised by a sentence of immediate death. The expressions which issued the most readily from the mouth of the emperor of the West were, "Strike off his head;" — "Burn him alive;" "Let him be beaten with clubs till he expires;" (57) and his most favoured ministers soon understood that, by a rash attempt to dispute or suspend the execution of his sanguinary commands; they might involve themselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The repeated gratification of this savage justice hardened the mind of Valentinian against pity and remorse; and the sallies of passion were confirmed by the habits of cruelty. (58) He could behold with calm satisfaction the convulsive agonies of torture and death: he reserved his friendship for those faithful servants whose temper was the most congenial to his own. The merit of Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome, was rewarded with the royal approbation, and the praefecture of Gaul. Two fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations of Innocence and Mica Awea, could alone deserve to share the favour of Maximin. The cages of those trusty guards were always placed near the bed-chamber of Valentinian, who frequently amused his eyes with the grateful spectacle of seeing them tear and devour the bleeding limbs of the malefactors who were abandoned to their rage. Their diet and exercises were carefully inspected by the Roman emperor; and when Innocence had earned her discharge, by a long course of meritorious service, the faithful animal was again restored to the freedom of her native woods. (59)
Their laws and government.
But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of
Valens was not agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by
rage, the tyrant resumed the sentiments, or at least the
conduct, of the father of his country. The dispassionate
judgment of the Western emperor could clearly perceive, and
accurately pursue, his own and the public interest; and the
sovereign of the East, who imitated with equal docility the
various examples which he received from his elder brother,
was sometimes guided by the wisdom and virtue of the
praefect Sallust. Both princes invariably retained, in the
purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity which had
adorned their private life; and, under their reign, the
pleasures of the court never cost the people a blush or a
sigh. They gradually reformed many of the abuses of the
times of Constantius, judiciously adopted and improved the
designs of Julian and his successor; and displayed a style
and spirit of legislation which might inspire posterity with
the most favourable opinion of their character and
government. It is not from the master of Innocence that we
should expect the tender regard for the welfare of his
subjects which prompted Valentinian to condemn the
exposition of newborn infants,(60) and to establish fourteen
skilful physicians, with stipends and privileges, in the
fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of an illiterate
soldier founded an useful and liberal institution for the
education of youth, and the support of declining science.(61)
It was his intention that the arts of rhetoric and grammar
should be taught, in the Greek and Latin languages, in the
metropolis of every province; and as the size and dignity of
the school was usually proportioned to the importance of the
city, the academies of Rome and Constantinople claimed a
just and singular pre-eminence. The fragments of the
literary edicts of Valentinian imperfectly represent the
school of Constantinople, which was gradually improved by
subsequent regulations. That school consisted of thirty-one
professors in different branches of learning. One
philosopher and two lawyers; five sophists and ten
grammarians for the Greek, and three orators and ten
grammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes, or,
as they were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens
supplied the public library with fair and correct copies of
the classic writers. The rule of conduct which was
prescribed to the students is the more curious, as it
affords the first outlines of the form and discipline of a
modern university. It was required that they should bring
proper certificates from the magistrates of their native
province. Their names, professions, and places of abode,
were regularly entered in a public register. The studious
youth were severely prohibited from wasting their time in
feasts or in the theatre; and the term of their education
was limited to the age of twenty. The praefect of the city
was empowered to chastise the idle and refractory by stripes
or expulsion; and he was directed to make an annual report
to the master of the offices, that the knowledge and
abilities of the scholars might be usefully applied to the
public service. The institutions of Valentinian contributed
to secure the benefits of peace and plenty; and the cities
were guarded by the establishment of the Defensors;(62)
freely elected as the tribunes and advocates of the people,
to support their rights, and to expose their grievances,
before the tribunals of the civil magistrates; or even at
the foot of the Imperial throne. The finances were
diligently administered by two princes who had been so long
accustomed to the rigid economy of a private fortune; but in
the receipt and application of the revenue, a discerning eye
might observe some difference between the government of the
East and of the West. Valens was persuaded that royal
liberality can be supplied only by public oppression, and
his ambition never aspired to secure, by their actual
distress, the future strength and prosperity of his people.
Instead of increasing the weight of taxes, which in the
space of forty years had been gradually doubled, he reduced,
in the first years of his reign, one fourth of the tribute
of the East. (63) Valentinian appears to have been less
attentive and less anxious to relieve the burthens of his
people. He might reform the abuses of the fiscal
administration; but he exacted, without scruple, a very
large share of the private property; as he was convinced
that the revenues which supported the luxury of individuals
would be much more advantageously employed for the defence
and improvement of the state. The subjects of the East, who
enjoyed the present benefit, applauded the indulgence of
their prince. The solid, but less splendid merit of
Valentinian was felt and acknowledged by the subsequent
generation.(64)
Valentinian maintains the religious toleration. A.D. 364-375.
But the most honourable circumstance of the character of
Valentinian is the firm and temperate impartiality which he
uniformly preserved in an age of religious contention. His
strong sense, unenlightened, but uncorrupted, by study,
declined, with respectful indifference, the subtle questions
of theological debate. The government of the Earth claimed
his vigilance, and satisfied his ambition; and while he
remembered that he was the disciple of the church, he never
forgot that he was the sovereign of the clergy. Under the
reign of an apostate, he had signalised his zeal for the
honour of Christianity: he allowed to his subjects the
privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they might
accept with gratitude and confidence the general toleration
which was granted by a prince addicted to passion, but
incapable of fear or of disguise.(65) The Pagans, the Jews,
and all the various sects which acknowledged the divine
authority of Christ, were protected by the laws from
arbitrary power or popular insult; nor was any mode of
worship prohibited by Valentinian, except those secret and
criminal practices which abused the name of religion for the
dark purposes of vice and disorder. The art of magic, as it
was more cruelly punished, was more strictly proscribed: but
the emperor admitted a formal distinction to protect the
ancient methods of divination, which were approved by the
senate and exercised by the Tuscan haruspices. He had
condemned, with the consent of the most rational Pagans, the
licence of nocturnal sacrifices; but he immediately admitted
the petition of Praetextatus, proconsul of Achaia, who
represented that the life of the Greeks would become dreary
and comfortless if they were deprived of the invaluable
blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can
boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of
philosophy) that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from
the human mind the latent and deadly principle of
fanaticism. But this truce of twelve years, which was
inforced by the wise and vigorous government of Valentinian,
by suspending the repetition of mutual injuries, contributed
to soften the manners, and abate the prejudices, of the
religious factions.
Valens professes Arianism, and persecutes the catholics. A.D. 367-378.
The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a
distance from the scene of the fiercest controversies. As
soon as the Christians of the West had extricated themselves
from the snares of the creed of Rimini, they happily
relapsed into the slumber of orthodoxy; and the small
remains of the Arian party, that still subsisted at Sirmium
or Milan, might be considered rather as objects of contempt
than of resentment. But in the provinces of the East, from
the Euxine to the extremity of Thebais, the strength and
numbers of the hostile factions were more equally balanced;
and this equality, instead of recommending the counsels of
peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religious
war. The monks and bishops supported their arguments by
invectives; and their invectives were sometimes followed by
blows. Athanasius still reigned at Alexandria; the thrones
of Constantinople and Antioch were occupied by Arian
prelates; and every episcopal vacancy was the occasion of a
popular tumult. The Homoousians were fortified by the
reconciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian, or Semi-Arian,
bishops but their secret reluctance to embrace the divinity
of the Holy Ghost clouded the splendour of the triumph; and
the declaration of Valens, who, in the first years of his
reign, had imitated the impartial conduct of his brother,
was an important victory on the side of Arianism. The two
brothers had passed their private life in the condition of
catechumens; but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit
the sacraments of baptism before he exposed his person to
the dangers of a Gothic war. He naturally addressed himself
to Eudoxus,(66) bishop of the Imperial city; and if the
ignorant monarch was instructed by that Arian pastor in the
principles of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather
than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence of his
erroneous choice. Whatever had been the determination of the
emperor, he must have offended a numerous party of his
Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the Homoousians
and of the Arians believed that, if they were not suffered
to reign, they were most cruelly injured and oppressed.
After he had taken this decisive step, it was extremely
difficult for him to preserve either the virtue, or the
reputation, of impartiality. He never aspired, like
Constantius, to the fame of a profound theologian; but, as
he had received with simplicity and respect the tenets of
Eudoxus, Valens resigned his conscience to the direction of
his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted by the influence of
his authority the reunion of the Athanasian heretics to the
body of the Catholic church. At first he pitied their
blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy;
and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an
object of hatred. (67) The feeble mind of Valens was always
swayed by the persons with whom he familiarly conversed; and
the exile or imprisonment of a private citizen are the
favours the most readily granted in a despotic court. Such
punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the
Homoousian party; and the misfortune of four-score
ecclesiastics of Constantinople, who, perhaps accidentally,
were burnt on shipboard, was imputed to the cruel and
premeditated malice of the emperor and his Arian ministers.
In every contest the catholics (if we may anticipate that
name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults,
and of those of their adversaries. In every election the
claims of the Arian candidate obtained the preference; and
if they were opposed by the majority of the people, he was
usually supported by the authority of the civil magistrate,
or even by the terrors of a military force. The enemies of
Athanasius attempted to disturb the last years of his
venerable age; and his temporary retreat to his father's
sepulchre has been celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal
of a great people, who instantly flew to arms, intimidated
the praefect: Death of Athanius, A.D. 373. May 2d. and the archbishop was permitted to end his
life in peace and in glory, after a reign of forty-seven
years. The death of Athanasius was the signal of the
persecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who
forcibly seated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal
throne, purchased the favour of the reigning party by the
blood and sufferings of their Christian brethren. The free
toleration of the heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly
lamented, as a circumstance which aggravated the misery of
the catholics, and the guilt of the impious tyrant of the
East.(68)
Just idea of his persecution.
The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of
persecution on the memory of Valens; and the character of a
prince who derived his virtues, as well as his vices, from a
feeble understanding and a pusillanimous temper, scarcely
deserves the labour of an apology. Yet candour may discover
some reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical ministers of
Valens often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions, of
their master; and that the real measure of facts has been
very liberally magnified by the vehement declamation and
easy credulity of his antagonists. (69) 1. The silence of
Valentinian may suggest a probable argument that the partial
severities which were exercised in the name and provinces of
his colleague amounted only to some obscure and
inconsiderable deviations from the established system of
religious toleration; and the judicious historian, who has
praised the equal temper of the elder brother, has not
thought himself obliged to contrast the tranquillity of the
West with the cruel persecution of the East.(70) 2. Whatever
credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, the
character, or at least the behaviour, of Valens may be most
distinctly seen in his personal transactions with the
eloquent Basil, archbishop of Gaesarea, who had succeeded
Athanasius in the management of the Trinitarian cause.(71) The circumstantial narrative has been composed by the friends and admirers of Basil; and as soon as we have
stripped away a thick coat of rhetoric and miracle, we shall
be astonished by the unexpected mildness of the Arian tyrant, who admired the firmness of his character, or was apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a general revolt in the province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted,
with inflexible pride, (72) the truth of his opinions and the dignity of his rank, was left in the free possession of his conscience and his throne. The emperor devoutly assisted at
the solemn service of the cathedral; and, instead of a
sentence of banishment, subscribed the donation of a
valuable estate for the use of an hospital which Basil had
lately founded in the neighbourhood of Casarea.(73) 3. I am not able to discover that any law (such as Theodosius afterwards enacted against the Arians) was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries; and the edict which
excited the most violent clamours may not appear so extremely reprehensible. The emperor had observed that several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy disposition under the pretence of religion, had associated themselves
with the monks of Egypt; and he directed the count of the East to drag them from their solitude, and to compel those deserters of society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing their temporal possessions, or of discharging the public duties of men and citizens. (74) The ministers of Valens seem to have extended the sense of this penal statute, since they claimed a right of enlisting the young and able-bodied monks in the Imperial armies. A detachment
of cavalry and infantry, consisting of three thousand men, marched from Alexandria into the adjacent desert of Nitria, (75) which was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported that a
considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries which disobeyed the commands of their sovereign.(76)
Valentinian restrains the avarice of his clergy. A.D. 370.
The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom
of modern legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of
the clergy may be originally deduced from the example of the
emperor Valentinian. His edict, (77) addressed to Damasus,
bishop of Rome, was publicly read in the churches of the
city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks not to
frequent the houses of widows and virgins; and menaced their
disobedience with the animadversion of the civil judge. The
director was no longer permitted to receive any gift, or
legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his spiritual
daughter: every testament contrary to this edict was
declared null and void: and the illegal donation was
confiscated for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent
regulation it should seem that the same provisions were
extended to nuns and bishops; and that all persons of the
ecclesiastical order were rendered incapable of receiving
any testamentary gifts, and strictly confined to the natural
and legal rights of inheritance. As the guardian of domestic
happiness and virtue, Valentinian applied this severe remedy
to the growing evil. In the capital of the empire the
females of noble and opulent houses possessed a very ample
share of independent property; and many of those devout
females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity, not only
with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the
warmth of affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of
fashion. They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxury;
and renounced, for the praise of chastity, the soft
endearments of conjugal society. Some ecclesiastic, of real
or apparent sanctity, was chosen to direct their timorous
conscience, and to amuse the vacant tenderness of their
heart: and the unbounded confidence which they hastily
bestowed was often abused by knaves and enthusiasts, who
hastened from the extremities of the East, to enjoy, on a
splendid theatre, the privileges of the monastic profession.
By their contempt of the world, they insensibly acquired its
most desirable advantages; the lively attachment, perhaps,
of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an
opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves,
the freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The
immense fortunes of the Roman ladies were gradually consumed
in lavish alms and expensive pilgrimages; and the artful
monk, who had assigned himself the first, or possibly the
sole place, in the testament of his spiritual daughter,
still presumed to declare, with the smooth face of
hypocrisy, that he was only the instrument of charity, and
the steward of the poor. The lucrative, but disgraceful,
trade,(78) which was exercised by the clergy to defraud the
expectations of the natural heirs, had provoked the
indignation of a superstitious age: and two of the most
respectable of the Latin fathers very honestly confess that
the ignominious edict of Valentinian was just and necessary;
and that the Christian priests had deserved to lose a
privilege which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers,
and the ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of
the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the
vigilant dexterity of private interest: and Jerom, or
Ambrose, might patiently acquiesce in the justice of an
ineffectual or salutary law. If the ecclesiastics were
checked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they would
exert a more laudable industry to increase the wealth of the
church; and dignify their covetousness with the specious
names of piety and patriotism.(79)
Ambition and luxury of Damascus, bishop of Rome. A.D. 366-384.
Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatise
the avarice of his clergy by the publications of the law of
Valentinian, had the good sense, or the good fortune, to
engage in his service the zeal and abilities of the learned
Jerom; and the grateful saint has celebrated the merit and
purity of a very ambiguous character.(80) But the splendid vices of the church of Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, have been curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his impartial sense in these expressive words:—
"The praefecture of Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty, but the tranquillity of his government was soon disturbed by a bloody sedition of the distracted people. The ardour of Damasus and Ursinus to seize the episcopal seat surpassed the ordinary measure of human ambition They contended with the rage of party; The quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death of their followers; and the praefect, unable to resist or to appease the tumult, was constrained by superior violence to retire into the suburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on the side of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies (81) were found in the Basilica of Sicininus, (82) where the Christians hold their religious assemblies, and it was long before the angry minds of the people resumed their accustomed tranquillity. When I consider the splendour of the capital, I am not astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame the desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most obstinate contests. The successful candidate is secure that he will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; (83) that, as soon as his dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may proceed in his chariot through the streets of Rome; (84) and that the sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste and at the expense of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally (continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommend their pure and modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers!" (85)
The schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the latter; and the wisdom of the praefect Praetextatus (86) restored the tranquillity of the city. Praetextatus was a philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus that if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion.(87) This lively picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century becomes the more curious as it represents the intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fisherman and the royal state of a temporal prince whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po.
Foreign wars, A.D. 364-375.
When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed
the sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian,
his reputation in arms, his military skill and experience,
and his rigid attachment to the forms as well as spirit of
ancient discipline, were the principal motives of their
judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, who pressed
him to nominate his colleague, was justified by the
dangerous situation of public affairs; and Valentinian
himself was conscious that the abilities of the most active
mind were unequal to the defence of the distant frontiers of
an invaded monarchy. As soon as the death of Julian had
relieved the barbarians from the terror of his name, the
most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited the
nations of the East, of the North, and of the South. A.D. 364-375.Their
inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but,
during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his
firmness and vigilance protected his own dominions; and his
powerful genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble
counsels of his brother. Perhaps the method of annals would
more forcibly express the urgent and divided cares of the
two emperors; but the attention of the reader, likewise,
would be distracted by a tedious and desultory narrative. A
separate view of the five great theatres of war—I.
Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa IV. The East; and V. The Danube - will impress a more distinct image of the military
state of the empire under the reigns of Valentinian and
Valens.
I Germany. The Alemanni invade Gaul , A.D. 365.
I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the
harsh and haughty behaviour of Ursacius, master of the
offices;(88) who, by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had
diminished the value, as well as the quantity, of the
presents to which they were entitled, either from custom or
treaty, on the accession of a new emperor. They expressed,
and they communicated to their countrymen, their strong
sense of the national affront. The irascible minds of the
chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion of contempt; and
the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before
Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were
in flames; before his general Dagalaiphus could encounter
the Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in
the forests of Germany. A.D. 366. JanuaryIn the beginning of the ensuing year the military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid
columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine during the
severity of a northern winter. Two Roman counts were
defeated and mortally wounded; and the standard of the
Heruli and Batavians fell into the hands of the conquerors,
who displayed, with insulting shouts and menaces, the trophy
of their victory. The standard was recovered; but the Batavians had not
redeemed the shame of their disgrace and flight in the eyes
of their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valentinian
that his soldiers must learn to fear their commander before
they could cease to fear the enemy. The troops were solemnly
assembled; and the trembling Batavians were enclosed within
the circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then ascended
his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish cowardice
with death, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy on
the officers whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found
to be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were
degraded from their rank, stripped of their arms and
condemned to be sold for slaves to the highest bidder. At
this tremendous sentence the troops fell prostrate on the
ground, deprecated the indignation of their sovereign, and
protested that if he would indulge them in another trial,
they would approve themselves not unworthy of the name of
Romans, and of his soldiers. Valentinian, with affected
reluctance, yielded to their entreaties: the Batavians
resumed their arms; and, with their arms, the invincible
resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the
Alemanni. (89) The principal command was declined by
Dagalaiphus; and that experienced general, who had
represented, perhaps with too much prudence, the extreme
difficulties of the undertaking, had the mortification,
before the end of the campaign, of seeing his rival Jovinus
convert those difficulties into a decisive advantage over
the scattered forces of the barbarians.Their defeat. At the head of a
well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry, and light
troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to
Scarponna,(90) in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a
large division of the Alemanni before they had time to run
to their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidence
of an easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or
rather army, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton
devastation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on
the shady banks of the Moselle. Jovinus, who had viewed the
ground with the eye of a general, made his silent approach
through a deep and woody vale, till he could distinctly
perceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were
bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were combing
their long and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing
large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they
heard the sound of the Roman trumpet; they saw the enemy in
their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was
followed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of
the bravest warriors was pierced by the swords and javelins
of the legionaries and auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to
the third, and most considerable, camp in the Catalaunian
plains, near Chalons in Champagne: the straggling
detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; and the
barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished by the fate of
their companions, prepared to encounter in a decisive battle
the victorious forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The
bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole summer's day,
with equal valour and with alternate success. The Romans at
length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred men.
Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were
wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying
remnant of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, July.
returned to Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign,
and the ensigns of the consulship for the ensuing year.(91)
The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their
treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet,
without the knowledge of their indignant general. This
disgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the
fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of
Withicab, the son of Vadomair, a German prince, of a weak
and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable
spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated and protected
by the Romans; (92) and the violation of the laws of humanity
and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the
weakness of the declining empire. The use of the dagger is
seldom adopted in public councils, as long as they retain
any confidence in the power of the sword.
Valentinian passes, and fortifies the Rhine , A.D. 368.
While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent
calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the
unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal
city of the Upper Germany. In the unsuspicious moment of a
Christian festival, Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who
had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine,
entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude
of captives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute
severe vengeance on the whole body of the nation. Count
Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and Illyricum, was
ordered to invade their country, most probably on the side
of Rhaetia. The emperor in person, accompanied by his son
Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a formidable army,
which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus and Severus,
the two master-generals of the cavalry and infantry of the
West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation of
their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty and almost
inaccessible mountain in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and
resolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of
Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid
curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and
unguarded path. A troop of barbarians suddenly rose from
their ambuscade; and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his
horse down a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to
leave behind him his armour-bearer, and his helmet
magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At the
signal of the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed
and ascended the mountain of Solicinium on three different
sides. Every step which they gained increased their ardour,
and abated the resistance of the enemy: and after their
united forces had occupied the summit of the hill, they
impetuously urged the barbarians down the northern descent,
where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their retreat.
After this signal victory Valentinian returned to his winter
quarters at Treves, where he indulged the public joy by the
exhibition of splendid and triumphal games.(93) But the wise
monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany,
confined his attention to the important and laborious
defence of the Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose
strength was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, which
incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes of the
North.(94) The banks of the Rhine, from its source to the
straits of the ocean, were closely planted with strong
castles and convenient towers; new works and new arms were
invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the
mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and
barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises
of war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes
opposed by modest representations and sometimes by hostile
attempts, secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine
subsequent years of the administration of Valentinian.(95)
The Burgundians. A.D. 371
That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise
maxims of Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the
intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the
middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of
Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe, were
occupied by the vague dominion of the BURGUNDIANS, a warlike
and numerous people of the Vandal race,(96) whose obscure
name insensibly swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has
finally settled on a flourishing province. The most
remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners of the
Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their
civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of
Hendinos was given to the king or general, and the title
of Sinistus to the high-priest of the nation. The person
of the priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual; but the
temporal government was held by a very precarious tenure. If
the events of war accused the courage or conduct of the
king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his
subjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth
and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more
properly within the sacerdotal department.(97) The disputed
possession of some salt-pits(98) engaged the Alemanni and the
Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter were easily
tempted by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of
the emperor; and their fabulous descent from the Roman
soldiers who had formerly been left to garrison the
fortresses of Drusus was admitted with mutual credulity, as
it was conducive to mutual interest. (99) An army of
four-score thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks
of the Rhine, and impatiently required the support and
subsidies which Valentinian had promised; but they were
amused with excuses and delays, till at length, after a
fruitless expectation, they were compelled to retire. The
arms and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the
fury of their just resentment; and their massacre of the
captives served to embitter the hereditary feud of the
Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a wise
prince may perhaps be explained by some alteration of
circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of
Valentinian to intimidate rather than to destroy; as the
balance of power would have been equally overturned by the
extirpation of either of the German nations. Among the
princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name,
had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved
his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light and
unencumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched
fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have
seized the object of his pursuit, if his judicious measures
had not been defeated by the impatience of the troops.
Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honour of a
personal conference with the emperor, and the favours which
he received fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady
and sincere friend of the republic.(100)
The Saxons.
The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian;
but the sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the
depredations of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which
we have a clear and domestic interest, escaped the notice of
Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy it faintly marks the
narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three small
islands towards the mouth of the Elbe.(101) This contracted
territory, the present duchy of Schleswig, or perhaps of
Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible
swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the
British island with their language, their laws, and their
colonies, and who so long defended the liberty of the North
against the arms of Charlemagne. (102) The solution of this
difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners and
loose constitution of the tribes of Germany, which were
blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or
friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them
to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and
pirates; and the success of their first adventures would
naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen,
who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and
mountains. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole fleets
of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who
aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and
to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should
seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries
of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt along
the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the
art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the
difficulty of issuing through the northern Columns of
Hercules(103) (which during several months of the year are
obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within
the limits of a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful
armaments which sailed from the mouth of the Elbe would soon
provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus of Schleswig, and
to launch their vessels on the great sea. The various troops
of pirates and adventurers who fought under the same
standard were insensibly united in a permanent society, at
first of rapine, and afterwards of government. A military
confederation was gradually moulded into a national body by
the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity; and the
adjacent tribes, who solicited the alliance, accepted the
name and laws of the Saxons. If the fact were not
established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should
appear to abuse the credulity of our readers by the
description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates
ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the
British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their
large flat-bottomed boats was framed of light timber, but
the sides and upper works consisted only of wicker, with a
covering of strong hides. (104) In the course of their slow
and distant navigations they must always have been exposed
to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune, of
shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were
undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which
they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the
daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of the
sea and of the shore: their skill was confirmed by the
habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was
alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of
conducting a vessel and the Saxons rejoiced in the
appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design, and
dispersed the fleets of the enemy. (105) After they had
acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of
the West they extended the scene of their depredations, and
the most sequestered places had no reason to presume on
their security. The Saxon boats drew so little water that
they could easily proceed four-score or an hundred miles up
the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable that
they were transported on waggons from one river to another;
and the pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine or of
the Rhine might descend, A.D. 371 with the rapid stream of the Rhone,
into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian the
maritime provinces of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a
military count was stationed for the defence of the
sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who found
his strength or his abilities unequal to the task, implored
the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry.
The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to
relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their
tall and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They
stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat; and the
condition was readily granted by the Roman general, who
meditated an act of perfidy, (106) imprudent as it was
inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive and in arms to revenge
the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the
infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley,
betrayed the ambuscade and they would perhaps have fallen
the victims of their own treachery, if a large body of
cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not
hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to
overwhelm the undaunted valour of the Saxons. Some of the
prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword to shed
their blood in the amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus
complains that twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by
strangling themselves with their own hands, had disappointed
the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic
citizens of Rome were impressed with the deepest horror when
they were informed that the Saxons consecrated to the gods
the tithe of their human spoil; and that they ascertained by
lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice.(107)
The Britain.The Scots and Picts.
II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of
Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride and
amused the credulity of our rude ancestors, have insensibly
vanished in the light of science and philosophy.(108) The
present age is satisfied with the simple and rational
opinion that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were
gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From
the coast of Kent, to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster,
the memory of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved in
the perpetual resemblance of language, of religion, and of
manners: and the peculiar characters of the British tribes
might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental
and local circumstances; (109) The Roman province was reduced
to the state of civilised and peaceful servitude: the rights
of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of
Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were
divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the
two great tribes of the SCOTs and of the PICTS(110) who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power, and
almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by
their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining
for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have
multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honours of
the English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark
the ancient distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former
were the men of the hills, and the latter those of the
plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be considered as a
level and fertile country, which, even in a rude state of
tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of
corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters,
expressed the contempt or envy of the carnivorous
highlander. The cultivation of the earth might introduce a
more accurate separation of property, and the habits of a
sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was still
the ruling passion of the Picts, and their warriors, who
stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished,
in the eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of
painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic
figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises
into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of
the husbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture
of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations
of shepherds and hunters; and as they seldom were fixed to
any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name
of SCOTS, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be
equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants. The
inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh
supply of food in the waters. The deep lakes and bays which
intersect their country are plentifully stored with fish;
and they gradually ventured to cast their nets in the waves
of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely
scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted their
curiosity and improved their skill; and they acquired, by
slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing
their boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering their
nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The
two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a
spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriant
vegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a
slight alteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland.
It is probable that in some remote period of antiquity the
fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots;
and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to
encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests
over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island.
It is certain that, in the declining age of the Roman
empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man were
inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who
were often associated in military enterprise, were deeply
affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes.
They long cherished the lively tradition of their common
name and origin: and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints,
who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain,
established the vain opinion that their Irish countrymen
were the natural, as well as spiritual, fathers of the
Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been
preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of
light over the darkness of the eighth century. On this
slight foundation a huge superstructure of fable was
gradually reared by the bards and the monks; two orders of
men who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The
Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish
genealogy: and the annals of a long line of imaginary kings
have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius and the classic
elegance of Buchanan.(111)
Their invasion of Britain, A.D. 343-366
Six years after the death of Constantine the destructive
inroads of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his
youngest son, who reigned in the Western empire. Constans
visited his British dominions: but we may form some estimate
of the importance of his achievements by the language of
panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over the
elements, or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and
easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of
Sandwich.(112) The calamities which the afflicted provincials
continued to experience from foreign war and domestic
tyranny were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt
administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the
transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of
Julian was soon lost by the absence and death of their
benefactor. The sums of gold and silver which had been
painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the
payment of the troops, were intercepted by the avarice of
the commanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from
the military service, were publicly sold; the distress of
the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal
and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion;
the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the highways were
infested with robbers. (113) The oppression of the good and
the impunity of the wicked equally contributed to diffuse
through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and
every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might
entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and
distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes of the
North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the
World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the barbarians of
the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons,
spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from
the wall of Antonius to the shores of Kent. Every production
of art and nature, every object of convenience or luxury,
which they were incapable of creating by labour or procuring
by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province
of Britain.(114) A philosopher may deplore the eternal
discord of the human race, but he will confess that the
desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the
vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of
the Plantagenets this rapacious spirit continued to
instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians: but the same
people whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of
Ossian was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of
peace and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have
felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the
Scots and Picts; (115) and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the
Attacotti,(116) the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers, of
Valentinian, are accused by an eyewitness of delighting in
the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for
prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than
his flock; and that they curiously selected the most
delicate and brawny parts both of males and females, which
they prepared for their horrid repasts. (117) If in the
neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow
a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate
in the period of the Scottish history the opposite extremes
of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend to
enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the
pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce in some future
age the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.
Restoration of Britain by Theodosius, A.D. 367-370
Every messenger who escaped across the British channel
conveyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the
ears of Valentinian, and the emperor was soon informed that
the two military commanders of the province had been
surprised and cut off by the barbarians. Severus, count of
the domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenly
recalled, by the court of Treves. The representations of
Jovinus served only to indicate the greatness of the evil,
and, after a long and serious consultation, the defence, or
rather the recovery, of Britain was intrusted to the
abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits of that
general, the father of a line of emperors, have been
celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the
age; but his real merit deserved their applause, and his
nomination was received, by the army and province, as a sure
presage of approaching victory. He seized the favourable
moment of navigation, and securely landed the numerous and
veteran bands of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and
the Victors. In his march from Sandwich to London,
Theodosius defeated several parties of the barbarians,
released a multitude of captives, and, after distributing to
his soldiers a small portion of the spoil, established the
fame of disinterested justice by the restitution of the
remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens of
London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open
their gates, and, as soon as Theodosius had obtained from
the court of Treves the important aid of a military
lieutenant and a civil governor, he executed with wisdom and
vigour the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain. The
vagrant soldiers were recalled to their standard, an edict
of amnesty dispelled the public apprehensions, and his
cheerful example alleviated the rigour of martial
discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of the
barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of
the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit and
consummate art of the Roman general were displayed in the
operations of A.D. 368 and 369two campaigns, which successively rescued every part of the province from the hands of a cruel and
rapacious enemy. The splendour of the cities and the
security of the fortifications were diligently restored by
the paternal care of Theodosius, who with a strong hand
confined the trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of
the island, and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of
the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reign of
Valentinian.(118) The voice of poetry and panegyric may add,
perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions
of Thule were stained with the blood of the Picts, that the
oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the Hyperborean
ocean, and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of his
naval victory over the Saxon pirates. (119) He left the
province with a fair as well as splendid reputation, and was
immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the
cavalry by a prince who could applaud, without envy, the
merit of his servants. In the important station of the Upper
Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the
armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the
revolt of Africa.
III AFRICA. Tyranny of Romanus, A.D. 366, etc
III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs his
people to consider him as the accomplice of his ministers.
The military command of Africa had been long exercised by
Count Romanus, and his abilities were not inadequate to his
station; but as sordid interest was the sole motive of his
conduct, he acted on most occasions as if he had been the
enemy of the province, and the friend of the barbarians of
the desert. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and
Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripoli, had long
constituted a federal union,(120) were obliged, for the first
time, to shut their gates against a hostile invasion;
several of their most honourable citizens were surprised and
massacred, the villages and even the suburbs were pillaged,
and the vines and fruit-trees of that rich territory were
extirpated by the malicious savages of Gaetulia. The unhappy
provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they
soon found that their military governor was not less cruel
and rapacious than the barbarians. As they were incapable of
furnishing the four thousand camels and the exorbitant
present which he required before he would march to the
assistance of Tripoli, his demand was equivalent to a
refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the
public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities,
they nominated two deputies to lay at the feet of
Valentinian the customary offering of a gold victory, and to
accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude,
with their humble complaint that they were ruined by the
enemy and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of
Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen
on the guilty head of Romanus. But the count, long exercised
in the arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty
messenger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master
of the offices. The wisdom of the imperial council was
deceived by artifice, and their honest indignation was
cooled by delay. At length, when the repetition of complaint
had been justified by the repetition of public misfortunes,
the notary Palladius was sent from the court of Treves to
examine the state of Africa and the conduct of Romanus. The
rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed. he was
tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public treasure
which he brought with him for the payment of the troops,
and, from the moment that he was conscious of his own guilt,
he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence and merit
of the count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to
be false and frivolous, and Palladius himself was sent back
from Treves to Africa with a special commission to discover
and prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against
the representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were
managed with so much dexterity and success, that he
compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent
siege of eight days, to contradict the truth of their own
decrees and to censure the behaviour of their own deputies.
A bloody sentence was pronounced, without hesitation, by the
rash and headstrong cruelty of Valentinian. The president of
Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of the
province, was publicly executed at Utica; four distinguished
citizens were put to death as the accomplices of the
imaginary fraud, and the tongues of two others were cut out
by the express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by
impunity and irritated by resistance, was still continued in
the military command, till the Africans were provoked, by
his avarice, to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the
Moor.(121)
Revolt of Firmus. A.D. 372
His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of
the Moorish princes who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome.
But as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very
numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly
disputed, and Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a
domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal
with which Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this
murder could be ascribed only to a motive of avarice or
personal hatred; but on this occasion his claims were just,
his influence was weighty, and Firmus clearly understood
that he must either present his neck to the executioner, or
appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory to his
sword and to the people. (122) He was received as the
deliverer of his country, and, as soon as it appeared that
Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the
tyrant of Africa became the object of universal contempt.
The ruin of Caesarea, which was plundered and burnt by the
licentious barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of
the danger of resistance; the power of Firmus was
established, at least in the provinces of Mauritania and
Numidia, and it seemed to be his only doubt whether he
should assume the diadem of a Moorish king or the purple of
a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soon
discovered that, in this rash insurrection, they had not
sufficiently consulted their own strength or the abilities
of their leader. Before he could procure any certain
intelligence that the emperor of the West had fixed the
choice of a general, or that a fleet of transports was
collected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly
informed Theodosius recovers Africa. A.D. 373 that the great Theodosius, with a small band of
veterans, had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the
African coast, and the timid usurper sunk under the
ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though Firmus
possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory
immediately reduced him to the use of those arts which, in
the same country and in a similar situation, had formerly
been practised by the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to
deceive, by an apparent submission, the vigilance of the
Roman general, to seduce the fidelity of his troops, and to
protract the duration of the war by successively engaging
the independent tribes of Africa to espouse his quarrel or
to protect his flight. Theodosius imitated the example and
obtained the success of his predecessor Metellus. When
Firmus, in the character of a suppliant, accused his own
rashness and humbly solicited the clemency of the emperor,
the lieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him
with a friendly embrace; but he diligently required the
useful and substantial pledges of a sincere repentance, nor
could he be persuaded, by the assurances of peace, to
suspend for an instant the operations of an active war. A
dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of
Theodosius, and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the
public indignation which he had secretly excited. Several of
the guilty accomplices of Firmus were abandoned according to
ancient custom, to the tumult of a military execution; many
more, by the amputation of both their hands, continued to
exhibit an instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred of
the rebels was accompanied with fear, and the fear of the
Roman soldiers was mingled with respectful admiration.
Amidst the boundless plains of Gaetulia and the innumerable
valleys of Mount Atlas, it was impossible to prevent the
escape of Firmus; and if the usurper could have tired the
patience of his antagonist, he would have secured his person
in the depth of some remote solitude, and expected the hopes
of a future revolution. He was subdued by the perseverance
of Theodosius, who had formed an inflexible determination
that the war should end only by the death of the tyrant, and
that every nation of Africa which presumed to support his
cause should be involved in his ruin. At the head of a small
body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five
hundred men, the Roman general advanced with a steady
prudence, devoid of rashness or of fear, into the heart of a
country where he was sometimes attacked by armies of twenty
thousand Moors. The boldness of his charge dismayed the
irregular barbarians; they were disconcerted by his
seasonable and orderly retreats; they were continually
baffled by the unknown resources of the military art; and
they felt and confessed the just superiority which was
assumed by the leader of a civilised nation. When Theodosius
entered the extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the
Isaflenses, the haughty savage required, in words of
defiance, his name and the object of his expedition.
"I am," replied the stern and disdainful count, "I am the general of Valentinian, the lord of the world, who has sent me hither to pursue and punish a desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be assured, that, if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible sovereign, thou and the people over whom thou reignest shall be utterly extirpated."
As soon as Igmazen was satisfied that his enemy had strength and resolution to execute the fatal menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peace by the sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed to secure the person of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape, and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the sense of danger, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans by strangling himself in the night. His dead body, the only present which Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a camel; and Theodosius, leading back his victorious troops to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclamations of joy and loyalty. (123)
He is executed at Carthage, A.D. 376
Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus it was restored
by the virtues of Theodosius, and our curiosity may be
usefully directed to the inquiry of the respective treatment
which the two generals received from the Imperial court. The
authority of Count Romanus had been suspended by the
master-general of the cavalry, and he was committed to safe
and honourable custody till the end of the war. His crimes
were proved by the most authentic evidence, and the public
expected, with some impatience, the decree of severe
justice. But the partial and powerful favour of Mellobaudes
encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtain
repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of
friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty
conduct by the additional guilt of fraud and forgery. About
the same time the restorer of Britain and Africa, on a vague
suspicion that his name and services were superior to the
rank of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded at Carthage.
Valentinian no longer reigned; and the death of Theodosius,
as well as the impunity of Romanus, may justly be imputed to
the arts of the ministers who abused the confidence and
deceived the inexperienced youth of his sons.(124)
State of Africa
If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been
fortunately bestowed on the British exploits of Theodosius,
we should have traced, with eager curiosity, the distinct
and domestic footsteps of his march. But the tedious
enumeration of the unknown and uninteresting tribes of
Africa may be reduced to the general remark, that they were
all of the swarthy race of the Moors; that they inhabited
the back settlements of the Mauritanian and Numidian
provinces, the country, as they have since been termed by
the Arabs, of dates and of locusts,(125) and that, as the
Roman power declined in Africa, the boundary of civilised
manners and cultivated land was insensibly contracted.
Beyond the utmost limits of the Moors, the vast and
inhospitable desert of the South extends above a thousand
miles to the banks of the Niger. The ancients, who had a
very faint and imperfect knowledge of the great peninsula of
Africa, were sometimes tempted to believe that the torrid
zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants;(126) and they
sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant space
with headless men, or rather monsters,(127) with horned and
cloven-footed satyrs,(128) with fabulous centaurs,(129) and
with human pigmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare
against the cranes. (130) Carthage would have trembled at the
strange intelligence that the countries on either side of
the equator were filled with innumerable nations who
differed only in their colour from the ordinary appearance
of the human species; and the subjects of the Roman empire
might have anxiously expected that the swarms of barbarians
which issued from the North would soon be encountered from
the South by new swarms of barbarians, equally fierce and
equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would indeed have
been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance with the
character of their African enemies. The inaction of the
negroes does not seem to be the effect either of their
virtue or of their pusillanimity. They indulge, like the
rest of mankind, their passions and appetites and the
adjacent tribes are engaged in frequent acts of hostility.
(131) But their rude ignorance has never invented any
effectual weapons of defence or of destruction; they appear
incapable of forming any extensive plans of government or
conquest; and the obvious inferiority of their mental
faculties has been discovered and abused by the nations of
the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually
embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their
native country; but they are embarked in chains;(132) and
this constant emigration which in the space of two centuries
might have furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses
the guilt of Europe and the weakness of Africa.
The EAST. The Persian War. A.D. 365-378
IV. The ignominious treaty which saved the army of Jovian
had been faithfully executed on the side of the Romans; and
as they had solemnly renounced the sovereignty and alliance
of Armenia and Iberia, those tributary Kingdoms were
exposed, without protection, to the arms of the Persian
monarch.(133) Sapor entered the Armenian territories at the
head of a formidable host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of
mercenary foot; but it was the invariable practice of Sapor
to mix war and negotiation, and to consider falsehood and
perjury as the most powerful instruments of regal policy. He
affected to praise the prudent and moderate conduct of the
king of Armenia; and the unsuspicious Tiranus was persuaded,
by the repeated assurances of insidious friendship, to
deliver his person into the hands of a faithless and cruel
enemy. In the midst of a splendid entertainment, he was
bound in chains of silver, as an honor due to the blood of
the Arsacides; and, after a short confinement in the Tower
of Oblivion at Ecbatana, he was released from the miseries
of life, either by his own dagger or by that of an assassin.
The kingdom of Armenia was reduced to the state of a Persian
province; the administration was shared between a
distinguished satrap and a favourite eunuch; and Sapor
marched, without delay, to subdue the martial spirit of the
Iberians. Sauromaces, who reigned in that country by the
permission of the emperors, was expelled by a superior
force, and, as an insult on the majesty of Rome, the king of
kings placed a diadem on the head of his abject vassal
Aspacuras. The city of Artogerassa(134) was the only place of
Armenia which presumed to resist the effort of his arms. The
treasure deposited in that strong fortress tempted the
avarice of Sapor; but the danger of Olympias, the wife or
widow of the Armenian king, excited the public compassion
and animated the desperate valour of her subjects and
soldiers. The Persians were surprised and repulsed under the
walls of Artogerassa by a bold and well-concerted sally of
the besieged. But the forces of Sapor were continually
renewed and increased; the hopeless courage of the garrison
was exhausted; the strength of the walls yielded to the
assault; and the proud conqueror, after wasting the
rebellious city with fire and sword, led away captive an
unfortunate queen, who, in a more auspicious hour, had been
the destined bride of the son of Constantine.(135) Yet if
Sapor already triumphed in the easy conquest of two
dependent kingdoms, he soon felt that a country is unsubdued
as long as the minds of the people are actuated by an
hostile and contumacious spirit. The satraps, whom he was
obliged to trust, embraced the first opportunity of
regaining the affection of their countrymen, and of
signalising their immortal hatred to the Persian name. Since
the conversion of the Armenians and Iberians, those nations
considered the Christians as the favourites, and the Magians
as the adversaries, of the Supreme Being; the influence of
the clergy over a superstitious people was uniformly exerted
in the cause of Rome; and as long as the successors of
Constantine disputed with those of Artaxerxes the
sovereignty of the intermediate provinces, the religious
connection always threw a decisive advantage into the scale
of the empire. A numerous and active party acknowledged
Para, the son of Tiranus, as the lawful sovereign of
Armenia, and his title to the throne was deeply rooted in
the hereditary succession of five hundred years. By the
unanimous consent of the Iberians, the country was equally
divided between the rival princes; and Aspacuras, who owed
his diadem to the choice of Sapor, was Obliged to declare
that his regard for his children, who were detained as
hostages by the tyrant, was the only consideration which
prevented him from openly renouncing the alliance of Persia.
The emperor Valens, who respected the obligations of the
treaty, and who was apprehensive of involving the East in a
dangerous war, ventured with slow and cautious measures, to
support the Roman party in the kingdoms of Iberia and
Armenia. Twelve legions established the authority of
Sauromaces on the banks of the Cyrus. The Euphrates was
protected by the valour of Arintheus. A powerful army, under
the command of Count Trajan, and of Vadomair king of the
Alemanni, fixed their camp on the confines of Armenia. But
they were strictly enjoined not to commit the first
hostilities, which might be understood as a breach of the
treaty; and such was the implicit obedience of the Roman
general, that they retreated, with exemplary patience, under
a shower of Persian arrows, till they had clearly acquired a
just title to an honourable and legitimate victory. Yet
these appearances of war insensibly subsided in a vain and
tedious negotiation. The contending parties supported their
claims by mutual reproaches of perfidy and ambition; and it
should seem that the original treaty was expressed in very
obscure terms, since they were reduced to the necessity of
making their inconclusive appeal to the partial testimony of
the generals of the two nations who had assisted at the
negotiations.(136) The invasion of the Goths and Huns, which
soon afterwards shook the foundations of the Roman empire,
exposed the provinces of Asia to the arms of Sapor. But the
declining age, and perhaps the infirmities of the monarch,
suggested new maxims of tranquillity and moderation. A.D. 380His
death, which happened in the full maturity of a reign of
seventy years, changed in a moment the court and councils of
Persia, and their attention was most probably engaged by
domestic troubles and the distant efforts of a Carmanian
war.(137) The remembrance of ancient injuries was lost in the
enjoyment of peace. The treaty of peace, A.D. 384. The kingdoms of Armenia and Iberia were
permitted, by the mutual though tacit consent of both
empires, to resume their doubtful neutrality. In the first
years of the reign of Theodosius, a Persian embassy arrived
at Constantinople to excuse the unjustifiable measures of
the former reign, and to offer, as the tribute of
friendship, or even of respect, a splendid present of gems,
of silk, and of Indian elephants.(138)
Adventures of Para, king of Armenia
In the general picture of the affairs of the East under the
reign of Valens, the adventures of Para form one of the most
striking and singular objects. The noble youth, by the
persuasion of his mother Olympias, had escaped through the
Persian host that besieged Artogerassa, and implored the
protection of the emperor of the East. By his timid
councils, Para was alternately supported, and recalled, and
restored, and betrayed. The hopes of the Armenians were
sometimes raised by the presence of their natural sovereign,
and the ministers of Valens were satisfied that they
preserved the integrity of the public faith, if their vassal
was not suffered to assume the diadem and title of King. But
they soon repented of their own rashness. They were
confounded by the reproaches and threats of the Persian
monarch. They found reason to distrust the cruel and
inconstant temper of Para himself, who sacrificed, to the
slightest suspicions, the lives of his most faithful
servants, and held a secret and disgraceful correspondence
with the assassin of his father and the enemy of his
country. Under the specious pretence of consulting with the
emperor on the subject of their common interest, Para was
persuaded to descend from the mountains of Armenia, where
his party was in arms, and to trust his independence and
safety to the discretion of a perfidious court. The king of
Armenia, for such he appeared in his own eyes and in those
of his nation, was received with due honours by the
governors of the provinces through which he passed but when
he arrived at Tarsus in Cilicia, his progress was stopped
under various pretences, his motions were watched with
respectful vigilance, and he gradually discovered that he
was a prisoner in the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed
his indignation, dissembled his fears, and, after secretly
preparing his escape, mounted on horseback with three
hundred of his faithful followers. The officer stationed at
the door of his apartment immediately communicated his
flight to the consular of Cilicia, who overtook him in the
suburbs, and endeavoured, without success, to dissuade him
from prosecuting his rash and dangerous design. A legion was
ordered to pursue the royal fugitive; but the pursuit of
infantry could not be very alarming to a body of light
cavalry; and upon the first cloud of arrows that was
discharged into the air, they retreated with precipitation
to the gates of Tarsus. After an incessant march of two days
and two nights, Para and his Armenians reached the banks of
the Euphrates; but the passage of the river, which they were
obliged to swim, was attended with some delay and some loss.
The country was alarmed, and the two roads, which were only
separated by an interval of three miles, had been occupied
by a thousand archers on horseback, under the command of a
count and a tribune. Para must have yielded to superior
force, if the accidental arrival of a friendly traveller had
not revealed the danger and the means of escape. A dark and
almost impervious path securely conveyed the Armenian troops
through the thicket; and Para had left behind him the count
and the tribune, while they patiently expected his approach
along the public highways. They returned to the Imperial
court to excuse their want of diligence or success; and
seriously alleged that the king of Armenia, who was a
skilful magician, had transformed himself and his followers,
and passed before their eyes under a borrowed shape. After
his return to his native kingdom, Para still continued to
profess himself the friend and ally of the Romans: but the
Romans had injured him too deeply ever to forgive, and the
secret sentence of his death was signed in the council of
Valens. The execution of the bloody deed was committed to
the subtle prudence of Count Trajan, and he had the merit of
insinuating himself into the confidence of the credulous
prince, that he might find an opportunity of stabbing him to
the heart. Para was invited to a Roman banquet, which had
been prepared with all the pomp and sensuality of the East;
the hall resounded with cheerful music, and the company was
already heated with wine, when the count retired for an
instant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder.
A robust and desperate barbarian instantly rushed on the
king of Armenia, and though he bravely defended his life
with the first weapon that chance offered to A.D. 374.his hand, the
table of the Imperial general was stained with the royal
blood of a guest and an ally. Such were the weak and wicked
maxims of the Roman administration, that, to attain a
doubtful object of political interest, the laws of nations,
and the sacred rights of hospitality, were inhumanly
violated in the face of the world.(139)
V THE DANUBE. Conquests of Hermanric
V.During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans
secured their frontiers, and the Goths extended their
dominions. The victories of the great Hermanric,(140) king of
the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race of the Amali,
have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, to
the exploits of Alexander: with this singular, and almost
incredible, difference, that the martial spirit of the
Gothic hero, instead of being supported by the vigour of
youth, was displayed with glory and success in the extreme
period of human life, between the age of four-score and one
hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were
persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the king of the
Ostrogoths as the sovereign of the Gothic nation: the chiefs
of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renounced the royal title,
and assumed the more humble appellation of judges; and,
among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus were
the most illustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by
their vicinity to the Roman provinces. These domestic
conquests, which increased the military power of Hermanric,
enlarged his ambitious designs. He invaded the adjacent
countries of the North, and twelve considerable nations,
whose names and limits cannot be accurately defined,
successively yielded to the superiority of the Gothic arms.
(141) The Heruli, who inhabited the marshy lands near the lake
Maeotis, were renowned for their strength and agility; and
the assistance of their light infantry was eagerly
solicited, and highly esteemed, in all the wars of the
barbarians. But the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued
by the slow and steady perseverance of the Goths; and, after
a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the remains of
that warlike tribe became an useful accession to the camp of
Hermanric. He then marched against the Venedi; unskilled in
the use of arms, and formidable only by their numbers, which
filled the wide extent of the plains of modern Poland. The
victorious Goths, who were not inferior in numbers,
prevailed in the contest, by the decisive advantages of
exercise and discipline. After the submission of the Venedi,
the conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far as the
confines of the Aestii,(142) an ancient people, whose name is
still preserved in the province of Esthonia. Those distant
inhabitants of the Baltic coast were supported by the labors
of agriculture, enriched by the trade of amber, and
consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of the
Gods. But the scarcity of iron obliged the Aestian warriors
to content themselves with wooden clubs; and the reduction
of that wealthy country is ascribed to the prudence, rather
than to the arms, of Hermanric. His dominions, which
extended from the Danube to the Baltic, included the native
seats, and the recent acquisitions, of the Goths; and he
reigned over the greatest part of Germany and Scythia with
the authority of a conqueror, and sometimes with the cruelty
of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of the globe
incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory of its
heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost buried in oblivion;
his exploits are imperfectly known: and the Romans
themselves appeared unconscious of the progress of an
aspiring power which threatened the liberty of the North and
the peace of the empire.(143)
The cause of the Gothic war, A.D. 366
The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the
Imperial house of Constantine, of whose power and liberality
they had received so many signal proofs. They respected the
public peace; and if an hostile band sometimes presumed to
pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct was candidly
ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the barbarian youth.
Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been
raised to the throne by a popular election, inspired the
Goths with bolder hopes; and, while they agitated some
design of marching their confederate force under the
national standard,(144) they were easily tempted to embrace
the party of Procopius, and to foment, by their dangerous
aid, the civil discord of the Romans. The public treaty
might stipulate no more than ten thousand auxiliaries; but
the design was so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the
Visigoths, that the army which passed the Danube amounted to
the number of thirty thousand men.(145) They marched with the
proud confidence that their invincible valour would decide
the fate of the Roman empire; and the provinces of Thrace
groaned under the weight of the barbarians, who displayed
the insolence of masters, and the licentiousness of enemies.
But the intemperance which gratified their appetites
retarded their progress; and before the Goths could receive
any certain intelligence of the defeat and death of
Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the
country, that the civil and military powers were resumed by
his successful rival. A chain of posts and fortifications,
skilfully disposed by Valens, or the generals of Valens,
resisted their march, prevented their retreat, and
intercepted their subsistence. The fierceness of the
barbarians was tamed and suspended by hunger; they
indignantly threw down their arms at the feet of the
conqueror who offered them food and chains: the numerous
captives were distributed in all the cities of the East; and
the provincials, who were soon familiarised with their
savage appearance, ventured, by degrees, to measure their
own strength with these formidable adversaries, whose name
had so long been the object of their terror. The king of
Scythia (and Hermanric alone could deserve so lofty a title)
was grieved and exasperated by this national calamity. His
ambassadors loudly complained, at the court of Valens, of
the infraction of the ancient and solemn alliance which had
so long subsisted between the Romans and the Goths. They
alleged that they had fulfilled the duty of allies, by
assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor Julian;
they required the immediate restitution of the noble
captives; and they urged a very singular claim, that the
Gothic generals, marching in arms, and in hostile array,
were entitled to the sacred character and privileges of
ambassadors. The decent, but peremptory, refusal of these
extravagant demands was signified to the barbarians by
Victor, master-general of the cavalry, who expressed, with
force and dignity, the just complaints of the emperor of the
East.(146) The negotiation was interrupted, and the manly
exhortations of Valentinian encouraged his timid brother to
vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire.(147)
Hostilities and peace, A.D. 367, 368, 369.
The splendour and magnitude of this Gothic war are
celebrated by a contemporary historian;(148) but the events
scarcely deserve the attention of posterity, except as the
preliminary steps of the approaching decline and fall of the
empire. Instead of leading the nations of Germany and
Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or even to the gates of
Constantinople, the aged monarch of the Goths resigned to
the brave Athanaric the danger and glory of a defensive war,
against an enemy who wielded with a feeble hand the powers
of a mighty state. A bridge of boats was established upon
the Danube, the presence of Valens animated his troops, and
his ignorance of the art of war was compensated by personal
bravery, and a wise deference to the advice of Victor and
Arintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry and infantry.
The operations of the campaign were conducted by their skill
and experience; but they found it impossible to drive the
Visigoths from their strong posts in the mountains, and the
devastation of the plains obliged the Romans themselves to
repass the Danube on the approach of winter. The incessant
rains, which swelled the waters of the river, produced a
tacit suspension of arms, and confined the emperor Valens,
during the whole course of the ensuing summer, to his camp
of Marcianopolis. The third year of the war was more
favourable to the Romans, and more pernicious to the Goths.
The interruption of trade deprived the barbarians of the
objects of luxury, which they already confounded with the
necessaries of life; and the desolation of a very extensive
tract of country threatened them with the horrors of famine.
Athanaric was provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle,
which he lost, in the plains; and the pursuit was rendered
more bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious
generals, who had promised a large reward for the head of
every Goth that was brought into the Imperial camp. The
submission of the barbarians appeased the resentment of
Valens and his council: the emperor listened with
satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of
the senate of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first
time, a share in the public deliberations; and the same
generals, Victor and Arintheus, who had successfully
directed the conduct of the war, were empowered to regulate
the conditions of peace. The freedom of trade which the
Goths had hitherto enjoyed was restricted to two cities on
the Danube; the rashness of their leaders was severely
punished by the suppression of their pensions and subsidies;
and the exception, which was stipulated in favour of
Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honourable to
the Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this
occasion, appears to have consulted his private interest,
without expecting the orders of his sovereign, supported his
own dignity, and that of his tribe, in the personal
interview which was proposed by the ministers of Valens. He
persisted in his declaration that it was impossible for him,
without incurring the guilt of perjury, ever to set his foot
on the territory of the empire; and it is more than probable
that his regard for the sanctity of an oath was confirmed by
the recent and fatal examples of Roman treachery. The
Danube, which separated the dominions of the two independent
nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. The
emperor of the East, and the Judge of the Visigoths,
accompanied by an equal number of armed followers, advanced
in their respective barges to the middle of the stream.
After the ratification of the treaty, and the delivery of
hostages, Valens returned in triumph to Constantinople, and
the Goths remained in a state of tranquillity about six
years, till they were violently impelled against the Roman
empire by an innumerable host of Scythians, who appeared to
issue from the frozen regions of the North.(149)
War of the Quadi and Sarmatians, A.D. 374
The emperor of the West, who had resigned to his brother the
command of the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care
the defence of the Rhaetian and Illyrian provinces, which
spread so many hundred miles along the greatest of the
European rivers. The active policy of Valentinian was
continually employed in adding new fortifications to the
security of the frontier; but the abuse of this policy
provoked the just resentment of the barbarians. The Quadi
complained that the ground for an intended fortress had been
marked out on their territories, and their complaints were
urged with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius,
master-general of Illyricum, consented to suspend the
prosecution of the work till he should be more clearly
informed of the will of his sovereign. This fair occasion of
injuring a rival, and of advancing the fortune of his son,
was eagerly embraced by the inhuman Maximin, the praefect,
or rather tyrant, of Gaul. The passions of Valentinian were
impatient of control, and he credulously listened to the
assurances of his favourite, that, if the government of
Valeria, and the direction of the work, were intrusted to
the zeal of his son Marcellinus, the emperor should no
longer be importuned with the audacious remonstrances of the
barbarians. The subjects of Rome, and the natives of
Germany, were insulted by the arrogance of a young and
worthless minister, who considered his rapid elevation as
the proof and reward of his superior merit. He affected,
however, to receive the modest application of Gabinius, king
of the Quadi, with some attention and regard; but this
artful civility concealed a dark and bloody design, and the
credulous prince was persuaded to accept the pressing
invitation of Marcellinus. I am at a loss how to vary the
narrative of similar crimes; or how to relate that, in the
course of the same year, but in remote parts of the empire,
the inhospitable table of two Imperial generals was stained
with the royal blood of two guests and allies, inhumanly
murdered by their order, and in their presence. The fate of
Gabinius, and of Para, was the same: but the cruel death of
their sovereign was resented in a very different manner by
the servile temper of the Armenians and the free and daring
spirit of the Germans. The Quadi were much declined from
that formidable power which in the time of Marcus Antoninus,
had spread terror to the gates of Rome. But they still
possessed arms and courage; their courage was animated by
despair, and they obtained the usual reinforcement of the
cavalry of their Sarmatian allies. So improvident was the
assassin Marcellinus, that he chose the moment when the
bravest veterans had been drawn away to suppress the revolt
of Firmus, and the whole province was exposed, with a very
feeble defence, to the rage of the exasperated barbarians.
They invaded Pannonia in the season of harvest, unmercifully
destroyed every object of plunder which they could not
easily transport, and either disregarded or demolished the
empty fortifications. The princess Constantia, the daughter
of the emperor Constantius, and the grand-daughter of the
great Constantine, very narrowly escaped. That royal maid,
who had innocently supported the revolt of Procopius, was
now the destined wife of the heir of the Western empire. She
traversed the peaceful province with a splendid and unarmed
train. Her person was saved from danger, and the republic
from disgrace, by the active zeal of Messalla, governor of
the provinces. As soon as he was informed that the village
where she stopped only to dine was almost encompassed by the
barbarians, he hastily placed her in his own chariot, and
drove full speed till he reached the gates of Sirmium, which
were at the distance of six-and-twenty miles. Even Sirmium
might not have been secure if the Quadi and Sarmatians had
diligently advanced during the general consternation of the
magistrates and people. Their delay allowed Probus, the
Praetorian praefect, sufficient time to recover his own
spirits and to revive the courage of the citizens. He
skilfully directed their strenuous efforts to repair and
strengthen the decayed fortifications, and procured the
seasonable and effectual assistance of a company of archers
to protect the capital of the Illyrian provinces.
Disappointed in their attempts against the walls of Sirmium,
the indignant barbarians turned their arms against the
master-general of the frontier, to whom they unjustly
attributed the murder of their king. Equitius could bring
into the field no more than two legions, but they contained
the veteran strength of the Maesian and Pannonian bands. The
obstinacy with which they disputed the vain honours of rank
and precedency was the cause of their destruction, and,
while they acted with separate forces and divided councils,
they were surprised and slaughtered by the active vigour of
the Sarmatian horse. The success of this invasion provoked
the emulation of the bordering tribes, and the province of
Masia would infallibly have been lost if young Theodosius,
the duke or military commander of the frontier, had not
signalised, in the defeat of the public enemy, an intrepid
genius worthy of his illustrious father and of his future
greatness.(150)
The expedition, A.D. 375,
The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was
deeply affected by the calamities of Illyricum, but the
lateness of the season suspended the execution of his
designs till the ensuing spring. He marched in person, with
a considerable part of the forces of Gaul, from the banks of
the Moselle; and to the suppliant ambassadors of the
Sarmatians, who met him on the way, he returned a doubtful
answer, that as soon as he reached the scene of action he
should examine and pronounce. When he arrived at Sirmium he
gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrian provinces, who
loudly congratulated their own felicity under the auspicious
government of Probus, his Praetorian praefect. (151)
Valentinian, who was flattered by these demonstrations of
their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked the deputy of
Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity, (152) whether he was freely sent by the wishes of the province?
"With tears and groans am I sent (replied Iphicles) by a reluctant people."
The emperor paused, but the impunity of his ministers established the pernicious maxim that they might oppress his subjects without injuring his service. A strict inquiry into their conduct would have relieved the public discontent. The severe condemnation of the murder of Gabinius was the only measure which could restore the confidence of the Germans, and vindicate the honour of the Roman name. But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity which dares to acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered only the injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiate thirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation and promiscuous massacre of a savage war were justified in the eyes of the emperor, and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation; (153) and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without the loss of a single man. As he had resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi by a second campaign, he fixed his winter-quarters at Bregetio, on the Danube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations of war were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror, and, at the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into the Imperial council. They approached the throne with bended bodies and dejected countenances, and, without daring to complain of the murder of their king, they affirmed, with solemn oaths, that the late invasion was the crime of some irregular robbers, which the public council of the nation condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them but little hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in the most intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude, their insolence. His eyes, his voice, his colour, his gestures, expressed the violence of his ungoverned fury; and while his whole frame was agitated with convulsive passion a large blood-vessel suddenly burst in his body, and Valentinian fell speechless into the arms of his attendants. and death, of Valentinian, A.D. 375, November 17th. Their pious care immediately concealed his situation from the crowd, but in a few minutes the emperor of the West expired in an agony of pain, retaining his senses till the last, and struggling, without success, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers who surrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four years of age, and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish the twelve years of his reign.(154)
The emperors Gratian, and Valentinian II
The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiastical historian.(155)
"The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted into her familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italian governor; her admiration of those naked charms, which she had often seen in the bath, was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise that the emperor was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; and his public edict extended to all the subjects of the empire the same domestic privilege which he had assumed for himself."
But we may be assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the two marriages of Valentinian with Severa and with Justina were successively contracted, and that he used the ancient permission of divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by the church. Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every claim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western empire. He was the eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign had confirmed the free and honourable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before he had attained the ninth year of his age the royal youth received from the hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with the title of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and applause of the armies of Gaul,(156) and the name of Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and Valens in all the legal transactions of the Roman government. By his marriage with the grand-daughter of Constantine, the son of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian family, which, in a series of three Imperial generations, were sanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At the death of his father the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of his age, and his virtues already justified the favourable opinion of the army and people. But Gratian resided, without apprehension, in the palace of Treves, whilst at the distance of many hundred miles Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio. The passions which had been so long suppressed by the presence of a master immediately revived in the Imperial council, and the ambitious design of reigning in the name of an infant was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They contrived the most honour able pretences to remove the popular leaders and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted the claims of the lawful successor; they suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies by a bold and decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left in a palace about one hundred miles from Bregetio, was respectfully invited to appear in the camp with the son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death of Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions, and solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice of the army, declared that he should always consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival, and advised the empress, with her son Valentinian, to fix their residence at Milan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy while he assumed the more arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish or disgrace the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of the West.(157)