Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 3
by Edward Gibbon
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman
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[Footnote 5: The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori,
Annali d'Italia tom. iv. p. 139) whether Valentinian received the
Imperial diadem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, I am
willing to believe, that some respect was shown to the senate.]
[Footnote 6: The count de Buat (Hist. des Peup es de l'Europe,
tom. vii. p. 292 - 300) has established the reality, explained
the motives, and traced the consequences, of this remarkable
cession.]

[Footnote 7: See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he
ratifies and communicates (A.D. 438) the Theodosian Code. About
forty years before that time, the unity of legislation had been
proved by an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the
cities of Apulia and Calabria, produced a law of the East to
justify their exemption from municipal offices, (Cod. Theod. l.
xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13;) and the Western emperor was obliged to
invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis
partibus esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit. i. leg. 158.]
     Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no
more than six years of age; and his long minority was intrusted
to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim
to the succession of the Western empire. Placidia envied, but
she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and
sister of Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and
successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was
jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; ^8
she reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the
character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the
suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute
education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly
and honorable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her
armies were commanded by two generals, Aetius ^9 and Boniface,
^10 who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their
union might have supported a sinking empire; their discord was
the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion
and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Aetius; and
though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival,
the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest
the military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle,
in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror
of the Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his friend
Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which had once
tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded his
spotless integrity; the army dreaded his equal and inexorable
justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A
peasant, who complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife
and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the
following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently
informed himself of the time and place of the assignation,
mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the
guilty couple, punished the soldier with instant death, and
silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the
next morning, with the head of the adulterer. The abilities of
Aetius and Boniface might have been usefully employed against the
public enemies, in separate and important commands; but the
experience of their past conduct should have decided the real
favor and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy
season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained
her cause with unshaken fidelity: and the troops and treasures of
Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the rebellion.
The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal and activity of
Aetius, who brought an army of sixty thousand Huns from the
Danube to the confines of Italy, for the service of the usurper.
The untimely death of John compelled him to accept an
advantageous treaty; but he still continued, the subject and the
soldier of Valentinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a
treasonable, correspondence with his Barbarian allies, whose
retreat had been purchased by liberal gifts, and more liberal
promises. But Aetius possessed an advantage of singular moment
in a female reign; he was present: he besieged, with artful and
assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark
designs with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at length
deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a subtle
conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not easily
suspect. He had secretly persuaded ^11 Placidia to recall
Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised
Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons: to the one, he
represented the order as a sentence of death; to the other, he
stated the refusal as a signal of revolt; and when the credulous
and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his defence,
Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion, which
his own perfidy had excited. A temperate inquiry into the real
motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant to his
duty and to the republic; but the arts of Aetius still continued
to betray and to inflame, and the count was urged, by
persecution, to embrace the most desperate counsels. The success
with which he eluded or repelled the first attacks, could not
inspire a vain confidence, that at the head of some loose,
disorderly Africans, he should be able to withstand the regular
forces of the West, commanded by a rival, whose military
character it was impossible for him to despise. After some
hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface
despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the camp,
of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the proposal of a strict
alliance, and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual
settlement.
[Footnote 8: Cassiodorus (Variar. l. xi. Epist. i. p. 238) has
compared the regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns
the weakness of the mother of Valentinian, and praises the
virtues of his royal mistress. On this occasion, flattery seems
to have spoken the language of truth.]
[Footnote 9: Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy's
Dissertat. p. 493, &c.; and Renatus Frigeridus, apud Gregor.
Turon. l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetius was
Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the province of Scythia,
and master-general of the cavalry; his mother was a rich and
noble Italian. From his earliest youth, Aetius, as a soldier and
a hostage, had conversed with the Barbarians.]

[Footnote 10: For the character of Boniface, see Olympiodorus,
apud Phot. p. 196; and St. Augustin apud Tillemont, Memoires
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 712 - 715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at
length deplored the fall of his friend, who, after a solemn vow
of chastity, had married a second wife of the Arian sect, and who
was suspected of keeping several concubines in his house.]
[Footnote 11: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, 4, p. 182 -
186) relates the fraud of Aetius, the revolt of Boniface, and the
loss of Africa. This anecdote, which is supported by some
collateral testimony, (see Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. p.
420, 421,) seems agreeable to the practice of ancient and modern
courts, and would be naturally revealed by the repentance of
Boniface.]
     After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius
had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in
the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had
fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile
independence. The Vandals prevailed; and their adversaries were
besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till
the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the
victorious Barbarians to remove the scene of the war to the
plains of Boetica. The rapid progress of the Vandals soon
acquired a more effectual opposition; and the master-general
Castinus marched against them with a numerous army of Romans and
Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior army, Castinus fled
with dishonor to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has
been represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect,
of his rash presumption. ^12 Seville and Carthagena became the
reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the
vessels which they found in the harbor of Carthagena might easily
transport them to the Isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the
Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed
their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation,
and perhaps the prospect of Africa, encouraged the Vandals to
accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface;
and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the
bold enterprise. In the room of a prince not conspicuous for any
superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard
brother, the terrible Genseric; ^13 a name, which, in the
destruction of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank with
the names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is
described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in
one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his
horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep
purposes of his soul; he disdained to imitate the luxury of the
vanquished; but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and
revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds and without
scruples; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark
engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to
his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred
and contention. Almost in the moment of his departure he was
informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to
ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon.

Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of
the Suevi as far as Merida; precipitated the king and his army
into the River Anas, and calmly returned to the sea-shore to
embark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported the
Vandals over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only
twelve miles in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards, who
anxiously wished their departure; and by the African general, who
had implored their formidable assistance. ^14

[Footnote 12: See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius. Salvian
(de Gubernat. Dei, l. vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608) ascribes the
victory of the Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted,
they prayed, they carried a Bible in the front of the Host, with
the design, perhaps, of reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of
their enemies.]

[Footnote 13: Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura
mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone
rarus, luxuriae contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad
solicitandas gentes providentissimus, semina contentionum jacere,
odia miscere paratus. Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33, p. 657.

This portrait, which is drawn with some skill, and a strong
likeness, must have been copied from the Gothic history of
Cassiodorus.]
[Footnote 14: See the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a
Spaniard and a contemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in
the month of May, of the year of Abraham, (which commences in
October,) 2444. This date, which coincides with A.D. 429, is
confirmed by Isidore, another Spanish bishop, and is justly
preferred to the opinion of those writers who have marked for
that event one of the two preceding years. See Pagi Critica,
tom. ii. p. 205, &c.]
     Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the
martial swarms of Barbarians that seemed to issue from the North,
will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army which
Genseric mustered on the coast of Mauritania. The Vandals, who
in twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were
united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned
with equal authority over the Alani, who had passed, within the
term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive
heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold enterprise had
excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and many
desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by
the same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various
multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and
though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength, by
appointing eighty chinarchs, or commanders of thousands, the
fallacious increase of old men, of children, and of slaves, would
scarcely have swelled his army to the number of four-score
thousand persons. ^15 But his own dexterity, and the discontents
of Africa, soon fortified the Vandal powers, by the accession of
numerous and active allies. The parts of Mauritania which border
on the Great Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, were filled with a
fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage temper had been
exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of the Roman
arms. The wandering Moors, ^16 as they gradually ventured to
approach the seashore, and the camp of the Vandals, must have
viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armor, the
martial pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had
landed on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blue-eyed
warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the
swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighborhood of
the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some
measure been removed, which arose from the mutual ignorance of
their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any future
consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of Rome; and a
crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and valleys of Mount
Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who had
injuriously expelled them from the native sovereignty of the
land.
[Footnote 15: Compare Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.
190) and Victor Vitensis, (de Persecutione Vandal. l. i. c. 1, p.
3, edit. Ruinart.) We are assured by Idatius, that Genseric
evacuated Spain, cum Vandalis omnibus eorumque familiis; and
Possidius (in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart, p. 427)
describes his army as manus ingens immanium gentium Vandalorum et
Alanorum, commixtam secum babens Gothorum gentem, aliarumque
diversarum personas.]

[Footnote 16: For the manners of the Moors, see Procopius, (de
Bell. Vandal. l. ii. c. 6, p. 249;) for their figure and
complexion, M. de Buffon, (Histoire Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 430.)
Procopius says in general, that the Moors had joined the Vandals
before the death of Valentinian, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.
190;) and it is probable that the independent tribes did not
embrace any uniform system of policy.]

     The persecution of the Donatists ^17 was an event not less
favorable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before he
landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by
the order of the magistrate. The Catholics were satisfied, that,
after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the
obstinacy of the schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary;
and the emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most
rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his
patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops, ^18 with many
thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches,
stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the
islands, and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal
themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous
congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived
of the rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious
worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred
pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained, according to the
distinction of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of assisting
at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five
times, without subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future
punishment was referred to the discretion of the Imperial court.
^19 By these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation
of St. Augustin, ^20 great numbers of Donatists were reconciled
to the Catholic Church; but the fanatics, who still persevered in
their opposition, were provoked to madness and despair; the
distracted country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the
armed troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage
against themselves, or against their adversaries; and the
calendar of martyrs received on both sides a considerable
augmentation. ^21 Under these circumstances, Genseric, a
Christian, but an enemy of the orthodox communion, showed himself
to the Donatists as a powerful deliverer, from whom they might
reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts
of the Roman emperors. ^22 The conquest of Africa was facilitated
by the active zeal, or the secret favor, of a domestic faction;
the wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy of which
the Vandals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the fanaticism
of their allies; and the intolerant spirit which disgraced the
triumph of Christianity, contributed to the loss of the most
important province of the West. ^23

[Footnote 17: See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 516 -
558; and the whole series of the persecution, in the original
monuments, published by Dupin at the end of Optatus, p. 323 -
515.]

[Footnote 18: The Donatist Bishops, at the conference of
Carthage, amounted to 279; and they asserted that their whole
number was not less than 400. The Catholics had 286 present, 120
absent, besides sixty four vacant bishoprics.]
[Footnote 19: The fifth title of the sixteenth book of the
Theodosian Code exhibits a series of the Imperial laws against
the Donatists, from the year 400 to the year 428. Of these the
54th law, promulgated by Honorius, A.D. 414, is the most severe
and effectual.]

[Footnote 20: St. Augustin altered his opinion with regard tosthe
proper treatment of heretics. His pathetic declaration of pity
and indulgence for the Manichaeans, has been inserted by Mr.
Locke (vol. iii. p. 469) among the choice specimens of his
common-place book. Another philosopher, the celebrated Bayle,
(tom. ii. p. 445 - 496,) has refuted, with superfluous diligence
and ingenuity, the arguments by which the bishop of Hippo
justified, in his old age, the persecution of the Donatists.]
[Footnote 21: See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 586 -
592, 806. The Donatists boasted of thousands of these voluntary
martyrs. Augustin asserts, and probably with truth, that these
numbers were much exaggerated; but he sternly maintains, that it
was better that some should burn themselves in this world, than
that all should burn in hell flames.]

[Footnote 22: According to St. Augustin and Theodoret, the
Donatists were inclined to the principles, or at least to the
party, of the Arians, which Genseric supported. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. vi. p. 68.]
[Footnote 23: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 428, No. 7, A.D.
439, No. 35. The cardinal, though more inclined to seek the cause
of great events in heaven than on the earth, has observed the
apparent connection of the Vandals and the Donatists. Under the
reign of the Barbarians, the schismatics of Africa enjoyed an
obscure peace of one hundred years; at the end of which we may
again trace them by the fight of the Imperial persecutions. See
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 192. &c.]

     The court and the people were astonished by the strange
intelligence, that a virtuous hero, after so many favors, and so
many services, had renounced his allegiance, and invited the
Barbarians to destroy the province intrusted to his command. The
friends of Boniface, who still believed that his criminal
behavior might be excused by some honorable motive, solicited,
during the absence of Aetius, a free conference with the Count of
Africa; and Darius, an officer of high distinction, was named for
the important embassy. ^24 In their first interview at Carthage,
the imaginary provocations were mutually explained; the opposite
letters of Aetius were produced and compared; and the fraud was
easily detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented their fatal
error; and the count had sufficient magnanimity to confide in the
forgiveness of his sovereign, or to expose his head to her future
resentment. His repentance was fervent and sincere; but he soon
discovered that it was no longer in his power to restore the
edifice which he had shaken to its foundations. Carthage and the
Roman garrisons returned with their general to the allegiance of
Valentinian; but the rest of Africa was still distracted with war
and faction; and the inexorable king of the Vandals, disdaining
all terms of accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the
possession of his prey. The band of veterans who marched under
the standard of Boniface, and his hasty levies of provincial
troops, were defeated with considerable loss; the victorious
Barbarians insulted the open country; and Carthage, Cirta, and
Hippo Regius, were the only cities that appeared to rise above
the general inundation.

[Footnote 24: In a confidential letter to Count Boniface, St.
Augustin, without examining the grounds of the quarrel, piously
exhorts him to discharge the duties of a Christian and a subject:
to extricate himself without delay from his dangerous and guilty
situation; and even, if he could obtain the consent of his wife,
to embrace a life of celibacy and penance, (Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 890.) The bishop was intimately connected
with Darius, the minister of peace, (Id. tom. xiii. p. 928.)]
     The long and narrow tract of the African coast was filled
with frequent monuments of Roman art and magnificence; and the
respective degrees of improvement might be accurately measured by
the distance from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple
reflection will impress every thinking mind with the clearest
idea of fertility and cultivation: the country was extremely
populous; the inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for
their own use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat,
was so regular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of
the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden the seven
fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by
the invasion of the Vandals; whose destructive rage has perhaps
been exaggerated by popular animosity, religious zeal, and
extravagant declamation. War, in its fairest form, implies a
perpetual violation of humanity and justice; and the hostilities
of Barbarians are inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit which
incessantly disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The
Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and
the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin
of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the
distinctions of age, or sex, or rank, they employed every species
of indignity and torture, to force from the captives a discovery
of their hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified
his frequent examples of military execution: he was not always
the master of his own passions, or of those of his followers; and
the calamities of war were aggravated by the licentiousness of
the Moors, and the fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not
easily be persuaded, that it was the common practice of the
Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit trees, of a
country where they intended to settle: nor can I believe that it
was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of their
prisoners before the walls of a besieged city, for the sole
purpose of infecting the air, and producing a pestilence, of
which they themselves must have been the first victims. ^25
[Footnote 25: The original complaints of the desolation of Africa
are contained 1. In a letter from Capreolus, bishop of Carthage,
to excuse his absence from the council of Ephesus, (ap. Ruinart,
p. 427.) 2. In the life of St. Augustin, by his friend and
colleague Possidius, (ap. Ruinart, p. 427.) 3. In the history of
the Vandalic persecution, by Victor Vitensis, (l. i. c. 1, 2, 3,
edit. Ruinart.) The last picture, which was drawn sixty years
after the event, is more expressive of the author's passions than
of the truth of facts.]

     The generous mind of Count Boniface was tortured by the
exquisite distress of beholding the ruin which he had occasioned,
and whose rapid progress he was unable to check. After the loss
of a battle he retired into Hippo Regius; where he was
immediately besieged by an enemy, who considered him as the real
bulwark of Africa. The maritime colony of Hippo, ^26 about two
hundred miles westward of Carthage, had formerly acquired the
distinguishing epithet of Regius, from the residence of Numidian
kings; and some remains of trade and populousness still adhere to
the modern city, which is known in Europe by the corrupted name
of Bona. The military labors, and anxious reflections, of Count
Boniface, were alleviated by the edifying conversation of his
friend St. Augustin; ^27 till that bishop, the light and pillar
of the Catholic church, was gently released, in the third month
of the siege, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age, from the
actual and the impending calamities of his country. The youth of
Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors which he so
ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of his conversion to
that of his death, the manners of the bishop of Hippo were pure
and austere: and the most conspicuous of his virtues was an
ardent zeal against heretics of every denomination; the
Manichaeans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, against whom he
waged a perpetual controversy. When the city, some months after
his death, was burnt by the Vandals, the library was fortunately
saved, which contained his voluminous writings; two hundred and
thirty-two separate books or treatises on theological subjects,
besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the gospel, and
a copious magazine of epistles and homilies. ^28 According to the
judgment of the most impartial critics, the superficial learning
of Augustin was confined to the Latin language; ^29 and his
style, though sometimes animated by the eloquence of passion, is
usually clouded by false and affected rhetoric. But he possessed
a strong, capacious, argumentative mind; he boldly sounded the
dark abyss of grace, predestination, free will, and original sin;
and the rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored,
^30 has been entertained, with public applause, and secret
reluctance, by the Latin church. ^31
[Footnote 26: See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. part ii.
p. 112. Leo African. in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 70. L'Afrique de
Marmol, tom. ii. p. 434, 437. Shaw's Travels, p. 46, 47. The
old Hippo Regius was finally destroyed by the Arabs in the
seventh century; but a new town, at the distance of two miles,
was built with the materials; and it contained, in the sixteenth
century, about three hundred families of industrious, but
turbulent manufacturers. The adjacent territory is renowned for
a pure air, a fertile soil, and plenty of exquisite fruits.]
[Footnote 27: The life of St. Augustin, by Tillemont, fills a
quarto volume (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii.) of more than one thousand
pages; and the diligence of that learned Jansenist was excited,
on this occasion, by factious and devout zeal for the founder of
his sect.]

[Footnote 28: Such, at least, is the account of Victor Vitensis,
(de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 3;) though Gennadius seems to
doubt whether any person had read, or even collected, all the
works of St. Augustin, (see Hieronym. Opera, tom. i. p. 319, in
Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.) They have been repeatedly printed;
and Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. iii. p. 158 - 257) has given
a large and satisfactory abstract of them as they stand in the
last edition of the Benedictines. My personal acquaintance with
the bishop of Hippo does not extend beyond the Confessions, and
the City of God.]

[Footnote 29: In his early youth (Confess. i. 14) St. Augustin
disliked and neglected the study of Greek; and he frankly owns
that he read the Platonists in a Latin version, (Confes. vii. 9.)
Some modern critics have thought, that his ignorance of Greek
disqualified him from expounding the Scriptures; and Cicero or
Quintilian would have required the knowledge of that language in
a professor of rhetoric.]

[Footnote 30: These questions were seldom agitated, from the time
of St. Paul to that of St. Augustin. I am informed that the
Greek fathers maintain the natural sentiments of the
Semi-Pelagians; and that the orthodoxy of St. Augustin was
derived from the Manichaean school.]

[Footnote 31: The church of Rome has canonized Augustin, and
reprobated Calvin. Yet as the real difference between them is
invisible even to a theological microscope, the Molinists are
oppressed by the authority of the saint, and the Jansenists are
disgraced by their resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while,
the Protestant Arminians stand aloof, and deride the mutual
perplexity of the disputants, (see a curious Review of the
Controversy, by Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, (tom. xiv. p.
144 - 398.) Perhaps a reasoner still more independent may smile
in his turn, when he peruses an Arminian Commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans.]

Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.

Part II.

     By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of
the Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above fourteen
months: the sea was continually open; and when the adjacent
country had been exhausted by irregular rapine, the besiegers
themselves were compelled by famine to relinquish their
enterprise. The importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt
by the regent of the West. Placidia implored the assistance of
her eastern ally; and the Italian fleet and army were reenforced
by Asper, who sailed from Constantinople with a powerful
armament. As soon as the force of the two empires was united
under the command of Boniface, he boldly marched against the
Vandals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided
the fate of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of
despair; and the people of Hippo were permitted, with their
families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers,
the greatest part of whom were either slain or made prisoners by
the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the
vitals of the republic, might enter the palace of Ravenna with
some anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of Placidia.
Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank of patrician, and the
dignity of master-general of the Roman armies; but he must have
blushed at the sight of those medals, in which he was represented
with the name and attributes of victory. ^32 The discovery of his
fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished
favor of his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul
of Aetius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a
retinue, or rather with an army, of Barbarian followers; and such
was the weakness of the government, that the two generals decided
their private quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was
successful; but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from
the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few
days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments, that he
exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Aetius for
her second husband. But Aetius could not derive any immediate
advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy: he was
proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia; and though he
attempted to defend some strong fortresses, erected on his
patrimonial estate, the Imperial power soon compelled him to
retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The
republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of the service of
her two most illustrious champions. ^33

[Footnote 32: Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head
of Valentinian; on the reverse, Boniface, with a scourge in one
hand, and a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which
is drawn by four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags; an
unlucky emblem! I should doubt whether another example can be
found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an Imperial
medal. See Science des Medailles, by the Pere Jobert, tom. i. p.
132 - 150, edit. of 1739, by the haron de la Bastie.

     Note: Lord Mahon, Life of Belisarius, p. 133, mentions one
of Belisarius on the authority of Cedrenus - M.]

[Footnote 33: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 185)
continues the history of Boniface no further than his return to
Italy. His death is mentioned by Prosper and Marcellinus; the
expression of the latter, that Aetius, the day before, had
provided himself with a longer spear, implies something like a
regular duel.]

     It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of
Boniface, that the Vandals would achieve, without resistance or
delay, the conquest of Africa. Eight years, however, elapsed,
from the evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In
the midst of that interval, the ambitious Genseric, in the full
tide of apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by
which he gave his son Hunneric for a hostage; and consented to
leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the
three Mauritanias. ^34 This moderation, which cannot be imputed
to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror.

His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the
baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his
nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he
sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the
deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river
Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and
frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have
shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in
the field of battle. ^35 The convulsions of Africa, which had
favored his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power;
and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists
and Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the
unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards
Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops from the Western
provinces; the sea-coast was exposed to the naval enterprises of
the Romans of Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the
strong inland city of Corta still persisted in obstinate
independence. ^36 These difficulties were gradually subdued by
the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric; who
alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the
establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn
treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of
its continuance, and the moment of its violation. The vigilance
of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship,
which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length
surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years
after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger
Scipio. ^37
[Footnote 34: See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186.
Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the
distress of his Numidian and Mauritanian subjects; he discharged
them, in a great measure, from the payment of their debts,
reduced their tribute to one eighth, and gave them a right of
appeal from their provincial magistrates to the praefect of Rome.

Cod. Theod. tom. vi. Novell. p. 11, 12.]

[Footnote 35: Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. ii. c. 5,
p. 26. The cruelties of Genseric towards his subjects are
strongly expressed in Prosper's Chronicle, A.D. 442.]

[Footnote 36: Possidius, in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart,
p. 428.]
[Footnote 37: See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper,
and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days,
for the surprisal of Carthage.]

     A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a
colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives
of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the
splendor of Antioch, she still maintained the second rank in the
West; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of
the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis ^38
displayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a flourishing
republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the
treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of civil
honors gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and
quarters of the city, to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate,
who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and
dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were
instituted for the education of the African youth; and the
liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were
publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings
of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was
planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and
capacious harbor, was subservient to the commercial indus try of
citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and
theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the Barbarians.
The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of
their country, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to
their subtle and faithless character. ^39 The habits of trade,
and the abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their
impious contempt of monks, and the shameless practice of
unnatural lusts, are the two abominations which excite the pious
vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age. ^40 The king of
the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people;
and the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these
expressions of Victor are not without energy) was reduced by
Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had
permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and
avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and
oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all
persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver,
jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers;
and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was
inexorably punished with death and torture, as an act of treason
against the state. The lands of the proconsular province, which
formed the immediate district of Carthage, were accurately
measured, and divided among the Barbarians; and the conqueror
reserved for his peculiar domain the fertile territory of
Byzacium, and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia. ^41
[Footnote 38: The picture of Carthage; as it flourished in the
fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expositio totius
Mundi, p. 17, 18, in the third volume of Hudson's Minor
Geographers, from Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229; and
principally from Salvian, de Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p. 257,
258.]

[Footnote 39: The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi
compares in his barbarous Latin, the country and the inhabitants;
and, after stigmatizing their want of faith, he coolly concludes,
Difficile autem inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci
boni esse possunt P. 18.]

[Footnote 40: He declares, that the peculiar vices of each
country were collected in the sink of Carthage, (l. vii. p. 257.)
In the indulgence of vice, the Africans applauded their manly
virtue. Et illi se magis virilis fortitudinis esse crederent,
qui maxime vires foeminei usus probositate fregissent, (p. 268.)
The streets of Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who
publicly assumed the countenance, the dress, and the character of
women, (p. 264.) If a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was
pursued with impious scorn and ridicule; de testantibus ridentium
cachinnis, (p. 289.)]

[Footnote 41: Compare Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p.
189, 190, and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut Vandal. l. i. c. 4.]
     It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom
he had injured: the nobility and senators of Carthage were
exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused
the ignominious terms, which their honor and religion forbade
them to accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the
condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the
provinces of the East, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of
fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public
compassion; and the benevolent epistles of Theod oret still
preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian and Maria. ^42
The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who,
from the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was
reduced, with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread
in a foreign country; but he applauds the resignation of the
Christian exile, and the philosophic temper, which, under the
pressure of such calamities, could enjoy more real happiness than
was the ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of
Maria, the daughter of the magnificent Eudaemon, is singular and
interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was purchased from the
Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a
slave in their native country. A female attendant, transported
in the same ship, and sold in the same family, still continued to
respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level
of servitude; and the daughter of Eudaemon received from her
grateful affection the domestic services which she had once
required from her obedience. This remarkable behavior divulged
the real condition of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop of
Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery oy the generosity of some
soldiers of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret provided
for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the
deaconesses of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed,
that her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage,
exercised an honorable office in one of the Western provinces.
Her filial impatience was seconded by the pious bishop:
Theodoret, in a letter still extant, recommends Maria to the
bishop of Aegae, a maritime city of Cilicia, which was
frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West;
most earnestly requesting, that his colleague would use the
maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would
intrust her to the care of such faithful merchants, as would
esteem it a sufficient gain, if they restored a daughter, lost
beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent.
[Footnote 42: Ruinart (p. 441 - 457) has collected from
Theodoret, and other authors, the misfortunes, real and fabulous,
of the inhabitants of Carthage.]
     Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am
tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers;
^43 whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the
younger Theodosius, and the conquest of Africa by the Vandals.
^44 When the emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven
noble youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern
in the side of an adjacent mountain; where they were doomed to
perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be
firmly secured by the a pile of huge stones. They immediately
fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged
without injuring the powers of life, during a period of one
hundred and eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the
slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had
descended, removed the stones to supply materials for some rustic
edifice: the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the
Seven Sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they
thought of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger;
and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should
secretly return to the city to purchase bread for the use of his
companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation)
could no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his native
country; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a
large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of
Ephesus. His singular dress, and obsolete language, confounded
the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the
current coin of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a
secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual
inquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were
almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from
the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy,
the magistrates, the people, and, as it is said, the emperor
Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven
Sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story,
and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this
marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and
credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may
be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of
Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years after the
death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two
hundred and thirty homilies to the praise of the young men of
Ephesus. ^45 Their legend, before the end of the sixth century,
was translated from the Syriac into the Latin language, by the
care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile communions of the East
preserve their memory with equal reverence; and their names are
honorably inscribed in the Roman, the Abyssinian, and the Russian
calendar. ^46 Nor has their reputation been confined to the
Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn
when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced as
a divine revelation, into the Koran. ^47 The story of the Seven
Sleepers has been adopted and adorned by the nations, from Bengal
to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion; ^48 and some
vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the
remote extremities of Scandinavia. ^49 This easy and universal
belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to
the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance
from youth to age, without observing the gradual, but incessant,
change of human affairs; and even in our larger experience of
history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of
causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But
if the interval between two memorable aeras could be instantly
annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of
two hundred years, to display the new world to the eyes of a
spectator, who still retained a lively and recent impression of
the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish the
pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene could not
be more advantageously placed, than in the two centuries which
elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of Theodosius the
Younger. During this period, the seat of government had been
transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of the Thracian
Bosphorus; and the abuse of military spirit had been suppressed
by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The
throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of
Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous
gods of antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was
impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church,
on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman
empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and
armies of unknown Barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of
the North, had established their victorious reign over the
fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.

[Footnote 43: The choice of fabulous circumstances is of small
importance; yet I have confined myself to the narrative which was
translated from the Syriac by the care of Gregory of Tours, (de
Gloria Martyrum, l. i. c. 95, in Max. Bibliotheca Patrum, tom.
xi. p. 856,) to the Greek acts of their martyrdom (apud Photium,
p. 1400, 1401) and to the Annals of the Patriarch Eutychius,
(tom. i. p. 391, 531, 532, 535, Vers. Pocock.)]

[Footnote 44: Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by
Assemanni, (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. i. p. 336, 338,) place the
resurrection of the Seven Sleepers in the year 736 (A.D. 425) or
748, (A.D. 437,) of the aera of the Seleucides. Their Greek acts,
which Photius had read, assign the date of the thirty-eighth year
of the reign of Theodosius, which may coincide either with A.D.
439, or 446. The period which had elapsed since the persecution
of Decius is easily ascertained; and nothing less than the
ignorance of Mahomet, or the legendaries, could suppose an
internal of three or four hundred years.]
[Footnote 45: James, one of the orthodox fathers of the Syrian
church, was born A.D. 452; he began to compose his sermons A.D.
474; he was made bishop of Batnae, in the district of Sarug, and
province of Mesopotamia, A.D. 519, and died A.D. 521.
(Assemanni, tom. i. p. 288, 289.) For the homily de Pueris
Ephesinis, see p. 335 - 339: though I could wish that Assemanni
had translated the text of James of Sarug, instead of answering
the objections of Baronius.]
[Footnote 46: See the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Mensis
Julii, tom. vi. p. 375 - 397. This immense calendar of Saints,
in one hundred and twenty-six years, (1644 - 1770,) and in fifty
volumes in folio, has advanced no further than the 7th day of
October. The suppression of the Jesuits has most probably
checked an undertaking, which, through the medium of fable and
superstition, communicates much historical and philosophical
instruction.]
[Footnote 47: See Maracci Alcoran. Sura xviii. tom. ii. p. 420 -
427, and tom. i. part iv. p. 103. With such an ample privilege,
Mahomet has not shown much taste or ingenuity. He has invented
the dog (Al Rakim) the Seven Sleepers; the respect of the sun,
who altered his course twice a day, that he might not shine into
the cavern; and the care of God himself, who preserved their
bodies from putrefaction, by turning them to the right and left.]

[Footnote 48: See D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 139; and
Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 39, 40.]

[Footnote 49: Paul, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis
Langobardorum, l. i. c. 4, p. 745, 746, edit. Grot.,) who lived
towards the end of the eight century, has placed in a cavern,
under a rock, on the shore of the ocean, the Seven Sleepers of
the North, whose long repose was respected by the Barbarians.
Their dress declared them to be Romans and the deacon
conjectures, that they were reserved by Providence as the future
apostles of those unbelieving countries.]

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.

Part I.

     The Character, Conquests, And Court Of Attila, King Of The
Huns. - Death Of Theodosius The Younger. - Elevation Of Marcian
To The Empire Of The East.

     The Western world was oppressed by the Goths and Vandals,
who fled before the Huns; but the achievements of the Huns
themselves were not adequate to their power and prosperity.
Their victorious hordes had spread from the Volga to the Danube;
but the public force was exhausted by the discord of independent
chieftains; their valor was idly consumed in obscure and
predatory excursions; and they often degraded their national
dignity, by condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist
under the banners of their fugitive enemies. In the reign of
Attila, ^1 the Huns again became the terror of the world; and I
shall now describe the character and actions of that formidable
Barbarian; who alternately insulted and invaded the East and the
West, and urged the rapid downfall of the Roman empire.

[Footnote 1: The authentic materials for the history of Attila,
may be found in Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 34-50, p.
668-688, edit. Grot.) and Priscus (Excerpta de Legationibus, p.
33-76, Paris, 1648.) I have not seen the Lives of Attila,
composed by Juvencus Caelius Calanus Dalmatinus, in the twelfth
century, or by Nicholas Olahus, archbishop of Gran, in the
sixteenth. See Mascou's History of the Germans, ix., and Maffei
Osservazioni Litterarie, tom. i. p. 88, 89. Whatever the modern
Hungarians have added must be fabulous; and they do not seem to
have excelled in the art of fiction. They suppose, that when
Attila invaded Gaul and Italy, married innumerable wives, &c., he
was one hundred and twenty years of age. Thewrocz Chron. c. i. p.
22, in Script. Hunger. tom. i. p. 76.]

     In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from the
confines of China to those of Germany, the most powerful and
populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge of the Roman
provinces. The accumulated weight was sustained for a while by
artificial barriers; and the easy condescension of the emperors
invited, without satisfying, the insolent demands of the
Barbarians, who had acquired an eager appetite for the luxuries
of civilized life. The Hungarians, who ambitiously insert the
name of Attila among their native kings, may affirm with truth
that the hordes, which were subject to his uncle Roas, or
Rugilas, had formed their encampments within the limits of modern
Hungary, ^2 in a fertile country, which liberally supplied the
wants of a nation of hunters and shepherds. In this advantageous
situation, Rugilas, and his valiant brothers, who continually
added to their power and reputation, commanded the alternative of
peace or war with the two empires. His alliance with the Romans
of the West was cemented by his personal friendship for the great
Aetius; who was always secure of finding, in the Barbarian camp,
a hospitable reception and a powerful support. At his
solicitation, and in the name of John the usurper, sixty thousand
Huns advanced to the confines of Italy; their march and their
retreat were alike expensive to the state; and the grateful
policy of Aetius abandoned the possession of Pannonia to his
faithful confederates. The Romans of the East were not less
apprehensive of the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the
provinces, or even the capital. Some ecclesiastical historians
have destroyed the Barbarians with lightning and pestilence; ^3
but Theodosius was reduced to the more humble expedient of
stipulating an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds
of gold, and of disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title
of general, which the king of the Huns condescended to accept.
The public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce
impatience of the Barbarians, and the perfidious intrigues of the
Byzantine court. Four dependent nations, among whom we may
distinguish the Barbarians, disclaimed the sovereignty of the
Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected by a Roman
alliance; till the just claims, and formidable power, of Rugilas,
were effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his ambassador.
Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate: their decree was
ratified by the emperor; and two ambassadors were named,
Plinthas, a general of Scythian extraction, but of consular rank;
and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman, who
was recommended to that office by his ambitious colleague.
[Footnote 2: Hungary has been successively occupied by three
Scythian colonies. 1. The Huns of Attila; 2. The Abares, in the
sixth century; and, 3. The Turks or Magiars, A.D. 889; the
immediate and genuine ancestors of the modern Hungarians, whose
connection with the two former is extremely faint and remote.
The Prodromus and Notitia of Matthew Belius appear to contain a
rich fund of information concerning ancient and modern Hungary. I
have seen the extracts in Bibli otheque Ancienne et Moderne, tom.
xxii. p. 1 - 51, and Bibliotheque Raisonnee, tom. xvi. p. 127 -
175.

     Note: Mailath (in his Geschichte der Magyaren) considers the
question of the origin of the Magyars as still undecided. The
old Hungarian chronicles unanimously derived them from the Huns
of Attila See note, vol. iv. pp. 341, 342. The later opinion,
adopted by Schlozer, Belnay, and Dankowsky, ascribes them, from
their language, to the Finnish race. Fessler, in his history of
Hungary, agrees with Gibbon in supposing them Turks. Mailath has
inserted an ingenious dissertation of Fejer, which attempts to
connect them with the Parthians. Vol. i. Ammerkungen p. 50 - M.]

[Footnote 3: Socrates, l. vii. c. 43. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36.
Tillemont, who always depends on the faith of his ecclesiastical
authors, strenuously contends (Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 136,
607) that the wars and personages were not the same.]

     The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty.
His two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne of
their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the
ambassadors of Constantinople; but as they proudly refused to
dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spacious
plain near the city of Margus, in the Upper Maesia. The kings of
the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain honors,
of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of peace, and
each condition was an insult on the majesty of the empire.
Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on the banks
of the Danube, they required that the annual contribution should
be augmented from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred pounds
of gold; that a fine or ransom of eight pieces of gold should be
paid for every Roman captive who had escaped from his Barbarian
master; that the emperor should renounce all treaties and
engagements with the enemies of the Huns; and that all the
fugitives who had taken refuge in the court or provinces of
Theodosius, should be delivered to the justice of their offended
sovereign. This justice was rigorously inflicted on some
unfortunate youths of a royal race. They were crucified on the
territories of the empire, by the command of Attila: and as soon
as the king of the Huns had impressed the Romans with the terror
of his name, he indulged them in a short and arbitrary respite,
whilst he subdued the rebellious or independent nations of
Scythia and Germany. ^4

[Footnote 4: See Priscus, p. 47, 48, and Hist. de Peuples de
l'Europe, tom. v. i. c. xii, xiii, xiv, xv.]

     Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps his
regal, descent ^5 from the ancient Huns, who had formerly
contended with the monarchs of China. His features, according to
the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his
national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine
deformity of a modern Calmuk; ^6 a large head, a swarthy
complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in
the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body,
of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form. The
haughty step and demeanor of the king of the Huns expressed the
consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind; and
he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to
enjoy the terror which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was not
inaccessible to pity; his suppliant enemies might confide in the
assurance of peace or pardon; and Attila was considered by his
subjects as a just and indulgent master. He delighted in war;
but, after he had ascended the throne in a mature age, his head,
rather than his hand, achieved the conquest of the North; and the
fame of an adventurous soldier was usefully exchanged for that of
a prudent and successful general. The effects of personal valor
are so inconsiderable, except in poetry or romance, that victory,
even among Barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill with
which the passions of the multitude are combined and guided for
the service of a single man. The Scythian conquerors, Attila and
Zingis, surpassed their rude countrymen in art rather than in
courage; and it may be observed that the monarchies, both of the
Huns and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the
basis of popular superstition The miraculous conception, which
fraud and credulity ascribed to the virgin-mother of Zingis,
raised him above the level of human nature; and the naked
prophet, who in the name of the Deity invested him with the
empire of the earth, pointed the valor of the Moguls with
irresistible enthusiasm. ^7 The religious arts of Attila were not
less skillfully adapted to the character of his age and country.
It was natural enough that the Scythians should adore, with
peculiar devotion, the god of war; but as they were incapable of
forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation,
they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron
cimeter. ^8 One of the shepherds of the Huns perceived, that a
heifer, who was grazing, had wounded herself in the foot, and
curiously followed the track of the blood, till he discovered,
among the long grass, the point of an ancient sword, which he dug
out of the ground and presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or
rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this
celestial favor; and, as the rightful possessor of the sword of
Mars, asserted his divine and indefeasible claim to the dominion
of the earth. ^9 If the rites of Scythia were practised on this
solemn occasion, a lofty altar, or rather pile of fagots, three
hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious
plain; and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of
this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of
sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive. ^10 Whether human
sacrifices formed any part of the worship of Attila, or whether
he propitiated the god of war with the victims which he
continually offered in the field of battle, the favorite of Mars
soon acquired a sacred character, which rended his conquests more
easy and more permanent; and the Barbarian princes confessed, in
the language of devotion or flattery, that they could not presume
to gaze, with a steady eye, on the divine majesty of the king of
the Huns. ^11 His brother Bleda, who reigned over a considerable
part of the nation, was compelled to resign his sceptre and his
life. Yet even this cruel act was attributed to a supernatural
impulse; and the vigor with which Attila wielded the sword of
Mars, convinced the world that it had been reserved alone for his
invincible arm. ^12 But the extent of his empire affords the only
remaining evidence of the number and importance of his victories;
and the Scythian monarch, however ignorant of the value of
science and philosophy, might perhaps lament that his illiterate
subjects were destitute of the art which could perpetuate the
memory of his exploits.

[Footnote 5: Priscus, p. 39. The modern Hungarians have deduced
his genealogy, which ascends, in the thirty-fifth degree, to Ham,
the son of Noah; yet they are ignorant of his father's real name.

(De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 297.)]

[Footnote 6: Compare Jornandes (c. 35, p. 661) with Buffon, Hist.
Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 380. The former had a right to observe,
originis suae sigua restituens. The character and portrait of
Attila are probably transcribed from Cassiodorus.]

[Footnote 7: Abulpharag. Pocock, p. 281. Genealogical History of
the Tartars, by Abulghazi Bahader Khan, part iii c. 15, part iv
c. 3. Vie de Gengiscan, par Petit de la Croix, l. 1, c. 1, 6.
The relations of the missionaries, who visited Tartary in the
thirteenth century, (see the seventh volume of the Histoire des
Voyages,) express the popular language and opinions; Zingis is
styled the son of God, &c. &c.]

[Footnote 8: Nec templum apud eos visitur, aut delubrum, ne
tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest; sed gladius
Barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem regionum quas
circumcircant praesulem verecundius colunt. Ammian. Marcellin.
xxxi. 2, and the learned Notes of Lindenbrogius and Valesius.]
[Footnote 9: Priscus relates this remarkable story, both in his
own text (p. 65) and in the quotation made by Jornandes, (c. 35,
p. 662.) He might have explained the tradition, or fable, which
characterized this famous sword, and the name, as well as
attributes, of the Scythian deity, whom he has translated into
the Mars of the Greeks and Romans.]

[Footnote 10: Herodot. l. iv. c. 62. For the sake of economy, I
have calculated by the smallest stadium. In the human
sacrifices, they cut off the shoulder and arm of the victim,
which they threw up into the air, and drew omens and presages
from the manner of their falling on the pile]
[Footnote 11: Priscus, p. 65. A more civilized hero, Augustus
himself, was pleased, if the person on whom he fixed his eyes
seemed unable to support their divine lustre. Sueton. in August.
c. 79.]

[Footnote 12: The Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe,
tom. vii. p. 428, 429) attempts to clear Attila from the murder
of his brother; and is almost inclined to reject the concurrent
testimony of Jornandes, and the contemporary Chronicles.]

     If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized and
the savage climates of the globe; between the inhabitants of
cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds,
who dwelt in tents, Attila might aspire to the title of supreme
and sole monarch of the Barbarians. ^13 He alone, among the
conquerors of ancient and modern times, united the two mighty
kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague appellations,
when they are applied to his reign, may be understood with an
ample latitude. Thuringia, which stretched beyond its actual
limits as far as the Danube, was in the number of his provinces;
he interposed, with the weight of a powerful neighbor, in the
domestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his lieutenants
chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine.

He subdued the islands of the ocean, the kingdoms of Scandinavia,
encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns
might derive a tribute of furs from that northern region, which
has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity of
the climate, and the courage of the natives. Towards the East,
it is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of Attila over the
Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured, that he reigned on the
banks of the Volga; that the king of the Huns was dreaded, not
only as a warrior, but as a magician; ^14 that he insulted and
vanquished the khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent
ambassadors to negotiate an equal alliance with the empire of
China. In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the
sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, during his
lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths
were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the
personal merits of their chiefs. The renowned Ardaric, king of
the Gepidae, was the faithful and sagacious counsellor of the
monarch, who esteemed his intrepid genius, whilst he loved the
mild and discreet virtues of the noble Walamir, king of the
Ostrogoths. The crowd of vulgar kings, the leaders of so many
martial tribes, who served under the standard of Attila, were
ranged in the submissive order of guards and domestics round the
person of their master. They watched his nod; they trembled at
his frown; and at the first signal of his will, they executed,
without murmur or hesitation, his stern and absolute commands.
In time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national
troops, attended the royal camp in regular succession; but when
Attila collected his military force, he was able to bring into
the field an army of five, or, according to another account, of
seven hundred thousand Barbarians. ^15

[Footnote 13: Fortissimarum gentium dominus, qui inaudita ante se
potentia colus Scythica et Germanica regna possedit. Jornandes,
c. 49, p. 684. Priscus, p. 64, 65. M. de Guignes, by his
knowledge of the Chinese, has acquired (tom. ii. p. 295 - 301) an
adequate idea of the empire of Attila.]
[Footnote 14: See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 296. The Geougen
believed that the Huns could excite, at pleasure, storms of wind
and rain. This phenomenon was produced by the stone Gezi; to
whose magic power the loss of a battle was ascribed by the
Mahometan Tartars of the fourteenth century. See Cherefeddin Ali,
Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. i. p. 82, 83.]

[Footnote 15: Jornandes, c. 35, p. 661, c. 37, p. 667. See
Tillemont, Hist. dea Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 129, 138. Corneille
has represented the pride of Attila to his subject kings, and his
tragedy opens with these two ridiculous lines: -

Ils ne sont pas venus, nos deux rois! qu'on leur die Qu'ils se
font trop attendre, et qu'Attila s'ennuie.

The two kings of the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths are profound
politicians and sentimental lovers, and the whole piece exhibits
the defects without the genius, of the poet.]

     The ambassadors of the Huns might awaken the attention of
Theodosius, by reminding him that they were his neighbors both in
Europe and Asia; since they touched the Danube on one hand, and
reached, with the other, as far as the Tanais. In the reign of
his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the
provinces of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils
and innumerable captives. ^16 They advanced, by a secret path,
along the shores of the Caspian Sea; traversed the snowy
mountains of Armenia; passed the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the
Halys; recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of
Cappadocian horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia, and
disturbed the festal songs and dances of the citizens of Antioch.
Egypt trembled at their approach; and the monks and pilgrims of
the Holy Land prepared to escaped their fury by a speedy
embarkation. The memory of this invasion was still recent in the
minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Attila might execute,
with superior forces, the design which these adventurers had so
boldly attempted; and it soon became the subject of anxious
conjecture, whether the tempest would fall on the dominions of
Rome, or of Persia. Some of the great vassals of the king of the
Huns, who were themselves in the rank of powerful princes, had
been sent to ratify an alliance and society of arms with the
emperor, or rather with the general of the West. They related,
during their residence at Rome, the circumstances of an
expedition, which they had lately made into the East. After
passing a desert and a morass, supposed by the Romans to be the
Lake Maeotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and arrived,
at the end of fifteen days' march, on the confines of Media;
where they advanced as far as the unknown cities of Basic and
Cursic. ^* They encountered the Persian army in the plains of
Media and the air, according to their own expression, was
darkened by a cloud of arrows. But the Huns were obliged to
retire before the numbers of the enemy. Their laborious retreat
was effected by a different road; they lost the greatest part of
their booty; and at length returned to the royal camp, with some
knowledge of the country, and an impatient desire of revenge. In
the free conversation of the Imperial ambassadors, who discussed,
at the court of Attila, the character and designs of their
formidable enemy, the ministers of Constantinople expressed their
hope, that his strength might be diverted and employed in a long
and doubtful contest with the princes of the house of Sassan.
The more sagacious Italians admonished their Eastern brethren of
the folly and danger of such a hope; and convinced them, that the
Medes and Persians were incapable of resisting the arms of the
Huns; and that the easy and important acquisition would exalt the
pride, as well as power, of the conqueror. Instead of contenting
himself with a moderate contribution, and a military title, which
equalled him only to the generals of Theodosius, Attila would
proceed to impose a disgraceful and intolerable yoke on the necks
of the prostrate and captive Romans, who would then be
encompassed, on all sides, by the empire of the Huns. ^17
[Footnote 16: -     alii per Caspia claustra
                    Armeniasque nives, inopino tramite ducti     

              Invadunt Orientis opes: jam pascua fumant         

         Cappadocum, volucrumque parens Argaeus equorum.        

          Jam rubet altus Halys, nec se defendit iniquo         

         Monte Cilix; Syriae tractus vestantur amoeni            

       Assuetumque choris, et laeta plebe canorum,               

    Proterit imbellem sonipes hostilis Orontem.
                    Claudian, in Rufin. l. ii. 28 - 35.

See likewise, in Eutrop. l. i. 243 - 251, and the strong
description of Jerom, who wrote from his feelings, tom. i. p. 26,
ad Heliodor. p. 200 ad Ocean. Philostorgius (l. ix. c. 8)
mentions this irruption.]

[Footnote *: Gibbon has made a curious mistake; Basic and Cursic
were the names of the commanders of the Huns. Priscus, edit.
Bonn, p. 200. - M.]
[Footnote 17: See the original conversation in Priscus, p. 64,
65.]
     While the powers of Europe and Asia were solicitous to avert
the impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained the
Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enterprise had been
concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, for
the recovery of that valuable province; and the ports of Sicily
were already filled with the military and naval forces of
Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations
round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the king of
the Huns to invade the Eastern empire; and a trifling incident
soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war. ^18
Under the faith of the treaty of Margus, a free market was held
on the Northern side of the Danube, which was protected by a
Roman fortress surnamed Constantia. A troop of Barbarians
violated the commercial security; killed, or dispersed, the
unsuspecting traders; and levelled the fortress with the ground.
The Huns justified this outrage as an act of reprisal; alleged,
that the bishop of Margus had entered their territories, to
discover and steal a secret treasure of their kings; and sternly
demanded the guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the
fugitive subjects, who had escaped from the justice of Attila.
The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of war; and the
Maesians at first applauded the generous firmness of their
sovereign. But they were soon intimidated by the destruction of
Viminiacum and the adjacent towns; and the people was persuaded
to adopt the convenient maxim, that a private citizen, however
innocent or respectable, may be justly sacrificed to the safety
of his country. The bishop of Margus, who did not possess the
spirit of a martyr, resolved to prevent the designs which he
suspected. He boldly treated with the princes of the Huns:
secured, by solemn oaths, his pardon and reward; posted a
numerous detachment of Barbarians, in silent ambush, on the banks
of the Danube; and, at the appointed hour, opened, with his own
hand, the gates of his episcopal city. This advantage, which had
been obtained by treachery, served as a prelude to more honorable
and decisive victories. The Illyrian frontier was covered by a
line of castles and fortresses; and though the greatest part of
them consisted only of a single tower, with a small garrison,
they were commonly sufficient to repel, or to intercept, the
inroads of an enemy, who was ignorant of the art, and impatient
of the delay, of a regular siege. But these slight obstacles
were instantly swept away by the inundation of the Huns. ^19 They
destroyed, with fire and sword, the populous cities of Sirmium
and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marcianopolis, of Naissus and
Sardica; where every circumstance of the discipline of the
people, and the construction of the buildings, had been gradually
adapted to the sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of
Europe, as it extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to
the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated,
by the myriads of Barbarians whom Attila led into the field. The
public danger and distress could not, however, provoke Theodosius
to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in person
at the head of the Roman legions. But the troops, which had been
sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled from Sicily; the
garrisons, on the side of Persia, were exhausted; and a military
force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and
numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command,
and the soldiers the duty of obedience. The armies of the
Eastern empire were vanquished in three successive engagements;
and the progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle.

The two former, on the banks of the Utus, and under the walls of
Marcianopolis, were fought in the extensive plains between the
Danube and Mount Haemus. As the Romans were pressed by a
victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired
towards the Chersonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the
last extremity of the land, was marked by their third, and
irreparable, defeat. By the destruction of this army, Attila
acquired the indisputable possession of the field. From the
Hellespont to Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, he
ravaged, without resistance, and without mercy, the provinces of
Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might, perhaps,
escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns; but the words, the
most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are applied to
the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the
Eastern empire. ^20 Theodosius, his court, and the unwarlike
people, were protected by the walls of Constantinople; but those
walls had been shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of
fifty-eight towers had opened a large and tremendous breach. The
damage indeed was speedily repaired; but this accident was
aggravated by a superstitious fear, that Heaven itself had
delivered the Imperial city to the shepherds of Scythia, who were
strangers to the laws, the language, and the religion, of the
Romans. ^21

[Footnote 18: Priscus, p. 331. His history contained a copious
and elegant account of the war, (Evagrius, l. i. c. 17;) but the
extracts which relate to the embassies are the only parts that
have reached our times. The original work was accessible,
however, to the writers from whom we borrow our imperfect
knowledge, Jornandes, Theophanes, Count Marcellinus, Prosper-
Tyro, and the author of the Alexandrian, or Paschal, Chronicle.
M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vii. c. xv.) has
examined the cause, the circumstances, and the duration of this
war; and will not allow it to extend beyond the year 44.]

[Footnote 19: Procopius, de Edificiis, l. 4, c. 5. These
fortresses were afterwards restored, strengthened, and enlarged
by the emperor Justinian, but they were soon destroyed by the
Abares, who succeeded to the power and possessions of the Huns.]
[Footnote 20: Septuaginta civitates (says Prosper-Tyro)
depredatione vastatoe. The language of Count Marcellinus is still
more forcible. Pene totam Europam, invasis excisisque
civitatibus atque castellis, conrasit.]
[Footnote 21: Tillemont (Hist des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 106,
107) has paid great attention to this memorable earthquake; which
was felt as far from Constantinople as Antioch and Alexandria,
and is celebrated by all the ecclesiastical writers. In the
hands of a popular preacher, an earthquake is an engine of
admirable effect.]

     In all their invasions of the civilized empires of the
South, the Scythian shepherds have been uniformly actuated by a
savage and destructive spirit. The laws of war, that restrain
the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two
principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the
permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of
conquest; and a just apprehension, lest the desolation which we
inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But
these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the
pastoral state of nations. The Huns of Attila may, without
injustice, be compared to the Moguls and Tartars, before their
primitive manners were changed by religion and luxury; and the
evidence of Oriental history may reflect some light on the short
and imperfect annals of Rome. After the Moguls had subdued the
northern provinces of China, it was seriously proposed, not in
the hour of victory and passion, but in calm deliberate council,
to exterminate all the inhabitants of that populous country, that
the vacant land might be converted to the pasture of cattle. The
firmness of a Chinese mandarin, ^22 who insinuated some
principles of rational policy into the mind of Zingis, diverted
him from the execution of this horrid design. But in the cities
of Asia, which yielded to the Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the
rights of war was exercised with a regular form of discipline,
which may, with equal reason, though not with equal authority, be
imputed to the victorious Huns. The inhabitants, who had
submitted to their discretion, were ordered to evacuate their
houses, and to assemble in some plain adjacent to the city; where
a division was made of the vanquished into three parts. The
first class consisted of the soldiers of the garrison, and of the
young men capable of bearing arms; and their fate was instantly
decided they were either enlisted among the Moguls, or they were
massacred on the spot by the troops, who, with pointed spears and
bended bows, had formed a circle round the captive multitude.
The second class, composed of the young and beautiful women, of
the artificers of every rank and profession, and of the more
wealthy or honorable citizens, from whom a private ransom might
be expected, was distributed in equal or proportionable lots.
The remainder, whose life or death was alike useless to the
conquerors, were permitted to return to the city; which, in the
mean while, had been stripped of its valuable furniture; and a
tax was imposed on those wretched inhabitants for the indulgence
of breathing their native air. Such was the behavior of the
Moguls, when they were not conscious of any extraordinary rigor.
^23 But the most casual provocation, the slightest motive of
caprice or convenience, often provoked them to involve a whole
people in an indiscriminate massacre; and the ruin of some
flourishing cities was executed with such unrelenting
perseverance, that, according to their own expression, horses
might run, without stumbling, over the ground where they had once
stood. The three great capitals of Khorasan, Maru, Neisabour,
and Herat, were destroyed by the armies of Zingis; and the exact
account which was taken of the slain amounted to four millions
three hundred and forty-seven thousand persons. ^24 Timur, or
Tamerlane, was educated in a less barbarous age, and in the
profession of the Mahometan religion; yet, if Attila equalled the
hostile ravages of Tamerlane, ^25 either the Tartar or the Hun
might deserve the epithet of the Scourge of God. ^26

[Footnote 22: He represented to the emperor of the Moguls that
the four provinces, (Petcheli, Chantong, Chansi, and
Leaotong,)which he already possessed, might annually produce,
under a mild administration, 500,000 ounces of silver, 400,000
measures of rice, and 800,000 pieces of silk. Gaubil, Hist. de la
Dynastie des Mongous, p. 58, 59. Yelut chousay (such was the
name of the mandarin) was a wise and virtuous minister, who saved
his country, and civilized the conquerors.

     Note: Compare the life of this remarkable man, translated
from the Chinese by M. Abel Remusat. Nouveaux Melanges
Asiatiques, t. ii. p. 64. - M]
[Footnote 23: Particular instances would be endless; but the
curious reader may consult the life of Gengiscan, by Petit de la
Croix, the Histoire des Mongous, and the fifteenth book of the
History of the Huns.]
[Footnote 24: At Maru, 1,300,000; at Herat, 1,600,000; at
Neisabour, 1,747,000. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
380, 381. I use the orthography of D'Anville's maps. It must,
however, be allowed, that the Persians were disposed to
exaggerate their losses and the Moguls to magnify their
exploits.]

[Footnote 25: Cherefeddin Ali, his servile panegyrist, would
afford us many horrid examples. In his camp before Delhi, Timour
massacred 100,000 Indian prisoners, who had smiled when the army
of their countrymen appeared in sight, (Hist. de Timur Bec, tom.
iii. p. 90.) The people of Ispahan supplied 70,000 human skulls
for the structure of several lofty towers, (id. tom. i. p. 434.)
A similar tax was levied on the revolt of Bagdad, (tom. iii. p.
370;) and the exact account, which Cherefeddin was not able to
procure from the proper officers, is stated by another historian
(Ahmed Arabsiada, tom. ii. p. 175, vera Manger) at 90,000 heads.]

[Footnote 26: The ancients, Jornandes, Priscus, &c., are ignorant
of this epithet. The modern Hungarians have imagined, that it
was applied, by a hermit of Gaul, to Attila, who was pleased to
insert it among the titles of his royal dignity. Mascou, ix. 23,
and Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 143.]

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.

Part II.

     It may be affirmed, with bolder assurance, that the Huns
depopulated the provinces of the empire, by the number of Roman
subjects whom they led away into captivity. In the hands of a
wise legislator, such an industrious colony might have
contributed to diffuse through the deserts of Scythia the
rudiments of the useful and ornamental arts; but these captives,
who had been taken in war, were accidentally dispersed among the
hordes that obeyed the empire of Attila. The estimate of their
respective value was formed by the simple judgment of
unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians. Perhaps they might
not understand the merit of a theologian, profoundly skilled in
the controversies of the Trinity and the Incarnation; yet they
respected the ministers of every religion and the active zeal of
the Christian missionaries, without approaching the person or the
palace of the monarch, successfully labored in the propagation of
the gospel. ^27 The pastoral tribes, who were ignorant of the
distinction of landed property, must have disregarded the use, as
well as the abuse, of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an
eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt or their
abhorrence. ^28 The perpetual intercourse of the Huns and the
Goths had communicated the familiar knowledge of the two national
dialects; and the Barbarians were ambitious of conversing in
Latin, the military idiom even of the Eastern empire. ^29 But
they disdained the language and the sciences of the Greeks; and
the vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the
flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to find that
his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance
than himself. The mechanic arts were encouraged and esteemed, as
they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect in
the service of Onegesius, one of the favorites of Attila, was
employed to construct a bath; but this work was a rare example of
private luxury; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter, the
armorer, were much more adapted to supply a wandering people with
the useful instruments of peace and war. But the merit of the
physician was received with universal favor and respect: the
Barbarians, who despised death, might be apprehensive of disease;
and the haughty conqueror trembled in the presence of a captive,
to whom he ascribed, perhaps, an imaginary power of prolonging or
preserving his life. ^30 The Huns might be provoked to insult the
misery of their slaves, over whom they exercised a despotic
command; ^31 but their manners were not susceptible of a refined
system of oppression; and the efforts of courage and diligence
were often recompensed by the gift of freedom. The historian
Priscus, whose embassy is a source of curious instruction, was
accosted in the camp of Attila by a stranger, who saluted him in
the Greek language, but whose dress and figure displayed the
appearance of a wealthy Scythian. In the siege of Viminiacum, he
had lost, according to his own account, his fortune and liberty;
he became the slave of Onegesius; but his faithful services,
against the Romans and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to
the rank of the native Huns; to whom he was attached by the
domestic pledges of a new wife and several children. The spoils
of war had restored and improved his private property; he was
admitted to the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek
blessed the hour of his captivity, since it had been the
introduction to a happy and independent state; which he held by
the honorable tenure of military service. This reflection
naturally produced a dispute on the advantages and defects of the
Roman government, which was severely arraigned by the apostate,
and defended by Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The
freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colors, the
vices of a declining empire, of which he had so long been the
victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes, unable to
protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to
trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable
weight of taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate
or arbitrary modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and
contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial
proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the
universal corruption, which increased the influence of the rich,
and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor. A sentiment of
patriotic sympathy was at length revived in the breast of the
fortunate exile; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the
guilt or weakness of those magistrates who had perverted the
wisest and most salutary institutions. ^32

[Footnote 27: The missionaries of St. Chrysostom had converted
great numbers of the Scythians, who dwelt beyond the Danube in
tents and wagons. Theodoret, l. v. c. 31. Photius, p. 1517. The
Mahometans, the Nestorians, and the Latin Christians, thought
themselves secure of gaining the sons and grandsons of Zingis,
who treated the rival missionaries with impartial favor.]
[Footnote 28: The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his
legions, had been particularly offended with the Roman laws and
lawyers. One of the Barbarians, after the effectual precautions
of cutting out the tongue of an advocate, and sewing up his
mouth, observed, with much satisfaction, that the viper could no
longer hiss. Florus, iv. 12.]

[Footnote 29: Priscus, p. 59. It should seem that the Huns
preferred the Gothic and Latin languages to their own; which was
probably a harsh and barren idiom.]

[Footnote 30: Philip de Comines, in his admirable picture of the
last moments of Lewis XI., (Memoires, l. vi. c. 12,) represents
the insolence of his physician, who, in five months, extorted
54,000 crowns, and a rich bishopric, from the stern, avaricious
tyrant.]

[Footnote 31: Priscus (p. 61) extols the equity of the Roman
laws, which protected the life of a slave. Occidere solent (says
Tacitus of the Germans) non disciplina et severitate, sed impetu
et ira, ut inimicum, nisi quod impune. De Moribus Germ. c. 25.
The Heruli, who were the subjects of Attila, claimed, and
exercised, the power of life and death over their slaves. See a
remarkable instance in the second book of Agathias]

[Footnote 32: See the whole conversation in Priscus, p. 59 - 62.]

     The timid or selfish policy of the Western Romans had
abandoned the Eastern empire to the Huns. ^33 The loss of armies,
and the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the
personal character of the monarch. Theodosius might still affect
the style, as well as the title, of Invincible Augustus; but he
was reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who imperiously
dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions of peace. I. The
emperor of the East resigned, by an express or tacit convention,
an extensive and important territory, which stretched along the
southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as
far as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace. The breadth was defined
by the vague computation of fifteen ^* days' journey; but, from
the proposal of Attila to remove the situation of the national
market, it soon appeared, that he comprehended the ruined city of
Naissus within the limits of his dominions. II. The king of the
Huns required and obtained, that his tribute or subsidy should be
augmented from seven hundred pounds of gold to the annual sum of
two thousand one hundred; and he stipulated the immediate payment
of six thousand pounds of gold, to defray the expenses, or to
expiate the guilt, of the war. One might imagine, that such a
demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth,
would have been readily discharged by the opulent empire of the
East; and the public distress affords a remarkable proof of the
impoverished, or at least of the disorderly, state of the
finances. A large proportion of the taxes extorted from the
people was detained and intercepted in their passage, though the
foulest channels, to the treasury of Constantinople. The revenue
was dissipated by Theodosius and his favorites in wasteful and
profuse luxury; which was disguised by the names of Imperial
magnificence, or Christian charity. The immediate supplies had
been exhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military
preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, but
capriciously, imposed on the members of the senatorian order, was
the only expedient that could disarm, without loss of time, the
impatient avarice of Attila; and the poverty of the nobles
compelled them to adopt the scandalous resource of exposing to
public auction the jewels of their wives, and the hereditary
ornaments of their palaces. ^34 III. The king of the Huns
appears to have established, as a principle of national
jurisprudence, that he could never lose the property, which he
had once acquired, in the persons who had yielded either a
voluntary, or reluctant, submission to his authority. From this
principle he concluded, and the conclusions of Attila were
irrevocable laws, that the Huns, who had been taken prisoner in
war, should be released without delay, and without ransom; that
every Roman captive, who had presumed to escape, should purchase
his right to freedom at the price of twelve pieces of gold; and
that all the Barbarians, who had deserted the standard of Attila,
should be restored, without any promise or stipulation of pardon.

In the execution of this cruel and ignominious treaty, the
Imperial officers were forced to massacre several loyal and noble
deserters, who refused to devote themselves to certain death; and
the Romans forfeited all reasonable claims to the friendship of
any Scythian people, by this public confession, that they were
destitute either of faith, or power, to protect the suppliant,
who had embraced the throne of Theodosius. ^35

[Footnote 33: Nova iterum Orienti assurgit ruina ... quum nulla
ab Cocidentalibus ferrentur auxilia. Prosper Tyro composed his
Chronicle in the West; and his observation implies a censure.]
[Footnote *: Five in the last edition of Priscus. Niebuhr, Byz.
Hist. p 147 - M]

[Footnote 34: According to the description, or rather invective,
of Chrysostom, an auction of Byzantine luxury must have been very
productive. Every wealthy house possessed a semicircular table of
massy silver such as two men could scarcely lift, a vase of solid
gold of the weight of forty pounds, cups, dishes, of the same
metal, &c.]

[Footnote 35: The articles of the treaty, expressed without much
order or precision, may be found in Priscus, (p. 34, 35, 36, 37,
53, &c.) Count Marcellinus dispenses some comfort, by observing,
1. That Attila himself solicited the peace and presents, which he
had formerly refused; and, 2dly, That, about the same time, the
ambassadors of India presented a fine large tame tiger to the
emperor Theodosius.]

     The firmness of a single town, so obscure, that, except on
this occasion, it has never been mentioned by any historian or
geographer, exposed the disgrace of the emperor and empire.
Azimus, or Azimuntium, a small city of Thrace on the Illyrian
borders, ^36 had been distinguished by the martial spirit of its
youth, the skill and reputation of the leaders whom they had
chosen, and their daring exploits against the innumerable host of
the Barbarians. Instead of tamely expecting their approach, the
Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and successful sallies, the
troops of the Huns, who gradually declined the dangerous
neighborhood, rescued from their hands the spoil and the
captives, and recruited their domestic force by the voluntary
association of fugitives and deserters. After the conclusion of
the treaty, Attila still menaced the empire with implacable war,
unless the Azimuntines were persuaded, or compelled, to comply
with the conditions which their sovereign had accepted. The
ministers of Theodosius confessed with shame, and with truth,
that they no longer possessed any authority over a society of
men, who so bravely asserted their natural independence; and the
king of the Huns condescended to negotiate an equal exchange with
the citizens of Azimus. They demanded the restitution of some
shepherds, who, with their cattle, had been accidentally
surprised. A strict, though fruitless, inquiry was allowed: but
the Huns were obliged to swear, that they did not detain any
prisoners belonging to the city, before they could recover two
surviving countrymen, whom the Azimuntines had reserved as
pledges for the safety of their lost companions. Attila, on his
side, was satisfied, and deceived, by their solemn asseveration,
that the rest of the captives had been put to the sword; and that
it was their constant practice, immediately to dismiss the Romans
and the deserters, who had obtained the security of the public
faith. This prudent and officious dissimulation may be
condemned, or excused, by the casuists, as they incline to the
rigid decree of St. Augustin, or to the milder sentiment of St.
Jerom and St. Chrysostom: but every soldier, every statesman,
must acknowledge, that, if the race of the Azimuntines had been
encouraged and multiplied, the Barbarians would have ceased to
trample on the majesty of the empire. ^37

[Footnote 36: Priscus, p. 35, 36. Among the hundred and
eighty-two forts, or castles, of Thrace, enumerated by Procopius,
(de Edificiis, l. iv. c. xi. tom. ii. p. 92, edit. Paris,) there
is one of the name of Esimontou, whose position is doubtfully
marked, in the neighborhood of Anchialus and the Euxine Sea. The
name and walls of Azimuntium might subsist till the reign of
Justinian; but the race of its brave defenders had been carefully
extirpated by the jealousy of the Roman princes]

[Footnote 37: The peevish dispute of St. Jerom and St. Augustin,
who labored, by different expedients, to reconcile the seeming
quarrel of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, depends on
the solution of an important question, (Middleton's Works, vol.
ii. p. 5 - 20,) which has been frequently agitated by Catholic
and Protestant divines, and even by lawyers and philosophers of
every age.]

     It would have been strange, indeed, if Theodosius had
purchased, by the loss of honor, a secure and solid tranquillity,
or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries.
The Byzantine court was insulted by five or six successive
embassies; ^38 and the ministers of Attila were uniformly
instructed to press the tardy or imperfect execution of the last
treaty; to produce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were
still protected by the empire; and to declare, with seeming
moderation, that, unless their sovereign obtained complete and
immediate satisfaction, it would be impossible for him, were it
even his wish, to check the resentment of his warlike tribes.
Besides the motives of pride and interest, which might prompt the
king of the Huns to continue this train of negotiation, he was
influenced by the less honorable view of enriching his favorites
at the expense of his enemies. The Imperial treasury was
exhausted, to procure the friendly offices of the ambassadors and
their principal attendants, whose favorable report might conduce
to the maintenance of peace. The Barbarian monarch was flattered
by the liberal reception of his ministers; he computed, with
pleasure, the value and splendor of their gifts, rigorously
exacted the performance of every promise which would contribute
to their private emolument, and treated as an important business
of state the marriage of his secretary Constantius. ^39 That
Gallic adventurer, who was recommended by Aetius to the king of
the Huns, had engaged his service to the ministers of
Constantinople, for the stipulated reward of a wealthy and noble
wife; and the daughter of Count Saturninus was chosen to
discharge the obligations of her country. The reluctance of the
victim, some domestic troubles, and the unjust confiscation of
her fortune, cooled the ardor of her interested lover; but he
still demanded, in the name of Attila, an equivalent alliance;
and, after many ambiguous delays and excuses, the Byzantine court
was compelled to sacrifice to this insolent stranger the widow of
Armatius, whose birth, opulence, and beauty, placed her in the
most illustrious rank of the Roman matrons. For these
importunate and oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable
return: he weighed, with suspicious pride, the character and
station of the Imperial envoys; but he condescended to promise
that he would advance as far as Sardica to receive any ministers
who had been invested with the consular dignity. The council of
Theodosius eluded this proposal, by representing the desolate and
ruined condition of Sardica, and even ventured to insinuate that
every officer of the army or household was qualified to treat
with the most powerful princes of Scythia. Maximin, ^40 a
respectable courtier, whose abilities had been long exercised in
civil and military employments, accepted, with reluctance, the
troublesome, and perhaps dangerous, commission of reconciling the
angry spirit of the king of the Huns. His friend, the historian
Priscus, ^41 embraced the opportunity of observing the Barbarian
hero in the peaceful and domestic scenes of life: but the secret
of the embassy, a fatal and guilty secret, was intrusted only to
the interpreter Vigilius. The two last ambassadors of the Huns,
Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a
valiant chieftain of the tribe of the Scyrri, returned at the
same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure
names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune
and the contrast of their sons: the two servants of Attila became
the fathers of the last Roman emperor of the West, and of the
first Barbarian king of Italy.

[Footnote 38: Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, &c. c.
xix.) has delineated, with a bold and easy pencil, some of the
most striking circumstances of the pride of Attila, and the
disgrace of the Romans. He deserves the praise of having read
the Fragments of Priscus, which have been too much disregarded.]
[Footnote 39: See Priscus, p. 69, 71, 72, &c. I would fain
believe, that this adventurer was afterwards crucified by the
order of Attila, on a suspicion of treasonable practices; but
Priscus (p. 57) has too plainly distinguished two persons of the
name of Constantius, who, from the similar events of their lives,
might have been easily confounded.]

[Footnote 40: In the Persian treaty, concluded in the year 422,
the wise and eloquent Maximin had been the assessor of
Ardaburius, (Socrates, l. vii. c. 20.) When Marcian ascended the
throne, the office of Great Chamberlain was bestowed on Maximin,
who is ranked, in the public edict, among the four principal
ministers of state, (Novell. ad Calc. Cod. Theod. p. 31.) He
executed a civil and military commission in the Eastern
provinces; and his death was lamented by the savages of
Aethiopia, whose incursions he had repressed. See Priscus, p.
40, 41.]

[Footnote 41: Priscus was a native of Panium in Thrace, and
deserved, by his eloquence, an honorable place among the sophists
of the age. His Byzantine history, which related to his own
times, was comprised in seven books. See Fabricius, Bibliot.
Graec. tom. vi. p. 235, 236. Notwithstanding the charitable
judgment of the critics, I suspect that Priscus was a Pagan.    

Note: Niebuhr concurs in this opinion. Life of Priscus in the
new edition of the Byzantine historians. - M]

     The ambassadors, who were followed by a numerous train of
men and horses, made their first halt at Sardica, at the distance
of three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' journey, from
Constantinople. As the remains of Sardica were still included
within the limits of the empire, it was incumbent on the Romans
to exercise the duties of hospitality. They provided, with the
assistance of the provincials, a sufficient number of sheep and
oxen, and invited the Huns to a splendid, or at least, a
plentiful supper. But the harmony of the entertainment was soon
disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion. The greatness of
the emperor and the empire was warmly maintained by their
ministers; the Huns, with equal ardor, asserted the superiority
of their victorious monarch: the dispute was inflamed by the rash
and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius, who passionately rejected
the comparison of a mere mortal with the divine Theodosius; and
it was with extreme difficulty that Maximin and Priscus were able
to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry minds, of the
Barbarians. When they rose from table, the Imperial ambassador
presented Edecon and Orestes with rich gifts of silk robes and
Indian pearls, which they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could
not forbear insinuating that he had not always been treated with
such respect and liberality: and the offensive distinction which
was implied, between his civil office and the hereditary rank of
his colleague seems to have made Edecon a doubtful friend, and
Orestes an irreconcilable enemy. After this entertainment, they
travelled about one hundred miles from Sardica to Naissus. That
flourishing city, which has given birth to the great Constantine,
was levelled with the ground: the inhabitants were destroyed or
dispersed; and the appearance of some sick persons, who were
still permitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served
only to increase the horror of the prospect. The surface of the
country was covered with the bones of the slain; and the
ambassadors, who directed their course to the north-west, were
obliged to pass the hills of modern Servia, before they descended
into the flat and marshy grounds which are terminated by the
Danube. The Huns were masters of the great river: their
navigation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the
trunk of a single tree; the ministers of Theodosius were safely
landed on the opposite bank; and their Barbarian associates
immediately hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally
prepared for the amusements of hunting or of war. No sooner had
Maximin advanced about two miles ^* from the Danube, than he
began to experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror.
He was sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley,
lest he should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal
mansion. ^! The ministers of Attila pressed them to communicate
the business, and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear
of their sovereign When Maximin temperately urged the contrary
practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that
the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says
Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods themselves, had
been treacherously disclosed to the public enemy. On his refusal
to comply with such ignominious terms, the Imperial envoy was
commanded instantly to depart; the order was recalled; it was
again repeated; and the Huns renewed their ineffectual attempts
to subdue the patient firmness of Maximin. At length, by the
intercession of Scotta, the brother of Onegesius, whose
friendship had been purchased by a liberal gift, he was admitted
to the royal presence; but, in stead of obtaining a decisive
answer, he was compelled to undertake a remote journey towards
the north, that Attila might enjoy the proud satisfaction of
receiving, in the same camp, the ambassadors of the Eastern and
Western empires. His journey was regulated by the guides, who
obliged him to halt, to hasten his march, or to deviate from the
common road, as it best suited the convenience of the king. The
Romans, who traversed the plains of Hungary, suppose that they
passed several navigable rivers, either in canoes or portable
boats; but there is reason to suspect that the winding stream of
the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might present itself in different places
under different names. From the contiguous villages they
received a plentiful and regular supply of provisions; mead
instead of wine, millet in the place of bread, and a certain
liquor named camus, which according to the report of Priscus, was
distilled from barley. ^42 Such fare might appear coarse and
indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of Constantinople;
but, in their accidental distress, they were relieved by the
gentleness and hospitality of the same Barbarians, so terrible
and so merciless in war. The ambassadors had encamped on the
edge of a large morass. A violent tempest of wind and rain, of
thunder and lightning, overturned their tents, immersed their
baggage and furniture in the water, and scattered their retinue,
who wandered in the darkness of the night, uncertain of their
road, and apprehensive of some unknown danger, till they awakened
by their cries the inhabitants of a neighboring village, the
property of the widow of Bleda. A bright illumination, and, in a
few moments, a comfortable fire of reeds, was kindled by their
officious benevolence; the wants, and even the desires, of the
Romans were liberally satisfied; and they seem to have been
embarrassed by the singular politeness of Bleda's widow, who
added to her other favors the gift, or at least the loan, of a
sufficient number of beautiful and obsequious damsels. The
sunshine of the succeeding day was dedicated to repose, to
collect and dry the baggage, and to the refreshment of the men
and horses: but, in the evening, before they pursued their
journey, the ambassadors expressed their gratitude to the
bounteous lady of the village, by a very acceptable present of
silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and Indian pepper. Soon
after this adventure, they rejoined the march of Attila, from
whom they had been separated about six days, and slowly proceeded
to the capital of an empire, which did not contain, in the space
of several thousand miles, a single city.

[Footnote *: 70 stadia. Priscus, 173. - M.]

[Footnote !: He was forbidden to pitch his tents on an eminence
because Attila's were below on the plain. Ibid. - M.]

[Footnote 42: The Huns themselves still continued to despise the
labors of agriculture: they abused the privilege of a victorious
nation; and the Goths, their industrious subjects, who cultivated
the earth, dreaded their neighborhood, like that of so many
ravenous wolves, (Priscus, p. 45.) In the same manner the Sarts
and Tadgics provide for their own subsistence, and for that of
the Usbec Tartars, their lazy and rapacious sovereigns. See
Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 423 455, &c.]

     As far as we may ascertain the vague and obscure geography
of Priscus, this capital appears to have been seated between the
Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills, in the plains of
Upper Hungary, and most probably in the neighborhood of Jezberin,
Agria, or Tokay. ^43 In its origin it could be no more than an
accidental camp, which, by the long and frequent residence of
Attila, had insensibly swelled into a huge village, for the
reception of his court, of the troops who followed his person,
and of the various multitude of idle or industrious slaves and
retainers. ^44 The baths, constructed by Onegesius, were the only
edifice of stone; the materials had been transported from
Pannonia; and since the adjacent country was destitute even of
large timber, it may be presumed, that the meaner habitations of
the royal village consisted of straw, or mud, or of canvass. The
wooden houses of the more illustrious Huns were built and adorned
with rude magnificence, according to the rank, the fortune, or
the taste of the proprietors. They seem to have been distributed
with some degree of order and symmetry; and each spot became more
honorable as it approached the person of the sovereign. The
palace of Attila, which surpassed all other houses in his
dominions, was built entirely of wood, and covered an ample space
of ground. The outward enclosure was a lofty wall, or palisade,
of smooth square timber, intersected with high towers, but
intended rather for ornament than defence. This wall, which
seems to have encircled the declivity of a hill, comprehended a
great variety of wooden edifices, adapted to the uses of royalty.

A separate house was assigned to each of the numerous wives of
Attila; and, instead of the rigid and illiberal confinement
imposed by Asiatic jealousy they politely admitted the Roman
ambassadors to their presence, their table, and even to the
freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maximin offered his
presents to Cerca, ^* the principal queen, he admired the
singular architecture on her mansion, the height of the round
columns, the size and beauty of the wood, which was curiously
shaped or turned or polished or carved; and his attentive eye was
able to discover some taste in the ornaments and some regularity
in the proportions. After passing through the guards, who
watched before the gate, the ambassadors were introduced into the
private apartment of Cerca. The wife of Attila received their
visit sitting, or rather lying, on a soft couch; the floor was
covered with a carpet; the domestics formed a circle round the
queen; and her damsels, seated on the ground, were employed in
working the variegated embroidery which adorned the dress of the
Barbaric warriors. The Huns were ambitious of displaying those
riches which were the fruit and evidence of their victories: the
trappings of their horses, their swords, and even their shoes,
were studded with gold and precious stones; and their tables were
profusely spread with plates, and goblets, and vases of gold and
silver, which had been fashioned by the labor of Grecian artists.

The monarch alone assumed the superior pride of still adhering to
the simplicity of his Scythian ancestors. ^45 The dress of
Attila, his arms, and the furniture of his horse, were plain,
without ornament, and of a single color. The royal table was
served in wooden cups and platters; flesh was his only food; and
the conqueror of the North never tasted the luxury of bread.
[Footnote 43: It is evident that Priscus passed the Danube and
the Teyss, and that he did not reach the foot of the Carpathian
hills. Agria, Tokay, and Jazberin, are situated in the plains
circumscribed by this definition. M. de Buat (Histoire des
Peuples, &c., tom. vii. p. 461) has chosen Tokay; Otrokosci, (p.
180, apud Mascou, ix. 23,) a learned Hungarian, has preferred
Jazberin, a place about thirty-six miles westward of Buda and the
Danube.
     Note: M. St. Martin considers the narrative of Priscus, the
only authority of M. de Buat and of Gibbon, too vague to fix the
position of Attila's camp. "It is worthy of remark, that in the
Hungarian traditions collected by Thwrocz, l. 2, c. 17, precisely
on the left branch of the Danube, where Attila's residence was
situated, in the same parallel stands the present city of Buda,
in Hungarian Buduvur. It is for this reason that this city has
retained for a long time among the Germans of Hungary the name of
Etzelnburgh or Etzela-burgh, i. e., the city of Attila. The
distance of Buda from the place where Priscus crossed the Danube,
on his way from Naissus, is equal to that which he traversed to
reach the residence of the king of the Huns. I see no good
reason for not acceding to the relations of the Hungarian
historians." St. Martin, vi. 191. - M]

[Footnote 44: The royal village of Attila may be compared to the
city of Karacorum, the residence of the successors of Zingis;
which, though it appears to have been a more stable habitation,
did not equal the size or splendor of the town and abbey of St.
Denys, in the 13th century. (See Rubruquis, in the Histoire
Generale des Voyages, tom. vii p. 286.) The camp of Aurengzebe,
as it is so agreeably described by Bernier, (tom. ii. p. 217 -
235,) blended the manners of Scythia with the magnificence and
luxury of Hindostan.]
[Footnote *: The name of this queen occurs three times in
Priscus, and always in a different form - Cerca, Creca, and
Rheca. The Scandinavian poets have preserved her memory under
the name of Herkia. St. Martin, vi. 192. - M.]
[Footnote 45: When the Moguls displayed the spoils of Asia, in
the diet of Toncat, the throne of Zingis was still covered with
the original black felt carpet, on which he had been seated, when
he was raised to the command of his warlike countrymen. See Vie
de Gengiscan, v. c. 9.]

     When Attila first gave audience to the Roman ambassadors on
the banks of the Danube, his tent was encompassed with a
formidable guard. The monarch himself was seated in a wooden
chair. His stern countenance, angry gestures, and impatient
tone, astonished the firmness of Maximin; but Vigilius had more
reason to tremble, since he distinctly understood the menace,
that if Attila did not respect the law of nations, he would nail
the deceitful interpreter to the cross. and leave his body to the
vultures. The Barbarian condescended, by producing an accurate
list, to expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed
that no more than seventeen deserters could be found. But he
arrogantly declared, that he apprehended only the disgrace of
contending with his fugitive slaves; since he despised their
impotent efforts to defend the provinces which Theodosius had
intrusted to their arms: "For what fortress," (added Attila,)
"what city, in the wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to
exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it
should be erased from the earth?" He dismissed, however, the
interpreter, who returned to Constantinople with his peremptory
demand of more complete restitution, and a more splendid embassy.

His anger gradually subsided, and his domestic satisfaction in a
marriage which he celebrated on the road with the daughter of
Eslam, ^* might perhaps contribute to mollify the native
fierceness of his temper. The entrance of Attila into the royal
village was marked by a very singular ceremony. A numerous troop
of women came out to meet their hero and their king. They
marched before him, distributed into long and regular files; the
intervals between the files were filled by white veils of thin
linen, which the women on either side bore aloft in their hands,
and which formed a canopy for a chorus of young virgins, who
chanted hymns and songs in the Scythian language. The wife of
his favorite Onegesius, with a train of female attendants,
saluted Attila at the door of her own house, on his way to the
palace; and offered, according to the custom of the country, her
respectful homage, by entreating him to taste the wine and meat
which she had prepared for his reception. As soon as the monarch
had graciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted
a small silver table to a convenient height, as he sat on
horseback; and Attila, when he had touched the goblet with his
lips, again saluted the wife of Onegesius, and continued his
march. During his residence at the seat of empire, his hours were
not wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the king of
the Huns could maintain his superior dignity, without concealing
his person from the public view. He frequently assembled his
council, and gave audience to the ambassadors of the nations; and
his people might appeal to the supreme tribunal, which he held at
stated times, and, according to the Eastern custom, before the
principal gate of his wooden palace. The Romans, both of the
East and of the West, were twice invited to the banquets, where
Attila feasted with the princes and nobles of Scythia. Maximin
and his colleagues were stopped on the threshold, till they had
made a devout libation to the health and prosperity of the king
of the Huns; and were conducted, after this ceremony, to their
respective seats in a spacious hall. The royal table and couch,
covered with carpets and fine linen, was raised by several steps
in the midst of the hall; and a son, an uncle, or perhaps a
favorite king, were admitted to share the simple and homely
repast of Attila. Two lines of small tables, each of which
contained three or four guests, were ranged in order on either
hand; the right was esteemed the most honorable, but the Romans
ingenuously confess, that they were placed on the left; and that
Beric, an unknown chieftain, most probably of the Gothic race,
preceded the representatives of Theodosius and Valentinian. The
Barbarian monarch received from his cup-bearer a goblet filled
with wine, and courteously drank to the health of the most
distinguished guest; who rose from his seat, and expressed, in
the same manner, his loyal and respectful vows. This ceremony was
successively performed for all, or at least for the illustrious
persons of the assembly; and a considerable time must have been
consumed, since it was thrice repeated as each course or service
was placed on the table. But the wine still remained after the
meat had been removed; and the Huns continued to indulge their
intemperance long after the sober and decent ambassadors of the
two empires had withdrawn themselves from the nocturnal banquet.
Yet before they retired, they enjoyed a singular opportunity of
observing the manners of the nation in their convivial
amusements. Two Scythians stood before the couch of Attila, and
recited the verses which they had composed, to celebrate his
valor and his victories. ^* A profound silence prevailed in the
hall; and the attention of the guests was captivated by the vocal
harmony, which revived and perpetuated the memory of their own
exploits; a martial ardor flashed from the eyes of the warriors,
who were impatient for battle; and the tears of the old men
expressed their generous despair, that they could no longer
partake the danger and glory of the field. ^46 This
entertainment, which might be considered as a school of military
virtue, was succeeded by a farce, that debased the dignity of
human nature. A Moorish and a Scythian buffcon ^* successively
excited the mirth of the rude spectators, by their deformed
figure, ridiculous dress, antic gestures, absurd speeches, and
the strange, unintelligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic,
and the Hunnic languages; and the hall resounded with loud and
licentious peals of laughter. In the midst of this intemperate
riot, Attila alone, without a change of countenance, maintained
his steadfast and inflexible gravity; which was never relaxed,
except on the entrance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons: he
embraced the boy with a smile of paternal tenderness, gently
pinched him by the cheek, and betrayed a partial affection, which
was justified by the assurance of his prophets, that Irnac would
be the future support of his family and empire. Two days
afterwards, the ambassadors received a second invitation; and
they had reason to praise the politeness, as well as the
hospitality, of Attila. The king of the Huns held a long and
familiar conversation with Maximin; but his civility was
interrupted by rude expressions and haughty reproaches; and he
was provoked, by a motive of interest, to support, with
unbecoming zeal, the private claims of his secretary Constantius.

"The emperor" (said Attila) "has long promised him a rich wife:
Constantius must not be disappointed; nor should a Roman emperor
deserve the name of liar." On the third day, the ambassadors were
dismissed; the freedom of several captives was granted, for a
moderate ransom, to their pressing entreaties; and, besides the
royal presents, they were permitted to accept from each of the
Scythian nobles the honorable and useful gift of a horse.
Maximin returned, by the same road, to Constantinople; and though
he was involved in an accidental dispute with Beric, the new
ambassador of Attila, he flattered himself that he had
contributed, by the laborious journey, to confirm the peace and
alliance of the two nations. ^47

[Footnote *: Was this his own daughter, or the daughter of a
person named Escam? (Gibbon has written incorrectly Eslam, an
unknown name. The officer of Attila, called Eslas.) In either
case the construction is imperfect: a good Greek writer would
have introduced an article to determine the sense. Nor is it
quite clear, whether Scythian usage is adduced to excuse the
polygamy, or a marriage, which would be considered incestuous in
other countries. The Latin version has carefully preserved the
ambiguity, filiam Escam uxorem. I am not inclined to construe it
'his own daughter' though I have too little confidence in the
uniformity of the grammatical idioms of the Byzantines (though
Priscus is one of the best) to express myself without hesitation.
- M.]
[Footnote *: This passage is remarkable from the connection of
the name of Attila with that extraordinary cycle of poetry, which
is found in different forms in almost all the Teutonic languages.

A Latin poem, de prima expeditione Attilae, Regis Hunnorum, in
Gallias, was published in the year 1780, by Fischer at Leipsic.
It contains, with the continuation, 1452 lines. It abounds in
metrical faults, but is occasionally not without some rude spirit
and some copiousness of fancy in the variation of the
circumstances in the different combats of the hero Walther,
prince of Aquitania. It contains little which can be supposed
historical, and still less which is characteristic concerning
Attila. It relates to a first expedition of Attila into Europe
which cannot be traced in history, during which the kings of the
Franks, of the Burgundians, and of Aquitaine, submit themselves,
and give hostages to Attila: the king of the Franks, a personage
who seems the same with the Hagen of Teutonic romance; the king
of Burgundy, his daughter Heldgund; the king of Aquitaine, his
son Walther. The main subject of the poem is the escape of
Walther and Heldgund from the camp of Attila, and the combat
between Walther and Gunthar, king of the Franks. with his twelve
peers, among whom is Hagen. Walther had been betrayed while he
passed through Worms, the city of the Frankish king. by paying
for his ferry over the Rhine with some strange fish, which he had
caught during his flight, and which were unknown in the waters of
the Rhine. Gunthar was desirous of plundering him of the
treasure, which Walther had carried off from the camp of Attila.
The author of this poem is unknown, nor can I, on the vague and
rather doubtful allusion to Thule, as Iceland, venture to assign
its date. It was, evidently, recited in a monastery, as appears
by the first line; and no doubt composed there. The faults of
metre would point out a late date; and it may have been formed
upon some local tradition, as Walther, the hero, seems to have
turned monk.
     This poem, however, in its character and its incidents,
bears no relation to the Teutonic cycle, of which the Nibelungen
Lied is the most complete form. In this, in the Heldenbuch, in
some of the Danish Sagas. in countess lays and ballads in all the
dialects of Scandinavia, appears King Etzel (Attila) in strife
with the Burgundians and the Franks. With these appears, by a
poetic anachronism, Dietrich of Berne. (Theodoric of Verona,)
the celebrated Ostrogothic king; and many other very singular
coincidences of historic names, which appear in the poems. (See
Lachman Kritik der Sage in his volume of various readings to the
Nibelungen; Berlin, 1836, p. 336.)

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.

Part III.

     I must acknowledge myself unable to form any satisfactory
theory as to the connection of these poems with the history of
the time, or the period, from which they may date their origin;
notwithstanding the laborious investigations and critical
sagacity of the Schlegels, the Grimms, of P. E. Muller and
Lachman, and a whole host of German critics and antiquaries; not
to omit our own countryman, Mr. Herbert, whose theory concerning
Attila is certainly neither deficient in boldness nor
originality. I conceive the only way to obtain any thing like a
clear conception on this point would be what Lachman has begun,
(see above,) patiently to collect and compare the various forms
which the traditions have assumed, without any preconceived,
either mythical or poetical, theory, and, if possible, to
discover the original basis of the whole rich and fantastic
legend. One point, which to me is strongly in favor of the
antiquity of this poetic cycle, is, that the manners are so
clearly anterior to chivalry, and to the influence exercised on
the poetic literature of Europe by the chivalrous poems and
romances. I think I find some traces of that influence in the
Latin poem, though strained through the imagination of a monk.
     The English reader will find an amusing account of the
German Nibelungen and Heldenbuch, and of some of the Scandinavian
Sagas, in the volume of Northern Antiquities published by Weber,
the friend of Sir Walter Scott. Scott himself contributed a
considerable, no doubt far the most valuable, part to the work.
See also the various German editions of the Nibelungen, to which
Lachman, with true German perseverance, has compiled a thick
volume of various readings; the Heldenbuch, the old Danish poems
by Grimm, the Eddas, &c. Herbert's Attila, p. 510, et seq. - M.]
[Footnote 46: If we may believe Plutarch, (in Demetrio, tom. v.
p. 24,) it was the custom of the Scythians, when they indulged in
the pleasures of the table, to awaken their languid courage by
the martial harmony of twanging their bow-strings.]

[Footnote *: The Scythian was an idiot or lunatic; the Moor a
regular buffcon - M.]

[Footnote 47: The curious narrative of this embassy, which
required few observations, and was not susceptible of any
collateral evidence, may be found in Priscus, p. 49 - 70. But I
have not confined myself to the same order; and I had previously
extracted the historical circumstances, which were less
intimately connected with the journey, and business, of the Roman
ambassadors.]

     But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous
design, which had been concealed under the mask of the public
faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he
contemplated the splendor of Constantinople, had encouraged the
interpreter Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with
the eunuch Chrysaphius, ^48 who governed the emperor and the
empire. After some previous conversation, and a mutual oath of
secrecy, the eunuch, who had not, from his own feelings or
experience, imbibed any exalted notions of ministerial virtue,
ventured to propose the death of Attila, as an important service,
by which Edecon might deserve a liberal share of the wealth and
luxury which he admired. The ambassador of the Huns listened to
the tempting offer; and professed, with apparent zeal, his
ability, as well as readiness, to execute the bloody deed; the
design was communicated to the master of the offices, and the
devout Theodosius consented to the assassination of his
invincible enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated by
the dissimulation, or the repentance, of Edecon; and though he
might exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he
seemed to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit of an early
and voluntary confession. If we now review the embassy of
Maximin, and the behavior of Attila, we must applaud the
Barbarian, who respected the laws of hospitality, and generously
entertained and dismissed the minister of a prince who had
conspired against his life. But the rashness of Vigilius will
appear still more extraordinary, since he returned, conscious of
his guilt and danger, to the royal camp, accompanied by his son,
and carrying with him a weighty purse of gold, which the favorite
eunuch had furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and to
corrupt the fidelity of the guards. The interpreter was
instantly seized, and dragged before the tribunal of Attila,
where he asserted his innocence with specious firmness, till the
threat of inflicting instant death on his son extorted from him a
sincere discovery of the criminal transaction. Under the name of
ransom, or confiscation, the rapacious king of the Huns accepted
two hundred pounds of gold for the life of a traitor, whom he
disdained to punish. He pointed his just indignation against a
nobler object. His ambassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were
immediately despatched to Constantinople, with a peremptory
instruction, which it was much safer for them to execute than to
disobey. They boldly entered the Imperial presence, with the
fatal purse hanging down from the neck of Orestes; who
interrogated the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the
throne, whether he recognized the evidence of his guilt. But the
office of reproof was reserved for the superior dignity of his
colleague Eslaw, who gravely addressed the emperor of the East in
the following words: "Theodosius is the son of an illustrious and
respectable parent: Attila likewise is descended from a noble
race; and he has supported, by his actions, the dignity which he
inherited from his father Mundzuk. But Theodosius has forfeited
his paternal honors, and, by consenting to pay tribute has
degraded himself to the condition of a slave. It is therefore
just, that he should reverence the man whom fortune and merit
have placed above him; instead of attempting, like a wicked
slave, clandestinely to conspire against his master." The son of
Arcadius, who was accustomed only to the voice of flattery, heard
with astonishment the severe language of truth: he blushed and
trembled; nor did he presume directly to refuse the head of
Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and Orestes were instructed to demand.
A solemn embassy, armed with full powers and magnificent gifts,
was hastily sent to deprecate the wrath of Attila; and his pride
was gratified by the choice of Nomius and Anatolius, two
ministers of consular or patrician rank, of whom the one was
great treasurer, and the other was master-general of the armies
of the East. He condescended to meet these ambassadors on the
banks of the River Drenco; and though he at first affected a
stern and haughty demeanor, his anger was insensibly mollified by
their eloquence and liberality. He condescended to pardon the
emperor, the eunuch, and the interpreter; bound himself by an
oath to observe the conditions of peace; released a great number
of captives; abandoned the fugitives and deserters to their fate;
and resigned a large territory, to the south of the Danube, which
he had already exhausted of its wealth and inhabitants. But this
treaty was purchased at an expense which might have supported a
vigorous and successful war; and the subjects of Theodosius were
compelled to redeem the safety of a worthless favorite by
oppressive taxes, which they would more cheerfully have paid for
his destruction. ^49

[Footnote 48: M. de Tillemont has very properly given the
succession of chamberlains, who reigned in the name of
Theodosius. Chrysaphius was the last, and, according to the
unanimous evidence of history, the worst of these favorites, (see
Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 117 - 119. Mem. Eccles. tom. xv.
p. 438.) His partiality for his godfather the heresiarch
Eutyches, engaged him to persecute the orthodox party]

[Footnote 49: This secret conspiracy and its important
consequences, may be traced in the fragments of Priscus, p. 37,
38, 39, 54, 70, 71, 72. The chronology of that historian is not
fixed by any precise date; but the series of negotiations between
Attila and the Eastern empire must be included within the three
or four years which are terminated, A.D. 450. by the death of
Theodosius.]

     The emperor Theodosius did not long survive the most
humiliating circumstance of an inglorious life. As he was
riding, or hunting, in the neighborhood of Constantinople, he was
thrown from his horse into the River Lycus: the spine of the back
was injured by the fall; and he expired some days afterwards, in
the fiftieth year of his age, and the forty-third of his reign.
^50 His sister Pulcheria, whose authority had been controlled
both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs by the pernicious
influence of the eunuchs, was unanimously proclaimed Empress of
the East; and the Romans, for the first time, submitted to a
female reign. No sooner had Pulcheria ascended the throne, than
she indulged her own and the public resentment, by an act of
popular justice. Without any legal trial, the eunuch Chrysaphius
was executed before the gates of the city; and the immense riches
which had been accumulated by the rapacious favorite, served only
to hasten and to justify his punishment. ^51 Amidst the general
acclamations of the clergy and people, the empress did not forget
the prejudice and disadvantage to which her sex was exposed; and
she wisely resolved to prevent their murmurs by the choice of a
colleague, who would always respect the superior rank and virgin
chastity of his wife. She gave her hand to Marcian, a senator,
about sixty years of age; and the nominal husband of Pulcheria
was solemnly invested with the Imperial purple. The zeal which
he displayed for the orthodox creed, as it was established by the
council of Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the grateful
eloquence of the Catholics. But the behavior of Marcian in a
private life, and afterwards on the throne, may support a more
rational belief, that he was qualified to restore and invigorate
an empire, which had been almost dissolved by the successive
weakness of two hereditary monarchs. He was born in Thrace, and
educated to the profession of arms; but Marcian's youth had been
severely exercised by poverty and misfortune, since his only
resource, when he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in
two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed of a friend.
He passed nineteen years in the domestic and military service of
Aspar, and his son Ardaburius; followed those powerful generals
to the Persian and African wars; and obtained, by their
influence, the honorable rank of tribune and senator. His mild
disposition, and useful talents, without alarming the jealousy,
recommended Marcian to the esteem and favor of his patrons; he
had seen, perhaps he had felt, the abuses of a venal and
oppressive administration; and his own example gave weight and
energy to the laws, which he promulgated for the reformation of
manners. ^52
[Footnote 50: Theodorus the Reader, (see Vales. Hist. Eccles.
tom. iii. p. 563,) and the Paschal Chronicle, mention the fall,
without specifying the injury: but the consequence was so likely
to happen, and so unlikely to be invented, that we may safely
give credit to Nicephorus Callistus, a Greek of the fourteenth
century.]

[Footnote 51: Pulcheriae nutu (says Count Marcellinus) sua cum
avaritia interemptus est. She abandoned the eunuch to the pious
revenge of a son, whose father had suffered at his instigation.
     Note: Might not the execution of Chrysaphius have been a
sacrifice to avert the anger of Attila, whose assassination the
eunuch had attempted to contrive? - M.]

[Footnote 52: de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4. Evagrius, l. ii. c.
1. Theophanes, p. 90, 91. Novell. ad Calcem. Cod. Theod. tom. vi.
p. 30. The praises which St. Leo and the Catholics have bestowed
on Marcian, are diligently transcribed by Baronius, as an
encouragement for future princes.]

Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.

Part I.

     Invasion Of Gaul By Attila. - He Is Repulsed By Aetius And
The Visigoths. - Attila Invades And Evacuates Italy. - The Deaths
Of Attila, Aetius, And Valentinian The Third.

     It was the opinion of Marcian, that war should be avoided,
as long as it is possible to preserve a secure and honorable
peace; but it was likewise his opinion, that peace cannot be
honorable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous
aversion to war. This temperate courage dictated his reply to
the demands of Attila, who insolently pressed the payment of the
annual tribute. The emperor signified to the Barbarians, that
they must no longer insult the majesty of Rome by the mention of
a tribute; that he was disposed to reward, with becoming
liberality, the faithful friendship of his allies; but that, if
they presumed to violate the public peace, they should feel that
he possessed troops, and arms, and resolution, to repel their
attacks. The same language, even in the camp of the Huns, was
used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver
the presents, till he had been admitted to a personal interview,
displayed a sense of dignity, and a contempt of danger, which
Attila was not prepared to expect from the degenerate Romans. ^1
He threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius; but
he hesitated whether he should first direct his invincible arms
against the Eastern or the Western empire. While mankind awaited
his decision with awful suspense, he sent an equal defiance to
the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople; and his ministers
saluted the two emperors with the same haughty declaration.
"Attila, my lord, and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace
for his immediate reception." ^2 But as the Barbarian despised,
or affected to despise, the Romans of the East, whom he had so
often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of suspending
the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glorious and
important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul and
Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and
fertility of those provinces; but the particular motives and
provocations of Attila can only be explained by the state of the
Western empire under the reign of Valentinian, or, to speak more
correctly, under the administration of Aetius. ^3

[Footnote 1: See Priscus, p. 39, 72.]

[Footnote 2: The Alexandrian or Paschal Chronicle, which
introduces this haughty message, during the lifetime of
Theodosius, may have anticipated the date; but the dull annalist
was incapable of inventing the original and genuine style of
Attila.]

[Footnote 3: The second book of the Histoire Critique de
l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise tom. i. p. 189 - 424,
throws great light on the state of Gaul, when it was invaded by
Attila; but the ingenious author, the Abbe Dubos, too often
bewilders himself in system and conjecture.]

     After the death of his rival Boniface, Aetius had prudently
retired to the tents of the Huns; and he was indebted to their
alliance for his safety and his restoration. Instead of the
suppliant language of a guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at
the head of sixty thousand Barbarians; and the empress Placidia
confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the condescension, which
might have been ascribed to clemency, was the effect of weakness
or fear. She delivered herself, her son Valentinian, and the
Western empire, into the hands of an insolent subject; nor could
Placidia protect the son- in-law of Boniface, the virtuous and
faithful Sebastian, ^4 from the implacable persecution which
urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished
in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate Aetius, who was
immediately promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice
invested with the honors of the consulship, assumed, with the
title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the whole military
power of the state; and he is sometimes styled, by contemporary
writers, the duke, or general, of the Romans of the West. His
prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the
grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; and
Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace and luxury of Italy,
while the patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and
a patriot, who supported near twenty years the ruins of the
Western empire. The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses, that
Aetius was born for the salvation of the Roman republic; ^5 and
the following portrait, though it is drawn in the fairest colors,
must be allowed to contain a much larger proportion of truth than
of flattery. ^* "His mother was a wealthy and noble Italian, and
his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in the
province of Scythia, gradually rose from the station of a
military domestic, to the dignity of master of the cavalry.
Their son, who was enrolled almost in his infancy in the guards,
was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and afterwards to the
Huns; ^! and he successively obtained the civil and military
honors of the palace, for which he was equally qualified by
superior merit. The graceful figure of Aetius was not above the
middle stature; but his manly limbs were admirably formed for
strength, beauty, and agility; and he excelled in the martial
exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the
javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food, or of
sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most
laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine courage that can
despise not only dangers, but injuries: and it was impossible
either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the firm integrity
of his soul." ^6 The Barbarians, who had seated themselves in the
Western provinces, were insensibly taught to respect the faith
and valor of the patrician Aetius. He soothed their passions,
consulted their prejudices, balanced their interests, and checked
their ambition. ^* A seasonable treaty, which he concluded with
Genseric, protected Italy from the depredations of the Vandals;
the independent Britons implored and acknowledged his salutary
aid; the Imperial authority was restored and maintained in Gaul
and Spain; and he compelled the Franks and the Suevi, whom he had
vanquished in the field, to become the useful confederates of the
republic.
[Footnote 4: Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. 6, p. 8,
edit. Ruinart) calls him, acer consilio et strenuus in bello: but
his courage, when he became unfortunate, was censured as
desperate rashness; and Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the
epithet of proeceps, (Sidon. Apollinar Carmen ix. 181.) His
adventures in Constantinople, in Sicily, Gaul, Spain, and Africa,
are faintly marked in the Chronicles of Marcellinus and Idatius.
In his distress he was always followed by a numerous train; since
he could ravage the Hellespont and Propontis, and seize the city
of Barcelona.]
[Footnote 5: Reipublicae Romanae singulariter natus, qui
superbiam Suevorum, Francorumque barbariem immensis caedibus
servire Imperio Romano coegisset. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c.
34, p. 660.]

[Footnote *: Some valuable fragments of a poetical panegyric on
Aetius by Merobaudes, a Spaniard, have been recovered from a
palimpsest MS. by the sagacity and industry of Niebuhr. They
have been reprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine
Historians. The poet speaks in glowing terms of the long
(annosa) peace enjoyed under the administration of Aetius. The
verses are very spirited. The poet was rewarded by a statue
publicly dedicated to his honor in Rome.

     Danuvii cum pace redit, Tanaimque furore
     Exuit, et nigro candentes aethere terras
     Marte suo caruisse jubet. Dedit otia ferro
     Caucasus, et saevi condemnant praelia reges.
     Addidit hiberni famulantia foedera Rhenus
     Orbis ......
     Lustrat Aremoricos jam mitior incola saltus;
     Perdidit et mores tellus, adsuetaque saevo
     Crimine quaesitas silvis celare rapinas,
     Discit inexpertis Cererem committere campis;
     Caesareoque diu manus obluctata labori
     Sustinet acceptas nostro sub consule leges;
     Et quamvis Geticis sulcum confundat aratris,
     Barbara vicinae refugit consortia gentis.

     Merobaudes, p. 1]

[Footnote !: - cum Scythicis succumberet ensibus orbis,

     Telaque Tarpeias premerent Arctoa secures,
     Hostilem fregit rabiem, pignus quesuperbi
     Foederis et mundi pretium fuit. Hinc modo voti
     Rata fides, validis quod dux premat impiger armis
     Edomuit quos pace puer; bellumque repressit
     Ignarus quid bella forent. Stupuere feroces
     In tenero jam membra Getae. Rex ipse, verendum
     Miratus pueri decus et prodentia fatum
     Lumina, primaevas dederat gestare faretras,
     Laudabatque manus librantem et tela gerentem
     Oblitus quod noster erat Pro nescia regis
     Corda, feris quanto populis discrimine constet
     Quod Latium docet arma ducem.

     Merobaudes, Panegyr. p. 15. - M.]

[Footnote 6: This portrait is drawn by Renetus Profuturus
Frigeridus, a contemporary historian, known only by some
extracts, which are preserved by Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 8,
in tom. ii. p. 163.) It was probably the duty, or at least the
interest, of Renatus, to magnify the virtues of Aetius; but he
would have shown more dexterity if he had not insisted on his
patient, forgiving disposition.]

[Footnote *:  Insessor Libyes, quamvis, fatalibus armis
               Ausus Elisaei solium rescindere regni,
               Milibus Arctois Tyrias compleverat arces,
               Nunc hostem exutus pactis proprioribus arsit      

        Romanam vincire fidem, Latiosque parentes
               Adnumerare sib, sociamque intexere prolem.

               Merobaudes, p. 12. - M.]

     From a principle of interest, as well as gratitude, Aetius
assiduously cultivated the alliance of the Huns. While he
resided in their tents as a hostage, or an exile, he had
familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his
benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appeared to have been
connected by a personal and military friendship, which they
afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the
education of Carpilio, the son of Aetius, in the camp of Attila.
By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary
attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the
Scythian conqueror, who pressed the two empires with his
innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he
claimed the spoils of a vanquished city, some vases of gold,
which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military
governors of Noricum were immediately despatched to satisfy his
complaints: ^7 and it is evident, from their conversation with
Maximin and Priscus, in the royal village, that the valor and
prudence of Aetius had not saved the Western Romans from the
common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous policy prolonged
the advantages of a salutary peace; and a numerous army of Huns
and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in
the defence of Gaul. Two colonies of these Barbarians were
judiciously fixed in the territories of Valens and Orleans; ^8
and their active cavalry secured the important passages of the
Rhone and of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less
formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their
original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of
conquest; and the province through which they marched was exposed
to all the calamities of a hostile invasion. ^9 Strangers to the
emperor or the republic, the Alani of Gaul was devoted to the
ambition of Aetius, and though he might suspect, that, in a
contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of
their national king, the patrician labored to restrain, rather
than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the
Burgundians, and the Franks.
[Footnote 7: The embassy consisted of Count Romulus; of Promotus,
president of Noricum; and of Romanus, the military duke. They
were accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio,
in the same province, and father of Orestes, who had married the
daughter of Count Romulus. See Priscus, p. 57, 65. Cassiodorus
(Variar. i. 4) mentions another embassy, which was executed by
his father and Carpilio, the son of Aetius; and, as Attila was no
more, he could safely boast of their manly, intrepid behavior in
his presence.]

[Footnote 8: Deserta Valentinae urbis rura Alanis partienda
traduntur. Prosper. Tyronis Chron. in Historiens de France, tom.
i. p. 639. A few lines afterwards, Prosper observes, that lands
in the ulterior Gaul were assigned to the Alani. Without
admitting the correction of Dubos, (tom. i. p. 300,) the
reasonable supposition of two colonies or garrisons of Alani will
confirm his arguments, and remove his objections.]

[Footnote 9: See Prosper. Tyro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit.
246) complains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country, -
     Litorius Scythicos equites tunc forte subacto
     Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen
     Per terras, Averne, tuas, qui proxima quaedue
     Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis,
     Delebant; pacis fallentes nomen inane.

another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint: -   

Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste.

     See Dubos, tom. i. p. 330.]

     The kingdom established by the Visigoths in the southern
provinces of Gaul, had gradually acquired strength and maturity;
and the conduct of those ambitious Barbarians, either in peace or
war, engaged the perpetual vigilance of Aetius. After the death
of Wallia, the Gothic sceptre devolved to Theodoric, the son of
the great Alaric; ^10 and his prosperous reign of more than
thirty years, over a turbulent people, may be allowed to prove,
that his prudence was supported by uncommon vigor, both of mind
and body. Impatient of his narrow limits, Theodoric aspired to
the possession of Arles, the wealthy seat of government and
commerce; but the city was saved by the timely approach of
Aetius; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some
loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy, to
divert the martial valor of his subjects in a Spanish war. Yet
Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized, the favorable moment
of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne,
while the Belgic provinces were invaded by the Burgundians; and
the public safety was threatened on every side by the apparent
union of the enemies of Rome. On every side, the activity of
Aetius, and his Scythian cavalry, opposed a firm and successful
resistance. Twenty thousand Burgundians were slain in battle;
and the remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent seat in
the mountains of Savoy. ^11 The walls of Narbonne had been shaken
by the battering engines, and the inhabitants had endured the
last extremities of famine, when Count Litorius, approaching in
silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two
sacks of flour, cut his way through the intrenchments of the
besiegers. The siege was immediately raised; and the more
decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of
Aetius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand
Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily
summoned to Italy by some public or private interest, Count
Litorius succeeded to the command; and his presumption soon
discovered that far different talents are required to lead a wing
of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war. At
the head of an army of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of
Thoulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his
misfortunes had rendered prudent, and his situation made
desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius
with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic
capital in triumph; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan
allies, encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace,
which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of
Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the
edifying contrast of Christian piety and moderation; nor did he
lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for
the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious
enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was
obstinate; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a
total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskilful
rashness, was actually led through the streets of Thoulouse, not
in his own, but in a hostile triumph; and the misery which he
experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the
compassion of the Barbarians themselves. ^12 Such a loss, in a
country whose spirit and finances were long since exhausted,
could not easily be repaired; and the Goths, assuming, in their
turn, the sentiments of ambition and revenge, would have planted
their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the
presence of Aetius had not restored strength and discipline to
the Romans. ^13 The two armies expected the signal of a decisive
action; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's
force, and doubtful of their own superiority, prudently sheathed
their swords in the field of battle; and their reconciliation was
permanent and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, appears
to have deserved the love of his subjects, the confidence of his
allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne was surrounded by
six valiant sons, who were educated with equal care in the
exercises of the Barbarian camp, and in those of the Gallic
schools: from the study of the Roman jurisprudence, they acquired
the theory, at least, of law and justice; and the harmonious
sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their
native manners. ^14 The two daughters of the Gothic king were
given in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi
and of the Vandals, who reigned in Spain and Africa: but these
illustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The
queen of the Suevi bewailed the death of a husband inhumanly
massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the
victim of a jealous tyrant, whom she called her father. The
cruel Genseric suspected that his son's wife had conspired to
poison him; the supposed crime was punished by the amputation of
her nose and ears; and the unhappy daughter of Theodoric was
ignominiously returned to the court of Thoulouse in that deformed
and mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem
incredible to a civilized age drew tears from every spectator;
but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king,
to revenge such irreparable injuries. The Imperial ministers,
who always cherished the discord of the Barbarians, would have
supplied the Goths with arms, and ships, and treasures, for the
African war; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been fatal to
himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the
formidable power of the Huns. His rich gifts and pressing
solicitations inflamed the ambition of Attila; and the designs of
Aetius and Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of Gaul. ^15
[Footnote 10: Theodoric II., the son of Theodoric I., declares to
Avitus his resolution of repairing, or expiating, the faults
which his grandfather had committed, -

     Quae noster peccavit avus, quem fuscat id unum,
     Quod te, Roma, capit.

     Sidon. Panegyric. Avit. 505.

     This character, applicable only to the great Alaric,
establishes the genealogy of the Gothic kings, which has hitherto
been unnoticed.]
[Footnote 11: The name of Sapaudia, the origin of Savoy, is first
mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus; and two military posts are
ascertained by the Notitia, within the limits of that province; a
cohort was stationed at Grenoble in Dauphine; and Ebredunum, or
Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the
Lake of Neufchatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503.
D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 284, 579.]

[Footnote 12: Salvian has attempted to explain the moral
government of the Deity; a task which may be readily performed by
supposing that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and
those of the righteous, trials.]
[Footnote 13: -     Capto terrarum damna patebant
                    Litorio, in Rhodanum proprios producere
fines,                     Thendoridae fixum; nec erat pugnare
necesse,                     Sed migrare Getis; rabidam trux
asperat iram                     Victor; quod sensit Scythicum
sub moenibus hostem                     Imputat, et nihil est
gravius, si forsitan unquam                     Vincere
contingat, trepido. Panegyr. Avit. 300, &c.
Sitionius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist,
to transfer the whole merit from Aetius to his minister Avitus.]
[Footnote 14: Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the
character of his preceptor.

      - Mihi Romula dudum
     Per te jura placent; parvumque ediscere jussit
     Ad tua verba pater, docili quo prisca Maronis
     Carmine molliret Scythicos mihi pagina mores.

     Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 495 &c.]

[Footnote 15: Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are,
Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, 36, and the Chronicles of
Idatius, and the two Prospers, inserted in the historians of
France, tom. i. p. 612 - 640. To these we may add Salvian de
Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p. 243, 244, 245, and the panegyric of
Avitus, by Sidonius.]

     The Franks, whose monarchy was still confined to the
neighborhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely established the right
of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians.
^16 These princes were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of
military command; ^17 and the royal fashion of long hair was the
ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which
they combed and dressed with singular care, hung down in flowing
ringlets on their back and shoulders; while the rest of the
nation were obliged, either by law or custom, to shave the hinder
part of their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to
content themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. ^18
The lofty stature of the Franks, and their blue eyes, denoted a
Germanic origin; their close apparel accurately expressed the
figure of their limbs; a weighty sword was suspended from a broad
belt; their bodies were protected by a large shield; and these
warlike Barbarians were trained, from their earliest youth, to
run, to leap, to swim; to dart the javelin, or battle-axe, with
unerring aim; to advance, without hesitation, against a superior
enemy; and to maintain, either in life or death, the invincible
reputation of their ancestors. ^19 Clodion, the first of their
long-haired kings, whose name and actions are mentioned in
authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum, ^20 a village
or fortress, whose place may be assigned between Louvain and
Brussels. From the report of his spies, the king of the Franks
was informed, that the defenceless state of the second Belgic
must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valor of his
subjects. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses
of the Carbonarian forest; ^21 occupied Tournay and Cambray, the
only cities which existed in the fifth century, and extended his
conquests as far as the River Somme, over a desolate country,
whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of more recent
industry. ^22 While Clodion lay encamped in the plains of Artois,
^23 and celebrated, with vain and ostentatious security, the
marriage, perhaps, of his son, the nuptial feast was interrupted
by the unexpected and unwelcome presence of Aetius, who had
passed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The tables,
which had been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the
banks of a pleasant stream, were rudely overturned; the Franks
were oppressed before they could recover their arms, or their
ranks; and their unavailing valor was fatal only to themselves.
The loaded wagons, which had followed their march, afforded a
rich booty; and the virgin- bride, with her female attendants,
submitted to the new lovers, who were imposed on them by the
chance of war. This advance, which had been obtained by the skill
and activity of Aetius, might reflect some disgrace on the
military prudence of Clodion; but the king of the Franks soon
regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the
possession of his Gallic kingdom from the Rhine to the Somme. ^24
Under his reign, and most probably from the thee enterprising
spirit of his subjects, his three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and
Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice.
The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion
of the same Barbarians, who evacuated the ruins of Treves; and
Treves, which in the space of forty years had been four times
besieged and pillaged, was disposed to lose the memory of her
afflictions in the vain amusements of the Circus. ^25 The death
of Clodion, after a reign of twenty years, exposed his kingdom to
the discord and ambition of his two sons. Meroveus, the younger,
^26 was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was
received at the Imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian, and
the adopted son of the patrician Aetius; and dismissed to his
native country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances
of friendship and support. During his absence, his elder brother
had solicited, with equal ardor, the formidable aid of Attila;
and the king of the Huns embraced an alliance, which facilitated
the passage of the Rhine, and justified, by a specious and
honorable pretence, the invasion of Gaul. ^27

[Footnote 16: Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, et ut ita
dicam nobiliori suorum familia, (Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, p.
166, of the second volume of the Historians of France.) Gregory
himself does not mention the Merovingian name, which may be
traced, however, to the beginning of the seventh century, as the
distinctive appellation of the royal family, and even of the
French monarchy. An ingenious critic has deduced the Merovingians
from the great Maroboduus; and he has clearly proved, that the
prince, who gave his name to the first race, was more ancient
than the father of Childeric. See Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 52 - 90, tom. xxx. p. 557 - 587.]
[Footnote 17: This German custom, which may be traced from
Tacitus to Gregory of Tours, was at length adopted by the
emperors of Constantinople. From a MS. of the tenth century,
Montfaucon has delineated the representation of a similar
ceremony, which the ignorance of the age had applied to King
David. See Monumens de la Monarchie Francoise, tom. i. Discours
Preliminaire.]
[Footnote 18: Caesaries prolixa ... crinium flagellis per terga
dimissis, &c. See the Preface to the third volume of the
Historians of France, and the Abbe Le Boeuf, (Dissertat. tom.
iii. p. 47 - 79.) This peculiar fashion of the Merovingians has
been remarked by natives and strangers; by Priscus, (tom. i. p.
608,) by Agathias, (tom. ii. p. 49,) and by Gregory of Tours, (l.
viii. 18, vi. 24, viii. 10, tom. ii. p. 196, 278, 316.)]

[Footnote 19: See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms,
and temper of the ancient Franks, in Sidonius Apollinaris,
(Panegyr. Majorian. 238 - 254;) and such pictures, though
coarsely drawn, have a real and intrinsic value. Father Daniel
(History de la Milice Francoise, tom. i. p. 2 - 7) has
illustrated the description.]

[Footnote 20: Dubos, Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i. p. 271, 272.
Some geographers have placed Dispargum on the German side of the
Rhine. See a note of the Benedictine Editors, to the Historians
of France, tom. ii p. 166.]
[Footnote 21: The Carbonarian wood was that part of the great
forest of the Ardennes which lay between the Escaut, or Scheldt,
and the Meuse. Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 126.]

[Footnote 22: Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in tom. ii. p. 166,
167. Fredegar. Epitom. c. 9, p. 395. Gesta Reg. Francor. c. 5,
in tom. ii. p. 544. Vit St. Remig. ab Hincmar, in tom. iii. p.
373.]

[Footnote 23: -     Francus qua Cloio patentes
                    Atrebatum terras pervaserat.

                    Panegyr. Majorian 213

The precise spot was a town or village, called Vicus Helena; and
both the name and place are discovered by modern geographers at
Lens See Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de
la France tom. ii. p. 88.]
[Footnote 24: See a vague account of the action in Sidonius.
Panegyr. Majorian 212 - 230. The French critics, impatient to
establish their monarchy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument
from the silence of Sidonius, who dares not insinuate, that the
vanquished Franks were compelled to repass the Rhine. Dubos, tom.
i. p. 322.]

[Footnote 25: Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, l. vi.) has expressed,
in vague and declamatory language, the misfortunes of these three
cities, which are distinctly ascertained by the learned Mascou,
Hist. of the Ancient Germans, ix. 21.]

[Footnote 26: Priscus, in relating the contest, does not name the
two brothers; the second of whom he had seen at Rome, a beardless
youth, with long, flowing hair, (Historians of France, tom. i. p.
607, 608.) The Benedictine Editors are inclined to believe, that
they were the sons of some unknown king of the Franks, who
reigned on the banks of the Neckar; but the arguments of M. de
Foncemagne (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. viii. p. 464) seem to prove
that the succession of Clodion was disputed by his two sons, and
that the younger was Meroveus, the father of Childeric.

     Note: The relationship of Meroveus to Clodion is extremely
doubtful. - By some he is called an illegitimate son; by others
merely of his race. Tur ii. c. 9, in Sismondi, Hist. des
Francais, i. 177. See Mezeray.]
[Footnote 27: Under the Merovingian race, the throne was
hereditary; but all the sons of the deceased monarch were equally
entitled to their share of his treasures and territories. See
the Dissertations of M. de Foncemagne, in the sixth and eighth
volumes of the Memoires de l'Academie.]

Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.

Part II.

     When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause
of his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the same time, and
almost in the spirit of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch
professed himself the lover and the champion of the princess
Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace of
Ravenna; and as her marriage might be productive of some danger
to the state, she was raised, by the title of Augusta, ^28 above
the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria
had no sooner attained the sixteenth year of her age, than she
detested the importunate greatness which must forever exclude her
from the comforts of honorable love; in the midst of vain and
unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to the impulse of
nature, and threw herself into the arms of her chamberlain
Eugenius. Her guilt and shame (such is the absurd language of
imperious man) were soon betrayed by the appearances of
pregnancy; but the disgrace of the royal family was published to
the world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia who dismissed
her daughter, after a strict and shameful confinement, to a
remote exile at Constantinople. The unhappy princess passed
twelve or fourteen years in the irksome society of the sisters of
Theodosius, and their chosen virgins; to whose crown Honoria
could no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer,
fasting, and vigils, she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of
long and hopeless celibacy urged her to embrace a strange and
desperate resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and
formidable at Constantinople; and his frequent embassies
entertained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and the
Imperial palace. In the pursuit of love, or rather of revenge,
the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every duty and every
prejudice; and offered to deliver her person into the arms of a
Barbarian, of whose language she was ignorant, whose figure was
scarcely human, and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By
the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she transmitted to Attila a
ring, the pledge of her affection; and earnestly conjured him to
claim her as a lawful spouse, to whom he had been secretly
betrothed. These indecent advances were received, however, with
coldness and disdain; and the king of the Huns continued to
multiply the number of his wives, till his love was awakened by
the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion
of Gaul was preceded, and justified, by a formal demand of the
princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial
patrimony. His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often
addressed, in the same hostile and peremptory manner, the
daughters of China; and the pretensions of Attila were not less
offensive to the majesty of Rome. A firm, but temperate, refusal
was communicated to his ambassadors. The right of female
succession, though it might derive a specious argument from the
recent examples of Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously
denied; and the indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed
to the claims of her Scythian lover. ^29 On the discovery of her
connection with the king of the Huns, the guilty princess had
been sent away, as an object of horror, from Constantinople to
Italy: her life was spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was
performed with some obscure and nominal husband, before she was
immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and
misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been
born the daughter of an emperor. ^30
[Footnote 28: A medal is still extant, which exhibits the
pleasing countenance of Honoria, with the title of Augusta; and
on the reverse, the improper legend of Salus Reipublicoe round
the monogram of Christ. See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 67,
73.]

[Footnote 29: See Priscus, p, 39, 40. It might be fairly
alleged, that if females could succeed to the throne, Valentinian
himself, who had married the daughter and heiress of the younger
Theodosius, would have asserted her right to the Eastern empire.]

[Footnote 30: The adventures of Honoria are imperfectly related
by Jornandes, de Successione Regn. c. 97, and de Reb. Get. c. 42,
p. 674; and in the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus; but
they cannot be made consistent, or probable, unless we separate,
by an interval of time and place, her intrigue with Eugenius, and
her invitation of Attila.]

     A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, the learned and
eloquent Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had
made a promise to one of his friends, that he would compose a
regular history of the war of Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius
had not discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting
work, ^31 the historian would have related, with the simplicity
of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in vague and
doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded. ^32 The kings and
nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the
Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal
village, in the plains of Hungary his standard moved towards the
West; and after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he
reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Neckar, where he was
joined by the Franks, who adhered to his ally, the elder of the
sons of Clodion. A troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in
quest of plunder, might choose the winter for the convenience of
passing the river on the ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the
Huns required such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be
procured only in a milder season; the Hercynian forest supplied
materials for a bridge of boats; and the hostile myriads were
poured, with resistless violence, into the Belgic provinces. ^33
The consternation of Gaul was universal; and the various fortunes
of its cities have been adorned by tradition with martyrdoms and
miracles. ^34 Troyes was saved by the merits of St. Lupus; St.
Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not behold
the ruin of Tongres; and the prayers of St. Genevieve diverted
the march of Attila from the neighborhood of Paris. But as the
greatest part of the Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints
and soldiers, they were besieged and stormed by the Huns; who
practised, in the example of Metz, ^35 their customary maxims of
war. They involved, in a promiscuous massacre, the priests who
served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour of danger,
had been providently baptized by the bishop; the flourishing city
was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel of St. Stephen
marked the place where it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the
Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul; crossed the
Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed
his camp under the walls of Orleans. He was desirous of securing
his conquests by the possession of an advantageous post, which
commanded the passage of the Loire; and he depended on the secret
invitation of Sangiban, king of the Alani, who had promised to
betray the city, and to revolt from the service of the empire.
But this treacherous conspiracy was detected and disappointed:
Orleans had been strengthened with recent fortifications; and the
assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful
valor of the soldiers, or citizens, who defended the place. The
pastoral diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and
consummate prudence, exhausted every art of religious policy to
support their courage, till the arrival of the expected succors.
After an obstinate siege, the walls were shaken by the battering
rams; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs; and the people,
who were incapable of bearing arms, lay prostrate in prayer.
Anianus, who anxiously counted the days and hours, despatched a
trusty messenger to observe, from the rampari, the face of the
distant country. He returned twice, without any intelligence
that could inspire hope or comfort; but, in his third report, he
mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the
extremity of the horizon. "It is the aid of God!" exclaimed the
bishop, in a tone of pious confidence; and the whole multitude
repeated after him, "It is the aid of God." The remote object, on
which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger, and more
distinct; the Roman and Gothic banners were gradually perceived;
and a favorable wind blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep
array, the impatient squadrons of Aetius and Theodoric, who
pressed forwards to the relief of Orleans.

[Footnote 31: Exegeras mihi, ut promitterem tibi, Attilae bellum
stylo me posteris intimaturum .... coeperam scribere, sed operis
arrepti fasce perspecto, taeduit inchoasse. Sidon. Apoll. l.
viii. epist. 15, p. 235]
[Footnote 32: - Subito cum rupta tumultu
                Barbaries totas in te transfuderat Arctos,      

        Gallia. Pugnacem Rugum comitante Gelono,
                Gepida trux sequitur; Scyrum Burgundio cogit:  

           Chunus, Bellonotus, Neurus, Basterna, Toringus,      

        Bructerus, ulvosa vel quem Nicer abluit unda            

  Prorumpit Francus. Cecidit cito secta bipenni               
Hercynia in lintres, et Rhenum texuit alno.                Et
jam terrificis diffuderat Attila turmis                 In campos
se, Belga, tuos.

                Panegyr. Avit.]

[Footnote 33: The most authentic and circumstantial account of
this war is contained in Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 36 - 41,
p. 662 - 672,) who has sometimes abridged, and sometimes
transcribed, the larger history of Cassiodorus. Jornandes, a
quotation which it would be superfluous to repeat, may be
corrected and illustrated by Gregory of Tours, l. ii. c. 5, 6, 7,
and the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, and the two Prospers.
All the ancient testimonies are collected and inserted in the
Historians of France; but the reader should be cautioned against
a supposed extract from the Chronicle of Idatius, (among the
fragments of Fredegarius, tom. ii. p. 462,) which often
contradicts the genuine text of the Gallician bishop.]

[Footnote 34: The ancient legendaries deserve some regard, as
they are obliged to connect their fables with the real history of
their own times. See the lives of St. Lupus, St. Anianus, the
bishops of Metz, Ste. Genevieve, &c., in the Historians of
France, tom. i. p. 644, 645, 649, tom. iii. p. 369.]
[Footnote 35: The scepticism of the count de Buat (Hist. des
Peuples, tom. vii. p. 539, 540) cannot be reconciled with any
principles of reason or criticism. Is not Gregory of Tours
precise and positive in his account of the destruction of Metz?
At the distance of no more than a hundred years, could he be
ignorant, could the people be ignorant of the fate of a city, the
actual residence of his sovereigns, the kings of Austrasia? The
learned count, who seems to have undertaken the apology of Attila
and the Barbarians, appeals to the false Idatius, parcens
Germaniae et Galliae, and forgets that the true Idatius had
explicitly affirmed, plurimae civitates effractoe, among which he
enumerates Metz.]

     The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart
of Gaul, may be ascribed to his insidious policy, as well as to
the terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully
mitigated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and
threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ravenna
and Thoulouse, mutually suspicious of each other's intentions,
beheld, with supine indifference, the approach of their common
enemy. Aetius was the sole guardian of the public safety; but
his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction, which, since
the death of Placidia, infested the Imperial palace: the youth of
Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the Barbarians,
who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the cause of
Attila, awaited with doubtful and venal faith, the event of the
war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some troops,
whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name of an army.
^36 But on his arrival at Arles, or Lyons, he was confounded by
the intelligence, that the Visigoths, refusing to embrace the
defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own
territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to
despise. The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise
of the Praetorian praefecture, had retired to his estate in
Auvergne, was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he
executed with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric,
that an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the
earth, could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance
of the powers whom he labored to oppress. The lively eloquence
of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors, by the description of the
injuries which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns; whose
implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the foot of
the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged, that it was the duty of
every Christian to save, from sacrilegious violation, the
churches of God, and the relics of the saints: that it was the
interest of every Barbarian, who had acquired a settlement in
Gaul, to defend the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated
for his use, against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds.
Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth; adopted the measure
at once the most prudent and the most honorable; and declared,
that, as the faithful ally of Aetius and the Romans, he was ready
to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul. ^37
The Visigoths, who, at that time, were in the mature vigor of
their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war;
prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under the standard
of their aged king, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons,
Torismond and Theodoric, to command in person his numerous and
valiant people. The example of the Goths determined several
tribes or nations, that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and
the Romans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician
gradually collected the troops of Gaul and Germany, who had
formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects, or soldiers, of
the republic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary
service, and the rank of independent allies; the Laeti, the
Armoricans, the Breones the Saxons, the Burgundians, the
Sarmatians, or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks who followed
Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was the various army,
which, under the conduct of Aetius and Theodoric, advanced, by
rapid marches to relieve Orleans, and to give battle to the
innumerable host of Attila. ^38

[Footnote 36: -     Vix liquerat Alpes
                    Aetius, tenue, et rarum sine milite ducens   

                Robur, in auxiliis Geticum male credulus agmen   

                Incassum propriis praesumens adfore castris.    

               Panegyr. Avit. 328, &c.]

[Footnote 37: The policy of Attila, of Aetius, and of the
Visigoths, is imperfectly described in the Panegyric of Avitus,
and the thirty-sixth chapter of Jornandes. The poet and the
historian were both biased by personal or national prejudices.
The former exalts the merit and importance of Avitus; orbis,
Avite, salus, &c.! The latter is anxious to show the Goths in
the most favorable light. Yet their agreement when they are
fairly interpreted, is a proof of their veracity.]

[Footnote 38: The review of the army of Aetius is made by
Jornandes, c. 36, p. 664, edit. Grot. tom. ii. p. 23, of the
Historians of France, with the notes of the Benedictine editor.
The Loeti were a promiscuous race of Barbarians, born or
naturalized in Gaul; and the Riparii, or Ripuarii, derived their
name from their post on the three rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse,
and the Moselle; the Armoricans possessed the independent cities
between the Seine and the Loire. A colony of Saxons had been
planted in the diocese of Bayeux; the Burgundians were settled in
Savoy; and the Breones were a warlike tribe of Rhaetians, to the
east of the Lake of Constance.]

     On their approach the king of the Huns immediately raised
the siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his
troops from the pillage of a city which they had already entered.
^39 The valor of Attila was always guided by his prudence; and as
he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of
Gaul, he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the plains
of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the
operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary
retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually
pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had posted
in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night
and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other
without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and
Gepidae, in which fifteen thousand ^40 Barbarians were slain, was
a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian
fields ^41 spread themselves round Chalons, and extend, according
to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one
hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred miles, over the
whole province, which is entitled to the appellation of a
champaign country. ^42 This spacious plain was distinguished,
however, by some inequalities of ground; and the importance of a
height, which commanded the camp of Attila, was understood and
disputed by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond
first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible
weight on the Huns, who labored to ascend from the opposite side:
and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the
troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The
anxiety of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and
haruspices. It was reported, that, after scrutinizing the
entrails of victims, and scraping their bones, they revealed, in
mysterious language, his own defeat, with the death of his
principal adversary; and that the Barbarians, by accepting the
equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the superior
merit of Aetius. But the unusual despondency, which seemed to
prevail among the Huns, engaged Attila to use the expedient, so
familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by
a military oration; and his language was that of a king, who had
often fought and conquered at their head. ^43 He pressed them to
consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future
hopes. The same fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of
Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so many warlike
nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this
memorable field for the consummation of their victories. The
cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alliance, and their
advantageous posts, he artfully represented as the effects, not
of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength
and nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns might securely
trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close and compact order
betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of
supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle. The
doctrine of predestination, so favorable to martia virtue, was
carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his
subjects, that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and
invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring
Fates would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious
peace. "I myself," continued Attila, "will throw the first
javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his
sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the
Barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the
example of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their
impatience, immediately formed his order of battle. At the head
of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in person the centre
of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the Rugians, the
Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were
extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian
fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the
Gepidae; and the three valiant brothers, who reigned over the
Ostrogoths, were posted on the left to oppose the kindred tribes
of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was regulated by
a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king of the
Alani, was placed in the centre, where his motions might be
strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly
punished. Aetius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric
of the right wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the
heights which appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps
the rear, of the Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to
the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons; but many of
these nations had been divided by faction, or conquest, or
emigration; and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns, which
threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war.
[Footnote 39: Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio,
nec direptio, l. v. Sidon. Apollin. l. viii. Epist. 15, p. 246.
The preservation of Orleans might easily be turned into a
miracle, obtained and foretold by the holy bishop.]

[Footnote 40: The common editions read xcm but there is some
authority of manuscripts (and almost any authority is sufficient)
for the more reasonable number of xvm.]

[Footnote 41: Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni,
had formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims from whence
it is distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales, Notit. Gall.
p. 136. D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 212, 279.]
[Footnote 42: The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently
mentioned by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which
Rheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales.
Notit. p. 120 - 123.]
[Footnote 43: I am sensible that these military orations are
usually composed by the historian; yet the old Ostrogoths, who
had served under Attila, might repeat his discourse to
Cassiodorus; the ideas, and even the expressions, have an
original Scythian cast; and I doubt, whether an Italian of the
sixth century would have thought of the hujus certaminis gaudia.]

     The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form an
interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study
of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic,
when they are described by the same genius which conceived and
executed them, may tend to improve (if such improvement can be
wished) the art of destroying the human species. But the battle
of Chalons can only excite our curiosity by the magnitude of the
object; since it was decided by the blind impetuosity of
Barbarians, and has been related by partial writers, whose civil
or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the knowledge of
military affairs. Cassiolorus, however, had familiarly conversed
with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable
engagement; "a conflict," as they informed him, "fierce, various,
obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in
the present or in past ages." The number of the slain amounted to
one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another
account, three hundred thousand persons; ^44 and these incredible
exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to
justify the historian's remark, that whole generations may be
swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single
hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile
weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their
superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies
were furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought
under the eyes of their king pierced through the feeble and
doubtful centre of the allies, separated their wings from each
other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed
their whole force against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along
the ranks, to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke
from the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately
fell from his horse. The wounded king was oppressed in the
general disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry;
and this important death served to explain the ambiguous prophecy
of the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of
victory, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and
verified the remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had
been thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the
Alani, gradually restored their order of battle; and the Huns
were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to
retreat. He had exposed his person with the rashness of a private
soldier; but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed
forwards beyond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly
supported; their flanks were unguarded; and the conquerors of
Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from
a total defeat. They retired within the circle of wagons that
fortified their camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared
themselves for a defence, to which neither their arms, nor their
temper, were adapted. The event was doubtful: but Attila had
secured a last and honorable resource. The saddles and rich
furniture of the cavalry were collected, by his order, into a
funeral pile; and the magnanimous Barbarian had resolved, if his
intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the flames,
and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they might have
acquired, by the death or captivity of Attila. ^45
[Footnote 44: The expressions of Jornandes, or rather of
Cassiodorus, are extremely strong. Bellum atrox, multiplex,
immane, pertinax, cui simile nulla usquam narrat antiquitas: ubi
talia gesta referuntur, ut nihil esset quod in vita sua
conspicere potuisset egregius, qui hujus miraculi privaretur
aspectu. Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 392, 393) attempts to
reconcile the 162,000 of Jornandes with the 300,000 of Idatius
and Isidore, by supposing that the larger number included the
total destruction of the war, the effects of disease, the
slaughter of the unarmed people, &c.]

[Footnote 45: The count de Buat, (Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom.
vii. p. 554 - 573,) still depending on the false, and again
rejecting the true, Idatius, has divided the defeat of Attila
into two great battles; the former near Orleans, the latter in
Champagne: in the one, Theodoric was slain in the other, he was
revenged.]

     But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder and
anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to
urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few
followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons. In the confusion
of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the
Gothic prince must have perished like his father, if his youthful
strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not
rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner,
but on the left of the line, Aetius himself, separated from his
allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious for their fate,
encountered and escaped the hostile troops that were scattered
over the plains of Chalons; and at length reached the camp of the
Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight rampart of
shields, till the dawn of day. The Imperial general was soon
satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained inactive
within his intrenchments; and when he contemplated the bloody
scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had
principally fallen on the Barbarians. The body of Theodoric,
pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the
slain: is subjects bewailed the death of their king and father;
but their tears were mingled with songs and acclamations, and his
funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy.
The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his eldest
son Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their
success; and the new king accepted the obligation of revenge as a
sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths
themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of
their formidable antagonist; and their historian has compared
Attila to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his
hunters with redoubled fury. The kings and nations who might
have deserted his standard in the hour of distress, were made
sensible that the displeasure of their monarch was the most
imminent and inevitable danger. All his instruments of martial
music incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of
defiance; and the foremost troops who advanced to the assault
were checked or destroyed by showers of arrows from every side of
the intrenchments. It was determined, in a general council of
war, to besiege the king of the Huns in his camp, to intercept
his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a
disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But the impatience of
the Barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory
measures; and the mature policy of Aetius was apprehensive that,
after the extirpation of the Huns, the republic would be
oppressed by the pride and power of the Gothic nation. The
patrician exerted the superior ascendant of authority and reason
to calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric considered as a
duty; represented, with seeming affection and real truth, the
dangers of absence and delay and persuaded Torismond to
disappoint, by his speedy return, the ambitious designs of his
brothers, who might occupy the throne and treasures of Thoulouse.
^46 After the departure of the Goths, and the separation of the
allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast silence that
reigned over the plains of Chalons: the suspicion of some hostile
stratagem detained him several days within the circle of his
wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last
victory which was achieved in the name of the Western empire.
Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent distance, and
magnifying the opinion of their strength by the numerous fires
which they kindled every night, continued to follow the rear of
the Huns till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The
Thuringians served in the army of Attila: they traversed, both in
their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks;
and it was perhaps in this war that they exercised the cruelties
which, about fourscore years afterwards, were revenged by the son
of Clovis. They massacred their hostages, as well as their
captives: two hundred young maidens were tortured with exquisite
and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn asunder by wild
horses, or their bones were crushed under the weight of rolling
wagons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on the public
roads, as a prey to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage
ancestors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited the
praise and envy of civilized ages. ^47

[Footnote 46: Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 41, p. 671. The
policy of Aetius, and the behavior of Torismond, are extremely
natural; and the patrician, according to Gregory of Tours, (l.
ii. c. 7, p. 163,) dismissed the prince of the Franks, by
suggesting to him a similar apprehension. The false Idatius
ridiculously pretends, that Aetius paid a clandestine nocturnal
visit to the kings of the Huns and of the Visigoths; from each of
whom he obtained a bribe of ten thousand pieces of gold, as the
price of an undisturbed retreat.]
[Footnote 47: These cruelties, which are passionately deplored by
Theodoric, the son of Clovis, (Gregory of Tours, l. iii. c. 10,
p. 190,) suit the time and circumstances of the invasion of
Attila. His residence in Thuringia was long attested by popular
tradition; and he is supposed to have assembled a couroultai, or
diet, in the territory of Eisenach. See Mascou, ix. 30, who
settles with nice accuracy the extent of ancient Thuringia, and
derives its name from the Gothic tribe of the Therungi]

Chapter XXXV: Invasion By Attila.

Part III.

     Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation, of
Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition In
the ensuing spring he repeated his demand of the princess
Honoria, and her patrimonial treasures. The demand was again
rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the
field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with
an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those Barbarians were
unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which,
even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least
some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labor of many
thousand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed
without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work.
The skill of the Roman artists might be corrupted to the
destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were
assaulted by a formidable train of battering rams, movable
turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; ^48 and
the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope,
fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which
delayed the conquest of Italy. Aquileia was at that period one
of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the
maritime cities of the Adriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries,
who appeared to have served under their native princes, Alaric
and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit; and the citizens
still remembered the glorious and successful resistance which
their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian,
who disgraced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three months were
consumed without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the
want of provisions, and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila
to relinquish the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his
orders, that the troops should strike their tents the next
morning, and begin their retreat. But as he rode round the
walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork
preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and to fly
with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the
ready penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which
chance had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and
cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached
to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats,
unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and
solitude. ^49 The favorable omen inspired an assurance of
victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a
large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the
stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with
irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely
discover the ruins of Aquileia. ^50 After this dreadful
chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and as he passed, the
cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were reduced into heaps
of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and
Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan
and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their
wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from
the flames the public, as well as private, buildings, and spared
the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of
Comum, Turin, or Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur
with more authentic evidence to prove, that Attila spread his
ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are
divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine. ^51 When
he took possession of the royal palace of Milan, he was surprised
and offended at the sight of a picture which represented the
Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia
prostrate at their feet. The revenge which Attila inflicted on
this monument of Roman vanity, was harmless and ingenious. He
commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and
the emperors were delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a
suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before
the throne of the Scythian monarch. ^52 The spectators must have
confessed the truth and propriety of the alteration; and were
perhaps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the
well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and the man. ^53

[Footnote 48: Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum
generibus adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the
thirteenth century, the Moguls battered the cities of China with
large engines, constructed by the Mahometans or Christians in
their service, which threw stones from 150 to 300 pounds weight.
In the defence of their country, the Chinese used gunpowder, and
even bombs, above a hundred years before they were known in
Europe; yet even those celestial, or infernal, arms were
insufficient to protect a pusillanimous nation. See Gaubil.
Hist. des Mongous, p. 70, 71, 155, 157, &c.]
[Footnote 49: The same story is told by Jornandes, and by
Procopius, (de Bell Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 187, 188:) nor is it
easy to decide which is the original. But the Greek historian is
guilty of an inexcusable mistake, in placing the siege of
Aquileia after the death of Aetius.]

[Footnote 50: Jornandes, about a hundred years afterwards,
affirms, that Aquileia was so completely ruined, ita ut vix ejus
vestigia, ut appareant, reliquerint. See Jornandes de Reb.
Geticis, c. 42, p. 673. Paul. Diacon. l. ii. c. 14, p. 785.
Liutprand, Hist. l. iii. c. 2. The name of Aquileia was
sometimes applied to Forum Julii, (Cividad del Friuli,) the more
recent capital of the Venetian province.

     Note: Compare the curious Latin poems on the destruction of
Aquileia, published by M. Endlicher in his valuable catalogue of
Latin Mss. in the library of Vienna, p. 298, &c.

     Repleta quondam domibus sublimibus, ornatis mire, niveis,
marmorels,      Nune ferax frugum metiris funiculo ruricolarum.
     The monkish poet has his consolation in Attila's sufferings
in soul and body.

     Vindictam tamen non evasit impius destructor tuus Attila
sevissimus,      Nunc igni simul gehennae et vermibus excruciatur
- P. 290. - M.]
[Footnote 51: In describing this war of Attila, a war so famous,
but so imperfectly known, I have taken for my guides two learned
Italians, who considered the subject with some peculiar
advantages; Sigonius, de Imperio Occidentali, l. xiii. in his
works, tom. i. p. 495 - 502; and Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom.
iv. p. 229 - 236, 8vo. edition.]

[Footnote 52: This anecdote may be found under two different
articles of the miscellaneous compilation of Suidas.]

[Footnote 53: Leo respondit, humana, hoc pictum manu:
               Videres hominem dejectum, si pingere
               Leones scirent.

               Appendix ad Phaedrum, Fab. xxv.

The lion in Phaedrus very foolishly appeals from pictures to the
amphitheatre; and I am glad to observe, that the native taste of
La Fontaine (l. iii. fable x.) has omitted this most lame and
impotent conclusion.]

     It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that
the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet
the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a
republic, which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art
and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of
Venice, or Venetia, ^54 was formerly diffused over a large and
fertile province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the
River Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps.
Before the irruption of the Barbarians, fifty Venetian cities
flourished in peace and prosperity: Aquileia was placed in the
most conspicuous station: but the ancient dignity of Padua was
supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of
five hundred citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank,
must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million
seven hundred thousand pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua,
and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns,
found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighboring islands.
^55 At the extremity of the Gulf, where the Adriatic feebly
imitates the tides of the ocean, near a hundred small islands are
separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from
the waves by several long slips of land, which admit the entrance
of vessels through some secret and narrow channels. ^56 Till the
middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots
remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost
without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their
arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new
situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, ^57 which
describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may be
considered as the primitive monument of the republic. ^* The
minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory
style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of
the waves; and though he allows, that the Venetian provinces had
formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates, that they
were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble
poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of
every rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt,
which they extracted from the sea: and the exchange of that
commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the
neighboring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A
people, whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the
earth or water, soon became alike familiar with the two elements;
and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The
islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected
with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy, by the
secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland
canals. Their vessels, which were continually increasing in size
and number, visited all the harbors of the Gulf; and the marriage
which Venice annually celebrates with the Adriatic, was
contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorus, the
Praetorian praefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes; and
he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal
of their countrymen for the public service, which required their
assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the
province of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous
office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition, that,
in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were
created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the
Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy, is attested
by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim
of original and perpetual independence. ^58

[Footnote 54: Paul the Deacon (de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 14,
p. 784) describes the provinces of Italy about the end of the
eighth century Venetia non solum in paucis insulis quas nunc
Venetias dicimus, constat; sed ejus terminus a Pannoniae finibus
usque Adduam fluvium protelatur. The history of that province
till the age of Charlemagne forms the first and most interesting
part of the Verona Illustrata, p. 1 - 388,) in which the marquis
Scipio Maffei has shown himself equally capable of enlarged views
and minute disquisitions.]
[Footnote 55: This emigration is not attested by any contemporary
evidence; but the fact is proved by the event, and the
circumstances might be preserved by tradition. The citizens of
Aquileia retired to the Isle of Gradus, those of Padua to Rivus
Altus, or Rialto, where the city of Venice was afterwards built,
&c.]

[Footnote 56: The topography and antiquities of the Venetian
islands, from Gradus to Clodia, or Chioggia, are accurately
stated in the Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Aevi. p.
151 - 155.]

[Footnote 57: Cassiodor. Variar. l. xii. epist. 24. Maffei
(Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 240 - 254) has translated and
explained this curious letter, in the spirit of a learned
antiquarian and a faithful subject, who considered Venice as the
only legitimate offspring of the Roman republic. He fixes the
date of the epistle, and consequently the praefecture, of
Cassiodorus, A.D. 523; and the marquis's authority has the more
weight, as he prepared an edition of his works, and actually
published a dissertation on the true orthography of his name.
See Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii. p. 290 - 339.]

[Footnote *: The learned count Figliasi has proved, in his
memoirs upon the Veneti (Memorie de' Veneti primi e secondi del
conte Figliasi, t. vi. Veneziai, 796,) that from the most remote
period, this nation, which occupied the country which has since
been called the Venetian States or Terra Firma, likewise
inhabited the islands scattered upon the coast, and that from
thence arose the names of Venetia prima and secunda, of which the
first applied to the main land and the second to the islands and
lagunes. From the time of the Pelasgi and of the Etrurians, the
first Veneti, inhabiting a fertile and pleasant country, devoted
themselves to agriculture: the second, placed in the midst of
canals, at the mouth of several rivers, conveniently situated
with regard to the islands of Greece, as well as the fertile
plains of Italy, applied themselves to navigation and commerce.
Both submitted to the Romans a short time before the second Punic
war; yet it was not till after the victory of Marius over the
Cimbri, that their country was reduced to a Roman province. Under
the emperors, Venetia Prima obtained more than once, by its
calamities, a place in history. * * But the maritime province was
occupied in salt works, fisheries, and commerce. The Romans have
considered the inhabitants of this part as beneath the dignity of
history, and have left them in obscurity. * * * They dwelt there
until the period when their islands afforded a retreat to their
ruined and fugitive compatriots. Sismondi. Hist. des Rep.
Italiens, v. i. p. 313. -G.

     Compare, on the origin of Venice, Daru, Hist. de Venise,
vol. i. c. l. - M.]

[Footnote 58: See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie,
Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise, a translation of the famous
Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its
merits, is stained, in every line, with the disingenuous
malevolence of party: but the principal evidence, genuine and
apocryphal, is brought together and the reader will easily choose
the fair medium.]

     The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of
arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach
of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of
their religion, as well as of their republic. Amidst the general
consternation, Aetius alone was incapable of fear; but it was
impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any
military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians
who had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy;
and the succors promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and
doubtful. Since Aetius, at the head of his domestic troops, still
maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of
Attila, he never showed himself more truly great, than at the
time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful
people. ^59 If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of
any generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for
his example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius,
instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound of war;
and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome, from an impregnable
fortress to an open capital, betrayed his secret intention of
abandoning Italy, as soon as the danger should approach his
Imperial person. This shameful abdication was suspended, however,
by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to
pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious
tendency. The Western emperor, with the senate and people of
Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a
solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This
important commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth
and riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his
clients, and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the
Roman senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus ^60
was admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public
or private interest: his colleague Trigetius had exercised the
Praetorian praefecture of Italy; and Leo, bishop of Rome,
consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The
genius of Leo ^61 was exercised and displayed in the public
misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation of Great, by the
successful zeal with which he labored to establish his opinions
and his authority, under the venerable names of orthodox faith
and ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman ambassadors were
introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place
where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of
the Lake Benacus, ^62 and trampled, with his Scythian cavalry,
the farms of Catullus and Virgil. ^63 The Barbarian monarch
listened with favorable, and even respectful, attention; and the
deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or
dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army might
facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. Their martial
spirit was relaxed by the wealth and idolence of a warm climate.
The shepherds of the North, whose ordinary food consisted of milk
and raw flesh, indulged themselves too freely in the use of
bread, of wine, and of meat, prepared and seasoned by the arts of
cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the
injuries of the Italians. ^64 When Attila declared his resolution
of carrying his victorious arms to the gates of Rome, he was
admonished by his friends, as well as by his enemies, that Alaric
had not long survived the conquest of the eternal city. His
mind, superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary
terrors; nor could he escape the influence of superstition, which
had so often been subservient to his designs. ^65 The pressing
eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal robes,
excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the
Christians. The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and
St. Paul, who menaced the Barbarian with instant death, if he
rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest
legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome might
deserve the interposition of celestial beings; and some
indulgence is due to a fable, which has been represented by the
pencil of Raphael, and the chisel of Algardi. ^66

[Footnote 59: Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 19) has
published a curious passage from the Chronicle of Prosper.
Attila, redintegratis viribus, quas in Gallia amiserat, Italiam
ingredi per Pannonias intendit; nihil duce nostro Aetio secundum
prioris belli opera prospiciente, &c. He reproaches Aetius with
neglecting to guard the Alps, and with a design to abandon Italy;
but this rash censure may at least be counterbalanced by the
favorable testimonies of Idatius and Isidore.]

[Footnote 60: See the original portraits of Avienus and his rival
Basilius, delineated and contrasted in the epistles (i. 9. p. 22)
of Sidonius. He had studied the characters of the two chiefs of
the senate; but he attached himself to Basilius, as the more
solid and disinterested friend.]
[Footnote 61: The character and principles of Leo may be traced
in one hundred and forty-one original epistles, which illustrate
the ecclesiastical history of his long and busy pontificate, from
A.D. 440 to 461. See Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom.
iii. part ii p. 120 - 165.]
[Footnote 62: -     tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat
                    Mincius, et tenera praetexit arundine ripas  

                 - - - -
                    Anne lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque     

              Fluctibus, et fremitu assurgens Benace marino.]
[Footnote 63: The marquis Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. p.
95, 129, 221, part ii. p. 2, 6) has illustrated with taste and
learning this interesting topography. He places the interview of
Attila and St. Leo near Ariolica, or Ardelica, now Peschiera, at
the conflux of the lake and river; ascertains the villa of
Catullus, in the delightful peninsula of Sirmio, and discovers
the Andes of Virgil, in the village of Bandes, precisely situate,
qua se subducere colles incipiunt, where the Veronese hills
imperceptibly slope down into the plain of Mantua.

     Note: Gibbon has made a singular mistake: the Mincius flows
out of the Bonacus at Peschiera, not into it. The interview is
likewise placed at Ponte Molino. and at Governolo, at the conflux
of the Mincio and the Gonzaga. bishop of Mantua, erected a tablet
in the year 1616, in the church of the latter place,
commemorative of the event. Descrizione di Verona a de la sua
provincia. C. 11, p. 126. - M.]

[Footnote 64: Si statim infesto agmine urbem petiissent, grande
discrimen esset: sed in Venetia quo fere tractu Italia mollissima
est, ipsa soli coelique clementia robur elanquit. Ad hoc panis
usu carnisque coctae, et dulcedine vini mitigatos, &c. This
passage of Florus (iii. 3) is still more applicable to the Huns
than to the Cimbri, and it may serve as a commentary on the
celestial plague, with which Idatius and Isidore have afflicted
the troops of Attila.]

[Footnote 65: The historian Priscus had positively mentioned the
effect which this example produced on the mind of Attila.
Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673]
[Footnote 66: The picture of Raphael is in the Vatican; the basso
(or perhaps the alto) relievo of Algardi, on one of the altars of
St. Peter, (see Dubos, Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la
Peinture, tom. i. p. 519, 520.) Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D.
452, No. 57, 58) bravely sustains the truth of the apparition;
which is rejected, however, by the most learned and pious
Catholics.]

     Before the king of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened
to return more dreadful, and more implacable, if his bride, the
princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within
the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the mean while,
Attila relieved his tender anxiety, by adding a beautiful maid,
whose name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. ^67
Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity,
at his wooden palace beyond the Danube; and the monarch,
oppressed with wine and sleep, retired at a late hour from the
banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect
his pleasures, or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing
day, till the unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions;
and, after attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated
cries, they at length broke into the royal apartment. They found
the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with
her veil, and lamenting her own danger, as well as the death of
the king, who had expired during the night. ^68 An artery had
suddenly burst: and as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was
suffocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a
passage through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and
stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the midst of the
plain, under a silken pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the
Huns, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral
song to the memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in
his death, the father of his people, the scourge of his enemies,
and the terror of the world. According to their national custom,
the Barbarians cut off a part of their hair, gashed their faces
with unseemly wounds, and bewailed their valiant leader as he
deserved, not with the tears of women, but with the blood of
warriors. The remains of Attila were enclosed within three
coffins, of gold, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in
the night: the spoils of nations were thrown into his grave; the
captives who had opened the ground were inhumanly massacred; and
the same Huns, who had indulged such excessive grief, feasted,
with dissolute and intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre
of their king. It was reported at Constantinople, that on the
fortunate night on which he expired, Marcian beheld in a dream
the bow of Attila broken asunder: and the report may be allowed
to prove, how seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was
absent from the mind of a Roman emperor. ^69 [Footnote 67:
Attila, ut Priscus historicus refert, extinctionis suae tempore,
puellam Ildico nomine, decoram, valde, sibi matrimonium post
innumerabiles uxores ... socians. Jornandes, c. 49, p. 683, 684.

He afterwards adds, (c. 50, p. 686,) Filii Attilae, quorum per
licentiam libidinis poene populus fuit. Polygamy has been
established among the Tartars of every age. The rank of plebeian
wives is regulated only by their personal charms; and the faded
matron prepares, without a murmur, the bed which is destined for
her blooming rival. But in royal families, the daughters of Khans
communicate to their sons a prior right. See Genealogical
History, p. 406, 407, 408.]
[Footnote 68: The report of her guilt reached Constantinople,
where it obtained a very different name; and Marcellinus
observes, that the tyrant of Europe was slain in the night by the
hand, and the knife, of a woman Corneille, who has adapted the
genuine account to his tragedy, describes the irruption of blood
in forty bombast lines, and Attila exclaims, with ridiculous
fury,

      - S'il ne veut s'arreter, (his blood.)
     (Dit-il) on me payera ce qui m'en va couter.]

[Footnote 69: The curious circumstances of the death and funeral
of Attila are related by Jornandes, (c. 49, p. 683, 684, 685,)
and were probably transcribed from Priscus.]

     The revolution which subverted the empire of the Huns,
established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained
the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest
chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; the most powerful kings
refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so
many various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and
disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of
the nations of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and
represented the disgrace of this servile partition; and his
subjects, the warlike Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the
conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to
vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and
decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia,
the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of the Goths, the arrows of
the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and
the heavy weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each
other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the
slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest
son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of
Netad: his early valor had raised him to the throne of the
Acatzires, a Scythian people, whom he subdued; and his father,
who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death of
Ellac. ^70 His brother, Dengisich, with an army of Huns, still
formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above
fifteen years on the banks of the Danube. The palace of Attila,
with the old country of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the
Euxine, became the seat of a new power, which was erected by
Ardaric, king of the Gepidae. The Pannonian conquests from Vienna
to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the settlements
of the tribes, who had so bravely asserted their native freedom,
were irregularly distributed, according to the measure of their
respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude
of his father's slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich was confined to
the circle of his wagons; his desperate courage urged him to
invade the Eastern empire: he fell in battle; and his head
ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful
spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or
superstitiously believed, that Irnac, the youngest of his sons,
was destined to perpetuate the glories of his race. The
character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness
of his brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining
condition of the Huns; and Irnac, with his subject hordes,
retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon
overwhelmed by a torrent of new Barbarians, who followed the same
road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The
Geougen, or Avares, whose residence is assigned by the Greek
writers to the shores of the ocean, impelled the adjacent tribes;
till at length the Igours of the North, issuing from the cold
Siberian regions, which produce the most valuable furs, spread
themselves over the desert, as far as the Borysthenes and the
Caspian gates; and finally extinguished the empire of the Huns.
^71

[Footnote 70: See Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 50, p. 685,
686, 687, 688. His distinction of the national arms is curious
and important. Nan ibi admirandum reor fuisse spectaculum, ubi
cernere erat cunctis, pugnantem Gothum ense furentem, Gepidam in
vulnere suorum cuncta tela frangentem, Suevum pede, Hunnum
sagitta praesumere, Alanum gravi Herulum levi, armatura, aciem
instruere. I am not precisely informed of the situation of the
River Netad.]
[Footnote 71: Two modern historians have thrown much new light on
the ruin and division of the empire of Attila; M. de Buat, by his
laborious and minute diligence, (tom. viii. p. 3 - 31, 68 - 94,)
and M. de Guignes, by his extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese
language and writers. See Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 315 -
319.]

     Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern
empire, under the reign of a prince who conciliated the
friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians.
But the emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute
Valentinian, who had reached his thirty-fifth year without
attaining the age of reason or courage, abused this apparent
security, to undermine the foundations of his own throne, by the
murder of the patrician Aetius. From the instinct of a base and
jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally celebrated as
the terror of the Barbarians, and the support of the republic; ^*
and his new favorite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor
from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the
life of Placidia, ^72 by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of
Aetius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of
Barbarian followers, his powerful dependants, who filled the
civil offices of the state, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius,
who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's daughter,
had raised him above the rank of a subject. The ambitious
designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as
well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Aetius himself,
supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and
perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and
indiscreet behavior. The patrician offended his sovereign by a
hostile declaration; he aggravated the offence, by compelling him
to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and
alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety;
and from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was
incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person in
the palace of Rome. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate
vehemence, the marriage of his son; Valentinian, drawing his
sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the
breast of a general who had saved his empire: his courtiers and
eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master; and
Aetius, pierced with a hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal
presence. Boethius, the Praetorian praefect, was killed at the
same moment, and before the event could be divulged, the
principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace,
and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the
specious names of justice and necessity, was immediately
communicated by the emperor to his soldiers, his subjects, and
his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to
Aetius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero: the
Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled
their grief and resentment: and the public contempt, which had
been so long entertained for Valentinian, was at once converted
into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom
pervade the walls of a palace; yet the emperor was confounded by
the honest reply of a Roman, whose approbation he had not
disdained to solicit. "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or
provocations; I only know, that you have acted like a man who
cuts off his right hand with his left." ^73
[Footnote *: The praises awarded by Gibbon to the character of
Aetius have been animadverted upon with great severity. (See Mr.
Herbert's Attila. p. 321.) I am not aware that Gibbon has
dissembled or palliated any of the crimes or treasons of Aetius:
but his position at the time of his murder was certainly that of
the preserver of the empire, the conqueror of the most dangerous
of the barbarians: it is by no means clear that he was not
"innocent" of any treasonable designs against Valentinian. If
the early acts of his life, the introduction of the Huns into
Italy, and of the Vandals into Africa, were among the proximate
causes of the ruin of the empire, his murder was the signal for
its almost immediate downfall. - M.]

[Footnote 72: Placidia died at Rome, November 27, A.D. 450. She
was buried at Ravenna, where her sepulchre, and even her corpse,
seated in a chair of cypress wood, were preserved for ages. The
empress received many compliments from the orthodox clergy; and
St. Peter Chrysologus assured her, that her zeal for the Trinity
had been recompensed by an august trinity of children. See
Tillemont, Uist. Jer Emp. tom. vi. p. 240.]

[Footnote 73: Aetium Placidus mactavit semivir amens, is the
expression of Sidonius, (Panegyr. Avit. 359.) The poet knew the
world, and was not inclined to flatter a minister who had injured
or disgraced Avitus and Majorian, the successive heroes of his
song.]

     The luxury of Rome seems to have attracted the long and
frequent visits of Valentinian; who was consequently more
despised at Rome than in any other part of his dominions. A
republican spirit was insensibly revived in the senate, as their
authority, and even their supplies, became necessary for the
support of his feeble government. The stately demeano of an
hereditary monarch offended their pride; and the pleasures of
Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honor of noble
families. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own,
and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of
love which her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and
unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the
Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a
chaste and beautiful wife: her obstinate resistance served only
to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to
accomplish them, either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was
one of the vices of the court: the emperor, who, by chance or
contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum,
uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the debt; and
sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in her
husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress
Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her
litter to the Imperial palace; the emissaries of her impatient
lover conducted her to a remote and silent bed-chamber; and
Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospitality.
Her tears, when she returned home, her deep affliction, and her
bitter reproaches against a husband whom she considered as the
accomplice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge;
the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition; and he might
reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage of the Roman senate, to
the throne of a detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who
supposed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of
friendship and gratitude, had imprudently admitted among his
guards several domestics and followers of Aetius. Two of these,
of Barbarian race were persuaded to execute a sacred and
honorable duty, by punishing with death the assassin of their
patron; and their intrepid courage did not long expect a
favorable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused himself, in the
field of Mars, with the spectacle of some military sports, they
suddenly rushed upon him with drawn weapons, despatched the
guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor to the heart, without
the least opposition from his numerous train, who seemed to
rejoice in the tyrant's death. Such was the fate of Valentinian
the Third, ^74 the last Roman emperor of the family of
Theodosius. He faithfully imitated the hereditary weakness of
his cousin and his two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness,
the purity, the innocence, which alleviate, in their characters,
the want of spirit and ability. Valentinian was less excusable,
since he had passions, without virtues: even his religion was
questionable; and though he never deviated into the paths of
heresy, he scandalized the pious Christians by his attachment to
the profane arts of magic and divination.

[Footnote 74: With regard to the cause and circumstances of the
deaths of Aetius and Valentinian, our information is dark and
imperfect. Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186, 187,
188) is a fabulous writer for the events which precede his own
memory. His narrative must therefore be supplied and corrected
by five or six Chronicles, none of which were composed in Rome or
Italy; and which can only express, in broken sentences, the
popular rumors, as they were conveyed to Gaul, Spain, Africa,
Constantinople, or Alexandria.]
     As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion
of the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures which Romulus had
seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal
period of his city. ^75 This prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the
season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy
apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace
and misfortune, was almost elapsed; ^76 and even posterity must
acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation
of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously
verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was
announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the
Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its
enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. ^77 The
taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was
neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice
of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the
people, whom they defrauded of the indulgences that might
sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition
which confiscated their goods, and tortured their persons,
compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple
tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or
to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants.
They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had
formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican
provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were-thrown
into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of
the Bagaudae; and the Imperial ministers pursued with
proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had
made. ^78 If all the Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in
the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored
the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived
the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor.

[Footnote 75: This interpretation of Vettius, a celebrated augur,
was quoted by Varro, in the xviiith book of his Antiquities.
Censorinus, de Die Natali, c. 17, p. 90, 91, edit. Havercamp.]
[Footnote 76: According to Varro, the twelfth century would
expire A.D. 447, but the uncertainty of the true aera of Rome
might allow some latitude of anticipation or delay. The poets of
the age, Claudian (de Bell Getico, 265) and Sidonius, (in
Panegyr. Avit. 357,) may be admitted as fair witnesses of the
popular opinion.

     Jam reputant annos, interceptoque volatu
     Vulturis, incidunt properatis saecula metis.
     .......
     Jam prope fata tui bissenas Vulturis alas
     Implebant; seis namque tuos, scis, Roma, labores.

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

[Footnote 77: The fifth book of Salvian is filled with pathetic
lamentations and vehement invectives. His immoderate freedom
serves to prove the weakness, as well as the corruption, of the
Roman government. His book was published after the loss of
Africa, (A.D. 439,) and before Attila's war, (A.D. 451.)]
[Footnote 78: The Bagaudae of Spain, who fought pitched battles
with the Roman troops, are repeatedly mentioned in the Chronicle
of Idatius. Salvian has described their distress and rebellion in
very forcible language. Itaque nomen civium Romanorum ... nunc
ultro repudiatur ac fugitur, nec vile tamen sed etiam abominabile
poene habetur ... Et hinc est ut etiam hi quid ad Barbaros non
confugiunt, Barbari tamen esse coguntur, scilicet ut est pars
magna Hispanorum, et non minima Gallorum .... De Bagaudis nunc
mihi sermo est, qui per malos judices et cruentos spoliati,
afflicti, necati postquam jus Romanae libertatis amiserant, etiam
honorem Romani nominis perdiderunt .... Vocamus rabelles, vocamus
perditos quos esse compulimua criminosos. De Gubernat. Dei, l.
v. p. 158, 159.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.

Part I.

     Sack Of Rome By Genseric, King Of The Vandals. - His Naval
Depredations. - Succession Of The Last Emperors Of The West,
Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius,
Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus. - Total Extinction Of The Western
Empire. - Reign Of Odoacer, The First Barbarian King Of Italy.
     The loss or desolation of the provinces, from the Ocean to
the Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of Rome: her internal
prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of
Africa. The rapacious Vandals confiscated the patrimonial
estates of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies,
which relieved the poverty and encouraged the idleness of the
plebeians. The distress of the Romans was soon aggravated by an
unexpected attack; and the province, so long cultivated for their
use by industrious and obedient subjects, was armed against them
by an ambitious Barbarian. The Vandals and Alani, who followed
the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and
fertile territory, which stretched along the coast above ninety
days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits
were pressed and confined, on either side, by the sandy desert
and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the Black
nations, that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not
tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes
towards the sea; he resolved to create a naval power, and his
bold resolution was executed with steady and active perseverance.

The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of
timber: his new subjects were skilled in the arts of navigation
and ship-building; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a
mode of warfare which would render every maritime country
accessible to their arms; the Moors and Africans were allured by
the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries,
the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed
the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the
conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent
descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother
of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were
formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual, were prepared,
for the destruction of the common enemy; who reserved his courage
to encounter those dangers which his policy could not prevent or
elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly
baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and apparent
concessions; and the interposition of his formidable confederate,
the king of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of
Africa to the care of their domestic safety. The revolutions of
the palace, which left the Western empire without a defender, and
without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and
stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediately equipped a
numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth
of the Tyber, about three months after the death of Valentinian,
and the elevation of Maximus to the Imperial throne.

     The private life of the senator Petronius Maximus ^1 was
often alleged as a rare example of human felicity. His birth was
noble and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician
family; his dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in
land and money; and these advantages of fortune were accompanied
with liberal arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the
inestimable gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace
and table was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared
in public, he was surrounded by a train of grateful and
obsequious clients; ^2 and it is possible that among these
clients, he might deserve and possess some real friends. His
merit was rewarded by the favor of the prince and senate: he
thrice exercised the office of Praetorian praefect of Italy; he
was twice invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank
of patrician. These civil honors were not incompatible with the
enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity; his hours, according to
the demands of pleasure or reason, were accurately distributed by
a water-clock; and this avarice of time may be allowed to prove
the sense which Maximus entertained of his own happiness. The
injury which he received from the emperor Valentinian appears to
excuse the most bloody revenge. Yet a philosopher might have
reflected, that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere,
her chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be
restored if she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A
patriot would have hesitated before he plunged himself and his
country into those inevitable calamities which must follow the
extinction of the royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent
Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations; he gratified
his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of
Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted Emperor by
the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his
inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was
imprisoned (such is the lively expression of Sidonius) in the
palace; and after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he
had attained the summit of his wishes, and aspired only to
descend from the dangerous elevation. Oppressed by the weight of
the diadem, he communicated his anxious thoughts to his friend
and quaestor Fulgentius; and when he looked back with unavailing
regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, the emperor
exclaimed, "O fortunate Damocles, ^3 thy reign began and ended
with the same dinner;" a well-known allusion, which Fulgentius
afterwards repeated as an instructive lesson for princes and
subjects.

[Footnote 1: Sidonius Apollinaris composed the thirteenth epistle
of the second book, to refute the paradox of his friend Serranus,
who entertained a singular, though generous, enthusiasm for the
deceased emperor. This epistle, with some indulgence, may claim
the praise of an elegant composition; and it throws much light on
the character of Maximus.]

[Footnote 2: Clientum, praevia, pedisequa, circumfusa,
populositas, is the train which Sidonius himself (l. i. epist. 9)
assigns to another senator of rank]

[Footnote 3:  Districtus ensis cui super impia
               Cervice pendet, non Siculoe dapes
               Dulcem elaborabunt saporem:
               Non avium citharaeque cantus
               Somnum reducent.

               Horat. Carm. iii. 1.

Sidonius concludes his letter with the story of Damocles, which
Cicero (Tusculan. v. 20, 21) had so inimitably told.]

     The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His
hours, of which he had lost the command, were disturbed by
remorse, or guilt, or terror, and his throne was shaken by the
seditions of the soldiers, the people, and the confederate
Barbarians. The marriage of his son Paladius with the eldest
daughter of the late emperor, might tend to establish the
hereditary succession of his family; but the violence which he
offered to the empress Eudoxia, could proceed only from the blind
impulse of lust or revenge. His own wife, the cause of these
tragic events, had been seasonably removed by death; and the
widow of Valentinian was compelled to violate her decent
mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to submit to the embraces
of a presumptuous usurper, whom she suspected as the assassin of
her deceased husband. These suspicions were soon justified by
the indiscreet confession of Maximus himself; and he wantonly
provoked the hatred of his reluctant bride, who was still
conscious that she was descended from a line of emperors. From
the East, however, Eudoxia could not hope to obtain any effectual
assistance; her father and her aunt Pulcheria were dead; her
mother languished at Jerusalem in disgrace and exile; and the
sceptre of Constantinople was in the hands of a stranger. She
directed her eyes towards Carthage; secretly implored the aid of
the king of the Vandals; and persuaded Genseric to improve the
fair opportunity of disguising his rapacious designs by the
specious names of honor, justice, and compassion. ^4 Whatever
abilities Maximus might have shown in a subordinate station, he
was found incapable of administering an empire; and though he
might easily have been informed of the naval preparations which
were made on the opposite shores of Africa, he expected with
supine indifference the approach of the enemy, without adopting
any measures of defence, of negotiation, or of a timely retreat.
When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of the Tyber, the
emperor was suddenly roused from his lethargy by the clamors of a
trembling and exasperated multitude. The only hope which
presented itself to his astonished mind was that of a precipitate
flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the example of
their prince. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the streets,
than he was assaulted by a shower of stones; a Roman, or a
Burgundian soldier, claimed the honor of the first wound; his
mangled body was ignominiously cast into the Tyber; the Roman
people rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the
author of the public calamities; and the domestics of Eudoxia
signalized their zeal in the service of their mistress. ^5
[Footnote 4: Notwithstanding the evidence of Procopius, Evagrius,
Idatius Marcellinus, &c., the learned Muratori (Annali d'Italia,
tom. iv. p. 249 doubts the reality of this invitation, and
observes, with great truth, "Non si puo dir quanto sia facile il
popolo a sognare e spacciar voci false." But his argument, from
the interval of time and place, is extremely feeble. The figs
which grew near Carthage were produced to the senate of Rome on
the third day.]

[Footnote 5: -      Infidoque tibi Burgundio ductu
                    Extorquet trepidas mactandi principis iras.

                  Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 442.

A remarkable line, which insinuates that Rome and Maximus were
betrayed by their Burgundian mercenaries.]

     On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced
from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless city.
Instead of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued from the
gates an unarmed and venerable procession of the bishop at the
head of his clergy. ^6 The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority
and eloquence, again mitigated the fierceness of a Barbarian
conqueror; the king of the Vandals promised to spare the
unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, and to
exempt the captives from torture; and although such orders were
neither seriously given, nor strictly obeyed, the mediation of
Leo was glorious to himself, and in some degree beneficial to his
country. But Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the
licentiousness of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions
revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted fourteen
days and nights; and all that yet remained of public or private
wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported
to the vessels of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid
relics of two temples, or rather of two religions, exhibited a
memorable example of the vicissitudes of human and divine things.

Since the abolition of Paganism, the Capitol had been violated
and abandoned; yet the statues of the gods and heroes were still
respected, and the curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for
the rapacious hands of Genseric. ^7 The holy instruments of the
Jewish worship, ^8 the gold table, and the gold candlestick with
seven branches, originally framed according to the particular
instructions of God himself, and which were placed in the
sanctuary of his temple, had been ostentatiously displayed to the
Roman people in the triumph of Titus. They were afterwards
deposited in the temple of Peace; and at the end of four hundred
years, the spoils of Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to
Carthage, by a Barbarian who derived his origin from the shores
of the Baltic. These ancient monuments might attract the notice
of curiosity, as well as of avarice. But the Christian churches,
enriched and adorned by the prevailing superstition of the times,
afforded more plentiful materials for sacrilege; and the pious
liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six silver vases, the gift of
Constantine, each of a hundred pounds weight, is an evidence of
the damage which he attempted to repair. In the forty-five years
that had elapsed since the Gothic invasion, the pomp and luxury
of Rome were in some measure restored; and it was difficult
either to escape, or to satisfy, the avarice of a conqueror, who
possessed leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the wealth
of the capital. The Imperial ornaments of the palace, the
magnificent furniture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy
plate, were accumulated with disorderly rapine; the gold and
silver amounted to several thousand talents; yet even the brass
and copper were laboriously removed. Eudoxia herself, who
advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon bewailed the
imprudence of her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her
jewels; and the unfortunate empress, with her two daughters, the
only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was compelled, as
a captive, to follow the haughty Vandal; who immediately hoisted
sail, and returned with a prosperous navigation to the port of
Carthage. ^9 Many thousand Romans of both sexes, chosen for some
useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly embarked on board
the fleet of Genseric; and their distress was aggravated by the
unfeeling Barbarians, who, in the division of the booty,
separated the wives from their husbands, and the children from
their parents. The charity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage,
^10 was their only consolation and support. He generously sold
the gold and silver plate of the church to purchase the freedom
of some, to alleviate the slavery of others, and to assist the
wants and infirmities of a captive multitude, whose health was
impaired by the hardships which they had suffered in their
passage from Italy to Africa. By his order, two spacious
churches were converted into hospitals; the sick were distributed
into convenient beds, and liberally supplied with food and
medicines; and the aged prelate repeated his visits both in the
day and night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength, and
a tender sympathy which enhanced the value of his services.
Compare this scene with the field of Cannae; and judge between
Hannibal and the successor of St. Cyprian. ^11
[Footnote 6: The apparant success of Pope Leo may be justified by
Prosper, and the Historia Miscellan.; but the improbable notion
of Baronius A.D. 455, No. 13) that Genseric spared the three
apostolical churches, is not countenanced even by the doubtful
testimony of the Liber Pontificalis.]
[Footnote 7: The profusion of Catulus, the first who gilt the
roof of the Capitol, was not universally approved, (Plin. Hist.
Natur. xxxiii. 18;) but it was far exceeded by the emperor's, and
the external gilding of the temple cost Domitian 12,000 talents,
(2,400,000l.) The expressions of Claudian and Rutilius (luce
metalli oemula .... fastigia astris, and confunduntque vagos
delubra micantia visus) manifestly prove, that this splendid
covering was not removed either by the Christians or the Goths,
(see Donatus, Roma Antiqua, l. ii. c. 6, p. 125.) It should seem
that the roof of the Capitol was decorated with gilt statues, and
chariots drawn by four horses.]

[Footnote 8: The curious reader may consult the learned and
accurate treatise of Hadrian Reland, de Spoliis Templi
Hierosolymitani in Arcu Titiano Romae conspicuis, in 12mo.
Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1716.]

[Footnote 9: The vessel which transported the relics of the
Capitol was the only one of the whole fleet that suffered
shipwreck. If a bigoted sophist, a Pagan bigot, had mentioned
the accident, he might have rejoiced that this cargo of sacrilege
was lost in the sea.]

[Footnote 10: See Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c.
8, p. 11, 12, edit. Ruinart. Deogratius governed the church of
Carthage only three years. If he had not been privately buried,
his corpse would have been torn piecemeal by the mad devotion of
the people.]

[Footnote 11: The general evidence for the death of Maximus, and
the sack of Rome by the Vandals, is comprised in Sidonius,
(Panegyr. Avit. 441 - 450,) Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c.
4, 5, p. 188, 189, and l. ii. c. 9, p. 255,) Evagrius, (l. ii. c.
7,) Jornandes, (de Reb. Geticis, c. 45, p. 677,) and the
Chronicles of Idatius, Prosper, Marcellinus, and Theophanes,
under the proper year.]

     The deaths of Aetius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties
which held the Barbarians of Gaul in peace and subordination.
The sea-coast was infested by the Saxons; the Alemanni and the
Franks advanced from the Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of
the Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent
conquests. The emperor Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious
choice, from the weight of these distant cares; he silenced the
solicitations of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and
promoted a stranger to the general command of the forces of Gaul.

Avitus, ^12 the stranger, whose merit was so nobly rewarded,
descended from a wealthy and honorable family in the diocese of
Auvergne. The convulsions of the times urged him to embrace,
with the same ardor, the civil and military professions: and the
indefatigable youth blended the studies of literature and
jurisprudence with the exercise of arms and hunting. Thirty
years of his life were laudably spent in the public service; he
alternately displayed his talents in war and negotiation; and the
soldier of Aetius, after executing the most important embassies,
was raised to the station of Praetorian praefect of Gaul. Either
the merit of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous
of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate, which he
possessed in the neighborhood of Clermont. A copious stream,
issuing from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud
and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a lake about two
miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the
margin of the lake. The baths, the porticos, the summer and
winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and
use; and the adjacent country afforded the various prospects of
woods, pastures, and meodows. ^13 In this retreat, where Avitus
amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of
husbandry, and the society of his friends, ^14 he received the
Imperial diploma, which constituted him master-general of the
cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the military command;
the Barbarians suspended their fury; and whatever means he might
employ, whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the
people enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate
of Gaul depended on the Visigoths; and the Roman general, less
attentive to his dignity than to the public interest, did not
disdain to visit Thoulouse in the character of an ambassador. He
was received with courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of
the Goths; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid
alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the
intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was slain, and that Rome
had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne, which he
might ascend without guilt or danger, tempted his ambition; ^15
and the Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by
their irresistible suffrage. They loved the person of Avitus;
they respected his virtues; and they were not insensible of the
advantage, as well as honor, of giving an emperor to the West.
The season was now approaching, in which the annual assembly of
the seven provinces was held at Arles; their deliberations might
perhaps be influenced by the presence of Theodoric and his
martial brothers; but their choice would naturally incline to the
most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent
resistance, accepted the Imperial diadem from the representatives
of Gaul; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the
Barbarians and provincials. The formal consent of Marcian,
emperor of the East, was solicited and obtained; but the senate,
Rome, and Italy, though humbled by their recent calamities,
submitted with a secret murmur to the presumption of the Gallic
usurper.

[Footnote 12: The private life and elevation of Avitus must be
deduced, with becoming suspicion, from the panegyric pronounced
by Sidonius Apollinaris, his subject, and his son-in-law.]
[Footnote 13: After the example of the younger Pliny, Sidonius
(l. ii. c. 2) has labored the florid, prolix, and obscure
description of his villa, which bore the name, (Avitacum,) and
had been the property of Avitus. The precise situation is not
ascertained. Consult, however, the notes of Savaron and
Sirmond.]

[Footnote 14: Sidonius (l. ii. epist. 9) has described the
country life of the Gallic nobles, in a visit which he made to
his friends, whose estates were in the neighborhood of Nismes.
The morning hours were spent in the sphoeristerium, or
tennis-court; or in the library, which was furnished with Latin
authors, profane and religious; the former for the men, the
latter for the ladies. The table was twice served, at dinner and
supper, with hot meat (boiled and roast) and wine. During the
intermediate time, the company slept, took the air on horseback,
and need the warm bath.]

[Footnote 15: Seventy lines of panegyric (505 - 575) which
describe the importunity of Theodoric and of Gaul, struggling to
overcome the modest reluctance of Avitus, are blown away by three
words of an honest historian. Romanum ambisset Imperium, (Greg.
Turon. l. ii. c. 1l, in tom. ii. p. 168.)]
     Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had
acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his elder brother
Torismond; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design
which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with
the empire. ^16 Such a crime might not be incompatible with the
virtues of a Barbarian; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle
and humane; and posterity may contemplate without terror the
original picture of a Gothic king, whom Sidonius had intimately
observed, in the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an
epistle, dated from the court of Thoulouse, the orator satisfies
the curiosity of one of his friends, in the following
description: ^17 "By the majesty of his appearance, Theodoric
would command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit;
and although he is born a prince, his merit would dignify a
private station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears
rather plump than fat, and in his well-proportioned limbs agility
is united with muscular strength. ^18 If you examine his
countenance, you will distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy
eyebrows, an aquiline nose, thin lips, a regular set of white
teeth, and a fair complexion, that blushes more frequently from
modesty than from anger. The ordinary distribution of his time,
as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be concisely
represented. Before daybreak, he repairs, with a small train, to
his domestic chapel, where the service is performed by the Arian
clergy; but those who presume to interpret his secret sentiments,
consider this assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and
policy. The rest of the morning is employed in the
administration of his kingdom. His chair is surrounded by some
military officers of decent aspect and behavior: the noisy crowd
of his Barbarian guards occupies the hall of audience; but they
are not permitted to stand within the veils or curtains that
conceal the council-chamber from vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of
the nations are successively introduced: Theodoric listens with
attention, answers them with discreet brevity, and either
announces or delays, according to the nature of their business,
his final resolution. About eight (the second hour) he rises
from his throne, and visits either his treasury or his stables.
If he chooses to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on
horseback, his bow is carried by a favorite youth; but when the
game is marked, he bends it with his own hand, and seldom misses
the object of his aim: as a king, he disdains to bear arms in
such ignoble warfare; but as a soldier, he would blush to accept
any military service which he could perform himself. On common
days, his dinner is not different from the repast of a private
citizen, but every Saturday, many honorable guests are invited to
the royal table, which, on these occasions, is served with the
elegance of Greece, the plenty of Gaul, and the order and
diligence of Italy. ^19 The gold or silver plate is less
remarkable for its weight than for the brightness and curious
workmanship: the taste is gratified without the help of foreign
and costly luxury; the size and number of the cups of wine are
regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance; and the
respectful silence that prevails, is interrupted only by grave
and instructive conversation. After dinner, Theodoric sometimes
indulges himself in a short slumber; and as soon as he wakes, he
calls for the dice and tables, encourages his friends to forget
the royal majesty, and is delighted when they freely express the
passions which are excited by the incidents of play. At this
game, which he loves as the image of war, he alternately displays
his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper.
If he loses, he laughs; he is modest and silent if he wins. Yet,
notwithstanding this seeming indifference, his courtiers choose
to solicit any favor in the moments of victory; and I myself, in
my applications to the king, have derived some benefit from my
losses. ^20 About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of
business again returns, and flows incessantly till after sunset,
when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of
suppliants and pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast,
buffoons and pantomimes are sometimes introduced, to divert, not
to offend, the company, by their ridiculous wit: but female
singers, and the soft, effeminate modes of music, are severely
banished, and such martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of
valor are alone grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires
from table; and the nocturnal guards are immediately posted at
the entrance of the treasury, the palace, and the private
apartments."

[Footnote 16: Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who was himself of
the blood royal of the Goths, acknowledges, and almost justifies,
(Hist. Goth. p. 718,) the crime which their slave Jornandes had
basely dissembled, (c 43, p. 673.)]
[Footnote 17: This elaborate description (l. i. ep. ii. p. 2 - 7)
was dictated by some political motive. It was designed for the
public eye, and had been shown by the friends of Sidonius, before
it was inserted in the collection of his epistles. The first
book was published separately. See Tillemont, Memoires Eccles.
tom. xvi. p. 264.]

[Footnote 18: I have suppressed, in this portrait of Theodoric,
several minute circumstances, and technical phrases, which could
be tolerable, or indeed intelligible, to those only who, like the
contemporaries of Sidonius, had frequented the markets where
naked slaves were exposed to male, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom.
i. p. 404.)]

[Footnote 19: Videas ibi elegantiam Graecam, abundantiam
Gallicanam; celeritatem Italam; publicam pompam, privatam
diligentiam, regiam disciplinam.]

[Footnote 20: Tunc etiam ego aliquid obsecraturus feliciter
vincor, et mihi tabula perit ut causa salvetur. Sidonius of
Auvergne was not a subject of Theodoric; but he might be
compelled to solicit either justice or favor at the court of
Thoulouse.]

     When the king of the Visigoths encouraged Avitus to assume
the purple, he offered his person and his forces, as a faithful
soldier of the republic. ^21 The exploits of Theodoric soon
convinced the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike
virtues of his ancestors. After the establishment of the Goths
in Aquitain, and the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the
Suevi, who had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the
conquest of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble
remains of the Roman dominion. The provincials of Carthagena and
Tarragona, afflicted by a hostile invasion, represented their
injuries and their apprehensions. Count Fronto was despatched, in
the name of the emperor Avitus, with advantageous offers of peace
and alliance; and Theodoric interposed his weighty mediation, to
declare, that, unless his brother-in-law, the king of the Suevi,
immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of
justice and of Rome. "Tell him," replied the haughty Rechiarius,
"that I despise his friendship and his arms; but that I shall
soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the
walls of Thoulouse." Such a challenge urged Theodoric to prevent
the bold designs of his enemy; he passed the Pyrenees at the head
of the Visigoths: the Franks and Burgundians served under his
standard; and though he professed himself the dutiful servant of
Avitus, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors,
the absolute possession of his Spanish conquests. The two armies,
or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of
the River Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga; and the
decisive victory of the Goths appeared for a while to have
extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi. From the field of
battle Theodoric advanced to Braga, their metropolis, which still
retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and
dignity. ^22 His entrance was not polluted with blood; and the
Goths respected the chastity of their female captives, more
especially of the consecrated virgins: but the greatest part of
the clergy and people were made slaves, and even the churches and
altars were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate
king of the Suevi had escaped to one of the ports of the ocean;
but the obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight: he was
delivered to his implacable rival; and Rechiarius, who neither
desired nor expected mercy, received, with manly constancy, the
death which he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody
sacrifice to policy or resentment, Theodoric carried his
victorious arms as far as Merida, the principal town of
Lusitania, without meeting any resistance, except from the
miraculous powers of St. Eulalia; but he was stopped in the full
career of success, and recalled from Spain before he could
provide for the security of his conquests. In his retreat
towards the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the
country through which he passed; and, in the sack of Pollentia
and Astorga, he showed himself a faithless ally, as well as a
cruel enemy. Whilst the king of the Visigoths fought and
vanquished in the name of Avitus, the reign of Avitus had
expired; and both the honor and the interest of Theodoric were
deeply wounded by the disgrace of a friend, whom he had seated on
the throne of the Western empire. ^23

[Footnote 21: Theodoric himself had given a solemn and voluntary
promise of fidelity, which was understood both in Gaul and Spain.

     - Romae sum, te duce, Amicus,
     Principe te, Miles.

     Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 511.]

[Footnote 22: Quaeque sinu pelagi jactat se Bracara dives.     
Auson. de Claris Urbibus, p. 245.

From the design of the king of the Suevi, it is evident that the
navigation from the ports of Gallicia to the Mediterranean was
known and practised. The ships of Bracara, or Braga, cautiously
steered along the coast, without daring to lose themselves in the
Atlantic.]

[Footnote 23: This Suevic war is the most authentic part of the
Chronicle of Idatius, who, as bishop of Iria Flavia, was himself
a spectator and a sufferer. Jornandes (c. 44, p. 675, 676, 677)
has expatiated, with pleasure, on the Gothic victory.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.

Part II.

     The pressing solicitations of the senate and people
persuaded the emperor Avitus to fix his residence at Rome, and to
accept the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of
January, his son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his
praises in a panegyric of six hundred verses; but this
composition, though it was rewarded with a brass statue, ^24
seems to contain a very moderate proportion, either of genius or
of truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name,
exaggerates the merit of a sovereign and a father; and his
prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon contradicted by
the event. Avitus, at a time when the Imperial dignity was
reduced to a preeminence of toil and danger, indulged himself in
the pleasures of Italian luxury: age had not extinguished his
amorous inclinations; and he is accused of insulting, with
indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose wives he
had seduced or violated. ^25 But the Romans were not inclined
either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The
several parts of the empire became every day more alienated from
each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular
hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their legitimate claim
in the election of an emperor; and their authority, which had
been originally derived from the old constitution, was again
fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet
even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed
senate, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps
inflamed, by the Count Ricimer, one of the principal commanders
of the Barbarian troops, who formed the military defence of
Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the
mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the father's side,
from the nation of the Suevi; ^26 his pride or patriotism might
be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; and he
obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor in whose elevation he had not
been consulted. His faithful and important services against the
common enemy rendered him still more formidable; ^27 and, after
destroying on the coast of Corsica a fleet of Vandals, which
consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the
appellation of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to
signify to Avitus, that his reign was at an end; and the feeble
emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled,
after a short and unavailing struggle to abdicate the purple. By
the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, ^28 he was
permitted to descend from the throne to the more desirable
station of bishop of Placentia: but the resentment of the senate
was still unsatisfied; and their inflexible severity pronounced
the sentence of his death He fled towards the Alps, with the
humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of
securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one
of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. ^29 Disease, or the hand of
the executioner, arrested him on the road; yet his remains were
decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native
province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. ^30
Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris,
who inherited the patrimony of his father-in-law; lamenting, at
the same time, the disappointment of his public and private
expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least
to countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and
the poet had contracted some guilt, which it was incumbent on him
to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding
emperor. ^31

[Footnote 24: In one of the porticos or galleries belonging to
Trajan's library, among the statues of famous writers and
orators. Sidon. Apoll. l. ix. epist, 16, p. 284. Carm. viii. p.
350.]

[Footnote 25: Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est,
is the concise expression of Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. xi. in
tom. ii. p. 168.) An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649) mentions
an indecent jest of Avitus, which seems more applicable to Rome
than to Treves.]

[Footnote 26: Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 302, &c.) praises the
royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, as he chooses to
insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms.]

[Footnote 27: See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv.
p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et pene tune
in Italia ad ex ercitum singularem.]

[Footnote 28: Parcens innocentiae Aviti, is the compassionate,
but contemptuous, language of Victor Tunnunensis, (in Chron. apud
Scaliger Euseb.) In another place, he calls him, vir totius
simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more
solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius]

[Footnote 29: He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution
of Diocletian, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 279, 696.)
Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory
of Julian the Martyr an entire book, (de Gloria Martyrum, l. ii.
in Max. Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xi. p. 861-871,) in which he
relates about fifty foolish miracles performed by his relics.]
[Footnote 30: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. xi. p. 168) is concise,
but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The words of
Idatius, "cadet imperio, caret et vita," seem to imply, that the
death of Avitus was violent; but it must have been secret, since
Evagrius (l. ii. c. 7) could suppose, that he died of the
plaque.]

[Footnote 31: After a modest appeal to the examples of his
brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the
debt, and promises payment. Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte
cadenti Jussisti placido Victor ut essem animo.
     Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poetae,
     Atque meae vitae laus tua sit pretium.

     Sidon. Apoll. Carm. iv. p. 308

See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, &c.]

     The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a
great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a
degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species. The
emperor Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries,
and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in
the words of a judicious and disinterested historian: "That he
was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his enemies;
and that he excelled, in every virtue, all his predecessors who
had reigned over the Romans." ^32 Such a testimony may justify at
least the panegyric of S donius; and we may acquiesce in the
assurance, that, although the obsequious orator would have
flattered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the
extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion,
within the bounds of truth. ^33 Majorian derived his name from
his maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great
Theodosius, had commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He
gave his daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a
respectable officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with
skill and integrity; and generously preferred the friendship of
Aetius to the tempting offer of an insidious court. His son, the
future emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms,
displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature
wisdom, and unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He
followed the standard of Aetius, contributed to his success,
shared, and sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited
the jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced
him to retire from the service. ^34 Majorian, after the death of
Aetius, was recalled and promoted; and his intimate connection
with Count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended
the throne of the Western empire. During the vacancy that
succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian,
whose birth excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed
Italy with the title of Patrician; resigned to his friend the
conspicuous station of master-general of the cavalry and
infantry; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the
unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favor Majorian had solicited
by a recent victory over the Alemanni. ^35 He was invested with
the purple at Ravenna: and the epistle which he addressed to the
senate, will best describe his situation and his sentiments.
"Your election, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most
valiant army, have made me your emperor. ^36 May the propitious
Deity direct and prosper the counsels and events of my
administration, to your advantage and to the public welfare! For
my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor
should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen if I had
refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight
of those labors, which were imposed by the republic. Assist,
therefore, the prince whom you have made; partake the duties
which you have enjoined; and may our common endeavors promote the
happiness of an empire, which I have accepted from your hands.
Be assured, that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient
vigor, and that virtue shall become, not only innocent, but
meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be
apprehensive of delations, ^37 which, as a subject, I have always
condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own
vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall
regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the
Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic
enemies. ^38 You now understand the maxims of my government; you
may confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a
prince who has formerly been the companion of your life and
dangers; who still glories in the name of senator, and who is
anxious that you should never repent the judgment which you have
pronounced in his favor." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of
the Roman world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty,
which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those
generous sentiments from his own heart; since they were not
suggested to his imitation by the customs of his age, or the
example of his predecessors. ^39

[Footnote 32: The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed
(de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 194;) a concise but
comprehensive definition of royal virtue.]

[Footnote 33: The Panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the
end of the year 458, while the emperor was still consul. It has
more art than genius, and more labor than art. The ornaments are
false and trivial; the expression is feeble and prolix; and
Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a
strong and distinct light. The private life of Majorian occupies
about two hundred lines, 107 - 305.]

[Footnote 34: She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely
satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem that Aetius, like
Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife; whose
fervent piety, though it might work miracles, (Gregor. Turon. l.
ii. c. 7, p. 162,) was not incompatible with base and sanguinary
counsels.]

[Footnote 35: The Alemanni had passed the Rhaetian Alps, and were
defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through
which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula to the
Lago Maggiore, (Cluver Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 100, 101.) This
boasted victory over nine hundred Barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian.
373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy.]
[Footnote 36: Imperatorem me factum, P.C. electionis vestrae
arbitrio, et fortissimi exercitus ordinatione agnoscite, (Novell.
Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem. Cod. Theodos.) Sidonius
proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire: -

      - Postquam ordine vobis
     Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plebs, curia, nules,
     Et collega simul. 386.

This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe,
that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of
the state.]
[Footnote 37: Either dilationes, or delationes would afford a
tolerable reading, but there is much more sense and spirit in the
latter, to which I have therefore given the preference.]

[Footnote 38: Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus:
by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus;
whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this
occasion, Sidonius is fearful and obscure; he describes the
twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, &c., that he may escape
the dangerous name of Avitus (805 - 369.)]
[Footnote 39: See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the
senate, (Novell. tit. iv. p. 34.) Yet the expression, regnum
nostrum, bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly
with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats.]

     The private and public actions of Majorian are very
imperfectly known: but his laws, remarkable for an original cast
of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of
a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathized in their
distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the
empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as such
reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to
the public disorders. ^40 His regulations concerning the finances
manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most
intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he
was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the weary
fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight
of indictions and superindictions. ^41 With this view he granted
a universal amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all
arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the
fiscal officers might demand from the people. This wise
dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims,
improved and purified the sources of the public revenue; and the
subject who could now look back without despair, might labor with
hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the
assessment and collection of taxes, Majorian restored the
ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates; and
suppressed the extraordinary commissions which had been
introduced, in the name of the emperor himself, or of the
Praetorian praefects. The favorite servants, who obtained such
irregular powers, were insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary
in their demands: they affected to despise the subordinate
tribunals, and they were discontented, if their fees and profits
did not twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into
the treasury. One instance of their extortion would appear
incredible, were it not authenticated by the legislator himself.
They exacted the whole payment in gold: but they refused the
current coin of the empire, and would accept only such ancient
pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the
Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious
medals, had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their
rapacious demands; or if he succeeded in the research, his
imposition was doubled, according to the weight and value of the
money of former times. ^42 III. "The municipal corporations,
(says the emperor,) the lesser senates, (so antiquity has justly
styled them,) deserve to be considered as the heart of the
cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are they
now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of
collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity
and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure
exile." He urges, and even compels, their return to their
respective cities; but he removes the grievance which had forced
them to desert the exercise of their municipal functions. They
are directed, under the authority of the provincial magistrates,
to resume their office of levying the tribute; but, instead of
being made responsible for the whole sum assessed on their
district, they are only required to produce a regular account of
the payments which they have actually received, and of the
defaulters who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian
was not ignorant that these corporate bodies were too much
inclined to retaliate the injustice and oppression which they had
suffered; and he therefore revives the useful office of the
defenders of cities. He exhorts the people to elect, in a full
and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who
would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their
grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and
to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the
sanction of his name and authority.

[Footnote 40: See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in
number, but very long, and various) at the end of the Theodosian
Code, Novell. l. iv. p. 32 - 37. Godefroy has not given any
commentary on these additional pieces.]
[Footnote 41: Fessas provincialium varia atque multiplici
tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscalium
solutionum oneribus attritas, &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. iv. p.
34.]

[Footnote 42: The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has
found, by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed
one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only
sixty-eight, English grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold
coin, excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not
in the weight, but in the standard.]
     The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of
ancient Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and
Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor
power, nor perhaps inclination, to perpetrate. The tempest of
war might strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the
destruction which undermined the foundations of those massy
fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of
ten centuries; and the motives of interest, that afterwards
operated without shame or control, were severely checked by the
taste and spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city
had gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus
and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the
desires of the people: the temples, which had escaped the zeal of
the Christians, were no longer inhabited, either by gods or men;
the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense
space of their baths and porticos; and the stately libraries and
halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose
repose was seldom disturbed, either by study or business. The
monuments of consular, or Imperial, greatness were no longer
revered, as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only
esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper, and more
convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were
continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, which
stated the want of stones or bricks, for some necessary service:
the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced, for the
sake of some paltry, or pretended, repairs; and the degenerate
Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument,
demolished, with sacrilegious hands, the labors of their
ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of
the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. ^43 He
reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the
extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient
edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand
pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant
such illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise
the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe
whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last
instance, the legislator might seem to forget the proportion of
guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous
principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of
those ages, in which he would have desired and deserved to live.
The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the
number of his subjects; and that it was his duty to guard the
purity of the marriage-bed: but the means which he employed to
accomplish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and
perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated
their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil
till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age
were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five
years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest
relations, or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or
annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so
inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal
returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of
Majorian, be slain with impunity. ^44
[Footnote 43: The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35)
is curious. "Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio;
et ut aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio
nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum aedificium construens,
per gratiam judicum ..... praesumere de publicis locis
necessaria, et transferre non dubitet" &c. With equal zeal, but
with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated
the same complaints. (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327.) If
I prosecute this history, I shall not be unmindful of the decline
and fall of the city of Rome; an interesting object to which any
plan was originally confined.]

[Footnote 44: The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular
of Tuscany in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost
like personal resentment, (Novell. tit. ix. p. 47.) The law of
Majorian, which punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards
repealed by his successor Severus, (Novell. Sever. tit. i. p.
37.)]

     While the emperor Majorian assiduously labored to restore
the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered the arms
of Genseric, from his character and situation their most
formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the
mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano; but the Imperial troops
surprised and attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were
encumbered with the spoils of Campania; they were chased with
slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's
brother-in-law, was found in the number of the slain. ^45 Such
vigilance might announce the character of the new reign; but the
strictest vigilance, and the most numerous forces, were
insufficient to protect the long-extended coast of Italy from the
depredations of a naval war. The public opinion had imposed a
nobler and more arduous task on the genius of Majorian. Rome
expected from him alone the restitution of Africa; and the
design, which he formed, of attacking the Vandals in their new
settlements, was the result of bold and judicious policy. If the
intrepid emperor could have infused his own spirit into the youth
of Italy; if he could have revived in the field of Mars, the
manly exercises in which he had always surpassed his equals; he
might have marched against Genseric at the head of a Roman army.
Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the
rising generation; but it is the misfortune of those princes who
laboriously sustain a declining monarchy, that, to obtain some
immediate advantage, or to avert some impending danger, they are
forced to countenance, and even to multiply, the most pernicious
abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was
reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting Barbarian
auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects: and his
superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigor and
dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to
recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who
were already engaged in the service of the empire, the fame of
his liberality and valor attracted the nations of the Danube, the
Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the
bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidae, the Ostrogoths, the
Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the
plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by
their mutual animosities. ^46 They passed the Alps in a severe
winter. The emperor led the way, on foot, and in complete armor;
sounding, with his long staff, the depth of the ice, or snow, and
encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by
the cheerful assurance, that they should be satisfied with the
heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their
gates; they soon implored, and experienced, the clemency of
Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and admitted to
his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy
of his arms. The beneficial, though precarious, reunion of the
greater part of Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as
well as of force; ^47 and the independent Bagaudae, who had
escaped, or resisted, the oppression, of former reigns, were
disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was
filled with Barbarian allies; his throne was supported by the
zeal of an affectionate people; but the emperor had foreseen,
that it was impossible, without a maritime power, to achieve the
conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war, the republic had
exerted such incredible diligence, that, within sixty days after
the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet
of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the
sea. ^48 Under circumstances much less favorable, Majorian
equalled the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The
woods of the Apennine were felled; the arsenals and manufactures
of Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy and Gaul vied with
each other in liberal contributions to the public service; and
the Imperial navy of three hundred large galleys, with an
adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was
collected in the secure and capacious harbor of Carthagena in
Spain. ^49 The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his
troops with a confidence of victory; and, if we might credit the
historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the
bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the
state of the Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the color of
his hair, to visit Carthage, in the character of his own
ambassador: and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the
discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the emperor of
the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable
fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined,
unless in the life of a hero. ^50
[Footnote 45: Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian, 385 - 440.]

[Footnote 46: The review of the army, and passage of the Alps,
contain the most tolerable passages of the Panegyric, (470 -
552.) M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom. viii. p. 49 - 55
is a more satisfactory commentator, than either Savaron or
Sirmond.]

[Footnote 47: It is the just and forcible distinction of Priscus,
(Excerpt. Legat. p. 42,) in a short fragment, which throws much
light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed the
defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly
proclaimed in Gallicia; and are marked in the Chronicle of
Idatius.]

[Footnote 48: Florus, l. ii. c. 2. He amuses himself with the
poetical fancy, that the trees had been transformed into ships;
and indeed the whole transaction, as it is related in the first
book of Polybius, deviates too much from the probable course of
human events.]

[Footnote 49: Iterea duplici texis dum littore classem
               Inferno superoque mari, cadit omnis in aequor     

         Sylva tibi, &c.

               Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian, 441-461.

The number of ships, which Priscus fixed at 300, is magnified, by
an indefinite comparison with the fleets of Agamemnon, Xerxes,
and Augustus.]
[Footnote 50: Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 8, p. 194.
When Genseric conducted his unknown guest into the arsenal of
Carthage, the arms clashed of their own accord. Majorian had
tinged his yellow locks with a black color.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.

Part II.

     The pressing solicitations of the senate and people
persuaded the emperor Avitus to fix his residence at Rome, and to
accept the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of
January, his son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his
praises in a panegyric of six hundred verses; but this
composition, though it was rewarded with a brass statue, ^24
seems to contain a very moderate proportion, either of genius or
of truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name,
exaggerates the merit of a sovereign and a father; and his
prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon contradicted by
the event. Avitus, at a time when the Imperial dignity was
reduced to a preeminence of toil and danger, indulged himself in
the pleasures of Italian luxury: age had not extinguished his
amorous inclinations; and he is accused of insulting, with
indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose wives he
had seduced or violated. ^25 But the Romans were not inclined
either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The
several parts of the empire became every day more alienated from
each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular
hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their legitimate claim
in the election of an emperor; and their authority, which had
been originally derived from the old constitution, was again
fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet
even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed
senate, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps
inflamed, by the Count Ricimer, one of the principal commanders
of the Barbarian troops, who formed the military defence of
Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the
mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the father's side,
from the nation of the Suevi; ^26 his pride or patriotism might
be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; and he
obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor in whose elevation he had not
been consulted. His faithful and important services against the
common enemy rendered him still more formidable; ^27 and, after
destroying on the coast of Corsica a fleet of Vandals, which
consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the
appellation of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to
signify to Avitus, that his reign was at an end; and the feeble
emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled,
after a short and unavailing struggle to abdicate the purple. By
the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, ^28 he was
permitted to descend from the throne to the more desirable
station of bishop of Placentia: but the resentment of the senate
was still unsatisfied; and their inflexible severity pronounced
the sentence of his death He fled towards the Alps, with the
humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of
securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one
of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. ^29 Disease, or the hand of
the executioner, arrested him on the road; yet his remains were
decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native
province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. ^30
Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris,
who inherited the patrimony of his father-in-law; lamenting, at
the same time, the disappointment of his public and private
expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least
to countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and
the poet had contracted some guilt, which it was incumbent on him
to expiate, by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding
emperor. ^31

[Footnote 24: In one of the porticos or galleries belonging to
Trajan's library, among the statues of famous writers and
orators. Sidon. Apoll. l. ix. epist, 16, p. 284. Carm. viii. p.
350.]

[Footnote 25: Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est,
is the concise expression of Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. xi. in
tom. ii. p. 168.) An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649) mentions
an indecent jest of Avitus, which seems more applicable to Rome
than to Treves.]

[Footnote 26: Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 302, &c.) praises the
royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, as he chooses to
insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms.]

[Footnote 27: See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv.
p. 676) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et pene tune
in Italia ad ex ercitum singularem.]

[Footnote 28: Parcens innocentiae Aviti, is the compassionate,
but contemptuous, language of Victor Tunnunensis, (in Chron. apud
Scaliger Euseb.) In another place, he calls him, vir totius
simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more
solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius]

[Footnote 29: He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution
of Diocletian, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 279, 696.)
Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory
of Julian the Martyr an entire book, (de Gloria Martyrum, l. ii.
in Max. Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xi. p. 861-871,) in which he
relates about fifty foolish miracles performed by his relics.]
[Footnote 30: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. xi. p. 168) is concise,
but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The words of
Idatius, "cadet imperio, caret et vita," seem to imply, that the
death of Avitus was violent; but it must have been secret, since
Evagrius (l. ii. c. 7) could suppose, that he died of the
plaque.]

[Footnote 31: After a modest appeal to the examples of his
brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the
debt, and promises payment. Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte
cadenti Jussisti placido Victor ut essem animo.
     Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poetae,
     Atque meae vitae laus tua sit pretium.

     Sidon. Apoll. Carm. iv. p. 308

See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, &c.]

     The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a
great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a
degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species. The
emperor Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries,
and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in
the words of a judicious and disinterested historian: "That he
was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his enemies;
and that he excelled, in every virtue, all his predecessors who
had reigned over the Romans." ^32 Such a testimony may justify at
least the panegyric of S donius; and we may acquiesce in the
assurance, that, although the obsequious orator would have
flattered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the
extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion,
within the bounds of truth. ^33 Majorian derived his name from
his maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great
Theodosius, had commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He
gave his daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a
respectable officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with
skill and integrity; and generously preferred the friendship of
Aetius to the tempting offer of an insidious court. His son, the
future emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms,
displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature
wisdom, and unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He
followed the standard of Aetius, contributed to his success,
shared, and sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited
the jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced
him to retire from the service. ^34 Majorian, after the death of
Aetius, was recalled and promoted; and his intimate connection
with Count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended
the throne of the Western empire. During the vacancy that
succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian,
whose birth excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed
Italy with the title of Patrician; resigned to his friend the
conspicuous station of master-general of the cavalry and
infantry; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the
unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favor Majorian had solicited
by a recent victory over the Alemanni. ^35 He was invested with
the purple at Ravenna: and the epistle which he addressed to the
senate, will best describe his situation and his sentiments.
"Your election, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most
valiant army, have made me your emperor. ^36 May the propitious
Deity direct and prosper the counsels and events of my
administration, to your advantage and to the public welfare! For
my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor
should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen if I had
refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight
of those labors, which were imposed by the republic. Assist,
therefore, the prince whom you have made; partake the duties
which you have enjoined; and may our common endeavors promote the
happiness of an empire, which I have accepted from your hands.
Be assured, that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient
vigor, and that virtue shall become, not only innocent, but
meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be
apprehensive of delations, ^37 which, as a subject, I have always
condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own
vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall
regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the
Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic
enemies. ^38 You now understand the maxims of my government; you
may confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a
prince who has formerly been the companion of your life and
dangers; who still glories in the name of senator, and who is
anxious that you should never repent the judgment which you have
pronounced in his favor." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of
the Roman world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty,
which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those
generous sentiments from his own heart; since they were not
suggested to his imitation by the customs of his age, or the
example of his predecessors. ^39

[Footnote 32: The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed
(de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 194;) a concise but
comprehensive definition of royal virtue.]

[Footnote 33: The Panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the
end of the year 458, while the emperor was still consul. It has
more art than genius, and more labor than art. The ornaments are
false and trivial; the expression is feeble and prolix; and
Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a
strong and distinct light. The private life of Majorian occupies
about two hundred lines, 107 - 305.]

[Footnote 34: She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely
satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem that Aetius, like
Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife; whose
fervent piety, though it might work miracles, (Gregor. Turon. l.
ii. c. 7, p. 162,) was not incompatible with base and sanguinary
counsels.]

[Footnote 35: The Alemanni had passed the Rhaetian Alps, and were
defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through
which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula to the
Lago Maggiore, (Cluver Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 100, 101.) This
boasted victory over nine hundred Barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian.
373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy.]
[Footnote 36: Imperatorem me factum, P.C. electionis vestrae
arbitrio, et fortissimi exercitus ordinatione agnoscite, (Novell.
Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem. Cod. Theodos.) Sidonius
proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire: -

      - Postquam ordine vobis
     Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plebs, curia, nules,
     Et collega simul. 386.

This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe,
that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of
the state.]
[Footnote 37: Either dilationes, or delationes would afford a
tolerable reading, but there is much more sense and spirit in the
latter, to which I have therefore given the preference.]

[Footnote 38: Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus:
by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus;
whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this
occasion, Sidonius is fearful and obscure; he describes the
twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, &c., that he may escape
the dangerous name of Avitus (805 - 369.)]
[Footnote 39: See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the
senate, (Novell. tit. iv. p. 34.) Yet the expression, regnum
nostrum, bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly
with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats.]

     The private and public actions of Majorian are very
imperfectly known: but his laws, remarkable for an original cast
of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of
a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathized in their
distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the
empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as such
reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to
the public disorders. ^40 His regulations concerning the finances
manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most
intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he
was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the weary
fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight
of indictions and superindictions. ^41 With this view he granted
a universal amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all
arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the
fiscal officers might demand from the people. This wise
dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims,
improved and purified the sources of the public revenue; and the
subject who could now look back without despair, might labor with
hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the
assessment and collection of taxes, Majorian restored the
ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates; and
suppressed the extraordinary commissions which had been
introduced, in the name of the emperor himself, or of the
Praetorian praefects. The favorite servants, who obtained such
irregular powers, were insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary
in their demands: they affected to despise the subordinate
tribunals, and they were discontented, if their fees and profits
did not twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into
the treasury. One instance of their extortion would appear
incredible, were it not authenticated by the legislator himself.
They exacted the whole payment in gold: but they refused the
current coin of the empire, and would accept only such ancient
pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the
Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious
medals, had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their
rapacious demands; or if he succeeded in the research, his
imposition was doubled, according to the weight and value of the
money of former times. ^42 III. "The municipal corporations,
(says the emperor,) the lesser senates, (so antiquity has justly
styled them,) deserve to be considered as the heart of the
cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are they
now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of
collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity
and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure
exile." He urges, and even compels, their return to their
respective cities; but he removes the grievance which had forced
them to desert the exercise of their municipal functions. They
are directed, under the authority of the provincial magistrates,
to resume their office of levying the tribute; but, instead of
being made responsible for the whole sum assessed on their
district, they are only required to produce a regular account of
the payments which they have actually received, and of the
defaulters who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian
was not ignorant that these corporate bodies were too much
inclined to retaliate the injustice and oppression which they had
suffered; and he therefore revives the useful office of the
defenders of cities. He exhorts the people to elect, in a full
and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who
would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their
grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and
to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the
sanction of his name and authority.

[Footnote 40: See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in
number, but very long, and various) at the end of the Theodosian
Code, Novell. l. iv. p. 32 - 37. Godefroy has not given any
commentary on these additional pieces.]
[Footnote 41: Fessas provincialium varia atque multiplici
tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscalium
solutionum oneribus attritas, &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. iv. p.
34.]

[Footnote 42: The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has
found, by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed
one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only
sixty-eight, English grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold
coin, excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not
in the weight, but in the standard.]
     The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of
ancient Rome, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and
Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor
power, nor perhaps inclination, to perpetrate. The tempest of
war might strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the
destruction which undermined the foundations of those massy
fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of
ten centuries; and the motives of interest, that afterwards
operated without shame or control, were severely checked by the
taste and spirit of the emperor Majorian. The decay of the city
had gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus
and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the
desires of the people: the temples, which had escaped the zeal of
the Christians, were no longer inhabited, either by gods or men;
the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense
space of their baths and porticos; and the stately libraries and
halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose
repose was seldom disturbed, either by study or business. The
monuments of consular, or Imperial, greatness were no longer
revered, as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only
esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper, and more
convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were
continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, which
stated the want of stones or bricks, for some necessary service:
the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced, for the
sake of some paltry, or pretended, repairs; and the degenerate
Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument,
demolished, with sacrilegious hands, the labors of their
ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of
the city, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. ^43 He
reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the
extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient
edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand
pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant
such illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise
the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe
whipping, and the amputation of both their hands. In the last
instance, the legislator might seem to forget the proportion of
guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous
principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of
those ages, in which he would have desired and deserved to live.
The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to increase the
number of his subjects; and that it was his duty to guard the
purity of the marriage-bed: but the means which he employed to
accomplish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and
perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated
their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil
till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age
were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five
years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest
relations, or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or
annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so
inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal
returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of
Majorian, be slain with impunity. ^44
[Footnote 43: The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35)
is curious. "Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio;
et ut aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio
nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum aedificium construens,
per gratiam judicum ..... praesumere de publicis locis
necessaria, et transferre non dubitet" &c. With equal zeal, but
with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated
the same complaints. (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327.) If
I prosecute this history, I shall not be unmindful of the decline
and fall of the city of Rome; an interesting object to which any
plan was originally confined.]

[Footnote 44: The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular
of Tuscany in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost
like personal resentment, (Novell. tit. ix. p. 47.) The law of
Majorian, which punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards
repealed by his successor Severus, (Novell. Sever. tit. i. p.
37.)]

     While the emperor Majorian assiduously labored to restore
the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered the arms
of Genseric, from his character and situation their most
formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the
mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano; but the Imperial troops
surprised and attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were
encumbered with the spoils of Campania; they were chased with
slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's
brother-in-law, was found in the number of the slain. ^45 Such
vigilance might announce the character of the new reign; but the
strictest vigilance, and the most numerous forces, were
insufficient to protect the long-extended coast of Italy from the
depredations of a naval war. The public opinion had imposed a
nobler and more arduous task on the genius of Majorian. Rome
expected from him alone the restitution of Africa; and the
design, which he formed, of attacking the Vandals in their new
settlements, was the result of bold and judicious policy. If the
intrepid emperor could have infused his own spirit into the youth
of Italy; if he could have revived in the field of Mars, the
manly exercises in which he had always surpassed his equals; he
might have marched against Genseric at the head of a Roman army.
Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the
rising generation; but it is the misfortune of those princes who
laboriously sustain a declining monarchy, that, to obtain some
immediate advantage, or to avert some impending danger, they are
forced to countenance, and even to multiply, the most pernicious
abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was
reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting Barbarian
auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects: and his
superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigor and
dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to
recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who
were already engaged in the service of the empire, the fame of
his liberality and valor attracted the nations of the Danube, the
Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the
bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidae, the Ostrogoths, the
Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the
plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by
their mutual animosities. ^46 They passed the Alps in a severe
winter. The emperor led the way, on foot, and in complete armor;
sounding, with his long staff, the depth of the ice, or snow, and
encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by
the cheerful assurance, that they should be satisfied with the
heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their
gates; they soon implored, and experienced, the clemency of
Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and admitted to
his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy
of his arms. The beneficial, though precarious, reunion of the
greater part of Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as
well as of force; ^47 and the independent Bagaudae, who had
escaped, or resisted, the oppression, of former reigns, were
disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was
filled with Barbarian allies; his throne was supported by the
zeal of an affectionate people; but the emperor had foreseen,
that it was impossible, without a maritime power, to achieve the
conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war, the republic had
exerted such incredible diligence, that, within sixty days after
the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet
of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the
sea. ^48 Under circumstances much less favorable, Majorian
equalled the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The
woods of the Apennine were felled; the arsenals and manufactures
of Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy and Gaul vied with
each other in liberal contributions to the public service; and
the Imperial navy of three hundred large galleys, with an
adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was
collected in the secure and capacious harbor of Carthagena in
Spain. ^49 The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his
troops with a confidence of victory; and, if we might credit the
historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the
bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the
state of the Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the color of
his hair, to visit Carthage, in the character of his own
ambassador: and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the
discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the emperor of
the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable
fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined,
unless in the life of a hero. ^50
[Footnote 45: Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian, 385 - 440.]

[Footnote 46: The review of the army, and passage of the Alps,
contain the most tolerable passages of the Panegyric, (470 -
552.) M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom. viii. p. 49 - 55
is a more satisfactory commentator, than either Savaron or
Sirmond.]

[Footnote 47: It is the just and forcible distinction of Priscus,
(Excerpt. Legat. p. 42,) in a short fragment, which throws much
light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed the
defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly
proclaimed in Gallicia; and are marked in the Chronicle of
Idatius.]

[Footnote 48: Florus, l. ii. c. 2. He amuses himself with the
poetical fancy, that the trees had been transformed into ships;
and indeed the whole transaction, as it is related in the first
book of Polybius, deviates too much from the probable course of
human events.]

[Footnote 49: Iterea duplici texis dum littore classem
               Inferno superoque mari, cadit omnis in aequor     

         Sylva tibi, &c.

               Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian, 441-461.

The number of ships, which Priscus fixed at 300, is magnified, by
an indefinite comparison with the fleets of Agamemnon, Xerxes,
and Augustus.]

[Footnote 50: Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 8, p. 194.
When Genseric conducted his unknown guest into the arsenal of
Carthage, the arms clashed of their own accord. Majorian had
tinged his yellow locks with a black color.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.

Part III.

     Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was
sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of his
adversary. He practiced his customary arts of fraud and delay,
but he practiced them without success. His applications for peace
became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere; but
the inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Rome
could not be safe, as long as Carthage existed in a hostile
state. The king of the Vandals distrusted the valor of his
native subjects, who were enervated by the luxury of the South;
^51 he suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, who
abhorred him as an Arian tyrant; and the desperate measure, which
he executed, of reducing Mauritania into a desert, ^52 could not
defeat the operations of the Roman emperor, who was at liberty to
land his troops on any part of the African coast. But Genseric
was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery of
some powerful subjects, envious, or apprehensive, of their
master's success. Guided by their secret intelligence, he
surprised the unguarded fleet in the Bay of Carthagena: many of
the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the preparations of
three years were destroyed in a single day. ^53 After this event,
the behavior of the two antagonists showed them superior to their
fortune. The Vandal, instead of being elated by this accidental
victory, immediately renewed his solicitations for peace. The
emperor of the West, who was capable of forming great designs,
and of supporting heavy disappointments, consented to a treaty,
or rather to a suspension of arms; in the full assurance that,
before he could restore his navy, he should be supplied with
provocations to justify a second war. Majorian returned to Italy,
to prosecute his labors for the public happiness; and, as he was
conscious of his own integrity, he might long remain ignorant of
the dark conspiracy which threatened his throne and his life.
The recent misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had
dazzled the eyes of the multitude; almost every description of
civil and military officers were exasperated against the
Reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses
which he endeavored to suppress; and the patrician Ricimer
impelled the inconstant passions of the Barbarians against a
prince whom he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could
not protect him from the impetuous sedition, which broke out in
the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the Alps. He was compelled
to abdicate the Imperial purple: five days after his abdication,
it was reported that he died of a dysentery; ^54 and the humble
tomb, which covered his remains, was consecrated by the respect
and gratitude of succeeding generations. ^55 The private
character of Majorian inspired love and respect. Malicious
calumny and satire excited his indignation, or, if he himself
were the object, his contempt; but he protected the freedom of
wit, and, in the hours which the emperor gave to the familiar
society of his friends, he could indulge his taste for
pleasantry, without degrading the majesty of his rank. ^56
[Footnote 51: Spoliisque potitus
               Immensis, robux luxu jam perdidit omne,
               Quo valuit dum pauper erat.

               Panegyr. Majorian, 330.

He afterwards applies to Genseric, unjustly, as it should seem,
the vices of his subjects.]

[Footnote 52: He burnt the villages, and poisoned the springs,
(Priscus, p. 42.) Dubos (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 475)
observes, that the magazines which the Moors buried in the earth
might escape his destructive search. Two or three hundred pits
are sometimes dug in the same place; and each pit contains at
least four hundred bushels of corn Shaw's Travels, p. 139.]
[Footnote 53: Idatius, who was safe in Gallicia from the power of
Recimer boldly and honestly declares, Vandali per proditeres
admoniti, &c: i. e. dissembles, however, the name of the
traitor.]

[Footnote 54: Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. i. c. 8, p. 194.
The testimony of Idatius is fair and impartial: "Majorianum de
Galliis Romam redeuntem, et Romano imperio vel nomini res
necessarias ordinantem; Richimer livore percitus, et invidorum
consilio fultus, fraude interficit circumventum." Some read
Suevorum, and I am unwilling to efface either of the words, as
they express the different accomplices who united in the
conspiracy against Majorian.]

[Footnote 55: See the Epigrams of Ennodius, No. cxxxv. inter
Sirmond. Opera, tom. i. p. 1903. It is flat and obscure; but
Ennodius was made bishop of Pavia fifty years after the death of
Majorian, and his praise deserves credit and regard.]

[Footnote 56: Sidonius gives a tedious account (l. i. epist. xi.
p. 25-31) of a supper at Arles, to which he was invited by
Majorian, a short time before his death. He had no intention of
praising a deceased emperor: but a casual disinterested remark,
"Subrisit Augustus; ut erat, auctoritate servata, cum se
communioni dedisset, joci plenus," outweighs the six hundred
lines of his venal panegyric.]

     It was not, perhaps, without some regret, that Ricimer
sacrificed his friend to the interest of his ambition: but he
resolved, in a second choice, to avoid the imprudent preference
of superior virtue and merit. At his command, the obsequious
senate of Rome bestowed the Imperial title on Libius Severus, who
ascended the throne of the West without emerging from the
obscurity of a private condition. History has scarcely deigned
to notice his birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.
Severus expired, as soon as his life became inconvenient to his
patron; ^57 and it would be useless to discriminate his nominal
reign in the vacant interval of six years, between the death of
Majorian and the elevation of Anthemius. During that period, the
government was in the hands of Ricimer alone; and, although the
modest Barbarian disclaimed the name of king, he accumulated
treasures, formed a separate army, negotiated private alliances,
and ruled Italy with the same independent and despotic authority,
which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his
dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman generals,
Marcellinus and Aegidius, maintained their allegiance to the
republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled
an emperor. Marcellinus still adhered to the old religion; and
the devout Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church
and state, applauded his profound skill in the science of
divination. But he possessed the more valuable qualifications of
learning, virtue, and courage; ^58 the study of the Latin
literature had improved his taste; and his military talents had
recommended him to the esteem and confidence of the great Aetius,
in whose ruin he was involved. By a timely flight, Marcellinus
escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his liberty
amidst the convulsions of the Western empire. His voluntary, or
reluctant, submission to the authority of Majorian, was rewarded
by the government of Sicily, and the command of an army,
stationed in that island to oppose, or to attack, the Vandals;
but his Barbarian mercenaries, after the emperor's death, were
tempted to revolt by the artful liberality of Ricimer. At the
head of a band of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus
occupied the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of patrician
of the West, secured the love of his subjects by a mild and
equitable reign, built a fleet which claimed the dominion of the
Adriatic, and alternately alarmed the coasts of Italy and of
Africa. ^59 Aegidius, the master-general of Gaul, who equalled,
or at least who imitated, the heroes of ancient Rome, ^60
proclaimed his immortal resentment against the assassins of his
beloved master. A brave and numerous army was attached to his
standard: and, though he was prevented by the arts of Ricimer,
and the arms of the Visigoths, from marching to the gates of
Rome, he maintained his independent sovereignty beyond the Alps,
and rendered the name of Aegidius, respectable both in peace and
war. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful
follies of Childeric, elected the Roman general for their king:
his vanity, rather than his ambition, was gratified by that
singular honor; and when the nation, at the end of four years,
repented of the injury which they had offered to the Merovingian
family, he patiently acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful
prince. The authority of Aegidius ended only with his life, and
the suspicions of poison and secret violence, which derived some
countenance from the character of Ricimer, were eagerly
entertained by the passionate credulity of the Gauls. ^61

[Footnote 57: Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 317) dismisses him to
heaven: -                Auxerat Augustus naturae lege Severus   

           Divorum numerum.

And an old list of the emperors, composed about the time of
Justinian, praises his piety, and fixes his residence at Rome,
(Sirmond. Not. ad Sidon. p. 111, 112.)]

[Footnote 58: Tillemont, who is always scandalized by the virtues
of infidels, attributes this advantageous portrait of Marcellinus
(which Suidas has preserved) to the partial zeal of some Pagan
historian, (Hist. des Empereurs. tom. vi. p. 330.)]

[Footnote 59: Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191. In
various circumstances of the life of Marcellinus, it is not easy
to reconcile the Greek historian with the Latin Chronicles of the
times.]

[Footnote 60: I must apply to Aegidius the praises which Sidonius
(Panegyr Majorian, 553) bestows on a nameless master-general, who
commanded the rear-guard of Majorian. Idatius, from public
report, commends his Christian piety; and Priscus mentions (p.
42) his military virtues.]
[Footnote 61: Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 168. The
Pere Daniel, whose ideas were superficial and modern, has started
some objections against the story of Childeric, (Hist. de France,
tom. i. Preface Historique, p. lxxvii., &c.:) but they have been
fairly satisfied by Dubos, (Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 460-510,)
and by two authors who disputed the prize of the Academy of
Soissons, (p. 131-177, 310-339.) With regard to the term of
Childeric's exile, it is necessary either to prolong the life of
Aegidius beyond the date assigned by the Chronicle of Idatius or
to correct the text of Gregory, by reading quarto anno, instead
of octavo.]

     The kingdom of Italy, a name to which the Western empire was
gradually reduced, was afflicted, under the reign of Ricimer, by
the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. ^62 In the
spring of each year, they equipped a formidable navy in the port
of Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age,
still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His
designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy, till the moment
that he hoisted sail. When he was asked, by his pilot, what
course he should steer, "Leave the determination to the winds,
(replied the Barbarian, with pious arrogance;) they will
transport us to the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have provoked
the divine justice;" but if Genseric himself deigned to issue
more precise orders, he judged the most wealthy to be the most
criminal. The Vandals repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain,
Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria,
Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily: they were tempted
to subdue the Island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the
centre of the Mediterranean; and their arms spread desolation, or
terror, from the columns of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile.
As they were more ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom
attacked any fortified cities, or engaged any regular troops in
the open field. But the celerity of their motions enabled them,
almost at the same time, to threaten and to attack the most
distant objects, which attracted their desires; and as they
always embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no sooner
landed, than they swept the dismayed country with a body of light
cavalry. Yet, notwithstanding the example of their king, the
native Vandals and Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and
perilous warfare; the hardy generation of the first conquerors
was almost extinguished, and their sons, who were born in Africa,
enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which had been acquired
by the valor of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied
by a various multitude of Moors and Romans, of captives and
outlaws; and those desperate wretches, who had already violated
the laws of their country, were the most eager to promote the
atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of Genseric. In the
treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his
avarice, and sometimes indulged his cruelty; and the massacre of
five hundred noble citizens of Zant or Zacynthus, whose mangled
bodies he cast into the Ionian Sea, was imputed, by the public
indignation, to his latest posterity.

[Footnote 62: The naval war of Genseric is described by Priscus,
(Excerpta Legation. p. 42,) Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c.
5, p. 189, 190, and c. 22, p. 228,) Victor Vitensis, (de
Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 17, and Ruinart, p. 467-481,) and in
three panegyrics of Sidonius, whose chronological order is
absurdly transposed in the editions both of Savaron and Sirmond.
(Avit. Carm. vii. 441-451. Majorian. Carm. v. 327-350, 385- 440.

Anthem. Carm. ii. 348-386) In one passage the poet seems inspired
by his subject, and expresses a strong idea by a lively image: -
      - Hinc Vandalus hostis
     Urget; et in nostrum numerosa classe quotannis
     Militat excidium; conversoque ordine Fati
     Torrida Caucaseos infert mihi Byrsa furoree]

     Such crimes could not be excused by any provocations; but
the war, which the king of the Vandals prosecuted against the
Roman empire was justified by a specious and reasonable motive.
The widow of Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from
Rome to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the Theodosian house;
her elder daughter, Eudocia, became the reluctant wife of
Hunneric, his eldest son; and the stern father, asserting a legal
claim, which could not easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a
just proportion of the Imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at
least a valuable, compensation, was offered by the Eastern
emperor, to purchase a necessary peace. Eudoxia and her younger
daughter, Placidia, were honorably restored, and the fury of the
Vandals was confined to the limits of the Western empire. The
Italians, destitute of a naval force, which alone was capable of
protecting their coasts, implored the aid of the more fortunate
nations of the East; who had formerly acknowledged, in peace and
war, the supremacy of Rome. But the perpetual divisions of the
two empires had alienated their interest and their inclinations;
the faith of a recent treaty was alleged; and the Western Romans,
instead of arms and ships, could only obtain the assistance of a
cold and ineffectual mediation. The haughty Ricimer, who had long
struggled with the difficulties of his situation, was at length
reduced to address the throne of Constantinople, in the humble
language of a subject; and Italy submitted, as the price and
security to accept a master from the choice of the emperor of the
East. ^63 It is not the purpose of the present chapter, or even
of the present volume, to continue the distinct series of the
Byzantine history; but a concise view of the reign and character
of the emperor Leo, may explain the last efforts that were
attempted to save the falling empire of the West. ^64
[Footnote 63: The poet himself is compelled to acknowledge the
distress of Ricimer: -

     Praeterea invictus Ricimer, quem publica fata
     Respiciunt, proprio solas vix Marte repellit
     Piratam per rura vagum.

Italy addresses her complaint to the Tyber, and Rome, at the
solicitation of the river god, transports herself to
Constantinople, renounces her ancient claims, and implores the
friendship of Aurora, the goddess of the East. This fabulous
machinery, which the genius of Claudian had used and abused, is
the constant and miserable resource of the muse of Sidonius.]
[Footnote 64: The original authors of the reigns of Marcian, Leo,
and Zeno, are reduced to some imperfect fragments, whose
deficiencies must be supplied from the more recent compilations
of Theophanes, Zonaras, and Cedrenus.]
     Since the death of the younger Theodosius, the domestic
repose of Constantinople had never been interrupted by war or
faction. Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, and the sceptre of the
East, on the modest virtue of Marcian: he gratefully reverenced
her august rank and virgin chastity; and, after her death, he
gave his people the example of the religious worship that was due
to the memory of the Imperial saint. ^65 Attentive to the
prosperity of his own dominions, Marcian seemed to behold, with
indifference, the misfortunes of Rome; and the obstinate refusal
of a brave and active prince, to draw his sword against the
Vandals, was ascribed to a secret promise, which had formerly
been exacted from him when he was a captive in the power of
Genseric. ^66 The death of Marcian, after a reign of seven years,
would have exposed the East to the danger of a popular election;
if the superior weight of a single family had not been able to
incline the balance in favor of the candidate whose interest they
supported. The patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on
his own head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene creed. ^67
During three generations, the armies of the East were
successively commanded by his father, by himself, and by his son
Ardaburius; his Barbarian guards formed a military force that
overawed the palace and the capital; and the liberal distribution
of his immense treasures rendered Aspar as popular as he was
powerful. He recommended the obscure name of Leo of Thrace, a
military tribune, and the principal steward of his household.
His nomination was unanimously ratified by the senate; and the
servant of Aspar received the Imperial crown from the hands of
the patriarch or bishop, who was permitted to express, by this
unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity. ^68 This emperor,
the first of the name of Leo, has been distinguished by the title
of the Great; from a succession of princes, who gradually fixed
in the opinion of the Greeks a very humble standard of heroic, or
at least of royal, perfection. Yet the temperate firmness with
which Leo resisted the oppression of his benefactor, showed that
he was conscious of his duty and of his prerogative. Aspar was
astonished to find that his influence could no longer appoint a
praefect of Constantinople: he presumed to reproach his sovereign
with a breach of promise, and insolently shaking his purple, "It
is not proper, (said he,) that the man who is invested with this
garment, should be guilty of lying." "Nor is it proper, (replied
Leo,) that a prince should be compelled to resign his own
judgment, and the public interest, to the will of a subject."69
After this extraordinary scene, it was impossible that the
reconciliation of the emperor and the patrician could be sincere;
or, at least, that it could be solid and permanent. An army of
Isaurians ^70 was secretly levied, and introduced into
Constantinople; and while Leo undermined the authority, and
prepared the disgrace, of the family of Aspar, his mild and
cautious behavior restrained them from any rash and desperate
attempts, which might have been fatal to themselves, or their
enemies. The measures of peace and war were affected by this
internal revolution. As long as Aspar degraded the majesty of
the throne, the secret correspondence of religion and interest
engaged him to favor the cause of Genseric. When Leo had
delivered himself from that ignominious servitude, he listened to
the complaints of the Italians; resolved to extirpate the tyranny
of the Vandals; and declared his alliance with his colleague,
Anthemius, whom he solemnly invested with the diadem and purple
of the West.

[Footnote 65: St. Pulcheria died A.D. 453, four years before her
nominal husband; and her festival is celebrated on the 10th of
September by the modern Greeks: she bequeathed an immense
patrimony to pious, or, at least, to ecclesiastical, uses. See
Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom. xv p. 181 - 184.]
[Footnote 66: See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p.
185.]
[Footnote 67: From this disability of Aspar to ascend the throne,
it may be inferred that the stain of Heresy was perpetual and
indelible, while that of Barbarism disappeared in the second
generation.]

[Footnote 68: Theophanes, p. 95. This appears to be the first
origin of a ceremony, which all the Christian princes of the
world have since adopted and from which the clergy have deduced
the most formidable consequences.]
[Footnote 69: Cedrenus, (p. 345, 346,) who was conversant with
the writers of better days, has preserved the remarkable words of
Aspar.]
[Footnote 70: The power of the Isaurians agitated the Eastern
empire in the two succeeding reigns of Zeno and Anastasius; but
it ended in the destruction of those Barbarians, who maintained
their fierce independences about two hundred and thirty years.]
     The virtues of Anthemius have perhaps been magnified, since
the Imperial descent, which he could only deduce from the usurper
Procopius, has been swelled into a line of emperors. ^71 But the
merit of his immediate parents, their honors, and their riches,
rendered Anthemius one of the most illustrious subjects of the
East. His father, Procopius, obtained, after his Persian
embassy, the rank of general and patrician; and the name of
Anthemius was derived from his maternal grandfather, the
celebrated praefect, who protected, with so much ability and
success, the infant reign of Theodosius. The grandson of the
praefect was raised above the condition of a private subject, by
his marriage with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor Marcian.
This splendid alliance, which might supersede the necessity of
merit, hastened the promotion of Anthemius to the successive
dignities of count, of master-general, of consul, and of
patrician; and his merit or fortune claimed the honors of a
victory, which was obtained on the banks of the Danube, over the
Huns. Without indulging an extravagant ambition, the son-in-law
of Marcian might hope to be his successor; but Anthemius
supported the disappointment with courage and patience; and his
subsequent elevation was universally approved by the public, who
esteemed him worthy to reign, till he ascended the throne. ^72
The emperor of the West marched from Constantinople, attended by
several counts of high distinction, and a body of guards almost
equal to the strength and numbers of a regular army: he entered
Rome in triumph, and the choice of Leo was confirmed by the
senate, the people, and the Barbarian confederates of Italy. ^73
The solemn inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials
of his daughter and the patrician Ricimer; a fortunate event,
which was considered as the firmest security of the union and
happiness of the state. The wealth of two empires was
ostentatiously displayed; and many senators completed their ruin,
by an expensive effort to disguise their poverty. All serious
business was suspended during this festival; the courts of
justice were shut; the streets of Rome, the theatres, the places
of public and private resort, resounded with hymeneal songs and
dances: and the royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a
crown on her head, was conducted to the palace of Ricimer, who
had changed his military dress for the habit of a consul and a
senator. On this memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose early
ambition had been so fatally blasted, appeared as the orator of
Auvergne, among the provincial deputies who addressed the throne
with congratulations or complaints. ^74 The calends of January
were now approaching, and the venal poet, who had loved Avitus,
and esteemed Majorian, was persuaded by his friends to celebrate,
in heroic verse, the merit, the felicity, the second consulship,
and the future triumphs, of the emperor Anthemius. Sidonius
pronounced, with assurance and success, a panegyric which is
still extant; and whatever might be the imperfections, either of
the subject or of the composition, the welcome flatterer was
immediately rewarded with the praefecture of Rome; a dignity
which placed him among the illustrious personages of the empire,
till he wisely preferred the more respectable character of a
bishop and a saint. ^75

[Footnote 71: -     Tali tu civis ab urbe
                    Procopio genitore micas; cui prisca propago  

                 Augustis venit a proavis.

The poet (Sidon. Panegyr. Anthem. 67 - 306) then proceeds to
relate the private life and fortunes of the future emperor, with
which he must have been imperfectly acquainted.]

[Footnote 72: Sidonius discovers, with tolerable ingenuity, that
this disappointment added new lustre to the virtues of Anthemius,
(210, &c.,) who declined one sceptre, and reluctantly accepted
another, (22, &c.)]
[Footnote 73: The poet again celebrates the unanimity of all
orders of the state, (15 - 22;) and the Chronicle of Idatius
mentions the forces which attended his march.]

[Footnote 74: Interveni autem nuptiis Patricii Ricimeris, cui
filia perennis Augusti in spem publicae securitatis copulabator.
The journey of Sidonius from Lyons, and the festival of Rome, are
described with some spirit. L. i. epist. 5, p. 9 - 13, epist. 9,
p. 21.]

[Footnote 75: Sidonius (l. i. epist. 9, p. 23, 24) very fairly
states his motive, his labor, and his reward. "Hic ipse
Panegyricus, si non judicium, certa eventum, boni operis,
accepit." He was made bishop of Clermont, A.D. 471. Tillemont,
Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 750.]

     The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and catholic faith
of the emperor whom they gave to the West; nor do they forget to
observe, that when he left Constantinople, he converted his
palace into the pious foundation of a public bath, a church, and
a hospital for old men. ^76 Yet some suspicious appearances are
found to sully the theological fame of Anthemius. From the
conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he had imbibed
the spirit of religious toleration; and the Heretics of Rome
would have assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement
censure which Pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter,
had not obliged him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. ^77 Even
the Pagans, a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some vain
hopes, from the indifference, or partiality, of Anthemius; and
his singular friendship for the philosopher Severus, whom he
promoted to the consulship, was ascribed to a secret project, of
reviving the ancient worship of the gods. ^78 These idols were
crumbled into dust: and the mythology which had once been the
creed of nations, was so universally disbelieved, that it might
be employed without scandal, or at least without suspicion, by
Christian poets. ^79 Yet the vestiges of superstition were not
absolutely obliterated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose
origin had preceded the foundation of Rome, was still celebrated
under the reign of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were
expressive of an early state of society before the invention of
arts and agriculture. The rustic deities who presided over the
toils and pleasures of the pastoral life, Pan, Faunus, and their
train of satyrs, were such as the fancy of shepherds might
create, sportive, petulant, and lascivious; whose power was
limited, and whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the
offering the best adapted to their character and attributes; the
flesh of the victim was roasted on willow spits; and the riotous
youths, who crowded to the feast, ran naked about the fields,
with leather thongs in their hands, communicating, as it was
supposed, the blessing of fecundity to the women whom they
touched. ^80 The altar of Pan was erected, perhaps by Evander the
Arcadian, in a dark recess in the side of the Palantine hill,
watered by a perpetual fountain, and shaded by a hanging grove.
A tradition, that, in the same place, Romulus and Remus were
suckled by the wolf, rendered it still more sacred and venerable
in the eyes of the Romans; and this sylvan spot was gradually
surrounded by the stately edifices of the Forum. ^81 After the
conversion of the Imperial city, the Christians still continued,
in the month of February, the annual celebration of the
Lupercalia; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious
influence on the genial powers of the animal and vegetable world.

The bishops of Rome were solicitous to abolish a profane custom,
so repugnant to the spirit of Christianity; but their zeal was
not supported by the authority of the civil magistrate: the
inveterate abuse subsisted till the end of the fifth century, and
Pope Gelasius, who purified the capital from the last stain of
idolatry, appeased by a formal apology, the murmurs of the senate
and people. ^82

[Footnote 76: The palace of Anthemius stood on the banks of the
Propontis. In the ninth century, Alexius, the son-in-law of the
emperor Theophilus, obtained permission to purchase the ground;
and ended his days in a monastery which he founded on that
delightful spot. Ducange Constantinopolis Christiana, p. 117,
152.]

[Footnote 77: Papa Hilarius ... apud beatum Petrum Apostolum,
palam ne id fieret, clara voce constrinxit, in tantum ut non ea
facienda cum interpositione juramenti idem promitteret Imperator.

Gelasius Epistol ad Andronicum, apud Baron. A.D. 467, No. 3. The
cardinal observes, with some complacency, that it was much easier
to plant heresies at Constantinople, than at Rome.]

[Footnote 78: Damascius, in the life of the philosopher Isidore,
apud Photium, p. 1049. Damascius, who lived under Justinian,
composed another work, consisting of 570 praeternatural stories
of souls, daemons, apparitions, the dotage of Platonic Paganism.]

[Footnote 79: In the poetical works of Sidonius, which he
afterwards condemned, (l. ix. epist. 16, p. 285,) the fabulous
deities are the principal actors. If Jerom was scourged by the
angels for only reading Virgil, the bishop of Clermont, for such
a vile imitation, deserved an additional whipping from the
Muses.]

[Footnote 80: Ovid (Fast. l. ii. 267 - 452) has given an amusing
description of the follies of antiquity, which still inspired so
much respect, that a grave magistrate, running naked through the
streets, was not an object of astonishment or laughter.]

[Footnote 81: See Dionys. Halicarn. l. i. p. 25, 65, edit.
Hudson. The Roman antiquaries Donatus (l. ii. c. 18, p. 173,
174) and Nardini (p. 386, 387) have labored to ascertain the true
situation of the Lupercal.]

[Footnote 82: Baronius published, from the MSS. of the Vatican,
this epistle of Pope Gelasius, (A.D. 496, No. 28 - 45,) which is
entitled Adversus Andromachum Senatorem, caeterosque Romanos, qui
Lupercalia secundum morem pristinum colenda constituebant.
Gelasius always supposes that his adversaries are nominal
Christians, and, that he may not yield to them in absurd
prejudice, he imputes to this harmless festival all the
calamities of the age.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.

Part IV.

     In all his public declarations, the emperor Leo assumes the
authority, and professes the affection, of a father, for his son
Anthemius, with whom he had divided the administration of the
universe. ^83 The situation, and perhaps the character, of Leo,
dissuaded him from exposing his person to the toils and dangers
of an African war. But the powers of the Eastern empire were
strenuously exerted to deliver Italy and the Mediterranean from
the Vandals; and Genseric, who had so long oppressed both the
land and sea, was threatened from every side with a formidable
invasion. The campaign was opened by a bold and successful
enterprise of the praefect Heraclius. ^84 The troops of Egypt,
Thebais, and Libya, were embarked, under his command; and the
Arabs, with a train of horses and camels, opened the roads of the
desert. Heraclius landed on the coast of Tripoli, surprised and
subdued the cities of that province, and prepared, by a laborious
march, which Cato had formerly executed, ^85 to join the Imperial
army under the walls of Carthage. The intelligence of this loss
extorted from Genseric some insidious and ineffectual
propositions of peace; but he was still more seriously alarmed by
the reconciliation of Marcellinus with the two empires. The
independent patrician had been persuaded to acknowledge the
legitimate title of Anthemius, whom he accompanied in his journey
to Rome; the Dalmatian fleet was received into the harbors of
Italy; the active valor of Marcellinus expelled the Vandals from
the Island of Sardinia; and the languid efforts of the West added
some weight to the immense preparations of the Eastern Romans.
The expense of the naval armament, which Leo sent against the
Vandals, has been distinctly ascertained; and the curious and
instructive account displays the wealth of the declining empire.
The Royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied
seventeen thousand pounds of gold; forty-seven thousand pounds of
gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid
into the treasury by the Praetorian praefects. But the cities
were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent calculation of
fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the revenue, does
not suggest the idea of a just or merciful administration. The
whole expense, by whatsoever means it was defrayed, of the
African campaign, amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty
thousand pounds of gold, about five millions two hundred thousand
pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money appears, from
the comparative price of corn, to have been somewhat higher than
in the present age. ^86 The fleet that sailed from Constantinople
to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and
the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand
men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Vorina, was
intrusted with this important command. His sister, the wife of
Leo, had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against the
Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was
reserved for the African war; and his friends could only save his
military reputation by asserting, that he had conspired with
Aspar to spare Genseric, and to betray the last hope of the
Western empire.

[Footnote 83: Itaque nos quibus totius mundi regimen commisit
superna provisio .... Pius et triumphator semper Augustus filius
noster Anthemius, licet Divina Majestas et nostra creatio pietati
ejus plenam Imperii commiserit potestatem, &c. .... Such is the
dignified style of Leo, whom Anthemius respectfully names,
Dominus et Pater meus Princeps sacratissimus Leo. See Novell.
Anthem. tit. ii. iii. p. 38, ad calcem Cod. Theod.]
[Footnote 84: The expedition of Heraclius is clouded with
difficulties, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 640,)
and it requires some dexterity to use the circumstances afforded
by Theophanes, without injury to the more respectable evidence of
Procopius.]

[Footnote 85: The march of Cato from Berenice, in the province of
Cyrene, was much longer than that of Heraclius from Tripoli. He
passed the deep sandy desert in thirty days, and it was found
necessary to provide, besides the ordinary supplies, a great
number of skins filled with water, and several Psylli, who were
supposed to possess the art of sucking the wounds which had been
made by the serpents of their native country. See Plutarch in
Caton. Uticens. tom. iv. p. 275. Straben Geograph. l. xxii. p.
1193.]
[Footnote 86: The principal sum is clearly expressed by
Procopius, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191;) the smaller
constituent parts, which Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
vi. p. 396) has laboriously collected from the Byzantine writers,
are less certain, and less important. The historian Malchus
laments the public misery, (Excerpt. ex Suida in Corp. Hist.
Byzant. p. 58;) but he is surely unjust, when he charges Leo with
hoarding the treasures which he extorted from the people.

     Note: Compare likewise the newly-discovered work of Lydus,
de Magistratibus, ed. Hase, Paris, 1812, (and in the new
collection of the Byzantines,) l. iii. c. 43. Lydus states the
expenditure at 65,000 lbs. of gold, 700,000 of silver. But Lydus
exaggerates the fleet to the incredible number of 10,000 long
ships, (Liburnae,) and the troops to 400,000 men. Lydus describes
this fatal measure, of which he charges the blame on Basiliscus,
as the shipwreck of the state. From that time all the revenues
of the empire were anticipated; and the finances fell into
inextricable confusion. - M.]
     Experience has shown, that the success of an invader most
commonly depends on the vigor and celerity of his operations.
The strength and sharpness of the first impression are blunted by
delay; the health and spirit of the troops insensibly languish in
a distant climate; the naval and military force, a mighty effort
which perhaps can never be repeated, is silently consumed; and
every hour that is wasted in negotiation, accustoms the enemy to
contemplate and examine those hostile terrors, which, on their
first appearance, he deemed irresistible. The formidable navy of
Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from the Thracian
Bosphorus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops at Cape
Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about forty miles from
Carthage. ^87 The army of Heraclius, and the fleet of
Marcellinus, either joined or seconded the Imperial lieutenant;
and the Vandals who opposed his progress by sea or land, were
successively vanquished. ^88 If Basiliscus had seized the moment
of consternation, and boldly advanced to the capital, Carthage
must have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was
extinguished. Genseric beheld the danger with firmness, and
eluded it with his veteran dexterity. He protested, in the most
respectful language, that he was ready to submit his person, and
his dominions, to the will of the emperor; but he requested a
truce of five days to regulate the terms of his submission; and
it was universally believed, that his secret liberality
contributed to the success of this public negotiation. Instead
of obstinately refusing whatever indulgence his enemy so
earnestly solicited, the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus
consented to the fatal truce; and his imprudent security seemed
to proclaim, that he already considered himself as the conqueror
of Africa. During this short interval, the wind became favorable
to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largest ships of war
with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals; and they towed after
them many large barks, filled with combustible materials. In the
obscurity of the night, these destructive vessels were impelled
against the unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who
were awakened by the sense of their instant danger. Their close
and crowded order assisted the progress of the fire, which was
communicated with rapid and irresistible violence; and the noise
of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of
the soldiers and mariners, who could neither command nor obey,
increased the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they labored
to extricate themselves from the fire-ships, and to save at least
a part of the navy, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them with
temperate and disciplined valor; and many of the Romans, who
escaped the fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the
victorious Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous night,
the heroic, or rather desperate, courage of John, one of the
principal officers of Basiliscus, has rescued his name from
oblivion. When the ship, which he had bravely defended, was
almost consumed, he threw himself in his armor into the sea,
disdainfully rejected the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of
Genseric, who pressed him to accept honorable quarter, and sunk
under the waves; exclaiming, with his last breath, that he would
never fall alive into the hands of those impious dogs. Actuated
by a far different spirit, Basiliscus, whose station was the most
remote from danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the
engagement, returned to Constantinople with the loss of more than
half of his fleet and army, and sheltered his guilty head in the
sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tears and
entreaties, could obtain his pardon from the indignant emperor.
Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert; Marcellinus
retired to Sicily, where he was assassinated, perhaps at the
instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king
of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction, that the
Romans themselves should remove from the world his most
formidable antagonists. ^89 After the failure of this great
expedition, ^* Genseric again became the tyrant of the sea: the
coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia, were again exposed to his
revenge and avarice; Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his
obedience; he added Sicily to the number of his provinces; and
before he died, in the fulness of years and of glory, he beheld
the final extinction of the empire of the West. ^90

[Footnote 87: This promontory is forty miles from Carthage,
(Procop. l. i. c. 6, p. 192,) and twenty leagues from Sicily,
(Shaw's Travels, p. 89.) Scipio landed farther in the bay, at the
fair promontory; see the animated description of Livy, xxix. 26,
27.]

[Footnote 88: Theophanes (p. 100) affirms that many ships of the
Vandals were sunk. The assertion of Jornandes, (de Successione
Regn.,) that Basiliscus attacked Carthage, must be understood in
a very qualified sense]
[Footnote 89: Damascius in Vit. Isidor. apud Phot. p. 1048. It
will appear, by comparing the three short chronicles of the
times, that Marcellinus had fought near Carthage, and was killed
in Sicily.]

[Footnote *: According to Lydus, Leo, distracted by this and the
other calamities of his reign, particularly a dreadful fire at
Constantinople, abandoned the palace, like another Orestes, and
was preparing to quit Constantinople forever l iii. c. 44, p.
230. - M.]

[Footnote 90: For the African war, see Procopius, de Bell.
Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 191, 192, 193,) Theophanes, (p. 99, 100,
101,) Cedrenus, (p. 349, 350,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiv. p.
50, 51.) Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, &c., c. xx.
tom. iii. p. 497) has made a judicious observation on the failure
of these great naval armaments.]

     During his long and active reign, the African monarch had
studiously cultivated the friendship of the Barbarians of Europe,
whose arms he might employ in a seasonable and effectual
diversion against the two empires. After the death of Attila, he
renewed his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul; and the sons of
the elder Theodoric, who successively reigned over that warlike
nation, were easily persuaded, by the sense of interest, to
forget the cruel affront which Genseric had inflicted on their
sister. ^91 The death of the emperor Majorian delivered Theodoric
the Second from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honor; he
violated his recent treaty with the Romans; and the ample
territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united to his dominions,
became the immediate reward of his perfidy. The selfish policy
of Ricimer encouraged him to invade the provinces which were in
the possession of Aegidius, his rival; but the active count, by
the defence of Arles, and the victory of Orleans, saved Gaul, and
checked, during his lifetime, the progress of the Visigoths.
Their ambition was soon rekindled; and the design of
extinguishing the Roman empire in Spain and Gaul was conceived,
and almost completed, in the reign of Euric, who assassinated his
brother Theodoric, and displayed, with a more savage temper,
superior abilities, both in peace and war. He passed the
Pyrenees at the head of a numerous army, subdued the cities of
Saragossa and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial nobles
of the Tarragonese province, carried his victorious arms into the
heart of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom
of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain. ^92 The efforts
of Euric were not less vigorous, or less successful, in Gaul; and
throughout the country that extends from the Pyrenees to the
Rhone and the Loire, Berry and Auvergne were the only cities, or
dioceses, which refused to acknowledge him as their master. ^93
In the defence of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabitants
of Auvergne sustained, with inflexible resolution, the miseries
of war, pestilence, and famine; and the Visigoths, relinquishing
the fruitless siege, suspended the hopes of that important
conquest. The youth of the province were animated by the heroic,
and almost incredible, valor of Ecdicius, the son of the emperor
Avitus, ^94 who made a desperate sally with only eighteen
horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic army, and, after maintaining
a flying skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls
of Clermont. His charity was equal to his courage: in a time of
extreme scarcity, four thousand poor were fed at his expense; and
his private influence levied an army of Burgundians for the
deliverance of Auvergne. From his virtues alone the faithful
citizens of Gaul derived any hopes of safety or freedom; and even
such virtues were insufficient to avert the impending ruin of
their country, since they were anxious to learn, from his
authority and example, whether they should prefer the alternative
of exile or servitude. ^95 The public confidence was lost; the
resources of the state were exhausted; and the Gauls had too much
reason to believe, that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy, was
incapable of protecting his distressed subjects beyond the Alps.
The feeble emperor could only procure for their defence the
service of twelve thousand British auxiliaries. Riothamus, one of
the independent kings, or chieftains, of the island, was
persuaded to transport his troops to the continent of Gaul: he
sailed up the Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where
the people complained of these oppressive allies, till they were
destroyed or dispersed by the arms of the Visigoths. ^96

[Footnote 91: Jornandes is our best guide through the reigns of
Theodoric II. and Euric, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 44, 45, 46, 47, p.
675 - 681.) Idatius ends too soon, and Isidore is too sparing of
the information which he might have given on the affairs of
Spain. The events that relate to Gaul are laboriously
illustrated in the third book of the Abbe Dubos, Hist. Critique,
tom. i. p. 424 - 620.]

[Footnote 92: See Mariana, Hist. Hispan. tom. i. l. v. c. 5. p.
162.]
[Footnote 93: An imperfect, but original, picture of Gaul, more
especially of Auvergne, is shown by Sidonius; who, as a senator,
and afterwards as a bishop, was deeply interested in the fate of
his country. See l. v. epist. 1, 5, 9, &c.]

[Footnote 94: Sidonius, l. iii. epist. 3, p. 65 - 68. Greg.
Turon. l. ii. c. 24, in tom. ii. p. 174. Jornandes, c. 45, p.
675. Perhaps Ecdicius was only the son-in-law of Avitus, his
wife's son by another husband.]
[Footnote 95: Si nullae a republica vires, nulla praesidia; si
nullae, quantum rumor est, Anthemii principis opes; statuit, te
auctore, nobilitas, seu patriaca dimittere seu capillos, (Sidon.
l. ii. epist. 1, p. 33.) The last words Sirmond, Not. p. 25) may
likewise denote the clerical tonsure, which was indeed the choice
of Sidonius himself.]

[Footnote 96: The history of these Britons may be traced in
Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 678,) Sidonius, (l. iii. epistol. 9, p. 73,
74,) and Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 18, in tom. ii. p. 170.)
Sidonius (who styles these mercenary troops argutos, armatos,
tumultuosos, virtute numero, contul ernio, contumaces) addresses
their general in a tone of friendship and familiarity.]
     One of the last acts of jurisdiction, which the Roman senate
exercised over their subjects of Gaul, was the trial and
condemnation of Arvandus, the Praetorian praefect. Sidonius, who
rejoices that he lived under a reign in which he might pity and
assist a state criminal, has expressed, with tenderness and
freedom, the faults of his indiscreet and unfortunate friend. ^97
From the perils which he had escaped, Arvandus imbibed confidence
rather than wisdom; and such was the various, though uniform,
imprudence of his behavior, that his prosperity must appear much
more surprising than his downfall. The second praefecture, which
he obtained within the term of five years, abolished the merit
and popularity of his preceding administration. His easy temper
was corrupted by flattery, and exasperated by opposition; he was
forced to satisfy his importunate creditors with the spoils of
the province; his capricious insolence offended the nobles of
Gaul, and he sunk under the weight of the public hatred. The
mandate of his disgrace summoned him to justify his conduct
before the senate; and he passed the Sea of Tuscany with a
favorable wind, the presage, as he vainly imagined, of his future
fortunes. A decent respect was still observed for the
Proefectorian rank; and on his arrival at Rome, Arvandus was
committed to the hospitality, rather than to the custody, of
Flavius Asellus, the count of the sacred largesses, who resided
in the Capitol. ^98 He was eagerly pursued by his accusers, the
four deputies of Gaul, who were all distinguished by their birth,
their dignities, or their eloquence. In the name of a great
province, and according to the forms of Roman jurisprudence, they
instituted a civil and criminal action, requiring such
restitution as might compensate the losses of individuals, and
such punishment as might satisfy the justice of the state. Their
charges of corrupt oppression were numerous and weighty; but they
placed their secret dependence on a letter which they had
intercepted, and which they could prove, by the evidence of his
secretary, to have been dictated by Arvandus himself. The author
of this letter seemed to dissuade the king of the Goths from a
peace with the Greek emperor: he suggested the attack of the
Britons on the Loire; and he recommended a division of Gaul,
according to the law of nations, between the Visigoths and the
Burgundians. ^99 These pernicious schemes, which a friend could
only palliate by the reproaches of vanity and indiscretion, were
susceptible of a treasonable interpretation; and the deputies had
artfully resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons
till the decisive moment of the contest. But their intentions
were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He immediately apprised
the unsuspecting criminal of his danger; and sincerely lamented,
without any mixture of anger, the haughty presumption of
Arvandus, who rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of
his friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus showed
himself in the Capitol in the white robe of a candidate, accepted
indiscriminate salutations and offers of service, examined the
shops of the merchants, the silks and gems, sometimes with the
indifference of a spectator, and sometimes with the attention of
a purchaser; and complained of the times, of the senate, of the
prince, and of the delays of justice. His complaints were soon
removed. An early day was fixed for his trial; and Arvandus
appeared, with his accusers, before a numerous assembly of the
Roman senate. The mournful garb which they affected, excited the
compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by the gay and
splendid dress of their adversary: and when the praefect
Arvandus, with the first of the Gallic deputies, were directed to
take their places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of
pride and modesty was observed in their behavior. In this
memorable judgment, which presented a lively image of the old
republic, the Gauls exposed, with force and freedom, the
grievances of the province; and as soon as the minds of the
audience were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the fatal
epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the strange
supposition, that a subject could not be convicted of treason,
unless he had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the
paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice,
acknowledged it for his genuine composition; and his astonishment
was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate
declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he
was degraded from the rank of a praefect to the obscure condition
of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the
public prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate was
again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death; but while
he expected, in the Island of Aesculapius, the expiration of the
thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors,
^100 his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and
the praefect of Gaul obtained the milder punishment of exile and
confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might deserve compassion;
but the impunity of Seronatus accused the justice of the
republic, till he was condemned and executed, on the complaint of
the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline
of his age and country, held a secret correspondence with the
Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed: his
industry was continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes
and obsolete offences; and his extravagant vices would have
inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear and abhorrence.
^101
[Footnote 97: See Sidonius, l. i. epist. 7, p. 15 - 20, with
Sirmond's notes. This letter does honor to his heart, as well as
to his understanding. The prose of Sidonius, however vitiated by
a false and affected taste, is much superior to his insipid
verses.]

[Footnote 98: When the Capitol ceased to be a temple, it was
appropriated to the use of the civil magistrate; and it is still
the residence of the Roman senator. The jewellers, &c., might be
allowed to expose then precious wares in the porticos.]

[Footnote 99: Haec ad regem Gothorum, charta videbatur emitti,
pacem cum Graeco Imperatore dissuadens, Britannos super Ligerim
sitos impugnari oportere, demonstrans, cum Burgundionibus jure
gentium Gallias dividi debere confirmans.]

[Footnote 100: Senatusconsultum Tiberianum, (Sirmond Not. p. 17;)
but that law allowed only ten days between the sentence and
execution; the remaining twenty were added in the reign of
Theodosius.]

[Footnote 101: Catilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, l. ii. epist.
1, p. 33; l. v. epist 13, p. 143; l. vii. epist. vii. p. 185. He
execrates the crimes, and applauds the punishment, of Seronatus,
perhaps with the indignation of a virtuous citizen, perhaps with
the resentment of a personal enemy.]
     Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice; but
whatever might be the guilt of Ricimer, that powerful Barbarian
was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince, whose
alliance he had condescended to accept. The peaceful and
prosperous reign which Anthemius had promised to the West, was
soon clouded by misfortune and discord. Ricimer, apprehensive,
or impatient, of a superior, retired from Rome, and fixed his
residence at Milan; an advantageous situation either to invite or
to repel the warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and
the Danube. ^102 Italy was gradually divided into two independent
and hostile kingdoms; and the nobles of Liguria, who trembled at
the near approach of a civil war, fell prostrate at the feet of
the patrician, and conjured him to spare their unhappy country.
"For my own part," replied Ricimer, in a tone of insolent
moderation, "I am still inclined to embrace the friendship of the
Galatian; ^103 but who will undertake to appease his anger, or to
mitigate the pride, which always rises in proportion to our
submission?" They informed him, that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia,
^104 united the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the
dove; and appeared confident, that the eloquence of such an
ambassador must prevail against the strongest opposition, either
of interest or passion. Their recommendation was approved; and
Epiphanius, assuming the benevolent office of mediation,
proceeded without delay to Rome, where he was received with the
honors due to his merit and reputation. The oration of a bishop
in favor of peace may be easily supposed; he argued, that, in all
possible circumstances, the forgiveness of injuries must be an
act of mercy, or magnanimity, or prudence; and he seriously
admonished the emperor to avoid a contest with a fierce
Barbarian, which might be fatal to himself, and must be ruinous
to his dominions. Anthemius acknowledged the truth of his
maxims; but he deeply felt, with grief and indignation, the
behavior of Ricimer, and his passion gave eloquence and energy to
his discourse. "What favors," he warmly exclaimed, "have we
refused to this ungrateful man? What provocations have we not
endured! Regardless of the majesty of the purple, I gave my
daughter to a Goth; I sacrificed my own blood to the safety of
the republic. The liberality which ought to have secured the
eternal attachment of Ricimer has exasperated him against his
benefactor. What wars has he not excited against the empire! How
often has he instigated and assisted the fury of hostile nations!

Shall I now accept his perfidious friendship? Can I hope that he
will respect the engagements of a treaty, who has already
violated the duties of a son?" But the anger of Anthemius
evaporated in these passionate exclamations: he insensibly
yielded to the proposals of Epiphanius; and the bishop returned
to his diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of
Italy, by a reconciliation, ^105 of which the sincerity and
continuance might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the
emperor was extorted from his weakness; and Ricimer suspended his
ambitious designs till he had secretly prepared the engines with
which he resolved to subvert the throne of Anthemius. The mask
of peace and moderation was then thrown aside. The army of
Ricimer was fortified by a numerous reenforcement of Burgundians
and Oriental Suevi: he disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek
emperor, marched from Milan to the Gates of Rome, and fixing his
camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival
of Olybrius, his Imperial candidate.
[Footnote 102: Ricimer, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated
and slew in battle Beorgor, king of the Alani, (Jornandes, c. 45,
p. 678.) His sister had married the king of the Burgundians, and
he maintained an intimate connection with the Suevic colony
established in Pannonia and Noricum.]
[Footnote 103: Galatam concitatum. Sirmond (in his notes to
Ennodius) applies this appellation to Anthemius himself. The
emperor was probably born in the province of Galatia, whose
inhabitants, the Gallo-Grecians, were supposed to unite the vices
of a savage and a corrupted people.]

[Footnote 104: Epiphanius was thirty years bishop of Pavia, (A.D.
467-497;) see Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 788. His name
and actions would have been unknown to posterity, if Ennodius,
one of his successors, had not written his life; (Sirmond, Opera
tom. i. p. 1647 - 1692;) in which he represents him as one of the
greatest characters of the age]

[Footnote 105: Ennodius (p. 1659 - 1664) has related this embassy
of Epiphanius; and his narrative, verbose and turgid as it must
appear, illustrates some curious passages in the fall of the
Western empire.]
     The senator Olybrius, of the Anician family, might esteem
himself the lawful heir of the Western empire. He had married
Placidia, the younger daughter of Valentinian, after she was
restored by Genseric; who still detained her sister Eudoxia, as
the wife, or rather as the captive, of his son. The king of the
Vandals supported, by threats and solicitations, the fair
pretensions of his Roman ally; and assigned, as one of the
motives of the war, the refusal of the senate and people to
acknowledge their lawful prince, and the unworthy preference
which they had given to a stranger. ^106 The friendship of the
public enemy might render Olybrius still more unpopular to the
Italians; but when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor
Anthemius, he tempted, with the offer of a diadem, the candidate
who could justify his rebellion by an illustrious name and a
royal alliance. The husband of Placidia, who, like most of his
ancestors, had been invested with the consular dignity, might
have continued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune in the
peaceful residence of Constantinople; nor does he appear to have
been tormented by such a genius as cannot be amused or occupied,
unless by the administration of an empire. Yet Olybrius yielded
to the importunities of his friends, perhaps of his wife; rashly
plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil war; and, with
the secret connivance of the emperor Leo, accepted the Italian
purple, which was bestowed, and resumed, at the capricious will
of a Barbarian. He landed without obstacle (for Genseric was
master of the sea) either at Ravenna, or the port of Ostia, and
immediately proceeded to the camp of Ricimer, where he was
received as the sovereign of the Western world. ^107
[Footnote 106: Priscus, Excerpt. Legation p. 74. Procopius de
Bell. Vandel l. i. c. 6, p. 191. Eudoxia and her daughter were
restored after the death of Majorian. Perhaps the consulship of
Olybrius (A.D. 464) was bestowed as a nuptial present.]

[Footnote 107: The hostile appearance of Olybrius is fixed
(notwithstanding the opinion of Pagi) by the duration of his
reign. The secret connivance of Leo is acknowledged by
Theophanes and the Paschal Chronicle. We are ignorant of his
motives; but in this obscure period, our ignorance extends to the
most public and important facts.]

     The patrician, who had extended his posts from the Anio to
the Melvian bridge, already possessed two quarters of Rome, the
Vatican and the Janiculum, which are separated by the Tyber from
the rest of the city; ^108 and it may be conjectured, that an
assembly of seceding senators imitated, in the choice of
Olybrius, the forms of a legal election. But the body of the
senate and people firmly adhered to the cause of Anthemius; and
the more effectual support of a Gothic army enabled him to
prolong his reign, and the public distress, by a resistance of
three months, which produced the concomitant evils of famine and
pestilence. At length Ricimer made a furious assault on the
bridge of Hadrian, or St. Angelo; and the narrow pass was
defended with equal valor by the Goths, till the death of
Gilimer, their leader. The victorious troops, breaking down
every barrier, rushed with irresistible violence into the heart
of the city, and Rome (if we may use the language of a
contemporary pope) was subverted by the civil fury of Anthemius
and Ricimer. ^109 The unfortunate Anthemius was dragged from his
concealment, and inhumanly massacred by the command of his
son-in-law; who thus added a third, or perhaps a fourth, emperor
to the number of his victims. The soldiers, who united the rage
of factious citizens with the savage manners of Barbarians, were
indulged, without control, in the license of rapine and murder:
the crowd of slaves and plebeians, who were unconcerned in the
event, could only gain by the indiscriminate pillage; and the
face of the city exhibited the strange contrast of stern cruelty
and dissolute intemperance. ^110 Forty days after this calamitous
event, the subject, not of glory, but of guilt, Italy was
delivered, by a painful disease, from the tyrant Ricimer, who
bequeathed the command of his army to his nephew Gundobald, one
of the princes of the Burgundians. In the same year all the
principal actors in this great revolution were removed from the
stage; and the whole reign of Olybrius, whose death does not
betray any symptoms of violence, is included within the term of
seven months. He left one daughter, the offspring of his
marriage with Placidia; and the family of the great Theodosius,
transplanted from Spain to Constantinople, was propagated in the
female line as far as the eighth generation. ^111

[Footnote 108: Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which
Rome was divided by Augustus