The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: By Edward Gibbon, Esq; ... [pt.5]

CHAP. XXX. Revolt of the Goths.—They plunder Greece.—Two great Invasions of Italy by Alaric and Radagaisus.—They are repulsed by Stilicho.—The Germans over|run Gaul.—Usurpation of Constantine in the West.—Disgrace and Death of Stilicho.

IF the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations to the great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced, how painfully the spirit and abilities of their deceased emperor had * 1.1 supported the frail and mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and before the end of the winter of the same year, the Gothic nation was in arms 1 1.2. The Barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly avowed the hostile designs, which they had long cherished in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned, by the conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tran|quillity and labour, deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet; and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their forests; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark,

"that they

rolled their ponderous waggons over the broad and icy back of the indignant river 2 1.3."

The unhappy natives of the provinces to the South of the Danube, submitted to the calamities, which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their imagination; and the various troops of Barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic name, were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople 3 1.4. The interruption, or at least the diminution, of the subsidy, which the Goths had received from the prudent liberality of Theodosius, was the spe|cious pretence of their revolt: the affront was embittered by their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius; and their resentment was in|flamed by the weakness, or treachery, of the mi|nister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Ru|finus to the camp of the Barbarians, whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty correspond|ence: and the public enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general devastation, to spare the private estates of the unpopular praefect. The Goths, instead

of being impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the Balti 4 1.5; which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali: he had solicited the command of the Roman armies; and the Imperial court pro|voked him to demonstrate the folly of their re|fusal, and the importance of their loss. What|ever hopes might be entertained of the conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court, and a discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms: but the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the strength of the city; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and random darts of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war 5 1.6.

The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public suspicion, that * 1.7 he had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable father; and Gerontius, who commanded the pro|vincial troops, was much better qualified to exe|cute the oppressive orders of a tyrant, than to de|fend, with courage and ability, a country most re|markably fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without resistance, the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a steep and woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from East to West, to the edge of the sea-shore; and left, between the precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which, in some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a single carriage 6 1.8. In this narrow pass of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted their lives, the Goths might have been stopped, or destroyed, by a skilful general; and perhaps the view of that sacred spot might have kindled some sparks of military ardour in the breasts of the degenerate Greeks. The troops which had been posted to defend the streights of Thermo|pylae, retired, as they were directed, without at|tempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage

of Alaric 7 1.9; and the fertile fields of Phocis, and Baeotia, were instantly covered by a deluge of Barbarians; who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful fe|males, with the spoil, and cattle, of the flaming villages. The travellers, who visited Greece se|veral years afterwards, could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths; and Thebes was less indebted for her pre|servation to the strength of her seven gates, than to the eager haste of Alaric, who advanced to oc|cupy the city of Athens, and the important har|bour of the Piraeus. The same impatience urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a siege, by the offer of a capitulation; and as soon as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their wealth, as the ransom of the city of Minerva, and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed with mu|tual fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small and select train, was admitted within the walls; he indulged himself in the refreshment of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet which was provided by the magistrate, and affected to shew that he was not ignorant of the manners of civil|ised nations 8 1.10. But the whole territory of Attica,

from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blasted by his baleful presence; and, if we may use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim. The distance between Megara and Corinth could not much exceed thirty miles; but the bad road, an expressive name, which it still bears among the the Greeks, was, or might easily have been made, impassable for the march of an enemy. The thick and gloomy woods of Mount Cithaeron co|vered the inland country; the Scironian rocks approached the water's edge, and hung over the narrow and winding path, which was confined above six miles along the sea-shore 9 1.11. The passage of those rocks, so infamous in every age, was ter|minated by the isthmus of Corinth; and a small body of firm and intrepid soldiers might have suc|cessfully defended a temporary intrenchment of five or six miles from the Ionian to the Aegean sea. The confidence of the cities of Peloponnesus, in their natural rampart, had tempted them to

neglect the care of their antique walls; and the avarice of the Roman governors had exhausted and betrayed the unhappy province 10 1.12. Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved, by death, from beholding the slavery of their families, and the conflagra|tion of their cities 11 1.13. The vases and statues were distributed among the Barbarians, with more re|gard to the value of the materials, than to the elegance of the workmanship; the female cap|tives submitted to the laws of war; the enjoy|ment of beauty was the reward of valour; and the Greeks could not reasonably complain of an abuse, which was justified by the example of the heroic times 12 1.14. The descendants of that extra|ordinary people, who had considered valour and discipline as the walls of Sparta, no longer re|membered the generous reply of their ancestors to an invader more formidable than Alaric.

"If thou art a god, thou wilt not hurt those who have never injured thee; if thou art a man,

advance:—and thou wilt find men equal to thyself 13 1.15."

From Thermopylae to Sparta, the leader of the Goths pursued his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonists: but one of the advocates of expiring Paganism has confidently asserted, that the walls of Athens were guarded by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable Aegis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles 14 1.16; and that the conqueror was dismayed by the presence of the hostile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjust to dispute the claim of the historian Zosimus to the common benefit; yet it cannot be dissembled, that the mind of Alaric was ill prepared to re|ceive, either in sleeping or waking visions, the impressions of Greek superstition. The songs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had probably never reached the ear of the illiterate Barbarian; and the Christian faith, which he had devoutly embraced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities of Rome and Athens. The invasion of the Goths, instead of vindicating the honour, contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains of Paganism; and the mysteries of Ceres, which had subsisted eighteen hundred

years, did not survive the destruction of Eleusis, and the calamities of Greece 15 1.17.

The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms, their gods, or their sove|reign, * 1.18 was placed in the powerful assistance of the general of the West; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse, advanced to chas|tise, the invaders of Greece 16 1.19. A numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of Italy; and the troops, after a short and prosperous navigation over the Ionian sea, were safely disembarked on the isth|mus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country of Arcadia, the fabulous re|sidence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of a long and doubtful conflict between two ge|nerals not unworthy of each other. The skill and perseverance of the Roman at length prevailed: and the Goths, after sustaining a considerable loss from disease and desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of Pholoe, near the sources of the Peneus, and on the frontiers of Elis; a sacred country, which had formerly been exempted from the calamities of war 17 1.20. The camp of the Bar|barians

was immediately besieged: the waters of the river 18 1.21 were diverted into another channel; and while they laboured under the intolerable pressure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of cir|cumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. After these precautions, Stilicho, too confident of victory, retired to enjoy his triumph, in the the|atrical games, and lascivious dances, of the Greeks; his soldiers, deserting their standards, spread themselves over the country of their allies, which they stripped of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands of the enemy. Alaric appears to have seized the favourable moment to execute one of those hardy enterprises, in which the abilities of a general are displayed with more genuine lustre, than in the tumult of a day of battle. To extri|cate himself from the prison of Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should pierce the intrench|ments which surrounded his camp; that he should perform a difficult and dangerous march of thirty miles, as far as the Gulf of Corinth; and that he should transport his troops, his captives, and his

spoil, over an arm of the sea, which, in the nar|row interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at least half a mile in breadth 19 1.22. The * 1.23 operations of Alaric must have been secret, pru|dent, and rapid; since the Roman general was confounded by the intelligence, that the Goths, who had eluded his efforts, were in full possession of the important province of Epirus. This un|fortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to conclude the treaty, which he secretly negociated, with the ministers of Constantinople. The ap|prehension of a civil war compelled Stilicho to re|tire, at the haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he respected, in the enemy of Rome, the honourable character of the ally and servant of the emperor of the East.

A Grecian philosopher 20 1.24, who visited Constan|tinople soon after the death of Theodosius, pub|lished * 1.25 his liberal opinions concerning the duties of kings, and the state of the Roman republic. Synesius observes, and deplores the fatal abuse, which the imprudent bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the military service. The citizens, and subjects, had purchased an exemp|tion from the indispensable duty of defending

their country; which was supported by the arms of Barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of Scy|thia were permitted to disgrace the illustrious dig|nities of the empire; their ferocious youth, who disdained the salutary restraint of laws, were more anxious to acquire the riches, than to imitate the arts, of a people, the object of their contempt and hatred; and the power of the Goths was the stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures, which Synesius recommends, are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He exhorts the em|peror to revive the courage of his subjects, by the example of manly virtue; to banish luxury from the court, and from the camp; to substitute, in the place of the Barbarian mercenaries, an army of men, interested in the defence of their laws and of their property; to force, in such a mo|ment of public danger, the mechanic from his shop, and the philosopher from his school; to rouse the indolent citizen from his dream of plea|sure, and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the laborious husbandman. At the head of such troops, who might deserve the name, and would display the spirit, of Romans, he ani|mates the son of Theodosius to encounter a race of Barbarians, who were destitute of any real courage; and never to lay down his arms, till he had chaced them far away into the solitudes of Scythia; or had reduced them to the state of ig|nominious servitude, which the Lacedaemonians formerly imposed on the captive Helots 21 1.26. The

court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice, of Sy|nesius. Perhaps the philosopher, who addresses the emperor of the East, in the language of reason and virtue, which he might have used to a Spartan king, had not condescended to form a practicable scheme, consistent with the temper, and circumstances, of a degenerate age. Perhaps the pride of the ministers, whose business was seldom interrupted by reflection, might re|ject, as wild and visionary, every proposal, which exceeded the measure of their capacity, and de|viated from the forms and precedents of office. While the oration of Synesius, and the downfal of the Barbarians, were the topics of popular conver|sation, an edict was published at Constantinople, which declared the promotion of Alaric to the rank of master-general of the Eastern Illyricum. The Roman provincials, and the allies, who had respected the faith of treaties, were justly indig|nant, that the ruin of Greece and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was received as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he had so lately besieged. The fathers, whose sons he had massacred, the husbands, whose wives he had violated, were subject to his autho|rity: and the success of his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign mer|cenaries. The use to which Alaric applied his new command, distinguishes the firm and judi|cious character of his policy. He issued his orders to the four magazines and manufactures of offen|sive and defensive arms, Margus, Ratiaria, Nais|sus,

and Thessalonica, to provide his troops with an extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords, and spears; the unhappy provincials were com|pelled to forge the instruments of their own de|struction; and the Barbarians removed the only defect which had sometimes disappointed the ef|forts of their courage 22 1.27. The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his future designs, insensibly united the body of the nation under his victorious standard; and, with the unanimous consent of the Barbarian chieftains, the master-general of Illyricum was elevated, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the Visigoths 23 1.28. * 1.29 Armed with this double power, seated on the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful promises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius 24 1.30; till he declared and executed his re|solution of invading the dominions of the West. The provinces of Europe which belonged to the

Eastern emperor, were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy, which he had twice visited; and he se|cretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs 25 1.31.

The scarcity of facts 26 1.32, and the uncertainty of * 1.33 dates 27 1.34, oppose our attempts to describe the cir|cumstances of the first invasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric. His march, perhaps from Thes|salonica, through the warlike and hostile country of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his passage of those mountains, which were strongly guarded by troops and intrench|ments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the provinces of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable time. Unless his operations were extremely cautious and slow, the

length of the interval would suggest a probable suspicion, that the Gothic king retreated towards the banks of the Danube; and reinforced his army with fresh swarms of Barbarians, before he again attempted to penetrate into the heart of Italy. Since the public and important events escape the diligence of the historian, he may amuse himself with contemplating, for a moment, the influence of the arms of Alaric on the fortunes of two obscure individuals, a presbyter of Aquileia, and an husbandman of Verona. The learned Ru|finus, who was summoned by his enemies to ap|pear before a Roman synod 28 1.35, wisely preferred the dangers of a besieged city; and the Barba|rians, who furiously shook the walls of Aquileia, might save him from the cruel sentence of another heretic, who, at the request of the same bishops, was severely whipped, and condemned to per|petual exile on a desert island 29 1.36. The old man 30 1.37, who had passed his simple and innocent life in the neighbourhood of Verona, was a stranger to the

quarrels both of kings and bishops; his pleasures, his desires, his knowledge, were confined within the little circle of his paternal farm; and a staff supported his aged steps, on the same ground where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian describes with so much truth and feeling) was still exposed to the undistinguishing rage of war. His trees, his old contemporary trees 31 1.38, must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country; a de|tachment of Gothic cavalry might sweep away his cottage and his family; and the power of Alaric could destroy this happiness, which he was not able either to taste, or to bestow.

"Fame," says the poet, "encircling with terror her gloomy wings, proclaimed the march of the Barbarian army, and filled Italy with consternation:"

the apprehensions of each individual were increased in just proportion to the measure of his fortune: and the most timid, who had already embarked their valuable effects, meditated their escape to the island of Sicily, or the African coast. The public distress was aggravated by the fears and re|proaches of superstition 32 1.39. Every hour produced

some horrid tale of strange and portentous acci|dents: the Pagans deplored the neglect of omens, and the interruption of sacrifices; but the Christ|ians still derived some comfort from the powerful intercession of the saints and martyrs 33 1.40.

The emperor Honorius was distinguished, above * 1.41 his subjects, by the pre-eminence of fear, as well as of rank. The pride and luxury in which he was educated, had not allowed him to suspect, that there existed on the earth any power pre|sumptuous enough to invade the repose of the successor of Augustus. The arts of flattery con|cealed the impending danger, till Alaric ap|proached the palace of Milan. But when the sound of war had awakened the young emperor, instead of flying to arms with the spirit, or even the rashness, of his age, he eagerly listened to those timid counsellors, who proposed to convey his sacred person, and his faithful attendants, to some secure and distant station in the provinces of Gaul. Stilicho alone 34 1.42 had courage and au|thority to resist this disgraceful measure, which would have abandoned Rome and Italy to the Barbarians; but as the troops of the palace had been lately detached to the Rhaetian frontier, and as the source of new levies was slow and pre|carious,

the general of the West could only pro|mise, that, if the court of Milan would maintain their ground during his absence, he would soon return with an army equal to the encounter of the Gothic king. Without losing a moment (while each moment was so important to the public safety) Stilicho hastily embarked on the Larian lake, ascended the mountains of ice and snow, amidst the severity of an Alpine winter, and sud|denly repressed, by his unexpected presence, the enemy, who had disturbed the tranquillity of Rhaetia 35 1.43. The Barbarians, perhaps some tribes of the Alemanni, respected the firmness of a chief, who still assumed the language of command; and the choice which he condescended to make, of a select number of their bravest youth, was con|sidered as a mark of his esteem and favour. The cohorts, who were delivered from the neighbour|ing foe, diligently repaired to the Imperial stand|ard; and Stilicho issued his orders to the most remote troops of the West, to advance, by rapid marches, to the defence of Honorius and of Italy. The fortresses of the Rhine were abandoned; and the safety of Gaul was protected only by the faith of the Germans, and the ancient terror of the Roman name. Even the legion, which had been stationed to guard the wall of Britain against the Caledonians of the North, was hastily recalled 36 1.44;

and a numerous body of the cavalry of the Alani was persuaded to engage in the service of the emperor, who anxiously expected the return of his general. The prudence and vigour of Stili|cho were conspicuous on this occasion, which revealed, at the same time, the weakness of the falling empire. The legions of Rome, which had long since languished in the gradual decay of discipline and courage, were exterminated by the Gothic and civil wars; and it was found impos|sible, without exhausting and exposing the pro|vinces, to assemble an army for the defence of Italy.

When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sove|reign * 1.45 in the unguarded palace of Milan, he had probably calculated the term of his absence, the distance of the enemy, and the obstacles that might retard their march. He principally de|pended on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the Mincius, the Oglio, and the Addua; which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous torrents 37 1.46. But the season happening to be remarkably dry; and the

Goths could traverse, without impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream. The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic army; and as Alaric approached the walls, or rather the sub|urbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satis|faction of seeing the emperor of the Romans fly before him. Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the Alps, with a design of securing his person in the city of Arles, which had often been the royal residence of his predecessors. But Ho|norius 38 1.47 had scarcely passed the Po, before he was overtaken by the speed of the Gothic ca|valry 39 1.48; since the urgency of the danger com|pelled him to seek a temporary shelter within the fortification of Asta, a town of Liguria or Pie|mont, situate on the banks of the Tanarus 40 1.49. The siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize, and seemed incapable of a long resistance, was instantly formed, and indefatigably pressed, by the king of the Goths; and the bold declaration, which the emperor might afterwards

make, that his breast had never been susceptible of fear, did not probably obtain much credit, even in his own court 41 1.50. In the last, and almost hope|less extremity, after the Barbarians had already proposed the indignity of a capitulation, the Im|perial captive was suddenly relieved by the fame, the approach, and at length the presence of the hero, whom he had so long expected. At the head of a chosen and intrepid vanguard, Stilicho swam the stream of the Addua, to gain the time which he must have lost in the attack of the bridge; the passage of the Po was an enterprise of much less hazard and difficulty; and the suc|cessful action, in which he cut his way through the Gothic camp under the walls of Asta, re|vived the hopes, and vindicated the honour, of Rome. Instead of grasping the fruit of his vic|tory, the Barbarian was gradually invested, on every side, by the troops of the West, who suc|cessively issued through all the passes of the Alps; his quarters were straightened; his convoys were intercepted; and the vigilance of the Romans prepared to form a chain of fortifications, and to besiege the lines of the besiegers. A military council was assembled of the long-haired chiefs of the Gothic nation; of aged warriors, whose bodies were wrapped in furs, and whose stern countenances were marked with honourable wounds. They weighed the glory of persisting

in their attempt against the advantage of securing their plunder; and they recommended the pru|dent measure of a seasonable retreat. In this im|portant debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror of Rome; and after he had reminded his countrymen of their atchievements and of their designs, he concluded his animating speech, by the solemn and positive assurance, that he was resolved to find in Italy, either a kingdom, or a grave 42 1.51.

The loose discipline of the Barbarians always exposed them to the danger of a surprise; but, * 1.52 instead of chusing the dissolute hours of riot and intemperance, Stilicho resolved to attack the Christian Goths whilst they were devoutly em|ployed in celebrating the festival of Easter 43 1.53. The execution of the stratagem, or, as it was termed by the clergy, of the sacrilege, was en|trusted to Saul, a Barbarian and a Pagan, who had served, however, with distinguished reputa|tion among the veteran generals of Theodosius. The camp of the Goths, which Alaric had pitched

in the neighbourhood of Pollentia 44 1.54, was thrown into confusion by the sudden and impetuous charge of the Imperial cavalry; but, in a few moments, the undaunted genius of their leader gave them an order, and a field, of battle; and, as soon as they had recovered from their astonish|ment, the pious confidence, that the God of the Christians would assert their cause, added new strength to their native valour. In this engage|ment, which was long maintained with equal courage and success, the chief of the Alani, whose diminutive and savage form concealed a magna|nimous soul, approved his suspected loyalty, by the zeal with which he fought, and fell, in the service of the republic; and the fame of this gal|lant Barbarian has been imperfectly preserved in the verses of Claudian, since the poet, who cele|brates his virtue, has omitted the mention of his name. His death was followed by the flight and dismay of the squadrons which he command|ed; and the defeat of the wing of cavalry might have decided the victory of Alaric, if Stilicho had not immediately led the Roman and Barbarian infantry to the attack. The skill of the general, and the bravery of the soldiers, surmounted every obstacle. In the evening of the bloody day, the Goths retreated from the field of battle; the in|trenchments of their camp were forced, and the scene of rapine and slaughter made some atone|ment

for the calamities which they had inflicted on the subjects of the empire 45 1.55. The magnificent spoils of Corinth and Argos enriched the veterans of the West; the captive wife of Alaric, who had impatiently claimed his promise of Roman jewels and Patrician handmaids 46 1.56, was reduced to im|plore the mercy of the insulting foe; and many thousand prisoners, released from the Gothic chains, dispersed through the provinces of Italy the praises of their heroic deliverer. The triumph of Stilicho 47 1.57 was compared by the poet, and per|haps by the public, to that of Marius; who, in the same part of Italy, had encountered and de|stroyed another army of northern Barbarians. The huge bones, and the empty helmets, of the Cimbri and of the Goths, would easily be con|founded by succeeding generations; and posterity might erect a common trophy to the memory of the two most illustrious generals, who had van|quished, on the same memorable ground, the two most formidable enemies of Rome 48 1.58.

The eloquence of Claudian 49 1.59 has celebrated, with lavish applause, the victory of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days in the life of his patron; * 1.60 but his reluctant and partial muse bestows more genuine praise on the character of the Gothic king. His name is indeed branded with the re|proachful epithets of pirate and robber, to which the conquerors of every age are so justly entitled; but the poet of Stilicho is compelled to acknow|ledge, that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind, which rises superior to every misfortune, and derives new resources from adversity. After the total defeat of his infantry, he escaped, or ra|ther withdrew, from the field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken. Without wasting a moment to lament the irre|parable loss of so many brave companions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in chains the captive images of a Gothic king 50 1.61; and boldly resolved to break through the unguarded passes of the Apennine, to spread desolation over the fruitful face of Tuscany, and to conquer or die before the

gates of Rome. The capital was saved by the active and incessant diligence of Stilicho: but he respected the despair of his enemy; and, instead of committing the fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he proposed to purchase the absence of the Barbarians. The spirit of Alaric would have rejected such terms, the per|mission of a retreat, and the offer of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a limited and precarious authority over the inde|pendent chieftains, who had raised him, for their service, above the rank of his equals; they were still less disposed to follow an unsuccessful gene|ral, and many of them were tempted to consult their interest by a private negociation with the minister of Honorius. The king submitted to the voice of his people, ratified the treaty with the empire of the West, and repassed the Po, with the remains of the flourishing army which he had led into Italy. A considerable part of the Roman forces still continued to attend his mo|tions; and Stilicho, who maintained a secret cor|respondence with some of the Barbarian chiefs, was punctually apprised of the designs that were formed in the camp and council of Alaric. The king of the Goths, ambitious to signalize his re|treat by some splendid atchievement, had re|solved to occupy the important city of Verona, which commands the principal passage of the Rhaetian Alps; and, directing his march through the territories of those German tribes, whose al|liance would restore his exhausted strength, to in|vade, on the side of the Rhine, the wealthy and

unsuspecting provinces of Gaul. Ignorant of the treason, which had already betrayed his bold and judicious enterprise, he advanced towards the passes of the mountains, already possessed by the Imperial troops; where he was exposed, almost at the same instant, to a general attack in the front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In this bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of Verona, the loss of the Goths was not less heavy than that which they had sustained in the defeat of Pollentia; and their valiant king, who escaped by the swiftness of his horse, must either have been slain or made prisoner, if the hasty rashness of the Alani had not disappointed the measures of the Roman general. Alaric secured the remains of his army on the adjacent rocks; and prepared himself, with undaunted resolution, to maintain a siege against the superior numbers of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he could not oppose the destructive progress of hunger and disease; nor was it possible for him to check the continual desertion of his impatient and capricious Barbarians. In this extremity he still found resources in his own courage, or in the moderation of his adversary; and the retreat of the Gothic king was considered as the deliver|ance of Italy 51 1.62. Yet the people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judg|ment of the business of peace and war, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often

dismissed the implacable enemy of the republic. The first moment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and calumny 52 1.63.

The citizens of Rome had been astonished by * 1.64 the approach of Alaric; and the diligence with which they laboured to restore the walls of the capital, confessed their own fears, and the de|cline of the empire. After the retreat of the Barbarians, Honorius was directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate, and to celebrate, in the Imperial city, the auspicious aera of the Gothic victory, and of his sixth consulship 53 1.65. The suburbs and the streets, from the Milvian bridge to the Palatine mount, were filled by the Roman people, who, in the space of an hundred years, had only thrice been honoured with the presence of their sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the chariot where Stilicho was de|servedly seated by the side of his royal pupil, they applauded the pomp of a triumph, which was not stained, like that of Constantine, or of Theodo|sius, with civil blood. The procession passed under a lofty arch, which had been purposely erected: but in less than seven years, the Gothic conquerors of Rome might read, if they were able to read, the superb inscription of that mo|nument, which attested the total defeat and de|struction

of their nation 54 1.66. The emperor resided several months in the capital, and every part of his behaviour was regulated with care to conciliate the affection of the clergy, the senate, and the people of Rome. The clergy was edified by his frequent visits, and liberal gifts, to the shrines of the apostles. The senate, who, in the triumphal procession, had been excused from the humiliat|ing ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial chariot, was treated with the decent reverence which Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The people was repeatedly gratified by the atten|tion and courtesy of Honorius in the public games, which were celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence not unworthy of the specta|tor. As soon as the appointed number of chariot|races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was suddenly changed; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertainment; and the chace was succeeded by a military dance, which seems, in the lively description of Claudian, to present the image of a modern tournament.

In these games of Honorius, the inhuman com|bats * 1.67 of gladiators 55 1.68 polluted, for the last time, the amphitheatre of Rome. The first Christian em|peror may claim the honour of the first edict, which condemned the art and amusement of shed|ding

human blood 56 1.69; but this benevolent law ex|pressed the wishes of the prince, without reform|ing an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civil|ised nation below the condition of savage canni|bals. Several hundred, perhaps several thou|sand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire; and the month of December, more peculiarly devoted to the com|bats of gladiators, still exhibited, to the eyes of the Roman people, a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty. Amidst the general joy of the vic|tory of Pollentia, a Christian poet exhorted the emperor to extirpate, by his authority, the horrid custom which had so long resisted the voice of hu|manity and religion 57 1.70. The pathetic representa|tions of Prudentius were less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, whose death was more useful to mankind than his life 58 1.71. The Romans were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures; and the rash monk, who had descended into the arena, to se|parate the gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the people

soon subsided; they respected the memory of Te|lemachus, who had deserved the honours of mar|tyrdom; and they submitted, without a mur|mur, to the laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre. The citizens, who adhered to the manners of their ancestors, might perhaps insinuate, that the last remains of a martial spirit were preserved in this school of fortitude, which accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood, and to the con|tempt of death: a vain and cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the valour of ancient Greece, and of modern Europe 59 1.72!

The recent danger, to which the person of the * 1.73 emperor had been exposed in the defenceless pa|lace of Milan, urged him to seek a retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy, where he might securely remain, while the open country was co|vered by a deluge of Barbarians. On the coast of the Hadriatic, about ten or twelve miles from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the Thessalians had founded the ancient colony of RAVENNA 60 1.74, which they afterwards resigned

to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, at the distance of three miles from the old town, a capacious harbour, for the reception of two hundred and fifty ships of war. This naval esta|blishment, which included the arsenals and maga|zines, the barracks of the troops, and the houses of the artificers, derived its origin and name from the permanent station of the Roman fleet; the intermediate space was soon filled with buildings and inhabitants, and the three extensive and po|pulous quarters of Ravenna gradually contri|buted to form one of the most important cities of Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poured a copious stream of the waters of the Po through the midst of the city, to the entrance of the har|bour; the same waters were introduced into the profound ditches that encompassed the walls; they were distributed, by a thousand subordinate canals, into every part of the city, which they divided into a variety of small islands; the com|munication was maintained only by the use of boats and bridges; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance may be compared to that of Venice, were raised on the foundation of wooden piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many miles, was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial causeway, which connected Ra|venna with the continent, might be easily guard|ed, or destroyed, on the approach of an hostile army. These morasses were interspersed, how|ever, with vineyards; and though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town enjoyed

a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water 61 1.75. The air, instead of receiving the sickly, and almost pestilential, exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like the neigh|bourhood of Alexandria, as uncommonly pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which swept the canals, interrupted the unwhole|some stagnation of the waters, and floated, every day, the vessels of the adjacent country into the heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left the modern city at the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic; and as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian aera, the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards; and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at anchor 62 1.76. Even this alteration contributed to encrease the natural strength of the place; and the shallow|ness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour; and in the twentieth year of his age, the emperor of the

West, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Hono|rius was imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and, till the middle of the eighth century, Ra|venna was considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy 63 1.77.

The fears of Honorius were not without foun|dation, nor were his precautions without effect. * 1.78 While Italy rejoiced in her deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany, who yielded to the irresist|ible impulse, that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern extremity of the continent of Asia. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the learned industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to re|veal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the north of the great wall, was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, by the victorious Sienpi; who were sometimes broken into independent tribes, and sometimes re-united under a supreme chief; till at length styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid consistence, and a more formidable power. The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of

their arms; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine discord; and these for|tunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the vanquished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of the monarchy. Some generations before they as|cended the throne of China, one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valour; but who was tempted, by the fear of punishment, to desert his standard, and to range the desert at the head of an hundred followers. This gang of rob|bers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous people, distinguished by the appella|tion of Geougen; and their hereditary chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with ad|versity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the legislator of his nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops were distributed into regular bands of an hundred and of a thou|sand men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honours were proposed as the re|ward of valour; and Toulun, who had know|ledge enough to despise the learning of China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were favourable to the military spirit of his govern|ment. His tents, which he removed in the win|ter season to a more southern latitude, were

pitched, during the summer, on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests stretched from Corea far beyond the river Irtish. He vanquish|ed, in the country to the North of the Caspian sea, the nation of the Huns; and the new title of Khan, or Cagan, expressed the fame and power which he derived from this memorable victory 64 1.79.

The chain of events is interrupted, or rather * 1.80 is concealed, as it passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through the dark interval which sepa|rates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the Roman, geography. Yet the temper of the Bar|barians, and the experience of successive emigra|tions, sufficiently declare, that the Huns, who were oppressed by the arms of the Geougen, soon withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The countries towards the Euxine were already occupied by their kindred tribes; and their hasty flight, which they soon converted into a bold at|tack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and level plains, through which the Vistula gently flows into the Baltic sea. The North must again have been alarmed, and agi|tated, by the invasion of the Huns; and the na|tions who retreated before them, must have pressed with incumbent weight on the confines of Germany 65 1.81. The inhabitants of those regions,

which the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Burgundians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning to the fugitives of Sarmatia, their woods and morasses; or at least of discharging their superfluous numbers on the provinces of the Roman empire 66 1.82. About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another Barbarian, the haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus 67 1.83, march|ed from the northern extremities of Germany al|most to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to atchieve the destruction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the Bur|gundians, formed the strength of this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found an ho|spitable reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Ger|mans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that, by some historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve thousand warriors, distin|guished above the vulgar by their noble birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van 68 1.84; and

the whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased, by the accession of women, of chil|dren, and of slaves, to the amount of four hun|dred thousand persons. This formidable emi|gration issued from the same coast of the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cim|bri and Teutones, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigour of the republic. After the departure of those Barbarians, their native country, which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long ramparts, and gigantic moles 69 1.85, remained, during some ages, a vast and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the powers of generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an extent of land, which they are unable to cultivate, would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of their neighbours, if the government of Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property.

The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and precarious, that the revo|lutions * 1.86 of the North might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor of the West, if his mi|nisters disturbed his amusements by the news of

the impending danger, was satisfied with being the occasion, and the spectator of the war 70 1.87. The safety of Rome was entrusted to the counsels, and the sword, of Stilicho; but such was the feeble and exhausted state of the empire, that it was im|possible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous effort, the invasion of the Germans 71 1.88. The hopes of the vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the de|fence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and pusil|lanimously eluded; employed the most efficacious means to arrest, or allure, the deserters; and of|fered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would enlist 72 1.89. By these efforts he painfully collected, from the sub|jects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been instantly furnished by

the free citizens of the territory of Rome 73 1.90. The thirty legions of Stilicho were reinforced by a large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were personally attached to his service; and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who march|ed under the banners of their native princes, Huldin and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the confederate Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine; leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of Honorius, securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on the other, the camp of Stilicho, who had fixed his head-quarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the siege of Flo|rence 74 1.91, by Radagaisus, is one of the earliest * 1.92 events in the history of that celebrated republic; whose firmness checked and delayed the unskilful fury of the Barbarians. The senate and people trembled at their approach within an hundred and

eighty miles of Rome; and anxiously compared the danger which they had escaped, with the new perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and a soldier, the leader of a dis|ciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had familiarly conversed with the subjects of the empire in the same camps, and the same churches. The savage Radagaisus was a stranger to the man|ners, the religion, and even the language, of the civilised nations of the South. The fierceness of his temper was exasperated by cruel superstition; and it was universally believed, that he had bound himself, by a solemn vow, to reduce the city in|to * 1.93 a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the most illustrious of the Roman senators, on the altars of those gods, who were appeased by hu|man blood. The public danger, which should have reconciled all domestic animosities, display|ed the incurable madness of religious faction. The oppressed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable enemy of Rome, the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they were more apprehensive of the sacri|fices, than of the arms, of Radagaisus; and se|cretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which condemned the faith of their Christian ad|versaries 75 1.94.

Florence was reduced to the last extremity; and the fainting courage of the citizens was sup|ported only by the authority of St. Ambrose; * 1.95 who had communicated, in a dream, the promise of a speedy deliverance 76 1.96. On a sudden they be|held, from their walls, the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united force, to the re|lief of the faithful city; and who soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The apparent contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat of Radagaisus, may be reconciled, without offering much violence to their respective testimonies. Orosius and Au|gustin, who were intimately connected by friend|ship and religion, ascribe this miraculous victory to the providence of God, rather than to the va|lour of man 77 1.97. They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of bloodshed; and positively affirm, that the Romans, whose camp was the scene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress of the Barbarians, slowly expiring on the sharp and barren ridge of the hills of Faesulae, which rise above the city of Florence. Their extrava|gant assertion, that not a single soldier of the Christian army was killed, or even wounded, may

be dismissed with silent contempt; but the rest of the narrative of Augustin and Orosius is consistent with the state of the war, and the character of Stilicho. Conscious that he commanded the last army of the republic, his prudence would not ex|pose it, in the open field, to the headstrong fury of the Germans. The method of surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which he had twice employed against the Gothic king, was repeated on a larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The examples of Caesar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the Roman warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrra|chium, which connected twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which might confine, and starve, the most numerous host of Barbarians 78 1.98. The Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry, than from the valour, of their ancestors; and if the servile and laborious work offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many thousand peasants, who would labour, though, perhaps, they would not fight, for the salvation of their native coun|try. The imprisoned multitude of horses and men 79 1.99 was gradually destroyed by famine, rather

than by the sword; but the Romans were ex|posed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to the frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge the ardour of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to assault the camp of the Germans; and these various incidents might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts which dignify the narrative of Zosimus, and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus 80 1.100. A seasonable supply of men and provisions had been introduced into the walls of Florence; and the famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike nations, after the loss of his bravest warriors, was reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or in the clemency of Stilicho 81 1.101. But the death of the royal captive, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and of Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was sufficient to brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and

deliberate cruelty 82 1.102. The famished Germans, who escaped the fury of the auxiliaries, were sold as slaves, at the contemptible price of as many single pieces of gold: but the difference of food and climate swept away great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and it was observed, that the inhuman purchasers, instead of reaping the fruits of their labour, were soon obliged to provide the expence of their interment. Stilicho informed the emperor and the senate of his success; and deserved, a second time, the glorious title of De|liverer of Italy 83 1.103.

The fame of the victory, and more especially * 1.104 of the miracle, has encouraged a vain persuasion, that the whole army, or rather nation, of Ger|mans, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic, miserably perished under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful companions, and of more than one-third of the various multitude of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who adhered to the standard of their general 84 1.105. The union of such an army might excite our sur|prise,

but the causes of separation are obvious and forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of va|lour, the jealousy of command, the impatience of subordination, and the obstinate conflict of opi|nions, of interests, and of passions, among so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or to obey. After the defeat of Rada|gaisus, two parts of the German host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thou|sand men, still remained in arms, between the Apennine and the Alps, or between the Alps and the Danube. It is uncertain whether they at|tempted to revenge the death of their general; but their irregular fury was soon diverted by the prudence and firmness of Stilicho, who opposed their march, and facilitated their retreat; who considered the safety of Rome and Italy as the great object of his care, and who sacrificed, with too much indifference, the wealth and tranquil|lity of the distant provinces 85 1.106. The Barbarians acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian deserters, the knowledge of the country, and of the roads; and the invasion of Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by the remains of the great army of Radagaisus 86 1.107.

Yet if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes of Germany, who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, their hopes were disappoint|ed. The Alemanni preserved a state of inactive neutrality; and the Franks distinguished their zeal and courage in the defence of the empire. In the rapid progress down the Rhine, which was the first act of the administration of Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar attention, to secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the irreconcileable enemies of peace and of the republic. Marcomir, one of their kings, was publicly convicted, before the tribunal of the Roman magistrate, of violating the faith of trea|ties. He was sentenced to a mild, but distant, exile, in the province of Tuscany; and this de|gradation of the regal dignity was so far from ex|citing the resentment of his subjects, that they punished with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted to revenge his brother; and main|tained a dutiful allegiance to the princes, who were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho 87 1.108. When the limits of Gaul and Ger|many

were shaken by the northern emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of the Vandals; who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had again separated their troops from the standard of their Barbarian allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness; and twenty thou|sand Vandals, with their king Godigisclus, were slain in the field of battle. The whole people must have been extirpated, if the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief, had not trampled down the infantry of the Franks; who, after an honourable resistance, were compelled to relin|quish the unequal contest. The victorious con|federates pursued their march, and on the last day of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the defenceless provinces of Gaul. This memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be consider|ed as the fall of the Roman empire in the coun|tries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which had so long separated the savage and the civilised na|tions of the earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground 88 1.109.

While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the Franks, and the neutrality * 1.110 of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome, uncon|scious

of their approaching calamities, enjoyed the state of quiet and prosperity, which had sel|dom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze in the pastures of the Barbarians; their huntsmen penetrated, without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the Hercynian wood 89 1.111. The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tyber, with ele|gant houses, and well-cultivated farms; and if a poet descended the river, he might express his doubt, on which side was situated the territory of the Romans 90 1.112. This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the pro|spect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long and obstinate siege; Stras|burg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gual. That rich

and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the Barbarians, who drove before them, in a promis|cuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars 91 1.113. The ecclesiastics, to whom we are in|debted for this vague description of the public calamities, embraced the opportunity of exhort|ing the Christians to repent of the sins which had provoked the Divine Justice, and to renounce the perishable goods of a wretched and deceitful world. But as the Pelagian controversy 92 1.114, which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predesti|nation, soon became the serious employment of the Latin clergy; the Providence which had de|creed, or foreseen, or permitted such a train of moral and natural evils, was rashly weighed in the imperfect and fallacious balance of reason. The crimes, and the misfortunes, of the suffer|ing people, were presumptuously compared with those of their ancestors; and they arraigned the Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the common destruction the feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion of the human species. These idle

disputants overlooked the invariable laws of na|ture, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valour. The timid and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recal the Palatine legions for the protection of Italy; the remains of the stationary troops might be unequal to the arduous task; and the Barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the unbounded licence of spoil, to the benefits of a moderate and regular stipend. But the provinces of Gaul were filled with a numerous race of hardy and robust youth, who, in the defence of their houses, their families, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would have deserved to vanquish. The knowledge of their native country would have en|abled them to oppose continual and insuperable obstacles to the progress of an invader; and the deficiency of the Barbarians, in arms as well as in discipline, removed the only pretence which ex|cuses the submission of a populous country to the inferior numbers of a veteran army. When France was invaded by Charles the Fifth, he en|quired of a prisoner, how many days Paris might be distant from the frontier;

Perhaps twelve, but they will be days of battle 93 1.115:"

such was the gallant answer which checked the arrogance of that ambitious prince. The subjects of Hono|rius, and those of Francis I., were animated by a very different spirit; and in less than two years,

the divided troops of the savages of the Baltic, whose numbers, were they fairly stated, would ap|pear contemptible, advanced, without a combat, to the foot of the Pyrenaean mountains.

In the early part of the reign of Honorius, the vigilance of Stilicho had successfully guarded the * 1.116 remote island of Britain from her incessant ene|mies of the ocean, the mountains, and the Irish coast 94 1.117. But those restless Barbarians could not neglect the fair opportunity of the Gothic war, when the walls and stations of the province were stripped of the Roman troops. If any of the le|gionaries were permitted to return from the Ita|lian expedition, their faithful report of the court and character of Honorius must have tended to dissolve the bonds of allegiance, and to exasperate the seditious temper of the British army. The spirit of revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age of Gallienus, was revived by the capricious violence of the soldiers; and the unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates, who were the objects of their choice, were the instruments, and at length the victims, of their passion 95 1.118. Marcus

was the first whom they placed on the throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain, and of the West. They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus, the oath of fidelity which they had imposed on themselves; and their disapprobation of his man|ners may seem to inscribe an honourable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they adorned with the diadem and the purple; and, at the end of four months, Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The memory of the great Constantine, whom the British legions had given to the church and to the empire, suggested the singular motive of their third choice. They * 1.119 discovered in the ranks a private soldier of the name of Constantine, and their impetuous levity had already seated him on the throne, before they perceived his incapacity to sustain the weight of that glorious appellation 96 1.120. Yet the authority of Constantine was less precarious, and his go|vernment was more successful, than the transient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger of leaving his inactive troops in those camps, which had been twice polluted with blood and sedition, urged him to attempt the reduction of the Western provinces. He landed at Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and after he had re|posed himself some days, he summoned the cities

of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the Bar|barians, to acknowledge their lawful sovereign. They obeyed the summons without reluctance. The neglect of the court of Ravenna had absolved a deserted people from the duty of allegiance; their actual distress encouraged them to accept any circumstances of change, without apprehen|sion, and, perhaps, with some degree of hope; and they might flatter themselves, that the troops, the authority, and even the name of a Roman emperor, who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy country from the rage of the Barbarians. The first successes of Constantine against the detached parties of the Germans, were magnified by the voice of adulation into splendid and decisive victories; which the re|union and insolence of the enemy soon reduced to their just value. His negociations procured a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of the Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises, to undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive and uncertain trea|ties, instead of restoring the pristine vigour of the Gallic frontier, served only to disgrace the ma|jesty of the prince, and to exhaust what yet re|mained of the treasures of the republic. Elated however with this imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the provinces of the South, to encounter a more pressing and per|sonal danger. Sarus the Goth was ordered to lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperor Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy were unworthily consumed in this domestic quar|rel.

After the loss of his two bravest generals, Justinian and Nevigastes, the former of whom was slain in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful but treacherous interview, Constantine fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked seven days; and the Imperial army supported, in a precipitate re|treat, the ignominy of purchasing a secure passage from the freebooters and outlaws of the Alps 97 1.121. Those mountains now separated the dominions of two rival monarchs: and the fortifications of the double frontier were guarded by the troops of the empire, whose arms would have been more use|fully employed to maintain the Roman limits against the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia.

On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of * 1.122 Constantine might be justified by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain; which yielded to the influence of regular and ha|bitual subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the Gallic praefecture. The only opposition which was made to the authority of Constantine, proceeded not so much from the powers of government, or the spirit of the people, as from the private zeal and interest of the family of Theodosius. Four brothers 98 1.123 had obtained,

by the favour of their kinsman, the deceased em|peror, an honourable rank, and ample possessions, in their native country: and the grateful youths resolved to risk those advantages in the service of his son. After an unsuccessful effort to maintain their ground at the head of the stationary troops of Lusitania, they retired to their estates; where they armed and levied, at their own expence, a considerable body of slaves and dependents, and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenaean mountains. This domestic insurrec|tion alarmed and perplexed the sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negociate with some troops of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the service of the Spanish war. They were distin|guished by the title of Honorians 99 1.124; a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to their lawful sovereign; and if it should can|didly be allowed that the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni could be tempted only by the profuse liberality of the usurper, who dis|tributed among the Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honours of Spain. The nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the establishment of the Western empire, could not exceed the number of five thousand

men; yet this inconsiderable force was sufficient to terminate a war, which had threatened the power and safety of Constantine. The rustic army of the Theodosian family was surrounded and de|stroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers had the good fortune to escape by sea to Italy, or the East; the other two, after an interval of suspence, were executed at Arles; and if Honorius could remain insensible of the public disgrace, he might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes of his generous kinsmen. Such were the feeble arms which decided the possession of the Western provinces of Europe, from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and imperfect view of the historians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the causes, and of the effects, of the most important revolu|tions. But the total decay of the national strength had annihilated even the last resource of a despo|tic government; and the revenue of exhausted provinces could no longer purchase the military service of a discontented and pusillanimous people.

The poet, whose flattery has ascribed to the * 1.125 Roman eagle the victories of Pollentia and Ve|rona, pursues the hasty retreat of Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of ima|ginary spectres, such as might hover over an army of Barbarians, which was almost exterminated by war, famine, and disease 100 1.126. In the course of

this unfortunate expedition, the king of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss; and his harassed forces required an interval of re|pose to recruit their numbers, and revive their confidence. Adversity had exercised, and dis|played, the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his valour invited, to the Gothic standard, the bravest of the Barbarian warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the desire of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he soon accepted the friendship, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the service of the emperor of the East, Alaric concluded, with the court of Ravenna, a treaty of peace and alliance, by which he was declared master-general of the Roman armies throughout the praefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the true and an|cient limits, by the minister of Honorius 101 1.127. The execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated, or implied, in the articles of the treaty, appears to have been suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the neu|trality of the Gothic king may perhaps be com|pared to the indifference of Caesar, who, in the conspiracy of Catiline, refused either to assist, or to oppose, the enemy of the republic. After the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his pre|tensions to the provinces of the East; appointed civil magistrates for the administration of justice,

and of the finances; and declared his impatience to lead, to the gates of Constantinople, the united armies of the Romans and of the Goths. The prudence however of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war, and his perfect knowledge of the weakness of the state, may countenance the suspicion, that domestic peace, rather than foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and, that his prin|cipal care was to employ the forces of Alaric at a distance from Italy. This design could not long escape the penetration of the Gothic king, who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a treacherous correspondence, with the rival courts; who protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his languid operations in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon returned to claim the extravagant re|ward of his ineffectual services. From his camp near Aemona 102 1.128, on the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the emperor of the West, a long account of promises, of expences, and of de|mands; called for immediate satisfaction, and clearly intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet if his conduct was hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed him|self the friend of Stilicho, and the soldier of Ho|norius; offered his person and his troops to march, without delay, against the usurper of

Gaul; and solicited, as a permanent retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant province of the Western empire.

The political and secret transactions of two statesmen, who laboured to deceive each other * 1.129 and the world, must for ever have been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if the debates of a popular assembly had not thrown some rays of light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity of finding some arti|ficial support for a government, which, from a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to negociate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the authority of the Roman senate: and the minister of Honorius respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic. Stilicho assembled the senate in the palace of the Caesars; represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs; proposed the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their con|sideration the choice of peace or war. The se|nators, as if they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred years, appeared on this important occasion to be inspired by the cou|rage, rather than by the wisdom, of their prede|cessors. They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary acclamations, that it was un|worthy of the majesty of Rome, to purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian king; and that, in the judgment of a magnani|mous people, the chance of ruin was always pre|ferable to the certainty of dishonour. The mi|nister,

whose pacific intentions were seconded only by the voices of a few servile and venal followers, attempted to allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct, and even for the demands of the Gothic prince.

"The payment of a subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought not (such was the lan|guage of Stilicho) to be considered in the odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransom, extorted by the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted the just preten|sions of the republic to the provinces which were usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople: he modestly required the fair and stipulated recompence of his services; and if he had de|sisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed, in his retreat, the peremptory, though private, letters of the emperor himself. These contradictory orders (he would not dis|semble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of her adopted father; and the senti|ments of nature had too easily prevailed over the stern dictates of the public welfare."

These ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the ob|scure intrigues of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by the authority of Stilicho; and ob|tained, after a warm debate, the reluctant appro|bation of the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was granted, under the name of

a subsidy, to secure the peace of Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths. Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the assembly, still persisted in his dis|sent; exclaimed with a loud voice,

"This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude 103 1.130;"

and escaped the danger of such bold opposition by im|mediately retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church.

But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end; and the proud minister might perceive the symp|toms * 1.131 of his approaching disgrace. The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the senate, so patiently resigned to a long servi|tude, rejected with disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops, who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman legions, were exasperated by the partial affection of Stilicho for the Barbarians: and the people im|puted to the mischievous policy of the minister, the public misfortunes, which were the natural con|sequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have continued to brave the clamours of the people, and even of the soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over the feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion, and hatred. The crafty Olympius 104 1.132, who con|cealed

his vices under the mask of Christian piety, had secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose favour he was promoted to the honourable offices of the Imperial palace. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor, who had attained the twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed his timid and indolent dis|position by a lively picture of the designs of Stili|cho, who already meditated the death of his sove|reign, with the ambitious hope of placing the dia|dem on the head of his son Eucherius. The em|peror was instigated, by his new favourite, to as|sume the tone of independent dignity; and the minister was astonished to find, that secret reso|lutions were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his interest, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace of Rome, Honorius declared, that it was his plea|sure to return to the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death of his bro|ther Arcadius, he prepared to visit Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius 105 1.133. The

representation of the difficulty and expence of such a distant expedition, checked this strange and sudden sally of active diligence; but the dangerous project of shewing the emperor to the camp of Pavia, which was composed of the Ro|man troops, the enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained fixed and unal|terable. The minister was pressed, by the ad|vice of his confident Justinian, a Roman advo|cate, of a lively and penetrating genius, to op|pose a journey so prejudicial to his reputation and safety. His strenuous, but ineffectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer withdrew himself from the im|pending ruin of his patron.

In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, * 1.134 a mutiny of the guards was excited and appeased by the secret policy of Stilicho; who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, and ascribed to his own intercession the merit of their par|don. After this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minister whom he now con|sidered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to camp of Pavia; where he was received by the loyal acclamations of the troops who were as|sembled for the service of the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced, as he had been taught, a military oration in the presence of the soldiers, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the most illustrious officers of the em|pire;

two Praetorian praefects, of Gaul, and of Italy; two masters-general, of the cavalry, and infantry; the master of the offices; the quaestor, the treasurer, and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost; many houses were plunder|ed; the furious sedition continued to rage till the close of the evening; and the trembling em|peror, who was seen in the streets of Pavia, with|out his robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his favourite; condemned the memory of the slain; and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehensions: and he instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders, who were attached to his service, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly called aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a mo|ment's delay, under the banners of a hero, whom they had so often followed to victory; to surprise, to oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of executing a resolution, which might have been justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost. He was still igno|rant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians, against the soldiers and people of Italy. The confederates, impatient of

his timorous and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the hour of mid|night, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his strength and va|lour, suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who guarded his person, and penetrated to the tent, where the minister, pensive and sleep|less, meditated on the dangers of his situation. Stilicho escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths; and, after issuing a last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to shut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his despair, urged him to throw himself into Ra|venna, which was already in the absolute pos|session of his enemies. Olympius, who had as|sumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed, that his rival had embraced, as a sup|pliant, the altar of the Christian church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was in|capable of pity or remorse; but he piously af|fected to elude, rather than to violate, the pri|vilege of the sanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was satisfied by a solemn oath, that the Imperial mandate only directed them to secure the person of Stilicho: but, as soon as the un|fortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution. Stilicho supported, with calm resignation, the injurious names of traitor and

parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his followers, who were ready to attempt an inef|fectual rescue; and, with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals, submitted his neck to the sword of Heraclian 105 1.135.

The servile crowd of the palace, who had so * 1.136 long adored the fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and the most distant connection with the master-general of the West, which had so lately been a title to wealth and honours, was studiously denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple alliance with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed 106 1.137. The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius: and the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the con|fession of a treasonable and sacrilegious con|spiracy. They died in silence: their firmness

justified the choice 107 1.138, and perhaps absolved the innocence of their patron; and the despotic power, which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatise his memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial suffrage of posterity 108 1.139. The services of Stilicho are great and manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language of flattery and hatred, are obscure, at least, and improbable. About four months after his death, an edict was published, in the name of Honorius, to restore the free com|munication of the two empires, which had been so long interrupted by the public enemy 109 1.140. The minister, whose fame and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state, was accused of betraying Italy to the Barbarians; whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at Verona, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended design of placing the diadem on the head of his son Euche|rius, could not have been conducted without pre|parations or accomplices; and the ambitious fa|ther would not surely have left the future em|peror, till the twentieth year of his age, in the

humble station of tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho was arraigned by the ma|lice of his rival. The seasonable, and almost miraculous, deliverance was devoutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy; who asserted, that the restoration of idols, and the persecution of the church, would have been the first measure of the reign of Eucherius. The son of Stilicho, how|ever, was educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had uniformly professed, and zealously supported 110 1.141. Serena had borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta 111 1.142; and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sa|crilegious minister, by whose order the Sybilline books, the oracles of Rome, had been commit|ted to the flames 112 1.143. The pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An honour|able reluctance to shed the blood of his country|men, appears to have contributed to the success of his unworthy rival; and it is the last humilia|tion of the character of Honorius, that posterity has not condescended to reproach him with his

base ingratitude to the guardian of his youth, and the support of his empire.

Among the train of dependents, whose wealth * 1.144 and dignity attracted the notice of their own times, our curiosity is excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favour of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the Imperial court: he was in|debted to the powerful intercession of Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the pro|vince of Africa 113 1.145; and the statue of Claudian, erected in the forum of Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the Roman senate 114 1.146. After the praises of Stilicho became offensive and criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite cha|racters of two Praetorian praefects of Italy; he contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes resigned the hours of business to

slumber, perhaps to study; with the interested diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in the pursuit of unjust, or sacrilegious gain.

"How happy, continues Claudian, how happy might it be for the people of Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would always sleep 115 1.147!"

The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by this friendly and gentle admonition; but the cruel vigilance of Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained, from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dictates of prudence rather than of honour, he addressed, in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended praefect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly; submits to the imitation of his adversary, the generous examples of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses his hope, that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace

and poverty; and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the death of his dearest friends 116 1.148. Whatever might be the success of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of a few years levelled in the grave the minister and the poet; but the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is read with plea|sure in every country which has retained, or ac|quired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge, that Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. It would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse, that melts the heart, or enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of Clau|dian, the happy invention, and artificial conduct, of an interesting fable; or the just and lively re|presentation of the characters and situations of real life. For the service of his patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives: and the de|sign of these slavish compositions encouraged his propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the poetical virtues of Clau|dian. He was endowed with the rare and pre|cious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most barren, and of diversifying the most simi|lar, topics: his colouring, more especially in de|scriptive poetry, is soft and splendid; and he

seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the advantages of a cultivated understanding, a co|pious fancy, an easy, and sometimes forcible, ex|pression; and a perpetual flow of harmonious versification. To these commendations, inde|pendent of any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit which Claudian de|rived from the unfavourable circumstances of his birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a native of Egypt 117 1.149, who had received the educa|tion of a Greek, assumed, in a mature age, the familiar use, and absolute command, of the La|tin language 118 1.150; soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome 119 1.151.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Revolt of the Goths, A. D. 395.
• 1 1.2

  The revolt of the Goths, and the blockade of Constantinople, are distinctly mentioned by Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 7—100.), Zosimus (l. v. p. 292.), and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 29.).
• 2 1.3

  —Alii per terga ferocis Danubii solidata ruunt; expertaque remis Frangunt stagna rotis.

  Claudian and Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchanging the metaphors and properties of liquid water, and solid ice. Much false wit has been expended in this easy exercise.
• 3 1.4

  Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. He endeavours to comfort his friend He|liodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian, by a curious recapitulation of all the public and private misfortunes of the times. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 200, &c.
• 4 1.5

  Baltha, or bold: origo mirifica, says Jorandes (c. 29.). This illustrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the corrupted ap|pellation of Baux: and a branch of that family afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist. Gothic. p. 53.). The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of seventy-nine sub|ordinate places, were independent of the counts of Provence (Lon|guerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 357.).
• 5 1.6

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 293—295.) is our best guide for the conquest of Greece: but the hints and allusion of Claudian are so many rays of historic light.
• * 1.7

  Alaric marches into Greece, A. D. 396.
• 6 1.8

  Compare Herodotus (l. vii. c. 176.) and Livy (xxxvi. 15.). The narrow entrance of Greece was probably enlarged by each suc|cessive ravisher.
• 7 1.9

  He passed, says Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93. edit. Com|melin, 1596.), through the streights, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (of Thermopylae) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• 8 1.10

  In obedience to Jerom, and Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 191.), I have mixed some darker colours in the mild representation of Zosi|mus, who wished to soften the calamities of Athens.

  Nec fera Cecropias traxissent vincula matres.

  Synesius (Epist. clvi. p. 272. edit. Petav.) observes, that Athens, whose sufferings he imputes to the proconsul's avarice, was at that time less famous for her schools of philosophy than for her trade of honey.
• 9 1.11

  —Vallata mari Scironia rupes, Et duo continuo connectens aequora muro Isthmos—

  Claudian de Bell. Getico, 188.

  The Scironian rocks are described by Pausanias (l. i. c. 44. p. 107. edit. Kuhn) and our modern travellers, Wheeler (p. 436.) and Chandler (p. 298.). Hadrian made the road passable for two car|riages.
• 10 1.12

  Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 186. and de Bello Getico, 611, &c.) vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene of rapine and de|struction.
• 11 1.13

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. These generous lines of Homer (Odyss. l. v. 306.) were transcribed by one of the captive youths of Corinth: and the tears of Mummius may prove that the rude conqueror, though he was ignorant of the value of an original picture, possessed the purest source of good taste, a benevolent heart (Plutarch, Symposiac. l. ix. tom. ii. p. 737. edit. Wechel.).
• 12 1.14

  Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience of these female captives, who gave their charms, and even their hearts, to the murderers of their fathers, brothers, &c. Such a passion (of Eriphile for Achilles) is touched with admirable delicacy by Racine.
• 13 1.15

  Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 471. edit. Brian) gives the ge|nuine answer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus attacked Sparta with 25,000 foot, 2000 horse, and 24 elephants: and the defence of that open town is a fine comment on the laws of Lycurgus, even in the last stage of decay.
• 14 1.16

  Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx. 164.) has so nobly painted him.
• 15 1.17

  Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 90—93.) intimates, that a troop of Monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gothic camp.
• * 1.18

  He is at|tacked by Stilicho, A. D. 397.
• 16 1.19

  For Stilicho's Greek war, compare the honest narrative of Zosimus (l. v. p. 295, 296.), with the curious circumstantial flat|tery of Claudian (i Cons. Stilich. l. i. 172—186. iv Cons. Hon. 459—487.). As the event was not glorious, it is artfully thrown into the shade.
• 17 1.20

  The troops who marched through Elis delivered up their arms. This security enriched the Eleans, who were lovers of a rural life. Riches begat pride; they disdained their privilege, and they suffered. Polybius advises them to retire once more within their magic circle. See a learned and judicious discourse on the Olympic games, which Mr. West has prefixed to his translation of Pindar.
• 18 1.21

  Claudian (in iv Cons. Hon. 480.) alludes to the fact, without naming the river: perhaps the Alpheus (i Cons. Stil. l. i. 185.).

  —Et Alpheus Geticis angustus acervis Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores.

  Yet I should prefer the Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and deep bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the sea below Cylenne. It had been joined with the Alpheus, to cleanse the Augean stable (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 760. Chandler's Travels, p. 286.).
• 19 1.22

  Strabo, l. viii. p. 517. Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 3. Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They measured, from different points, the distance between the two lands.
• * 1.23

  escapes to Epirus.
• 20 1.24

  Synesius passed three years (A. D. 397—400.) at Constan|tinople, as deputy from Cyrene to the emperor Arcadius. He pre|sented him with a crown of gold, and pronounced before him the instructive oration de Regno (p. 1—32. edit. Petav. Paris 1612.). The Philosopher was made bishop of Ptolemais, A. D. 410, and died about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 499. 554. 683—685.
• * 1.25

  Alaric is declared master|general of the Eastern Illyricum, A. D. 398.
• 21 1.26

  Synesius de Regno, p. 21—26.
• 22 1.27

  —qui foedera rumpit Ditatur: qui servat, eget: vastator Achivae Gentis, et Epirum nuper populatus inultam Praesidet Illyrico: jam, quos obsedit, amicos Ingreditur muros; illis responsa daturus Quorum conjugibis potitur, natosque peremit.

  Claudian in Eutrop. l. ii. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy (de Bell. Getic. 533—543.), in the use which he had made of this Illy|rian jurisdiction.
• 23 1.28

  Jornandes, c. 29. p. 651. The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans suasit suo labore quaerere regna, quam alienis per otium subjacere.
• * 1.29

  and king of the Visi|goths.
• 24 1.30

  —Discors odiisque anceps civilibus Orbis Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax Ludit, et alternae perjuria venditat aulae.

  Claudian de Bell. Get. 565.
• 25 1.31

  Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem.

  This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least by Claudian (de Bell. Getico, 547.), seven years before the event. But as it was not accomplished within the term which has been rashly fixed, the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning.
• 26 1.32

  Our best materials are 970 verses of Claudian, in the poem on the Getic war, and the beginning of that which celebrates the sixth consulship of Honorius. Zosimus is totally silent; and we are re|duced to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as we can pick from Orosius and the Chronieles.
• * 1.33

  He invades Italy, A. D. 400—403.
• 27 1.34

  Notwithstanding the gross errors of Jornandes, who confounds the Italian wars of Alaric (c. 29.), his date of the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelian (A. D. 400.) is firm and respectable. It is certain, from Claudian (Tillemont Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 804.), that the battle of Pollentia was fought A. D. 403; but we cannot easily fill the interval.
• 28 1.35

  Tantum Romanae urbis judicium fugis, ut magis obsidionem barbaricam, quam pacatae urbis judicium velis sustinere. Jerom. tom. ii. p. 239. Rufinus understood his own danger: the peaceful city was inflamed by the beldam Marcella, and the rest of Jerom's faction.
• 29 1.36

  Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who was perse|cuted and insulted by the furious Jerom (Jortin's Remarks, vol. iv. p. 104, &c.). See the original edict of banishment in the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 43.
• 30 1.37

  This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui suburbium nusquam egressus est), is one of the earliest and most pleasing compositions of Claudian. Cowley's imitation (Hurd's edition, vol. ii. p. 241.) has some natural and happy strokes: but it is much inferior to the original portrait, which is evidently drawn from the life.
• 31 1.38

  Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum Aequaevumque videt consenuisse nemus. A neighbouring wood born with himself he sees, And loves his old contemporary trees.

  In this passage, Cowley is perhaps superior to his original; and the English poet, who was a good botanist, has concealed the oaks, under a more general expression.
• 32 1.39

  Claudian de Bell. Get. 199—266. He may seem prolix: but fear and superstition occupied as large a space in the minds of the Italians.
• 33 1.40

  From the passages of Paulinus, which Baronius has produced (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 403, No 51.), it is manifest, that the gene|ral alarm had pervaded all Italy, as far as Nola in Campania, where that famous penitent had fixed his abode.
• * 1.41

  Honorius flies from Milan, A. D. 403.
• 34 1.42

  Solus erat Stilicho, &c. is the exclusive commendation which Claudian bestows (de Bell. Get. 267.), without condescending to except the emperor. How insignificant must Honorius have appeared in his own court!
• 35 1.43

  The face of the country, and the hardiness of Stilicho, are finely described (de Bell. Get. 340—363.).
• 36 1.44

  Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis Quae Scoto dat frena truci.

  De Bell. Get. 416.

  Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan, must have required a longer space of time than Claudian seems wil|ling to allow for the duration of the Gothic war.
• * 1.45

  He is pur|sued and besieged by the Goths.
• 37 1.46

  Every traveller must recollect the face of Lombardy (see Fon|tenelle, tom. v. p. 279.), which is often tormented by the capricious and irregular abundance of waters. The Austrians, before Genoa, were encamped in the dry bed of the Polcevera.

  "Ne sarebbe" (says Muratori) "mai passato per mente a qué buoni Alemanni, che quel picciolo torrente potesse, per cosi dire in un instante can|giarsi in un terribil gigante."

  (Annal. d'Italia, tom. xvi. p. 443. Milan, 1753, 8vo. edit.)
• 38 1.47

  Claudian does not clearly answer our question, Where was Honorius himself? Yet the flight is marked by the pursuit: and my idea of the Gothic war is justified by the Italian critics, Sigonius (tom. i. P. ii. p. 369. de Imp. Occident. l. x.) and Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 45.).
• 39 1.48

  One of the roads may be traced in the Itineraries (p. 98. 288. 294. with Wesseling's notes). Asta lay some miles on the right|hand.
• 40 1.49

  Asta, or Astia, a Roman colony, is now the capital of a plea|sant county, which, in the sixteenth century, devolved to the Dukes of Savoy (Leandro Alberti Descrizzione d'Italia, p. 382.).
• 41 1.50

  Nec me timor impulit ullus. He might hold this proud lan|guage the next year at Rome, five hundred miles from the scene of danger (vi Cons. Hon. 449.).
• 42 1.51

  Hanc ego vel victor regno, vel morte tenebo Victus, humum—

  The speeches (de Bell. Get. 479—549.) of the Gothic Nestor, and Achilles, are strong, characteristic, adapted to the circumstances; and possibly not less genuine than those of Livy.
• * 1.52

  Battle of Pollentia, A. D. 403. March 29.
• 43 1.53

  Orosius (l. vii. c. 37.) is shocked at the impiety of the Ro|mans, who attacked, on Easter-Sunday, such pious Christians. Yet, at the same time, public prayers were offered at the shrine of St. Thomas of Edessa, for the destruction of the Arian robber. See Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 529.), who quotes an homily, which has been erroneously ascribed to St. Chrysostom.
• 44 1.54

  The vestiges of Pollentia are twenty-five miles to the south-east of Turin. Urbs, in the same neighbourhood, was a royal chace of the kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which excused the pre|diction, "penetrabis ad urbem." (Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 83—85.)
• 45 1.55

  Orosius wishes, in doubtful words, to insinuate the defeat of the Romans. "Pugnantes vicimus, victores victi sumus." Prosper (in Chron.) makes it an equal and bloody battle; but the Gothic writers, Cassiodorius (in Chron.) and Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 29.) claim a decisive victory.
• 46 1.56

  Demens Ausonidum gemmata monilia matrum, Romanasque altà famulas cervice petebat.

  De Bell. Get. 627.
• 47 1.57

  Claudian (de Bell. Get. 580—647.) and Prudentius (in Sym|mach. l. ii. 694—719.) celebrate, without ambiguity, the Roman victory of Pollentia. They are poetical and party writers; yet some credit is due to the most suspicious witnesses, who are checked by the recent notoriety of facts.
• 48 1.58

  Claudian's peroration is strong and elegant; but the identity of the Cimbric and Gothic fields, must be understood (like Virgil's Philippi, Georgic i. 490.) according to the loose geography of a poet. Vercellae and Pollentia are sixty miles from each other; and the latitude is still greater, if the Cimbri were defeated in the wide and barren plain of Verona (Maffei, Verona Illustrata, P. i. p. 54—62.).
• 49 1.59

  Claudian and Prudentius must be strictly examined, to reduce the figures, and extort the historic sense of those poets.
• * 1.60

  Boldness and retreat of Alaric.
• 50 1.61

  Et gravant en airain ses frêles avantages De mes etats conquis enchainer les images.

  The practice of exposing in triumph the images of kings and pro|vinces, was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithridates him|self was twelve feet high, of massy gold (Freinshem. Supplement Livian. ciii. 47.).
• 51 1.62

  The Getic war and the sixth consulship of Honorius, obscurely connect the events of Alaric's retreat and losses.
• 52 1.63

  Tacco de Alarico . . . saepe victo, saepe concluso, semperque dimisso. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37. p. 567. Claudian (vi Cons. Hon. 320.) drops the curtain with a fine image.
• * 1.64

  The tri|umph of Honorius, at Rome, A. D. 404.
• 53 1.65

  The remainder of Claudian's poem on the sixth consulship of Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and the games (330—660.).
• 54 1.66

  See the inscription in Mascow's History of the Ancient Ger|mans, viii. 12. The words are positive and indiscreet, Getarum nationem in omne aevum domitam, &c.
• * 1.67

  The gla|diators abolished.
• 55 1.68

  On the curious, though horrid, subject of the gladiators, con|sult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius, who, as an antiqua|rian, is inclined to excuse the practice of antiquity (tom. iii. p. 483—545.).
• 56 1.69

  Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. xii. leg. 1. The Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom. v. p. 396.) for the history of gladiators.
• 57 1.70

  See the peroration of Prudentius (in Symmach. l. ii. 1121—1131.), who had doubtless read the eloquent invective of Lactantius (Divin. Institut. l. vi. c. 20.). The Christian apologists have not spared these bloody games, which were introduced in the religious festivals of Paganism.
• 58 1.71

  Theodoret, l. v. c. 26. I wish to believe the story of St. Te|lemachus. Yet no church has been dedicated; no altar has been erected, to the only monk who died a martyr in the cause of hu|manity.
• 59 1.72

  Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum nonnullis videri solet; et haud scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit. Cicero Tusculan. ii. 17.

  He faintly censures the abuse, and warmly defends the use, of these sports;

  oculis nulla poterat esse fortior contra dolorem et mortem disciplina. Seneca (epist. vii.)

  shews the feelings of a man.
• * 1.73

  Honorius fixes his residence at Ra|venna, A. D. 404.
• 60 1.74

  This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo (l. v. p. 327.), Pliny (iii. 20.), Stephen of Byzantium (sub voce 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, p. 651. edit. Berkel.), Claudian (in vi Cons. Honor. 494, &c.), Sidonius Apollinaris (l. i. epist. v. 8.), Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 29.), Pro|copius (de Bell. Gothic. l. i. c. i. p. 309, edit. Louvre), and Cluve|rius. (Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 301—307.). Yet I still want a local antiquarian, and a good topographical map.
• 61 1.75

  Martial (epigram iii. 56, 57.) plays on the trick of the knave, who had sold him wine instead of water; but he seriously declares, that a cistern, at Ravenna, is more valuable than a vineyard. Sido|nius complains that the town is destitute of fountains and aqueducts; and ranks the want of fresh water among the local evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the stinging of gnats, &c.
• 62 1.76

  The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has so ad|mirably transplanted from Bocaccio (Giornata iii. novell. viii.) was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from Classis, the naval station, which, with the intermediate road or suburb, the Via Caesaris, constituted the triple city of Ravenna.
• 63 1.77

  From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code become sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy's Chrono|logy of the Laws, tom. i. p. cxlviii. &c.
• * 1.78

  The revo|lutions of Scythia, A. D. 400.
• 64 1.79

  See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 179—189. tom. ii. p. 295. 334—338.
• * 1.80

  Emigra|tion of the northern Germans, A. D. 405.
• 65 1.81

  Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. iii. p. 182.) has observed an emigration from the Palus Maeotis to the north of Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error.
• 66 1.82

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 331.) uses the general description of, the nations beyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their situation, and consequently their names, are manifestly shewn, even in the va|rious epithets which each ancient writer may have casually added.
• 67 1.83

  The name of Rhadagast was that of a local deity of the Obo|trites (in Mecklenburgh). A hero might naturally assume the ap|pellation of his tutelar god; but it is not probable that the Bar|barians should worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou, Hist. of the Germans, viii. 14.
• 68 1.84

  Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180.) uses the Greek word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; which does not convey any precise idea. I suspect that they were the princes and nobles, with their faithful companions; the knights with their 'squires, as they would have been styled some centuries afterwards.
• 69 1.85

  Tacit. de Moribus Cermanorum, c. 37.
• * 1.86

  Radagai|sus invades Italy, A. D. 406.
• 70 1.87

  —Cujus agendi Spectator vel causa fui.

  Claudian, vi Cons. Hon. 439. is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which he had seen somewhat nearer.
• 71 1.88

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 331.) transports the war, and the victory of Stilicho, beyond the Danube. A strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured, by reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 807.). In good policy, we must use the ser|vice of Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him.
• 72 1.89

  Codex Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law (A. D. 406, May 18.) satisfies me, as it had done Godefroy (tom. ii. p. 387), of the true year of the invasion of Radagaisus. Tille|mont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year; but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and respect, to St. Paulinus of Nola.
• 73 1.90

  Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the senate, on a sudden emergency, armed ten legions, 3000 horse, and 42,000 foot; a force which the city could not have sent forth under Au|gustus (Livy, vii. 25.). This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquieu.
• 74 1.91

  Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher, the origin of Florence, which insensibly descended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of Faesulae to the banks of the Arno (Istoria Fiorentin, tom. i. l. ii. p. 36. Londra, 1747.). The Triumvirs sent a co|lony to Florence, which, under Tiberius (Tacit. Annal. i. 79.), deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, &c.
• * 1.92

  Besieges Florence,
• * 1.93

  and threat|ens Rome.
• 75 1.94

  Yet the Jupiter of Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor and Woden, was very different from the Olympic or Capitoline Jove. The accommodating temper of Polytheism might unite those various and remote deities; but the genuine Romans abhorred the human sa|crifices of Gaul and Germany.
• * 1.95

  Defeat and destruction of his army by Stili|cho, A. D. 406.
• 76 1.96

  Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 50.) relates this story, which he received from the mouth of Pansophia herself, a religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop soon ceased to take an active part in the business of the world, and never became a popular saint.
• 77 1.97

  Augustin de Civitat. Dei, v. 23. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37. p. 567—571. The two friends wrote in Africa, ten or twelve years after the victory; and their authority is implicitly followed by Isi|dore of Seville (in Chron. p. 713. edit. Grot.). How many inte|resting facts might Orosius have inserted in the vacant space which is devoted to pious nonsense!
• 78 1.98

  Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar Ducit opus: pandit fossas, turritaque summis Disponit castella jugis, magnoque recessû Amploxus fines; saltus nemorosaque tesqua Et silvas, vastâque feras indagine claudit.

  Yet the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 44.) is far greater than the amplifications of Lucan (Pharsal. l. vi. 29—63.).
• 79 1.99

  The rhetorical expressions of Orosius,

  In arido et aspero montis jugo;"

  "in unum ac parvum verticem," are not very suitable to the encampment of a great army. But Faesulae, only three miles from Florence, might afford space for the head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the circuit of the Roman lines.
• 80 1.100

  See Zosimus, l. v. p. 331. and the chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus.
• 81 1.101

  Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180.) uses an expression (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,) which would denote a strict and friendly alliance, and render Stilicho still more criminal. The paulisper detentus, deinde interfectus, of Orosius, is sufficiently odious.
• 82 1.102

  Orosius, piously inhuman, sacrifices the king and people, Agag and the Amalekites, without a symptom of compassion. The bloody actor is less detestable than the cool unfeeling historian.
• 83 1.103

  And Claudian's muse, was she asleep? had she been ill paid? Methinks the seventh consulship of Honorius (A. D. 407.) would have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was discovered that the state could no longer be saved, Stilicho (after Romulus, Camillus, and Marius) might have been worthily surnamed the fourth founder of Rome.
• * 1.104

  The re|mainder of the Ger|mans in|vade Gaul, A. D. 406, Dec. 31.
• 84 1.105

  A luminous passage of Prosper's Chronicle, "In tres partes, per diversos principes, divisus exercitus," reduces the miracle of Florence, and connects the history of Italy, Gaul, and Germany.
• 85 1.106

  Orosius and Jerom positively charge him with instigating the invasion. "Excitatae a Stilichone gentes," &c. They must mean indirectly. He saved Italy at the expence of Gaul.
• 86 1.107

  The Count de Buat is satisfied, that the Germans who invaded Gaul were the two-thirds that yet remained of the army of Radagaisus. See the Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Europe (tom. vii. p. 87—121. Paris, 1772.); an elaborate work, which I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As early as 1771, I find the same idea expressed in a rough draught of the present History. I have since observed a similar intimation in Mascou (viii. 15.). Such agreement, without mutual communication, may add some weight to our common sentiment.
• 87 1.108

  —Provincia missos Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges Quos dederis.

  Claudian (1 Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, &c.) is clear and satisfactory. These kings of France are unknown to Gregory of Tours; but the author of the Gesta Francorum mentions both Sunno and Marcomir, and names the latter as the father of Pharamond (in tom. ii. p. 543.). He seems to write from good materials, which he did not under|stand.
• 88 1.109

  See Zosimus (l. vi. p. 373.), Orosius (l. vii. c. 40. p. 576.), and the Chronicles. Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9. p. 165. in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a valuable fragment of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whose three names de|note a Christian, a Roman subject, and a Semi-barbarian.
• * 1.110

  Desolation of Gaul, A. D. 407, &c.
• 89 1.111

  Claudian (1 Cons. Stil. l. i. 221. &c. l. ii. 186.) describes the peace and prosperity of the Gallic frontier. The Abbé Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c. tom. i. p. 174.) would read Alba (a nameless rivulet of the Ardennes) instead of Albis; and expatiates on the dan|ger of the Gallic cattle grazing beyond the Elbe. Foolish enough! In poetical geography, the Elbe, and the Hercynian, signify any river, or any wood, in Germany. Claudian is not prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries.
• 90 1.112

  —Geminasque viator Cum videat ripas, quae sit Romana requirat.
• 91 1.113

  Jerom, tom. i. p. 93. See in the 1st vol. of the Historians of France, p. 777. 782. the proper extracts from the Carmen de Provi|dentiâ Divinâ, and Salvian. The anonymous poet was himself a captive, with his bishop and fellow-citizens.
• 92 1.114

  The Pelagian doctrine, which was first agitated A. D. 405, was condemned, in the space of ten years, at Rome and Carthage. St. Augustin fought and conquered: but the Greek church was fa|vourable to his adversaries; and (what is singular enough) the people did not take any part in a dispute which they could not under|stand.
• 93 1.115

  See the Memoires de Guillaume du Bellay, l. vi. In French, the original reproof is less obvious, and more pointed, from the double sense of the word journée, which alike signifies, a day's travel, or a battle.
• * 1.116

  Revolt of the British army, A. D. 407.
• 94 1.117

  Claudian (i Cons. Stil. l. ii. 250.). It is supposed, that the Scots of Ireland invaded, by sea, the whole western coast of Britain: and some slight credit may be given even to Nennius and the Irish traditions (Carte's Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 169. Whitaker's Genuine History of the Britons, p. 199.). The sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, which were extant in the ninth century, must have con|tained as many thousand lies; yet we may believe, that, in one of these Irish inroads, the future apostle was led away captive (Usher, Antiquit. Eccles. Britann. p. 431. and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 456. 782, &c.).
• 95 1.118

  The British usurpers are taken from Zosimus (l. vi. p. 371—375.), Orosius (l. vii. c. 40. p. 576. 577.), Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180, 181.), the ecclesiastical historians, and the Chro|nicles. The Latins are ignorant of Marcus.
• * 1.119

  Constan|tine is ac|knowledg|ed in Bri|tain and Gaul, A. D. 407.
• 96 1.120

  Cum in Constantino inconstantiam . . . execrarentur (Sidonius Apollinaris, l. v. epist. 9. p. 139. edit. secund. Sirmond.). Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a pun, to stigmatise a prince, who had disgraced his grandfather.
• 97 1.121

  Bagaudae is the name which Zosimus applies to them; perhaps they deserved a less odious character (see Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 203. and this History, vol. ii. p. 121.). We shall hear of them again.
• * 1.122

  He reduces Spain, A. D. 408.
• 98 1.123

  Verinianus, Didymus, Theodosius, and Lagodius, who, in modern courts, would be styled princes of the blood, were not distinguished by any rank or privileges above the rest of their fellow|subjects.
• 99 1.124

  These Honoriani, or Honoriaci, consisted of two bands of Scots, or Attacotti, two of Moors, two of Marcomanni, the Victores, the Ascarii, and the Gallicani (Notitia Imperii, sect. xxxviii. edit. Lab.). They were part of the sixty-five Auxilia Palatina, and are properly styled, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by Zosimus (l. vi. p. 374.).
• * 1.125

  Negocia|tion of Alaric and Stilicho, A. D. 404—408.
• 100 1.126

  —Comitatur euntem Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora Luctus; et inferni stridentes agmine morbi.

  Claudian in vi Cons. Hon. 321, &c.
• 101 1.127

  These dark transactions are investigated by the Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vii. c. iii—viii. p. 69—206.), whose laborious accuracy may sometimes fatigue a superficial reader.
• 102 1.128

  See Zosimus, l. v. p. 334, 335. He interrupts his scanty narrative, to relate the fable of Aemona, and of the ship Argo; which was drawn over land from that place to the Hadriatic. So|zomen (l. viii. c. 25. l. ix. c. 4.) and Socrates (l. vii. c. 10.) cast a pale and doubtful light; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 38. p. 571.) is abo|minably partial.
• * 1.129

  Debates of the Roman senate, A. D. 408.
• 103 1.130

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. He repeats the words of Lam|padius, as they were spoke in Latin, "Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis," and then translates them into Greek for the benefit of his readers.
• * 1.131

  Intrigues of the pa|lace, A. D. 408, May.
• 104 1.132

  He came from the coast of the Euxine, and exercised a splen|did office, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. His actions justify his character, which Zosimus (l. v. p. 340.) exposes with visible satisfaction. Augustin revered the piety of Olympius, whom he styles a true son of the church (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 408. No 19, &c. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.). But these praises, which the African saint so unworthily be|stows, might proceed, as well from ignorance, as from adulation.
• 105 1.133

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 4. Stilicho offered to undertake the journey to Constantinople, that he might di|vert Honorius from the vain attempt. The Eastern empire would not have obeyed, and could not have been conquered.
• * 1.134

  Disgrace and death of Stilicho, A. D. 408, Aug. 23.
• 105 1.135

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 336—345.) has copiously, though not clearly, related the disgrace and death of Stilicho. Olympiodorus (apud Phot. p. 177.), Orosius (l. vii. c. 38. p. 571, 572.), Sozo|men (l. ix. c. 4.), and Philostorgius (l. xi. c. 3. l. xii. c. 2.), afford supplemental hints.
• * 1.136

  His memo|ry perse|cuted.
• 106 1.137

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 333. The marriage of a Christian with two sisters, scandalises Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 557.); who expects, in vain, that pope Innocent I. should have done some|thing in the way, either of censure, or of dispensation.
• 107 1.138

  Two of his friends are honourably mentioned (Zosimus, l. v. p. 346.): Peter, chief of the school of notaries, and the great cham|berlain Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the bed-chamber; and it is surprising, that, under a feeble prince, the bed-chamber was not able to secure him.
• 108 1.139

  Orosius (l. vii. c. 38. p. 571, 572.) seems to copy the false and furious manifestos, which were dispersed through the provinces by the new administration.
• 109 1.140

  See the Theodosian Code, l. vii. tit. xvi. leg. 1. l. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 22. Stilicho is branded with the name of praedo publicus, who employed his wealth, ad omnem ditandam, inquietandamque Bar|bariem.
• 110 1.141

  Augustin himself is satisfied with the effectual laws, which Stilicho had enacted against heretics and idolaters; and which are still extant in the Code. He only applies to Olympius for their con|sirmation (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 408. No 19.).
• 111 1.142

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad taste of the age, in dressing their statues with such awkward sinery.
• 112 1.143

  See Rutilius Numatianus (Itinerar. l. ii. 41—60.) to whom religious enthusiasm has dictated some elegant and forcible lines. Stilicho likewise stripped the gold plates from the doors of the Capitol, and read a prophetic sentence, which was engraven under them (Zo|simus, l. v. p. 352.). These are foolish stories: yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the praise, which Zosimus reluctant|ly bestows, of his virtues.
• * 1.144

  The poet Claudian.
• 113 1.145

  At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!) all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts; and the gods themselves enriched their favourite. Claudian had neither flocks, nor herds, nor vines, or olives. His wealthy bride was heiress to them all. But he carried to Africa, a recommendatory letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy (Epist. ii. ad Se|renam).
• 114 1.146

  Claudian feels the honour like a man who deserved it (in praefat. Bell. Get.). The original inscription, on marble, was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of Pomponius Laetus. The statue of a poet, far superior to Claudian, should have been erected, during his life-time, by the men of letters, his coun|trymen, and contemporaries. It was a noble design!
• 115 1.147

  See Epigram xxx.

  Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque: Insomnis Pharius sacra, profana, rapit. Omnibus, hoc, Italae gentes, exposcite votis Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius.

  Hadrian was a Pharian (of Alexandria). See his public life in Godefroy, Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 364. Mallius did not always sleep. He composed some elegant dialogues on the Greek systems of natural philosophy (Claud. in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61—112.).
• 116 1.148

  See Claudian's first Epistle. Yet, in some places, an air of irony and indignation betrays his secret reluctance.
• 117 1.149

  National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a Spaniard. But the first epistle of Claudian proves him a native of Alexandria (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191—202. edit. Ernest.).
• 118 1.150

  His first Latin verses were composed during the consulship of Probinus, A. D. 395.

  Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, Et Latiae cessit Graia Thalia togae.

  Besides some Greek Epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin poet had composed in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus, Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, &c. It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, than of authentic history.
• 119 1.151

  Strada (Prolusion v, vi.) allows him to contend with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar Castiglione. His ad|mirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reproach exotic weeds, or flowers, which spring too luxuriantly in his Latian soil.