Death of Honorius.—Valentinian III. Emperor of the West—Administration of His Mother Placidia.—Aetius and Boniface.—Conquest of Africa by the Vandals.
Last years and death of Honorius, A.D. 423, August 27
DURING a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years,
Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over the East; and Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference and secret joy, the calamities of Rome. The strange adventures of Placidia gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the two empires. The daughter of the great Theodosius had been the captive and the queen of the Goths; she lost an affectionate husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the treaty of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her return from Spain to Italy, Placidia experienced a new
persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a
marriage which had been stipulated without her consent; and
the brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants
whom he had vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius
himself, the struggling and reluctant hand of the widow of
Adolphus. But her resistance ended with the ceremony of the
nuptials; nor did Placidia refuse to become the mother of
Honoria and Valentinian the Third, or to assume and exercise
an absolute dominion over the mind of her grateful husband.
The generous soldier, whose time had hitherto been divided
between social pleasure and military service, was taught new
lessons of avarice and ambition: he extorted the title of
Augustus; and the servant of Honorius was associated to the
empire of the West. The death of Constantius, in the seventh
month of his reign, instead of diminishing, seemed to
increase, the power of Placidia; and the indecent
familiarity(1) of her brother, which might be no more than
the symptoms of a childish affection, were universally
attributed to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base
intrigues of a steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness
was converted into an irreconcilable quarrel: the debates of
the emperor and his sister were not long confined within the
walls of the palace; and as the Gothic soldiers adhered to
their queen, the city of Ravenna was agitated with bloody
and dangerous tumults, which could only be appeased by the
forced or voluntary retreat of Placidia and her children.
The royal exiles landed at Constantinople, soon after the
marriage of Theodosius, during the festival of the Persian
victories. They were treated with kindness and magnificence;
but as the statues of the emperor Constantius had been
rejected by the Eastern court, the title of Augusta could
not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few months
after the arrival of Placidia a swift messenger announced
the death of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the
important secret was not divulged till the necessary orders
had been despatched for the march of a large body of troops
to the sea-coast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of
Constantinople remained shut during seven days; and the loss
of a foreign prince, who could neither be esteemed nor
regretted, was celebrated with loud and affected
demonstrations of the public grief.
Elevation and fall of the usurper John, A.D. 423-425
While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the
vacant throne of Honorius was usurped by the ambition of a
stranger. The name of the rebel was John; he filled the
confidential office of Primicerius, or principal
secretary; and history has attributed to his character more
virtues than can easily be reconciled with the violation of
the most sacred duty. Elated by the submission of Italy, and
the hope of an alliance with the Huns, John presumed to
insult by an embassy, the majesty of the Eastern emperor;
but when he understood that his agents had been banished,
imprisoned, and at length chased away with deserved
ignominy, John prepared to assert by arms the injustice of
his claims. In such a cause the grandson of the great
Theodosius should have marched in person; but the young
emperor was easily diverted by his physicians from so rash
and hazardous a design; and the conduct of the Italian
expedition was prudently intrusted to Ardaburius and his son
Aspar, who had already signalised their valour against the
Persians. It was resolved that Ardaburius should embark with
the infantry; whilst Aspar, at the head of the cavalry,
conducted Placidia, and her son Valentinian, along the
sea-coast of the Hadriatic. The march of the cavalry was
performed with such active diligence, that they surprised,
without resistance, the important city of Aquileia; when the
hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confounded by the
intelligence that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet,
and that his father, with only two galleys, was taken and
carried a prisoner into the port of Ravenna. Yet this
incident, unfortunate as it might seem, facilitated the
conquest of Italy. Ardaburius employed, or abused, the
courteous freedom which he was permitted to enjoy, to revive
among the troops a sense of loyalty and gratitude; and, as
soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, he invited,
by private messages, and pressed the approach of Aspar. A
shepherd, whom the popular credulity transformed into an
angel, guided the Eastern cavalry, by a secret, and, it was
thought, an impassable road, through the morasses of the Po:
the gates of Ravenna, after a short struggle, were thrown
open; and the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the mercy,
or rather to the cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand
was first cut off, and after he had been exposed, mounted on
an ass, to the public derision, John was beheaded in the
circus of Aquileia. The emperor Theodosius, when he received
the news of the victory, interrupted the horseraces; and
singing, as he marched through the streets a suitable psalm,
conducted his people from the Hippodrome to the church,
where he spent the remainder of the day in grateful
devotion.(2)
Valentinian III. Emperor of the West, A.D. 425-455
In a monarchy which, according to various precedents, might
be considered as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, it
was impossible that the intricate claims of female and
collateral succession should be clearly defined; (3) and
Theodosius, by the right of consanguinity or conquest, might
have reigned the sole legitimate emperor of the Romans. For
a moment, perhaps, his eyes were dazzled by the prospect of
unbounded sway; but his indolent temper gradually acquiesced
in the dictates of sound policy. He contented himself with
the possession of the East; and wisely relinquished the
laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful war against
the barbarians beyond the Alps, or of securing the obedience
of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were alienated by
the irreconcilable difference of language and interest.
Instead of listening to the voice of ambition, Theodosius
resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather, and
to seat his cousin Valentinian on the throne of the West.
The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the
title of Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before his
departure from Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of
Caesar: and, after the conquest of Italy, the patrician
Helion, by the authority of Theodosius, and in the presence
of the senate, saluted Valentinian the Third by the name of
Augustus, and solemnly invested him with the diadem and the
Imperial purple.(4) By the agreement of the three females who
governed the Roman world, the son of Placidia was betrothed
to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius and Athenais; and, as
soon as the lover and his bride had attained the age of
puberty, this honourable alliance was faithfully
accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation, perhaps,
for the expenses of the war, the Western Illyricum was
detached from the Italian dominions, and yielded to the
throne of Constantinople.(5) The emperor of the East acquired
the useful dominion of the rich and maritime province of
Dalmatia, and the dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and
Noricum, which had been filled and ravaged above twenty
years by a promiscuous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths Vandals,
and Bavarians. Theodosius and Valentinian continued to
respect the obligations of their public and domestic
alliance; but the unity of the Roman government was finally
dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of all
future laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar
author; unless he should think proper to communicate them,
subscribed with his own hand, for the approbation of his
independent colleague.(6)
Administration of his mother Placidia, A.D. 425-450
Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no
more than six years of age; and his long minority was
intrusted to the guardian care of a mother who might assert
a female claim to the succession of the Western empire
Placidia envied, but she could not equal, the reputation and
virtues of the wife and sister of Theodosius; the elegant
genius of Eudocia, the wise and successful policy of
Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was jealous of the
power which she was incapable of exercising:(7) she reigned
twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the character
of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the
suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a
dissolute education, and studiously diverted his attention
from every manly and honourable pursuit. Amidst the decay of
military spirit, her armies were commanded by two generals, Her two generals Aetius (8) and Boniface, (9) who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their union might have supported a
sinking empire; their discord was the fatal and immediate
cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion and defeat of
Attila has immortalised the fame of Aetius; and though time
has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival, the
defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest
the military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of
battle, in partial encounters, in single combats, he was
still the terror of the barbarians: the clergy, and
particularly his friend Augustin, were edified by the
Christian piety which had once tempted him to retire from
the world; the people applauded his spotless integrity; the
army dreaded his equal and inexorable justice, which may be
displayed in a very singular example. A peasant, who
complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife and a
Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the
following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently
informed himself of the time and place of the assignation,
mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country,
surprised the guilty couple, punished the soldier with
instant death, and silenced the complaints of the husband,
by presenting him, the next morning, with the head of the
adulterer. The abilities of Aetius and Boniface might have
been usefully employed against the public enemies in
separate and important commands; but the experience of their
past conduct should have decided the real favour and
confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy season
of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained her
cause with unshaken fidelity; and the troops and treasures
of Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the
rebellion. The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal
and activity of Aetius, who brought an army of sixty
thousand Huns from the Danube to the confines of Italy, for
the service of the usurper. The untimely death of John
compelled him to accept an advantageous treaty, but he still
continued, the subject and the soldier of Valentinian, to
entertain a secret, perhaps a treasonable, correspondence
with his barbarian allies, whose retreat had been purchased
by liberal gifts and more liberal promises. But Aetius
possessed an advantage of singular moment in a female reign:
he was present: he besieged with artful and assiduous
flattery the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark designs
with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at length
deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a subtle
conspiracy which a weak woman and a brave man could not
easily suspect. Error and revolt of Boniface in Africa, A.D. 427 He secretly persuaded (10) Placidia to recall
Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised
Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons: to the one, he
represented the order as a sentence of death; to the other,
he stated the refusal as a signal of revolt; and when the
credulous and unsuspectful count had armed the province in
his defence, Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the
rebellion which his own perfidy had excited. A temperate
inquiry into the real motives of Boniface would have
restored a faithful servant to his duty and to the republic;
but the arts of Aetius still continued to betray and to
inflame, and the count was urged by persecution to embrace
the most desperate counsels. The success with which he
eluded or repelled the first attacks could not inspire a
vain confidence that, at the head of some loose disorderly
Africans, he should be able to withstand the regular forces
of the West, commanded by a rival whose military character
it was impossible for him to despise. After some hesitation,
the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface
despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the
camp, of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the proposal of
a strict alliance, and the offer of an advantageous and
perpetual settlement.
He invites the vandals, A.D. 428
After the retreat of the Goths the authority of Honorius had
obtained a precarious establishment in Spain, except only in
the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals
had fortified their camps in mutual discord and hostile
independence. The Vandals prevailed, and their adversaries
were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and
Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or
rather provoked, the victorious barbarians to remove the
scene of the war to the plains of Baetica. The rapid
progress of the Vandals soon required a more effectual
opposition, and the master-general Castinus marched against
them with a numerous army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in
battle by an inferior enemy, Castinus fled with dishonour to
Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has been
represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect,
of his rash presumption. (11) Seville and Carthagena became
the reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors;
and the vessels which they found in the harbour of
Carthagena might easily transport them to the isles of
Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a
secure recess, had vainly concealed their families and their
fortunes. The experience of navigation, and perhaps the
prospect of Africa, encouraged the Vandals to accept the
invitation which they received from Count Boniface, and the
death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the
bold enterprise. In the room of a prince not conspicuous for
any superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his
bastard brother, Genseric, King Of The Vandals the terrible Genseric;(12) a name which in the destruction of the Roman empire has reserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul: he disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished, but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds and without scruples, and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and contention. Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage the Spanish territories which he was resolved to abandon. Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as Merida, precipitated the king and his army into the river Anas, He lands in Africa, A.D. 429, May, and calmly returned to the seashore to embark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported the Vandals over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only twelve miles in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their departure, and by the African general, who had implored their formidable assistance.(13)
and reviews his army, A.D. 429.
Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the
martial swarms of barbarians that seemed to issue from the
North, will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army
which Genseric mustered on the coast of Mauritania. The
Vandals, who in twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to
Mount Atlas, were united under the command of their warlike
king; and he reigned with equal authority over the Alani,
who had passed within the term of human life from the cold
of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate. The
hopes of the bold enterprise had excited many brave
adventurers of the Gothic nation, and many desperate
provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by the
same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various
multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and
though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength by
appointing eighty chiliarchs, or commanders of thousands,
the fallacious increase of old men, of children, and of
slaves, would scarcely have swelled his army to the number
of four-score thousand persons.(14) But his own dexterity and
the discontents of Africa soon fortified the Vandal powers
by the accession of numerous and active allies. The parts of
Mauritania which border on the great desert and the Atlantic
ocean, The Moors were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage temper had been exasperated rather than
reclaimed by their dread of the Roman arms. The wandering
Moors, (15) as they gradually ventured to approach the seashore and the camp of the Vandals, must have viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armour, the martial
pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had landed
on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blue-eyed
warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the
swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighbourhood
of the torrid zone, After the first difficulties had in some
measure been removed which arose from the mutual ignorance
of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any
future consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of
Rome, and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and
valleys of Mount Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the
polished tyrants who had injuriously expelled them from the
native sovereignty of the land.
The Donatists
The persecution of the Donatists (16) was an event not less
favourable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years
before he landed in Africa, a public conference was held at
Carthage by the order of the magistrate. The catholics were
satisfied that, after the invincible reasons which they had
alleged, the obstinacy of the schismatics must be
inexcusable and voluntary, and the emperor Honorius was
persuaded to inflict the most rigorous penalties on a
faction which had so long abused his patience and clemency.
Three hundred bishops, (17) with many thousands of the
inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of
their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands,
and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal
themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous
congregations, both in cities and in the country, were
deprived of the rights of citizens and of the exercise of
religious worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two
hundred pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained,
according to the distinctions of rank and fortune, to punish
the crime of assisting at a schismatic conventicle; and if
the fine had been levied five times without subduing the
obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was
referred to the discretion of the Imperial court.(18) By
these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of
St. Augustin,(19) great numbers of Donatists were reconciled
to the Catholic church; but the fanatics who still
persevered in their opposition were provoked to madness and
despair; the distracted country was filled with tumult and
bloodshed; the armed troops of Circumcellions alternately
pointed their rage against themselves or against their
adversaries; and the calendar of martyrs received on both
sides a considerable augmentation. (20) Under these
circumstances Genseric, a Christian, but an enemy of the
orthodox communion, showed himself to the Donatists as a
powerful deliverer, from whom they might reasonably expect
the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts of the Roman
emperors.(21) The conquest of Africa was facilitated by the
active real or the secret favour of a domestic faction; the
wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy, of
which the Vandals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the
fanaticism of their allies; and the intolerant spirit which
disgraced the triumph of Christianity contributed to the
loss of the most important province of the West.(22)
Tardy repentance of Boniface, A.D. 430
The court and the people were astonished by the strange
intelligence that a virtuous hero, after so many favours and
so many services, had renounced his allegiance and invited
the barbarians to destroy the province entrusted to his
command. The friends of Boniface, who still believed that
his criminal behaviour might be excused by some honourable
motive, solicited, during the absence of Aetius, a free
conference with the Count of Africa; and Darius, an officer
of high distinction, was named for the important embassy.(23)
In their first interview at Carthage the imaginary
provocations were mutually explained, the opposite letters
of Aetius were produced and compared, and the fraud was
easily detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented their fatal
error, and the count had sufficient magnanimity to confide
in the forgiveness of his sovereign, or to expose his head
to her future resentment. His repentance was fervent and
sincere; but he soon discovered that it was no longer in his
power to restore the edifice which he had shaken to its
foundations. Carthage and the Roman garrisons returned with
their general to the allegiance of Valentinian, but the rest
of Africa was still distracted with war and faction; and the
inexorable king of the Vandals, disdaining all terms of
accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the possession
of his prey. The band of veterans who marched under the
standard of Boniface, and his hasty levies of provincial
troops, were defeated with considerable loss; the victorious
barbarians insulted the open country; and Carthage, Cirta,
and Hippo Regius, were the only cities that appeared to rise
above the general inundation.
Desolation of Africa
The long and narrow tract of the African coast was filled
with frequent monuments of Roman art and magnificence; and
the respective degrees of improvement might be accurately
measured by the distance from Carthage and the
Mediterranean. A simple reflection will impress every
thinking mind with the clearest idea of fertility and
cultivation: the country was extremely populous; the
inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for their own
use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat, was
so regular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of
the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden the
seven fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were
overwhelmed by the invasion of the Vandals, whose
destructive rage has perhaps been exaggerated by popular
animosity, religious zeal, and extravagant declamation. War
in its fairest form implies a perpetual violation of
humanity and justice; and the hostilities of barbarians are
inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit which incessantly
disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The Vandals,
where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the
deaths of the valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin
of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of
the distinction of age, or sex, or rank, they employed every
species of indignity and torture to force from the captives
a discovery of their hidden wealth. The stern policy of
Genseric justified his frequent examples of military
execution: he was not always the master of his own passions
or of those of his followers; and the calamities of war were
aggravated by the licentiousness of the Moors and the
fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not easily be
persuaded that it was the common practice of the Vandals to
extirpate the olives and other fruit trees of a country
where they intended to settle: nor can I believe that it
was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of their
prisoners before the walls of a besieged city, for the sole
purpose of infecting the air and producing a pestilence, of
which they themselves must have been the first victims.(24)
Siege of Hippo, A.D. 430, May.
The generous mind of Count Boniface was tortured by the
exquisite distress of beholding the ruin which he had
occasioned, and whose rapid progress he was unable to check.
After the loss of a battle he retired to Hippo Regius, where
he was immediately besieged by an enemy who considered him
as the real bulwark of Africa. The maritime colony of Hippo,
(25) about two hundred miles westward of Carthage, had
formerly acquired the distinguishing epithet of Regius from
the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of trade
and populousness still adhere to the modern city, which is
known in Europe by the corrupted name of Bona. The military
labours and anxious reflections of Count Boniface were
alleviated by the edifying conversation of his friend St.
Augustin;(26) till that bishop, the light and pillar of the
Catholic church,Death of St. Augustin, A.D. 430, August 28. was gently released, in the third month of
the siege and in the seventy-sixth year of his age, from the
actual and the impending calamities of his country. The
youth of Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors
which he so ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of
his conversion to that of his death the manners of the
bishop of Hippo were pure and austere, and the most
conspicuous of his virtues was an ardent zeal against
heretics of every denomination—the Manichaeans, the
Donatists, and the Pelagians against whom he waged a
perpetual controversy. When the city, some months after his
death was burnt by the Vandals, the library was fortunately
saved which contained his voluminous writings—two hundred
and thirty-two separate books or treatises on theological
subjects, besides a complete exposition of the Psalter and
the gospel, and a copious magazine of epistles and homilies.
(27) According to the judgment of the most impartial critics,
the superficial learning of Augustin was confined to the
Latin language;(28) and his style, though sometimes animated
by the eloquence of passion, is usually clouded by false and
affected rhetoric. But he possessed a strong, capacious,
argumentative mind; he boldly sounded the dark abyss of
grace, predestination, free-will, and original sin; and the
rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored(29)
has been entertained with public applause and secret
reluctance by the Latin church.(30)
Defeat and retreat of Bonniface, A.D. 431.
By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of
the Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above
fourteen months: the sea was continually open; and when the
adjacent country had been exhausted by irregular rapine, the
besiegers themselves were compelled by famine to relinquish
their enterprise. The importance and danger of Africa were
deeply felt by the regent of the West. Placidia implored the
assistance of her Eastern ally and the Italian fleet and
army were reinforced by Aspar, who sailed from
Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as the
force of the two empires was united under the command of
Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the
loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of
Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair, and
the people of Hippo were permitted, with their families and
effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers, the
greatest part of whom were either slain or made prisoners by
the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded
the vitals of the republic, might enter the palace of
Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon removed by the
smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the
rank of patrician and the dignity of master-general of the
Roman armies; but he must have blushed at the sight of those
medals in which he was represented with the name and
attributes of victory. (31) The discovery of his fraud, the
displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favour of
his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of
Aetius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a
retinue, or rather With an army, of barbarian followers; and
such was the weakness of the government, that the two
generals decided their private quarrel in a bloody battle.
Boniface was successful; His death, A.D. 432 but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such Christian and charitable
sentiments that he exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of
Spain, to accept Aetius for her second husband. But Aetius
could not derive any immediate advantage from the generosity
of his dying enemy: he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice
of Placidia; and though he attempted to defend some strong
fortresses, erected on his patrimonial estate, the Imperial
power soon compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the
tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived by
their mutual discord of the service of her two most
illustrious champions.(32)
Progress of the Vandals in Africa, A.D. 431-439.
It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals would achieve without resistance or delay the conquest of Africa. Eight years however elapsed from the evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of that interval the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he gave his son Hunneric for an hostage, and consented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias. (33) This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he sacrificed to his safety, and their mother, the widow of the deceased king, was precipitated by his order into the river Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner than in the field of battle.(34) The convulsions of Africa, which had favoured his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power; and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and catholics, continually disturbed or threatened the unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage he was forced to withdraw his troops from the Western provinces; the sea-coast was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans of Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city of Cirta still persisted in obstinate independence.(35) These difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric, who alternately: applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio. (36)
They Surprise Carthage, A.D. 439, October 9
A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a
colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal
prerogatives of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of
Alexandria, or the splendour of Antioch, she still
maintained the second rank in the West; as the Rome (if we
may use the style of contemporaries) of the African world.
That wealthy and opulent metropolis (37) displayed, in a
dependent condition, the image of a flourishing republic.
Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the
treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of
civil honours gradually ascended from the procurators of the
streets and quarters of the city to the tribunal of the
supreme magistrate, who, with the title of proconsul,
represented the state and dignity of a consul of ancient
Rome. Schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education
of the African youth; and the liberal arts and manners,
grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in
the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage
were uniform and magnificent: a shady grove was planted in
the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and
capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial
industry of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games
of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the
presence of the barbarians. The reputation of the
Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and
the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their subtle
and faithless character. (38) The habits of trade and the
abuse of luxury had corrupted their manners; but their
impious contempt of monks and the shameless practice of
unnatural lusts are the two abominations which excite the
pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age.(39) The
king of the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a
voluptuous people; and the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom
of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not without
energy) was reduced by Genseric into a state of ignominious
servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to
satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular
system of rapine and oppression. An edict was promulgated,
which enjoined all persons, without fraud or delay, to
deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture
or apparel to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete
any part of their patrimony was inexorably punished with
death and torture as an act of treason against the state.
The lands of the proconsular province, which formed the
immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured and
divided among the barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for
his peculiar domain the fertile territory of Byzacium and
the adjacent parts of Numidia and Gaetulia.(40)
African exiles and captives.
It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom
he had injured: the nobility and senators of Carthage, were
exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who
refused the ignominious terms which their honour and
religion forbade them to accept were compelled by the Arian
tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual banishment.
Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the East, were filled with
a crowd of exiles, of fugitives and of ingenuous captives,
who solicited the public compassion: and the benevolent
epistles of Theodoret still preserve the names and
misfortunes of Caelestian and Maria. (41) The Syrian bishop
deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who, from the state
of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced,
with his wife, and family, and servants, to beg his bread in
a foreign country; but he applauds the resignation of the
Christian exile, and the philosophic temper which, under the
pressure of such calamities, could enjoy more real happiness
than was the ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The
story of Maria, the daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon, is
singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage she was
purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who
afterwards sold her as a slave in their native country. A
female attendant, transported in the same ship, and sold in
the same family, still continued to respect a mistress whom
fortune had reduced to the common level of servitude; and
the daughter of Eudaemon received from her grateful
affection the domestic services which she had once required
from her obedience. This remarkable behaviour divulged the
real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop
of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the generosity of
some soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret
provided for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten
months among the deaconesses of the church, till she was
unexpectedly informed that her father, who had escaped from
the ruin of Carthage, exercised an honourable office in one
of the Western provinces. Her filial impatience was seconded
by the pious bishop: Theodoret, in a letter still extant,
recommends Maria to the bishop of Aegae, a maritime city of
Cilicia, which was frequented, during the annual fair, by
the vessels of the West; most earnestly requesting that his
colleague would use the maiden with a tenderness suitable to
her birth; and that he would intrust her to the care of such
faithful merchants as would esteem it a sufficient gain if
they restored a daughter, lost beyond all human hope, to the
arms of her afflicted parent.
Fable of the seven sleepers.
Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am
tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the SEVEN
SLEEPERS;(42) whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa by the
Vandals. (43) When the emperor Decius persecuted the
Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed
themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent
mountain where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who
gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with
a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep
slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring
the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and
eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the slaves of
Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had
descended, removed the stones, to supply materials for some
rustic edifice: the light of the sun darted into the cavern,
and the Seven Sleepers were permitted to awake. After a
slumber, as they thought of a few hours, they were pressed
by the calls of hunger; and resolved that Jamblichus, one of
their number, should secretly return to the city to purchase
bread for the use of his companions. The youth (if we may
still employ that appellation) could no longer recognise the
once familiar aspect of his native country; and his surprise
was increased by the appearance of a large cross,
triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus. His
singular dress and obsolete language confounded the baker,
whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius the current coin
of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a secret
treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual
inquiries produced the amazing discovery that two centuries
were almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had
escaped from the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of
Ephesus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and, as it
is said, the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to visit
the cavern of the Seven Sleepers; who bestowed their
benediction, related their story, and at the same instant
peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable
cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the
modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may be traced
within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of
Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years after
the death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his
two hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the young
men of Ephesus.(44) Their legend, before the end of the sixth
century, was translated from the Syriac into the Latin
language, by the care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile
communions of the East preserve their memory with equal
reverence; and their names are honourably inscribed in the
Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar.(45) Nor has
their reputation been confined to the Christian world. This
popular tale, which Mahomet might learn when he drove his
camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, as a divine
revelation, into the Koran. (46) The story of the Seven
Sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations, from
Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion;(47) and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in
the remote extremities of Scandinavia. (48) This easy and
universal belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may
be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We
imperceptibly advance from youth to age without observing
the gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs; and
even in our larger experience of history, the imagination is
accustomed, by a perpetual series of causes and effects, to
unite the most distant revolutions. But if the interval
between two memorable eras could be instantly annihilated;
if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of two
hundred years, to display the new world to the eyes of a
spectator who still retained a lively and recent impression
of the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish
the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene
could not be more advantageously placed than in the two
centuries which elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of
Theodosius the Younger. During this period the seat of
government had been transported from Rome to a new city on
the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus and the abuse of
military spirit had been suppressed by an artificial system
of tame and ceremonious servitude. The throne of the
persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian
and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous gods
of antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was
impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic
church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the
Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the
dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the
frozen regions of the North, had established their
victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and
Africa.