Manners of the Pastoral Nations —Progress of the Huns from China to Europe —Flight of the Goths —They Pass the Danube — Gothic War — Defeat and Death of Valens —Gratian Invests Theodosius with the Eastern Empire —His Character and Success Peace and Settlement of the Goths
Earthquakes, A.D. 365, July 21st.
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 (1) 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.(2) 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 colour 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.
(3) The mischievous effects of an earthquake or deluge, a
hurricane or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very
inconsiderable proportion 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 labours of ages were rudely
defaced by the barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The Huns and Goths, A.D. 376. 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(4) or Tartars (5) will illustrate the latent cause of these destructive emigrations.
The pastoral manners of the Scythians and Tartars.
The different characters that mark the civilised 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 an 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.(6) 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,
| 1 | Their diet | 2 | Their habitation | 3 | Their exercises |
|---|
The narratives of antiquity are justified by the experience of modern times;(7) 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.(8)
Diet.
I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the
ordinary and wholesome food of a civilised 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.(9) 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 labour of men or horses.
But the flock 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 Tartan. 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 civilised
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.
Habitations.
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 waggons, 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 neighbourhood 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.(10) 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 rigour 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. (11) 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 waggons, and their cattle, the
smooth and hard surface of an immense plain.
Exercises.
III. The pastoral life, compared with the labours of
agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of
idleness; and as the most honourable 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 vigour 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 innocuous 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 valour 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 valour, 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.(12)
Government.
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 forces 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. (13) 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 valour,
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 their 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 splendour of his court, to reward the
most deserving or the most favoured 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
civilised 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, (14) 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.(15)
Situation and extent of Scythia, or Tartary.
The memory of past events cannot long be reserved in the
frequent and remote emigrations of illiterate barbarians.
The modern Tartars are ignorant of the conquests of their
ancestors;(16) and our knowledge of the history of the
Scythians is derived from their intercourse with the learned
and civilised nations of the South—the Greeks, the
Persians, and the Chinese. The Greeks, who navigated the
Euxine, and planted their colonies along the seacoast, made
the gradual and imperfect discovery of Scythia, from the
Danube and the confines of Thrace, as far as the frozen
Maeotis, 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:(17) they
entertained a more rational apprehension of the strength and
numbers of the warlike barbarians, (18) who contemptuously
baffled the immense armament of Darius, the son of
Hystaspes. (19) 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, valour of the Persian heroes, Rustan and
Asfendiar, was signalised, in the defence of their country,
against the Afrasiabs of the North;(20) and the invincible
spirit of the same barbarians resisted, on the same ground,
the victorious arms of Cyrus and Alexander.(21) 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 civilised nation, (22) which
ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries;(23)
and which is able to verify a series of near two thousand
years by the perpetual testimony of accurate and
contemporary historians. (24) The annals of China (25)
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 valour 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 which
issues from the earth, or rather from the snow, betrays the
subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses and the Samoiedes:
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.(26)
Original seat of the Huns.
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.(27) 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 Hordes or Banners of the Mongous, a pastoral
nation, which consists of about two hundred thousand
families.(28) But the valour 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.
Their conquests in Scythia. 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, and 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, (29)
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. (30) 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,
(31) 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,(32)
and which actually communicates with the seas of the North,
by the long course of the Angara, the Tonguska, and the
Yenesei. The submission of so many distant nations might
flatter the pride of the Tanjou; but the valour 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 era, a wall of fifteen hundred miles in
length was constructed, to defend the frontiers of China
against the inroads of the Huns; (33) 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. Their wars with the Chinese, ant. Christ. 201. 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, (34) 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 to easily convinced that,
while the blazing signal 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 labour of ineffectual marches.(35)
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,
introduce 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 labour, 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;
(36) 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.(37)
Decline and fall of the Hun.
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,(38) 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, Ant. Christ 70.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.(39) 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. Ant. Christ 51.He was received at Sigan,
the capital of the monarchy, by the troops, the mandarins,
and the emperor himself, with all the honours that could
adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. (40) 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 favourable 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. A.D. 48.One of
the princes of the nation was urged by fear and ambition to
retire towards the south with eight hordes, 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(41) 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, (42) a tribe of Oriental Tartars,
retaliated the injuries which they had formerly sustained;
and the power of the Tanjous, A.D. 93.after a reign of thirteen
hundred years, was utterly destroyed before the end of the
first century of the Christian era.(43)
Their emigrations, A.D. 100, etc.
The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the
various influence of character and situation.(44) 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 hordes, about two hundred thousand men,
ambitious of a more honourable 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
Ortow. 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 valour,
and they resolved, under the conduct of their hereditary
chieftains, to discover and subdue some remote country which
was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi and to the
laws of China. (45) 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 White Huns of the Sogdiana.
The first of these colonies established their dominion in
the fruitful and extensive plains of the 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,(46) which
might still retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece.
(47) 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 splendour, was the residence of
the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedient
people. Their luxury was maintained by the labour 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.(48) 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 valour of the barbarians. The Huns of the Volga. The second division of their countrymen, the Huns who gradually advanced towards the northwest, 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 civilised
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.(49) 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, (50) 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.(51)
Their conquest of the Alani.
It is impossible to fill the dark interval of time which
elapsed after the Huns of the Volga were lost in the eyes of
the Chinese, and before they showed themselves to those of
the Romans. There is some reason, however, to apprehend that
the same force which had driven them from their native seats
still continued to impel their march towards the frontiers
of Europe. The power of the Sienpi, their implacable
enemies, which extended above three thousand miles from east
to west,(52) must have gradually oppressed them by the weight
and terror of a formidable neighbourhood; and the flight of
the tribes of Scythia would inevitably tend to increase the
strength or to contract the territories of the Huns. The
harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes would offend
the ear, without informing the understanding, of the reader;
but I cannot suppress the very natural suspicion that the
Huns of the North derived a considerable reinforcement from
the ruin of the dynasty of the South, which, in the course
of the third century, submitted to the dominion of China;
that the bravest warriors marched away in search of their
free and adventurous countrymen; and that, as they had been
divided by prosperity, they were easily reunited by the
common hardships of their adverse fortune.(53) The Huns, with
their flocks and herds, their wives and children, their
dependents and allies, were transported to the west of the
Volga, and they boldly advanced to invade the country of the
Alani, a pastoral people, who occupied, or wasted, an
extensive tract of the deserts of Scythia. The plains
between the Volga and the Tanais were covered with the tents
of the Alani, but their name and manners were diffused over
the wide extent of their conquests; and the painted tribes
of the Agathyrsi and Geloni were confounded among their
vassals. Towards the north they penetrated into the frozen
regions of Siberia, among the savages who were accustomed,
in their rage or hunger, to the taste of human flesh; and
their southern inroads were pushed as far as the confines of
Persia and India. The mixture of Sarmatic and German blood
had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, to
whiten their swarthy complexions, and to tinge their hair
with a yellowish cast, which is seldom found in the Tartar
race. They were less deformed in their persons, less brutish
in their manners, than the Huns; but they did not yield to
those formidable barbarians in their martial and independent
spirit; in the love of freedom, which rejected even the use
of domestic slaves; and in the love of arms, which
considered war and rapine as the pleasure and the glory of
mankind. A naked scimitar, fixed in the ground, was the only
object of their religious worship; the scalps of their
enemies formed the costly trappings of their horses; and
they viewed with pity and contempt the pusillanimous
warriors who patiently expected the infirmities of age and
the tortures of lingering disease. (54) On the banks of the
Tanais the military power of the Huns and the Alani
encountered each other with equal valour, but with unequal
success. The Huns prevailed in the bloody contest; the king
of the Alani was slain; and the remains of the vanquished
nation were dispersed by the ordinary alternative of flight
or submission.(55) A colony of exiles found a secure refuge
in the mountains of Caucasus, between the Euxine and the
Caspian, where they still preserve their name and their
independence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid
courage, towards the shores of the Baltic; associated
themselves with the northern tribes of Germany; and shared
the spoil of the Roman provinces of Gaul and Spain. But the
greatest part of the nation of the Alani embraced the offers
of an honourable and advantageous union; and the Huns, who
esteemed the valour of their less fortunate enemies,
proceeded, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to
invade the limits of the Gothic empire.
Their victories over the Goths, A.D. 375.
The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the
Baltic to the Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age
and reputation, the fruit of his victories, when he was
alarmed by the formidable approach of an host of unknown
enemies,(56) on whom his barbarous subjects might, without
injustice, bestow the epithet of barbarians. The numbers,
the strength, the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty
of the Huns were felt, and dreaded, and magnified by the
astonished Goths, who beheld their fields and villages
consumed with flames and deluged with indiscriminate
slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surprise and
abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the
uncouth gestures, and the strange deformity of the Huns.
These savages of Scythia were compared (and the picture had
some resemblance) to the animals who walk very awkwardly on
two legs, and to the misshapen figures, the Termini, which
were often placed on the bridges of antiquity. They were
distinguished from the rest of the human species by their
broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply
buried in the head; and as they were almost destitute of
beards, they never enjoyed either the manly graces of youth
or the venerable aspect of age. (57) A fabulous origin was
assigned worthy of their form and manners that the witches
of Scythia, who, for their foul and deadly practices, had
been driven from society, had copulated in the desert with
infernal spirits, and that the Huns were the offspring of
this execrable conjunction. (58) The tale, so full of horror
and absurdity, was greedily embraced by the credulous hatred
of the Goths; but while it gratified their hatred it
increased their fear, since the posterity of daemons and
witches might be supposed to inherit some share of the
preternatural powers as well as of the malignant temper of
their parents. Against these enemies, Hermanric prepared to
exert the united forces of the Gothic state, but he soon
discovered that his vassal tribes, provoked by oppression,
were much more inclined to second than to repel the invasion
of the Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani(59) had
formerly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel
tyrant had condemned the innocent wife of the traitor to be
torn asunder by wild horses. The brothers of that
unfortunate woman seized the favourable moment of revenge.
The aged king of the Goths languished some time after the
dangerous wound which he received from their daggers; but
the conduct of the war was retarded by his infirmities; and
the public councils of the nation were distracted by a
spirit of jealousy and discord. His death, which has been
imputed to his own despair, left the reins of government in
the hands of Withimer, who, with the doubtful aid of some
Scythian mercenaries, maintained the unequal contest against
the arms of the Huns and the Alani till he was defeated and
slain in a decisive battle. The Ostrogoths submitted to
their fate: and the royal race of the Amali will hereafter
be found among the subjects of the haughty Attila. But the
person of Witheric, the infant king, was saved by the
diligence of Alatheus and Saphrax; two warriors of approved
valour and fidelity, who, by cautious marches, conducted the
independent remains of the nation of the Ostrogoths towards
the Danastus, or Dniester, a considerable river, which now
separates the Turkish dominions from the empire of Russia.
On the banks of the Dniester the prudent Athanaric, more
attentive to his own than to the general safety, had fixed
the camp of the Visigoths; with the firm resolution of
opposing the victorious barbarians, whom he thought it less
advisable to provoke. The ordinary speed of the Huns was
checked by the weight of baggage and the encumbrance of
captives; but their military skill deceived and almost
destroyed the army of Athanaric. While the Judge of the
Visigoths defended the banks of the Dniester he was
encompassed and attacked by a numerous detachment of
cavalry, who, by the light of the moon, had passed the river
in a fordable place; and it was not without the utmost
efforts of courage and conduct that he was able to effect
his retreat towards the hilly country. The undaunted general
had already formed a new and judicious plan of defensive
war; and the strong lines which he was preparing to
construct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube,
would have secured the extensive and fertile territory that
bears the modern name of Wallachia from the destructive
inroads of the Huns. (60) But the hopes and measures of the
Judge of the Visigoths were soon disappointed by the
trembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen, who were
persuaded by their fears that the interposition of the
Danube was the only barrier that could save them from the
rapid pursuit and invincible valour of the barbarians of
Scythia. Under the command of Fritigern and Alavivus,(61) the
body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the
great river and implored the protection of the Roman emperor
of the East. Athanaric himself, still anxious to avoid the
guilt of perjury, retired, with a band of faithful
followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland, which
appears to have been guarded and almost concealed by the
impenetrable forests of Transylvania.(62)
The Goths implore the protection of Valens, A.D. 376.
After Valens had terminated the Gothic war with some
appearance of glory and success, he made a progress through
his dominions of Asia, and at length fixed his residence in
the capital of Syria. The five years(63) which he spent at
Antioch were employed to watch, from a secure distance, the
hostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the
depredations of the Saracens and Isaurians;(64) to enforce,
by arguments more prevalent than those of reason and
eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology, and to satisfy
his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the
innocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor
was most seriously engaged by the important intelligence
which he received from the civil and military officers who
were intrusted with the defence of the Danube. He was
informed that the North was agitated by a furious tempest;
that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous
race of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and
that the suppliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose
pride was now humbled in the dust, covered a space many
miles along the banks of the river. With outstretched arms
and pathetic lamentations they loudly deplored their past
misfortunes and their present danger; acknowledged that
their only hope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman
government; and most solemnly protested that, if the
gracious liberality of the emperor would permit them to
cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they should ever hold
themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty and
gratitude, to obey the laws and to guard the limits of the
republic. These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the
Goths, who impatiently expected from the mouth of Valens an
answer that must finally determine the fate of their unhappy
countrymen. The emperor of the East was no longer guided by
the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, A.D. 375, Nov 17.whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year; and as the
distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and
peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite
resource of feeble and timid minds, who consider the use of
the dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable
efforts of consummate prudence. As long as the same passions
and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war
and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the
councils of antiquity, will frequently present themselves as
the subject of modern deliberation. But the most experienced
statesman of Europe has never been summoned to consider the
propriety or the danger of admitting or rejecting an
innumerable multitude of barbarians, who are driven by
despair and hunger to solicit a settlement on the
territories of a civilised nation. When that important
proposition, so essentially connected with the public
safety, was referred to the ministers of Valens, they were
perplexed and divided; but they soon acquiesced in the
flattering sentiment which seemed the most favourable to the
pride, the indolence, and the avarice of their sovereign.
The slaves, who were decorated with the titles of praefects
and generals, dissembled or disregarded the terrors of this
national emigration—so extremely different from the
partial and accidental colonies which had been received on
the extreme limits of the empire. But they applauded the
liberality of fortune which had conducted, from the most
distant countries of the globe, a numerous and invincible
army of strangers to defend the throne of Valens, who might
now add to the royal treasures the immense sums of gold
supplied by the provincials to compensate their annual
proportion of recruits. The prayers of the Goths were
granted, and their service was accepted by the Imperial
court; and orders were immediately despatched by the civil
and military governors of the Thracian diocese to make the
necessary preparations or the passage and subsistence of a
great people, till a proper and sufficient territory could
be allotted for their future residence. The liberality of
the emperor was accompanied, however, with two harsh and
rigorous conditions, which prudence might justify on the
side of the Romans, but which distress alone could extort
from the indignant Goths. Before they passed the Danube they
were required to deliver their arms, and it was insisted
that their children should be taken from them and dispersed
through the provinces of Asia, where they might be civilised
by the arts of education, and serve as hostages to secure
the fidelity of their parents.
They are transported over the Danube into the Roman empire.
During this suspense of a doubtful and distant negotiation,
the impatient Goths made some rash attempts to pass the
Danube without the permission of the government whose
protection they had implored. Their motions were strictly
observed by the vigilance of the troops which were stationed
along the river, and their foremost detachments were
defeated with considerable slaughter; yet such were the
timid councils of the reign of Valens, that the brave
officers who had served their country in the execution of
their duty were punished by the loss of their employments,
and narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The Imperial
mandate was at length received for transporting over the
Danube the whole body of the Gothic nation; (65) but the
execution of this order was a task of labour and difficulty.
The stream of the Danube, which in those parts is above a
mile broad,(66) had been swelled by incessant rains, and in
this tumultuous passage many were swept away and drowned by
the rapid violence of the current. A large fleet of vessels,
of boats, and of canoes, was provided; many days and nights
they passed and repassed with indefatigable toil; and the
most strenuous diligence was exerted by the officers of
Valens that not a single barbarian, of those who were
reserved to subvert the foundations of Rome, should be left
on the opposite shore. It was thought expedient that an
accurate account should be taken of their numbers; but the
persons who were employed soon desisted, with amazement and
dismay, from the prosecution of the endless and
impracticable task;(67) and the principal historian of the
age most seriously affirms that the prodigious armies of
Darius and Xerxes, which had so long been considered as the
fables of vain and credulous antiquity, were now justified,
in the eyes of mankind, by the evidence of fact and
experience. A probable testimony has fixed the number of the
Gothic warriors at two hundred thousand men; and if we can
venture to add the just proportion of women, of children,
and of slaves, the whole mass of people which composed this
formidable emigration must have amounted to near a million
of persons, of both sexes and of al! ages. The children of
the Goths, those at least of a distinguished rank, were
separated from the multitude. They were conducted without
delay to the distant seats assigned for their residence and
education; and as the numerous train of hostages or captives
passed through the cities, their gay and splendid apparel,
their robust and martial figure, excited the surprise and
envy of the provincials. But the stipulation, the most
offensive to the Goths and the most important to the Romans,
was shamefully eluded. The barbarians, who considered their
arms as the ensigns of honour and the pledges of safety,
were disposed to offer a price which the lust or avarice of
the Imperial officers was easily tempted to accept. To
preserve their arms, the haughty warriors consented, with
some reluctance, to prostitute their wives or their
daughters; the charms of a beauteous maid, or a comely boy,
secured the. connivance of the inspectors, who sometimes
cast an eye of covetousness on the fringed carpets and linen
garments of their new allies, (68) or who sacrificed their
duty to the mean consideration of filling their farms with
cattle and their houses with slaves. The Goths, with arms in
their hands, were permitted to enter the boats; and when
their strength was collected on the other side of the river,
the immense camp which was spread over the plains and the
hills of the Lower Maesia assumed a threatening and even
hostile aspect. The leaders of the Ostrogoths, Alatheus and
Saphrax, the guardians of their infant king, appeared soon
afterwards on the northern banks of the Danube, and
immediately despatched their ambassadors to the court of
Antioch to solicit, with the same professions of allegiance
and gratitude, the same favour which had been granted to the
suppliant Visigoths. The absolute refusal of Valens
suspended their progress, and discovered the repentance, the
suspicions, and the fears of the Imperial council.
Their distress and discontent.
An undisciplined and unsettled nation of barbarians required
the firmest temper and the most dexterous management. The
daily subsistence of near a million of extraordinary
subjects could be supplied only by constant and skilful
diligence, and might continually be interrupted by mistake
or accident. The insolence or the indignation of the Goths,
if they conceived themselves to be the objects either of
fear or of contempt, might urge them to the most desperate
extremities, and the fortune of the state seemed to depend
on the prudence, as well as the integrity, of the generals
of Valens. At this important crisis the military government
of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whose
venal minds the slightest hope of private emolument
outweighed every consideration of public advantage, and
whose guilt was only alleviated by their incapacity of
discerning the pernicious effects of their rash and criminal
administration. Instead of obeying the orders of their
sovereign, and satisfying, with decent liberality, the
demands of the Goths, they levied an ungenerous and
oppressive tax on the wants of the hungry barbarians. The
vilest food was sold at an extravagant price, and, in the
room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the markets
were filled with the flesh of dogs and of unclean animals
who had died of disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition
of a pound of bread, the Goths resigned the possession of an
expensive though serviceable slave, and a small quantity of
meat was greedily purchased with ten pounds of a precious
but useless metal. (69) When their property was exhausted,
they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of their
sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom
which animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the
humiliating maxim that it was better for their children to
be maintained in a servile condition than to perish in a
state of wretched and helpless independence. The most lively
resentment is excited by the tyranny of pretended
benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of gratitude which
they have cancelled by subsequent injuries; a spirit of
discontent insensibly arose in the camp of the barbarians,
who pleaded, without success, the merit of their patient and
dutiful behaviour, and loudly complained of the inhospitable
treatment which they had received from their new allies.
They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of a fertile
province, in the midst of which they suffered the
intolerable hardships of artificial famine. But the means of
relief, and even of revenge, were in their hands, since the
rapaciousness of their tyrants had left to an injured people
the possession and the use of arms. The clamours of a
multitude, untaught to disguise their sentiments, announced
the first symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and
guilty minds of Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty
ministers, who substituted the cunning of temporary
expedients to the wise and salutary counsels of general
policy, attempted to remove the Goths from their dangerous
station on the frontiers of the empire, and to disperse
them, in separate quarters of cantonment, through the
interior provinces. As they were conscious how ill they had
deserved the respect or confidence of the barbarians, they
diligently collected from every side a military force that
might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people who had
not yet renounced the title or the duties of Roman subjects
But the generals of Valens, while their attention was solely
directed to the discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed
the ships and the fortifications which constituted the
defence of the Danube. The fatal oversight, as observed and
improved by Alatheus and Saphrax, who anxiously watched the
favourable moment of escaping from the pursuit of the Huns.
By the help of such rafts and vessels as could be hastily
procured, the leaders of the Ostrogoths transported, without
opposition, their king and their army, and boldly fixed an
hostile and independent camp on the territories of the
empire.(70)
Revolt of the Goths in Maesia, and their first victories.
Under the name of Judges, Alavivus and Fritigern were the
leaders of the Visigoths in peace and war; and the authority
which they derived from their birth was ratified by the free
consent of the nation. In a season of tranquillity their
power might have been equal as well as their rank; but, as
soon as their countrymen were exasperated by hunger and
oppression, the superior abilities of Fritigern assumed the
military command, which he was qualified to exercise for the
public welfare. He restrained the impatient spirit of the
Visigoths till the injuries and the insults of their tyrants
should justify their resistance in the opinion of mankind:
but he was not disposed to sacrifice any solid advantages
for the empty praise of justice and moderation. Sensible of
the benefits which would result from the union of the Gothic
powers under the same standard, he secretly cultivated the
friendship of the Ostrogoths; and while he professed an
implicit obedience to the orders of the Roman generals, he
proceeded by slow marches towards Marcianopolis, the capital
of the Lower Maesia, about seventy miles from the banks of
the Danube. On that fatal spot the flames of discord and
mutual hatred burst forth into a dreadful conflagration.
Lupicinus had invited the Gothic chiefs to a splendid
entertainment, and their martial train remained under arms
at the entrance of the palace. But the gates of the city
were strictly guarded, and the barbarians were sternly
excluded from the use of a plentiful market, to which they
asserted their equal claim of subjects and allies. Their
humble prayers were rejected with insolence and derision,
and as their patience was now exhausted, the townsmen, the
soldiers, and the Goths were soon involved in a conflict of
passionate altercation and angry reproaches. A blow was
imprudently given; a sword was hastily drawn, and the first
blood that was spilt in this accidental quarrel became the
signal of a long and destructive war. In the midst of noise
and brutal intemperance Lupicinus was informed by a secret
messenger that many of his soldiers were slain and despoiled
of their arms; and as he was already inflamed by wine and
oppressed by sleep, he issued a rash command, that their
death should be revenged by the massacre of the guards of
Fritigern and Alavivus. The clamorous shouts and dying
groans apprised Fritigern of his extreme danger; and, as he
possessed the calm and intrepid spirit of a hero, he saw
that he was lost if he allowed a moment of deliberation to
the man who had so deeply injured him.
"A trifling dispute," said the Gothic leader, with a firm but gentle tone of voice, "appears to have arisen between the two nations; but it may be productive of the most dangerous consequences, unless the tumult is immediately pacified by the assurance of our safety and the authority of our presence."
At these words Fritigern and his companions drew their swords, opened their passage through the unresisting crowd, which filled the palace, the streets, and the gates of Marcianopolis, and, mounting their horses, hastily vanished from the eyes of the astonished Romans. The generals of the Goths were saluted by the fierce and joyful acclamations of the camp; war was instantly resolved, and the resolution was executed without delay: the banners of the nation were displayed according to the custom of their ancestors; and the air resounded with the harsh and mournful music of the barbarian trumpet.(71) The weak and guilty Lupicinus, who had dared to provoke, who had neglected to destroy, and who still presumed to despise his formidable enemy, marched against the Goths, at the head of such a military force as could be collected on this sudden emergency. The barbarians expected his approach about nine miles from Marcianopolis; and on this occasion the talents of the general were found to be of more prevailing efficacy than the weapons and discipline of the troops. The valour of the Goths was so ably directed by the genius of Fritigern, that they broke, by a close and vigorous attack, the ranks of the Roman legions. Lupicinus left his arms and standards, his tribunes and his bravest soldiers, on the field of battle; and their useless courage served only to protect the ignominious flight of their leader.
"That successful day put an end to the distress of the barbarians and the security of the Romans: from that day the Goths, renouncing the precarious condition of strangers and exiles, assumed the character of citizens and masters, claimed an absolute dominion over the possessors of land, and held, in their own right, the northern provinces of the empire, which are bounded by the Danube".
Such are the words of the Gothic historian,(72) who celebrates, with rude eloquence, the glory of his countrymen. But the dominion of the barbarians was exercised only for the purposes of rapine and destruction. They penetrate into Thrace. As they had been deprived by the ministers of the emperor of the common benefits of nature and the fair intercourse of social life, they retaliated the injustice on the subjects of the empire; and the crimes of Lupicinus were expiated by the ruin of the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the conflagration of their villages, and the massacre or captivity of their innocent families. The report of the Gothic victory was soon diffused over the adjacent country; and while it filled the minds of the Romans with terror and dismay, their own hasty imprudence contributed to increase the forces of Fritigern and the calamities of the province. Some time before the great emigration a numerous body of Goths, under the command of Suerid and Colias, had been received into the protection and service of the empire.(73) They were encamped under the walls of Hadrianople: but the ministers of Valens were anxious to remove them beyond the Hellespont, at a distance from the dangerous temptation which might so easily be communicated by the neighbourhood and the success of their countrymen. The respectful submission with which they yielded to the order of their march might be considered as a proof of their fidelity; and their moderate request of a sufficient allowance of provisions and of a delay of only two days was expressed in the most dutiful terms. But the first magistrate of Hadrianople, incensed by some disorders which had been committed at his country-house, refused this indulgence; and arming against them the inhabitants and manufacturers of a populous city, he urged, with hostile threats, their instant departure. The barbarians stood silent and amazed, till they were exasperated by the insulting clamours and missile weapons of the populace: but when patience or contempt was fatigued, they crushed the undisciplined multitude, inflicted many a shameful wound on the backs of their flying enemies, and despoiled them of the splendid armour(74) which they were unworthy to bear. The resemblance of their sufferings and their actions soon united this victorious detachment to the nation of the Visigoths; the troops of Colias and Suerid expected the approach of the great Fritigern, ranged themselves under his standard, and signalised their ardour in the siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance of the garrison informed the barbarians that in the attack of regular fortifications the efforts of unskilful courage are seldom effectual. Their general acknowledged his error, raised the siege, declared that "he was at peace with stone walls," (75) and revenged his disappointment on the adjacent country. He accepted with pleasure the useful reinforcement of hardy workmen who laboured in the goldmines of Thrace (76) for the emolument and under the lash of an unfeeling master: (77) and these new associates conducted the barbarians through the secret paths to the most sequestered places, which had been chosen to secure the inhabitants, the cattle, and the magazines of corn. With the assistance of such guides nothing could remain impervious or inaccessible: resistance was fatal; flight was impracticable; and the patient submission of helpless innocence seldom found mercy from the barbarian conqueror. In the course of these depredations a great number of the children of the Goths, who had been sold into captivity, were restored to the embraces of their afflicted parents; but these tender interviews, which might have revived and cherished in their minds some sentiments of humanity, tended only to stimulate their native fierceness by the desire of revenge. They listened with eager attention to the complaints of their captive children, who had suffered the most cruel indignities from the lustful or angry passions of their masters, and the same cruelties, the same indignities, were severely retaliated on the sons and daughters of the Romans.(78)
Operations of the Gothic war. A.D. 377
The imprudence of Valens and his ministers had introduced
into the heart of the empire a nation of enemies; but the
Visigoths might even yet have been reconciled by the manly
confession of past errors and the sincere performance of
former engagements. These healing and temperate measures
seemed to concur with the timorous disposition of the
sovereign of the East: but on this occasion alone Valens was
brave; and his unseasonable bravery was fatal to himself and
to his subjects. He declared his intention of marching from
Antioch to Constantinople, to subdue this dangerous
rebellion; and, as he was not ignorant of the difficulties
of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of his
nephew, the emperor Gratian, who commanded all the forces of
the West. The veteran troops were hastily recalled from the
defence of Armenia, that important frontier was abandoned to
the discretion of Sapor; and the immediate conduct of the
Gothic war was intrusted, during the absence of Valens, to
his lieutenants, Trajan and Profuturus, two generals who
indulged themselves in a very false and favourable opinion
of their own abilities. On their arrival in Thrace they were
joined by Richomer, count of the domestics; and the
auxiliaries of the West that marched under his banner were
composed of the Gallic legions, reduced indeed by a spirit
of desertion to the vain appearances of strength and
numbers. In a council of war, which was influenced by pride
rather than by reason, it as resolved to seek and to
encounter the barbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious
and fertile meadows near the most southern of the mouths of
the Danube.(79) Their camp was surrounded by the usual
fortification of wagons; (80) and the barbarians, secure
within the vast circle of the enclosure, enjoyed the fruits
of their valour and the spoils of the province. In the midst
of riotous intemperance, the watchful Fritigern observed the
motions and penetrated the designs of the Romans. He
perceived that the numbers of the enemy were continually
increasing; and, as he understood their intention of
attacking his rear as soon as the scarcity of forage should
oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their standard
his predatory detachments, which covered the adjacent
country. As soon as they descried the flaming beacons,(81)
they obeyed with incredible speed the signal of their
leader; the camp was filled with the martial crowd of
barbarians; their impatient clamours demanded the battle,
and their tumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the
spirit of their chiefs. The evening was already far
advanced; and the two armies prepared themselves for the
approaching combat, which was deferred only till the dawn of
day. While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted
courage of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation
of a solemn oath; and, as they advanced to meet the enemy,
the rude songs which celebrated the glory of their
forefathers were mingled with their fierce and dissonant
outcries, and opposed to the artificial harmony of the Roman
shout. Some military skill was displayed by Fritigern to
gain the advantage of a commanding eminence; but the bloody
conflict, which began and ended with the light, was
maintained on either side by the personal and obstinate
efforts of strength, valour, and agility. The legions of
Armenia supported their fame in arms, but they were
oppressed by the irresistible weight of the hostile
multitude: the left wing of he Romans was thrown into
disorder, and the field was strewed with their mangled
carcasses. This partial defeat was balanced, however, by partial
success; and when the two armies, at a late hour of the
evening, retreated to their respective camps, neither of
them could claim the honours of the effects of a decisive
victory. The real loss was more severely felt by the Romans,
in proportion to the smallness of their numbers; but the
Goths were so deeply confounded and dismayed by this
vigorous, and perhaps unexpected, resistance, that they
remained seven days within the circle of their
fortifications. Such funeral rites as the circumstances of
time and place would admit were piously discharged to some
officers of distinguished rank; but the indiscriminate
vulgar was left unburied on the plain. Their flesh was
greedily devoured by the birds of prey, who in that age
enjoyed very frequent and delicious feasts; and, several
years afterwards, the white and naked bones which covered
the wide extent of the fields presented to the eyes of
Ammianus a dreadful monument of the battle of Salices.(82)
Union of the Goths with the Huns, Alani etc.
The progress of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful
event of that bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whose
army would have been consumed by the repetition of such a
contest, embraced the more rational plan of destroying the
barbarians by the wants and pressure of their own
multitudes. They prepared to confine the Visigoths in the
narrow angle of land between the Danube, the desert of
Scythia, and the mountains of Haemus, till their strength
and spirit should be insensibly wasted by the inevitable
operation of famine. The design was prosecuted with some
conduct and success; the barbarians had almost exhausted
their own magazines and the harvests of the country; and the
diligence of Saturninus, the master-general of the cavalry,
was employed to improve the strength and to contract the
extent of the Roman fortifications. His labours were
interrupted by the alarming intelligence that new swarms of
barbarians had passed the unguarded Danube, either to
support the cause or to imitate the example of Fritigern.
The just apprehension that he himself might be surrounded
and overwhelmed by the arms of hostile and unknown nations,
compelled Saturninus to relinquish the siege of the Gothic
camp; and the indignant Visigoths, breaking from their
confinement, satiated their hunger and revenge by the
repeated devastation of the fruitful country which extends
above three hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to
the straits of the Hellespont. (83) The sagacious Fritigern
had successfully appealed to the passions as well as to the
interest of his barbarian allies; and the love of rapine and
the hatred of Rome seconded, or even prevented, the
eloquence of his ambassadors. He cemented a strict and
useful alliance with the great body of his countrymen who
obeyed Alatheus and Saphrax as the guardians of their infant
king: the long animosity of rival tribes was suspended by
the sense of their common interest; the independent part of
the nation was associated under one standard; and the chiefs
of the Ostrogoths appear to have yielded to the superior
genius of the general of the Visigoths. He obtained the
formidable aid of the Taifalae, whose military renown was
disgraced and polluted by the public infamy of their
domestic manners. Every youth, on his entrance into the
world, was united by the ties of honourable friendship and
brutal love to some warrior of the tribe; nor could he hope
to be released from this unnatural connection till he had
approved his manhood by slaying in single combat a huge bear
or a wild boar of the forest. (84) But the most powerful
auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from the camp of those
enemies who had expelled them from their native seats. The
loose subordination and extensive possessions of the Huns
and the Alani delayed the conquests and distracted the
councils of that victorious people. Several of the hordes
were allured by the liberal promises of Fritigern; and the
rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight and energy to the
steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry. The
Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of
Valentinian, enjoyed and increased the general confusion;
and a seasonable irruption of the Alemanni into the
provinces of Gaul engaged the attention and diverted the
forces of the emperor of the West.(85)
Victory of Gratian over the Alemani, A.D. 378. May.
One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction
of the barbarians into the army and the palace was sensibly
felt in their correspondence with their hostile countrymen,
to whom they imprudently or maliciously revealed the
weakness of the Roman empire. A soldier of the lifeguards of
Gratian was of the nation of the Alemanni, and of the tribe
of the Lentienses, who dwelt beyond the lake of Constance.
Some domestic business obliged him to request a leave of
absence. In a short visit to his family and friends he was
exposed to their curious inquiries, and the vanity of the
loquacious soldier tempted him to display his intimate
acquaintance with the secrets of the state and the designs
of his master. The intelligence that Gratian was preparing
to lead the military force of Gaul and of the West to the
assistance of his uncle Valens, pointed out to the restless
spirit of the Alemanni the moment and the mode of a
successful invasion. The enterprise of some light
detachments, who in the month of February passed the Rhine
upon the ice, was the prelude of a more important war. The
boldest hopes of rapine, perhaps of conquest, outweighed the
considerations of timid prudence or national faith. Every
forest and every village poured forth a band of hardy
adventurers; and the great army of the Alemanni, which on
their approach was estimated at forty thousand men by the
fears of the people, was afterwards magnified to the number
of Seventy thousand by the vain and credulous flattery of
the Imperial court. The legions which had been ordered to
march into Pannonia were immediately recalled or detained
for the defence of Gaul; the military command was divided
between Nanienus and Mellobaudes; and the youthful emperor,
though he respected the long experience and sober wisdom of
the former, was much more inclined to admire and to follow
the martial ardour of his colleague, who was allowed to
unite the incompatible characters of count of the domestics
and of king of the Franks. His rival Priarius, king of the
Alemanni, was guided, or rather impelled, by the same
headstrong valour; and as their troops were animated by the
spirit of their leaders, they met, they saw, they
encountered each other near the town of Argentaria, or
Colmar,(86) in the plains of Alsace. The glory of the day was
justly ascribed to the missile weapons and well-practised
evolutions of the Roman soldiers: the Alemanni, who long
maintained their ground, were slaughtered with unrelenting
fury: five thousand only of the barbarians escaped to the
woods and mountains; and the glorious death of their king on
the field of battle saved him from the reproaches of the
people, who are always disposed to accuse the justice or
policy of an unsuccessful war. After this signal victory,
which secured the peace of Gaul and asserted the honour of
the Roman arms, the emperor Gratian appeared to proceed
without delay on his Eastern expedition; but, as he
approached the confines of the Alemanni, he suddenly
inclined to the left, surprised them by his unexpected
passage of the Rhine, and boldly advanced into the heart of
their country. The barbarians opposed to his progress the
obstacles of nature and of courage; and still continued to
retreat from one hill to another till they were satisfied,
by repeated trials, of the power and perseverance of their
enemies. Their submission was accepted as a proof, not
indeed of their sincere repentance, but of their actual
distress; and a select number of their brave and robust
youth was exacted from the faithless nation, as the most
substantial pledge of their future moderation. The subjects
of the empire, who had so often experienced that the
Alemanni could neither be subdued by arms nor restrained by
treaties, might not promise themselves any solid or lasting
tranquillity; but they discovered, in the virtues of their
young sovereign, the prospect of a long and auspicious
reign. When the legions climbed the mountains and scaled the
fortifications of the barbarians, the valour of Gratian was
distinguished in the foremost ranks: and the gilt and
variegated armour of his guards was pierced and shattered by
the blows which they had received in their constant
attachment to the person of their sovereign. At the age of
nineteen the son of Valentinian seemed to possess the
talents of peace and war; and his personal success against
the Alemanni was interpreted as a sure presage of his Gothic
triumphs.(87)
Valens marches against the Goths, A.D. 378. May 30th—June 11th.
While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his
subjects, the emperor Valens, who at length had removed his
court and army from Antioch, was received by the people of
Constantinople as the author of the public calamity. Before
he had reposed himself ten days in the capital he was urged
by the licentious clamours of the Hippodrome to march
against the barbarians whom he had invited into his
dominions: and the citizens, who are always brave at a
distance from any real danger, declared, with confidence,
that if they were supplied with arms, they alone would
undertake to deliver the province from the ravages of an
insulting foe. (88) The vain reproaches of an ignorant
multitude hastened the downfall of the Roman empire; they
provoked the desperate rashness of Valens, who did not find,
either in his reputation or in his mind, any motives to
support with firmness the public contempt. He was soon
persuaded by the successful achievements of his lieutenants
to despise the power of the Goths, who, by the diligence of
Fritigern, were now collected in the neighbourhood of
Hadrianople. The march of the Taifalae had been intercepted
by the valiant Frigerid; the king of those licentious
barbarians was slain in battle; and the suppliant captives
were sent into distant exile to cultivate the lands of
Italy, which were assigned for their settlement in the
vacant territories of Modena and Parma.(89) The exploits of
Sebastian,(90) who was recently engaged in the service of
Valens, and promoted to the rank of master-general of the
infantry, were still more honourable to himself, and useful
to the republic. He obtained the permission of selecting
three hundred soldiers from each of the legions, and this
separate detachment soon acquired the spirit of discipline
and the exercise of arms, which were almost forgotten under
the reign of Valens. By the vigour and conduct of Sebastian,
a large body of the Goths was surprised in their camp; and
the immense spoil which was recovered from their hands
filled the city of Hadrianople and the adjacent plain. The
splendid narratives which he general transmitted of his own
exploits alarmed the Imperial court by the appearance of
superior merit; and though he cautiously insisted on the
difficulties of the Gothic war, his valour was praised, his
advice was rejected; and Valens, who listened with pride and
pleasure to the flattering suggestions of the eunuchs of the
palace, was impatient to seize the glory of all easy and
assured conquest. His army was strengthened by a numerous
reinforcement of veterans; and his march from Constantinople
to Hadrianople was conducted with so much military skill
that he prevented the activity of the barbarians, who
designed to occupy the intermediate defiles, and to
intercept either the troops themselves or their convoys of
provisions. The camp of Valens, which he pitched under the
walls of Hadrianople, was fortified, according to the
practice of the Romans, with a ditch and rampart; and a most
important council was summoned to decide the fate of the
emperor and of the empire. The party of reason and of delay
was strenuously maintained by Victor, who had corrected, by
the lessons of experience, the native fierceness of the
Sarmatian character; while Sebastian with the flexible and
obsequious eloquence of a courtier, represented every
precaution and every measure that implied a doubt of
immediate victory as unworthy of the courage and majesty of
their invincible monarch. The ruin of Valens was
precipitated by the deceitful arts of Fritigern and the
prudent admonitions of the emperor of the West. The
advantages of negotiating in the midst of war were perfectly
understood by the general of the barbarians; and a Christian
ecclesiastic was despatched, as the holy minister of peace,
to penetrate and to perplex the councils of the enemy. The
misfortunes, as well as the provocations, of the Gothic
nation were forcibly and truly described by their
ambassador, who protested, in the name of Fritigern, that he
was still disposed to lay down his arms, or to employ them
only in the defence of the empire, if he could secure for
his wandering countrymen a tranquil settlement on the waste
lands of Thrace, and a sufficient allowance of corn and
cattle. But he added, in a whisper of confidential
friendship, that the exasperated barbarians were averse to
these reasonable conditions; and that Fritigern was doubtful
whether he could accomplish the conclusion of the treaty
unless he found himself supported by the presence and
terrors of an Imperial army. About the same time, Count
Richomer returned from the West to announce the defeat and
submission of the Alemanni; to inform Valens that his nephew
advanced by rapid marches at the head of the veteran and
victorious legions of Gaul; and to request, in the name of
Gratian and of the republic, that every dangerous and
decisive measure might be suspended till the junction of the
two emperors should ensure the success of the Gothic war.
But the feeble sovereign of the East was actuated only by
the fatal illusions of pride and jealousy. He disdained the
importunate advice; he rejected the humiliating aid; he
secretly compared the ignominious, at least the inglorious,
period of his own reign with the fame of a beardless youth;
and Valens rushed into the field to erect his imaginary
trophy before the diligence of his colleague could usurp any
share of the triumphs of the day.
Battle of Hadrianople, A.D. 378. August 9th .
On the ninth of August, a day which has deserved to be marked
among the most inauspicious of the Roman calendar,(91) the
emperor Valens, leaving, under a strong guard, his baggage
and military treasure, marched from Hadrianople to attack
the Goths, who were encamped about twelve miles from the
city.(92) By some mistake of the orders, or some ignorance of
the ground, the right wing or column of cavalry arrived in
sight of the enemy whilst the left was still at a
considerable distance; the soldiers were compelled, in the
sultry heat of summer, to precipitate their pace; and the
line of battle was formed with tedious confusion and
irregular delay. The Gothic cavalry had been detached to
forage in the adjacent country; and Fritigern still
continued to practise his customary arts. He despatched
messengers of peace, made proposals, required hostages, and
wasted the hours, till the Romans, exposed without shelter
to the burning rays of the sun, were exhausted by thirst,
hunger, and intolerable fatigue. The emperor was persuaded
to send an ambassador to the Gothic camp; the zeal of
Richomer, who alone had courage to accept the dangerous
commission, was applauded; and the count of the domestics,
adorned with the splendid ensigns of his dignity, had
proceeded some way in the space between the two armies when
he was suddenly recalled by the alarm of battle. The hasty
and imprudent attack was made by Bacurius the Iberian, who
commanded a body of archers and targeteers: and, as they
advanced with rashness, they retreated with loss and
disgrace. In the same moment the flying squadrons of
Alatheus and Saphrax, whose return was anxiously expected by the general of the Goths, descended like a whirlwind from the hills, swept across the plain, and added new terrors to the tumultuous but irresistible charge of the barbarian host. The defeat of the Romans. The event of the battle of Hadrianople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire, may be described in a few words: the Roman cavalry fled; the infantry was abandoned, surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful evolutions, the firmest courage, are scarcely sufficient to extricate a body of foot encompassed on an open plain by superior
numbers of horse; but the troops of Valens, oppressed by the weight of the enemy and their own fears, were crowded into a narrow space, where it was impossible for them to extend their ranks, or even to use, with effect, their swords and javelins. In the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and of dismay, the emperor, deserted by his guards, and wounded, as it was supposed, with an arrow, sought protection among the
Lancearii and the Mattiarii, who still maintained their ground with some appearance of order and firmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and Victor, who perceived his danger, loudly exclaimed that all was lost unless the person of the emperor could be saved. Some troops, animated by their exhortation, advanced to his relief: they found only a bloody spot, covered with a heap of broken arms and mangled
bodies, without being able to discover their unfortunate prince either among the living or the dead. Death of the emperor Valens. Their search could not indeed be successful, if there is any truth in the circumstances with which some historians have related the death of the emperor. By the care of his attendants, Valens was removed from the field of battle to a neighbouring cottage, where they attempted to dress his wound and to provide for his future safety. But this humble retreat was instantly surrounded by the enemy; they tried to force the door; they were provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof; till at length, impatient of delay, they set fire to a
pile of dry faggots, and consumed the cottage with the Roman emperor and his train. Valens perished in the flames; and a youth, who dropped from the window, alone escaped, to attest the melancholy tale and to inform the Goths of the inestimable prize which they had lost by their own rashness. A great number of brave and distinguished officers perished in the battle of Hadrianople, which equalled in the actual loss, and far surpassed in the fatal consequences, the misfortune which Rome had formerly sustained in the fields of Cannae. (93) Two master-generals of the cavalry and infantry, two great officers of the palace, and thirty-five tribunes, were found among the slain; and the death of Sebastian might satisfy the world that he was the victim as well as the author of the public calamity. Above two-thirds of the Roman army were destroyed: and the darkness of the night was esteemed a very favourable circumstance, as it served to conceal the flight of the multitude, and to
protect the more orderly retreat of Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the general consternation, maintained the advantage of calm courage and regular discipline.(94)
Funeral oration of Valens and his army.
While the impressions of grief and terror were still recent in the minds of men, the most celebrated rhetorician of the age composed the funeral oration of a vanquished army and of an unpopular prince, whose throne was already occupied by a stranger.
"There are not wanting," says the candid Libanius, "those who arraign the prudence of the emperor, or who impute the public misfortune to the want of courage and discipline in the troops. For my own part, I reverence the memory of their former exploits; I reverence the glorious death which they bravely received, standing and fighting in their ranks; I reverence the field of battle, stained with their blood and the blood of the barbarians. Those honourable marks have been already washed away by the rains; but the lofty monuments of their bones, the bones of generals, of centurions, and of valiant warriors, claim a longer period of duration. The king himself sought and fell in the foremost ranks of the battle. His attendants presented him with the fleetest horses of the Imperial stable, that would soon have carried him beyond the pursuit of the enemy. They vainly pressed him to reserve his important life for the future service of the republic. He still declared that he was unworthy to survive so many of the bravest and most faithful of his subjects and the monarch was nobly buried under a mountain of the slain. Let none, therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the barbarians to fear, the weakness, or he imprudence of the Roman troops. The chiefs and the soldiers were animated by the virtue of their ancestors, whom they equalled in discipline and the arts of war. Their generous emulation was supported by the love of glory, which prompted them to contend at the same time with heat and thirst, with fire and the sword, and cheerfully to embrace an honourable death as their refuge against flight and infamy. The indignation of the gods has been the only cause of the success of our enemies."
The truth of history may disclaim some parts of this panegyric, which cannot strictly be reconciled with the character of Valens or the circumstances of the battle; but the fairest commendation is due to the eloquence, and still more to the generosity, of the sophist of Antioch. (95)
The Goths beseige Hadrianople.
The pride of the Goths was elated by this memorable victory;
but their avarice was disappointed by the mortifying
discovery that the richest part of the Imperial spoil had
been within the walls of Hadrianople. They hastened to
possess the reward of their valour; but they were
encountered by the remains of a vanquished army with an
intrepid resolution, which was the effect of their despair
and the only hope of their safety. The walls of the city and
the ramparts of the adjacent camp were lined with military
engines that threw stones of an enormous weight, and
astonished the ignorant barbarians by the noise and
velocity, still more than by the real effects, of the
discharge. The soldiers, the citizens, the provincials, the
domestics of the palace, were united in the danger and in
the defence; the furious assault of the Goths was repulsed;
their secret arts of treachery and treason were discovered;
and after an obstinate conflict of many hours they retired
to their tents, convinced by experience that it would be far
more advisable to observe the treaty which their sagacious
leader had tacitly stipulated with the fortifications of
great and populous cities. After the hasty and impolitic
massacre of three hundred deserters, an act of justice
extremely useful to the discipline of the Roman armies, the
Goths indignantly raised the siege of Hadrianople. The scene
of war and tumult was instantly converted into a silent
solitude; the multitude suddenly disappeared; the secret
paths of the woods and mountains were marked with the
footsteps of the trembling fugitives, who sought a refuge in
the distant cities of Illyricum and Macedonia; and the
faithful officers of the household and the treasury
cautiously proceeded in search of the emperor, of whose
death they were still ignorant. The tide of the Gothic
inundation rolled from the walls of Hadrianople to the
suburbs of Constantinople. The barbarians were surprised
with the splendid appearance of the capital of the East, the
height and extent of the walls, the myriads of wealthy and
affrighted citizens who crowded the ramparts, and the
various prospect of the sea and land. While they gazed with
hopeless desire on the inaccessible beauties of
Constantinople, a sally was made from one of the gates by a
party of Saracens, (96) who had been fortunately engaged in
the service of Valens. The cavalry of Scythia was forced to
yield to the admirable swiftness and spirit of the Arabian
horses; their riders were skilled in the evolutions of
irregular war; and the Northern barbarians were astonished
and dismayed by the inhuman ferocity of the barbarians of
the South. A Gothic soldier was slain by the dagger of an
Arab, and the hairy, naked savage, applying his lips to the
wound, expressed a horrid delight while he sucked the blood
of his vanquished enemy. (97) The army of the Goths, laden
with the spoils of the wealthy suburbs and the adjacent
territory, slowly moved from the Bosphorus to the mountains
which form the western boundary of Thrace. The important
pass of Succi was betrayed by the fear or the misconduct of
Maurus; and the barbarians, who no longer had any resistance
to apprehend from the scattered and vanquished troops of the
East, spread themselves over the face of a fertile and
cultivated country, as far as the confines of Italy and the
Hadriatic Sea.(98)
They ravage the Roman provinces, A.D. 378,379.
The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts
of justice which were exercised by the legions,(99) reserved their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful barbarians. The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family,(100) might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader. The same censure may be applied, though not perhaps in an equal degree, to the profane and the ecclesiastical writers of this unhappy period; that their minds were inflamed by popular and religious animosity, and that the true size and colour of every object is falsified by the exaggerations of their corrupt eloquence. The vehement Jerom (101) might justly deplore the calamities inflicted by the Goths and their barbarous allies on his native country of Pannonia, and the wide extent of the provinces from the walls of Constantinople, to the foot of the Julian Alps; the rapes, the massacres, the conflagrations, and, above all, the profanation of the churches that were turned into stables, and the contemptuous treatment of the relics of holy martyrs. But the saint is surely transported beyond the limits of nature and history when he affirms;
"that in those desert countries nothing was left except the sky and the earth; that, after the destruction of the cities and the extirpation of the human race, the land was overgrown with thick forests and inextricable brambles; and that the universal desolation, announced by the prophet Zephaniah, was accomplished in the scarcity of the beasts, the birds, and even of the fish."
These complaints were pronounced about twenty years after the death of Valens; and the Illyrian provinces, which were constantly exposed to the invasion and passage of the barbarians, still continued, after a calamitous period of ten centuries, to supply new materials for rapine and destruction. Could it even be supposed that a large tract of country had been left without cultivation and without inhabitants, the consequences might not have been so fatal to the inferior productions of animated nature. The useful and feeble animals, which are nourished by the hand of man, might suffer and perish if they were deprived of his protection; but the beasts of the forest, his enemies or his victims, would multiply in the free and undisturbed possession of their solitary domain. The various tribes that peopled the air or the waters are still less connected with the fate of the human species; and it is highly probable that the fish of the Danube would have felt more terror and distress from the approach of a voracious pike than from the hostile inroad of a Gothic army.
Massacre of the Gothic youth in Asia, A.D. 378.
Whatever may have been the just measure of the calamities of
Europe, there was reason to fear that the same calamities
would soon extend to the peaceful countries of Asia. The
sons of the Goths had been judiciously distributed through
the cities of the East, and the arts of education were
employed to polish and subdue the native fierceness of their
temper. In the space of about twelve years their numbers had
continually increased; and the children who in the first
emigration were sent over the Hellespont had attained with
rapid growth the strength and spirit of perfect manhood.(102)
It was impossible to conceal from their knowledge the events
of the Gothic war; and, as those daring youths had not
studied the language of dissimulation, they betrayed their
wish, their desire, perhaps their intentions to emulate the
glorious example of their fathers The danger of the times
seemed to justify the jealous suspicions of the provincials;
and these suspicions were admitted as unquestionable
evidence that the Goths of Asia had formed a secret and
dangerous conspiracy against the public safety. The death of
Valens had left the East without a sovereign; and Julius,
who filled the important station of master-general of the
troops, with a high reputation of diligence and ability,
thought it his duty to consult the senate of Constantinople,
which he considered, during the vacancy of the throne, as
the representative council of the nation. As soon as he had
obtained the discretionary power of acting as he should
judge most expedient for the good of the republic, he
assembled the principal officers and privately concerted
effectual measures for the execution of his bloody design.
An order was immediately promulgated that, on a stated day,
the Gothic youth should assemble in the capital cities of
their respective provinces; and, as a report was
industriously circulated that they were summoned to receive
a liberal gift of lands and money, the pleasing hope allayed
the fury of their resentment, and perhaps suspended the
motions of the conspiracy. On the appointed day the unarmed
crowd of the Gothic youth was carefully collected in the
square or forum; the streets and avenues were occupied by
the Roman troops, and the roofs of the houses were covered
with archers and slingers. At the same hour, in all the
cities of the East, the signal was given of indiscriminate
slaughter; and the provinces of Asia were delivered, by the
cruel prudence of Julius, from a domestic enemy, who in a
few months might have carried fire and sword from the
Hellespont to the Euphrates.(103) The urgent consideration of
the public safety may undoubtedly authorise the violation of
every positive law. How far that or any other consideration
may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity
and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain
ignorant.
The emperor Gratian invests Theodosius with the empire of the East, A.D. 379, January 19.
The emperor Gratian was far advanced on his march towards
the plains of Hadrianople when he was informed, at first by
the confused voice of fame, and afterwards by the more
accurate reports of Victor and Richomer, that his impatient
colleague had been slain in battle, and that two-thirds of
the Roman army were exterminated by the sword of the
victorious Goths. Whatever resentment the rash and jealous
vanity of his uncle might deserve, the resentment of a
generous mind is easily subdued by the softer emotions of
grief and compassion; and even the sense of pity was soon
lost in the serious and alarming consideration of the state
of the republic. Gratian was too late to assist, he was too
weak to revenge, his unfortunate colleague; and the valiant
and modest youth felt himself unequal to the support of a
sinking world. A formidable tempest of the barbarians of
Germany seemed ready to burst over the provinces of Gaul,
and the mind of Gratian was oppressed and distracted by the
administration of the Western empire. In this important
crisis the government of the East and the conduct of the
Gothic war required the undivided attention of a hero and a
statesman. A subject invested with such ample command would
not long have preserved his fidelity to a distant
benefactor; and the Imperial council embraced the wise and
manly resolution of conferring an obligation rather than of
yielding to an insult. It was the wish of Gratian to bestow
the purple as the reward of virtue; but at the age of
nineteen it is not easy for a prince, educated in the
supreme rank, to understand the true characters of his
ministers and generals. He attempted to weigh, with an
impartial hand, their various merits and defects; and whilst
he checked the rash confidence of ambition, he distrusted
the cautious wisdom which despaired of the republic. As each
moment of delay diminished something of the power and
resources of the future sovereign of the East, the situation
of the times would not allow a tedious debate. The choice of
Gratian was soon declared in favour of an exile, whose
father, only three years before, had suffered, under the
sanction of his authority, an unjust and ignominious death.
The great Theodosius, a name celebrated in history and dear
to the Catholic church, (104) was summoned to the Imperial
court, which had gradually retreated from the confines of
Thrace to the more secure station of Sirmium. Five months
after the death of Valens the emperor Gratian produced
before the assembled troops his colleague and their master,
who, after a modest, perhaps a sincere resistance, was
compelled to accept, amidst the general acclamations, the
diadem, the purple, and the equal title of Augustus.(105) The
provinces of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, over which Valens had
reigned, were resigned to the administration of the new
emperor; but as he was specially intrusted with the conduct
of the Gothic war, the Illyrian praefecture was dismembered,
and the two great dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia were added
to the dominions of the Eastern empire. (106)
Birth and character of Theodosius.
The same province, and perhaps the same city,(107) which had given to the throne the virtues of Trajan and the talents of Hadrian,
was the original seat of another family of Spaniards, who,
in a less fortunate age, possessed, near fourscore years,
the declining empire of Rome. (108) They emerged from the
obscurity of municipal honours by the active spirit of the
elder Theodosius, a general whose exploits in Britain and
Africa have formed one of the most splendid parts of the
annals of Valentinian. The son of that general, who likewise
bore the name of Theodosius, was educated, by skilful
preceptors, in the liberal studies of youth; but he was
instructed in the art of war by the tender care and severe
discipline of his father. (109) Under the standard of such a
leader, young Theodosius sought glory and knowledge in the
most distant scenes of military action; inured his
constitution to the difference of seasons and climates;
distinguished his valour by sea and land; and observed the
various warfare of the Scots, the Saxons, and the Moors. His
own merit, and the recommendation of the conqueror of
Africa, soon raised him to a separate command; and, in the
station of duke of Mazsia, he vanquished an army of
Sarmatians; saved the province; deserved the love of the
soldiers; and provoked the envy of the court.(110) His rising
fortunes were soon blasted by the disgrace and execution of
his illustrious father; and Theodosius obtained, as a
favour, the permission of retiring to a private life in his
native province of Spain. He displayed a firm and temperate
character in the ease with which he adapted himself to this
new situation. His time was almost equally divided between
the town and country; the spirit which had animated his
public conduct was shown in the active and affectionate
performance of every social duty; and the diligence of the
soldier was profitably converted to the improvement of his
ample patrimony, (111) which lay between Valladolid and
Segovia, in the midst of a fruitful district, still famous
for a most exquisite breed of sheep.(112) From the innocent,
but humble, labours of his farm, Theodosius was transported,
in less than four months, to the throne of the Eastern
empire: and the whole period of the history of the world
will not perhaps afford a similar example of an elevation at
the same time so pure and so honourable. The princes who
peaceably inherit the sceptre of their fathers claim and
enjoy a legal right, the more secure as it is absolutely
distinct from the merits of their personal characters. The
subjects who, in a monarchy or a popular state, acquire the
possession of supreme power, may have raised themselves, by
the superiority either of genius or virtue, above the heads
of their equals: but their virtue is seldom exempt from
ambition; and the cause of the successful candidate is
frequently stained by the guilt of conspiracy or civil war.
Even in those governments which allow the reigning monarch
to declare a colleague or a successor, his partial choice,
which may be influenced by the blindest passions, is often
directed to an unworthy object. But the most suspicious
malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure
solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes
of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the Exile would
long since have been forgotten, if his genuine and
distinguished virtues had not left a deep impression in the
Imperial court. During the season of prosperity he had been
neglected; but, in the public distress, his superior merit
was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence must
have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could
trust that a pious son would forgive, for the sake of the
republic, the murder of his father! What expectations must
have been formed of his abilities, to encourage the hope
that a single man could save, and restore, the empire of the
East! Theodosius was invested with the purple in the
thirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with
admiration on the manly beauty of his face and the graceful
majesty of his person, which they were pleased to compare
with the pictures and medals of the emperor Trajan; whilst
intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his
heart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and greatest of the Roman princes.
His prudent and successful conduct of the Gothic war, A.D. 379-382.
It is not without the most sincere regret that I must now
take leave of an accurate and faithful guide, who has
composed the history of his own times without indulging the
prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a
contemporary. Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminates his
useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, recommends
the more glorious subject of the ensuing reign to the
youthful vigour and eloquence of the rising generation.(113)
The rising generation was not disposed to accept his advice,
or to imitate his example; (114) and, in the study of the
reign of Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate the
partial narrative of Zosimus by the obscure hints of
fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry
or panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the
ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat of religious
faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity
and moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, which will
continue to involve a considerable portion of the decline
and fall of the Roman empire, I shall proceed with doubtful
and timorous steps. Yet I may boldly pronounce that the
battle of Hadrianople was never revenged by any signal or
decisive victory of Theodosius over the barbarians; and the
expressive silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by
the observation of the condition and circumstances of the
times. The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared
by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned
by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power of the
imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the
calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the
plains of Hadrianople, might have been soon recruited in the
populous provinces of the East, which contained so many
millions of inhabitants. The courage of a soldier is found
to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature;
and sufficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe might
have been speedily taught by the care of the surviving
centurions. If the barbarians were mounted on the horses,
and equipped with the armour, of their vanquished enemies,
the numerous studs of Cappadocia and Spain would have
supplied new squadrons of cavalry; the thirty-four arsenals
of the empire were plentifully stored with magazines of
offensive and defensive arms; and the wealth of Asia might
still have yielded an ample fund for the expenses of the
war. But the effects which were produced by the battle of
Hadrianople on the minds of the barbarians and of the
Romans, extended the victory of the former, and the defeat
of the latter, far beyond the limits of a single day. A
Gothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent moderation,
that, for his own part, he was fatigued with slaughter; but
that he was astonished how a people who fled before him like
a flock of sheep could still presume to dispute the
possession of their treasures and provinces.(115) The same
terrors which the name of the Huns had spread among the
Gothic tribes were inspired, by the formidable name of the
Goths, among the subjects and soldiers of the Roman empire.
(116) If Theodosius, hastily collecting his scattered forces,
had led them into the field to encounter a victorious enemy,
his army would have been vanquished by their own fears; and
his rashness could not have been excused by the chance of
success. But the great Theodosius, an epithet which he
honourably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted
himself as the firm and faithful guardian of the republic.
He fixed his headquarters at Thessalonica, the capital of
the Macedonian diocese; (117) from whence he could watch the irregular motions of the barbarians, and direct the
operations of his lieutenants, from the gates of
Constantinople to the shores of the Hadriatic. The
fortifications and garrisons of the cities were
strengthened; and the troops, among whom a sense of order
and discipline was revived, were insensibly emboldened by
the confidence of their own safety. From these secure
stations they were encouraged to make frequent sallies on
the barbarians, who infested the adjacent country; and, as
they were seldom allowed to engage, without some decisive
superiority, either of ground or of numbers, their
enterprises were, for the most part, successful; and they
were soon convinced, by their own experience, of the
possibility of vanquishing their invincible enemies. The
detachments of these separate garrisons were gradually
united into small armies; the same cautious measures were
pursued, according to an extensive and well-concerted plan
of operations; the events of each day added strength and
spirit to the Roman arms; and the artful diligence of the
emperor, who circulated the most favourable reports of the
success of the war, contributed to subdue the pride of the
barbarians, and to animate the hopes and courage of his
subjects. If, instead of this faint and imperfect outline,
we could accurately represent the counsels and actions of
Theodosius in four successive campaigns, there is reason to
believe that his consummate skill would deserve the applause
of every military reader. The republic had formerly been
saved by the delays of Fabius; and, while the splendid
trophies of Scipio, in the field of Zama, attract the eyes
of posterity, the camps and marches of the dictator among
the hills of Campania may claim a juster proportion of the
solid and independent fame which the general is not
compelled to share either with fortune or with his troops.
Such was likewise the merit of Theodosius; and the
infirmities of his body, which most unseasonably languished
under a long and dangerous disease, could not oppress the
vigour of his mind, or divert his attention from the public
service.(118)
Divisions defeat and submission, of the Goths, A.D. 379-382.
The deliverance and peace of the Roman provinces(119) was the work of prudence, rather than of valour: the prudence of
Theodosius was seconded by fortune; and the emperor never
failed to seize, and to improve, every favourable
circumstance. As long as the superior genius of Fritigern
preserved the union and directed the motions of the
barbarians, their power was not inadequate to the conquest
of a great empire. The death of that hero, the predecessor
and master of the renowned Alaric, relieved an impatient
multitude from the intolerable yoke of discipline and
discretion. The barbarians, who had been restrained by his
authority, abandoned themselves to the dictates of their
passions; and their passions were seldom uniform or
consistent. An army of conquerors was broken into many
disorderly bands of savage robbers; and their blind and
irregular fury was not less pernicious to themselves than to
their enemies. Their mischievous disposition was shown in
the destruction of every object which they wanted strength
to remove, or taste to enjoy; and they often consumed, with
improvident rage, the harvests, or the granaries, which soon
afterwards became necessary for their own subsistence. A
spirit of discord arose among the independent tribes and
nations, which had been united only by the bands of a loose
and voluntary alliance. The troops of the Huns and the Alani
would naturally upbraid the flight of the Goths, who were
not disposed to use with moderation the advantages of their
fortune: the ancient jealousy of the Ostrogoths and the
Visigoths could not long be suspended; and the haughty
chiefs still remembered the insults and injuries which they
had reciprocally offered or sustained while the nation was
seated in the countries beyond the Danube. The progress of
domestic faction abated the more diffusive sentiment of
national animosity; and the officers of Theodosius were
instructed to purchase, with liberal gifts and promises, the
retreat or service of the discontented party. The
acquisition of Modar, a prince of the royal blood of the
Amali, gave a bold and faithful champion to the cause of
Rome. The illustrious deserter soon obtained the rank of
master-general, with an important command; surprised an army
of his countrymen, who were immersed in wine and sleep; and,
after a cruel slaughter of the astonished Goths, returned
with an immense spoil, and four thousand waggons, to the
Imperial camp.(120) In the hands of a skilful politician the
most different means may be successfully applied to the same
ends; and the peace of the empire, which had been forwarded
by the divisions, was accomplished by the reunion of the
Gothic nation. Death and funeral of Athanaric, A.D. 381, January 25. Athanaric, who had been a patient spectator
of these extraordinary events, was at length driven, by the
chance of arms, from the dark recesses of the woods of
Caucaland. He no longer hesitated to pass the Danube; and a
very considerable part of the subjects of Fritigern who
already felt the inconveniences of anarchy, were easily
persuaded to acknowledge for their king a Gothic Judge,
whose birth they respected, and whose abilities they had
frequently experienced. But age had chilled the daring
spirit of Athanaric; and instead of leading his people to the field of battle and victory, he wisely listened to the fair proposal of an honourable and advantageous treaty. Theodosius, who was acquainted with the merit and power of his new ally, condescended to meet him at the distance of several miles from Constantinople; and entertained him in the Imperial city, with the confidence of a friend, and the magnificence of a monarch.
"The barbarian prince observed, with curious attention, the variety of objects which attracted his notice, and at last broke out into a sincere and passionate exclamation of wonder. I now behold (said he) what I never could believe, the glories of this stupendous capital! And as he cast his eyes around, he viewed and he admired the commanding situation of the city, the strength and beauty of the walls and public edifices, the capacious harbour crowded with innumerable vessels, the perpetual concourse of distant nations, and the arms and discipline of the troops. Indeed (continued Athanaric), the emperor of the Romans is a god upon earth; and the presumptuous man who dares to lift his hand against him is guilty of his own blood."
(121) The Gothic king did not long enjoy this splendid and honourable reception; and, as temperance was not the virtue of his nation, it may justly be suspected that his mortal disease was contracted amidst the pleasures of the Imperial banquets. But the policy of Theodosius derived more solid benefit from the death than he could have expected from the most faithful services of his ally. The funeral of Athanaric was performed with solemn rites in the capital of the East; a stately monument was erected to his memory; and his whole army, won by the liberal courtesy and decent grief of Theodosius, enlisted under the standard of the Roman empire. (122) The submission of so great a body of the Visigoths was productive of the most salutary consequences; and the mixed influence of force, of reason, and of corruption, became every day more powerful and more extensive. Each independent chieftain hastened to obtain a separate treaty, from the apprehension that an obstinate delay might expose him, alone and unprotected, to the revenge or justice, of the conqueror. The general, or rather the final, capitulation of the Goths, may be dated four years, one month, and twenty-five days A.D. 382, October 3., after the defeat and death of the emperor Valens. (123)
Invasion and defeat of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, A.D. 386, October.
The provinces of the Danube had been already relieved from
the oppressive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, by
the voluntary retreat of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose
restless spirit had prompted them to seek new scenes of
rapine and glory. Their destructive course was pointed
towards the West; but we must be satisfied with a very
obscure and imperfect knowledge of their various adventures.
The Ostrogoths impelled several of the German tribes on the
provinces of Gaul; concluded, and soon violated, a treaty
with the emperor Gratian; advanced into the unknown
countries of the North; and, after an interval of more than
four years, returned with accumulated force to the banks of
the Lower Danube. Their troops were recruited with the
fiercest warriors of Germany and Scythia; and the soldiers,
or at least the historians, of the empire no longer
recognised the name and countenances of their former
enemies.(124) The general who commanded the military and
naval powers of the Thracian frontier soon perceived that
his superiority would be disadvantageous to the public
service; and that the barbarians, awed by the presence of
his fleet and legions, would probably defer the passage of
the river till the approaching winter. The dexterity of the
spies whom he sent into the Gothic camp allured the
barbarians into a fatal snare. They were persuaded that, by
a bold attempt, they might surprise, in the silence and
darkness of the night, the sleeping army of the Romans; and
the whole multitude was hastily embarked in a fleet of three
thousand canoes.(125) The bravest of the Ostrogoths led the
van; the main body consisted of the remainder of their
subjects and soldiers; and the women and children securely
followed in the rear. One of the nights without a moon had
been selected for the execution of their design; and they
had almost reached the southern bank of the Danube, in the
firm confidence that they should find an easy landing and an
unguarded camp. But the progress of the barbarians was
suddenly stopped by an unexpected obstacle—a triple line
of vessels, strongly connected with each other, and which
formed an impenetrable chain of two miles and a half along
the river. While they struggled to force their way in the
unequal conflict, their right flank was overwhelmed by the
irresistible attack of a fleet of galleys, which were urged
down the stream by the united impulse of oars and of the
tide. The weight and velocity of those ships of war broke,
and sunk, and dispersed the rude and feeble canoes of the
barbarians: their valour was ineffectual; and Alatheus, the
king or general of the Ostrogoths, perished, with his
bravest troops, either by the sword of the Romans or in the
waves of the Danube. The last division of this unfortunate
fleet might regain the opposite shore; but the distress and
disorder of the multitude rendered them alike incapable
either of action or counsel; and they soon implored the
clemency of the victorious enemy. On this occasion, as well
as on many others, it is a difficult task to reconcile the
passions and prejudices of the writers of the age of
Theodosius. The partial and malignant historian, who
misrepresents every action of his reign, affirms that the
emperor did not appear in the field of battle till the
barbarians had been vanquished by the valour and conduct of
his lieutenant Promotus. (126) The flattering poet, who
celebrated in the court of Honorius the glory of the father
and of the son, ascribes the victory to the personal prowess
of Theodosius; and almost insinuates that the king of the
Ostrogoths was slain by the hand of the emperor.(127) The
truth of history might perhaps be found in a just medium
between these extreme and contradictory assertions.
Settlement of the Goths in Thrace and Asia, A.D. 383-395.
The original treaty, which fixed the settlement of the
Goths, ascertained their privileges, and stipulated their
obligations, would illustrate the history of Theodosius and
his successors. The series of their history has imperfectly
preserved the spirit and substance of this singular
agreement.(128) The ravages of war and tyranny had provided
many large tracts of fertile but uncultivated land for the
use of those barbarians who might not disdain the practice
of agriculture. A numerous colony of the Visigoths was
seated in Thrace; the remains of the Ostrogoths were planted
in Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were supplied by
a distribution of corn and cattle; and their future industry
was encouraged by an exemption from tribute during a certain
term of years. The barbarians would have deserved to feel
the cruel and perfidious policy of the Imperial court if
they had suffered themselves to be dispersed through the
provinces. They required and they obtained the sole
possession of the villages and districts assigned for their
residence; they still cherished and propagated their native
manners and language; asserted, in the bosom of despotism,
the freedom of their domestic government; and acknowledged
the sovereignty of the emperor, without submitting to the
inferior jurisdiction of the laws and magistrates of Rome.
The hereditary chiefs of the tribes and families were still
permitted to command their followers in peace and war: but
the royal dignity was abolished; and the generals of the
Goths were appointed and removed at the pleasure of the
emperor. An army of forty thousand Goths was maintained for
the perpetual service of the empire of the East; and those
haughty troops, who assumed the title of Foederati, or
allies, were distinguished by their gold collars, liberal
pay, and licentious privileges. Their native courage was
improved by the use of arms and the knowledge of discipline;
and, while the republic was guarded or threatened by the
doubtful sword of the barbarians, the last sparks of the
military flame were finally extinguished in the minds of the
Romans.(129) Theodosius had the address to persuade his
allies that the conditions of peace, which had been extorted
from him by prudence and necessity, were the voluntary
expressions of his sincere friendship for the Gothic nation.
(130) A different mode of vindication or apology was opposed
to the complaints of the people, who loudly censured these
shameful and dangerous concessions. (131) The calamities of
the War were painted in the most lively colours; and the
first symptoms of the return of order, of plenty, and
security were diligently exaggerated. The advocates of
Theodosius could affirm, with some appearance of truth and
reason, that it was impossible to extirpate so many warlike
tribes, who were rendered desperate by the loss of their
native country; and that the exhausted provinces would be
revived by a fresh supply of soldiers and husbandmen. The
barbarians still wore an angry and hostile aspect; but the
experience of past times might encourage the hope that they
would acquire the habits of industry and obedience; that
their manners would be polished by time, education, and the
influence of Christianity; and that their posterity would
insensibly blend with the great body of the Roman people.
(132)
Their hostile sentiments.
Notwithstanding these specious arguments and these sanguine
expectations, it was apparent to every discerning eye that
the Goths would long remain the enemies, and might soon
become the conquerors, of the Roman empire. Their rude and
insolent behaviour expressed their contempt of the citizens
and provincials, whom they insulted with impunity.(133) To
the zeal and valour of the barbarians Theodosius was
indebted for the success of his arms: but their assistance
was precarious; and they were sometimes seduced, by a
treacherous and inconstant disposition, to abandon his
standard at the moment when their service was the most
essential. During the civil war against Maximus a great
number of Gothic deserters retired into the morasses of
Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces, and obliged the
intrepid monarch to expose his person and exert his power to
suppress the rising flame of rebellion. (134) The public
apprehensions were fortified by the strong suspicion that
these tumults were not the effect of accidental passion, but
the result of deep and premeditated design. It was generally
believed that the Goths had signed the treaty of peace with
an hostile and insidious spirit; and that their chiefs had
previously bound themselves by a solemn and secret oath
never to keep faith with the Romans, to maintain the fairest
show of loyalty and friendship, and to watch the favourable
moment of rapine, of conquest, and of revenge. But as the
minds of the barbarians were not insensible to the power of
gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerely devoted
themselves to the service of the empire, or, at least, of
the emperor: the whole nation was insensibly divided into
two opposite factions, and much sophistry was employed in
conversation and dispute to compare the obligations of their
first and second engagements. The Goths who considered
themselves as the friends of peace, of justice, and of Rome,
were directed by the authority of Fravitta, a valiant and
honourable youth, distinguished above the rest of his
countrymen by the politeness of his manners, the liberality
of his sentiments, and the mild virtues of social life. But
the more numerous faction adhered to the fierce and
faithless Priulf, who inflamed the passions and asserted the
independence of his warlike followers. On one of the solemn
festivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited to
the Imperial table, they were insensibly heated by wine,
till they forgot the usual restraints of discretion and
respect, and betrayed in the presence of Theodosius the
fatal secret of their domestic disputes. The emperor, who
had been the reluctant witness of this extraordinary
controversy, dissembled his fears and resentment, and soon
dismissed the tumultuous assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and
exasperated by the insolence of his rival, whose departure
from the palace might have been the signal of a civil war,
boldly followed him and, drawing his sword, laid Priulf dead
at his feet. Their companions flew to arms; and the faithful
champion of Rome would have been oppressed by superior
numbers if he had not been protected by the seasonable
interposition of the Imperial guards. (135) Such were the
scenes of barbaric rage which disgraced the palace and table
of the Roman emperor; and, as the impatient Goths could only
be restrained by the firm and temperate character of
Theodosius, the public safety seemed to depend on the life
and abilities of a single man.(136)
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