Such indeed are the common and natural fruits of despotism and rebellion.
But the inquisition into the crime of magic, which, under the reign of the
two brothers, was so rigorously prosecuted both at Rome and Antioch, was
interpreted as the fatal symptom, either of the displeasure of Heaven, or
of the depravity of mankind. Let us not hesitate to indulge a liberal
pride, that, in the present age, the enlightened part of Europe has
abolished a cruel and odious prejudice, which reigned in every climate of
the globe, and adhered to every system of religious opinions. The nations,
and the sects, of the Roman world, admitted with equal credulity, and
similar abhorrence, the reality of that infernal art, which was able to
control the eternal order of the planets, and the voluntary operations of
the human mind. They dreaded the mysterious power of spells and
incantations, of potent herbs, and execrable rites; which could extinguish
or recall life, inflame the passions of the soul, blast the works of
creation, and extort from the reluctant dæmons the secrets of
futurity. They believed, with the wildest inconsistency, that this
preternatural dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell, was exercised,
from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled hags and
itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives in penury and
contempt. The arts of magic were equally condemned by the public opinion,
and by the laws of Rome; but as they tended to gratify the most imperious
passions of the heart of man, they were continually proscribed, and
continually practised. An imaginary cause was capable of producing the most
serious and mischievous effects. The dark predictions of the death of an
emperor, or the success of a conspiracy, were calculated only to stimulate
the hopes of ambition, and to dissolve the ties of fidelity; and the
intentional guilt of magic was aggravated by the actual crimes of treason
and sacrilege. Such vain terrors disturbed the peace of society, and the
happiness of individuals; and the harmless flame which insensibly melted a
waxen image, might derive a powerful and pernicious energy from the
affrighted fancy of the person whom it was maliciously designed to
represent. From the infusion of those herbs, which were supposed to
possess a supernatural influence, it was an easy step to the use of more
substantial poison; and the folly of mankind sometimes became the
instrument, and the mask, of the most atrocious crimes. As soon as the
zeal of informers was encouraged by the ministers of Valens and
Valentinian, they could not refuse to listen to another charge, too
frequently mingled in the scenes of domestic guilt; a charge of a softer
and less malignant nature, for which the pious, though excessive, rigor of
Constantine had recently decreed the punishment of death. This deadly and
incoherent mixture of treason and magic, of poison and adultery, afforded
infinite gradations of guilt and innocence, of excuse and aggravation,
which in these proceedings appear to have been confounded by the angry or
corrupt passions of the judges. They easily discovered that the degree of
their industry and discernment was estimated, by the Imperial court,
according to the number of executions that were furnished from the
respective tribunals. It was not without extreme reluctance that they
pronounced a sentence of acquittal; but they eagerly admitted such
evidence as was stained with perjury, or procured by torture, to prove the
most improbable charges against the most respectable characters. The
progress of the inquiry continually opened new subjects of criminal
prosecution; the audacious informer, whose falsehood was detected, retired
with impunity; but the wretched victim, who discovered his real or
pretended accomplices, were seldom permitted to receive the price of his
infamy. From the extremity of Italy and Asia, the young, and the aged,
were dragged in chains to the tribunals of Rome and Antioch. Senators,
matrons, and philosophers, expired in ignominious and cruel tortures. The
soldiers, who were appointed to guard the prisons, declared, with a murmur
of pity and indignation, that their numbers were insufficient to oppose
the flight, or resistance, of the multitude of captives. The wealthiest
families were ruined by fines and confiscations; the most innocent
citizens trembled for their safety; and we may form some notion of the
magnitude of the evil, from the extravagant assertion of an ancient
writer, that, in the obnoxious provinces, the prisoners, the exiles, and
the fugitives, formed the greatest part of the inhabitants.
When Tacitus describes the deaths of the innocent and illustrious Romans,
who were sacrificed to the cruelty of the first Cæsars, the art of
the historian, or the merit of the sufferers, excites in our breast the
most lively sensations of terror, of admiration, and of pity. The coarse
and undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus has delineated his bloody figures
with tedious and disgusting accuracy. But as our attention is no longer
engaged by the contrast of freedom and servitude, of recent greatness and
of actual misery, we should turn with horror from the frequent executions,
which disgraced, both at Rome and Antioch, the reign of the two brothers.
Valens was of a timid, and Valentinian of a choleric, disposition. An
anxious regard to his personal safety was the ruling principle of the
administration of Valens. In the condition of a subject, he had kissed,
with trembling awe, the hand of the oppressor; and when he ascended the
throne, he reasonably expected, that the same fears, which had subdued his
own mind, would secure the patient submission of his people. The favorites
of Valens obtained, by the privilege of rapine and confiscation, the
wealth which his economy would have refused. They urged, with persuasive
eloquence, that, in all cases of treason,
suspicion is equivalent to proof; that the power
supposes the intention, of mischief; that the
intention is not less criminal than the act; and that
a subject no longer deserves to live, if his life may threaten the safety,
or disturb the repose, of his sovereign. The judgment of Valentinian was
sometimes deceived, and his confidence abused; but he would have silenced
the informers with a contemptuous smile, had they presumed to alarm his
fortitude by the sound of danger. They praised his inflexible love of
justice; and, in the pursuit of justice, the emperor was easily tempted to
consider clemency as a weakness, and passion as a virtue. As long as he
wrestled with his equals, in the bold competition of an active and
ambitious life, Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with
impunity: if his prudence was arraigned, his spirit was applauded; and the
proudest and most powerful generals were apprehensive of provoking the
resentment of a fearless soldier. After he became master of the world, he
unfortunately forgot, that where no resistance can be made, no courage can
be exerted; and instead of consulting the dictates of reason and
magnanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his temper, at a time
when they were disgraceful to himself, and fatal to the defenceless
objects of his displeasure. In the government of his household, or of his
empire, slight, or even imaginary, offences—a hasty word, a casual
omission, an involuntary delay—were chastised by a sentence of
immediate death. The expressions which issued the most readily from the
mouth of the emperor of the West were, "Strike off his head;" "Burn him
alive;" "Let him be beaten with clubs till he expires;" and his most
favored ministers soon understood, that, by a rash attempt to dispute, or
suspend, the execution of his sanguinary commands, they might involve
themselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The repeated
gratification of this savage justice hardened the mind of Valentinian
against pity and remorse; and the sallies of passion were confirmed by the
habits of cruelty. He could behold with calm satisfaction the convulsive
agonies of torture and death; he reserved his friendship for those
faithful servants whose temper was the most congenial to his own. The
merit of Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome, was
rewarded with the royal approbation, and the præfecture of Gaul. Two
fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations of Innocence,
and Mica Aurea, could alone deserve to share the
favor of Maximin. The cages of those trusty guards were always placed near
the bed-chamber of Valentinian, who frequently amused his eyes with the
grateful spectacle of seeing them tear and devour the bleeding limbs of
the malefactors who were abandoned to their rage. Their diet and exercises
were carefully inspected by the Roman emperor; and when Innocence
had earned her discharge, by a long course of meritorious service, the
faithful animal was again restored to the freedom of her native woods.
But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of Valens was not
agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the tyrant resumed the
sentiments, or at least the conduct, of the father of his country. The
dispassionate judgment of the Western emperor could clearly perceive, and
accurately pursue, his own and the public interest; and the sovereign of
the East, who imitated with equal docility the various examples which he
received from his elder brother, was sometimes guided by the wisdom and
virtue of the præfect Sallust. Both princes invariably retained, in
the purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity which had adorned their
private life; and, under their reign, the pleasures of the court never
cost the people a blush or a sigh. They gradually reformed many of the
abuses of the times of Constantius; judiciously adopted and improved the
designs of Julian and his successor; and displayed a style and spirit of
legislation which might inspire posterity with the most favorable opinion
of their character and government. It is not from the master of Innocence,
that we should expect the tender regard for the welfare of his subjects,
which prompted Valentinian to condemn the exposition of new-born infants;
and to establish fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and
privileges, in the fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of an
illiterate soldier founded a useful and liberal institution for the
education of youth, and the support of declining science. It was his
intention, that the arts of rhetoric and grammar should be taught in the
Greek and Latin languages, in the metropolis of every province; and as the
size and dignity of the school was usually proportioned to the importance
of the city, the academies of Rome and Constantinople claimed a just and
singular preeminence. The fragments of the literary edicts of Valentinian
imperfectly represent the school of Constantinople, which was gradually
improved by subsequent regulations. That school consisted of thirty-one
professors in different branches of learning. One philosopher, and two
lawyers; five sophists, and ten grammarians for the Greek, and three
orators, and ten grammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes,
or, as they were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens supplied
the public library with fair and correct copies of the classic writers.
The rule of conduct, which was prescribed to the students, is the more
curious, as it affords the first outlines of the form and discipline of a
modern university. It was required, that they should bring proper
certificates from the magistrates of their native province. Their names,
professions, and places of abode, were regularly entered in a public
register. The studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their
time in feasts, or in the theatre; and the term of their education was
limited to the age of twenty. The præfect of the city was empowered
to chastise the idle and refractory by stripes or expulsion; and he was
directed to make an annual report to the master of the offices, that the
knowledge and abilities of the scholars might be usefully applied to the
public service. The institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure the
benefits of peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by the
establishment of the Defensors; freely elected
as the tribunes and advocates of the people, to support their rights, and
to expose their grievances, before the tribunals of the civil magistrates,
or even at the foot of the Imperial throne. The finances were diligently
administered by two princes, who had been so long accustomed to the rigid
economy of a private fortune; but in the receipt and application of the
revenue, a discerning eye might observe some difference between the
government of the East and of the West. Valens was persuaded, that royal
liberality can be supplied only by public oppression, and his ambition
never aspired to secure, by their actual distress, the future strength and
prosperity of his people. Instead of increasing the weight of taxes,
which, in the space of forty years, had been gradually doubled, he
reduced, in the first years of his reign, one fourth of the tribute of the
East. Valentinian appears to have been less attentive and less anxious to
relieve the burdens of his people. He might reform the abuses of the
fiscal administration; but he exacted, without scruple, a very large share
of the private property; as he was convinced, that the revenues, which
supported the luxury of individuals, would be much more advantageously
employed for the defence and improvement of the state. The subjects of the
East, who enjoyed the present benefit, applauded the indulgence of their
prince. The solid but less splendid, merit of Valentinian was felt and
acknowledged by the subsequent generation.
But the most honorable circumstance of the character of Valentinian, is
the firm and temperate impartiality which he uniformly preserved in an age
of religious contention. His strong sense, unenlightened, but uncorrupted,
by study, declined, with respectful indifference, the subtle questions of
theological debate. The government of the Earth
claimed his vigilance, and satisfied his ambition; and while he remembered
that he was the disciple of the church, he never forgot that he was the
sovereign of the clergy. Under the reign of an apostate, he had signalized
his zeal for the honor of Christianity: he allowed to his subjects the
privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they might accept, with
gratitude and confidence, the general toleration which was granted by a
prince addicted to passion, but incapable of fear or of disguise. The
Pagans, the Jews, and all the various sects which acknowledged the divine
authority of Christ, were protected by the laws from arbitrary power or
popular insult; nor was any mode of worship prohibited by Valentinian,
except those secret and criminal practices, which abused the name of
religion for the dark purposes of vice and disorder. The art of magic, as
it was more cruelly punished, was more strictly proscribed: but the
emperor admitted a formal distinction to protect the ancient methods of
divination, which were approved by the senate, and exercised by the Tuscan
haruspices. He had condemned, with the consent of the most rational
Pagans, the license of nocturnal sacrifices; but he immediately admitted
the petition of Prætextatus, proconsul of Achaia, who represented,
that the life of the Greeks would become dreary and comfortless, if they
were deprived of the invaluable blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries.
Philosophy alone can boast, (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of
philosophy,) that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind
the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism. But this truce of twelve
years, which was enforced by the wise and vigorous government of
Valentinian, by suspending the repetition of mutual injuries, contributed
to soften the manners, and abate the prejudices, of the religious
factions.
The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance from the
scene of the fiercest controversies. As soon as the Christians of the West
had extricated themselves from the snares of the creed of Rimini, they
happily relapsed into the slumber of orthodoxy; and the small remains of
the Arian party, that still subsisted at Sirmium or Milan, might be
considered rather as objects of contempt than of resentment. But in the
provinces of the East, from the Euxine to the extremity of Thebais, the
strength and numbers of the hostile factions were more equally balanced;
and this equality, instead of recommending the counsels of peace, served
only to perpetuate the horrors of religious war. The monks and bishops
supported their arguments by invectives; and their invectives were
sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius still reigned at Alexandria; the
thrones of Constantinople and Antioch were occupied by Arian prelates, and
every episcopal vacancy was the occasion of a popular tumult. The
Homoousians were fortified by the reconciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian,
or Semi-Arian, bishops; but their secret reluctance to embrace the
divinity of the Holy Ghost, clouded the splendor of the triumph; and the
declaration of Valens, who, in the first years of his reign, had imitated
the impartial conduct of his brother, was an important victory on the side
of Arianism. The two brothers had passed their private life in the
condition of catechumens; but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit
the sacrament of baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a
Gothic war. He naturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, * bishop of the
Imperial city; and if the ignorant monarch was instructed by that Arian
pastor in the principles of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather
than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence of his erroneous choice.
Whatever had been the determination of the emperor, he must have offended
a numerous party of his Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the
Homoousians and of the Arians believed, that, if they were not suffered to
reign, they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken
this decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to preserve either
the virtue, or the reputation of impartiality. He never aspired, like
Constantius, to the fame of a profound theologian; but as he had received
with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eudoxus, Valens resigned his
conscience to the direction of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted, by
the influence of his authority, the reunion of the Athanasian
heretics to the body of the Catholic church. At first, he
pitied their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy; and
he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object of hatred.
The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the persons with whom he
familiarly conversed; and the exile or imprisonment of a private citizen
are the favors the most readily granted in a despotic court. Such
punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the Homoousian
party; and the misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of Constantinople,
who, perhaps accidentally, were burned on shipboard, was imputed to the
cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor, and his Arian ministers. In
every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipate that name) were obliged
to pay the penalty of their own faults, and of those of their adversaries.
In every election, the claims of the Arian candidate obtained the
preference; and if they were opposed by the majority of the people, he was
usually supported by the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the
terrors of a military force. The enemies of Athanasius attempted to
disturb the last years of his venerable age; and his temporary retreat to
his father's sepulchre has been celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal
of a great people, who instantly flew to arms, intimidated the præfect:
and the archbishop was permitted to end his life in peace and in glory,
after a reign of forty-seven years. The death of Athanasius was the signal
of the persecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who
forcibly seated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal throne,
purchased the favor of the reigning party, by the blood and sufferings of
their Christian brethren. The free toleration of the heathen and Jewish
worship was bitterly lamented, as a circumstance which aggravated the
misery of the Catholics, and the guilt of the impious tyrant of the East.
The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of persecution on
the memory of Valens; and the character of a prince who derived his
virtues, as well as his vices, from a feeble understanding and a
pusillanimous temper, scarcely deserves the labor of an apology. Yet
candor may discover some reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical
ministers of Valens often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions, of
their master; and that the real measure of facts has been very liberally
magnified by the vehement declamation and easy credulity of his
antagonists. 1. The silence of Valentinian may suggest a
probable argument that the partial severities, which were exercised in the
name and provinces of his colleague, amounted only to some obscure and
inconsiderable deviations from the established system of religious
toleration: and the judicious historian, who has praised the equal temper
of the elder brother, has not thought himself obliged to contrast the
tranquillity of the West with the cruel persecution of the East. 2.
Whatever credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, the
character, or at least the behavior, of Valens, may be most distinctly
seen in his personal transactions with the eloquent Basil, archbishop of Cæsarea,
who had succeeded Athanasius in the management of the Trinitarian cause.
The circumstantial narrative has been composed by the friends and admirers
of Basil; and as soon as we have stripped away a thick coat of rhetoric
and miracle, we shall be astonished by the unexpected mildness of the
Arian tyrant, who admired the firmness of his character, or was
apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a general revolt in the province
of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted, with inflexible pride, the
truth of his opinions, and the dignity of his rank, was left in the free
possession of his conscience and his throne. The emperor devoutly assisted
at the solemn service of the cathedral; and, instead of a sentence of
banishment, subscribed the donation of a valuable estate for the use of a
hospital, which Basil had lately founded in the neighborhood of Cæsarea.
3. I am not able to discover, that any law (such as
Theodosius afterwards enacted against the Arians) was published by Valens
against the Athanasian sectaries; and the edict which excited the most
violent clamors, may not appear so extremely reprehensible. The emperor
had observed, that several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy
disposition under the pretence of religion, had associated themselves with
the monks of Egypt; and he directed the count of the East to drag them
from their solitude; and to compel these deserters of society to accept
the fair alternative of renouncing their temporal possessions, or of
discharging the public duties of men and citizens. The ministers of Valens
seem to have extended the sense of this penal statute, since they claimed
a right of enlisting the young and able-bodied monks in the Imperial
armies. A detachment of cavalry and infantry, consisting of three thousand
men, marched from Alexandria into the adjacent desert of Nitria, which was
peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers were conducted by Arian
priests; and it is reported, that a considerable slaughter was made in the
monasteries which disobeyed the commands of their sovereign.
The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of modern
legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the clergy, may be
originally deduced from the example of the emperor Valentinian. His edict,
addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome, was publicly read in the churches of
the city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks not to frequent the
houses of widows and virgins; and menaced their disobedience with the
animadversion of the civil judge. The director was no longer permitted to
receive any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his
spiritual-daughter: every testament contrary to this edict was declared
null and void; and the illegal donation was confiscated for the use of the
treasury. By a subsequent regulation, it should seem, that the same
provisions were extended to nuns and bishops; and that all persons of the
ecclesiastical order were rendered incapable of receiving any testamentary
gifts, and strictly confined to the natural and legal rights of
inheritance. As the guardian of domestic happiness and virtue, Valentinian
applied this severe remedy to the growing evil. In the capital of the
empire, the females of noble and opulent houses possessed a very ample
share of independent property: and many of those devout females had
embraced the doctrines of Christianity, not only with the cold assent of
the understanding, but with the warmth of affection, and perhaps with the
eagerness of fashion. They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxury;
and renounced, for the praise of chastity, the soft endearments of
conjugal society. Some ecclesiastic, of real or apparent sanctity, was
chosen to direct their timorous conscience, and to amuse the vacant
tenderness of their heart: and the unbounded confidence, which they
hastily bestowed, was often abused by knaves and enthusiasts; who hastened
from the extremities of the East, to enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the
privileges of the monastic profession. By their contempt of the world,
they insensibly acquired its most desirable advantages; the lively
attachment, perhaps of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of
an opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves, the
freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The immense fortunes of
the Roman ladies were gradually consumed in lavish alms and expensive
pilgrimages; and the artful monk, who had assigned himself the first, or
possibly the sole place, in the testament of his spiritual daughter, still
presumed to declare, with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he
was only the instrument of charity, and the steward of the poor. The
lucrative, but disgraceful, trade, which was exercised by the clergy to
defraud the expectations of the natural heirs, had provoked the
indignation of a superstitious age: and two of the most respectable of the
Latin fathers very honestly confess, that the ignominious edict of
Valentinian was just and necessary; and that the Christian priests had
deserved to lose a privilege, which was still enjoyed by comedians,
charioteers, and the ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of
the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant
dexterity of private interest; and Jerom, or Ambrose, might patiently
acquiesce in the justice of an ineffectual or salutary law. If the
ecclesiastics were checked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they
would exert a more laudable industry to increase the wealth of the church;
and dignify their covetousness with the specious names of piety and
patriotism.
Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatize the avarice of
his clergy by the publication of the law of Valentinian, had the good
sense, or the good fortune, to engage in his service the zeal and
abilities of the learned Jerom; and the grateful saint has celebrated the
merit and purity of a very ambiguous character. But the splendid vices of
the church of Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, have been
curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his impartial
sense in these expressive words: "The præfecture of Juventius was
accompanied with peace and plenty, but the tranquillity of his government
was soon disturbed by a bloody sedition of the distracted people. The
ardor of Damasus and Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat, surpassed the
ordinary measure of human ambition. They contended with the rage of party;
the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death of their followers; and
the præfect, unable to resist or appease the tumult, was
constrained, by superior violence, to retire into the suburbs. Damasus
prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on the side of his faction;
one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies were found in the Basilica
of Sicininus, where the Christians hold their religious assemblies; and it
was long before the angry minds of the people resumed their accustomed
tranquillity. When I consider the splendor of the capital, I am not
astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame the desires of
ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most obstinate contests. The
successful candidate is secure, that he will be enriched by the offerings
of matrons; that, as soon as his dress is composed with becoming care and
elegance, he may proceed, in his chariot, through the streets of Rome; and
that the sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the profuse
and delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at the expense, of
the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally (continues the honest Pagan)
would those pontiffs consult their true happiness, if, instead of alleging
the greatness of the city as an excuse for their manners, they would
imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance
and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommend their pure
and modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers!" The schism of
Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the latter; and the
wisdom of the præfect Prætextatus restored the tranquillity of
the city. Prætextatus was a philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of
taste, and politeness; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest,
when he assured Damasus, that if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he
himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion. This lively
picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century
becomes the more curious, as it represents the intermediate degree between
the humble poverty of the apostolic fishermen, and the royal state of a
temporal prince, whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the
banks of the Po.
When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the sceptre of
the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his reputation in arms, his
military skill and experience, and his rigid attachment to the forms, as
well as spirit, of ancient discipline, were the principal motives of their
judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, who pressed him to nominate
his colleague, was justified by the dangerous situation of public affairs;
and Valentinian himself was conscious, that the abilities of the most
active mind were unequal to the defence of the distant frontiers of an
invaded monarchy. As soon as the death of Julian had relieved the
Barbarians from the terror of his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine
and conquest excited the nations of the East, of the North, and of the
South. Their inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but,
during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his firmness and
vigilance protected his own dominions; and his powerful genius seemed to
inspire and direct the feeble counsels of his brother. Perhaps the method
of annals would more forcibly express the urgent and divided cares of the
two emperors; but the attention of the reader, likewise, would be
distracted by a tedious and desultory narrative. A separate view of the
five great theatres of war; I. Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa; IV. The
East; and, V. The Danube; will impress a more distinct image of the
military state of the empire under the reigns of Valentinian and Valens.
I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh and
haughty behavior of Ursacius, master of the offices; who by an act of
unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as well as the quantity,
of the presents to which they were entitled, either from custom or treaty,
on the accession of a new emperor. They expressed, and they communicated
to their countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The
irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion of
contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before
Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were in flames;
before his general Degalaiphus could encounter the Alemanni, they had
secured the captives and the spoil in the forests of Germany. In the
beginning of the ensuing year, the military force of the whole nation, in
deep and solid columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine, during the
severity of a northern winter. Two Roman counts were defeated and mortally
wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into
the hands of the conquerors, who
displayed, with insulting shouts and menaces, the trophy of their victory.
The standard was recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame
of their disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the
opinion of Valentinian, that his soldiers must learn to fear their
commander, before they could cease to fear the enemy. The troops were
solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were enclosed within the
circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then ascended his tribunal; and,
as if he disdained to punish cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of
indelible ignominy on the officers, whose misconduct and pusillanimity
were found to be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were
degraded from their rank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold
for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence, the troops
fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the indignation of their
sovereign, and protested, that, if he would indulge them in another trial,
they would approve themselves not unworthy of the name of Romans, and of
his soldiers. Valentinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to their
entreaties; the Batavians resumed their arms, and with their arms, the
invincible resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the
Alemanni. The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus; and that
experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with too much prudence,
the extreme difficulties of the undertaking, had the mortification, before
the end of the campaign, of seeing his rival Jovinus convert those
difficulties into a decisive advantage over the scattered forces of the
Barbarians. At the head of a well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry,
and light troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to
Scarponna, * in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a large division
of the Alemanni, before they had time to run to their arms; and flushed
his soldiers with the confidence of an easy and bloodless victory. Another
division, or rather army, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton
devastation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on the shady banks
of the Moselle. Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eye of a
general, made a silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he
could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were
bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were combing their long and
flaxen hair; others again were swallowing large draughts of rich and
delicious wine. On a sudden they heard the sound of the Roman trumpet;
they saw the enemy in their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder
was followed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of the
bravest warriors was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries
and auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most
considerable, camp, in the Catalonian plains, near Chalons in Champagne:
the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; and
the Barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished by the fate of their
companions, prepared to encounter, in a decisive battle, the victorious
forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The bloody and obstinate conflict
lasted a whole summer's day, with equal valor, and with alternate success.
The Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred men.
Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were wounded; and
the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant of their host as far
as the banks of the Rhine, returned to Paris, to receive the applause of
his sovereign, and the ensigns of the consulship for the ensuing year. The
triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive
king, whom they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their indignant
general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the
fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the
son of Vadomair; a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but
of a daring and formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated
and protected by the Romans; and the violation of the laws of humanity and
justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the weakness of the
declining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom adopted in public
councils, as long as they retain any confidence in the power of the sword.
While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent calamities, the
pride of Valentinian was mortified by the unexpected surprisal of
Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city of the Upper Germany. In the
unsuspicious moment of a Christian festival, * Rando, a bold and artful
chieftain, who had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine;
entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of captives of
either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on the whole
body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and
Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most probably on the side
of Rhætia. The emperor in person, accompanied by his son Gratian,
passed the Rhine at the head of a formidable army, which was supported on
both flanks by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry
and infantry of the West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation
of their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty, and almost inaccessible,
mountain, in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and resolutely expected the
approach of the Romans. The life of Valentinian was exposed to imminent
danger by the intrepid curiosity with which he persisted to explore some
secret and unguarded path. A troop of Barbarians suddenly rose from their
ambuscade: and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his horse down a steep
and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his armor-bearer,
and his helmet, magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At
the signal of the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed and
ascended the mountain of Solicinium on three different sides. Every step
which they gained, increased their ardor, and abated the resistance of the
enemy: and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the hill,
they impetuously urged the Barbarians down the northern descent, where
Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their retreat. After this signal
victory, Valentinian returned to his winter quarters at Treves; where he
indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games.
But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany,
confined his attention to the important and laborious defence of the
Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed by a stream
of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the most distant
tribes of the North. The banks of the Rhine from its source to the straits
of the ocean, were closely planted with strong castles and convenient
towers; new works, and new arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a
prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of
Roman and Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of
war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by modest
representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts, secured the
tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years of the
administration of Valentinian.
That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims of
Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine divisions of
the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, the
countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe,
were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians; a warlike and
numerous people, * of the Vandal race, whose obscure name insensibly
swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing
province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners of the
Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their civil and
ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of Hendinos
was given to the king or general, and the title of Sinistus
to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred,
and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal government was held by a very
precarious tenure. If the events of war accuses the courage or conduct of
the king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects
made him responsible for the fertility of the earth, and the regularity of
the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal
department. The disputed possession of some salt-pits engaged the Alemanni
and the Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter were easily tempted,
by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor; and their
fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers, who had formerly been left to
garrison the fortresses of Drusus, was admitted with mutual credulity, as
it was conducive to mutual interest. An army of fourscore thousand
Burgundians soon appeared on the banks of the Rhine; and impatiently
required the support and subsidies which Valentinian had promised: but
they were amused with excuses and delays, till at length, after a
fruitless expectation, they were compelled to retire. The arms and
fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just
resentment; and their massacre of the captives served to imbitter the
hereditary feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a
wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by some alteration of
circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of Valentinian to
intimidate, rather than to destroy; as the balance of power would have
been equally overturned by the extirpation of either of the German
nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman
name, had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved his
hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light and unencumbered
band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the
country, and would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if
his judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the
troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honor of a personal
conference with the emperor; and the favors which he received, fixed him,
till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere friend of the republic.
The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but the
sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations of the
Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domestic
interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy, it
faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three small
islands towards the mouth of the Elbe. This contracted territory, the
present duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring
forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who
filled the British island with their language, their laws, and their
colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the
arms of Charlemagne. The solution of this difficulty is easily derived
from the similar manners, and loose constitution, of the tribes of
Germany; which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of
war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to
embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the
success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of
their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of
their woods and mountains. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole
fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired
to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and
luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most
numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt
along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the art of
navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the difficulty of issuing
through the northern columns of Hercules (which, during several months of
the year, are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within
the limits of a spacious lake. The rumor of the successful armaments which
sailed from the mouth of the Elbe, would soon provoke them to cross the
narrow isthmus of Sleswig, and to launch their vessels on the great sea.
The various troops of pirates and adventurers, who fought under the same
standard, were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of
rapine, and afterwards of government. A military confederation was
gradually moulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of
marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the
alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact were not
established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse
the credulity of our readers, by the description of the vessels in which
the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the
British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large
flat-bottomed boats were framed of light timber, but the sides and upper
works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. In the
course of their slow and distant navigations, they must always have been
exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune, of
shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were undoubtedly filled with
the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts of Britain
and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of
the sea and of the shore: their skill was confirmed by the habits of
enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an
oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel, and the Saxons rejoiced
in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design, and
dispersed the fleets of the enemy. After they had acquired an accurate
knowledge of the maritime provinces of the West, they extended the scene
of their depredations, and the most sequestered places had no reason to
presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so little water that they
could easily proceed fourscore or a hundred miles up the great rivers;
their weight was so inconsiderable, that they were transported on wagons
from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered the mouth of
the Seine, or of the Rhine, might descend, with the rapid stream of the
Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian, the
maritime provinces of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a military count
was stationed for the defence of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and
that officer, who found his strength, or his abilities, unequal to the
task, implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry.
The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to relinquish their
spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and robust youth to serve
in the Imperial armies. They stipulated only a safe and honorable retreat;
and the condition was readily granted by the Roman general, who meditated
an act of perfidy, imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained
alive, and in arms, to revenge the fate of their countrymen. The premature
eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley,
betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victims of
their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise
of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and
to overwhelm the undaunted valor of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were
saved from the edge of the sword, to shed their blood in the amphitheatre;
and the orator Symmachus complains, that twenty-nine of those desperate
savages, by strangling themselves with their own hands, had disappointed
the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of
Rome were impressed with the deepest horror, when they were informed, that
the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tithe of their human
spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous
sacrifice.
II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and
Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of our
rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and
philosophy. The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational
opinion, that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were gradually
peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, to
the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin was
distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of language, of
religion, and of manners; and the peculiar characters of the British
tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and
local circumstances. The Roman Province was reduced to the state of
civilized and peaceful servitude; the rights of savage freedom were
contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that
northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine,
between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts, who have since
experienced a very different fortune. The power, and almost the memory, of
the Picts have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the
Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom,
have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honors of the
English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient
distinctions of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills,
and the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be
considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a rude state of
tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of corn; and the
epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters, expressed
the contempt or envy of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of the
earth might introduce a more accurate separation of property, and the
habits of a sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was still the
ruling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who stripped themselves
for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the
strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colors and
fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises into
wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of the husbandman,
and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. The highlanders
were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and, as they
seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the
expressive name of Scots, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be
equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants.
The inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food
in the waters. The deep lakes and bays which intersect their country, are
plentifully supplied with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their
nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely
scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted their curiosity,
and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees, the art, or
rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuous sea, and of
steering their nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The
two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious
island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of
Green; and has preserved, with a slight
alteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable,
that in some remote period of antiquity, the fertile plains of Ulster
received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North,
who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests
over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain,
that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and
the Isle of Man, were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes,
who were often associated in military enterprise, were deeply affected by
the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherished the
lively tradition of their common name and origin; and the missionaries of
the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North
Britain, established the vain opinion, that their Irish countrymen were
the natural, as well as spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The loose
and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who
scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century. On
this slight foundation, a huge superstructure of fable was gradually
reared, by the bards and the monks; two orders of men, who equally abused
the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride,
adopted their Irish genealogy; and the annals of a long line of imaginary
kings have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius, and the classic elegance
of Buchanan.
Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads of the
Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son, who reigned in
the Western empire. Constans visited his British dominions: but we may
form some estimate of the importance of his achievements, by the language
of panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over the elements or, in
other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of
Boulogne to the harbor of Sandwich. The calamities which the afflicted
provincials continued to experience, from foreign war and domestic
tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the
eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient relief which they might obtain
from the virtues of Julian, was soon lost by the absence and death of
their benefactor. The sums of gold and silver, which had been painfully
collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were
intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at least,
exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold; the distress of
the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty
subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline
were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers. The oppression
of the good, and the impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to
diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and every
ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable
hope of subverting the weak and distracted government of Britain. The
hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King
of the World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the
land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves with
rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of
Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience and
luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labor or procuring by
trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain. A
philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he
will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than
the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to the Plantagenets,
this rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy
Caledonians; but the same people, whose generous humanity seems to inspire
the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of
peace, and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbors have felt, and
perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts; and a
valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti, the enemies, and afterwards the
soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of delighting in
the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said,
that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock; and that they
curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males and
females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts. If, in the
neighborhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of
cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the
Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life. Such
reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas; and to encourage the
pleasing hope, that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume
of the Southern Hemisphere.
Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel, conveyed the most
melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian; and the
emperor was soon informed that the two military commanders of the province
had been surprised and cut off by the Barbarians. Severus, count of the
domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court
of Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate the
greatness of the evil; and, after a long and serious consultation, the
defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was intrusted to the abilities
of the brave Theodosius. The exploits of that general, the father of a
line of emperors, have been celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the
writers of the age: but his real merit deserved their applause; and his
nomination was received, by the army and province, as a sure presage of
approaching victory. He seized the favorable moment of navigation, and
securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of the Heruli and
Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In his march from Sandwich to
London, Theodosius defeated several parties of the Barbarians, released a
multitude of captives, and, after distributing to his soldiers a small
portion of the spoil, established the fame of disinterested justice, by
the restitution of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens
of London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open their
gates; and as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the court of Treves the
important aid of a military lieutenant, and a civil governor, he executed,
with wisdom and vigor, the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain.
The vagrant soldiers were recalled to their standard; an edict of amnesty
dispelled the public apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated
the rigor of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of
the Barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the glory
of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit, and consummate art, of the
Roman general, were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, which
successively rescued every part of the province from the hands of a cruel
and rapacious enemy. The splendor of the cities, and the security of the
fortifications, were diligently restored, by the paternal care of
Theodosius; who with a strong hand confined the trembling Caledonians to
the northern angle of the island; and perpetuated, by the name and
settlement of the new province of Valentia, the
glories of the reign of Valentinian. The voice of poetry and panegyric may
add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule
were stained with the blood of the Picts; that the oars of Theodosius
dashed the waves of the Hyperborean ocean; and that the distant Orkneys
were the scene of his naval victory over the Saxon pirates. He left the
province with a fair, as well as splendid, reputation; and was immediately
promoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry, by a prince who
could applaud, without envy, the merit of his servants. In the important
station of the Upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated
the armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of
Africa.
III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs the people to
consider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The military command of
Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and his abilities were
not inadequate to his station; but, as sordid interest was the sole motive
of his conduct, he acted, on most occasions, as if he had been the enemy
of the province, and the friend of the Barbarians of the desert. The three
flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sabrata, which, under the name of
Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union, were obliged, for the first
time, to shut their gates against a hostile invasion; several of their
most honorable citizens were surprised and massacred; the villages, and
even the suburbs, were pillaged; and the vines and fruit trees of that
rich territory were extirpated by the malicious savages of Getulia. The
unhappy provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they soon
found that their military governor was not less cruel and rapacious than
the Barbarians. As they were incapable of furnishing the four thousand
camels, and the exorbitant present, which he required, before he would
march to the assistance of Tripoli; his demand was equivalent to a
refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the public
calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two
deputies, to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a
gold victory; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of
gratitude, with their humble complaint, that they were ruined by the
enemy, and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of Valentinian had
been rightly directed, it would have fallen on the guilty head of Romanus.
But the count, long exercised in the arts of corruption, had despatched a
swift and trusty messenger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius,
master of the offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by
artifice; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length,
when the repetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of
public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court of
Treves, to examine the state of Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The
rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed: he was tempted to
reserve for himself a part of the public treasure, which he brought with
him for the payment of the troops; and from the moment that he was
conscious of his own guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the
innocence and merit of the count. The charge of the Tripolitans was
declared to be false and frivolous; and Palladius himself was sent back
from Treves to Africa, with a special commission to discover and prosecute
the authors of this impious conspiracy against the representatives of the
sovereign. His inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success,
that he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege
of eight days, to contradict the truth of their own decrees, and to
censure the behavior of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was
pronounced, without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of
Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the
distress of the province, was publicly executed at Utica; four
distinguished citizens were put to death, as the accomplices of the
imaginary fraud; and the tongues of two others were cut out, by the
express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by impunity, and irritated
by resistance, was still continued in the military command; till the
Africans were provoked, by his avarice, to join the rebellious standard of
Firmus, the Moor.
His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the Moorish
princes, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But as he left, either by
his wives or concubines, a very numerous posterity, the wealthy
inheritance was eagerly disputed; and Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in
a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal, with which
Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder, could be ascribed
only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred; but, on this occasion,
his claims were just; his influence was weighty; and Firmus clearly
understood, that he must either present his neck to the executioner, or
appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory, to his sword, and to
the people. He was received as the deliverer of his country; and, as soon
as it appeared that Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province,
the tyrant of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of
Cæsarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious Barbarians,
convinced the refractory cities of the danger of resistance; the power of
Firmus was established, at least in the provinces of Mauritania and
Numidia; and it seemed to be his only doubt whether he should assume the
diadem of a Moorish king, or the purple of a Roman emperor. But the
imprudent and unhappy Africans soon discovered, that, in this rash
insurrection, they had not sufficiently consulted their own strength, or
the abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain
intelligence, that the emperor of the West had fixed the choice of a
general, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the mouth of the
Rhone, he was suddenly informed that the great Theodosius, with a small
band of veterans, had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African
coast; and the timid usurper sunk under the ascendant of virtue and
military genius. Though Firmus possessed arms and treasures, his despair
of victory immediately reduced him to the use of those arts, which, in the
same country, and in a similar situation, had formerly been practised by
the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an apparent submission,
the vigilance of the Roman general; to seduce the fidelity of his troops;
and to protract the duration of the war, by successively engaging the
independent tribes of Africa to espouse his quarrel, or to protect his
flight. Theodosius imitated the example, and obtained the success, of his
predecessor Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a suppliant,
accused his own rashness, and humbly solicited the clemency of the
emperor, the lieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him with a
friendly embrace: but he diligently required the useful and substantial
pledges of a sincere repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the
assurances of peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an
active war. A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of
Theodosius; and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the public
indignation, which he had secretly excited. Several of the guilty
accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, according to ancient custom, to the
tumult of a military execution; many more, by the amputation of both their
hands, continued to exhibit an instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred
of the rebels was accompanied with fear; and the fear of the Roman
soldiers was mingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless
plains of Getulia, and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was
impossible to prevent the escape of Firmus; and if the usurper could have
tired the patience of his antagonist, he would have secured his person in
the depth of some remote solitude, and expected the hopes of a future
revolution. He was subdued by the perseverance of Theodosius; who had
formed an inflexible determination, that the war should end only by the
death of the tyrant; and that every nation of Africa, which presumed to
support his cause, should be involved in his ruin. At the head of a small
body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five hundred men, the
Roman general advanced, with a steady prudence, devoid of rashness or of
fear, into the heart of a country, where he was sometimes attacked by
armies of twenty thousand Moors. The boldness of his charge dismayed the
irregular Barbarians; they were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly
retreats; they were continually baffled by the unknown resources of the
military art; and they felt and confessed the just superiority which was
assumed by the leader of a civilized nation. When Theodosius entered the
extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the Isaflenses, the haughty savage
required, in words of defiance, his name, and the object of his
expedition. "I am," replied the stern and disdainful count, "I am the
general of Valentinian, the lord of the world; who has sent me hither to
pursue and punish a desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands;
and be assured, that if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible
sovereign, thou, and the people over whom thou reignest, shall be utterly
extirpated." * As soon as Igmazen was satisfied, that his enemy had
strength and resolution to execute the fatal menace, he consented to
purchase a necessary peace by the sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The
guards that were placed to secure the person of Firmus deprived him of the
hopes of escape; and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the
sense of danger, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans, by
strangling himself in the night. His dead body, the only present which
Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a camel;
and Theodosius, leading back his victorious troops to Sitifi, was saluted
by the warmest acclamations of joy and loyalty.
Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by the
virtues of Theodosius; and our curiosity may be usefully directed to the
inquiry of the respective treatment which the two generals received from
the Imperial court. The authority of Count Romanus had been suspended by
the master-general of the cavalry; and he was committed to safe and
honorable custody till the end of the war. His crimes were proved by the
most authentic evidence; and the public expected, with some impatience,
the decree of severe justice. But the partial and powerful favor of
Mellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtain
repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of friendly
witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct, by the additional
guilt of fraud and forgery. About the same time, the restorer of Britain
and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his name and services were superior
to the rank of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded at Carthage.
Valentinian no longer reigned; and the death of Theodosius, as well as the
impunity of Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the ministers,
who abused the confidence, and deceived the inexperienced youth, of his
sons.
If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately bestowed on
the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have traced, with eager
curiosity, the distinct and domestic footsteps of his march. But the
tedious enumeration of the unknown and uninteresting tribes of Africa may
be reduced to the general remark, that they were all of the swarthy race
of the Moors; that they inhabited the back settlements of the Mauritanian
and Numidian province, the country, as they have since been termed by the
Arabs, of dates and of locusts; and that, as the Roman power declined in
Africa, the boundary of civilized manners and cultivated land was
insensibly contracted. Beyond the utmost limits of the Moors, the vast and
inhospitable desert of the South extends above a thousand miles to the
banks of the Niger. The ancients, who had a very faint and imperfect
knowledge of the great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted to
believe, that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants;
and they sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant space with
headless men, or rather monsters; with horned and cloven-footed satyrs;
with fabulous centaurs; and with human pygmies, who waged a bold and
doubtful warfare against the cranes. Carthage would have trembled at the
strange intelligence that the countries on either side of the equator were
filled with innumerable nations, who differed only in their color from the
ordinary appearance of the human species: and the subjects of the Roman
empire might have anxiously expected, that the swarms of Barbarians, which
issued from the North, would soon be encountered from the South by new
swarms of Barbarians, equally fierce and equally formidable. These gloomy
terrors would indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance
with the character of their African enemies. The inaction of the negroes
does not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or of their
pusillanimity. They indulge, like the rest of mankind, their passions and
appetites; and the adjacent tribes are engaged in frequent acts of
hostility. But their rude ignorance has never invented any effectual
weapons of defence, or of destruction; they appear incapable of forming
any extensive plans of government, or conquest; and the obvious
inferiority of their mental faculties has been discovered and abused by
the nations of the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually
embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native
country; but they are embarked in chains; and this constant emigration,
which, in the space of two centuries, might have furnished armies to
overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe, and the weakness of
Africa.