IV. The ignominious treaty, which saved the army of Jovian, had been
faithfully executed on the side of the Romans; and as they had solemnly
renounced the sovereignty and alliance of Armenia and Iberia, those
tributary kingdoms were exposed, without protection, to the arms of the
Persian monarch. Sapor entered the Armenian territories at the head of a
formidable host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot; but it
was the invariable practice of Sapor to mix war and negotiation, and to
consider falsehood and perjury as the most powerful instruments of regal
policy. He affected to praise the prudent and moderate conduct of the king
of Armenia; and the unsuspicious Tiranus was persuaded, by the repeated
assurances of insidious friendship, to deliver his person into the hands
of a faithless and cruel enemy. In the midst of a splendid entertainment,
he was bound in chains of silver, as an honor due to the blood of the
Arsacides; and, after a short confinement in the Tower of Oblivion at
Ecbatana, he was released from the miseries of life, either by his own
dagger, or by that of an assassin. * The kingdom of Armenia was reduced to
the state of a Persian province; the administration was shared between a
distinguished satrap and a favorite eunuch; and Sapor marched, without
delay, to subdue the martial spirit of the Iberians. Sauromaces, who
reigned in that country by the permission of the emperors, was expelled by
a superior force; and, as an insult on the majesty of Rome, the king of
kings placed a diadem on the head of his abject vassal Aspacuras. The city
of Artogerassa was the only place of Armenia which presumed to resist the
efforts of his arms. The treasure deposited in that strong fortress
tempted the avarice of Sapor; but the danger of Olympias, the wife or
widow of the Armenian king, excited the public compassion, and animated
the desperate valor of her subjects and soldiers. § The Persians were
surprised and repulsed under the walls of Artogerassa, by a bold and
well-concerted sally of the besieged. But the forces of Sapor were
continually renewed and increased; the hopeless courage of the garrison
was exhausted; the strength of the walls yielded to the assault; and the
proud conqueror, after wasting the rebellious city with fire and sword,
led away captive an unfortunate queen; who, in a more auspicious hour, had
been the destined bride of the son of Constantine. Yet if Sapor already
triumphed in the easy conquest of two dependent kingdoms, he soon felt,
that a country is unsubdued as long as the minds of the people are
actuated by a hostile and contumacious spirit. The satraps, whom he was
obliged to trust, embraced the first opportunity of regaining the
affection of their countrymen, and of signalizing their immortal hatred to
the Persian name. Since the conversion of the Armenians and Iberians,
these nations considered the Christians as the favorites, and the Magians
as the adversaries, of the Supreme Being: the influence of the clergy,
over a superstitious people was uniformly exerted in the cause of Rome;
and as long as the successors of Constantine disputed with those of
Artaxerxes the sovereignty of the intermediate provinces, the religious
connection always threw a decisive advantage into the scale of the empire.
A numerous and active party acknowledged Para, the son of Tiranus, as the
lawful sovereign of Armenia, and his title to the throne was deeply rooted
in the hereditary succession of five hundred years. By the unanimous
consent of the Iberians, the country was equally divided between the rival
princes; and Aspacuras, who owed his diadem to the choice of Sapor, was
obliged to declare, that his regard for his children, who were detained as
hostages by the tyrant, was the only consideration which prevented him
from openly renouncing the alliance of Persia. The emperor Valens, who
respected the obligations of the treaty, and who was apprehensive of
involving the East in a dangerous war, ventured, with slow and cautious
measures, to support the Roman party in the kingdoms of Iberia and
Armenia. $ Twelve legions established the authority of Sauromaces on the
banks of the Cyrus. The Euphrates was protected by the valor of Arintheus.
A powerful army, under the command of Count Trajan, and of Vadomair, king
of the Alemanni, fixed their camp on the confines of Armenia. But they
were strictly enjoined not to commit the first hostilities, which might be
understood as a breach of the treaty: and such was the implicit obedience
of the Roman general, that they retreated, with exemplary patience, under
a shower of Persian arrows till they had clearly acquired a just title to
an honorable and legitimate victory. Yet these appearances of war
insensibly subsided in a vain and tedious negotiation. The contending
parties supported their claims by mutual reproaches of perfidy and
ambition; and it should seem, that the original treaty was expressed in
very obscure terms, since they were reduced to the necessity of making
their inconclusive appeal to the partial testimony of the generals of the
two nations, who had assisted at the negotiations. The invasion of the
Goths and Huns which soon afterwards shook the foundations of the Roman
empire, exposed the provinces of Asia to the arms of Sapor. But the
declining age, and perhaps the infirmities, of the monarch suggested new
maxims of tranquillity and moderation. His death, which happened in the
full maturity of a reign of seventy years, changed in a moment the court
and councils of Persia; and their attention was most probably engaged by
domestic troubles, and the distant efforts of a Carmanian war. The
remembrance of ancient injuries was lost in the enjoyment of peace. The
kingdoms of Armenia and Iberia were permitted, by the mutual, though tacit
consent of both empires, to resume their doubtful neutrality. In the first
years of the reign of Theodosius, a Persian embassy arrived at
Constantinople, to excuse the unjustifiable measures of the former reign;
and to offer, as the tribute of friendship, or even of respect, a splendid
present of gems, of silk, and of Indian elephants.
In the general picture of the affairs of the East under the reign of
Valens, the adventures of Para form one of the most striking and singular
objects. The noble youth, by the persuasion of his mother Olympias, had
escaped through the Persian host that besieged Artogerassa, and implored
the protection of the emperor of the East. By his timid councils, Para was
alternately supported, and recalled, and restored, and betrayed. The hopes
of the Armenians were sometimes raised by the presence of their natural
sovereign, * and the ministers of Valens were satisfied, that they
preserved the integrity of the public faith, if their vassal was not
suffered to assume the diadem and title of King. But they soon repented of
their own rashness. They were confounded by the reproaches and threats of
the Persian monarch. They found reason to distrust the cruel and
inconstant temper of Para himself; who sacrificed, to the slightest
suspicions, the lives of his most faithful servants, and held a secret and
disgraceful correspondence with the assassin of his father and the enemy
of his country. Under the specious pretence of consulting with the emperor
on the subject of their common interest, Para was persuaded to descend
from the mountains of Armenia, where his party was in arms, and to trust
his independence and safety to the discretion of a perfidious court. The
king of Armenia, for such he appeared in his own eyes and in those of his
nation, was received with due honors by the governors of the provinces
through which he passed; but when he arrived at Tarsus in Cilicia, his
progress was stopped under various pretences; his motions were watched
with respectful vigilance, and he gradually discovered, that he was a
prisoner in the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed his indignation,
dissembled his fears, and after secretly preparing his escape, mounted on
horseback with three hundred of his faithful followers. The officer
stationed at the door of his apartment immediately communicated his flight
to the consular of Cilicia, who overtook him in the suburbs, and
endeavored without success, to dissuade him from prosecuting his rash and
dangerous design. A legion was ordered to pursue the royal fugitive; but
the pursuit of infantry could not be very alarming to a body of light
cavalry; and upon the first cloud of arrows that was discharged into the
air, they retreated with precipitation to the gates of Tarsus. After an
incessant march of two days and two nights, Para and his Armenians reached
the banks of the Euphrates; but the passage of the river which they were
obliged to swim, * was attended with some delay and some loss. The country
was alarmed; and the two roads, which were only separated by an interval
of three miles had been occupied by a thousand archers on horseback, under
the command of a count and a tribune. Para must have yielded to superior
force, if the accidental arrival of a friendly traveller had not revealed
the danger and the means of escape. A dark and almost impervious path
securely conveyed the Armenian troop through the thicket; and Para had
left behind him the count and the tribune, while they patiently expected
his approach along the public highways. They returned to the Imperial
court to excuse their want of diligence or success; and seriously alleged,
that the king of Armenia, who was a skilful magician, had transformed
himself and his followers, and passed before their eyes under a borrowed
shape. After his return to his native kingdom, Para still continued to
profess himself the friend and ally of the Romans: but the Romans had
injured him too deeply ever to forgive, and the secret sentence of his
death was signed in the council of Valens. The execution of the bloody
deed was committed to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan; and he had the
merit of insinuating himself into the confidence of the credulous prince,
that he might find an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart Para was
invited to a Roman banquet, which had been prepared with all the pomp and
sensuality of the East; the hall resounded with cheerful music, and the
company was already heated with wine; when the count retired for an
instant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust and
desperate Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and though he
bravely defended his life with the first weapon that chance offered to his
hand, the table of the Imperial general was stained with the royal blood
of a guest, and an ally. Such were the weak and wicked maxims of the Roman
administration, that, to attain a doubtful object of political interest
the laws of nations, and the sacred rights of hospitality were inhumanly
violated in the face of the world.
V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured their
frontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions. The victories of the
great Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race of
the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, to the
exploits of Alexander; with this singular, and almost incredible,
difference, that the martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of being
supported by the vigor of youth, was displayed with glory and success in
the extreme period of human life, between the age of fourscore and one
hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded, or
compelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the sovereign of
the Gothic nation: the chiefs of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renounced
the royal title, and assumed the more humble appellation of Judges;
and, among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus, were the most
illustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by their vicinity to the
Roman provinces. These domestic conquests, which increased the military
power of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He invaded the
adjacent countries of the North; and twelve considerable nations, whose
names and limits cannot be accurately defined, successively yielded to the
superiority of the Gothic arms. The Heruli, who inhabited the marshy lands
near the lake Mæotis, were renowned for their strength and agility;
and the assistance of their light infantry was eagerly solicited, and
highly esteemed, in all the wars of the Barbarians. But the active spirit
of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steady perseverance of the
Goths; and, after a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the
remains of that warlike tribe became a useful accession to the camp of
Hermanric. He then marched against the Venedi; unskilled in the use of
arms, and formidable only by their numbers, which filled the wide extent
of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths, who were not
inferior in numbers, prevailed in the contest, by the decisive advantages
of exercise and discipline. After the submission of the Venedi, the
conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far as the confines of the
Æstii; an ancient people, whose name is still preserved in the
province of Esthonia. Those distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were
supported by the labors of agriculture, enriched by the trade of amber,
and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of the Gods. But the
scarcity of iron obliged the Æstian warriors to content themselves
with wooden clubs; and the reduction of that wealthy country is ascribed
to the prudence, rather than to the arms, of Hermanric. His dominions,
which extended from the Danube to the Baltic, included the native seats,
and the recent acquisitions, of the Goths; and he reigned over the
greatest part of Germany and Scythia with the authority of a conqueror,
and sometimes with the cruelty of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of
the globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory of its heroes.
The name of Hermanric is almost buried in oblivion; his exploits are
imperfectly known; and the Romans themselves appeared unconscious of the
progress of an aspiring power which threatened the liberty of the North,
and the peace of the empire.
The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the Imperial house
of Constantine, of whose power and liberality they had received so many
signal proofs. They respected the public peace; and if a hostile band
sometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct was
candidly ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian youth. Their
contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to the
throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes; and,
while they agitated some design of marching their confederate force under
the national standard, they were easily tempted to embrace the party of
Procopius; and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civil discord of the
Romans. The public treaty might stipulate no more than ten thousand
auxiliaries; but the design was so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the
Visigoths, that the army which passed the Danube amounted to the number of
thirty thousand men. They marched with the proud confidence, that their
invincible valor would decide the fate of the Roman empire; and the
provinces of Thrace groaned under the weight of the Barbarians, who
displayed the insolence of masters and the licentiousness of enemies. But
the intemperance which gratified their appetites, retarded their progress;
and before the Goths could receive any certain intelligence of the defeat
and death of Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the
country, that the civil and military powers were resumed by his successful
rival. A chain of posts and fortifications, skilfully disposed by Valens,
or the generals of Valens, resisted their march, prevented their retreat,
and intercepted their subsistence. The fierceness of the Barbarians was
tamed and suspended by hunger; they indignantly threw down their arms at
the feet of the conqueror, who offered them food and chains: the numerous
captives were distributed in all the cities of the East; and the
provincials, who were soon familiarized with their savage appearance,
ventured, by degrees, to measure their own strength with these formidable
adversaries, whose name had so long been the object of their terror. The
king of Scythia (and Hermanric alone could deserve so lofty a title) was
grieved and exasperated by this national calamity. His ambassadors loudly
complained, at the court of Valens, of the infraction of the ancient and
solemn alliance, which had so long subsisted between the Romans and the
Goths. They alleged, that they had fulfilled the duty of allies, by
assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor Julian; they required
the immediate restitution of the noble captives; and they urged a very
singular claim, that the Gothic generals marching in arms, and in hostile
array, were entitled to the sacred character and privileges of
ambassadors. The decent, but peremptory, refusal of these extravagant
demands, was signified to the Barbarians by Victor, master-general of the
cavalry; who expressed, with force and dignity, the just complaints of the
emperor of the East. The negotiation was interrupted; and the manly
exhortations of Valentinian encouraged his timid brother to vindicate the
insulted majesty of the empire.
The splendor and magnitude of this Gothic war are celebrated by a
contemporary historian: but the events scarcely deserve the attention of
posterity, except as the preliminary steps of the approaching decline and
fall of the empire. Instead of leading the nations of Germany and Scythia
to the banks of the Danube, or even to the gates of Constantinople, the
aged monarch of the Goths resigned to the brave Athanaric the danger and
glory of a defensive war, against an enemy, who wielded with a feeble hand
the powers of a mighty state. A bridge of boats was established upon the
Danube; the presence of Valens animated his troops; and his ignorance of
the art of war was compensated by personal bravery, and a wise deference
to the advice of Victor and Arintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry
and infantry. The operations of the campaign were conducted by their skill
and experience; but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths from
their strong posts in the mountains; and the devastation of the plains
obliged the Romans themselves to repass the Danube on the approach of
winter. The incessant rains, which swelled the waters of the river,
produced a tacit suspension of arms, and confined the emperor Valens,
during the whole course of the ensuing summer, to his camp of
Marcianopolis. The third year of the war was more favorable to the Romans,
and more pernicious to the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the
Barbarians of the objects of luxury, which they already confounded with
the necessaries of life; and the desolation of a very extensive tract of
country threatened them with the horrors of famine. Athanaric was
provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle, which he lost, in the plains;
and the pursuit was rendered more bloody by the cruel precaution of the
victorious generals, who had promised a large reward for the head of every
Goth that was brought into the Imperial camp. The submission of the
Barbarians appeased the resentment of Valens and his council: the emperor
listened with satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of
the senate of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first time, a share
in the public deliberations; and the same generals, Victor and Arintheus,
who had successfully directed the conduct of the war, were empowered to
regulate the conditions of peace. The freedom of trade, which the Goths
had hitherto enjoyed, was restricted to two cities on the Danube; the
rashness of their leaders was severely punished by the suppression of
their pensions and subsidies; and the exception, which was stipulated in
favor of Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honorable to the
Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this occasion, appears to have
consulted his private interest, without expecting the orders of his
sovereign, supported his own dignity, and that of his tribe, in the
personal interview which was proposed by the ministers of Valens. He
persisted in his declaration, that it was impossible for him, without
incurring the guilt of perjury, ever to set his foot on the territory of
the empire; and it is more than probable, that his regard for the sanctity
of an oath was confirmed by the recent and fatal examples of Roman
treachery. The Danube, which separated the dominions of the two
independent nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. The
emperor of the East, and the Judge of the Visigoths, accompanied by an
equal number of armed followers, advanced in their respective barges to
the middle of the stream. After the ratification of the treaty, and the
delivery of hostages, Valens returned in triumph to Constantinople; and
the Goths remained in a state of tranquillity about six years; till they
were violently impelled against the Roman empire by an innumerable host of
Scythians, who appeared to issue from the frozen regions of the North.
The emperor of the West, who had resigned to his brother the command of
the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care the defence of the Rhætian
and Illyrian provinces, which spread so many hundred miles along the
greatest of the European rivers. The active policy of Valentinian was
continually employed in adding new fortifications to the security of the
frontier: but the abuse of this policy provoked the just resentment of the
Barbarians. The Quadi complained, that the ground for an intended fortress
had been marked out on their territories; and their complaints were urged
with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius, master-general of
Illyricum, consented to suspend the prosecution of the work, till he
should be more clearly informed of the will of his sovereign. This fair
occasion of injuring a rival, and of advancing the fortune of his son, was
eagerly embraced by the inhuman Maximin, the præfect, or rather
tyrant, of Gaul. The passions of Valentinian were impatient of control;
and he credulously listened to the assurances of his favorite, that if the
government of Valeria, and the direction of the work, were intrusted to
the zeal of his son Marcellinus, the emperor should no longer be
importuned with the audacious remonstrances of the Barbarians. The
subjects of Rome, and the natives of Germany, were insulted by the
arrogance of a young and worthless minister, who considered his rapid
elevation as the proof and reward of his superior merit. He affected,
however, to receive the modest application of Gabinius, king of the Quadi,
with some attention and regard: but this artful civility concealed a dark
and bloody design, and the credulous prince was persuaded to accept the
pressing invitation of Marcellinus. I am at a loss how to vary the
narrative of similar crimes; or how to relate, that, in the course of the
same year, but in remote parts of the empire, the inhospitable table of
two Imperial generals was stained with the royal blood of two guests and
allies, inhumanly murdered by their order, and in their presence. The fate
of Gabinius, and of Para, was the same: but the cruel death of their
sovereign was resented in a very different manner by the servile temper of
the Armenians, and the free and daring spirit of the Germans. The Quadi
were much declined from that formidable power, which, in the time of
Marcus Antoninus, had spread terror to the gates of Rome. But they still
possessed arms and courage; their courage was animated by despair, and
they obtained the usual reenforcement of the cavalry of their Sarmatian
allies. So improvident was the assassin Marcellinus, that he chose the
moment when the bravest veterans had been drawn away, to suppress the
revolt of Firmus; and the whole province was exposed, with a very feeble
defence, to the rage of the exasperated Barbarians. They invaded Pannonia
in the season of harvest; unmercifully destroyed every object of plunder
which they could not easily transport; and either disregarded, or
demolished, the empty fortifications. The princess Constantia, the
daughter of the emperor Constantius, and the granddaughter of the great
Constantine, very narrowly escaped. That royal maid, who had innocently
supported the revolt of Procopius, was now the destined wife of the heir
of the Western empire. She traversed the peaceful province with a splendid
and unarmed train. Her person was saved from danger, and the republic from
disgrace, by the active zeal of Messala, governor of the provinces. As
soon as he was informed that the village, where she stopped only to dine,
was almost encompassed by the Barbarians, he hastily placed her in his own
chariot, and drove full speed till he reached the gates of Sirmium, which
were at the distance of six-and-twenty miles. Even Sirmium might not have
been secure, if the Quadi and Sarmatians had diligently advanced during
the general consternation of the magistrates and people. Their delay
allowed Probus, the Prætorian præfect, sufficient time to
recover his own spirits, and to revive the courage of the citizens. He
skilfully directed their strenuous efforts to repair and strengthen the
decayed fortifications; and procured the seasonable and effectual
assistance of a company of archers, to protect the capital of the Illyrian
provinces. Disappointed in their attempts against the walls of Sirmium,
the indignant Barbarians turned their arms against the master general of
the frontier, to whom they unjustly attributed the murder of their king.
Equitius could bring into the field no more than two legions; but they
contained the veteran strength of the Mæsian and Pannonian bands.
The obstinacy with which they disputed the vain honors of rank and
precedency, was the cause of their destruction; and while they acted with
separate forces and divided councils, they were surprised and slaughtered
by the active vigor of the Sarmatian horse. The success of this invasion
provoked the emulation of the bordering tribes; and the province of Mæsia
would infallibly have been lost, if young Theodosius, the duke, or
military commander, of the frontier, had not signalized, in the defeat of
the public enemy, an intrepid genius, worthy of his illustrious father,
and of his future greatness.
The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply affected
by the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the season suspended
the execution of his designs till the ensuing spring. He marched in
person, with a considerable part of the forces of Gaul, from the banks of
the Moselle: and to the suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who met
him on the way, he returned a doubtful answer, that, as soon as he reached
the scene of action, he should examine, and pronounce. When he arrived at
Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrian provinces; who
loudly congratulated their own felicity under the auspicious government of
Probus, his Prætorian præfect. Valentinian, who was flattered
by these demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked
the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity, whether
he was freely sent by the wishes of the province. "With tears and groans
am I sent," replied Iphicles, "by a reluctant people." The emperor paused:
but the impunity of his ministers established the pernicious maxim, that
they might oppress his subjects, without injuring his service. A strict
inquiry into their conduct would have relieved the public discontent. The
severe condemnation of the murder of Gabinius, was the only measure which
could restore the confidence of the Germans, and vindicate the honor of
the Roman name. But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity
which dares to acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered
only the injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an
insatiate thirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation, and
promiscuous massacre, of a savage war, were justified, in the eyes of the
emperor, and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of
retaliation: and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the
consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without
the loss of a single man. As he had resolved to complete the destruction
of the Quadi by a second campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at
Bregetio, on the Danube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the
operations of war were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi
made an humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at
the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into
the Imperial council. They approached the throne with bended bodies and
dejected countenances; and without daring to complain of the murder of
their king, they affirmed, with solemn oaths, that the late invasion was
the crime of some irregular robbers, which the public council of the
nation condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them but
little to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in the most
intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude, their insolence.
His eyes, his voice, his color, his gestures, expressed the violence of
his ungoverned fury; and while his whole frame was agitated with
convulsive passion, a large blood vessel suddenly burst in his body; and
Valentinian fell speechless into the arms of his attendants. Their pious
care immediately concealed his situation from the crowd; but, in a few
minutes, the emperor of the West expired in an agony of pain, retaining
his senses till the last; and struggling, without success, to declare his
intentions to the generals and ministers, who surrounded the royal couch.
Valentinian was about fifty-four years of age; and he wanted only one
hundred days to accomplish the twelve years of his reign.
The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiastical
historian. "The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted into her
familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italian governor:
her admiration of those naked charms, which she had often seen in the
bath, was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise, that the
emperor was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; and his
public edict extended to all the subjects of the empire the same domestic
privilege which he had assumed for himself." But we may be assured, from
the evidence of reason as well as history, that the two marriages of
Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were successively
contracted; and that he used the ancient permission of divorce, which was
still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by the church. Severa
was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every claim which could
entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western empire. He was the
eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign had confirmed the free and
honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before he had attained the ninth
year of his age, the royal youth received from the hands of his indulgent
father the purple robe and diadem, with the title of Augustus; the
election was solemnly ratified by the consent and applause of the armies
of Gaul; and the name of Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and
Valens, in all the legal transactions of the Roman government. By his
marriage with the granddaughter of Constantine, the son of Valentinian
acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian family; which, in a
series of three Imperial generations, were sanctified by time, religion,
and the reverence of the people. At the death of his father, the royal
youth was in the seventeenth year of his age; and his virtues already
justified the favorable opinion of the army and the people. But Gratian
resided, without apprehension, in the palace of Treves; whilst, at the
distance of many hundred miles, Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp
of Bregetio. The passions, which had been so long suppressed by the
presence of a master, immediately revived in the Imperial council; and the
ambitious design of reigning in the name of an infant, was artfully
executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who commanded the attachment of the
Illyrian and Italian bands. They contrived the most honorable pretences to
remove the popular leaders, and the troops of Gaul, who might have
asserted the claims of the lawful successor; they suggested the necessity
of extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies, by a bold and
decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left in a palace about
one hundred miles from Bregetio, was respectively invited to appear in the
camp, with the son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the
death of Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only
four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions; and
solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns of
supreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonably
prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. He
cheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared that he should always
consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the
empress, with her son Valentinian to fix their residence at Milan, in the
fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed the more arduous
command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian dissembled his
resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace, the authors of the
conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved with tenderness and regard to
his infant colleague, he gradually confounded, in the administration of
the Western empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a
sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the united
names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble emperor of the East,
who succeeded to the rank of his elder brother, never obtained any weight
or influence in the councils of the West.
In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the morning
of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman world was
shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The impression was
communicated to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean were left dry,
by the sudden retreat of the sea; great quantities of fish were caught
with the hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud; and a curious
spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the
various appearance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the
formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon
returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was
severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of
Egypt: large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or
at the distance of two miles from the shore; the people, with their
habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city of Alexandria
annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had
lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was
magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified the
subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imagination enlarged the real
extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding earthquakes,
which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia: they considered
these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful
calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms
of a declining empire and a sinking world. It was the fashion of the times
to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity;
the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the
moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagacious
divines could distinguish, according to the color of their respective
prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an
earthquake; or that a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the
progress of sin and error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or
propriety of these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself
with an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that man
has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from
the convulsions of the elements. The mischievous effects of an earthquake,
or deluge, a hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very
inconsiderable portion to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now
moderated by the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse
their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the
practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations
protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful
citizen has seldom reason to complain, that his life, or even his fortune,
is exposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the
Roman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the
happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; and
the arts and labors of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians of
Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the
provinces of the West the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less than
forty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the
success of their arms, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes, more
savage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealed in
the remote countries of the North; and the curious observation of the
pastoral life of the Scythians, or Tartars, will illustrate the latent
cause of these destructive emigrations.
The different characters that mark the civilized nations of the globe, may
be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason; which so variously
shapes, and so artificially composes, the manners and opinions of a
European, or a Chinese. But the operation of instinct is more sure and
simple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites
of a quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage
tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals,
preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. The
uniform stability of their manners is the natural consequence of the
imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situation, their
wants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same: and the
influence of food or climate, which, in a more improved state of society,
is suspended, or subdued, by so many moral causes, most powerfully
contributes to form, and to maintain, the national character of
Barbarians. In every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have
been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose indolence
refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spirit disdains the
confinement of a sedentary life. In every age, the Scythians, and Tartars,
have been renowned for their invincible courage and rapid conquests. The
thrones of Asia have been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the
North; and their arms have spread terror and devastation over the most
fertile and warlike countries of Europe. On this occasion, as well as on
many others, the sober historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing
vision; and is compelled, with some reluctance, to confess, that the
pastoral manners, which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of
peace and innocence, are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel
habits of a military life. To illustrate this observation, I shall now
proceed to consider a nation of shepherds and of warriors, in the three
important articles of, I. Their diet; II. Their habitations; and, III.
Their exercises. The narratives of antiquity are justified by the
experience of modern times; and the banks of the Borysthenes, of the
Volga, or of the Selinga, will indifferently present the same uniform
spectacle of similar and native manners.
I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and
wholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the patient
toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who dwell between the
tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature; but in the
climates of the North, a nation of shepherds is reduced to their flocks
and herds. The skilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if
they are able to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be
affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable, food; and whether the
common association of carnivorous and cruel deserves to be considered in
any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of
humanity. Yet, if it be true, that the sentiment of compassion is
imperceptibly weakened by the sight and practice of domestic cruelty, we
may observe, that the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of
European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and most disgusting
simplicity in the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox, or the sheep, are
slaughtered by the same hand from which they were accustomed to receive
their daily food; and the bleeding limbs are served, with very little
preparation, on the table of their unfeeling murderer. In the military
profession, and especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the
exclusive use of animal food appears to be productive of the most solid
advantages. Corn is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large
magazines, which are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our
troops, must be slowly transported by the labor of men or horses. But the
flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a sure
and increasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far greater part of the
uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the grass is quick and luxuriant;
and there are few places so extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the
North cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is multiplied and
prolonged by the undistinguishing appetite, and patient abstinence, of the
Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have
been killed for the table, or have died of disease. Horseflesh, which in
every age and country has been proscribed by the civilized nations of
Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar greediness; and this singular
taste facilitates the success of their military operations. The active
cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid
incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally
used, either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the
Barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty. When the forage
round a camp of Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest
part of their cattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or dried in
the sun. On the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they provide themselves
with a sufficient quantity of little balls of cheese, or rather of hard
curd, which they occasionally dissolve in water; and this unsubstantial
diet will support, for many days, the life, and even the spirits, of the
patient warrior. But this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoic would
approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the most
voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate are the
most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered
to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seems to consist in
the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor, which possesses
a very strong power of intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the
savages, both of the old and new world, experience the alternate
vicissitudes of famine and plenty; and their stomach is inured to sustain,
without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger and of
intemperance.
II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of soldiers and
husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an extensive and cultivated
country; and some time must elapse before the warlike youth of Greece or
Italy could be assembled under the same standard, either to defend their
own confines, or to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes. The
progress of manufactures and commerce insensibly collects a large
multitude within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no longer
soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil society,
corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral manners of the
Scythians seem to unite the different advantages of simplicity and
refinement. The individuals of the same tribe are constantly assembled,
but they are assembled in a camp; and the native spirit of these dauntless
shepherds is animated by mutual support and emulation. The houses of the
Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold
and dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The palaces
of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that they may be
conveniently fixed on large wagons, and drawn by a team perhaps of twenty
or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the
adjacent pastures, retire, on the approach of night, within the protection
of the camp. The necessity of preventing the most mischievous confusion,
in such a perpetual concourse of men and animals, must gradually
introduce, in the distribution, the order, and the guard, of the
encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As soon as the forage of a
certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather army, of shepherds,
makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and thus acquires, in the
ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the practical knowledge of one
of the most important and difficult operations of war. The choice of
stations is regulated by the difference of the seasons: in the summer, the
Tartars advance towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a
river, or, at least, in the neighborhood of a running stream. But in the
winter, they return to the South, and shelter their camp, behind some
convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in their passage
over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably
adapted to diffuse, among the wandering tribes, the spirit of emigration
and conquest. The connection between the people and their territory is of
so frail a texture, that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The
camp, and not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar.
Within the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his
property, are always included; and, in the most distant marches, he is
still surrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar
in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the resentment of injury,
the impatience of servitude, have, in every age, been sufficient causes to
urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown countries,
where they might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence or a less
formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently determined
the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostile nations, the victor
and the vanquished have alternately drove, and been driven, from the
confines of China to those of Germany. These great emigrations, which have
been sometimes executed with almost incredible diligence, were rendered
more easy by the peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known that the
cold of Tartary is much more severe than in the midst of the temperate
zone might reasonably be expected; this uncommon rigor is attributed to
the height of the plains, which rise, especially towards the East, more
than half a mile above the level of the sea; and to the quantity of
saltpetre with which the soil is deeply impregnated. In the winter season,
the broad and rapid rivers, that discharge their waters into the Euxine,
the Caspian, or the Icy Sea, are strongly frozen; the fields are covered
with a bed of snow; and the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may securely
traverse, with their families, their wagons, and their cattle, the smooth
and hard surface of an immense plain.
III. The pastoral life, compared with the labors of agriculture and
manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the most honorable
shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domestic
management of the cattle, their own leisure is seldom disturbed by any
servile and assiduous cares. But this leisure, instead of being devoted to
the soft enjoyments of love and harmony, is usefully spent in the violent
and sanguinary exercise of the chase. The plains of Tartary are filled
with a strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained
for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been
celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant practice had seated
them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposed by strangers to
perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, to drink, and even to
sleep, without dismounting from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous
management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm;
and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and
irresistible force. These arrows are often pointed against the harmless
animals of the desert, which increase and multiply in the absence of their
most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer,
the stag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigor and patience, both of the
men and horses, are continually exercised by the fatigues of the chase;
and the plentiful supply of game contributes to the subsistence, and even
luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are
not confined to the destruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly
encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his pursuers, excite
the sluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he
slumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger, there may be glory; and
the mode of hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of
valor, may justly be considered as the image, and as the school, of war.
The general hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes,
compose an instructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circle is
drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an
extensive district; and the troops that form the circle regularly advance
towards a common centre; where the captive animals, surrounded on every
side, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which
frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the
hills, to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without
interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They acquire
the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote object; of
preserving their intervals of suspending or accelerating their pace,
according to the motions of the troops on their right and left; and of
watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. Their leaders study,
in this practical school, the most important lesson of the military art;
the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To
employ against a human enemy the same patience and valor, the same skill
and discipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and
the amusements of the chase serve as a prelude to the conquest of an
empire.
The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance of a
voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia,
distinguished by the modern appellation of Hords,
assume the form of a numerous and increasing family; which, in the course
of successive generations, has been propagated from the same original
stock. The meanest, and most ignorant, of the Tartars, preserve, with
conscious pride, the inestimable treasure of their genealogy; and whatever
distinctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequal distribution
of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as
the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The custom, which still
prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful of the captives, may
countenance the very probable suspicion, that this extensive consanguinity
is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious. But the useful prejudice,
which has obtained the sanction of time and opinion, produces the effects
of truth; the haughty Barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience
to the head of their blood; and their chief, or mursa,
as the representative of their great father, exercises the authority of a
judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the original state of the
pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we may
continue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a
large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar territories
were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual consent. But the
constant operation of various and permanent causes contributed to unite
the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command of a
supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strong were
ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union, oppressed
and collected the divided force of the adjacent tribes; and, as the
vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages of victory, the
most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their followers under
the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The most successful of
the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to which he was entitled
by the superiority, either of merit or of power. He was raised to the
throne by the acclamations of his equals; and the title of Khan
expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the full extent of the
regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was long confined to the
blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the Khans,
who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are the lineal descendants of
the renowned Zingis. But, as it is the indispensable duty of a Tartar
sovereign to lead his warlike subjects into the field, the claims of an
infant are often disregarded; and some royal kinsman, distinguished by his
age and valor, is intrusted with the sword and sceptre of his predecessor.
Two distinct and regular taxes are levied on the tribes, to support the
dignity of the national monarch, and of their peculiar chief; and each of
those contributions amounts to the tithe, both of their property, and of
their spoil. A Tartar sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his
people; and as his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a
much larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic
splendor of his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most favored
of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption,
the obedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates of
authority. The manners of his subjects, accustomed, like himself, to blood
and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of tyranny, as
would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power of a despot
has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The immediate
jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits of his own tribe;
and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderated by the
ancient institution of a national council. The Coroultai, or Diet, of the
Tartars, was regularly held in the spring and autumn, in the midst of a
plain; where the princes of the reigning family, and the mursas of the
respective tribes, may conveniently assemble on horseback, with their
martial and numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, who reviewed the
strength, must consult the inclination of an armed people. The rudiments
of a feudal government may be discovered in the constitution of the
Scythian or Tartar nations; but the perpetual conflict of those hostile
nations has sometimes terminated in the establishment of a powerful and
despotic empire. The victor, enriched by the tribute, and fortified by the
arms of dependent kings, has spread his conquests over Europe or Asia: the
successful shepherds of the North have submitted to the confinement of
arts, of laws, and of cities; and the introduction of luxury, after
destroying the freedom of the people, has undermined the foundations of
the throne.
The memory of past events cannot long be preserved in the frequent and
remote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians. The modern Tartars are
ignorant of the conquests of their ancestors; and our knowledge of the
history of the Scythians is derived from their intercourse with the
learned and civilized nations of the South, the Greeks, the Persians, and
the Chinese. The Greeks, who navigated the Euxine, and planted their
colonies along the sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect discovery of
Scythia; from the Danube, and the confines of Thrace, as far as the frozen
Mæotis, the seat of eternal winter, and Mount Caucasus, which, in
the language of poetry, was described as the utmost boundary of the earth.
They celebrated, with simple credulity, the virtues of the pastoral life:
they entertained a more rational apprehension of the strength and numbers
of the warlike Barbarians, who contemptuously baffled the immense armament
of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. The Persian monarchs had extended their
western conquests to the banks of the Danube, and the limits of European
Scythia. The eastern provinces of their empire were exposed to the
Scythians of Asia; the wild inhabitants of the plains beyond the Oxus and
the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, which direct their course towards the
Caspian Sea. The long and memorable quarrel of Iran and Touran is still
the theme of history or romance: the famous, perhaps the fabulous, valor
of the Persian heroes, Rustan and Asfendiar, was signalized, in the
defence of their country, against the Afrasiabs of the North; and the
invincible spirit of the same Barbarians resisted, on the same ground, the
victorious arms of Cyrus and Alexander. In the eyes of the Greeks and
Persians, the real geography of Scythia was bounded, on the East, by the
mountains of Imaus, or Caf; and their distant prospect of the extreme and
inaccessible parts of Asia was clouded by ignorance, or perplexed by
fiction. But those inaccessible regions are the ancient residence of a
powerful and civilized nation, which ascends, by a probable tradition,
above forty centuries; and which is able to verify a series of near two
thousand years, by the perpetual testimony of accurate and contemporary
historians. The annals of China illustrate the state and revolutions of
the pastoral tribes, which may still be distinguished by the vague
appellation of Scythians, or Tartars; the vassals, the enemies, and
sometimes the conquerors, of a great empire; whose policy has uniformly
opposed the blind and impetuous valor of the Barbarians of the North. From
the mouth of the Danube to the Sea of Japan, the whole longitude of
Scythia is about one hundred and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are
equal to more than five thousand miles. The latitude of these extensive
deserts cannot be so easily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the
fortieth degree, which touches the wall of China, we may securely advance
above a thousand miles to the northward, till our progress is stopped by
the excessive cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate, instead of the
animated picture of a Tartar camp, the smoke that issues from the earth,
or rather from the snow, betrays the subterraneous dwellings of the
Tongouses, and the Samoides: the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly
supplied by the use of reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of
the earth insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive
savages, who tremble at the sound of arms.
The Huns, who under the reign of Valens threatened the empire of Rome, had
been formidable, in a much earlier period, to the empire of China. Their
ancient, perhaps their original, seat was an extensive, though dry and
barren, tract of country, immediately on the north side of the great wall.
Their place is at present occupied by the forty-nine Hords or Banners of
the Mongous, a pastoral nation, which consists of about two hundred
thousand families. But the valor of the Huns had extended the narrow
limits of their dominions; and their rustic chiefs, who assumed the
appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the
conquerors, and the sovereigns of a formidable empire. Towards the East,
their victorious arms were stopped only by the ocean; and the tribes,
which are thinly scattered between the Amoor and the extreme peninsula of
Corea, adhered, with reluctance, to the standard of the Huns. On the West,
near the head of the Irtish, in the valleys of Imaus, they found a more
ample space, and more numerous enemies. One of the lieutenants of the
Tanjou subdued, in a single expedition, twenty-six nations; the Igours,
distinguished above the Tartar race by the use of letters, were in the
number of his vassals; and, by the strange connection of human events, the
flight of one of those vagrant tribes recalled the victorious Parthians
from the invasion of Syria. On the side of the North, the ocean was
assigned as the limit of the power of the Huns. Without enemies to resist
their progress, or witnesses to contradict their vanity, they might
securely achieve a real, or imaginary, conquest of the frozen regions of
Siberia. The Northern Sea was fixed as the
remote boundary of their empire. But the name of that sea, on whose shores
the patriot Sovou embraced the life of a shepherd and an exile, may be
transferred, with much more probability, to the Baikal, a capacious basin,
above three hundred miles in length, which disdains the modest appellation
of a lake and which actually communicates with the seas of the North, by
the long course of the Angara, the Tongusha, and the Jenissea. The
submission of so many distant nations might flatter the pride of the
Tanjou; but the valor of the Huns could be rewarded only by the enjoyment
of the wealth and luxury of the empire of the South. In the third century
before the Christian æra, a wall of fifteen hundred miles in length
was constructed, to defend the frontiers of China against the inroads of
the Huns; but this stupendous work, which holds a conspicuous place in the
map of the world, has never contributed to the safety of an unwarlike
people. The cavalry of the Tanjou frequently consisted of two or three
hundred thousand men, formidable by the matchless dexterity with which
they managed their bows and their horses: by their hardy patience in
supporting the inclemency of the weather; and by the incredible speed of
their march, which was seldom checked by torrents, or precipices, by the
deepest rivers, or by the most lofty mountains. They spread themselves at
once over the face of the country; and their rapid impetuosity surprised,
astonished, and disconcerted the grave and elaborate tactics of a Chinese
army. The emperor Kaoti, a soldier of fortune, whose personal merit had
raised him to the throne, marched against the Huns with those veteran
troops which had been trained in the civil wars of China. But he was soon
surrounded by the Barbarians; and, after a siege of seven days, the
monarch, hopeless of relief, was reduced to purchase his deliverance by an
ignominious capitulation. The successors of Kaoti, whose lives were
dedicated to the arts of peace, or the luxury of the palace, submitted to
a more permanent disgrace. They too hastily confessed the insufficiency of
arms and fortifications. They were too easily convinced, that while the
blazing signals announced on every side the approach of the Huns, the
Chinese troops, who slept with the helmet on their head, and the cuirass
on their back, were destroyed by the incessant labor of ineffectual
marches. A regular payment of money, and silk, was stipulated as the
condition of a temporary and precarious peace; and the wretched expedient
of disguising a real tribute, under the names of a gift or subsidy, was
practised by the emperors of China as well as by those of Rome. But there
still remained a more disgraceful article of tribute, which violated the
sacred feelings of humanity and nature. The hardships of the savage life,
which destroy in their infancy the children who are born with a less
healthy and robust constitution, introduced a remarkable disproportion
between the numbers of the two sexes. The Tartars are an ugly and even
deformed race; and while they consider their own women as the instruments
of domestic labor, their desires, or rather their appetites, are directed
to the enjoyment of more elegant beauty. A select band of the fairest
maidens of China was annually devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns;
and the alliance of the haughty Tanjous was secured by their marriage with
the genuine, or adopted, daughters of the Imperial family, which vainly
attempted to escape the sacrilegious pollution. The situation of these
unhappy victims is described in the verses of a Chinese princess, who
laments that she had been condemned by her parents to a distant exile,
under a Barbarian husband; who complains that sour milk was her only
drink, raw flesh her only food, a tent her only palace; and who expresses,
in a strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish, that she were
transformed into a bird, to fly back to her dear country; the object of
her tender and perpetual regret.
The conquest of China has been twice achieved by the pastoral tribes of
the North: the forces of the Huns were not inferior to those of the
Moguls, or of the Mantcheoux; and their ambition might entertain the most
sanguine hopes of success. But their pride was humbled, and their progress
was checked, by the arms and policy of Vouti, the fifth emperor of the
powerful dynasty of the Han. In his long reign of fifty-four years, the
Barbarians of the southern provinces submitted to the laws and manners of
China; and the ancient limits of the monarchy were enlarged, from the
great river of Kiang, to the port of Canton. Instead of confining himself
to the timid operations of a defensive war, his lieutenants penetrated
many hundred miles into the country of the Huns. In those boundless
deserts, where it is impossible to form magazines, and difficult to
transport a sufficient supply of provisions, the armies of Vouti were
repeatedly exposed to intolerable hardships: and, of one hundred and forty
thousand soldiers, who marched against the Barbarians, thirty thousand
only returned in safety to the feet of their master. These losses,
however, were compensated by splendid and decisive success. The Chinese
generals improved the superiority which they derived from the temper of
their arms, their chariots of war, and the service of their Tartar
auxiliaries. The camp of the Tanjou was surprised in the midst of sleep
and intemperance; and, though the monarch of the Huns bravely cut his way
through the ranks of the enemy, he left above fifteen thousand of his
subjects on the field of battle. Yet this signal victory, which was
preceded and followed by many bloody engagements, contributed much less to
the destruction of the power of the Huns than the effectual policy which
was employed to detach the tributary nations from their obedience.
Intimidated by the arms, or allured by the promises, of Vouti and his
successors, the most considerable tribes, both of the East and of the
West, disclaimed the authority of the Tanjou. While some acknowledged
themselves the allies or vassals of the empire, they all became the
implacable enemies of the Huns; and the numbers of that haughty people, as
soon as they were reduced to their native strength, might, perhaps, have
been contained within the walls of one of the great and populous cities of
China. The desertion of his subjects, and the perplexity of a civil war,
at length compelled the Tanjou himself to renounce the dignity of an
independent sovereign, and the freedom of a warlike and high-spirited
nation. He was received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the
troops, the mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honors that
could adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. A magnificent
palace was prepared for his reception; his place was assigned above all
the princes of the royal family; and the patience of the Barbarian king
was exhausted by the ceremonies of a banquet, which consisted of eight
courses of meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music. But he performed, on
his knees, the duty of a respectful homage to the emperor of China;
pronounced, in his own name, and in the name of his successors, a
perpetual oath of fidelity; and gratefully accepted a seal, which was
bestowed as the emblem of his regal dependence. After this humiliating
submission, the Tanjous sometimes departed from their allegiance and
seized the favorable moments of war and rapine; but the monarchy of the
Huns gradually declined, till it was broken, by civil dissension, into two
hostile and separate kingdoms. One of the princes of the nation was urged,
by fear and ambition, to retire towards the South with eight hords, which
composed between forty and fifty thousand families. He obtained, with the
title of Tanjou, a convenient territory on the verge of the Chinese
provinces; and his constant attachment to the service of the empire was
secured by weakness, and the desire of revenge. From the time of this
fatal schism, the Huns of the North continued to languish about fifty
years; till they were oppressed on every side by their foreign and
domestic enemies. The proud inscription of a column, erected on a lofty
mountain, announced to posterity, that a Chinese army had marched seven
hundred miles into the heart of their country. The Sienpi, a tribe of
Oriental Tartars, retaliated the injuries which they had formerly
sustained; and the power of the Tanjous, after a reign of thirteen hundred
years, was utterly destroyed before the end of the first century of the
Christian æra.
The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the various influence
of character and situation. Above one hundred thousand persons, the
poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, were contented
to remain in their native country, to renounce their peculiar name and
origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation of the Sienpi.
Fifty-eight hords, about two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more
honorable servitude, retired towards the South; implored the protection of
the emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard, the
extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory of Ortous.
But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns maintained, in their
adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. The Western
world was open to their valor; and they resolved, under the conduct of
their hereditary chieftains, to conquer and subdue some remote country,
which was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi, and to the laws of
China. The course of their emigration soon carried them beyond the
mountains of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinese geography; but we are
able to distinguish the two great divisions of these formidable exiles,
which directed their march towards the Oxus, and towards the Volga. The
first of these colonies established their dominion in the fruitful and
extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the eastern side of the Caspian; where
they preserved the name of Huns, with the epithet of Euthalites, or
Nepthalites. Their manners were softened, and even their features were
insensibly improved, by the mildness of the climate, and their long
residence in a flourishing province, which might still retain a faint
impression of the arts of Greece. The white
Huns, a name which they derived from the change of their complexions, soon
abandoned the pastoral life of Scythia. Gorgo, which, under the
appellation of Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary splendor, was the
residence of the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedient
people. Their luxury was maintained by the labor of the Sogdians; and the
only vestige of their ancient barbarism, was the custom which obliged all
the companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who had shared the
liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same grave. The
vicinity of the Huns to the provinces of Persia, involved them in frequent
and bloody contests with the power of that monarchy. But they respected,
in peace, the faith of treaties; in war, the dictates of humanity; and
their memorable victory over Peroses, or Firuz, displayed the moderation,
as well as the valor, of the Barbarians. The second
division of their countrymen, the Huns, who gradually advanced towards the
North-west, were exercised by the hardships of a colder climate, and a
more laborious march. Necessity compelled them to exchange the silks of
China for the furs of Siberia; the imperfect rudiments of civilized life
were obliterated; and the native fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by
their intercourse with the savage tribes, who were compared, with some
propriety, to the wild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon
rejected the hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and while each horde
was governed by its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council directed the
public measures of the whole nation. As late as the thirteenth century,
their transient residence on the eastern banks of the Volga was attested
by the name of Great Hungary. In the winter, they descended with their
flocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty river; and their summer
excursions reached as high as the latitude of Saratoff, or perhaps the
conflux of the Kama. Such at least were the recent limits of the black
Calmucks, who remained about a century under the protection of Russia; and
who have since returned to their native seats on the frontiers of the
Chinese empire. The march, and the return, of those wandering Tartars,
whose united camp consists of fifty thousand tents or families, illustrate
the distant emigrations of the ancient Huns.