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Title: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2
Author: Gibbon, Edward
Language: English
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HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 2-16
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
VOLUME TWO
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part I.
The Conduct Of The Roman Government Towards The Christians, From
The Reign Of Nero To That Of Constantine.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part II.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part III.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part IV.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part V.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VI.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VII.
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VIII.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part I.
Foundation Of Constantinople.—Political System Constantine, And
His Successors.—Military Discipline.—The Palace.—The Finances.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part II.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part III.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part IV.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part V.
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part VI.
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part I.
Character Of Constantine.—Gothic War.—Death Of
Constantine.—Division Of The Empire Among His Three Sons.— Persian
War.—Tragic Deaths Of Constantine The Younger And
Constans.—Usurpation Of Magnentius.—Civil War.—Victory Of
Constantius.
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part II.
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part
III.
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part IV.
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part I.
Constantius Sole Emperor.—Elevation And Death Of Gallus.— Danger
And Elevation Of Julian.—Sarmatian And Persian Wars.—Victories Of
Julian In Gaul.
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part II.
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part III.
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part IV.
The Motives, Progress, And Effects Of The Conversion Of
Constantine.—Legal Establishment And Constitution Of The Christian
Or Catholic Church.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
I.
Persecution Of Heresy.—The Schism Of The Donatists.—The Arian
Controversy.—Athanasius.—Distracted State Of The Church And Empire
Under Constantine And His Sons.— Toleration Of Paganism.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
II.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
III.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
IV.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
V.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
VI.
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
VII.
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part I.
Julian Is Declared Emperor By The Legions Of Gaul.—His March And
Success.—The Death Of Constantius.—Civil Administration Of Julian.
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part II.
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part III.
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part IV.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part I.
The Religion Of Julian.—Universal Toleration.—He Attempts To
Restore And Reform The Pagan Worship—To Rebuild The Temple Of
Jerusalem—His Artful Persecution Of The Christians.—Mutual Zeal
And Injustice.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part II.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part III.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part IV.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part V.
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part I.
Residence Of Julian At Antioch.—His Successful Expedition Against
The Persians.—Passage Of The Tigris—The Retreat And Death Of
Julian.—Election Of Jovian.—He Saves The Roman Army By A
Disgraceful Treaty.
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part II.
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part III.
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part IV.
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part V.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part I.
The Government And Death Of Jovian.—Election Of Valentinian, Who
Associates His Brother Valens, And Makes The Final Division Of The
Eastern And Western Empires.— Revolt Of Procopius.—Civil And
Ecclesiastical Administration.—Germany. —Britain.—Africa.—The
East.— The Danube.—Death Of Valentinian.—His Two Sons, Gratian And
Valentinian II., Succeed To The Western Empire.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part II.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part III.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part IV.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part V.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part VI.
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part VII.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part I.
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.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part II.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part III.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part IV.
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part V.
VOLUME TWO
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part I.
The Conduct Of The Roman Government Towards The Christians, From
The Reign Of Nero To That Of Constantine. 1111
1111 (return) [ The sixteenth chapter I cannot help considering
as a very ingenious and specious, but very disgraceful
extenuation of the cruelties perpetrated by the Roman magistrates
against the Christians. It is written in the most contemptibly
factious spirit of prejudice against the sufferers; it is
unworthy of a philosopher and of humanity. Let the narrative of
Cyprian’s death be examined. He had to relate the murder of an
innocent man of advanced age, and in a station deemed venerable
by a considerable body of the provincials of Africa, put to death
because he refused to sacrifice to Jupiter. Instead of pointing
the indignation of posterity against such an atrocious act of
tyranny, he dwells, with visible art, on the small circumstances
of decorum and politeness which attended this murder, and which
he relates with as much parade as if they were the most important
particulars of the event. Dr. Robertson has been the subject of
much blame for his real or supposed lenity towards the Spanish
murderers and tyrants in America. That the sixteenth chapter of
Mr. G. did not excite the same or greater disapprobation, is a
proof of the unphilosophical and indeed fanatical animosity
against Christianity, which was so prevalent during the latter
part of the eighteenth century.—Mackintosh: see Life, i. p. 244,
245.]
If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion,
the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent as well as
austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first
ages embraced the faith of the gospel, we should naturally
suppose, that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received
with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world; that the
learned and the polite, however they may deride the miracles,
would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect; and that the
magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an
order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws,
though they declined the active cares of war and government. If,
on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of
Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the
people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the
Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new
offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could
exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new
motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern
a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their
gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their
subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an
inoffensive mode of faith and worship.
The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a
more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of
Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ,
his innocent disciples were punished with death by the sentence
of a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and
according to the laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom
and justice of his general administration. The apologies which
were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled
with the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians, who
obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of conscience,
were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman empire, excluded
from the common benefits of their auspicious government. The
deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded with care; and
from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme
power, the governors of the church have been no less diligently
employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the
conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be
possible) a few authentic as well as interesting facts from an
undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear
and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and
the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the
first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present
chapter. 1222
1222 (return) [ The history of the first age of Christianity is
only found in the Acts of the Apostles, and in order to speak of
the first persecutions experienced by the Christians, that book
should naturally have been consulted; those persecutions, then
limited to individuals and to a narrow sphere, interested only
the persecuted, and have been related by them alone. Gibbon
making the persecutions ascend no higher than Nero, has entirely
omitted those which preceded this epoch, and of which St. Luke
has preserved the memory. The only way to justify this omission
was, to attack the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles; for,
if authentic, they must necessarily be consulted and quoted. Now,
antiquity has left very few works of which the authenticity is so
well established as that of the Acts of the Apostles. (See
Lardner’s Cred. of Gospel Hist. part iii.) It is therefore,
without sufficient reason, that Gibbon has maintained silence
concerning the narrative of St. Luke, and this omission is not
without importance.—G.]
The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear
animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are
seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or
candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often
escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are
placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A
reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards
the primitive Christians, which may appear the more specious and
probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of
Polytheism. It has already been observed, that the religious
concord of the world was principally supported by the implicit
assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for
their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might therefore be
expected, that they would unite with indignation against any sect
or people which should separate itself from the communion of
mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession of divine
knowledge, should disdain every form of worship, except its own,
as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by
mutual indulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the
accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly
refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the
treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates, will
serve to explain how far these speculations are justified by
facts, and will lead us to discover the true causes of the
persecution of Christianity.
Without repeating what has already been mentioned of the
reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of
Jerusalem, we shall only observe, that the destruction of the
temple and city was accompanied and followed by every
circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors,
and authorize religious persecution by the most specious
arguments of political justice and the public safety. From the
reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a
fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke
out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is
shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they
committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where
they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting
natives; 1 and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation
which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of
fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render
them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but
of human kind. 2 The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the
opinion, that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an
idolatrous master; and by the flattering promise which they
derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah
would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest
the favorites of heaven with the empire of the earth. It was by
announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by
calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of
Israel, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army,
with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperor
Hadrian. 3
1 (return) [ In Cyrene, they massacred 220,000 Greeks; in Cyprus,
240,000; in Egypt, a very great multitude. Many of these unhappy
victims were sawn asunder, according to a precedent to which
David had given the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews
devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails
like a girdle round their bodies. See Dion Cassius, l. lxviii. p.
1145. * Note: Some commentators, among them Reimar, in his notes
on Dion Cassius think that the hatred of the Romans against the
Jews has led the historian to exaggerate the cruelties committed
by the latter. Don. Cass. lxviii. p. 1146.—G.]
2 (return) [ Without repeating the well-known narratives of
Josephus, we may learn from Dion, (l. lxix. p. 1162,) that in
Hadrian’s war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an
infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by
fire.]
3 (return) [ For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoire
des Juifs, l. i. c. 17; for the characters of the Messiah,
according to the Rabbis, l. v. c. 11, 12, 13; for the actions of
Barchochebas, l. vii. c. 12. (Hist. of Jews iii. 115, &c.)—M.]
Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of
the Roman princes expired after the victory; nor were their
apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By
the general indulgence of polytheism, and by the mild temper of
Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient
privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising
their children, with the easy restraint, that they should never
confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the
Hebrew race. 4 The numerous remains of that people, though they
were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were
permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments
both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of
Rome, to enjoy municipal honors, and to obtain at the same time
an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of
society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans gave a
legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was
instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed
his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his
subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic
jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an
annual contribution. 5 New synagogues were frequently erected in
the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts,
and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law,
or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in
the most solemn and public manner. 6 Such gentle treatment
insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from
their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behavior
of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilable
hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and
violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They
embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in
trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations
against the haughty kingdom of Edom. 7
4 (return) [ It is to Modestinus, a Roman lawyer (l. vi.
regular.) that we are indebted for a distinct knowledge of the
Edict of Antoninus. See Casaubon ad Hist. August. p. 27.]
5 (return) [ See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. iii. c. 2, 3.
The office of Patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the
younger.]
6 (return) [ We need only mention the Purim, or deliverance of
the Jews from he rage of Haman, which, till the reign of
Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous
intemperance. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, l. vi. c. 17, l. viii. c.
6.]
7 (return) [ According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the
grandson of Esau, conducted into Italy the army of Eneas, king of
Carthage. Another colony of Idumaeans, flying from the sword of
David, took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for
other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was applied by
the Jews to the Roman empire. * Note: The false Josephus is a
romancer of very modern date, though some of these legends are
probably more ancient. It may be worth considering whether many
of the stories in the Talmud are not history in a figurative
disguise, adopted from prudence. The Jews might dare to say many
things of Rome, under the significant appellation of Edom, which
they feared to utter publicly. Later and more ignorant ages took
literally, and perhaps embellished, what was intelligible among
the generation to which it was addressed. Hist. of Jews, iii.
131. ——The false Josephus has the inauguration of the emperor,
with the seven electors and apparently the pope assisting at the
coronation! Pref. page xxvi.—M.]
Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored
by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed,
however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must
have existed some other cause, which exposed the disciples of
Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham
was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious;
but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the
highest importance. The Jews were a nation; the Christians were a
sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect the
sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent on them
to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles,
the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws,
unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty
claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the Polytheists
to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the
intercourse of other nations, they might deserve their contempt.
The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd;
yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large
society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind;
and it was universally acknowledged, that they had a right to
practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. But
this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded
not any favor or security to the primitive church. By embracing
the faith of the gospel, the Christians incurred the supposed
guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. They dissolved
the sacred ties of custom and education, violated the religious
institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised
whatever their fathers had believed as true, or had reverenced as
sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we may use the expression)
merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter who
withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria, would
equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage.
Every Christian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his
family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians
unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome,
of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed
believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and
private judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his
arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the
philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their
apprehensions, it was no less a matter of surprise, that any
individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the
established mode of worship, than if they had conceived a sudden
abhorrence to the manners, the dress, 8111 or the language of
their native country. 8
8 (return) [ From the arguments of Celsus, as they are
represented and refuted by Origen, (l. v. p. 247—259,) we may
clearly discover the distinction that was made between the Jewish
people and the Christian sect. See, in the Dialogue of Minucius
Felix, (c. 5, 6,) a fair and not inelegant description of the
popular sentiments, with regard to the desertion of the
established worship.]
8111 (return) [ In all this there is doubtless much truth; yet
does not the more important difference lie on the surface? The
Christians made many converts the Jews but few. Had the Jewish
been equally a proselyting religion would it not have encountered
as violent persecution?—M.]
The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment; and
the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous
imputation of impiety. Malice and prejudice concurred in
representing the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the
most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire,
had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate.
They had separated themselves (they gloried in the confession)
from every mode of superstition which was received in any part of
the globe by the various temper of polytheism: but it was not
altogether so evident what deity, or what form of worship, they
had substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure
and sublime idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being
escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude, who were at
a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was neither
represented under any corporeal figure or visible symbol, nor was
adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of
altars and sacrifices. 9 The sages of Greece and Rome, who had
elevated their minds to the contemplation of the existence and
attributes of the First Cause, were induced by reason or by
vanity to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the
privilege of this philosophical devotion. 10 They were far from
admitting the prejudices of mankind as the standard of truth, but
they considered them as flowing from the original disposition of
human nature; and they supposed that any popular mode of faith
and worship which presumed to disclaim the assistance of the
senses, would, in proportion as it receded from superstition,
find itself incapable of restraining the wanderings of the fancy,
and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which men of
wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian
revelation, served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to
persuade them that the principle, which they might have revered,
of the Divine Unity, was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and
annihilated by the airy speculations, of the new sectaries. The
author of a celebrated dialogue, which has been attributed to
Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious subject of the
Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own
ignorance of the weakness of human reason, and of the inscrutable
nature of the divine perfections. 11
9 (return) [ Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla? nulla nota
simulacra!—Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus unicus,
solitarius, desti tutus? Minucius Felix, c. 10. The Pagan
interlocutor goes on to make a distinction in favor of the Jews,
who had once a temple, altars, victims, &c.]
10 (return) [ It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and
dangerous to publish, the knowledge of the true God. See the
Theologie des Philosophes, in the Abbe d’Olivet’s French
translation of Tully de Natura Deorum, tom. i. p. 275.]
11 (return) [ The author of the Philopatris perpetually treats
the Christians as a company of dreaming enthusiasts, &c.; and in
one place he manifestly alludes to the vision in which St. Paul
was transported to the third heaven. In another place, Triephon,
who personates a Christian, after deriding the gods of Paganism,
proposes a mysterious oath.]
It might appear less surprising, that the founder of Christianity
should not only be revered by his disciples as a sage and a
prophet, but that he should be adored as a God. The Polytheists
were disposed to adopt every article of faith, which seemed to
offer any resemblance, however distant or imperfect, with the
popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of Hercules, and
of Aesculapius, had, in some measure, prepared their imagination
for the appearance of the Son of God under a human form. 12 But
they were astonished that the Christians should abandon the
temples of those ancient heroes, who, in the infancy of the
world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the
tyrants or monsters who infested the earth, in order to choose
for the exclusive object of their religious worship an obscure
teacher, who, in a recent age, and among a barbarous people, had
fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, or
to the jealousy of the Roman government. The Pagan multitude,
reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected
the inestimable present of life and immortality, which was
offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in
the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal
benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and
character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men,
to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success;
and whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph
over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they
misrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering
life, and ignominious death, of the divine Author of
Christianity. 13
12 (return) [ According to Justin Martyr, (Apolog. Major, c.
70-85,) the daemon who had gained some imperfect knowledge of the
prophecies, purposely contrived this resemblance, which might
deter, though by different means, both the people and the
philosophers from embracing the faith of Christ.]
13 (return) [ In the first and second books of Origen, Celsus
treats the birth and character of our Savior with the most
impious contempt. The orator Libanius praises Porphyry and Julian
for confuting the folly of a sect., which styles a dead man of
Palestine, God, and the Son of God. Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast.
iii. 23.]
The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted, in thus
preferring his private sentiment to the national religion, was
aggravated in a very high degree by the number and union of the
criminals. It is well known, and has been already observed, that
Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
association among its subjects; and that the privileges of
private corporations, though formed for the most harmless or
beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand. 14
The religious assemblies of the Christians who had separated
themselves from the public worship, appeared of a much less
innocent nature; they were illegal in their principle, and in
their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the emperors
conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when, for the
peace of society, they prohibited those secret and sometimes
nocturnal meetings. 15 The pious disobedience of the Christians
made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a much
more serious and criminal light; and the Roman princes, who might
perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by a ready
submission, deeming their honor concerned in the execution of
their commands, sometimes attempted, by rigorous punishments, to
subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged an
authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and
duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it
everyday more deserving of his animadversion. We have already
seen that the active and successful zeal of the Christians had
insensibly diffused them through every province and almost every
city of the empire. The new converts seemed to renounce their
family and country, that they might connect themselves in an
indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society, which every
where assumed a different character from the rest of mankind.
Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the common
business and pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions of
impending calamities, 16 inspired the Pagans with the
apprehension of some danger, which would arise from the new sect,
the more alarming as it was the more obscure. “Whatever,” says
Pliny, “may be the principle of their conduct, their inflexible
obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment.” 17
14 (return) [ The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a company
of 150 firemen, for the use of the city of Nicomedia. He disliked
all associations. See Plin. Epist. x. 42, 43.]
15 (return) [ The proconsul Pliny had published a general edict
against unlawful meetings. The prudence of the Christians
suspended their Agapae; but it was impossible for them to omit
the exercise of public worship.]
16 (return) [ As the prophecies of the Antichrist, approaching
conflagration, &c., provoked those Pagans whom they did not
convert, they were mentioned with caution and reserve; and the
Montanists were censured for disclosing too freely the dangerous
secret. See Mosheim, 413.]
17 (return) [ Neque enim dubitabam, quodcunque esset quod
faterentur, (such are the words of Pliny,) pervicacian certe et
inflexibilem obstinationem lebere puniri.]
The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the
offices of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity;
but they were continued from choice. By imitating the awful
secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians
had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred
institutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan world. 18
But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtile
policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was
concluded, that they only concealed what they would have blushed
to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for
malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the
horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of
human kind, who practised in their dark recesses every
abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who
solicited the favor of their unknown God by the sacrifice of
every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to confess or
to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was
asserted, “that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with
flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to
the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a
secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; that
as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up
the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and
pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness
of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed, that this inhuman
sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment, in which
intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust; till, at the
appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame
was banished, nature was forgotten; and, as accident might
direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the incestuous
commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons and of mothers.” 19
18 (return) [ See Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p.
101, and Spanheim, Remarques sur les Caesars de Julien, p. 468,
&c.]
19 (return) [ See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35, ii. 14.
Athenagoras, in Legation, c. 27. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 7, 8, 9.
Minucius Felix, c. 9, 10, 80, 31. The last of these writers
relates the accusation in the most elegant and circumstantial
manner. The answer of Tertullian is the boldest and most
vigorous.]
But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to remove
even the slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adversary.
The Christians, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal
from the voice of rumor to the equity of the magistrates. They
acknowledge, that if any proof can be produced of the crimes
which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most
severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and they
challenge the proof. At the same time they urge, with equal truth
and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid of probability,
than it is destitute of evidence; they ask, whether any one can
seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the gospel,
which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful
enjoyments, should inculcate the practice of the most abominable
crimes; that a large society should resolve to dishonor itself in
the eyes of its own members; and that a great number of persons
of either sex, and every age and character, insensible to the
fear of death or infamy, should consent to violate those
principles which nature and education had imprinted most deeply
in their minds. 20 Nothing, it should seem, could weaken the
force or destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification,
unless it were the injudicious conduct of the apologists
themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion, to gratify
their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of the church. It was
sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly asserted, that
the same bloody sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals,
which were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were in
reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and
by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they
might deviate into the paths of heresy, were still actuated by
the sentiments of men, and still governed by the precepts of
Christianity. 21 Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon
the church by the schismatics who had departed from its
communion, 22 and it was confessed on all sides, that the most
scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great
numbers of those who affected the name of Christians. A Pagan
magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to
discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the orthodox
faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that
their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common
guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the
reputation, of the first Christians, that the magistrates
sometimes proceeded with more temper and moderation than is
usually consistent with religious zeal, and that they reported,
as the impartial result of their judicial inquiry, that the
sectaries, who had deserted the established worship, appeared to
them sincere in their professions, and blameless in their
manners; however they might incur, by their absurd and excessive
superstition, the censure of the laws. 23
20 (return) [ In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile slaves
were compelled, by the fear of tortures, to accuse their
Christian master. The church of Lyons, writing to their brethren
of Asia, treat the horrid charge with proper indignation and
contempt. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. i.]
21 (return) [ See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35. Irenaeus adv.
Haeres. i. 24. Clemens. Alexandrin. Stromat. l. iii. p. 438.
Euseb. iv. 8. It would be tedious and disgusting to relate all
that the succeeding writers have imagined, all that Epiphanius
has received, and all that Tillemont has copied. M. de Beausobre
(Hist. du Manicheisme, l. ix. c. 8, 9) has exposed, with great
spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin and Pope Leo I.]
22 (return) [ When Tertullian became a Montanist, he aspersed the
morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended. “Sed
majoris est Agape, quia per hanc adolescentes tui cum sororibus
dormiunt, appendices scilicet gulae lascivia et luxuria.” De
Jejuniis c. 17. The 85th canon of the council of Illiberis
provides against the scandals which too often polluted the vigils
of the church, and disgraced the Christian name in the eyes of
unbelievers.]
23 (return) [ Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2) expatiates on the fair
and honorable testimony of Pliny, with much reason and some
declamation.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part II.
History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past,
for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that
honorable office, if she condescended to plead the cause of
tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must,
however, be acknowledged, that the conduct of the emperors who
appeared the least favorable to the primitive church, is by no
means so criminal as that of modern sovereigns, who have employed
the arm of violence and terror against the religious opinions of
any part of their subjects. From their reflections, or even from
their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Lewis XIV. might have
acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience, of the
obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the
princes and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to those
principles which inspired and authorized the inflexible obstinacy
of the Christians in the cause of truth, nor could they
themselves discover in their own breasts any motive which would
have prompted them to refuse a legal, and as it were a natural,
submission to the sacred institutions of their country. The same
reason which contributes to alleviate the guilt, must have tended
to abate the vigor, of their persecutions. As they were actuated,
not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the temperate policy of
legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and humanity must
frequently have suspended, the execution of those laws which they
enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ. From
the general view of their character and motives we might
naturally conclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before
they considered the new sectaries as an object deserving of the
attention of government. II. That in the conviction of any of
their subjects who were accused of so very singular a crime, they
proceeded with caution and reluctance. III. That they were
moderate in the use of punishments; and, IV. That the afflicted
church enjoyed many intervals of peace and tranquility.
Notwithstanding the careless indifference which the most copious
and the most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to the
affairs of the Christians, 24 it may still be in our power to
confirm each of these probable suppositions, by the evidence of
authentic facts.
24 (return) [ In the various compilation of the Augustan History,
(a part of which was composed under the reign of Constantine,)
there are not six lines which relate to the Christians; nor has
the diligence of Xiphilin discovered their name in the large
history of Dion Cassius. * Note: The greater part of the Augustan
History is dedicated to Diocletian. This may account for the
silence of its authors concerning Christianity. The notices that
occur are almost all in the lives composed under the reign of
Constantine. It may fairly be concluded, from the language which
he had into the mouth of Maecenas, that Dion was an enemy to all
innovations in religion. (See Gibbon, infra, note 105.) In fact,
when the silence of Pagan historians is noticed, it should be
remembered how meagre and mutilated are all the extant histories
of the period—M.]
1. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil was
cast over the infancy of the church, which, till the faith of the
Christians was matured, and their numbers were multiplied, served
to protect them not only from the malice but even from the
knowledge of the Pagan world. The slow and gradual abolition of
the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and innocent disguise to
the more early proselytes of the gospel. As they were, for the
greater part, of the race of Abraham, they were distinguished by
the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their devotions in
the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and received
both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations of the
Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritual adoption had been
associated to the hope of Israel, were likewise confounded under
the garb and appearance of Jews, 25 and as the Polytheists paid
less regard to articles of faith than to the external worship,
the new sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly announced,
its future greatness and ambition, was permitted to shelter
itself under the general toleration which was granted to an
ancient and celebrated people in the Roman empire. It was not
long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves, animated with a
fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradual
separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of the
synagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous
heresy in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven
had already disarmed their malice; and though they might
sometimes exert the licentious privilege of sedition, they no
longer possessed the administration of criminal justice; nor did
they find it easy to infuse into the calm breast of a Roman
magistrate the rancor of their own zeal and prejudice. The
provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen to any
accusation that might affect the public safety; but as soon as
they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of
words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the
Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the
majesty of Rome seriously to discuss the obscure differences
which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious people. The
innocence of the first Christians was protected by ignorance and
contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan magistrate often proved
their most assured refuge against the fury of the synagogue. 26
If indeed we were disposed to adopt the traditions of a too
credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant peregrinations,
the wonderful achievements, and the various deaths of the twelve
apostles: but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt,
whether any of those persons who had been witnesses to the
miracles of Christ were permitted, beyond the limits of
Palestine, to seal with their blood the truth of their testimony.
27 From the ordinary term of human life, it may very naturally be
presumed that most of them were deceased before the discontent of
the Jews broke out into that furious war, which was terminated
only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period, from the
death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover
any traces of Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in
the sudden, the transient, but the cruel persecution, which was
exercised by Nero against the Christians of the capital,
thirty-five years after the former, and only two years before the
latter, of those great events. The character of the philosophic
historian, to whom we are principally indebted for the knowledge
of this singular transaction, would alone be sufficient to
recommend it to our most attentive consideration.
25 (return) [ An obscure passage of Suetonius (in Claud. c. 25)
may seem to offer a proof how strangely the Jews and Christians
of Rome were confounded with each other.]
26 (return) [ See, in the xviiith and xxvth chapters of the Acts
of the Apostles, the behavior of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and
of Festus, procurator of Judea.]
27 (return) [ In the time of Tertullian and Clemens of
Alexandria, the glory of martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St.
Paul, and St. James. It was gradually bestowed on the rest of the
apostles, by the more recent Greeks, who prudently selected for
the theatre of their preaching and sufferings some remote country
beyond the limits of the Roman empire. See Mosheim, p. 81; and
Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. i. part iii.]
In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire
was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example
of former ages. 28 The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman
virtue, the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy
temples, and the most splendid palaces, were involved in one
common destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quarters into
which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire, three were
levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven, which had
experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy
prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government
appears not to have neglected any of the precautions which might
alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial
gardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude, temporary
buildings were erected for their accommodation, and a plentiful
supply of corn and provisions was distributed at a very moderate
price. 29 The most generous policy seemed to have dictated the
edicts which regulated the disposition of the streets and the
construction of private houses; and as it usually happens, in an
age of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the course of a
few years, produced a new city, more regular and more beautiful
than the former. But all the prudence and humanity affected by
Nero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from the
popular suspicion. Every crime might be imputed to the assassin
of his wife and mother; nor could the prince who prostituted his
person and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of the most
extravagant folly. The voice of rumor accused the emperor as the
incendiary of his own capital; and as the most incredible stories
are the best adapted to the genius of an enraged people, it was
gravely reported, and firmly believed, that Nero, enjoying the
calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself with singing to
his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. 30 To divert a
suspicion, which the power of despotism was unable to suppress,
the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some
fictitious criminals. “With this view,” continues Tacitus, “he
inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men, who, under
the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already branded with
deserved infamy. They derived their name and origin from Christ,
who in the reign of Tiberius had suffered death by the sentence
of the procurator Pontius Pilate. 31 For a while this dire
superstition was checked; but it again burst forth; 3111 and not
only spread itself over Judaea, the first seat of this
mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common
asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever
is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized discovered
a great multitude of their accomplices, and they were all
convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city,
as for their hatred of human kind. 32 They died in torments, and
their torments were imbittered by insult and derision. Some were
nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts,
and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with
combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the
darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the
melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race and
honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the
populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of
the Christians deserved indeed the most exemplary punishment, but
the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the
opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much
to the public welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant.” 33
Those who survey with a curious eye the revolutions of mankind,
may observe, that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican,
which were polluted with the blood of the first Christians, have
been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse
of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, 34 a temple, which
far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol, has been since
erected by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of
universal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have
succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given laws to the
barbarian conquerors of Rome, and extended their spiritual
jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the
Pacific Ocean.
28 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xv. 38—44. Sueton in Neron. c. 38.
Dion Cassius, l. lxii. p. 1014. Orosius, vii. 7.]
29 (return) [ The price of wheat (probably of the modius,) was
reduced as low as terni Nummi; which would be equivalent to about
fifteen shillings the English quarter.]
30 (return) [ We may observe, that the rumor is mentioned by
Tacitus with a very becoming distrust and hesitation, whilst it
is greedily transcribed by Suetonius, and solemnly confirmed by
Dion.]
31 (return) [ This testimony is alone sufficient to expose the
anachronism of the Jews, who place the birth of Christ near a
century sooner. (Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. v. c. 14, 15.)
We may learn from Josephus, (Antiquitat. xviii. 3,) that the
procuratorship of Pilate corresponded with the last ten years of
Tiberius, A. D. 27—37. As to the particular time of the death of
Christ, a very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of March, A.
D. 29, under the consulship of the two Gemini. (Tertullian adv.
Judaeos, c. 8.) This date, which is adopted by Pagi, Cardinal
Norris, and Le Clerc, seems at least as probable as the vulgar
aera, which is placed (I know not from what conjectures) four
years later.]
3111 (return) [ This single phrase, Repressa in praesens
exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat, proves that the
Christians had already attracted the attention of the government;
and that Nero was not the first to persecute them. I am surprised
that more stress has not been laid on the confirmation which the
Acts of the Apostles derive from these words of Tacitus, Repressa
in praesens, and rursus erumpebat.—G. ——I have been unwilling to
suppress this note, but surely the expression of Tacitus refers
to the expected extirpation of the religion by the death of its
founder, Christ.—M.]
32 (return) [ Odio humani generis convicti. These words may
either signify the hatred of mankind towards the Christians, or
the hatred of the Christians towards mankind. I have preferred
the latter sense, as the most agreeable to the style of Tacitus,
and to the popular error, of which a precept of the gospel (see
Luke xiv. 26) had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion. My
interpretation is justified by the authority of Lipsius; of the
Italian, the French, and the English translators of Tacitus; of
Mosheim, (p. 102,) of Le Clerc, (Historia Ecclesiast. p. 427,) of
Dr. Lardner, (Testimonies, vol. i. p. 345,) and of the Bishop of
Gloucester, (Divine Legation, vol. iii. p. 38.) But as the word
convicti does not unite very happily with the rest of the
sentence, James Gronovius has preferred the reading of conjuncti,
which is authorized by the valuable MS. of Florence.]
33 (return) [ Tacit. Annal xv. 44.]
34 (return) [ Nardini Roma Antica, p. 487. Donatus de Roma
Antiqua, l. iii. p. 449.]
But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero’s
persecution, till we have made some observations that may serve
to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed, and to
throw some light on the subsequent history of the church.
1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth
of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity of this celebrated
passage of Tacitus. The former is confirmed by the diligent and
accurate Suetonius, who mentions the punishment which Nero
inflicted on the Christians, a sect of men who had embraced a new
and criminal superstition. 35 The latter may be proved by the
consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by the inimitable
character of the style of Tacitus by his reputation, which
guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by
the purport of his narration, which accused the first Christians
of the most atrocious crimes, without insinuating that they
possessed any miraculous or even magical powers above the rest of
mankind. 36 2. Notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus was
born some years before the fire of Rome, 37 he could derive only
from reading and conversation the knowledge of an event which
happened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the
public, he calmly waited till his genius had attained its full
maturity, and he was more than forty years of age, when a
grateful regard for the memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted
from him the most early of those historical compositions which
will delight and instruct the most distant posterity. After
making a trial of his strength in the life of Agricola and the
description of Germany, he conceived, and at length executed, a
more arduous work; the history of Rome, in thirty books, from the
fall of Nero to the accession of Nerva. The administration of
Nerva introduced an age of justice and propriety, which Tacitus
had destined for the occupation of his old age; 38 but when he
took a nearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was
a more honorable or a less invidious office to record the vices
of past tyrants, than to celebrate the virtues of a reigning
monarch, he chose rather to relate, under the form of annals, the
actions of the four immediate successors of Augustus. To collect,
to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years, in an
immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with the
deepest observations and the most lively images, was an
undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself
during the greatest part of his life. In the last years of the
reign of Trajan, whilst the victorious monarch extended the power
of Rome beyond its ancient limits, the historian was describing,
in the second and fourth books of his annals, the tyranny of
Tiberius; 39 and the emperor Hadrian must have succeeded to the
throne, before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution of his work,
could relate the fire of the capital, and the cruelty of Nero
towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty
years, it was the duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of
contemporaries; but it was natural for the philosopher to indulge
himself in the description of the origin, the progress, and the
character of the new sect, not so much according to the knowledge
or prejudices of the age of Nero, as according to those of the
time of Hadrian. 3 Tacitus very frequently trusts to the
curiosity or reflection of his readers to supply those
intermediate circumstances and ideas, which, in his extreme
conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore
presume to imagine some probable cause which could direct the
cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome, whose obscurity,
as well as innocence, should have shielded them from his
indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews, who were
numerous in the capital, and oppressed in their own country, were
a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emperor and of the
people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who
already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke, might have
recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their
implacable revenge. But the Jews possessed very powerful
advocates in the palace, and even in the heart of the tyrant; his
wife and mistress, the beautiful Poppaea, and a favorite player
of the race of Abraham, who had already employed their
intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people. 40 In their room
it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it might easily
be suggested that, although the genuine followers of Moses were
innocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them a new
and pernicious sect of Galilaeans, which was capable of the most
horrid crimes. Under the appellation of Galilaeans, two
distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite to each
other in their manners and principles; the disciples who had
embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, 41 and the zealots who
had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. 42 The former
were the friends, the latter were the enemies, of human kind; and
the only resemblance between them consisted in the same
inflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their cause,
rendered them insensible of death and tortures. The followers of
Judas, who impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon
buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known
by the more celebrated name of Christians, diffused themselves
over the Roman empire. How natural was it for Tacitus, in the
time of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt and
the sufferings, 4211 which he might, with far greater truth and
justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory was almost
extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this
conjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evident
that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero’s persecution, was
confined to the walls of Rome, 43 that the religious tenets of
the Galilaeans or Christians, 431 were never made a subject of
punishment, or even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of their
sufferings was for a long time connected with the idea of cruelty
and injustice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined them
to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage had been
usually directed against virtue and innocence.
35 (return) [ Sueton. in Nerone, c. 16. The epithet of malefica,
which some sagacious commentators have translated magical, is
considered by the more rational Mosheim as only synonymous to the
exitiabilis of Tacitus.]
36 (return) [ The passage concerning Jesus Christ, which was
inserted into the text of Josephus, between the time of Origen
and that of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar
forgery. The accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues,
miracles, and resurrection of Jesus, are distinctly related.
Josephus acknowledges that he was the Messiah, and hesitates
whether he should call him a man. If any doubt can still remain
concerning this celebrated passage, the reader may examine the
pointed objections of Le Fevre, (Havercamp. Joseph. tom. ii. p.
267-273), the labored answers of Daubuz, (p. 187-232, and the
masterly reply (Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne, tom. vii. p.
237-288) of an anonymous critic, whom I believe to have been the
learned Abbe de Longuerue. * Note: The modern editor of Eusebius,
Heinichen, has adopted, and ably supported, a notion, which had
before suggested itself to the editor, that this passage is not
altogether a forgery, but interpolated with many additional
clauses. Heinichen has endeavored to disengage the original text
from the foreign and more recent matter.—M.]
37 (return) [ See the lives of Tacitus by Lipsius and the Abbe de
la Bleterie, Dictionnaire de Bayle a l’article Particle Tacite,
and Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin tem. Latin. tom. ii. p. 386, edit.
Ernest. Ernst.]
38 (return) [ Principatum Divi Nervae, et imperium Trajani,
uberiorem, securioremque materiam senectuti seposui. Tacit. Hist.
i.]
39 (return) [ See Tacit. Annal. ii. 61, iv. 4. * Note: The
perusal of this passage of Tacitus alone is sufficient, as I have
already said, to show that the Christian sect was not so obscure
as not already to have been repressed, (repressa,) and that it
did not pass for innocent in the eyes of the Romans.—G.]
40 (return) [ The player’s name was Aliturus. Through the same
channel, Josephus, (de vita sua, c. 2,) about two years before,
had obtained the pardon and release of some Jewish priests, who
were prisoners at Rome.]
41 (return) [ The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen
Testimonies, vol ii. p. 102, 103) has proved that the name of
Galilaeans was a very ancient, and perhaps the primitive
appellation of the Christians.]
42 (return) [ Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 1, 2. Tillemont, Ruine
des Juifs, p. 742 The sons of Judas were crucified in the time of
Claudius. His grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken,
defended a strong fortress with 960 of his most desperate
followers. When the battering ram had made a breach, they turned
their swords against their wives their children, and at length
against their own breasts. They dies to the last man.]
4211 (return) [ This conjecture is entirely devoid, not merely of
verisimilitude, but even of possibility. Tacitus could not be
deceived in appropriating to the Christians of Rome the guilt and
the sufferings which he might have attributed with far greater
truth to the followers of Judas the Gaulonite, for the latter
never went to Rome. Their revolt, their attempts, their opinions,
their wars, their punishment, had no other theatre but Judaea
(Basn. Hist. des. Juifs, t. i. p. 491.) Moreover the name of
Christians had long been given in Rome to the disciples of Jesus;
and Tacitus affirms too positively, refers too distinctly to its
etymology, to allow us to suspect any mistake on his part.—G.
——M. Guizot’s expressions are not in the least too strong against
this strange imagination of Gibbon; it may be doubted whether the
followers of Judas were known as a sect under the name of
Galilaeans.—M.]
43 (return) [ See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. l. xiii. The Spanish
Inscription in Gruter. p. 238, No. 9, is a manifest and
acknowledged forgery contrived by that noted imposter. Cyriacus
of Ancona, to flatter the pride and prejudices of the Spaniards.
See Ferreras, Histoire D’Espagne, tom. i. p. 192.]
431 (return) [ M. Guizot, on the authority of Sulpicius Severus,
ii. 37, and of Orosius, viii. 5, inclines to the opinion of those
who extend the persecution to the provinces. Mosheim rather leans
to that side on this much disputed question, (c. xxxv.) Neander
takes the view of Gibbon, which is in general that of the most
learned writers. There is indeed no evidence, which I can
discover, of its reaching the provinces; and the apparent
security, at least as regards his life, with which St. Paul
pursued his travels during this period, affords at least a strong
inference against a rigid and general inquisition against the
Christians in other parts of the empire.—M.]
It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed, almost
at the same time, the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of
Rome; 44 and it appears no less singular, that the tribute which
devotion had destined to the former, should have been converted
by the power of an assaulting victor to restore and adorn the
splendor of the latter. 45 The emperors levied a general
capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although the sum
assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the
use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was
exacted, were considered as an intolerable grievance. 46 Since
the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claim to many
persons who were strangers to the blood or religion of the Jews,
it was impossible that the Christians, who had so often sheltered
themselves under the shade of the synagogue, should now escape
this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the
slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade them to
contribute to the honor of that daemon who had assumed the
character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous though
declining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of
Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were
detected by the decisive test of circumcision; 47 nor were the
Roman magistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference of
their religious tenets. Among the Christians who were brought
before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more
probable, before that of the procurator of Judaea, two persons
are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction,
which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs.
These were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was
the brother of Jesus Christ. 48 Their natural pretensions to the
throne of David might perhaps attract the respect of the people,
and excite the jealousy of the governor; but the meanness of
their garb, and the simplicity of their answers, soon convinced
him that they were neither desirous nor capable of disturbing the
peace of the Roman empire. They frankly confessed their royal
origin, and their near relation to the Messiah; but they
disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom,
which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and
angelic nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune
and occupation, they showed their hands, hardened with daily
labor, and declared that they derived their whole subsistence
from the cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the
extent of about twenty-four English acres, 49 and of the value of
nine thousand drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The
grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and
contempt. 50
44 (return) [ The Capitol was burnt during the civil war between
Vitellius and Vespasian, the 19th of December, A. D. 69. On the
10th of August, A. D. 70, the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed
by the hands of the Jews themselves, rather than by those of the
Romans.]
45 (return) [ The new Capitol was dedicated by Domitian. Sueton.
in Domitian. c. 5. Plutarch in Poplicola, tom. i. p. 230, edit.
Bryant. The gilding alone cost 12,000 talents (above two millions
and a half.) It was the opinion of Martial, (l. ix. Epigram 3,)
that if the emperor had called in his debts, Jupiter himself,
even though he had made a general auction of Olympus, would have
been unable to pay two shillings in the pound.]
46 (return) [ With regard to the tribute, see Dion Cassius, l.
lxvi. p. 1082, with Reimarus’s notes. Spanheim, de Usu
Numismatum, tom. ii. p. 571; and Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l.
vii. c. 2.]
47 (return) [ Suetonius (in Domitian. c. 12) had seen an old man
of ninety publicly examined before the procurator’s tribunal.
This is what Martial calls, Mentula tributis damnata.]
48 (return) [ This appellation was at first understood in the
most obvious sense, and it was supposed, that the brothers of
Jesus were the lawful issue of Joseph and Mary. A devout respect
for the virginity of the mother of God suggested to the Gnostics,
and afterwards to the orthodox Greeks, the expedient of bestowing
a second wife on Joseph. The Latins (from the time of Jerome)
improved on that hint, asserted the perpetual celibacy of Joseph,
and justified by many similar examples the new interpretation
that Jude, as well as Simon and James, who were styled the
brothers of Jesus Christ, were only his first cousins. See
Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiat. tom. i. part iii.: and Beausobre,
Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. ii. c. 2.]
49 (return) [ Thirty-nine, squares of a hundred feet each, which,
if strictly computed, would scarcely amount to nine acres.]
50 (return) [ Eusebius, iii. 20. The story is taken from
Hegesippus.]
But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect
them from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of
his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian,
which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans whom he
either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his
uncle Flavius Sabinus, 51 the elder was soon convicted of
treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the name of
Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want of
courage and ability. 52 The emperor for a long time,
distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favor and protection,
bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the children of
that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their
father with the honors of the consulship.
51 (return) [ See the death and character of Sabinus in Tacitus,
(Hist. iii. 74 ) Sabinus was the elder brother, and, till the
accession of Vespasian, had been considered as the principal
support of the Flavium family]
52 (return) [ Flavium Clementem patruelem suum contemptissimoe
inertice.. ex tenuissima suspicione interemit. Sueton. in
Domitian. c. 15.]
But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy,
when, on a slight pretence, he was condemned and executed;
Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on the coast of
Campania; 53 and sentences either of death or of confiscation
were pronounced against a great number of who were involved in
the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their charge was that
of Atheism and Jewish manners; 54 a singular association of
ideas, which cannot with any propriety be applied except to the
Christians, as they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the
magistrates and by the writers of that period. On the strength of
so probable an interpretation, and too eagerly admitting the
suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of their honorable crime,
the church has placed both Clemens and Domitilla among its first
martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of Domitian with the name of
the second persecution. But this persecution (if it deserves that
epithet) was of no long duration. A few months after the death of
Clemens, and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman
belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favor, but who had
not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, 5411 assassinated
the emperor in his palace. 55 The memory of Domitian was
condemned by the senate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles
recalled; and under the gentle administration of Nerva, while the
innocent were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the most
guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment. 56
53 (return) [ The Isle of Pandataria, according to Dion. Bruttius
Praesens (apud Euseb. iii. 18) banishes her to that of Pontia,
which was not far distant from the other. That difference, and a
mistake, either of Eusebius or of his transcribers, have given
occasion to suppose two Domitillas, the wife and the niece of
Clemens. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. ii. p.
224.]
54 (return) [ Dion. l. lxvii. p. 1112. If the Bruttius Praesens,
from whom it is probable that he collected this account, was the
correspondent of Pliny, (Epistol. vii. 3,) we may consider him as
a contemporary writer.]
5411 (return) [ This is an uncandid sarcasm. There is nothing to
connect Stephen with the religion of Domitilla. He was a knave
detected in the malversation of money—interceptarum pecuniaram
reus.—M.]
55 (return) [ Suet. in Domit. c. 17. Philostratus in Vit.
Apollon. l. viii.]
56 (return) [ Dion. l. lxviii. p. 1118. Plin. Epistol. iv. 22.]
II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the
younger Pliny was intrusted by his friend and master with the
government of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a
loss to determine by what rule of justice or of law he should
direct his conduct in the execution of an office the most
repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any
judicial proceedings against the Christians, with whose name
alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally uninformed
with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of their
conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this
perplexity he had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting
to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a
favorable account of the new superstition, requesting the
emperor, that he would condescend to resolve his doubts, and to
instruct his ignorance. 57 The life of Pliny had been employed in
the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the world.
Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the
tribunals of Rome, 58 filled a place in the senate, had been
invested with the honors of the consulship, and had formed very
numerous connections with every order of men, both in Italy and
in the provinces. From his ignorance therefore we may derive some
useful information. We may assure ourselves, that when he
accepted the government of Bithynia, there were no general laws
or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians; that
neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose edicts
were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had
publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and
that whatever proceedings had been carried on against the
Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and authority to
establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magistrate.
57 (return) [ Plin. Epistol. x. 97. The learned Mosheim expresses
himself (p. 147, 232) with the highest approbation of Pliny’s
moderate and candid temper. Notwithstanding Dr. Lardner’s
suspicions (see Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. ii. p. 46,)
I am unable to discover any bigotry in his language or
proceedings. * Note: Yet the humane Pliny put two female
attendants, probably deaconesses to the torture, in order to
ascertain the real nature of these suspicious meetings:
necessarium credidi, ex duabus ancillis, quae ministrae
dicebantor quid asset veri et per tormenta quaerere.—M.]
58 (return) [ Plin. Epist. v. 8. He pleaded his first cause A. D.
81; the year after the famous eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, in
which his uncle lost his life.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part III.
The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding
age have frequently appealed, discovers as much regard for
justice and humanity as could be reconciled with his mistaken
notions of religious policy. 59 Instead of displaying the
implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious to discover the most
minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the number of his
victims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to protect
the security of the innocent, than to prevent the escape of the
guilty. He acknowledged the difficulty of fixing any general
plan; but he lays down two salutary rules, which often afforded
relief and support to the distressed Christians. Though he
directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are legally
convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane inconsistency,
from making any inquiries concerning the supposed criminals. Nor
was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of
information. Anonymous charges the emperor rejects, as too
repugnant to the equity of his government; and he strictly
requires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt of
Christianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and open
accuser. It is likewise probable, that the persons who assumed so
invidiuous an office, were obliged to declare the grounds of
their suspicions, to specify (both in respect to time and place)
the secret assemblies, which their Christian adversary had
frequented, and to disclose a great number of circumstances,
which were concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the eye
of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were
exposed to the resentment of a considerable and active party, to
the censure of the more liberal portion of mankind, and to the
ignominy which, in every age and country, has attended the
character of an informer. If, on the contrary, they failed in
their proofs, they incurred the severe and perhaps capital
penalty, which, according to a law published by the emperor
Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to their
fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of
personal or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over
the most natural apprehensions of disgrace and danger but it
cannot surely be imagined, 60 that accusations of so unpromising
an appearance were either lightly or frequently undertaken by the
Pagan subjects of the Roman empire. 6011
59 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 98. Tertullian (Apolog. c. 5)
considers this rescript as a relaxation of the ancient penal
laws, “quas Trajanus exparte frustratus est:” and yet Tertullian,
in another part of his Apology, exposes the inconsistency of
prohibiting inquiries, and enjoining punishments.]
60 (return) [ Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiast. l. iv. c. 9) has
preserved the edict of Hadrian. He has likewise (c. 13) given us
one still more favorable, under the name of Antoninus; the
authenticity of which is not so universally allowed. The second
Apology of Justin contains some curious particulars relative to
the accusations of Christians. * Note: Professor Hegelmayer has
proved the authenticity of the edict of Antoninus, in his Comm.
Hist. Theol. in Edict. Imp. Antonini. Tubing. 1777, in 4to.—G.
——Neander doubts its authenticity, (vol. i. p. 152.) In my
opinion, the internal evidence is decisive against it.—M]
6011 (return) [ The enactment of this law affords strong
presumption, that accusations of the “crime of Christianity,”
were by no means so uncommon, nor received with so much mistrust
and caution by the ruling authorities, as Gibbon would insinuate.
—M.]
The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the
laws, affords a sufficient proof how effectually they
disappointed the mischievous designs of private malice or
superstitious zeal. In a large and tumultuous assembly, the
restraints of fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of
individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of their
influence. The pious Christian, as he was desirous to obtain, or
to escape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with
impatience or with terror, the stated returns of the public games
and festivals. On those occasions the inhabitants of the great
cities of the empire were collected in the circus or the theatre,
where every circumstance of the place, as well as of the
ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion, and to extinguish
their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with
garlands, perfumed with incense, purified with the blood of
victims, and surrounded with the altars and statues of their
tutelar deities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of
pleasures, which they considered as an essential part of their
religious worship, they recollected, that the Christians alone
abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy
on these solemn festivals, seemed to insult or to lament the
public felicity. If the empire had been afflicted by any recent
calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the
Tyber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the
earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had
been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that
the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were spared by
the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked
the divine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated
populace, that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed;
it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with the blood of wild
beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be
heard. The impatient clamors of the multitude denounced the
Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the
severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the
most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with
irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly apprehended
and cast to the lions. 61 The provincial governors and
magistrates who presided in the public spectacles were usually
inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the rage, of
the people, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the
wisdom of the emperors protected the church from the danger of
these tumultuous clamors and irregular accusations, which they
justly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to the
equity of their administration. The edicts of Hadrian and of
Antoninus Pius expressly declared, that the voice of the
multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict
or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the
enthusiasm of the Christians. 62
61 (return) [ See Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 40.) The acts of the
martyrdom of Polycarp exhibit a lively picture of these tumults,
which were usually fomented by the malice of the Jews.]
62 (return) [ These regulations are inserted in the above
mentioned document of Hadrian and Pius. See the apology of
Melito, (apud Euseb. l iv 26)]
III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence of conviction,
and the Christians, whose guilt was the most clearly proved by
the testimony of witnesses, or even by their voluntary
confession, still retained in their own power the alternative of
life or death. It was not so much the past offence, as the actual
resistance, which excited the indignation of the magistrate. He
was persuaded that he offered them an easy pardon, since, if they
consented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar, they
were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause. It
was esteemed the duty of a humane judge to endeavor to reclaim,
rather than to punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying his
tone according to the age, the sex, or the situation of the
prisoners, he frequently condescended to set before their eyes
every circumstance which could render life more pleasing, or
death more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to entreat, them, that
they would show some compassion to themselves, to their families,
and to their friends. 63 If threats and persuasions proved
ineffectual, he had often recourse to violence; the scourge and
the rack were called in to supply the deficiency of argument, and
every art of cruelty was employed to subdue such inflexible, and,
as it appeared to the Pagans, such criminal, obstinacy. The
ancient apologists of Christianity have censured, with equal
truth and severity, the irregular conduct of their persecutors
who, contrary to every principle of judicial proceeding, admitted
the use of torture, in order to obtain, not a confession, but a
denial, of the crime which was the object of their inquiry. 64
The monks of succeeding ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes,
entertained themselves with diversifying the deaths and
sufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequently invented
torments of a much more refined and ingenious nature. In
particular, it has pleased them to suppose, that the zeal of the
Roman magistrates, disdaining every consideration of moral virtue
or public decency, endeavored to seduce those whom they were
unable to vanquish, and that by their orders the most brutal
violence was offered to those whom they found it impossible to
seduce. It is related, that females, who were prepared to despise
death, were sometimes condemned to a more severe trial, 6411 and
called upon to determine whether they set a higher value on their
religion or on their chastity. The youths to whose licentious
embraces they were abandoned, received a solemn exhortation from
the judge, to exert their most strenuous efforts to maintain the
honor of Venus against the impious virgin who refused to burn
incense on her altars. Their violence, however, was commonly
disappointed, and the seasonable interposition of some miraculous
power preserved the chaste spouses of Christ from the dishonor
even of an involuntary defeat. We should not indeed neglect to
remark, that the more ancient as well as authentic memorials of
the church are seldom polluted with these extravagant and
indecent fictions. 65
63 (return) [ See the rescript of Trajan, and the conduct of
Pliny. The most authentic acts of the martyrs abound in these
exhortations. Note: Pliny’s test was the worship of the gods,
offerings to the statue of the emperor, and blaspheming
Christ—praeterea maledicerent Christo.—M.]
64 (return) [ In particular, see Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 2, 3,)
and Lactantius, (Institut. Divin. v. 9.) Their reasonings are
almost the same; but we may discover, that one of these
apologists had been a lawyer, and the other a rhetorician.]
6411 (return) [ The more ancient as well as authentic memorials
of the church, relate many examples of the fact, (of these severe
trials,) which there is nothing to contradict. Tertullian, among
others, says, Nam proxime ad lenonem damnando Christianam, potius
quam ad leonem, confessi estis labem pudicitiae apud nos
atrociorem omni poena et omni morte reputari, Apol. cap. ult.
Eusebius likewise says, “Other virgins, dragged to brothels, have
lost their life rather than defile their virtue.” Euseb. Hist.
Ecc. viii. 14.—G. The miraculous interpositions were the
offspring of the coarse imaginations of the monks.—M.]
65 (return) [ See two instances of this kind of torture in the
Acta Sincere Martyrum, published by Ruinart, p. 160, 399. Jerome,
in his Legend of Paul the Hermit, tells a strange story of a
young man, who was chained naked on a bed of flowers, and
assaulted by a beautiful and wanton courtesan. He quelled the
rising temptation by biting off his tongue.]
The total disregard of truth and probability in the
representation of these primitive martyrdoms was occasioned by a
very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or
fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same
degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own
breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times.
It is not improbable that some of those persons who were raised
to the dignities of the empire, might have imbibed the prejudices
of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of others might
occasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of personal
resentment. 66 But it is certain, and we may appeal to the
grateful confessions of the first Christians, that the greatest
part of those magistrates who exercised in the provinces the
authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and to whose hands
alone the jurisdiction of life and death was intrusted, behaved
like men of polished manners and liberal education, who respected
the rules of justice, and who were conversant with the precepts
of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious task of
persecution, dismissed the charge with contempt, or suggested to
the accused Christian some legal evasion, by which he might elude
the severity of the laws. 67 Whenever they were invested with a
discretionary power, 68 they used it much less for the
oppression, than for the relief and benefit of the afflicted
church. They were far from condemning all the Christians who were
accused before their tribunal, and very far from punishing with
death all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence to
the new superstition. Contenting themselves, for the most part,
with the milder chastisements of imprisonment, exile, or slavery
in the mines, 69 they left the unhappy victims of their justice
some reason to hope, that a prosperous event, the accession, the
marriage, or the triumph of an emperor, might speedily restore
them, by a general pardon, to their former state. The martyrs,
devoted to immediate execution by the Roman magistrates, appear
to have been selected from the most opposite extremes. They were
either bishops and presbyters, the persons the most distinguished
among the Christians by their rank and influence, and whose
example might strike terror into the whole sect; 70 or else they
were the meanest and most abject among them, particularly those
of the servile condition, whose lives were esteemed of little
value, and whose sufferings were viewed by the ancients with too
careless an indifference. 71 The learned Origen, who, from his
experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with the
history of the Christians, declares, in the most express terms,
that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. 72 His
authority would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable
army of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the
catacombs of Rome, have replenished so many churches, 73 and
whose marvellous achievements have been the subject of so many
volumes of Holy Romance. 74 But the general assertion of Origen
may be explained and confirmed by the particular testimony of his
friend Dionysius, who, in the immense city of Alexandria, and
under the rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only ten men
and seven women who suffered for the profession of the Christian
name. 75
66 (return) [ The conversion of his wife provoked Claudius
Herminianus, governor of Cappadocia, to treat the Christians with
uncommon severity. Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3.]
67 (return) [ Tertullian, in his epistle to the governor of
Africa, mentions several remarkable instances of lenity and
forbearance, which had happened within his knowledge.]
68 (return) [ Neque enim in universum aliquid quod quasi certam
formam habeat, constitui potest; an expression of Trajan, which
gave a very great latitude to the governors of provinces. * Note:
Gibbon altogether forgets that Trajan fully approved of the
course pursued by Pliny. That course was, to order all who
persevered in their faith to be led to execution: perseverantes
duci jussi.—M.]
69 (return) [ In Metalla damnamur, in insulas relegamur.
Tertullian, Apolog. c. 12. The mines of Numidia contained nine
bishops, with a proportionable number of their clergy and people,
to whom Cyprian addressed a pious epistle of praise and comfort.
See Cyprian. Epistol. 76, 77.]
70 (return) [ Though we cannot receive with entire confidence
either the epistles, or the acts, of Ignatius, (they may be found
in the 2d volume of the Apostolic Fathers,) yet we may quote that
bishop of Antioch as one of these exemplary martyrs. He was sent
in chains to Rome as a public spectacle, and when he arrived at
Troas, he received the pleasing intelligence, that the
persecution of Antioch was already at an end. * Note: The acts of
Ignatius are generally received as authentic, as are seven of his
letters. Eusebius and St. Jerome mention them: there are two
editions; in one, the letters are longer, and many passages
appear to have been interpolated; the other edition is that which
contains the real letters of St. Ignatius; such at least is the
opinion of the wisest and most enlightened critics. (See Lardner.
Cred. of Gospel Hist.) Less, uber dis Religion, v. i. p. 529.
Usser. Diss. de Ign. Epist. Pearson, Vindic, Ignatianae. It
should be remarked, that it was under the reign of Trajan that
the bishop Ignatius was carried from Antioch to Rome, to be
exposed to the lions in the amphitheatre, the year of J. C. 107,
according to some; of 116, according to others.—G.]
71 (return) [ Among the martyrs of Lyons, (Euseb. l. v. c. 1,)
the slave Blandina was distinguished by more exquisite tortures.
Of the five martyrs so much celebrated in the acts of Felicitas
and Perpetua, two were of a servile, and two others of a very
mean, condition.]
72 (return) [ Origen. advers. Celsum, l. iii. p. 116. His words
deserve to be transcribed. * Note: The words that follow should
be quoted. “God not permitting that all his class of men should
be exterminated:” which appears to indicate that Origen thought
the number put to death inconsiderable only when compared to the
numbers who had survived. Besides this, he is speaking of the
state of the religion under Caracalla, Elagabalus, Alexander
Severus, and Philip, who had not persecuted the Christians. It
was during the reign of the latter that Origen wrote his books
against Celsus.—G.]
73 (return) [ If we recollect that all the Plebeians of Rome were
not Christians, and that all the Christians were not saints and
martyrs, we may judge with how much safety religious honors can
be ascribed to bones or urns, indiscriminately taken from the
public burial-place. After ten centuries of a very free and open
trade, some suspicions have arisen among the more learned
Catholics. They now require as a proof of sanctity and martyrdom,
the letters B.M., a vial full of red liquor supposed to be blood,
or the figure of a palm-tree. But the two former signs are of
little weight, and with regard to the last, it is observed by the
critics, 1. That the figure, as it is called, of a palm, is
perhaps a cypress, and perhaps only a stop, the flourish of a
comma used in the monumental inscriptions. 2. That the palm was
the symbol of victory among the Pagans. 3. That among the
Christians it served as the emblem, not only of martyrdom, but in
general of a joyful resurrection. See the epistle of P. Mabillon,
on the worship of unknown saints, and Muratori sopra le Antichita
Italiane, Dissertat. lviii.]
74 (return) [ As a specimen of these legends, we may be satisfied
with 10,000 Christian soldiers crucified in one day, either by
Trajan or Hadrian on Mount Ararat. See Baronius ad Martyrologium
Romanum; Tille mont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. part ii. p. 438;
and Geddes’s Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 203. The abbreviation of
Mil., which may signify either soldiers or thousands, is said to
have occasioned some extraordinary mistakes.]
75 (return) [ Dionysius ap. Euseb l. vi. c. 41 One of the
seventeen was likewise accused of robbery. * Note: Gibbon ought
to have said, was falsely accused of robbery, for so it is in the
Greek text. This Christian, named Nemesion, falsely accused of
robbery before the centurion, was acquitted of a crime altogether
foreign to his character, but he was led before the governor as
guilty of being a Christian, and the governor inflicted upon him
a double torture. (Euseb. loc. cit.) It must be added, that Saint
Dionysius only makes particular mention of the principal martyrs,
[this is very doubtful.—M.] and that he says, in general, that
the fury of the Pagans against the Christians gave to Alexandria
the appearance of a city taken by storm. [This refers to plunder
and ill usage, not to actual slaughter.—M.] Finally it should be
observed that Origen wrote before the persecution of the emperor
Decius.—G.]
During the same period of persecution, the zealous, the eloquent,
the ambitious Cyprian governed the church, not only of Carthage,
but even of Africa. He possessed every quality which could engage
the reverence of the faithful, or provoke the suspicions and
resentment of the Pagan magistrates. His character as well as his
station seemed to mark out that holy prelate as the most
distinguished object of envy and danger. 76 The experience,
however, of the life of Cyprian, is sufficient to prove that our
fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation of a Christian
bishop; and the dangers to which he was exposed were less
imminent than those which temporal ambition is always prepared to
encounter in the pursuit of honors. Four Roman emperors, with
their families, their favorites, and their adherents, perished by
the sword in the space of ten years, during which the bishop of
Carthage guided by his authority and eloquence the councils of
the African church. It was only in the third year of his
administration, that he had reason, during a few months, to
apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of the
magistrate and the clamors of the multitude, who loudly demanded,
that Cyprian, the leader of the Christians, should be thrown to
the lions. Prudence suggested the necessity of a temporary
retreat, and the voice of prudence was obeyed. He withdrew
himself into an obscure solitude, from whence he could maintain a
constant correspondence with the clergy and people of Carthage;
and, concealing himself till the tempest was past, he preserved
his life, without relinquishing either his power or his
reputation. His extreme caution did not, however, escape the
censure of the more rigid Christians, who lamented, or the
reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted, a conduct which
they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the
most sacred duty. 77 The propriety of reserving himself for the
future exigencies of the church, the example of several holy
bishops, 78 and the divine admonitions, which, as he declares
himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstacies, were
the reasons alleged in his justification. 79 But his best apology
may be found in the cheerful resolution, with which, about eight
years afterwards, he suffered death in the cause of religion. The
authentic history of his martyrdom has been recorded with unusual
candor and impartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its most
important circumstances, will convey the clearest information of
the spirit, and of the forms, of the Roman persecutions. 80
76 (return) [ The letters of Cyprian exhibit a very curious and
original picture both of the man and of the times. See likewise
the two lives of Cyprian, composed with equal accuracy, though
with very different views; the one by Le Clerc (Bibliotheque
Universelle, tom. xii. p. 208-378,) the other by Tillemont,
Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iv part i. p. 76-459.]
77 (return) [ See the polite but severe epistle of the clergy of
Rome to the bishop of Carthage. (Cyprian. Epist. 8, 9.) Pontius
labors with the greatest care and diligence to justify his master
against the general censure.]
78 (return) [ In particular those of Dionysius of Alexandria, and
Gregory Thaumaturgus, of Neo-Caesarea. See Euseb. Hist.
Ecclesiast. l. vi. c. 40; and Memoires de Tillemont, tom. iv.
part ii. p. 685.]
79 (return) [ See Cyprian. Epist. 16, and his life by Pontius.]
80 (return) [ We have an original life of Cyprian by the deacon
Pontius, the companion of his exile, and the spectator of his
death; and we likewise possess the ancient proconsular acts of
his martyrdom. These two relations are consistent with each
other, and with probability; and what is somewhat remarkable,
they are both unsullied by any miraculous circumstances.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part IV.
When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gallienus for the
fourth time, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyprian to
appear in his private council-chamber. He there acquainted him
with the Imperial mandate which he had just received, 81 that
those who had abandoned the Roman religion should immediately
return to the practice of the ceremonies of their ancestors.
Cyprian replied without hesitation, that he was a Christian and a
bishop, devoted to the worship of the true and only Deity, to
whom he offered up his daily supplications for the safety and
prosperity of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns.
With modest confidence he pleaded the privilege of a citizen, in
refusing to give any answer to some invidious and indeed illegal
questions which the proconsul had proposed. A sentence of
banishment was pronounced as the penalty of Cyprian’s
disobedience; and he was conducted without delay to Curubis, a
free and maritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasant situation, a
fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty miles from
Carthage. 82 The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life
and the consciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused over
Africa and Italy; an account of his behavior was published for
the edification of the Christian world; 83 and his solitude was
frequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and the
congratulations of the faithful. On the arrival of a new
proconsul in the province the fortune of Cyprian appeared for
some time to wear a still more favorable aspect. He was recalled
from banishment; and though not yet permitted to return to
Carthage, his own gardens in the neighborhood of the capital were
assigned for the place of his residence. 84
81 (return) [ It should seem that these were circular orders,
sent at the same time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap. Euseb.
l. vii. c. 11) relates the history of his own banishment from
Alexandria almost in the same manner. But as he escaped and
survived the persecution, we must account him either more or less
fortunate than Cyprian.]
82 (return) [ See Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 3. Cellarius, Geograph.
Antiq. part iii. p. 96. Shaw’s Travels, p. 90; and for the
adjacent country, (which is terminated by Cape Bona, or the
promontory of Mercury,) l’Afrique de Marmol. tom. ii. p. 494.
There are the remains of an aqueduct near Curubis, or Curbis, at
present altered into Gurbes; and Dr. Shaw read an inscription,
which styles that city Colonia Fulvia. The deacon Pontius (in
Vit. Cyprian. c. 12) calls it “Apricum et competentem locum,
hospitium pro voluntate secretum, et quicquid apponi eis ante
promissum est, qui regnum et justitiam Dei quaerunt.”]
83 (return) [ See Cyprian. Epistol. 77, edit. Fell.]
84 (return) [ Upon his conversion, he had sold those gardens for
the benefit of the poor. The indulgence of God (most probably the
liberality of some Christian friend) restored them to Cyprian.
See Pontius, c. 15.]
At length, exactly one year 85 after Cyprian was first
apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, received the
Imperial warrant for the execution of the Christian teachers. The
bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be singled out for
one of the first victims; and the frailty of nature tempted him
to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the danger and the
honor of martyrdom; 8511 but soon recovering that fortitude which
his character required, he returned to his gardens, and patiently
expected the ministers of death. Two officers of rank, who were
intrusted with that commission, placed Cyprian between them in a
chariot, and as the proconsul was not then at leisure, they
conducted him, not to a prison, but to a private house in
Carthage, which belonged to one of them. An elegant supper was
provided for the entertainment of the bishop, and his Christian
friends were permitted for the last time to enjoy his society,
whilst the streets were filled with a multitude of the faithful,
anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of their spiritual
father. 86 In the morning he appeared before the tribunal of the
proconsul, who, after informing himself of the name and situation
of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and pressed him to
reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal of
Cyprian was firm and decisive; and the magistrate, when he had
taken the opinion of his council, pronounced with some reluctance
the sentence of death. It was conceived in the following terms:
“That Thascius Cyprianus should be immediately beheaded, as the
enemy of the gods of Rome, and as the chief and ringleader of a
criminal association, which he had seduced into an impious
resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors, Valerian
and Gallienus.” 87 The manner of his execution was the mildest
and least painful that could be inflicted on a person convicted
of any capital offence; nor was the use of torture admitted to
obtain from the bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his
principles or the discovery of his accomplices.
85 (return) [ When Cyprian; a twelvemonth before, was sent into
exile, he dreamt that he should be put to death the next day. The
event made it necessary to explain that word, as signifying a
year. Pontius, c. 12.]
8511 (return) [ This was not, as it appears, the motive which
induced St. Cyprian to conceal himself for a short time; he was
threatened to be carried to Utica; he preferred remaining at
Carthage, in order to suffer martyrdom in the midst of his flock,
and in order that his death might conduce to the edification of
those whom he had guided during life. Such, at least, is his own
explanation of his conduct in one of his letters: Cum perlatum ad
nos fuisset, fratres carissimi, frumentarios esse missos qui me
Uticam per ducerent, consilioque carissimorum persuasum est, ut
de hortis interim recederemus, justa interveniente causa,
consensi; eo quod congruat episcopum in ea civitate, in qua
Ecclesiae dominicae praeest, illie. Dominum confiteri et plebem
universam praepositi praesentis confessione clarificari Ep.
83.—G]
86 (return) [ Pontius (c. 15) acknowledges that Cyprian, with
whom he supped, passed the night custodia delicata. The bishop
exercised a last and very proper act of jurisdiction, by
directing that the younger females, who watched in the streets,
should be removed from the dangers and temptations of a nocturnal
crowd. Act. Preconsularia, c. 2.]
87 (return) [ See the original sentence in the Acts, c. 4; and in
Pontius, c. 17 The latter expresses it in a more rhetorical
manner.]
As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of “We will
die with him,” arose at once among the listening multitude of
Christians who waited before the palace gates. The generous
effusions of their zeal and their affection were neither
serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to themselves. He was led
away under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance
and without insult, to the place of his execution, a spacious and
level plain near the city, which was already filled with great
numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and deacons were
permitted to accompany their holy bishop. 8711 They assisted him
in laying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the ground to
catch the precious relics of his blood, and received his orders
to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The
martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at one blow his
head was separated from his body. His corpse remained during some
hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles: but in the night
it was removed, and transported in a triumphal procession, and
with a splendid illumination, to the burial-place of the
Christians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly celebrated
without receiving any interruption from the Roman magistrates;
and those among the faithful, who had performed the last offices
to his person and his memory, were secure from the danger of
inquiry or of punishment. It is remarkable, that of so great a
multitude of bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian was the
first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.
88
8711 (return) [ There is nothing in the life of St. Cyprian, by
Pontius, nor in the ancient manuscripts, which can make us
suppose that the presbyters and deacons in their clerical
character, and known to be such, had the permission to attend
their holy bishop. Setting aside all religious considerations, it
is impossible not to be surprised at the kind of complaisance
with which the historian here insists, in favor of the
persecutors, on some mitigating circumstances allowed at the
death of a man whose only crime was maintaining his own opinions
with frankness and courage.—G.]
88 (return) [ Pontius, c. 19. M. de Tillemont (Memoires, tom. iv.
part i. p. 450, note 50) is not pleased with so positive an
exclusion of any former martyr of the episcopal rank. * Note: M.
de. Tillemont, as an honest writer, explains the difficulties
which he felt about the text of Pontius, and concludes by
distinctly stating, that without doubt there is some mistake, and
that Pontius must have meant only Africa Minor or Carthage; for
St. Cyprian, in his 58th (69th) letter addressed to Pupianus,
speaks expressly of many bishops his colleagues, qui proscripti
sunt, vel apprehensi in carcere et catenis fuerunt; aut qui in
exilium relegati, illustri itinere ed Dominum profecti sunt; aut
qui quibusdam locis animadversi, coeleses coronas de Domini
clarificatione sumpserunt.—G.]
It was in the choice of Cyprian, either to die a martyr, or to
live an apostate; but on the choice depended the alternative of
honor or infamy. Could we suppose that the bishop of Carthage had
employed the profession of the Christian faith only as the
instrument of his avarice or ambition, it was still incumbent on
him to support the character he had assumed; 89 and if he
possessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude, rather to
expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by a single act
to exchange the reputation of a whole life, for the abhorrence of
his Christian brethren, and the contempt of the Gentile world.
But if the zeal of Cyprian was supported by the sincere
conviction of the truth of those doctrines which he preached, the
crown of martyrdom must have appeared to him as an object of
desire rather than of terror. It is not easy to extract any
distinct ideas from the vague though eloquent declamations of the
Fathers, or to ascertain the degree of immortal glory and
happiness which they confidently promised to those who were so
fortunate as to shed their blood in the cause of religion. 90
They inculcated with becoming diligence, that the fire of
martyrdom supplied every defect and expiated every sin; that
while the souls of ordinary Christians were obliged to pass
through a slow and painful purification, the triumphant sufferers
entered into the immediate fruition of eternal bliss, where, in
the society of the patriarchs, the apostles, and the prophets,
they reigned with Christ, and acted as his assessors in the
universal judgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting
reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial to the vanity of
human nature, often served to animate the courage of the martyrs.
The honors which Rome or Athens bestowed on those citizens who
had fallen in the cause of their country, were cold and unmeaning
demonstrations of respect, when compared with the ardent
gratitude and devotion which the primitive church expressed
towards the victorious champions of the faith. The annual
commemoration of their virtues and sufferings was observed as a
sacred ceremony, and at length terminated in religious worship.
Among the Christians who had publicly confessed their religious
principles, those who (as it very frequently happened) had been
dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan
magistrates, obtained such honors as were justly due to their
imperfect martyrdom and their generous resolution. The most pious
females courted the permission of imprinting kisses on the
fetters which they had worn, and on the wounds which they had
received. Their persons were esteemed holy, their decisions were
admitted with deference, and they too often abused, by their
spiritual pride and licentious manners, the preeminence which
their zeal and intrepidity had acquired. 91 Distinctions like
these, whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the
inconsiderable number of those who suffered, and of those who
died, for the profession of Christianity.
89 (return) [ Whatever opinion we may entertain of the character
or principles of Thomas Becket, we must acknowledge that he
suffered death with a constancy not unworthy of the primitive
martyrs. See Lord Lyttleton’s History of Henry II. vol. ii. p.
592, &c.]
90 (return) [ See in particular the treatise of Cyprian de
Lapsis, p. 87-98, edit. Fell. The learning of Dodwell (Dissertat.
Cyprianic. xii. xiii.,) and the ingenuity of Middleton, (Free
Inquiry, p. 162, &c.,) have left scarcely any thing to add
concerning the merit, the honors, and the motives of the
martyrs.]
91 (return) [ Cyprian. Epistol. 5, 6, 7, 22, 24; and de Unitat.
Ecclesiae. The number of pretended martyrs has been very much
multiplied, by the custom which was introduced of bestowing that
honorable name on confessors. Note: M. Guizot denies that the
letters of Cyprian, to which he refers, bear out the statement in
the text. I cannot scruple to admit the accuracy of Gibbon’s
quotation. To take only the fifth letter, we find this passage:
Doleo enim quando audio quosdam improbe et insolenter discurrere,
et ad ineptian vel ad discordias vacare, Christi membra et jam
Christum confessa per concubitus illicitos inquinari, nec a
diaconis aut presbyteris regi posse, sed id agere ut per paucorum
pravos et malos mores, multorum et bonorum confessorum gloria
honesta maculetur. Gibbon’s misrepresentation lies in the
ambiguous expression “too often.” Were the epistles arranged in a
different manner in the edition consulted by M. Guizot?—M.]
The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure
than admire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervor
of the first Christians, who, according to the lively expressions
of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than
his own contemporaries solicited a bishopric. 92 The epistles
which Ignatius composed as he was carried in chains through the
cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the
ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the
Romans, that when he should be exposed in the amphitheatre, they
would not, by their kind but unseasonable intercession, deprive
him of the crown of glory; and he declares his resolution to
provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as
the instruments of his death. 93 Some stories are related of the
courage of martyrs, who actually performed what Ignatius had
intended; who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the
executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the
fires which were kindled to consume them, and discovered a
sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite
tortures. Several examples have been preserved of a zeal
impatient of those restraints which the emperors had provided for
the security of the church. The Christians sometimes supplied by
their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely
disturbed the public service of paganism, 94 and rushing in
crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called upon them to
pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the law. The behavior of
the Christians was too remarkable to escape the notice of the
ancient philosophers; but they seem to have considered it with
much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving
the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of
believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, they treated
such an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate
despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious frenzy. 95
“Unhappy men!” exclaimed the proconsul Antoninus to the
Christians of Asia; “unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your
lives, is it so difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?”
96 He was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned and
picus historian) of punishing men who had found no accusers but
themselves, the Imperial laws not having made any provision for
so unexpected a case: condemning therefore a few as a warning to
their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignation and
contempt. 97 Notwithstanding this real or affected disdain, the
intrepid constancy of the faithful was productive of more
salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had
disposed for the easy reception of religious truth. On these
melancholy occasions, there were many among the Gentiles who
pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous
enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the spectators;
and the blood of martyrs, according to a well-known observation,
became the seed of the church.
92 (return) [ Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur; multique
avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quaerebantur, quam nunc
Episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur. Sulpicius Severus, l.
ii. He might have omitted the word nunc.]
93 (return) [ See Epist. ad Roman. c. 4, 5, ap. Patres Apostol.
tom. ii. p. 27. It suited the purpose of Bishop Pearson (see
Vindiciae Ignatianae, part ii. c. 9) to justify, by a profusion
of examples and authorities, the sentiments of Ignatius.]
94 (return) [ The story of Polyeuctes, on which Corneille has
founded a very beautiful tragedy, is one of the most celebrated,
though not perhaps the most authentic, instances of this
excessive zeal. We should observe, that the 60th canon of the
council of Illiberis refuses the title of martyrs to those who
exposed themselves to death, by publicly destroying the idols.]
95 (return) [ See Epictetus, l. iv. c. 7, (though there is some
doubt whether he alludes to the Christians.) Marcus Antoninus de
Rebus suis, l. xi. c. 3 Lucian in Peregrin.]
96 (return) [ Tertullian ad Scapul. c. 5. The learned are divided
between three persons of the same name, who were all proconsuls
of Asia. I am inclined to ascribe this story to Antoninus Pius,
who was afterwards emperor; and who may have governed Asia under
the reign of Trajan.]
97 (return) [ Mosheim, de Rebus Christ, ante Constantin. p. 235.]
But although devotion had raised, and eloquence continued to
inflame, this fever of the mind, it insensibly gave way to the
more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the love of
life, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of dissolution.
The more prudent rulers of the church found themselves obliged to
restrain the indiscreet ardor of their followers, and to distrust
a constancy which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial.
98 As the lives of the faithful became less mortified and
austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honors of
martyrdom; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishing
themselves by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently deserted
their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom it was
their duty to resist. There were three methods, however, of
escaping the flames of persecution, which were not attended with
an equal degree of guilt: first, indeed, was generally allowed to
be innocent; the second was of a doubtful, or at least of a
venial, nature; but the third implied a direct and criminal
apostasy from the Christian faith.
98 (return) [ See the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, ap. Euseb.
Hist. Eccles. Liv. c. 15 * Note: The 15th chapter of the 10th
book of the Eccles. History of Eusebius treats principally of the
martyrdom of St. Polycarp, and mentions some other martyrs. A
single example of weakness is related; it is that of a Phrygian
named Quintus, who, appalled at the sight of the wild beasts and
the tortures, renounced his faith. This example proves little
against the mass of Christians, and this chapter of Eusebius
furnished much stronger evidence of their courage than of their
timidity.—G——This Quintus had, however, rashly and of his own
accord appeared before the tribunal; and the church of Smyrna
condemn “his indiscreet ardor,” coupled as it was with weakness
in the hour of trial.—M.]
I. A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise, that whenever an
information was given to a Roman magistrate of any person within
his jurisdiction who had embraced the sect of the Christians, the
charge was communicated to the party accused, and that a
convenient time was allowed him to settle his domestic concerns,
and to prepare an answer to the crime which was imputed to him.
99 If he entertained any doubt of his own constancy, such a delay
afforded him the opportunity of preserving his life and honor by
flight, of withdrawing himself into some obscure retirement or
some distant province, and of patiently expecting the return of
peace and security. A measure so consonant to reason was soon
authorized by the advice and example of the most holy prelates;
and seems to have been censured by few except by the Montanists,
who deviated into heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence
to the rigor of ancient discipline. 100
II.The provincial governors, whose zeal was less prevalent than
their avarice, had countenanced the practice of selling
certificates, (or libels, as they were called,) which attested,
that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the laws,
and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false
declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to
silence the malice of an informer, and to reconcile in some
measure their safety with their religion.101 A slight penance
atoned for this profane dissimulation. 1011
III. In every persecution there were great numbers of unworthy
Christians who publicly disowned or renounced the faith which
they had professed; and who confirmed the sincerity of their
abjuration, by the legal acts of burning incense or of offering
sacrifices. Some of these apostates had yielded on the first
menace or exhortation of the magistrate; whilst the patience of
others had been subdued by the length and repetition of tortures.
The affrighted countenances of some betrayed their inward
remorse, while others advanced with confidence and alacrity to
the altars of the gods. 102 But the disguise which fear had
imposed, subsisted no longer than the present danger. As soon as
the severity of the persecution was abated, the doors of the
churches were assailed by the returning multitude of penitents
who detested their idolatrous submission, and who solicited with
equal ardor, but with various success, their readmission into the
society of Christians. 103 1031
99 (return) [ In the second apology of Justin, there is a
particular and very curious instance of this legal delay. The
same indulgence was granted to accused Christians, in the
persecution of Decius: and Cyprian (de Lapsis) expressly mentions
the “Dies negantibus praestitutus.” * Note: The examples drawn by
the historian from Justin Martyr and Cyprian relate altogether to
particular cases, and prove nothing as to the general practice
adopted towards the accused; it is evident, on the contrary, from
the same apology of St. Justin, that they hardly ever obtained
delay. “A man named Lucius, himself a Christian, present at an
unjust sentence passed against a Christian by the judge Urbicus,
asked him why he thus punished a man who was neither adulterer
nor robber, nor guilty of any other crime but that of avowing
himself a Christian.” Urbicus answered only in these words: “Thou
also hast the appearance of being a Christian.” “Yes, without
doubt,” replied Lucius. The judge ordered that he should be put
to death on the instant. A third, who came up, was condemned to
be beaten with rods. Here, then, are three examples where no
delay was granted.——[Surely these acts of a single passionate and
irritated judge prove the general practice as little as those
quoted by Gibbon.—M.] There exist a multitude of others, such as
those of Ptolemy, Marcellus, &c. Justin expressly charges the
judges with ordering the accused to be executed without hearing
the cause. The words of St. Cyprian are as particular, and simply
say, that he had appointed a day by which the Christians must
have renounced their faith; those who had not done it by that
time were condemned.—G. This confirms the statement in the
text.—M.]
100 (return) [ Tertullian considers flight from persecution as an
imperfect, but very criminal, apostasy, as an impious attempt to
elude the will of God, &c., &c. He has written a treatise on this
subject, (see p. 536—544, edit. Rigalt.,) which is filled with
the wildest fanaticism and the most incoherent declamation. It
is, however, somewhat remarkable, that Tertullian did not suffer
martyrdom himself.]
101 (return) [ The libellatici, who are chiefly known by the
writings of Cyprian, are described with the utmost precision, in
the copious commentary of Mosheim, p. 483—489.]
1011 (return) [ The penance was not so slight, for it was exactly
the same with that of apostates who had sacrificed to idols; it
lasted several years. See Fleun Hist. Ecc. v. ii. p. 171.—G.]
102 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 97. Dionysius Alexandrin. ap.
Euseb. l. vi. c. 41. Ad prima statim verba minantis inimici
maximus fratrum numerus fidem suam prodidit: nec prostratus est
persecutionis impetu, sed voluntario lapsu seipsum prostravit.
Cyprian. Opera, p. 89. Among these deserters were many priests,
and even bishops.]
103 (return) [ It was on this occasion that Cyprian wrote his
treatise De Lapsis, and many of his epistles. The controversy
concerning the treatment of penitent apostates, does not occur
among the Christians of the preceding century. Shall we ascribe
this to the superiority of their faith and courage, or to our
less intimate knowledge of their history!]
1031 (return) [ Pliny says, that the greater part of the
Christians persisted in avowing themselves to be so; the reason
for his consulting Trajan was the periclitantium numerus.
Eusebius (l. vi. c. 41) does not permit us to doubt that the
number of those who renounced their faith was infinitely below
the number of those who boldly confessed it. The prefect, he says
and his assessors present at the council, were alarmed at seeing
the crowd of Christians; the judges themselves trembled. Lastly,
St. Cyprian informs us, that the greater part of those who had
appeared weak brethren in the persecution of Decius, signalized
their courage in that of Gallius. Steterunt fortes, et ipso
dolore poenitentiae facti ad praelium fortiores Epist. lx. p.
142.—G.]
IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established for the
conviction and punishment of the Christians, the fate of those
sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary government, must still
in a great measure, have depended on their own behavior, the
circumstances of the times, and the temper of their supreme as
well as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, and
prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the superstitious fury
of the Pagans. A variety of motives might dispose the provincial
governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of the
laws; and of these motives the most forcible was their regard not
only for the public edicts, but for the secret intentions of the
emperor, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle or to
extinguish the flames of persecution. As often as any occasional
severities were exercised in the different parts of the empire,
the primitive Christians lamented and perhaps magnified their own
sufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has
been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth
century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or
adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of
Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt,
and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested this
calculation to their minds; and in their application of the faith
of prophecy to the truth of history, they were careful to select
those reigns which were indeed the most hostile to the Christian
cause. 104 But these transient persecutions served only to revive
the zeal and to restore the discipline of the faithful; and the
moments of extraordinary rigor were compensated by much longer
intervals of peace and security. The indifference of some
princes, and the indulgence of others, permitted the Christians
to enjoy, though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual and public,
toleration of their religion.
104 (return) [ See Mosheim, p. 97. Sulpicius Severus was the
first author of this computation; though he seemed desirous of
reserving the tenth and greatest persecution for the coming of
the Antichrist.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part V.
The apology of Tertullian contains two very ancient, very
singular, but at the same time very suspicious, instances of
Imperial clemency; the edicts published by Tiberius, and by
Marcus Antoninus, and designed not only to protect the innocence
of the Christians, but even to proclaim those stupendous miracles
which had attested the truth of their doctrine. The first of
these examples is attended with some difficulties which might
perplex a sceptical mind. 105 We are required to believe, that
Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of the unjust sentence of
death which he had pronounced against an innocent, and, as it
appeared, a divine, person; and that, without acquiring the
merit, he exposed himself to the danger of martyrdom; that
Tiberius, who avowed his contempt for all religion, immediately
conceived the design of placing the Jewish Messiah among the gods
of Rome; that his servile senate ventured to disobey the commands
of their master; that Tiberius, instead of resenting their
refusal, contented himself with protecting the Christians from
the severity of the laws, many years before such laws were
enacted, or before the church had assumed any distinct name or
existence; and lastly, that the memory of this extraordinary
transaction was preserved in the most public and authentic
records, which escaped the knowledge of the historians of Greece
and Rome, and were only visible to the eyes of an African
Christian, who composed his apology one hundred and sixty years
after the death of Tiberius. The edict of Marcus Antoninus is
supposed to have been the effect of his devotion and gratitude
for the miraculous deliverance which he had obtained in the
Marcomannic war. The distress of the legions, the seasonable
tempest of rain and hail, of thunder and of lightning, and the
dismay and defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated by the
eloquence of several Pagan writers. If there were any Christians
in that army, it was natural that they should ascribe some merit
to the fervent prayers, which, in the moment of danger, they had
offered up for their own and the public safety. But we are still
assured by monuments of brass and marble, by the Imperial medals,
and by the Antonine column, that neither the prince nor the
people entertained any sense of this signal obligation, since
they unanimously attribute their deliverance to the providence of
Jupiter, and to the interposition of Mercury. 106 During the
whole course of his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a
philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign. 1061
105 (return) [ The testimony given by Pontius Pilate is first
mentioned by Justin. The successive improvements which the story
acquired (as if has passed through the hands of Tertullian,
Eusebius, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Orosius, Gregory of Tours, and
the authors of the several editions of the acts of Pilate) are
very fairly stated by Dom Calmet Dissertat. sur l’Ecriture, tom.
iii. p. 651, &c.]
106 (return) [ On this miracle, as it is commonly called, of the
thundering legion, see the admirable criticism of Mr. Moyle, in
his Works, vol. ii. p. 81—390.]
1061 (return) [ Gibbon, with this phrase, and that below, which
admits the injustice of Marcus, has dexterously glossed over one
of the most remarkable facts in the early Christian history, that
the reign of the wisest and most humane of the heathen emperors
was the most fatal to the Christians. Most writers have ascribed
the persecutions under Marcus to the latent bigotry of his
character; Mosheim, to the influence of the philosophic party;
but the fact is admitted by all. A late writer (Mr. Waddington,
Hist. of the Church, p. 47) has not scrupled to assert, that
“this prince polluted every year of a long reign with innocent
blood;” but the causes as well as the date of the persecutions
authorized or permitted by Marcus are equally uncertain. Of the
Asiatic edict recorded by Melito. the date is unknown, nor is it
quite clear that it was an Imperial edict. If it was the act
under which Polycarp suffered, his martyrdom is placed by Ruinart
in the sixth, by Mosheim in the ninth, year of the reign of
Marcus. The martyrs of Vienne and Lyons are assigned by Dodwell
to the seventh, by most writers to the seventeenth. In fact, the
commencement of the persecutions of the Christians appears to
synchronize exactly with the period of the breaking out of the
Marcomannic war, which seems to have alarmed the whole empire,
and the emperor himself, into a paroxysm of returning piety to
their gods, of which the Christians were the victims. See Jul,
Capit. Script. Hist August. p. 181, edit. 1661. It is remarkable
that Tertullian (Apologet. c. v.) distinctly asserts that Verus
(M. Aurelius) issued no edicts against the Christians, and almost
positively exempts him from the charge of persecution.—M. This
remarkable synchronism, which explains the persecutions under M
Aurelius, is shown at length in Milman’s History of Christianity,
book ii. v.—M. 1845.]
By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured
under the government of a virtuous prince, immediately ceased on
the accession of a tyrant; and as none except themselves had
experienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were protected
by the lenity of Commodus. The celebrated Marcia, the most
favored of his concubines, and who at length contrived the murder
of her Imperial lover, entertained a singular affection for the
oppressed church; and though it was impossible that she could
reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the gospel,
she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and
profession by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians.
107 Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in
safety the thirteen years of a cruel tyranny; and when the empire
was established in the house of Severus, they formed a domestic
but more honorable connection with the new court. The emperor was
persuaded, that in a dangerous sickness, he had derived some
benefit, either spiritual or physical, from the holy oil, with
which one of his slaves had anointed him. He always treated with
peculiar distinction several persons of both sexes who had
embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptor of
Caracalla were Christians; 1071 and if that young prince ever
betrayed a sentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an
incident, which, however trifling, bore some relation to the
cause of Christianity. 108 Under the reign of Severus, the fury
of the populace was checked; the rigor of ancient laws was for
some time suspended; and the provincial governors were satisfied
with receiving an annual present from the churches within their
jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their
moderation. 109 The controversy concerning the precise time of
the celebration of Easter, armed the bishops of Asia and Italy
against each other, and was considered as the most important
business of this period of leisure and tranquillity. 110 Nor was
the peace of the church interrupted, till the increasing numbers
of proselytes seem at length to have attracted the attention, and
to have alienated the mind of Severus. With the design of
restraining the progress of Christianity, he published an edict,
which, though it was designed to affect only the new converts,
could not be carried into strict execution, without exposing to
danger and punishment the most zealous of their teachers and
missionaries. In this mitigated persecution we may still discover
the indulgent spirit of Rome and of Polytheism, which so readily
admitted every excuse in favor of those who practised the
religious ceremonies of their fathers. 111
107 (return) [ Dion Cassius, or rather his abbreviator Xiphilin,
l. lxxii. p. 1206. Mr. Moyle (p. 266) has explained the condition
of the church under the reign of Commodus.]
1071 (return) [ The Jews and Christians contest the honor of
having furnished a nurse is the fratricide son of Severus
Caracalla. Hist. of Jews, iii. 158.—M.]
108 (return) [ Compare the life of Caracalla in the Augustan
History, with the epistle of Tertullian to Scapula. Dr. Jortin
(Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 5, &c.) considers
the cure of Severus by the means of holy oil, with a strong
desire to convert it into a miracle.]
109 (return) [ Tertullian de Fuga, c. 13. The present was made
during the feast of the Saturnalia; and it is a matter of serious
concern to Tertullian, that the faithful should be confounded
with the most infamous professions which purchased the connivance
of the government.]
110 (return) [ Euseb. l. v. c. 23, 24. Mosheim, p. 435—447.]
111 (return) [ Judaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit. Idem etiam
de Christianis sanxit. Hist. August. p. 70.]
But the laws which Severus had enacted soon expired with the
authority of that emperor; and the Christians, after this
accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years. 112
Till this period they had usually held their assemblies in
private houses and sequestered places. They were now permitted to
erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the purpose of
religious worship; 113 to purchase lands, even at Rome itself,
for the use of the community; and to conduct the elections of
their ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the same time
in so exemplary a manner, as to deserve the respectful attention
of the Gentiles. 114 This long repose of the church was
accompanied with dignity. The reigns of those princes who derived
their extraction from the Asiatic provinces, proved the most
favorable to the Christians; the eminent persons of the sect,
instead of being reduced to implore the protection of a slave or
concubine, were admitted into the palace in the honorable
characters of priests and philosophers; and their mysterious
doctrines, which were already diffused among the people,
insensibly attracted the curiosity of their sovereign. When the
empress Mammaea passed through Antioch, she expressed a desire of
conversing with the celebrated Origen, the fame of whose piety
and learning was spread over the East. Origen obeyed so
flattering an invitation, and though he could not expect to
succeed in the conversion of an artful and ambitious woman, she
listened with pleasure to his eloquent exhortations, and
honorably dismissed him to his retirement in Palestine. 115 The
sentiments of Mammaea were adopted by her son Alexander, and the
philosophic devotion of that emperor was marked by a singular but
injudicious regard for the Christian religion. In his domestic
chapel he placed the statues of Abraham, of Orpheus, of
Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honor justly due to those
respectable sages who had instructed mankind in the various modes
of addressing their homage to the supreme and universal Deity.
116 A purer faith, as well as worship, was openly professed and
practised among his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first
time, were seen at court; and, after the death of Alexander, when
the inhuman Maximin discharged his fury on the favorites and
servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of
Christians of every rank and of both sexes, were involved in the
promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has improperly
received the name of Persecution. 117 1171
112 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. p. 384. This computation
(allowing for a single exception) is confirmed by the history of
Eusebius, and by the writings of Cyprian.]
113 (return) [ The antiquity of Christian churches is discussed
by Tillemont, (Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. part ii. p.
68-72,) and by Mr. Moyle, (vol. i. p. 378-398.) The former refers
the first construction of them to the peace of Alexander Severus;
the latter, to the peace of Gallienus.]
114 (return) [ See the Augustan History, p. 130. The emperor
Alexander adopted their method of publicly proposing the names of
those persons who were candidates for ordination. It is true that
the honor of this practice is likewise attributed to the Jews.]
115 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. vi. c. 21. Hieronym.
de Script. Eccles. c. 54. Mammaea was styled a holy and pious
woman, both by the Christians and the Pagans. From the former,
therefore, it was impossible that she should deserve that
honorable epithet.]
116 (return) [ See the Augustan History, p. 123. Mosheim (p. 465)
seems to refine too much on the domestic religion of Alexander.
His design of building a public temple to Christ, (Hist. August.
p. 129,) and the objection which was suggested either to him, or
in similar circumstances to Hadrian, appear to have no other
foundation than an improbable report, invented by the Christians,
and credulously adopted by an historian of the age of
Constantine.]
117 (return) [ Euseb. l. vi. c. 28. It may be presumed that the
success of the Christians had exasperated the increasing bigotry
of the Pagans. Dion Cassius, who composed his history under the
former reign, had most probably intended for the use of his
master those counsels of persecution, which he ascribes to a
better age, and to and to the favorite of Augustus. Concerning
this oration of Maecenas, or rather of Dion, I may refer to my
own unbiased opinion, (vol. i. c. 1, note 25,) and to the Abbe de
la Bleterie (Memoires de l’Academie, tom. xxiv. p. 303 tom xxv.
p. 432.) * Note: If this be the case, Dion Cassius must have
known the Christians they must have been the subject of his
particular attention, since the author supposes that he wished
his master to profit by these “counsels of persecution.” How are
we to reconcile this necessary consequence with what Gibbon has
said of the ignorance of Dion Cassius even of the name of the
Christians? (c. xvi. n. 24.) (Gibbon speaks of Dion’s silence,
not of his ignorance.—M) The supposition in this note is
supported by no proof; it is probable that Dion Cassius has often
designated the Christians by the name of Jews. See Dion Cassius,
l. lxvii. c 14, lxviii. l—G. On this point I should adopt the
view of Gibbon rather than that of M Guizot.—M]
1171 (return) [ It is with good reason that this massacre has
been called a persecution, for it lasted during the whole reign
of Maximin, as may be seen in Eusebius. (l. vi. c. 28.) Rufinus
expressly confirms it: Tribus annis a Maximino persecutione
commota, in quibus finem et persecutionis fecit et vitas Hist. l.
vi. c. 19.—G.]
Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin, the effects of
his resentment against the Christians were of a very local and
temporary nature, and the pious Origen, who had been proscribed
as a devoted victim, was still reserved to convey the truths of
the gospel to the ear of monarchs. 118 He addressed several
edifying letters to the emperor Philip, to his wife, and to his
mother; and as soon as that prince, who was born in the
neighborhood of Palestine, had usurped the Imperial sceptre, the
Christians acquired a friend and a protector. The public and even
partial favor of Philip towards the sectaries of the new
religion, and his constant reverence for the ministers of the
church, gave some color to the suspicion, which prevailed in his
own times, that the emperor himself was become a convert to the
faith; 119 and afforded some grounds for a fable which was
afterwards invented, that he had been purified by confession and
penance from the guilt contracted by the murder of his innocent
predecessor. 120 The fall of Philip introduced, with the change
of masters, a new system of government, so oppressive to the
Christians, that their former condition, ever since the time of
Domitian, was represented as a state of perfect freedom and
security, if compared with the rigorous treatment which they
experienced under the short reign of Decius. 121 The virtues of
that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was
actuated by a mean resentment against the favorites of his
predecessor; and it is more reasonable to believe, that in the
prosecution of his general design to restore the purity of Roman
manners, he was desirous of delivering the empire from what he
condemned as a recent and criminal superstition. The bishops of
the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death: the
vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome during
sixteen months from proceeding to a new election; and it was the
opinion of the Christians, that the emperor would more patiently
endure a competitor for the purple, than a bishop in the capital.
122 Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of Decius
had discovered pride under the disguise of humility, or that he
could foresee the temporal dominion which might insensibly arise
from the claims of spiritual authority, we might be less
surprised, that he should consider the successors of St. Peter,
as the most formidable rivals to those of Augustus.
118 (return) [ Orosius, l. vii. c. 19, mentions Origen as the
object of Maximin’s resentment; and Firmilianus, a Cappadocian
bishop of that age, gives a just and confined idea of this
persecution, (apud Cyprian Epist. 75.)]
119 (return) [ The mention of those princes who were publicly
supposed to be Christians, as we find it in an epistle of
Dionysius of Alexandria, (ap. Euseb. l. vii. c. 10,) evidently
alludes to Philip and his family, and forms a contemporary
evidence, that such a report had prevailed; but the Egyptian
bishop, who lived at an humble distance from the court of Rome,
expresses himself with a becoming diffidence concerning the truth
of the fact. The epistles of Origen (which were extant in the
time of Eusebius, see l. vi. c. 36) would most probably decide
this curious rather than important question.]
120 (return) [ Euseb. l. vi. c. 34. The story, as is usual, has
been embellished by succeeding writers, and is confuted, with
much superfluous learning, by Frederick Spanheim, (Opera Varia,
tom. ii. p. 400, &c.)]
121 (return) [ Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 3, 4.
After celebrating the felicity and increase of the church, under
a long succession of good princes, he adds, “Extitit post annos
plurimos, execrabile animal, Decius, qui vexaret Ecclesiam.”]
122 (return) [ Euseb. l. vi. c. 39. Cyprian. Epistol. 55. The see
of Rome remained vacant from the martyrdom of Fabianus, the 20th
of January, A. D. 259, till the election of Cornelius, the 4th of
June, A. D. 251 Decius had probably left Rome, since he was
killed before the end of that year.]
The administration of Valerian was distinguished by a levity and
inconstancy ill suited to the gravity of the Roman Censor. In the
first part of his reign, he surpassed in clemency those princes
who had been suspected of an attachment to the Christian faith.
In the last three years and a half, listening to the insinuations
of a minister addicted to the superstitions of Egypt, he adopted
the maxims, and imitated the severity, of his predecessor Decius.
123 The accession of Gallienus, which increased the calamities of
the empire, restored peace to the church; and the Christians
obtained the free exercise of their religion by an edict
addressed to the bishops, and conceived in such terms as seemed
to acknowledge their office and public character. 124 The ancient
laws, without being formally repealed, were suffered to sink into
oblivion; and (excepting only some hostile intentions which are
attributed to the emperor Aurelian 125 the disciples of Christ
passed above forty years in a state of prosperity, far more
dangerous to their virtue than the severest trials of
persecution.
123 (return) [ Euseb. l. vii. c. 10. Mosheim (p. 548) has very
clearly shown that the praefect Macrianus, and the Egyptian
Magus, are one and the same person.]
124 (return) [ Eusebius (l. vii. c. 13) gives us a Greek version
of this Latin edict, which seems to have been very concise. By
another edict, he directed that the Coemeteria should be restored
to the Christians.]
125 (return) [ Euseb. l. vii. c. 30. Lactantius de M. P. c. 6.
Hieronym. in Chron. p. 177. Orosius, l. vii. c. 23. Their
language is in general so ambiguous and incorrect, that we are at
a loss to determine how far Aurelian had carried his intentions
before he was assassinated. Most of the moderns (except Dodwell,
Dissertat. Cyprian. vi. 64) have seized the occasion of gaining a
few extraordinary martyrs. * Note: Dr. Lardner has detailed, with
his usual impartiality, all that has come down to us relating to
the persecution of Aurelian, and concludes by saying, “Upon more
carefully examining the words of Eusebius, and observing the
accounts of other authors, learned men have generally, and, as I
think, very judiciously, determined, that Aurelian not only
intended, but did actually persecute: but his persecution was
short, he having died soon after the publication of his edicts.”
Heathen Test. c. xxxvi.—Basmage positively pronounces the same
opinion: Non intentatum modo, sed executum quoque brevissimo
tempore mandatum, nobis infixum est in aniasis. Basn. Ann. 275,
No. 2 and compare Pagi Ann. 272, Nos. 4, 12, 27—G.]
The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan see of
Antioch, while the East was in the hands of Odenathus and
Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the condition and character of
the times. The wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence
of his guilt, since it was neither derived from the inheritance
of his fathers, nor acquired by the arts of honest industry. But
Paul considered the service of the church as a very lucrative
profession. 126 His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal and
rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the most
opulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use a
considerable part of the public revenue. By his pride and luxury,
the Christian religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the
Gentiles. His council chamber and his throne, the splendor with
which he appeared in public, the suppliant crowd who solicited
his attention, the multitude of letters and petitions to which he
dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry of business in
which he was involved, were circumstances much better suited to
the state of a civil magistrate, 127 than to the humility of a
primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from the pulpit,
Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures of
an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the
loudest and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his
divine eloquence. Against those who resisted his power, or
refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was
arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he relaxed the discipline,
and lavished the treasures of the church on his dependent clergy,
who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification
of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely
in the pleasures of the table, and he had received into the
episcopal palace two young and beautiful women as the constant
companions of his leisure moments. 128
126 (return) [ Paul was better pleased with the title of
Ducenarius, than with that of bishop. The Ducenarius was an
Imperial procurator, so called from his salary of two hundred
Sestertia, or 1600l. a year. (See Salmatius ad Hist. August. p.
124.) Some critics suppose that the bishop of Antioch had
actually obtained such an office from Zenobia, while others
consider it only as a figurative expression of his pomp and
insolence.]
127 (return) [ Simony was not unknown in those times; and the
clergy some times bought what they intended to sell. It appears
that the bishopric of Carthage was purchased by a wealthy matron,
named Lucilla, for her servant Majorinus. The price was 400
Folles. (Monument. Antiq. ad calcem Optati, p. 263.) Every Follis
contained 125 pieces of silver, and the whole sum may be computed
at about 2400l.]
128 (return) [ If we are desirous of extenuating the vices of
Paul, we must suspect the assembled bishops of the East of
publishing the most malicious calumnies in circular epistles
addressed to all the churches of the empire, (ap. Euseb. l. vii.
c. 30.)]
Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of Samosata had
preserved the purity of the orthodox faith, his reign over the
capital of Syria would have ended only with his life; and had a
seasonable persecution intervened, an effort of courage might
perhaps have placed him in the rank of saints and martyrs. 1281
Some nice and subtle errors, which he imprudently adopted and
obstinately maintained, concerning the doctrine of the Trinity,
excited the zeal and indignation of the Eastern churches. 129
From Egypt to the Euxine Sea, the bishops were in arms and in
motion. Several councils were held, confutations were published,
excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations were by
turns accepted and refused, treaties were concluded and violated,
and at length Paul of Samosata was degraded from his episcopal
character, by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops, who
assembled for that purpose at Antioch, and who, without
consulting the rights of the clergy or people, appointed a
successor by their own authority. The manifest irregularity of
this proceeding increased the numbers of the discontented
faction; and as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts of courts,
had insinuated himself into the favor of Zenobia, he maintained
above four years the possession of the episcopal house and
office. 1291 The victory of Aurelian changed the face of the
East, and the two contending parties, who applied to each other
the epithets of schism and heresy, were either commanded or
permitted to plead their cause before the tribunal of the
conqueror. This public and very singular trial affords a
convincing proof that the existence, the property, the
privileges, and the internal policy of the Christians, were
acknowledged, if not by the laws, at least by the magistrates, of
the empire. As a Pagan and as a soldier, it could scarcely be
expected that Aurelian should enter into the discussion, whether
the sentiments of Paul or those of his adversaries were most
agreeable to the true standard of the orthodox faith. His
determination, however, was founded on the general principles of
equity and reason. He considered the bishops of Italy as the most
impartial and respectable judges among the Christians, and as
soon as he was informed that they had unanimously approved the
sentence of the council, he acquiesced in their opinion, and
immediately gave orders that Paul should be compelled to
relinquish the temporal possessions belonging to an office, of
which, in the judgment of his brethren, he had been regularly
deprived. But while we applaud the justice, we should not
overlook the policy, of Aurelian, who was desirous of restoring
and cementing the dependence of the provinces on the capital, by
every means which could bind the interest or prejudices of any
part of his subjects. 130
1281 (return) [ It appears, nevertheless, that the vices and
immoralities of Paul of Samosata had much weight in the sentence
pronounced against him by the bishops. The object of the letter,
addressed by the synod to the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, was
to inform them of the change in the faith of Paul, the
altercations and discussions to which it had given rise, as well
as of his morals and the whole of his conduct. Euseb. Hist. Eccl.
l. vii c. xxx—G.]
129 (return) [ His heresy (like those of Noetus and Sabellius, in
the same century) tended to confound the mysterious distinction
of the divine persons. See Mosheim, p. 702, &c.]
1291 (return) [ “Her favorite, (Zenobia’s,) Paul of Samosata,
seems to have entertained some views of attempting a union
between Judaism and Christianity; both parties rejected the
unnatural alliance.” Hist. of Jews, iii. 175, and Jost.
Geschichte der Israeliter, iv. 167. The protection of the severe
Zenobia is the only circumstance which may raise a doubt of the
notorious immorality of Paul.—M.]
130 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. vii. c. 30. We are
entirely indebted to him for the curious story of Paul of
Samosata.]
Amidst the frequent revolutions of the empire, the Christians
still flourished in peace and prosperity; and notwithstanding a
celebrated aera of martyrs has been deduced from the accession of
Diocletian, 131 the new system of policy, introduced and
maintained by the wisdom of that prince, continued, during more
than eighteen years, to breathe the mildest and most liberal
spirit of religious toleration. The mind of Diocletian himself
was less adapted indeed to speculative inquiries, than to the
active labors of war and government. His prudence rendered him
averse to any great innovation, and though his temper was not
very susceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained an
habitual regard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the
leisure of the two empresses, of his wife Prisca, and of Valeria,
his daughter, permitted them to listen with more attention and
respect to the truths of Christianity, which in every age has
acknowledged its important obligations to female devotion. 132
The principal eunuchs, Lucian 133 and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and
Andrew, who attended the person, possessed the favor, and
governed the household of Diocletian, protected by their powerful
influence the faith which they had embraced. Their example was
imitated by many of the most considerable officers of the palace,
who, in their respective stations, had the care of the Imperial
ornaments, of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and
even of the private treasury; and, though it might sometimes be
incumbent on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in
the temple, 134 they enjoyed, with their wives, their children,
and their slaves, the free exercise of the Christian religion.
Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most
important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence
for the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilities
proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an
honorable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated
with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the
magistrates themselves. Almost in every city, the ancient
churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing
multitude of proselytes; and in their place more stately and
capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the
faithful. The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly
lamented by Eusebius, 135 may be considered, not only as a
consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians
enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had
relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice
prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the
episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy of
their ambition. The bishops, who contended with each other for
ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a
secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith
which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was
shown much less in their lives, than in their controversial
writings.
131 (return) [ The Aera of Martyrs, which is still in use among
the Copts and the Abyssinians, must be reckoned from the 29th of
August, A. D. 284; as the beginning of the Egyptian year was
nineteen days earlier than the real accession of Diocletian. See
Dissertation Preliminaire a l’Art de verifier les Dates. * Note:
On the aera of martyrs see the very curious dissertations of Mons
Letronne on some recently discovered inscriptions in Egypt and
Nubis, p. 102, &c.—M.]
132 (return) [ The expression of Lactantius, (de M. P. c. 15,)
“sacrificio pollui coegit,” implies their antecedent conversion
to the faith, but does not seem to justify the assertion of
Mosheim, (p. 912,) that they had been privately baptized.]
133 (return) [ M. de Tillemont (Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. v.
part i. p. 11, 12) has quoted from the Spicilegium of Dom Luc
d’Archeri a very curious instruction which Bishop Theonas
composed for the use of Lucian.]
134 (return) [ Lactantius, de M. P. c. 10.]
135 (return) [ Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. viii. c. 1. The
reader who consults the original will not accuse me of
heightening the picture. Eusebius was about sixteen years of age
at the accession of the emperor Diocletian.]
Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive observer
might discern some symptoms that threatened the church with a
more violent persecution than any which she had yet endured. The
zeal and rapid progress of the Christians awakened the
Polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause of those
deities, whom custom and education had taught them to revere. The
mutual provocations of a religious war, which had already
continued above two hundred years, exasperated the animosity of
the contending parties. The Pagans were incensed at the rashness
of a recent and obscure sect, which presumed to accuse their
countrymen of error, and to devote their ancestors to eternal
misery. The habits of justifying the popular mythology against
the invectives of an implacable enemy, produced in their minds
some sentiments of faith and reverence for a system which they
had been accustomed to consider with the most careless levity.
The supernatural powers assumed by the church inspired at the
same time terror and emulation. The followers of the established
religion intrenched themselves behind a similar fortification of
prodigies; invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation, and of
initiation; 136 attempted to revive the credit of their expiring
oracles; 137 and listened with eager credulity to every impostor,
who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders. 138 Both
parties seemed to acknowledge the truth of those miracles which
were claimed by their adversaries; and while they were contented
with ascribing them to the arts of magic, and to the power of
daemons, they mutually concurred in restoring and establishing
the reign of superstition. 139 Philosophy, her most dangerous
enemy, was now converted into her most useful ally. The groves of
the academy, the gardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of the
Stoics, were almost deserted, as so many different schools of
scepticism or impiety; 140 and many among the Romans were
desirous that the writings of Cicero should be condemned and
suppressed by the authority of the senate. 141 The prevailing
sect of the new Platonicians judged it prudent to connect
themselves with the priests, whom perhaps they despised, against
the Christians, whom they had reason to fear. These fashionable
Philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting allegorical
wisdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted
mysterious rites of devotion for the use of their chosen
disciples; recommended the worship of the ancient gods as the
emblems or ministers of the Supreme Deity, and composed against
the faith of the gospel many elaborate treatises, 142 which have
since been committed to the flames by the prudence of orthodox
emperors. 143
136 (return) [ We might quote, among a great number of instances,
the mysterious worship of Mythras, and the Taurobolia; the latter
of which became fashionable in the time of the Antonines, (see a
Dissertation of M. de Boze, in the Memoires de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. ii. p. 443.) The romance of Apuleius is as
full of devotion as of satire. * Note: On the extraordinary
progress of the Mahriac rites, in the West, see De Guigniaud’s
translation of Creuzer, vol. i. p. 365, and Note 9, tom. i. part
2, p. 738, &c.—M.]
137 (return) [ The impostor Alexander very strongly recommended
the oracle of Trophonius at Mallos, and those of Apollo at Claros
and Miletus, (Lucian, tom. ii. p. 236, edit. Reitz.) The last of
these, whose singular history would furnish a very curious
episode, was consulted by Diocletian before he published his
edicts of persecution, (Lactantius, de M. P. c. 11.)]
138 (return) [ Besides the ancient stories of Pythagoras and
Aristeas, the cures performed at the shrine of Aesculapius, and
the fables related of Apollonius of Tyana, were frequently
opposed to the miracles of Christ; though I agree with Dr.
Lardner, (see Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 253, 352,) that when
Philostratus composed the life of Apollonius, he had no such
intention.]
139 (return) [ It is seriously to be lamented, that the Christian
fathers, by acknowledging the supernatural, or, as they deem it,
the infernal part of Paganism, destroy with their own hands the
great advantage which we might otherwise derive from the liberal
concessions of our adversaries.]
140 (return) [ Julian (p. 301, edit. Spanheim) expresses a pious
joy, that the providence of the gods had extinguished the impious
sects, and for the most part destroyed the books of the
Pyrrhonians and Epicuraeans, which had been very numerous, since
Epicurus himself composed no less than 300 volumes. See Diogenes
Laertius, l. x. c. 26.]
141 (return) [ Cumque alios audiam mussitare indignanter, et
dicere opportere statui per Senatum, aboleantur ut haec scripta,
quibus Christiana Religio comprobetur, et vetustatis opprimatur
auctoritas. Arnobius adversus Gentes, l. iii. p. 103, 104. He
adds very properly, Erroris convincite Ciceronem... nam
intercipere scripta, et publicatam velle submergere lectionem,
non est Deum defendere sed veritatis testificationem timere.]
142 (return) [ Lactantius (Divin. Institut. l. v. c. 2, 3) gives
a very clear and spirited account of two of these philosophic
adversaries of the faith. The large treatise of Porphyry against
the Christians consisted of thirty books, and was composed in
Sicily about the year 270.]
143 (return) [ See Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. i. c. 9, and
Codex Justinian. l. i. i. l. s.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VI.
Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity of Constantius
inclined them to preserve inviolate the maxims of toleration, it
was soon discovered that their two associates, Maximian and
Galerius, entertained the most implacable aversion for the name
and religion of the Christians. The minds of those princes had
never been enlightened by science; education had never softened
their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords, and in
their most elevated fortune they still retained their
superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. In the general
administration of the provinces they obeyed the laws which their
benefactor had established; but they frequently found occasions
of exercising within their camp and palaces a secret persecution,
144 for which the imprudent zeal of the Christians sometimes
offered the most specious pretences. A sentence of death was
executed upon Maximilianus, an African youth, who had been
produced by his own father 1441 before the magistrate as a
sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstinately persisted in
declaring, that his conscience would not permit him to embrace
the profession of a soldier. 145 It could scarcely be expected
that any government should suffer the action of Marcellus the
Centurion to pass with impunity. On the day of a public festival,
that officer threw away his belt, his arms, and the ensigns of
his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice, that he would obey
none but Jesus Christ the eternal King, and that he renounced
forever the use of carnal weapons, and the service of an
idolatrous master. The soldiers, as soon as they recovered from
their astonishment, secured the person of Marcellus. He was
examined in the city of Tingi by the president of that part of
Mauritania; and as he was convicted by his own confession, he was
condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. 146 Examples
of such a nature savor much less of religious persecution than of
martial or even civil law; but they served to alienate the mind
of the emperors, to justify the severity of Galerius, who
dismissed a great number of Christian officers from their
employments; and to authorize the opinion, that a sect of
enthusiastics, which avowed principles so repugnant to the public
safety, must either remain useless, or would soon become
dangerous, subjects of the empire.
144 (return) [ Eusebius, l. viii. c. 4, c. 17. He limits the
number of military martyrs, by a remarkable expression, of which
neither his Latin nor French translator have rendered the energy.
Notwithstanding the authority of Eusebius, and the silence of
Lactantius, Ambrose, Sulpicius, Orosius, &c., it has been long
believed, that the Thebaean legion, consisting of 6000
Christians, suffered martyrdom by the order of Maximian, in the
valley of the Pennine Alps. The story was first published about
the middle of the 5th century, by Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who
received it from certain persons, who received it from Isaac,
bishop of Geneva, who is said to have received it from Theodore,
bishop of Octodurum. The abbey of St. Maurice still subsists, a
rich monument of the credulity of Sigismund, king of Burgundy.
See an excellent Dissertation in xxxvith volume of the
Bibliotheque Raisonnee, p. 427-454.]
1441 (return) [ M. Guizot criticizes Gibbon’s account of this
incident. He supposes that Maximilian was not “produced by his
father as a recruit,” but was obliged to appear by the law, which
compelled the sons of soldiers to serve at 21 years old. Was not
this a law of Constantine? Neither does this circumstance appear
in the acts. His father had clearly expected him to serve, as he
had bought him a new dress for the occasion; yet he refused to
force the conscience of his son. and when Maximilian was
condemned to death, the father returned home in joy, blessing God
for having bestowed upon him such a son.—M.]
145 (return) [ See the Acta Sincera, p. 299. The accounts of his
martyrdom and that of Marcellus, bear every mark of truth and
authenticity.]
146 (return) [ Acta Sincera, p. 302. * Note: M. Guizot here
justly observes, that it was the necessity of sacrificing to the
gods, which induced Marcellus to act in this manner.—M.]
After the success of the Persian war had raised the hopes and the
reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with Diocletian in the
palace of Nicomedia; and the fate of Christianity became the
object of their secret consultations. 147 The experienced emperor
was still inclined to pursue measures of lenity; and though he
readily consented to exclude the Christians from holding any
employments in the household or the army, he urged in the
strongest terms the danger as well as cruelty of shedding the
blood of those deluded fanatics. Galerius at length extorted 1471
from him the permission of summoning a council, composed of a few
persons the most distinguished in the civil and military
departments of the state.
The important question was agitated in their presence, and those
ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it was incumbent on
them to second, by their eloquence, the importunate violence of
the Caesar. It may be presumed, that they insisted on every topic
which might interest the pride, the piety, or the fears, of their
sovereign in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps they
represented, that the glorious work of the deliverance of the
empire was left imperfect, as long as an independent people was
permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the provinces.
The Christians, (it might specially be alleged,) renouncing the
gods and the institutions of Rome, had constituted a distinct
republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had acquired
any military force; but which was already governed by its own
laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public treasure, and was
intimately connected in all its parts by the frequent assemblies
of the bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and opulent
congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Arguments like these
may seem to have determined the reluctant mind of Diocletian to
embrace a new system of persecution; but though we may suspect,
it is not in our power to relate, the secret intrigues of the
palace, the private views and resentments, the jealousy of women
or eunuchs, and all those trifling but decisive causes which so
often influence the fate of empires, and the councils of the
wisest monarchs. 148
147 (return) [ De M. P. c. 11. Lactantius (or whoever was the
author of this little treatise) was, at that time, an inhabitant
of Nicomedia; but it seems difficult to conceive how he could
acquire so accurate a knowledge of what passed in the Imperial
cabinet. Note: * Lactantius, who was subsequently chosen by
Constantine to educate Crispus, might easily have learned these
details from Constantine himself, already of sufficient age to
interest himself in the affairs of the government, and in a
position to obtain the best information.—G. This assumes the
doubtful point of the authorship of the Treatise.—M.]
1471 (return) [ This permission was not extorted from Diocletian;
he took the step of his own accord. Lactantius says, in truth,
Nec tamen deflectere potuit (Diocletianus) praecipitis hominis
insaniam; placuit ergo amicorum sententiam experiri. (De Mort.
Pers. c. 11.) But this measure was in accordance with the
artificial character of Diocletian, who wished to have the
appearance of doing good by his own impulse and evil by the
impulse of others. Nam erat hujus malitiae, cum bonum quid facere
decrevisse sine consilio faciebat, ut ipse laudaretur. Cum autem
malum. quoniam id reprehendendum sciebat, in consilium multos
advocabat, ut alioram culpao adscriberetur quicquid ipse
deliquerat. Lact. ib. Eutropius says likewise, Miratus callide
fuit, sagax praeterea et admodum subtilis ingenio, et qui
severitatem suam aliena invidia vellet explere. Eutrop. ix. c.
26.—G.——The manner in which the coarse and unfriendly pencil of
the author of the Treatise de Mort. Pers. has drawn the character
of Diocletian, seems inconsistent with this profound subtilty.
Many readers will perhaps agree with Gibbon.—M.]
148 (return) [ The only circumstance which we can discover, is
the devotion and jealousy of the mother of Galerius. She is
described by Lactantius, as Deorum montium cultrix; mulier
admodum superstitiosa. She had a great influence over her son,
and was offended by the disregard of some of her Christian
servants. * Note: This disregard consisted in the Christians
fasting and praying instead of participating in the banquets and
sacrifices which she celebrated with the Pagans. Dapibus
sacrificabat poene quotidie ac vicariis suis epulis exhibebat.
Christiani abstinebant, et illa cum gentibus epulante, jejuniis
hi et oratiomibus insisteban; hine concepit odium Lact de Hist.
Pers. c. 11.—G.]
The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified to the
Christians, who, during the course of this melancholy winter, had
expected, with anxiety, the result of so many secret
consultations. The twenty-third of February, which coincided with
the Roman festival of the Terminalia, 149 was appointed (whether
from accident or design) to set bounds to the progress of
Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the Praetorian
praefect, 150 accompanied by several generals, tribunes, and
officers of the revenue, repaired to the principal church of
Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most populous
and beautiful part of the city. The doors were instantly broke
open; they rushed into the sanctuary; and as they searched in
vain for some visible object of worship, they were obliged to
content themselves with committing to the flames the volumes of
the holy Scripture. The ministers of Diocletian were followed by
a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched in order of
battle, and were provided with all the instruments used in the
destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, a
sacred edifice, which towered above the Imperial palace, and had
long excited the indignation and envy of the Gentiles, was in a
few hours levelled with the ground. 151
149 (return) [ The worship and festival of the god Terminus are
elegantly illustrated by M. de Boze, Mem. de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 50.]
150 (return) [ In our only MS. of Lactantius, we read profectus;
but reason, and the authority of all the critics, allow us,
instead of that word, which destroys the sense of the passage, to
substitute proefectus.]
151 (return) [ Lactantius, de M. P. c. 12, gives a very lively
picture of the destruction of the church.]
The next day the general edict of persecution was published; 152
and though Diocletian, still averse to the effusion of blood, had
moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed, that every one
refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive,
the penalties inflicted on the obstinacy of the Christians might
be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was enacted,
that their churches, in all the provinces of the empire, should
be demolished to their foundations; and the punishment of death
was denounced against all who should presume to hold any secret
assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. The
philosophers, who now assumed the unworthy office of directing
the blind zeal of persecution, had diligently studied the nature
and genius of the Christian religion; and as they were not
ignorant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were
supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets, of the
evangelists, and of the apostles, they most probably suggested
the order, that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all
their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; who were
commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a public
and solemn manner. By the same edict, the property of the church
was at once confiscated; and the several parts of which it might
consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to the
Imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or
granted to the solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After taking
such effectual measures to abolish the worship, and to dissolve
the government of the Christians, it was thought necessary to
subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those
perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of
nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons of a liberal
birth were declared incapable of holding any honors or
employments; slaves were forever deprived of the hopes of
freedom, and the whole body of the people were put out of the
protection of the law. The judges were authorized to hear and to
determine every action that was brought against a Christian. But
the Christians were not permitted to complain of any injury which
they themselves had suffered; and thus those unfortunate
sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded
from the benefits, of public justice. This new species of
martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious,
was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the
faithful: nor can it be doubted that the passions and interest of
mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of
the emperors. But the policy of a well-ordered government must
sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed Christians;
1521 nor was it possible for the Roman princes entirely to remove
the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every act of
fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority and the
rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers. 153
152 (return) [ Mosheim, (p. 922—926,) from man scattered passages
of Lactantius and Eusebius, has collected a very just and
accurate notion of this edict though he sometimes deviates into
conjecture and refinement.]
1521 (return) [ This wants proof. The edict of Diocletian was
executed in all its right during the rest of his reign. Euseb.
Hist. Eccl. l viii. c. 13.—G.]
153 (return) [ Many ages afterwards, Edward J. practised, with
great success, the same mode of persecution against the clergy of
England. See Hume’s History of England, vol. ii. p. 300, last 4to
edition.]
This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, in the most
conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn down by the
hands of a Christian, who expressed at the same time, by the
bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such
impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the
mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved death. And if it
be true that he was a person of rank and education, those
circumstances could serve only to aggravate his guilt. He was
burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his executioners,
zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been offered to
the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, without
being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and
insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in
his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his
conduct had not been strictly conformable to the laws of
prudence, admired the divine fervor of his zeal; and the
excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of
their hero and martyr, contributed to fix a deep impression of
terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian. 154
154 (return) [ Lactantius only calls him quidam, et si non recte,
magno tamer animo, &c., c. 12. Eusebius (l. viii. c. 5) adorns
him with secular honora Neither have condescended to mention his
name; but the Greeks celebrate his memory under that of John. See
Tillemont, Memones Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part ii. p. 320.]
His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from which he
very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of
Nicomedia, and even the bed-chamber of Diocletian, were twice in
flames; and though both times they were extinguished without any
material damage, the singular repetition of the fire was justly
considered as an evident proof that it had not been the effect of
chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally fell on the
Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of
probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their
present sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had
entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the
eunuchs of the palace, against the lives of two emperors, whom
they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the church of God.
Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially
in that of Diocletian. A great number of persons, distinguished
either by the offices which they had filled, or by the favor
which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. Every mode of
torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as city, was
polluted with many bloody executions. 155 But as it was found
impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious
transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the
innocence, or to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few
days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia,
declaring, that if he delayed his departure from that devoted
palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Christians.
The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive a
partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a
loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors.
Two of these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were
eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to
lightning, and the divine wrath; the other affirms, that it was
kindled by the malice of Galerius himself. 156
155 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 13, 14. Potentissimi
quondam Eunuchi necati, per quos Palatium et ipse constabat.
Eusebius (l. viii. c. 6) mentions the cruel executions of the
eunuchs, Gorgonius and Dorotheus, and of Anthimius, bishop of
Nicomedia; and both those writers describe, in a vague but
tragical manner, the horrid scenes which were acted even in the
Imperial presence.]
156 (return) [ See Lactantius, Eusebius, and Constantine, ad
Coetum Sanctorum, c. xxv. Eusebius confesses his ignorance of the
cause of this fire. Note: As the history of these times affords
us no example of any attempts made by the Christians against
their persecutors, we have no reason, not the slightest
probability, to attribute to them the fire in the palace; and the
authority of Constantine and Lactantius remains to explain it. M.
de Tillemont has shown how they can be reconciled. Hist. des
Empereurs, Vie de Diocletian, xix.—G. Had it been done by a
Christian, it would probably have been a fanatic, who would have
avowed and gloried in it. Tillemont’s supposition that the fire
was first caused by lightning, and fed and increased by the
malice of Galerius, seems singularly improbable.—M.]
As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general
law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though
they might not wait for the consent, were assured of the
concurrence, of the Western princes, it would appear more
consonant to our ideas of policy, that the governors of all the
provinces should have received secret instructions to publish, on
one and the same day, this declaration of war within their
respective departments. It was at least to be expected, that the
convenience of the public highways and established posts would
have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the
utmost despatch from the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities
of the Roman world; and that they would not have suffered fifty
days to elapse, before the edict was published in Syria, and near
four months before it was signified to the cities of Africa. 157
This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of
Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the measures
of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experiment
under his more immediate eye, before he gave way to the disorders
and discontent which it must inevitably occasion in the distant
provinces. At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from
the effusion of blood; but the use of every other severity was
permitted, and even recommended to their zeal; nor could the
Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments of
their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious assemblies,
or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious
obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have
embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. The
curator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. The
proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian praefect of Italy;
and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive answer, was at
length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucania, a place on which the
birth of Horace has conferred fame. 158 This precedent, and
perhaps some Imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence
of it, appeared to authorize the governors of provinces, in
punishing with death the refusal of the Christians to deliver up
their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons who
embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom;
but there were likewise too many who purchased an ignominious
life, by discovering and betraying the holy Scripture into the
hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops and presbyters
acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious epithet of
Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present
scandal and of much future discord in the African church. 159
157 (return) [ Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. v. part i. p.
43.]
158 (return) [ See the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 353; those of
Felix of Thibara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted than in
the other editions, which afford a lively specimen of legendary
license.]
159 (return) [ See the first book of Optatus of Milevis against
the Donatiste, Paris, 1700, edit. Dupin. He lived under the reign
of Valens.]
The copies as well as the versions of Scripture, were already so
multiplied in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could
no longer be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the
sacrifice of those volumes, which, in every congregation, were
preserved for public use, required the consent of some
treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches
was easily effected by the authority of the government, and by
the labor of the Pagans. In some provinces, however, the
magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of
religious worship. In others, they more literally complied with
the terms of the edict; and after taking away the doors, the
benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeral
pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice.
160 It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should
apply a very remarkable story, which is related with so many
circumstances of variety and improbability, that it serves rather
to excite than to satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in
Phrygia, of whose name as well as situation we are left ignorant,
it should seem that the magistrates and the body of the people
had embraced the Christian faith; and as some resistance might be
apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the
province was supported by a numerous detachment of legionaries.
On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the church,
with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred
edifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected
the notice and permission which was given them to retire, till
the soldiers, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to
the building on all sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary
kind of martyrdom, a great number of Phrygians, with their wives
and children. 161
160 (return) [ The ancient monuments, published at the end of
Optatus, p. 261, &c. describe, in a very circumstantial manner,
the proceedings of the governors in the destruction of churches.
They made a minute inventory of the plate, &c., which they found
in them. That of the church of Cirta, in Numidia, is still
extant. It consisted of two chalices of gold, and six of silver;
six urns, one kettle, seven lamps, all likewise of silver;
besides a large quantity of brass utensils, and wearing apparel.]
161 (return) [ Lactantius (Institut. Divin. v. 11) confines the
calamity to the conventiculum, with its congregation. Eusebius
(viii. 11) extends it to a whole city, and introduces something
very like a regular siege. His ancient Latin translator, Rufinus,
adds the important circumstance of the permission given to the
inhabitants of retiring from thence. As Phrygia reached to the
confines of Isauria, it is possible that the restless temper of
those independent barbarians may have contributed to this
misfortune. Note: Universum populum. Lact. Inst. Div. v. 11.—G.]
Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as
soon as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded
the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate,
that those troubles had been secretly fomented by the intrigues
of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostentatious
professions of passive and unlimited obedience. 162
The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian, at length
transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he had
hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts,
1621 his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first
of these edicts, the governors of the provinces were directed to
apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and the
prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with
a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and
exorcists. By a second edict, the magistrates were commanded to
employ every method of severity, which might reclaim them from
their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the
established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was
extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of Christians,
who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. 163
Instead of those salutary restraints, which had required the
direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as
well as the interest of the Imperial officers to discover, to
pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful.
Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should presume to
save a prescribed sectary from the just indignation of the gods,
and of the emperors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this
law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in concealing
their friends or relations, affords an honorable proof, that the
rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds the
sentiments of nature and humanity. 164
162 (return) [ Eusebius, l. viii. c. 6. M. de Valois (with some
probability) thinks that he has discovered the Syrian rebellion
in an oration of Libanius; and that it was a rash attempt of the
tribune Eugenius, who with only five hundred men seized Antioch,
and might perhaps allure the Christians by the promise of
religious toleration. From Eusebius, (l. ix. c. 8,) as well as
from Moses of Chorene, (Hist. Armen. l. ii. 77, &c.,) it may be
inferred, that Christianity was already introduced into Armenia.]
1621 (return) [ He had already passed them in his first edict. It
does not appear that resentment or fear had any share in the new
persecutions: perhaps they originated in superstition, and a
specious apparent respect for its ministers. The oracle of
Apollo, consulted by Diocletian, gave no answer; and said that
just men hindered it from speaking. Constantine, who assisted at
the ceremony, affirms, with an oath, that when questioned about
these men, the high priest named the Christians. “The Emperor
eagerly seized on this answer; and drew against the innocent a
sword, destined only to punish the guilty: he instantly issued
edicts, written, if I may use the expression, with a poniard; and
ordered the judges to employ all their skill to invent new modes
of punishment. Euseb. Vit Constant. l. ii c 54.”—G.]
163 (return) [ See Mosheim, p. 938: the text of Eusebius very
plainly shows that the governors, whose powers were enlarged, not
restrained, by the new laws, could punish with death the most
obstinate Christians as an example to their brethren.]
164 (return) [ Athanasius, p. 833, ap. Tillemont, Mem.
Ecclesiast. tom v part i. 90.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VII.
Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the
Christians, than, as if he had been desirous of committing to
other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself of the
Imperial purple. The character and situation of his colleagues
and successors sometimes urged them to enforce and sometimes
inclined them to suspend, the execution of these rigorous laws;
nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this important
period of ecclesiastical history, unless we separately consider
the state of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire,
during the space of ten years, which elapsed between the first
edicts of Diocletian and the final peace of the church.
The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the
oppression of any part of his subjects. The principal offices of
his palace were exercised by Christians. He loved their persons,
esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their
religious principles. But as long as Constantius remained in the
subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his power openly to
reject the edicts of Diocletian, or to disobey the commands of
Maximian. His authority contributed, however, to alleviate the
sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented with
reluctance to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to
protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the populace,
and from the rigor of the laws. The provinces of Gaul (under
which we may probably include those of Britain) were indebted for
the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed, to the gentle
interposition of their sovereign. 165 But Datianus, the president
or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose
rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors, than to
understand the secret intentions of Constantius; and it can
scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administration was
stained with the blood of a few martyrs. 166
The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent
dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of his
virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from
establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept
and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from
the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the
protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of
the first emperor who publicly professed and established the
Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may
variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from
conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of the revolution,
which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons,
rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire,
will form a very interesting and important chapter in the present
volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to
observe, that every victory of Constantine was productive of some
relief or benefit to the church.
165 (return) [ Eusebius, l. viii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c.
15. Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprian. xi. 75) represents them as
inconsistent with each other. But the former evidently speaks of
Constantius in the station of Caesar, and the latter of the same
prince in the rank of Augustus.]
166 (return) [ Datianus is mentioned, in Gruter’s Inscriptions,
as having determined the limits between the territories of Pax
Julia, and those of Ebora, both cities in the southern part of
Lusitania. If we recollect the neighborhood of those places to
Cape St. Vincent, we may suspect that the celebrated deacon and
martyr of that name had been inaccurately assigned by Prudentius,
&c., to Saragossa, or Valentia. See the pompous history of his
sufferings, in the Memoires de Tillemont, tom. v. part ii. p.
58-85. Some critics are of opinion, that the department of
Constantius, as Caesar, did not include Spain, which still
continued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian.]
The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent
persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and
cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated
the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence.
In the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two
emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph; several
oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret
consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated
by the presence of their sovereigns. After Diocletian had
divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were
administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, without
defence, to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius.
Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of
posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had raised
himself, through the successive honors of the palace, to the
important office of treasurer of the private Jemesnes. Adauctus
is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank and
distinction who appears to have suffered death, during the whole
course of this general persecution. 167
167 (return) [ Eusebius, l. viii. c. 11. Gruter, Inscrip. p.
1171, No. 18. Rufinus has mistaken the office of Adauctus, as
well as the place of his martyrdom. * Note: M. Guizot suggests
the powerful cunuchs of the palace. Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and
Andrew, admitted by Gibbon himself to have been put to death, p.
66.]
The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the
churches of Italy and Africa; and the same tyrant who oppressed
every other class of his subjects, showed himself just, humane,
and even partial, towards the afflicted Christians. He depended
on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally presumed,
that the injuries which they had suffered, and the dangers which
they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy, would
secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their
numbers and opulence. 168 Even the conduct of Maxentius towards
the bishops of Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof
of his toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox
princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their
established clergy. Marcellus, the former of these prelates, had
thrown the capital into confusion, by the severe penance which he
imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the late
persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage
of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood
of the faithful was shed by each other’s hands, and the exile of
Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than
his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring
peace to the distracted church of Rome. 169 The behavior of
Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more
reprehensible. A deacon of that city had published a libel
against the emperor. The offender took refuge in the episcopal
palace; and though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of
ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up
to the officers of justice. For this treasonable resistance,
Mensurius was summoned to court, and instead of receiving a legal
sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short
examination, to return to his diocese. 170 Such was the happy
condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius, that whenever
they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of
martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant
provinces of the East. A story is related of Aglae, a Roman lady,
descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an
estate, that it required the management of seventy-three
stewards. Among these Boniface was the favorite of his mistress;
and as Aglae mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was
admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the
pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She
intrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large
quantity of aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen
and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far
as Tarsus in Cilicia. 171
168 (return) [ Eusebius, l. viii. c. 14. But as Maxentius was
vanquished by Constantine, it suited the purpose of Lactantius to
place his death among those of the persecutors. * Note: M. Guizot
directly contradicts this statement of Gibbon, and appeals to
Eusebius. Maxentius, who assumed the power in Italy, pretended at
first to be a Christian, to gain the favor of the Roman people;
he ordered his ministers to cease to persecute the Christians,
affecting a hypocritical piety, in order to appear more mild than
his predecessors; but his actions soon proved that he was very
different from what they had at first hoped. The actions of
Maxentius were those of a cruel tyrant, but not those of a
persecutor: the Christians, like the rest of his subjects,
suffered from his vices, but they were not oppressed as a sect.
Christian females were exposed to his lusts, as well as to the
brutal violence of his colleague Maximian, but they were not
selected as Christians.—M.]
169 (return) [ The epitaph of Marcellus is to be found in Gruter,
Inscrip. p 1172, No. 3, and it contains all that we know of his
history. Marcellinus and Marcellus, whose names follow in the
list of popes, are supposed by many critics to be different
persons; but the learned Abbe de Longuerue was convinced that
they were one and the same. Veridicus rector lapsis quia crimina
flere Praedixit miseris, fuit omnibus hostis amarus. Hinc furor,
hinc odium; sequitur discordia, lites, Seditio, caedes; solvuntur
foedera pacis. Crimen ob alterius, Christum qui in pace negavit
Finibus expulsus patriae est feritate Tyranni. Haec breviter
Damasus voluit comperta referre: Marcelli populus meritum
cognoscere posset.——We may observe that Damasus was made Bishop
of Rome, A. D. 366.]
170 (return) [ Optatus contr. Donatist. l. i. c. 17, 18. * Note:
The words of Optatus are, Profectus (Roman) causam dixit; jussus
con reverti Carthaginem; perhaps, in pleading his cause, he
exculpated himself, since he received an order to return to
Carthage.—G.]
171 (return) [ The Acts of the Passion of St. Boniface, which
abound in miracles and declamation, are published by Ruinart, (p.
283—291,) both in Greek and Latin, from the authority of very
ancient manuscripts. Note: We are ignorant whether Aglae and
Boniface were Christians at the time of their unlawful
connection. See Tillemont. Mem, Eccles. Note on the Persecution
of Domitian, tom. v. note 82. M. de Tillemont proves also that
the history is doubtful.—G. ——Sir D. Dalrymple (Lord Hailes)
calls the story of Aglae and Boniface as of equal authority with
our popular histories of Whittington and Hickathrift. Christian
Antiquities, ii. 64.—M.]
The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal author
of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians whom their
misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions; and it
may fairly be presumed that many persons of a middle rank, who
were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty,
very frequently deserted their native country, and sought a
refuge in the milder climate of the West. 1711 As long as he
commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could
with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of
martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained the
missionaries of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance than
any other part of the empire. 172 But when Galerius had obtained
the supreme power, and the government of the East, he indulged in
their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the
provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate
jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where
Maximin gratified his own inclination, by yielding a rigorous
obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. 173 The
frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience
of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a
lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of
Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts
of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to
subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the
mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name,
and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which,
after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded in the
following manner:—
1711 (return) [ A little after this, Christianity was propagated
to the north of the Roman provinces, among the tribes of Germany:
a multitude of Christians, forced by the persecutions of the
Emperors to take refuge among the Barbarians, were received with
kindness. Euseb. de Vit. Constant. ii. 53. Semler Select. cap. H.
E. p. 115. The Goths owed their first knowledge of Christianity
to a young girl, a prisoner of war; she continued in the midst of
them her exercises of piety; she fasted, prayed, and praised God
day and night. When she was asked what good would come of so much
painful trouble she answered, “It is thus that Christ, the Son of
God, is to be honored.” Sozomen, ii. c. 6.—G.]
172 (return) [ During the four first centuries, there exist few
traces of either bishops or bishoprics in the western Illyricum.
It has been thought probable that the primate of Milan extended
his jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great
province. See the Geographia Sacra of Charles de St. Paul, p.
68-76, with the observations of Lucas Holstenius.]
173 (return) [ The viiith book of Eusebius, as well as the
supplement concerning the martyrs of Palestine, principally
relate to the persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general
lamentations with which Lactantius opens the vth book of his
Divine Institutions allude to their cruelty.] “Among the
important cares which have occupied our mind for the utility and
preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and
reestablish all things according to the ancient laws and public
discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of
reclaiming into the way of reason and nature, the deluded
Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies
instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the
practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and
opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy, and had
collected a various society from the different provinces of our
empire. The edicts, which we have published to enforce the
worship of the gods, having exposed many of the Christians to
danger and distress, many having suffered death, and many more,
who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of
any public exercise of religion, we are disposed to extend to
those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit
them therefore freely to profess their private opinions, and to
assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation,
provided always that they preserve a due respect to the
established laws and government. By another rescript we shall
signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope
that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their
prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety and
prosperity for their own, and for that of the republic.” 174 It
is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestos that we
should search for the real character or the secret motives of
princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor, his
situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity.
174 (return) [ Eusebius (l. viii. c. 17) has given us a Greek
version, and Lactantius (de M. P. c. 34) the Latin original, of
this memorable edict. Neither of these writers seems to recollect
how directly it contradicts whatever they have just affirmed of
the remorse and repentance of Galerius. Note: But Gibbon has
answered this by his just observation, that it is not in the
language of edicts and manifestos that we should search * * for
the secre motives of princes.—M.]
When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well
assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations
of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favor of
the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But
the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name
of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who
succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the
first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to
adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he
never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a
public edict, Sabinus, his Praetorian praefect, addressed a
circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the
provinces, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging
the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the
officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and
to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In
consequence of these orders, great numbers of Christians were
released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The
confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own
countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the
tempest, solicited with tears of repentance their readmission
into the bosom of the church. 175
175 (return) [ Eusebius, l. ix. c. 1. He inserts the epistle of
the praefect.]
But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the
Christians of the East place any confidence in the character of
their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling
passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means,
the latter pointed out the objects of persecution. The emperor
was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic,
and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom
he revered as the favorites of Heaven, were frequently raised to
the government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret
councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been
indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and
that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a
want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion.
A system of government was therefore instituted, which was
evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great
cities of the empire, the temples were repaired and beautified by
the order of Maximin, and the officiating priests of the various
deities were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff
destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause of
paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the supreme
jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priests of the
province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor
himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these
new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and
opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates, and of the
sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses were
obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and
Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known intentions of the
court as the general sense of the people; solicited the emperor
to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his
clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians, and
humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be
excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The
answer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from the
citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and
devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the
obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays, by the
readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he
considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an
obligation. The priests as well as the magistrates were empowered
to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on
tables of brass; and though it was recommended to them to avoid
the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments
were inflicted on the refractory Christians. 176
176 (return) [ See Eusebius, l. viii. c. 14, l. ix. c. 2—8.
Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. These writers agree in representing
the arts of Maximin; but the former relates the execution of
several martyrs, while the latter expressly affirms, occidi
servos Dei vetuit. * Note: It is easy to reconcile them; it is
sufficient to quote the entire text of Lactantius: Nam cum
clementiam specie tenus profiteretur, occidi servos Dei vetuit,
debilitari jussit. Itaque confessoribus effodiebantur oculi,
amputabantur manus, nares vel auriculae desecabantur. Haec ille
moliens Constantini litteris deterretur. Dissimulavit ergo, et
tamen, si quis inciderit. mari occulte mergebatur. This detail of
torments inflicted on the Christians easily reconciles Lactantius
and Eusebius. Those who died in consequence of their tortures,
those who were plunged into the sea, might well pass for martyrs.
The mutilation of the words of Lactantius has alone given rise to
the apparent contradiction.—G. ——Eusebius. ch. vi., relates the
public martyrdom of the aged bishop of Emesa, with two others,
who were thrown to the wild beasts, the beheading of Peter,
bishop of Alexandria, with several others, and the death of
Lucian, presbyter of Antioch, who was carried to Numidia, and put
to death in prison. The contradiction is direct and undeniable,
for although Eusebius may have misplaced the former martyrdoms,
it may be doubted whether the authority of Maximin extended to
Nicomedia till after the death of Galerius. The last edict of
toleration issued by Maximin and published by Eusebius himself,
Eccl. Hist. ix. 9. confirms the statement of Lactantius.—M.]
The Asiatic Christians had every thing to dread from the severity
of a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with
such deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed
before the edicts published by the two Western emperors obliged
Maximin to suspend the prosecution of his designs: the civil war
which he so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his
attention; and the defeat and death of Maximin soon delivered the
church from the last and most implacable of her enemies. 177
177 (return) [ A few days before his death, he published a very
ample edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the severities
which the Christians suffered to the judges and governors, who
had misunderstood his intentions.See the edict of Eusebius, l.
ix. c. 10.]
In this general view of the persecution, which was first
authorized by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely
refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of
the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the
history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and
from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid
and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and
scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the
variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more
savage executioners, could inflict upon the human body. These
melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and
miracles destined either to delay the death, to celebrate the
triumph, or to discover the relics of those canonized saints who
suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I
ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to
believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius
himself, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever might
redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could
tend to the disgrace, of religion. 178 Such an acknowledgment
will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly
violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has not paid a
very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the
suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of
Eusebius, 1781 which was less tinctured with credulity, and more
practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his
contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when the
magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest
or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to
overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the
emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it
may be presumed, that every mode of torture which cruelty could
invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted
victims. 179 Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily
mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of the
Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice,
was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. 1.
The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines were
permitted by the humanity or the negligence of their keepers to
build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in the midst
of those dreary habitations. 180 2. The bishops were obliged to
check and to censure the forward zeal of the Christians, who
voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates.
Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who
blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious
death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement
would expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were
actuated by the less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful
subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms
which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners. 181
After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest
as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the
merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance of
time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and
the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs,
whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been
renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored,
were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every
difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most
extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honor of the church,
were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the
power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of
ecclesiastical history.
178 (return) [ Such is the fair deduction from two remarkable
passages in Eusebius, l. viii. c. 2, and de Martyr. Palestin. c.
12. The prudence of the historian has exposed his own character
to censure and suspicion. It was well known that he himself had
been thrown into prison; and it was suggested that he had
purchased his deliverance by some dishonorable compliance. The
reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in his presence, at
the council of Tyre. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques,
tom. viii. part i. p. 67.]
1781 (return) [ Historical criticism does not consist in
rejecting indiscriminately all the facts which do not agree with
a particular system, as Gibbon does in this chapter, in which,
except at the last extremity, he will not consent to believe a
martyrdom. Authorities are to be weighed, not excluded from
examination. Now, the Pagan historians justify in many places the
detail which have been transmitted to us by the historians of the
church, concerning the tortures endured by the Christians. Celsus
reproaches the Christians with holding their assemblies in
secret, on account of the fear inspired by their sufferings, “for
when you are arrested,” he says, “you are dragged to punishment:
and, before you are put to death, you have to suffer all kinds of
tortures.” Origen cont. Cels. l. i. ii. vi. viii. passing.
Libanius, the panegyrist of Julian, says, while speaking of the
Christians. “Those who followed a corrupt religion were in
continual apprehensions; they feared lest Julian should invent
tortures still more refined than those to which they had been
exposed before, as mutilation, burning alive, &c.; for the
emperors had inflicted upon them all these barbarities.” Lib.
Parent in Julian. ap. Fab. Bib. Graec. No. 9, No. 58, p. 283—G.
——This sentence of Gibbon has given rise to several learned
dissertation: Moller, de Fide Eusebii Caesar, &c., Havniae, 1813.
Danzius, de Eusebio Caes. Hist. Eccl. Scriptore, ejusque tide
historica recte aestimanda, &c., Jenae, 1815. Kestner Commentatio
de Eusebii Hist. Eccles. conditoris auctoritate et fide, &c. See
also Reuterdahl, de Fontibus Historiae Eccles. Eusebianae, Lond.
Goth., 1826. Gibbon’s inference may appear stronger than the text
will warrant, yet it is difficult, after reading the passages, to
dismiss all suspicion of partiality from the mind.—M.]
179 (return) [ The ancient, and perhaps authentic, account of the
sufferings of Tarachus and his companions, (Acta Sincera Ruinart,
p. 419—448,) is filled with strong expressions of resentment and
contempt, which could not fail of irritating the magistrate. The
behavior of Aedesius to Hierocles, praefect of Egypt, was still
more extraordinary. Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 5. * Note: M.
Guizot states, that the acts of Tarachus and his companion
contain nothing that appears dictated by violent feelings,
(sentiment outre.) Nothing can be more painful than the constant
attempt of Gibbon throughout this discussion, to find some flaw
in the virtue and heroism of the martyrs, some extenuation for
the cruelty of the persecutors. But truth must not be sacrificed
even to well-grounded moral indignation. Though the language of
these martyrs is in great part that of calm de fiance, of noble
firmness, yet there are many expressions which betray “resentment
and contempt.” “Children of Satan, worshippers of Devils,” is
their common appellation of the heathen. One of them calls the
judge another, one curses, and declares that he will curse the
Emperors, as pestilential and bloodthirsty tyrants, whom God will
soon visit in his wrath. On the other hand, though at first they
speak the milder language of persuasion, the cold barbarity of
the judges and officers might surely have called forth one
sentence of abhorrence from Gibbon. On the first unsatisfactory
answer, “Break his jaw,” is the order of the judge. They direct
and witness the most excruciating tortures; the people, as M.
Guizot observers, were so much revolted by the cruelty of Maximus
that when the martyrs appeared in the amphitheatre, fear seized
on all hearts, and general murmurs against the unjust judge rank
through the assembly. It is singular, at least, that Gibbon
should have quoted “as probably authentic,” acts so much
embellished with miracle as these of Tarachus are, particularly
towards the end.—M. * Note: Scarcely were the authorities
informed of this, than the president of the province, a man, says
Eusebius, harsh and cruel, banished the confessors, some to
Cyprus, others to different parts of Palestine, and ordered them
to be tormented by being set to the most painful labors. Four of
them, whom he required to abjure their faith and refused, were
burnt alive. Euseb. de Mart. Palest. c. xiii.—G. Two of these
were bishops; a fifth, Silvanus, bishop of Gaza, was the last
martyr; another, named John was blinded, but used to officiate,
and recite from memory long passages of the sacred writings—M.]
180 (return) [ Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13.]
181 (return) [ Augustin. Collat. Carthagin. Dei, iii. c. 13, ap.
Tillanant, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. v. part i. p. 46. The
controversy with the Donatists, has reflected some, though
perhaps a partial, light on the history of the African church.]
Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To
Constantine.—Part VIII.
The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and
torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of
an artful orator, 1811 that we are naturally induced to inquire
into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind; the number of
persons who suffered death in consequence of the edicts published
by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors. The recent
legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once
swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more
ancient writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal
effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending
to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were
permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel.
From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that
only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are assured,
by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, 182
that no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that
honorable appellation. 1821 As we are unacquainted with the
degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that
time, it is not in our power to draw any useful inferences from
the former of these facts: but the latter may serve to justify a
very important and probable conclusion. According to the
distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as
the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: 183 and since there
were some governors, who from a real or affected clemency had
preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful,
184 it is reasonable to believe, that the country which had given
birth to Christianity, produced at least the sixteenth part of
the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius
and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen
hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten
years of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one
hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the
provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the end
of two or three years, the rigor of the penal laws was either
suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman
empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicia,
sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand
persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more
numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of
Diocletian, than they had ever been in any former persecution,
this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate
the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their
lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into
the world.
1811 (return) [ Perhaps there never was an instance of an author
committing so deliberately the fault which he reprobates so
strongly in others. What is the dexterous management of the more
inartificial historians of Christianity, in exaggerating the
numbers of the martyrs, compared to the unfair address with which
Gibbon here quietly dismisses from the account all the horrible
and excruciating tortures which fell short of death? The reader
may refer to the xiith chapter (book viii.) of Eusebius for the
description and for the scenes of these tortures.—M.]
182 (return) [ Eusebius de Martyr. Palestin. c. 13. He closes his
narration by assuring us that these were the martyrdoms inflicted
in Palestine, during the whole course of the persecution. The 9th
chapter of his viiith book, which relates to the province of
Thebais in Egypt, may seem to contradict our moderate
computation; but it will only lead us to admire the artful
management of the historian. Choosing for the scene of the most
exquisite cruelty the most remote and sequestered country of the
Roman empire, he relates that in Thebais from ten to one hundred
persons had frequently suffered martyrdom in the same day. But
when he proceeds to mention his own journey into Egypt, his
language insensibly becomes more cautious and moderate. Instead
of a large, but definite number, he speaks of many Christians,
and most artfully selects two ambiguous words, which may signify
either what he had seen, or what he had heard; either the
expectation, or the execution of the punishment. Having thus
provided a secure evasion, he commits the equivocal passage to
his readers and translators; justly conceiving that their piety
would induce them to prefer the most favorable sense. There was
perhaps some malice in the remark of Theodorus Metochita, that
all who, like Eusebius, had been conversant with the Egyptians,
delighted in an obscure and intricate style. (See Valesius ad
loc.)]
1821 (return) [ This calculation is made from the martyrs, of
whom Eusebius speaks by name; but he recognizes a much greater
number. Thus the ninth and tenth chapters of his work are
entitled, “Of Antoninus, Zebinus, Germanus, and other martyrs; of
Peter the monk. of Asclepius the Maroionite, and other martyrs.”
[Are these vague contents of chapters very good authority?—M.]
Speaking of those who suffered under Diocletian, he says, “I will
only relate the death of one of these, from which, the reader may
divine what befell the rest.” Hist. Eccl. viii. 6. [This relates
only to the martyrs in the royal household.—M.] Dodwell had made,
before Gibbon, this calculation and these objections; but Ruinart
(Act. Mart. Pref p. 27, et seq.) has answered him in a peremptory
manner: Nobis constat Eusebium in historia infinitos passim
martyres admisisse. quamvis revera paucorum nomina recensuerit.
Nec alium Eusebii interpretem quam ipsummet Eusebium proferimus,
qui (l. iii. c. 33) ait sub Trajano plurimosa ex fidelibus
martyrii certamen subiisse (l. v. init.) sub Antonino et Vero
innumerabiles prope martyres per universum orbem enituisse
affirmat. (L. vi. c. 1.) Severum persecutionem concitasse refert,
in qua per omnes ubique locorum Ecclesias, ab athletis pro
pietate certantibus, illustria confecta fuerunt martyria. Sic de
Decii, sic de Valeriani, persecutionibus loquitur, quae an
Dodwelli faveant conjectionibus judicet aequus lector. Even in
the persecutions which Gibbon has represented as much more mild
than that of Diocletian, the number of martyrs appears much
greater than that to which he limits the martyrs of the latter:
and this number is attested by incontestable monuments. I will
quote but one example. We find among the letters of St. Cyprian
one from Lucianus to Celerinus, written from the depth of a
prison, in which Lucianus names seventeen of his brethren dead,
some in the quarries, some in the midst of tortures some of
starvation in prison. Jussi sumus (he proceeds) secundum prae
ceptum imperatoris, fame et siti necari, et reclusi sumus in
duabus cellis, ta ut nos afficerent fame et siti et ignis
vapore.—G.]
183 (return) [ When Palestine was divided into three, the
praefecture of the East contained forty-eight provinces. As the
ancient distinctions of nations were long since abolished, the
Romans distributed the provinces according to a general
proportion of their extent and opulence.]
184 (return) [ Ut gloriari possint nullam se innocentium
poremisse, nam et ipse audivi aloquos gloriantes, quia
administratio sua, in hac paris merit incruenta. Lactant.
Institur. Divin v. 11.]
We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which
obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting,
without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or
devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still
be acknowledged, that the Christians, in the course of their
intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on
each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.
During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the
Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city
extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the
Latin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected,
and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,
was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from
the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the popular
character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence
the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres,
and the institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were
animated by the love of civil as well as of religious freedom,
the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that of
the clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of
spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one
hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to have
suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary
number is attested by Grotius, 185 a man of genius and learning,
who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects,
and who composed the annals of his own age and country, at a time
when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of
intelligence, and increased the danger of detection.
If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority of
Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants, who
were executed in a single province and a single reign, far
exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three
centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if the improbability of
the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if
Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and
sufferings of the Reformers; 186 we shall be naturally led to
inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and
imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit
can be assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer,
1861 who, under the protection of Constantine, enjoyed the
exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on
the Christians by the vanquished rivals or disregarded
predecessors of their gracious sovereign.
185 (return) [ Grot. Annal. de Rebus Belgicis, l. i. p. 12, edit.
fol.]
186 (return) [ Fra Paola (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, l.
iii.) reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to 50,000. In
learning and moderation Fra Paola was not inferior to Grotius.
The priority of time gives some advantage to the evidence of the
former, which he loses, on the other hand, by the distance of
Venice from the Netherlands.]
1861 (return) [ Eusebius and the author of the Treatise de
Mortibus Persecutorum. It is deeply to be regretted that the
history of this period rest so much on the loose and, it must be
admitted, by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius.
Ecclesiastical history is a solemn and melancholy lesson that the
best, even the most sacred, cause will eventually the least
departure from truth!—M.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part I.
Foundation Of Constantinople.—Political System Constantine, And
His Successors.—Military Discipline.—The Palace.—The Finances.
The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the
greatness, and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of
Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conquerer
bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman empire; a
new capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the
innovations which he established have been embraced and
consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great
Constantine and his sons is filled with important events; but the
historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless
he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are
connected only by the order of time. He will describe the
political institutions that gave strength and stability to the
empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions
which hastened its decline. He will adopt the division unknown to
the ancients of civil and ecclesiastical affairs: the victory of
the Christians, and their intestine discord, will supply copious
and distinct materials both for edification and for scandal.
After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival
proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in
future times, the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire
and religion of Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of
policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from
the ancient seat of government, had acquired additional weight by
the example of his successors, and the habits of forty years.
Rome was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which
had once acknowledged her supremacy; and the country of the
Caesars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince,
born in the neighborhood of the Danube, educated in the courts
and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions
of Britain. The Italians, who had received Constantine as their
deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes
condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome; but
they were seldom honored with the presence of their new
sovereign. During the vigor of his age, Constantine, according to
the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity,
or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive
dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either
against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually
reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he
began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent
station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the
choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of
Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who
dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of
jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly
supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty. With these views,
Diocletian had selected and embellished the residence of
Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by
the protector of the church: and Constantine was not insensible
to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the
glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war
against Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate,
both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position
of Byzantium; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by
nature against a hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on
every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse. Many ages
before Constantine, one of the most judicious historians of
antiquity [1 had described the advantages of a situation, from
whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea,
and the honors of a flourishing and independent republic. 2
2 (return) [ The navigator Byzas, who was styled the son of
Neptune, founded the city 656 years before the Christian aera.
His followers were drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was
afterwards rebuild and fortified by the Spartan general
Pausanias. See Scaliger Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducange,
Constantinopolis, l. i part i. cap 15, 16. With regard to the
wars of the Byzantines against Philip, the Gauls, and the kings
of Bithynia, we should trust none but the ancient writers who
lived before the greatness of the Imperial city had excited a
spirit of flattery and fiction.]
If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the
august name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city
may be represented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse
point, which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia,
meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The
northern side of the city is bounded by the harbor; and the
southern is washed by the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara. The basis
of the triangle is opposed to the west, and terminates the
continent of Europe. But the admirable form and division of the
circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample
explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood. The winding
channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow with a rapid
and incessant course towards the Mediterranean, received the
appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the
history, than in the fables, of antiquity. 3 A crowd of temples
and of votive altars, profusely scattered along its steep and
woody banks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the
devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the
Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On
these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of
Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; 4 and of the sylvan
reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the
cestus. 5 The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the
Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the poets,
had once floated on the face of the waters; and were destined by
the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of
profane curiosity. 6 From the Cyanean rocks to the point and
harbor of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus extends
about sixteen miles, 7 and its most ordinary breadth may be
computed at about one mile and a half. The new castles of Europe
and Asia are constructed, on either continent, upon the
foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter
Urius. The old castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command the
narrowest part of the channel in a place where the opposite banks
advance within five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses
were destroyed and strengthened by Mahomet the Second, when he
meditated the siege of Constantinople: 8 but the Turkish
conqueror was most probably ignorant, that near two thousand
years before his reign, Darius had chosen the same situation to
connect the two continents by a bridge of boats. 9 At a small
distance from the old castles we discover the little town of
Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the
Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to
open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and Chalcedon.
The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks, a few years
before the former; and the blindness of its founders, who
overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has
been stigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt. 10
3 (return) [ The Bosphorus has been very minutely described by
Dionysius of Byzantium, who lived in the time of Domitian,
(Hudson, Geograph Minor, tom. iii.,) and by Gilles or Gyllius, a
French traveller of the XVIth century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.)
seems to have used his own eyes, and the learning of Gyllius. Add
Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosphoros, 8vo.—M.]
4 (return) [ There are very few conjectures so happy as that of
Le Clere, (Bibliotehque Universelle, tom. i. p. 148,) who
supposes that the harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or
Phoenician name of those insects, their noisy flight, the stench
and devastation which they occasion, and the north wind which
drives them into the sea, all contribute to form the striking
resemblance.]
5 (return) [ The residence of Amycus was in Asia, between the old
and the new castles, at a place called Laurus Insana. That of
Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and the
Black Sea. See Gyllius de Bosph. l. ii. c. 23. Tournefort, Lettre
XV.]
6 (return) [ The deception was occasioned by several pointed
rocks, alternately sovered and abandoned by the waves. At present
there are two small islands, one towards either shore; that of
Europe is distinguished by the column of Pompey.]
7 (return) [ The ancients computed one hundred and twenty stadia,
or fifteen Roman miles. They measured only from the new castles,
but they carried the straits as far as the town of Chalcedon.]
8 (return) [ Ducas. Hist. c. 34. Leunclavius Hist. Turcica
Mussulmanica, l. xv. p. 577. Under the Greek empire these castles
were used as state prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe,
or towers of oblivion.]
9 (return) [ Darius engraved in Greek and Assyrian letters, on
two marble columns, the names of his subject nations, and the
amazing numbers of his land and sea forces. The Byzantines
afterwards transported these columns into the city, and used them
for the altars of their tutelar deities. Herodotus, l. iv. c.
87.]
10 (return) [ Namque arctissimo inter Europam Asiamque divortio
Byzantium in extrema Europa posuere Greci, quibus, Pythium
Apollinem consulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum
est, quaererent sedem oecerum terris adversam. Ea ambage
Chalcedonii monstrabantur quod priores illuc advecti, praevisa
locorum utilitate pejora legissent Tacit. Annal. xii. 63.]
The harbor of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm
of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the
denomination of the Golden Horn. The curve which it describes
might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it should seem,
with more propriety, to that of an ox. 11 The epithet of golden
was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the
most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of
Constantinople. The River Lycus, formed by the conflux of two
little streams, pours into the harbor a perpetual supply of fresh
water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite the
periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that
convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt
in those seas, the constant depth of the harbor allows goods to
be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats; and it
has been observed, that in many places the largest vessels may
rest their prows against the houses, while their sterns are
floating in the water. 12 From the mouth of the Lycus to that of
the harbor, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles in
length. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a
strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the
port and city from the attack of a hostile navy. 13
11 (return) [ Strabo, l. vii. p. 492, [edit. Casaub.] Most of the
antlers are now broken off; or, to speak less figuratively, most
of the recesses of the harbor are filled up. See Gill. de
Bosphoro Thracio, l. i. c. 5.]
12 (return) [ Procopius de Aedificiis, l. i. c. 5. His
description is confirmed by modern travellers. See Thevenot, part
i. l. i. c. 15. Tournefort, Lettre XII. Niebuhr, Voyage d’Arabie,
p. 22.]
13 (return) [ See Ducange, C. P. l. i. part i. c. 16, and his
Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 289. The chain was drawn from
the Acropolis near the modern Kiosk, to the tower of Galata; and
was supported at convenient distances by large wooden piles.]
Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe
and Asia, receding on either side, enclose the sea of Marmara,
which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis.
The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of
the Hellespont is about one hundred and twenty miles.
Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the
Propontis, may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and
Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount
Olympus, covered with eternal snows. 14 They leave on the left a
deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the
Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small islands
of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli;
where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe, is again
contracted into a narrow channel.
14 (return) [ Thevenot (Voyages au Levant, part i. l. i. c. 14)
contracts the measure to 125 small Greek miles. Belon
(Observations, l. ii. c. 1.) gives a good description of the
Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression of one
day and one night’s sail. When Sandy’s (Travels, p. 21) talks of
150 furlongs in length, as well as breadth we can only suppose
some mistake of the press in the text of that judicious
traveller.]
The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have
surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about
sixty miles for the winding course, and about three miles for the
ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. 15 But the
narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the
old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestus and Abydus. It
was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the
flood for the possession of his mistress. 16 It was here
likewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite
banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes imposed a
stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose of transporting into
Europe a hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians. 17 A sea
contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve
the singular epithet of broad, which Homer, as well as Orpheus,
has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. 1711 But our ideas of
greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and especially
the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the
windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which
appeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost
the remembrance of the sea; and his fancy painted those
celebrated straits, with all the attributes of a mighty river
flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and inland
country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself
into the Aegean or Archipelago. 18 Ancient Troy, 19 seated on a
an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the
Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of waters from
the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander.
The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the shore from
the Sigaean to the Rhaetean promontory; and the flanks of the
army were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the
banners of Agamemnon. The first of those promontories was
occupied by Achilles with his invincible myrmidons, and the
dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had
fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride, and to the
ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the
ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove
and of Hector; and the citizens of the rising town of Rhaeteum
celebrated his memory with divine honors. 20 Before Constantine
gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, he had
conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on this
celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derived their fabulous
origin. The extensive plain which lies below ancient Troy,
towards the Rhaetean promontory and the tomb of Ajax, was first
chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking was soon
relinquished the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers
attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the
Hellespont. 21
15 (return) [ See an admirable dissertation of M. d’Anville upon
the Hellespont or Dardanelles, in the Memoires tom. xxviii. p.
318—346. Yet even that ingenious geographer is too fond of
supposing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the purpose of
rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia
employed by Herodotus in the description of the Euxine, the
Bosphorus, &c., (l. iv. c. 85,) must undoubtedly be all of the
same species; but it seems impossible to reconcile them either
with truth or with each other.]
16 (return) [ The oblique distance between Sestus and Abydus was
thirty stadia. The improbable tale of Hero and Leander is exposed
by M. Mahudel, but is defended on the authority of poets and
medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Academie des Inscriptions, tom.
vii. Hist. p. 74. elem. p. 240. Note: The practical illustration
of the possibility of Leander’s feat by Lord Byron and other
English swimmers is too well known to need particularly
reference—M.]
17 (return) [ See the seventh book of Herodotus, who has erected
an elegant trophy to his own fame and to that of his country. The
review appears to have been made with tolerable accuracy; but the
vanity, first of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greeks, was
interested to magnify the armament and the victory. I should much
doubt whether the invaders have ever outnumbered the men of any
country which they attacked.]
1711 (return) [ Gibbon does not allow greater width between the
two nearest points of the shores of the Hellespont than between
those of the Bosphorus; yet all the ancient writers speak of the
Hellespontic strait as broader than the other: they agree in
giving it seven stadia in its narrowest width, (Herod. in Melp.
c. 85. Polym. c. 34. Strabo, p. 591. Plin. iv. c. 12.) which make
875 paces. It is singular that Gibbon, who in the fifteenth note
of this chapter reproaches d’Anville with being fond of supposing
new and perhaps imaginary measures, has here adopted the peculiar
measurement which d’Anville has assigned to the stadium. This
great geographer believes that the ancients had a stadium of
fifty-one toises, and it is that which he applies to the walls of
Babylon. Now, seven of these stadia are equal to about 500 paces,
7 stadia = 2142 feet: 500 paces = 2135 feet 5 inches.—G. See
Rennell, Geog. of Herod. p. 121. Add Ukert, Geographie der
Griechen und Romer, v. i. p. 2, 71.—M.]
18 (return) [ See Wood’s Observations on Homer, p. 320. I have,
with pleasure, selected this remark from an author who in general
seems to have disappointed the expectation of the public as a
critic, and still more as a traveller. He had visited the banks
of the Hellespont; and had read Strabo; he ought to have
consulted the Roman itineraries. How was it possible for him to
confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas, (Observations, p. 340, 341,)
two cities which were sixteen miles distant from each other? *
Note: Compare Walpole’s Memoirs on Turkey, v. i. p. 101. Dr.
Clarke adopted Mr. Walpole’s interpretation of the salt
Hellespont. But the old interpretation is more graphic and
Homeric. Clarke’s Travels, ii. 70.—M.]
19 (return) [ Demetrius of Scepsis wrote sixty books on thirty
lines of Homer’s catalogue. The XIIIth Book of Strabo is
sufficient for our curiosity.]
20 (return) [ Strabo, l. xiii. p. 595, [890, edit. Casaub.] The
disposition of the ships, which were drawn upon dry land, and the
posts of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly described by Homer.
See Iliad, ix. 220.]
21 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. [c. 30,] p. 105. Sozomen, l. ii. c.
3. Theophanes, p. 18. Nicephorus Callistus, l. vii. p. 48.
Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 6. Zosimus places the new city
between Ilium and Alexandria, but this apparent difference may be
reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the
foundation of Constantinople, Thessalonica is mentioned by
Cedrenus, (p. 283,) and Sardica by Zonaras, as the intended
capital. They both suppose with very little probability, that the
emperor, if he had not been prevented by a prodigy, would have
repeated the mistake of the blind Chalcedonians.]
We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of
Constantinople; which appears to have been formed by nature for
the centre and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in the
forty-first degree of latitude, the Imperial city commanded, from
her seven hills, 22 the opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the
climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile, the harbor
secure and capacious; and the approach on the side of the
continent was of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and
the Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of
Constantinople; and the prince who possessed those important
passages could always shut them against a naval enemy, and open
them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern
provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of
Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the
preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the
Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and
despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates
of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital still
enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production which
could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerous
inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which
languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a
rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful
harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an
inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in
their stated seasons, without skill, and almost without labor. 23
But when the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade,
they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of
the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediterranean.
Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of
Germany and Scythia, and far as the sources of the Tanais and the
Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe
or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the
farthest India, were brought by the varying winds into the port
of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted the commerce of
the ancient world. 24
[See Basilica Of Constantinople]
22 (return) [ Pocock’s Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii.
p. 127. His plan of the seven hills is clear and accurate. That
traveller is seldom unsatisfactory.]
23 (return) [ See Belon, Observations, c. 72—76. Among a variety
of different species, the Pelamides, a sort of Thunnies, were the
most celebrated. We may learn from Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus,
that the profits of the fishery constituted the principal revenue
of Byzantium.]
24 (return) [ See the eloquent description of Busbequius,
epistol. i. p. 64. Est in Europa; habet in conspectu Asiam,
Egyptum. Africamque a dextra: quae tametsi contiguae non sunt,
maris tamen navigandique commoditate veluti junguntur. A sinistra
vero Pontus est Euxinus, &c.]
The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a
single spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine.
But as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every
age, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of
great cities, 25 the emperor was desirous of ascribing his
resolution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of human
policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine
wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct
posterity, that in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the
everlasting foundations of Constantinople: 26 and though he has
not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial
inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his
modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of
succeeding writers; who describe the nocturnal vision which
appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within the
walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable
matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was
suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands
adorned with all the symbols of Imperial greatness. 27 The
monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed,
without hesitation, the will of Heaven. The day which gave birth
to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such
ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous superstition; 28
and though Constantine might omit some rites which savored too
strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a
deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the
spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor
himself led the solemn procession; and directed the line, which
was traced as the boundary of the destined capital: till the
growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the
assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe, that he had
already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. “I shall
still advance,” replied Constantine, “till He, the invisible
guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop.” 29 Without
presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this
extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the more
humble task of describing the extent and limits of
Constantinople. 30
25 (return) [ Datur haec venia antiquitati, ut miscendo humana
divinis, primordia urbium augustiora faciat. T. Liv. in prooem.]
26 (return) [ He says in one of his laws, pro commoditate urbis
quam aeteras nomine, jubente Deo, donavimus. Cod. Theodos. l.
xiii. tit. v. leg. 7.]
27 (return) [ The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the author of
the Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague and
general expressions. For a more particular account of the vision,
we are obliged to have recourse to such Latin writers as William
of Malmesbury. See Ducange, C. P. l. i. p. 24, 25.]
28 (return) [ See Plutarch in Romul. tom. i. p. 49, edit. Bryan.
Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been dug for that
purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each of the
settlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus adopted
his new country.]
29 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 9. This incident, though
borrowed from a suspected writer, is characteristic and
probable.]
30 (return) [ See in the Memoires de l’Academie, tom. xxxv p.
747-758, a dissertation of M. d’Anville on the extent of
Constantinople. He takes the plan inserted in the Imperium
Orientale of Banduri as the most complete; but, by a series of
very nice observations, he reduced the extravagant proportion of
the scale, and instead of 9500, determines the circumference of
the city as consisting of about 7800 French toises.]
In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the
Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven
hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own
measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on
the foundations of a Grecian republic; but it may be supposed
that the Byzantines were tempted by the conveniency of the harbor
to extend their habitations on that side beyond the modern limits
of the Seraglio. The new walls of Constantine stretched from the
port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the
triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient
fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five
of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approach
Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful
order. 31 About a century after the death of the founder, the new
buildings, extending on one side up the harbor, and on the other
along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the
sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh hill. The necessity of
protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the
barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital
with an adequate and permanent enclosure of walls. 32 From the
eastern promontory to the golden gate, the extreme length of
Constantinople was about three Roman miles; 33 the circumference
measured between ten and eleven; and the surface might be
computed as equal to about two thousand English acres. It is
impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of
modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of
Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European, and
even of the Asiatic coast. 34 But the suburbs of Pera and Galata,
though situate beyond the harbor, may deserve to be considered as
a part of the city; 35 and this addition may perhaps authorize
the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns sixteen Greek
(about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference of his native
city. 36 Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an Imperial
residence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes,
37 to ancient Rome, to London, and even to Paris. 38
31 (return) [ Codinus, Antiquitat. Const. p. 12. He assigns the
church of St. Anthony as the boundary on the side of the harbor.
It is mentioned in Ducange, l. iv. c. 6; but I have tried,
without success, to discover the exact place where it was
situated.]
32 (return) [ The new wall of Theodosius was constructed in the
year 413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and rebuilt
in three months by the diligence of the praefect Cyrus. The
suburb of the Blanchernae was first taken into the city in the
reign of Heraclius Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 10, 11.]
33 (return) [ The measurement is expressed in the Notitia by
14,075 feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were Greek
feet, the proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by
M. d’Anville. He compares the 180 feet with 78 Hashemite cubits,
which in different writers are assigned for the heights of St.
Sophia. Each of these cubits was equal to 27 French inches.]
34 (return) [ The accurate Thevenot (l. i. c. 15) walked in one
hour and three quarters round two of the sides of the triangle,
from the Kiosk of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D’Anville
examines with care, and receives with confidence, this decisive
testimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles.
The extravagant computation of Tournefort (Lettre XI) of
thirty-tour or thirty miles, without including Scutari, is a
strange departure from his usual character.]
35 (return) [ The sycae, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth
region, and were very much embellished by Justinian. It has since
borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former
is obvious; that of the latter is unknown. See Ducange, Const. l.
i. c. 22, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. iv. c. 10.]
36 (return) [ One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be
translated into modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 660,
sometimes only 600 French toises. See D’Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 53.]
37 (return) [ When the ancient texts, which describe the size of
Babylon and Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and
the measures ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled
the great but not incredible circumference of about twenty-five
or thirty miles. Compare D’Anville, Mem. de l’Academie, tom.
xxviii. p. 235, with his Description de l’Egypte, p. 201, 202.]
38 (return) [ If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal
squares of 50 French toises, the former contains 850, and the
latter 1160, of those divisions.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part II.
The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal
monument of the glories of his reign could employ in the
prosecution of that great work, the wealth, the labor, and all
that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions. Some
estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with Imperial
liberality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the allowance
of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the
construction of the walls, the porticos, and the aqueducts. 39
The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the
celebrated quarries of white marble in the little island of
Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of materials, ready
to be conveyed, by the convenience of a short water carriage, to
the harbor of Byzantium. 40 A multitude of laborers and
artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil:
but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered, that, in the
decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his
architects bore a very unequal proportion to the greatness of his
designs. The magistrates of the most distant provinces were
therefore directed to institute schools, to appoint professors,
and by the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in the
study and practice of architecture a sufficient number of
ingenious youths, who had received a liberal education. 41 The
buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the
reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the
hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and
Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus,
surpassed indeed the power of a Roman emperor; but the immortal
productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed
without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his
commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their
most valuable ornaments. 42 The trophies of memorable wars, the
objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the
gods and heroes, of the sages and poets, of ancient times,
contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople; and gave
occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, 43 who
observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting
except the souls of the illustrious men whom these admirable
monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in the city
of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire, when
the human mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that
we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes.
39 (return) [ Six hundred centenaries, or sixty thousand pounds’
weight of gold. This sum is taken from Codinus, Antiquit. Const.
p. 11; but unless that contemptible author had derived his
information from some purer sources, he would probably have been
unacquainted with so obsolete a mode of reckoning.]
40 (return) [ For the forests of the Black Sea, consult
Tournefort, Lettre XVI. for the marble quarries of Proconnesus,
see Strabo, l. xiii. p. 588, (881, edit. Casaub.) The latter had
already furnished the materials of the stately buildings of
Cyzicus.]
41 (return) [ See the Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iv. leg. 1.
This law is dated in the year 334, and was addressed to the
praefect of Italy, whose jurisdiction extended over Africa. The
commentary of Godefroy on the whole title well deserves to be
consulted.]
42 (return) [ Constantinopolis dedicatur poene omnium urbium
nuditate. Hieronym. Chron. p. 181. See Codinus, p. 8, 9. The
author of the Antiquitat. Const. l. iii. (apud Banduri Imp.
Orient. tom. i. p. 41) enumerates Rome, Sicily, Antioch, Athens,
and a long list of other cities. The provinces of Greece and Asia
Minor may be supposed to have yielded the richest booty.]
43 (return) [ Hist. Compend. p. 369. He describes the statue, or
rather bust, of Homer with a degree of taste which plainly
indicates that Cadrenus copied the style of a more fortunate
age.]
During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent
on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the
memory of his success, he chose the same advantageous position
for the principal Forum; 44 which appears to have been of a
circular, or rather elliptical form. The two opposite entrances
formed triumphal arches; the porticos, which enclosed it on every
side, were filled with statues; and the centre of the Forum was
occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilated fragment is now
degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar. This column was
erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high; and was
composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about
ten feet in height, and about thirty-three in circumference. 45
On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet
from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was a
bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of
Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist
had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards
interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in
his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown
of rays glittering on his head. 46 The Circus, or Hippodrome, was
a stately building about four hundred paces in length, and one
hundred in breadth. 47 The space between the two metoe or goals
were filled with statues and obelisks; and we may still remark a
very singular fragment of antiquity; the bodies of three
serpents, twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads
had once supported the golden tripod which, after the defeat of
Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the victorious
Greeks. 48 The beauty of the Hippodrome has been long since
defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish conquerors; 4811 but,
under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a
place of exercise for their horses. From the throne, whence the
emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding staircase 49
descended to the palace; a magnificent edifice, which scarcely
yielded to the residence of Rome itself, and which, together with
the dependent courts, gardens, and porticos, covered a
considerable extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis
between the Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. 50 We might
likewise celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of
Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched, by the munificence of
Constantine, with lofty columns, various marbles, and above
threescore statues of bronze. 51 But we should deviate from the
design of this history, if we attempted minutely to describe the
different buildings or quarters of the city. It may be sufficient
to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great
capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous
inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A
particular description, composed about a century after its
foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus,
two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-three
private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight
aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the
meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches,
fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and
eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty, deserved to
be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian inhabitants. 52
44 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 106. Chron. Alexandrin. vel
Paschal. p. 284, Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24. Even the last of
those writers seems to confound the Forum of Constantine with the
Augusteum, or court of the palace. I am not satisfied whether I
have properly distinguished what belongs to the one and the
other.]
45 (return) [ The most tolerable account of this column is given
by Pocock. Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p. 131. But
it is still in many instances perplexed and unsatisfactory.]
46 (return) [ Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24, p. 76, and his notes
ad Alexiad. p. 382. The statue of Constantine or Apollo was
thrown down under the reign of Alexius Comnenus. * Note: On this
column (says M. von Hammer) Constantine, with singular
shamelessness, placed his own statue with the attributes of
Apollo and Christ. He substituted the nails of the Passion for
the rays of the sun. Such is the direct testimony of the author
of the Antiquit. Constantinop. apud Banduri. Constantine was
replaced by the “great and religious” Julian, Julian, by
Theodosius. A. D. 1412, the key stone was loosened by an
earthquake. The statue fell in the reign of Alexius Comnenus, and
was replaced by the cross. The Palladium was said to be buried
under the pillar. Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporos,
i. 162.—M.]
47 (return) [ Tournefort (Lettre XII.) computes the Atmeidan at
four hundred paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet
each, it was three hundred toises in length, about forty more
than the great circus of Rome. See D’Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 73.]
48 (return) [ The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice
if they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be
alleged on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const. p.
668. Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 13. 1. The original
consecration of the tripod and pillar in the temple of Delphi may
be proved from Herodotus and Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus
agrees with the three ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius,
Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred ornaments of the temple of
Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of
Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the
Hippodrome is particularly mentioned. 3. All the European
travellers who have visited Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to
Pocock, describe it in the same place, and almost in the same
manner; the differences between them are occasioned only by the
injuries which it has sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the
Second broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke
of his battle axe Thevenot, l. i. c. 17. * Note: See note 75, ch.
lxviii. for Dr. Clarke’s rejection of Thevenot’s authority. Von
Hammer, however, repeats the story of Thevenot without
questioning its authenticity.—M.]
4811 (return) [ In 1808 the Janizaries revolted against the
vizier Mustapha Baisactar, who wished to introduce a new system
of military organization, besieged the quarter of the Hippodrome,
in which stood the palace of the viziers, and the Hippodrome was
consumed in the conflagration.—G.]
49 (return) [ The Latin name Cochlea was adopted by the Greeks,
and very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history. Ducange,
Const. i. c. l, p. 104.]
50 (return) [ There are three topographical points which indicate
the situation of the palace. 1. The staircase which connected it
with the Hippodrome or Atmeidan. 2. A small artificial port on
the Propontis, from whence there was an easy ascent, by a flight
of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace. 3. The Augusteum
was a spacious court, one side of which was occupied by the front
of the palace, and another by the church of St. Sophia.]
51 (return) [ Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths
were a part of old Byzantium. The difficulty of assigning their
true situation has not been felt by Ducange. History seems to
connect them with St. Sophia and the palace; but the original
plan inserted in Banduri places them on the other side of the
city, near the harbor. For their beauties, see Chron. Paschal. p.
285, and Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 7. Christodorus (see
Antiquitat. Const. l. vii.) composed inscriptions in verse for
each of the statues. He was a Theban poet in genius as well as in
birth:—Baeotum in crasso jurares aere natum. * Note: Yet, for his
age, the description of the statues of Hecuba and of Homer are by
no means without merit. See Antholog. Palat. (edit. Jacobs) i.
37—M.]
52 (return) [ See the Notitia. Rome only reckoned 1780 large
houses, domus; but the word must have had a more dignified
signification. No insulae are mentioned at Constantinople. The
old capital consisted of 42 streets, the new of 322.]
The populousness of his favored city was the next and most
serious object of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages
which succeeded the translation of the empire, the remote and the
immediate consequences of that memorable event were strangely
confounded by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the
Latins. 53 It was asserted, and believed, that all the noble
families of Rome, the senate, and the equestrian order, with
their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to the
banks of the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers and
plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient
capital; and that the lands of Italy, long since converted into
gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants. 54
In the course of this history, such exaggerations will be reduced
to their just value: yet, since the growth of Constantinople
cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of
industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colony was
raised at the expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Many
opulent senators of Rome, and of the eastern provinces, were
probably invited by Constantine to adopt for their country the
fortunate spot, which he had chosen for his own residence. The
invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished from
commands; and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and
cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favorites the palaces
which he had built in the several quarters of the city, assigned
them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity, 55 and
alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia to grant hereditary
estates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital.
56 But these encouragements and obligations soon became
superfluous, and were gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of
government is fixed, a considerable part of the public revenue
will be expended by the prince himself, by his ministers, by the
officers of justice, and by the domestics of the palace. The most
wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful
motives of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third
and more numerous class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed,
of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, who derive their
subsistence from their own labor, and from the wants or luxury of
the superior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinople
disputed with Rome itself the preeminence of riches and numbers.
New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard
to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of
narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of
carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to
contain the increasing people; and the additional foundations,
which, on either side, were advanced into the sea, might alone
have composed a very considerable city. 57
53 (return) [ Liutprand, Legatio ad Imp. Nicephornm, p. 153. The
modern Greeks have strangely disfigured the antiquities of
Constantinople. We might excuse the errors of the Turkish or
Arabian writers; but it is somewhat astonishing, that the Greeks,
who had access to the authentic materials preserved in their own
language, should prefer fiction to truth, and loose tradition to
genuine history. In a single page of Codinus we may detect twelve
unpardonable mistakes; the reconciliation of Severus and Niger,
the marriage of their son and daughter, the siege of Byzantium by
the Macedonians, the invasion of the Gauls, which recalled
Severus to Rome, the sixty years which elapsed from his death to
the foundation of Constantinople, &c.]
54 (return) [ Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c.
17.]
55 (return) [ Themist. Orat. iii. p. 48, edit. Hardouin. Sozomen,
l. ii. c. 3. Zosim. l. ii. p. 107. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. If
we could credit Codinus, (p. 10,) Constantine built houses for
the senators on the exact model of their Roman palaces, and
gratified them, as well as himself, with the pleasure of an
agreeable surprise; but the whole story is full of fictions and
inconsistencies.]
56 (return) [ The law by which the younger Theodosius, in the
year 438, abolished this tenure, may be found among the Novellae
of that emperor at the end of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. nov.
12. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 371) has
evidently mistaken the nature of these estates. With a grant from
the Imperial demesnes, the same condition was accepted as a
favor, which would justly have been deemed a hardship, if it had
been imposed upon private property.]
57 (return) [ The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen,
and of Agathias, which relate to the increase of buildings and
inhabitants at Constantinople, are collected and connected by
Gyllius de Byzant. l. i. c. 3. Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr.
Anthem. 56, p. 279, edit. Sirmond) describes the moles that were
pushed forwards into the sea, they consisted of the famous
Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water.]
The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn
or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest
citizens of Rome from the necessity of labor. The magnificence of
the first Caesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of
Constantinople: 58 but his liberality, however it might excite
the applause of the people, has in curred the censure of
posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert
their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been purchased
with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus,
that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the
memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not
be excused by any consideration either of public or private
interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for
the benefit of his new capital, was applied to feed a lazy and
insolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an
industrious province. 59 5911 Some other regulations of this
emperor are less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of
notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen regions or
quarters, 60 dignified the public council with the appellation of
senate, 61 communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy,
62 and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, the first
and most favored daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent
still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy, which was
due to her age, her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former
greatness. 63
58 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ii. c. 3. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 9.
Codin. Antiquitat. Const. p. 8. It appears by Socrates, l. ii. c.
13, that the daily allowance of the city consisted of eight
myriads of which we may either translate, with Valesius, by the
words modii of corn, or consider us expressive of the number of
loaves of bread. * Note: At Rome the poorer citizens who received
these gratuities were inscribed in a register; they had only a
personal right. Constantine attached the right to the houses in
his new capital, to engage the lower classes of the people to
build their houses with expedition. Codex Therodos. l. xiv.—G.]
59 (return) [ See Cod. Theodos. l. xiii. and xiv., and Cod.
Justinian. Edict. xii. tom. ii. p. 648, edit. Genev. See the
beautiful complaint of Rome in the poem of Claudian de Bell.
Gildonico, ver. 46-64.——Cum subiit par Roma mihi, divisaque
sumsit Aequales aurora togas; Aegyptia rura In partem cessere
novam.]
5911 (return) [ This was also at the expense of Rome. The emperor
ordered that the fleet of Alexandria should transport to
Constantinople the grain of Egypt which it carried before to
Rome: this grain supplied Rome during four months of the year.
Claudian has described with force the famine occasioned by this
measure:—
Haec nobis, haec ante dabas; nunc pabula tantum Roma precor:
miserere tuae; pater optime, gentis: Extremam defende famem.
Claud. de Bell. Gildon. v. 34.—G.
It was scarcely this measure. Gildo had cut off the African as
well as the Egyptian supplies.—M.]
60 (return) [ The regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the
code of Justinian, and particularly described in the Notitia of
the younger Theodosius; but as the four last of them are not
included within the wall of Constantine, it may be doubted
whether this division of the city should be referred to the
founder.]
61 (return) [ Senatum constituit secundi ordinis; Claros vocavit.
Anonym Valesian. p. 715. The senators of old Rome were styled
Clarissimi. See a curious note of Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin.
xxii. 9. From the eleventh epistle of Julian, it should seem that
the place of senator was considered as a burden, rather than as
an honor; but the Abbe de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p.
371) has shown that this epistle could not relate to
Constantinople. Might we not read, instead of the celebrated name
of the obscure but more probable word Bisanthe or Rhoedestus, now
Rhodosto, was a small maritime city of Thrace. See Stephan. Byz.
de Urbibus, p. 225, and Cellar. Geograph. tom. i. p. 849.]
62 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xiv. 13. The commentary of
Godefroy (tom. v. p. 220) is long, but perplexed; nor indeed is
it easy to ascertain in what the Jus Italicum could consist,
after the freedom of the city had been communicated to the whole
empire. * Note: “This right, (the Jus Italicum,) which by most
writers is referred with out foundation to the personal condition
of the citizens, properly related to the city as a whole, and
contained two parts. First, the Roman or quiritarian property in
the soil, (commercium,) and its capability of mancipation,
usucaption, and vindication; moreover, as an inseparable
consequence of this, exemption from land-tax. Then, secondly, a
free constitution in the Italian form, with Duumvirs,
Quinquennales. and Aediles, and especially with Jurisdiction.”
Savigny, Geschichte des Rom. Rechts i. p. 51—M.]
63 (return) [ Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) celebrates Constantinople as
not less superior to all other cities than she was inferior to
Rome itself. His learned commentator (Spanheim, p. 75, 76)
justifies this language by several parallel and contemporary
instances. Zosimus, as well as Socrates and Sozomen, flourished
after the division of the empire between the two sons of
Theodosius, which established a perfect equality between the old
and the new capital.]
As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience
of a lover, the walls, the porticos, and the principal edifices
were completed in a few years, or, according to another account,
in a few months; 64 but this extraordinary diligence should
excite the less admiration, since many of the buildings were
finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner, that under the
succeeding reign, they were preserved with difficulty from
impending ruin. 65 But while they displayed the vigor and
freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the
dedication of his city. 66 The games and largesses which crowned
the pomp of this memorable festival may easily be supposed; but
there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent
nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as
the birthday of the city returned, the statue of Constantine,
framed by his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in his right hand
a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on a
triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in
their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it
moved through the Hippodrome. When it was opposite to the throne
of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat, and with grateful
reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. 67 At the
festival of the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of
marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on the city of
Constantine. 68 But the name of Constantinople 69 has prevailed
over that honorable epithet; and after the revolution of fourteen
centuries, still perpetuates the fame of its author. 70
64 (return) [ Codinus (Antiquitat. p. 8) affirms, that the
foundations of Constantinople were laid in the year of the world
5837, (A. D. 329,) on the 26th of September, and that the city
was dedicated the 11th of May, 5838, (A. D. 330.) He connects
those dates with several characteristic epochs, but they
contradict each other; the authority of Codinus is of little
weight, and the space which he assigns must appear insufficient.
The term of ten years is given us by Julian, (Orat. i. p. 8;) and
Spanheim labors to establish the truth of it, (p. 69-75,) by the
help of two passages from Themistius, (Orat. iv. p. 58,) and of
Philostorgius, (l. ii. c. 9,) which form a period from the year
324 to the year 334. Modern critics are divided concerning this
point of chronology and their different sentiments are very
accurately described by Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv.
p. 619-625.]
65 (return) [ Themistius. Orat. iii. p. 47. Zosim. l. ii. p. 108.
Constantine himself, in one of his laws, (Cod. Theod. l. xv. tit.
i.,) betrays his impatience.]
66 (return) [ Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of
superstition which prevailed in their own times, assure us that
Constantinople was consecrated to the virgin Mother of God.]
67 (return) [ The earliest and most complete account of this
extraordinary ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle,
p. 285. Tillemont, and the other friends of Constantine, who are
offended with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a
Christian prince, had a right to consider it as doubtful, but
they were not authorized to omit the mention of it.]
68 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ii. c. 2. Ducange C. P. l. i. c. 6.
Velut ipsius Romae filiam, is the expression of Augustin. de
Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 25.]
69 (return) [ Eutropius, l. x. c. 8. Julian. Orat. i. p. 8.
Ducange C. P. l. i. c. 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on
the medals of Constantine.]
70 (return) [ The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.)
affects to deride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to
triumph in the disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name
is now lost in the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish
corruption of. Yet the original name is still preserved, 1. By
the nations of Europe. 2. By the modern Greeks. 3. By the Arabs,
whose writings are diffused over the wide extent of their
conquests in Asia and Africa. See D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque
Orientale, p. 275. 4. By the more learned Turks, and by the
emperor himself in his public mandates Cantemir’s History of the
Othman Empire, p. 51.]
The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with the
establishment of a new form of civil and military administration.
The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced
by Diocletian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his
immediate successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the
singular picture of a great empire, but will tend to illustrate
the secret and internal causes of its rapid decay. In the pursuit
of any remarkable institution, we may be frequently led into the
more early or the more recent times of the Roman history; but the
proper limits of this inquiry will be included within a period of
about one hundred and thirty years, from the accession of
Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code; 71 from
which, as well as from the Notitia 7111 of the East and West, 72
we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state
of the empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for some
time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be
censured only by those readers who are insensible to the
importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager
curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental
event of a battle.
71 (return) [ The Theodosian code was promulgated A. D. 438. See
the Prolegomena of Godefroy, c. i. p. 185.]
7111 (return) [ The Notitia Dignitatum Imperii is a description
of all the offices in the court and the state, of the legions,
&c. It resembles our court almanacs, (Red Books,) with this
single difference, that our almanacs name the persons in office,
the Notitia only the offices. It is of the time of the emperor
Theodosius II., that is to say, of the fifth century, when the
empire was divided into the Eastern and Western. It is probable
that it was not made for the first time, and that descriptions of
the same kind existed before.—G.]
72 (return) [ Pancirolus, in his elaborate Commentary, assigns to
the Notitia a date almost similar to that of the Theodosian Code;
but his proofs, or rather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I
should be rather inclined to place this useful work between the
final division of the empire (A. D. 395) and the successful
invasion of Gaul by the barbarians, (A. D. 407.) See Histoire des
Anciens Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vii. p. 40.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part III.
The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power,
had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of
ostentatious greatness. 73 But when they lost even the semblance
of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom,
the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the
stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of
personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so
feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the
despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe
subordination of rank and office from the titled slaves who were
seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of
arbitrary power. This multitude of abject dependants was
interested in the support of the actual government from the dread
of a revolution, which might at once confound their hopes and
intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy
(for such it is frequently styled) every rank was marked with the
most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed in a
variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study
to learn, and a sacrilege to neglect. 74 The purity of the Latin
language was debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride
and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely
have understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with
indignation. The principal officers of the empire were saluted,
even by the sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of your
Sincerity, your Gravity, your Excellency, your Eminence, your
sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illustrious and magnificent
Highness. 75 The codicils or patents of their office were
curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted to
explain its nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of the
reigning emperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates placed
on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by four
tapers; the allegorical figures of the provinces which they
governed; or the appellations and standards of the troops whom
they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really
exhibited in their hall of audience; others preceded their
pompous march whenever they appeared in public; and every
circumstance of their demeanor, their dress, their ornaments, and
their train, was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the
representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer,
the system of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a
splendid theatre, filled with players of every character and
degree, who repeated the language, and imitated the passions, of
their original model. 76
73 (return) [ Scilicet externae superbiae sueto, non inerat
notitia nostri, (perhaps nostroe;) apud quos vis Imperii valet,
inania transmittuntur. Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from
the style of freedom and simplicity, to that of form and
servitude, may be traced in the Epistles of Cicero, of Pliny, and
of Symmachus.]
74 (return) [ The emperor Gratian, after confirming a law of
precedency published by Valentinian, the father of his Divinity,
thus continues: Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum usurpaverit,
nulla se ignoratione defendat; sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui
divina praecepta neglexerit. Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. v. leg. 2.]
75 (return) [ Consult the Notitia Dignitatum at the end of the
Theodosian code, tom. vi. p. 316. * Note: Constantin, qui
remplaca le grand Patriciat par une noblesse titree et qui
changea avec d’autres institutions la nature de la societe
Latine, est le veritable fondateur de la royaute moderne, dans ce
quelle conserva de Romain. Chateaubriand, Etud. Histor. Preface,
i. 151. Manso, (Leben Constantins des Grossen,) p. 153, &c., has
given a lucid view of the dignities and duties of the officers in
the Imperial court.—M.]
76 (return) [ Pancirolus ad Notitiam utriusque Imperii, p. 39.
But his explanations are obscure, and he does not sufficiently
distinguish the painted emblems from the effective ensigns of
office.]
All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in
the general state of the empire, were accurately divided into
three classes. 1. The Illustrious. 2. The Spectabiles, or
Respectable. And, 3. the Clarissimi; whom we may translate by the
word Honorable. In the times of Roman simplicity, the
last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of
deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated
title of all who were members of the senate, 77 and consequently
of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the
provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office,
might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the
senatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new
appellation of Respectable; but the title of Illustrious was
always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or
reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was communicated
only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the Praetorian
praefects, with the praefects of Rome and Constantinople; III. To
the masters-general of the cavalry and the infantry; and IV. To
the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their sacred
functions about the person of the emperor. 78 Among those
illustrious magistrates who were esteemed coordinate with each
other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of
dignities. 79 By the expedient of honorary codicils, the
emperors, who were fond of multiplying their favors, might
sometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of
impatient courtiers. 80
77 (return) [ In the Pandects, which may be referred to the
reigns of the Antonines, Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal
title of a senator.]
78 (return) [ Pancirol. p. 12-17. I have not taken any notice of
the two inferior ranks, Prefectissimus and Egregius, which were
given to many persons who were not raised to the senatorial
dignity.]
79 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi. The rules of
precedency are ascertained with the most minute accuracy by the
emperors, and illustrated with equal prolixity by their learned
interpreter.]
80 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. xxii.]
I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a
free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of
the people. As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the
servitude which they imposed, the consuls were still elected by
the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of
Diocletian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and
the successful candidates who were invested with the annual
honors of the consulship, affected to deplore the humiliating
condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catos had
been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to pass through
the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to
expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while
their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and
government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the
unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign. 81 In the epistles which
the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared,
that they were created by his sole authority. 82 Their names and
portraits, engraved on gilt tables of ivory, were dispersed over
the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the
magistrates, the senate, and the people. 83 Their solemn
inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial
residence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years,
Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient
magistrates. 84
81 (return) [ Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates
on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr.
Vet. xi. [x.] 16, 19) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.]
82 (return) [ Cum de Consulibus in annum creandis, solus mecum
volutarem.... te Consulem et designavi, et declaravi, et priorem
nuncupavi; are some of the expressions employed by the emperor
Gratian to his preceptor, the poet Ausonius.]
83 (return) [ Immanesque... dentes Qui secti ferro in tabulas
auroque micantes, Inscripti rutilum coelato Consule nomen Per
proceres et vulgus eant. —Claud. in ii. Cons. Stilichon. 456.
Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks see
Supplement a l’Antiquite expliquee, tom. iii. p. 220.]
84 (return) [
Consule laetatur post plurima seculo viso Pallanteus apex:
agnoscunt rostra curules Auditas quondam proavis: desuetaque
cingit Regius auratis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor. —Claud. in vi.
Cons. Honorii, 643.
From the reign of Carus to the sixth consulship of Honorius,
there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during
which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first day
of January. See the Chronologie de Tillemonte, tom. iii. iv. and
v.]
On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the
ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple,
embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with
costly gems. 85 On this solemn occasion they were attended by the
most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of
senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable
axes, were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved
from the palace 87 to the Forum or principal square of the city;
where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves
in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of
ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction,
by the manumission of a slave, who was brought before them for
that purpose; and the ceremony was intended to represent the
celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and
of the consulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the
faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins.
88 The public festival was continued during several days in all
the principal cities in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople,
from imitation in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the
love of pleasure, and the superfluity of wealth. 89 In the two
capitals of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the
circus, and the amphitheatre, 90 cost four thousand pounds of
gold, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling: and
if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the
inclinations of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied
from the Imperial treasury. 91 As soon as the consuls had
discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire
into the shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the
remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own
greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils; they
no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war. Their
abilities (unless they were employed in more effective offices)
were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal
date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and
of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last
period of Roman servitude, that this empty name might be
compared, and even preferred, to the possession of substantial
power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of
ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors
themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic, were
conscious that they acquired an additional splendor and majesty
as often as they assumed the annual honors of the consular
dignity. 92
85 (return) [ See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii, 178, &c.;
and in iv. Cons. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is
not easy to separate the ornaments of the emperor from those of
the consul. Ausonius received from the liberality of Gratian a
vestis palmata, or robe of state, in which the figure of the
emperor Constantius was embroidered. Cernis et armorum proceres
legumque potentes: Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Discolor incedit legio, positisque parumper Bellorum signis,
sequitur vexilla Quirini. Lictori cedunt aquilae, ridetque
togatus Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris. —Claud. in
iv. Cons. Honorii, 5. —strictaque procul radiare secures. —In
Cons. Prob. 229]
87 (return) [ See Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. l. xxii. c. 7.]
88 (return) [ Auspice mox laeto sonuit clamore tribunal; Te
fastos ineunte quater; solemnia ludit Omina libertas; deductum
Vindice morem Lex servat, famulusque jugo laxatus herili Ducitur,
et grato remeat securior ictu. —Claud. in iv Cons. Honorii, 611]
89 (return) [ Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies omnes ubique
urbes quae sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et
Constantinopolis de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et
discincta Carthago, et domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri
Principis beneficio. Ausonius in Grat. Actione.]
90 (return) [ Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279-331)
describes, in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of
the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the
new consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been
prohibited.]
91 (return) [ Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26.]
92 (return) [ In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur.
(Mamertin. in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 2.) This exalted idea of the
consulship is borrowed from an oration (iii. p. 107) pronounced
by Julian in the servile court of Constantius. See the Abbe de la
Bleterie, (Memoires de l’Academie, tom. xxiv. p. 289,) who
delights to pursue the vestiges of the old constitution, and who
sometimes finds them in his copious fancy]
The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in
any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps
that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established
in the first age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honors, the
offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion, were almost
exclusively possessed by the former who, preserving the purity of
their blood with the most insulting jealousy, 93 held their
clients in a condition of specious vassalage. But these
distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people,
were removed, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts
of the Tribunes. The most active and successful of the Plebeians
accumulated wealth, aspired to honors, deserved triumphs,
contracted alliances, and, after some generations, assumed the
pride of ancient nobility. 94 The Patrician families, on the
other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the
end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of
nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic
wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled
with the mass of the people. 95 Very few remained who could
derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the
city, or even from that of the republic, when Caesar and
Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the
senate a competent number of new Patrician families, in the hope
of perpetuating an order, which was still considered as honorable
and sacred. 96 But these artificial supplies (in which the
reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away by
the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of
manners, and by the intermixture of nations. 97 Little more was
left when Constantine ascended the throne, than a vague and
imperfect tradition, that the Patricians had once been the first
of the Romans. To form a body of nobles, whose influence may
restrain, while it secures the authority of the monarch, would
have been very inconsistent with the character and policy of
Constantine; but had he seriously entertained such a design, it
might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify, by an
arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of
time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of Patricians,
but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary
distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of
the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all
the great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the
person of the prince. This honorable rank was bestowed on them
for life; and as they were usually favorites, and ministers who
had grown old in the Imperial court, the true etymology of the
word was perverted by ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians
of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted Fathers of the
emperor and the republic. 98
93 (return) [ Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians
were prohibited by the laws of the XII Tables; and the uniform
operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived
the law. See in Livy (iv. 1-6) the pride of family urged by the
consul, and the rights of mankind asserted by the tribune
Canuleius.]
94 (return) [ See the animated picture drawn by Sallust, in the
Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the
virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the
honor of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit
of his lieutenant Marius. (c. 64.) Two hundred years before, the
race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the
Plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of
Coecilius, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles
derived their origin from a sutler.]
95 (return) [ In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not
only of the old Patrician families, but even of those which had
been created by Caesar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The
family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician Aemilii) was
degraded so low that his father, who exercised the trade of a
charcoal merchant, left him only teu slaves, and somewhat less
than three hundred pounds sterling. (Valerius Maximus, l. iv. c.
4, n. 11. Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was saved from
oblivion by the merit of the son.]
96 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Cassius, l. iii. p. 698.
The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by the
emperor Vespasian, reflected honor on that ancient order; but his
ancestors had not any claim beyond an Equestrian nobility.]
97 (return) [ This failure would have been almost impossible if
it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad
Sueton, in Caesar v. 24. See Hist. August p. 203 and Casaubon
Comment., p. 220) that Vespasian created at once a thousand
Patrician families. But this extravagant number is too much even
for the whole Senatorial order. unless we should include all the
Roman knights who were distinguished by the permission of wearing
the laticlave.]
98 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod.
Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi.]
II. The fortunes of the Praetorian praefects were essentially
different from those of the consuls and Patricians. The latter
saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title.
The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition,
were invested with the civil and military administration of the
Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the
guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and
the provinces, were intrusted to their superintending care; and,
like the Viziers of the East, they held with one hand the seal,
and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of
the praefects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal to the
masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the
Praetorian bands; but after those haughty troops had been
weakened by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constantine,
the praefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without
difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When
they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor’s
person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto
claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace.
They were deprived by Constantine of all military command, as
soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their
immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and at length,
by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were
transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces.
According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the
four princes had each their Praetorian praefect; and after the
monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he
still continued to create the same number of Four Praefects, and
intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already
administered. 1. The praefect of the East stretched his ample
jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject
to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the
Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of
Persia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia,
and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of the praefect of
Illyricum. 3. The power of the praefect of Italy was not confined
to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over
the additional territory of Rhaetia as far as the banks of the
Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over
that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the
confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The praefect of
the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred
provinces of Britain and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from
the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas. 99
99 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 109, 110. If we had not
fortunately possessed this satisfactory account of the division
of the power and provinces of the Praetorian praefects, we should
frequently have been perplexed amidst the copious details of the
Code, and the circumstantial minuteness of the Notitia.]
After the Praetorian praefects had been dismissed from all
military command, the civil functions which they were ordained to
exercise over so many subject nations, were adequate to the
ambition and abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their
wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of
the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace,
comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and
of the people; of the former, to protect the citizens who are
obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of
their property which is required for the expenses of the state.
The coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the
manufactures, whatever could interest the public prosperity, was
moderated by the authority of the Praetorian praefects. As the
immediate representatives of the Imperial majesty, they were
empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to
modify, the general edicts by their discretionary proclamations.
They watched over the conduct of the provincial governors,
removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty.
From all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of
importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the
tribunal of the praefect; but his sentence was final and
absolute; and the emperors themselves refused to admit any
complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate
whom they honored with such unbounded confidence. 100 His
appointments were suitable to his dignity; 101 and if avarice was
his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of
collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of
perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition
of their praefects, they were attentive to counterbalance the
power of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of
its duration. 102
100 (return) [ See a law of Constantine himself. A praefectis
autem praetorio provocare, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian. l. vii.
tit. lxii. leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of
Constantine, (Heinec. Hist. Romani, p. 349,) who admits this law
as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the
Praetorian praefects to the masters of the horse of the ancient
dictators. Pandect. l. i. tit. xi.]
101 (return) [ When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the
empire, instituted a Praetorian praefect for Africa, he allowed
him a salary of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian. l. i.
tit. xxvii. leg. i.]
102 (return) [ For this, and the other dignities of the empire,
it may be sufficient to refer to the ample commentaries of
Pancirolus and Godefroy, who have diligently collected and
accurately digested in their proper order all the legal and
historical materials. From those authors, Dr. Howell (History of
the World, vol. ii. p. 24-77) has deduced a very distinct
abridgment of the state of the Roman empire]
From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and
Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the
Praetorian praefects. The immense size of the city, and the
experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws, had
furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for
introducing a new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile
and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power. 103
Valerius Messalla was appointed the first praefect of Rome, that
his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but, at
the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen 104 resigned his
office, declaring, with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus,
that he found himself incapable of exercising a power
incompatible with public freedom. 105 As the sense of liberty
became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly
understood; and the praefect, who seemed to have been designed as
a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his
civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble
families of Rome. The praetors, annually created as the judges of
law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the
Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually
admitted into the confidence of the prince. Their courts were
deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve
and eighteen, 106 was gradually reduced to two or three, and
their important functions were confined to the expensive
obligation 107 of exhibiting games for the amusement of the
people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed
into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital,
the praefects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were
soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable
assembly. They received appeals from the distance of one hundred
miles; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that
all municipal authority was derived from them alone. 108 In the
discharge of his laborious employment, the governor of Rome was
assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally
his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were
relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a
safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the
custody and distribution of the public allowance of corn and
provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common
sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tyber; the
inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private as
well as the public works. Their vigilance insured the three
principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and
cleanliness; and as a proof of the attention of government to
preserve the splendor and ornaments of the capital, a particular
inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it
were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the
extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior
in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years
after the foundation of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was
created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses and with the
same powers. A perfect equality was established between the
dignity of the two municipal, and that of the four Praetorian
praefects. 109
103 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. vi. 11. Euseb. in Chron. p. 155.
Dion Cassius, in the oration of Maecenas, (l. lvii. p. 675,)
describes the prerogatives of the praefect of the city as they
were established in his own time.]
104 (return) [ The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to
his merit. In the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to
the friendship of Brutus. He followed the standard of the
republic till it was broken in the fields of Philippi; he then
accepted and deserved the favor of the most moderate of the
conquerors; and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity in the
court of Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the
conquest of Aquitain. As an orator, he disputed the palm of
eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla cultivated every muse,
and was the patron of every man of genius. He spent his evenings
in philosophic conversation with Horace; assumed his place at
table between Delia and Tibullus; and amused his leisure by
encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid.]
105 (return) [ Incivilem esse potestatem contestans, says the
translator of Eusebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other
words; quasi nescius exercendi.]
106 (return) [ See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad 1 lib. Tacit. Annal.]
107 (return) [ Heineccii. Element. Juris Civilis secund ordinem
Pandect i. p. 70. See, likewise, Spanheim de Usu. Numismatum,
tom. ii. dissertat. x. p. 119. In the year 450, Marcian published
a law, that three citizens should be annually created Praetors of
Constantinople by the choice of the senate, but with their own
consent. Cod. Justinian. li. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 2.]
108 (return) [ Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad P. U.
videtur pertinere; sed et siquid intra contesimum milliarium.
Ulpian in Pandect l. i. tit. xiii. n. 1. He proceeds to enumerate
the various offices of the praefect, who, in the code of
Justinian, (l. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 3,) is declared to precede and
command all city magistrates sine injuria ac detrimento honoris
alieni.]
109 (return) [ Besides our usual guides, we may observe that
Felix Cantelorius has written a separate treatise, De Praefecto
Urbis; and that many curious details concerning the police of
Rome and Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of
the Theodosian Code.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part IV.
Those who, in the imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by the
title of Respectable, formed an intermediate class between the
illustrious praefects, and the honorable magistrates of the
provinces. In this class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and
Africa, claimed a preeminence, which was yielded to the
remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appeal from their
tribunal to that of the praefects was almost the only mark of
their dependence. 110 But the civil government of the empire was
distributed into thirteen great Dioceses, each of which equalled
the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these
dioceses was subject to the jurisdiction of the count of the
east; and we may convey some idea of the importance and variety
of his functions, by observing, that six hundred apparitors, who
would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or
ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediate office. 111
The place of Augustal proefect of Egypt was no longer filled by a
Roman knight; but the name was retained; and the extraordinary
powers which the situation of the country, and the temper of the
inhabitants, had once made indispensable, were still continued to
the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, Pontica,
and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia, or Western
Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain; were
governed by twelve vicars or vice-proefects, 112 whose name
sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of their office.
It may be added, that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman
armies, the military counts and dukes, who will be hereafter
mentioned, were allowed the rank and title of Respectable.
110 (return) [ Eunapius affirms, that the proconsul of Asia was
independent of the praefect; which must, however, be understood
with some allowance. the jurisdiction of the vice-praefect he
most assuredly disclaimed. Pancirolus, p. 161.]
111 (return) [ The proconsul of Africa had four hundred
apparitors; and they all received large salaries, either from the
treasury or the province See Pancirol. p. 26, and Cod. Justinian.
l. xii. tit. lvi. lvii.]
112 (return) [ In Italy there was likewise the Vicar of Rome. It
has been much disputed whether his jurisdiction measured one
hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the ten
thousand provinces of Italy.]
As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the
councils of the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence
to divide the substance and to multiply the titles of power. The
vast countries which the Roman conquerors had united under the
same simple form of administration, were imperceptibly crumbled
into minute fragments; till at length the whole empire was
distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of which
supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these,
three were governed by proconsuls, thirty-seven by consulars,
five by correctors, and seventy-one by presidents. The
appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked in
successive order, and the ensigns of and their situation, from
accidental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable or
advantageous. But they were all (excepting only the pro-consuls)
alike included in the class of honorable persons; and they were
alike intrusted, during the pleasure of the prince, and under the
authority of the praefects or their deputies, with the
administration of justice and the finances in their respective
districts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects 113
would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the
system of provincial government, as in the space of six centuries
it was approved by the wisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers.
It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and
salutary provisions, intended to restrain the abuse of authority.
1. For the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the
provinces were armed with the sword of justice. They inflicted
corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences,
the power of life and death. But they were not authorized to
indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own
execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most
honorable kind of exile. These prerogatives were reserved to the
praefects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds
of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight
of a few ounces. 114 This distinction, which seems to grant the
larger, while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was
founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was
infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial
magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts of oppression,
which affected only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject;
though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, he
might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may
likewise be considered, that exile, considerable fines, or the
choice of an easy death, relate more particularly to the rich and
the noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or
resentment of a provincial magistrate, were thus removed from his
obscure persecution to the more august and impartial tribunal of
the Praetorian praefect. 2. As it was reasonably apprehended that
the integrity of the judge might be biased, if his interest was
concerned, or his affections were engaged, the strictest
regulations were established, to exclude any person, without the
special dispensation of the emperor, from the government of the
province where he was born; 115 and to prohibit the governor or
his son from contracting marriage with a native, or an
inhabitant; 116 or from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses,
within the extent of his jurisdiction. 117 Notwithstanding these
rigorous precautions, the emperor Constantine, after a reign of
twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive
administration of justice, and expresses the warmest indignation
that the audience of the judge, his despatch of business, his
seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were publicly sold,
either by himself or by the officers of his court. The
continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these crimes, is
attested by the repetition of impotent laws and ineffectual
menaces. 118
113 (return) [ Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian, there
was one in ten books, concerning the office of a proconsul, whose
duties in the most essential articles were the same as those of
an ordinary governor of a province.]
114 (return) [ The presidents, or consulars, could impose only
two ounces; the vice-praefects, three; the proconsuls, count of
the east, and praefect of Egypt, six. See Heineccii Jur. Civil.
tom. i. p. 75. Pandect. l. xlviii. tit. xix. n. 8. Cod.
Justinian. l. i. tit. liv. leg. 4, 6.]
115 (return) [ Ut nulli patriae suae administratio sine speciali
principis permissu permittatur. Cod. Justinian. l. i. tit. xli.
This law was first enacted by the emperor Marcus, after the
rebellion of Cassius. (Dion. l. lxxi.) The same regulation is
observed in China, with equal strictness, and with equal effect.]
116 (return) [ Pandect. l. xxiii. tit. ii. n. 38, 57, 63.]
117 (return) [ In jure continetur, ne quis in administratione
constitutus aliquid compararet. Cod. Theod. l. viii. tit. xv.
leg. l. This maxim of common law was enforced by a series of
edicts (see the remainder of the title) from Constantine to
Justin. From this prohibition, which is extended to the meanest
officers of the governor, they except only clothes and
provisions. The purchase within five years may be recovered;
after which on information, it devolves to the treasury.]
118 (return) [ Cessent rapaces jam nunc officialium manus;
cessent, inquam nam si moniti non cessaverint, gladiis
praecidentur, &c. Cod. Theod. l. i. tit. vii. leg. l. Zeno
enacted that all governors should remain in the province, to
answer any accusations, fifty days after the expiration of their
power. Cod Justinian. l. ii. tit. xlix. leg. l.]
All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the
law. The celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the
youth of his dominions, who had devoted themselves to the study
of Roman jurisprudence; and the sovereign condescends to animate
their diligence, by the assurance that their skill and ability
would in time be rewarded by an adequate share in the government
of the republic. 119 The rudiments of this lucrative science were
taught in all the considerable cities of the east and west; but
the most famous school was that of Berytus, 120 on the coast of
Phoenicia; which flourished above three centuries from the time
of Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an institution so
advantageous to his native country. After a regular course of
education, which lasted five years, the students dispersed
themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune and
honors; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business
in a great empire already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws,
of arts, and of vices. The court of the Praetorian praefect of
the east could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty
advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar
privileges, and two were annually chosen, with a salary of sixty
pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first
experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them
to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence
they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which
they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province;
and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favor, they
ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of
the state. 121 In the practice of the bar, these men had
considered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted
the laws according to the dictates of private interest and the
same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in
the public administration of the state. The honor of a liberal
profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern
advocates, who have filled the most important stations, with pure
integrity and consummate wisdom: but in the decline of Roman
jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant
with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been
preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen
into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, 122 who, with cunning
rather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade.
Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpose of
fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a
harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse
in their chambers, maintained the dignity of legal professors, by
furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest
truths, and with arguments to color the most unjustifiable
pretensions. The splendid and popular class was composed of the
advocates, who filled the Forum with the sound of their turgid
and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they
are described, for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious
guides, who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of
delay, and of disappointment; from whence, after a tedious series
of years, they were at length dismissed, when their patience and
fortune were almost exhausted. 123
119 (return) [ Summa igitur ope, et alacri studio has leges
nostras accipite; et vosmetipsos sic eruditos ostendite, ut spes
vos pulcherrima foveat; toto legitimo opere perfecto, posse etiam
nostram rempublicam in par tibus ejus vobis credendis gubernari.
Justinian in proem. Institutionum.]
120 (return) [ The splendor of the school of Berytus, which
preserved in the east the language and jurisprudence of the
Romans, may be computed to have lasted from the third to the
middle of the sixth century Heinecc. Jur. Rom. Hist. p. 351-356.]
121 (return) [ As in a former period I have traced the civil and
military promotion of Pertinax, I shall here insert the civil
honors of Mallius Theodorus. 1. He was distinguished by his
eloquence, while he pleaded as an advocate in the court of the
Praetorian praefect. 2. He governed one of the provinces of
Africa, either as president or consular, and deserved, by his
administration, the honor of a brass statue. 3. He was appointed
vicar, or vice-praefect, of Macedonia. 4. Quaestor. 5. Count of
the sacred largesses. 6. Praetorian praefect of the Gauls; whilst
he might yet be represented as a young man. 7. After a retreat,
perhaps a disgrace of many years, which Mallius (confounded by
some critics with the poet Manilius; see Fabricius Bibliothec.
Latin. Edit. Ernest. tom. i.c. 18, p. 501) employed in the study
of the Grecian philosophy he was named Praetorian praefect of
Italy, in the year 397. 8. While he still exercised that great
office, he was created, it the year 399, consul for the West; and
his name, on account of the infamy of his colleague, the eunuch
Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fasti. 9. In the year 408,
Mallius was appointed a second time Praetorian praefect of Italy.
Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian, we may discover the
merit of Mallius Theodorus, who, by a rare felicity, was the
intimate friend, both of Symmachus and of St. Augustin. See
Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 1110-1114.]
122 (return) [ Mamertinus in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 20. Asterius
apud Photium, p. 1500.]
123 (return) [ The curious passage of Ammianus, (l. xxx. c. 4,)
in which he paints the manners of contemporary lawyers, affords a
strange mixture of sound sense, false rhetoric, and extravagant
satire. Godefroy (Prolegom. ad. Cod. Theod. c. i. p. 185)
supports the historian by similar complaints and authentic facts.
In the fourth century, many camels might have been laden with
law-books. Eunapius in Vit. Aedesii, p. 72.]
III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the
governors, those at least of the Imperial provinces, were
invested with the full powers of the sovereign himself. Ministers
of peace and war, the distribution of rewards and punishments
depended on them alone, and they successively appeared on their
tribunal in the robes of civil magistracy, and in complete armor
at the head of the Roman legions. 124 The influence of the
revenue, the authority of law, and the command of a military
force, concurred to render their power supreme and absolute; and
whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal
province which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely
sensible of any change in its political state. From the time of
Commodus to the reign of Constantine, near one hundred governors
might be enumerated, who, with various success, erected the
standard of revolt; and though the innocent were too often
sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimes prevented, by the
suspicious cruelty of their master. 125 To secure his throne and
the public tranquillity from these formidable servants,
Constantine resolved to divide the military from the civil
administration, and to establish, as a permanent and professional
distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an
occasional expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the
Praetorian praefects over the armies of the empire, was
transferred to the two masters-general whom he instituted, the
one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry; and though each
of these illustrious officers was more peculiarly responsible for
the discipline of those troops which were under his immediate
inspection, they both indifferently commanded in the field the
several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united in
the same army. 126 Their number was soon doubled by the division
of the east and west; and as separate generals of the same rank
and title were appointed on the four important frontiers of the
Rhine, of the Upper and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates,
the defence of the Roman empire was at length committed to eight
masters-general of the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders,
thirty-five military commanders were stationed in the provinces:
three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five
on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Asia, eight, three
in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts, and dukes,
127 by which they were properly distinguished, have obtained in
modern languages so very different a sense, that the use of them
may occasion some surprise. But it should be recollected, that
the second of those appellations is only a corruption of the
Latin word, which was indiscriminately applied to any military
chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes; but no
more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts
or companions, a title of honor, or rather of favor, which had
been recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt
was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and
dukes; and besides their pay, they received a liberal allowance
sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety servants, and one
hundred and fifty-eight horses. They were strictly prohibited
from interfering in any matter which related to the
administration of justice or the revenue; but the command which
they exercised over the troops of their department, was
independent of the authority of the magistrates. About the same
time that Constantine gave a legal sanction to the ecclesiastical
order, he instituted in the Roman empire the nice balance of the
civil and the military powers. The emulation, and sometimes the
discord, which reigned between two professions of opposite
interests and incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial
and of pernicious consequences. It was seldom to be expected that
the general and the civil governor of a province should either
conspire for the disturbance, or should unite for the service, of
their country. While the one delayed to offer the assistance
which the other disdained to solicit, the troops very frequently
remained without orders or without supplies; the public safety
was betrayed, and the defenceless subjects were left exposed to
the fury of the Barbarians. The divided administration which had
been formed by Constantine, relaxed the vigor of the state, while
it secured the tranquillity of the monarch.
124 (return) [ See a very splendid example in the life of
Agricola, particularly c. 20, 21. The lieutenant of Britain was
intrusted with the same powers which Cicero, proconsul of
Cilicia, had exercised in the name of the senate and people.]
125 (return) [ The Abbe Dubos, who has examined with accuracy
(see Hist. de la Monarchie Francoise, tom. i. p. 41-100, edit.
1742) the institutions of Augustus and of Constantine, observes,
that if Otho had been put to death the day before he executed his
conspiracy, Otho would now appear in history as innocent as
Corbulo.]
126 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 110. Before the end of the
reign of Constantius, the magistri militum were already increased
to four. See Velesius ad Ammian. l. xvi. c. 7.]
127 (return) [ Though the military counts and dukes are
frequently mentioned, both in history and the codes, we must have
recourse to the Notitia for the exact knowledge of their number
and stations. For the institution, rank, privileges, &c., of the
counts in general see Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xii.—xx., with the
commentary of Godefroy.]
The memory of Constantine has been deservedly censured for
another innovation, which corrupted military discipline and
prepared the ruin of the empire. The nineteen years which
preceded his final victory over Licinius, had been a period of
license and intestine war. The rivals who contended for the
possession of the Roman world, had withdrawn the greatest part of
their forces from the guard of the general frontier; and the
principal cities which formed the boundary of their respective
dominions were filled with soldiers, who considered their
countrymen as their most implacable enemies. After the use of
these internal garrisons had ceased with the civil war, the
conqueror wanted either wisdom or firmness to revive the severe
discipline of Diocletian, and to suppress a fatal indulgence,
which habit had endeared and almost confirmed to the military
order. From the reign of Constantine, a popular and even legal
distinction was admitted between the Palatines 128 and the
Borderers; the troops of the court, as they were improperly
styled, and the troops of the frontier. The former, elevated by
the superiority of their pay and privileges, were permitted,
except in the extraordinary emergencies of war, to occupy their
tranquil stations in the heart of the provinces. The most
flourishing cities were oppressed by the intolerable weight of
quarters. The soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues of their
profession, and contracted only the vices of civil life. They
were either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades, or
enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon became
careless of their martial exercises, curious in their diet and
apparel; and while they inspired terror to the subjects of the
empire, they trembled at the hostile approach of the Barbarians.
129 The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his
colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers, was
no longer maintained with the same care, or defended with the
same vigilance. The numbers which still remained under the name
of the troops of the frontier, might be sufficient for the
ordinary defence; but their spirit was degraded by the
humiliating reflection, that they who were exposed to the
hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare, were rewarded only
with about two thirds of the pay and emoluments which were
lavished on the troops of the court. Even the bands or legions
that were raised the nearest to the level of those unworthy
favorites, were in some measure disgraced by the title of honor
which they were allowed to assume. It was in vain that
Constantine repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and sword
against the Borderers who should dare desert their colors, to
connive at the inroads of the Barbarians, or to participate in
the spoil. 130 The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counsels
are seldom removed by the application of partial severities; and
though succeeding princes labored to restore the strength and
numbers of the frontier garrisons, the empire, till the last
moment of its dissolution, continued to languish under the mortal
wound which had been so rashly or so weakly inflicted by the hand
of Constantine.
128 (return) [ Zosimus, l ii. p. 111. The distinction between the
two classes of Roman troops, is very darkly expressed in the
historians, the laws, and the Notitia. Consult, however, the
copious paratitlon, or abstract, which Godefroy has drawn up of
the seventh book, de Re Militari, of the Theodosian Code, l. vii.
tit. i. leg. 18, l. viii. tit. i. leg. 10.]
129 (return) [ Ferox erat in suos miles et rapax, ignavus vero in
hostes et fractus. Ammian. l. xxii. c. 4. He observes, that they
loved downy beds and houses of marble; and that their cups were
heavier than their swords.]
130 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. i. leg. 1, tit. xii. leg.
i. See Howell’s Hist. of the World, vol. ii. p. 19. That learned
historian, who is not sufficiently known, labors to justify the
character and policy of Constantine.]
The same timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of
reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and
of expecting that the most feeble will prove the most obedient,
seems to pervade the institutions of several princes, and
particularly those of Constantine. The martial pride of the
legions, whose victorious camps had so often been the scene of
rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their past exploits,
and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long as they
maintained their ancient establishment of six thousand men, they
subsisted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of them singly, a
visible and important object in the military history of the Roman
empire. A few years afterwards, these gigantic bodies were shrunk
to a very diminutive size; and when seven legions, with some
auxiliaries, defended the city of Amida against the Persians, the
total garrison, with the inhabitants of both sexes, and the
peasants of the deserted country, did not exceed the number of
twenty thousand persons. 131 From this fact, and from similar
examples, there is reason to believe, that the constitution of
the legionary troops, to which they partly owed their valor and
discipline, was dissolved by Constantine; and that the bands of
Roman infantry, which still assumed the same names and the same
honors, consisted only of one thousand or fifteen hundred men.
132 The conspiracy of so many separate detachments, each of which
was awed by the sense of its own weakness, could easily be
checked; and the successors of Constantine might indulge their
love of ostentation, by issuing their orders to one hundred and
thirty-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of their
numerous armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed
into several hundred cohorts of infantry, and squadrons of
cavalry. Their arms, and titles, and ensigns, were calculated to
inspire terror, and to display the variety of nations who marched
under the Imperial standard. And not a vestige was left of that
severe simplicity, which, in the ages of freedom and victory, had
distinguished the line of battle of a Roman army from the
confused host of an Asiatic monarch. 133 A more particular
enumeration, drawn from the Notitia, might exercise the diligence
of an antiquary; but the historian will content himself with
observing, that the number of permanent stations or garrisons
established on the frontiers of the empire, amounted to five
hundred and eighty-three; and that, under the successors of
Constantine, the complete force of the military establishment was
computed at six hundred and forty-five thousand soldiers. 134 An
effort so prodigious surpassed the wants of a more ancient, and
the faculties of a later, period.
131 (return) [ Ammian. l. xix. c. 2. He observes, (c. 5,) that
the desperate sallies of two Gallic legions were like a handful
of water thrown on a great conflagration.]
132 (return) [ Pancirolus ad Notitiam, p. 96. Memoires de
l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv. p. 491.]
133 (return) [ Romana acies unius prope formae erat et hominum et
armorum genere.—Regia acies varia magis multis gentibus
dissimilitudine armorum auxiliorumque erat. T. Liv. l. xxxvii. c.
39, 40. Flaminius, even before the event, had compared the army
of Antiochus to a supper in which the flesh of one vile animal
was diversified by the skill of the cooks. See the Life of
Flaminius in Plutarch.]
134 (return) [ Agathias, l. v. p. 157, edit. Louvre.]
In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very
different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the
citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of
duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are
animated by a sentiment of honor; but the timid and luxurious
inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the
service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of
punishment. The resources of the Roman treasury were exhausted by
the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by the
invention of new emolument and indulgences, which, in the opinion
of the provincial youth might compensate the hardships and
dangers of a military life. Yet, although the stature was
lowered, 135 although slaves, least by a tacit connivance, were
indiscriminately received into the ranks, the insurmountable
difficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of
volunteers, obliged the emperors to adopt more effectual and
coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as the free
reward of their valor were henceforward granted under a condition
which contain the first rudiments of the feudal tenures; that
their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should devote
themselves to the profession of arms, as soon as they attained
the age of manhood; and their cowardly refusal was punished by
the loss of honor, of fortune, or even of life. 136 But as the
annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very small
proportion to the demands of the service, levies of men were
frequently required from the provinces, and every proprietor was
obliged either to take up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to
purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of
forty-two pieces of gold, to which it was reduced ascertains the
exorbitant price of volunteers, and the reluctance with which the
government admitted of this alternative. 137 Such was the horror
for the profession of a soldier, which had affected the minds of
the degenerate Romans, that many of the youth of Italy and the
provinces chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand, to
escape from being pressed into the service; and this strange
expedient was so commonly practised, as to deserve the severe
animadversion of the laws, 138 and a peculiar name in the Latin
language. 139
135 (return) [ Valentinian (Cod. Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg.
3) fixes the standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet
four inches and a half, English measure. It had formerly been
five feet ten inches, and in the best corps, six Roman feet. Sed
tunc erat amplior multitude se et plures sequebantur militiam
armatam. Vegetius de Re Militari l. i. c. v.]
136 (return) [ See the two titles, De Veteranis and De Filiis
Veteranorum, in the seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age
at which their military service was required, varied from
twenty-five to sixteen. If the sons of the veterans appeared with
a horse, they had a right to serve in the cavalry; two horses
gave them some valuable privileges]
137 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 7. According
to the historian Socrates, (see Godefroy ad loc.,) the same
emperor Valens sometimes required eighty pieces of gold for a
recruit. In the following law it is faintly expressed, that
slaves shall not be admitted inter optimas lectissimorum militum
turmas.]
138 (return) [ The person and property of a Roman knight, who had
mutilated his two sons, were sold at public auction by order of
Augustus. (Sueton. in August. c. 27.) The moderation of that
artful usurper proves, that this example of severity was
justified by the spirit of the times. Ammianus makes a
distinction between the effeminate Italians and the hardy Gauls.
(L. xv. c. 12.) Yet only 15 years afterwards, Valentinian, in a
law addressed to the praefect of Gaul, is obliged to enact that
these cowardly deserters shall be burnt alive. (Cod. Theod. l.
vii. tit. xiii. leg. 5.) Their numbers in Illyricum were so
considerable, that the province complained of a scarcity of
recruits. (Id. leg. 10.)]
139 (return) [ They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in
Plautus and Festus, to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who,
according to Arnobius and Augustin, was under the immediate
protection of the goddess Murcia. From this particular instance
of cowardice, murcare is used as synonymous to mutilare, by the
writers of the middle Latinity. See Linder brogius and Valesius
ad Ammian. Marcellin, l. xv. c. 12]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part V.
The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman armies became every
day more universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most
daring of the Scythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who
delighted in war, and who found it more profitable to defend than
to ravage the provinces, were enrolled, not only in the
auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions
themselves, and among the most distinguished of the Palatine
troops. As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire,
they gradually learned to despise their manners, and to imitate
their arts. They abjured the implicit reverence which the pride
of Rome had exacted from their ignorance, while they acquired the
knowledge and possession of those advantages by which alone she
supported her declining greatness. The Barbarian soldiers, who
displayed any military talents, were advanced, without exception,
to the most important commands; and the names of the tribunes, of
the counts and dukes, and of the generals themselves, betray a
foreign origin, which they no longer condescended to disguise.
They were often intrusted with the conduct of a war against their
countrymen; and though most of them preferred the ties of
allegiance to those of blood, they did not always avoid the
guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treasonable
correspondence with the enemy, of inviting his invasion, or of
sparing his retreat. The camps and the palace of the son of
Constantine were governed by the powerful faction of the Franks,
who preserved the strictest connection with each other, and with
their country, and who resented every personal affront as a
national indignity. 140 When the tyrant Caligula was suspected of
an intention to invest a very extraordinary candidate with the
consular robes, the sacrilegious profanation would have scarcely
excited less astonishment, if, instead of a horse, the noblest
chieftain of Germany or Britain had been the object of his
choice. The revolution of three centuries had produced so
remarkable a change in the prejudices of the people, that, with
the public approbation, Constantine showed his successors the
example of bestowing the honors of the consulship on the
Barbarians, who, by their merit and services, had deserved to be
ranked among the first of the Romans. 141 But as these hardy
veterans, who had been educated in the ignorance or contempt of
the laws, were incapable of exercising any civil offices, the
powers of the human mind were contracted by the irreconcilable
separation of talents as well as of professions. The accomplished
citizens of the Greek and Roman republics, whose characters could
adapt themselves to the bar, the senate, the camp, or the
schools, had learned to write, to speak, and to act with the same
spirit, and with equal abilities.
140 (return) [ Malarichus—adhibitis Francis quorum ea tempestate
in palatio multitudo florebat, erectius jam loquebatur
tumultuabaturque. Ammian. l. xv. c. 5.]
141 (return) [ Barbaros omnium primus, ad usque fasces auxerat et
trabeas consulares. Ammian. l. xx. c. 10. Eusebius (in Vit.
Constantin. l. iv c.7) and Aurelius Victor seem to confirm the
truth of this assertion yet in the thirty-two consular Fasti of
the reign of Constantine cannot discover the name of a single
Barbarian. I should therefore interpret the liberality of that
prince as relative to the ornaments rather than to the office, of
the consulship.]
IV. Besides the magistrates and generals, who at a distance from
the court diffused their delegated authority over the provinces
and armies, the emperor conferred the rank of Illustrious on
seven of his more immediate servants, to whose fidelity he
intrusted his safety, or his counsels, or his treasures. 1. The
private apartments of the palace were governed by a favorite
eunuch, who, in the language of that age, was styled the
proepositus, or praefect of the sacred bed-chamber. His duty was
to attend the emperor in his hours of state, or in those of
amusement, and to perform about his person all those menial
services, which can only derive their splendor from the influence
of royalty. Under a prince who deserved to reign, the great
chamberlain (for such we may call him) was a useful and humble
domestic; but an artful domestic, who improves every occasion of
unguarded confidence, will insensibly acquire over a feeble mind
that ascendant which harsh wisdom and uncomplying virtue can
seldom obtain. The degenerate grandsons of Theodosius, who were
invisible to their subjects, and contemptible to their enemies,
exalted the praefects of their bed-chamber above the heads of all
the ministers of the palace; 142 and even his deputy, the first
of the splendid train of slaves who waited in the presence, was
thought worthy to rank before the respectable proconsuls of
Greece or Asia. The jurisdiction of the chamberlain was
acknowledged by the counts, or superintendents, who regulated the
two important provinces of the magnificence of the wardrobe, and
of the luxury of the Imperial table. 143 2. The principal
administration of public affairs was committed to the diligence
and abilities of the master of the offices. 144 He was the
supreme magistrate of the palace, inspected the discipline of the
civil and military schools, and received appeals from all parts
of the empire, in the causes which related to that numerous army
of privileged persons, who, as the servants of the court, had
obtained for themselves and families a right to decline the
authority of the ordinary judges. The correspondence between the
prince and his subjects was managed by the four scrinia, or
offices of this minister of state. The first was appropriated to
memorials, the second to epistles, the third to petitions, and
the fourth to papers and orders of a miscellaneous kind. Each of
these was directed by an inferior master of respectable dignity,
and the whole business was despatched by a hundred and
forty-eight secretaries, chosen for the most part from the
profession of the law, on account of the variety of abstracts of
reports and references which frequently occurred in the exercise
of their several functions. From a condescension, which in former
ages would have been esteemed unworthy the Roman majesty, a
particular secretary was allowed for the Greek language; and
interpreters were appointed to receive the ambassadors of the
Barbarians; but the department of foreign affairs, which
constitutes so essential a part of modern policy, seldom diverted
the attention of the master of the offices. His mind was more
seriously engaged by the general direction of the posts and
arsenals of the empire. There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in
the East, and nineteen in the West, in which regular companies of
workmen were perpetually employed in fabricating defensive armor,
offensive weapons of all sorts, and military engines, which were
deposited in the arsenals, and occasionally delivered for the
service of the troops. 3. In the course of nine centuries, the
office of quaestor had experienced a very singular revolution. In
the infancy of Rome, two inferior magistrates were annually
elected by the people, to relieve the consuls from the invidious
management of the public treasure; 145 a similar assistant was
granted to every proconsul, and to every praetor, who exercised a
military or provincial command; with the extent of conquest, the
two quaestors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of
eight, of twenty, and, for a short time, perhaps, of forty; 146
and the noblest citizens ambitiously solicited an office which
gave them a seat in the senate, and a just hope of obtaining the
honors of the republic. Whilst Augustus affected to maintain the
freedom of election, he consented to accept the annual privilege
of recommending, or rather indeed of nominating, a certain
proportion of candidates; and it was his custom to select one of
these distinguished youths, to read his orations or epistles in
the assemblies of the senate. 147 The practice of Augustus was
imitated by succeeding princes; the occasional commission was
established as a permanent office; and the favored quaestor,
assuming a new and more illustrious character, alone survived the
suppression of his ancient and useless colleagues. 148 As the
orations which he composed in the name of the emperor, 149
acquired the force, and, at length, the form, of absolute edicts,
he was considered as the representative of the legislative power,
the oracle of the council, and the original source of the civil
jurisprudence. He was sometimes invited to take his seat in the
supreme judicature of the Imperial consistory, with the
Praetorian praefects, and the master of the offices; and he was
frequently requested to resolve the doubts of inferior judges:
but as he was not oppressed with a variety of subordinate
business, his leisure and talents were employed to cultivate that
dignified style of eloquence, which, in the corruption of taste
and language, still preserves the majesty of the Roman laws. 150
In some respects, the office of the Imperial quaestor may be
compared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great
seal, which seems to have been adopted by the illiterate
barbarians, was never introduced to attest the public acts of the
emperors. 4. The extraordinary title of count of the sacred
largesses was bestowed on the treasurer-general of the revenue,
with the intention perhaps of inculcating, that every payment
flowed from the voluntary bounty of the monarch. To conceive the
almost infinite detail of the annual and daily expense of the
civil and military administration in every part of a great
empire, would exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination.
The actual account employed several hundred persons, distributed
into eleven different offices, which were artfully contrived to
examine and control their respective operations. The multitude of
these agents had a natural tendency to increase; and it was more
than once thought expedient to dismiss to their native homes the
useless supernumeraries, who, deserting their honest labors, had
pressed with too much eagerness into the lucrative profession of
the finances. 151 Twenty-nine provincial receivers, of whom
eighteen were honored with the title of count, corresponded with
the treasurer; and he extended his jurisdiction over the mines
from whence the precious metals were extracted, over the mints,
in which they were converted into the current coin, and over the
public treasuries of the most important cities, where they were
deposited for the service of the state. The foreign trade of the
empire was regulated by this minister, who directed likewise all
the linen and woollen manufactures, in which the successive
operations of spinning, weaving, and dyeing were executed,
chiefly by women of a servile condition, for the use of the
palace and army. Twenty-six of these institutions are enumerated
in the West, where the arts had been more recently introduced,
and a still larger proportion may be allowed for the industrious
provinces of the East. 152 5. Besides the public revenue, which
an absolute monarch might levy and expend according to his
pleasure, the emperors, in the capacity of opulent citizens,
possessed a very extensive property, which was administered by
the count or treasurer of the private estate. Some part had
perhaps been the ancient demesnes of kings and republics; some
accessions might be derived from the families which were
successively invested with the purple; but the most considerable
portion flowed from the impure source of confiscations and
forfeitures. The Imperial estates were scattered through the
provinces, from Mauritania to Britain; but the rich and fertile
soil of Cappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that country
his fairest possessions, 153 and either Constantine or his
successors embraced the occasion of justifying avarice by
religious zeal. They suppressed the rich temple of Comana, where
the high priest of the goddess of war supported the dignity of a
sovereign prince; and they applied to their private use the
consecrated lands, which were inhabited by six thousand subjects
or slaves of the deity and her ministers. 154 But these were not
the valuable inhabitants: the plains that stretch from the foot
of Mount Argaeus to the banks of the Sarus, bred a generous race
of horses, renowned above all others in the ancient world for
their majestic shape and incomparable swiftness. These sacred
animals, destined for the service of the palace and the Imperial
games, were protected by the laws from the profanation of a
vulgar master. 155 The demesnes of Cappadocia were important
enough to require the inspection of a count; 156 officers of an
inferior rank were stationed in the other parts of the empire;
and the deputies of the private, as well as those of the public,
treasurer were maintained in the exercise of their independent
functions, and encouraged to control the authority of the
provincial magistrates. 157 6, 7. The chosen bands of cavalry and
infantry, which guarded the person of the emperor, were under the
immediate command of the two counts of the domestics. The whole
number consisted of three thousand five hundred men, divided into
seven schools, or troops, of five hundred each; and in the East,
this honorable service was almost entirely appropriated to the
Armenians. Whenever, on public ceremonies, they were drawn up in
the courts and porticos of the palace, their lofty stature,
silent order, and splendid arms of silver and gold, displayed a
martial pomp not unworthy of the Roman majesty. 158 From the
seven schools two companies of horse and foot were selected, of
the protectors, whose advantageous station was the hope and
reward of the most deserving soldiers. They mounted guard in the
interior apartments, and were occasionally despatched into the
provinces, to execute with celerity and vigor the orders of their
master. 159 The counts of the domestics had succeeded to the
office of the Praetorian praefects; like the praefects, they
aspired from the service of the palace to the command of armies.
142 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. 8.]
143 (return) [ By a very singular metaphor, borrowed from the
military character of the first emperors, the steward of their
household was styled the count of their camp, (comes castrensis.)
Cassiodorus very seriously represents to him, that his own fame,
and that of the empire, must depend on the opinion which foreign
ambassadors may conceive of the plenty and magnificence of the
royal table. (Variar. l. vi. epistol. 9.)]
144 (return) [ Gutherius (de Officiis Domus Augustae, l. ii. c.
20, l. iii.) has very accurately explained the functions of the
master of the offices, and the constitution of the subordinate
scrinia. But he vainly attempts, on the most doubtful authority,
to deduce from the time of the Antonines, or even of Nero, the
origin of a magistrate who cannot be found in history before the
reign of Constantine.]
145 (return) [ Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22) says, that the first
quaestors were elected by the people, sixty-four years after the
foundation of the republic; but he is of opinion, that they had,
long before that period, been annually appointed by the consuls,
and even by the kings. But this obscure point of antiquity is
contested by other writers.]
146 (return) [ Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22) seems to consider twenty
as the highest number of quaestors; and Dion (l. xliii. p 374)
insinuates, that if the dictator Caesar once created forty, it
was only to facilitate the payment of an immense debt of
gratitude. Yet the augmentation which he made of praetors
subsisted under the succeeding reigns.]
147 (return) [ Sueton. in August. c. 65, and Torrent. ad loc.
Dion. Cas. p. 755.]
148 (return) [ The youth and inexperience of the quaestors, who
entered on that important office in their twenty-fifth year,
(Lips. Excurs. ad Tacit. l. iii. D.,) engaged Augustus to remove
them from the management of the treasury; and though they were
restored by Claudius, they seem to have been finally dismissed by
Nero. (Tacit Annal. xiii. 29. Sueton. in Aug. c. 36, in Claud. c.
24. Dion, p. 696, 961, &c. Plin. Epistol. x. 20, et alibi.) In
the provinces of the Imperial division, the place of the
quaestors was more ably supplied by the procurators, (Dion Cas.
p. 707. Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 15;) or, as they were
afterwards called, rationales. (Hist. August. p. 130.) But in the
provinces of the senate we may still discover a series of
quaestors till the reign of Marcus Antoninus. (See the
Inscriptions of Gruter, the Epistles of Pliny, and a decisive
fact in the Augustan History, p. 64.) From Ulpian we may learn,
(Pandect. l. i. tit. 13,) that under the government of the house
of Severus, their provincial administration was abolished; and in
the subsequent troubles, the annual or triennial elections of
quaestors must have naturally ceased.]
149 (return) [ Cum patris nomine et epistolas ipse dictaret, et
edicta conscrib eret, orationesque in senatu recitaret, etiam
quaestoris vice. Sueton, in Tit. c. 6. The office must have
acquired new dignity, which was occasionally executed by the heir
apparent of the empire. Trajan intrusted the same care to
Hadrian, his quaestor and cousin. See Dodwell, Praelection.
Cambden, x. xi. p. 362-394.]
150 (return) [ Terris edicta daturus; Supplicibus
responsa.—Oracula regis Eloquio crevere tuo; nec dignius unquam
Majestas meminit sese Romana locutam.——Claudian in Consulat.
Mall. Theodor. 33. See likewise Symmachus (Epistol. i. 17) and
Cassiodorus. (Variar. iv. 5.)]
151 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. 30. Cod. Justinian. l.
xii. tit. 24.]
152 (return) [ In the departments of the two counts of the
treasury, the eastern part of the Notitia happens to be very
defective. It may be observed, that we had a treasury chest in
London, and a gyneceum or manufacture at Winchester. But Britain
was not thought worthy either of a mint or of an arsenal. Gaul
alone possessed three of the former, and eight of the latter.]
153 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xxx. leg. 2, and Godefroy
ad loc.]
154 (return) [ Strabon. Geograph. l. xxii. p. 809, [edit.
Casaub.] The other temple of Comana, in Pontus, was a colony from
that of Cappadocia, l. xii. p. 835. The President Des Brosses
(see his Saluste, tom. ii. p. 21, [edit. Causub.]) conjectures
that the deity adored in both Comanas was Beltis, the Venus of
the east, the goddess of generation; a very different being
indeed from the goddess of war.]
155 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. x. tit. vi. de Grege Dominico.
Godefroy has collected every circumstance of antiquity relative
to the Cappadocian horses. One of the finest breeds, the
Palmatian, was the forfeiture of a rebel, whose estate lay about
sixteen miles from Tyana, near the great road between
Constantinople and Antioch.]
156 (return) [ Justinian (Novell. 30) subjected the province of
the count of Cappadocia to the immediate authority of the
favorite eunuch, who presided over the sacred bed-chamber.]
157 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xxx. leg. 4, &c.]
158 (return) [ Pancirolus, p. 102, 136. The appearance of these
military domestics is described in the Latin poem of Corippus, de
Laudibus Justin. l. iii. 157-179. p. 419, 420 of the Appendix
Hist. Byzantin. Rom. 177.]
159 (return) [ Ammianus Marcellinus, who served so many years,
obtained only the rank of a protector. The first ten among these
honorable soldiers were Clarissimi.]
The perpetual intercourse between the court and the provinces was
facilitated by the construction of roads and the institution of
posts. But these beneficial establishments were accidentally
connected with a pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three
hundred agents or messengers were employed, under the
jurisdiction of the master of the offices, to announce the names
of the annual consuls, and the edicts or victories of the
emperors. They insensibly assumed the license of reporting
whatever they could observe of the conduct either of magistrates
or of private citizens; and were soon considered as the eyes of
the monarch, 160 and the scourge of the people. Under the warm
influence of a feeble reign, they multiplied to the incredible
number of ten thousand, disdained the mild though frequent
admonitions of the laws, and exercised in the profitable
management of the posts a rapacious and insolent oppression.
These official spies, who regularly corresponded with the palace,
were encouraged by favor and reward, anxiously to watch the
progress of every treasonable design, from the faint and latent
symptoms of disaffection, to the actual preparation of an open
revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice
was covered by the consecrated mask of zeal; and they might
securely aim their poisoned arrows at the breast either of the
guilty or the innocent, who had provoked their resentment, or
refused to purchase their silence. A faithful subject, of Syria
perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed to the danger, or at least to
the dread, of being dragged in chains to the court of Milan or
Constantinople, to defend his life and fortune against the
malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary
administration was conducted by those methods which extreme
necessity can alone palliate; and the defects of evidence were
diligently supplied by the use of torture. 161
160 (return) [ Xenophon, Cyropaed. l. viii. Brisson, de Regno
Persico, l. i No 190, p. 264. The emperors adopted with pleasure
this Persian metaphor.]
161 (return) [ For the Agentes in Rebus, see Ammian. l. xv. c. 3,
l. xvi. c. 5, l. xxii. c. 7, with the curious annotations of
Valesius. Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xxvii. xxviii. xxix. Among the
passages collected in the Commentary of Godefroy, the most
remarkable is one from Libanius, in his discourse concerning the
death of Julian.]
The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the criminal quaestion,
as it is emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than approved,
in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary
mode of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were
seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in the scale of
justice or humanity; but they would never consent to violate the
sacred person of a citizen, till they possessed the clearest
evidence of his guilt. 162 The annals of tyranny, from the reign
of Tiberius to that of Domitian, circumstantially relate the
executions of many innocent victims; but, as long as the faintest
remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom and honor, the
last hours of a Roman were secured from the danger of ignominions
torture. 163 The conduct of the provincial magistrates was not,
however, regulated by the practice of the city, or the strict
maxims of the civilians. They found the use of torture
established not only among the slaves of oriental despotism, but
among the Macedonians, who obeyed a limited monarch; among the
Rhodians, who flourished by the liberty of commerce; and even
among the sage Athenians, who had asserted and adorned the
dignity of human kind. 164 The acquiescence of the provincials
encouraged their governors to acquire, or perhaps to usurp, a
discretionary power of employing the rack, to extort from
vagrants or plebeian criminals the confession of their guilt,
till they insensibly proceeded to confound the distinction of
rank, and to disregard the privileges of Roman citizens. The
apprehensions of the subjects urged them to solicit, and the
interest of the sovereign engaged him to grant, a variety of
special exemptions, which tacitly allowed, and even authorized,
the general use of torture. They protected all persons of
illustrious or honorable rank, bishops and their presbyters,
professors of the liberal arts, soldiers and their families,
municipal officers, and their posterity to the third generation,
and all children under the age of puberty. 165 But a fatal maxim
was introduced into the new jurisprudence of the empire, that in
the case of treason, which included every offence that the
subtlety of lawyers could derive from a hostile intention towards
the prince or republic, 166 all privileges were suspended, and
all conditions were reduced to the same ignominious level. As the
safety of the emperor was avowedly preferred to every
consideration of justice or humanity, the dignity of age and the
tenderness of youth were alike exposed to the most cruel
tortures; and the terrors of a malicious information, which might
select them as the accomplices, or even as the witnesses,
perhaps, of an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over the heads
of the principal citizens of the Roman world. 167
162 (return) [ The Pandects (l. xlviii. tit. xviii.) contain the
sentiments of the most celebrated civilians on the subject of
torture. They strictly confine it to slaves; and Ulpian himself
is ready to acknowledge that Res est fragilis, et periculosa, et
quae veritatem fallat.]
163 (return) [ In the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, Epicharis
(libertina mulier) was the only person tortured; the rest were
intacti tormentis. It would be superfluous to add a weaker, and
it would be difficult to find a stronger, example. Tacit. Annal.
xv. 57.]
164 (return) [ Dicendum... de Institutis Atheniensium, Rhodiorum,
doctissimorum hominum, apud quos etiam (id quod acerbissimum est)
liberi, civesque torquentur. Cicero, Partit. Orat. c. 34. We may
learn from the trial of Philotas the practice of the Macedonians.
(Diodor. Sicul. l. xvii. p. 604. Q. Curt. l. vi. c. 11.)]
165 (return) [ Heineccius (Element. Jur. Civil. part vii. p. 81)
has collected these exemptions into one view.]
166 (return) [ This definition of the sage Ulpian (Pandect. l.
xlviii. tit. iv.) seems to have been adapted to the court of
Caracalla, rather than to that of Alexander Severus. See the
Codes of Theodosius and ad leg. Juliam majestatis.]
167 (return) [ Arcadius Charisius is the oldest lawyer quoted to
justify the universal practice of torture in all cases of
treason; but this maxim of tyranny, which is admitted by Ammianus
with the most respectful terror, is enforced by several laws of
the successors of Constantine. See Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xxxv.
majestatis crimine omnibus aequa est conditio.]
These evils, however terrible they may appear, were confined to
the smaller number of Roman subjects, whose dangerous situation
was in some degree compensated by the enjoyment of those
advantages, either of nature or of fortune, which exposed them to
the jealousy of the monarch. The obscure millions of a great
empire have much less to dread from the cruelty than from the
avarice of their masters, and their humble happiness is
principally affected by the grievance of excessive taxes, which,
gently pressing on the wealthy, descend with accelerated weight
on the meaner and more indigent classes of society. An ingenious
philosopher 168 has calculated the universal measure of the
public impositions by the degrees of freedom and servitude; and
ventures to assert, that, according to an invariable law of
nature, it must always increase with the former, and diminish in
a just proportion to the latter. But this reflection, which would
tend to alleviate the miseries of despotism, is contradicted at
least by the history of the Roman empire; which accuses the same
princes of despoiling the senate of its authority, and the
provinces of their wealth. Without abolishing all the various
customs and duties on merchandises, which are imperceptibly
discharged by the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy of
Constantine and his successors preferred a simple and direct mode
of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary
government. 169
168 (return) [ Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c. 13.]
169 (return) [ Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. i. p. 389) has seen this
importance with some degree of perplexity.]
Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part VI.
The name and use of the indictions, 170 which serve to ascertain
the chronology of the middle ages, were derived from the regular
practice of the Roman tributes. 171 The emperor subscribed with
his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction,
which was fixed up in the principal city of each diocese, during
two months previous to the first day of September. And by a very
easy connection of ideas, the word indiction was transferred to
the measure of tribute which it prescribed, and to the annual
term which it allowed for the payment. This general estimate of
the supplies was proportioned to the real and imaginary wants of
the state; but as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, or
the revenue fell short of the computation, an additional tax,
under the name of superindiction, was imposed on the people, and
the most valuable attribute of sovereignty was communicated to
the Praetorian praefects, who, on some occasions, were permitted
to provide for the unforeseen and extraordinary exigencies of the
public service. The execution of these laws (which it would be
tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate detail) consisted
of two distinct operations: the resolving the general imposition
into its constituent parts, which were assessed on the provinces,
the cities, and the individuals of the Roman world; and the
collecting the separate contributions of the individuals, the
cities, and the provinces, till the accumulated sums were poured
into the Imperial treasuries. But as the account between the
monarch and the subject was perpetually open, and as the renewal
of the demand anticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding
obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was moved by the
same hands round the circle of its yearly revolution. Whatever
was honorable or important in the administration of the revenue,
was committed to the wisdom of the praefects, and their
provincia. representatives; the lucrative functions were claimed
by a crowd of subordinate officers, some of whom depended on the
treasurer, others on the governor of the province; and who, in
the inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had
frequent opportunities of disputing with each other the spoils of
the people. The laborious offices, which could be productive only
of envy and reproach, of expense and danger, were imposed on the
Decurions, who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom
the severity of the Imperial laws had condemned to sustain the
burdens of civil society. 172 The whole landed property of the
empire (without excepting the patrimonial estates of the monarch)
was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new purchaser
contracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate
census, 173 or survey, was the only equitable mode of
ascertaining the proportion which every citizen should be obliged
to contribute for the public service; and from the well-known
period of the indictions, there is reason to believe that this
difficult and expensive operation was repeated at the regular
distance of fifteen years. The lands were measured by surveyors,
who were sent into the provinces; their nature, whether arable or
pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly reported; and an
estimate was made of their common value from the average produce
of five years. The numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted an
essential part of the report; an oath was administered to the
proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their
affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the
intention of the legislator, were severely watched, and punished
as a capital crime, which included the double guilt of treason
and sacrilege. 174 A large portion of the tribute was paid in
money; and of the current coin of the empire, gold alone could be
legally accepted. 175 The remainder of the taxes, according to
the proportions determined by the annual indiction, was furnished
in a manner still more direct, and still more oppressive.
According to the different nature of lands, their real produce in
the various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or
iron, was transported by the labor or at the expense of the
provincials 17511 to the Imperial magazines, from whence they
were occasionally distributed for the use of the court, of the
army, and of two capitals, Rome and Constantinople. The
commissioners of the revenue were so frequently obliged to make
considerable purchases, that they were strictly prohibited from
allowing any compensation, or from receiving in money the value
of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive
simplicity of small communities, this method may be well adapted
to collect the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it
is at once susceptible of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost
strictness, which in a corrupt and absolute monarchy must
introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and
the arts of fraud. 176 The agriculture of the Roman provinces was
insensibly ruined, and, in the progress of despotism which tends
to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to
derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remission
of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of
paying. According to the new division of Italy, the fertile and
happy province of Campania, the scene of the early victories and
of the delicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended
between the sea and the Apennine, from the Tiber to the Silarus.
Within sixty years after the death of Constantine, and on the
evidence of an actual survey, an exemption was granted in favor
of three hundred and thirty thousand English acres of desert and
uncultivated land; which amounted to one eighth of the whole
surface of the province. As the footsteps of the Barbarians had
not yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing desolation,
which is recorded in the laws, can be ascribed only to the
administration of the Roman emperors. 177
170 (return) [ The cycle of indictions, which may be traced as
high as the reign of Constantius, or perhaps of his father,
Constantine, is still employed by the Papal court; but the
commencement of the year has been very reasonably altered to the
first of January. See l’Art de Verifier les Dates, p. xi.; and
Dictionnaire Raison. de la Diplomatique, tom. ii. p. 25; two
accurate treatises, which come from the workshop of the
Benedictines. —— It does not appear that the establishment of the
indiction is to be at tributed to Constantine: it existed before
he had been created Augustus at Rome, and the remission granted
by him to the city of Autun is the proof. He would not have
ventured while only Caesar, and under the necessity of courting
popular favor, to establish such an odious impost. Aurelius
Victor and Lactantius agree in designating Diocletian as the
author of this despotic institution. Aur. Vict. de Caes. c. 39.
Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 7—G.]
171 (return) [ The first twenty-eight titles of the eleventh book
of the Theodosian Code are filled with the circumstantial
regulations on the important subject of tributes; but they
suppose a clearer knowledge of fundamental principles than it is
at present in our power to attain.]
172 (return) [ The title concerning the Decurions (l. xii. tit.
i.) is the most ample in the whole Theodosian Code; since it
contains not less than one hundred and ninety-two distinct laws
to ascertain the duties and privileges of that useful order of
citizens. * Note: The Decurions were charged with assessing,
according to the census of property prepared by the tabularii,
the payment due from each proprietor. This odious office was
authoritatively imposed on the richest citizens of each town;
they had no salary, and all their compensation was, to be exempt
from certain corporal punishments, in case they should have
incurred them. The Decurionate was the ruin of all the rich.
Hence they tried every way of avoiding this dangerous honor; they
concealed themselves, they entered into military service; but
their efforts were unavailing; they were seized, they were
compelled to become Decurions, and the dread inspired by this
title was termed Impiety.—G. ——The Decurions were mutually
responsible; they were obliged to undertake for pieces of ground
abandoned by their owners on account of the pressure of the
taxes, and, finally, to make up all deficiencies. Savigny chichte
des Rom. Rechts, i. 25.—M.]
173 (return) [ Habemus enim et hominum numerum qui delati sunt,
et agrun modum. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. viii. 6. See Cod.
Theod. l. xiii. tit. x. xi., with Godefroy’s Commentary.]
174 (return) [ Siquis sacrilega vitem falce succiderit, aut
feracium ramorum foetus hebetaverit, quo delinet fidem Censuum,
et mentiatur callide paupertatis ingenium, mox detectus capitale
subibit exitium, et bona ejus in Fisci jura migrabunt. Cod.
Theod. l. xiii. tit. xi. leg. 1. Although this law is not without
its studied obscurity, it is, however clear enough to prove the
minuteness of the inquisition, and the disproportion of the
penalty.]
175 (return) [ The astonishment of Pliny would have ceased.
Equidem miror P. R. victis gentibus argentum semper imperitasse
non aurum. Hist Natur. xxxiii. 15.]
17511 (return) [ The proprietors were not charged with the
expense of this transport in the provinces situated on the
sea-shore or near the great rivers, there were companies of
boatmen, and of masters of vessels, who had this commission, and
furnished the means of transport at their own expense. In return,
they were themselves exempt, altogether, or in part, from the
indiction and other imposts. They had certain privileges;
particular regulations determined their rights and obligations.
(Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. v. ix.) The transports by land were
made in the same manner, by the intervention of a privileged
company called Bastaga; the members were called Bastagarii Cod.
Theod. l. viii. tit. v.—G.]
176 (return) [ Some precautions were taken (see Cod. Theod. l.
xi. tit. ii. and Cod. Justinian. l. x. tit. xxvii. leg. 1, 2, 3)
to restrain the magistrates from the abuse of their authority,
either in the exaction or in the purchase of corn: but those who
had learning enough to read the orations of Cicero against
Verres, (iii. de Frumento,) might instruct themselves in all the
various arts of oppression, with regard to the weight, the price,
the quality, and the carriage. The avarice of an unlettered
governor would supply the ignorance of precept or precedent.]
177 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 2, published
the 24th of March, A. D. 395, by the emperor Honorius, only two
months after the death of his father, Theodosius. He speaks of
528,042 Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English
measure. The jugerum contained 28,800 square Roman feet.]
Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment
seemed to unite the substance of a land tax with the forms of a
capitation. 178 The returns which were sent of every province or
district, expressed the number of tributary subjects, and the
amount of the public impositions. The latter of these sums was
divided by the former; and the estimate, that such a province
contained so many capita, or heads of tribute; and that each head
was rated at such a price, was universally received, not only in
the popular, but even in the legal computation. The value of a
tributary head must have varied, according to many accidental, or
at least fluctuating circumstances; but some knowledge has been
preserved of a very curious fact, the more important, since it
relates to one of the richest provinces of the Roman empire, and
which now flourishes as the most splendid of the European
kingdoms. The rapacious ministers of Constantius had exhausted
the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold for
the annual tribute of every head. The humane policy of his
successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces. 179 A moderate
proportion between these opposite extremes of extraordinary
oppression and of transient indulgence, may therefore be fixed at
sixteen pieces of gold, or about nine pounds sterling, the common
standard, perhaps, of the impositions of Gaul. 180 But this
calculation, or rather, indeed, the facts from whence it is
deduced, cannot fail of suggesting two difficulties to a thinking
mind, who will be at once surprised by the equality, and by the
enormity, of the capitation. An attempt to explain them may
perhaps reflect some light on the interesting subject of the
finances of the declining empire.
178 (return) [ Godefroy (Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 116) argues with
weight and learning on the subject of the capitation; but while
he explains the caput, as a share or measure of property, he too
absolutely excludes the idea of a personal assessment.]
179 (return) [ Quid profuerit (Julianus) anhelantibus extrema
penuria Gallis, hinc maxime claret, quod primitus partes eas
ingressus, pro capitibusingulis tributi nomine vicenos quinos
aureos reperit flagitari; discedens vero septenos tantum numera
universa complentes. Ammian. l. xvi. c. 5.]
180 (return) [ In the calculation of any sum of money under
Constantine and his successors, we need only refer to the
excellent discourse of Mr. Greaves on the Denarius, for the proof
of the following principles; 1. That the ancient and modern Roman
pound, containing 5256 grains of Troy weight, is about one
twelfth lighter than the English pound, which is composed of 5760
of the same grains. 2. That the pound of gold, which had once
been divided into forty-eight aurei, was at this time coined into
seventy-two smaller pieces of the same denomination. 3. That five
of these aurei were the legal tender for a pound of silver, and
that consequently the pound of gold was exchanged for fourteen
pounds eight ounces of silver, according to the Roman, or about
thirteen pounds according to the English weight. 4. That the
English pound of silver is coined into sixty-two shillings. From
these elements we may compute the Roman pound of gold, the usual
method of reckoning large sums, at forty pounds sterling, and we
may fix the currency of the aureus at somewhat more than eleven
shillings. * Note: See, likewise, a Dissertation of M. Letronne,
“Considerations Generales sur l’Evaluation des Monnaies Grecques
et Romaines” Paris, 1817—M.]
I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable constitution of
human nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of
property, the most numerous part of the community would be
deprived of their subsistence, by the equal assessment of a tax
from which the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue.
Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman capitation; but in
the practice, this unjust equality was no longer felt, as the
tribute was collected on the principle of a real, not of a
personal imposition. 18011 Several indigent citizens contributed
to compose a single head, or share of taxation; while the wealthy
provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone represented
several of those imaginary beings. In a poetical request,
addressed to one of the last and most deserving of the Roman
princes who reigned in Gaul, Sidonius Apollinaris personifies his
tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the Geryon of the
Grecian fables, and entreats the new Hercules that he would most
graciously be pleased to save his life by cutting off three of
his heads. 181 The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary
wealth of a poet; but if he had pursued the allusion, he might
have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of
the deadly Hydra, spreading over the face of the country, and
devouring the substance of a hundred families. II. The difficulty
of allowing an annual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for
the average of the capitation of Gaul, may be rendered more
evident by the comparison of the present state of the same
country, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch of an
industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people. The taxes of
France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond
the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which ought
perhaps to be shared among four and twenty millions of
inhabitants. 182 Seven millions of these, in the capacity of
fathers, or brothers, or husbands, may discharge the obligations
of the remaining multitude of women and children; yet the equal
proportion of each tributary subject will scarcely rise above
fifty shillings of our money, instead of a proportion almost four
times as considerable, which was regularly imposed on their
Gallic ancestors. The reason of this difference may be found, not
so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and silver, as
in the different state of society, in ancient Gaul and in modern
France. In a country where personal freedom is the privilege of
every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied
on property or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the
whole body of the nation. But the far greater part of the lands
of ancient Gaul, as well as of the other provinces of the Roman
world, were cultivated by slaves, or by peasants, whose dependent
condition was a less rigid servitude. 183 In such a state the
poor were maintained at the expense of the masters who enjoyed
the fruits of their labor; and as the rolls of tribute were
filled only with the names of those citizens who possessed the
means of an honorable, or at least of a decent subsistence, the
comparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies the
high rate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion may be
illustrated by the following example: The Aedui, one of the most
powerful and civilized tribes or cities of Gaul, occupied an
extent of territory, which now contains about five hundred
thousand inhabitants, in the two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun
and Nevers; 184 and with the probable accession of those of
Chalons and Macon, 185 the population would amount to eight
hundred thousand souls. In the time of Constantine, the territory
of the Aedui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand heads of
capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince
from the intolerable weight of tribute. 186 A just analogy would
seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious historian, 187
that the free and tributary citizens did not surpass the number
of half a million; and if, in the ordinary administration of
government, their annual payments may be computed at about four
millions and a half of our money, it would appear, that although
the share of each individual was four times as considerable, a
fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the
Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Constantius may be
calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two
millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian.
18011 (return) [ Two masterly dissertations of M. Savigny, in the
Mem. of the Berlin Academy (1822 and 1823) have thrown new light
on the taxation system of the Empire. Gibbon, according to M.
Savigny, is mistaken in supposing that there was but one kind of
capitation tax; there was a land tax, and a capitation tax,
strictly so called. The land tax was, in its operation, a
proprietor’s or landlord’s tax. But, besides this, there was a
direct capitation tax on all who were not possessed of landed
property. This tax dates from the time of the Roman conquests;
its amount is not clearly known. Gradual exemptions released
different persons and classes from this tax. One edict exempts
painters. In Syria, all under twelve or fourteen, or above
sixty-five, were exempted; at a later period, all under twenty,
and all unmarried females; still later, all under twenty-five,
widows and nuns, soldiers, veterani and clerici—whole dioceses,
that of Thrace and Illyricum. Under Galerius and Licinius, the
plebs urbana became exempt; though this, perhaps, was only an
ordinance for the East. By degrees, however, the exemption was
extended to all the inhabitants of towns; and as it was strictly
capitatio plebeia, from which all possessors were exempted it
fell at length altogether on the coloni and agricultural slaves.
These were registered in the same cataster (capitastrum) with the
land tax. It was paid by the proprietor, who raised it again from
his coloni and laborers.—M.]
181 (return) [
Geryones nos esse puta, monstrumque tributum, Hic capita ut vivam,
tu mihi tolle tria. Sidon. Apollinar. Carm. xiii.
The reputation of Father Sirmond led me to expect more
satisfaction than I have found in his note (p. 144) on this
remarkable passage. The words, suo vel suorum nomine, betray the
perplexity of the commentator.]
182 (return) [ This assertion, however formidable it may seem, is
founded on the original registers of births, deaths, and
marriages, collected by public authority, and now deposited in
the Controlee General at Paris. The annual average of births
throughout the whole kingdom, taken in five years, (from 1770 to
1774, both inclusive,) is 479,649 boys, and 449,269 girls, in all
928,918 children. The province of French Hainault alone furnishes
9906 births; and we are assured, by an actual enumeration of the
people, annually repeated from the year 1773 to the year 1776,
that upon an average, Hainault contains 257,097 inhabitants. By
the rules of fair analogy, we might infer, that the ordinary
proportion of annual births to the whole people, is about 1 to
26; and that the kingdom of France contains 24,151,868 persons of
both sexes and of every age. If we content ourselves with the
more moderate proportion of 1 to 25, the whole population will
amount to 23,222,950. From the diligent researches of the French
Government, (which are not unworthy of our own imitation,) we may
hope to obtain a still greater degree of certainty on this
important subject * Note: On no subject has so much valuable
information been collected since the time of Gibbon, as the
statistics of the different countries of Europe but much is still
wanting as to our own—M.]
183 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. v. tit. ix. x. xi. Cod. Justinian.
l. xi. tit. lxiii. Coloni appellantur qui conditionem debent
genitali solo, propter agriculturum sub dominio possessorum.
Augustin. de Civitate Dei, l. x. c. i.]
184 (return) [ The ancient jurisdiction of (Augustodunum) Autun
in Burgundy, the capital of the Aedui, comprehended the adjacent
territory of (Noviodunum) Nevers. See D’Anville, Notice de
l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 491. The two dioceses of Autun and Nevers
are now composed, the former of 610, and the latter of 160
parishes. The registers of births, taken during eleven years, in
476 parishes of the same province of Burgundy, and multiplied by
the moderate proportion of 25, (see Messance Recherches sur la
Population, p. 142,) may authorizes us to assign an average
number of 656 persons for each parish, which being again
multiplied by the 770 parishes of the dioceses of Nevers and
Autun, will produce the sum of 505,120 persons for the extent of
country which was once possessed by the Aedui.]
185 (return) [ We might derive an additional supply of 301,750
inhabitants from the dioceses of Chalons (Cabillonum) and of
Macon, (Matisco,) since they contain, the one 200, and the other
260 parishes. This accession of territory might be justified by
very specious reasons. 1. Chalons and Macon were undoubtedly
within the original jurisdiction of the Aedui. (See D’Anville,
Notice, p. 187, 443.) 2. In the Notitia of Gaul, they are
enumerated not as Civitates, but merely as Castra. 3. They do not
appear to have been episcopal seats before the fifth and sixth
centuries. Yet there is a passage in Eumenius (Panegyr. Vet.
viii. 7) which very forcibly deters me from extending the
territory of the Aedui, in the reign of Constantine, along the
beautiful banks of the navigable Saone. * Note: In this passage
of Eumenius, Savigny supposes the original number to have been
32,000: 7000 being discharged, there remained 25,000 liable to
the tribute. See Mem. quoted above.—M.]
186 (return) [ Eumenius in Panegyr Vet. viii. 11.]
187 (return) [ L’Abbe du Bos, Hist. Critique de la M. F. tom. i.
p. 121]
But this tax, or capitation, on the proprietors of land, would
have suffered a rich and numerous class of free citizens to
escape. With the view of sharing that species of wealth which is
derived from art or labor, and which exists in money or in
merchandise, the emperors imposed a distinct and personal tribute
on the trading part of their subjects. 188 Some exemptions, very
strictly confined both in time and place, were allowed to the
proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own estates.
Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal
arts: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected
by the severity of the law. The honorable merchant of Alexandria,
who imported the gems and spices of India for the use of the
western world; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money
a silent and ignominious profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the
diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a
sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the
revenue into the partnership of their gain; and the sovereign of
the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consented to
share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. 18811 As this
general tax upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was
styled the Lustral Contribution: and the historian Zosimus 189
laments that the approach of the fatal period was announced by
the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were often compelled
by the impending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and
unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their property
had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be
justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the
nature of this tribute it seems reasonable to conclude, that it
was arbitrary in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the
mode of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and the
precarious profits of art or labor, are susceptible only of a
discretionary valuation, which is seldom disadvantageous to the
interest of the treasury; and as the person of the trader
supplies the want of a visible and permanent security, the
payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land tax, may
be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by
any other means than those of corporal punishments. The cruel
treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state, is attested, and
was perhaps mitigated by a very humane edict of Constantine, who,
disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious
and airy prison for the place of their confinement. 190
188 (return) [ See Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. i. and iv.]
18811 (return) [ The emperor Theodosius put an end, by a law. to
this disgraceful source of revenue. (Godef. ad Cod. Theod. xiii.
tit. i. c. 1.) But before he deprived himself of it, he made sure
of some way of replacing this deficit. A rich patrician,
Florentius, indignant at this legalized licentiousness, had made
representations on the subject to the emperor. To induce him to
tolerate it no longer, he offered his own property to supply the
diminution of the revenue. The emperor had the baseness to accept
his offer—G.]
189 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 115. There is probably as much
passion and prejudice in the attack of Zosimus, as in the
elaborate defence of the memory of Constantine by the zealous Dr.
Howell. Hist. of the World, vol. ii. p. 20.]
190 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit vii. leg. 3.]
These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute
authority of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the
coronary gold still retained the name and semblance of popular
consent. It was an ancient custom that the allies of the
republic, who ascribed their safety or deliverance to the success
of the Roman arms, and even the cities of Italy, who admired the
virtues of their victorious general, adorned the pomp of his
triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which after
the ceremony were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain
a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of
zeal and flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the
size, of these popular donations; and the triumph of Caesar was
enriched with two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy
crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty thousand four hundred and
fourteen pounds of gold. This treasure was immediately melted
down by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be
more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods: his example
was imitated by his successors; and the custom was introduced of
exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more acceptable
present of the current gold coin of the empire. 191 The
spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty;
and instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it
was supposed to be granted by the several cities and provinces of
the monarchy, as often as the emperor condescended to announce
his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation
of a Caesar, a victory over the Barbarians, or any other real or
imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign. The
peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at
sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four thousand
pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own
felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to
accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and
gratitude. 192
191 (return) [ See Lipsius de Magnitud. Romana, l. ii. c. 9. The
Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius with a crown of
gold of seven, and Gaul with another of nine, hundred pounds
weight. I have followed the rational emendation of Lipsius. *
Note: This custom is of still earlier date, the Romans had
borrowed it from Greece. Who is not acquainted with the famous
oration of Demosthenes for the golden crown, which his citizens
wished to bestow, and Aeschines to deprive him of?—G.]
192 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were
supposed to be exempt from the Aurum Coronarium; but the Auri
Oblatio, which was required at their hands, was precisely of the
same nature.]
A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom
qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The
subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline
of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the
dignity of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the
rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase
of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice
of their complaints, will observe some favorable circumstances
which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The
threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon subverted the
foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or suspended,
on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were
cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by
the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The
forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration
contributed to restrain the irregular license of the soldiers;
and although the laws were violated by power, or perverted by
subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence
preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic
governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derive some
protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom,
which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the
successors of Augustus, that they did not reign over a nation of
Slaves or Barbarians. 193
193 (return) [ The great Theodosius, in his judicious advice to
his son, (Claudian in iv. Consulat. Honorii, 214, &c.,)
distinguishes the station of a Roman prince from that of a
Parthian monarch. Virtue was necessary for the one; birth might
suffice for the other.]
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part I.
Character Of Constantine.—Gothic War.—Death Of
Constantine.—Division Of The Empire Among His Three Sons.— Persian
War.—Tragic Deaths Of Constantine The Younger And
Constans.—Usurpation Of Magnentius.—Civil War.—Victory Of
Constantius.
The character of the prince who removed the seat of empire, and
introduced such important changes into the civil and religious
constitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided
the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Christians,
the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every
attribute of a hero, and even of a saint; while the discontent of
the vanquished party has compared Constantine to the most
abhorred of those tyrants, who, by their vice and weakness,
dishonored the Imperial purple. The same passions have in some
degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations, and the
character of Constantine is considered, even in the present age,
as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial
union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest
admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his
most-implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just
portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and candor of
history should adopt without a blush. 1 But it would soon appear,
that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colors, and to
reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure
monstrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper
and distinct lights, by a careful separation of the different
periods of the reign of Constantine.
1 (return) [ On ne se trompera point sur Constantin, en croyant
tout le mal ru’en dit Eusebe, et tout le bien qu’en dit Zosime.
Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. p. 233. Eusebius and
Zosimus form indeed the two extremes of flattery and invective.
The intermediate shades are expressed by those writers, whose
character or situation variously tempered the influence of their
religious zeal.]
The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine, had been
enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was
lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his
strength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise, and
from his earliest youth, to a very advanced season of life, he
preserved the vigor of his constitution by a strict adherence to
the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in
the social intercourse of familiar conversation; and though he
might sometimes indulge his disposition to raillery with less
reserve than was required by the severe dignity of his station,
the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of
all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has been
suspected; yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was not
incapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage of
an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a just
estimate of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences
derived some encouragement from the munificent protection of
Constantine. In the despatch of business, his diligence was
indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almost
continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in
giving audiences to ambassadors, and in examining the complaints
of his subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of his
measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he possessed
magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most
arduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudices
of education, or by the clamors of the multitude. In the field,
he infused his own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he
conducted with the talents of a consummate general; and to his
abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may ascribe the signal
victories which he obtained over the foreign and domestic foes of
the republic. He loved glory as the reward, perhaps as the
motive, of his labors. The boundless ambition, which, from the
moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling
passion of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of his own
situation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness
of superior merit, and by the prospect that his success would
enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire.
In his civil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged
on his side the inclinations of the people, who compared the
undissembled vices of those tyrants with the spirit of wisdom and
justice which seemed to direct the general tenor of the
administration of Constantine. 2
2 (return) [ The virtues of Constantine are collected for the
most part from Eutropius and the younger Victor, two sincere
pagans, who wrote after the extinction of his family. Even
Zosimus, and the Emperor Julian, acknowledge his personal courage
and military achievements.]
Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the
plains of Hadrianople, such is the character which, with a few
exceptions, he might have transmitted to posterity. But the
conclusion of his reign (according to the moderate and indeed
tender sentence of a writer of the same age) degraded him from
the rank which he had acquired among the most deserving of the
Roman princes. 3 In the life of Augustus, we behold the tyrant of
the republic, converted, almost by imperceptible degrees, into
the father of his country, and of human kind. In that of
Constantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long inspired
his subjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating
into a cruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or
raised by conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. The
general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years
of his reign, was a period of apparent splendor rather than of
real prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was disgraced by
the opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness and
prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the palaces of
Maxentius and Licinius, were lavishly consumed; the various
innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with an
increasing expense; the cost of his buildings, his court, and his
festivals, required an immediate and plentiful supply; and the
oppression of the people was the only fund which could support
the magnificence of the sovereign. 4 His unworthy favorites,
enriched by the boundless liberality of their master, usurped
with impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. 5 A secret
but universal decay was felt in every part of the public
administration, and the emperor himself, though he still retained
the obedience, gradually lost the esteem, of his subjects. The
dress and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he chose
to affect, served only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The
Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian,
assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person of
Constantine. He is represented with false hair of various colors,
laboriously arranged by the skilful artists to the times; a
diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems
and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing
robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. In
such apparel, scarcely to be excused by the youth and folly of
Elagabalus, we are at a loss to discover the wisdom of an aged
monarch, and the simplicity of a Roman veteran. 6 A mind thus
relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapable of rising to
that magnanimity which disdains suspicion, and dares to forgive.
The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by
the maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools of
tyrants; but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather
murders, which sullied the declining age of Constantine, will
suggest to our most candid thoughts the idea of a prince who
could sacrifice without reluctance the laws of justice, and the
feelings of nature, to the dictates either of his passions or of
his interest.
3 (return) [ See Eutropius, x. 6. In primo Imperii tempore
optimis principibus, ultimo mediis comparandus. From the ancient
Greek version of Poeanius, (edit. Havercamp. p. 697,) I am
inclined to suspect that Eutropius had originally written vix
mediis; and that the offensive monosyllable was dropped by the
wilful inadvertency of transcribers. Aurelius Victor expresses
the general opinion by a vulgar and indeed obscure proverb.
Trachala decem annis praestantissimds; duodecim sequentibus
latro; decem novissimis pupillus ob immouicas profusiones.]
4 (return) [ Julian, Orat. i. p. 8, in a flattering discourse
pronounced before the son of Constantine; and Caesares, p. 336.
Zosimus, p. 114, 115. The stately buildings of Constantinople,
&c., may be quoted as a lasting and unexceptionable proof of the
profuseness of their founder.]
5 (return) [ The impartial Ammianus deserves all our confidence.
Proximorum fauces aperuit primus omnium Constantinus. L. xvi. c.
8. Eusebius himself confesses the abuse, (Vit. Constantin. l. iv.
c. 29, 54;) and some of the Imperial laws feebly point out the
remedy. See above, p. 146 of this volume.]
6 (return) [ Julian, in the Caesars, attempts to ridicule his
uncle. His suspicious testimony is confirmed, however, by the
learned Spanheim, with the authority of medals, (see Commentaire,
p. 156, 299, 397, 459.) Eusebius (Orat. c. 5) alleges, that
Constantine dressed for the public, not for himself. Were this
admitted, the vainest coxcomb could never want an excuse.]
The same fortune which so invariably followed the standard of
Constantine, seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his
domestic life. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed the
longest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus Trajan, and
Diocletian, had been disappointed of posterity; and the frequent
revolutions had never allowed sufficient time for any Imperial
family to grow up and multiply under the shade of the purple. But
the royalty of the Flavian line, which had been first ennobled by
the Gothic Claudius, descended through several generations; and
Constantine himself derived from his royal father the hereditary
honors which he transmitted to his children. The emperor had been
twice married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful object of his
youthful attachment, 7 had left him only one son, who was called
Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, he had three
daughters, and three sons known by the kindred names of
Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. The unambitious brothers
of the great Constantine, Julius Constantius, Dalmatius, and
Hannibalianus, 8 were permitted to enjoy the most honorable rank,
and the most affluent fortune, that could be consistent with a
private station. The youngest of the three lived without a name,
and died without posterity. His two elder brothers obtained in
marriage the daughters of wealthy senators, and propagated new
branches of the Imperial race. Gallus and Julian afterwards
became the most illustrious of the children of Julius
Constantius, the Patrician.
The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with the vain
title of Censor, were named Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The two
sisters of the great Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were
bestowed on Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth
and of consular dignity. His third sister, Constantia, was
distinguished by her preeminence of greatness and of misery. She
remained the widow of the vanquished Licinius; and it was by her
entreaties, that an innocent boy, the offspring of their
marriage, preserved, for some time, his life, the title of
Caesar, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides the
females, and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelve
males, to whom the language of modern courts would apply the
title of princes of the blood, seemed, according to the order of
their birth, to be destined either to inherit or to support the
throne of Constantine. But in less than thirty years, this
numerous and increasing family was reduced to the persons of
Constantius and Julian, who alone had survived a series of crimes
and calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in the
devoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.
7 (return) [ Zosimus and Zonaras agree in representing Minervina
as the concubine of Constantine; but Ducange has very gallantly
rescued her character, by producing a decisive passage from one
of the panegyrics: “Ab ipso fine pueritiae te matrimonii legibus
dedisti.”]
8 (return) [ Ducange (Familiae Byzantinae, p. 44) bestows on him,
after Zosimus, the name of Constantine; a name somewhat unlikely,
as it was already occupied by the elder brother. That of
Hannibalianus is mentioned in the Paschal Chronicle, and is
approved by Tillemont. Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 527.]
Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptive heir
of the empire, is represented by impartial historians as an
amiable and accomplished youth. The care of his education, or at
least of his studies, was intrusted to Lactantius, the most
eloquent of the Christians; a preceptor admirably qualified to
form the taste, and the excite the virtues, of his illustrious
disciple. 9 At the age of seventeen, Crispus was invested with
the title of Caesar, and the administration of the Gallic
provinces, where the inroads of the Germans gave him an early
occasion of signalizing his military prowess. In the civil war
which broke out soon afterwards, the father and son divided their
powers; and this history has already celebrated the valor as well
as conduct displayed by the latter, in forcing the straits of the
Hellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet of
Lacinius. This naval victory contributed to determine the event
of the war; and the names of Constantine and of Crispus were
united in the joyful acclamations of their eastern subjects; who
loudly proclaimed, that the world had been subdued, and was now
governed, by an emperor endowed with every virtue; and by his
illustrious son, a prince beloved of Heaven, and the lively image
of his father’s perfections. The public favor, which seldom
accompanies old age, diffused its lustre over the youth of
Crispus. He deserved the esteem, and he engaged the affections,
of the court, the army, and the people. The experienced merit of
a reigning monarch is acknowledged by his subjects with
reluctance, and frequently denied with partial and discontented
murmurs; while, from the opening virtues of his successor, they
fondly conceive the most unbounded hopes of private as well as
public felicity. 10
9 (return) [ Jerom. in Chron. The poverty of Lactantius may be
applied either to the praise of the disinterested philosopher, or
to the shame of the unfeeling patron. See Tillemont, Mem.
Ecclesiast. tom. vi. part 1. p. 345. Dupin, Bibliotheque
Ecclesiast. tom. i. p. 205. Lardner’s Credibility of the Gospel
History, part ii. vol. vii. p. 66.]
10 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. x. c. 9. Eutropius (x.
6) styles him “egregium virum;” and Julian (Orat. i.) very
plainly alludes to the exploits of Crispus in the civil war. See
Spanheim, Comment. p. 92.]
This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention of
Constantine, who, both as a father and as a king, was impatient
of an equal. Instead of attempting to secure the allegiance of
his son by the generous ties of confidence and gratitude, he
resolved to prevent the mischiefs which might be apprehended from
dissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon had reason to complain, that
while his infant brother Constantius was sent, with the title of
Caesar, to reign over his peculiar department of the Gallic
provinces, 11 he, a prince of mature years, who had performed
such recent and signal services, instead of being raised to the
superior rank of Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his
father’s court; and exposed, without power or defence, to every
calumny which the malice of his enemies could suggest. Under such
painful circumstances, the royal youth might not always be able
to compose his behavior, or suppress his discontent; and we may
be assured, that he was encompassed by a train of indiscreet or
perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to inflame, and who
were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth of his
resentment. An edict of Constantine, published about this time,
manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions, that a
secret conspiracy had been formed against his person and
government. By all the allurements of honors and rewards, he
invites informers of every degree to accuse without exception his
magistrates or ministers, his friends or his most intimate
favorites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration, that he
himself will listen to the charge, that he himself will revenge
his injuries; and concluding with a prayer, which discovers some
apprehension of danger, that the providence of the Supreme Being
may still continue to protect the safety of the emperor and of
the empire. 12
11 (return) [ Compare Idatius and the Paschal Chronicle, with
Ammianus, (l, xiv. c. 5.) The year in which Constantius was
created Caesar seems to be more accurately fixed by the two
chronologists; but the historian who lived in his court could not
be ignorant of the day of the anniversary. For the appointment of
the new Caesar to the provinces of Gaul, see Julian, Orat. i. p.
12, Godefroy, Chronol. Legum, p. 26. and Blondel, de Primaute de
l’Eglise, p. 1183.]
12 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. iv. Godefroy suspected the
secret motives of this law. Comment. tom. iii. p. 9.]
The informers, who complied with so liberal an invitation, were
sufficiently versed in the arts of courts to select the friends
and adherents of Crispus as the guilty persons; nor is there any
reason to distrust the veracity of the emperor, who had promised
an ample measure of revenge and punishment. The policy of
Constantine maintained, however, the same appearances of regard
and confidence towards a son, whom he began to consider as his
most irreconcilable enemy. Medals were struck with the customary
vows for the long and auspicious reign of the young Caesar; 13
and as the people, who were not admitted into the secrets of the
palace, still loved his virtues, and respected his dignity, a
poet who solicits his recall from exile, adores with equal
devotion the majesty of the father and that of the son. 14 The
time was now arrived for celebrating the august ceremony of the
twentieth year of the reign of Constantine; and the emperor, for
that purpose, removed his court from Nicomedia to Rome, where the
most splendid preparations had been made for his reception. Every
eye, and every tongue, affected to express their sense of the
general happiness, and the veil of ceremony and dissimulation was
drawn for a while over the darkest designs of revenge and murder.
15 In the midst of the festival, the unfortunate Crispus was
apprehended by order of the emperor, who laid aside the
tenderness of a father, without assuming the equity of a judge.
The examination was short and private; 16 and as it was thought
decent to conceal the fate of the young prince from the eyes of
the Roman people, he was sent under a strong guard to Pola, in
Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put to death, either by
the hand of the executioner, or by the more gentle operations of
poison. 17 The Caesar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners, was
involved in the ruin of Crispus: 18 and the stern jealousy of
Constantine was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his favorite
sister, pleading for the life of a son, whose rank was his only
crime, and whose loss she did not long survive. The story of
these unhappy princes, the nature and evidence of their guilt,
the forms of their trial, and the circumstances of their death,
were buried in mysterious obscurity; and the courtly bishop, who
has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of his
hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject of these tragic
events. 19 Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind,
whilst it imprints an indelible stain on the memory of
Constantine, must remind us of the very different behavior of one
of the greatest monarchs of the present age. The Czar Peter, in
the full possession of despotic power, submitted to the judgment
of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity, the reasons which had
compelled him to subscribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at
least of a degenerate son. 20
13 (return) [ Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 28. Tillemont, tom. iv. p.
610.]
14 (return) [ His name was Porphyrius Optatianus. The date of his
panegyric, written, according to the taste of the age, in vile
acrostics, is settled by Scaliger ad Euseb. p. 250, Tillemont,
tom. iv. p. 607, and Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin, l. iv. c. 1.]
15 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 103. Godefroy, Chronol. Legum, p.
28.]
16 (return) [ The elder Victor, who wrote under the next reign,
speaks with becoming caution. “Natu grandior incertum qua causa,
patris judicio occidisset.” If we consult the succeeding writers,
Eutropius, the younger Victor, Orosius, Jerom, Zosimus,
Philostorgius, and Gregory of Tours, their knowledge will appear
gradually to increase, as their means of information must have
diminished—a circumstance which frequently occurs in historical
disquisition.]
17 (return) [ Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 11) uses the general
expression of peremptum Codinus (p. 34) beheads the young prince;
but Sidonius Apollinaris (Epistol. v. 8,) for the sake perhaps of
an antithesis to Fausta’s warm bath, chooses to administer a
draught of cold poison.]
18 (return) [ Sororis filium, commodae indolis juvenem.
Eutropius, x. 6 May I not be permitted to conjecture that Crispus
had married Helena the daughter of the emperor Licinius, and that
on the happy delivery of the princess, in the year 322, a general
pardon was granted by Constantine? See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p.
47, and the law (l. ix. tit. xxxvii.) of the Theodosian code,
which has so much embarrassed the interpreters. Godefroy, tom.
iii. p. 267 * Note: This conjecture is very doubtful. The
obscurity of the law quoted from the Theodosian code scarcely
allows any inference, and there is extant but one meda which can
be attributed to a Helena, wife of Crispus.]
19 (return) [ See the life of Constantine, particularly l. ii. c.
19, 20. Two hundred and fifty years afterwards Evagrius (l. iii.
c. 41) deduced from the silence of Eusebius a vain argument
against the reality of the fact.]
20 (return) [ Histoire de Pierre le Grand, par Voltaire, part ii.
c. 10.]
The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknowledged, that
the modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are
reduced to palliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common
feelings of human nature forbade them to justify. They pretend,
that as soon as the afflicted father discovered the falsehood of
the accusation by which his credulity had been so fatally misled,
he published to the world his repentance and remorse; that he
mourned forty days, during which he abstained from the use of the
bath, and all the ordinary comforts of life; and that, for the
lasting instruction of posterity, he erected a golden statue of
Crispus, with this memorable inscription: To my son, whom I
unjustly condemned. 21 A tale so moral and so interesting would
deserve to be supported by less exceptionable authority; but if
we consult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will
inform us, that the repentance of Constantine was manifested only
in acts of blood and revenge; and that he atoned for the murder
of an innocent son, by the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife.
They ascribe the misfortunes of Crispus to the arts of his
step-mother Fausta, whose implacable hatred, or whose
disappointed love, renewed in the palace of Constantine the
ancient tragedy of Hippolitus and of Phaedra. 22 Like the
daughter of Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her
son-in-law of an incestuous attempt on the chastity of his
father’s wife; and easily obtained, from the jealousy of the
emperor, a sentence of death against a young prince, whom she
considered with reason as the most formidable rival of her own
children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, lamented
and revenged the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus; nor was
it long before a real or pretended discovery was made, that
Fausta herself entertained a criminal connection with a slave
belonging to the Imperial stables. 23 Her condemnation and
punishment were the instant consequences of the charge; and the
adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath, which, for that
purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree. 24 By some
it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal
union of twenty years, and the honor of their common offspring,
the destined heirs of the throne, might have softened the
obdurate heart of Constantine, and persuaded him to suffer his
wife, however guilty she might appear, to expiate her offences in
a solitary prison. But it seems a superfluous labor to weigh the
propriety, unless we could ascertain the truth, of this singular
event, which is attended with some circumstances of doubt and
perplexity. Those who have attacked, and those who have defended,
the character of Constantine, have alike disregarded two very
remarkable passages of two orations pronounced under the
succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, the beauty,
and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife,
sister, and mother of so many princes. 25 The latter asserts, in
explicit terms, that the mother of the younger Constantine, who
was slain three years after his father’s death, survived to weep
over the fate of her son. 26 Notwithstanding the positive
testimony of several writers of the Pagan as well as of the
Christian religion, there may still remain some reason to
believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the blind
and suspicious cruelty of her husband. 2611 The deaths of a son
and a nephew, with the execution of a great number of
respectable, and perhaps innocent friends, 27 who were involved
in their fall, may be sufficient, however, to justify the
discontent of the Roman people, and to explain the satirical
verses affixed to the palace gate, comparing the splendid and
bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero. 28
21 (return) [ In order to prove that the statue was erected by
Constantine, and afterwards concealed by the malice of the
Arians, Codinus very readily creates (p. 34) two witnesses,
Hippolitus, and the younger Herodotus, to whose imaginary
histories he appeals with unblushing confidence.]
22 (return) [ Zosimus (l. ii. p. 103) may be considered as our
original. The ingenuity of the moderns, assisted by a few hints
from the ancients, has illustrated and improved his obscure and
imperfect narrative.]
23 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 4. Zosimus (l. ii. p. 104,
116) imputes to Constantine the death of two wives, of the
innocent Fausta, and of an adulteress, who was the mother of his
three successors. According to Jerom, three or four years elapsed
between the death of Crispus and that of Fausta. The elder Victor
is prudently silent.]
24 (return) [ If Fausta was put to death, it is reasonable to
believe that the private apartments of the palace were the scene
of her execution. The orator Chrysostom indulges his fancy by
exposing the naked desert mountain to be devoured by wild
beasts.]
25 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. He seems to call her the mother of
Crispus. She might assume that title by adoption. At least, she
was not considered as his mortal enemy. Julian compares the
fortune of Fausta with that of Parysatis, the Persian queen. A
Roman would have more naturally recollected the second Agrippina:
Et moi, qui sur le trone ai suivi mes ancetres: Moi, fille,
femme,soeur, et mere de vos maitres.]
26 (return) [ Monod. in Constantin. Jun. c. 4, ad Calcem Eutrop.
edit. Havercamp. The orator styles her the most divine and pious
of queens.]
2611 (return) [ Manso (Leben Constantins, p. 65) treats this
inference o: Gibbon, and the authorities to which he appeals,
with too much contempt, considering the general scantiness of
proof on this curious question.—M.]
27 (return) [ Interfecit numerosos amicos. Eutrop. xx. 6.]
28 (return) [ Saturni aurea saecula quis requirat? Sunt haec
gemmea, sed Neroniana. Sidon. Apollinar. v. 8. ——It is somewhat
singular that these satirical lines should be attributed, not to
an obscure libeller, or a disappointed patriot, but to Ablavius,
prime minister and favorite of the emperor. We may now perceive
that the imprecations of the Roman people were dictated by
humanity, as well as by superstition. Zosim. l. ii. p. 105.]
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part II.
By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the empire seemed to
devolve on the three sons of Fausta, who have been already
mentioned under the names of Constantine, of Constantius, and of
Constans. These young princes were successively invested with the
title of Caesar; and the dates of their promotion may be referred
to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth years of the reign
of their father. 29 This conduct, though it tended to multiply
the future masters of the Roman world, might be excused by the
partiality of paternal affection; but it is not so easy to
understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered the
safety both of his family and of his people, by the unnecessary
elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The
former was raised, by the title of Caesar, to an equality with
his cousins. In favor of the latter, Constantine invented the new
and singular appellation of Nobilissimus; 30 to which he annexed
the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of
the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire,
Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of King; a
name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested, as the
profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The use of such a
title, even as it appears under the reign of Constantine, is a
strange and unconnected fact, which can scarcely be admitted on
the joint authority of Imperial medals and contemporary writers.
31 3111
29 (return) [ Euseb. Orat. in Constantin. c. 3. These dates are
sufficiently correct to justify the orator.]
30 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 117. Under the predecessors of
Constantine, No bilissimus was a vague epithet, rather than a
legal and determined title.]
31 (return) [ Adstruunt nummi veteres ac singulares. Spanheim de
Usu Numismat. Dissertat. xii. vol. ii. p. 357. Ammianus speaks of
this Roman king (l. xiv. c. l, and Valesius ad loc.) The Valesian
fragment styles him King of kings; and the Paschal Chronicle
acquires the weight of Latin evidence.]
3111 (return) [ Hannibalianus is always designated in these
authors by the title of king. There still exist medals struck to
his honor, on which the same title is found, Fl. Hannibaliano
Regi. See Eckhel, Doct. Num. t. viii. 204. Armeniam nationesque
circum socias habebat, says Aur. Victor, p. 225. The writer means
the Lesser Armenia. Though it is not possible to question a fact
supported by such respectable authorities, Gibbon considers it
inexplicable and incredible. It is a strange abuse of the
privilege of doubting, to refuse all belief in a fact of such
little importance in itself, and attested thus formally by
contemporary authors and public monuments. St. Martin note to Le
Beau i. 341.—M.]
The whole empire was deeply interested in the education of these
five youths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine. The
exercise of the body prepared them for the fatigues of war and
the duties of active life. Those who occasionally mention the
education or talents of Constantius, allow that he excelled in
the gymnastic arts of leaping and running that he was a dexterous
archer, a skilful horseman, and a master of all the different
weapons used in the service either of the cavalry or of the
infantry. 32 The same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, though
not perhaps with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons
and nephews of Constantine. 33 The most celebrated professors of
the Christian faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman
jurisprudence, were invited by the liberality of the emperor, who
reserved for himself the important task of instructing the royal
youths in the science of government, and the knowledge of
mankind. But the genius of Constantine himself had been formed by
adversity and experience. In the free intercourse of private
life, and amidst the dangers of the court of Galerius, he had
learned to command his own passions, to encounter those of his
equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatness
on the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct. His
destined successors had the misfortune of being born and educated
in the imperial purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of
flatterers, they passed their youth in the enjoyment of luxury,
and the expectation of a throne; nor would the dignity of their
rank permit them to descend from that elevated station from
whence the various characters of human nature appear to wear a
smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence of Constantine admitted
them, at a very tender age, to share the administration of the
empire; and they studied the art of reigning, at the expense of
the people intrusted to their care. The younger Constantine was
appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brother Constantius
exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony of their father,
for the more opulent, but less martial, countries of the East.
Italy, the Western Illyricum, and Africa, were accustomed to
revere Constans, the third of his sons, as the representative of
the great Constantine. He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier,
to which he annexed the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and
Greece. The city of Caesarea was chosen for the residence of
Hannibalianus; and the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the
Lesser Armenia, were destined to form the extent of his new
kingdom. For each of these princes a suitable establishment was
provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, and of
auxiliaries, was allotted for their respective dignity and
defence. The ministers and generals, who were placed about their
persons, were such as Constantine could trust to assist, and even
to control, these youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their
delegated power. As they advanced in years and experience, the
limits of their authority were insensibly enlarged: but the
emperor always reserved for himself the title of Augustus; and
while he showed the Caesars to the armies and provinces, he
maintained every part of the empire in equal obedience to its
supreme head. 34 The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of
his reign was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible
insurrection of a camel-driver in the Island of Cyprus, 35 or by
the active part which the policy of Constantine engaged him to
assume in the wars of the Goths and Sarmatians.
32 (return) [ His dexterity in martial exercises is celebrated by
Julian, (Orat. i. p. 11, Orat. ii. p. 53,) and allowed by
Ammianus, (l. xxi. c. 16.)]
33 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 51. Julian,
Orat. i. p. 11-16, with Spanheim’s elaborate Commentary.
Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 109. Constantius studied with laudable
diligence; but the dulness of his fancy prevented him from
succeeding in the art of poetry, or even of rhetoric.]
34 (return) [ Eusebius, (l. iv. c. 51, 52,) with a design of
exalting the authority and glory of Constantine, affirms, that he
divided the Roman empire as a private citizen might have divided
his patrimony. His distribution of the provinces may be collected
from Eutropius, the two Victors and the Valesian fragment.]
35 (return) [ Calocerus, the obscure leader of this rebellion, or
rather tumult, was apprehended and burnt alive in the
market-place of Tarsus, by the vigilance of Dalmatius. See the
elder Victor, the Chronicle of Jerom, and the doubtful traditions
of Theophanes and Cedrenus.]
Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians
form a very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners
of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure and complexion of the
ancient inhabitants of Europe. According to the various accidents
of peace and war, of alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians were
sometimes confined to the banks of the Tanais; and they sometimes
spread themselves over the immense plains which lie between the
Vistula and the Volga. 36 The care of their numerous flocks and
herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercises of war, or rather
of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The
movable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of their wives
and children, consisted only of large wagons drawn by oxen, and
covered in the form of tents. The military strength of the nation
was composed of cavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to
lead in their hand one or two spare horses, enabled them to
advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence, which surprised
the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a distant enemy. 37
Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to invent a
sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or
javelin, though it was formed only of horses’ hoofs, cut into
thin and polished slices, carefully laid over each other in the
manner of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under
garment of coarse linen. 38 The offensive arms of the Sarmatians
were short daggers, long lances, and a weighty bow with a quiver
of arrows. They were reduced to the necessity of employing
fish-bones for the points of their weapons; but the custom of
dipping them in a venomous liquor, that poisoned the wounds which
they inflicted, is alone sufficient to prove the most savage
manners, since a people impressed with a sense of humanity would
have abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation skilled in the
arts of war would have disdained so impotent a resource. 39
Whenever these Barbarians issued from their deserts in quest of
prey, their shaggy beards, uncombed locks, the furs with which
they were covered from head to foot, and their fierce
countenances, which seemed to express the innate cruelty of their
minds, inspired the more civilized provincials of Rome with
horror and dismay.
36 (return) [ Cellarius has collected the opinions of the
ancients concerning the European and Asiatic Sarmatia; and M.
D’Anville has applied them to modern geography with the skill and
accuracy which always distinguish that excellent writer.]
37 (return) [ Ammian. l. xvii. c. 12. The Sarmatian horses were
castrated to prevent the mischievous accidents which might happen
from the noisy and ungovernable passions of the males.]
38 (return) [ Pausanius, l. i. p. 50,. edit. Kuhn. That
inquisitive traveller had carefully examined a Sarmatian cuirass,
which was preserved in the temple of Aesculapius at Athens.]
39 (return) [ Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro, Et telum
causas mortis habere duas. Ovid, ex Ponto, l. iv. ep. 7, ver.
7.——See in the Recherches sur les Americains, tom. ii. p.
236—271, a very curious dissertation on poisoned darts. The venom
was commonly extracted from the vegetable reign: but that
employed by the Scythians appears to have been drawn from the
viper, and a mixture of human blood.]
The use of poisoned arms, which has been spread over both worlds,
never preserved a savage tribe from the arms of a disciplined
enemy. The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of
fame and luxury, was condemned to a hopeless exile on the frozen
banks of the Danube, where he was exposed, almost without
defence, to the fury of these monsters of the desert, with whose
stern spirits he feared that his gentle shade might hereafter be
confounded. In his pathetic, but sometimes unmanly lamentations,
40 he describes in the most lively colors the dress and manners,
the arms and inroads, of the Getae and Sarmatians, who were
associated for the purposes of destruction; and from the accounts
of history there is some reason to believe that these Sarmatians
were the Jazygae, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes of
the nation. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek a
permanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon
after the reign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who
subsisted by fishing on the banks of the River Teyss or Tibiscus,
to retire into the hilly country, and to abandon to the
victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains of the Upper Hungary,
which are bounded by the course of the Danube and the
semicircular enclosure of the Carpathian Mountains. 41 In this
advantageous position, they watched or suspended the moment of
attack, as they were provoked by injuries or appeased by
presents; they gradually acquired the skill of using more
dangerous weapons, and although the Sarmatians did not illustrate
their name by any memorable exploits, they occasionally assisted
their eastern and western neighbors, the Goths and the Germans,
with a formidable body of cavalry. They lived under the irregular
aristocracy of their chieftains: 42 but after they had received
into their bosom the fugitive Vandals, who yielded to the
pressure of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a king
from that nation, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi,
who had formerly dwelt on the hores of the northern ocean. 43
40 (return) [ The nine books of Poetical Epistles which Ovid
composed during the seven first years of his melancholy exile,
possess, beside the merit of elegance, a double value. They
exhibit a picture of the human mind under very singular
circumstances; and they contain many curious observations, which
no Roman except Ovid, could have an opportunity of making. Every
circumstance which tends to illustrate the history of the
Barbarians, has been drawn together by the very accurate Count de
Buat. Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. iv. c. xvi. p.
286-317]
41 (return) [ The Sarmatian Jazygae were settled on the banks of
Pathissus or Tibiscus, when Pliny, in the year 79, published his
Natural History. See l. iv. c. 25. In the time of Strabo and
Ovid, sixty or seventy years before, they appear to have
inhabited beyond the Getae, along the coast of the Euxine.]
42 (return) [ Principes Sarmaturum Jazygum penes quos civitatis
regimen plebem quoque et vim equitum, qua sola valent,
offerebant. Tacit. Hist. iii. p. 5. This offer was made in the
civil war between Vitellino and Vespasian.]
43 (return) [ This hypothesis of a Vandal king reigning over
Sarmatian subjects, seems necessary to reconcile the Goth
Jornandes with the Greek and Latin historians of Constantine. It
may be observed that Isidore, who lived in Spain under the
dominion of the Goths, gives them for enemies, not the Vandals,
but the Sarmatians. See his Chronicle in Grotius, p. 709. Note: I
have already noticed the confusion which must necessarily arise
in history, when names purely geographical, as this of Sarmatia,
are taken for historical names belonging to a single nation. We
perceive it here; it has forced Gibbon to suppose, without any
reason but the necessity of extricating himself from his
perplexity, that the Sarmatians had taken a king from among the
Vandals; a supposition entirely contrary to the usages of
Barbarians Dacia, at this period, was occupied, not by
Sarmatians, who have never formed a distinct race, but by
Vandals, whom the ancients have often confounded under the
general term Sarmatians. See Gatterer’s Welt-Geschiehte p.
464—G.]
This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of
contention, which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike
and independent nations. The Vandal princes were stimulated by
fear and revenge; the Gothic kings aspired to extend their
dominion from the Euxine to the frontiers of Germany; and the
waters of the Maros, a small river which falls into the Teyss,
were stained with the blood of the contending Barbarians. After
some experience of the superior strength and numbers of their
adversaries, the Sarmatians implored the protection of the Roman
monarch, who beheld with pleasure the discord of the nations, but
who was justly alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. As
soon as Constantine had declared himself in favor of the weaker
party, the haughty Araric, king of the Goths, instead of
expecting the attack of the legions, boldly passed the Danube,
and spread terror and devastation through the province of Maesia.
To oppose the inroad of this destroying host, the aged emperor
took the field in person; but on this occasion either his conduct
or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had acquired in so
many foreign and domestic wars. He had the mortification of
seeing his troops fly before an inconsiderable detachment of the
Barbarians, who pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp,
and obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and
ignominious retreat. 4311 The event of a second and more
successful action retrieved the honor of the Roman name; and the
powers of art and discipline prevailed, after an obstinate
contest, over the efforts of irregular valor. The broken army of
the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the wasted province, and
the passage of the Danube: and although the eldest of the sons of
Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his father, the
merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed
to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.
4311 (return) [ Gibbon states, that Constantine was defeated by
the Goths in a first battle. No ancient author mentions such an
event. It is, no doubt, a mistake in Gibbon. St Martin, note to
Le Beau. i. 324.—M.]
He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his
negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, 44
whose capital, situate on the western coast of the Tauric or
Crimaean peninsula, still retained some vestiges of a Grecian
colony, and was governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a
council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City.
The Chersonites were animated against the Goths, by the memory of
the wars, which, in the preceding century, they had maintained
with unequal forces against the invaders of their country. They
were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of
commerce; as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with
corn and manufactures, which they purchased with their only
productions, salt, wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of
Constantine, they prepared, under the conduct of their magistrate
Diogenes, a considerable army, of which the principal strength
consisted in cross-bows and military chariots. The speedy march
and intrepid attack of the Chersonites, by diverting the
attention of the Goths, assisted the operations of the Imperial
generals. The Goths, vanquished on every side, were driven into
the mountains, where, in the course of a severe campaign, above a
hundred thousand were computed to have perished by cold and
hunger. Peace was at length granted to their humble
supplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the most
valuable hostage; and Constantine endeavored to convince their
chiefs, by a liberal distribution of honors and rewards, how far
the friendship of the Romans was preferable to their enmity. In
the expressions of his gratitude towards the faithful
Chersonites, the emperor was still more magnificent. The pride of
the nation was gratified by the splendid and almost royal
decorations bestowed on their magistrate and his successors. A
perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated for their
vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A regular
subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply
which could be useful either in peace or war. But it was thought
that the Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their
deliverance from impending ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with
too strict an economy, deducted some part of the expenses of the
war from the customary gratifications which were allowed to that
turbulent nation.
44 (return) [ I may stand in need of some apology for having
used, without scruple, the authority of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, in all that relates to the wars and negotiations
of the Chersonites. I am aware that he was a Greek of the tenth
century, and that his accounts of ancient history are frequently
confused and fabulous. But on this occasion his narrative is, for
the most part, consistent and probable nor is there much
difficulty in conceiving that an emperor might have access to
some secret archives, which had escaped the diligence of meaner
historians. For the situation and history of Chersone, see
Peyssonel, des Peuples barbares qui ont habite les Bords du
Danube, c. xvi. 84-90. ——Gibbon has confounded the inhabitants of
the city of Cherson, the ancient Chersonesus, with the people of
the Chersonesus Taurica. If he had read with more attention the
chapter of Constantius Porphyrogenitus, from which this narrative
is derived, he would have seen that the author clearly
distinguishes the republic of Cherson from the rest of the Tauric
Peninsula, then possessed by the kings of the Cimmerian
Bosphorus, and that the city of Cherson alone furnished succors
to the Romans. The English historian is also mistaken in saying
that the Stephanephoros of the Chersonites was a perpetual
magistrate; since it is easy to discover from the great number of
Stephanephoroi mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, that
they were annual magistrates, like almost all those which
governed the Grecian republics. St. Martin, note to Le Beau i.
326.—M.]
Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon forgot,
with the levity of barbarians, the services which they had so
lately received, and the dangers which still threatened their
safety. Their inroads on the territory of the empire provoked the
indignation of Constantine to leave them to their fate; and he no
longer opposed the ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who
had recently ascended the Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal
king, whilst alone, and unassisted, he defended his dominions
with undaunted courage, was vanquished and slain in a decisive
battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. 4411
The remainder of the nation embraced the desperate expedient of
arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by
whose tumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the
invader from their confines. But they soon discovered that they
had exchanged a foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and
more implacable. Enraged by their former servitude, elated by
their present glory, the slaves, under the name of Limigantes,
claimed and usurped the possession of the country which they had
saved. Their masters, unable to withstand the ungoverned fury of
the populace, preferred the hardships of exile to the tyranny of
their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians solicited a less
ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.
A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian Mountains,
among the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to
share a superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far
greater part of the distressed nation turned their eyes towards
the fruitful provinces of Rome. Imploring the protection and
forgiveness of the emperor, they solemnly promised, as subjects
in peace, and as soldiers in war, the most inviolable fidelity to
the empire which should graciously receive them into its bosom.
According to the maxims adopted by Probus and his successors, the
offers of this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted; and a
competent portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,
Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the
habitation and subsistence of three hundred thousand Sarmatians.
45 4511
4411 (return) [ Gibbon supposes that this war took place because
Constantine had deducted a part of the customary gratifications,
granted by his predecessors to the Sarmatians. Nothing of this
kind appears in the authors. We see, on the contrary, that after
his victory, and to punish the Sarmatia is for the ravages they
had committed, he withheld the sums which it had been the custom
to bestow. St. Martin, note to Le Beau, i. 327.—M.]
45 (return) [ The Gothic and Sarmatian wars are related in so
broken and imperfect a manner, that I have been obliged to
compare the following writers, who mutually supply, correct, and
illustrate each other. Those who will take the same trouble, may
acquire a right of criticizing my narrative. Ammianus, l. xvii.
c. 12. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. Eutropius, x. 7. Sextus Rufus de
Provinciis, c. 26. Julian Orat. i. p. 9, and Spanheim, Comment.
p. 94. Hieronym. in Chron. Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c.
6. Socrates, l. i. c. 18. Sozomen, l. i. c. 8. Zosimus, l. ii. p.
108. Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 22. Isidorus in Chron. p. 709;
in Hist. Gothorum Grotii. Constantin. Porphyrogenitus de
Administrat. Imperii, c. 53, p. 208, edit. Meursii.]
4511 (return) [ Compare, on this very obscure but remarkable war,
Manso, Leben Coa xantius, p. 195—M.]
By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage
of a suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of the
Roman empire; and the ambassadors of Aethiopia, Persia, and the
most remote countries of India, congratulated the peace and
prosperity of his government. 46 If he reckoned, among the favors
of fortune, the death of his eldest son, of his nephew, and
perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of private
as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of his reign;
a period which none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had been
permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn festival
about ten months; and at the mature age of sixty-four, after a
short illness, he ended his memorable life at the palace of
Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for
the benefit of the air, and with the hope of recruiting his
exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths. The excessive
demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning, surpassed
whatever had been practised on any former occasion.
Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient
Rome, the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last
request, was transported to the city, which was destined to
preserve the name and memory of its founder. The body of
Constantine adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the
purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the
apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had been
splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court were
strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the
principal officers of the state, the army, and the household,
approaching the person of their sovereign with bended knees and a
composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as
seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy,
this theatrical representation was for some time continued; nor
could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that
Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, had
reigned after his death. 47
46 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vit. Const. l. iv. c. 50) remarks
three circumstances relative to these Indians. 1. They came from
the shores of the eastern ocean; a description which might be
applied to the coast of China or Coromandel. 2. They presented
shining gems, and unknown animals. 3. They protested their kings
had erected statues to represent the supreme majesty of
Constantine.]
47 (return) [ Funus relatum in urbem sui nominis, quod sane P. R.
aegerrime tulit. Aurelius Victor. Constantine prepared for
himself a stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles. Euseb.
l. iv. c. 60. The best, and indeed almost the only account of the
sickness, death, and funeral of Constantine, is contained in the
fourth book of his Life by Eusebius.]
But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it was
soon discovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is
seldom obeyed, when his subjects have no longer anything to hope
from his favor, or to dread from his resentment. The same
ministers and generals, who bowed with such referential awe
before the inanimate corpse of their deceased sovereign, were
engaged in secret consultations to exclude his two nephews,
Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had assigned
them in the succession of the empire. We are too imperfectly
acquainted with the court of Constantine to form any judgment of
the real motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy;
unless we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of
jealousy and revenge against the praefect Ablavius, a proud
favorite, who had long directed the counsels and abused the
confidence of the late emperor. The arguments, by which they
solicited the concurrence of the soldiers and people, are of a
more obvious nature; and they might with decency, as well as
truth, insist on the superior rank of the children of
Constantine, the danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns,
and the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from
the discord of so many rival princes, who were not connected by
the tender sympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue was
conducted with zeal and secrecy, till a loud and unanimous
declaration was procured from the troops, that they would suffer
none except the sons of their lamented monarch to reign over the
Roman empire. 48 The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his
collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is
allowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities
of the great Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not
appear to have concerted any measure for supporting, by arms, the
just claims which himself and his royal brother derived from the
liberality of their uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the tide
of popular fury, they seem to have remained, without the power of
flight or of resistance, in the hands of their implacable
enemies. Their fate was suspended till the arrival of
Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favored, of the
sons of Constantine. 49
48 (return) [ Eusebius (l. iv. c. 6) terminates his narrative by
this loyal declaration of the troops, and avoids all the
invidious circumstances of the subsequent massacre.]
49 (return) [ The character of Dalmatius is advantageously,
though concisely drawn by Eutropius. (x. 9.) Dalmatius Ceasar
prosperrima indole, neque patrou absimilis, haud multo post
oppressus est factione militari. As both Jerom and the
Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Ceasar, which
did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337,
it is certain that these military factions continued above four
months.]
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part III.
The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his
funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the
vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the
diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession
of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the
apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which he pledged
for their security. His next employment was to find some specious
pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation
of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient
to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by
a person of the most sacred character. From the hands of the
Bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal scroll,
affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in which the
emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by his
brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge his death, and to
consult their own safety, by the punishment of the guilty. 50
Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these unfortunate
princes to defend their life and honor against so incredible an
accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamors of the
soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their
judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of
legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous
massacre; which involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of
his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most
illustrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had married a sister of
the late emperor, and the Praefect Ablavius, whose power and
riches had inspired him with some hopes of obtaining the purple.
If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody
scene, we might add, that Constantius himself had espoused the
daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister
in marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which
the policy of Constantine, regardless of the public prejudice, 51
had formed between the several branches of the Imperial house,
served only to convince mankind, that these princes were as cold
to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were insensible
to the ties of consanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth
and innocence. Of so numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone,
the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved from
the hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated with
slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor Constantius,
who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to
guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint
and transient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious
counsels of his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the
troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth. 52
50 (return) [ I have related this singular anecdote on the
authority of Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext
was ever used by Constantius and his adherents, it was laid aside
with contempt, as soon as it served their immediate purpose.
Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) mention the oath which Constantius
had taken for the security of his kinsmen. ——The authority of
Philostorgius is so suspicious, as not to be sufficient to
establish this fact, which Gibbon has inserted in his history as
certain, while in the note he appears to doubt it.—G.]
51 (return) [ Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, tempore addito
percrebuisse. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The
repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred
years, were insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the
Romans, who still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a
species of imperfect incest. (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6;)
and Julian, whose mind was biased by superstition and resentment,
stigmatizes these unnatural alliances between his own cousins
with the opprobrious epithet (Orat. vii. p. 228.). The
jurisprudence of the canons has since received and enforced this
prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the
civil or the common law of Europe. See on the subject of these
marriages, Taylor’s Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. l.
ii. c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclesiastiques, part iii. c. 5.
Fleury, Institutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris,
1767, and Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Trident, l. viii.]
52 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P.. Q. Athen. p. 270) charges his
cousin Constantius with the whole guilt of a massacre, from which
he himself so narrowly escaped. His assertion is confirmed by
Athanasius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not
less an enemy of Constantius, (tom. i. p. 856.) Zosimus joins in
the same accusation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and
the Victors, use very qualifying expressions: “sinente potius
quam jubente;” “incertum quo suasore;” “vi militum.”]
The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new division
of the provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of
the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest of the Caesars,
obtained, with a certain preeminence of rank, the possession of
the new capital, which bore his own name and that of his father.
Thrace, and the countries of the East, were allotted for the
patrimony of Constantius; and Constans was acknowledged as the
lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the Western Illyricum. The
armies submitted to their hereditary right; and they
condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman senate
the title of Augustus. When they first assumed the reins of
government, the eldest of these princes was twenty-one, the
second twenty, and the third only seventeen, years of age. 53
53 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 69. Zosimus,
l. ii. p. 117. Idat. in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest
brother at Constantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian
Chronicle.]
While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of his
brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of
Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the Persian war. At the
decease of Constantine, the throne of the East was filled by
Sapor, son of Hormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who,
after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confessed the
superiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the
thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigor of
youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange fatality,
had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained
pregnant at the time of her husband’s death; and the uncertainty
of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes
of the princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil
war were at length removed, by the positive assurance of the
Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would safely
produce a son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the
Persians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation.
A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in
the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot, which
might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and
the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and
insensible sovereign. 54 If any credit can be given to this
marvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the
manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his
reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of
Sapor. In the soft, sequestered education of a Persian harem, the
royal youth could discover the importance of exercising the vigor
of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit, deserved a
throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet unconscious
of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His minority was
exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord;
his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king
of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was
degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the
deceased king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood,
the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath
the first effort of the young warrior; who used his victory with
so judicious a mixture of rigor and clemency, that he obtained
from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs the title of
Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation. 55 5511
54 (return) [ Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the
author of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived
his information from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles,
obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his
embassy at that country. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is
likewise mentioned by Snikard, (Tarikh. p. 116,) and D’Herbelot
(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 703.) ——The author of the
Zenut-ul-Tarikh states, that the lady herself affirmed her belief
of this from the extraordinary liveliness of the infant, and its
lying on the right side. Those who are sage on such subjects must
determine what right she had to be positive from these symptoms.
Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i 83.—M.]
55 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 764.]
5511 (return) [ Gibbon, according to Sir J. Malcolm, has greatly
mistaken the derivation of this name; it means Zoolaktaf, the
Lord of the Shoulders, from his directing the shoulders of his
captives to be pierced and then dislocated by a string passed
through them. Eastern authors are agreed with respect to the
origin of this title. Malcolm, i. 84. Gibbon took his derivation
from D’Herbelot, who gives both, the latter on the authority of
the Leb. Tarikh.—M.]
The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the
virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire
of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from
the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The
military fame of Constantine, and the real or apparent strength
of his government, suspended the attack; and while the hostile
conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment, his artful negotiations
amused the patience of the Imperial court. The death of
Constantine was the signal of war, 56 and the actual condition of
the Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians
by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example
of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of
licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the East, who
were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience to a
veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who, from the
interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to
the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored
to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of anarchy had
permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy
several of the mo st important fortresses of Mesopotamia. 57 In
Armenia, the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and
glory which he deserved by his valor and fidelity to the cause of
Rome. 5711 The firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine
was productive of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by
the conversion of Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied
to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached and
established from the Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian, and
Armenia was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy
and religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles still refused to
abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the
public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction,
which insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently
expected the hour of his death. He died at length after a reign
of fifty-six years, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy
expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into exile,
the Christian priests were either murdered or expelled from their
churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicited to
descend from their mountains; and two of the most powerful
governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty,
implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their
cities to the Persian garrisons. The Christian party, under the
guidance of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor
of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of
Constantius. After the troubles had continued about three years,
Antiochus, one of the officers of the household, executed with
success the Imperial commission of restoring Chosroes, 5712 the
son of Tiridates, to the throne of his fathers, of distributing
honors and rewards among the faithful servants of the house of
Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which was accepted
by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But the Romans
derived more honor than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes
was a prince of a puny stature and a pusillanimous spirit.
Unequal to the fatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind,
he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which he built
on the banks of the River Eleutherus, and in the centre of a
shady grove; where he consumed his vacant hours in the rural
sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he
submitted to the conditions of peace which Sapor condescended to
impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of
the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage of
Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had annexed to
the Armenian monarchy. 58 5811
56 (return) [ Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no
contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain
for peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against
them: yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius
obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification,
of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
420. ——Constantine had endeavored to allay the fury of the
prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the Magi and the Jews,
Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb Vit. Hist.
Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15.—M.]
57 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.]
5711 (return) [ Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin.
caused by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia
was the first nation which embraced Christianity. About the year
276 it was the religion of the king, the nobles, and the people
of Armenia. From St. Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i. p.
78.——Compare Preface to History of Vartan by Professor Neumann, p
ix.—M.]
5712 (return) [ Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius,
between 314 and 319. There was an Antiochus who was praefectus
vigilum at Rome, as appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de
inf. his quae sub ty.,) in 326, and from a fragment of the same
work published by M. Amedee Peyron, in 319. He may before this
have been sent into Armenia. St. M. p. 407. [Is it not more
probable that Antiochus was an officer in the service of the
Caesar who ruled in the East?—M.] Chosroes was succeeded in the
year 322 by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the
sixteenth year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the
power of the Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the
Persian governor of Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his
wife and his son Arsaces shared his captivity, but the princes
and nobles of Armenia claimed the protection of Rome; and this
was the cause of Constantine’s declaration of war against the
Persians.—The king of Persia attempted to make himself master of
Armenia; but the brave resistance of the people, the advance of
Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in
Armenia, and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to
submit to terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor
of Atropatene, was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released
from captivity; Diran refused to ascend the throne, and retired
to an obscure retreat: his son Arsaces was crowned king of
Armenia. Arsaces pursued a vacillating policy between the
influence of Rome and Persia, and the war recommenced in the year
345. At least, that was the period of the expedition of
Constantius to the East. See St. Martin, additions to Le Beau, i.
442. The Persians have made an extraordinary romance out of the
history of Shahpour, who went as a spy to Constantinople, was
taken, harnessed like a horse, and carried to witness the
devastation of his kingdom. Malcolm. 84—M.]
58 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, l.
ii. c. 89, l. iii. c. 1—9, p. 226—240. The perfect agreement
between the vague hints of the contemporary orator, and the
circumstantial narrative of the national historian, gives light
to the former, and weight to the latter. For the credit of Moses,
it may be likewise observed, that the name of Antiochus is found
a few years before in a civil office of inferior dignity. See
Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350.]
5811 (return) [ Gibbon has endeavored, in his History, to make
use of the information furnished by Moses of Chorene, the only
Armenian historian then translated into Latin. Gibbon has not
perceived all the chronological difficulties which occur in the
narrative of that writer. He has not thought of all the critical
discussions which his text ought to undergo before it can be
combined with the relations of the western writers. From want of
this attention, Gibbon has made the facts which he has drawn from
this source more erroneous than they are in the original. This
judgment applies to all which the English historian has derived
from the Armenian author. I have made the History of Moses a
subject of particular attention; and it is with confidence that I
offer the results, which I insert here, and which will appear in
the course of my notes. In order to form a judgment of the
difference which exists between me and Gibbon, I will content
myself with remarking, that throughout he has committed an
anachronism of thirty years, from whence it follows, that he
assigns to the reign of Constantius many events which took place
during that of Constantine. He could not, therefore, discern the
true connection which exists between the Roman history and that
of Armenia, or form a correct notion of the reasons which induced
Constantine, at the close of his life, to make war upon the
Persians, or of the motives which detained Constantius so long in
the East; he does not even mention them. St. Martin, note on Le
Beau, i. 406. I have inserted M. St. Martin’s observations, but I
must add, that the chronology which he proposes, is not generally
received by Armenian scholars, not, I believe, by Professor
Neumann.—M.]
During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces
of the East were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war.
5813 The irregular incursions of the light troops alternately
spread terror and devastation beyond the Tigris and beyond the
Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon to those of Antioch; and
this active service was performed by the Arabs of the desert, who
were divided in their interest and affections; some of their
independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst
others had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor. 59 The
more grave and important operations of the war were conducted
with equal vigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered
each other in nine bloody fields, in two of which Constantius
himself commanded in person. 60 The event of the day was most
commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the battle of Singara,
their imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal and decisive
victory. The stationary troops of Singara 6011 retired on the
approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and
occupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which,
by the labor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day
with a deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when
it was drawn out in order of battle, covered the banks of the
river, the adjacent heights, and the whole extent of a plain of
above twelve miles, which separated the two armies. Both were
alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians, after a slight
resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or desirous to
weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with heat
and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a
line of cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted
before the gates of the camp to protect their retreat.
Constantius, who was hurried along in the pursuit, attempted,
without effect, to restrain the ardor of his troops, by
representing to them the dangers of the approaching night, and
the certainty of completing their success with the return of day.
As they depended much more on their own valor than on the
experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by
their clamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to
the charge, filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and
dispersed themselves through the tents to recruit their exhausted
strength, and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labors. But the
prudent Sapor had watched the moment of victory. His army, of
which the greater part, securely posted on the heights, had been
spectators of the action, advanced in silence, and under the
shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by the
illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed
and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history 61 declares, that
the Romans were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that
the flying remnant of the legions was exposed to the most
intolerable hardships. Even the tenderness of panegyric,
confessing that the glory of the emperor was sullied by the
disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the
circumstances of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal
orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates, with
amazing coolness, an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the
judgment of posterity, must imprint a far deeper stain on the
honor of the Imperial name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his
crown, had been made a captive in the Persian camp. The unhappy
youth, who might have excited the compassion of the most savage
enemy, was scourged, tortured, and publicly executed by the
inhuman Romans. 62
5813 (return) [ It was during this war that a bold flatterer
(whose name is unknown) published the Itineraries of Alexander
and Trajan, in order to direct the victorious Constantius in the
footsteps of those great conquerors of the East. The former of
these has been published for the first time by M. Angelo Mai
(Milan, 1817, reprinted at Frankfort, 1818.) It adds so little to
our knowledge of Alexander’s campaigns, that it only excites our
regret that it is not the Itinerary of Trajan, of whose eastern
victories we have no distinct record—M]
59 (return) [ Ammianus (xiv. 4) gives a lively description of the
wandering and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from
the confines of Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. It appears
from the adventures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so
entertaining a manner, that the high road between Beraea and
Edessa was infested by these robbers. See Hieronym. tom. i. p.
256.]
60 (return) [ We shall take from Eutropius the general idea of
the war. A Persis enim multa et gravia perpessus, saepe captis,
oppidis, obsessis urbibus, caesis exercitibus, nullumque ei
contra Saporem prosperum praelium fuit, nisi quod apud Singaram,
&c. This honest account is confirmed by the hints of Ammianus,
Rufus, and Jerom. The two first orations of Julian, and the third
oration of Libanius, exhibit a more flattering picture; but the
recantation of both those orators, after the death of
Constantius, while it restores us to the possession of the truth,
degrades their own character, and that of the emperor. The
Commentary of Spanheim on the first oration of Julian is
profusely learned. See likewise the judicious observations of
Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 656.]
6011 (return) [ Now Sinjar, or the River Claboras.—M.]
61 (return) [ Acerrima nocturna concertatione pugnatum est,
nostrorum copiis ngenti strage confossis. Ammian. xviii. 5. See
likewise Eutropius, x. 10, and S. Rufus, c. 27. ——The Persian
historians, or romancers, do not mention the battle of Singara,
but make the captive Shahpour escape, defeat, and take prisoner,
the Roman emperor. The Roman captives were forced to repair all
the ravages they had committed, even to replanting the smallest
trees. Malcolm. i. 82.—M.]
62 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 133, with Julian. Orat. i.
p. 24, and Spanneism’s Commentary, p. 179.]
Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field,
though nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the
fame of his valor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in
the execution of his designs, while the fortified towns of
Mesopotamia, and, above all, the strong and ancient city of
Nisibis, remained in the possession of the Romans. In the space
of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time of Lucullus, had
been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East, sustained three
memorable sieges against the power of Sapor; and the disappointed
monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and a
hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. 63 This
large and populous city was situate about two days’ journey from
the Tigris, in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the
foot of Mount Masius. A treble enclosure of brick walls was
defended by a deep ditch; 64 and the intrepid resistance of Count
Lucilianus, and his garrison, was seconded by the desperate
courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibis were animated by
the exhortations of their bishop, 65 inured to arms by the
presence of danger, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to
plant a Persian colony in their room, and to lead them away into
distant and barbarous captivity. The event of the two former
sieges elated their confidence, and exasperated the haughty
spirit of the Great King, who advanced a third time towards
Nisibis, at the head of the united forces of Persia and India.
The ordinary machines, invented to batter or undermine the walls,
were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill of the Romans;
and many days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced a
resolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who believed that the
elements themselves were subject to his power. At the stated
season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the River
Mygdonius, which divides the plain and the city of Nisibis,
forms, like the Nile, 66 an inundation over the adjacent country.
By the labor of the Persians, the course of the river was stopped
below the town, and the waters were confined on every side by
solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed
vessels filled with soldiers, and with engines which discharged
stones of five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of
battle, and engaged, almost upon a level, the troops which
defended the ramparts. 6611 The irresistible force of the waters
was alternately fatal to the contending parties, till at length a
portion of the walls, unable to sustain the accumulated pressure,
gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach of one hundred and
fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the assault,
and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day. The
heavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were
embarrassed in the mud, and great numbers were drowned in the
unseen holes which had been filled by the rushing waters. The
elephants, made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder,
and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The Great
King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the misfortunes of his
arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal of the
retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of the
attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the
night; and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in
height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the
breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the
loss of more than twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the
reduction of Nisibis, with an obstinate firmness, which could
have yielded only to the necessity of defending the eastern
provinces of Persia against a formidable invasion of the
Massagetae. 67 Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily
relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligence from the
banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger and
difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to
conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor,
which was equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius
himself, after the death of his two brothers, was involved, by
the revolutions of the West, in a civil contest, which required
and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his undivided
strength.
63 (return) [ See Julian. Orat. i. p. 27, Orat. ii. p. 62, &c.,
with the Commentary of Spanheim, (p. 188-202,) who illustrates
the circumstances, and ascertains the time of the three sieges of
Nisibis. Their dates are likewise examined by Tillemont, (Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 668, 671, 674.) Something is added
from Zosimus, l. iii. p. 151, and the Alexandrine Chronicle, p.
290.]
64 (return) [ Sallust. Fragment. lxxxiv. edit. Brosses, and
Plutarch in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 184. Nisibis is now reduced to
one hundred and fifty houses: the marshy lands produce rice, and
the fertile meadows, as far as Mosul and the Tigris, are covered
with the ruins of towns and allages. See Niebuhr, Voyages, tom.
ii. p. 300-309.]
65 (return) [ The miracles which Theodoret (l. ii. c. 30)
ascribes to St. James, Bishop of Edessa, were at least performed
in a worthy cause, the defence of his couutry. He appeared on the
walls under the figure of the Roman emperor, and sent an army of
gnats to sting the trunks of the elephants, and to discomfit the
host of the new Sennacherib.]
66 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebuhr (tom. ii. p.
307) allows a very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over
which he saw a bridge of twelve arches: it is difficult, however,
to understand this parallel of a trifling rivulet with a mighty
river. There are many circumstances obscure, and almost
unintelligible, in the description of these stupendous
water-works.]
6611 (return) [ Macdonald Kinnier observes on these floating
batteries, “As the elevation of place is considerably above the
level of the country in its immediate vicinity, and the Mygdonius
is a very insignificant stream, it is difficult to imagine how
this work could have been accomplished, even with the wonderful
resources which the king must have had at his disposal”
Geographical Memoir. p. 262.—M.]
67 (return) [ We are obliged to Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 11)
for this invasion of the Massagetae, which is perfectly
consistent with the general series of events to which we are
darkly led by the broken history of Ammianus.]
After the partition of the empire, three years had scarcely
elapsed before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to
convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting
themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to
govern. The eldest of those princes soon complained, that he was
defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered
kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superior guilt and
merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cession of the
African provinces, as an equivalent for the rich countries of
Macedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death
of Dalmatius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine
experienced in a tedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperated
the fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly listened to those
favorites, who suggested to him that his honor, as well as his
interest, was concerned in the prosecution of the quarrel. At the
head of a tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for
conquest, he suddenly broke onto the dominions of Constans, by
the way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia felt
the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans,
who then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and
ability. On the news of his brother’s invasion, he detached a
select and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops, proposing to
follow them in person, with the remainder of his forces. But the
conduct of his lieutenants soon terminated the unnatural contest.
By the artful appearances of flight, Constantine was betrayed
into an ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, where the
rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised, surrounded, and
slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscure stream of
the Alsa, obtained the honors of an Imperial sepulchre; but his
provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who,
refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in
these new acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of
more than two thirds of the Roman empire. 68
68 (return) [ The causes and the events of this civil war are
related with much perplexity and contradiction. I have chiefly
followed Zonaras and the younger Victor. The monody (ad Calcem
Eutrop. edit. Havercamp.) pronounced on the death of Constantine,
might have been very instructive; but prudence and false taste
engaged the orator to involve himself in vague declamation.]
Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part IV.
The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten years longer,
and the revenge of his brother’s death was reserved for the more
ignoble hand of a domestic traitor. The pernicious tendency of
the system introduced by Constantine was displayed in the feeble
administration of his sons; who, by their vices and weakness,
soon lost the esteem and affections of their people. The pride
assumed by Constans, from the unmerited success of his arms, was
rendered more contemptible by his want of abilities and
application. His fond partiality towards some German captives,
distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an object of
scandal to the people; 69 and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier,
who was himself of Barbarian extraction, was encouraged by the
public discontent to assert the honor of the Roman name. 70 The
chosen bands of Jovians and Herculians, who acknowledged
Magnentius as their leader, maintained the most respectable and
important station in the Imperial camp. The friendship of
Marcellinus, count of the sacred largesses, supplied with a
liberal hand the means of seduction. The soldiers were convinced
by the most specious arguments, that the republic summoned them
to break the bonds of hereditary servitude; and, by the choice of
an active and vigilant prince, to reward the same virtues which
had raised the ancestors of the degenerate Constans from a
private condition to the throne of the world. As soon as the
conspiracy was ripe for execution, Marcellinus, under the
pretence of celebrating his son’s birthday, gave a splendid
entertainment to the illustrious and honorable persons of the
court of Gaul, which then resided in the city of Autun. The
intemperance of the feast was artfully protracted till a very
late hour of the night; and the unsuspecting guests were tempted
to indulge themselves in a dangerous and guilty freedom of
conversation. On a sudden the doors were thrown open, and
Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments, returned into the
apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. The conspirators
instantly saluted him with the titles of Augustus and Emperor.
The surprise, the terror, the intoxication, the ambitious hopes,
and the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly, prompted
them to join their voices to the general acclamation. The guards
hastened to take the oath of fidelity; the gates of the town were
shut; and before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of the
troops and treasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his
secrecy and diligence he entertained some hopes of surprising the
person of Constans, who was pursuing in the adjacent forest his
favorite amusement of hunting, or perhaps some pleasures of a
more private and criminal nature. The rapid progress of fame
allowed him, however, an instant for flight, though the desertion
of his soldiers and subjects deprived him of the power of
resistance. Before he could reach a seaport in Spain, where he
intended to embark, he was overtaken near Helena, 71 at the foot
of the Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief,
regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his commission
by the murder of the son of Constantine. 72
69 (return) [ Quarum (gentium) obsides pretio quaesitos pueros
venustiore quod cultius habuerat libidine hujusmodi arsisse pro
certo habet. Had not the depraved taste of Constans been publicly
avowed, the elder Victor, who held a considerable office in his
brother’s reign, would not have asserted it in such positive
terms.]
70 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. and ii. Zosim. l. ii. p. 134.
Victor in Epitome. There is reason to believe that Magnentius was
born in one of those Barbarian colonies which Constantius Chlorus
had established in Gaul, (see this History, vol. i. p. 414.) His
behavior may remind us of the patriot earl of Leicester, the
famous Simon de Montfort, who could persuade the good people of
England, that he, a Frenchman by birth had taken arms to deliver
them from foreign favorites.]
71 (return) [ This ancient city had once flourished under the
name of Illiberis (Pomponius Mela, ii. 5.) The munificence of
Constantine gave it new splendor, and his mother’s name. Helena
(it is still called Elne) became the seat of a bishop, who long
afterwards transferred his residence to Perpignan, the capital of
modern Rousillon. See D’Anville. Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p.
380. Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 223, and the Marca
Hispanica, l. i. c. 2.]
72 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, tom. ii. l.
xiii. p. 13, and the Abbreviators.]
As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but
important revolution, the example of the court of Autun was
imitated by the provinces of the West. The authority of
Magnentius was acknowledged through the whole extent of the two
great praefectures of Gaul and Italy; and the usurper prepared,
by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure, which might
discharge the obligation of an immense donative, and supply the
expenses of a civil war. The martial countries of Illyricum, from
the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyed the
government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the
simplicity of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation
by his experience and services in war. 73 Attached by habit, by
duty, and by gratitude, to the house of Constantine, he
immediately gave the strongest assurances to the only surviving
son of his late master, that he would expose, with unshaken
fidelity, his person and his troops, to inflict a just revenge on
the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced,
rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; their leader
soon betrayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and his
ambition derived a specious pretence from the approbation of the
princess Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had
obtained from the great Constantine, her father, the rank of
Augusta, placed the diadem with her own hands on the head of the
Illyrian general; and seemed to expect from his victory the
accomplishment of those unbounded hopes, of which she had been
disappointed by the death of her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps
it was without the consent of Constantina, that the new emperor
formed a necessary, though dishonorable, alliance with the
usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with
her brother’s blood. 74
73 (return) [ Eutropius (x. 10) describes Vetranio with more
temper, and probably with more truth, than either of the two
Victors. Vetranio was born of obscure parents in the wildest
parts of Maesia; and so much had his education been neglected,
that, after his elevation, he studied the alphabet.]
74 (return) [ The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is
described by Julian in his first oration, and accurately
explained by Spanheim, who discusses the situation and behavior
of Constantina.]
The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply
affected the honor and safety of the Imperial house, recalled the
arms of Constantius from the inglorious prosecution of the
Persian war. He recommended the care of the East to his
lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousin Gallus, whom he raised
from a prison to a throne; and marched towards Europe, with a
mind agitated by the conflict of hope and fear, of grief and
indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor
gave audience to the ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The
first author of the conspiracy Marcellinus, who in some measure
had bestowed the purple on his new master, boldly accepted this
dangerous commission; and his three colleagues were selected from
the illustrious personages of the state and army. These deputies
were instructed to soothe the resentment, and to alarm the fears,
of Constantius. They were empowered to offer him the friendship
and alliance of the western princes, to cement their union by a
double marriage; of Constantius with the daughter of Magnentius,
and of Magnentius himself with the ambitious Constantina; and to
acknowledge in the treaty the preeminence of rank, which might
justly be claimed by the emperor of the East. Should pride and
mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, the
ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin
which must attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the
sovereigns of the West to exert their superior strength; and to
employ against him that valor, those abilities, and those
legions, to which the house of Constantine had been indebted for
so many triumphs. Such propositions and such arguments appeared
to deserve the most serious attention; the answer of Constantius
was deferred till the next day; and as he had reflected on the
importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion of the
people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with real or
affected credulity: “Last night,” said he, “after I retired to
rest, the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of
my murdered brother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice
awakened me to revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic,
and assured me of the success and immortal glory which would
crown the justice of my arms.” The authority of such a vision, or
rather of the prince who alleged it, silenced every doubt, and
excluded all negotiation. The ignominious terms of peace were
rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was
dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; his colleagues,
as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, were put in
irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an implacable
war. 75
75 (return) [ See Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationem
p. 27.]
Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the duty, of the
brother of Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul. The
situation and character of Vetranio admitted of milder measures;
and the policy of the Eastern emperor was directed to disunite
his antagonists, and to separate the forces of Illyricum from the
cause of rebellion. It was an easy task to deceive the frankness
and simplicity of Vetranio, who, fluctuating some time between
the opposite views of honor and interest, displayed to the world
the insincerity of his temper, and was insensibly engaged in the
snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged him as
a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition that
he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius, and
appoint a place of interview on the frontiers of their respective
provinces; where they might pledge their friendship by mutual
vows of fidelity, and regulate by common consent the future
operations of the civil war. In consequence of this agreement,
Vetranio advanced to the city of Sardica, 76 at the head of
twenty thousand horse, and of a more numerous body of infantry; a
power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that the
Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes of his
rival, who, depending on the success of his private negotiations,
had seduced the troops, and undermined the throne, of Vetranio.
The chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius,
prepared in his favor a public spectacle, calculated to discover
and inflame the passions of the multitude. 77 The united armies
were commanded to assemble in a large plain near the city. In the
centre, according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military
tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from whence the
emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions, to
harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and
Barbarians, with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the
squadrons of cavalry, and the cohorts of infantry, distinguished
by the variety of their arms and ensigns, formed an immense
circle round the tribunal; and the attentive silence which they
preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of clamor or
of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly, the two
emperors were called upon to explain the situation of public
affairs: the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of
Constantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in the arts
of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult
circumstances, with firmness, dexterity, and eloquence. The first
part of his oration seemed to be pointed only against the tyrant
of Gaul; but while he tragically lamented the cruel murder of
Constans, he insinuated, that none, except a brother, could claim
a right to the succession of his brother. He displayed, with some
complacency, the glories of his Imperial race; and recalled to
the memory of the troops the valor, the triumphs, the liberality
of the great Constantine, to whose sons they had engaged their
allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the ingratitude of his
most favored servants had tempted them to violate. The officers,
who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to act their
part in this extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible
power of reason and eloquence, by saluting the emperor
Constantius as their lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty
and repentance was communicated from rank to rank; till the plain
of Sardica resounded with the universal acclamation of “Away with
these upstart usurpers! Long life and victory to the son of
Constantine! Under his banners alone we will fight and conquer.”
The shout of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce
clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the courage of
Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers, in
anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge
of generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate; and taking
the diadem from his head, in the view of both armies fell
prostrate at the feet of his conqueror. Constantius used his
victory with prudence and moderation; and raising from the ground
the aged suppliant, whom he affected to style by the endearing
name of Father, he gave him his hand to descend from the throne.
The city of Prusa was assigned for the exile or retirement of the
abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the enjoyment of ease
and affluence. He often expressed his grateful sense of the
goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity,
advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to
seek for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful
obscurity of a private condition. 78
76 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 16. The position of
Sardica, near the modern city of Sophia, appears better suited to
this interview than the situation of either Naissus or Sirmium,
where it is placed by Jerom, Socrates, and Sozomen.]
77 (return) [ See the two first orations of Julian, particularly
p. 31; and Zosimus, l. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the
historian serves to illustrate the diffuse but vague descriptions
of the orator.]
78 (return) [ The younger Victor assigns to his exile the
emphatical appellation of “Voluptarium otium.” Socrates (l. ii.
c. 28) is the voucher for the correspondence with the emperor,
which would seem to prove that Vetranio was indeed, prope ad
stultitiam simplicissimus.]
The behavior of Constantius on this memorable occasion was
celebrated with some appearance of justice; and his courtiers
compared the studied orations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes
addressed to the populace of Athens, with the victorious
eloquence which had persuaded an armed multitude to desert and
depose the object of their partial choice. 79 The approaching
contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody kind.
The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at
the head of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of
Franks and Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength
of the legions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the
most formidable enemies of the republic. The fertile plains 80 of
the Lower Pannonia, between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube,
presented a spacious theatre; and the operations of the civil war
were protracted during the summer months by the skill or timidity
of the combatants. 81 Constantius had declared his intention of
deciding the quarrel in the fields of Cibalis, a name that would
animate his troops by the remembrance of the victory, which, on
the same auspicious ground, had been obtained by the arms of his
father Constantine. Yet by the impregnable fortifications with
which the emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline,
rather than to invite, a general engagement.
It was the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his
adversary to relinquish this advantageous position; and he
employed, with that view, the various marches, evolutions, and
stratagems, which the knowledge of the art of war could suggest
to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the important
town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of Sirmium, which lay
in the rear of the Imperial camp, attempted to force a passage
over the Save into the eastern provinces of Illyricum; and cut in
pieces a numerous detachment, which he had allured into the
narrow passes of Adarne. During the greater part of the summer,
the tyrant of Gaul showed himself master of the field. The troops
of Constantius were harassed and dispirited; his reputation
declined in the eye of the world; and his pride condescended to
solicit a treaty of peace, which would have resigned to the
assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the
Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence of Philip the
Imperial ambassador; and the council as well as the army of
Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper,
careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that
Philip should be detained as a captive, or, at least, as a
hostage; while he despatched an officer to reproach Constantius
with the weakness of his reign, and to insult him by the promise
of a pardon if he would instantly abdicate the purple. “That he
should confide in the justice of his cause, and the protection of
an avenging Deity,” was the only answer which honor permitted the
emperor to return. But he was so sensible of the difficulties of
his situation, that he no longer dared to retaliate the indignity
which had been offered to his representative. The negotiation of
Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determined
Sylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and reputation, to desert
with a considerable body of cavalry, a few days before the battle
of Mursa.
79 (return) [ Eum Constantius..... facundiae vi dejectum Imperio
in pri vatum otium removit. Quae gloria post natum Imperium soli
proces sit eloquio clementiaque, &c. Aurelius Victor, Julian, and
Themistius (Orat. iii. and iv.) adorn this exploit with all the
artificial and gaudy coloring of their rhetoric.]
80 (return) [ Busbequius (p. 112) traversed the Lower Hungary and
Sclavonia at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert, by
the reciprocal hostilities of the Turks and Christians. Yet he
mentions with admiration the unconquerable fertility of the soil;
and observes that the height of the grass was sufficient to
conceal a loaded wagon from his sight. See likewise Browne’s
Travels, in Harris’s Collection, vol ii. p. 762 &c.]
81 (return) [ Zosimus gives a very large account of the war, and
the negotiation, (l. ii. p. 123-130.) But as he neither shows
himself a soldier nor a politician, his narrative must be weighed
with attention, and received with caution.]
The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a
bridge of boats, five miles in length, over the River Drave, and
the adjacent morasses, 82 has been always considered as a place
of importance in the wars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his
march towards Mursa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden
assault, had almost scaled the walls of the town. The vigilance
of the garrison extinguished the flames; the approach of
Constantius left him no time to continue the operations of the
siege; and the emperor soon removed the only obstacle that could
embarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops which had
taken post in an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle
round Mursa was a naked and level plain: on this ground the army
of Constantius formed, with the Drave on their right; while their
left, either from the nature of their disposition, or from the
superiority of their cavalry, extended far beyond the right flank
of Magnentius. 83 The troops on both sides remained under arms,
in anxious expectation, during the greatest part of the morning;
and the son of Constantine, after animating his soldiers by an
eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance from the
field of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct of
this decisive day. 84 They deserved his confidence by the valor
and military skill which they exerted. They wisely began the
action upon the left; and advancing their whole wing of cavalry
in an oblique line, they suddenly wheeled it on the right flank
of the enemy, which was unprepared to resist the impetuosity of
their charge. But the Romans of the West soon rallied, by the
habits of discipline; and the Barbarians of Germany supported the
renown of their national bravery. The engagement soon became
general; was maintained with various and singular turns of
fortune; and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night. The
signal victory which Constantius obtained is attributed to the
arms of his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many
massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly armor, and
breaking with their ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic
legions. As soon as the legions gave way, the lighter and more
active squadrons of the second line rode sword in hand into the
intervals, and completed the disorder. In the mean while, the
huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost naked to the
dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops of those
Barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate
themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave. 85 The
number of the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and
the slaughter of the conquerors was more considerable than that
of the vanquished; 86 a circumstance which proves the obstinacy
of the contest, and justifies the observation of an ancient
writer, that the forces of the empire were consumed in the fatal
battle of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army, sufficient to
defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory of
Rome. 87 Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator,
there is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted
his own standard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to
have displayed the virtues of a general and of a soldier till the
day was irrecoverably lost, and his camp in the possession of the
enemy. Magnentius then consulted his safety, and throwing away
the Imperial ornaments, escaped with some difficulty from the
pursuit of the light horse, who incessantly followed his rapid
flight from the banks of the Drave to the foot of the Julian
Alps. 88
82 (return) [ This remarkable bridge, which is flanked with
towers, and supported on large wooden piles, was constructed A.
D. 1566, by Sultan Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies
into Hungary.]
83 (return) [ This position, and the subsequent evolutions, are
clearly, though concisely, described by Julian, Orat. i. p. 36.]
84 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. p. 405. The emperor
passed the day in prayer with Valens, the Arian bishop of Mursa,
who gained his confidence by announcing the success of the
battle. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1110)
very properly remarks the silence of Julian with regard to the
personal prowess of Constantius in the battle of Mursa. The
silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and
authentic evidence.]
85 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 36, 37; and Orat. ii. p. 59,
60. Zonaras, tom ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 130-133.
The last of these celebrates the dexterity of the archer
Menelaus, who could discharge three arrows at the same time; an
advantage which, according to his apprehension of military
affairs, materially contributed to the victory of Constantius.]
86 (return) [ According to Zonaras, Constantius, out of 80,000
men, lost 30,000; and Magnentius lost 24,000 out of 36,000. The
other articles of this account seem probable and authentic, but
the numbers of the tyrant’s army must have been mistaken, either
by the author or his transcribers. Magnentius had collected the
whole force of the West, Romans and Barbarians, into one
formidable body, which cannot fairly be estimated at less than
100,000 men. Julian. Orat. i. p. 34, 35.]
87 (return) [ Ingentes R. I. vires ea dimicatione consumptae
sunt, ad quaelibet bella externa idoneae, quae multum triumphorum
possent securitatisque conferre. Eutropius, x. 13. The younger
Victor expresses himself to the same effect.]
88 (return) [ On this occasion, we must prefer the unsuspected
testimony of Zosimus and Zonaras to the flattering assertions of
Julian. The younger Victor paints the character of Magnentius in
a singular light: “Sermonis acer, animi tumidi, et immodice
timidus; artifex tamen ad occultandam audaciae specie
formidinem.” Is it most likely that in the battle of Mursa his
behavior was governed by nature or by art should incline for the
latter.]
The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with
specious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war till
the ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his residence in the
city of Aquileia, and showed a seeming resolution to dispute the
passage of the mountains and morasses which fortified the
confines of the Venetian province. The surprisal of a castle in
the Alps by the secret march of the Imperialists, could scarcely
have determined him to relinquish the possession of Italy, if the
inclinations of the people had supported the cause of their
tyrant. 89 But the memory of the cruelties exercised by his
ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a
deep impression of horror and resentment on the minds of the
Romans. That rash youth, the son of the princess Eutropia, and
the nephew of Constantine, had seen with indignation the sceptre
of the West usurped by a perfidious barbarian. Arming a desperate
troop of slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard
of the domestic tranquillity of Rome, received the homage of the
senate, and assuming the title of Augustus, precariously reigned
during a tumult of twenty-eight days. The march of some regular
forces put an end to his ambitious hopes: the rebellion was
extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his mother Eutropia,
and of his adherents; and the proscription was extended to all
who had contracted a fatal alliance with the name and family of
Constantine. 90 But as soon as Constantius, after the battle of
Mursa, became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of
noble exiles, who had ventured to equip a fleet in some harbor of
the Adriatic, sought protection and revenge in his victorious
camp. By their secret intelligence with their countrymen, Rome
and the Italian cities were persuaded to display the banners of
Constantius on their walls. The grateful veterans, enriched by
the liberality of the father, signalized their gratitude and
loyalty to the son. The cavalry, the legions, and the auxiliaries
of Italy, renewed their oath of allegiance to Constantius; and
the usurper, alarmed by the general desertion, was compelled,
with the remains of his faithful troops, to retire beyond the
Alps into the provinces of Gaul. The detachments, however, which
were ordered either to press or to intercept the flight of
Magnentius, conducted themselves with the usual imprudence of
success; and allowed him, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity
of turning on his pursuers, and of gratifying his despair by the
carnage of a useless victory. 91
89 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 38, 39. In that place, however,
as well as in Oration ii. p. 97, he insinuates the general
disposition of the senate, the people, and the soldiers of Italy,
towards the party of the emperor.]
90 (return) [ The elder Victor describes, in a pathetic manner,
the miserable condition of Rome: “Cujus stolidum ingenium adeo P.
R. patribusque exitio fuit, uti passim domus, fora, viae,
templaque, cruore, cadaveri busque opplerentur bustorum modo.”
Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677) deplores the fate of several
illustrious victims, and Julian (Orat. ii p 58) execrates the
cruelty of Marcellinus, the implacable enemy of the house of
Constantine.]
91 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Victor in Epitome. The
panegyrists of Constantius, with their usual candor, forget to
mention this accidental defeat.]
The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated misfortunes, to
sue, and to sue in vain, for peace. He first despatched a
senator, in whose abilities he confided, and afterwards several
bishops, whose holy character might obtain a more favorable
audience, with the offer of resigning the purple, and the promise
of devoting the remainder of his life to the service of the
emperor. But Constantius, though he granted fair terms of pardon
and reconciliation to all who abandoned the standard of
rebellion, 92 avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict a just
punishment on the crimes of an assassin, whom he prepared to
overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms. An
Imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain,
confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed a
considerable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced
towards Lyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius. 93 The
temper of the tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was
urged by distress to exercise every act of oppression which could
extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul. 94 Their
patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of
Praetorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by shutting her
gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to
the rank either of Caesar or of Augustus. 95 From Treves,
Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon
surrounded by an army of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of
Constantius had introduced into the civil dissensions of Rome. 96
In the mean time, the Imperial troops forced the passages of the
Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount Seleucus
irrevocably fixed the title of rebels on the party of Magnentius.
97 He was unable to bring another army into the field; the
fidelity of his guards was corrupted; and when he appeared in
public to animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with a
unanimous shout of “Long live the emperor Constantius!” The
tyrant, who perceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon
and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal,
prevented their design by falling on his sword; 98 a death more
easy and more honorable than he could hope to obtain from the
hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been colored with the
specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of
suicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the
news of his brother’s death. The author of the conspiracy,
Marcellinus, had long since disappeared in the battle of Mursa,
99 and the public tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of
the surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A
severe inquisition was extended over all who, either from choice
or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion.
Paul, surnamed Catena from his superior skill in the judicial
exercise of tyranny, 9911 was sent to explore the latent remains
of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest
indignation expressed by Martin, vice-praefect of the island, was
interpreted as an evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was
urged to the necessity of turning against his breast the sword
with which he had been provoked to wound the Imperial minister.
The most innocent subjects of the West were exposed to exile and
confiscation, to death and torture; and as the timid are always
cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to mercy. 100
92 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Julian, in
several places of the two orations, expatiates on the clemency of
Constantius to the rebels.]
93 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii.
p. 74.]
94 (return) [ Ammian. xv. 6. Zosim. l. ii. p. 123. Julian, who
(Orat. i. p. 40) unveighs against the cruel effects of the
tyrant’s despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34) the oppressive edicts
which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice. His
subjects were compelled to purchase the Imperial demesnes; a
doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case of a
revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable
usurpation.]
95 (return) [ The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of
the two Augusti, and of the Caesar. The Caesar was another
brother, named Desiderius. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. iv. p. 757.]
96 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii. p. 74; with Spanheim,
p. 263. His Commentary illustrates the transactions of this civil
war. Mons Seleuci was a small place in the Cottian Alps, a few
miles distant from Vapincum, or Gap, an episcopal city of
Dauphine. See D’Anville, Notice de la Gaule, p. 464; and
Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 327.—— The Itinerary of
Antoninus (p. 357, ed. Wess.) places Mons Seleucu twenty-four
miles from Vapinicum, (Gap,) and twenty-six from Lucus. (le Luc,)
on the road to Die, (Dea Vocontiorum.) The situation answers to
Mont Saleon, a little place on the right of the small river
Buech, which falls into the Durance. Roman antiquities have been
found in this place. St. Martin. Note to Le Beau, ii. 47.—M.]
97 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. 268,
269. The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish
policy of Constantius.]
98 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134.
Socrates, l. ii. c. 32. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor
describes his death with some horrid circumstances: Transfosso
latere, ut erat vasti corporis, vulnere naribusque et ore cruorem
effundens, exspiravit. If we can give credit to Zonaras, the
tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering, with
his own hand, his mother and his brother Desiderius.]
99 (return) [ Julian (Orat. i. p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to
determine, whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his
crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was
carried by the avenging daemons from the field of battle to his
destined place of eternal tortures.]
9911 (return) [ This is scarcely correct, ut erat in complicandis
negotiis artifex dirum made ei Catenae inditum est cognomentum.
Amm. Mar. loc. cit.—M.]
100 (return) [ Ammian. xiv. 5, xxi. 16.]
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part I.
Constantius Sole Emperor.—Elevation And Death Of Gallus.— Danger
And Elevation Of Julian.—Sarmatian And Persian Wars.—Victories Of
Julian In Gaul.
The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the
victory of Constantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute
of personal merit, either in peace or war; as he feared his
generals, and distrusted his ministers; the triumph of his arms
served only to establish the reign of the eunuchs over the Roman
world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of Oriental
jealousy and despotism, 1 were introduced into Greece and Rome by
the contagion of Asiatic luxury. 2 Their progress was rapid; and
the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred, as
the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, 3 were gradually
admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the
emperors themselves. 4 Restrained by the severe edicts of
Domitian and Nerva, cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced
to an humble station by the prudence of Constantine, 6 they
multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly
acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the
secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and contempt which
mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfect species,
appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered
them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of
conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy
action. 7 But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery
and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of
Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity. 8 Whilst
he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public
prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the
complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense
treasures by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the
most important dignities, by the promotion of those who had
purchased at their hands the powers of oppression, 9 and to
gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits, who
arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these
slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who
ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway, that
Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian,
possessed some credit with this haughty favorite. 10 By his
artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the
condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to
the long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honor of the
house of Constantine.
1 (return) [ Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 6) imputes the first practice
of castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is
supposed to have reigned above nineteen hundred years before
Christ. The use of eunuchs is of high antiquity, both in Asia and
Egypt. They are mentioned in the law of Moses, Deuteron. xxxiii.
1. See Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., Part i. l. i. c. 3.]
2 (return) [ Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solae utuntur his
reginae—Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene 2. This play is translated
from Meander, and the original must have appeared soon after the
eastern conquests of Alexander.]
3 (return) [ Miles.... spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Horat.
Carm. v. 9, and Dacier ad loe. By the word spado, the Romans very
forcibly expressed their abhorrence of this mutilated condition.
The Greek appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly prevailed, had
a milder sound, and a more ambiguous sense.]
4 (return) [ We need only mention Posides, a freedman and eunuch
of Claudius, in whose favor the emperor prostituted some of the
most honorable rewards of military valor. See Sueton. in Claudio,
c. 28. Posides employed a great part of his wealth in building.
Ut Spado vincebat Capitolia Nostra Posides. Juvenal. Sat. xiv.]
Castrari mares vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion
Cassius, l. lxvii. p. 1107, l. lxviii. p. 1119.]
6 (return) [ There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137,
in which Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and
Constantine for restraining the tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores
the mischiefs which they occasioned in other reigns. Huc accedit
quod eunuchos nec in consiliis nec in ministeriis habuit; qui
soli principes perdunt, dum eos more gentium aut regum Persarum
volunt vivere; qui a populo etiam amicissimum semovent; qui
internuntii sunt, aliud quam respondetur, referentes; claudentes
principem suum, et agentes ante omnia ne quid sciat.]
7 (return) [ Xenophon (Cyropaedia, l. viii. p. 540) has stated
the specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to intrust his person to
the guard of eunuchs. He had observed in animals, that although
the practice of castration might tame their ungovernable
fierceness, it did not diminish their strength or spirit; and he
persuaded himself, that those who were separated from the rest of
human kind, would be more firmly attached to the person of their
benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the judgment
of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs
distinguished by their fidelity, their valor, and their
abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia,
India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has
uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.]
8 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxi. c. 16, l. xxii. c.
4. The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the
invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself, who
have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius.]
9 (return) [ Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his
sovereign in choosing the governors of the provinces, and the
generals of the army, and concludes his history with a very bold
observation, as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to
attack the ministers than the master himself. “Uti verum absolvam
brevi, ut Imperatore ipso clarius ita apparitorum plerisque magis
atrox nihil.”]
10 (return) [ Apud quem (si vere dici debeat) multum Constantius
potuit. Ammian. l. xviii. c. 4.]
When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were
saved from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve,
and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was
thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the
less difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the
affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution
of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed, by all
mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty. 11 Different
cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of
their exile and education; but as soon as their growing years
excited the jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to
secure those unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum,
near Caesarea. The treatment which they experienced during a six
years’ confinement, was partly such as they could hope from a
careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a
suspicious tyrant. 12 Their prison was an ancient palace, the
residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was pleasant,
the buildings stately, the enclosure spacious. They pursued their
studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the
most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed to
attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not
unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not
disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of
freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom
they could trust or esteem, and condemned to pass their
melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to the commands
of a tyrant who had already injured them beyond the hope of
reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state
compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus,
in the twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of Caesar,
and to cement this political connection by his marriage with the
princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two
princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake any thing
to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to
their respective stations. Constantius continued his march
towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at Antioch; from
whence, with a delegated authority, he administered the five
great dioceses of the eastern praefecture. 13 In this fortunate
change, the new Caesar was not unmindful of his brother Julian,
who obtained the honors of his rank, the appearances of liberty,
and the restitution of an ample patrimony. 14
11 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90) reproaches the
apostate with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa,
who had contributed to save his life; and we learn, though from a
less respectable authority, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
iv. p. 916,) that Julian was concealed in the sanctuary of a
church. * Note: Gallus and Julian were not sons of the same
mother. Their father, Julius Constantius, had had Gallus by his
first wife, named Galla: Julian was the son of Basilina, whom he
had espoused in a second marriage. Tillemont. Hist. des Emp. Vie
de Constantin. art. 3.—G.]
12 (return) [ The most authentic account of the education and
adventures of Julian is contained in the epistle or manifesto
which he himself addressed to the senate and people of Athens.
Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis,) on the side of the Pagans, and
Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,) on that of the Christians, have
preserved several interesting circumstances.]
13 (return) [ For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus,
and the two Victors. According to Philostorgius, (l. iv. c. 1,)
Theophilus, an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were,
the guarantee of this solemn engagement. He supported that
character with generous firmness; but M. de Tillemont (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1120) thinks it very improbable that a
heretic should have possessed such virtue.]
14 (return) [ Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies
at Constantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon
excited the jealousy of Constantius; and the young prince was
advised to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of
Bithynia and Ionia.]
The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even
Julian himself, though he wished to cast a veil over the
frailties of his brother, are obliged to confess that the Caesar
was incapable of reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne,
he possessed neither genius nor application, nor docility to
compensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper
naturally morose and violent, instead of being corrected, was
soured by solitude and adversity; the remembrance of what he had
endured disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and
the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who
approached his person, or were subject to his power. 15
Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one
of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of
human blood. 16 Instead of employing her influence to insinuate
the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the
fierce passions of her husband; and as she retained the vanity,
though she had renounced, the gentleness of her sex, a pearl
necklace was esteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an
innocent and virtuous nobleman. 17 The cruelty of Gallus was
sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or
military executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of
law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of
Antioch, and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies
and informers; and the Caesar himself, concealed in a a plebeian
habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious
character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with the
instruments of death and torture, and a general consternation was
diffused through the capital of Syria. The prince of the East, as
if he had been conscious how much he had to fear, and how little
he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his resentment
the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and his own
courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by
their secret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of
Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his
only support, the affection of the people; whilst he furnished
the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth, and afforded
the emperor the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of his
purple, and of his life. 18
15 (return) [ See Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 271. Jerom. in Chron.
Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, x. 14. I shall copy the words of
Eutropius, who wrote his abridgment about fifteen years after the
death of Gallus, when there was no longer any motive either to
flatter or to depreciate his character. “Multis incivilibus
gestis Gallus Caesar.... vir natura ferox et ad tyrannidem
pronior, si suo jure imperare licuisset.”]
16 (return) [ Megaera quidem mortalis, inflammatrix saevientis
assidua, humani cruoris avida, &c. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. c.
1. The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to misrepresent
facts or characters, but his love of ambitious ornaments
frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence of
expression.]
17 (return) [ His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only
crime was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law;
who solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his
love. Ammian. xiv. c. i.]
18 (return) [ See in Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 1, 7) a very ample
detail of the cruelties of Gallus. His brother Julian (p. 272)
insinuates, that a secret conspiracy had been formed against him;
and Zosimus names (l. ii. p. 135) the persons engaged in it; a
minister of considerable rank, and two obscure agents, who were
resolved to make their fortune.]
As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman world,
Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and cruel
administration to which his choice had subjected the East; and
the discovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch
by the tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that
the emperor and the Caesar were united by the same interest, and
pursued by the same enemies. 19 But when the victory was decided
in favor of Constantius, his dependent colleague became less
useful and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct was
severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately
resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the purple, or at least to
remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardships and
dangers of a German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of the
province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred
by the people of Antioch, with the connivance, and almost at the
instigation, of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act
of wanton cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme
majesty of Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious rank,
Domitian the Oriental praefect, and Montius, quaestor of the
palace, were empowered by a special commission 1911 to visit and
reform the state of the East. They were instructed to behave
towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest
arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation
of his brother and colleague. The rashness of the praefect
disappointed these prudent measures, and hastened his own ruin,
as well as that of his enemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian
passed disdainfully before the gates of the palace, and alleging
a slight pretence of indisposition, continued several days in
sullen retirement, to prepare an inflammatory memorial, which he
transmitted to the Imperial court. Yielding at length to the
pressing solicitations of Gallus, the praefect condescended to
take his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a
concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Caesar should
immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he himself
would punish his delay or hesitation, by suspending the usual
allowance of his household. The nephew and daughter of
Constantine, who could ill brook the insolence of a subject,
expressed their resentment by instantly delivering Domitian to
the custody of a guard. The quarrel still admitted of some terms
of accommodation. They were rendered impracticable by the
imprudent behavior of Montius, a statesman whose arts and
experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his
disposition. 20 The quaestor reproached Gallus in a haughty
language, that a prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a
municipal magistrate, should presume to imprison a Praetorian
praefect; convoked a meeting of the civil and military officers;
and required them, in the name of their sovereign, to defend the
person and dignity of his representatives. By this rash
declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus was provoked
to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered his guards to
stand to their arms, assembled the populace of Antioch, and
recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His
commands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the praefect
and the quaestor, and tying their legs together with ropes, they
dragged them through the streets of the city, inflicted a
thousand insults and a thousand wounds on these unhappy victims,
and at last precipitated their mangled and lifeless bodies into
the stream of the Orontes. 21
19 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xiii. tom. ii. p. 17, 18. The assassins
had seduced a great number of legionaries; but their designs were
discovered and revealed by an old woman in whose cottage they
lodged.]
1911 (return) [ The commission seems to have been granted to
Domitian alone. Montius interfered to support his authority. Amm.
Marc. loc. cit.—M]
20 (return) [ In the present text of Ammianus, we read Asper,
quidem, sed ad lenitatem propensior; which forms a sentence of
contradictory nonsense. With the aid of an old manuscript,
Valesius has rectified the first of these corruptions, and we
perceive a ray of light in the substitution of the word vafer. If
we venture to change lenitatem into lexitatem, this alteration of
a single letter will render the whole passage clear and
consistent.]
21 (return) [ Instead of being obliged to collect scattered and
imperfect hints from various sources, we now enter into the full
stream of the history of Ammianus, and need only refer to the
seventh and ninth chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorgius,
however, (l. iii. c. 28) though partial to Gallus, should not be
entirely overlooked.]
After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of
Gallus, it was only in a field of battle that he could assert his
innocence with any hope of success. But the mind of that prince
was formed of an equal mixture of violence and weakness. Instead
of assuming the title of Augustus, instead of employing in his
defence the troops and treasures of the East, he suffered himself
to be deceived by the affected tranquillity of Constantius, who,
leaving him the vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled
the veteran legions from the provinces of Asia. But as it still
appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his capital, the slow and
safer arts of dissimulation were practised with success. The
frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filled with
professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the Caesar to
discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve his
colleague from a part of the public cares, and to assist the West
by his presence, his counsels, and his arms. After so many
reciprocal injuries, Gallus had reason to fear and to distrust.
But he had neglected the opportunities of flight and of
resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurances of the
tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,
disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the
credit of his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death of
that princess completed the ruin in which he had been involved by
her impetuous passions. 22
22 (return) [ She had preceded her husband, but died of a fever
on the road at a little place in Bithynia, called Coenum
Gallicanum.]
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part II.
After a long delay, the reluctant Caesar set forwards on his
journey to the Imperial court. From Antioch to Hadrianople, he
traversed the wide extent of his dominions with a numerous and
stately train; and as he labored to conceal his apprehensions
from the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the
people of Constantinople with an exhibition of the games of the
circus. The progress of the journey might, however, have warned
him of the impending danger. In all the principal cities he was
met by ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices
of government, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty
sallies of his despair. The persons despatched to secure the
provinces which he left behind, passed him with cold salutations,
or affected disdain; and the troops, whose station lay along the
public road, were studiously removed on his approach, lest they
might be tempted to offer their swords for the service of a civil
war. 23 After Gallus had been permitted to repose himself a few
days at Hadrianople, he received a mandate, expressed in the most
haughty and absolute style, that his splendid retinue should halt
in that city, while the Caesar himself, with only ten
post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial residence at Milan.
In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to the
brother and colleague of Constantius, was insensibly changed into
rude familiarity; and Gallus, who discovered in the countenances
of the attendants that they already considered themselves as his
guards, and might soon be employed as his executioners, began to
accuse his fatal rashness, and to recollect, with terror and
remorse, the conduct by which he had provoked his fate. The
dissimulation which had hitherto been preserved, was laid aside
at Petovio, 2311 in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the
suburbs, where the general Barbatio, with a select band of
soldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, nor corrupted by
rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. In the
close of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of
the ensigns of Caesar, and hurried away to Pola, [23b] in Istria,
a sequestered prison, which had been so recently polluted with
royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon increased by the
appearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eusebius, who, with
the assistance of a notary and a tribune, proceeded to
interrogate him concerning the administration of the East. The
Caesar sank under the weight of shame and guilt, confessed all
the criminal actions and all the treasonable designs with which
he was charged; and by imputing them to the advice of his wife,
exasperated the indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with
partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was
easily convinced, that his own safety was incompatible with the
life of his cousin: the sentence of death was signed, despatched,
and executed; and the nephew of Constantine, with his hands tied
behind his back, was beheaded in prison like the vilest
malefactor. 24 Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties
of Constantius, assert that he soon relented, and endeavored to
recall the bloody mandate; but that the second messenger,
intrusted with the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who
dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were desirous of
reuniting to their empire the wealthy provinces of the East. 25
23 (return) [ The Thebaean legions, which were then quartered at
Hadrianople, sent a deputation to Gallus, with a tender of their
services. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The Notitia (s. 6, 20, 38, edit.
Labb.) mentions three several legions which bore the name of
Thebaean. The zeal of M. de Voltaire to destroy a despicable
though celebrated legion, has tempted him on the slightest
grounds to deny the existence of a Thenaean legion in the Roman
armies. See Oeuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv. p. 414, quarto
edition.]
2311 (return) [ Pettau in Styria.—M ---- Rather to Flanonia. now
Fianone, near Pola. St. Martin.—M.]
24 (return) [ See the complete narrative of the journey and death
of Gallus in Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 11. Julian complains that his
brother was put to death without a trial; attempts to justify, or
at least to excuse, the cruel revenge which he had inflicted on
his enemies; but seems at last to acknowledge that he might
justly have been deprived of the purple.]
25 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iv. c. 1. Zonaras, l. xiii. tom.
ii. p. 19. But the former was partial towards an Arian monarch,
and the latter transcribed, without choice or criticism, whatever
he found in the writings of the ancients.]
Besides the reigning emperor, Julian alone survived, of all the
numerous posterity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his
royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his
retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a
strong guard to the court of Milan; where he languished above
seven months, in the continual apprehension of suffering the same
ignominious death, which was daily inflicted almost before his
eyes, on the friends and adherents of his persecuted family. His
looks, his gestures, his silence, were scrutinized with malignant
curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies whom he
had never offended, and by arts to which he was a stranger. 26
But in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired the
virtues of firmness and discretion. He defended his honor, as
well as his life, against the insnaring subtleties of the
eunuchs, who endeavored to extort some declaration of his
sentiments; and whilst he cautiously suppressed his grief and
resentment, he nobly disdained to flatter the tyrant, by any
seeming approbation of his brother’s murder. Julian most devoutly
ascribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the
gods, who had exempted his innocence from the sentence of
destruction pronounced by their justice against the impious house
of Constantine. 27 As the most effectual instrument of their
providence, he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous
friendship of the empress Eusebia, 28 a woman of beauty and
merit, who, by the ascendant which she had gained over the mind
of her husband, counterbalanced, in some measure, the powerful
conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the intercession of his patroness,
Julian was admitted into the Imperial presence: he pleaded his
cause with a decent freedom, he was heard with favor; and,
notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger
of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder
sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of
a second interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was
advised to withdraw for a while into the neighborhood of Milan,
till the emperor thought proper to assign the city of Athens for
the place of his honorable exile. As he had discovered, from his
earliest youth, a propensity, or rather passion, for the
language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the
Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order so agreeable to his
wishes. Far from the tumult of arms, and the treachery of courts,
he spent six months under the groves of the academy, in a free
intercourse with the philosophers of the age, who studied to
cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the
devotion of their royal pupil. Their labors were not
unsuccessful; and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that
tender regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind, from
the recollection of the place where it has discovered and
exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of
manners, which his temper suggested and his situation imposed,
insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers, as well as
citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students
might perhaps examine his behavior with an eye of prejudice and
aversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a
general prepossession in favor of his virtues and talents, which
was soon diffused over the Roman world. 29
26 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellin. l. xv. c. 1, 3, 8. Julian
himself in his epistle to the Athenians, draws a very lively and
just picture of his own danger, and of his sentiments. He shows,
however, a tendency to exaggerate his sufferings, by insinuating,
though in obscure terms, that they lasted above a year; a period
which cannot be reconciled with the truth of chronology.]
27 (return) [ Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the
family of Constantine into an allegorical fable, which is happily
conceived and agreeably related. It forms the conclusion of the
seventh Oration, from whence it has been detached and translated
by the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 385-408.]
28 (return) [ She was a native of Thessalonica, in Macedonia, of
a noble family, and the daughter, as well as sister, of consuls.
Her marriage with the emperor may be placed in the year 352. In a
divided age, the historians of all parties agree in her praises.
See their testimonies collected by Tillemont, Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 750-754.]
29 (return) [ Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the
arts as well as the powers of their eloquence, to represent
Julian as the first of heroes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory
was his fellow-student at Athens; and the symptoms which he so
tragically describes, of the future wickedness of the apostate,
amount only to some bodily imperfections, and to some
peculiarities in his speech and manner. He protests, however,
that he then foresaw and foretold the calamities of the church
and state. (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 121, 122.)]
Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the empress,
resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken,
was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death of the
late Caesar had left Constantius invested with the sole command,
and oppressed by the accumulated weight, of a mighty empire.
Before the wounds of civil discord could be healed, the provinces
of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians. The
Sarmatians no longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The
impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the
wild Isaurians: those robbers descended from their craggy
mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed,
though without success, to besiege the important city of
Seleucia, which was defended by a garrison of three Roman
legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by victory, again
threatened the peace of Asia, and the presence of the emperor was
indispensably required, both in the West and in the East. For the
first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged, that his single
strength was unequal to such an extent of care and of dominion.
30 Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him that
his all-powerful virtue, and celestial fortune, would still
continue to triumph over every obstacle, he listened with
complacency to the advice of Eusebia, which gratified his
indolence, without offending his suspicious pride. As she
perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor’s
mind, she artfully turned his attention to the opposite
characters of the two brothers, which from their infancy had been
compared to those of Domitian and of Titus. 31 She accustomed her
husband to consider Julian as a youth of a mild, unambitious
disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured by
the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill with honor
a subordinate station, without aspiring to dispute the commands,
or to shade the glories, of his sovereign and benefactor. After
an obstinate, though secret struggle, the opposition of the
favorite eunuchs submitted to the ascendency of the empress; and
it was resolved that Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with
Helena, sister of Constantius, should be appointed, with the
title of Caesar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps. 32
30 (return) [ Succumbere tot necessitatibus tamque crebris unum
se, quod nunquam fecerat, aperte demonstrans. Ammian. l. xv. c.
8. He then expresses, in their own words, the fattering
assurances of the courtiers.]
31 (return) [ Tantum a temperatis moribus Juliani differens
fratris quantum inter Vespasiani filios fuit, Domitianum et
Titum. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The circumstances and education of
the two brothers, were so nearly the same, as to afford a strong
example of the innate difference of characters.]
32 (return) [ Ammianus, l. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 137,
138.]
Although the order which recalled him to court was probably
accompanied by some intimation of his approaching greatness, he
appeals to the people of Athens to witness his tears of
undissembled sorrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his
beloved retirement. 33 He trembled for his life, for his fame,
and even for his virtue; and his sole confidence was derived from
the persuasion, that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that
he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom for that
purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached,
with horror, the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth
conceal his indignation, when he found himself accosted with
false and servile respect by the assassins of his family.
Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent schemes,
embraced him with the tenderness of a sister; and endeavored, by
the most soothing caresses, to dispel his terrors, and reconcile
him to his fortune. But the ceremony of shaving his beard, and
his awkward demeanor, when he first exchanged the cloak of a
Greek philosopher for the military habit of a Roman prince,
amused, during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court. 34
33 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 275, 276. Libanius, Orat.
x. p. 268. Julian did not yield till the gods had signified their
will by repeated visions and omens. His piety then forbade him to
resist.]
34 (return) [ Julian himself relates, (p. 274) with some humor,
the circumstances of his own metamorphoses, his downcast looks,
and his perplexity at being thus suddenly transported into a new
world, where every object appeared strange and hostile.]
The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer deigned to
consult with the senate in the choice of a colleague; but they
were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the
consent of the army. On this solemn occasion, the guards, with
the other troops whose stations were in the neighborhood of
Milan, appeared under arms; and Constantius ascended his lofty
tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, who entered the
same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age. 35 In a studied
speech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor
represented the various dangers which threatened the prosperity
of the republic, the necessity of naming a Caesar for the
administration of the West, and his own intention, if it was
agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honors of the
purple the promising virtues of the nephew of Constantine. The
approbation of the soldiers was testified by a respectful murmur;
they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and observed with
pleasure, that the fire which sparkled in his eyes was tempered
by a modest blush, on being thus exposed, for the first time, to
the public view of mankind. As soon as the ceremony of his
investiture had been performed, Constantius addressed him with
the tone of authority which his superior age and station
permitted him to assume; and exhorting the new Caesar to deserve,
by heroic deeds, that sacred and immortal name, the emperor gave
his colleague the strongest assurances of a friendship which
should never be impaired by time, nor interrupted by their
separation into the most distant climes. As soon as the speech
was ended, the troops, as a token of applause, clashed their
shields against their knees; 36 while the officers who surrounded
the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve, their sense of the
merits of the representative of Constantius.
35 (return) [ See Ammian. Marcellin. l. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, l.
iii. p. 139. Aurelius Victor. Victor Junior in Epitom. Eutrop. x.
14.]
36 (return) [ Militares omnes horrendo fragore scuta genibus
illidentes; quod est prosperitatis indicium plenum; nam contra
cum hastis clypei feriuntur, irae documentum est et doloris...
... Ammianus adds, with a nice distinction, Eumque ut potiori
reverentia servaretur, nec supra modum laudabant nec infra quam
decebat.]
The two princes returned to the palace in the same chariot; and
during the slow procession, Julian repeated to himself a verse of
his favorite Homer, which he might equally apply to his fortune
and to his fears. 37 The four-and-twenty days which the Caesar
spent at Milan after his investiture, and the first months of his
Gallic reign, were devoted to a splendid but severe captivity;
nor could the acquisition of honor compensate for the loss of
freedom. 38 His steps were watched, his correspondence was
intercepted; and he was obliged, by prudence, to decline the
visits of his most intimate friends. Of his former domestics,
four only were permitted to attend him; two pages, his physician,
and his librarian; the last of whom was employed in the care of a
valuable collection of books, the gift of the empress, who
studied the inclinations as well as the interest of her friend.
In the room of these faithful servants, a household was formed,
such indeed as became the dignity of a Caesar; but it was filled
with a crowd of slaves, destitute, and perhaps incapable, of any
attachment for their new master, to whom, for the most part, they
were either unknown or suspected. His want of experience might
require the assistance of a wise council; but the minute
instructions which regulated the service of his table, and the
distribution of his hours, were adapted to a youth still under
the discipline of his preceptors, rather than to the situation of
a prince intrusted with the conduct of an important war. If he
aspired to deserve the esteem of his subjects, he was checked by
the fear of displeasing his sovereign; and even the fruits of his
marriage-bed were blasted by the jealous artifices of Eusebia 39
herself, who, on this occasion alone, seems to have been
unmindful of the tenderness of her sex, and the generosity of her
character. The memory of his father and of his brothers reminded
Julian of his own danger, and his apprehensions were increased by
the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvanus. In the summer which
preceded his own elevation, that general had been chosen to
deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the Barbarians; but Sylvanus
soon discovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in
the Imperial court. A dexterous informer, countenanced by several
of the principal ministers, procured from him some recommendatory
letters; and erasing the whole of the contents, except the
signature, filled up the vacant parchment with matters of high
and treasonable import. By the industry and courage of his
friends, the fraud was however detected, and in a great council
of the civil and military officers, held in the presence of the
emperor himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly
acknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of the
calumny, and the hasty seizure of his estate, had already
provoked the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was so
unjustly accused. He assumed the purple at his head- quarters of
Cologne, and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with an
invasion, and Milan with a siege. In this emergency, Ursicinus, a
general of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the
favor which he had lost by his eminent services in the East.
Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by the injuries of a
similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to join the
standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous
friend. After a reign of only twenty-eight days, Sylvanus was
assassinated: the soldiers who, without any criminal intention,
had blindly followed the example of their leader, immediately
returned to their allegiance; and the flatterers of Constantius
celebrated the wisdom and felicity of the monarch who had
extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle. 40
37 (return) [ The word purple which Homer had used as a vague but
common epithet for death, was applied by Julian to express, very
aptly, the nature and object of his own apprehensions.]
38 (return) [ He represents, in the most pathetic terms, (p.
277,) the distress of his new situation. The provision for his
table was, however, so elegant and sumptuous, that the young
philosopher rejected it with disdain. Quum legeret libellum
assidue, quem Constantius ut privignum ad studia mittens manu sua
conscripserat, praelicenter disponens quid in convivio Caesaris
impendi deberit: Phasianum, et vulvam et sumen exigi vetuit et
inferri. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xvi. c. 5.]
39 (return) [ If we recollect that Constantine, the father of
Helena, died above eighteen years before, in a mature old age, it
will appear probable, that the daughter, though a virgin, could
not be very young at the time of her marriage. She was soon
afterwards delivered of a son, who died immediately, quod
obstetrix corrupta mercede, mox natum praesecto plusquam
convenerat umbilico necavit. She accompanied the emperor and
empress in their journey to Rome, and the latter, quaesitum
venenum bibere per fraudem illexit, ut quotiescunque concepisset,
immaturum abjicerit partum. Ammian. l. xvi. c. 10. Our physicians
will determine whether there exists such a poison. For my own
part I am inclined to hope that the public malignity imputed the
effects of accident as the guilt of Eusebia.]
40 (return) [ Ammianus (xv. v.) was perfectly well informed of
the conduct and fate of Sylvanus. He himself was one of the few
followers who attended Ursicinus in his dangerous enterprise.]
The protection of the Rhaetian frontier, and the persecution of
the Catholic church, detained Constantius in Italy above eighteen
months after the departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned
into the East, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to
the ancient capital. 41 He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the
Aemilian and Flaminian ways, and as soon as he approached within
forty miles of the city, the march of a prince who had never
vanquished a foreign enemy, assumed the appearance of a triumphal
procession. His splendid train was composed of all the ministers
of luxury; but in a time of profound peace, he was encompassed by
the glittering arms of the numerous squadrons of his guards and
cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embossed with gold,
and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person of the
emperor. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car, resplendent with
gold and precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head to
pass under the gates of the cities, he affected a stately
demeanor of inflexible, and, as it might seem, of insensible
gravity. The severe discipline of the Persian youth had been
introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace; and such were
the habits of patience which they had inculcated, that during a
slow and sultry march, he was never seen to move his hand towards
his face, or to turn his eyes either to the right or to the left.
He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the
emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honors of the
republic, and the consular images of the noble families. The
streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. Their repeated
acclamations expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence
of thirty-two years, the sacred person of their sovereign, and
Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry, he affected
surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be collected on
the same spot. The son of Constantine was lodged in the ancient
palace of Augustus: he presided in the senate, harangued the
people from the tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended,
assisted with unusual courtesy at the games of the Circus, and
accepted the crowns of gold, as well as the Panegyrics which had
been prepared for the ceremony by the deputies of the principal
cities. His short visit of thirty days was employed in viewing
the monuments of art and power which were scattered over the
seven hills and the interjacent valleys. He admired the awful
majesty of the Capitol, the vast extent of the baths of Caracalla
and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of the Pantheon, the massy
greatness of the amphitheatre of Titus, the elegant architecture
of the theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and, above all,
the stately structure of the Forum and column of Trajan;
acknowledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and to
magnify, had made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the
world. The traveller, who has contemplated the ruins of ancient
Rome, may conceive some imperfect idea of the sentiments which
they must have inspired when they reared their heads in the
splendor of unsullied beauty.
[See The Pantheon: The severe simplicity of the Pantheon]
41 (return) [ For the particulars of the visit of Constantius to
Rome, see Ammianus, l. xvi. c. 10. We have only to add, that
Themistius was appointed deputy from Constantinople, and that he
composed his fourth oration for his ceremony.]
The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this journey
excited him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the Romans
some memorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first
idea was to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he
had seen in the Forum of Trajan; but when he had maturely weighed
the difficulties of the execution, 42 he chose rather to
embellish the capital by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a
remote but polished age, which seems to have preceded the
invention of alphabetical writing, a great number of these
obelisks had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and
Heliopolis, by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just
confidence that the simplicity of their form, and the hardness of
their substance, would resist the injuries of time and violence.
43 Several of these extraordinary columns had been transported to
Rome by Augustus and his successors, as the most durable
monuments of their power and victory; 44 but there remained one
obelisk, which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for a long
time the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It was designed by
Constantine to adorn his new city; 45 and, after being removed by
his order from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of
the Sun at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria.
The death of Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose,
and this obelisk was destined by his son to the ancient capital
of the empire. A vessel of uncommon strength and capaciousness
was provided to convey this enormous weight of granite, at least
a hundred and fifteen feet in length, from the banks of the Nile
to those of the Tyber. The obelisk of Constantius was landed
about three miles from the city, and elevated, by the efforts of
art and labor, in the great Circus of Rome. 46 4611
42 (return) [ Hormisdas, a fugitive prince of Persia, observed to
the emperor, that if he made such a horse, he must think of
preparing a similar stable, (the Forum of Trajan.) Another saying
of Hormisdas is recorded, “that one thing only had displeased
him, to find that men died at Rome as well as elsewhere.” If we
adopt this reading of the text of Ammianus, (displicuisse,
instead of placuisse,) we may consider it as a reproof of Roman
vanity. The contrary sense would be that of a misanthrope.]
43 (return) [ When Germanicus visited the ancient monuments of
Thebes, the eldest of the priests explained to him the meaning of
these hiero glyphics. Tacit. Annal. ii. c. 60. But it seems
probable, that before the useful invention of an alphabet, these
natural or arbitrary signs were the common characters of the
Egyptian nation. See Warburton’s Divine Legation of Moses, vol.
iii. p. 69-243.]
44 (return) [ See Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xxxvi. c. 14, 15.]
45 (return) [ Ammian. Marcellin l. xvii. c. 4. He gives us a
Greek interpretation of the hieroglyphics, and his commentator
Lindenbrogius adds a Latin inscription, which, in twenty verses
of the age of Constantius, contain a short history of the
obelisk.]
46 (return) [ See Donat. Roma. Antiqua, l. iii. c. 14, l. iv. c.
12, and the learned, though confused, Dissertation of Bargaeus on
Obelisks, inserted in the fourth volume of Graevius’s Roman
Antiquities, p. 1897- 1936. This dissertation is dedicated to
Pope Sixtus V., who erected the obelisk of Constantius in the
square before the patriarchal church of at. John Lateran.]
4611 (return) [ It is doubtful whether the obelisk transported by
Constantius to Rome now exists. Even from the text of Ammianus,
it is uncertain whether the interpretation of Hermapion refers to
the older obelisk, (obelisco incisus est veteri quem videmus in
Circo,) raised, as he himself states, in the Circus Maximus, long
before, by Augustus, or to the one brought by Constantius. The
obelisk in the square before the church of St. John Lateran is
ascribed not to Rameses the Great but to Thoutmos II.
Champollion, 1. Lettre a M. de Blacas, p. 32.—M]
The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the
alarming intelligence of the distress and danger of the Illyrian
provinces. The distractions of civil war, and the irreparable
loss which the Roman legions had sustained in the battle of
Mursa, exposed those countries, almost without defence, to the
light cavalry of the Barbarians; and particularly to the inroads
of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation, who seem to have
exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms and military
arts of their Sarmatian allies. 47 The garrisons of the frontiers
were insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent
monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from the extremities
of his dominions, the flower of the Palatine troops, to take the
field in person, and to employ a whole campaign, with the
preceding autumn and the ensuing spring, in the serious
prosecution of the war. The emperor passed the Danube on a bridge
of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered his march,
penetrated into the heart of the country of the Quadi, and
severely retaliated the calamities which they had inflicted on
the Roman province. The dismayed Barbarians were soon reduced to
sue for peace: they offered the restitution of his captive
subjects as an atonement for the past, and the noblest hostages
as a pledge of their future conduct. The generous courtesy which
was shown to the first among their chieftains who implored the
clemency of Constantius, encouraged the more timid, or the more
obstinate, to imitate their example; and the Imperial camp was
crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most distant
tribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser Poland, and who
might have deemed themselves secure behind the lofty ridge of the
Carpathian Mountains. While Constantius gave laws to the
Barbarians beyond the Danube, he distinguished, with specious
compassion, the Sarmatian exiles, who had been expelled from
their native country by the rebellion of their slaves, and who
formed a very considerable accession to the power of the Quadi.
The emperor, embracing a generous but artful system of policy,
released the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating
dependence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to the
dignity of a nation united under the government of a king, the
friend and ally of the republic. He declared his resolution of
asserting the justice of their cause, and of securing the peace
of the provinces by the extirpation, or at least the banishment,
of the Limigantes, whose manners were still infected with the
vices of their servile origin. The execution of this design was
attended with more difficulty than glory. The territory of the
Limigantes was protected against the Romans by the Danube,
against the hostile Barbarians by the Teyss. The marshy lands
which lay between those rivers, and were often covered by their
inundations, formed an intricate wilderness, pervious only to the
inhabitants, who were acquainted with its secret paths and
inaccessible fortresses. On the approach of Constantius, the
Limigantes tried the efficacy of prayers, of fraud, and of arms;
but he sternly rejected their supplications, defeated their rude
stratagems, and repelled with skill and firmness the efforts of
their irregular valor. One of their most warlike tribes,
established in a small island towards the conflux of the Teyss
and the Danube, consented to pass the river with the intention of
surprising the emperor during the security of an amicable
conference. They soon became the victims of the perfidy which
they meditated. Encompassed on every side, trampled down by the
cavalry, slaughtered by the swords of the legions, they disdained
to ask for mercy; and with an undaunted countenance, still
grasped their weapons in the agonies of death. After this
victory, a considerable body of Romans was landed on the opposite
banks of the Danube; the Taifalae, a Gothic tribe engaged in the
service of the empire, invaded the Limigantes on the side of the
Teyss; and their former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated by
hope and revenge, penetrated through the hilly country, into the
heart of their ancient possessions. A general conflagration
revealed the huts of the Barbarians, which were seated in the
depth of the wilderness; and the soldier fought with confidence
on marshy ground, which it was dangerous for him to tread. In
this extremity, the bravest of the Limigantes were resolved to
die in arms, rather than to yield: but the milder sentiment,
enforced by the authority of their elders, at length prevailed;
and the suppliant crowd, followed by their wives and children,
repaired to the Imperial camp, to learn their fate from the mouth
of the conqueror. After celebrating his own clemency, which was
still inclined to pardon their repeated crimes, and to spare the
remnant of a guilty nation, Constantius assigned for the place of
their exile a remote country, where they might enjoy a safe and
honorable repose. The Limigantes obeyed with reluctance; but
before they could reach, at least before they could occupy, their
destined habitations, they returned to the banks of the Danube,
exaggerating the hardships of their situation, and requesting,
with fervent professions of fidelity, that the emperor would
grant them an undisturbed settlement within the limits of the
Roman provinces. Instead of consulting his own experience of
their incurable perfidy, Constantius listened to his flatterers,
who were ready to represent the honor and advantage of accepting
a colony of soldiers, at a time when it was much easier to obtain
the pecuniary contributions than the military service of the
subjects of the empire. The Limigantes were permitted to pass the
Danube; and the emperor gave audience to the multitude in a large
plain near the modern city of Buda. They surrounded the tribunal,
and seemed to hear with respect an oration full of mildness and
dignity when one of the Barbarians, casting his shoe into the
air, exclaimed with a loud voice, Marha! Marha! 4711 a word of
defiance, which was received as a signal of the tumult. They
rushed with fury to seize the person of the emperor; his royal
throne and golden couch were pillaged by these rude hands; but
the faithful defence of his guards, who died at his feet, allowed
him a moment to mount a fleet horse, and to escape from the
confusion. The disgrace which had been incurred by a treacherous
surprise was soon retrieved by the numbers and discipline of the
Romans; and the combat was only terminated by the extinction of
the name and nation of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatians were
reinstated in the possession of their ancient seats; and although
Constantius distrusted the levity of their character, he
entertained some hopes that a sense of gratitude might influence
their future conduct. He had remarked the lofty stature and
obsequious demeanor of Zizais, one of the noblest of their
chiefs. He conferred on him the title of King; and Zizais proved
that he was not unworthy to reign, by a sincere and lasting
attachment to the interests of his benefactor, who, after this
splendid success, received the name of Sarmaticus from the
acclamations of his victorious army. 48
47 (return) [ The events of this Quadian and Sarmatian war are
related by Ammianus, xvi. 10, xvii. 12, 13, xix. 11]
4711 (return) [ Reinesius reads Warrha, Warrha, Guerre, War.
Wagner note as a mm. Marc xix. ll.—M.]
48 (return) [ Genti Sarmatarum magno decori confidens apud eos
regem dedit. Aurelius Victor. In a pompous oration pronounced by
Constantius himself, he expatiates on his own exploits with much
vanity, and some truth]
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part III.
While the Roman emperor and the Persian monarch, at the distance
of three thousand miles, defended their extreme limits against
the Barbarians of the Danube and of the Oxus, their intermediate
frontier experienced the vicissitudes of a languid war, and a
precarious truce. Two of the eastern ministers of Constantius,
the Praetorian praefect Musonian, whose abilities were disgraced
by the want of truth and integrity, and Cassian, duke of
Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteran soldier, opened a secret
negotiation with the satrap Tamsapor. 49 4911 These overtures of
peace, translated into the servile and flattering language of
Asia, were transmitted to the camp of the Great King; who
resolved to signify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was
inclined to grant to the suppliant Romans. Narses, whom he
invested with that character, was honorably received in his
passage through Antioch and Constantinople: he reached Sirmium
after a long journey, and, at his first audience, respectfully
unfolded the silken veil which covered the haughty epistle of his
sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and Moon,
(such were the lofty titles affected by Oriental vanity,)
expressed his satisfaction that his brother, Constantius Caesar,
had been taught wisdom by adversity. As the lawful successor of
Darius Hystaspes, Sapor asserted, that the River Strymon, in
Macedonia, was the true and ancient boundary of his empire;
declaring, however, that as an evidence of his moderation, he
would content himself with the provinces of Armenia and
Mesopotamia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his
ancestors. He alleged, that, without the restitution of these
disputed countries, it was impossible to establish any treaty on
a solid and permanent basis; and he arrogantly threatened, that
if his ambassador returned in vain, he was prepared to take the
field in the spring, and to support the justice of his cause by
the strength of his invincible arms. Narses, who was endowed with
the most polite and amiable manners, endeavored, as far as was
consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness of the message.
50 Both the style and substance were maturely weighed in the
Imperial council, and he was dismissed with the following answer:
“Constantius had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his
ministers, who had acted without any specific orders from the
throne: he was not, however, averse to an equal and honorable
treaty; but it was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose
to the sole and victorious emperor of the Roman world, the same
conditions of peace which he had indignantly rejected at the time
when his power was contracted within the narrow limits of the
East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor should
recollect, that if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in
battle, they had almost always been successful in the event of
the war.” A few days after the departure of Narses, three
ambassadors were sent to the court of Sapor, who was already
returned from the Scythian expedition to his ordinary residence
of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist, had been selected
for this important commission; and Constantius, who was secretly
anxious for the conclusion of the peace, entertained some hopes
that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the dexterity
of the second, and the rhetoric of the third, 51 would persuade
the Persian monarch to abate of the rigor of his demands. But the
progress of their negotiation was opposed and defeated by the
hostile arts of Antoninus, 52 a Roman subject of Syria, who had
fled from oppression, and was admitted into the councils of
Sapor, and even to the royal table, where, according to the
custom of the Persians, the most important business was
frequently discussed. 53 The dexterous fugitive promoted his
interest by the same conduct which gratified his revenge. He
incessantly urged the ambition of his new master to embrace the
favorable opportunity when the bravest of the Palatine troops
were employed with the emperor in a distant war on the Danube. He
pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted and defenceless provinces
of the East, with the numerous armies of Persia, now fortified by
the alliance and accession of the fiercest Barbarians. The
ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and a second
embassy, of a still more honorable rank, was detained in strict
confinement, and threatened either with death or exile.
49 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 9.]
4911 (return) [ In Persian, Ten-schah-pour. St. Martin, ii.
177.—M.]
50 (return) [ Ammianus (xvii. 5) transcribes the haughty letter.
Themistius (Orat. iv. p. 57, edit. Petav.) takes notice of the
silken covering. Idatius and Zonaras mention the journey of the
ambassador; and Peter the Patrician (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 58)
has informed us of his behavior.]
51 (return) [ Ammianus, xvii. 5, and Valesius ad loc. The
sophist, or philosopher, (in that age these words were almost
synonymous,) was Eustathius the Cappadocian, the disciple of
Jamblichus, and the friend of St. Basil. Eunapius (in Vit.
Aedesii, p. 44-47) fondly attributes to this philosophic
ambassador the glory of enchanting the Barbarian king by the
persuasive charms of reason and eloquence. See Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 828, 1132.]
52 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 5, 6, 8. The decent and respectful
behavior of Antoninus towards the Roman general, sets him in a
very interesting light; and Ammianus himself speaks of the
traitor with some compassion and esteem.]
53 (return) [ This circumstance, as it is noticed by Ammianus,
serves to prove the veracity of Herodotus, (l. i. c. 133,) and
the permanency of the Persian manners. In every age the Persians
have been addicted to intemperance, and the wines of Shiraz have
triumphed over the law of Mahomet. Brisson de Regno Pers. l. ii.
p. 462-472, and Voyages en Perse, tom, iii. p. 90.]
The military historian, 54 who was himself despatched to observe
the army of the Persians, as they were preparing to construct a
bridge of boats over the Tigris, beheld from an eminence the
plain of Assyria, as far as the edge of the horizon, covered with
men, with horses, and with arms. Sapor appeared in the front,
conspicuous by the splendor of his purple. On his left hand, the
place of honor among the Orientals, Grumbates, king of the
Chionites, displayed the stern countenance of an aged and
renowned warrior. The monarch had reserved a similar place on his
right hand for the king of the Albanians, who led his independent
tribes from the shores of the Caspian. 5411 The satraps and
generals were distributed according to their several ranks, and
the whole army, besides the numerous train of Oriental luxury,
consisted of more than one hundred thousand effective men, inured
to fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of Asia. The
Roman deserter, who in some measure guided the councils of Sapor,
had prudently advised, that, instead of wasting the summer in
tedious and difficult sieges, he should march directly to the
Euphrates, and press forwards without delay to seize the feeble
and wealthy metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner
advanced into the plains of Mesopotamia, than they discovered
that every precaution had been used which could retard their
progress, or defeat their design. The inhabitants, with their
cattle, were secured in places of strength, the green forage
throughout the country was set on fire, the fords of the rivers
were fortified by sharp stakes; military engines were planted on
the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the waters of the
Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from attempting the ordinary
passage of the bridge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing
his plan of operations, then conducted the army by a longer
circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the head of the
Euphrates, where the infant river is reduced to a shallow and
accessible stream. Sapor overlooked, with prudent disdain, the
strength of Nisibis; but as he passed under the walls of Amida,
he resolved to try whether the majesty of his presence would not
awe the garrison into immediate submission. The sacrilegious
insult of a random dart, which glanced against the royal tiara,
convinced him of his error; and the indignant monarch listened
with impatience to the advice of his ministers, who conjured him
not to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratification
of his resentment. The following day Grumbates advanced towards
the gates with a select body of troops, and required the instant
surrender of the city, as the only atonement which could be
accepted for such an act of rashness and insolence. His proposals
were answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a
beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart by a
javelin, shot from one of the balistae. The funeral of the prince
of the Chionites was celebrated according to the rites of the
country; and the grief of his aged father was alleviated by the
solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty city of Amida should
serve as a funeral pile to expiate the death, and to perpetuate
the memory, of his son.
54 (return) [ Ammian. lxviii. 6, 7, 8, 10.]
5411 (return) [ These perhaps were the barbarous tribes who
inhabit the northern part of the present Schirwan, the Albania of
the ancients. This country, now inhabited by the Lezghis, the
terror of the neighboring districts, was then occupied by the
same people, called by the ancients Legae, by the Armenians Gheg,
or Leg. The latter represent them as constant allies of the
Persians in their wars against Armenia and the Empire. A little
after this period, a certain Schergir was their king, and it is
of him doubtless Ammianus Marcellinus speaks. St. Martin, ii.
285.—M.]
The ancient city of Amid or Amida, 55 which sometimes assumes the
provincial appellation of Diarbekir, 56 is advantageously situate
in a fertile plain, watered by the natural and artificial
channels of the Tigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream
bends in a semicircular form round the eastern part of the city.
The emperor Constantius had recently conferred on Amida the honor
of his own name, and the additional fortifications of strong
walls and lofty towers. It was provided with an arsenal of
military engines, and the ordinary garrison had been reenforced
to the amount of seven legions, when the place was invested by
the arms of Sapor. 57 His first and most sanguine hopes depended
on the success of a general assault. To the several nations which
followed his standard, their respective posts were assigned; the
south to the Vertae; the north to the Albanians; the east to the
Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation; the west to the
Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered their front
with a formidable line of Indian elephants. 58 The Persians, on
every side, supported their efforts, and animated their courage;
and the monarch himself, careless of his rank and safety,
displayed, in the prosecution of the siege, the ardor of a
youthful soldier. After an obstinate combat, the Barbarians were
repulsed; they incessantly returned to the charge; they were
again driven back with a dreadful slaughter, and two rebel
legions of Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalized
their undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart
of the Persian camp. In one of the fiercest of these repeated
assaults, Amida was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who
indicated to the Barbarians a secret and neglected staircase,
scooped out of the rock that hangs over the stream of the Tigris.
Seventy chosen archers of the royal guard ascended in silence to
the third story of a lofty tower, which commanded the precipice;
they elevated on high the Persian banner, the signal of
confidence to the assailants, and of dismay to the besieged; and
if this devoted band could have maintained their post a few
minutes longer, the reduction of the place might have been
purchased by the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried,
without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he had
recourse to the slower but more certain operations of a regular
siege, in the conduct of which he was instructed by the skill of
the Roman deserters. The trenches were opened at a convenient
distance, and the troops destined for that service advanced under
the portable cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch, and
undermine the foundations of the walls. Wooden towers were at the
same time constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, till the
soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile
weapons, could engage almost on level ground with the troops who
defended the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could
suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in the defence of
Amida, and the works of Sapor were more than once destroyed by
the fire of the Romans. But the resources of a besieged city may
be exhausted. The Persians repaired their losses, and pushed
their approaches; a large preach was made by the battering-ram,
and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the sword and by
disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. The soldiers, the
citizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to
escape through the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors
in a promiscuous massacre.
55 (return) [ For the description of Amida, see D’Herbelot,
Bebliotheque Orientale, p. Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 108.
Histoire de Timur Bec, par Cherefeddin Ali, l. iii. c. 41. Ahmed
Arabsiades, tom. i. p. 331, c. 43. Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i.
p. 301. Voyages d’Otter, tom. ii. p. 273, and Voyages de Niebuhr,
tom. ii. p. 324-328. The last of these travellers, a learned and
accurate Dane, has given a plan of Amida, which illustrates the
operations of the siege.]
56 (return) [ Diarbekir, which is styled Amid, or Kara Amid, in
the public writings of the Turks, contains above 16,000 houses,
and is the residence of a pacha with three tails. The epithet of
Kara is derived from the blackness of the stone which composes
the strong and ancient wall of Amida. ——In my Mem. Hist. sur
l’Armenie, l. i. p. 166, 173, I conceive that I have proved this
city, still called, by the Armenians, Dirkranagerd, the city of
Tigranes, to be the same with the famous Tigranocerta, of which
the situation was unknown. St. Martin, i. 432. On the siege of
Amida, see St. Martin’s Notes, ii. 290. Faustus of Byzantium,
nearly a contemporary, (Armenian,) states that the Persians, on
becoming masters of it, destroyed 40,000 houses though Ammianus
describes the city as of no great extent, (civitatis ambitum non
nimium amplae.) Besides the ordinary population, and those who
took refuge from the country, it contained 20,000 soldiers. St.
Martin, ii. 290. This interpretation is extremely doubtful.
Wagner (note on Ammianus) considers the whole population to
amount only to—M.]
57 (return) [ The operations of the siege of Amida are very
minutely described by Ammianus, (xix. 1-9,) who acted an
honorable part in the defence, and escaped with difficulty when
the city was stormed by the Persians.]
58 (return) [ Of these four nations, the Albanians are too well
known to require any description. The Segestans [Sacastene. St.
Martin.] inhabited a large and level country, which still
preserves their name, to the south of Khorasan, and the west of
Hindostan. (See Geographia Nubiensis. p. 133, and D’Herbelot,
Biblitheque Orientale, p. 797.) Notwithstanding the boasted
victory of Bahram, (vol. i. p. 410,) the Segestans, above
fourscore years afterwards, appear as an independent nation, the
ally of Persia. We are ignorant of the situation of the Vertae
and Chionites, but I am inclined to place them (at least the
latter) towards the confines of India and Scythia. See Ammian.
——Klaproth considers the real Albanians the same with the ancient
Alani, and quotes a passage of the emperor Julian in support of
his opinion. They are the Ossetae, now inhabiting part of
Caucasus. Tableaux Hist. de l’Asie, p. 179, 180.—M. ——The Vertae
are still unknown. It is possible that the Chionites are the same
as the Huns. These people were already known; and we find from
Armenian authors that they were making, at this period,
incursions into Asia. They were often at war with the Persians.
The name was perhaps pronounced differently in the East and in
the West, and this prevents us from recognizing it. St. Martin,
ii. 177.—M.]
But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces.
As soon as the first transports of victory had subsided, Sapor
was at leisure to reflect, that to chastise a disobedient city,
he had lost the flower of his troops, and the most favorable
season for conquest. 59 Thirty thousand of his veterans had
fallen under the walls of Amida, during the continuance of a
siege, which lasted seventy-three days; and the disappointed
monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph and secret
mortification. It is more than probable, that the inconstancy of
his Barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in which
they had encountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the
aged king of the Chionites, satiated with revenge, turned away
with horror from a scene of action where he had been deprived of
the hope of his family and nation. The strength as well as the
spirit of the army with which Sapor took the field in the ensuing
spring was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his
ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the East, he was
obliged to content himself with the reduction of two fortified
cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde; 60 the one situate in
the midst of a sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula,
surrounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid stream of
the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the diminutive size to which
they had been reduced in the age of Constantine, were made
prisoners, and sent into remote captivity on the extreme confines
of Persia. After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror
abandoned that solitary and sequestered place; but he carefully
restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that
important post a garrison or colony of veterans; amply supplied
with every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of
honor and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms
of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise
against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or, as it was universally
esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of
the independent Arabs. 61 6111
59 (return) [ Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by
three signs, which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or
with the series of the history. 1 The corn was ripe when Sapor
invaded Mesopotamia; “Cum jam stipula flaveate turgerent;” a
circumstance, which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally
refer us to the month of April or May. See Harmer’s Observations
on Scripture vol. i. p. 41. Shaw’s Travels, p. 335, edit 4to. 2.
The progress of Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the
Euphrates, which generally happens in July and August. Plin.
Hist. Nat. v. 21. Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. p. 696.
3. When Sapor had taken Amida, after a siege of seventy-three
days, the autumn was far advanced. “Autumno praecipiti
haedorumque improbo sidere exorto.” To reconcile these apparent
contradictions, we must allow for some delay in the Persian king,
some inaccuracy in the historian, and some disorder in the
seasons.]
60 (return) [ The account of these sieges is given by Ammianus,
xx. 6, 7. ——The Christian bishop of Bezabde went to the camp of
the king of Persia, to persuade him to check the waste of human
blood Amm. Mare xx. 7.—M.]
61 (return) [ For the identity of Virtha and Tecrit, see
D’Anville, Geographie. For the siege of that castle by Timur Bec
or Tamerlane, see Cherefeddin, l. iii. c. 33. The Persian
biographer exaggerates the merit and difficulty of this exploit,
which delivered the caravans of Bagdad from a formidable gang of
robbers.]
6111 (return) [ St. Martin doubts whether it lay so much to the
south. “The word Girtha means in Syriac a castle or fortress, and
might be applied to many places.”]
The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor required and
would have exercised, the abilities of the most consummate
general; and it seemed fortunate for the state, that it was the
actual province of the brave Ursicinus, who alone deserved the
confidence of the soldiers and people. In the hour of danger, 62
Ursicinus was removed from his station by the intrigues of the
eunuchs; and the military command of the East was bestowed, by
the same influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran,
who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the
experience, of age. By a second order, which issued from the same
jealous and inconstant councils, Ursicinus was again despatched
to the frontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to sustain the
labors of a war, the honors of which had been transferred to his
unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station under the
walls of Edessa; and while he amused himself with the idle parade
of military exercise, and moved to the sound of flutes in the
Pyrrhic dance, the public defence was abandoned to the boldness
and diligence of the former general of the East. But whenever
Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he
proposed, at the head of a light and active army, to wheel round
the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of the enemy,
to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relieve
the distress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged,
that he was restrained by his positive orders from endangering
the safety of the troops. Amida was at length taken; its bravest
defenders, who had escaped the sword of the Barbarians, died in
the Roman camp by the hand of the executioner: and Ursicinus
himself, after supporting the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was
punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his
military rank. But Constantius soon experienced the truth of the
prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injured
lieutenant, that as long as such maxims of government were
suffered to prevail, the emperor himself would find it is no easy
task to defend his eastern dominions from the invasion of a
foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the Barbarians of
the Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow marches into the East;
and after he had wept over the smoking ruins of Amida, he formed,
with a powerful army, the siege of Becabde. The walls were shaken
by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of the
battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but
it was still defended by the patient and intrepid valor of the
garrison, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the
emperor to raise the siege, and ingloviously to retreat into his
winter quarters at Antioch. 63 The pride of Constantius, and the
ingenuity of his courtiers, were at a loss to discover any
materials for panegyric in the events of the Persian war; while
the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose military command he had
intrusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the world in
the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.
62 (return) [ Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6, xix. 3, xx. 2) represents
the merit and disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention
which a soldier owed to his general. Some partiality may be
suspected, yet the whole account is consistent and probable.]
63 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Omisso vano incepto, hiematurus
Antiochiae redit in Syriam aerumnosam, perpessus et ulcerum sed
et atrocia, diuque deflenda. It is thus that James Gronovius has
restored an obscure passage; and he thinks that this correction
alone would have deserved a new edition of his author: whose
sense may now be darkly perceived. I expected some additional
light from the recent labors of the learned Ernestus. (Lipsiae,
1773.) * Note: The late editor (Wagner) has nothing better to
suggest, and le menta with Gibbon, the silence of Ernesti.—M.]
In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to
the Barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still
acknowledged the authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of
Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by presents
and promises, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of
all the territories which they should be able to subdue. 64 But
the emperor, who for a temporary service had thus imprudently
provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, soon discovered
and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable
allies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman soil.
Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion,
these undisciplined robbers treated as their natural enemies all
the subjects of the empire, who possessed any property which they
were desirous of acquiring Forty-five flourishing cities,
Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strasburgh, &c., besides
a far greater number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and
for the most part reduced to ashes. The Barbarians of Germany,
still faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the
confinement of walls, to which they applied the odious names of
prisons and sepulchres; and fixing their independent habitations
on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse,
they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise, by a
rude and hasty fortification of large trees, which were felled
and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were established in the
modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the
island of the Batavians, together with an extensive district of
Brabant, which was then known by the appellation of Toxandria, 65
and may deserve to be considered as the original seat of their
Gallic monarchy. 66 From the sources, to the mouth, of the Rhine,
the conquests of the Germans extended above forty miles to the
west of that river, over a country peopled by colonies of their
own name and nation: and the scene of their devastations was
three times more extensive than that of their conquests. At a
still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were deserted, and
the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who trusted to their
strength and vigilance, were obliged to content themselves with
such supplies of corn as they could raise on the vacant land
within the enclosure of their walls. The diminished legions,
destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and discipline, trembled
at the approach, and even at the name, of the Barbarians.
64 (return) [ The ravages of the Germans, and the distress of
Gaul, may be collected from Julian himself. Orat. ad S. P. Q.
Athen. p. 277. Ammian. xv. ll. Libanius, Orat. x. Zosimus, l.
iii. p. 140. Sozomen, l. iii. c. l. (Mamertin. Grat. Art. c.
iv.)]
65 (return) [ Ammianus, xvi. 8. This name seems to be derived
from the Toxandri of Pliny, and very frequently occurs in the
histories of the middle age. Toxandria was a country of woods and
morasses, which extended from the neighborhood of Tongres to the
conflux of the Vahal and the Rhine. See Valesius, Notit. Galliar.
p. 558.]
66 (return) [ The paradox of P. Daniel, that the Franks never
obtained any permanent settlement on this side of the Rhine
before the time of Clovis, is refuted with much learning and good
sense by M. Biet, who has proved by a chain of evidence, their
uninterrupted possession of Toxandria, one hundred and thirty
years before the accession of Clovis. The Dissertation of M. Biet
was crowned by the Academy of Soissons, in the year 1736, and
seems to have been justly preferred to the discourse of his more
celebrated competitor, the Abbe le Boeuf, an antiquarian, whose
name was happily expressive of his talents.]
Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part IV.
Under these melancholy circumstances, an unexperienced youth was
appointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather,
as he expressed it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial
greatness. The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which
he had been more conversant with books than with arms, with the
dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the
practical arts of war and government; and when he awkwardly
repeated some military exercise which it was necessary for him to
learn, he exclaimed with a sigh, “O Plato, Plato, what a task for
a philosopher!” Yet even this speculative philosophy, which men
of business are too apt to despise, had filled the mind of Julian
with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples; had
animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of fame, and the
contempt of death. The habits of temperance recommended in the
schools, are still more essential in the severe discipline of a
camp. The simple wants of nature regulated the measure of his
food and sleep. Rejecting with disdain the delicacies provided
for his table, he satisfied his appetite with the coarse and
common fare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers. During
the rigor of a Gallic winter, he never suffered a fire in his
bed-chamber; and after a short and interrupted slumber, he
frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread
on the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his
rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of his
favorite studies. 67 The precepts of eloquence, which he had
hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation, were more
usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of an armed
multitude: and although Julian, from his early habits of
conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with
the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competent
knowledge of the Latin tongue. 68 Since Julian was not originally
designed for the character of a legislator, or a judge, it is
probable that the civil jurisprudence of the Romans had not
engaged any considerable share of his attention: but he derived
from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for justice,
tempered by a disposition to clemency; the knowledge of the
general principles of equity and evidence, and the faculty of
patiently investigating the most intricate and tedious questions
which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures of
policy, and the operations of war, must submit to the various
accidents of circumstance and character, and the unpractised
student will often be perplexed in the application of the most
perfect theory.
But in the acquisition of this important science, Julian was
assisted by the active vigor of his own genius, as well as by the
wisdom and experience of Sallust, and officer of rank, who soon
conceived a sincere attachment for a prince so worthy of his
friendship; and whose incorruptible integrity was adorned by the
talent of insinuating the harshest truths without wounding the
delicacy of a royal ear. 69
67 (return) [ The private life of Julian in Gaul, and the severe
discipline which he embraced, are displayed by Ammianus, (xvi.
5,) who professes to praise, and by Julian himself, who affects
to ridicule, (Misopogon, p. 340,) a conduct, which, in a prince
of the house of Constantine, might justly excite the surprise of
mankind.]
68 (return) [ Aderat Latine quoque disserenti sufficiens sermo.
Ammianus xvi. 5. But Julian, educated in the schools of Greece,
always considered the language of the Romans as a foreign and
popular dialect which he might use on necessary occasions.]
69 (return) [ We are ignorant of the actual office of this
excellent minister, whom Julian afterwards created praefect of
Gaul. Sallust was speedly recalled by the jealousy of the
emperor; and we may still read a sensible but pedantic discourse,
(p. 240-252,) in which Julian deplores the loss of so valuable a
friend, to whom he acknowledges himself indebted for his
reputation. See La Bleterie, Preface a la Vie de lovien, p. 20.]
Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan, he was
sent into Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty
soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter
in the hands of those ministers to whom Constantius had intrusted
the direction of his conduct, the Caesar was informed of the
siege and deliverance of Autun. That large and ancient city,
protected only by a ruined wall and pusillanimous garrison, was
saved by the generous resolution of a few veterans, who resumed
their arms for the defence of their country. In his march from
Autun, through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian embraced
with ardor the earliest opportunity of signalizing his courage.
At the head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he
preferred the shorter but the more dangerous of two roads; 6911
and sometimes eluding, and sometimes resisting, the attacks of
the Barbarians, who were masters of the field, he arrived with
honor and safety at the camp near Rheims, where the Roman troops
had been ordered to assemble. The aspect of their young prince
revived the drooping spirits of the soldiers, and they marched
from Rheims in search of the enemy, with a confidence which had
almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni, familiarized to the
knowledge of the country, secretly collected their scattered
forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day,
poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans.
Before the inevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions
were destroyed; and Julian was taught by experience that caution
and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art of war.
In a second and more successful action, he recovered and
established his military fame; but as the agility of the
Barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory was neither
bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks of the
Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the
difficulties of the war, and retreated on the approach of winter,
discontented with the court, with his army, and with his own
success. 70 The power of the enemy was yet unbroken; and the
Caesar had no sooner separated his troops, and fixed his own
quarters at Sens, in the centre of Gaul, than he was surrounded
and besieged, by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced, in this
extremity, to the resources of his own mind, he displayed a
prudent intrepidity, which compensated for all the deficiencies
of the place and garrison; and the Barbarians, at the end of
thirty days, were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.
6911 (return) [ Aliis per Arbor—quibusdam per Sedelaucum et Coram
in debere firrantibus. Amm. Marc. xvi. 2. I do not know what
place can be meant by the mutilated name Arbor. Sedelanus is
Saulieu, a small town of the department of the Cote d’Or, six
leagues from Autun. Cora answers to the village of Cure, on the
river of the same name, between Autun and Nevera 4; Martin, ii.
162.—M. ——Note: At Brocomages, Brumat, near Strasburgh. St.
Martin, ii. 184.—M.]
70 (return) [ Ammianus (xvi. 2, 3) appears much better satisfied
with the success of his first campaign than Julian himself; who
very fairly owns that he did nothing of consequence, and that he
fled before the enemy.]
The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword
for this signal deliverance, was imbittered by the reflection,
that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to
destruction, by those who were bound to assist him, by every tie
of honor and fidelity. Marcellus, master-general of the cavalry
in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of the
court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian,
and had restrained the troops under his command from marching to
the relief of Sens. If the Caesar had dissembled in silence so
dangerous an insult, his person and authority would have been
exposed to the contempt of the world; and if an action so
criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor
would have confirmed the suspicions, which received a very
specious color from his past conduct towards the princes of the
Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, and gently dismissed from
his office. 71 In his room Severus was appointed general of the
cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and
fidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal;
and who submitted, without reluctance to the supreme command
which Julian, by the inrerest of his patroness Eusebia, at length
obtained over the armies of Gaul. 72 A very judicious plan of
operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian
himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of
some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly
penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, and
carefully reestablished the fortifications of Saverne, in an
advantageous post, which would either check the incursions, or
intercept the retreat, of the enemy. At the same time, Barbatio,
general of the infantry, advanced from Milan with an army of
thirty thousand men, and passing the mountains, prepared to throw
a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighborhood of Basil. It was
reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed on either side by
the Roman arms, would soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of
Gaul, and to hasten to the defence of their native country. But
the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the
envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio; who acted as if he
had been the enemy of the Caesar, and the secret ally of the
Barbarians. The negligence with which he permitted a troop of
pillagers freely to pass, and to return almost before the gates
of his camp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the
treasonable act of burning a number of boats, and a superfluous
stock of provisions, which would have been of the most essential
service to the army of Gaul, was an evidence of his hostile and
criminal intentions. The Germans despised an enemy who appeared
destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them; and
the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the
expected support; and left him to extricate himself from a
hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety,
nor retire with honor. 73
71 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 7. Libanius speaks rather more
advantageously of the military talents of Marcellus, Orat. x. p.
272. And Julian insinuates, that he would not have been so easily
recalled, unless he had given other reasons of offence to the
court, p. 278.]
72 (return) [ Severus, non discors, non arrogans, sed longa
militiae frugalitate compertus; et eum recta praeeuntem
secuturus, ut duetorem morigeran miles. Ammian xvi. 11. Zosimus,
l. iii. p. 140.]
73 (return) [ On the design and failure of the cooperation
between Julian and Barbatio, see Ammianus (xvi. 11) and Libanius,
(Orat. x. p. 273.) Note: Barbatio seems to have allowed himself
to be surprised and defeated—M.]
As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the
Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman youth, who presumed to
dispute the possession of that country, which they claimed as
their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They employed
three days, and as many nights, in transporting over the Rhine
their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking the
ponderous javelin which he had victoriously wielded against the
brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and
moderated by his experience the martial ardor which his example
inspired. 74 He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes
of regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and
by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of
Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own
strength, was increased by the intelligence which they received
from a deserter, that the Caesar, with a feeble army of thirteen
thousand men, occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from
their camp of Strasburgh. With this inadequate force, Julian
resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host; and the
chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and
uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties
of the Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two
columns; the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and
the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the
enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle till the
next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their
exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and
food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to the clamors of
the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted
them to justify by their valor the eager impatience, which, in
case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets
of rashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military
shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with
equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his
right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, and the
weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by
an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and he
had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of
his most renowned cuirassiers. 75 The fugitives were stopped and
rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of
his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every
motive of shame and honor, led them back against the victorious
enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was
obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of
strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper;
and as the Barbarians, who served under the standard of the
empire, united the respective advantages of both parties, their
strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length
determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes,
and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable
battle of Strasburgh, so glorious to the Caesar, 76 and so
salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the
Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who
were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts while they
attempted to swim across the river. 77 Chnodomar himself was
surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave
companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death
the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military
pomp in the council of his officers; and expressing a generous
pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward contempt for the
abject humiliation, of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the
vanquished king of the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the
cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor
this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an
honorable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long
survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile. 78
74 (return) [ Ammianus (xvi. 12) describes with his inflated
eloquence the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens
ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor proelii sperabatur immanis,
equo spumante sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidandae
vastitatis, armorumque nitore conspicuus: antea strenuus et
miles, et utilis praeter caeteros ductor... Decentium Caesarem
superavit aequo marte congressus.]
75 (return) [ After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the
rigor of ancient discipline, by exposing these fugitives in
female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next
campaign, these troops nobly retrieved their honor. Zosimus, l.
iii. p. 142.]
76 (return) [ Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279) speaks
of the battle of Strasburgh with the modesty of conscious merit;
Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over Darius;
and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of
military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct
and success of a single day.]
77 (return) [ Ammianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the
number of the slain, (Orat. x. p. 274.) But these trifling
differences disappear before the 60,000 Barbarians, whom Zosimus
has sacrificed to the glory of his hero, (l. iii. p. 141.) We
might attribute this extravagant number to the carelessness of
transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not
swelled the army of 35,000 Alemanni to an innumerable multitude
of Barbarians,. It is our own fault if this detection does not
inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions.]
78 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 12. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 276.]
After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of the
Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were
seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany;
and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid
valor, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the
Barbarians. 79 Although they were strongly actuated by the
allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of
war; which they considered as the supreme honor and felicity of
human nature; and their minds and bodies were so completely
hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the lively
expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to
them as the flowers of spring. In the month of December, which
followed the battle of Strasburgh, Julian attacked a body of six
hundred Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the
Meuse. 80 In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with
inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days; till at length,
exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the
enemy, in breaking the ice of the river, left them no hopes of
escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense
with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die.
The Caesar immediately sent his captives to the court of
Constantius, who, accepting them as a valuable present, 81
rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the
choicest troops of his domestic guards. The obstinate resistance
of this handful of Franks apprised Julian of the difficulties of
the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring, against
the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and
astonished the active Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to
provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly
pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him
in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of
his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite
or deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to
the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success, of his
arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency,
and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians
submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the
Rhine; but the Salians were permitted to possess their new
establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of
the Roman empire. 82 The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and
perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks,
with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the
conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself,
and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who
ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the
tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son
of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A
mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the
sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented
in pathetic language, that his private loss was now imbittered by
a sense of public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at
the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to
have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as
soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Caesar
addressed the assembly in the following terms: “Behold the son,
the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God
and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve
and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue,
than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate
the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republic will
avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty.” The
Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest
sentiments of gratitude and admiration. 83
79 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137) draws a very lively
picture of the manners of the Franks.]
80 (return) [ Ammianus, xvii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The
Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been
induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men;
and as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he
compares them to the Lacedaemonians, who were besieged and taken
in the Island of Sphatoria.]
81 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat.
x. p. 278. According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor,
which La Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118) as an
honest confession, and Valesius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2) as a mean
evasion, of the truth. Dom Bouquet, (Historiens de France, tom.
i. p. 733,) by substituting another word, would suppress both the
difficulty and the spirit of this passage.]
82 (return) [ Ammian. xvii. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 146-150, (his
narrative is darkened by a mixture of fable,) and Julian. ad S.
P. Q. Athen. p. 280. His expression. This difference of treatment
confirms the opinion that the Salian Franks were permitted to
retain the settlements in Toxandria. Note: A newly discovered
fragment of Eunapius, whom Zosimus probably transcribed,
illustrates this transaction. “Julian commanded the Romans to
abstain from all hostile measures against the Salians, neither to
waste or ravage their own country, for he called every country
their own which was surrendered without resistance or toil on the
part of the conquerors.” Mai, Script. Vez Nov. Collect. ii. 256,
and Eunapius in Niebuhr, Byzant. Hist.]
83 (return) [ This interesting story, which Zosimus has abridged,
is related by Eunapius, (in Excerpt. Legationum, p. 15, 16, 17,)
with all the amplifications of Grecian rhetoric: but the silence
of Libanius, of Ammianus, and of Julian himself, renders the
truth of it extremely suspicious.]
It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces of
Gaul from the Barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate the
glory of the first and most illustrious of the emperors; after
whose example, he composed his own commentaries of the Gallic
war. 84 Caesar has related, with conscious pride, the manner in
which he twice passed the Rhine. Julian could boast, that before
he assumed the title of Augustus, he had carried the Roman eagles
beyond that great river in three successful expeditions. 85 The
consternation of the Germans, after the battle of Strasburgh,
encouraged him to the first attempt; and the reluctance of the
troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a leader, who
shared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed on the meanest
of the soldiers. The villages on either side of the Meyn, which
were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of
an invading army. The principal houses, constructed with some
imitation of Roman elegance, were consumed by the flames; and the
Caesar boldly advanced about ten miles, till his progress was
stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest, undermined by
subterraneous passages, which threatened with secret snares and
ambush every step of the assailants. The ground was already
covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle
which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of ten months
to the submissive Barbarians. At the expiration of the truce,
Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine, to humble
the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the
Alemanni, who had been present at the battle of Strasburgh. They
promised to restore all the Roman captives who yet remained
alive; and as the Caesar had procured an exact account from the
cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants whom they had
lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him, with a degree of
readiness and accuracy, which almost established the belief of
his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was still more
splendid and important than the two former. The Germans had
collected their military powers, and moved along the opposite
banks of the river, with a design of destroying the bridge, and
of preventing the passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan
of defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three hundred
light-armed and active soldiers were detached in forty small
boats, to fall down the stream in silence, and to land at some
distance from the posts of the enemy. They executed their orders
with so much boldness and celerity, that they had almost
surprised the Barbarian chiefs, who returned in the fearless
confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal festivals.
Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter
and devastation, it is sufficient to observe, that Julian
dictated his own conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest
kings of the Alemanni, three of whom were permitted to view the
severe discipline and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by
twenty thousand captives, whom he had rescued from the chains of
the Barbarians, the Caesar repassed the Rhine, after terminating
a war, the success of which has been compared to the ancient
glories of the Punic and Cimbric victories.
84 (return) [ Libanius, the friend of Julian, clearly insinuates
(Orat. ix. p. 178) that his hero had composed the history of his
Gallic campaigns But Zosimus (l. iii. p, 140) seems to have
derived his information only from the Orations and the Epistles
of Julian. The discourse which is addressed to the Athenians
contains an accurate, though general, account of the war against
the Germans.]
85 (return) [ See Ammian. xvii. 1, 10, xviii. 2, and Zosim. l.
iii. p. 144. Julian ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280.]
As soon as the valor and conduct of Julian had secured an
interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to
his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, which had
suffered from the inroads of the Barbarians, he diligently
repaired; and seven important posts, between Mentz and the mouth
of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned, as having been rebuilt
and fortified by the order of Julian. 86 The vanquished Germans
had submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing
and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of Julian
urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the spirit which
he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliaries
themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue,
contended in the most servile labors with the diligence of the
Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Caesar to provide for the
subsistence, as well as for the safety, of the inhabitants and of
the garrisons. The desertion of the former, and the mutiny of the
latter, must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of
famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted
by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of the
continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from the plenty of
the adjacent island. Six hundred large barks, framed in the
forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of
Britain; and returning from thence, laden with corn, sailed up
the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and
fortresses along the banks of the river. 87 The arms of Julian
had restored a free and secure navigation, which Constantinius
had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a
tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor
parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted
with a lavish and trembling hand to the Barbarians. The
dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian was put to a severe
trial, when he took the field with a discontented army, which had
already served two campaigns, without receiving any regular pay
or any extraordinary donative. 88
86 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 279, 280.
Of these seven posts, four are at present towns of some
consequence; Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Nuyss. The other three,
Tricesimae, Quadriburgium, and Castra Herculis, or Heraclea, no
longer subsist; but there is room to believe, that on the ground
of Quadriburgium the Dutch have constructed the fort of Schenk, a
name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy of Boileau. See
D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 183. Boileau, Epitre
iv. and the notes. Note: Tricesimae, Kellen, Mannert, quoted by
Wagner. Heraclea, Erkeleus in the district of Juliers. St.
Martin, ii. 311.—M.]
87 (return) [ We may credit Julian himself, (Orat. ad S. P. Q.
Atheniensem, p. 280,) who gives a very particular account of the
transaction. Zosimus adds two hundred vessels more, (l. iii. p.
145.) If we compute the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy
tons each, they were capable of exporting 120,000 quarters, (see
Arbuthnot’s Weights and Measures, p. 237;) and the country which
could bear so large an exportation, must already have attained an
improved state of agriculture.]
88 (return) [ The troops once broke out into a mutiny,
immediately before the second passage of the Rhine. Ammian. xvii.
9.]
A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was
the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the
administration of Julian. 89 He devoted the leisure of his winter
quarters to the offices of civil government; and affected to
assume, with more pleasure, the character of a magistrate than
that of a general. Before he took the field, he devolved on the
provincial governors most of the public and private causes which
had been referred to his tribunal; but, on his return, he
carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigor of the
law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves.
Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet
and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness
and dignity, the warmth of an advocate, who prosecuted, for
extortion, the president of the Narbonnese province. “Who will
ever be found guilty,” exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, “if it
be enough to deny?” “And who,” replied Julian, “will ever be
innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?” In the general
administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is
commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would
have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had
defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from
an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested
with the ensigns of royalty, might sometimes presume to correct
the rapacious insolence of his inferior agents, to expose their
corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of
collection. But the management of the finances was more safely
intrusted to Florentius, praetorian praefect of Gaul, an
effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughty
minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition,
while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness
of his own behavior. The Caesar had rejected, with abhorrence, a
mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new
superindiction, which the praefect had offered for his signature;
and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which he had
been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of
Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments
of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a
letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his own
conduct, he proceeds in the following terms: “Was it possible for
the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have
done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects intrusted to my care?
Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated injuries
of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is
punished with death, and deprived of the honors of burial. With
what justice could I pronounce his sentence, if, in the hour of
danger, I myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more
important? God has placed me in this elevated post; his
providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to
suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and
upright conscience. Would to Heaven that I still possessed a
counsellor like Sallust! If they think proper to send me a
successor, I shall submit without reluctance; and had much rather
improve the short opportunity of doing good, than enjoy a long
and lasting impunity of evil.” 90 The precarious and dependent
situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed his
defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of
Constantius, was not permitted to reform the vices of the
government; but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the
distress of the people. Unless he had been able to revive the
martial spirit of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of
industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not
entertain any rational hopes of securing the public tranquillity,
either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of
Julian suspended, for a short time, the inroads of the
Barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western Empire.
89 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 5, xviii. 1. Mamertinus in Panegyr.
Vet. xi. 4]
90 (return) [ Ammian. xvii. 3. Julian. Epistol. xv. edit.
Spanheim. Such a conduct almost justifies the encomium of
Mamertinus. Ita illi anni spatia divisa sunt, ut aut Barbaros
domitet, aut civibus jura restituat, perpetuum professus, aut
contra hostem, aut contra vitia, certamen.]
His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had
been so long exposed to the evils of civil discord, Barbarian
war, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived
with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce, again flourished under the protection of the laws; and
the curioe, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful
and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of
marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of
posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with
customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the
provinces displayed the image of national prosperity. 91 A mind
like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which
he was the author; but he viewed, with particular satisfaction
and complacency, the city of Paris; the seat of his winter
residence, and the object even of his partial affection. 92 That
splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either
side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in
the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a
supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of
the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden
bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but
on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the
University, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with
a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of
Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the
climate was tempered by the neighborhood of the ocean; and with
some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and
fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters,
the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that
floated down the stream, might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the
blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of
Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to
the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved
Lutetia; 93 where the amusements of the theatre were unknown or
despised. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with
the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave
the intemperance, which was the only stain of the Celtic
character. 94 If Julian could now revisit the capital of France,
he might converse with men of science and genius, capable of
understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he
might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose
martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of
luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable
art, which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of
social life.
91 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parental. in Imp. Julian. c. 38, in
Fabricius Bibliothec. Graec. tom. vii. p. 263, 264.]
92 (return) [ See Julian. in Misopogon, p. 340, 341. The
primitive state of Paris is illustrated by Henry Valesius, (ad
Ammian. xx. 4,) his brother Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and
M. D’Anville, (in their respective Notitias of ancient Gaul,) the
Abbe de Longuerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 12, 13,)
and M. Bonamy, (in the Mem. de l’Aca demie des Inscriptions, tom.
xv. p. 656-691.)]
93 (return) [ Julian, in Misopogon, p. 340. Leuce tia, or
Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city, which, according to
the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial
appellation of Parisii.]
94 (return) [ Julian in Misopogon, p. 359, 360.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part I.
Persecution Of Heresy.—The Schism Of The Donatists.—The Arian
Controversy.—Athanasius.—Distracted State Of The Church And Empire
Under Constantine And His Sons.— Toleration Of Paganism.
The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of
a prince who indulged their passions and promoted their interest.
Constantine gave them security, wealth, honors, and revenge; and
the support of the orthodox faith was considered as the most
sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of
Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each
individual of the Roman world the privilege of choosing and
professing his own religion. But this inestimable privilege was
soon violated; with the knowledge of truth, the emperor imbibed
the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the
Catholic church were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of
Christianity. Constantine easily believed that the Heretics, who
presumed to dispute his opinions, or to oppose his commands, were
guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a
seasonable application of moderate severities might save those
unhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation. Not a
moment was lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the
separated congregations from any share of the rewards and
immunities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed on the
orthodox clergy. But as the sectaries might still exist under the
cloud of royal disgrace, the conquest of the East was immediately
followed by an edict which announced their total destruction. 1
After a preamble filled with passion and reproach, Constantine
absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the Heretics, and
confiscates their public property to the use either of the
revenue or of the Catholic church. The sects against whom the
Imperial severity was directed, appear to have been the adherents
of Paul of Samosata; the Montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an
enthusiastic succession of prophecy; the Novatians, who sternly
rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance; the Marcionites and
Valentinians, under whose leading banners the various Gnostics of
Asia and Egypt had insensibly rallied; and perhaps the
Manichaeans, who had recently imported from Persia a more artful
composition of Oriental and Christian theology. 2 The design of
extirpating the name, or at least of restraining the progress, of
these odious Heretics, was prosecuted with vigor and effect. Some
of the penal regulations were copied from the edicts of
Diocletian; and this method of conversion was applauded by the
same bishops who had felt the hand of oppression, and pleaded for
the rights of humanity. Two immaterial circumstances may serve,
however, to prove that the mind of Constantine was not entirely
corrupted by the spirit of zeal and bigotry. Before he condemned
the Manichaeans and their kindred sects, he resolved to make an
accurate inquiry into the nature of their religious principles.
As if he distrusted the impartiality of his ecclesiastical
counsellors, this delicate commission was intrusted to a civil
magistrate, whose learning and moderation he justly esteemed, and
of whose venal character he was probably ignorant. 3 The emperor
was soon convinced, that he had too hastily proscribed the
orthodox faith and the exemplary morals of the Novatians, who had
dissented from the church in some articles of discipline which
were not perhaps essential to salvation. By a particular edict,
he exempted them from the general penalties of the law; 4 allowed
them to build a church at Constantinople, respected the miracles
of their saints, invited their bishop Acesius to the council of
Nice; and gently ridiculed the narrow tenets of his sect by a
familiar jest; which, from the mouth of a sovereign, must have
been received with applause and gratitude. 5
1 (return) [ Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. iii. c. 63, 64, 65,
66.]
2 (return) [ After some examination of the various opinions of
Tillemont, Beausobre, Lardner, &c., I am convinced that Manes did
not propagate his sect, even in Persia, before the year 270. It
is strange, that a philosophic and foreign heresy should have
penetrated so rapidly into the African provinces; yet I cannot
easily reject the edict of Diocletian against the Manichaeans,
which may be found in Baronius. (Annal Eccl. A. D. 287.)]
3 (return) [ Constantinus enim, cum limatius superstitionum
quaeroret sectas, Manichaeorum et similium, &c. Ammian. xv. 15.
Strategius, who from this commission obtained the surname of
Musonianus, was a Christian of the Arian sect. He acted as one of
the counts at the council of Sardica. Libanius praises his
mildness and prudence. Vales. ad locum Ammian.]
4 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xvi. tit. 5, leg. 2. As the general
law is not inserted in the Theodosian Code, it probable that, in
the year 438, the sects which it had condemned were already
extinct.]
5 (return) [ Sozomen, l. i. c. 22. Socrates, l. i. c. 10. These
historians have been suspected, but I think without reason, of an
attachment to the Novatian doctrine. The emperor said to the
bishop, “Acesius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven by
yourself.” Most of the Christian sects have, by turns, borrowed
the ladder of Acesius.]
The complaints and mutual accusations which assailed the throne
of Constantine, as soon as the death of Maxentius had submitted
Africa to his victorious arms, were ill adapted to edify an
imperfect proselyte. He learned, with surprise, that the
provinces of that great country, from the confines of Cyrene to
the columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious discord.
6 The source of the division was derived from a double election
in the church of Carthage; the second, in rank and opulence, of
the ecclesiastical thrones of the West. Caecilian and Majorinus
were the two rival prelates of Africa; and the death of the
latter soon made room for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities
and apparent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The
advantage which Caecilian might claim from the priority of his
ordination, was destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent,
haste, with which it had been performed, without expecting the
arrival of the bishops of Numidia. The authority of these
bishops, who, to the number of seventy, condemned Caecilian, and
consecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of some of
their personal characters; and by the female intrigues,
sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings, which are
imputed to this Numidian council. 7 The bishops of the contending
factions maintained, with equal ardor and obstinacy, that their
adversaries were degraded, or at least dishonored, by the odious
crime of delivering the Holy Scriptures to the officers of
Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well as from the
story of this dark transaction, it may justly be inferred, that
the late persecution had imbittered the zeal, without reforming
the manners, of the African Christians. That divided church was
incapable of affording an impartial judicature; the controversy
was solemnly tried in five successive tribunals, which were
appointed by the emperor; and the whole proceeding, from the
first appeal to the final sentence, lasted above three years. A
severe inquisition, which was taken by the Praetorian vicar, and
the proconsul of Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who
had been sent to Carthage, the decrees of the councils of Rome
and of Arles, and the supreme judgment of Constantine himself in
his sacred consistory, were all favorable to the cause of
Caecilian; and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil and
ecclesiastical powers, as the true and lawful primate of Africa.
The honors and estates of the church were attributed to his
suffragan bishops, and it was not without difficulty, that
Constantine was satisfied with inflicting the punishment of exile
on the principal leaders of the Donatist faction. As their cause
was examined with attention, perhaps it was determined with
justice. Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that
the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the insidious
arts of his favorite Osius. The influence of falsehood and
corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or
aggravate the sentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of
injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might be
numbered among the transient evils of a despotic administration,
which are neither felt nor remembered by posterity.
6 (return) [ The best materials for this part of ecclesiastical
history may be found in the edition of Optatus Milevitanus,
published (Paris, 1700) by M. Dupin, who has enriched it with
critical notes, geographical discussions, original records, and
an accurate abridgment of the whole controversy. M. de Tillemont
has bestowed on the Donatists the greatest part of a volume,
(tom. vi. part i.;) and I am indebted to him for an ample
collection of all the passages of his favorite St. Augustin,
which relate to those heretics.]
7 (return) [ Schisma igitur illo tempore confusae mulieris
iracundia peperit; ambitus nutrivit; avaritia roboravit. Optatus,
l. i. c. 19. The language of Purpurius is that of a furious
madman. Dicitur te necasse lilios sororis tuae duos. Purpurius
respondit: Putas me terreri a te.. occidi; et occido eos qui
contra me faciunt. Acta Concil. Cirtenais, ad calc. Optat. p.
274. When Caecilian was invited to an assembly of bishops,
Purpurius said to his brethren, or rather to his accomplices,
“Let him come hither to receive our imposition of hands, and we
will break his head by way of penance.” Optat. l. i. c. 19.]
But this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves a
place in history, was productive of a memorable schism which
afflicted the provinces of Africa above three hundred years, and
was extinguished only with Christianity itself. The inflexible
zeal of freedom and fanaticism animated the Donatists to refuse
obedience to the usurpers, whose election they disputed, and
whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from the civil and
religious communion of mankind, they boldly excommunicated the
rest of mankind, who had embraced the impious party of Caecilian,
and of the Traditors, from which he derived his pretended
ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with
exultation, that the Apostolical succession was interrupted; that
all the bishops of Europe and Asia were infected by the contagion
of guilt and schism; and that the prerogatives of the Catholic
church were confined to the chosen portion of the African
believers, who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of
their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported by
the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a
proselyte, even from the distant provinces of the East, they
carefully repeated the sacred rites of baptism 8 and ordination;
as they rejected the validity of those which he had already
received from the hands of heretics or schismatics. Bishops,
virgins, and even spotless infants, were subjected to the
disgrace of a public penance, before they could be admitted to
the communion of the Donatists. If they obtained possession of a
church which had been used by their Catholic adversaries, they
purified the unhallowed building with the same zealous care which
a temple of idols might have required. They washed the pavement,
scraped the walls, burnt the altar, which was commonly of wood,
melted the consecrated plate, and cast the Holy Eucharist to the
dogs, with every circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and
perpetuate the animosity of religious factions. 9 Notwithstanding
this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who were mixed and
separated in all the cities of Africa, had the same language and
manners, the same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship.
Proscribed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the empire,
the Donatists still maintained in some provinces, particularly in
Numidia, their superior numbers; and four hundred bishops
acknowledged the jurisdiction of their primate. But the
invincible spirit of the sect sometimes preyed on its own vitals:
and the bosom of their schismatical church was torn by intestine
divisions. A fourth part of the Donatist bishops followed the
independent standard of the Maximianists. The narrow and solitary
path which their first leaders had marked out, continued to
deviate from the great society of mankind. Even the imperceptible
sect of the Rogatians could affirm, without a blush, that when
Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would find his true
religion preserved only in a few nameless villages of the
Caesarean Mauritania. 10
8 (return) [ The councils of Arles, of Nice, and of Trent,
confirmed the wise and moderate practice of the church of Rome.
The Donatists, however, had the advantage of maintaining the
sentiment of Cyprian, and of a considerable part of the primitive
church. Vincentius Lirinesis (p. 532, ap. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.
tom. vi. p. 138) has explained why the Donatists are eternally
burning with the Devil, while St. Cyprian reigns in heaven with
Jesus Christ.]
9 (return) [ See the sixth book of Optatus Milevitanus, p.
91-100.]
10 (return) [ Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiastiques, tom. vi. part i.
p. 253. He laughs at their partial credulity. He revered
Augustin, the great doctor of the system of predestination.]
The schism of the Donatists was confined to Africa: the more
diffusive mischief of the Trinitarian controversy successively
penetrated into every part of the Christian world. The former was
an accidental quarrel, occasioned by the abuse of freedom; the
latter was a high and mysterious argument, derived from the abuse
of philosophy. From the age of Constantine to that of Clovis and
Theodoric, the temporal interests both of the Romans and
Barbarians were deeply involved in the theological disputes of
Arianism. The historian may therefore be permitted respectfully
to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary; and to deduce the progress
of reason and faith, of error and passion from the school of
Plato, to the decline and fall of the empire.
The genius of Plato, informed by his own meditation, or by the
traditional knowledge of the priests of Egypt, 11 had ventured to
explore the mysterious nature of the Deity. When he had elevated
his mind to the sublime contemplation of the first self-existent,
necessary cause of the universe, the Athenian sage was incapable
of conceiving how the simple unity of his essence could admit the
infinite variety of distinct and successive ideas which compose
the model of the intellectual world; how a Being purely
incorporeal could execute that perfect model, and mould with a
plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain hope of
extricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever
oppress the feeble powers of the human mind, might induce Plato
to consider the divine nature under the threefold modification—of
the first cause, the reason, or Logos, and the soul or spirit of
the universe. His poetical imagination sometimes fixed and
animated these metaphysical abstractions; the three archical on
original principles were represented in the Platonic system as
three Gods, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable
generation; and the Logos was particularly considered under the
more accessible character of the Son of an Eternal Father, and
the Creator and Governor of the world. Such appear to have been
the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the
gardens of the academy; and which, according to the more recent
disciples of Plato, 1111 could not be perfectly understood, till
after an assiduous study of thirty years. 12
11 (return) [ Plato Aegyptum peragravit ut a sacerdotibus
Barbaris numeros et coelestia acciperet. Cicero de Finibus, v.
25. The Egyptians might still preserve the traditional creed of
the Patriarchs. Josephus has persuaded many of the Christian
fathers, that Plato derived a part of his knowledge from the
Jews; but this vain opinion cannot be reconciled with the obscure
state and unsocial manners of the Jewish people, whose scriptures
were not accessible to Greek curiosity till more than one hundred
years after the death of Plato. See Marsham Canon. Chron. p. 144
Le Clerc, Epistol. Critic. vii. p. 177-194.]
1111 (return) [ This exposition of the doctrine of Plato appears
to me contrary to the true sense of that philosopher’s writings.
The brilliant imagination which he carried into metaphysical
inquiries, his style, full of allegories and figures, have misled
those interpreters who did not seek, from the whole tenor of his
works and beyond the images which the writer employs, the system
of this philosopher. In my opinion, there is no Trinity in Plato;
he has established no mysterious generation between the three
pretended principles which he is made to distinguish. Finally, he
conceives only as attributes of the Deity, or of matter, those
ideas, of which it is supposed that he made substances, real
beings.——According to Plato, God and matter existed from all
eternity. Before the creation of the world, matter had in itself
a principle of motion, but without end or laws: it is this
principle which Plato calls the irrational soul of the world,
because, according to his doctrine, every spontaneous and
original principle of motion is called soul. God wished to
impress form upon matter, that is to say, 1. To mould matter, and
make it into a body; 2. To regulate its motion, and subject it to
some end and to certain laws. The Deity, in this operation, could
not act but according to the ideas existing in his intelligence:
their union filled this, and formed the ideal type of the world.
It is this ideal world, this divine intelligence, existing with
God from all eternity, and called by Plato which he is supposed
to personify, to substantialize; while an attentive examination
is sufficient to convince us that he has never assigned it an
existence external to the Deity, (hors de la Divinite,) and that
he considered the as the aggregate of the ideas of God, the
divine understanding in its relation to the world. The contrary
opinion is irreconcilable with all his philosophy: thus he says
that to the idea of the Deity is essentially united that of
intelligence, of a logos. He would thus have admitted a double
logos; one inherent in the Deity as an attribute, the other
independently existing as a substance. He affirms that the
intelligence, the principle of order cannot exist but as an
attribute of a soul, the principle of motion and of life, of
which the nature is unknown to us. How, then, according to this,
could he consider the logos as a substance endowed with an
independent existence? In other places, he explains it by these
two words, knowledge, science, which signify the attributes of
the Deity. When Plato separates God, the ideal archetype of the
world and matter, it is to explain how, according to his system,
God has proceeded, at the creation, to unite the principle of
order which he had within himself, his proper intelligence, the
principle of motion, to the principle of motion, the irrational
soul which was in matter. When he speaks of the place occupied by
the ideal world, it is to designate the divine intelligence,
which is its cause. Finally, in no part of his writings do we
find a true personification of the pretended beings of which he
is said to have formed a trinity: and if this personification
existed, it would equally apply to many other notions, of which
might be formed many different trinities. This error, into which
many ancient as well as modern interpreters of Plato have fallen,
was very natural. Besides the snares which were concealed in his
figurative style; besides the necessity of comprehending as a
whole the system of his ideas, and not to explain isolated
passages, the nature of his doctrine itself would conduce to this
error. When Plato appeared, the uncertainty of human knowledge,
and the continual illusions of the senses, were acknowledged, and
had given rise to a general scepticism. Socrates had aimed at
raising morality above the influence of this scepticism: Plato
endeavored to save metaphysics, by seeking in the human intellect
a source of certainty which the senses could not furnish. He
invented the system of innate ideas, of which the aggregate
formed, according to him, the ideal world, and affirmed that
these ideas were real attributes, not only attached to our
conceptions of objects, but to the nature of the objects
themselves; a nature of which from them we might obtain a
knowledge. He gave, then, to these ideas a positive existence as
attributes; his commentators could easily give them a real
existence as substances; especially as the terms which he used to
designate them, essential beauty, essential goodness, lent
themselves to this substantialization, (hypostasis.)—G. ——We have
retained this view of the original philosophy of Plato, in which
there is probably much truth. The genius of Plato was rather
metaphysical than impersonative: his poetry was in his language,
rather than, like that of the Orientals, in his conceptions.—M.]
12 (return) [ The modern guides who lead me to the knowledge of
the Platonic system are Cudworth, Basnage, Le Clerc, and Brucker.
As the learning of these writers was equal, and their intention
different, an inquisitive observer may derive instruction from
their disputes, and certainty from their agreement.]
The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and Egypt the
language and learning of Greece; and the theological system of
Plato was taught, with less reserve, and perhaps with some
improvements, in the celebrated school of Alexandria. 13 A
numerous colony of Jews had been invited, by the favor of the
Ptolemies, to settle in their new capital. 14 While the bulk of
the nation practised the legal ceremonies, and pursued the
lucrative occupations of commerce, a few Hebrews, of a more
liberal spirit, devoted their lives to religious and
philosophical contemplation. 15 They cultivated with diligence,
and embraced with ardor, the theological system of the Athenian
sage. But their national pride would have been mortified by a
fair confession of their former poverty: and they boldly marked,
as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold and jewels
which they had so lately stolen from their Egyptian masters. One
hundred years before the birth of Christ, a philosophical
treatise, which manifestly betrays the style and sentiments of
the school of Plato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews, and
unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic of the
inspired Wisdom of Solomon. 16 A similar union of the Mosaic
faith and the Grecian philosophy, distinguishes the works of
Philo, which were composed, for the most part, under the reign of
Augustus. 17 The material soul of the universe 18 might offend
the piety of the Hebrews: but they applied the character of the
Logos to the Jehovah of Moses and the patriarchs; and the Son of
God was introduced upon earth under a visible, and even human
appearance, to perform those familiar offices which seem
incompatible with the nature and attributes of the Universal
Cause. 19
13 (return) [ Brucker, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 1349-1357. The
Alexandrian school is celebrated by Strabo (l. xvii.) and
Ammianus, (xxii. 6.) Note: The philosophy of Plato was not the
only source of that professed in the school of Alexandria. That
city, in which Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian men of letters were
assembled, was the scene of a strange fusion of the system of
these three people. The Greeks brought a Platonism, already much
changed; the Jews, who had acquired at Babylon a great number of
Oriental notions, and whose theological opinions had undergone
great changes by this intercourse, endeavored to reconcile
Platonism with their new doctrine, and disfigured it entirely:
lastly, the Egyptians, who were not willing to abandon notions
for which the Greeks themselves entertained respect, endeavored
on their side to reconcile their own with those of their
neighbors. It is in Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon that
we trace the influence of Oriental philosophy rather than that of
Platonism. We find in these books, and in those of the later
prophets, as in Ezekiel, notions unknown to the Jews before the
Babylonian captivity, of which we do not discover the germ in
Plato, but which are manifestly derived from the Orientals. Thus
God represented under the image of light, and the principle of
evil under that of darkness; the history of the good and bad
angels; paradise and hell, &c., are doctrines of which the
origin, or at least the positive determination, can only be
referred to the Oriental philosophy. Plato supposed matter
eternal; the Orientals and the Jews considered it as a creation
of God, who alone was eternal. It is impossible to explain the
philosophy of the Alexandrian school solely by the blending of
the Jewish theology with the Greek philosophy. The Oriental
philosophy, however little it may be known, is recognized at
every instant. Thus, according to the Zend Avesta, it is by the
Word (honover) more ancient than the world, that Ormuzd created
the universe. This word is the logos of Philo, consequently very
different from that of Plato. I have shown that Plato never
personified the logos as the ideal archetype of the world: Philo
ventured this personification. The Deity, according to him, has a
double logos; the first is the ideal archetype of the world, the
ideal world, the first-born of the Deity; the second is the word
itself of God, personified under the image of a being acting to
create the sensible world, and to make it like to the ideal
world: it is the second-born of God. Following out his
imaginations, Philo went so far as to personify anew the ideal
world, under the image of a celestial man, the primitive type of
man, and the sensible world under the image of another man less
perfect than the celestial man. Certain notions of the Oriental
philosophy may have given rise to this strange abuse of allegory,
which it is sufficient to relate, to show what alterations
Platonism had already undergone, and what was their source.
Philo, moreover, of all the Jews of Alexandria, is the one whose
Platonism is the most pure. It is from this mixture of
Orientalism, Platonism, and Judaism, that Gnosticism arose, which
had produced so many theological and philosophical
extravagancies, and in which Oriental notions evidently
predominate.—G.]
14 (return) [ Joseph. Antiquitat, l. xii. c. 1, 3. Basnage, Hist.
des Juifs, l. vii. c. 7.]
15 (return) [ For the origin of the Jewish philosophy, see
Eusebius, Praeparat. Evangel. viii. 9, 10. According to Philo,
the Therapeutae studied philosophy; and Brucker has proved (Hist.
Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 787) that they gave the preference to that
of Plato.]
16 (return) [ See Calmet, Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. ii. p.
277. The book of the Wisdom of Solomon was received by many of
the fathers as the work of that monarch: and although rejected by
the Protestants for want of a Hebrew original, it has obtained,
with the rest of the Vulgate, the sanction of the council of
Trent.]
17 (return) [ The Platonism of Philo, which was famous to a
proverb, is proved beyond a doubt by Le Clerc, (Epist. Crit.
viii. p. 211-228.) Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, l. iv. c. 5) has
clearly ascertained, that the theological works of Philo were
composed before the death, and most probably before the birth, of
Christ. In such a time of darkness, the knowledge of Philo is
more astonishing than his errors. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i.
c. i. p. 12.]
18 (return) [ Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.
Besides this material soul, Cudworth has discovered (p. 562) in
Amelius, Porphyry, Plotinus, and, as he thinks, in Plato himself,
a superior, spiritual upercosmian soul of the universe. But this
double soul is exploded by Brucker, Basnage, and Le Clerc, as an
idle fancy of the latter Platonists.]
19 (return) [ Petav. Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. l. viii. c. 2,
p. 791. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. s. i. c. l. p. 8, 13. This
notion, till it was abused by the Arians, was freely adopted in
the Christian theology. Tertullian (adv. Praxeam, c. 16) has a
remarkable and dangerous passage. After contrasting, with
indiscreet wit, the nature of God, and the actions of Jehovah, he
concludes: Scilicet ut haec de filio Dei non credenda fuisse, si
non scripta essent; fortasse non credenda de l’atre licet
scripta. * Note: Tertullian is here arguing against the
Patripassians; those who asserted that the Father was born of the
Virgin, died and was buried.—M.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part II.
The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority of the
school of Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews and Greeks,
were insufficient to establish the truth of a mysterious
doctrine, which might please, but could not satisfy, a rational
mind. A prophet, or apostle, inspired by the Deity, can alone
exercise a lawful dominion over the faith of mankind: and the
theology of Plato might have been forever confounded with the
philosophical visions of the Academy, the Porch, and the Lycaeum,
if the name and divine attributes of the Logos had not been
confirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of
the Evangelists. 20 The Christian Revelation, which was
consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the
amazing secret, that the Logos, who was with God from the
beginning, and was God, who had made all things, and for whom all
things had been made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on
the cross. Besides the general design of fixing on a perpetual
basis the divine honors of Christ, the most ancient and
respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the
evangelic theologian a particular intention to confute two
opposite heresies, which disturbed the peace of the primitive
church. 21 I. The faith of the Ebionites, 22 perhaps of the
Nazarenes, 23 was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus as the
greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue and
power. They ascribed to his person and to his future reign all
the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the
spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah. 24
Some of them might confess that he was born of a virgin; but they
obstinately rejected the preceding existence and divine
perfections of the Logos, or Son of God, which are so clearly
defined in the Gospel of St. John. About fifty years afterwards,
the Ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by Justin Martyr with
less severity than they seem to deserve, 25 formed a very
inconsiderable portion of the Christian name. II. The Gnostics,
who were distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into
the contrary extreme; and betrayed the human, while they asserted
the divine, nature of Christ. Educated in the school of Plato,
accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos, they readily
conceived that the brightest Aeon, or Emanation of the Deity,
might assume the outward shape and visible appearances of a
mortal; 26 but they vainly pretended, that the imperfections of
matter are incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance.
While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount Calvary, the
Docetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis, that,
instead of issuing from the womb of the Virgin, 27 he had
descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect
manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of
his disciples; and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their
impotent rage on an ury phantom, who seemed to expire on the
cross, and, after three days, to rise from the dead. 28
20 (return) [ The Platonists admired the beginning of the Gospel
of St. John as containing an exact transcript of their own
principles. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, x. 29. Amelius apud Cyril.
advers. Julian. l. viii. p. 283. But in the third and fourth
centuries, the Platonists of Alexandria might improve their
Trinity by the secret study of the Christian theology. Note: A
short discussion on the sense in which St. John has used the word
Logos, will prove that he has not borrowed it from the philosophy
of Plato. The evangelist adopts this word without previous
explanation, as a term with which his contemporaries were already
familiar, and which they could at once comprehend. To know the
sense which he gave to it, we must inquire that which it
generally bore in his time. We find two: the one attached to the
word logos by the Jews of Palestine, the other by the school of
Alexandria, particularly by Philo. The Jews had feared at all
times to pronounce the name of Jehovah; they had formed a habit
of designating God by one of his attributes; they called him
sometimes Wisdom, sometimes the Word. By the word of the Lord
were the heavens made. (Psalm xxxiii. 6.) Accustomed to
allegories, they often addressed themselves to this attribute of
the Deity as a real being. Solomon makes Wisdom say “The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of
old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever
the earth was.” (Prov. viii. 22, 23.) Their residence in Persia
only increased this inclination to sustained allegories. In the
Ecclesiasticus of the son of Sirach, and the Book of Wisdom, we
find allegorical descriptions of Wisdom like the following: “I
came out of the mouth of the Most High; I covered the earth as a
cloud;... I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and walked in
the bottom of the deep... The Creator created me from the
beginning, before the world, and I shall never fail.” (Eccles.
xxiv. 35- 39.) See also the Wisdom of Solomon, c. vii. v. 9. [The
latter book is clearly Alexandrian.—M.] We see from this that the
Jews understood from the Hebrew and Chaldaic words which signify
Wisdom, the Word, and which were translated into Greek, a simple
attribute of the Deity, allegorically personified, but of which
they did not make a real particular being separate from the
Deity. The school of Alexandria, on the contrary, and Philo among
the rest, mingling Greek with Jewish and Oriental notions, and
abandoning himself to his inclination to mysticism, personified
the logos, and represented it a distinct being, created by God,
and intermediate between God and man. This is the second logos of
Philo, that which acts from the beginning of the world, alone in
its kind, creator of the sensible world, formed by God according
to the ideal world which he had in himself, and which was the
first logos, the first- born of the Deity. The logos taken in
this sense, then, was a created being, but, anterior to the
creation of the world, near to God, and charged with his
revelations to mankind.——Which of these two senses is that which
St. John intended to assign to the word logos in the first
chapter of his Gospel, and in all his writings? St. John was a
Jew, born and educated in Palestine; he had no knowledge, at
least very little, of the philosophy of the Greeks, and that of
the Grecizing Jews: he would naturally, then, attach to the word
logos the sense attached to it by the Jews of Palestine. If, in
fact, we compare the attributes which he assigns to the logos
with those which are assigned to it in Proverbs, in the Wisdom of
Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus, we shall see that they are the same.
The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him; in him
was life, and the life was the light of men, (c. i. v. 10-14.) It
is impossible not to trace in this chapter the ideas which the
Jews had formed of the allegorized logos. The evangelist
afterwards really personifies that which his predecessors have
personified only poetically; for he affirms “that the Word became
flesh,” (v. 14.) It was to prove this that he wrote. Closely
examined, the ideas which he gives of the logos cannot agree with
those of Philo and the school of Alexandria; they correspond, on
the contrary, with those of the Jews of Palestine. Perhaps St.
John, employing a well-known term to explain a doctrine which was
yet unknown, has slightly altered the sense; it is this
alteration which we appear to discover on comparing different
passages of his writings.——It is worthy of remark, that the Jews
of Palestine, who did not perceive this alteration, could find
nothing extraordinary in what St. John said of the Logos; at
least they comprehended it without difficulty, while the Greeks
and Grecizing Jews, on their part, brought to it prejudices and
preconceptions easily reconciled with those of the evangelist,
who did not expressly contradict them. This circumstance must
have much favored the progress of Christianity. Thus the fathers
of the church in the two first centuries and later, formed almost
all in the school of Alexandria, gave to the Logos of St. John a
sense nearly similar to that which it received from Philo. Their
doctrine approached very near to that which in the fourth century
the council of Nice condemned in the person of Arius.—G.——M.
Guizot has forgotten the long residence of St. John at Ephesus,
the centre of the mingling opinions of the East and West, which
were gradually growing up into Gnosticism. (See Matter. Hist. du
Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 154.) St. John’s sense of the Logos seems
as far removed from the simple allegory ascribed to the
Palestinian Jews as from the Oriental impersonation of the
Alexandrian. The simple truth may be that St. John took the
familiar term, and, as it were infused into it the peculiar and
Christian sense in which it is used in his writings. —M.]
21 (return) [ See Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom.
i. p. 377. The Gospel according to St. John is supposed to have
been published about seventy years after the death of Christ.]
22 (return) [ The sentiments of the Ebionites are fairly stated
by Mosheim (p. 331) and Le Clerc, (Hist. Eccles. p. 535.) The
Clementines, published among the apostolical fathers, are
attributed by the critics to one of these sectaries.]
23 (return) [ Stanch polemics, like a Bull, (Judicium Eccles.
Cathol. c. 2,) insist on the orthodoxy of the Nazarenes; which
appears less pure and certain in the eyes of Mosheim, (p. 330.)]
24 (return) [ The humble condition and sufferings of Jesus have
always been a stumbling-block to the Jews. “Deus... contrariis
coloribus Messiam depinxerat: futurus erat Rex, Judex, Pastor,”
&c. See Limborch et Orobio Amica Collat. p. 8, 19, 53-76,
192-234. But this objection has obliged the believing Christians
to lift up their eyes to a spiritual and everlasting kingdom.]
25 (return) [ Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryphonte, p. 143, 144.
See Le Clerc, Hist. Eccles. p. 615. Bull and his editor Grabe
(Judicium Eccles. Cathol. c. 7, and Appendix) attempt to distort
either the sentiments or the words of Justin; but their violent
correction of the text is rejected even by the Benedictine
editors.]
26 (return) [ The Arians reproached the orthodox party with
borrowing their Trinity from the Valentinians and Marcionites.
See Beausobre, Hist. de Manicheisme, l. iii. c. 5, 7.]
27 (return) [ Non dignum est ex utero credere Deum, et Deum
Christum.... non dignum est ut tanta majestas per sordes et
squalores muli eris transire credatur. The Gnostics asserted the
impurity of matter, and of marriage; and they were scandalized by
the gross interpretations of the fathers, and even of Augustin
himself. See Beausobre, tom. ii. p. 523, * Note: The greater part
of the Docetae rejected the true divinity of Jesus Christ, as
well as his human nature. They belonged to the Gnostics, whom
some philosophers, in whose party Gibbon has enlisted, make to
derive their opinions from those of Plato. These philosophers did
not consider that Platonism had undergone continual alterations,
and that those who gave it some analogy with the notions of the
Gnostics were later in their origin than most of the sects
comprehended under this name Mosheim has proved (in his Instit.
Histor. Eccles. Major. s. i. p. 136, sqq and p. 339, sqq.) that
the Oriental philosophy, combined with the cabalistical
philosophy of the Jews, had given birth to Gnosticism. The
relations which exist between this doctrine and the records which
remain to us of that of the Orientals, the Chaldean and Persian,
have been the source of the errors of the Gnostic Christians, who
wished to reconcile their ancient notions with their new belief.
It is on this account that, denying the human nature of Christ,
they also denied his intimate union with God, and took him for
one of the substances (aeons) created by God. As they believed in
the eternity of matter, and considered it to be the principle of
evil, in opposition to the Deity, the first cause and principle
of good, they were unwilling to admit that one of the pure
substances, one of the aeons which came forth from God, had, by
partaking in the material nature, allied himself to the principle
of evil; and this was their motive for rejecting the real
humanity of Jesus Christ. See Ch. G. F. Walch, Hist. of Heresies
in Germ. t. i. p. 217, sqq. Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. ii. p
639.—G.]
28 (return) [ Apostolis adhuc in saeculo superstitibus apud
Judaeam Christi sanguine recente, et phanlasma corpus Domini
asserebatur. Cotelerius thinks (Patres Apostol. tom. ii. p. 24)
that those who will not allow the Docetes to have arisen in the
time of the Apostles, may with equal reason deny that the sun
shines at noonday. These Docetes, who formed the most
considerable party among the Gnostics, were so called, because
they granted only a seeming body to Christ. * Note: The name of
Docetae was given to these sectaries only in the course of the
second century: this name did not designate a sect, properly so
called; it applied to all the sects who taught the non- reality
of the material body of Christ; of this number were the
Valentinians, the Basilidians, the Ophites, the Marcionites,
(against whom Tertullian wrote his book, De Carne Christi,) and
other Gnostics. In truth, Clement of Alexandria (l. iii. Strom.
c. 13, p. 552) makes express mention of a sect of Docetae, and
even names as one of its heads a certain Cassianus; but every
thing leads us to believe that it was not a distinct sect.
Philastrius (de Haeres, c. 31) reproaches Saturninus with being a
Docete. Irenaeus (adv. Haer. c. 23) makes the same reproach
against Basilides. Epiphanius and Philastrius, who have treated
in detail on each particular heresy, do not specially name that
of the Docetae. Serapion, bishop of Antioch, (Euseb. Hist.
Eccles. l. vi. c. 12,) and Clement of Alexandria, (l. vii. Strom.
p. 900,) appear to be the first who have used the generic name.
It is not found in any earlier record, though the error which it
points out existed even in the time of the Apostles. See Ch. G.
F. Walch, Hist. of Her. v. i. p. 283. Tillemont, Mempour servir a
la Hist Eccles. ii. p. 50. Buddaeus de Eccles. Apost. c. 5 &
7—G.]
The divine sanction, which the Apostle had bestowed on the
fundamental principle of the theology of Plato, encouraged the
learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire
and study the writings of the Athenian sage, who had thus
marvellously anticipated one of the most surprising discoveries
of the Christian revelation. The respectable name of Plato was
used by the orthodox, 29 and abused by the heretics, 30 as the
common support of truth and error: the authority of his skilful
commentators, and the science of dialectics, were employed to
justify the remote consequences of his opinions and to supply the
discreet silence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and
profound questions concerning the nature, the generation, the
distinction, and the equality of the three divine persons of the
mysterious Triad, or Trinity, 31 were agitated in the
philosophical and in the Christian schools of Alexandria. An
eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the secrets of
the abyss; and the pride of the professors, and of their
disciples, was satisfied with the sciences of words. But the most
sagacious of the Christian theologians, the great Athanasius
himself, has candidly confessed, 32 that whenever he forced his
understanding to meditate on the divinity of the Logos, his
toilsome and unavailing efforts recoiled on themselves; that the
more he thought, the less he comprehended; and the more he wrote,
the less capable was he of expressing his thoughts. In every step
of the inquiry, we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the
immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the
capacity of the human mind. We may strive to abstract the notions
of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all
the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But as soon as we
presume to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual generation;
as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative
idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable
contradiction. As these difficulties arise from the nature of the
subject, they oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the
philosophic and the theological disputant; but we may observe two
essential and peculiar circumstances, which discriminated the
doctrines of the Catholic church from the opinions of the
Platonic school.
29 (return) [ Some proofs of the respect which the Christians
entertained for the person and doctrine of Plato may be found in
De la Mothe le Vayer, tom. v. p. 135, &c., edit. 1757; and
Basnage, Hist. des Juifs tom. iv. p. 29, 79, &c.]
30 (return) [ Doleo bona fide, Platonem omnium heraeticorum
condimentarium factum. Tertullian. de Anima, c. 23. Petavius
(Dogm. Theolog. tom. iii. proleg. 2) shows that this was a
general complaint. Beausobre (tom. i. l. iii. c. 9, 10) has
deduced the Gnostic errors from Platonic principles; and as, in
the school of Alexandria, those principles were blended with the
Oriental philosophy, (Brucker, tom. i. p. 1356,) the sentiment of
Beausobre may be reconciled with the opinion of Mosheim, (General
History of the Church, vol. i. p. 37.)]
31 (return) [ If Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, (see Dupin,
Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 66,) was the first who
employed the word Triad, Trinity, that abstract term, which was
already familiar to the schools of philosophy, must have been
introduced into the theology of the Christians after the middle
of the second century.]
32 (return) [ Athanasius, tom. i. p. 808. His expressions have an
uncommon energy; and as he was writing to monks, there could not
be any occasion for him to affect a rational language.]
I. A chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal education
and curious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately
discuss in the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria,
the abstruse questions of metaphysical science. The lofty
speculations, which neither convinced the understanding, nor
agitated the passions, of the Platonists themselves, were
carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the
studious part of mankind. 33 But after the Logos had been
revealed as the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and the
religious worship of the Christians, the mysterious system was
embraced by a numerous and increasing multitude in every province
of the Roman world. Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or
occupations, were the least qualified to judge, who were the
least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning, aspired to
contemplate the economy of the Divine Nature: and it is the boast
of Tertullian, 34 that a Christian mechanic could readily answer
such questions as had perplexed the wisest of the Grecian sages.
Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference
between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may
indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of
weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and
dogmatic confidence. These speculations, instead of being treated
as the amusement of a vacant hour, became the most serious
business of the present, and the most useful preparation for a
future, life. A theology, which it was incumbent to believe,
which it was impious to doubt, and which it might be dangerous,
and even fatal, to mistake, became the familiar topic of private
meditation and popular discourse. The cold indifference of
philosophy was inflamed by the fervent spirit of devotion; and
even the metaphors of common language suggested the fallacious
prejudices of sense and experience. The Christians, who abhorred
the gross and impure generation of the Greek mythology, 35 were
tempted to argue from the familiar analogy of the filial and
paternal relations. The character of Son seemed to imply a
perpetual subordination to the voluntary author of his existence;
36 but as the act of generation, in the most spiritual and
abstracted sense, must be supposed to transmit the properties of
a common nature, 37 they durst not presume to circumscribe the
powers or the duration of the Son of an eternal and omnipotent
Father. Fourscore years after the death of Christ, the Christians
of Bithynia, declared before the tribunal of Pliny, that they
invoked him as a god: and his divine honors have been perpetuated
in every age and country, by the various sects who assume the
name of his disciples. 38 Their tender reverence for the memory
of Christ, and their horror for the profane worship of any
created being, would have engaged them to assert the equal and
absolute divinity of the Logos, if their rapid ascent towards the
throne of heaven had not been imperceptibly checked by the
apprehension of violating the unity and sole supremacy of the
great Father of Christ and of the Universe. The suspense and
fluctuation produced in the minds of the Christians by these
opposite tendencies, may be observed in the writings of the
theologians who flourished after the end of the apostolic age,
and before the origin of the Arian controversy. Their suffrage is
claimed, with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the
heretical parties; and the most inquisitive critics have fairly
allowed, that if they had the good fortune of possessing the
Catholic verity, they have delivered their conceptions in loose,
inaccurate, and sometimes contradictory language. 39
33 (return) [ In a treatise, which professed to explain the
opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning the nature of the
gods we might expect to discover the theological Trinity of
Plato. But Cicero very honestly confessed, that although he had
translated the Timaeus, he could never understand that mysterious
dialogue. See Hieronym. praef. ad l. xii. in Isaiam, tom. v. p.
154.]
34 (return) [ Tertullian. in Apolog. c. 46. See Bayle,
Dictionnaire, au mot Simonide. His remarks on the presumption of
Tertullian are profound and interesting.]
35 (return) [ Lactantius, iv. 8. Yet the Probole, or Prolatio,
which the most orthodox divines borrowed without scruple from the
Valentinians, and illustrated by the comparisons of a fountain
and stream, the sun and its rays, &c., either meant nothing, or
favored a material idea of the divine generation. See Beausobre,
tom. i. l. iii. c. 7, p. 548.]
36 (return) [ Many of the primitive writers have frankly
confessed, that the Son owed his being to the will of the
Father.——See Clarke’s Scripture Trinity, p. 280-287. On the other
hand, Athanasius and his followers seem unwilling to grant what
they are afraid to deny. The schoolmen extricate themselves from
this difficulty by the distinction of a preceding and a
concomitant will. Petav. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. l. vi. c. 8, p.
587-603.]
37 (return) [ See Petav. Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. l. ii. c. 10, p.
159.]
38 (return) [ Carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem.
Plin. Epist. x. 97. The sense of Deus, Elohim, in the ancient
languages, is critically examined by Le Clerc, (Ars Critica, p.
150-156,) and the propriety of worshipping a very excellent
creature is ably defended by the Socinian Emlyn, (Tracts, p.
29-36, 51-145.)]
39 (return) [ See Daille de Usu Patrum, and Le Clerc,
Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. x. p. 409. To arraign the faith of
the Ante-Nicene fathers, was the object, or at least has been the
effect, of the stupendous work of Petavius on the Trinity, (Dogm.
Theolog. tom. ii.;) nor has the deep impression been erased by
the learned defence of Bishop Bull. Note: Dr. Burton’s work on
the doctrine of the Ante-Nicene fathers must be consulted by
those who wish to obtain clear notions on this subject.—M.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
III.
II. The devotion of individuals was the first circumstance which
distinguished the Christians from the Platonists: the second was
the authority of the church. The disciples of philosophy asserted
the rights of intellectual freedom, and their respect for the
sentiments of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute,
which they offered to superior reason. But the Christians formed
a numerous and disciplined society; and the jurisdiction of their
laws and magistrates was strictly exercised over the minds of the
faithful. The loose wanderings of the imagination were gradually
confined by creeds and confessions; 40 the freedom of private
judgment submitted to the public wisdom of synods; the authority
of a theologian was determined by his ecclesiastical rank; and
the episcopal successors of the apostles inflicted the censures
of the church on those who deviated from the orthodox belief. But
in an age of religious controversy, every act of oppression adds
new force to the elastic vigor of the mind; and the zeal or
obstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes stimulated by secret
motives of ambition or avarice. A metaphysical argument became
the cause or pretence of political contests; the subtleties of
the Platonic school were used as the badges of popular factions,
and the distance which separated their respective tenets were
enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute. As long as the
dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabellius labored to confound the
Father with the Son, 41 the orthodox party might be excused if
they adhered more strictly and more earnestly to the distinction,
than to the equality, of the divine persons. But as soon as the
heat of controversy had subsided, and the progress of the
Sabellians was no longer an object of terror to the churches of
Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt, the tide of theological opinion
began to flow with a gentle but steady motion towards the
contrary extreme; and the most orthodox doctors allowed
themselves the use of the terms and definitions which had been
censured in the mouth of the sectaries. 42 After the edict of
toleration had restored peace and leisure to the Christians, the
Trinitarian controversy was revived in the ancient seat of
Platonism, the learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of
Alexandria; and the flame of religious discord was rapidly
communicated from the schools to the clergy, the people, the
province, and the East. The abstruse question of the eternity of
the Logos was agitated in ecclesiastic conferences and popular
sermons; and the heterodox opinions of Arius 43 were soon made
public by his own zeal, and by that of his adversaries. His most
implacable adversaries have acknowledged the learning and
blameless life of that eminent presbyter, who, in a former
election, had declared, and perhaps generously declined, his
pretensions to the episcopal throne. 44 His competitor Alexander
assumed the office of his judge. The important cause was argued
before him; and if at first he seemed to hesitate, he at length
pronounced his final sentence, as an absolute rule of faith. 45
The undaunted presbyter, who presumed to resist the authority of
his angry bishop, was separated from the community of the church.
But the pride of Arius was supported by the applause of a
numerous party. He reckoned among his immediate followers two
bishops of Egypt, seven presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may
appear almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large majority
of the bishops of Asia appeared to support or favor his cause;
and their measures were conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea, the
most learned of the Christian prelates; and by Eusebius of
Nicomedia, who had acquired the reputation of a statesman without
forfeiting that of a saint. Synods in Palestine and Bithynia were
opposed to the synods of Egypt. The attention of the prince and
people was attracted by this theological dispute; and the
decision, at the end of six years, 46 was referred to the supreme
authority of the general council of Nice.
40 (return) [ The most ancient creeds were drawn up with the
greatest latitude. See Bull, (Judicium Eccles. Cathol.,) who
tries to prevent Episcopius from deriving any advantage from this
observation.]
41 (return) [ The heresies of Praxeas, Sabellius, &c., are
accurately explained by Mosheim (p. 425, 680-714.) Praxeas, who
came to Rome about the end of the second century, deceived, for
some time, the simplicity of the bishop, and was confuted by the
pen of the angry Tertullian.]
42 (return) [ Socrates acknowledges, that the heresy of Arius
proceeded from his strong desire to embrace an opinion the most
diametrically opposite to that of Sabellius.]
43 (return) [ The figure and manners of Arius, the character and
numbers of his first proselytes, are painted in very lively
colors by Epiphanius, (tom. i. Haeres. lxix. 3, p. 729,) and we
cannot but regret that he should soon forget the historian, to
assume the task of controversy.]
44 (return) [ See Philostorgius (l. i. c. 3,) and Godefroy’s
ample Commentary. Yet the credibility of Philostorgius is
lessened, in the eyes of the orthodox, by his Arianism; and in
those of rational critics, by his passion, his prejudice, and his
ignorance.]
45 (return) [ Sozomen (l. i. c. 15) represents Alexander as
indifferent, and even ignorant, in the beginning of the
controversy; while Socrates (l. i. c. 5) ascribes the origin of
the dispute to the vain curiosity of his theological
speculations. Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol.
ii. p. 178) has censured, with his usual freedom, the conduct of
Alexander.]
46 (return) [ The flames of Arianism might burn for some time in
secret; but there is reason to believe that they burst out with
violence as early as the year 319. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.
vi. p. 774-780.]
When the mysteries of the Christian faith were dangerously
exposed to public debate, it might be observed, that the human
understanding was capable of forming three district, though
imperfect systems, concerning the nature of the Divine Trinity;
and it was pronounced, that none of these systems, in a pure and
absolute sense, were exempt from heresy and error. 47 I.
According to the first hypothesis, which was maintained by Arius
and his disciples, the Logos was a dependent and spontaneous
production, created from nothing by the will of the father. The
Son, by whom all things were made, 48 had been begotten before
all worlds, and the longest of the astronomical periods could be
compared only as a fleeting moment to the extent of his duration;
yet this duration was not infinite, 49 and there had been a time
which preceded the ineffable generation of the Logos. On this
only-begotten Son, the Almighty Father had transfused his ample
spirit, and impressed the effulgence of his glory. Visible image
of invisible perfection, he saw, at an immeasurable distance
beneath his feet, the thrones of the brightest archangels; yet he
shone only with a reflected light, and, like the sons of the
Romans emperors, who were invested with the titles of Caesar or
Augustus, 50 he governed the universe in obedience to the will of
his Father and Monarch. II. In the second hypothesis, the Logos
possessed all the inherent, incommunicable perfections, which
religion and philosophy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three
distinct and infinite minds or substances, three coequal and
coeternal beings, composed the Divine Essence; 51 and it would
have implied contradiction, that any of them should not have
existed, or that they should ever cease to exist. 52 The
advocates of a system which seemed to establish three independent
Deities, attempted to preserve the unity of the First Cause, so
conspicuous in the design and order of the world, by the
perpetual concord of their administration, and the essential
agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity of
action may be discovered in the societies of men, and even of
animals. The causes which disturb their harmony, proceed only
from the imperfection and inequality of their faculties; but the
omnipotence which is guided by infinite wisdom and goodness,
cannot fail of choosing the same means for the accomplishment of
the same ends. III. Three beings, who, by the self-derived
necessity of their existence, possess all the divine attributes
in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in duration, infinite
in space, and intimately present to each other, and to the whole
universe; irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind,
as one and the same being, 53 who, in the economy of grace, as
well as in that of nature, may manifest himself under different
forms, and be considered under different aspects. By this
hypothesis, a real substantial trinity is refined into a trinity
of names, and abstract modifications, that subsist only in the
mind which conceives them. The Logos is no longer a person, but
an attribute; and it is only in a figurative sense that the
epithet of Son can be applied to the eternal reason, which was
with God from the beginning, and by which, not by whom, all
things were made. The incarnation of the Logos is reduced to a
mere inspiration of the Divine Wisdom, which filled the soul, and
directed all the actions, of the man Jesus. Thus, after revolving
around the theological circle, we are surprised to find that the
Sabellian ends where the Ebionite had begun; and that the
incomprehensible mystery which excites our adoration, eludes our
inquiry. 54
47 (return) [ Quid credidit? Certe, aut tria nomina audiens tres
Deos esse credidit, et idololatra effectus est; aut in tribus
vocabulis trinominem credens Deum, in Sabellii haeresim incurrit;
aut edoctus ab Arianis unum esse verum Deum Patrem, filium et
spiritum sanctum credidit creaturas. Aut extra haec quid credere
potuerit nescio. Hieronym adv. Luciferianos. Jerom reserves for
the last the orthodox system, which is more complicated and
difficult.]
48 (return) [ As the doctrine of absolute creation from nothing
was gradually introduced among the Christians, (Beausobre, tom.
ii. p. 165- 215,) the dignity of the workman very naturally rose
with that of the work.]
49 (return) [ The metaphysics of Dr. Clarke (Scripture Trinity,
p. 276-280) could digest an eternal generation from an infinite
cause.]
50 (return) [ This profane and absurd simile is employed by
several of the primitive fathers, particularly by Athenagoras, in
his Apology to the emperor Marcus and his son; and it is alleged,
without censure, by Bull himself. See Defens. Fid. Nicen. sect.
iii. c. 5, No. 4.]
51 (return) [ See Cudworth’s Intellectual System, p. 559, 579.
This dangerous hypothesis was countenanced by the two Gregories,
of Nyssa and Nazianzen, by Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus,
&c. See Cudworth, p. 603. Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Universelle, tom
xviii. p. 97-105.]
52 (return) [ Augustin seems to envy the freedom of the
Philosophers. Liberis verbis loquuntur philosophi.... Nos autem
non dicimus duo vel tria principia, duos vel tres Deos. De
Civitat. Dei, x. 23.]
53 (return) [ Boetius, who was deeply versed in the philosophy of
Plato and Aristotle, explains the unity of the Trinity by the
indifference of the three persons. See the judicious remarks of
Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. xvi. p. 225, &c.]
54 (return) [ If the Sabellians were startled at this conclusion,
they were driven another precipice into the confession, that the
Father was born of a virgin, that he had suffered on the cross;
and thus deserved the epithet of Patripassians, with which they
were branded by their adversaries. See the invectives of
Tertullian against Praxeas, and the temperate reflections of
Mosheim, (p. 423, 681;) and Beausobre, tom. i. l. iii. c. 6, p.
533.]
If the bishops of the council of Nice 55 had been permitted to
follow the unbiased dictates of their conscience, Arius and his
associates could scarcely have flattered themselves with the
hopes of obtaining a majority of votes, in favor of an hypothesis
so directly averse to the two most popular opinions of the
Catholic world. The Arians soon perceived the danger of their
situation, and prudently assumed those modest virtues, which, in
the fury of civil and religious dissensions, are seldom
practised, or even praised, except by the weaker party. They
recommended the exercise of Christian charity and moderation;
urged the incomprehensible nature of the controversy, disclaimed
the use of any terms or definitions which could not be found in
the Scriptures; and offered, by very liberal concessions, to
satisfy their adversaries without renouncing the integrity of
their own principles. The victorious faction received all their
proposals with haughty suspicion; and anxiously sought for some
irreconcilable mark of distinction, the rejection of which might
involve the Arians in the guilt and consequences of heresy. A
letter was publicly read, and ignominiously torn, in which their
patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenuously confessed, that the
admission of the Homoousion, or Consubstantial, a word already
familiar to the Platonists, was incompatible with the principles
of their theological system. The fortunate opportunity was
eagerly embraced by the bishops, who governed the resolutions of
the synod; and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose, 56
they used the sword, which heresy itself had drawn from the
scabbard, to cut off the head of the hated monster. The
consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established by
the council of Nice, and has been unanimously received as a
fundamental article of the Christian faith, by the consent of the
Greek, the Latin, the Oriental, and the Protestant churches. But
if the same word had not served to stigmatize the heretics, and
to unite the Catholics, it would have been inadequate to the
purpose of the majority, by whom it was introduced into the
orthodox creed. This majority was divided into two parties,
distinguished by a contrary tendency to the sentiments of the
Tritheists and of the Sabellians. But as those opposite extremes
seemed to overthrow the foundations either of natural or revealed
religion, they mutually agreed to qualify the rigor of their
principles; and to disavow the just, but invidious, consequences,
which might be urged by their antagonists. The interest of the
common cause inclined them to join their numbers, and to conceal
their differences; their animosity was softened by the healing
counsels of toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the
use of the mysterious Homoousion, which either party was free to
interpret according to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian
sense, which, about fifty years before, had obliged the council
of Antioch 57 to prohibit this celebrated term, had endeared it
to those theologians who entertained a secret but partial
affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more fashionable saints
of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanasius, the learned Gregory
Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, who supported
with ability and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared to
consider the expression of substance as if it had been synonymous
with that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their
meaning, by affirming that three men, as they belong to the same
common species, are consubstantial, or homoousian to each other.
58 This pure and distinct equality was tempered, on the one hand,
by the internal connection, and spiritual penetration which
indissolubly unites the divine persons; 59 and, on the other, by
the preeminence of the Father, which was acknowledged as far as
it is compatible with the independence of the Son. 60 Within
these limits, the almost invisible and tremulous ball of
orthodoxy was allowed securely to vibrate. On either side, beyond
this consecrated ground, the heretics and the daemons lurked in
ambush to surprise and devour the unhappy wanderer. But as the
degrees of theological hatred depend on the spirit of the war,
rather than on the importance of the controversy, the heretics
who degraded, were treated with more severity than those who
annihilated, the person of the Son. The life of Athanasius was
consumed in irreconcilable opposition to the impious madness of
the Arians; 61 but he defended above twenty years the
Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when at last he was
compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to
mention, with an ambiguous smile, the venial errors of his
respectable friend. 62
55 (return) [ The transactions of the council of Nice are related
by the ancients, not only in a partial, but in a very imperfect
manner. Such a picture as Fra Paolo would have drawn, can never
be recovered; but such rude sketches as have been traced by the
pencil of bigotry, and that of reason, may be seen in Tillemont,
(Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 669-759,) and in Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque
Universelle, tom. x p. 435-454.)]
56 (return) [ We are indebted to Ambrose (De Fide, l. iii.)
knowledge of this curious anecdote. Hoc verbum quod viderunt
adversariis esse formidini; ut ipsis gladio, ipsum nefandae caput
haereseos.]
57 (return) [ See Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. sect. ii. c. i. p.
25-36. He thinks it his duty to reconcile two orthodox synods.]
58 (return) [ According to Aristotle, the stars were homoousian
to each other. “That Homoousios means of one substance in kind,
hath been shown by Petavius, Curcellaeus, Cudworth, Le Clerc,
&c., and to prove it would be actum agere.” This is the just
remark of Dr. Jortin, (vol. ii p. 212,) who examines the Arian
controversy with learning, candor, and ingenuity.]
59 (return) [ See Petavius, (Dogm. Theolog. tom. ii. l. iv. c.
16, p. 453, &c.,) Cudworth, (p. 559,) Bull, (sect. iv. p.
285-290, edit. Grab.) The circumincessio, is perhaps the deepest
and darkest he whole theological abyss.]
60 (return) [ The third section of Bull’s Defence of the Nicene
Faith, which some of his antagonists have called nonsense, and
others heresy, is consecrated to the supremacy of the Father.]
61 (return) [ The ordinary appellation with which Athanasius and
his followers chose to compliment the Arians, was that of
Ariomanites.]
62 (return) [ Epiphanius, tom i. Haeres. lxxii. 4, p. 837. See
the adventures of Marcellus, in Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. v.
i. p. 880- 899.) His work, in one book, of the unity of God, was
answered in the three books, which are still extant, of
Eusebius.——After a long and careful examination, Petavius (tom.
ii. l. i. c. 14, p. 78) has reluctantly pronounced the
condemnation of Marcellus.]
The authority of a general council, to which the Arians
themselves had been compelled to submit, inscribed on the banners
of the orthodox party the mysterious characters of the word
Homoousion, which essentially contributed, notwithstanding some
obscure disputes, some nocturnal combats, to maintain and
perpetuate the uniformity of faith, or at least of language. The
consubstantialists, who by their success have deserved and
obtained the title of Catholics, gloried in the simplicity and
steadiness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated
variations of their adversaries, who were destitute of any
certain rule of faith. The sincerity or the cunning of the Arian
chiefs, the fear of the laws or of the people, their reverence
for Christ, their hatred of Athanasius, all the causes, human and
divine, that influence and disturb the counsels of a theological
faction, introduced among the sectaries a spirit of discord and
inconstancy, which, in the course of a few years, erected
eighteen different models of religion, 63 and avenged the
violated dignity of the church. The zealous Hilary, 64 who, from
the peculiar hardships of his situation, was inclined to
extenuate rather than to aggravate the errors of the Oriental
clergy, declares, that in the wide extent of the ten provinces of
Asia, to which he had been banished, there could be found very
few prelates who had preserved the knowledge of the true God. 65
The oppression which he had felt, the disorders of which he was
the spectator and the victim, appeased, during a short interval,
the angry passions of his soul; and in the following passage, of
which I shall transcribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers
unwarily deviates into the style of a Christian philosopher. “It
is a thing,” says Hilary, “equally deplorable and dangerous, that
there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many doctrines
as inclinations, and as many sources of blasphemy as there are
faults among us; because we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain
them as arbitrarily. The Homoousion is rejected, and received,
and explained away by successive synods. The partial or total
resemblance of the Father and of the Son is a subject of dispute
for these unhappy times. Every year, nay, every moon, we make new
creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of what we have
done, we defend those who repent, we anathematize those whom we
defended. We condemn either the doctrine of others in ourselves,
or our own in that of others; and reciprocally tearing one
another to pieces, we have been the cause of each other’s ruin.”
66
63 (return) [ Athanasius, in his epistle concerning the Synods of
Seleucia and Rimini, (tom. i. p. 886-905,) has given an ample
list of Arian creeds, which has been enlarged and improved by the
labors of the indefatigable Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p.
477.)]
64 (return) [ Erasmus, with admirable sense and freedom, has
delineated the just character of Hilary. To revise his text, to
compose the annals of his life, and to justify his sentiments and
conduct, is the province of the Benedictine editors.]
65 (return) [ Absque episcopo Eleusio et paucis cum eo, ex majore
parte Asianae decem provinciae, inter quas consisto, vere Deum
nesciunt. Atque utinam penitus nescirent! cum procliviore enim
venia ignorarent quam obtrectarent. Hilar. de Synodis, sive de
Fide Orientalium, c. 63, p. 1186, edit. Benedict. In the
celebrated parallel between atheism and superstition, the bishop
of Poitiers would have been surprised in the philosophic society
of Bayle and Plutarch.]
66 (return) [ Hilarius ad Constantium, l. i. c. 4, 5, p. 1227,
1228. This remarkable passage deserved the attention of Mr.
Locke, who has transcribed it (vol. iii. p. 470) into the model
of his new common-place book.]
It will not be expected, it would not perhaps be endured, that I
should swell this theological digression, by a minute examination
of the eighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the most part,
disclaimed the odious name of their parent Arius. It is amusing
enough to delineate the form, and to trace the vegetation, of a
singular plant; but the tedious detail of leaves without flowers,
and of branches without fruit, would soon exhaust the patience,
and disappoint the curiosity, of the laborious student. One
question, which gradually arose from the Arian controversy, may,
however, be noticed, as it served to produce and discriminate the
three sects, who were united only by their common aversion to the
Homoousion of the Nicene synod. 1. If they were asked whether the
Son was like unto the Father, the question was resolutely
answered in the negative, by the heretics who adhered to the
principles of Arius, or indeed to those of philosophy; which seem
to establish an infinite difference between the Creator and the
most excellent of his creatures. This obvious consequence was
maintained by Aetius, 67 on whom the zeal of his adversaries
bestowed the surname of the Atheist. His restless and aspiring
spirit urged him to try almost every profession of human life. He
was successively a slave, or at least a husbandman, a travelling
tinker, a goldsmith, a physician, a schoolmaster, a theologian,
and at last the apostle of a new church, which was propagated by
the abilities of his disciple Eunomius. 68 Armed with texts of
Scripture, and with captious syllogisms from the logic of
Aristotle, the subtle Aetius had acquired the fame of an
invincible disputant, whom it was impossible either to silence or
to convince. Such talents engaged the friendship of the Arian
bishops, till they were forced to renounce, and even to
persecute, a dangerous ally, who, by the accuracy of his
reasoning, had prejudiced their cause in the popular opinion, and
offended the piety of their most devoted followers. 2. The
omnipotence of the Creator suggested a specious and respectful
solution of the likeness of the Father and the Son; and faith
might humbly receive what reason could not presume to deny, that
the Supreme God might communicate his infinite perfections, and
create a being similar only to himself. 69 These Arians were
powerfully supported by the weight and abilities of their
leaders, who had succeeded to the management of the Eusebian
interest, and who occupied the principal thrones of the East.
They detested, perhaps with some affectation, the impiety of
Aetius; they professed to believe, either without reserve, or
according to the Scriptures, that the Son was different from all
other creatures, and similar only to the Father. But they denied,
the he was either of the same, or of a similar substance;
sometimes boldly justifying their dissent, and sometimes
objecting to the use of the word substance, which seems to imply
an adequate, or at least, a distinct, notion of the nature of the
Deity. 3. The sect which deserted the doctrine of a similar
substance, was the most numerous, at least in the provinces of
Asia; and when the leaders of both parties were assembled in the
council of Seleucia, 70 their opinion would have prevailed by a
majority of one hundred and five to forty-three bishops. The
Greek word, which was chosen to express this mysterious
resemblance, bears so close an affinity to the orthodox symbol,
that the profane of every age have derided the furious contests
which the difference of a single diphthong excited between the
Homoousians and the Homoiousians. As it frequently happens, that
the sounds and characters which approach the nearest to each
other accidentally represent the most opposite ideas, the
observation would be itself ridiculous, if it were possible to
mark any real and sensible distinction between the doctrine of
the Semi-Arians, as they were improperly styled, and that of the
Catholics themselves. The bishop of Poitiers, who in his Phrygian
exile very wisely aimed at a coalition of parties, endeavors to
prove that by a pious and faithful interpretation, 71 the
Homoiousion may be reduced to a consubstantial sense. Yet he
confesses that the word has a dark and suspicious aspect; and, as
if darkness were congenial to theological disputes, the
Semi-Arians, who advanced to the doors of the church, assailed
them with the most unrelenting fury.
67 (return) [ In Philostorgius (l. iii. c. 15) the character and
adventures of Aetius appear singular enough, though they are
carefully softened by the hand of a friend. The editor, Godefroy,
(p. 153,) who was more attached to his principles than to his
author, has collected the odious circumstances which his various
adversaries have preserved or invented.]
68 (return) [ According to the judgment of a man who respected
both these sectaries, Aetius had been endowed with a stronger
understanding and Eunomius had acquired more art and learning.
(Philostorgius l. viii. c. 18.) The confession and apology of
Eunomius (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. viii. p. 258-305) is
one of the few heretical pieces which have escaped.]
69 (return) [ Yet, according to the opinion of Estius and Bull,
(p. 297,) there is one power—that of creation—which God cannot
communicate to a creature. Estius, who so accurately defined the
limits of Omnipotence was a Dutchman by birth, and by trade a
scholastic divine. Dupin Bibliot. Eccles. tom. xvii. p. 45.]
70 (return) [ Sabinus ap. Socrat. (l. ii. c. 39) had copied the
acts: Athanasius and Hilary have explained the divisions of this
Arian synod; the other circumstances which are relative to it are
carefully collected by Baro and Tillemont]
71 (return) [ Fideli et pia intelligentia... De Synod. c. 77, p.
1193. In his his short apologetical notes (first published by the
Benedictines from a MS. of Chartres) he observes, that he used
this cautious expression, qui intelligerum et impiam, p. 1206.
See p. 1146. Philostorgius, who saw those objects through a
different medium, is inclined to forget the difference of the
important diphthong. See in particular viii. 17, and Godefroy, p.
352.]
The provinces of Egypt and Asia, which cultivated the language
and manners of the Greeks, had deeply imbibed the venom of the
Arian controversy. The familiar study of the Platonic system, a
vain and argumentative disposition, a copious and flexible idiom,
supplied the clergy and people of the East with an inexhaustible
flow of words and distinctions; and, in the midst of their fierce
contentions, they easily forgot the doubt which is recommended by
philosophy, and the submission which is enjoined by religion. The
inhabitants of the West were of a less inquisitive spirit; their
passions were not so forcibly moved by invisible objects, their
minds were less frequently exercised by the habits of dispute;
and such was the happy ignorance of the Gallican church, that
Hilary himself, above thirty years after the first general
council, was still a stranger to the Nicene creed. 72 The Latins
had received the rays of divine knowledge through the dark and
doubtful medium of a translation. The poverty and stubbornness of
their native tongue was not always capable of affording just
equivalents for the Greek terms, for the technical words of the
Platonic philosophy, 73 which had been consecrated, by the gospel
or by the church, to express the mysteries of the Christian
faith; and a verbal defect might introduce into the Latin
theology a long train of error or perplexity. 74 But as the
western provincials had the good fortune of deriving their
religion from an orthodox source, they preserved with steadiness
the doctrine which they had accepted with docility; and when the
Arian pestilence approached their frontiers, they were supplied
with the seasonable preservative of the Homoousion, by the
paternal care of the Roman pontiff. Their sentiments and their
temper were displayed in the memorable synod of Rimini, which
surpassed in numbers the council of Nice, since it was composed
of above four hundred bishops of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul,
Britain, and Illyricum. From the first debates it appeared, that
only fourscore prelates adhered to the party, though they
affected to anathematize the name and memory, of Arius. But this
inferiority was compensated by the advantages of skill, of
experience, and of discipline; and the minority was conducted by
Valens and Ursacius, two bishops of Illyricum, who had spent
their lives in the intrigues of courts and councils, and who had
been trained under the Eusebian banner in the religious wars of
the East. By their arguments and negotiations, they embarrassed,
they confounded, they at last deceived, the honest simplicity of
the Latin bishops; who suffered the palladium of the faith to be
extorted from their hand by fraud and importunity, rather than by
open violence. The council of Rimini was not allowed to separate,
till the members had imprudently subscribed a captious creed, in
which some expressions, susceptible of an heretical sense, were
inserted in the room of the Homoousion. It was on this occasion,
that, according to Jerom, the world was surprised to find itself
Arian. 75 But the bishops of the Latin provinces had no sooner
reached their respective dioceses, than they discovered their
mistake, and repented of their weakness. The ignominious
capitulation was rejected with disdain and abhorrence; and the
Homoousian standard, which had been shaken but not overthrown,
was more firmly replanted in all the churches of the West. 76
72 (return) [ Testor Deumcoeli atque terrae me cum neutrum
audissem, semper tamen utrumque sensisse.... Regeneratus pridem
et in episcopatu aliquantisper manens fidem Nicenam nunquam nisi
exsulaturus audivi. Hilar. de Synodis, c. xci. p. 1205. The
Benedictines are persuaded that he governed the diocese of
Poitiers several years before his exile.]
73 (return) [ Seneca (Epist. lviii.) complains that even the of
the Platonists (the ens of the bolder schoolmen) could not be
expressed by a Latin noun.]
74 (return) [ The preference which the fourth council of the
Lateran at length gave to a numerical rather than a generical
unity (See Petav. tom. ii. l. v. c. 13, p. 424) was favored by
the Latin language: seems to excite the idea of substance,
trinitas of qualities.]
75 (return) [ Ingemuit totus orbis, et Arianum se esse miratus
est. Hieronym. adv. Lucifer. tom. i. p. 145.]
76 (return) [ The story of the council of Rimini is very
elegantly told by Sulpicius Severus, (Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p.
419-430, edit. Lugd. Bat. 1647,) and by Jerom, in his dialogue
against the Luciferians. The design of the latter is to apologize
for the conduct of the Latin bishops, who were deceived, and who
repented.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part IV.
Such was the rise and progress, and such were the natural
revolutions of those theological disputes, which disturbed the
peace of Christianity under the reigns of Constantine and of his
sons. But as those princes presumed to extend their despotism
over the faith, as well as over the lives and fortunes, of their
subjects, the weight of their suffrage sometimes inclined the
ecclesiastical balance: and the prerogatives of the King of
Heaven were settled, or changed, or modified, in the cabinet of
an earthly monarch. The unhappy spirit of discord which pervaded
the provinces of the East, interrupted the triumph of
Constantine; but the emperor continued for some time to view,
with cool and careless indifference, the object of the dispute.
As he was yet ignorant of the difficulty of appeasing the
quarrels of theologians, he addressed to the contending parties,
to Alexander and to Arius, a moderating epistle; 77 which may be
ascribed, with far greater reason, to the untutored sense of a
soldier and statesman, than to the dictates of any of his
episcopal counsellors. He attributes the origin of the whole
controversy to a trifling and subtle question, concerning an
incomprehensible point of law, which was foolishly asked by the
bishop, and imprudently resolved by the presbyter. He laments
that the Christian people, who had the same God, the same
religion, and the same worship, should be divided by such
inconsiderable distinctions; and he seriously recommends to the
clergy of Alexandria the example of the Greek philosophers; who
could maintain their arguments without losing their temper, and
assert their freedom without violating their friendship. The
indifference and contempt of the sovereign would have been,
perhaps, the most effectual method of silencing the dispute, if
the popular current had been less rapid and impetuous, and if
Constantine himself, in the midst of faction and fanaticism,
could have preserved the calm possession of his own mind. But his
ecclesiastical ministers soon contrived to seduce the
impartiality of the magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the
proselyte. He was provoked by the insults which had been offered
to his statues; he was alarmed by the real, as well as the
imaginary magnitude of the spreading mischief; and he
extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from the moment
that he assembled three hundred bishops within the walls of the
same palace. The presence of the monarch swelled the importance
of the debate; his attention multiplied the arguments; and he
exposed his person with a patient intrepidity, which animated the
valor of the combatants. Notwithstanding the applause which has
been bestowed on the eloquence and sagacity of Constantine, 78 a
Roman general, whose religion might be still a subject of doubt,
and whose mind had not been enlightened either by study or by
inspiration, was indifferently qualified to discuss, in the Greek
language, a metaphysical question, or an article of faith. But
the credit of his favorite Osius, who appears to have presided in
the council of Nice, might dispose the emperor in favor of the
orthodox party; and a well-timed insinuation, that the same
Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic, had lately
assisted the tyrant, 79 might exasperate him against their
adversaries. The Nicene creed was ratified by Constantine; and
his firm declaration, that those who resisted the divine judgment
of the synod, must prepare themselves for an immediate exile,
annihilated the murmurs of a feeble opposition; which, from
seventeen, was almost instantly reduced to two, protesting
bishops. Eusebius of Caesarea yielded a reluctant and ambiguous
consent to the Homoousion; 80 and the wavering conduct of the
Nicomedian Eusebius served only to delay, about three months, his
disgrace and exile. 81 The impious Arius was banished into one of
the remote provinces of Illyricum; his person and disciples were
branded by law with the odious name of Porphyrians; his writings
were condemned to the flames, and a capital punishment was
denounced against those in whose possession they should be found.
The emperor had now imbibed the spirit of controversy, and the
angry, sarcastic style of his edicts was designed to inspire his
subjects with the hatred which he had conceived against the
enemies of Christ. 82
77 (return) [ Eusebius, in Vit. Constant. l. ii. c. 64-72. The
principles of toleration and religious indifference, contained in
this epistle, have given great offence to Baronius, Tillemont,
&c., who suppose that the emperor had some evil counsellor,
either Satan or Eusebius, at his elbow. See Cortin’s Remarks,
tom. ii. p. 183. * Note: Heinichen (Excursus xi.) quotes with
approbation the term “golden words,” applied by Ziegler to this
moderate and tolerant letter of Constantine. May an English
clergyman venture to express his regret that “the fine gold soon
became dim” in the Christian church?—M.]
78 (return) [ Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. iii. c. 13.]
79 (return) [ Theodoret has preserved (l. i. c. 20) an epistle
from Constantine to the people of Nicomedia, in which the monarch
declares himself the public accuser of one of his subjects; he
styles Eusebius and complains of his hostile behavior during the
civil war.]
80 (return) [ See in Socrates, (l. i. c. 8,) or rather in
Theodoret, (l. i. c. 12,) an original letter of Eusebius of
Caesarea, in which he attempts to justify his subscribing the
Homoousion. The character of Eusebius has always been a problem;
but those who have read the second critical epistle of Le Clerc,
(Ars Critica, tom. iii. p. 30-69,) must entertain a very
unfavorable opinion of the orthodoxy and sincerity of the bishop
of Caesarea.]
81 (return) [ Athanasius, tom. i. p. 727. Philostorgius, l. i. c.
10, and Godefroy’s Commentary, p. 41.]
82 (return) [ Socrates, l. i. c. 9. In his circular letters,
which were addressed to the several cities, Constantine employed
against the heretics the arms of ridicule and comic raillery.]
But, as if the conduct of the emperor had been guided by passion
instead of principle, three years from the council of Nice were
scarcely elapsed before he discovered some symptoms of mercy, and
even of indulgence, towards the proscribed sect, which was
secretly protected by his favorite sister. The exiles were
recalled, and Eusebius, who gradually resumed his influence over
the mind of Constantine, was restored to the episcopal throne,
from which he had been ignominiously degraded. Arius himself was
treated by the whole court with the respect which would have been
due to an innocent and oppressed man. His faith was approved by
the synod of Jerusalem; and the emperor seemed impatient to
repair his injustice, by issuing an absolute command, that he
should be solemnly admitted to the communion in the cathedral of
Constantinople. On the same day, which had been fixed for the
triumph of Arius, he expired; and the strange and horrid
circumstances of his death might excite a suspicion, that the
orthodox saints had contributed more efficaciously than by their
prayers, to deliver the church from the most formidable of her
enemies. 83 The three principal leaders of the Catholics,
Athanasius of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Paul of
Constantinople were deposed on various f accusations, by the
sentence of numerous councils; and were afterwards banished into
distant provinces by the first of the Christian emperors, who, in
the last moments of his life, received the rites of baptism from
the Arian bishop of Nicomedia. The ecclesiastical government of
Constantine cannot be justified from the reproach of levity and
weakness. But the credulous monarch, unskilled in the stratagems
of theological warfare, might be deceived by the modest and
specious professions of the heretics, whose sentiments he never
perfectly understood; and while he protected Arius, and
persecuted Athanasius, he still considered the council of Nice as
the bulwark of the Christian faith, and the peculiar glory of his
own reign. 84
83 (return) [ We derive the original story from Athanasius, (tom.
i. p. 670,) who expresses some reluctance to stigmatize the
memory of the dead. He might exaggerate; but the perpetual
commerce of Alexandria and Constantinople would have rendered it
dangerous to invent. Those who press the literal narrative of the
death of Arius (his bowels suddenly burst out in a privy) must
make their option between poison and miracle.]
84 (return) [ The change in the sentiments, or at least in the
conduct, of Constantine, may be traced in Eusebius, (in Vit.
Constant. l. iii. c. 23, l. iv. c. 41,) Socrates, (l. i. c.
23-39,) Sozomen, (l. ii. c. 16-34,) Theodoret, (l. i. c. 14-34,)
and Philostorgius, (l. ii. c. 1-17.) But the first of these
writers was too near the scene of action, and the others were too
remote from it. It is singular enough, that the important task of
continuing the history of the church should have been left for
two laymen and a heretic.]
The sons of Constantine must have been admitted from their
childhood into the rank of catechumens; but they imitated, in the
delay of their baptism, the example of their father. Like him
they presumed to pronounce their judgment on mysteries into which
they had never been regularly initiated; 85 and the fate of the
Trinitarian controversy depended, in a great measure, on the
sentiments of Constantius; who inherited the provinces of the
East, and acquired the possession of the whole empire. The Arian
presbyter or bishop, who had secreted for his use the testament
of the deceased emperor, improved the fortunate occasion which
had introduced him to the familiarity of a prince, whose public
counsels were always swayed by his domestic favorites. The
eunuchs and slaves diffused the spiritual poison through the
palace, and the dangerous infection was communicated by the
female attendants to the guards, and by the empress to her
unsuspicious husband. 86 The partiality which Constantius always
expressed towards the Eusebian faction, was insensibly fortified
by the dexterous management of their leaders; and his victory
over the tyrant Magnentius increased his inclination, as well as
ability, to employ the arms of power in the cause of Arianism.
While the two armies were engaged in the plains of Mursa, and the
fate of the two rivals depended on the chance of war, the son of
Constantine passed the anxious moments in a church of the martyrs
under the walls of the city. His spiritual comforter, Valens, the
Arian bishop of the diocese, employed the most artful precautions
to obtain such early intelligence as might secure either his
favor or his escape. A secret chain of swift and trusty
messengers informed him of the vicissitudes of the battle; and
while the courtiers stood trembling round their affrighted
master, Valens assured him that the Gallic legions gave way; and
insinuated with some presence of mind, that the glorious event
had been revealed to him by an angel. The grateful emperor
ascribed his success to the merits and intercession of the bishop
of Mursa, whose faith had deserved the public and miraculous
approbation of Heaven. 87 The Arians, who considered as their own
the victory of Constantius, preferred his glory to that of his
father. 88 Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, immediately composed the
description of a celestial cross, encircled with a splendid
rainbow; which during the festival of Pentecost, about the third
hour of the day, had appeared over the Mount of Olives, to the
edification of the devout pilgrims, and the people of the holy
city. 89 The size of the meteor was gradually magnified; and the
Arian historian has ventured to affirm, that it was conspicuous
to the two armies in the plains of Pannonia; and that the tyrant,
who is purposely represented as an idolater, fled before the
auspicious sign of orthodox Christianity. 90
85 (return) [ Quia etiam tum catechumenus sacramentum fidei
merito videretiu potuisse nescire. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, l.
ii. p. 410.]
86 (return) [ Socrates, l. ii. c. 2. Sozomen, l. iii. c. 18.
Athanas. tom. i. p. 813, 834. He observes that the eunuchs are
the natural enemies of the Son. Compare Dr. Jortin’s Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 3 with a certain genealogy in
Candide, (ch. iv.,) which ends with one of the first companions
of Christopher Columbus.]
87 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus in Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 405,
406.]
88 (return) [ Cyril (apud Baron. A. D. 353, No. 26) expressly
observes that in the reign of Constantine, the cross had been
found in the bowels of the earth; but that it had appeared, in
the reign of Constantius, in the midst of the heavens. This
opposition evidently proves, that Cyril was ignorant of the
stupendous miracle to which the conversion of Constantine is
attributed; and this ignorance is the more surprising, since it
was no more than twelve years after his death that Cyril was
consecrated bishop of Jerusalem, by the immediate successor of
Eusebius of Caesarea. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p.
715.]
89 (return) [ It is not easy to determine how far the ingenuity
of Cyril might be assisted by some natural appearances of a solar
halo.]
90 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iii. c. 26. He is followed by the
author of the Alexandrian Chronicle, by Cedrenus, and by
Nicephorus. (See Gothofred. Dissert. p. 188.) They could not
refuse a miracle, even from the hand of an enemy.]
The sentiments of a judicious stranger, who has impartially
considered the progress of civil or ecclesiastical discord, are
always entitled to our notice; and a short passage of Ammianus,
who served in the armies, and studied the character of
Constantius, is perhaps of more value than many pages of
theological invectives. “The Christian religion, which, in
itself,” says that moderate historian, “is plain and simple, he
confounded by the dotage of superstition. Instead of reconciling
the parties by the weight of his authority, he cherished and
promulgated, by verbal disputes, the differences which his vain
curiosity had excited. The highways were covered with troops of
bishops galloping from every side to the assemblies, which they
call synods; and while they labored to reduce the whole sect to
their own particular opinions, the public establishment of the
posts was almost ruined by their hasty and repeated journeys.” 91
Our more intimate knowledge of the ecclesiastical transactions of
the reign of Constantius would furnish an ample commentary on
this remarkable passage, which justifies the rational
apprehensions of Athanasius, that the restless activity of the
clergy, who wandered round the empire in search of the true
faith, would excite the contempt and laughter of the unbelieving
world. 92 As soon as the emperor was relieved from the terrors of
the civil war, he devoted the leisure of his winter quarters at
Arles, Milan, Sirmium, and Constantinople, to the amusement or
toils of controversy: the sword of the magistrate, and even of
the tyrant, was unsheathed, to enforce the reasons of the
theologian; and as he opposed the orthodox faith of Nice, it is
readily confessed that his incapacity and ignorance were equal to
his presumption. 93 The eunuchs, the women, and the bishops, who
governed the vain and feeble mind of the emperor, had inspired
him with an insuperable dislike to the Homoousion; but his timid
conscience was alarmed by the impiety of Aetius. The guilt of
that atheist was aggravated by the suspicious favor of the
unfortunate Gallus; and even the death of the Imperial ministers,
who had been massacred at Antioch, were imputed to the
suggestions of that dangerous sophist. The mind of Constantius,
which could neither be moderated by reason, nor fixed by faith,
was blindly impelled to either side of the dark and empty abyss,
by his horror of the opposite extreme; he alternately embraced
and condemned the sentiments, he successively banished and
recalled the leaders, of the Arian and Semi-Arian factions. 94
During the season of public business or festivity, he employed
whole days, and even nights, in selecting the words, and weighing
the syllables, which composed his fluctuating creeds. The subject
of his meditations still pursued and occupied his slumbers: the
incoherent dreams of the emperor were received as celestial
visions, and he accepted with complacency the lofty title of
bishop of bishops, from those ecclesiastics who forgot the
interest of their order for the gratification of their passions.
The design of establishing a uniformity of doctrine, which had
engaged him to convene so many synods in Gaul, Italy, Illyricum,
and Asia, was repeatedly baffled by his own levity, by the
divisions of the Arians, and by the resistance of the Catholics;
and he resolved, as the last and decisive effort, imperiously to
dictate the decrees of a general council. The destructive
earthquake of Nicomedia, the difficulty of finding a convenient
place, and perhaps some secret motives of policy, produced an
alteration in the summons. The bishops of the East were directed
to meet at Seleucia, in Isauria; while those of the West held
their deliberations at Rimini, on the coast of the Hadriatic; and
instead of two or three deputies from each province, the whole
episcopal body was ordered to march. The Eastern council, after
consuming four days in fierce and unavailing debate, separated
without any definitive conclusion. The council of the West was
protracted till the seventh month. Taurus, the Praetorian
praefect was instructed not to dismiss the prelates till they
should all be united in the same opinion; and his efforts were
supported by the power of banishing fifteen of the most
refractory, and a promise of the consulship if he achieved so
difficult an adventure. His prayers and threats, the authority of
the sovereign, the sophistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress
of cold and hunger, and the tedious melancholy of a hopeless
exile, at length extorted the reluctant consent of the bishops of
Rimini. The deputies of the East and of the West attended the
emperor in the palace of Constantinople, and he enjoyed the
satisfaction of imposing on the world a profession of faith which
established the likeness, without expressing the
consubstantiality, of the Son of God. 95 But the triumph of
Arianism had been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clergy,
whom it was impossible either to intimidate or to corrupt; and
the reign of Constantius was disgraced by the unjust and
ineffectual persecution of the great Athanasius.
91 (return) [ So curious a passage well deserves to be
transcribed. Christianam religionem absolutam et simplicem, anili
superstitione confundens; in qua scrutanda perplexius, quam
componenda gravius excitaret discidia plurima; quae progressa
fusius aluit concertatione verborum, ut catervis antistium
jumentis publicis ultro citroque discarrentibus, per synodos
(quas appellant) dum ritum omnem ad suum sahere conantur
(Valesius reads conatur) rei vehiculariae concideret servos.
Ammianus, xxi. 16.]
92 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 870.]
93 (return) [ Socrates, l. ii. c. 35-47. Sozomen, l. iv. c.
12-30. Theodore li. c. 18-32. Philostorg. l. iv. c. 4—12, l. v.
c. 1-4, l. vi. c. 1-5]
94 (return) [ Sozomen, l. iv. c. 23. Athanas. tom. i. p. 831.
Tillemont (Mem Eccles. tom. vii. p. 947) has collected several
instances of the haughty fanaticism of Constantius from the
detached treatises of Lucifer of Cagliari. The very titles of
these treaties inspire zeal and terror; “Moriendum pro Dei
Filio.” “De Regibus Apostaticis.” “De non conveniendo cum
Haeretico.” “De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus.”]
95 (return) [ Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 418-430. The
Greek historians were very ignorant of the affairs of the West.]
We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or
speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles
may be surmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is
inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object. The
immortal name of Athanasius 96 will never be separated from the
Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated
every moment and every faculty of his being. Educated in the
family of Alexander, he had vigorously opposed the early progress
of the Arian heresy: he exercised the important functions of
secretary under the aged prelate; and the fathers of the Nicene
council beheld with surprise and respect the rising virtues of
the young deacon. In a time of public danger, the dull claims of
age and of rank are sometimes superseded; and within five months
after his return from Nice, the deacon Athanasius was seated on
the archiepiscopal throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent
station above forty-six years, and his long administration was
spent in a perpetual combat against the powers of Arianism. Five
times was Athanasius expelled from his throne; twenty years he
passed as an exile or a fugitive: and almost every province of
the Roman empire was successively witness to his merit, and his
sufferings in the cause of the Homoousion, which he considered as
the sole pleasure and business, as the duty, and as the glory of
his life. Amidst the storms of persecution, the archbishop of
Alexandria was patient of labor, jealous of fame, careless of
safety; and although his mind was tainted by the contagion of
fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a superiority of character and
abilities, which would have qualified him, far better than the
degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government of a great
monarchy. His learning was much less profound and extensive than
that of Eusebius of Caesarea, and his rude eloquence could not be
compared with the polished oratory of Gregory of Basil; but
whenever the primate of Egypt was called upon to justify his
sentiments, or his conduct, his unpremeditated style, either of
speaking or writing, was clear, forcible, and persuasive. He has
always been revered, in the orthodox school, as one of the most
accurate masters of the Christian theology; and he was supposed
to possess two profane sciences, less adapted to the episcopal
character, the knowledge of jurisprudence, 97 and that of
divination. 98 Some fortunate conjectures of future events, which
impartial reasoners might ascribe to the experience and judgment
of Athanasius, were attributed by his friends to heavenly
inspiration, and imputed by his enemies to infernal magic.
96 (return) [ We may regret that Gregory Nazianzen composed a
panegyric instead of a life of Athanasius; but we should enjoy
and improve the advantage of drawing our most authentic materials
from the rich fund of his own epistles and apologies, (tom. i. p.
670-951.) I shall not imitate the example of Socrates, (l. ii. c.
l.) who published the first edition of the history, without
giving himself the trouble to consult the writings of Athanasius.
Yet even Socrates, the more curious Sozomen, and the learned
Theodoret, connect the life of Athanasius with the series of
ecclesiastical history. The diligence of Tillemont, (tom. viii,)
and of the Benedictine editors, has collected every fact, and
examined every difficulty]
97 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus (Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 396)
calls him a lawyer, a jurisconsult. This character cannot now be
discovered either in the life or writings of Athanasius.]
98 (return) [ Dicebatur enim fatidicarum sortium fidem, quaeve
augurales portenderent alites scientissime callens aliquoties
praedixisse futura. Ammianus, xv. 7. A prophecy, or rather a
joke, is related by Sozomen, (l. iv c. 10,) which evidently
proves (if the crows speak Latin) that Athanasius understood the
language of the crows.]
But as Athanasius was continually engaged with the prejudices and
passions of every order of men, from the monk to the emperor, the
knowledge of human nature was his first and most important
science. He preserved a distinct and unbroken view of a scene
which was incessantly shifting; and never failed to improve those
decisive moments which are irrecoverably past before they are
perceived by a common eye. The archbishop of Alexandria was
capable of distinguishing how far he might boldly command, and
where he must dexterously insinuate; how long he might contend
with power, and when he must withdraw from persecution; and while
he directed the thunders of the church against heresy and
rebellion, he could assume, in the bosom of his own party, the
flexible and indulgent temper of a prudent leader. The election
of Athanasius has not escaped the reproach of irregularity and
precipitation; 99 but the propriety of his behavior conciliated
the affections both of the clergy and of the people. The
Alexandrians were impatient to rise in arms for the defence of an
eloquent and liberal pastor. In his distress he always derived
support, or at least consolation, from the faithful attachment of
his parochial clergy; and the hundred bishops of Egypt adhered,
with unshaken zeal, to the cause of Athanasius. In the modest
equipage which pride and policy would affect, he frequently
performed the episcopal visitation of his provinces, from the
mouth of the Nile to the confines of Aethiopia; familiarly
conversing with the meanest of the populace, and humbly saluting
the saints and hermits of the desert. 100 Nor was it only in
ecclesiastical assemblies, among men whose education and manners
were similar to his own, that Athanasius displayed the ascendancy
of his genius. He appeared with easy and respectful firmness in
the courts of princes; and in the various turns of his prosperous
and adverse fortune he never lost the confidence of his friends,
or the esteem of his enemies.
99 (return) [ The irregular ordination of Athanasius was slightly
mentioned in the councils which were held against him. See
Philostorg. l. ii. c. 11, and Godefroy, p. 71; but it can
scarcely be supposed that the assembly of the bishops of Egypt
would solemnly attest a public falsehood. Athanas. tom. i. p.
726.]
100 (return) [ See the history of the Fathers of the Desert,
published by Rosweide; and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vii., in
the lives of Antony, Pachomius, &c. Athanasius himself, who did
not disdain to compose the life of his friend Antony, has
carefully observed how often the holy monk deplored and
prophesied the mischiefs of the Arian heresy Athanas. tom. ii. p.
492, 498, &c.]
In his youth, the primate of Egypt resisted the great
Constantine, who had repeatedly signified his will, that Arius
should be restored to the Catholic communion. 101 The emperor
respected, and might forgive, this inflexible resolution; and the
faction who considered Athanasius as their most formidable enemy,
was constrained to dissemble their hatred, and silently to
prepare an indirect and distant assault. They scattered rumors
and suspicions, represented the archbishop as a proud and
oppressive tyrant, and boldly accused him of violating the treaty
which had been ratified in the Nicene council, with the
schismatic followers of Meletius. 102 Athanasius had openly
disapproved that ignominious peace, and the emperor was disposed
to believe that he had abused his ecclesiastical and civil power,
to prosecute those odious sectaries: that he had sacrilegiously
broken a chalice in one of their churches of Mareotis; that he
had whipped or imprisoned six of their bishops; and that
Arsenius, a seventh bishop of the same party, had been murdered,
or at least mutilated, by the cruel hand of the primate. 103
These charges, which affected his honor and his life, were
referred by Constantine to his brother Dalmatius the censor, who
resided at Antioch; the synods of Caesarea and Tyre were
successively convened; and the bishops of the East were
instructed to judge the cause of Athanasius, before they
proceeded to consecrate the new church of the Resurrection at
Jerusalem. The primate might be conscious of his innocence; but
he was sensible that the same implacable spirit which had
dictated the accusation, would direct the proceeding, and
pronounce the sentence. He prudently declined the tribunal of his
enemies; despised the summons of the synod of Caesarea; and,
after a long and artful delay, submitted to the peremptory
commands of the emperor, who threatened to punish his criminal
disobedience if he refused to appear in the council of Tyre. 104
Before Athanasius, at the head of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed
from Alexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the
Meletians; and Arsenius himself, his imaginary victim, and his
secret friend, was privately concealed in his train. The synod of
Tyre was conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea, with more passion,
and with less art, than his learning and experience might
promise; his numerous faction repeated the names of homicide and
tyrant; and their clamors were encouraged by the seeming patience
of Athanasius, who expected the decisive moment to produce
Arsenius alive and unhurt in the midst of the assembly. The
nature of the other charges did not admit of such clear and
satisfactory replies; yet the archbishop was able to prove, that
in the village, where he was accused of breaking a consecrated
chalice, neither church nor altar nor chalice could really exist.
The Arians, who had secretly determined the guilt and
condemnation of their enemy, attempted, however, to disguise
their injustice by the imitation of judicial forms: the synod
appointed an episcopal commission of six delegates to collect
evidence on the spot; and this measure which was vigorously
opposed by the Egyptian bishops, opened new scenes of violence
and perjury. 105 After the return of the deputies from
Alexandria, the majority of the council pronounced the final
sentence of degradation and exile against the primate of Egypt.
The decree, expressed in the fiercest language of malice and
revenge, was communicated to the emperor and the Catholic church;
and the bishops immediately resumed a mild and devout aspect,
such as became their holy pilgrimage to the Sepulchre of Christ.
106
101 (return) [ At first Constantine threatened in speaking, but
requested in writing. His letters gradually assumed a menacing
tone; by while he required that the entrance of the church should
be open to all, he avoided the odious name of Arius. Athanasius,
like a skilful politician, has accurately marked these
distinctions, (tom. i. p. 788.) which allowed him some scope for
excuse and delay]
102 (return) [ The Meletians in Egypt, like the Donatists in
Africa, were produced by an episcopal quarrel which arose from
the persecution. I have not leisure to pursue the obscure
controversy, which seems to have been misrepresented by the
partiality of Athanasius and the ignorance of Epiphanius. See
Mosheim’s General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 201.]
103 (return) [ The treatment of the six bishops is specified by
Sozomen, (l. ii. c. 25;) but Athanasius himself, so copious on
the subject of Arsenius and the chalice, leaves this grave
accusation without a reply. Note: This grave charge, if made,
(and it rests entirely on the authority of Soz omen,) seems to
have been silently dropped by the parties themselves: it is never
alluded to in the subsequent investigations. From Sozomen
himself, who gives the unfavorable report of the commission of
inquiry sent to Egypt concerning the cup. it does not appear that
they noticed this accusation of personal violence.—M]
104 (return) [ Athanas, tom. i. p. 788. Socrates, l. i.c. 28.
Sozomen, l. ii. c 25. The emperor, in his Epistle of Convocation,
(Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. iv. c. 42,) seems to prejudge some
members of the clergy and it was more than probable that the
synod would apply those reproaches to Athanasius.]
105 (return) [ See, in particular, the second Apology of
Athanasius, (tom. i. p. 763-808,) and his Epistles to the Monks,
(p. 808-866.) They are justified by original and authentic
documents; but they would inspire more confidence if he appeared
less innocent, and his enemies less absurd.]
106 (return) [ Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 41-47.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part V.
But the injustice of these ecclesiastical judges had not been
countenanced by the submission, or even by the presence, of
Athanasius. He resolved to make a bold and dangerous experiment,
whether the throne was inaccessible to the voice of truth; and
before the final sentence could be pronounced at Tyre, the
intrepid primate threw himself into a bark which was ready to
hoist sail for the Imperial city. The request of a formal
audience might have been opposed or eluded; but Athanasius
concealed his arrival, watched the moment of Constantine’s return
from an adjacent villa, and boldly encountered his angry
sovereign as he passed on horseback through the principal street
of Constantinople. So strange an apparition excited his surprise
and indignation; and the guards were ordered to remove the
importunate suitor; but his resentment was subdued by involuntary
respect; and the haughty spirit of the emperor was awed by the
courage and eloquence of a bishop, who implored his justice and
awakened his conscience. 107 Constantine listened to the
complaints of Athanasius with impartial and even gracious
attention; the members of the synod of Tyre were summoned to
justify their proceedings; and the arts of the Eusebian faction
would have been confounded, if they had not aggravated the guilt
of the primate, by the dexterous supposition of an unpardonable
offence; a criminal design to intercept and detain the corn-fleet
of Alexandria, which supplied the subsistence of the new capital.
108 The emperor was satisfied that the peace of Egypt would be
secured by the absence of a popular leader; but he refused to
fill the vacancy of the archiepiscopal throne; and the sentence,
which, after long hesitation, he pronounced, was that of a
jealous ostracism, rather than of an ignominious exile. In the
remote province of Gaul, but in the hospitable court of Treves,
Athanasius passed about twenty eight months. The death of the
emperor changed the face of public affairs and, amidst the
general indulgence of a young reign, the primate was restored to
his country by an honorable edict of the younger Constantine, who
expressed a deep sense of the innocence and merit of his
venerable guest. 109
107 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 804. In a church dedicated to
St. Athanasius this situation would afford a better subject for a
picture, than most of the stories of miracles and martyrdoms.]
108 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 729. Eunapius has related (in
Vit. Sophist. p. 36, 37, edit. Commelin) a strange example of the
cruelty and credulity of Constantine on a similar occasion. The
eloquent Sopater, a Syrian philosopher, enjoyed his friendship,
and provoked the resentment of Ablavius, his Praetorian praefect.
The corn-fleet was detained for want of a south wind; the people
of Constantinople were discontented; and Sopater was beheaded, on
a charge that he had bound the winds by the power of magic.
Suidas adds, that Constantine wished to prove, by this execution,
that he had absolutely renounced the superstition of the
Gentiles.]
109 (return) [ In his return he saw Constantius twice, at
Viminiacum, and at Caesarea in Cappadocia, (Athanas. tom. i. p.
676.) Tillemont supposes that Constantine introduced him to the
meeting of the three royal brothers in Pannonia, (Memoires
Eccles. tom. viii. p. 69.)]
The death of that prince exposed Athanasius to a second
persecution; and the feeble Constantius, the sovereign of the
East, soon became the secret accomplice of the Eusebians. Ninety
bishops of that sect or faction assembled at Antioch, under the
specious pretence of dedicating the cathedral. They composed an
ambiguous creed, which is faintly tinged with the colors of
Semi-Arianism, and twenty-five canons, which still regulate the
discipline of the orthodox Greeks. 110 It was decided, with some
appearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a synod, should
not resume his episcopal functions till he had been absolved by
the judgment of an equal synod; the law was immediately applied
to the case of Athanasius; the council of Antioch pronounced, or
rather confirmed, his degradation: a stranger, named Gregory, was
seated on his throne; and Philagrius, 111 the praefect of Egypt,
was instructed to support the new primate with the civil and
military powers of the province. Oppressed by the conspiracy of
the Asiatic prelates, Athanasius withdrew from Alexandria, and
passed three years 112 as an exile and a suppliant on the holy
threshold of the Vatican. 113 By the assiduous study of the Latin
language, he soon qualified himself to negotiate with the western
clergy; his decent flattery swayed and directed the haughty
Julius; the Roman pontiff was persuaded to consider his appeal as
the peculiar interest of the Apostolic see: and his innocence was
unanimously declared in a council of fifty bishops of Italy. At
the end of three years, the primate was summoned to the court of
Milan by the emperor Constans, who, in the indulgence of unlawful
pleasures, still professed a lively regard for the orthodox
faith. The cause of truth and justice was promoted by the
influence of gold, 114 and the ministers of Constans advised
their sovereign to require the convocation of an ecclesiastical
assembly, which might act as the representatives of the Catholic
church. Ninety-four bishops of the West, seventy-six bishops of
the East, encountered each other at Sardica, on the verge of the
two empires, but in the dominions of the protector of Athanasius.
Their debates soon degenerated into hostile altercations; the
Asiatics, apprehensive for their personal safety, retired to
Philippopolis in Thrace; and the rival synods reciprocally hurled
their spiritual thunders against their enemies, whom they piously
condemned as the enemies of the true God. Their decrees were
published and ratified in their respective provinces: and
Athanasius, who in the West was revered as a saint, was exposed
as a criminal to the abhorrence of the East. 115 The council of
Sardica reveals the first symptoms of discord and schism between
the Greek and Latin churches which were separated by the
accidental difference of faith, and the permanent distinction of
language.
110 (return) [ See Beveridge, Pandect. tom. i. p. 429-452, and
tom. ii. Annotation. p. 182. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p.
310-324. St. Hilary of Poitiers has mentioned this synod of
Antioch with too much favor and respect. He reckons ninety-seven
bishops.]
111 (return) [ This magistrate, so odious to Athanasius, is
praised by Gregory Nazianzen, tom. i. Orat. xxi. p. 390, 391.
Saepe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem.
For the credit of human nature, I am always pleased to discover
some good qualities in those men whom party has represented as
tyrants and monsters.]
112 (return) [ The chronological difficulties which perplex the
residence of Athanasius at Rome, are strenuously agitated by
Valesius (Observat ad Calcem, tom. ii. Hist. Eccles. l. i. c.
1-5) and Tillemont, (Men: Eccles. tom. viii. p. 674, &c.) I have
followed the simple hypothesis of Valesius, who allows only one
journey, after the intrusion Gregory.]
113 (return) [ I cannot forbear transcribing a judicious
observation of Wetstein, (Prolegomen. N.S. p. 19: ) Si tamen
Historiam Ecclesiasticam velimus consulere, patebit jam inde a
seculo quarto, cum, ortis controversiis, ecclesiae Graeciae
doctores in duas partes scinderentur, ingenio, eloquentia,
numero, tantum non aequales, eam partem quae vincere cupiebat
Romam confugisse, majestatemque pontificis comiter coluisse,
eoque pacto oppressis per pontificem et episcopos Latinos
adversariis praevaluisse, atque orthodoxiam in conciliis
stabilivisse. Eam ob causam Athanasius, non sine comitatu, Roman
petiit, pluresque annos ibi haesit.]
114 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iii. c. 12. If any corruption
was used to promote the interest of religion, an advocate of
Athanasius might justify or excuse this questionable conduct, by
the example of Cato and Sidney; the former of whom is said to
have given, and the latter to have received, a bribe in the cause
of liberty.]
115 (return) [ The canon which allows appeals to the Roman
pontiffs, has almost raised the council of Sardica to the dignity
of a general council; and its acts have been ignorantly or
artfully confounded with those of the Nicene synod. See
Tillemont, tom. vii. p. 689, and Geddos’s Tracts, vol. ii. p.
419-460.]
During his second exile in the West, Athanasius was frequently
admitted to the Imperial presence; at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Verona,
Padua, Aquileia, and Treves. The bishop of the diocese usually
assisted at these interviews; the master of the offices stood
before the veil or curtain of the sacred apartment; and the
uniform moderation of the primate might be attested by these
respectable witnesses, to whose evidence he solemnly appeals. 116
Prudence would undoubtedly suggest the mild and respectful tone
that became a subject and a bishop. In these familiar conferences
with the sovereign of the West, Athanasius might lament the error
of Constantius, but he boldly arraigned the guilt of his eunuchs
and his Arian prelates; deplored the distress and danger of the
Catholic church; and excited Constans to emulate the zeal and
glory of his father. The emperor declared his resolution of
employing the troops and treasures of Europe in the orthodox
cause; and signified, by a concise and peremptory epistle to his
brother Constantius, that unless he consented to the immediate
restoration of Athanasius, he himself, with a fleet and army,
would seat the archbishop on the throne of Alexandria. 117 But
this religious war, so horrible to nature, was prevented by the
timely compliance of Constantius; and the emperor of the East
condescended to solicit a reconciliation with a subject whom he
had injured. Athanasius waited with decent pride, till he had
received three successive epistles full of the strongest
assurances of the protection, the favor, and the esteem of his
sovereign; who invited him to resume his episcopal seat, and who
added the humiliating precaution of engaging his principal
ministers to attest the sincerity of his intentions. They were
manifested in a still more public manner, by the strict orders
which were despatched into Egypt to recall the adherents of
Athanasius, to restore their privileges, to proclaim their
innocence, and to erase from the public registers the illegal
proceedings which had been obtained during the prevalence of the
Eusebian faction. After every satisfaction and security had been
given, which justice or even delicacy could require, the primate
proceeded, by slow journeys, through the provinces of Thrace,
Asia, and Syria; and his progress was marked by the abject homage
of the Oriental bishops, who excited his contempt without
deceiving his penetration. 118 At Antioch he saw the emperor
Constantius; sustained, with modest firmness, the embraces and
protestations of his master, and eluded the proposal of allowing
the Arians a single church at Alexandria, by claiming, in the
other cities of the empire, a similar toleration for his own
party; a reply which might have appeared just and moderate in the
mouth of an independent prince. The entrance of the archbishop
into his capital was a triumphal procession; absence and
persecution had endeared him to the Alexandrians; his authority,
which he exercised with rigor, was more firmly established; and
his fame was diffused from Aethiopia to Britain, over the whole
extent of the Christian world. 119
116 (return) [ As Athanasius dispersed secret invectives against
Constantius, (see the Epistle to the Monks,) at the same time
that he assured him of his profound respect, we might distrust
the professions of the archbishop. Tom. i. p. 677.]
117 (return) [ Notwithstanding the discreet silence of
Athanasius, and the manifest forgery of a letter inserted by
Socrates, these menaces are proved by the unquestionable evidence
of Lucifer of Cagliari, and even of Constantius himself. See
Tillemont, tom. viii. p. 693]
118 (return) [ I have always entertained some doubts concerning
the retraction of Ursacius and Valens, (Athanas. tom. i. p. 776.)
Their epistles to Julius, bishop of Rome, and to Athanasius
himself, are of so different a cast from each other, that they
cannot both be genuine. The one speaks the language of criminals
who confess their guilt and infamy; the other of enemies, who
solicit on equal terms an honorable reconciliation. * Note: I
cannot quite comprehend the ground of Gibbon’s doubts. Athanasius
distinctly asserts the fact of their retractation. (Athan. Op. i.
p. 124, edit. Benedict.) The epistles are apparently translations
from the Latin, if, in fact, more than the substance of the
epistles. That to Athanasius is brief, almost abrupt. Their
retractation is likewise mentioned in the address of the orthodox
bishops of Rimini to Constantius. Athan. de Synodis, Op t. i. p
723-M.]
119 (return) [ The circumstances of his second return may be
collected from Athanasius himself, tom. i. p. 769, and 822, 843.
Socrates, l. ii. c. 18, Sozomen, l. iii. c. 19. Theodoret, l. ii.
c. 11, 12. Philostorgius, l. iii. c. 12.]
But the subject who has reduced his prince to the necessity of
dissembling, can never expect a sincere and lasting forgiveness;
and the tragic fate of Constans soon deprived Athanasius of a
powerful and generous protector. The civil war between the
assassin and the only surviving brother of Constans, which
afflicted the empire above three years, secured an interval of
repose to the Catholic church; and the two contending parties
were desirous to conciliate the friendship of a bishop, who, by
the weight of his personal authority, might determine the
fluctuating resolutions of an important province. He gave
audience to the ambassadors of the tyrant, with whom he was
afterwards accused of holding a secret correspondence; 120 and
the emperor Constantius repeatedly assured his dearest father,
the most reverend Athanasius, that, notwithstanding the malicious
rumors which were circulated by their common enemies, he had
inherited the sentiments, as well as the throne, of his deceased
brother. 121 Gratitude and humanity would have disposed the
primate of Egypt to deplore the untimely fate of Constans, and to
abhor the guilt of Magnentius; but as he clearly understood that
the apprehensions of Constantius were his only safeguard, the
fervor of his prayers for the success of the righteous cause
might perhaps be somewhat abated. The ruin of Athanasius was no
longer contrived by the obscure malice of a few bigoted or angry
bishops, who abused the authority of a credulous monarch. The
monarch himself avowed the resolution, which he had so long
suppressed, of avenging his private injuries; 122 and the first
winter after his victory, which he passed at Arles, was employed
against an enemy more odious to him than the vanquished tyrant of
Gaul.
120 (return) [ Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677, 678) defends his
innocence by pathetic complaints, solemn assertions, and specious
arguments. He admits that letters had been forged in his name,
but he requests that his own secretaries and those of the tyrant
might be examined, whether those letters had been written by the
former, or received by the latter.]
121 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 825-844.]
122 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 861. Theodoret, l. ii. c. 16.
The emperor declared that he was more desirous to subdue
Athanasius, than he had been to vanquish Magnentius or Sylvanus.]
If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most
eminent and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order
would have been executed without hesitation, by the ministers of
open violence or of specious injustice. The caution, the delay,
the difficulty with which he proceeded in the condemnation and
punishment of a popular bishop, discovered to the world that the
privileges of the church had already revived a sense of order and
freedom in the Roman government. The sentence which was
pronounced in the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by a large
majority of the Eastern bishops, had never been expressly
repealed; and as Athanasius had been once degraded from his
episcopal dignity by the judgment of his brethren, every
subsequent act might be considered as irregular, and even
criminal. But the memory of the firm and effectual support which
the primate of Egypt had derived from the attachment of the
Western church, engaged Constantius to suspend the execution of
the sentence till he had obtained the concurrence of the Latin
bishops. Two years were consumed in ecclesiastical negotiations;
and the important cause between the emperor and one of his
subjects was solemnly debated, first in the synod of Arles, and
afterwards in the great council of Milan, 123 which consisted of
above three hundred bishops. Their integrity was gradually
undermined by the arguments of the Arians, the dexterity of the
eunuchs, and the pressing solicitations of a prince who gratified
his revenge at the expense of his dignity, and exposed his own
passions, whilst he influenced those of the clergy. Corruption,
the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was
successfully practised; honors, gifts, and immunities were
offered and accepted as the price of an episcopal vote; 124 and
the condemnation of the Alexandrian primate was artfully
represented as the only measure which could restore the peace and
union of the Catholic church. The friends of Athanasius were not,
however, wanting to their leader, or to their cause. With a manly
spirit, which the sanctity of their character rendered less
dangerous, they maintained, in public debate, and in private
conference with the emperor, the eternal obligation of religion
and justice. They declared, that neither the hope of his favor,
nor the fear of his displeasure, should prevail on them to join
in the condemnation of an absent, an innocent, a respectable
brother. 125 They affirmed, with apparent reason, that the
illegal and obsolete decrees of the council of Tyre had long
since been tacitly abolished by the Imperial edicts, the
honorable reestablishment of the archbishop of Alexandria, and
the silence or recantation of his most clamorous adversaries.
They alleged, that his innocence had been attested by the
unanimous bishops of Egypt, and had been acknowledged in the
councils of Rome and Sardica, 126 by the impartial judgment of
the Latin church. They deplored the hard condition of Athanasius,
who, after enjoying so many years his seat, his reputation, and
the seeming confidence of his sovereign, was again called upon to
confute the most groundless and extravagant accusations. Their
language was specious; their conduct was honorable: but in this
long and obstinate contest, which fixed the eyes of the whole
empire on a single bishop, the ecclesiastical factions were
prepared to sacrifice truth and justice to the more interesting
object of defending or removing the intrepid champion of the
Nicene faith. The Arians still thought it prudent to disguise, in
ambiguous language, their real sentiments and designs; but the
orthodox bishops, armed with the favor of the people, and the
decrees of a general council, insisted on every occasion, and
particularly at Milan, that their adversaries should purge
themselves from the suspicion of heresy, before they presumed to
arraign the conduct of the great Athanasius. 127
123 (return) [ The affairs of the council of Milan are so
imperfectly and erroneously related by the Greek writers, that we
must rejoice in the supply of some letters of Eusebius, extracted
by Baronius from the archives of the church of Vercellae, and of
an old life of Dionysius of Milan, published by Bollandus. See
Baronius, A.D. 355, and Tillemont, tom. vii. p. 1415.]
124 (return) [ The honors, presents, feasts, which seduced so
many bishops, are mentioned with indignation by those who were
too pure or too proud to accept them. “We combat (says Hilary of
Poitiers) against Constantius the Antichrist; who strokes the
belly instead of scourging the back;” qui non dorsa caedit; sed
ventrem palpat. Hilarius contra Constant c. 5, p. 1240.]
125 (return) [ Something of this opposition is mentioned by
Ammianus (x. 7,) who had a very dark and superficial knowledge of
ecclesiastical history. Liberius... perseveranter renitebatur,
nec visum hominem, nec auditum damnare, nefas ultimum saepe
exclamans; aperte scilicet recalcitrans Imperatoris arbitrio. Id
enim ille Athanasio semper infestus, &c.]
126 (return) [ More properly by the orthodox part of the council
of Sardica. If the bishops of both parties had fairly voted, the
division would have been 94 to 76. M. de Tillemont (see tom.
viii. p. 1147-1158) is justly surprised that so small a majority
should have proceeded as vigorously against their adversaries,
the principal of whom they immediately deposed.]
127 (return) [ Sulp. Severus in Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 412.]
But the voice of reason (if reason was indeed on the side of
Athanasius) was silenced by the clamors of a factious or venal
majority; and the councils of Arles and Milan were not dissolved,
till the archbishop of Alexandria had been solemnly condemned and
deposed by the judgment of the Western, as well as of the
Eastern, church. The bishops who had opposed, were required to
subscribe, the sentence, and to unite in religious communion with
the suspected leaders of the adverse party. A formulary of
consent was transmitted by the messengers of state to the absent
bishops: and all those who refused to submit their private
opinion to the public and inspired wisdom of the councils of
Arles and Milan, were immediately banished by the emperor, who
affected to execute the decrees of the Catholic church. Among
those prelates who led the honorable band of confessors and
exiles, Liberius of Rome, Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves,
Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of Vercellae, Lucifer of Cagliari
and Hilary of Poitiers, may deserve to be particularly
distinguished. The eminent station of Liberius, who governed the
capital of the empire; the personal merit and long experience of
the venerable Osius, who was revered as the favorite of the great
Constantine, and the father of the Nicene faith, placed those
prelates at the head of the Latin church: and their example,
either of submission or resistance, would probable be imitated by
the episcopal crowd. But the repeated attempts of the emperor to
seduce or to intimidate the bishops of Rome and Cordova, were for
some time ineffectual. The Spaniard declared himself ready to
suffer under Constantius, as he had suffered threescore years
before under his grandfather Maximian. The Roman, in the presence
of his sovereign, asserted the innocence of Athanasius and his
own freedom. When he was banished to Beraea in Thrace, he sent
back a large sum which had been offered for the accommodation of
his journey; and insulted the court of Milan by the haughty
remark, that the emperor and his eunuchs might want that gold to
pay their soldiers and their bishops. 128 The resolution of
Liberius and Osius was at length subdued by the hardships of
exile and confinement. The Roman pontiff purchased his return by
some criminal compliances; and afterwards expiated his guilt by a
seasonable repentance. Persuasion and violence were employed to
extort the reluctant signature of the decrepit bishop of Cordova,
whose strength was broken, and whose faculties were perhaps
impaired by the weight of a hundred years; and the insolent
triumph of the Arians provoked some of the orthodox party to
treat with inhuman severity the character, or rather the memory,
of an unfortunate old man, to whose former services Christianity
itself was so deeply indebted. 129
128 (return) [ The exile of Liberius is mentioned by Ammianus,
xv. 7. See Theodoret, l. ii. c. 16. Athanas. tom. i. p. 834-837.
Hilar. Fragment l.]
129 (return) [ The life of Osius is collected by Tillemont, (tom.
vii. p. 524-561,) who in the most extravagant terms first
admires, and then reprobates, the bishop of Cordova. In the midst
of their lamentations on his fall, the prudence of Athanasius may
be distinguished from the blind and intemperate zeal of Hilary.]
The fall of Liberius and Osius reflected a brighter lustre on the
firmness of those bishops who still adhered, with unshaken
fidelity, to the cause of Athanasius and religious truth. The
ingenious malice of their enemies had deprived them of the
benefit of mutual comfort and advice, separated those illustrious
exiles into distant provinces, and carefully selected the most
inhospitable spots of a great empire. 130 Yet they soon
experienced that the deserts of Libya, and the most barbarous
tracts of Cappadocia, were less inhospitable than the residence
of those cities in which an Arian bishop could satiate, without
restraint, the exquisite rancor of theological hatred. 131 Their
consolation was derived from the consciousness of rectitude and
independence, from the applause, the visits, the letters, and the
liberal alms of their adherents, 132 and from the satisfaction
which they soon enjoyed of observing the intestine divisions of
the adversaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the nice and
capricious taste of the emperor Constantius; and so easily was he
offended by the slightest deviation from his imaginary standard
of Christian truth, that he persecuted, with equal zeal, those
who defended the consubstantiality, those who asserted the
similar substance, and those who denied the likeness of the Son
of God. Three bishops, degraded and banished for those adverse
opinions, might possibly meet in the same place of exile; and,
according to the difference of their temper, might either pity or
insult the blind enthusiasm of their antagonists, whose present
sufferings would never be compensated by future happiness.
130 (return) [ The confessors of the West were successively
banished to the deserts of Arabia or Thebais, the lonely places
of Mount Taurus, the wildest parts of Phrygia, which were in the
possession of the impious Montanists, &c. When the heretic Aetius
was too favorably entertained at Mopsuestia in Cilicia, the place
of his exile was changed, by the advice of Acacius, to Amblada, a
district inhabited by savages and infested by war and pestilence.
Philostorg. l. v. c. 2.]
131 (return) [ See the cruel treatment and strange obstinacy of
Eusebius, in his own letters, published by Baronius, A.D. 356,
No. 92-102.]
132 (return) [ Caeterum exules satis constat, totius orbis
studiis celebratos pecuniasque eis in sumptum affatim congestas,
legationibus quoque plebis Catholicae ex omnibus fere provinciis
frequentatos. Sulp. Sever Hist. Sacra, p. 414. Athanas. tom. i.
p. 836, 840.]
The disgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of the West were
designed as so many preparatory steps to the ruin of Athanasius
himself. 133 Six-and-twenty months had elapsed, during which the
Imperial court secretly labored, by the most insidious arts, to
remove him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the allowance which
supplied his popular liberality. But when the primate of Egypt,
deserted and proscribed by the Latin church, was left destitute
of any foreign support, Constantius despatched two of his
secretaries with a verbal commission to announce and execute the
order of his banishment. As the justice of the sentence was
publicly avowed by the whole party, the only motive which could
restrain Constantius from giving his messengers the sanction of a
written mandate, must be imputed to his doubt of the event; and
to a sense of the danger to which he might expose the second
city, and the most fertile province, of the empire, if the people
should persist in the resolution of defending, by force of arms,
the innocence of their spiritual father. Such extreme caution
afforded Athanasius a specious pretence respectfully to dispute
the truth of an order, which he could not reconcile, either with
the equity, or with the former declarations, of his gracious
master. The civil powers of Egypt found themselves inadequate to
the task of persuading or compelling the primate to abdicate his
episcopal throne; and they were obliged to conclude a treaty with
the popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it was stipulated,
that all proceedings and all hostilities should be suspended till
the emperor’s pleasure had been more distinctly ascertained. By
this seeming moderation, the Catholics were deceived into a false
and fatal security; while the legions of the Upper Egypt, and of
Libya, advanced, by secret orders and hasty marches, to besiege,
or rather to surprise, a capital habituated to sedition, and
inflamed by religious zeal. 134 The position of Alexandria,
between the sea and the Lake Mareotis, facilitated the approach
and landing of the troops; who were introduced into the heart of
the city, before any effectual measures could be taken either to
shut the gates or to occupy the important posts of defence. At
the hour of midnight, twenty-three days after the signature of
the treaty, Syrianus, duke of Egypt, at the head of five thousand
soldiers, armed and prepared for an assault, unexpectedly
invested the church of St. Theonas, where the archbishop, with a
part of his clergy and people, performed their nocturnal
devotions. The doors of the sacred edifice yielded to the
impetuosity of the attack, which was accompanied with every
horrid circumstance of tumult and bloodshed; but, as the bodies
of the slain, and the fragments of military weapons, remained the
next day an unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the
Catholics, the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered as a
successful irruption rather than as an absolute conquest. The
other churches of the city were profaned by similar outrages;
and, during at least four months, Alexandria was exposed to the
insults of a licentious army, stimulated by the ecclesiastics of
a hostile faction. Many of the faithful were killed; who may
deserve the name of martyrs, if their deaths were neither
provoked nor revenged; bishops and presbyters were treated with
cruel ignominy; consecrated virgins were stripped naked, scourged
and violated; the houses of wealthy citizens were plundered; and,
under the mask of religious zeal, lust, avarice, and private
resentment were gratified with impunity, and even with applause.
The Pagans of Alexandria, who still formed a numerous and
discontented party, were easily persuaded to desert a bishop whom
they feared and esteemed. The hopes of some peculiar favors, and
the apprehension of being involved in the general penalties of
rebellion, engaged them to promise their support to the destined
successor of Athanasius, the famous George of Cappadocia. The
usurper, after receiving the consecration of an Arian synod, was
placed on the episcopal throne by the arms of Sebastian, who had
been appointed Count of Egypt for the execution of that important
design. In the use, as well as in the acquisition, of power, the
tyrant, George disregarded the laws of religion, of justice, and
of humanity; and the same scenes of violence and scandal which
had been exhibited in the capital, were repeated in more than
ninety episcopal cities of Egypt. Encouraged by success,
Constantius ventured to approve the conduct of his minister. By a
public and passionate epistle, the emperor congratulates the
deliverance of Alexandria from a popular tyrant, who deluded his
blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence; expatiates on the
virtues and piety of the most reverend George, the elected
bishop; and aspires, as the patron and benefactor of the city to
surpass the fame of Alexander himself. But he solemnly declares
his unalterable resolution to pursue with fire and sword the
seditious adherents of the wicked Athanasius, who, by flying from
justice, has confessed his guilt, and escaped the ignominious
death which he had so often deserved. 135
133 (return) [ Ample materials for the history of this third
persecution of Athanasius may be found in his own works. See
particularly his very able Apology to Constantius, (tom. i. p.
673,) his first Apology for his flight (p. 701,) his prolix
Epistle to the Solitaries, (p. 808,) and the original protest of
the people of Alexandria against the violences committed by
Syrianus, (p. 866.) Sozomen (l. iv. c. 9) has thrown into the
narrative two or three luminous and important circumstances.]
134 (return) [ Athanasius had lately sent for Antony, and some of
his chosen monks. They descended from their mountains, announced
to the Alexandrians the sanctity of Athanasius, and were
honorably conducted by the archbishop as far as the gates of the
city. Athanas tom. ii. p. 491, 492. See likewise Rufinus, iii.
164, in Vit. Patr. p. 524.]
135 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 694. The emperor, or his Arian
secretaries while they express their resentment, betray their
fears and esteem of Athanasius.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part VI.
Athanasius had indeed escaped from the most imminent dangers; and
the adventures of that extraordinary man deserve and fix our
attention. On the memorable night when the church of St. Theonas
was invested by the troops of Syrianus, the archbishop, seated on
his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid dignity, the
approach of death. While the public devotion was interrupted by
shouts of rage and cries of terror, he animated his trembling
congregation to express their religious confidence, by chanting
one of the psalms of David which celebrates the triumph of the
God of Israel over the haughty and impious tyrant of Egypt. The
doors were at length burst open: a cloud of arrows was discharged
among the people; the soldiers, with drawn swords, rushed
forwards into the sanctuary; and the dreadful gleam of their arms
was reflected by the holy luminaries which burnt round the altar.
136 Athanasius still rejected the pious importunity of the monks
and presbyters, who were attached to his person; and nobly
refused to desert his episcopal station, till he had dismissed in
safety the last of the congregation. The darkness and tumult of
the night favored the retreat of the archbishop; and though he
was oppressed by the waves of an agitated multitude, though he
was thrown to the ground, and left without sense or motion, he
still recovered his undaunted courage, and eluded the eager
search of the soldiers, who were instructed by their Arian
guides, that the head of Athanasius would be the most acceptable
present to the emperor. From that moment the primate of Egypt
disappeared from the eyes of his enemies, and remained above six
years concealed in impenetrable obscurity. 137
136 (return) [ These minute circumstances are curious, as they
are literally transcribed from the protest, which was publicly
presented three days afterwards by the Catholics of Alexandria.
See Athanas. tom. l. n. 867]
137 (return) [ The Jansenists have often compared Athanasius and
Arnauld, and have expatiated with pleasure on the faith and zeal,
the merit and exile, of those celebrated doctors. This concealed
parallel is very dexterously managed by the Abbe de la Bleterie,
Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 130.]
The despotic power of his implacable enemy filled the whole
extent of the Roman world; and the exasperated monarch had
endeavored, by a very pressing epistle to the Christian princes
of Ethiopia, 13711 to exclude Athanasius from the most remote and
sequestered regions of the earth. Counts, praefects, tribunes,
whole armies, were successively employed to pursue a bishop and a
fugitive; the vigilance of the civil and military powers was
excited by the Imperial edicts; liberal rewards were promised to
the man who should produce Athanasius, either alive or dead; and
the most severe penalties were denounced against those who should
dare to protect the public enemy. 138 But the deserts of Thebais
were now peopled by a race of wild, yet submissive fanatics, who
preferred the commands of their abbot to the laws of their
sovereign. The numerous disciples of Antony and Pachonnus
received the fugitive primate as their father, admired the
patience and humility with which he conformed to their strictest
institutions, collected every word which dropped from his lips as
the genuine effusions of inspired wisdom; and persuaded
themselves that their prayers, their fasts, and their vigils,
were less meritorious than the zeal which they expressed, and the
dangers which they braved, in the defence of truth and innocence.
139 The monasteries of Egypt were seated in lonely and desolate
places, on the summit of mountains, or in the islands of the
Nile; and the sacred horn or trumpet of Tabenne was the
well-known signal which assembled several thousand robust and
determined monks, who, for the most part, had been the peasants
of the adjacent country. When their dark retreats were invaded by
a military force, which it was impossible to resist, they
silently stretched out their necks to the executioner; and
supported their national character, that tortures could never
wrest from an Egyptian the confession of a secret which he was
resolved not to disclose. 140 The archbishop of Alexandria, for
whose safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was lost among a
uniform and well-disciplined multitude; and on the nearer
approach of danger, he was swiftly removed, by their officious
hands, from one place of concealment to another, till he reached
the formidable deserts, which the gloomy and credulous temper of
superstition had peopled with daemons and savage monsters. The
retirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the life of
Constantius, was spent, for the most part, in the society of the
monks, who faithfully served him as guards, as secretaries, and
as messengers; but the importance of maintaining a more intimate
connection with the Catholic party tempted him, whenever the
diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from the desert,
to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to trust his person to
the discretion of his friends and adherents. His various
adventures might have furnished the subject of a very
entertaining romance. He was once secreted in a dry cistern,
which he had scarcely left before he was betrayed by the
treachery of a female slave; 141 and he was once concealed in a
still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin, only
twenty years of age, and who was celebrated in the whole city for
her exquisite beauty. At the hour of midnight, as she related the
story many years afterwards, she was surprised by the appearance
of the archbishop in a loose undress, who, advancing with hasty
steps, conjured her to afford him the protection which he had
been directed by a celestial vision to seek under her hospitable
roof. The pious maid accepted and preserved the sacred pledge
which was intrusted to her prudence and courage. Without
imparting the secret to any one, she instantly conducted
Athanasius into her most secret chamber, and watched over his
safety with the tenderness of a friend and the assiduity of a
servant. As long as the danger continued, she regularly supplied
him with books and provisions, washed his feet, managed his
correspondence, and dexterously concealed from the eye of
suspicion this familiar and solitary intercourse between a saint
whose character required the most unblemished chastity, and a
female whose charms might excite the most dangerous emotions. 142
During the six years of persecution and exile, Athanasius
repeated his visits to his fair and faithful companion; and the
formal declaration, that he saw the councils of Rimini and
Seleucia, 143 forces us to believe that he was secretly present
at the time and place of their convocation. The advantage of
personally negotiating with his friends, and of observing and
improving the divisions of his enemies, might justify, in a
prudent statesman, so bold and dangerous an enterprise: and
Alexandria was connected by trade and navigation with every
seaport of the Mediterranean. From the depth of his inaccessible
retreat the intrepid primate waged an incessant and offensive war
against the protector of the Arians; and his seasonable writings,
which were diligently circulated and eagerly perused, contributed
to unite and animate the orthodox party. In his public apologies,
which he addressed to the emperor himself, he sometimes affected
the praise of moderation; whilst at the same time, in secret and
vehement invectives, he exposed Constantius as a weak and wicked
prince, the executioner of his family, the tyrant of the
republic, and the Antichrist of the church. In the height of his
prosperity, the victorious monarch, who had chastised the
rashness of Gallus, and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who
had taken the diadem from the head of Vetranio, and vanquished in
the field the legions of Magnentius, received from an invisible
hand a wound, which he could neither heal nor revenge; and the
son of Constantine was the first of the Christian princes who
experienced the strength of those principles, which, in the cause
of religion, could resist the most violent exertions 144 of the
civil power.
13711 (return) [ These princes were called Aeizanas and
Saiazanas. Athanasius calls them the kings of Axum. In the
superscription of his letter, Constantius gives them no title.
Mr. Salt, during his first journey in Ethiopia, (in 1806,)
discovered, in the ruins of Axum, a long and very interesting
inscription relating to these princes. It was erected to
commemorate the victory of Aeizanas over the Bougaitae, (St.
Martin considers them the Blemmyes, whose true name is Bedjah or
Bodjah.) Aeizanas is styled king of the Axumites, the Homerites,
of Raeidan, of the Ethiopians, of the Sabsuites, of Silea, of
Tiamo, of the Bougaites. and of Kaei. It appears that at this
time the king of the Ethiopians ruled over the Homerites, the
inhabitants of Yemen. He was not yet a Christian, as he calls
himself son of the invincible Mars. Another brother besides
Saiazanas, named Adephas, is mentioned, though Aeizanas seems to
have been sole king. See St. Martin, note on Le Beau, ii. 151.
Salt’s Travels. De Sacy, note in Annales des Voyages, xii. p.
53.—M.]
138 (return) [ Hinc jam toto orbe profugus Athanasius, nec ullus
ci tutus ad latendum supererat locus. Tribuni, Praefecti,
Comites, exercitus quoque ad pervestigandum cum moventur edictis
Imperialibus; praemia dela toribus proponuntur, si quis eum
vivum, si id minus, caput certe Atha casii detulisset. Rufin. l.
i. c. 16.]
139 (return) [ Gregor. Nazianzen. tom. i. Orat. xxi. p. 384, 385.
See Tillemont Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 176-410, 820-830.]
140 (return) [ Et nulla tormentorum vis inveneri, adhuc potuit,
quae obdurato illius tractus latroni invito elicere potuit, ut
nomen proprium dicat Ammian. xxii. 16, and Valesius ad locum.]
141 (return) [ Rufin. l. i. c. 18. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 10. This
and the following story will be rendered impossible, if we
suppose that Athanasius always inhabited the asylum which he
accidentally or occasionally had used.]
142 (return) [ Paladius, (Hist. Lausiac. c. 136, in Vit. Patrum,
p. 776,) the original author of this anecdote, had conversed with
the damsel, who in her old age still remembered with pleasure so
pious and honorable a connection. I cannot indulge the delicacy
of Baronius, Valesius, Tillemont, &c., who almost reject a story
so unworthy, as they deem it, of the gravity of ecclesiastical
history.]
143 (return) [ Athanas. tom. i. p. 869. I agree with Tillemont,
(tom. iii. p. 1197,) that his expressions imply a personal,
though perhaps secret visit to the synods.]
144 (return) [ The epistle of Athanasius to the monks is filled
with reproaches, which the public must feel to be true, (vol. i.
p. 834, 856;) and, in compliment to his readers, he has
introduced the comparisons of Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, &c. The
boldness of Hilary was attended with less danger, if he published
his invective in Gaul after the revolt of Julian; but Lucifer
sent his libels to Constantius, and almost challenged the reward
of martyrdom. See Tillemont, tom. vii. p. 905.]
The persecution of Athanasius, and of so many respectable
bishops, who suffered for the truth of their opinions, or at
least for the integrity of their conscience, was a just subject
of indignation and discontent to all Christians, except those who
were blindly devoted to the Arian faction. The people regretted
the loss of their faithful pastors, whose banishment was usually
followed by the intrusion of a stranger 145 into the episcopal
chair; and loudly complained, that the right of election was
violated, and that they were condemned to obey a mercenary
usurper, whose person was unknown, and whose principles were
suspected. The Catholics might prove to the world, that they were
not involved in the guilt and heresy of their ecclesiastical
governor, by publicly testifying their dissent, or by totally
separating themselves from his communion. The first of these
methods was invented at Antioch, and practised with such success,
that it was soon diffused over the Christian world. The doxology
or sacred hymn, which celebrates the glory of the Trinity, is
susceptible of very nice, but material, inflections; and the
substance of an orthodox, or an heretical, creed, may be
expressed by the difference of a disjunctive, or a copulative,
particle. Alternate responses, and a more regular psalmody, 146
were introduced into the public service by Flavianus and
Diodorus, two devout and active laymen, who were attached to the
Nicene faith. Under their conduct a swarm of monks issued from
the adjacent desert, bands of well-disciplined singers were
stationed in the cathedral of Antioch, the Glory to the Father,
And the Son, And the Holy Ghost, 147 was triumphantly chanted by
a full chorus of voices; and the Catholics insulted, by the
purity of their doctrine, the Arian prelate, who had usurped the
throne of the venerable Eustathius. The same zeal which inspired
their songs prompted the more scrupulous members of the orthodox
party to form separate assemblies, which were governed by the
presbyters, till the death of their exiled bishop allowed the
election and consecration of a new episcopal pastor. 148 The
revolutions of the court multiplied the number of pretenders; and
the same city was often disputed, under the reign of Constantius,
by two, or three, or even four, bishops, who exercised their
spiritual jurisdiction over their respective followers, and
alternately lost and regained the temporal possessions of the
church. The abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman
government new causes of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil
society were torn asunder by the fury of religious factions; and
the obscure citizen, who might calmly have surveyed the elevation
and fall of successive emperors, imagined and experienced, that
his own life and fortune were connected with the interests of a
popular ecclesiastic. The example of the two capitals, Rome and
Constantinople, may serve to represent the state of the empire,
and the temper of mankind, under the reign of the sons of
Constantine.
145 (return) [ Athanasius (tom. i. p. 811) complains in general
of this practice, which he afterwards exemplifies (p. 861) in the
pretended election of Faelix. Three eunuchs represented the Roman
people, and three prelates, who followed the court, assumed the
functions of the bishops of the Suburbicarian provinces.]
146 (return) [ Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. l. ii.
c. 72, 73, p. 966-984) has collected many curious facts
concerning the origin and progress of church singing, both in the
East and West. * Note: Arius appears to have been the first who
availed himself of this means of impressing his doctrines on the
popular ear: he composed songs for sailors, millers, and
travellers, and set them to common airs; “beguiling the ignorant,
by the sweetness of his music, into the impiety of his
doctrines.” Philostorgius, ii. 2. Arian singers used to parade
the streets of Constantinople by night, till Chrysostom arrayed
against them a band of orthodox choristers. Sozomen, viii. 8.—M.]
147 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iii. c. 13. Godefroy has
examined this subject with singular accuracy, (p. 147, &c.) There
were three heterodox forms: “To the Father by the Son, and in the
Holy Ghost.” “To the Father, and the Son in the Holy Ghost;” and
“To the Father in the Son and the Holy Ghost.”]
148 (return) [ After the exile of Eustathius, under the reign of
Constantine, the rigid party of the orthodox formed a separation
which afterwards degenerated into a schism, and lasted about
fourscore years. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 35-54,
1137-1158, tom. viii. p. 537-632, 1314-1332. In many churches,
the Arians and Homoousians, who had renounced each other’s
communion, continued for some time to join in prayer.
Philostorgius, l. iii. c. 14.]
I. The Roman pontiff, as long as he maintained his station and
his principles, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great
people; and could reject with scorn the prayers, the menaces, and
the oblations of an heretical prince. When the eunuchs had
secretly pronounced the exile of Liberius, the well-grounded
apprehension of a tumult engaged them to use the utmost
precautions in the execution of the sentence. The capital was
invested on every side, and the praefect was commanded to seize
the person of the bishop, either by stratagem or by open force.
The order was obeyed, and Liberius, with the greatest difficulty,
at the hour of midnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of
the Roman people, before their consternation was turned into
rage. As soon as they were informed of his banishment into
Thrace, a general assembly was convened, and the clergy of Rome
bound themselves, by a public and solemn oath, never to desert
their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper Faelix; who, by
the influence of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen and
consecrated within the walls of a profane palace. At the end of
two years, their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken;
and when Constantius visited Rome, he was assailed by the
importunate solicitations of a people, who had preserved, as the
last remnant of their ancient freedom, the right of treating
their sovereign with familiar insolence. The wives of many of the
senators and most honorable citizens, after pressing their
husbands to intercede in favor of Liberius, were advised to
undertake a commission, which in their hands would be less
dangerous, and might prove more successful. The emperor received
with politeness these female deputies, whose wealth and dignity
were displayed in the magnificence of their dress and ornaments:
he admired their inflexible resolution of following their beloved
pastor to the most distant regions of the earth; and consented
that the two bishops, Liberius and Faelix, should govern in peace
their respective congregations. But the ideas of toleration were
so repugnant to the practice, and even to the sentiments, of
those times, that when the answer of Constantius was publicly
read in the Circus of Rome, so reasonable a project of
accommodation was rejected with contempt and ridicule. The eager
vehemence which animated the spectators in the decisive moment of
a horse-race, was now directed towards a different object; and
the Circus resounded with the shout of thousands, who repeatedly
exclaimed, “One God, One Christ, One Bishop!” The zeal of the
Roman people in the cause of Liberius was not confined to words
alone; and the dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited
soon after the departure of Constantius determined that prince to
accept the submission of the exiled prelate, and to restore him
to the undivided dominion of the capital. After some ineffectual
resistance, his rival was expelled from the city by the
permission of the emperor and the power of the opposite faction;
the adherents of Faelix were inhumanly murdered in the streets,
in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches; and
the face of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed
the horrid image of the massacres of Marius, and the
proscriptions of Sylla. 149
149 (return) [ See, on this ecclesiastical revolution of Rome,
Ammianus, xv. 7 Athanas. tom. i. p. 834, 861. Sozomen, l. iv. c.
15. Theodoret, l. ii c. 17. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p.
413. Hieronym. Chron. Marcellin. et Faustin. Libell. p. 3, 4.
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p.]
II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the
reign of the Flavian family, Rome, Alexandria, and the other
great cities of the empire, still contained a strong and powerful
faction of Infidels, who envied the prosperity, and who
ridiculed, even in their theatres, the theological disputes of
the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed the advantage of being
born and educated in the bosom of the faith. The capital of the
East had never been polluted by the worship of idols; and the
whole body of the people had deeply imbibed the opinions, the
virtues, and the passions, which distinguished the Christians of
that age from the rest of mankind. After the death of Alexander,
the episcopal throne was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. By
their zeal and abilities they both deserved the eminent station
to which they aspired; and if the moral character of Macedonius
was less exceptionable, his competitor had the advantage of a
prior election and a more orthodox doctrine. His firm attachment
to the Nicene creed, which has given Paul a place in the calendar
among saints and martyrs, exposed him to the resentment of the
Arians. In the space of fourteen years he was five times driven
from his throne; to which he was more frequently restored by the
violence of the people, than by the permission of the prince; and
the power of Macedonius could be secured only by the death of his
rival. The unfortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy
deserts of Mesopotamia to the most desolate places of Mount
Taurus, 150 confined in a dark and narrow dungeon, left six days
without food, and at length strangled, by the order of Philip,
one of the principal ministers of the emperor Constantius. 151
The first blood which stained the new capital was spilt in this
ecclesiastical contest; and many persons were slain on both
sides, in the furious and obstinate seditions of the people. The
commission of enforcing a sentence of banishment against Paul had
been intrusted to Hermogenes, the master-general of the cavalry;
but the execution of it was fatal to himself. The Catholics rose
in the defence of their bishop; the palace of Hermogenes was
consumed; the first military officer of the empire was dragged by
the heels through the streets of Constantinople, and, after he
expired, his lifeless corpse was exposed to their wanton insults.
152 The fate of Hermogenes instructed Philip, the Praetorian
praefect, to act with more precaution on a similar occasion. In
the most gentle and honorable terms, he required the attendance
of Paul in the baths of Xeuxippus, which had a private
communication with the palace and the sea. A vessel, which lay
ready at the garden stairs, immediately hoisted sail; and, while
the people were still ignorant of the meditated sacrilege, their
bishop was already embarked on his voyage to Thessalonica. They
soon beheld, with surprise and indignation, the gates of the
palace thrown open, and the usurper Macedonius seated by the side
of the praefect on a lofty chariot, which was surrounded by
troops of guards with drawn swords. The military procession
advanced towards the cathedral; the Arians and the Catholics
eagerly rushed to occupy that important post; and three thousand
one hundred and fifty persons lost their lives in the confusion
of the tumult. Macedonius, who was supported by a regular force,
obtained a decisive victory; but his reign was disturbed by
clamor and sedition; and the causes which appeared the least
connected with the subject of dispute, were sufficient to nourish
and to kindle the flame of civil discord. As the chapel in which
the body of the great Constantine had been deposited was in a
ruinous condition, the bishop transported those venerable remains
into the church of St. Acacius. This prudent and even pious
measure was represented as a wicked profanation by the whole
party which adhered to the Homoousian doctrine. The factions
immediately flew to arms, the consecrated ground was used as
their field of battle; and one of the ecclesiastical historians
has observed, as a real fact, not as a figure of rhetoric, that
the well before the church overflowed with a stream of blood,
which filled the porticos and the adjacent courts. The writer who
should impute these tumults solely to a religious principle,
would betray a very imperfect knowledge of human nature; yet it
must be confessed that the motive which misled the sincerity of
zeal, and the pretence which disguised the licentiousness of
passion, suppressed the remorse which, in another cause, would
have succeeded to the rage of the Christians at Constantinople.
153
150 (return) [ Cucusus was the last stage of his life and
sufferings. The situation of that lonely town, on the confines of
Cappadocia, Cilicia, and the Lesser Armenia, has occasioned some
geographical perplexity; but we are directed to the true spot by
the course of the Roman road from Caesarea to Anazarbus. See
Cellarii Geograph. tom. ii. p. 213. Wesseling ad Itinerar. p.
179, 703.]
151 (return) [ Athanasius (tom. i. p. 703, 813, 814) affirms, in
the most positive terms, that Paul was murdered; and appeals, not
only to common fame, but even to the unsuspicious testimony of
Philagrius, one of the Arian persecutors. Yet he acknowledges
that the heretics attributed to disease the death of the bishop
of Constantinople. Athanasius is servilely copied by Socrates,
(l. ii. c. 26;) but Sozomen, who discovers a more liberal temper.
presumes (l. iv. c. 2) to insinuate a prudent doubt.]
152 (return) [ Ammianus (xiv. 10) refers to his own account of
this tragic event. But we no longer possess that part of his
history. Note: The murder of Hermogenes took place at the first
expulsion of Paul from the see of Constantinople.—M.]
153 (return) [ See Socrates, l. ii. c. 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 26,
27, 38, and Sozomen, l. iii. 3, 4, 7, 9, l. iv. c. ii. 21. The
acts of St. Paul of Constantinople, of which Photius has made an
abstract, (Phot. Bibliot. p. 1419-1430,) are an indifferent copy
of these historians; but a modern Greek, who could write the life
of a saint without adding fables and miracles, is entitled to
some commendation.]
Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.—Part
VII.
The cruel and arbitrary disposition of Constantius, which did not
always require the provocations of guilt and resistance, was
justly exasperated by the tumults of his capital, and the
criminal behavior of a faction, which opposed the authority and
religion of their sovereign. The ordinary punishments of death,
exile, and confiscation, were inflicted with partial vigor; and
the Greeks still revere the holy memory of two clerks, a reader,
and a sub-deacon, who were accused of the murder of Hermogenes,
and beheaded at the gates of Constantinople. By an edict of
Constantius against the Catholics which has not been judged
worthy of a place in the Theodosian code, those who refused to
communicate with the Arian bishops, and particularly with
Macedonius, were deprived of the immunities of ecclesiastics, and
of the rights of Christians; they were compelled to relinquish
the possession of the churches; and were strictly prohibited from
holding their assemblies within the walls of the city. The
execution of this unjust law, in the provinces of Thrace and Asia
Minor, was committed to the zeal of Macedonius; the civil and
military powers were directed to obey his commands; and the
cruelties exercised by this Semi- Arian tyrant in the support of
the Homoiousion, exceeded the commission, and disgraced the
reign, of Constantius. The sacraments of the church were
administered to the reluctant victims, who denied the vocation,
and abhorred the principles, of Macedonius. The rites of baptism
were conferred on women and children, who, for that purpose, had
been torn from the arms of their friends and parents; the mouths
of the communicants were held open by a wooden engine, while the
consecrated bread was forced down their throat; the breasts of
tender virgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-shells, or
inhumanly compressed betweens harp and heavy boards. 154 The
Novatians of Constantinople and the adjacent country, by their
firm attachment to the Homoousian standard, deserved to be
confounded with the Catholics themselves. Macedonius was
informed, that a large district of Paphlagonia 155 was almost
entirely inhabited by those sectaries. He resolved either to
convert or to extirpate them; and as he distrusted, on this
occasion, the efficacy of an ecclesiastical mission, he commanded
a body of four thousand legionaries to march against the rebels,
and to reduce the territory of Mantinium under his spiritual
dominion. The Novatian peasants, animated by despair and
religious fury, boldly encountered the invaders of their country;
and though many of the Paphlagonians were slain, the Roman
legions were vanquished by an irregular multitude, armed only
with scythes and axes; and, except a few who escaped by an
ignominious flight, four thousand soldiers were left dead on the
field of battle. The successor of Constantius has expressed, in a
concise but lively manner, some of the theological calamities
which afflicted the empire, and more especially the East, in the
reign of a prince who was the slave of his own passions, and of
those of his eunuchs: “Many were imprisoned, and persecuted, and
driven into exile. Whole troops of those who are styled heretics,
were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In
Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Galatia, and in many other provinces,
towns and villages were laid waste, and utterly destroyed.” 156
154 (return) [ Socrates, l. ii. c. 27, 38. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 21.
The principal assistants of Macedonius, in the work of
persecution, were the two bishops of Nicomedia and Cyzicus, who
were esteemed for their virtues, and especially for their
charity. I cannot forbear reminding the reader, that the
difference between the Homoousion and Homoiousion, is almost
invisible to the nicest theological eye.]
155 (return) [ We are ignorant of the precise situation of
Mantinium. In speaking of these four bands of legionaries,
Socrates, Sozomen, and the author of the acts of St. Paul, use
the indefinite terms of, which Nicephorus very properly
translates thousands. Vales. ad Socrat. l. ii. c. 38.]
156 (return) [ Julian. Epist. lii. p. 436, edit. Spanheim.]
While the flames of the Arian controversy consumed the vitals of
the empire, the African provinces were infested by their peculiar
enemies, the savage fanatics, who, under the name of
Circumcellions, formed the strength and scandal of the Donatist
party. 157 The severe execution of the laws of Constantine had
excited a spirit of discontent and resistance, the strenuous
efforts of his son Constans, to restore the unity of the church,
exasperated the sentiments of mutual hatred, which had first
occasioned the separation; and the methods of force and
corruption employed by the two Imperial commissioners, Paul and
Macarius, furnished the schismatics with a specious contrast
between the maxims of the apostles and the conduct of their
pretended successors. 158 The peasants who inhabited the villages
of Numidia and Mauritania, were a ferocious race, who had been
imperfectly reduced under the authority of the Roman laws; who
were imperfectly converted to the Christian faith; but who were
actuated by a blind and furious enthusiasm in the cause of their
Donatist teachers. They indignantly supported the exile of their
bishops, the demolition of their churches, and the interruption
of their secret assemblies. The violence of the officers of
justice, who were usually sustained by a military guard, was
sometimes repelled with equal violence; and the blood of some
popular ecclesiastics, which had been shed in the quarrel,
inflamed their rude followers with an eager desire of revenging
the death of these holy martyrs. By their own cruelty and
rashness, the ministers of persecution sometimes provoked their
fate; and the guilt of an accidental tumult precipitated the
criminals into despair and rebellion. Driven from their native
villages, the Donatist peasants assembled in formidable gangs on
the edge of the Getulian desert; and readily exchanged the habits
of labor for a life of idleness and rapine, which was consecrated
by the name of religion, and faintly condemned by the doctors of
the sect. The leaders of the Circumcellions assumed the title of
captains of the saints; their principal weapon, as they were
indifferently provided with swords and spears, was a huge and
weighty club, which they termed an Israelite; and the well-known
sound of “Praise be to God,” which they used as their cry of war,
diffused consternation over the unarmed provinces of Africa. At
first their depredations were colored by the plea of necessity;
but they soon exceeded the measure of subsistence, indulged
without control their intemperance and avarice, burnt the
villages which they had pillaged, and reigned the licentious
tyrants of the open country. The occupations of husbandry, and
the administration of justice, were interrupted; and as the
Circumcellions pretended to restore the primitive equality of
mankind, and to reform the abuses of civil society, they opened a
secure asylum for the slaves and debtors, who flocked in crowds
to their holy standard. When they were not resisted, they usually
contented themselves with plunder, but the slightest opposition
provoked them to acts of violence and murder; and some Catholic
priests, who had imprudently signalized their zeal, were tortured
by the fanatics with the most refined and wanton barbarity. The
spirit of the Circumcellions was not always exerted against their
defenceless enemies; they engaged, and sometimes defeated, the
troops of the province; and in the bloody action of Bagai, they
attacked in the open field, but with unsuccessful valor, an
advanced guard of the Imperial cavalry. The Donatists who were
taken in arms, received, and they soon deserved, the same
treatment which might have been shown to the wild beasts of the
desert. The captives died, without a murmur, either by the sword,
the axe, or the fire; and the measures of retaliation were
multiplied in a rapid proportion, which aggravated the horrors of
rebellion, and excluded the hope of mutual forgiveness. In the
beginning of the present century, the example of the
Circumcellions has been renewed in the persecution, the boldness,
the crimes, and the enthusiasm of the Camisards; and if the
fanatics of Languedoc surpassed those of Numidia, by their
military achievements, the Africans maintained their fierce
independence with more resolution and perseverance. 159
157 (return) [ See Optatus Milevitanus, (particularly iii. 4,)
with the Donatis history, by M. Dupin, and the original pieces at
the end of his edition. The numerous circumstances which Augustin
has mentioned, of the fury of the Circumcellions against others,
and against themselves, have been laboriously collected by
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 147-165; and he has often,
though without design, exposed injuries which had provoked those
fanatics.]
158 (return) [ It is amusing enough to observe the language of
opposite parties, when they speak of the same men and things.
Gratus, bishop of Carthage, begins the acclamations of an
orthodox synod, “Gratias Deo omnipotenti et Christu Jesu... qui
imperavit religiosissimo Constanti Imperatori, ut votum gereret
unitatis, et mitteret ministros sancti operis famulos Dei Paulum
et Macarium.” Monument. Vet. ad Calcem Optati, p. 313. “Ecce
subito,” (says the Donatist author of the Passion of Marculus),
“de Constantis regif tyrannica domo.. pollutum Macarianae
persecutionis murmur increpuit, et duabus bestiis ad Africam
missis, eodem scilicet Macario et Paulo, execrandum prorsus ac
dirum ecclesiae certamen indictum est; ut populus Christianus ad
unionem cum traditoribus faciendam, nudatis militum gladiis et
draconum praesentibus signis, et tubarum vocibus cogeretur.”
Monument. p. 304.]
159 (return) [ The Histoire des Camisards, in 3 vols. 12mo.
Villefranche, 1760 may be recommended as accurate and impartial.
It requires some attention to discover the religion of the
author.]
Such disorders are the natural effects of religious tyranny, but
the rage of the Donatists was inflamed by a frenzy of a very
extraordinary kind; and which, if it really prevailed among them
in so extravagant a degree, cannot surely be paralleled in any
country or in any age. Many of these fanatics were possessed with
the horror of life, and the desire of martyrdom; and they deemed
it of little moment by what means, or by what hands, they
perished, if their conduct was sanctified by the intention of
devoting themselves to the glory of the true faith, and the hope
of eternal happiness. 160 Sometimes they rudely disturbed the
festivals, and profaned the temples of Paganism, with the design
of exciting the most zealous of the idolaters to revenge the
insulted honor of their gods. They sometimes forced their way
into the courts of justice, and compelled the affrighted judge to
give orders for their immediate execution. They frequently
stopped travellers on the public highways, and obliged them to
inflict the stroke of martyrdom, by the promise of a reward, if
they consented, and by the threat of instant death, if they
refused to grant so very singular a favor. When they were
disappointed of every other resource, they announced the day on
which, in the presence of their friends and brethren, they should
cast themselves headlong from some lofty rock; and many
precipices were shown, which had acquired fame by the number of
religious suicides. In the actions of these desperate
enthusiasts, who were admired by one party as the martyrs of God,
and abhorred by the other as the victims of Satan, an impartial
philosopher may discover the influence and the last abuse of that
inflexible spirit which was originally derived from the character
and principles of the Jewish nation.
160 (return) [ The Donatist suicides alleged in their
justification the example of Razias, which is related in the 14th
chapter of the second book of the Maccabees.]
The simple narrative of the intestine divisions, which distracted
the peace, and dishonored the triumph, of the church, will
confirm the remark of a Pagan historian, and justify the
complaint of a venerable bishop. The experience of Ammianus had
convinced him, that the enmity of the Christians towards each
other, surpassed the fury of savage beasts against man; 161 and
Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically laments, that the kingdom of
heaven was converted, by discord, into the image of chaos, of a
nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself. 162 The fierce and partial
writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and
imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle
of the angels and daemons. Our calmer reason will reject such
pure and perfect monsters of vice or sanctity, and will impute an
equal, or at least an indiscriminate, measure of good and evil to
the hostile sectaries, who assumed and bestowed the appellations
of orthodox and heretics. They had been educated in the same
religion and the same civil society. Their hopes and fears in the
present, or in a future life, were balanced in the same
proportion. On either side, the error might be innocent, the
faith sincere, the practice meritorious or corrupt. Their
passions were excited by similar objects; and they might
alternately abuse the favor of the court, or of the people. The
metaphysical opinions of the Athanasians and the Arians could not
influence their moral character; and they were alike actuated by
the intolerant spirit which has been extracted from the pure and
simple maxims of the gospel.
161 (return) [ Nullus infestas hominibus bestias, ut sunt sibi
ferales plerique Christianorum, expertus. Ammian. xxii. 5.]
162 (return) [ Gregor, Nazianzen, Orav. i. p. 33. See Tillemont,
tom vi. p. 501, qua to edit.]
A modern writer, who, with a just confidence, has prefixed to his
own history the honorable epithets of political and
philosophical, 163 accuses the timid prudence of Montesquieu, for
neglecting to enumerate, among the causes of the decline of the
empire, a law of Constantine, by which the exercise of the Pagan
worship was absolutely suppressed, and a considerable part of his
subjects was left destitute of priests, of temples, and of any
public religion. The zeal of the philosophic historian for the
rights of mankind, has induced him to acquiesce in the ambiguous
testimony of those ecclesiastics, who have too lightly ascribed
to their favorite hero the merit of a general persecution. 164
Instead of alleging this imaginary law, which would have blazed
in the front of the Imperial codes, we may safely appeal to the
original epistle, which Constantine addressed to the followers of
the ancient religion; at a time when he no longer disguised his
conversion, nor dreaded the rivals of his throne. He invites and
exhorts, in the most pressing terms, the subjects of the Roman
empire to imitate the example of their master; but he declares,
that those who still refuse to open their eyes to the celestial
light, may freely enjoy their temples and their fancied gods. A
report, that the ceremonies of paganism were suppressed, is
formally contradicted by the emperor himself, who wisely assigns,
as the principle of his moderation, the invincible force of
habit, of prejudice, and of superstition. 165 Without violating
the sanctity of his promise, without alarming the fears of the
Pagans, the artful monarch advanced, by slow and cautious steps,
to undermine the irregular and decayed fabric of polytheism. The
partial acts of severity which he occasionally exercised, though
they were secretly promoted by a Christian zeal, were colored by
the fairest pretences of justice and the public good; and while
Constantine designed to ruin the foundations, he seemed to reform
the abuses, of the ancient religion. After the example of the
wisest of his predecessors, he condemned, under the most rigorous
penalties, the occult and impious arts of divination; which
excited the vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts, of
those who were discontented with their present condition. An
ignominious silence was imposed on the oracles, which had been
publicly convicted of fraud and falsehood; the effeminate priests
of the Nile were abolished; and Constantine discharged the duties
of a Roman censor, when he gave orders for the demolition of
several temples of Phoenicia; in which every mode of prostitution
was devoutly practised in the face of day, and to the honor of
Venus. 166 The Imperial city of Constantinople was, in some
measure, raised at the expense, and was adorned with the spoils,
of the opulent temples of Greece and Asia; the sacred property
was confiscated; the statues of gods and heroes were transported,
with rude familiarity, among a people who considered them as
objects, not of adoration, but of curiosity; the gold and silver
were restored to circulation; and the magistrates, the bishops,
and the eunuchs, improved the fortunate occasion of gratifying,
at once, their zeal, their avarice, and their resentment. But
these depredations were confined to a small part of the Roman
world; and the provinces had been long since accustomed to endure
the same sacrilegious rapine, from the tyranny of princes and
proconsuls, who could not be suspected of any design to subvert
the established religion. 167
163 (return) [ Histoire Politique et Philosophique des
Etablissemens des Europeens dans les deux Indes, tom. i. p. 9.]
164 (return) [ According to Eusebius, (in Vit. Constantin. l. ii.
c. 45,) the emperor prohibited, both in cities and in the
country, the abominable acts or parts of idolatry. l Socrates (l.
i. c. 17) and Sozomen (l. ii. c. 4, 5) have represented the
conduct of Constantine with a just regard to truth and history;
which has been neglected by Theodoret (l. v. c. 21) and Orosius,
(vii. 28.) Tum deinde (says the latter) primus Constantinus justo
ordine et pio vicem vertit edicto; siquidem statuit citra ullam
hominum caedem, paganorum templa claudi.]
165 (return) [ See Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. ii. c. 56, 60.
In the sermon to the assembly of saints, which the emperor
pronounced when he was mature in years and piety, he declares to
the idolaters (c. xii.) that they are permitted to offer
sacrifices, and to exercise every part of their religious
worship.]
166 (return) [ See Eusebius, in Vit. Constantin. l. iii. c.
54-58, and l. iv. c. 23, 25. These acts of authority may be
compared with the suppression of the Bacchanals, and the
demolition of the temple of Isis, by the magistrates of Pagan
Rome.]
167 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vit. Constan. l. iii. c. 54-58) and
Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 9, 10, edit. Gothofred) both
mention the pious sacrilege of Constantine, which they viewed in
very different lights. The latter expressly declares, that “he
made use of the sacred money, but made no alteration in the legal
worship; the temples indeed were impoverished, but the sacred
rites were performed there.” Lardner’s Jewish and Heathen
Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 140.]
The sons of Constantine trod in the footsteps of their father,
with more zeal, and with less discretion. The pretences of rapine
and oppression were insensibly multiplied; 168 every indulgence
was shown to the illegal behavior of the Christians; every doubt
was explained to the disadvantage of Paganism; and the demolition
of the temples was celebrated as one of the auspicious events of
the reign of Constans and Constantius. 169 The name of
Constantius is prefixed to a concise law, which might have
superseded the necessity of any future prohibitions. “It is our
pleasure, that in all places, and in all cities, the temples be
immediately shut, and carefully guarded, that none may have the
power of offending. It is likewise our pleasure, that all our
subjects should abstain from sacrifices. If any one should be
guilty of such an act, let him feel the sword of vengeance, and
after his execution, let his property be confiscated to the
public use. We denounce the same penalties against the governors
of the provinces, if they neglect to punish the criminals.” 170
But there is the strongest reason to believe, that this
formidable edict was either composed without being published, or
was published without being executed. The evidence of facts, and
the monuments which are still extant of brass and marble,
continue to prove the public exercise of the Pagan worship during
the whole reign of the sons of Constantine. In the East, as well
as in the West, in cities, as well as in the country, a great
number of temples were respected, or at least were spared; and
the devout multitude still enjoyed the luxury of sacrifices, of
festivals, and of processions, by the permission, or by the
connivance, of the civil government. About four years after the
supposed date of this bloody edict, Constantius visited the
temples of Rome; and the decency of his behavior is recommended
by a pagan orator as an example worthy of the imitation of
succeeding princes. “That emperor,” says Symmachus, “suffered the
privileges of the vestal virgins to remain inviolate; he bestowed
the sacerdotal dignities on the nobles of Rome, granted the
customary allowance to defray the expenses of the public rites
and sacrifices; and, though he had embraced a different religion,
he never attempted to deprive the empire of the sacred worship of
antiquity.” 171 The senate still presumed to consecrate, by
solemn decrees, the divine memory of their sovereigns; and
Constantine himself was associated, after his death, to those
gods whom he had renounced and insulted during his life. The
title, the ensigns, the prerogatives, of sovereign pontiff, which
had been instituted by Numa, and assumed by Augustus, were
accepted, without hesitation, by seven Christian emperors; who
were invested with a more absolute authority over the religion
which they had deserted, than over that which they professed. 172
168 (return) [ Ammianus (xxii. 4) speaks of some court eunuchs
who were spoliis templorum pasti. Libanius says (Orat. pro Templ.
p. 23) that the emperor often gave away a temple, like a dog, or
a horse, or a slave, or a gold cup; but the devout philosopher
takes care to observe that these sacrilegious favorites very
seldom prospered.]
169 (return) [ See Gothofred. Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 262.
Liban. Orat. Parental c. x. in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. tom. vii. p.
235.]
170 (return) [ Placuit omnibus locis atque urbibus universis
claudi protinus empla, et accessu vetitis omnibus licentiam
delinquendi perditis abnegari. Volumus etiam cunctos a
sacrificiis abstinere. Quod siquis aliquid forte hujusmodi
perpetraverit, gladio sternatur: facultates etiam perempti fisco
decernimus vindicari: et similiter adfligi rectores provinciarum
si facinora vindicare neglexerint. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x.
leg. 4. Chronology has discovered some contradiction in the date
of this extravagant law; the only one, perhaps, by which the
negligence of magistrates is punished by death and confiscation.
M. de la Bastie (Mem. de l’Academie, tom. xv. p. 98) conjectures,
with a show of reason, that this was no more than the minutes of
a law, the heads of an intended bill, which were found in
Scriniis Memoriae among the papers of Constantius, and afterwards
inserted, as a worthy model, in the Theodosian Code.]
171 (return) [ Symmach. Epistol. x. 54.]
172 (return) [ The fourth Dissertation of M. de la Bastie, sur le
Souverain Pontificat des Empereurs Romains, (in the Mem. de
l’Acad. tom. xv. p. 75- 144,) is a very learned and judicious
performance, which explains the state, and prove the toleration,
of Paganism from Constantino to Gratian. The assertion of
Zosimus, that Gratian was the first who refused the pontifical
robe, is confirmed beyond a doubt; and the murmurs of bigotry on
that subject are almost silenced.]
The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of Paganism; 173
and the holy war against the infidels was less vigorously
prosecuted by princes and bishops, who were more immediately
alarmed by the guilt and danger of domestic rebellion. The
extirpation of idolatry 174 might have been justified by the
established principles of intolerance: but the hostile sects,
which alternately reigned in the Imperial court were mutually
apprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, the minds
of a powerful, though declining faction. Every motive of
authority and fashion, of interest and reason, now militated on
the side of Christianity; but two or three generations elapsed,
before their victorious influence was universally felt. The
religion which had so long and so lately been established in the
Roman empire was still revered by a numerous people, less
attached indeed to speculative opinion, than to ancient custom.
The honors of the state and army were indifferently bestowed on
all the subjects of Constantine and Constantius; and a
considerable portion of knowledge and wealth and valor was still
engaged in the service of polytheism. The superstition of the
senator and of the peasant, of the poet and the philosopher, was
derived from very different causes, but they met with equal
devotion in the temples of the gods. Their zeal was insensibly
provoked by the insulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and their
hopes were revived by the well-grounded confidence, that the
presumptive heir of the empire, a young and valiant hero, who had
delivered Gaul from the arms of the Barbarians, had secretly
embraced the religion of his ancestors.
173 (return) [ As I have freely anticipated the use of pagans and
paganism, I shall now trace the singular revolutions of those
celebrated words. 1. in the Doric dialect, so familiar to the
Italians, signifies a fountain; and the rural neighborhood, which
frequented the same fountain, derived the common appellation of
pagus and pagans. (Festus sub voce, and Servius ad Virgil.
Georgic. ii. 382.) 2. By an easy extension of the word, pagan and
rural became almost synonymous, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxviii. 5;)
and the meaner rustics acquired that name, which has been
corrupted into peasants in the modern languages of Europe. 3. The
amazing increase of the military order introduced the necessity
of a correlative term, (Hume’s Essays, vol. i. p. 555;) and all
the people who were not enlisted in the service of the prince
were branded with the contemptuous epithets of pagans. (Tacit.
Hist. iii. 24, 43, 77. Juvenal. Satir. 16. Tertullian de Pallio,
c. 4.) 4. The Christians were the soldiers of Christ; their
adversaries, who refused his sacrament, or military oath of
baptism might deserve the metaphorical name of pagans; and this
popular reproach was introduced as early as the reign of
Valentinian (A. D. 365) into Imperial laws (Cod. Theodos. l. xvi.
tit. ii. leg. 18) and theological writings. 5. Christianity
gradually filled the cities of the empire: the old religion, in
the time of Prudentius (advers. Symmachum, l. i. ad fin.) and
Orosius, (in Praefat. Hist.,) retired and languished in obscure
villages; and the word pagans, with its new signification,
reverted to its primitive origin. 6. Since the worship of Jupiter
and his family has expired, the vacant title of pagans has been
successively applied to all the idolaters and polytheists of the
old and new world. 7. The Latin Christians bestowed it, without
scruple, on their mortal enemies, the Mahometans; and the purest
Unitarians were branded with the unjust reproach of idolatry and
paganism. See Gerard Vossius, Etymologicon Linguae Latinae, in
his works, tom. i. p. 420; Godefroy’s Commentary on the
Theodosian Code, tom. vi. p. 250; and Ducange, Mediae et Infimae
Latinitat. Glossar.]
174 (return) [ In the pure language of Ionia and Athens were
ancient and familiar words. The former expressed a likeness, an
apparition (Homer. Odys. xi. 601,) a representation, an image,
created either by fancy or art. The latter denoted any sort of
service or slavery. The Jews of Egypt, who translated the Hebrew
Scriptures, restrained the use of these words (Exod. xx. 4, 5) to
the religious worship of an image. The peculiar idiom of the
Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, has been adopted by the sacred and
ecclesiastical writers and the reproach of idolatry has
stigmatized that visible and abject mode of superstition, which
some sects of Christianity should not hastily impute to the
polytheists of Greece and Rome.]
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part I.
Julian Is Declared Emperor By The Legions Of Gaul.—His March And
Success.—The Death Of Constantius.—Civil Administration Of Julian.
While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of
eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with
transport in every part of the empire, except in the palace of
Constantius. The barbarians of Germany had felt, and still
dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his soldiers were the
companions of his victory; the grateful provincials enjoyed the
blessings of his reign; but the favorites, who had opposed his
elevation, were offended by his virtues; and they justly
considered the friend of the people as the enemy of the court. As
long as the fame of Julian was doubtful, the buffoons of the
palace, who were skilled in the language of satire, tried the
efficacy of those arts which they had so often practised with
success. They easily discovered, that his simplicity was not
exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets of a hairy
savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to the
dress and person of the philosophic warrior; and his modest
despatches were stigmatized as the vain and elaborate fictions of
a loquacious Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the
art of war amidst the groves of the academy. 1 The voice of
malicious folly was at length silenced by the shouts of victory;
the conqueror of the Franks and Alemanni could no longer be
painted as an object of contempt; and the monarch himself was
meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenant the honorable
reward of his labors. In the letters crowned with laurel, which,
according to ancient custom, were addressed to the provinces, the
name of Julian was omitted. “Constantius had made his
dispositions in person; he had signalized his valor in the
foremost ranks; his military conduct had secured the victory; and
the captive king of the barbarians was presented to him on the
field of battle,” from which he was at that time distant about
forty days’ journey. 2 So extravagant a fable was incapable,
however, of deceiving the public credulity, or even of satisfying
the pride of the emperor himself. Secretly conscious that the
applause and favor of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes
of Julian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the
subtle poison of those artful sycophants, who colored their
mischievous designs with the fairest appearances of truth and
candor. 3 Instead of depreciating the merits of Julian, they
acknowledged, and even exaggerated, his popular fame, superior
talents, and important services. But they darkly insinuated, that
the virtues of the Caesar might instantly be converted into the
most dangerous crimes, if the inconstant multitude should prefer
their inclinations to their duty; or if the general of a
victorious army should be tempted from his allegiance by the
hopes of revenge and independent greatness. The personal fears of
Constantius were interpreted by his council as a laudable anxiety
for the public safety; whilst in private, and perhaps in his own
breast, he disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear,
the sentiments of hatred and envy, which he had secretly
conceived for the inimitable virtues of Julian.
1 (return) [ Omnes qui plus poterant in palatio, adulandi
professores jam docti, recte consulta, prospereque completa
vertebant in deridiculum: talia sine modo strepentes insulse; in
odium venit cum victoriis suis; capella, non homo; ut hirsutum
Julianum carpentes, appellantesque loquacem talpam, et purpuratam
simiam, et litterionem Graecum: et his congruentia plurima atque
vernacula principi resonantes, audire haec taliaque gestienti,
virtutes ejus obruere verbis impudentibus conabantur, et segnem
incessentes et timidum et umbratilem, gestaque secus verbis
comptioribus exornantem. Ammianus, s. xvii. 11. * Note: The
philosophers retaliated on the courtiers. Marius (says Eunapius
in a newly-discovered fragment) was wont to call his antagonist
Sylla a beast half lion and half fox. Constantius had nothing of
the lion, but was surrounded by a whole litter of foxes. Mai.
Script. Byz. Nov. Col. ii. 238. Niebuhr. Byzant. Hist. 66.—M.]
2 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 12. The orator Themistius (iv. p. 56,
57) believed whatever was contained in the Imperial letters,
which were addressed to the senate of Constantinople Aurelius
Victor, who published his Abridgment in the last year of
Constantius, ascribes the German victories to the wisdom of the
emperor, and the fortune of the Caesar. Yet the historian, soon
afterwards, was indebted to the favor or esteem of Julian for the
honor of a brass statue, and the important offices of consular of
the second Pannonia, and praefect of the city, Ammian. xxi. 10.]
3 (return) [ Callido nocendi artificio, accusatoriam diritatem
laudum titulis peragebant. .. Hae voces fuerunt ad inflammanda
odia probria omnibus potentiores. See Mamertin, in Actione
Gratiarum in Vet Panegyr. xi. 5, 6.]
The apparent tranquillity of Gaul, and the imminent danger of the
eastern provinces, offered a specious pretence for the design
which was artfully concerted by the Imperial ministers. They
resolved to disarm the Caesar; to recall those faithful troops
who guarded his person and dignity; and to employ, in a distant
war against the Persian monarch, the hardy veterans who had
vanquished, on the banks of the Rhine, the fiercest nations of
Germany. While Julian used the laborious hours of his winter
quarters at Paris in the administration of power, which, in his
hands, was the exercise of virtue, he was surprised by the hasty
arrival of a tribune and a notary, with positive orders, from the
emperor, which they were directed to execute, and he was
commanded not to oppose. Constantius signified his pleasure, that
four entire legions, the Celtae, and Petulants, the Heruli, and
the Batavians, should be separated from the standard of Julian,
under which they had acquired their fame and discipline; that in
each of the remaining bands three hundred of the bravest youths
should be selected; and that this numerous detachment, the
strength of the Gallic army, should instantly begin their march,
and exert their utmost diligence to arrive, before the opening of
the campaign, on the frontiers of Persia. 4 The Caesar foresaw
and lamented the consequences of this fatal mandate. Most of the
auxiliaries, who engaged their voluntary service, had stipulated,
that they should never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public
faith of Rome, and the personal honor of Julian, had been pledged
for the observance of this condition. Such an act of treachery
and oppression would destroy the confidence, and excite the
resentment, of the independent warriors of Germany, who
considered truth as the noblest of their virtues, and freedom as
the most valuable of their possessions. The legionaries, who
enjoyed the title and privileges of Romans, were enlisted for the
general defence of the republic; but those mercenary troops heard
with cold indifference the antiquated names of the republic and
of Rome. Attached, either from birth or long habit, to the
climate and manners of Gaul, they loved and admired Julian; they
despised, and perhaps hated, the emperor; they dreaded the
laborious march, the Persian arrows, and the burning deserts of
Asia. They claimed as their own the country which they had saved;
and excused their want of spirit, by pleading the sacred and more
immediate duty of protecting their families and friends.
The apprehensions of the Gauls were derived from the knowledge of
the impending and inevitable danger. As soon as the provinces
were exhausted of their military strength, the Germans would
violate a treaty which had been imposed on their fears; and
notwithstanding the abilities and valor of Julian, the general of
a nominal army, to whom the public calamities would be imputed,
must find himself, after a vain resistance, either a prisoner in
the camp of the barbarians, or a criminal in the palace of
Constantius. If Julian complied with the orders which he had
received, he subscribed his own destruction, and that of a people
who deserved his affection. But a positive refusal was an act of
rebellion, and a declaration of war. The inexorable jealousy of
the emperor, the peremptory, and perhaps insidious, nature of his
commands, left not any room for a fair apology, or candid
interpretation; and the dependent station of the Caesar scarcely
allowed him to pause or to deliberate. Solitude increased the
perplexity of Julian; he could no longer apply to the faithful
counsels of Sallust, who had been removed from his office by the
judicious malice of the eunuchs: he could not even enforce his
representations by the concurrence of the ministers, who would
have been afraid or ashamed to approve the ruin of Gaul. The
moment had been chosen, when Lupicinus, 5 the general of the
cavalry, was despatched into Britain, to repulse the inroads of
the Scots and Picts; and Florentius was occupied at Vienna by the
assessment of the tribute. The latter, a crafty and corrupt
statesman, declining to assume a responsible part on this
dangerous occasion, eluded the pressing and repeated invitations
of Julian, who represented to him, that in every important
measure, the presence of the praefect was indispensable in the
council of the prince. In the mean while the Caesar was oppressed
by the rude and importunate solicitations of the Imperial
messengers, who presumed to suggest, that if he expected the
return of his ministers, he would charge himself with the guilt
of the delay, and reserve for them the merit of the execution.
Unable to resist, unwilling to comply, Julian expressed, in the
most serious terms, his wish, and even his intention, of
resigning the purple, which he could not preserve with honor, but
which he could not abdicate with safety.
4 (return) [ The minute interval, which may be interposed,
between the hyeme adulta and the primo vere of Ammianus, (xx. l.
4,) instead of allowing a sufficient space for a march of three
thousand miles, would render the orders of Constantius as
extravagant as they were unjust. The troops of Gaul could not
have reached Syria till the end of autumn. The memory of Ammianus
must have been inaccurate, and his language incorrect. * Note:
The late editor of Ammianus attempts to vindicate his author from
the charge of inaccuracy. “It is clear, from the whole course of
the narrative, that Constantius entertained this design of
demanding his troops from Julian, immediately after the taking of
Amida, in the autumn of the preceding year, and had transmitted
his orders into Gaul, before it was known that Lupicinus had gone
into Britain with the Herulians and Batavians.” Wagner, note to
Amm. xx. 4. But it seems also clear that the troops were in
winter quarters (hiemabant) when the orders arrived. Ammianus can
scarcely be acquitted of incorrectness in his language at
least.—M]
5 (return) [ Ammianus, xx. l. The valor of Lupicinus, and his
military skill, are acknowledged by the historian, who, in his
affected language, accuses the general of exalting the horns of
his pride, bellowing in a tragic tone, and exciting a doubt
whether he was more cruel or avaricious. The danger from the
Scots and Picts was so serious that Julian himself had some
thoughts of passing over into the island.]
After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled to acknowledge,
that obedience was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and
that the sovereign alone was entitled to judge of the public
welfare. He issued the necessary orders for carrying into
execution the commands of Constantius; a part of the troops began
their march for the Alps; and the detachments from the several
garrisons moved towards their respective places of assembly. They
advanced with difficulty through the trembling and affrighted
crowds of provincials, who attempted to excite their pity by
silent despair, or loud lamentations, while the wives of the
soldiers, holding their infants in their arms, accused the
desertion of their husbands, in the mixed language of grief, of
tenderness, and of indignation. This scene of general distress
afflicted the humanity of the Caesar; he granted a sufficient
number of post-wagons to transport the wives and families of the
soldiers, 6 endeavored to alleviate the hardships which he was
constrained to inflict, and increased, by the most laudable arts,
his own popularity, and the discontent of the exiled troops. The
grief of an armed multitude is soon converted into rage; their
licentious murmurs, which every hour were communicated from tent
to tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their minds for
the most daring acts of sedition; and by the connivance of their
tribunes, a seasonable libel was secretly dispersed, which
painted in lively colors the disgrace of the Caesar, the
oppression of the Gallic army, and the feeble vices of the tyrant
of Asia. The servants of Constantius were astonished and alarmed
by the progress of this dangerous spirit. They pressed the Caesar
to hasten the departure of the troops; but they imprudently
rejected the honest and judicious advice of Julian; who proposed
that they should not march through Paris, and suggested the
danger and temptation of a last interview.
6 (return) [ He granted them the permission of the cursus
clavularis, or clabularis. These post-wagons are often mentioned
in the Code, and were supposed to carry fifteen hundred pounds
weight. See Vales. ad Ammian. xx. 4.]
As soon as the approach of the troops was announced, the Caesar
went out to meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been
erected in a plain before the gates of the city. After
distinguishing the officers and soldiers, who by their rank or
merit deserved a peculiar attention, Julian addressed himself in
a studied oration to the surrounding multitude: he celebrated
their exploits with grateful applause; encouraged them to accept,
with alacrity, the honor of serving under the eye of a powerful
and liberal monarch; and admonished them, that the commands of
Augustus required an instant and cheerful obedience. The
soldiers, who were apprehensive of offending their general by an
indecent clamor, or of belying their sentiments by false and
venal acclamations, maintained an obstinate silence; and after a
short pause, were dismissed to their quarters. The principal
officers were entertained by the Caesar, who professed, in the
warmest language of friendship, his desire and his inability to
reward, according to their deserts, the brave companions of his
victories. They retired from the feast, full of grief and
perplexity; and lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore
them from their beloved general and their native country. The
only expedient which could prevent their separation was boldly
agitated and approved; the popular resentment was insensibly
moulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of
complaint were heightened by passion, and their passions were
inflamed by wine; as, on the eve of their departure, the troops
were indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of midnight,
the impetuous multitude, with swords, and bows, and torches in
their hands, rushed into the suburbs; encompassed the palace; 7
and, careless of future dangers, pronounced the fatal and
irrevocable words, Julian Augustus! The prince, whose anxious
suspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations,
secured the doors against their intrusion; and as long as it was
in his power, secluded his person and dignity from the accidents
of a nocturnal tumult. At the dawn of day, the soldiers, whose
zeal was irritated by opposition, forcibly entered the palace,
seized, with respectful violence, the object of their choice,
guarded Julian with drawn swords through the streets of Paris,
placed him on the tribunal, and with repeated shouts saluted him
as their emperor. Prudence, as well as loyalty, inculcated the
propriety of resisting their treasonable designs; and of
preparing, for his oppressed virtue, the excuse of violence.
Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals,
he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed his
indignation; conjured them not to sully the fame of their
immortal victories; and ventured to promise, that if they would
immediately return to their allegiance, he would undertake to
obtain from the emperor not only a free and gracious pardon, but
even the revocation of the orders which had excited their
resentment. But the soldiers, who were conscious of their guilt,
chose rather to depend on the gratitude of Julian, than on the
clemency of the emperor. Their zeal was insensibly turned into
impatience, and their impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar
sustained, till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their
reproaches, and their menaces; nor did he yield, till he had been
repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, he must consent to
reign. He was exalted on a shield in the presence, and amidst the
unanimous acclamations, of the troops; a rich military collar,
which was offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem; 8 the
ceremony was concluded by the promise of a moderate donative; and
the new emperor, overwhelmed with real or affected grief retired
into the most secret recesses of his apartment. 10
7 (return) [ Most probably the palace of the baths, (Thermarum,)
of which a solid and lofty hall still subsists in the Rue de la
Harpe. The buildings covered a considerable space of the modern
quarter of the university; and the gardens, under the Merovingian
kings, communicated with the abbey of St. Germain des Prez. By
the injuries of time and the Normans, this ancient palace was
reduced, in the twelfth century, to a maze of ruins, whose dark
recesses were the scene of licentious love.
Explicat aula sinus montemque amplectitur alis; Multiplici latebra
scelerum tersura ruborem. .... pereuntis saepe pudoris Celatura
nefas, Venerisque accommoda furtis.
(These lines are quoted from the Architrenius, l. iv. c. 8, a
poetical work of John de Hauteville, or Hanville, a monk of St.
Alban’s, about the year 1190. See Warton’s History of English
Poetry, vol. i. dissert. ii.) Yet such thefts might be less
pernicious to mankind than the theological disputes of the
Sorbonne, which have been since agitated on the same ground.
Bonamy, Mem. de l’Academie, tom. xv. p. 678-632]
8 (return) [ Even in this tumultuous moment, Julian attended to
the forms of superstitious ceremony, and obstinately refused the
inauspicious use of a female necklace, or a horse collar, which
the impatient soldiers would have employed in the room of a
diadem. ----An equal proportion of gold and silver, five pieces
of the former one pound of the latter; the whole amounting to
about five pounds ten shillings of our money.]
10 (return) [ For the whole narrative of this revolt, we may
appeal to authentic and original materials; Julian himself, (ad
S. P. Q. Atheniensem, p. 282, 283, 284,) Libanius, (Orat.
Parental. c. 44-48, in Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. vii. p.
269-273,) Ammianus, (xx. 4,) and Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 151, 152,
153.) who, in the reign of Julian, appears to follow the more
respectable authority of Eunapius. With such guides we might
neglect the abbreviators and ecclesiastical historians.]
The grief of Julian could proceed only from his innocence; out
his innocence must appear extremely doubtful 11 in the eyes of
those who have learned to suspect the motives and the professions
of princes. His lively and active mind was susceptible of the
various impressions of hope and fear, of gratitude and revenge,
of duty and of ambition, of the love of fame, and of the fear of
reproach. But it is impossible for us to calculate the respective
weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascertain the
principles of action which might escape the observation, while
they guided, or rather impelled, the steps of Julian himself. The
discontent of the troops was produced by the malice of his
enemies; their tumult was the natural effect of interest and of
passion; and if Julian had tried to conceal a deep design under
the appearances of chance, he must have employed the most
consummate artifice without necessity, and probably without
success. He solemnly declares, in the presence of Jupiter, of the
Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, and of all the other deities, that till
the close of the evening which preceded his elevation, he was
utterly ignorant of the designs of the soldiers; 12 and it may
seem ungenerous to distrust the honor of a hero and the truth of
a philosopher. Yet the superstitious confidence that Constantius
was the enemy, and that he himself was the favorite, of the gods,
might prompt him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the
auspicious moment of his reign, which was predestined to restore
the ancient religion of mankind. When Julian had received the
intelligence of the conspiracy, he resigned himself to a short
slumber; and afterwards related to his friends that he had seen
the genius of the empire waiting with some impatience at his
door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of spirit
and ambition. 13 Astonished and perplexed, he addressed his
prayers to the great Jupiter, who immediately signified, by a
clear and manifest omen, that he should submit to the will of
heaven and of the army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary
maxims of reason, excites our suspicion and eludes our inquiry.
Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so
crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly
corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.
11 (return) [ Eutropius, a respectable witness, uses a doubtful
expression, “consensu militum.” (x. 15.) Gregory Nazianzen, whose
ignorance night excuse his fanaticism, directly charges the
apostate with presumption, madness, and impious rebellion, Orat.
iii. p. 67.]
12 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 284. The devout Abbe
de la Bleterie (Vie de Julien, p. 159) is almost inclined to
respect the devout protestations of a Pagan.]
13 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 5, with the note of Lindenbrogius on
the Genius of the empire. Julian himself, in a confidential
letter to his friend and physician, Oribasius, (Epist. xvii. p.
384,) mentions another dream, to which, before the event, he gave
credit; of a stately tree thrown to the ground, of a small plant
striking a deep root into the earth. Even in his sleep, the mind
of the Caesar must have been agitated by the hopes and fears of
his fortune. Zosimus (l. iii. p. 155) relates a subsequent
dream.]
To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect the persons of his
enemies, 14 to defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which
were formed against his life and dignity, were the cares which
employed the first days of the reign of the new emperor. Although
he was firmly resolved to maintain the station which he had
assumed, he was still desirous of saving his country from the
calamities of civil war, of declining a contest with the superior
forces of Constantius, and of preserving his own character from
the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. Adorned with the ensigns
of military and imperial pomp, Julian showed himself in the field
of Mars to the soldiers, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in the
cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. He
recapitulated their victories, lamented their sufferings,
applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, and checked
their impetuosity; nor did he dismiss the assembly, till he had
obtained a solemn promise from the troops, that if the emperor of
the East would subscribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce
any views of conquest, and satisfy themselves with the tranquil
possession of the Gallic provinces. On this foundation he
composed, in his own name, and in that of the army, a specious
and moderate epistle, 15 which was delivered to Pentadius, his
master of the offices, and to his chamberlain Eutherius; two
ambassadors whom he appointed to receive the answer, and observe
the dispositions of Constantius. This epistle is inscribed with
the modest appellation of Caesar; but Julian solicits in a
peremptory, though respectful, manner, the confirmation of the
title of Augustus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own
election, while he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and
violence of the troops which had extorted his reluctant consent.
He allows the supremacy of his brother Constantius; and engages
to send him an annual present of Spanish horses, to recruit his
army with a select number of barbarian youths, and to accept from
his choice a Praetorian praefect of approved discretion and
fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination of his other
civil and military officers, with the troops, the revenue, and
the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. He admonishes
the emperor to consult the dictates of justice; to distrust the
arts of those venal flatterers, who subsist only by the discord
of princes; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honorable
treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and to the house of
Constantine. In this negotiation Julian claimed no more than he
already possessed. The delegated authority which he had long
exercised over the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was
still obeyed under a name more independent and august. The
soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution which was not
stained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was a
fugitive; Lupicinus a prisoner. The persons who were disaffected
to the new government were disarmed and secured; and the vacant
offices were distributed, according to the recommendation of
merit, by a prince who despised the intrigues of the palace, and
the clamors of the soldiers. 16
14 (return) [ The difficult situation of the prince of a
rebellious army is finely described by Tacitus, (Hist. 1, 80-85.)
But Otho had much more guilt, and much less abilities, than
Julian.]
15 (return) [ To this ostensible epistle he added, says Ammianus,
private letters, objurgatorias et mordaces, which the historian
had not seen, and would not have published. Perhaps they never
existed.]
16 (return) [ See the first transactions of his reign, in Julian.
ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 285, 286. Ammianus, xx. 5, 8. Liban. Orat.
Parent. c. 49, 50, p. 273-275.]
The negotiations of peace were accompanied and supported by the
most vigorous preparations for war. The army, which Julian held
in readiness for immediate action, was recruited and augmented by
the disorders of the times. The cruel persecutions of the faction
of Magnentius had filled Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and
robbers. They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon
from a prince whom they could trust, submitted to the restraints
of military discipline, and retained only their implacable hatred
to the person and government of Constantius. 17 As soon as the
season of the year permitted Julian to take the field, he
appeared at the head of his legions; threw a bridge over the
Rhine in the neighborhood of Cleves; and prepared to chastise the
perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who presumed that
they might ravage, with impunity, the frontiers of a divided
empire. The difficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprise,
consisted in a laborious march; and Julian had conquered, as soon
as he could penetrate into a country, which former princes had
considered as inaccessible. After he had given peace to the
Barbarians, the emperor carefully visited the fortifications
along the Qhine from Cleves to Basil; surveyed, with peculiar
attention, the territories which he had recovered from the hands
of the Alemanni, passed through Besancon, 18 which had severely
suffered from their fury, and fixed his headquarters at Vienna
for the ensuing winter. The barrier of Gaul was improved and
strengthened with additional fortifications; and Julian
entertained some hopes that the Germans, whom he had so often
vanquished, might, in his absence, be restrained by the terror of
his name. Vadomair 19 was the only prince of the Alemanni whom he
esteemed or feared and while the subtle Barbarian affected to
observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms
threatened the state with an unseasonable and dangerous war. The
policy of Julian condescended to surprise the prince of the
Alemanni by his own arts: and Vadomair, who, in the character of
a friend, had incautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman
governors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment, and sent
away prisoner into the heart of Spain. Before the Barbarians were
recovered from their amazement, the emperor appeared in arms on
the banks of the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river,
renewed the deep impressions of terror and respect which had been
already made by four preceding expeditions. 20
17 (return) [ Liban. Orat. Parent. c. 50, p. 275, 276. A strange
disorder, since it continued above seven years. In the factions
of the Greek republics, the exiles amounted to 20,000 persons;
and Isocrates assures Philip, that it would be easier to raise an
army from the vagabonds than from the cities. See Hume’s Essays,
tom. i. p. 426, 427.]
18 (return) [ Julian (Epist. xxxviii. p. 414) gives a short
description of Vesontio, or Besancon; a rocky peninsula almost
encircled by the River Doux; once a magnificent city, filled with
temples, &c., now reduced to a small town, emerging, however,
from its ruins.]
19 (return) [ Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was
promoted from a barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of
Phoenicia. He still retained the same artful character, (Ammian.
xxi. 4;) but under the reign of Valens, he signalized his valor
in the Armenian war, (xxix. 1.)]
20 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 10, xxi. 3, 4. Zosimus, l. iii. p.
155.]
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part II.
The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to execute, with
the utmost diligence, their important commission. But, in their
passage through Italy and Illyricum, they were detained by the
tedious and affected delays of the provincial governors; they
were conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to Caesarea
in Cappadocia; and when at length they were admitted to the
presence of Constantius, they found that he had already
conceived, from the despatches of his own officers, the most
unfavorable opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic
army. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling
messengers were dismissed with indignation and contempt; and the
looks, gestures, the furious language of the monarch, expressed
the disorder of his soul. The domestic connection, which might
have reconciled the brother and the husband of Helena, was
recently dissolved by the death of that princess, whose pregnancy
had been several times fruitless, and was at last fatal to
herself. 21 The empress Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment
of her life, the warm, and even jealous, affection which she had
conceived for Julian; and her mild influence might have moderated
the resentment of a prince, who, since her death, was abandoned
to his own passions, and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the
terror of a foreign invasion obliged him to suspend the
punishment of a private enemy: he continued his march towards the
confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient to signify the
conditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to
the clemency of their offended sovereign. He required, that the
presumptuous Caesar should expressly renounce the appellation and
rank of Augustus, which he had accepted from the rebels; that he
should descend to his former station of a limited and dependent
minister; that he should vest the powers of the state and army in
the hands of those officers who were appointed by the Imperial
court; and that he should trust his safety to the assurances of
pardon, which were announced by Epictetus, a Gallic bishop, and
one of the Arian favorites of Constantius. Several months were
ineffectually consumed in a treaty which was negotiated at the
distance of three thousand miles between Paris and Antioch; and,
as soon as Julian perceived that his modest and respectful
behavior served only to irritate the pride of an implacable
adversary, he boldly resolved to commit his life and fortune to
the chance of a civil war. He gave a public and military audience
to the quaestor Leonas: the haughty epistle of Constantius was
read to the attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the
most flattering deference, that he was ready to resign the title
of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of those whom he
acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The faint proposal
was impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of “Julian
Augustus, continue to reign, by the authority of the army, of the
people, of the republic which you have saved,” thundered at once
from every part of the field, and terrified the pale ambassador
of Constantius. A part of the letter was afterwards read, in
which the emperor arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he
had invested with the honors of the purple; whom he had educated
with so much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his
infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan.
“An orphan!” interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by
indulging his passions: “does the assassin of my family reproach
me that I was left an orphan? He urges me to revenge those
injuries which I have long studied to forget.” The assembly was
dismissed; and Leonas, who, with some difficulty, had been
protected from the popular fury, was sent back to his master with
an epistle, in which Julian expressed, in a strain of the most
vehement eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of
resentment, which had been suppressed and imbittered by the
dissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might be
considered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Julian, who, some
weeks before, had celebrated the Christian festival of the
Epiphany, 22 made a public declaration that he committed the care
of his safety to the Immortal Gods; and thus publicly renounced
the religion as well as the friendship of Constantius. 23
21 (return) [ Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near
those of her sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Via
Nomentana. Ammian. xxi. 1. Libanius has composed a very weak
apology, to justify his hero from a very absurd charge of
poisoning his wife, and rewarding her physician with his mother’s
jewels. (See the seventh of seventeen new orations, published at
Venice, 1754, from a MS. in St. Mark’s Library, p. 117-127.)
Elpidius, the Praetorian praefect of the East, to whose evidence
the accuser of Julian appeals, is arraigned by Libanius, as
effeminate and ungrateful; yet the religion of Elpidius is
praised by Jerom, (tom. i. p. 243,) and his Ammianus (xxi. 6.)]
22 (return) [ Feriarum die quem celebrantes mense Januario,
Christiani Epiphania dictitant, progressus in eorum ecclesiam,
solemniter numine orato discessit. Ammian. xxi. 2. Zonaras
observes, that it was on Christmas day, and his assertion is not
inconsistent; since the churches of Egypt, Asia, and perhaps
Gaul, celebrated on the same day (the sixth of January) the
nativity and the baptism of their Savior. The Romans, as ignorant
as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed the solemn
festival to the 25th of December, the Brumalia, or winter
solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the
sun. See Bingham’s Antiquities of the Christian Church, l. xx. c.
4, and Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheismo tom. ii. p.
690-700.]
23 (return) [ The public and secret negotiations between
Constantius and Julian must be extracted, with some caution, from
Julian himself. (Orat. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286.) Libanius,
(Orat. Parent. c. 51, p. 276,) Ammianus, (xx. 9,) Zosimus, (l.
iii. p. 154,) and even Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 20, 21,
22,) who, on this occasion, appears to have possessed and used
some valuable materials.]
The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate
resolution. He had discovered, from intercepted letters, that his
adversary, sacrificing the interest of the state to that of the
monarch, had again excited the Barbarians to invade the provinces
of the West. The position of two magazines, one of them collected
on the banks of the Lake of Constance, the other formed at the
foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to indicate the march of two
armies; and the size of those magazines, each of which consisted
of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather flour, 24
was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of the
enemy who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial legions were
still in their distant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly
guarded; and if Julian could occupy, by a sudden incursion, the
important provinces of Illyricum, he might expect that a people
of soldiers would resort to his standard, and that the rich mines
of gold and silver would contribute to the expenses of the civil
war. He proposed this bold enterprise to the assembly of the
soldiers; inspired them with a just confidence in their general,
and in themselves; and exhorted them to maintain their reputation
of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to their
fellow-citizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited
discourse was received with the loudest acclamations, and the
same troops which had taken up arms against Constantius, when he
summoned them to leave Gaul, now declared with alacrity, that
they would follow Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or
Asia. The oath of fidelity was administered; and the soldiers,
clashing their shields, and pointing their drawn swords to their
throats, devoted themselves, with horrid imprecations, to the
service of a leader whom they celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul
and the conqueror of the Germans. 25 This solemn engagement,
which seemed to be dictated by affection rather than by duty, was
singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office
of Praetorian praefect. That faithful minister, alone and
unassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius, in the midst of
an armed and angry multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen
an honorable, but useless sacrifice. After losing one of his
hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees of the
prince whom he had offended. Julian covered the praefect with his
Imperial mantle, and, protecting him from the zeal of his
followers, dismissed him to his own house, with less respect than
was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy. 26 The high office of
Nebridius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces of Gaul,
which were now delivered from the intolerable oppression of
taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable administration of the
friend of Julian, who was permitted to practise those virtues
which he had instilled into the mind of his pupil. 27
24 (return) [ Three hundred myriads, or three millions of
medimni, a corn measure familiar to the Athenians, and which
contained six Roman modii. Julian explains, like a soldier and a
statesman, the danger of his situation, and the necessity and
advantages of an offensive war, (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286,
287.)]
25 (return) [ See his oration, and the behavior of the troops, in
Ammian. xxi. 5.]
26 (return) [ He sternly refused his hand to the suppliant
praefect, whom he sent into Tuscany. (Ammian. xxi. 5.) Libanius,
with savage fury, insults Nebridius, applauds the soldiers, and
almost censures the humanity of Julian. (Orat. Parent. c. 53, p.
278.)]
27 (return) [ Ammian. xxi. 8. In this promotion, Julian obeyed
the law which he publicly imposed on himself. Neque civilis
quisquam judex nec militaris rector, alio quodam praeter merita
suffragante, ad potiorem veniat gradum. (Ammian. xx. 5.) Absence
did not weaken his regard for Sallust, with whose name (A. D.
363) he honored the consulship.]
The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his
troops, than on the celerity of his motions. In the execution of
a daring enterprise, he availed himself of every precaution, as
far as prudence could suggest; and where prudence could no longer
accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valor and to
fortune. In the neighborhood of Basil he assembled and divided
his army. 28 One body, which consisted of ten thousand men, was
directed under the command of Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to
advance through the midland parts of Rhaetia and Noricum. A
similar division of troops, under the orders of Jovius and
Jovinus, prepared to follow the oblique course of the highways,
through the Alps, and the northern confines of Italy. The
instructions to the generals were conceived with energy and
precision: to hasten their march in close and compact columns,
which, according to the disposition of the ground, might readily
be changed into any order of battle; to secure themselves against
the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards;
to prevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude
examination by their sudden departure; to spread the opinion of
their strength, and the terror of his name; and to join their
sovereign under the walls of Sirmium. For himself Julian had
reserved a more difficult and extraordinary part. He selected
three thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, like their
leader, to cast behind them every hope of a retreat; at the head
of this faithful band, he fearlessly plunged into the recesses of
the Marcian, or Black Forest, which conceals the sources of the
Danube; 29 and, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown to
the world. The secrecy of his march, his diligence, and vigor,
surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains and
morasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pursued his
direct course, 30 without reflecting whether he traversed the
territory of the Romans or of the Barbarians, and at length
emerged, between Ratisbon and Vienna, at the place where he
designed to embark his troops on the Danube. By a well-concerted
stratagem, he seized a fleet of light brigantines, 31 as it lay
at anchor; secured a apply of coarse provisions sufficient to
satisfy the indelicate, and voracious, appetite of a Gallic army;
and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The
labors of the mariners, who plied their oars with incessant
diligence, and the steady continuance of a favorable wind,
carried his fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days; 32
and he had already disembarked his troops at Bononia, 3211 only
nineteen miles from Sirmium, before his enemies could receive any
certain intelligence that he had left the banks of the Rhine. In
the course of this long and rapid navigation, the mind of Julian
was fixed on the object of his enterprise; and though he accepted
the deputations of some cities, which hastened to claim the merit
of an early submission, he passed before the hostile stations,
which were placed along the river, without indulging the
temptation of signalizing a useless and ill-timed valor. The
banks of the Danube were crowded on either side with spectators,
who gazed on the military pomp, anticipated the importance of the
event, and diffused through the adjacent country the fame of a
young hero, who advanced with more than mortal speed at the head
of the innumerable forces of the West. Lucilian, who, with the
rank of general of the cavalry, commanded the military powers of
Illyricum, was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful reports,
which he could neither reject nor believe. He had taken some slow
and irresolute measures for the purpose of collecting his troops,
when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus, an active officer, whom
Julian, as soon as he landed at Bononia, had pushed forwards with
some light infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his life
or death, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and conducted to the
presence of Julian; who kindly raised him from the ground, and
dispelled the terror and amazement which seemed to stupefy his
faculties. But Lucilian had no sooner recovered his spirits, than
he betrayed his want of discretion, by presuming to admonish his
conqueror that he had rashly ventured, with a handful of men, to
expose his person in the midst of his enemies. “Reserve for your
master Constantius these timid remonstrances,” replied Julian,
with a smile of contempt: “when I gave you my purple to kiss, I
received you not as a counsellor, but as a suppliant.” Conscious
that success alone could justify his attempt, and that boldness
only could command success, he instantly advanced, at the head of
three thousand soldiers, to attack the strongest and most
populous city of the Illyrian provinces. As he entered the long
suburb of Sirmium, he was received by the joyful acclamations of
the army and people; who, crowned with flowers, and holding
lighted tapers in their hands, conducted their acknowledged
sovereign to his Imperial residence. Two days were devoted to the
public joy, which was celebrated by the games of the circus; but,
early on the morning of the third day, Julian marched to occupy
the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus; which,
almost in the midway between Sirmium and Constantinople,
separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent
towards the former, and a gentle declivity on the side of the
latter. 33 The defence of this important post was intrusted to
the brave Nevitta; who, as well as the generals of the Italian
division, successfully executed the plan of the march and
junction which their master had so ably conceived. 34
28 (return) [ Ammianus (xxi. 8) ascribes the same practice, and
the same motive, to Alexander the Great and other skilful
generals.]
29 (return) [ This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest,
which, is the time of Caesar, stretched away from the country of
the Rauraci (Basil) into the boundless regions of the north. See
Cluver, Germania Antiqua. l. iii. c. 47.]
30 (return) [ Compare Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 53, p. 278, 279,
with Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 68. Even the saint admires
the speed and secrecy of this march. A modern divine might apply
to the progress of Julian the lines which were originally
designed for another apostate:—
—So eagerly the fiend, O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough,
dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.]
31 (return) [ In that interval the Notitia places two or three
fleets, the Lauriacensis, (at Lauriacum, or Lorch,) the
Arlapensis, the Maginensis; and mentions five legions, or
cohorts, of Libernarii, who should be a sort of marines. Sect.
lviii. edit. Labb.]
32 (return) [ Zosimus alone (l. iii. p. 156) has specified this
interesting circumstance. Mamertinus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 6, 7,
8,) who accompanied Julian, as count of the sacred largesses,
describes this voyage in a florid and picturesque manner,
challenges Triptolemus and the Argonauts of Greece, &c.]
3211 (return) [ Banostar. Mannert.—M.]
33 (return) [ The description of Ammianus, which might be
supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise
situation of the Angustine Succorum, or passes of Succi. M.
d’Anville, from the trifling resemblance of names, has placed
them between Sardica and Naissus. For my own justification I am
obliged to mention the only error which I have discovered in the
maps or writings of that admirable geographer.]
34 (return) [ Whatever circumstances we may borrow elsewhere,
Ammianus (xx. 8, 9, 10) still supplies the series of the
narrative.]
The homage which Julian obtained, from the fears or the
inclination of the people, extended far beyond the immediate
effect of his arms. 35 The praefectures of Italy and Illyricum
were administered by Taurus and Florentius, who united that
important office with the vain honors of the consulship; and as
those magistrates had retired with precipitation to the court of
Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity of his
temper, stigmatized their flight by adding, in all the Acts of
the Year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two
consuls. The provinces which had been deserted by their first
magistrates acknowledged the authority of an emperor, who,
conciliating the qualities of a soldier with those of a
philosopher, was equally admired in the camps of the Danube and
in the cities of Greece. From his palace, or, more properly, from
his head-quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he distributed to the
principal cities of the empire, a labored apology for his own
conduct; published the secret despatches of Constantius; and
solicited the judgment of mankind between two competitors, the
one of whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the
Barbarians. 36 Julian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the
reproach of ingratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as well
as by arms, the superior merits of his cause; and to excel, not
only in the arts of war, but in those of composition. His epistle
to the senate and people of Athens 37 seems to have been dictated
by an elegant enthusiasm; which prompted him to submit his
actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his own
times, with the same humble deference as if he had been pleading,
in the days of Aristides, before the tribunal of the Areopagus.
His application to the senate of Rome, which was still permitted
to bestow the titles of Imperial power, was agreeable to the
forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was summoned by
Tertullus, praefect of the city; the epistle of Julian was read;
and, as he appeared to be master of Italy his claims were
admitted without a dissenting voice. His oblique censure of the
innovations of Constantine, and his passionate invective against
the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction; and
the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed,
“Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fortune.” 38 An
artful expression, which, according to the chance of war, might
be differently explained; as a manly reproof of the ingratitude
of the usurper, or as a flattering confession, that a single act
of such benefit to the state ought to atone for all the failings
of Constantius.
35 (return) [ Ammian. xxi. 9, 10. Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 54,
p. 279, 280. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 156, 157.]
36 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286) positively
asserts, that he intercepted the letters of Constantius to the
Barbarians; and Libanius as positively affirms, that he read them
on his march to the troops and the cities. Yet Ammianus (xxi. 4)
expresses himself with cool and candid hesitation, si famoe
solius admittenda est fides. He specifies, however, an
intercepted letter from Vadomair to Constantius, which supposes
an intimate correspondence between them. “disciplinam non
habet.”]
37 (return) [ Zosimus mentions his epistles to the Athenians, the
Corinthians, and the Lacedaemonians. The substance was probably
the same, though the address was properly varied. The epistle to
the Athenians is still extant, (p. 268-287,) and has afforded
much valuable information. It deserves the praises of the Abbe de
la Bleterie, (Pref. a l’Histoire de Jovien, p. 24, 25,) and is
one of the best manifestoes to be found in any language.]
38 (return) [ Auctori tuo reverentiam rogamus. Ammian. xxi. 10.
It is amusing enough to observe the secret conflicts of the
senate between flattery and fear. See Tacit. Hist. i. 85.]
The intelligence of the march and rapid progress of Julian was
speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor,
had obtained some respite from the Persian war. Disguising the
anguish of his soul under the semblance of contempt, Constantius
professed his intention of returning into Europe, and of giving
chase to Julian; for he never spoke of his military expedition in
any other light than that of a hunting party. 39 In the camp of
Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design to his army;
slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Caesar; and
ventured to assure them, that if the mutineers of Gaul presumed
to meet them in the field, they would be unable to sustain the
fire of their eyes, and the irresistible weight of their shout of
onset. The speech of the emperor was received with military
applause, and Theodotus, the president of the council of
Hierapolis, requested, with tears of adulation, that his city
might be adorned with the head of the vanquished rebel. 40 A
chosen detachment was despatched away in post-wagons, to secure,
if it were yet possible, the pass of Succi; the recruits, the
horses, the arms, and the magazines, which had been prepared
against Sapor, were appropriated to the service of the civil war;
and the domestic victories of Constantius inspired his partisans
with the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary
Gaudentius had occupied in his name the provinces of Africa; the
subsistence of Rome was intercepted; and the distress of Julian
was increased by an unexpected event, which might have been
productive of fatal consequences. Julian had received the
submission of two legions and a cohort of archers, who were
stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected, with reason, the fidelity
of those troops which had been distinguished by the emperor; and
it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposed state
of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most important
scene of action. They advanced, with reluctance, as far as the
confines of Italy; but as they dreaded the length of the way, and
the savage fierceness of the Germans, they resolved, by the
instigation of one of their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to
erect the banners of Constantius on the walls of that impregnable
city. The vigilance of Julian perceived at once the extent of the
mischief, and the necessity of applying an immediate remedy. By
his order, Jovinus led back a part of the army into Italy; and
the siege of Aquileia was formed with diligence, and prosecuted
with vigor. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the
yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of the place with skill
and perseverance; vited the rest of Italy to imitate the example
of their courage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat of
Julian, if he should be forced to yield to the superior numbers
of the armies of the East. 41
39 (return) [ Tanquam venaticiam praedam caperet: hoc enim ad
Jeniendum suorum metum subinde praedicabat. Ammian. xxii. 7.]
40 (return) [ See the speech and preparations in Ammianus, xxi.
13. The vile Theodotus afterwards implored and obtained his
pardon from the merciful conqueror, who signified his wish of
diminishing his enemies and increasing the numbers of his
friends, (xxii. 14.)]
41 (return) [ Ammian. xxi. 7, 11, 12. He seems to describe, with
superfluous labor, the operations of the siege of Aquileia,
which, on this occasion, maintained its impregnable fame. Gregory
Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 68) ascribes this accidental revolt to
the wisdom of Constantius, whose assured victory he announces
with some appearance of truth. Constantio quem credebat procul
dubio fore victorem; nemo enim omnium tunc ab hac constanti
sententia discrepebat. Ammian. xxi. 7.]
But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel
alternative which he pathetically laments, of destroying or of
being himself destroyed: and the seasonable death of Constantius
delivered the Roman empire from the calamities of civil war. The
approach of winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch; and
his favorites durst not oppose his impatient desire of revenge. A
slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned by the agitation of
his spirits, was increased by the fatigues of the journey; and
Constantius was obliged to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene,
twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after a short
illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the
twenty-fourth of his reign. 42 His genuine character, which was
composed of pride and weakness, of superstition and cruelty, has
been fully displayed in the preceding narrative of civil and
ecclesiastical events. The long abuse of power rendered him a
considerable object in the eyes of his contemporaries; but as
personal merit can alone deserve the notice of posterity, the
last of the sons of Constantine may be dismissed from the world,
with the remark, that he inherited the defects, without the
abilities, of his father. Before Constantius expired, he is said
to have named Julian for his successor; nor does it seem
improbable, that his anxious concern for the fate of a young and
tender wife, whom he left with child, may have prevailed, in his
last moments, over the harsher passions of hatred and revenge.
Eusebius, and his guilty associates, made a faint attempt to
prolong the reign of the eunuchs, by the election of another
emperor; but their intrigues were rejected with disdain, by an
army which now abhorred the thought of civil discord; and two
officers of rank were instantly despatched, to assure Julian,
that every sword in the empire would be drawn for his service.
The military designs of that prince, who had formed three
different attacks against Thrace, were prevented by this
fortunate event. Without shedding the blood of his
fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a doubtful conflict,
and acquired the advantages of a complete victory. Impatient to
visit the place of his birth, and the new capital of the empire,
he advanced from Naissus through the mountains of Haemus, and the
cities of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at the distance of
sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to receive him;
and he made his triumphal entry amidst the dutiful acclamations
of the soldiers, the people, and the senate. An innumerable
multitude pressed around him with eager respect and were perhaps
disappointed when they beheld the small stature and simple garb
of a hero, whose unexperienced youth had vanquished the
Barbarians of Germany, and who had now traversed, in a successful
career, the whole continent of Europe, from the shores of the
Atlantic to those of the Bosphorus. 43 A few days afterwards,
when the remains of the deceased emperor were landed in the
harbor, the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affected
humanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his diadem, and
clothed in a mourning habit, he accompanied the funeral as far as
the church of the Holy Apostles, where the body was deposited:
and if these marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish
tribute to the birth and dignity of his Imperial kinsman, the
tears of Julian professed to the world that he had forgot the
injuries, and remembered only the obligations, which he had
received from Constantius. 44 As soon as the legions of Aquileia
were assured of the death of the emperor, they opened the gates
of the city, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders,
obtained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian;
who, in the thirty-second year of his age, acquired the
undisputed possession of the Roman empire. 45
42 (return) [ His death and character are faithfully delineated
by Ammianus, (xxi. 14, 15, 16;) and we are authorized to despise
and detest the foolish calumny of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 68,)
who accuses Julian of contriving the death of his benefactor. The
private repentance of the emperor, that he had spared and
promoted Julian, (p. 69, and Orat. xxi. p. 389,) is not
improbable in itself, nor incompatible with the public verbal
testament which prudential considerations might dictate in the
last moments of his life. Note: Wagner thinks this sudden change
of sentiment altogether a fiction of the attendant courtiers and
chiefs of the army. who up to this time had been hostile to
Julian. Note in loco Ammian.—M.]
43 (return) [ In describing the triumph of Julian, Ammianus
(xxii. l, 2) assumes the lofty tone of an orator or poet; while
Libanius (Orat. Parent, c. 56, p. 281) sinks to the grave
simplicity of an historian.]
44 (return) [ The funeral of Constantius is described by
Ammianus, (xxi. 16.) Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 119,)
Mamertinus, in (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 27,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent.
c. lvi. p. 283,) and Philostorgius, (l. vi. c. 6, with Godefroy’s
Dissertations, p. 265.) These writers, and their followers,
Pagans, Catholics, Arians, beheld with very different eyes both
the dead and the living emperor.]
45 (return) [ The day and year of the birth of Julian are not
perfectly ascertained. The day is probably the sixth of November,
and the year must be either 331 or 332. Tillemont, Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 693. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 50. I have
preferred the earlier date.]
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part III.
Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of
action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth, and the
accidents of his life, never allowed him the freedom of choice.
He might perhaps sincerely have preferred the groves of the
academy, and the society of Athens; but he was constrained, at
first by the will, and afterwards by the injustice, of
Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the dangers of
Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable to the world,
and to posterity, for the happiness of millions. 46 Julian
recollected with terror the observation of his master Plato, 47
that the government of our flocks and herds is always committed
to beings of a superior species; and that the conduct of nations
requires and deserves the celestial powers of the gods or of the
genii. From this principle he justly concluded, that the man who
presumes to reign, should aspire to the perfection of the divine
nature; that he should purify his soul from her mortal and
terrestrial part; that he should extinguish his appetites,
enlighten his understanding, regulate his passions, and subdue
the wild beast, which, according to the lively metaphor of
Aristotle, 48 seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot. The
throne of Julian, which the death of Constantius fixed on an
independent basis, was the seat of reason, of virtue, and perhaps
of vanity. He despised the honors, renounced the pleasures, and
discharged with incessant diligence the duties, of his exalted
station; and there were few among his subjects who would have
consented to relieve him from the weight of the diadem, had they
been obliged to submit their time and their actions to the
rigorous laws which that philosophic emperor imposed on himself.
One of his most intimate friends, 49 who had often shared the
frugal simplicity of his table, has remarked, that his light and
sparing diet (which was usually of the vegetable kind) left his
mind and body always free and active, for the various and
important business of an author, a pontiff, a magistrate, a
general, and a prince. In one and the same day, he gave audience
to several ambassadors, and wrote, or dictated, a great number of
letters to his generals, his civil magistrates, his private
friends, and the different cities of his dominions. He listened
to the memorials which had been received, considered the subject
of the petitions, and signified his intentions more rapidly than
they could be taken in short-hand by the diligence of his
secretaries. He possessed such flexibility of thought, and such
firmness of attention, that he could employ his hand to write,
his ear to listen, and his voice to dictate; and pursue at once
three several trains of ideas without hesitation, and without
error. While his ministers reposed, the prince flew with agility
from one labor to another, and, after a hasty dinner, retired
into his library, till the public business, which he had
appointed for the evening, summoned him to interrupt the
prosecution of his studies. The supper of the emperor was still
less substantial than the former meal; his sleep was never
clouded by the fumes of indigestion; and except in the short
interval of a marriage, which was the effect of policy rather
than love, the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female
companion. 50 He was soon awakened by the entrance of fresh
secretaries, who had slept the preceding day; and his servants
were obliged to wait alternately while their indefatigable master
allowed himself scarcely any other refreshment than the change of
occupation. The predecessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother,
and his cousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of the
Circus, under the specious pretence of complying with the
inclinations of the people; and they frequently remained the
greatest part of the day as idle spectators, and as a part of the
splendid spectacle, till the ordinary round of twenty-four races
51 was completely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian, who felt
and professed an unfashionable dislike to these frivolous
amusements, condescended to appear in the Circus; and after
bestowing a careless glance at five or six of the races, he
hastily withdrew with the impatience of a philosopher, who
considered every moment as lost that was not devoted to the
advantage of the public or the improvement of his own mind. 52 By
this avarice of time, he seemed to protract the short duration of
his reign; and if the dates were less securely ascertained, we
should refuse to believe, that only sixteen months elapsed
between the death of Constantius and the departure of his
successor for the Persian war. The actions of Julian can only be
preserved by the care of the historian; but the portion of his
voluminous writings, which is still extant, remains as a monument
of the application, as well as of the genius, of the emperor. The
Misopogon, the Caesars, several of his orations, and his
elaborate work against the Christian religion, were composed in
the long nights of the two winters, the former of which he passed
at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch.
46 (return) [ Julian himself (p. 253-267) has expressed these
philosophical ideas with much eloquence and some affectation, in
a very elaborate epistle to Themistius. The Abbe de la Bleterie,
(tom. ii. p. 146-193,) who has given an elegant translation, is
inclined to believe that it was the celebrated Themistius, whose
orations are still extant.]
47 (return) [ Julian. ad Themist. p. 258. Petavius (not. p. 95)
observes that this passage is taken from the fourth book De
Legibus; but either Julian quoted from memory, or his MSS. were
different from ours Xenophon opens the Cyropaedia with a similar
reflection.]
48 (return) [ Aristot. ap. Julian. p. 261. The MS. of Vossius,
unsatisfied with the single beast, affords the stronger reading
of which the experience of despotism may warrant.]
49 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. Parentalis, c. lxxxiv. lxxxv. p.
310, 311, 312) has given this interesting detail of the private
life of Julian. He himself (in Misopogon, p. 350) mentions his
vegetable diet, and upbraids the gross and sensual appetite of
the people of Antioch.]
50 (return) [ Lectulus... Vestalium toris purior, is the praise
which Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13) addresses to Julian
himself. Libanius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that
Julian never knew a woman before his marriage, or after the death
of his wife, (Orat. Parent. c. lxxxviii. p. 313.) The chastity of
Julian is confirmed by the impartial testimony of Ammianus, (xxv.
4,) and the partial silence of the Christians. Yet Julian
ironically urges the reproach of the people of Antioch, that he
almost always (in Misopogon, p. 345) lay alone. This suspicious
expression is explained by the Abbe de la Bleterie (Hist. de
Jovien, tom. ii. p. 103-109) with candor and ingenuity.]
51 (return) [ See Salmasius ad Sueton in Claud. c. xxi. A
twenty-fifth race, or missus, was added, to complete the number
of one hundred chariots, four of which, the four colors, started
each heat.
Centum quadrijugos agitabo ad flumina currus.
It appears, that they ran five or seven times round the Mota
(Sueton in Domitian. c. 4;) and (from the measure of the Circus
Maximus at Rome, the Hippodrome at Constantinople, &c.) it might
be about a four mile course.]
52 (return) [ Julian. in Misopogon, p. 340. Julius Caesar had
offended the Roman people by reading his despatches during the
actual race. Augustus indulged their taste, or his own, by his
constant attention to the important business of the Circus, for
which he professed the warmest inclination. Sueton. in August. c.
xlv.]
The reformation of the Imperial court was one of the first and
most necessary acts of the government of Julian. 53 Soon after
his entrance into the palace of Constantinople, he had occasion
for the service of a barber. An officer, magnificently dressed,
immediately presented himself. “It is a barber,” exclaimed the
prince, with affected surprise, “that I want, and not a
receiver-general of the finances.” 54 He questioned the man
concerning the profits of his employment and was informed, that
besides a large salary, and some valuable perquisites, he enjoyed
a daily allowance for twenty servants, and as many horses. A
thousand barbers, a thousand cup-bearers, a thousand cooks, were
distributed in the several offices of luxury; and the number of
eunuchs could be compared only with the insects of a summer’s
day. The monarch who resigned to his subjects the superiority of
merit and virtue, was distinguished by the oppressive
magnificence of his dress, his table, his buildings, and his
train. The stately palaces erected by Constantine and his sons,
were decorated with many colored marbles, and ornaments of massy
gold. The most exquisite dainties were procured, to gratify their
pride, rather than their taste; birds of the most distant
climates, fish from the most remote seas, fruits out of their
natural season, winter roses, and summer snows. 56 The domestic
crowd of the palace surpassed the expense of the legions; yet the
smallest part of this costly multitude was subservient to the
use, or even to the splendor, of the throne. The monarch was
disgraced, and the people was injured, by the creation and sale
of an infinite number of obscure, and even titular employments;
and the most worthless of mankind might purchase the privilege of
being maintained, without the necessity of labor, from the public
revenue. The waste of an enormous household, the increase of fees
and perquisites, which were soon claimed as a lawful debt, and
the bribes which they extorted from those who feared their
enmity, or solicited their favor, suddenly enriched these haughty
menials. They abused their fortune, without considering their
past, or their future, condition; and their rapine and venality
could be equalled only by the extravagance of their dissipations.
Their silken robes were embroidered with gold, their tables were
served with delicacy and profusion; the houses which they built
for their own use, would have covered the farm of an ancient
consul; and the most honorable citizens were obliged to dismount
from their horses, and respectfully to salute a eunuch whom they
met on the public highway. The luxury of the palace excited the
contempt and indignation of Julian, who usually slept on the
ground, who yielded with reluctance to the indispensable calls of
nature; and who placed his vanity, not in emulating, but in
despising, the pomp of royalty.
53 (return) [ The reformation of the palace is described by
Ammianus, (xxii. 4,) Libanius, Orat. (Parent. c. lxii. p. 288,
&c.,) Mamertinus, in Panegyr. (Vet. xi. 11,) Socrates, (l. iii.
c. l.,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 24.)]
54 (return) [ Ego non rationalem jussi sed tonsorem acciri.
Zonaras uses the less natural image of a senator. Yet an officer
of the finances, who was satisfied with wealth, might desire and
obtain the honors of the senate.]
56 (return) [ The expressions of Mamertinus are lively and
forcible. Quis etiam prandiorum et caenarum laboratas
magnitudines Romanus populus sensit; cum quaesitissimae dapes non
gustu sed difficultatibus aestimarentur; miracula avium,
longinqui maris pisces, aheni temporis poma, aestivae nives,
hybernae rosae]
By the total extirpation of a mischief which was magnified even
beyond its real extent, he was impatient to relieve the distress,
and to appease the murmurs of the people; who support with less
uneasiness the weight of taxes, if they are convinced that the
fruits of their industry are appropriated to the service of the
state. But in the execution of this salutary work, Julian is
accused of proceeding with too much haste and inconsiderate
severity. By a single edict, he reduced the palace of
Constantinople to an immense desert, and dismissed with ignominy
the whole train of slaves and dependants, 57 without providing
any just, or at least benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the
services, or the poverty, of the faithful domestics of the
Imperial family. Such indeed was the temper of Julian, who seldom
recollected the fundamental maxim of Aristotle, that true virtue
is placed at an equal distance between the opposite vices.
The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics, the curls and
paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared so
ridiculous in the person of Constantine, were consistently
rejected by his philosophic successor. But with the fopperies,
Julian affected to renounce the decencies of dress; and seemed to
value himself for his neglect of the laws of cleanliness. In a
satirical performance, which was designed for the public eye, the
emperor descants with pleasure, and even with pride, on the
length of his nails, and the inky blackness of his hands;
protests, that although the greatest part of his body was covered
with hair, the use of the razor was confined to his head alone;
and celebrates, with visible complacency, the shaggy and populous
58 beard, which he fondly cherished, after the example of the
philosophers of Greece. Had Julian consulted the simple dictates
of reason, the first magistrate of the Romans would have scorned
the affectation of Diogenes, as well as that of Darius.
57 (return) [ Yet Julian himself was accused of bestowing whole
towns on the eunuchs, (Orat. vii. against Polyclet. p. 117-127.)
Libanius contents himself with a cold but positive denial of the
fact, which seems indeed to belong more properly to Constantius.
This charge, however, may allude to some unknown circumstance.]
58 (return) [ In the Misopogon (p. 338, 339) he draws a very
singular picture of himself, and the following words are
strangely characteristic. The friends of the Abbe de la Bleterie
adjured him, in the name of the French nation, not to translate
this passage, so offensive to their delicacy, (Hist. de Jovien,
tom. ii. p. 94.) Like him, I have contented myself with a
transient allusion; but the little animal which Julian names, is
a beast familiar to man, and signifies love.]
But the work of public reformation would have remained imperfect,
if Julian had only corrected the abuses, without punishing the
crimes, of his predecessor’s reign. “We are now delivered,” says
he, in a familiar letter to one of his intimate friends, “we are
now surprisingly delivered from the voracious jaws of the Hydra.
59 I do not mean to apply the epithet to my brother Constantius.
He is no more; may the earth lie light on his head! But his
artful and cruel favorites studied to deceive and exasperate a
prince, whose natural mildness cannot be praised without some
efforts of adulation. It is not, however, my intention, that even
those men should be oppressed: they are accused, and they shall
enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial.” To conduct this
inquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest rank in the state
and army; and as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning
his personal enemies, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at
Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; and transferred
to the commissioners an absolute power to pronounce and execute
their final sentence, without delay, and without appeal. The
office of president was exercised by the venerable praefect of
the East, a second Sallust, 60 whose virtues conciliated the
esteem of Greek sophists, and of Christian bishops. He was
assisted by the eloquent Mamertinus, 61 one of the consuls elect,
whose merit is loudly celebrated by the doubtful evidence of his
own applause. But the civil wisdom of two magistrates was
overbalanced by the ferocious violence of four generals, Nevitta,
Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio. Arbetio, whom the public would have
seen with less surprise at the bar than on the bench, was
supposed to possess the secret of the commission; the armed and
angry leaders of the Jovian and Herculian bands encompassed the
tribunal; and the judges were alternately swayed by the laws of
justice, and by the clamors of faction. 62
59 (return) [ Julian, epist. xxiii. p. 389. He uses the words in
writing to his friend Hermogenes, who, like himself, was
conversant with the Greek poets.]
60 (return) [ The two Sallusts, the praefect of Gaul, and the
praefect of the East, must be carefully distinguished, (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 696.) I have used the surname of Secundus,
as a convenient epithet. The second Sallust extorted the esteem
of the Christians themselves; and Gregory Nazianzen, who
condemned his religion, has celebrated his virtues, (Orat. iii.
p. 90.) See a curious note of the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de
Julien, p. 363. Note: Gibbonus secundum habet pro numero, quod
tamen est viri agnomen Wagner, nota in loc. Amm. It is not a
mistake; it is rather an error in taste. Wagner inclines to
transfer the chief guilt to Arbetio.—M.]
61 (return) [ Mamertinus praises the emperor (xi. l.) for
bestowing the offices of Treasurer and Praefect on a man of
wisdom, firmness, integrity, &c., like himself. Yet Ammianus
ranks him (xxi. l.) among the ministers of Julian, quorum merita
norat et fidem.]
62 (return) [ The proceedings of this chamber of justice are
related by Ammianus, (xxii. 3,) and praised by Libanius, (Orat.
Parent. c. 74, p. 299, 300.)]
The chamberlain Eusebius, who had so long abused the favor of
Constantius, expiated, by an ignominious death, the insolence,
the corruption, and cruelty of his servile reign. The executions
of Paul and Apodemius (the former of whom was burnt alive) were
accepted as an inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of
so many hundred Romans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and
murdered. But justice herself (if we may use the pathetic
expression of Ammianus) 63 appeared to weep over the fate of
Ursulus, the treasurer of the empire; and his blood accused the
ingratitude of Julian, whose distress had been seasonably
relieved by the intrepid liberality of that honest minister. The
rage of the soldiers, whom he had provoked by his indiscretion,
was the cause and the excuse of his death; and the emperor,
deeply wounded by his own reproaches and those of the public,
offered some consolation to the family of Ursulus, by the
restitution of his confiscated fortunes. Before the end of the
year in which they had been adorned with the ensigns of the
prefecture and consulship, 64 Taurus and Florentius were reduced
to implore the clemency of the inexorable tribunal of Chalcedon.
The former was banished to Vercellae in Italy, and a sentence of
death was pronounced against the latter. A wise prince should
have rewarded the crime of Taurus: the faithful minister, when he
was no longer able to oppose the progress of a rebel, had taken
refuge in the court of his benefactor and his lawful sovereign.
But the guilt of Florentius justified the severity of the judges;
and his escape served to display the magnanimity of Julian, who
nobly checked the interested diligence of an informer, and
refused to learn what place concealed the wretched fugitive from
his just resentment. 65 Some months after the tribunal of
Chalcedon had been dissolved, the praetorian vicegerent of
Africa, the notary Gaudentius, and Artemius 66 duke of Egypt,
were executed at Antioch. Artemius had reigned the cruel and
corrupt tyrant of a great province; Gaudentius had long practised
the arts of calumny against the innocent, the virtuous, and even
the person of Julian himself. Yet the circumstances of their
trial and condemnation were so unskillfully managed, that these
wicked men obtained, in the public opinion, the glory of
suffering for the obstinate loyalty with which they had supported
the cause of Constantius. The rest of his servants were protected
by a general act of oblivion; and they were left to enjoy with
impunity the bribes which they had accepted, either to defend the
oppressed, or to oppress the friendless. This measure, which, on
the soundest principles of policy, may deserve our approbation,
was executed in a manner which seemed to degrade the majesty of
the throne. Julian was tormented by the importunities of a
multitude, particularly of Egyptians, who loudly redemanded the
gifts which they had imprudently or illegally bestowed; he
foresaw the endless prosecution of vexatious suits; and he
engaged a promise, which ought always to have been sacred, that
if they would repair to Chalcedon, he would meet them in person,
to hear and determine their complaints. But as soon as they were
landed, he issued an absolute order, which prohibited the
watermen from transporting any Egyptian to Constantinople; and
thus detained his disappointed clients on the Asiatic shore till,
their patience and money being utterly exhausted, they were
obliged to return with indignant murmurs to their native country.
67
63 (return) [ Ursuli vero necem ipsa mihi videtur flesse
justitia. Libanius, who imputes his death to the soldiers,
attempts to criminate the court of the largesses.]
64 (return) [ Such respect was still entertained for the
venerable names of the commonwealth, that the public was
surprised and scandalized to hear Taurus summoned as a criminal
under the consulship of Taurus. The summons of his colleague
Florentius was probably delayed till the commencement of the
ensuing year.]
65 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 7.]
66 (return) [ For the guilt and punishment of Artemius, see
Julian (Epist. x. p. 379) and Ammianus, (xxii. 6, and Vales, ad
hoc.) The merit of Artemius, who demolished temples, and was put
to death by an apostate, has tempted the Greek and Latin churches
to honor him as a martyr. But as ecclesiastical history attests
that he was not only a tyrant, but an Arian, it is not altogether
easy to justify this indiscreet promotion. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1319.]
67 (return) [ See Ammian. xxii. 6, and Vales, ad locum; and the
Codex Theodosianus, l. ii. tit. xxxix. leg. i.; and Godefroy’s
Commentary, tom. i. p. 218, ad locum.]
Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part IV.
The numerous army of spies, of agents, and informers enlisted by
Constantius to secure the repose of one man, and to interrupt
that of millions, was immediately disbanded by his generous
successor. Julian was slow in his suspicions, and gentle in his
punishments; and his contempt of treason was the result of
judgment, of vanity, and of courage. Conscious of superior merit,
he was persuaded that few among his subjects would dare to meet
him in the field, to attempt his life, or even to seat themselves
on his vacant throne. The philosopher could excuse the hasty
sallies of discontent; and the hero could despise the ambitious
projects which surpassed the fortune or the abilities of the rash
conspirators. A citizen of Ancyra had prepared for his own use a
purple garment; and this indiscreet action, which, under the
reign of Constantius, would have been considered as a capital
offence, 68 was reported to Julian by the officious importunity
of a private enemy. The monarch, after making some inquiry into
the rank and character of his rival, despatched the informer with
a present of a pair of purple slippers, to complete the
magnificence of his Imperial habit. A more dangerous conspiracy
was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who had resolved to
assassinate Julian in the field of exercise near Antioch. Their
intemperance revealed their guilt; and they were conducted in
chains to the presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a
lively representation of the wickedness and folly of their
enterprise, instead of a death of torture, which they deserved
and expected, pronounced a sentence of exile against the two
principal offenders. The only instance in which Julian seemed to
depart from his accustomed clemency, was the execution of a rash
youth, who, with a feeble hand, had aspired to seize the reins of
empire. But that youth was the son of Marcellus, the general of
cavalry, who, in the first campaign of the Gallic war, had
deserted the standard of the Caesar and the republic. Without
appearing to indulge his personal resentment, Julian might easily
confound the crime of the son and of the father; but he was
reconciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of
the emperor endeavored to heal the wound which had been inflicted
by the hand of justice. 69
68 (return) [ The president Montesquieu (Considerations sur la
Grandeur, &c., des Romains, c. xiv. in his works, tom. iii. p.
448, 449,) excuses this minute and absurd tyranny, by supposing
that actions the most indifferent in our eyes might excite, in a
Roman mind, the idea of guilt and danger. This strange apology is
supported by a strange misapprehension of the English laws, “chez
une nation.... ou il est defendu da boire a la sante d’une
certaine personne.”]
69 (return) [ The clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which
was formed against his life at Antioch, are described by Ammianus
(xxii. 9, 10, and Vales, ad loc.) and Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c.
99, p. 323.)]
Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. 70 From
his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and
heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a
tyrant; and when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes
mortified by the reflection, that the slaves who would not dare
to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues. 71
He sincerely abhorred the system of Oriental despotism, which
Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of fourscore
years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstition
prevented the execution of the design, which Julian had
frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a
costly diadem; 72 but he absolutely refused the title of Dominus,
or Lord, 73 a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the
Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and
humiliating origin. The office, or rather the name, of consul,
was cherished by a prince who contemplated with reverence the
ruins of the republic; and the same behavior which had been
assumed by the prudence of Augustus was adopted by Julian from
choice and inclination. On the calends of January, at break of
day, the new consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the
palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was informed of their
approach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet
them, and compelled the blushing magistrates to receive the
demonstrations of his affected humility. From the palace they
proceeded to the senate. The emperor, on foot, marched before
their litters; and the gazing multitude admired the image of
ancient times, or secretly blamed a conduct, which, in their
eyes, degraded the majesty of the purple. 74 But the behavior of
Julian was uniformly supported. During the games of the Circus,
he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a
slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded
that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate,
he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold; and
embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world, that he
was subject, like the rest of his fellow-citizens, to the laws,
75 and even to the forms, of the republic. The spirit of his
administration, and his regard for the place of his nativity,
induced Julian to confer on the senate of Constantinople the same
honors, privileges, and authority, which were still enjoyed by
the senate of ancient Rome. 76 A legal fiction was introduced,
and gradually established, that one half of the national council
had migrated into the East; and the despotic successors of
Julian, accepting the title of Senators, acknowledged themselves
the members of a respectable body, which was permitted to
represent the majesty of the Roman name. From Constantinople, the
attention of the monarch was extended to the municipal senates of
the provinces. He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and
pernicious exemptions which had withdrawn so many idle citizens
from the services of their country; and by imposing an equal
distribution of public duties, he restored the strength, the
splendor, or, according to the glowing expression of Libanius, 77
the soul of the expiring cities of his empire. The venerable age
of Greece excited the most tender compassion in the mind of
Julian, which kindled into rapture when he recollected the gods,
the heroes, and the men superior to heroes and to gods, who have
bequeathed to the latest posterity the monuments of their genius,
or the example of their virtues. He relieved the distress, and
restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Peloponnesus. 78
Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for her
deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with
the honors of a Roman colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent
republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of the Isthmus,
which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of
bears and panthers. From this tribute the cities of Elis, of
Delphi, and of Argos, which had inherited from their remote
ancestors the sacred office of perpetuating the Olympic, the
Pythian, and the Nemean games, claimed a just exemption. The
immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by the Corinthians; but
the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of oppression; and the
feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced by the decree of
a provincial magistrate, who seems to have consulted only the
interest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years after
this sentence, Julian 79 allowed the cause to be referred to a
superior tribunal; and his eloquence was interposed, most
probably with success, in the defence of a city, which had been
the royal seat of Agamemnon, 80 and had given to Macedonia a race
of kings and conquerors. 81
70 (return) [ According to some, says Aristotle, (as he is quoted
by Julian ad Themist. p. 261,) the form of absolute government is
contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher choose,
how ever to involve this eternal truth in artful and labored
obscurity.]
71 (return) [ That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of
Julian himself. Ammian. xxii. 10.]
72 (return) [ Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 95, p. 320,) who
mentions the wish and design of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious
language that the emperor was restrained by some particular
revelation.]
73 (return) [ Julian in Misopogon, p. 343. As he never abolished,
by any public law, the proud appellations of Despot, or Dominus,
they are still extant on his medals, (Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p.
38, 39;) and the private displeasure which he affected to
express, only gave a different tone to the servility of the
court. The Abbe de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p.
99-102) has curiously traced the origin and progress of the word
Dominus under the Imperial government.]
74 (return) [ Ammian. xxii. 7. The consul Mamertinus (in Panegyr.
Vet. xi. 28, 29, 30) celebrates the auspicious day, like an
elegant slave, astonished and intoxicated by the condescension of
his master.]
75 (return) [ Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the
twelve tables: Si male condiderit in quem quis carmina, jus est
Judiciumque—Horat. Sat. ii. 1. 82. ——-Julian (in Misopogon, p.
337) owns himself subject to the law; and the Abbe de la Bleterie
(Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 92) has eagerly embraced a
declaration so agreeable to his own system, and, indeed, to the
true spirit of the Imperial constitution.]
76 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iii. p. 158.]
77 (return) [ See Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 71, p. 296,)
Ammianus, (xxii. 9,) and the Theodosian Code (l. xii. tit. i.
leg. 50-55.) with Godefroy’s Commentary, (tom. iv. p. 390-402.)
Yet the whole subject of the Curia, notwithstanding very ample
materials, still remains the most obscure in the legal history of
the empire.]
78 (return) [ Quae paulo ante arida et siti anhelantia
visebantur, ea nunc perlui, mundari, madere; Fora, Deambulacra,
Gymnasia, laetis et gaudentibus populis frequentari; dies festos,
et celebrari veteres, et novos in honorem principis consecrari,
(Mamertin. xi. 9.) He particularly restored the city of Nicopolis
and the Actiac games, which had been instituted by Augustus.]
79 (return) [ Julian. Epist. xxxv. p. 407-411. This epistle,
which illustrates the declining age of Greece, is omitted by the
Abbe de la Bleterie, and strangely disfigured by the Latin
translator, who, by rendering tributum, and populus, directly
contradicts the sense of the original.]
80 (return) [ He reigned in Mycenae at the distance of fifty
stadia, or six miles from Argos: but these cities, which
alternately flourished, are confounded by the Greek poets.
Strabo, l. viii. p. 579, edit. Amstel. 1707.]
81 (return) [ Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 421. This pedigree from
Temenus and Hercules may be suspicious; yet it was allowed, after
a strict inquiry, by the judges of the Olympic games, (Herodot.
l. v. c. 22,) at a time when the Macedonian kings were obscure
and unpopular in Greece. When the Achaean league declared against
Philip, it was thought decent that the deputies of Argos should
retire, (T. Liv. xxxii. 22.)]
The laborious administration of military and civil affairs, which
were multiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire,
exercised the abilities of Julian; but he frequently assumed the
two characters of Orator 82 and of Judge, 83 which are almost
unknown to the modern sovereigns of Europe. The arts of
persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the first Caesars, were
neglected by the military ignorance and Asiatic pride of their
successors; and if they condescended to harangue the soldiers,
whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators,
whom they despised. The assemblies of the senate, which
Constantius had avoided, were considered by Julian as the place
where he could exhibit, with the most propriety, the maxims of a
republican, and the talents of a rhetorician. He alternately
practised, as in a school of declamation, the several modes of
praise, of censure, of exhortation; and his friend Libanius has
remarked, that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the
simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of Nestor,
whose words descended like the flakes of a winter’s snow, or the
pathetic and forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a
judge, which are sometimes incompatible with those of a prince,
were exercised by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an
amusement; and although he might have trusted the integrity and
discernment of his Praetorian praefects, he often placed himself
by their side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration of
his mind was agreeably occupied in detecting and defeating the
chicanery of the advocates, who labored to disguise the truths of
facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot
the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or unseasonable
questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice, and the
agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence with which he
maintained his opinion against the judges, the advocates, and
their clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompted him
to encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of his friends and
ministers; and whenever they ventured to oppose the irregular
sallies of his passions, the spectators could observe the shame,
as well as the gratitude, of their monarch. The decrees of Julian
were almost always founded on the principles of justice; and he
had the firmness to resist the two most dangerous temptations,
which assault the tribunal of a sovereign, under the specious
forms of compassion and equity. He decided the merits of the
cause without weighing the circumstances of the parties; and the
poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to satisfy the
just demands of a wealthy and noble adversary. He carefully
distinguished the judge from the legislator; 84 and though he
meditated a necessary reformation of the Roman jurisprudence, he
pronounced sentence according to the strict and literal
interpretation of those laws, which the magistrates were bound to
execute, and the subjects to obey.
82 (return) [ His eloquence is celebrated by Libanius, (Orat.
Parent. c. 75, 76, p. 300, 301,) who distinctly mentions the
orators of Homer. Socrates (l. iii. c. 1) has rashly asserted
that Julian was the only prince, since Julius Caesar, who
harangued the senate. All the predecessors of Nero, (Tacit.
Annal. xiii. 3,) and many of his successors, possessed the
faculty of speaking in public; and it might be proved by various
examples, that they frequently exercised it in the senate.]
83 (return) [ Ammianus (xxi. 10) has impartially stated the
merits and defects of his judicial proceedings. Libanius (Orat.
Parent. c. 90, 91, p. 315, &c.) has seen only the fair side, and
his picture, if it flatters the person, expresses at least the
duties, of the judge. Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 120,) who
suppresses the virtues, and exaggerates even the venial faults of
the Apostate, triumphantly asks, whether such a judge was fit to
be seated between Minos and Rhadamanthus, in the Elysian Fields.]
84 (return) [ Of the laws which Julian enacted in a reign of
sixteen months, fifty-four have been admitted into the codes of
Theodosius and Justinian. (Gothofred. Chron. Legum, p. 64-67.)
The Abbe de la Bleterie (tom. ii. p. 329-336) has chosen one of
these laws to give an idea of Julian’s Latin style, which is
forcible and elaborate, but less pure than his Greek.]
The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple,
and cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the
lowest rank of society, without a hope of emerging from their
obscurity. But the personal merit of Julian was, in some measure,
independent of his fortune. Whatever had been his choice of life,
by the force of intrepid courage, lively wit, and intense
application, he would have obtained, or at least he would have
deserved, the highest honors of his profession; and Julian might
have raised himself to the rank of minister, or general, of the
state in which he was born a private citizen. If the jealous
caprice of power had disappointed his expectations, if he had
prudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the
same talents in studious solitude would have placed beyond the
reach of kings his present happiness and his immortal fame. When
we inspect, with minute, or perhaps malevolent attention, the
portrait of Julian, something seems wanting to the grace and
perfection of the whole figure. His genius was less powerful and
sublime than that of Caesar; nor did he possess the consummate
prudence of Augustus. The virtues of Trajan appear more steady
and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is more simple and
consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, and
prosperity with moderation. After an interval of one hundred and
twenty years from the death of Alexander Severus, the Romans
beheld an emperor who made no distinction between his duties and
his pleasures; who labored to relieve the distress, and to revive
the spirit, of his subjects; and who endeavored always to connect
authority with merit, and happiness with virtue. Even faction,
and religious faction, was constrained to acknowledge the
superiority of his genius, in peace as well as in war, and to
confess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julian was a lover of his
country, and that he deserved the empire of the world. 85
85 (return) [
... Ductor fortissimus armis; Conditor et legum celeberrimus; ore
manuque Consultor patriae; sed non consultor habendae Religionis;
amans tercentum millia Divum. Pertidus ille Deo, sed non et
perfidus orbi. Prudent. Apotheosis, 450, &c.
The consciousness of a generous sentiment seems to have raised
the Christian post above his usual mediocrity.]
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part I.
The Religion Of Julian.—Universal Toleration.—He Attempts To
Restore And Reform The Pagan Worship—To Rebuild The Temple Of
Jerusalem—His Artful Persecution Of The Christians.—Mutual Zeal
And Injustice.
The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of Julian;
and the enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the
real and apparent magnitude of his faults. Our partial ignorance
may represent him as a philosophic monarch, who studied to
protect, with an equal hand, the religious factions of the
empire; and to allay the theological fever which had inflamed the
minds of the people, from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile
of Athanasius. A more accurate view of the character and conduct
of Julian will remove this favorable prepossession for a prince
who did not escape the general contagion of the times. We enjoy
the singular advantage of comparing the pictures which have been
delineated by his fondest admirers and his implacable enemies.
The actions of Julian are faithfully related by a judicious and
candid historian, the impartial spectator of his life and death.
The unanimous evidence of his contemporaries is confirmed by the
public and private declarations of the emperor himself; and his
various writings express the uniform tenor of his religious
sentiments, which policy would have prompted him to dissemble
rather than to affect. A devout and sincere attachment for the
gods of Athens and Rome constituted the ruling passion of Julian;
1 the powers of an enlightened understanding were betrayed and
corrupted by the influence of superstitious prejudice; and the
phantoms which existed only in the mind of the emperor had a real
and pernicious effect on the government of the empire. The
vehement zeal of the Christians, who despised the worship, and
overturned the altars of those fabulous deities, engaged their
votary in a state of irreconcilable hostility with a very
numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes tempted by
the desire of victory, or the shame of a repulse, to violate the
laws of prudence, and even of justice. The triumph of the party,
which he deserted and opposed, has fixed a stain of infamy on the
name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate has been
overwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the
signal was given by the sonorous trumpet 2 of Gregory Nazianzen.
3 The interesting nature of the events which were crowded into
the short reign of this active emperor, deserve a just and
circumstantial narrative. His motives, his counsels, and his
actions, as far as they are connected with the history of
religion, will be the subject of the present chapter.
1 (return) [ I shall transcribe some of his own expressions from
a short religious discourse which the Imperial pontiff composed
to censure the bold impiety of a Cynic. Orat. vii. p. 212. The
variety and copiousness of the Greek tongue seem inadequate to
the fervor of his devotion.]
2 (return) [ The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm,
and more vanity, addresses his discourse to heaven and earth, to
men and angels, to the living and the dead; and above all, to the
great Constantius, an odd Pagan expression. He concludes with a
bold assurance, that he has erected a monument not less durable,
and much more portable, than the columns of Hercules. See Greg.
Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 50, iv. p. 134.]
3 (return) [ See this long invective, which has been
injudiciously divided into two orations in Gregory’s works, tom.
i. p. 49-134, Paris, 1630. It was published by Gregory and his
friend Basil, (iv. p. 133,) about six months after the death of
Julian, when his remains had been carried to Tarsus, (iv. p.
120;) but while Jovian was still on the throne, (iii. p. 54, iv.
p. 117) I have derived much assistance from a French version and
remarks, printed at Lyons, 1735.]
The cause of his strange and fatal apostasy may be derived from
the early period of his life, when he was left an orphan in the
hands of the murderers of his family. The names of Christ and of
Constantius, the ideas of slavery and of religion, were soon
associated in a youthful imagination, which was susceptible of
the most lively impressions. The care of his infancy was
intrusted to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, 4 who was related to
him on the side of his mother; and till Julian reached the
twentieth year of his age, he received from his Christian
preceptors the education, not of a hero, but of a saint. The
emperor, less jealous of a heavenly than of an earthly crown,
contented himself with the imperfect character of a catechumen,
while he bestowed the advantages of baptism 5 on the nephews of
Constantine. 6 They were even admitted to the inferior offices of
the ecclesiastical order; and Julian publicly read the Holy
Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia. The study of religion,
which they assiduously cultivated, appeared to produce the
fairest fruits of faith and devotion. 7 They prayed, they fasted,
they distributed alms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and
oblations to the tombs of the martyrs; and the splendid monument
of St. Mamas, at Caesarea, was erected, or at least was
undertaken, by the joint labor of Gallus and Julian. 8 They
respectfully conversed with the bishops, who were eminent for
superior sanctity, and solicited the benediction of the monks and
hermits, who had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary
hardships of the ascetic life. 9 As the two princes advanced
towards the years of manhood, they discovered, in their religious
sentiments, the difference of their characters. The dull and
obstinate understanding of Gallus embraced, with implicit zeal,
the doctrines of Christianity; which never influenced his
conduct, or moderated his passions. The mild disposition of the
younger brother was less repugnant to the precepts of the gospel;
and his active curiosity might have been gratified by a
theological system, which explains the mysterious essence of the
Deity, and opens the boundless prospect of invisible and future
worlds. But the independent spirit of Julian refused to yield the
passive and unresisting obedience which was required, in the name
of religion, by the haughty ministers of the church. Their
speculative opinions were imposed as positive laws, and guarded
by the terrors of eternal punishments; but while they prescribed
the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the words, and the actions
of the young prince; whilst they silenced his objections, and
severely checked the freedom of his inquiries, they secretly
provoked his impatient genius to disclaim the authority of his
ecclesiastical guides. He was educated in the Lesser Asia, amidst
the scandals of the Arian controversy. 10 The fierce contests of
the Eastern bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds,
and the profane motives which appeared to actuate their conduct,
insensibly strengthened the prejudice of Julian, that they
neither understood nor believed the religion for which they so
fiercely contended. Instead of listening to the proofs of
Christianity with that favorable attention which adds weight to
the most respectable evidence, he heard with suspicion, and
disputed with obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines for which he
already entertained an invincible aversion. Whenever the young
princes were directed to compose declamations on the subject of
the prevailing controversies, Julian always declared himself the
advocate of Paganism; under the specious excuse that, in the
defence of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be
more advantageously exercised and displayed.
4 (return) [ Nicomediae ab Eusebio educatus Episcopo, quem genere
longius contingebat, (Ammian. xxii. 9.) Julian never expresses
any gratitude towards that Arian prelate; but he celebrates his
preceptor, the eunuch Mardonius, and describes his mode of
education, which inspired his pupil with a passionate admiration
for the genius, and perhaps the religion of Homer. Misopogon, p.
351, 352.]
5 (return) [ Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70. He labored to effect that
holy mark in the blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium. Baron. Annal.
Eccles. A. D. 361, No. 3, 4.]
6 (return) [ Julian himself (Epist. li. p. 454) assures the
Alexandrians that he had been a Christian (he must mean a sincere
one) till the twentieth year of his age.]
7 (return) [ See his Christian, and even ecclesiastical
education, in Gregory, (iii. p. 58,) Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,)
and Sozomen, (l. v. c. 2.) He escaped very narrowly from being a
bishop, and perhaps a saint.]
8 (return) [ The share of the work which had been allotted to
Gallus, was prosecuted with vigor and success; but the earth
obstinately rejected and subverted the structures which were
imposed by the sacrilegious hand of Julian. Greg. iii. p. 59, 60,
61. Such a partial earthquake, attested by many living
spectators, would form one of the clearest miracles in
ecclesiastical story.]
9 (return) [ The philosopher (Fragment, p. 288,) ridicules the
iron chains, &c, of these solitary fanatics, (see Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. ix. p. 661, 632,) who had forgot that man is by
nature a gentle and social animal. The Pagan supposes, that
because they had renounced the gods, they were possessed and
tormented by evil daemons.]
10 (return) [ See Julian apud Cyril, l. vi. p. 206, l. viii. p.
253, 262. “You persecute,” says he, “those heretics who do not
mourn the dead man precisely in the way which you approve.” He
shows himself a tolerable theologian; but he maintains that the
Christian Trinity is not derived from the doctrine of Paul, of
Jesus, or of Moses.]
As soon as Gallus was invested with the honors of the purple,
Julian was permitted to breathe the air of freedom, of
literature, and of Paganism. 11 The crowd of sophists, who were
attracted by the taste and liberality of their royal pupil, had
formed a strict alliance between the learning and the religion of
Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of being admired as the
original productions of human genius, were seriously ascribed to
the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the muses. The deities of
Olympus, as they are painted by the immortal bard, imprint
themselves on the minds which are the least addicted to
superstitious credulity. Our familiar knowledge of their names
and characters, their forms and attributes, seems to bestow on
those airy beings a real and substantial existence; and the
pleasing enchantment produces an imperfect and momentary assent
of the imagination to those fables, which are the most repugnant
to our reason and experience. In the age of Julian, every
circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the illusion; the
magnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the works of those
artists who had expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the
divine conceptions of the poet; the pomp of festivals and
sacrifices; the successful arts of divination; the popular
traditions of oracles and prodigies; and the ancient practice of
two thousand years. The weakness of polytheism was, in some
measure, excused by the moderation of its claims; and the
devotion of the Pagans was not incompatible with the most
licentious scepticism. 12 Instead of an indivisible and regular
system, which occupies the whole extent of the believing mind,
the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a thousand loose and
flexible parts, and the servant of the gods was at liberty to
define the degree and measure of his religious faith. The creed
which Julian adopted for his own use was of the largest
dimensions; and, by strange contradiction, he disdained the
salutary yoke of the gospel, whilst he made a voluntary offering
of his reason on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One of the
orations of Julian is consecrated to the honor of Cybele, the
mother of the gods, who required from her effeminate priests the
bloody sacrifice, so rashly performed by the madness of the
Phrygian boy. The pious emperor condescends to relate, without a
blush, and without a smile, the voyage of the goddess from the
shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tyber, and the stupendous
miracle, which convinced the senate and people of Rome that the
lump of clay, which their ambassadors had transported over the
seas, was endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine power. 13
For the truth of this prodigy he appeals to the public monuments
of the city; and censures, with some acrimony, the sickly and
affected taste of those men, who impertinently derided the sacred
traditions of their ancestors. 14
11 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parentalis, c. 9, 10, p. 232, &c.
Greg. Nazianzen. Orat. iii. p 61. Eunap. Vit. Sophist. in Maximo,
p. 68, 69, 70, edit Commelin.]
12 (return) [ A modern philosopher has ingeniously compared the
different operation of theism and polytheism, with regard to the
doubt or conviction which they produce in the human mind. See
Hume’s Essays vol. ii. p. 444- 457, in 8vo. edit. 1777.]
13 (return) [ The Idaean mother landed in Italy about the end of
the second Punic war. The miracle of Claudia, either virgin or
matron, who cleared her fame by disgracing the graver modesty of
the Roman Indies, is attested by a cloud of witnesses. Their
evidence is collected by Drakenborch, (ad Silium Italicum, xvii.
33;) but we may observe that Livy (xxix. 14) slides over the
transaction with discreet ambiguity.]
14 (return) [ I cannot refrain from transcribing the emphatical
words of Julian: Orat. v. p. 161. Julian likewise declares his
firm belief in the ancilia, the holy shields, which dropped from
heaven on the Quirinal hill; and pities the strange blindness of
the Christians, who preferred the cross to these celestial
trophies. Apud Cyril. l. vi. p. 194.]
But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced, and warmly
encouraged, the superstition of the people, reserved for himself
the privilege of a liberal interpretation; and silently withdrew
from the foot of the altars into the sanctuary of the temple. The
extravagance of the Grecian mythology proclaimed, with a clear
and audible voice, that the pious inquirer, instead of being
scandalized or satisfied with the literal sense, should
diligently explore the occult wisdom, which had been disguised,
by the prudence of antiquity, under the mask of folly and of
fable. 15 The philosophers of the Platonic school, 16 Plotinus,
Porphyry, and the divine Iamblichus, were admired as the most
skilful masters of this allegorical science, which labored to
soften and harmonize the deformed features of Paganism. Julian
himself, who was directed in the mysterious pursuit by Aedesius,
the venerable successor of Iamblichus, aspired to the possession
of a treasure, which he esteemed, if we may credit his solemn
asseverations, far above the empire of the world. 17 It was
indeed a treasure, which derived its value only from opinion; and
every artist who flattered himself that he had extracted the
precious ore from the surrounding dross, claimed an equal right
of stamping the name and figure the most agreeable to his
peculiar fancy. The fable of Atys and Cybele had been already
explained by Porphyry; but his labors served only to animate the
pious industry of Julian, who invented and published his own
allegory of that ancient and mystic tale. This freedom of
interpretation, which might gratify the pride of the Platonists,
exposed the vanity of their art. Without a tedious detail, the
modern reader could not form a just idea of the strange
allusions, the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the
impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal
the system of the universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology
were variously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty
to select the most convenient circumstances; and as they
translated an arbitrary cipher, they could extract from any fable
any sense which was adapted to their favorite system of religion
and philosophy. The lascivious form of a naked Venus was tortured
into the discovery of some moral precept, or some physical truth;
and the castration of Atys explained the revolution of the sun
between the tropics, or the separation of the human soul from
vice and error. 18
15 (return) [ See the principles of allegory, in Julian, (Orat.
vii. p. 216, 222.) His reasoning is less absurd than that of some
modern theologians, who assert that an extravagant or
contradictory doctrine must be divine; since no man alive could
have thought of inventing it.]
16 (return) [ Eunapius has made these sophists the subject of a
partial and fanatical history; and the learned Brucker (Hist.
Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 217-303) has employed much labor to
illustrate their obscure lives and incomprehensible doctrines.]
17 (return) [ Julian, Orat. vii p 222. He swears with the most
fervent and enthusiastic devotion; and trembles, lest he should
betray too much of these holy mysteries, which the profane might
deride with an impious Sardonic laugh.]
18 (return) [ See the fifth oration of Julian. But all the
allegories which ever issued from the Platonic school are not
worth the short poem of Catullus on the same extraordinary
subject. The transition of Atys, from the wildest enthusiasm to
sober, pathetic complaint, for his irretrievable loss, must
inspire a man with pity, a eunuch with despair.]
The theological system of Julian appears to have contained the
sublime and important principles of natural religion. But as the
faith, which is not founded on revelation, must remain destitute
of any firm assurance, the disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed
into the habits of vulgar superstition; and the popular and
philosophic notion of the Deity seems to have been confounded in
the practice, the writings, and even in the mind of Julian. 19
The pious emperor acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of
the universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections of an
infinite nature, invisible to the eyes and inaccessible to the
understanding, of feeble mortals. The Supreme God had created, or
rather, in the Platonic language, had generated, the gradual
succession of dependent spirits, of gods, of daemons, of heroes,
and of men; and every being which derived its existence
immediately from the First Cause, received the inherent gift of
immortality. That so precious an advantage might not be lavished
upon unworthy objects, the Creator had intrusted to the skill and
power of the inferior gods the office of forming the human body,
and of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the
vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct of these
divine ministers he delegated the temporal government of this
lower world; but their imperfect administration is not exempt
from discord or error. The earth and its inhabitants are divided
among them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva, of Mercury or
Venus, may be distinctly traced in the laws and manners of their
peculiar votaries. As long as our immortal souls are confined in
a mortal prison, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to
solicit the favor, and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of
heaven; whose pride is gratified by the devotion of mankind; and
whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive some nourishment
from the fumes of sacrifice. 20 The inferior gods might sometimes
condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples,
which were dedicated to their honor. They might occasionally
visit the earth, but the heavens were the proper throne and
symbol of their glory. The invariable order of the sun, moon, and
stars, was hastily admitted by Julian, as a proof of their
eternal duration; and their eternity was a sufficient evidence
that they were the workmanship, not of an inferior deity, but of
the Omnipotent King. In the system of Platonists, the visible was
a type of the invisible world. The celestial bodies, as they were
informed by a divine spirit, might be considered as the objects
the most worthy of religious worship. The Sun, whose genial
influence pervades and sustains the universe, justly claimed the
adoration of mankind, as the bright representative of the Logos,
the lively, the rational, the beneficent image of the
intellectual Father. 21
19 (return) [ The true religion of Julian may be deduced from the
Caesars, p. 308, with Spanheim’s notes and illustrations, from
the fragments in Cyril, l. ii. p. 57, 58, and especially from the
theological oration in Solem Regem, p. 130-158, addressed in the
confidence of friendship, to the praefect Sallust.]
20 (return) [ Julian adopts this gross conception by ascribing to
his favorite Marcus Antoninus, (Caesares, p. 333.) The Stoics and
Platonists hesitated between the analogy of bodies and the purity
of spirits; yet the gravest philosophers inclined to the
whimsical fancy of Aristophanes and Lucian, that an unbelieving
age might starve the immortal gods. See Observations de Spanheim,
p. 284, 444, &c.]
21 (return) [ Julian. Epist. li. In another place, (apud Cyril.
l. ii. p. 69,) he calls the Sun God, and the throne of God.
Julian believed the Platonician Trinity; and only blames the
Christians for preferring a mortal to an immortal Logos.]
In every age, the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied by
the strong illusions of enthusiasm, and the mimic arts of
imposture. If, in the time of Julian, these arts had been
practised only by the pagan priests, for the support of an
expiring cause, some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to the
interest and habits of the sacerdotal character. But it may
appear a subject of surprise and scandal, that the philosophers
themselves should have contributed to abuse the superstitious
credulity of mankind, 22 and that the Grecian mysteries should
have been supported by the magic or theurgy of the modern
Platonists. They arrogantly pretended to control the order of
nature, to explore the secrets of futurity, to command the
service of the inferior daemons, to enjoy the view and
conversation of the superior gods, and by disengaging the soul
from her material bands, to reunite that immortal particle with
the Infinite and Divine Spirit.
22 (return) [ The sophists of Eunapias perform as many miracles
as the saints of the desert; and the only circumstance in their
favor is, that they are of a less gloomy complexion. Instead of
devils with horns and tails, Iamblichus evoked the genii of love,
Eros and Anteros, from two adjacent fountains. Two beautiful boys
issued from the water, fondly embraced him as their father, and
retired at his command, p. 26, 27.]
The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted the
philosophers with the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the
situation of their young proselyte, might be productive of the
most important consequences. 23 Julian imbibed the first
rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the mouth of Aedesius,
who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecuted school.
But as the declining strength of that venerable sage was unequal
to the ardor, the diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil,
two of his most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius,
supplied, at his own desire, the place of their aged master.
These philosophers seem to have prepared and distributed their
respective parts; and they artfully contrived, by dark hints and
affected disputes, to excite the impatient hopes of the aspirant,
till they delivered him into the hands of their associate,
Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of the Theurgic
science. By his hands, Julian was secretly initiated at Ephesus,
in the twentieth year of his age. His residence at Athens
confirmed this unnatural alliance of philosophy and superstition.
He obtained the privilege of a solemn initiation into the
mysteries of Eleusis, which, amidst the general decay of the
Grecian worship, still retained some vestiges of their primaeval
sanctity; and such was the zeal of Julian, that he afterwards
invited the Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole
purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the
great work of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were
performed in the depth of caverns, and in the silence of the
night, and as the inviolable secret of the mysteries was
preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I shall not presume
to describe the horrid sounds, and fiery apparitions, which were
presented to the senses, or the imagination, of the credulous
aspirant, 24 till the visions of comfort and knowledge broke upon
him in a blaze of celestial light. 25 In the caverns of Ephesus
and Eleusis, the mind of Julian was penetrated with sincere,
deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he might sometimes
exhibit the vicissitudes of pious fraud and hypocrisy, which may
be observed, or at least suspected, in the characters of the most
conscientious fanatics. From that moment he consecrated his life
to the service of the gods; and while the occupations of war, of
government, and of study, seemed to claim the whole measure of
his time, a stated portion of the hours of the night was
invariably reserved for the exercise of private devotion. The
temperance which adorned the severe manners of the soldier and
the philosopher was connected with some strict and frivolous
rules of religious abstinence; and it was in honor of Pan or
Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian, on particular days,
denied himself the use of some particular food, which might have
been offensive to his tutelar deities. By these voluntary fasts,
he prepared his senses and his understanding for the frequent and
familiar visits with which he was honored by the celestial
powers. Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian himself, we
may learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that he
lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and goddesses;
that they descended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of their
favorite hero; that they gently interrupted his slumbers by
touching his hand or his hair; that they warned him of every
impending danger, and conducted him, by their infallible wisdom,
in every action of his life; and that he had acquired such an
intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to
distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the
form of Apollo from the figure of Hercules. 26 These sleeping or
waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence and
fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the level of an
Egyptian monk. But the useless lives of Antony or Pachomius were
consumed in these vain occupations. Julian could break from the
dream of superstition to arm himself for battle; and after
vanquishing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmly retired
into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws of an
empire, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pursuits of
literature and philosophy.
23 (return) [ The dexterous management of these sophists, who
played their credulous pupil into each other’s hands, is fairly
told by Eunapius (p. 69- 79) with unsuspecting simplicity. The
Abbe de la Bleterie understands, and neatly describes, the whole
comedy, (Vie de Julian, p. 61-67.)]
24 (return) [ When Julian, in a momentary panic, made the sign of
the cross the daemons instantly disappeared, (Greg. Naz. Orat.
iii. p. 71.) Gregory supposes that they were frightened, but the
priests declared that they were indignant. The reader, according
to the measure of his faith, will determine this profound
question.]
25 (return) [ A dark and distant view of the terrors and joys of
initiation is shown by Dion Chrysostom, Themistius, Proclus, and
Stobaeus. The learned author of the Divine Legation has exhibited
their words, (vol. i. p. 239, 247, 248, 280, edit. 1765,) which
he dexterously or forcibly applies to his own hypothesis.]
26 (return) [ Julian’s modesty confined him to obscure and
occasional hints: but Libanius expiates with pleasure on the
facts and visions of the religious hero. (Legat. ad Julian. p.
157, and Orat. Parental. c. lxxxiii. p. 309, 310.)]
The important secret of the apostasy of Julian was intrusted to
the fidelity of the initiated, with whom he was united by the
sacred ties of friendship and religion. 27 The pleasing rumor was
cautiously circulated among the adherents of the ancient worship;
and his future greatness became the object of the hopes, the
prayers, and the predictions of the Pagans, in every province of
the empire. From the zeal and virtues of their royal proselyte,
they fondly expected the cure of every evil, and the restoration
of every blessing; and instead of disapproving of the ardor of
their pious wishes, Julian ingenuously confessed, that he was
ambitious to attain a situation in which he might be useful to
his country and to his religion. But this religion was viewed
with a hostile eye by the successor of Constantine, whose
capricious passions altercately saved and threatened the life of
Julian. The arts of magic and divination were strictly prohibited
under a despotic government, which condescended to fear them; and
if the Pagans were reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their
superstition, the rank of Julian would have excepted him from the
general toleration. The apostate soon became the presumptive heir
of the monarchy, and his death could alone have appeased the just
apprehensions of the Christians. 28 But the young prince, who
aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consulted
his safety by dissembling his religion; and the easy temper of
polytheism permitted him to join in the public worship of a sect
which he inwardly despised. Libanius has considered the hypocrisy
of his friend as a subject, not of censure, but of praise. “As
the statues of the gods,” says that orator, “which have been
defiled with filth, are again placed in a magnificent temple, so
the beauty of truth was seated in the mind of Julian, after it
had been purified from the errors and follies of his education.
His sentiments were changed; but as it would have been dangerous
to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct still continued the
same. Very different from the ass in Aesop, who disguised himself
with a lion’s hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himself under
the skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of
reason, to obey the laws of prudence and necessity.” 29 The
dissimulation of Julian lasted about ten years, from his secret
initiation at Ephesus to the beginning of the civil war; when he
declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ and of
Constantius. This state of constraint might contribute to
strengthen his devotion; and as soon as he had satisfied the
obligation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at the assemblies
of the Christians, Julian returned, with the impatience of a
lover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the domestic
chapels of Jupiter and Mercury. But as every act of dissimulation
must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of
Christianity increased the aversion of Julian for a religion
which oppressed the freedom of his mind, and compelled him to
hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human
nature, sincerity and courage.
27 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. x. p. 233, 234. Gallus
had some reason to suspect the secret apostasy of his brother;
and in a letter, which may be received as genuine, he exhorts
Julian to adhere to the religion of their ancestors; an argument
which, as it should seem, was not yet perfectly ripe. See Julian,
Op. p. 454, and Hist. de Jovien tom ii. p. 141.]
28 (return) [ Gregory, (iii. p. 50,) with inhuman zeal, censures
Constantius for paring the infant apostate. His French translator
(p. 265) cautiously observes, that such expressions must not be
prises a la lettre.]
29 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parental. c ix. p. 233.]
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part II.
The inclination of Julian might prefer the gods of Homer, and of
the Scipios, to the new faith, which his uncle had established in
the Roman empire; and in which he himself had been sanctified by
the sacrament of baptism. But, as a philosopher, it was incumbent
on him to justify his dissent from Christianity, which was
supported by the number of its converts, by the chain of
prophecy, the splendor of miracles, and the weight of evidence.
The elaborate work, 30 which he composed amidst the preparations
of the Persian war, contained the substance of those arguments
which he had long revolved in his mind. Some fragments have been
transcribed and preserved, by his adversary, the vehement Cyril
of Alexandria; 31 and they exhibit a very singular mixture of wit
and learning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The elegance of the
style and the rank of the author, recommended his writings to the
public attention; 32 and in the impious list of the enemies of
Christianity, the celebrated name of Porphyry was effaced by the
superior merit or reputation of Julian. The minds of the faithful
were either seduced, or scandalized, or alarmed; and the pagans,
who sometimes presumed to engage in the unequal dispute, derived,
from the popular work of their Imperial missionary, an
inexhaustible supply of fallacious objections. But in the
assiduous prosecution of these theological studies, the emperor
of the Romans imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions of a
polemic divine. He contracted an irrevocable obligation to
maintain and propagate his religious opinions; and whilst he
secretly applauded the strength and dexterity with which he
wielded the weapons of controversy, he was tempted to distrust
the sincerity, or to despise the understandings, of his
antagonists, who could obstinately resist the force of reason and
eloquence.
30 (return) [ Fabricius (Biblioth. Graec. l. v. c. viii, p.
88-90) and Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 44-47) have
accurately compiled all that can now be discovered of Julian’s
work against the Christians.]
31 (return) [ About seventy years after the death of Julian, he
executed a task which had been feebly attempted by Philip of
Side, a prolix and contemptible writer. Even the work of Cyril
has not entirely satisfied the most favorable judges; and the
Abbe de la Bleterie (Preface a l’Hist. de Jovien, p. 30, 32)
wishes that some theologien philosophe (a strange centaur) would
undertake the refutation of Julian.]
32 (return) [ Libanius, (Orat. Parental. c. lxxxvii. p. 313,) who
has been suspected of assisting his friend, prefers this divine
vindication (Orat. ix in necem Julian. p. 255, edit. Morel.) to
the writings of Porphyry. His judgment may be arraigned,
(Socrates, l. iii. c. 23,) but Libanius cannot be accused of
flattery to a dead prince.]
The Christians, who beheld with horror and indignation the
apostasy of Julian, had much more to fear from his power than
from his arguments. The pagans, who were conscious of his fervent
zeal, expected, perhaps with impatience, that the flames of
persecution should be immediately kindled against the enemies of
the gods; and that the ingenious malice of Julian would invent
some cruel refinements of death and torture which had been
unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of his predecessors.
But the hopes, as well as the fears, of the religious factions
were apparently disappointed, by the prudent humanity of a
prince, 33 who was careful of his own fame, of the public peace,
and of the rights of mankind. Instructed by history and
reflection, Julian was persuaded, that if the diseases of the
body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel
nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind. The
reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar; but the
heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of the
hand. Religious obstinacy is hardened and exasperated by
oppression; and, as soon as the persecution subsides, those who
have yielded are restored as penitents, and those who have
resisted are honored as saints and martyrs. If Julian adopted the
unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and his colleagues, he was
sensible that he should stain his memory with the name of a
tyrant, and add new glories to the Catholic church, which had
derived strength and increase from the severity of the pagan
magistrates. Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of
disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the
world by an edict, which was not unworthy of a statesman, or a
philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman
world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only
hardship which he inflicted on the Christians, was to deprive
them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they
stigmatized with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics. The
pagans received a gracious permission, or rather an express
order, to open All their temples; 34 and they were at once
delivered from the oppressive laws, and arbitrary vexations,
which they had sustained under the reign of Constantine, and of
his sons. At the same time the bishops and clergy, who had been
banished by the Arian monarch, were recalled from exile, and
restored to their respective churches; the Donatists, the
Novatians, the Macedonians, the Eunomians, and those who, with a
more prosperous fortune, adhered to the doctrine of the Council
of Nice. Julian, who understood and derided their theological
disputes, invited to the palace the leaders of the hostile sects,
that he might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their furious
encounters. The clamor of controversy sometimes provoked the
emperor to exclaim, “Hear me! the Franks have heard me, and the
Alemanni;” but he soon discovered that he was now engaged with
more obstinate and implacable enemies; and though he exerted the
powers of oratory to persuade them to live in concord, or at
least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied, before he dismissed
them from his presence, that he had nothing to dread from the
union of the Christians. The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this
affected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine
divisions of the church, and the insidious design of undermining
the foundations of Christianity, was inseparably connected with
the zeal which Julian professed, to restore the ancient religion
of the empire. 35
33 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. lviii. p. 283, 284) has
eloquently explained the tolerating principles and conduct of his
Imperial friend. In a very remarkable epistle to the people of
Bostra, Julian himself (Epist. lii.) professes his moderation,
and betrays his zeal, which is acknowledged by Ammianus, and
exposed by Gregory (Orat. iii. p.72)]
34 (return) [ In Greece the temples of Minerva were opened by his
express command, before the death of Constantius, (Liban. Orat.
Parent. c. 55, p. 280;) and Julian declares himself a Pagan in
his public manifesto to the Athenians. This unquestionable
evidence may correct the hasty assertion of Ammianus, who seems
to suppose Constantinople to be the place where he discovered his
attachment to the gods]
35 (return) [ Ammianus, xxii. 5. Sozomen, l. v. c. 5. Bestia
moritur, tranquillitas redit.... omnes episcopi qui de propriis
sedibus fuerant exterminati per indulgentiam novi principis ad
acclesias redeunt. Jerom. adversus Luciferianos, tom. ii. p. 143.
Optatus accuses the Donatists for owing their safety to an
apostate, (l. ii. c. 16, p. 36, 37, edit. Dupin.)]
As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to the
custom of his predecessors, the character of supreme pontiff; not
only as the most honorable title of Imperial greatness, but as a
sacred and important office; the duties of which he was resolved
to execute with pious diligence. As the business of the state
prevented the emperor from joining every day in the public
devotion of his subjects, he dedicated a domestic chapel to his
tutelar deity the Sun; his gardens were filled with statues and
altars of the gods; and each apartment of the palace displaced
the appearance of a magnificent temple. Every morning he saluted
the parent of light with a sacrifice; the blood of another victim
was shed at the moment when the Sun sunk below the horizon; and
the Moon, the Stars, and the Genii of the night received their
respective and seasonable honors from the indefatigable devotion
of Julian. On solemn festivals, he regularly visited the temple
of the god or goddess to whom the day was peculiarly consecrated,
and endeavored to excite the religion of the magistrates and
people by the example of his own zeal. Instead of maintaining the
lofty state of a monarch, distinguished by the splendor of his
purple, and encompassed by the golden shields of his guards,
Julian solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices
which contributed to the worship of the gods. Amidst the sacred
but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior ministers, and of
female dancers, who were dedicated to the service of the temple,
it was the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the
fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and,
thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of the expiring
animal, to draw forth the heart or liver, and to read, with the
consummate skill of an haruspex, imaginary signs of future
events. The wisest of the Pagans censured this extravagant
superstition, which affected to despise the restraints of
prudence and decency. Under the reign of a prince, who practised
the rigid maxims of economy, the expense of religious worship
consumed a very large portion of the revenue; a constant supply
of the scarcest and most beautiful birds was transported from
distant climates, to bleed on the altars of the gods; a hundred
oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian on one and the same
day; and it soon became a popular jest, that if he should return
with conquest from the Persian war, the breed of horned cattle
must infallibly be extinguished. Yet this expense may appear
inconsiderable, when it is compared with the splendid presents
which were offered either by the hand, or by order, of the
emperor, to all the celebrated places of devotion in the Roman
world; and with the sums allotted to repair and decorate the
ancient temples, which had suffered the silent decay of time, or
the recent injuries of Christian rapine. Encouraged by the
example, the exhortations, the liberality, of their pious
sovereign, the cities and families resumed the practice of their
neglected ceremonies. “Every part of the world,” exclaims
Libanius, with devout transport, “displayed the triumph of
religion; and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding
victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priests and
prophets, without fear and without danger. The sound of prayer
and of music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains; and
the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for
their joyous votaries.” 36
36 (return) [ The restoration of the Pagan worship is described
by Julian, (Misopogon, p. 346,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 60,
p. 286, 287, and Orat. Consular. ad Julian. p. 245, 246, edit.
Morel.,) Ammianus, (xxii. 12,) and Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv.
p. 121.) These writers agree in the essential, and even minute,
facts; but the different lights in which they view the extreme
devotion of Julian, are expressive of the gradations of
self-applause, passionate admiration, mild reproof, and partial
invective.]
But the genius and power of Julian were unequal to the enterprise
of restoring a religion which was destitute of theological
principles, of moral precepts, and of ecclesiastical discipline;
which rapidly hastened to decay and dissolution, and was not
susceptible of any solid or consistent reformation. The
jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff, more especially after that
office had been united with the Imperial dignity, comprehended
the whole extent of the Roman empire. Julian named for his
vicars, in the several provinces, the priests and philosophers
whom he esteemed the best qualified to cooperate in the execution
of his great design; and his pastoral letters, 37 if we may use
that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his wishes
and intentions. He directs, that in every city the sacerdotal
order should be composed, without any distinction of birth and
fortune, of those persons who were the most conspicuous for the
love of the gods, and of men. “If they are guilty,” continues he,
“of any scandalous offence, they should be censured or degraded
by the superior pontiff; but as long as they retain their rank,
they are entitled to the respect of the magistrates and people.
Their humility may be shown in the plainness of their domestic
garb; their dignity, in the pomp of holy vestments. When they are
summoned in their turn to officiate before the altar, they ought
not, during the appointed number of days, to depart from the
precincts of the temple; nor should a single day be suffered to
elapse, without the prayers and the sacrifice, which they are
obliged to offer for the prosperity of the state, and of
individuals. The exercise of their sacred functions requires an
immaculate purity, both of mind and body; and even when they are
dismissed from the temple to the occupations of common life, it
is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of
their fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never be
seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation should be chaste,
his diet temperate, his friends of honorable reputation; and if
he sometimes visits the Forum or the Palace, he should appear
only as the advocate of those who have vainly solicited either
justice or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity of
his profession. Licentious tales, or comedies, or satires, must
be banished from his library, which ought solely to consist of
historical or philosophical writings; of history, which is
founded in truth, and of philosophy, which is connected with
religion. The impious opinions of the Epicureans and sceptics
deserve his abhorrence and contempt; 38 but he should diligently
study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato, and of the Stoics,
which unanimously teach that there are gods; that the world is
governed by their providence; that their goodness is the source
of every temporal blessing; and that they have prepared for the
human soul a future state of reward or punishment.” The Imperial
pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive language, the duties
of benevolence and hospitality; exhorts his inferior clergy to
recommend the universal practice of those virtues; promises to
assist their indigence from the public treasury; and declares his
resolution of establishing hospitals in every city, where the
poor should be received without any invidious distinction of
country or of religion. Julian beheld with envy the wise and
humane regulations of the church; and he very frankly confesses
his intention to deprive the Christians of the applause, as well
as advantage, which they had acquired by the exclusive practice
of charity and beneficence. 39 The same spirit of imitation might
dispose the emperor to adopt several ecclesiastical institutions,
the use and importance of which were approved by the success of
his enemies. But if these imaginary plans of reformation had been
realized, the forced and imperfect copy would have been less
beneficial to Paganism, than honorable to Christianity. 40 The
Gentiles, who peaceably followed the customs of their ancestors,
were rather surprised than pleased with the introduction of
foreign manners; and in the short period of his reign, Julian had
frequent occasions to complain of the want of fervor of his own
party. 41
37 (return) [ See Julian. Epistol. xlix. lxii. lxiii., and a long
and curious fragment, without beginning or end, (p. 288-305.) The
supreme pontiff derides the Mosaic history and the Christian
discipline, prefers the Greek poets to the Hebrew prophets, and
palliates, with the skill of a Jesuit the relative worship of
images.]
38 (return) [ The exultation of Julian (p. 301) that these
impious sects and even their writings, are extinguished, may be
consistent enough with the sacerdotal character; but it is
unworthy of a philosopher to wish that any opinions and arguments
the most repugnant to his own should be concealed from the
knowledge of mankind.]
39 (return) [ Yet he insinuates, that the Christians, under the
pretence of charity, inveigled children from their religion and
parents, conveyed them on shipboard, and devoted those victims to
a life of poverty or pervitude in a remote country, (p. 305.) Had
the charge been proved it was his duty, not to complain, but to
punish.]
40 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen is facetious, ingenious, and
argumentative, (Orat. iii. p. 101, 102, &c.) He ridicules the
folly of such vain imitation; and amuses himself with inquiring,
what lessons, moral or theological, could be extracted from the
Grecian fables.]
41 (return) [ He accuses one of his pontiffs of a secret
confederacy with the Christian bishops and presbyters, (Epist.
lxii.) &c. Epist. lxiii.]
The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace the friends of
Jupiter as his personal friends and brethren; and though he
partially overlooked the merit of Christian constancy, he admired
and rewarded the noble perseverance of those Gentiles who had
preferred the favor of the gods to that of the emperor. 42 If
they cultivated the literature, as well as the religion, of the
Greeks, they acquired an additional claim to the friendship of
Julian, who ranked the Muses in the number of his tutelar
deities. In the religion which he had adopted, piety and learning
were almost synonymous; 43 and a crowd of poets, of rhetoricians,
and of philosophers, hastened to the Imperial court, to occupy
the vacant places of the bishops, who had seduced the credulity
of Constantius. His successor esteemed the ties of common
initiation as far more sacred than those of consanguinity; he
chose his favorites among the sages, who were deeply skilled in
the occult sciences of magic and divination; and every impostor,
who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity, was assured of
enjoying the present hour in honor and affluence. 44 Among the
philosophers, Maximus obtained the most eminent rank in the
friendship of his royal disciple, who communicated, with
unreserved confidence, his actions, his sentiments, and his
religious designs, during the anxious suspense of the civil war.
45 As soon as Julian had taken possession of the palace of
Constantinople, he despatched an honorable and pressing
invitation to Maximus, who then resided at Sardes in Lydia, with
Chrysanthius, the associate of his art and studies. The prudent
and superstitious Chrysanthius refused to undertake a journey
which showed itself, according to the rules of divination, with
the most threatening and malignant aspect: but his companion,
whose fanaticism was of a bolder cast, persisted in his
interrogations, till he had extorted from the gods a seeming
consent to his own wishes, and those of the emperor. The journey
of Maximus through the cities of Asia displayed the triumph of
philosophic vanity; and the magistrates vied with each other in
the honorable reception which they prepared for the friend of
their sovereign. Julian was pronouncing an oration before the
senate, when he was informed of the arrival of Maximus. The
emperor immediately interrupted his discourse, advanced to meet
him, and after a tender embrace, conducted him by the hand into
the midst of the assembly; where he publicly acknowledged the
benefits which he had derived from the instructions of the
philosopher. Maximus, 46 who soon acquired the confidence, and
influenced the councils of Julian, was insensibly corrupted by
the temptations of a court. His dress became more splendid, his
demeanor more lofty, and he was exposed, under a succeeding
reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means by which the
disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the short duration of his
favor, a very scandalous proportion of wealth. Of the other
philosophers and sophists, who were invited to the Imperial
residence by the choice of Julian, or by the success of Maximus,
few were able to preserve their innocence or their reputation.
The liberal gifts of money, lands, and houses, were insufficient
to satiate their rapacious avarice; and the indignation of the
people was justly excited by the remembrance of their abject
poverty and disinterested professions. The penetration of Julian
could not always be deceived: but he was unwilling to despise the
characters of those men whose talents deserved his esteem: he
desired to escape the double reproach of imprudence and
inconstancy; and he was apprehensive of degrading, in the eyes of
the profane, the honor of letters and of religion. 47 48
42 (return) [ He praises the fidelity of Callixene, priestess of
Ceres, who had been twice as constant as Penelope, and rewards
her with the priesthood of the Phrygian goddess at Pessinus,
(Julian. Epist. xxi.) He applauds the firmness of Sopater of
Hierapolis, who had been repeatedly pressed by Constantius and
Gallus to apostatize, (Epist. xxvii p. 401.)]
43 (return) [ Orat. Parent. c. 77, p. 202. The same sentiment is
frequently inculcated by Julian, Libanius, and the rest of their
party.]
44 (return) [ The curiosity and credulity of the emperor, who
tried every mode of divination, are fairly exposed by Ammianus,
xxii. 12.]
45 (return) [ Julian. Epist. xxxviii. Three other epistles, (xv.
xvi. xxxix.,) in the same style of friendship and confidence, are
addressed to the philosopher Maximus.]
46 (return) [ Eunapius (in Maximo, p. 77, 78, 79, and in
Chrysanthio, p. 147, 148) has minutely related these anecdotes,
which he conceives to be the most important events of the age.
Yet he fairly confesses the frailty of Maximus. His reception at
Constantinople is described by Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 86, p.
301) and Ammianus, (xxii. 7.) * Note: Eunapius wrote a
continuation of the History of Dexippus. Some valuable fragments
of this work have been recovered by M. Mai, and reprinted in
Niebuhr’s edition of the Byzantine Historians.—M.]
47 (return) [ Chrysanthius, who had refused to quit Lydia, was
created high priest of the province. His cautious and temperate
use of power secured him after the revolution; and he lived in
peace, while Maximus, Priscus, &c., were persecuted by the
Christian ministers. See the adventures of those fanatic
sophists, collected by Brucker, tom ii. p. 281-293.]
48 (return) [ Sec Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 101, 102, p. 324,
325, 326) and Eunapius, (Vit. Sophist. in Proaeresio, p. 126.)
Some students, whose expectations perhaps were groundless, or
extravagant, retired in disgust, (Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. p. 120.)
It is strange that we should not be able to contradict the title
of one of Tillemont’s chapters, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
960,) “La Cour de Julien est pleine de philosphes et de gens
perdus.”]
The favor of Julian was almost equally divided between the
Pagans, who had firmly adhered to the worship of their ancestors,
and the Christians, who prudently embraced the religion of their
sovereign. The acquisition of new proselytes 49 gratified the
ruling passions of his soul, superstition and vanity; and he was
heard to declare, with the enthusiasm of a missionary, that if he
could render each individual richer than Midas, and every city
greater than Babylon, he should not esteem himself the benefactor
of mankind, unless, at the same time, he could reclaim his
subjects from their impious revolt against the immortal gods. 50
A prince who had studied human nature, and who possessed the
treasures of the Roman empire, could adapt his arguments, his
promises, and his rewards, to every order of Christians; 51 and
the merit of a seasonable conversion was allowed to supply the
defects of a candidate, or even to expiate the guilt of a
criminal. As the army is the most forcible engine of absolute
power, Julian applied himself, with peculiar diligence, to
corrupt the religion of his troops, without whose hearty
concurrence every measure must be dangerous and unsuccessful; and
the natural temper of soldiers made this conquest as easy as it
was important. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the
faith, as well as to the fortunes, of their victorious leader;
and even before the death of Constantius, he had the satisfaction
of announcing to his friends, that they assisted with fervent
devotion, and voracious appetite, at the sacrifices, which were
repeatedly offered in his camp, of whole hecatombs of fat oxen.
52 The armies of the East, which had been trained under the
standard of the cross, and of Constantius, required a more artful
and expensive mode of persuasion. On the days of solemn and
public festivals, the emperor received the homage, and rewarded
the merit, of the troops. His throne of state was encircled with
the military ensigns of Rome and the republic; the holy name of
Christ was erased from the Labarum; and the symbols of war, of
majesty, and of pagan superstition, were so dexterously blended,
that the faithful subject incurred the guilt of idolatry, when he
respectfully saluted the person or image of his sovereign. The
soldiers passed successively in review; and each of them, before
he received from the hand of Julian a liberal donative,
proportioned to his rank and services, was required to cast a few
grains of incense into the flame which burnt upon the altar. Some
Christian confessors might resist, and others might repent; but
the far greater number, allured by the prospect of gold, and awed
by the presence of the emperor, contracted the criminal
engagement; and their future perseverance in the worship of the
gods was enforced by every consideration of duty and of interest.
By the frequent repetition of these arts, and at the expense of
sums which would have purchased the service of half the nations
of Scythia, Julian gradually acquired for his troops the
imaginary protection of the gods, and for himself the firm and
effectual support of the Roman legions. 53 It is indeed more than
probable, that the restoration and encouragement of Paganism
revealed a multitude of pretended Christians, who, from motives
of temporal advantage, had acquiesced in the religion of the
former reign; and who afterwards returned, with the same
flexibility of conscience, to the faith which was professed by
the successors of Julian.
49 (return) [ Under the reign of Lewis XIV. his subjects of every
rank aspired to the glorious title of Convertisseur, expressive
of their zea and success in making proselytes. The word and the
idea are growing obsolete in France may they never be introduced
into England.]
50 (return) [ See the strong expressions of Libanius, which were
probably those of Julian himself, (Orat. Parent. c. 59, p. 285.)]
51 (return) [ When Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. x. p. 167) is
desirous to magnify the Christian firmness of his brother
Caesarius, physician to the Imperial court, he owns that
Caesarius disputed with a formidable adversary. In his invectives
he scarcely allows any share of wit or courage to the apostate.]
52 (return) [ Julian, Epist. xxxviii. Ammianus, xxii. 12. Adeo ut
in dies paene singulos milites carnis distentiore sagina
victitantes incultius, potusque aviditate correpti, humeris
impositi transeuntium per plateas, ex publicis aedibus..... ad
sua diversoria portarentur. The devout prince and the indignant
historian describe the same scene; and in Illyricum or Antioch,
similar causes must have produced similar effects.]
53 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 74, 75, 83-86) and Libanius,
(Orat. Parent. c. lxxxi. lxxxii. p. 307, 308,). The sophist owns
and justifies the expense of these military conversions.]
While the devout monarch incessantly labored to restore and
propagate the religion of his ancestors, he embraced the
extraordinary design of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. In a
public epistle 54 to the nation or community of the Jews,
dispersed through the provinces, he pities their misfortunes,
condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy, declares
himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope,
that after his return from the Persian war, he may be permitted
to pay his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city of
Jerusalem. The blind superstition, and abject slavery, of those
unfortunate exiles, must excite the contempt of a philosophic
emperor; but they deserved the friendship of Julian, by their
implacable hatred of the Christian name. The barren synagogue
abhorred and envied the fecundity of the rebellious church; the
power of the Jews was not equal to their malice; but their
gravest rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate; 55 and
their seditious clamors had often awakened the indolence of the
Pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine, the Jews
became the subjects of their revolted children nor was it long
before they experienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The
civil immunities which had been granted, or confirmed, by
Severus, were gradually repealed by the Christian princes; and a
rash tumult, excited by the Jews of Palestine, 56 seemed to
justify the lucrative modes of oppression which were invented by
the bishops and eunuchs of the court of Constantius. The Jewish
patriarch, who was still permitted to exercise a precarious
jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias; 57 and the
neighboring cities of Palestine were filled with the remains of a
people who fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of
Hadrian was renewed and enforced; and they viewed from afar the
walls of the holy city, which were profaned in their eyes by the
triumph of the cross and the devotion of the Christians. 58
54 (return) [ Julian’s epistle (xxv.) is addressed to the
community of the Jews. Aldus (Venet. 1499) has branded it with
an; but this stigma is justly removed by the subsequent editors,
Petavius and Spanheim. This epistle is mentioned by Sozomen, (l.
v. c. 22,) and the purport of it is confirmed by Gregory, (Orat.
iv. p. 111.) and by Julian himself (Fragment. p. 295.)]
55 (return) [ The Misnah denounced death against those who
abandoned the foundation. The judgment of zeal is explained by
Marsham (Canon. Chron. p. 161, 162, edit. fol. London, 1672) and
Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom. viii. p. 120.) Constantine made a
law to protect Christian converts from Judaism. Cod. Theod. l.
xvi. tit. viii. leg. 1. Godefroy, tom. vi. p. 215.]
56 (return) [ Et interea (during the civil war of Magnentius)
Judaeorum seditio, qui Patricium, nefarie in regni speciem
sustulerunt, oppressa. Aurelius Victor, in Constantio, c. xlii.
See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 379, in 4to.]
57 (return) [ The city and synagogue of Tiberias are curiously
described by Reland. Palestin. tom. ii. p. 1036-1042.]
58 (return) [ Basnage has fully illustrated the state of the Jews
under Constantine and his successors, (tom. viii. c. iv. p.
111-153.)]
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part III.
In the midst of a rocky and barren country, the walls of
Jerusalem 59 enclosed the two mountains of Sion and Acra, within
an oval figure of about three English miles. 60 Towards the
south, the upper town, and the fortress of David, were erected on
the lofty ascent of Mount Sion: on the north side, the buildings
of the lower town covered the spacious summit of Mount Acra; and
a part of the hill, distinguished by the name of Moriah, and
levelled by human industry, was crowned with the stately temple
of the Jewish nation. After the final destruction of the temple
by the arms of Titus and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over
the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion
was deserted; and the vacant space of the lower city was filled
with the public and private edifices of the Aelian colony, which
spread themselves over the adjacent hill of Calvary. The holy
places were polluted with mountains of idolatry; and, either from
design or accident, a chapel was dedicated to Venus, on the spot
which had been sanctified by the death and resurrection of
Christ. 61 6111 Almost three hundred years after those stupendous
events, the profane chapel of Venus was demolished by the order
of Constantine; and the removal of the earth and stones revealed
the holy sepulchre to the eyes of mankind. A magnificent church
was erected on that mystic ground, by the first Christian
emperor; and the effects of his pious munificence were extended
to every spot which had been consecrated by the footstep of
patriarchs, of prophets, and of the Son of God. 62
59 (return) [ Reland (Palestin. l. i. p. 309, 390, l. iii. p.
838) describes, with learning and perspicuity, Jerusalem, and the
face of the adjacent country.]
60 (return) [ I have consulted a rare and curious treatise of M.
D’Anville, (sur l’Ancienne Jerusalem, Paris, 1747, p. 75.) The
circumference of the ancient city (Euseb. Preparat. Evangel. l.
ix. c. 36) was 27 stadia, or 2550 toises. A plan, taken on the
spot, assigns no more than 1980 for the modern town. The circuit
is defined by natural landmarks, which cannot be mistaken or
removed.]
61 (return) [ See two curious passages in Jerom, (tom. i. p. 102,
tom. vi. p. 315,) and the ample details of Tillemont, (Hist, des
Empereurs, tom. i. p. 569. tom. ii. p. 289, 294, 4to edition.)]
6111 (return) [ On the site of the Holy Sepulchre, compare the
chapter in Professor Robinson’s Travels in Palestine, which has
renewed the old controversy with great vigor. To me, this temple
of Venus, said to have been erected by Hadrian to insult the
Christians, is not the least suspicious part of the whole
legend.-M. 1845.]
62 (return) [ Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. iii. c. 25-47,
51-53. The emperor likewise built churches at Bethlem, the Mount
of Olives, and the oa of Mambre. The holy sepulchre is described
by Sandys, (Travels, p. 125-133,) and curiously delineated by Le
Bruyn, (Voyage au Levant, p. 28-296.)]
The passionate desire of contemplating the original monuments of
their redemption attracted to Jerusalem a successive crowd of
pilgrims, from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and the most
distant countries of the East; 63 and their piety was authorized
by the example of the empress Helena, who appears to have united
the credulity of age with the warm feelings of a recent
conversion. Sages and heroes, who have visited the memorable
scenes of ancient wisdom or glory, have confessed the inspiration
of the genius of the place; 64 and the Christian who knelt before
the holy sepulchre, ascribed his lively faith, and his fervent
devotion, to the more immediate influence of the Divine Spirit.
The zeal, perhaps the avarice, of the clergy of Jerusalem,
cherished and multiplied these beneficial visits. They fixed, by
unquestionable tradition, the scene of each memorable event. They
exhibited the instruments which had been used in the passion of
Christ; the nails and the lance that had pierced his hands, his
feet, and his side; the crown of thorns that was planted on his
head; the pillar at which he was scourged; and, above all, they
showed the cross on which he suffered, and which was dug out of
the earth in the reign of those princes, who inserted the symbol
of Christianity in the banners of the Roman legions. 65 Such
miracles as seemed necessary to account for its extraordinary
preservation, and seasonable discovery, were gradually propagated
without opposition. The custody of the true cross, which on
Easter Sunday was solemnly exposed to the people, was intrusted
to the bishop of Jerusalem; and he alone might gratify the
curious devotion of the pilgrims, by the gift of small pieces,
which they encased in gold or gems, and carried away in triumph
to their respective countries. But as this gainful branch of
commerce must soon have been annihilated, it was found convenient
to suppose, that the marvelous wood possessed a secret power of
vegetation; and that its substance, though continually
diminished, still remained entire and unimpaired. 66 It might
perhaps have been expected, that the influence of the place and
the belief of a perpetual miracle, should have produced some
salutary effects on the morals, as well as on the faith, of the
people. Yet the most respectable of the ecclesiastical writers
have been obliged to confess, not only that the streets of
Jerusalem were filled with the incessant tumult of business and
pleasure, 67 but that every species of vice—adultery, theft,
idolatry, poisoning, murder—was familiar to the inhabitants of
the holy city. 68 The wealth and preeminence of the church of
Jerusalem excited the ambition of Arian, as well as orthodox,
candidates; and the virtues of Cyril, who, since his death, has
been honored with the title of Saint, were displayed in the
exercise, rather than in the acquisition, of his episcopal
dignity. 69
63 (return) [ The Itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem was
composed in the year 333, for the use of pilgrims; among whom
Jerom (tom. i. p. 126) mentions the Britons and the Indians. The
causes of this superstitious fashion are discussed in the learned
and judicious preface of Wesseling. (Itinarar. p. 537-545.)
——Much curious information on this subject is collected in the
first chapter of Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuzzuge.—M.]
64 (return) [ Cicero (de Finibus, v. 1) has beautifully expressed
the common sense of mankind.]
65 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 326, No. 42-50) and
Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 8-16) are the historians and
champions of the miraculous invention of the cross, under the
reign of Constantine. Their oldest witnesses are Paulinus,
Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Ambrose, and perhaps Cyril of
Jerusalem. The silence of Eusebius, and the Bourdeaux pilgrim,
which satisfies those who think perplexes those who believe. See
Jortin’s sensible remarks, vol. ii. p 238-248.]
66 (return) [ This multiplication is asserted by Paulinus,
(Epist. xxxvi. See Dupin. Bibliot. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 149,) who
seems to have improved a rhetorical flourish of Cyril into a real
fact. The same supernatural privilege must have been communicated
to the Virgin’s milk, (Erasmi Opera, tom. i. p. 778, Lugd. Batav.
1703, in Colloq. de Peregrinat. Religionis ergo,) saints’ heads,
&c. and other relics, which are repeated in so many different
churches. * Note: Lord Mahon, in a memoir read before the Society
of Antiquaries, (Feb. 1831,) has traced in a brief but
interesting manner, the singular adventures of the “true” cross.
It is curious to inquire, what authority we have, except of late
tradition, for the Hill of Calvary. There is none in the sacred
writings; the uniform use of the common word, instead of any word
expressing assent or acclivity, is against the notion.—M.]
67 (return) [ Jerom, (tom. i. p. 103,) who resided in the
neighboring village of Bethlem, describes the vices of Jerusalem
from his personal experience.]
68 (return) [ Gregor. Nyssen, apud Wesseling, p. 539. The whole
epistle, which condemns either the use or the abuse of religious
pilgrimage, is painful to the Catholic divines, while it is dear
and familiar to our Protestant polemics.]
69 (return) [ He renounced his orthodox ordination, officiated as
a deacon, and was re-ordained by the hands of the Arians. But
Cyril afterwards changed with the times, and prudently conformed
to the Nicene faith. Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii.,) who
treats his memory with tenderness and respect, has thrown his
virtues into the text, and his faults into the notes, in decent
obscurity, at the end of the volume.]
The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore the
ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem. 70 As the Christians
were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction
had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law,
the Imperial sophist would have converted the success of his
undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of
prophecy, and the truth of revelation. 71 He was displeased with
the spiritual worship of the synagogue; but he approved the
institutions of Moses, who had not disdained to adopt many of the
rites and ceremonies of Egypt. 72 The local and national deity of
the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist, who desired only
to multiply the number of the gods; 73 and such was the appetite
of Julian for bloody sacrifice, that his emulation might be
excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered, at the feast of
the dedication, twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and
twenty thousand sheep. 74 These considerations might influence
his designs; but the prospect of an immediate and important
advantage would not suffer the impatient monarch to expect the
remote and uncertain event of the Persian war. He resolved to
erect, without delay, on the commanding eminence of Moriah, a
stately temple, which might eclipse the splendor of the church of
the resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary; to establish an
order of priests, whose interested zeal would detect the arts,
and resist the ambition, of their Christian rivals; and to invite
a numerous colony of Jews, whose stern fanaticism would be always
prepared to second, and even to anticipate, the hostile measures
of the Pagan government. Among the friends of the emperor (if the
names of emperor, and of friend, are not incompatible) the first
place was assigned, by Julian himself, to the virtuous and
learned Alypius. 75 The humanity of Alypius was tempered by
severe justice and manly fortitude; and while he exercised his
abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in
his poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of the odes
of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian communicated, without
reserve, his most careless levities, and his most serious
counsels, received an extraordinary commission to restore, in its
pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem; and the diligence of
Alypius required and obtained the strenuous support of the
governor of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the
Jews, from all the provinces of the empire, assembled on the holy
mountain of their fathers; and their insolent triumph alarmed and
exasperated the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of
rebuilding the temple has in every age been the ruling passion of
the children of Israel. In this propitious moment the men forgot
their avarice, and the women their delicacy; spades and pickaxes
of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich, and the
rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and purple. Every
purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand claimed a
share in the pious labor, and the commands of a great monarch
were executed by the enthusiasm of a whole people. 76
70 (return) [ Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens
propagare Ammian. xxiii. 1. The temple of Jerusalem had been
famous even among the Gentiles. They had many temples in each
city, (at Sichem five, at Gaza eight, at Rome four hundred and
twenty-four;) but the wealth and religion of the Jewish nation
was centred in one spot.]
71 (return) [ The secret intentions of Julian are revealed by the
late bishop of Gloucester, the learned and dogmatic Warburton;
who, with the authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives
and conduct of the Supreme Being. The discourse entitled Julian
(2d edition, London, 1751) is strongly marked with all the
peculiarities which are imputed to the Warburtonian school.]
72 (return) [ I shelter myself behind Maimonides, Marsham,
Spencer, Le Clerc, Warburton, &c., who have fairly derided the
fears, the folly, and the falsehood of some superstitious
divines. See Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 25, &c.]
73 (return) [ Julian (Fragment. p. 295) respectfully styles him,
and mentions him elsewhere (Epist. lxiii.) with still higher
reverence. He doubly condemns the Christians for believing, and
for renouncing, the religion of the Jews. Their Deity was a true,
but not the only, God Apul Cyril. l. ix. p. 305, 306.]
74 (return) [ 1 Kings, viii. 63. 2 Chronicles, vii. 5. Joseph.
Antiquitat. Judaic. l. viii. c. 4, p. 431, edit. Havercamp. As
the blood and smoke of so many hecatombs might be inconvenient,
Lightfoot, the Christian Rabbi, removes them by a miracle. Le
Clerc (ad loca) is bold enough to suspect to fidelity of the
numbers. * Note: According to the historian Kotobeddym, quoted by
Burckhardt, (Travels in Arabia, p. 276,) the Khalif Mokteder
sacrificed, during his pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the
Hejira 350, forty thousand camels and cows, and fifty thousand
sheep. Barthema describes thirty thousand oxen slain, and their
carcasses given to the poor. Quarterly Review, xiii.p.39—M.]
75 (return) [ Julian, epist. xxix. xxx. La Bleterie has neglected
to translate the second of these epistles.]
76 (return) [ See the zeal and impatience of the Jews in Gregory
Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 111) and Theodoret. (l. iii. c. 20.)]
Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm
were unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is
now covered by a Mahometan mosque, 77 still continued to exhibit
the same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the
absence and death of the emperor, and the new maxims of a
Christian reign, might explain the interruption of an arduous
work, which was attempted only in the last six months of the life
of Julian. 78 But the Christians entertained a natural and pious
expectation, that, in this memorable contest, the honor of
religion would be vindicated by some signal miracle. An
earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned
and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested,
with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence.
79 This public event is described by Ambrose, 80 bishop of Milan,
in an epistle to the emperor Theodosius, which must provoke the
severe animadversion of the Jews; by the eloquent Chrysostom, 81
who might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his
congregation at Antioch; and by Gregory Nazianzen, 82 who
published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the
same year. The last of these writers has boldly declared, that
this preternatural event was not disputed by the infidels; and
his assertion, strange as it may seem is confirmed by the
unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. 83 The
philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the
prejudices, of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and
candid history of his own times, the extraordinary obstacles
which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem.
“Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged,
with vigor and diligence, the execution of the work, horrible
balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, with frequent
and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time,
inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the
victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and
resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the
undertaking was abandoned.” 8311 Such authority should satisfy a
believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a
philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial
and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any
singular accident of nature would assume the appearance, and
produce the effects of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance
would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the
clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian
world and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian,
careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the
specious and splendid miracle. 84
77 (return) [ Built by Omar, the second Khalif, who died A. D.
644. This great mosque covers the whole consecrated ground of the
Jewish temple, and constitutes almost a square of 760 toises, or
one Roman mile in circumference. See D’Anville, Jerusalem, p.
45.]
78 (return) [ Ammianus records the consults of the year 363,
before he proceeds to mention the thoughts of Julian. Templum.
... instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis. Warburton has a
secret wish to anticipate the design; but he must have
understood, from former examples, that the execution of such a
work would have demanded many years.]
79 (return) [ The subsequent witnesses, Socrates, Sozomen,
Theodoret, Philostorgius, &c., add contradictions rather than
authority. Compare the objections of Basnage (Hist. des Juifs,
tom. viii. p. 156-168) with Warburton’s answers, (Julian, p.
174-258.) The bishop has ingeniously explained the miraculous
crosses which appeared on the garments of the spectators by a
similar instance, and the natural effects of lightning.]
80 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. epist. xl. p. 946, edit.
Benedictin. He composed this fanatic epistle (A. D. 388) to
justify a bishop who had been condemned by the civil magistrate
for burning a synagogue.]
81 (return) [ Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 580, advers. Judaeos et
Gentes, tom. ii. p. 574, de Sto Babyla, edit. Montfaucon. I have
followed the common and natural supposition; but the learned
Benedictine, who dates the composition of these sermons in the
year 383, is confident they were never pronounced from the
pulpit.]
82 (return) [ Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 110-113.]
83 (return) [ Ammian. xxiii. 1. Cum itaque rei fortiter instaret
Alypius, juvaretque provinciae rector, metuendi globi flammarum
prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum
exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento
destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum. Warburton labors (p.
60-90) to extort a confession of the miracle from the mouths of
Julian and Libanius, and to employ the evidence of a rabbi who
lived in the fifteenth century. Such witnesses can only be
received by a very favorable judge.]
8311 (return) [ Michaelis has given an ingenious and sufficiently
probable explanation of this remarkable incident, which the
positive testimony of Ammianus, a contemporary and a pagan, will
not permit us to call in question. It was suggested by a passage
in Tacitus. That historian, speaking of Jerusalem, says, [I omit
the first part of the quotation adduced by M. Guizot, which only
by a most extraordinary mistranslation of muri introrsus sinuati
by “enfoncemens” could be made to bear on the question.—M.] The
Temple itself was a kind of citadel, which had its own walls,
superior in their workmanship and construction to those of the
city. The porticos themselves, which surrounded the temple, were
an excellent fortification. There was a fountain of constantly
running water; subterranean excavations under the mountain;
reservoirs and cisterns to collect the rain-water. Tac. Hist. v.
ii. 12. These excavations and reservoirs must have been very
considerable. The latter furnished water during the whole siege
of Jerusalem to 1,100,000 inhabitants, for whom the fountain of
Siloe could not have sufficed, and who had no fresh rain-water,
the siege having taken place from the month of April to the month
of August, a period of the year during which it rarely rains in
Jerusalem. As to the excavations, they served after, and even
before, the return of the Jews from Babylon, to contain not only
magazines of oil, wine, and corn, but also the treasures which
were laid up in the Temple. Josephus has related several
incidents which show their extent. When Jerusalem was on the
point of being taken by Titus, the rebel chiefs, placing their
last hopes in these vast subterranean cavities, formed a design
of concealing themselves there, and remaining during the
conflagration of the city, and until the Romans had retired to a
distance. The greater part had not time to execute their design;
but one of them, Simon, the Son of Gioras, having provided
himself with food, and tools to excavate the earth descended into
this retreat with some companions: he remained there till Titus
had set out for Rome: under the pressure of famine he issued
forth on a sudden in the very place where the Temple had stood,
and appeared in the midst of the Roman guard. He was seized and
carried to Rome for the triumph. His appearance made it be
suspected that other Jews might have chosen the same asylum;
search was made, and a great number discovered. Joseph. de Bell.
Jud. l. vii. c. 2. It is probable that the greater part of these
excavations were the remains of the time of Solomon, when it was
the custom to work to a great extent under ground: no other date
can be assigned to them. The Jews, on their return from the
captivity, were too poor to undertake such works; and, although
Herod, on rebuilding the Temple, made some excavations, (Joseph.
Ant. Jud. xv. 11, vii.,) the haste with which that building was
completed will not allow us to suppose that they belonged to that
period. Some were used for sewers and drains, others served to
conceal the immense treasures of which Crassus, a hundred and
twenty years before, plundered the Jews, and which doubtless had
been since replaced. The Temple was destroyed A. C. 70; the
attempt of Julian to rebuild it, and the fact related by
Ammianus, coincide with the year 363. There had then elapsed
between these two epochs an interval of near 300 years, during
which the excavations, choked up with ruins, must have become
full of inflammable air. The workmen employed by Julian as they
were digging, arrived at the excavations of the Temple; they
would take torches to explore them; sudden flames repelled those
who approached; explosions were heard, and these phenomena were
renewed every time that they penetrated into new subterranean
passages. This explanation is confirmed by the relation of an
event nearly similar, by Josephus. King Herod having heard that
immense treasures had been concealed in the sepulchre of David,
he descended into it with a few confidential persons; he found in
the first subterranean chamber only jewels and precious stuffs:
but having wished to penetrate into a second chamber, which had
been long closed, he was repelled, when he opened it, by flames
which killed those who accompanied him. (Ant. Jud. xvi. 7, i.) As
here there is no room for miracle, this fact may be considered as
a new proof of the veracity of that related by Ammianus and the
contemporary writers.—G. ——To the illustrations of the extent of
the subterranean chambers adduced by Michaelis, may be added,
that when John of Gischala, during the siege, surprised the
Temple, the party of Eleazar took refuge within them. Bell. Jud.
vi. 3, i. The sudden sinking of the hill of Sion when Jerusalem
was occupied by Barchocab, may have been connected with similar
excavations. Hist. of Jews, vol. iii. 122 and 186.—M. ——It is a
fact now popularly known, that when mines which have been long
closed are opened, one of two things takes place; either the
torches are extinguished and the men fall first into a swoor and
soon die; or, if the air is inflammable, a little flame is seen
to flicker round the lamp, which spreads and multiplies till the
conflagration becomes general, is followed by an explosion, and
kill all who are in the way.—G.]
84 (return) [ Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian
critics, presumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle.
(Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 47-71.)]
The silence of Jerom would lead to a suspicion that the same
story which was celebrated at a distance, might be despised on
the spot. * Note: Gibbon has forgotten Basnage, to whom Warburton
replied.—M.
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part IV.
The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with
the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to
maintain the freedom of religious worship, without distinguishing
whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice or
his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who
were mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but
his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by
hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of
sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound, whenever
it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that
the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he
countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honorable
appellation of Galilaeans. 85 He declared, that by the folly of
the Galilaeans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics,
contemptible to men, and odious to the gods, the empire had been
reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a
public edict, that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by
salutary violence. 86 An ungenerous distinction was admitted into
the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the
difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his
subjects deserved his favor and friendship, while the other was
entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not
refuse to an obedient people. According to a principle, pregnant
with mischief and oppression, the emperor transferred to the
pontiffs of his own religion the management of the liberal
allowances from the public revenue, which had been granted to the
church by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system
of clerical honors and immunities, which had been constructed
with so much art and labor, was levelled to the ground; the hopes
of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigor of the
laws; and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with
the last and most ignominious class of the people. Such of these
regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and
avarice of the ecclesiastics, were soon afterwards imitated by
the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which
policy has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the
sacerdotal order, must be confined to those priests who profess
the religion of the state. But the will of the legislator was not
exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was the object of the
insidious policy of Julian, to deprive the Christians of all the
temporal honors and advantages which rendered them respectable in
the eyes of the world. 88
85 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was
confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton
has justly observed (p. 35,) that the Platonists believed in the
mysterious virtue of words and Julian’s dislike for the name of
Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from
contempt.]
86 (return) [ Fragment. Julian. p. 288. He derides the (Epist.
vii.,) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as
to wish (Epist. xlii.).]
88 (return) [ These laws, which affected the clergy, may be found
in the slight hints of Julian himself, (Epist. lii.) in the vague
declamations of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87,) and in the
positive assertions of Sozomen, (l. v. c. 5.)]
A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which
prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and
rhetoric. 89 The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this
partial and oppressive measure, might command, during his
lifetime, the silence of slaves and the applause of Gatterers.
Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be
indifferently applied to the language and the religion of the
Greeks: he contemptuously observes, that the men who exalt the
merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the
advantages of science; and he vainly contends, that if they
refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to
content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church
of the Galilaeans. 90 In all the cities of the Roman world, the
education of the youth was intrusted to masters of grammar and
rhetoric; who were elected by the magistrates, maintained at the
public expense, and distinguished by many lucrative and honorable
privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have included the
physicians, and professors of all the liberal arts; and the
emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the
candidates, was authorized by the laws to corrupt, or to punish,
the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. 91
As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate 92 teachers had
established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian
invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the
public schools, in a just confidence, that their tender minds
would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. If the
greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their
own scruples, or by those of their parents, from accepting this
dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at the same time,
relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian had reason
to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would
relapse into its primaeval simplicity, and that the theologians,
who possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of
the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant
fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own
principles, or of exposing the various follies of Polytheism. 93
89 (return) [ Inclemens.... perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian.
xxii. 10, ixv. 5.]
90 (return) [ The edict itself, which is still extant among the
epistles of Julian, (xlii.,) may be compared with the loose
invectives of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 96.) Tillemont (Mem. Eccles.
tom. vii. p. 1291-1294) has collected the seeming differences of
ancients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The
Christians were directly forbid to teach, they were indirectly
forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the schools of the
Pagans.]
91 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iii. de medicis et
professoribus, leg. 5, (published the 17th of June, received, at
Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A. D. 363,) with Godefroy’s
Illustrations, tom. v. p. 31.]
92 (return) [ Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution,
Sicut a majori bus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique
propemodum... officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30.
Proaeresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial
favor of the emperor Hieronym. in Chron. p. 185, edit. Scaliger.
Eunapius in Proaeresio p. 126.]
93 (return) [ They had recourse to the expedient of composing
books for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris
produced his Christian imitations of Homer, (a sacred history in
twenty-four books,) Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozomen
is satisfied, that they equalled, or excelled, the originals. *
Note: Socrates, however, implies that, on the death of Julian,
they were contemptuously thrown aside by the Christians. Socr.
Hist. iii.16.—M.]
It was undoubtedly the wish and design of Julian to deprive the
Christians of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge, and of
power; but the injustice of excluding them from all offices of
trust and profit seems to have been the result of his general
policy, rather than the immediate consequence of any positive
law. 94 Superior merit might deserve and obtain, some
extraordinary exceptions; but the greater part of the Christian
officers were gradually removed from their employments in the
state, the army, and the provinces. The hopes of future
candidates were extinguished by the declared partiality of a
prince, who maliciously reminded them, that it was unlawful for a
Christian to use the sword, either of justice, or of war; and who
studiously guarded the camp and the tribunals with the ensigns of
idolatry. The powers of government were intrusted to the pagans,
who professed an ardent zeal for the religion of their ancestors;
and as the choice of the emperor was often directed by the rules
of divination, the favorites whom he preferred as the most
agreeable to the gods, did not always obtain the approbation of
mankind. 95 Under the administration of their enemies, the
Christians had much to suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper
of Julian was averse to cruelty; and the care of his reputation,
which was exposed to the eyes of the universe, restrained the
philosophic monarch from violating the laws of justice and
toleration, which he himself had so recently established. But the
provincial ministers of his authority were placed in a less
conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary power, they
consulted the wishes, rather than the commands, of their
sovereign; and ventured to exercise a secret and vexatious
tyranny against the sectaries, on whom they were not permitted to
confer the honors of martyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as
long as possible his knowledge of the injustice that was
exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the conduct of
his officers, by gentle reproofs and substantial rewards. 96
94 (return) [ It was the instruction of Julian to his
magistrates, (Epist. vii.,). Sozomen (l. v. c. 18) and Socrates
(l. iii. c. 13) must be reduced to the standard of Gregory,
(Orat. iii. p. 95,) not less prone to exaggeration, but more
restrained by the actual knowledge of his contemporary readers.]
95 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. 88, p. 814.]
96 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 74, 91, 92. Socrates, l.
iii. c. 14. The doret, l. iii. c. 6. Some drawback may, however,
be allowed for the violence of their zeal, not less partial than
the zeal of Julian]
The most effectual instrument of oppression, with which they were
armed, was the law that obliged the Christians to make full and
ample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed under
the preceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not
always expected the sanction of the public authority; and the
bishops, who were secure of impunity, had often marched at the
head of their congregation, to attack and demolish the fortresses
of the prince of darkness. The consecrated lands, which had
increased the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy, were
clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these lands, and on
the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians had frequently
erected their own religious edifices: and as it was necessary to
remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice
and piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, while the
other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence. 97 After
the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately
structures which had been levelled with the dust, and of the
precious ornaments which had been converted to Christian uses,
swelled into a very large account of damages and debt. The
authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the inclination
to discharge this accumulated demand: and the impartial wisdom of
a legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse
claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration.
But the whole empire, and particularly the East, was thrown into
confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan
magistrates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous
privilege of the Roman law, which substitutes, in the place of
his inadequate property, the person of the insolvent debtor.
Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa, 98 had
labored in the conversion of his people with arms more effectual
than those of persuasion. 99 The magistrates required the full
value of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant
zeal: but as they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired
only to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of the
slightest compensation. They apprehended the aged prelate, they
inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard; and his naked body,
annointed with honey, was suspended, in a net, between heaven and
earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a
Syrian sun. 100 From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to
glory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his
persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and
dismissed to enjoy the honor of his divine triumph. The Arians
celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics
ambitiously claimed his alliance; 101 and the Pagans, who might
be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the
repetition of such unavailing cruelty. 102 Julian spared his
life: but if the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of
Julian, 103 posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of
praising the clemency, of the emperor.
97 (return) [ If we compare the gentle language of Libanius
(Orat. Parent c. 60. p. 286) with the passionate exclamations of
Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87,) we may find it difficult to
persuade ourselves that the two orators are really describing the
same events.]
98 (return) [ Restan, or Arethusa, at the equal distance of
sixteen miles between Emesa (Hems) and Epiphania, (Hamath,) was
founded, or at least named, by Seleucus Nicator. Its peculiar
aera dates from the year of Rome 685, according to the medals of
the city. In the decline of the Seleucides, Emesa and Arethusa
were usurped by the Arab Sampsiceramus, whose posterity, the
vassals of Rome, were not extinguished in the reign of
Vespasian.——See D’Anville’s Maps and Geographie Ancienne, tom.
ii. p. 134. Wesseling, Itineraria, p. 188, and Noris. Epoch
Syro-Macedon, p. 80, 481, 482.]
99 (return) [ Sozomen, l. v. c. 10. It is surprising, that
Gregory and Theodoret should suppress a circumstance, which, in
their eyes, must have enhanced the religious merit of the
confessor.]
100 (return) [ The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which
Gregory has so tragically painted, (Orat. iii. p. 88-91,) are
confirmed by the unexceptionable and reluctant evidence of
Libanius. Epist. 730, p. 350, 351. Edit. Wolf. Amstel. 1738.]
101 (return) [ Certatim eum sibi (Christiani) vindicant. It is
thus that La Croze and Wolfius (ad loc.) have explained a Greek
word, whose true signification had been mistaken by former
interpreters, and even by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque Ancienne et
Moderne, tom. iii. p. 371.) Yet Tillemont is strangely puzzled to
understand (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1390) how Gregory and
Theodoret could mistake a Semi-Arian bishop for a saint.]
102 (return) [ See the probable advice of Sallust, (Greg.
Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 90, 91.) Libanius intercedes for a
similar offender, lest they should find many Marks; yet he
allows, that if Orion had secreted the consecrated wealth, he
deserved to suffer the punishment of Marsyas; to be flayed alive,
(Epist. 730, p. 349-351.)]
103 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 90) is satisfied that, by
saving the apostate, Mark had deserved still more than he had
suffered.]
At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Macedonian kings
of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places
of devotion in the Pagan world. 104 A magnificent temple rose in
honor of the god of light; and his colossal figure 105 almost
filled the capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and
gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity
was represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his
hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he supplicated
the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and beauteous
Daphne: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; and the fancy of
the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks
of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient rites of
Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of
prophecy, which rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic
oracle, flowed from the Castalian fountain of Daphne. 106 In the
adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege, 107
which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games were
celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of thirty
thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the public
pleasures. 108 The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators
insensibly formed, in the neighborhood of the temple, the stately
and populous village of Daphne, which emulated the splendor,
without acquiring the title, of a provincial city. The temple and
the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and
cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles,
and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable
shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every
hill, preserved the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of
the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and
aromatic odors; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health
and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like
Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maid was
warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonable
coyness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the
temptation of this sensual paradise: 109 where pleasure, assuming
the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness
of manly virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages
to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges
of the holy ground were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding
emperors; and every generation added new ornaments to the
splendor of the temple. 110
104 (return) [ The grove and temple of Daphne are described by
Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1089, 1090, edit. Amstel. 1707,) Libanius,
(Naenia, p. 185-188. Antiochic. Orat. xi. p. 380, 381,) and
Sozomen, (l. v. c. 19.) Wesseling (Itinerar. p. 581) and Casaubon
(ad Hist. August. p. 64) illustrate this curious subject.]
105 (return) [ Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti
aequiparans magnitudinem. Ammian. xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter
was sixty feet high, and his bulk was consequently equal to that
of a thousand men. See a curious Memoire of the Abbe Gedoyn,
(Academie des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 198.)]
106 (return) [ Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on
a leaf dipped in the Castalian stream; a trick which, according
to the physician Vandale, (de Oraculis, p. 281, 282,) might be
easily performed by chemical preparations. The emperor stopped
the source of such dangerous knowledge; which was again opened by
the devout curiosity of Julian.]
107 (return) [ It was purchased, A. D. 44, in the year 92 of the
aera of Antioch, (Noris. Epoch. Syro-Maced. p. 139-174,) for the
term of ninety Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were
not regularly celebrated till the reign of Commodus. See the
curious details in the Chronicle of John Malala, (tom. i. p. 290,
320, 372-381,) a writer whose merit and authority are confined
within the limits of his native city.]
108 (return) [ Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed by Sosibius,
who died in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the
Syrian cities in the reign of Constantine, are computed in the
Expositio totius Murd, p. 8, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor tom. iii.)]
109 (return) [ Avidio Cassio Syriacas legiones dedi luxuria
diffluentes et Daphnicis moribus. These are the words of the
emperor Marcus Antoninus in an original letter preserved by his
biographer in Hist. August. p. 41. Cassius dismissed or punished
every soldier who was seen at Daphne.]
110 (return) [ Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, (Pompey,)
quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret; delectatus amoenitate loci et
aquarum abundantiz, Eutropius, vi. 14. Sextus Rufus, de
Provinciis, c. 16.]
When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adore
the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest
pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination
anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations and of
incense; a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in
white robes, the symbol of their innocence; and the tumultuous
concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal of Antioch was
diverted, since the reign of Christianity, into a different
channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the
tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity the emperor
complains that he found only a single goose, provided at the
expense of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this
decayed temple. 111 The altar was deserted, the oracle had been
reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the
introduction of Christian and funereal rites. After Babylas 112
(a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of
Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the
order of Caesar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the
grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was erected over his
remains; a portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the
maintenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the Christians
at Antioch, who were ambitious of lying at the feet of their
bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted
and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to
restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas was
demolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering
edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But
the first and most serious care of Julian was to deliver his
oppressed deity from the odious presence of the dead and living
Christians, who had so effectually suppressed the voice of fraud
or enthusiasm. 113 The scene of infection was purified, according
to the forms of ancient rituals; the bodies were decently
removed; and the ministers of the church were permitted to convey
the remains of St. Babylas to their former habitation within the
walls of Antioch. The modest behavior which might have assuaged
the jealousy of a hostile government was neglected, on this
occasion, by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car, that
transported the relics of Babylas, was followed, and accompanied,
and received, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with
thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive
of their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return of the
saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an insult on the
religion of the emperor, who exerted his pride to dissemble his
resentment. During the night which terminated this indiscreet
procession, the temple of Daphne was in flames; the statue of
Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a
naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch
asserted, with religious confidence, that the powerful
intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven
against the devoted roof: but as Julian was reduced to the
alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose,
without hesitation, without evidence, but with some color of
probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the
Galilaeans. 114 Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved,
might have justified the retaliation, which was immediately
executed by the order of Julian, of shutting the doors, and
confiscating the wealth, of the cathedral of Antioch. To discover
the criminals who were guilty of the tumult, of the fire, or of
secreting the riches of the church, several of the ecclesiastics
were tortured; 115 and a Presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was
beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. But this hasty
act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real or
affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would
tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution. 116
111 (return) [ Julian (Misopogon, p. 367, 362) discovers his own
character with naivete, that unconscious simplicity which always
constitutes genuine humor.]
112 (return) [ Babylas is named by Eusebius in the succession of
the bishops of Antioch, (Hist. Eccles. l. vi. c. 29, 39.) His
triumph over two emperors (the first fabulous, the second
historical) is diffusely celebrated by Chrysostom, (tom. ii. p.
536-579, edit. Montfaucon.) Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. iii.
part ii. p. 287-302, 459-465) becomes almost a sceptic.]
113 (return) [ Ecclesiastical critics, particularly those who
love relics, exult in the confession of Julian (Misopogon, p.
361) and Libanius, (Laenia, p. 185,) that Apollo was disturbed by
the vicinity of one dead man. Yet Ammianus (xxii. 12) clears and
purifies the whole ground, according to the rites which the
Athenians formerly practised in the Isle of Delos.]
114 (return) [ Julian (in Misopogon, p. 361) rather insinuates,
than affirms, their guilt. Ammianus (xxii. 13) treats the
imputation as levissimus rumor, and relates the story with
extraordinary candor.]
115 (return) [ Quo tam atroci casu repente consumpto, ad id usque
e imperatoris ira provexit, ut quaestiones agitare juberet solito
acriores, (yet Julian blames the lenity of the magistrates of
Antioch,) et majorem ecclesiam Antiochiae claudi. This
interdiction was performed with some circumstances of indignity
and profanation; and the seasonable death of the principal actor,
Julian’s uncle, is related with much superstitious complacency by
the Abbe de la Bleterie. Vie de Julien, p. 362-369.]
116 (return) [ Besides the ecclesiastical historians, who are
more or less to be suspected, we may allege the passion of St.
Theodore, in the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 591. The complaint
of Julian gives it an original and authentic air.]
Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part V.
The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the
frown of their sovereign; but when the father of his country
declares himself the leader of a faction, the license of popular
fury cannot easily be restrained, nor consistently punished.
Julian, in a public composition, applauds the devotion and
loyalty of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had
destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the Galilaeans;
and faintly complains, that they had revenged the injuries of the
gods with less moderation than he should have recommended. 117
This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the
ecclesiastical narratives; that in the cities of Gaza, Ascalon,
Caesarea, Heliopolis, &c., the Pagans abused, without prudence or
remorse, the moment of their prosperity. That the unhappy objects
of their cruelty were released from torture only by death; and as
their mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were
pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and
the distaffs of enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian
priests and virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody
fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously thrown to
the unclean animals of the city. 118 Such scenes of religious
madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture of human
nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more
attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the
victims, and the splendor of the capital of Egypt.
117 (return) [ Julian. Misopogon, p. 361.]
118 (return) [ See Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iii. p. 87.) Sozomen
(l. v. c. 9) may be considered as an original, though not
impartial, witness. He was a native of Gaza, and had conversed
with the confessor Zeno, who, as bishop of Maiuma, lived to the
age of a hundred, (l. vii. c. 28.) Philostorgius (l. vii. c. 4,
with Godefroy’s Dissertations, p. 284) adds some tragic
circumstances, of Christians who were literally sacrificed at the
altars of the gods, &c.]
George, 119 from his parents or his education, surnamed the
Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller’s
shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by
the talents of a parasite; and the patrons, whom he assiduously
flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative
commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His
employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated
wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his
malversations were so notorious, that George was compelled to
escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in
which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his
honor, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of
Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he
collected a valuable library of history rhetoric, philosophy, and
theology, 120 and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted
George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of
the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each
moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The
Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant,
qualified, by nature and education, to exercise the office of
persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various
inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt
assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still
betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The
merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and
almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt,
paper, funerals, &c.: and the spiritual father of a great people
condescended to practise the vile and pernicious arts of an
informer. The Alexandrians could never forget, nor forgive, the
tax, which he suggested, on all the houses of the city; under an
obsolete claim, that the royal founder had conveyed to his
successors, the Ptolemies and the Caesars, the perpetual property
of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of
freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich
temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the
haughty prince, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone,
“How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?” Under the
reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by
the justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent
struggle, that the civil and military powers of the state could
restore his authority, and gratify his revenge. The messenger who
proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian, announced the
downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious
ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint
were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the
end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage
of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of
judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under
their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and
his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the
back of a camel; 12011 and the inactivity of the Athanasian party
121 was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The
remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and
the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to
disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the
future honors of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their
predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. 122 The fears of
the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The
meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his
life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians,
and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his
worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. 123 The odious
stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place,
assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; 124
and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed 125
into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of
chivalry, and of the garter. 126
119 (return) [ The life and death of George of Cappadocia are
described by Ammianus, (xxii. 11,) Gregory of Nazianzen, (Orat.
xxi. p. 382, 385, 389, 390,) and Epiphanius, (Haeres. lxxvi.) The
invectives of the two saints might not deserve much credit,
unless they were confirmed by the testimony of the cool and
impartial infidel.]
120 (return) [ After the massacre of George, the emperor Julian
repeatedly sent orders to preserve the library for his own use,
and to torture the slaves who might be suspected of secreting any
books. He praises the merit of the collection, from whence he had
borrowed and transcribed several manuscripts while he pursued his
studies in Cappadocia. He could wish, indeed, that the works of
the Galiaeans might perish but he requires an exact account even
of those theological volumes lest other treatises more valuable
should be confounded in their less Julian. Epist. ix. xxxvi.]
12011 (return) [ Julian himself says, that they tore him to
pieces like dogs, Epist. x.—M.]
121 (return) [ Philostorgius, with cautious malice, insinuates
their guilt, l. vii. c. ii. Godefroy p. 267.]
122 (return) [ Cineres projecit in mare, id metuens ut clamabat,
ne, collectis supremis, aedes illis exstruerentur ut reliquis,
qui deviare a religione compulsi, pertulere, cruciabiles poenas,
adusque gloriosam mortem intemerata fide progressi, et nunc
Martyres appellantur. Ammian. xxii. 11. Epiphanius proves to the
Arians, that George was not a martyr.]
123 (return) [ Some Donatists (Optatus Milev. p. 60, 303, edit.
Dupin; and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 713, in 4to.) and
Priscillianists (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 517, in
4to.) have in like manner usurped the honors of the Catholic
saints and martyrs.]
124 (return) [ The saints of Cappadocia, Basil, and the
Gregories, were ignorant of their holy companion. Pope Gelasius,
(A. D. 494,) the first Catholic who acknowledges St. George,
places him among the martyrs “qui Deo magis quam hominibus noti
sunt.” He rejects his Acts as the composition of heretics. Some,
perhaps, not the oldest, of the spurious Acts, are still extant;
and, through a cloud of fiction, we may yet distinguish the
combat which St. George of Cappadocia sustained, in the presence
of Queen Alexandria, against the magician Afhanasius.]
125 (return) [ This transformation is not given as absolutely
certain, but as extremely probable. See the Longueruana, tom. i.
p. 194. ——Note: The late Dr. Milner (the Roman Catholic bishop)
wrote a tract to vindicate the existence and the orthodoxy of the
tutelar saint of England. He succeeds, I think, in tracing the
worship of St. George up to a period which makes it improbable
that so notorious an Arian could be palmed upon the Catholic
church as a saint and a martyr. The Acts rejected by Gelasius may
have been of Arian origin, and designed to ingraft the story of
their hero on the obscure adventures of some earlier saint. See
an Historical and Critical Inquiry into the Existence and
Character of Saint George, in a letter to the Earl of Leicester,
by the Rev. J. Milner. F. S. A. London 1792.—M.]
126 (return) [ A curious history of the worship of St. George,
from the sixth century, (when he was already revered in
Palestine, in Armenia at Rome, and at Treves in Gaul,) might be
extracted from Dr. Heylin (History of St. George, 2d edition,
London, 1633, in 4to. p. 429) and the Bollandists, (Act. Ss.
Mens. April. tom. iii. p. 100-163.) His fame and popularity in
Europe, and especially in England, proceeded from the Crusades.]
About the same time that Julian was informed of the tumult of
Alexandria, he received intelligence from Edessa, that the proud
and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of
the Valentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be
suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without
expecting the slow forms of justice, the exasperated prince
directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edessa, 127 by which
he confiscated the whole property of the church: the money was
distributed among the soldiers; the lands were added to the
domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated by the most
ungenerous irony. “I show myself,” says Julian, “the true friend
of the Galilaeans. Their admirable law has promised the kingdom
of heaven to the poor; and they will advance with more diligence
in the paths of virtue and salvation, when they are relieved by
my assistance from the load of temporal possessions. Take care,”
pursued the monarch, in a more serious tone, “take care how you
provoke my patience and humanity. If these disorders continue, I
will revenge on the magistrates the crimes of the people; and you
will have reason to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but
fire and the sword.” The tumults of Alexandria were doubtless of
a more bloody and dangerous nature: but a Christian bishop had
fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public epistle of
Julian affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of his
administration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are
mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness; and he
laments, that, on this occasion, they should have departed from
the gentle and generous manners which attested their Grecian
extraction. He gravely censures the offence which they had
committed against the laws of justice and humanity; but he
recapitulates, with visible complacency, the intolerable
provocations which they had so long endured from the impious
tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian admits the principle,
that a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolence
of the people; yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander,
and of Serapis their tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious
pardon to the guilty city, for which he again feels the affection
of a brother. 128
127 (return) [ Julian. Epist. xliii.]
128 (return) [ Julian. Epist. x. He allowed his friends to
assuage his anger Ammian. xxii. 11.]
After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided, Athanasius, amidst
the public acclamations, seated himself on the throne from whence
his unworthy competitor had been precipitated: and as the zeal of
the archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise of his
authority tended not to inflame, but to reconcile, the minds of
the people. His pastoral labors were not confined to the narrow
limits of Egypt. The state of the Christian world was present to
his active and capacious mind; and the age, the merit, the
reputation of Athanasius, enabled him to assume, in a moment of
danger, the office of Ecclesiastical Dictator. 129 Three years
were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops of the
West had ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession of
Rimini. They repented, they believed, but they dreaded the
unseasonable rigor of their orthodox brethren; and if their pride
was stronger than their faith, they might throw themselves into
the arms of the Arians, to escape the indignity of a public
penance, which must degrade them to the condition of obscure
laymen. At the same time the domestic differences concerning the
union and distinction of the divine persons, were agitated with
some heat among the Catholic doctors; and the progress of this
metaphysical controversy seemed to threaten a public and lasting
division of the Greek and Latin churches. By the wisdom of a
select synod, to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave
the authority of a general council, the bishops, who had unwarily
deviated into error, were admitted to the communion of the
church, on the easy condition of subscribing the Nicene Creed;
without any formal acknowledgment of their past fault, or any
minute definition of their scholastic opinions. The advice of the
primate of Egypt had already prepared the clergy of Gaul and
Spain, of Italy and Greece, for the reception of this salutary
measure; and, notwithstanding the opposition of some ardent
spirits, 130 the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and
harmony of the Christians. 131
129 (return) [ See Athanas. ad Rufin. tom. ii. p. 40, 41, and
Greg. Nazianzen Orat. iii. p. 395, 396; who justly states the
temperate zeal of the primate, as much more meritorious than his
prayers, his fasts, his persecutions, &c.]
130 (return) [ I have not leisure to follow the blind obstinacy
of Lucifer of Cagliari. See his adventures in Tillemont, (Mem.
Eccles. tom. vii. p. 900-926;) and observe how the color of the
narrative insensibly changes, as the confessor becomes a
schismatic.]
131 (return) [ Assensus est huic sententiae Occidens, et, per tam
necessarium conilium, Satanae faucibus mundus ereptus. The lively
and artful dialogue of Jerom against the Luciferians (tom. ii. p.
135-155) exhibits an original picture of the ecclesiastical
policy of the times.]
The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved the
season of tranquillity, before it was interrupted by the hostile
edicts of the emperor. 132 Julian, who despised the Christians,
honored Athanasius with his sincere and peculiar hatred. For his
sake alone, he introduced an arbitrary distinction, repugnant at
least to the spirit of his former declarations. He maintained,
that the Galilaeans, whom he had recalled from exile, were not
restored, by that general indulgence, to the possession of their
respective churches; and he expressed his astonishment, that a
criminal, who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment of
the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the laws, and
insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria, without
expecting the orders of his sovereign. As a punishment for the
imaginary offence, he again banished Athanasius from the city;
and he was pleased to suppose, that this act of justice would be
highly agreeable to his pious subjects. The pressing
solicitations of the people soon convinced him, that the majority
of the Alexandrians were Christians; and that the greatest part
of the Christians were firmly attached to the cause of their
oppressed primate. But the knowledge of their sentiments, instead
of persuading him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend to
all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The zeal of the
multitude rendered Julian still more inexorable: he was alarmed
by the danger of leaving at the head of a tumultuous city, a
daring and popular leader; and the language of his resentment
discovers the opinion which he entertained of the courage and
abilities of Athanasius. The execution of the sentence was still
delayed, by the caution or negligence of Ecdicius, praefect of
Egypt, who was at length awakened from his lethargy by a severe
reprimand. “Though you neglect,” says Julian, “to write to me on
any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform me of your
conduct towards Athanasius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions
have been long since communicated to you. I swear by the great
Serapis, that unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius has
departed from Alexandria, nay, from Egypt, the officers of your
government shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You
know my temper: I am slow to condemn, but I am still slower to
forgive.” This epistle was enforced by a short postscript,
written with the emperor’s own hand. “The contempt that is shown
for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation. There is
nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear, with more
pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt. The
abominable wretch! Under my reign, the baptism of several Grecian
ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his
persecutions.” 133 The death of Athanasius was not expressly
commanded; but the praefect of Egypt understood that it was safer
for him to exceed, than to neglect, the orders of an irritated
master. The archbishop prudently retired to the monasteries of
the Desert; eluded, with his usual dexterity, the snares of the
enemy; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince, who, in
words of formidable import, had declared his wish that the whole
venom of the Galilaean school were contained in the single person
of Athanasius. 134 13411
132 (return) [ Tillemont, who supposes that George was massacred
in August crowds the actions of Athanasius into a narrow space,
(Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 360.) An original fragment, published
by the Marquis Maffei, from the old Chapter library of Verona,
(Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. iii. p. 60-92,) affords many
important dates, which are authenticated by the computation of
Egyptian months.]
133 (return) [ I have preserved the ambiguous sense of the last
word, the ambiguity of a tyrant who wished to find, or to create,
guilt.]
134 (return) [ The three epistles of Julian, which explain his
intentions and conduct with regard to Athanasius, should be
disposed in the following chronological order, xxvi. x. vi. * See
likewise, Greg. Nazianzen xxi. p. 393. Sozomen, l. v. c. 15.
Socrates, l. iii. c. 14. Theodoret, l iii. c. 9, and Tillemont,
Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 361-368, who has used some materials
prepared by the Bollandists.]
13411 (return) [ The sentence in the text is from Epist. li.
addressed to the people of Alexandria.—M.]
I have endeavored faithfully to represent the artful system by
which Julian proposed to obtain the effects, without incurring
the guilt, or reproach, of persecution. But if the deadly spirit
of fanaticism perverted the heart and understanding of a virtuous
prince, it must, at the same time, be confessed that the real
sufferings of the Christians were inflamed and magnified by human
passions and religious enthusiasm. The meekness and resignation
which had distinguished the primitive disciples of the gospel,
was the object of the applause, rather than of the imitation of
their successors. The Christians, who had now possessed above
forty years the civil and ecclesiastical government of the
empire, had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity, 135 and
the habit of believing that the saints alone were entitled to
reign over the earth. As soon as the enmity of Julian deprived
the clergy of the privileges which had been conferred by the
favor of Constantine, they complained of the most cruel
oppression; and the free toleration of idolaters and heretics was
a subject of grief and scandal to the orthodox party. 136 The
acts of violence, which were no longer countenanced by the
magistrates, were still committed by the zeal of the people. At
Pessinus, the altar of Cybele was overturned almost in the
presence of the emperor; and in the city of Caesarea in
Cappadocia, the temple of Fortune, the sole place of worship
which had been left to the Pagans, was destroyed by the rage of a
popular tumult. On these occasions, a prince, who felt for the
honor of the gods, was not disposed to interrupt the course of
justice; and his mind was still more deeply exasperated, when he
found that the fanatics, who had deserved and suffered the
punishment of incendiaries, were rewarded with the honors of
martyrdom. 137 The Christian subjects of Julian were assured of
the hostile designs of their sovereign; and, to their jealous
apprehension, every circumstance of his government might afford
some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In the ordinary
administration of the laws, the Christians, who formed so large a
part of the people, must frequently be condemned: but their
indulgent brethren, without examining the merits of the cause,
presumed their innocence, allowed their claims, and imputed the
severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious
persecution. 138 These present hardships, intolerable as they
might appear, were represented as a slight prelude of the
impending calamities. The Christians considered Julian as a cruel
and crafty tyrant; who suspended the execution of his revenge
till he should return victorious from the Persian war. They
expected, that as soon as he had triumphed over the foreign
enemies of Rome, he would lay aside the irksome mask of
dissimulation; that the amphitheatre would stream with the blood
of hermits and bishops; and that the Christians who still
persevered in the profession of the faith, would be deprived of
the common benefits of nature and society. 139 Every calumny 140
that could wound the reputation of the Apostate, was credulously
embraced by the fears and hatred of his adversaries; and their
indiscreet clamors provoked the temper of a sovereign, whom it
was their duty to respect, and their interest to flatter.
They still protested, that prayers and tears were their only
weapons against the impious tyrant, whose head they devoted to
the justice of offended Heaven. But they insinuated, with sullen
resolution, that their submission was no longer the effect of
weakness; and that, in the imperfect state of human virtue, the
patience, which is founded on principle, may be exhausted by
persecution. It is impossible to determine how far the zeal of
Julian would have prevailed over his good sense and humanity; but
if we seriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the church,
we shall be convinced, that before the emperor could have
extinguished the religion of Christ, he must have involved his
country in the horrors of a civil war. 141
135 (return) [ See the fair confession of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p.
61, 62.)]
136 (return) [ Hear the furious and absurd complaint of Optatus,
(de Schismat Denatist. l. ii. c. 16, 17.)]
137 (return) [ Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 91, iv. p. 133. He
praises the rioters of Caesarea. See Sozomen, l. v. 4, 11.
Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 649, 650) owns, that their
behavior was not dans l’ordre commun: but he is perfectly
satisfied, as the great St. Basil always celebrated the festival
of these blessed martyrs.]
138 (return) [ Julian determined a lawsuit against the new
Christian city at Maiuma, the port of Gaza; and his sentence,
though it might be imputed to bigotry, was never reversed by his
successors. Sozomen, l. v. c. 3. Reland, Palestin. tom. ii. p.
791.]
139 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 93, 94, 95. Orat. iv. p.
114) pretends to speak from the information of Julian’s
confidants, whom Orosius (vii. 30) could not have seen.]
140 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 91) charges the Apostate
with secret sacrifices of boys and girls; and positively affirms,
that the dead bodies were thrown into the Orontes. See Theodoret,
l. iii. c. 26, 27; and the equivocal candor of the Abbe de la
Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 351, 352. Yet contemporary malice
could not impute to Julian the troops of martyrs, more especially
in the West, which Baronius so greedily swallows, and Tillemont
so faintly rejects, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1295-1315.)]
141 (return) [ The resignation of Gregory is truly edifying,
(Orat. iv. p. 123, 124.) Yet, when an officer of Julian attempted
to seize the church of Nazianzus, he would have lost his life, if
he had not yielded to the zeal of the bishop and people, (Orat.
xix. p. 308.) See the reflections of Chrysostom, as they are
alleged by Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 575.)]
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part I.
Residence Of Julian At Antioch.—His Successful Expedition Against
The Persians.—Passage Of The Tigris—The Retreat And Death Of
Julian.—Election Of Jovian.—He Saves The Roman Army By A
Disgraceful Treaty.
The philosophical fable which Julian composed under the name of
the Caesars, 1 is one of the most agreeable and instructive
productions of ancient wit. 2 During the freedom and equality of
the days of the Saturnalia, Romulus prepared a feast for the
deities of Olympus, who had adopted him as a worthy associate,
and for the Roman princes, who had reigned over his martial
people, and the vanquished nations of the earth. The immortals
were placed in just order on their thrones of state, and the
table of the Caesars was spread below the Moon in the upper
region of the air. The tyrants, who would have disgraced the
society of gods and men, were thrown headlong, by the inexorable
Nemesis, into the Tartarean abyss. The rest of the Caesars
successively advanced to their seats; and as they passed, the
vices, the defects, the blemishes of their respective characters,
were maliciously noticed by old Silenus, a laughing moralist, who
disguised the wisdom of a philosopher under the mask of a
Bacchanal. 3 As soon as the feast was ended, the voice of Mercury
proclaimed the will of Jupiter, that a celestial crown should be
the reward of superior merit. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Trajan,
and Marcus Antoninus, were selected as the most illustrious
candidates; the effeminate Constantine 4 was not excluded from
this honorable competition, and the great Alexander was invited
to dispute the prize of glory with the Roman heroes. Each of the
candidates was allowed to display the merit of his own exploits;
but, in the judgment of the gods, the modest silence of Marcus
pleaded more powerfully than the elaborate orations of his
haughty rivals. When the judges of this awful contest proceeded
to examine the heart, and to scrutinize the springs of action,
the superiority of the Imperial Stoic appeared still more
decisive and conspicuous. 5 Alexander and Caesar, Augustus,
Trajan, and Constantine, acknowledged, with a blush, that fame,
or power, or pleasure had been the important object of their
labors: but the gods themselves beheld, with reverence and love,
a virtuous mortal, who had practised on the throne the lessons of
philosophy; and who, in a state of human imperfection, had
aspired to imitate the moral attributes of the Deity. The value
of this agreeable composition (the Caesars of Julian) is enhanced
by the rank of the author. A prince, who delineates, with
freedom, the vices and virtues of his predecessors, subscribes,
in every line, the censure or approbation of his own conduct.
1 (return) [ See this fable or satire, p. 306-336 of the Leipsig
edition of Julian’s works. The French version of the learned
Ezekiel Spanheim (Paris, 1683) is coarse, languid, and correct;
and his notes, proofs, illustrations, &c., are piled on each
other till they form a mass of 557 close-printed quarto pages.
The Abbe’ de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 241-393) has
more happily expressed the spirit, as well as the sense, of the
original, which he illustrates with some concise and curious
notes.]
2 (return) [ Spanheim (in his preface) has most learnedly
discussed the etymology, origin, resemblance, and disagreement of
the Greek satyrs, a dramatic piece, which was acted after the
tragedy; and the Latin satires, (from Satura,) a miscellaneous
composition, either in prose or verse. But the Caesars of Julian
are of such an original cast, that the critic is perplexed to
which class he should ascribe them. * Note: See also Casaubon de
Satira, with Rambach’s observations.—M.]
3 (return) [ This mixed character of Silenus is finely painted in
the sixth eclogue of Virgil.]
4 (return) [ Every impartial reader must perceive and condemn the
partiality of Julian against his uncle Constantine, and the
Christian religion. On this occasion, the interpreters are
compelled, by a most sacred interest, to renounce their
allegiance, and to desert the cause of their author.]
5 (return) [ Julian was secretly inclined to prefer a Greek to a
Roman. But when he seriously compared a hero with a philosopher,
he was sensible that mankind had much greater obligations to
Socrates than to Alexander, (Orat. ad Themistium, p. 264.)]
In the cool moments of reflection, Julian preferred the useful
and benevolent virtues of Antoninus; but his ambitious spirit was
inflamed by the glory of Alexander; and he solicited, with equal
ardor, the esteem of the wise, and the applause of the multitude.
In the season of life when the powers of the mind and body enjoy
the most active vigor, the emperor who was instructed by the
experience, and animated by the success, of the German war,
resolved to signalize his reign by some more splendid and
memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East, from the
continent of India, and the Isle of Ceylon, 6 had respectfully
saluted the Roman purple. 7 The nations of the West esteemed and
dreaded the personal virtues of Julian, both in peace and war. He
despised the trophies of a Gothic victory, and was satisfied that
the rapacious Barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from
any future violation of the faith of treaties by the terror of
his name, and the additional fortifications with which he
strengthened the Thracian and Illyrian frontiers. The successor
of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whom he deemed worthy
of his arms; and he resolved, by the final conquest of Persia, to
chastise the naughty nation which had so long resisted and
insulted the majesty of Rome. 9 As soon as the Persian monarch
was informed that the throne of Constantius was filled by a
prince of a very different character, he condescended to make
some artful, or perhaps sincere, overtures towards a negotiation
of peace. But the pride of Sapor was astonished by the firmness
of Julian; who sternly declared, that he would never consent to
hold a peaceful conference among the flames and ruins of the
cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, with a smile of contempt,
that it was needless to treat by ambassadors, as he himself had
determined to visit speedily the court of Persia. The impatience
of the emperor urged the diligence of the military preparations.
The generals were named; and Julian, marching from Constantinople
through the provinces of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch about
eight months after the death of his predecessor. His ardent
desire to march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the
indispensable duty of regulating the state of the empire; by his
zeal to revive the worship of the gods; and by the advice of his
wisest friends; who represented the necessity of allowing the
salutary interval of winter quarters, to restore the exhausted
strength of the legions of Gaul, and the discipline and spirit of
the Eastern troops. Julian was persuaded to fix, till the ensuing
spring, his residence at Antioch, among a people maliciously
disposed to deride the haste, and to censure the delays, of their
sovereign. 10
6 (return) [ Inde nationibus Indicis certatim cum aonis optimates
mittentibus.... ab usque Divis et Serendivis. Ammian. xx. 7. This
island, to which the names of Taprobana, Serendib, and Ceylon,
have been successively applied, manifests how imperfectly the
seas and lands to the east of Cape Comorin were known to the
Romans. 1. Under the reign of Claudius, a freedman, who farmed
the customs of the Red Sea, was accidentally driven by the winds
upon this strange and undiscovered coast: he conversed six months
with the natives; and the king of Ceylon, who heard, for the
first time, of the power and justice of Rome, was persuaded to
send an embassy to the emperor. (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 24.) 2. The
geographers (and even Ptolemy) have magnified, above fifteen
times, the real size of this new world, which they extended as
far as the equator, and the neighborhood of China. * Note: The
name of Diva gens or Divorum regio, according to the probable
conjecture of M. Letronne, (Trois Mem. Acad. p. 127,) was applied
by the ancients to the whole eastern coast of the Indian
Peninsula, from Ceylon to the Canges. The name may be traced in
Devipatnam, Devidan, Devicotta, Divinelly, the point of Divy.——M.
Letronne, p.121, considers the freedman with his embassy from
Ceylon to have been an impostor.—M.]
7 (return) [ These embassies had been sent to Constantius.
Ammianus, who unwarily deviates into gross flattery, must have
forgotten the length of the way, and the short duration of the
reign of Julian. ——Gothos saepe fallaces et perfidos; hostes
quaerere se meliores aiebat: illis enim sufficere mercators
Galatas per quos ubique sine conditionis discrimine venumdantur.
(Ammian. xxii. 7.) Within less than fifteen years, these Gothic
slaves threatened and subdued their masters.]
9 (return) [ Alexander reminds his rival Caesar, who depreciated
the fame and merit of an Asiatic victory, that Crassus and Antony
had felt the Persian arrows; and that the Romans, in a war of
three hundred years, had not yet subdued the single province of
Mesopotamia or Assyria, (Caesares, p. 324.)]
10 (return) [ The design of the Persian war is declared by
Ammianus, (xxii. 7, 12,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 79, 80, p.
305, 306,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 158,) and Socrates, (l. iii. c.
19.)]
If Julian had flattered himself, that his personal connection
with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual
satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false
estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. 11
The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most
intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the
lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the
hereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law,
pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendor of dress and
furniture was the only distinction of the citizens of Antioch.
The arts of luxury were honored; the serious and manly virtues
were the subject of ridicule; and the contempt for female modesty
and reverent age announced the universal corruption of the
capital of the East. The love of spectacles was the taste, or
rather passion, of the Syrians; the most skilful artists were
procured from the adjacent cities; 12 a considerable share of the
revenue was devoted to the public amusements; and the
magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was
considered as the happiness and as the glory of Antioch. The
rustic manners of a prince who disdained such glory, and was
insensible of such happiness, soon disgusted the delicacy of his
subjects; and the effeminate Orientals could neither imitate, nor
admire, the severe simplicity which Julian always maintained, and
sometimes affected. The days of festivity, consecrated, by
ancient custom, to the honor of the gods, were the only occasions
in which Julian relaxed his philosophic severity; and those
festivals were the only days in which the Syrians of Antioch
could reject the allurements of pleasure. The majority of the
people supported the glory of the Christian name, which had been
first invented by their ancestors: 13 they contended themselves
with disobeying the moral precepts, but they were scrupulously
attached to the speculative doctrines of their religion. The
church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism; but the
Arians and the Athanasians, the followers of Meletius and those
of Paulinus, 14 were actuated by the same pious hatred of their
common adversary.
11 (return) [ The Satire of Julian, and the Homilies of St.
Chrysostom, exhibit the same picture of Antioch. The miniature
which the Abbe de la Bleterie has copied from thence, (Vie de
Julian, p. 332,) is elegant and correct.]
12 (return) [ Laodicea furnished charioteers; Tyre and Berytus,
comedians; Caesarea, pantomimes; Heliopolis, singers; Gaza,
gladiators, Ascalon, wrestlers; and Castabala, rope-dancers. See
the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 6, in the third tome of Hudson’s
Minor Geographers.]
13 (return) [ The people of Antioch ingenuously professed their
attachment to the Chi, (Christ,) and the Kappa, (Constantius.)
Julian in Misopogon, p. 357.]
14 (return) [ The schism of Antioch, which lasted eighty-five
years, (A. D. 330-415,) was inflamed, while Julian resided in
that city, by the indiscreet ordination of Paulinus. See
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 803 of the quarto edition,
(Paris, 1701, &c,) which henceforward I shall quote.]
The strongest prejudice was entertained against the character of
an apostate, the enemy and successor of a prince who had engaged
the affections of a very numerous sect; and the removal of St.
Babylas excited an implacable opposition to the person of Julian.
His subjects complained, with superstitious indignation, that
famine had pursued the emperor’s steps from Constantinople to
Antioch; and the discontent of a hungry people was exasperated by
the injudicious attempt to relieve their distress. The inclemency
of the season had affected the harvests of Syria; and the price
of bread, 15 in the markets of Antioch, had naturally risen in
proportion to the scarcity of corn. But the fair and reasonable
proportion was soon violated by the rapacious arts of monopoly.
In this unequal contest, in which the produce of the land is
claimed by one party as his exclusive property, is used by
another as a lucrative object of trade, and is required by a
third for the daily and necessary support of life, all the
profits of the intermediate agents are accumulated on the head of
the defenceless customers. The hardships of their situation were
exaggerated and increased by their own impatience and anxiety;
and the apprehension of a scarcity gradually produced the
appearances of a famine. When the luxurious citizens of Antioch
complained of the high price of poultry and fish, Julian publicly
declared, that a frugal city ought to be satisfied with a regular
supply of wine, oil, and bread; but he acknowledged, that it was
the duty of a sovereign to provide for the subsistence of his
people. With this salutary view, the emperor ventured on a very
dangerous and doubtful step, of fixing, by legal authority, the
value of corn. He enacted, that, in a time of scarcity, it should
be sold at a price which had seldom been known in the most
plentiful years; and that his own example might strengthen his
laws, he sent into the market four hundred and twenty-two
thousand modii, or measures, which were drawn by his order from
the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis, and even of Egypt. The
consequences might have been foreseen, and were soon felt. The
Imperial wheat was purchased by the rich merchants; the
proprietors of land, or of corn, withheld from the city the
accustomed supply; and the small quantities that appeared in the
market were secretly sold at an advanced and illegal price.
Julian still continued to applaud his own policy, treated the
complaints of the people as a vain and ungrateful murmur, and
convinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy, though not
the cruelty, of his brother Gallus. 16 The remonstrances of the
municipal senate served only to exasperate his inflexible mind.
He was persuaded, perhaps with truth, that the senators of
Antioch who possessed lands, or were concerned in trade, had
themselves contributed to the calamities of their country; and he
imputed the disrespectful boldness which they assumed, to the
sense, not of public duty, but of private interest. The whole
body, consisting of two hundred of the most noble and wealthy
citizens, were sent, under a guard, from the palace to the
prison; and though they were permitted, before the close of
evening, to return to their respective houses, 17 the emperor
himself could not obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily
granted. The same grievances were still the subject of the same
complaints, which were industriously circulated by the wit and
levity of the Syrian Greeks. During the licentious days of the
Saturnalia, the streets of the city resounded with insolent
songs, which derided the laws, the religion, the personal
conduct, and even the beard, of the emperor; the spirit of
Antioch was manifested by the connivance of the magistrates, and
the applause of the multitude. 18 The disciple of Socrates was
too deeply affected by these popular insults; but the monarch,
endowed with a quick sensibility, and possessed of absolute
power, refused his passions the gratification of revenge. A
tyrant might have proscribed, without distinction, the lives and
fortunes of the citizens of Antioch; and the unwarlike Syrians
must have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapaciousness and
the cruelty, of the faithful legions of Gaul. A milder sentence
might have deprived the capital of the East of its honors and
privileges; and the courtiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian,
would have applauded an act of justice, which asserted the
dignity of the supreme magistrate of the republic. 19 But instead
of abusing, or exerting, the authority of the state, to revenge
his personal injuries, Julian contented himself with an
inoffensive mode of retaliation, which it would be in the power
of few princes to employ. He had been insulted by satires and
libels; in his turn, he composed, under the title of the Enemy of
the Beard, an ironical confession of his own faults, and a severe
satire on the licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch. This
Imperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates of the
palace; and the Misopogon 20 still remains a singular monument of
the resentment, the wit, the humanity, and the indiscretion of
Julian. Though he affected to laugh, he could not forgive. 21 His
contempt was expressed, and his revenge might be gratified, by
the nomination of a governor 22 worthy only of such subjects; and
the emperor, forever renouncing the ungrateful city, proclaimed
his resolution to pass the ensuing winter at Tarsus in Cilicia.
23
15 (return) [ Julian states three different proportions, of five,
ten, or fifteen medii of wheat for one piece of gold, according
to the degrees of plenty and scarcity, (in Misopogon, p. 369.)
From this fact, and from some collateral examples, I conclude,
that under the successors of Constantine, the moderate price of
wheat was about thirty-two shillings the English quarter, which
is equal to the average price of the sixty-four first years of
the present century. See Arbuthnot’s Tables of Coins, Weights,
and Measures, p. 88, 89. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 12. Mem. de
l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 718-721. Smith’s
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vol.
i. p 246. This last I am proud to quote as the work of a sage and
a friend.]
16 (return) [ Nunquam a proposito declinabat, Galli similis
fratris, licet incruentus. Ammian. xxii. 14. The ignorance of the
most enlightened princes may claim some excuse; but we cannot be
satisfied with Julian’s own defence, (in Misopogon, p. 363, 369,)
or the elaborate apology of Libanius, (Orat. Parental c. xcvii.
p. 321.)]
17 (return) [ Their short and easy confinement is gently touched
by Libanius, (Orat. Parental. c. xcviii. p. 322, 323.)]
18 (return) [ Libanius, (ad Antiochenos de Imperatoris ira, c.
17, 18, 19, in Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. vii. p. 221-223,)
like a skilful advocate, severely censures the folly of the
people, who suffered for the crime of a few obscure and drunken
wretches.]
19 (return) [ Libanius (ad Antiochen. c. vii. p. 213) reminds
Antioch of the recent chastisement of Caesarea; and even Julian
(in Misopogon, p. 355) insinuates how severely Tarentum had
expiated the insult to the Roman ambassadors.]
20 (return) [ On the subject of the Misopogon, see Ammianus,
(xxii. 14,) Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis, c. xcix. p. 323,)
Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 133) and the Chronicle of
Antioch, by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 15, 16.) I have essential
obligations to the translation and notes of the Abbe de la
Bleterie, (Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 1-138.)]
21 (return) [ Ammianus very justly remarks, Coactus dissimulare
pro tempore ira sufflabatur interna. The elaborate irony of
Julian at length bursts forth into serious and direct invective.]
22 (return) [ Ipse autem Antiochiam egressurus, Heliopoliten
quendam Alexandrum Syriacae jurisdictioni praefecit, turbulentum
et saevum; dicebatque non illum meruisse, sed Antiochensibus
avaris et contumeliosis hujusmodi judicem convenire. Ammian.
xxiii. 2. Libanius, (Epist. 722, p. 346, 347,) who confesses to
Julian himself, that he had shared the general discontent,
pretends that Alexander was a useful, though harsh, reformer of
the manners and religion of Antioch.]
23 (return) [ Julian, in Misopogon, p. 364. Ammian. xxiii. 2, and
Valesius, ad loc. Libanius, in a professed oration, invites him
to return to his loyal and penitent city of Antioch.]
Yet Antioch possessed one citizen, whose genius and virtues might
atone, in the opinion of Julian, for the vice and folly of his
country. The sophist Libanius was born in the capital of the
East; he publicly professed the arts of rhetoric and declamation
at Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople, Athens, and, during the
remainder of his life, at Antioch. His school was assiduously
frequented by the Grecian youth; his disciples, who sometimes
exceeded the number of eighty, celebrated their incomparable
master; and the jealousy of his rivals, who persecuted him from
one city to another, confirmed the favorable opinion which
Libanius ostentatiously displayed of his superior merit. The
preceptors of Julian had extorted a rash but solemn assurance,
that he would never attend the lectures of their adversary: the
curiosity of the royal youth was checked and inflamed: he
secretly procured the writings of this dangerous sophist, and
gradually surpassed, in the perfect imitation of his style, the
most laborious of his domestic pupils. 24 When Julian ascended
the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the
Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, the
Grecian purity of taste, of manners, and of religion. The
emperor’s prepossession was increased and justified by the
discreet pride of his favorite. Instead of pressing, with the
foremost of the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople,
Libanius calmly expected his arrival at Antioch; withdrew from
court on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference;
required a formal invitation for each visit; and taught his
sovereign an important lesson, that he might command the
obedience of a subject, but that he must deserve the attachment
of a friend. The sophists of every age, despising, or affecting
to despise, the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune, 25
reserve their esteem for the superior qualities of the mind, with
which they themselves are so plentifully endowed. Julian might
disdain the acclamations of a venal court, who adored the
Imperial purple; but he was deeply flattered by the praise, the
admonition, the freedom, and the envy of an independent
philosopher, who refused his favors, loved his person, celebrated
his fame, and protected his memory. The voluminous writings of
Libanius still exist; for the most part, they are the vain and
idle compositions of an orator, who cultivated the science of
words; the productions of a recluse student, whose mind,
regardless of his contemporaries, was incessantly fixed on the
Trojan war and the Athenian commonwealth. Yet the sophist of
Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginary elevation; he
entertained a various and elaborate correspondence; 26 he praised
the virtues of his own times; he boldly arraigned the abuse of
public and private life; and he eloquently pleaded the cause of
Antioch against the just resentment of Julian and Theodosius. It
is the common calamity of old age, 27 to lose whatever might have
rendered it desirable; but Libanius experienced the peculiar
misfortune of surviving the religion and the sciences, to which
he had consecrated his genius. The friend of Julian was an
indignant spectator of the triumph of Christianity; and his
bigotry, which darkened the prospect of the visible world, did
not inspire Libanius with any lively hopes of celestial glory and
happiness. 28
24 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. vii. p. 230, 231.]
25 (return) [ Eunapius reports, that Libanius refused the
honorary rank of Praetorian praefect, as less illustrious than
the title of Sophist, (in Vit. Sophist. p. 135.) The critics have
observed a similar sentiment in one of the epistles (xviii. edit.
Wolf) of Libanius himself.]
26 (return) [ Near two thousand of his letters—a mode of
composition in which Libanius was thought to excel—are still
extant, and already published. The critics may praise their
subtle and elegant brevity; yet Dr. Bentley (Dissertation upon
Phalaris, p. 48) might justly, though quaintly observe, that “you
feel, by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse
with some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk.”]
27 (return) [ His birth is assigned to the year 314. He mentions
the seventy-sixth year of his age, (A. D. 390,) and seems to
allude to some events of a still later date.]
28 (return) [ Libanius has composed the vain, prolix, but curious
narrative of his own life, (tom. ii. p. 1-84, edit. Morell,) of
which Eunapius (p. 130-135) has left a concise and unfavorable
account. Among the moderns, Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
iv. p. 571-576,) Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vii. p.
376-414,) and Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, tom. iv. p.
127-163,) have illustrated the character and writings of this
famous sophist.]
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part II.
The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in
the beginning of the spring; and he dismissed, with contempt and
reproach, the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor
beyond the limits of their own territory, to which he was
resolved never to return. After a laborious march of two days, 29
he halted on the third at Beraea, or Aleppo, where he had the
mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian; who
received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the
eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism. The son of one of the
most illustrious citizens of Beraea, who had embraced, either
from interest or conscience, the religion of the emperor, was
disinherited by his angry parent. The father and the son were
invited to the Imperial table. Julian, placing himself between
them, attempted, without success, to inculcate the lesson and
example of toleration; supported, with affected calmness, the
indiscreet zeal of the aged Christian, who seemed to forget the
sentiments of nature, and the duty of a subject; and at length,
turning towards the afflicted youth, “Since you have lost a
father,” said he, “for my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply
his place.” 30 The emperor was received in a manner much more
agreeable to his wishes at Batnae, 3011 a small town pleasantly
seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city
of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were decently
prepared by the inhabitants of Batnae, who seemed attached to the
worship of their tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter; but the
serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their
applause; and he too clearly discerned, that the smoke which
arose from their altars was the incense of flattery, rather than
of devotion. The ancient and magnificent temple which had
sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapolis, 31 no
longer subsisted; and the consecrated wealth, which afforded a
liberal maintenance to more than three hundred priests, might
hasten its downfall. Yet Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of
embracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious firmness
had withstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of
Constantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged at his
house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In the hurry of
military preparation, and the careless confidence of a familiar
correspondence, the zeal of Julian appears to have been lively
and uniform. He had now undertaken an important and difficult
war; and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more
attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages,
from which, according to the rules of divination, any knowledge
of futurity could be derived. 32 He informed Libanius of his
progress as far as Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, 33 which
displays the facility of his genius, and his tender friendship
for the sophist of Antioch.
29 (return) [ From Antioch to Litarbe, on the territory of
Chalcis, the road, over hills and through morasses, was extremely
bad; and the loose stones were cemented only with sand, (Julian.
epist. xxvii.) It is singular enough that the Romans should have
neglected the great communication between Antioch and the
Euphrates. See Wesseling Itinerar. p. 190 Bergier, Hist des
Grands Chemins, tom. ii. p. 100]
30 (return) [ Julian alludes to this incident, (epist. xxvii.,)
which is more distinctly related by Theodoret, (l. iii. c. 22.)
The intolerant spirit of the father is applauded by Tillemont,
(Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 534.) and even by La Bleterie,
(Vie de Julien, p. 413.)]
3011 (return) [ This name, of Syriac origin, is found in the
Arabic, and means a place in a valley where waters meet. Julian
says, the name of the city is Barbaric, the situation Greek. The
geographer Abulfeda (tab. Syriac. p. 129, edit. Koehler) speaks
of it in a manner to justify the praises of Julian.—St. Martin.
Notes to Le Beau, iii. 56.—M.]
31 (return) [ See the curious treatise de Dea Syria, inserted
among the works of Lucian, (tom. iii. p. 451-490, edit. Reitz.)
The singular appellation of Ninus vetus (Ammian. xiv. 8) might
induce a suspicion, that Heirapolis had been the royal seat of
the Assyrians.]
32 (return) [ Julian (epist. xxviii.) kept a regular account of
all the fortunate omens; but he suppresses the inauspicious
signs, which Ammianus (xxiii. 2) has carefully recorded.]
33 (return) [ Julian. epist. xxvii. p. 399-402.]
Hierapolis, 3311 situate almost on the banks of the Euphrates, 34
had been appointed for the general rendezvous of the Roman
troops, who immediately passed the great river on a bridge of
boats, which was previously constructed. 35 If the inclinations
of Julian had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might
have wasted the active and important season of the year in the
circus of Samosata or in the churches of Edessa. But as the
warlike emperor, instead of Constantius, had chosen Alexander for
his model, he advanced without delay to Carrhae, 36 a very
ancient city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles
from Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotion of
Julian; but the halt of a few days was principally employed in
completing the immense preparations of the Persian war. The
secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast;
but as Carrhae is the point of separation of the two great roads,
he could no longer conceal whether it was his design to attack
the dominions of Sapor on the side of the Tigris, or on that of
the Euphrates. The emperor detached an army of thirty thousand
men, under the command of his kinsman Procopius, and of
Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They were ordered to
direct their march towards Nisibis, and to secure the frontier
from the desultory incursions of the enemy, before they attempted
the passage of the Tigris. Their subsequent operations were left
to the discretion of the generals; but Julian expected, that
after wasting with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media
and Adiabene, they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at
the same time that he himself, advancing with equal steps along
the banks of the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the
Persian monarchy. The success of this well-concerted plan
depended, in a great measure, on the powerful and ready
assistance of the king of Armenia, who, without exposing the
safety of his own dominions, might detach an army of four
thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of
the Romans. 37 But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, 38 king of
Armenia, had degenerated still more shamefully than his father
Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates; and as
the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger
and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the more
decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a pious
attachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he had
received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the praefect
Ablavius; and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as
the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of
a Barbarian king. 39 Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he
reigned over a nation of Christians; and he was restrained, by
every principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to
the victory, which would consummate the ruin of the church. The
alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of
Julian, who treated the king of Armenia as his slave, and as the
enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of the
Imperial mandates 40 awakened the secret indignation of a prince,
who, in the humiliating state of dependence, was still conscious
of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East,
and the rivals of the Roman power. 4011
3311 (return) [ Or Bambyce, now Bambouch; Manbedj Arab., or
Maboug, Syr. It was twenty-four Roman miles from the
Euphrates.—M.]
34 (return) [ I take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging my
obligations to M. d’Anville, for his recent geography of the
Euphrates and Tigris, (Paris, 1780, in 4to.,) which particularly
illustrates the expedition of Julian.]
35 (return) [ There are three passages within a few miles of each
other; 1. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients; 2. Bir, frequented
by the moderns; and, 3. The bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at
the distance of four parasangs from the city. ——- Djisr Manbedj
is the same with the ancient Zeugma. St. Martin, iii. 58—M.]
36 (return) [ Haran, or Carrhae, was the ancient residence of the
Sabaeans, and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of
Schultens, (ad calcem Vit. Saladin.,) a work from which I have
obtained much Oriental knowledge concerning the ancient and
modern geography of Syria and the adjacent countries. ——On an
inedited medal in the collection of the late M. Tochon. of the
Academy of Inscriptions, it is read Xappan. St. Martin. iii
60—M.]
37 (return) [ See Xenophon. Cyropaed. l. iii. p. 189, edit.
Hutchinson. Artavasdes might have supplied Marc Antony with
16,000 horse, armed and disciplined after the Parthian manner,
(Plutarch, in M. Antonio. tom. v. p. 117.)]
38 (return) [ Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armeniac. l. iii. c. 11, p.
242) fixes his accession (A. D. 354) to the 17th year of
Constantius. ——Arsaces Tiranus, or Diran, had ceased to reign
twenty-five years before, in 337. The intermediate changes in
Armenia, and the character of this Arsaces, the son of Diran, are
traced by M. St. Martin, at considerable length, in his
supplement to Le Beau, ii. 208-242. As long as his Grecian queen
Olympias maintained her influence, Arsaces was faithful to the
Roman and Christian alliance. On the accession of Julian, the
same influence made his fidelity to waver; but Olympias having
been poisoned in the sacramental bread by the agency of
Pharandcem, the former wife of Arsaces, another change took place
in Armenian politics unfavorable to the Christian interest. The
patriarch Narses retired from the impious court to a safe
seclusion. Yet Pharandsem was equally hostile to the Persian
influence, and Arsaces began to support with vigor the cause of
Julian. He made an inroad into the Persian dominions with a body
of Rans and Alans as auxiliaries; wasted Aderbidgan and Sapor,
who had been defeated near Tauriz, was engaged in making head
against his troops in Persarmenia, at the time of the death of
Julian. Such is M. St. Martin’s view, (ii. 276, et sqq.,) which
rests on the Armenian historians, Faustos of Byzantium, and
Mezrob the biographer of the Partriarch Narses. In the history of
Armenia by Father Chamitch, and translated by Avdall, Tiran is
still king of Armenia, at the time of Julian’s death. F. Chamitch
follows Moses of Chorene, The authority of Gibbon.—M.]
39 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) says,
in general terms, that Constantius gave to his brother’s widow,
an expression more suitable to a Roman than a Christian.]
40 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiii. 2) uses a word much too soft for
the occasion, monuerat. Muratori (Fabricius, Bibliothec. Graec.
tom. vii. p. 86) has published an epistle from Julian to the
satrap Arsaces; fierce, vulgar, and (though it might deceive
Sozomen, l. vi. c. 5) most probably spurious. La Bleterie (Hist.
de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 339) translates and rejects it. Note: St.
Martin considers it genuine: the Armenian writers mention such a
letter, iii. 37.—M.]
4011 (return) [ Arsaces did not abandon the Roman alliance, but
gave it only feeble support. St. Martin, iii. 41—M.]
The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully contrived to
deceive the spies and to divert the attention of Sapor. The
legions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis and the
Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the right; traversed the
level and naked plain of Carrhae; and reached, on the third day,
the banks of the Euphrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium,
or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian kings. From
thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles, along
the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about one
month after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers
of Circesium, 4012 the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. The
army of Julian, the most numerous that any of the Caesars had
ever led against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand
effective and well-disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of
cavalry and infantry, of Romans and Barbarians, had been selected
from the different provinces; and a just preeminence of loyalty
and valor was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne
and person of their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian
auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, and almost
from another world, to invade a distant country, of whose name
and situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and war
allured to the Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or
roving Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he
sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies. The
broad channel of the Euphrates 41 was crowded by a fleet of
eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to
satisfy the wants, of the Roman army. The military strength of
the fleet was composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were
accompanied by an equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which
might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary
bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber, and
partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an almost
inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, of utensils and
provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very
large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the
soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and
rigorously stopped a long string of superfluous camels that
attempted to follow the rear of the army. The River Chaboras
falls into the Euphrates at Circesium; 42 and as soon as the
trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans passed the little
stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires. The custom
of ancient discipline required a military oration; and Julian
embraced every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He
animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of
the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ancestors.
He excited their resentment by a lively picture of the insolence
of the Persians; and he exhorted them to imitate his firm
resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation, or to
devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of
Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty
pieces of silver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras
was instantly cut away, to convince the troops that they must
place their hopes of safety in the success of their arms. Yet the
prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier,
perpetually exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs. A
detachment of four thousand men was left at Circesium, which
completed, to the number of ten thousand, the regular garrison of
that important fortress. 43
4012 (return) [ Kirkesia the Carchemish of the Scriptures.—M.]
41 (return) [ Latissimum flumen Euphraten artabat. Ammian. xxiii.
3 Somewhat higher, at the fords of Thapsacus, the river is four
stadia or 800 yards, almost half an English mile, broad.
(Xenophon, Anabasis, l. i. p. 41, edit. Hutchinson, with Foster’s
Observations, p. 29, &c., in the 2d volume of Spelman’s
translation.) If the breadth of the Euphrates at Bir and Zeugma
is no more than 130 yards, (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 335,)
the enormous difference must chiefly arise from the depth of the
channel.]
42 (return) [ Munimentum tutissimum et fabre politum, Abora (the
Orientals aspirate Chaboras or Chabour) et Euphrates ambiunt
flumina, velut spatium insulare fingentes. Ammian. xxiii. 5.]
43 (return) [ The enterprise and armament of Julian are described
by himself, (Epist. xxvii.,) Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 3, 4,
5,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 108, 109, p. 332, 333,) Zosimus,
(l. iii. p. 160, 161, 162) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. l,) and John
Malala, (tom. ii. p. 17.)]
From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy’s country, 44
the country of an active and artful enemy, the order of march was
disposed in three columns. 45 The strength of the infantry, and
consequently of the whole army was placed in the centre, under
the peculiar command of their master-general Victor. On the
right, the brave Nevitta led a column of several legions along
the banks of the Euphrates, and almost always in sight of the
fleet. The left flank of the army was protected by the column of
cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthaeus were appointed generals of the
horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas 46 are not
undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal
race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of
Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the
great Constantine. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and
at length acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valor and
fidelity raised him to the military honors of the Roman service;
and though a Christian, he might indulge the secret satisfaction
of convincing his ungrateful country, that an oppressed subject
may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition of
the three principal columns. The front and flanks of the army
were covered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment of fifteen
hundred light-armed soldiers, whose active vigilance observed the
most distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any
hostile approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene,
conducted the troops of the rear-guard; the baggage securely
proceeded in the intervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a
motive either of use or ostentation, were formed in such open
order, that the whole line of march extended almost ten miles.
The ordinary post of Julian was at the head of the centre column;
but as he preferred the duties of a general to the state of a
monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort of light cavalry,
to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence could
animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The country which
they traversed from the Chaboras, to the cultivated lands of
Assyria, may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a
dry and barren waste, which could never be improved by the most
powerful arts of human industry. Julian marched over the same
ground which had been trod above seven hundred years before by
the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, and which is described by one
of the companions of his expedition, the sage and heroic
Xenophon. 47 “The country was a plain throughout, as even as the
sea, and full of wormwood; and if any other kind of shrubs or
reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell, but no trees
could be seen. Bustards and ostriches, antelopes and wild asses,
48 appeared to be the only inhabitants of the desert; and the
fatigues of the march were alleviated by the amusements of the
chase.” The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the
wind into clouds of dust; and a great number of the soldiers of
Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrown to the ground by
the violence of an unexpected hurricane.
44 (return) [ Before he enters Persia, Ammianus copiously
describes (xxiii. p. 396-419, edit. Gronov. in 4to.) the eighteen
great provinces, (as far as the Seric, or Chinese frontiers,)
which were subject to the Sassanides.]
45 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiv. 1) and Zosimus (l. iii. p. 162,
163) rately expressed the order of march.]
46 (return) [ The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some
mixture of fable, (Zosimus, l. ii. p. 100-102; Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs tom. iv. p. 198.) It is almost impossible that he
should be the brother (frater germanus) of an eldest and
posthumous child: nor do I recollect that Ammianus ever gives him
that title. * Note: St. Martin conceives that he was an elder
brother by another mother who had several children, ii. 24—M.]
47 (return) [ See the first book of the Anabasis, p. 45, 46. This
pleasing work is original and authentic. Yet Xenophon’s memory,
perhaps many years after the expedition, has sometimes betrayed
him; and the distances which he marks are often larger than
either a soldier or a geographer will allow.]
48 (return) [ Mr. Spelman, the English translator of the
Anabasis, (vol. i. p. 51,) confounds the antelope with the
roebuck, and the wild ass with the zebra.]
The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes
and wild asses of the desert; but a variety of populous towns and
villages were pleasantly situated on the banks of the Euphrates,
and in the islands which are occasionally formed by that river.
The city of Annah, or Anatho, 49 the actual residence of an
Arabian emir, is composed of two long streets, which enclose,
within a natural fortification, a small island in the midst, and
two fruitful spots on either side, of the Euphrates. The warlike
inhabitants of Anatho showed a disposition to stop the march of a
Roman emperor; till they were diverted from such fatal
presumption by the mild exhortations of Prince Hormisdas, and the
approaching terrors of the fleet and army. They implored, and
experienced, the clemency of Julian, who transplanted the people
to an advantageous settlement, near Chalcis in Syria, and
admitted Pusaeus, the governor, to an honorable rank in his
service and friendship. But the impregnable fortress of Thilutha
could scorn the menace of a siege; and the emperor was obliged to
content himself with an insulting promise, that, when he had
subdued the interior provinces of Persia, Thilutha would no
longer refuse to grace the triumph of the emperor. The
inhabitants of the open towns, unable to resist, and unwilling to
yield, fled with precipitation; and their houses, filled with
spoil and provisions, were occupied by the soldiers of Julian,
who massacred, without remorse and without punishment, some
defenceless women. During the march, the Surenas, 4911 or Persian
general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned emir of the tribe of
Gassan, 50 incessantly hovered round the army; every straggler
was intercepted; every detachment was attacked; and the valiant
Hormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But the
Barbarians were finally repulsed; the country became every day
less favorable to the operations of cavalry; and when the Romans
arrived at Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall,
which had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to
secure their dominions from the incursions of the Medes. These
preliminaries of the expedition of Julian appear to have employed
about fifteen days; and we may compute near three hundred miles
from the fortress of Circesium to the wall of Macepracta. 51
49 (return) [ See Voyages de Tavernier, part i. l. iii. p. 316,
and more especially Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. lett.
xvii. p. 671, &c. He was ignorant of the old name and condition
of Annah. Our blind travellers seldom possess any previous
knowledge of the countries which they visit. Shaw and Tournefort
deserve an honorable exception.]
4911 (return) [ This is not a title, but the name of a great
Persian family. St. Martin, iii. 79.—M.]
50 (return) [ Famosi nominis latro, says Ammianus; a high
encomium for an Arab. The tribe of Gassan had settled on the edge
of Syria, and reigned some time in Damascus, under a dynasty of
thirty-one kings, or emirs, from the time of Pompey to that of
the Khalif Omar. D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 360.
Pococke, Specimen Hist. Arabicae, p. 75-78. The name of Rodosaces
does not appear in the list. * Note: Rodosaces-malek is king. St.
Martin considers that Gibbon has fallen into an error in bringing
the tribe of Gassan to the Euphrates. In Ammianus it is Assan. M.
St. Martin would read Massanitarum, the same with the Mauzanitae
of Malala.—M.]
51 (return) [ See Ammianus, (xxiv. 1, 2,) Libanius, (Orat.
Parental. c. 110, 111, p. 334,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 164-168.) *
Note: This Syriac or Chaldaic has relation to its position; it
easily bears the signification of the division of the waters. M.
St. M. considers it the Missice of Pliny, v. 26. St. Martin, iii.
83.—M.]
The fertile province of Assyria, 52 which stretched beyond the
Tigris, as far as the mountains of Media, 53 extended about four
hundred miles from the ancient wall of Macepracta, to the
territory of Basra, where the united streams of the Euphrates and
Tigris discharge themselves into the Persian Gulf. 54 The whole
country might have claimed the peculiar name of Mesopotamia; as
the two rivers, which are never more distant than fifty,
approach, between Bagdad and Babylon, within twenty-five miles,
of each other. A multitude of artificial canals, dug without much
labor in a soft and yielding soil connected the rivers, and
intersected the plain of Assyria. The uses of these artificial
canals were various and important. They served to discharge the
superfluous waters from one river into the other, at the season
of their respective inundations. Subdividing themselves into
smaller and smaller branches, they refreshed the dry lands, and
supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated the intercourse
of peace and commerce; and, as the dams could be speedily broke
down, they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of
opposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army. To
the soil and climate of Assyria, nature had denied some of her
choicest gifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree; 5411 but
the food which supports the life of man, and particularly wheat
and barley, were produced with inexhaustible fertility; and the
husbandman, who committed his seed to the earth, was frequently
rewarded with an increase of two, or even of three, hundred. The
face of the country was interspersed with groves of innumerable
palm-trees; 55 and the diligent natives celebrated, either in
verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the
trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were
skilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially those of
leather and linen, employed the industry of a numerous people,
and afforded valuable materials for foreign trade; which appears,
however, to have been conducted by the hands of strangers.
Babylon had been converted into a royal park; but near the ruins
of the ancient capital, new cities had successively arisen, and
the populousness of the country was displayed in the multitude of
towns and villages, which were built of bricks dried in the sun,
and strongly cemented with bitumen; the natural and peculiar
production of the Babylonian soil. While the successors of Cyrus
reigned over Asia, the province of Syria alone maintained, during
a third part of the year, the luxurious plenty of the table and
household of the Great King. Four considerable villages were
assigned for the subsistence of his Indian dogs; eight hundred
stallions, and sixteen thousand mares, were constantly kept, at
the expense of the country, for the royal stables; and as the
daily tribute, which was paid to the satrap, amounted to one
English bushe of silver, we may compute the annual revenue of
Assyria at more than twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling. 56
52 (return) [ The description of Assyria, is furnished by
Herodotus, (l. i. c. 192, &c.,) who sometimes writes for
children, and sometimes for philosophers; by Strabo, (l. xvi. p.
1070-1082,) and by Ammianus, (l.xxiii. c. 6.) The most useful of
the modern travellers are Tavernier, (part i. l. ii. p. 226-258,)
Otter, (tom. ii. p. 35-69, and 189-224,) and Niebuhr, (tom. ii.
p. 172-288.) Yet I much regret that the Irak Arabi of Abulfeda
has not been translated.]
53 (return) [ Ammianus remarks, that the primitive Assyria, which
comprehended Ninus, (Nineveh,) and Arbela, had assumed the more
recent and peculiar appellation of Adiabene; and he seems to fix
Teredon, Vologesia, and Apollonia, as the extreme cities of the
actual province of Assyria.]
54 (return) [ The two rivers unite at Apamea, or Corna, (one
hundred miles from the Persian Gulf,) into the broad stream of
the Pasitigris, or Shutul-Arab. The Euphrates formerly reached
the sea by a separate channel, which was obstructed and diverted
by the citizens of Orchoe, about twenty miles to the south-east
of modern Basra. (D’Anville, in the Memoires de l’Acad. des
Inscriptions, tom.xxx. p. 171-191.)]
5411 (return) [ We are informed by Mr. Gibbon, that nature has
denied to the soil an climate of Assyria some of her choicest
gifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree. This might have
been the case ir the age of Ammianus Marcellinus, but it is not
so at the present day; and it is a curious fact that the grape,
the olive, and the fig, are the most common fruits in the
province, and may be seen in every garden. Macdonald Kinneir,
Geogr. Mem. on Persia 239—M.]
55 (return) [ The learned Kaempfer, as a botanist, an antiquary,
and a traveller, has exhausted (Amoenitat. Exoticae, Fasicul. iv.
p. 660-764) the whole subject of palm-trees.]
56 (return) [ Assyria yielded to the Persian satrap an Artaba of
silver each day. The well-known proportion of weights and
measures (see Bishop Hooper’s elaborate Inquiry,) the specific
gravity of water and silver, and the value of that metal, will
afford, after a short process, the annual revenue which I have
stated. Yet the Great King received no more than 1000 Euboic, or
Tyrian, talents (252,000l.) from Assyria. The comparison of two
passages in Herodotus, (l. i. c. 192, l. iii. c. 89-96) reveals
an important difference between the gross, and the net, revenue
of Persia; the sums paid by the province, and the gold or silver
deposited in the royal treasure. The monarch might annually save
three millions six hundred thousand pounds, of the seventeen or
eighteen millions raised upon the people.]
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part III.
The fields of Assyria were devoted by Julian to the calamities of
war; and the philosopher retaliated on a guiltless people the
acts of rapine and cruelty which had been committed by their
haughty master in the Roman provinces. The trembling Assyrians
summoned the rivers to their assistance; and completed, with
their own hands, the ruin of their country. The roads were
rendered impracticable; a flood of waters was poured into the
camp; and, during several days, the troops of Julian were obliged
to contend with the most discouraging hardships. But every
obstacle was surmounted by the perseverance of the legionaries,
who were inured to toil as well as to danger, and who felt
themselves animated by the spirit of their leader. The damage was
gradually repaired; the waters were restored to their proper
channels; whole groves of palm-trees were cut down, and placed
along the broken parts of the road; and the army passed over the
broad and deeper canals, on bridges of floating rafts, which were
supported by the help of bladders. Two cities of Assyria presumed
to resist the arms of a Roman emperor: and they both paid the
severe penalty of their rashness. At the distance of fifty miles
from the royal residence of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, 5711 or Anbar,
held the second rank in the province; a city, large, populous,
and well fortified, surrounded with a double wall, almost
encompassed by a branch of the Euphrates, and defended by the
valor of a numerous garrison. The exhortations of Hormisdas were
repulsed with contempt; and the ears of the Persian prince were
wounded by a just reproach, that, unmindful of his royal birth,
he conducted an army of strangers against his king and country.
The Assyrians maintained their loyalty by a skilful, as well as
vigorous, defence; till the lucky stroke of a battering-ram,
having opened a large breach, by shattering one of the angles of
the wall, they hastily retired into the fortifications of the
interior citadel. The soldiers of Julian rushed impetuously into
the town, and after the full gratification of every military
appetite, Perisabor was reduced to ashes; and the engines which
assaulted the citadel were planted on the ruins of the smoking
houses. The contest was continued by an incessant and mutual
discharge of missile weapons; and the superiority which the
Romans might derive from the mechanical powers of their balistae
and catapultae was counterbalanced by the advantage of the ground
on the side of the besieged. But as soon as an Helepolis had been
constructed, which could engage on equal terms with the loftiest
ramparts, the tremendous aspect of a moving turret, that would
leave no hope of resistance or mercy, terrified the defenders of
the citadel into an humble submission; and the place was
surrendered only two days after Julian first appeared under the
walls of Perisabor. Two thousand five hundred persons, of both
sexes, the feeble remnant of a flourishing people, were permitted
to retire; the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and of
splendid furniture, were partly distributed among the troops, and
partly reserved for the public service; the useless stores were
destroyed by fire or thrown into the stream of the Euphrates; and
the fate of Amida was revenged by the total ruin of Perisabor.
5711 (return) [ Libanius says that it was a great city of
Assyria, called after the name of the reigning king. The orator
of Antioch is not mistaken. The Persians and Syrians called it
Fyrouz Schapour or Fyrouz Schahbour; in Persian, the victory of
Schahpour. It owed that name to Sapor the First. It was before
called Anbar St. Martin, iii. 85.—M.]
The city or rather fortress, of Maogamalcha, which was defended
by sixteen large towers, a deep ditch, and two strong and solid
walls of brick and bitumen, appears to have been constructed at
the distance of eleven miles, as the safeguard of the capital of
Persia. The emperor, apprehensive of leaving such an important
fortress in his rear, immediately formed the siege of
Maogamalcha; and the Roman army was distributed, for that
purpose, into three divisions. Victor, at the head of the
cavalry, and of a detachment of heavy-armed foot, was ordered to
clear the country, as far as the banks of the Tigris, and the
suburbs of Ctesiphon. The conduct of the attack was assumed by
Julian himself, who seemed to place his whole dependence in the
military engines which he erected against the walls; while he
secretly contrived a more efficacious method of introducing his
troops into the heart of the city. Under the direction of Nevitta
and Dagalaiphus, the trenches were opened at a considerable
distance, and gradually prolonged as far as the edge of the
ditch. The ditch was speedily filled with earth; and, by the
incessant labor of the troops, a mine was carried under the
foundations of the walls, and sustained, at sufficient intervals,
by props of timber. Three chosen cohorts, advancing in a single
file, silently explored the dark and dangerous passage; till
their intrepid leader whispered back the intelligence, that he
was ready to issue from his confinement into the streets of the
hostile city. Julian checked their ardor, that he might insure
their success; and immediately diverted the attention of the
garrison, by the tumult and clamor of a general assault. The
Persians, who, from their walls, contemptuously beheld the
progress of an impotent attack, celebrated with songs of triumph
the glory of Sapor; and ventured to assure the emperor, that he
might ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could hope
to take the impregnable city of Maogamalcha. The city was already
taken. History has recorded the name of a private soldier the
first who ascended from the mine into a deserted tower. The
passage was widened by his companions, who pressed forwards with
impatient valor. Fifteen hundred enemies were already in the
midst of the city. The astonished garrison abandoned the walls,
and their only hope of safety; the gates were instantly burst
open; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by
lust or avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing massacre.
The governor, who had yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt
alive, a few days afterwards, on a charge of having uttered some
disrespectful words against the honor of Prince Hormisdas. The
fortifications were razed to the ground; and not a vestige was
left, that the city of Maogamalcha had ever existed. The
neighborhood of the capital of Persia was adorned with three
stately palaces, laboriously enriched with every production that
could gratify the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. The
pleasant situation of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris,
was improved, according to the Persian taste, by the symmetry of
flowers, fountains, and shady walks: and spacious parks were
enclosed for the reception of the bears, lions, and wild boars,
which were maintained at a considerable expense for the pleasure
of the royal chase. The park walls were broken down, the savage
game was abandoned to the darts of the soldiers, and the palaces
of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by the command of the Roman
emperor. Julian, on this occasion, showed himself ignorant, or
careless, of the laws of civility, which the prudence and
refinement of polished ages have established between hostile
princes. Yet these wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts
any vehement emotions of pity or resentment. A simple, naked
statue, finished by the hand of a Grecian artist, is of more
genuine value than all these rude and costly monuments of
Barbaric labor; and, if we are more deeply affected by the ruin
of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity
must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of
human life. 57
57 (return) [ The operations of the Assyrian war are
circumstantially related by Ammianus, (xxiv. 2, 3, 4, 5,)
Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 112-123, p. 335-347,) Zosimus, (l.
iii. p. 168-180,) and Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat iv. p. 113, 144.)
The military criticisms of the saint are devoutly copied by
Tillemont, his faithful slave.]
Julian was an object of hatred and terror to the Persian and the
painters of that nation represented the invader of their country
under the emblem of a furious lion, who vomited from his mouth a
consuming fire. 58 To his friends and soldiers the philosophic
hero appeared in a more amiable light; and his virtues were never
more conspicuously displayed, than in the last and most active
period of his life. He practised, without effort, and almost
without merit, the habitual qualities of temperance and sobriety.
According to the dictates of that artificial wisdom, which
assumes an absolute dominion over the mind and body, he sternly
refused himself the indulgence of the most natural appetites. 59
In the warm climate of Assyria, which solicited a luxurious
people to the gratification of every sensual desire, 60 a
youthful conqueror preserved his chastity pure and inviolate; nor
was Julian ever tempted, even by a motive of curiosity, to visit
his female captives of exquisite beauty, 61 who, instead of
resisting his power, would have disputed with each other the
honor of his embraces. With the same firmness that he resisted
the allurements of love, he sustained the hardships of war. When
the Romans marched through the flat and flooded country, their
sovereign, on foot, at the head of his legions, shared their
fatigues and animated their diligence. In every useful labor, the
hand of Julian was prompt and strenuous; and the Imperial purple
was wet and dirty as the coarse garment of the meanest soldier.
The two sieges allowed him some remarkable opportunities of
signalizing his personal valor, which, in the improved state of
the military art, can seldom be exerted by a prudent general. The
emperor stood before the citadel of Perisabor, insensible of his
extreme danger, and encouraged his troops to burst open the gates
of iron, till he was almost overwhelmed under a cloud of missile
weapons and huge stones, that were directed against his person.
As he examined the exterior fortifications of Maogamalcha, two
Persians, devoting themselves for their country, suddenly rushed
upon him with drawn cimeters: the emperor dexterously received
their blows on his uplifted shield; and, with a steady and
well-aimed thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead at his feet.
The esteem of a prince who possesses the virtues which he
approves, is the noblest recompense of a deserving subject; and
the authority which Julian derived from his personal merit,
enabled him to revive and enforce the rigor of ancient
discipline. He punished with death or ignominy the misbehavior of
three troops of horse, who, in a skirmish with the Surenas, had
lost their honor and one of their standards: and he distinguished
with obsidional 62 crowns the valor of the foremost soldiers, who
had ascended into the city of Maogamalcha.
After the siege of Perisabor, the firmness of the emperor was
exercised by the insolent avarice of the army, who loudly
complained, that their services were rewarded by a trifling
donative of one hundred pieces of silver. His just indignation
was expressed in the grave and manly language of a Roman. “Riches
are the object of your desires; those riches are in the hands of
the Persians; and the spoils of this fruitful country are
proposed as the prize of your valor and discipline. Believe me,”
added Julian, “the Roman republic, which formerly possessed such
immense treasures, is now reduced to want and wretchedness once
our princes have been persuaded, by weak and interested
ministers, to purchase with gold the tranquillity of the
Barbarians. The revenue is exhausted; the cities are ruined; the
provinces are dispeopled. For myself, the only inheritance that I
have received from my royal ancestors is a soul incapable of
fear; and as long as I am convinced that every real advantage is
seated in the mind, I shall not blush to acknowledge an honorable
poverty, which, in the days of ancient virtue, was considered as
the glory of Fabricius. That glory, and that virtue, may be your
own, if you will listen to the voice of Heaven and of your
leader. But if you will rashly persist, if you are determined to
renew the shameful and mischievous examples of old seditions,
proceed. As it becomes an emperor who has filled the first rank
among men, I am prepared to die, standing; and to despise a
precarious life, which, every hour, may depend on an accidental
fever. If I have been found unworthy of the command, there are
now among you, (I speak it with pride and pleasure,) there are
many chiefs whose merit and experience are equal to the conduct
of the most important war. Such has been the temper of my reign,
that I can retire, without regret, and without apprehension, to
the obscurity of a private station” 63 The modest resolution of
Julian was answered by the unanimous applause and cheerful
obedience of the Romans, who declared their confidence of
victory, while they fought under the banners of their heroic
prince. Their courage was kindled by his frequent and familiar
asseverations, (for such wishes were the oaths of Julian,) “So
may I reduce the Persians under the yoke!” “Thus may I restore
the strength and splendor of the republic!” The love of fame was
the ardent passion of his soul: but it was not before he trampled
on the ruins of Maogamalcha, that he allowed himself to say, “We
have now provided some materials for the sophist of Antioch.” 64
58 (return) [ Libanius de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. 13, p.
162.]
59 (return) [ The famous examples of Cyrus, Alexander, and
Scipio, were acts of justice. Julian’s chastity was voluntary,
and, in his opinion, meritorious.]
60 (return) [ Sallust (ap. Vet. Scholiast. Juvenal. Satir. i.
104) observes, that nihil corruptius moribus. The matrons and
virgins of Babylon freely mingled with the men in licentious
banquets; and as they felt the intoxication of wine and love,
they gradually, and almost completely, threw aside the
encumbrance of dress; ad ultimum ima corporum velamenta
projiciunt. Q. Curtius, v. 1.]
61 (return) [ Ex virginibus autem quae speciosae sunt captae, et
in Perside, ubi faeminarum pulchritudo excellit, nec contrectare
aliquam votuit nec videre. Ammian. xxiv. 4. The native race of
Persians is small and ugly; but it has been improved by the
perpetual mixture of Circassian blood, (Herodot. l. iii. c. 97.
Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 420.)]
62 (return) [ Obsidionalibus coronis donati. Ammian. xxiv. 4.
Either Julian or his historian were unskillful antiquaries. He
should have given mural crowns. The obsidional were the reward of
a general who had delivered a besieged city, (Aulus Gellius,
Noct. Attic. v. 6.)]
63 (return) [ I give this speech as original and genuine.
Ammianus might hear, could transcribe, and was incapable of
inventing, it. I have used some slight freedoms, and conclude
with the most forcibic sentence.]
64 (return) [ Ammian. xxiv. 3. Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 122, p.
346.]
The successful valor of Julian had triumphed over all the
obstacles that opposed his march to the gates of Ctesiphon. But
the reduction, or even the siege, of the capital of Persia, was
still at a distance: nor can the military conduct of the emperor
be clearly apprehended, without a knowledge of the country which
was the theatre of his bold and skilful operations. 65 Twenty
miles to the south of Bagdad, and on the eastern bank of the
Tigris, the curiosity of travellers has observed some ruins of
the palaces of Ctesiphon, which, in the time of Julian, was a
great and populous city. The name and glory of the adjacent
Seleucia were forever extinguished; and the only remaining
quarter of that Greek colony had resumed, with the Assyrian
language and manners, the primitive appellation of Coche. Coche
was situate on the western side of the Tigris; but it was
naturally considered as a suburb of Ctesiphon, with which we may
suppose it to have been connected by a permanent bridge of boats.
The united parts contribute to form the common epithet of Al
Modain, the cities, which the Orientals have bestowed on the
winter residence of the Sassinadees; and the whole circumference
of the Persian capital was strongly fortified by the waters of
the river, by lofty walls, and by impracticable morasses. Near
the ruins of Seleucia, the camp of Julian was fixed, and secured,
by a ditch and rampart, against the sallies of the numerous and
enterprising garrison of Coche. In this fruitful and pleasant
country, the Romans were plentifully supplied with water and
forage: and several forts, which might have embarrassed the
motions of the army, submitted, after some resistance, to the
efforts of their valor. The fleet passed from the Euphrates into
an artificial derivation of that river, which pours a copious and
navigable stream into the Tigris, at a small distance below the
great city. If they had followed this royal canal, which bore the
name of Nahar-Malcha, 66 the intermediate situation of Coche
would have separated the fleet and army of Julian; and the rash
attempt of steering against the current of the Tigris, and
forcing their way through the midst of a hostile capital, must
have been attended with the total destruction of the Roman navy.
The prudence of the emperor foresaw the danger, and provided the
remedy. As he had minutely studied the operations of Trajan in
the same country, he soon recollected that his warlike
predecessor had dug a new and navigable canal, which, leaving
Coche on the right hand, conveyed the waters of the Nahar-Malcha
into the river Tigris, at some distance above the cities. From
the information of the peasants, Julian ascertained the vestiges
of this ancient work, which were almost obliterated by design or
accident. By the indefatigable labor of the soldiers, a broad and
deep channel was speedily prepared for the reception of the
Euphrates. A strong dike was constructed to interrupt the
ordinary current of the Nahar-Malcha: a flood of waters rushed
impetuously into their new bed; and the Roman fleet, steering
their triumphant course into the Tigris, derided the vain and
ineffectual barriers which the Persians of Ctesiphon had erected
to oppose their passage.
65 (return) [ M. d’Anville, (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,
tom. xxxviii p. 246-259) has ascertained the true position and
distance of Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Bagdad, &c. The Roman
traveller, Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. lett. xvii. p. 650-780,)
seems to be the most intelligent spectator of that famous
province. He is a gentleman and a scholar, but intolerably vain
and prolix.]
66 (return) [ The Royal Canal (Nahar-Malcha) might be
successively restored, altered, divided, &c., (Cellarius,
Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 453;) and these changes may serve to
explain the seeming contradictions of antiquity. In the time of
Julian, it must have fallen into the Euphrates below Ctesiphon.]
As it became necessary to transport the Roman army over the
Tigris, another labor presented itself, of less toil, but of more
danger, than the preceding expedition. The stream was broad and
rapid; the ascent steep and difficult; and the intrenchments
which had been formed on the ridge of the opposite bank, were
lined with a numerous army of heavy cuirrasiers, dexterous
archers, and huge elephants; who (according to the extravagant
hyperbole of Libanius) could trample with the same ease a field
of corn, or a legion of Romans. 67 In the presence of such an
enemy, the construction of a bridge was impracticable; and the
intrepid prince, who instantly seized the only possible
expedient, concealed his design, till the moment of execution,
from the knowledge of the Barbarians, of his own troops, and even
of his generals themselves. Under the specious pretence of
examining the state of the magazines, fourscore vessels 6711 were
gradually unladen; and a select detachment, apparently destined
for some secret expedition, was ordered to stand to their arms on
the first signal. Julian disguised the silent anxiety of his own
mind with smiles of confidence and joy; and amused the hostile
nations with the spectacle of military games, which he
insultingly celebrated under the walls of Coche. The day was
consecrated to pleasure; but, as soon as the hour of supper was
passed, the emperor summoned the generals to his tent, and
acquainted them that he had fixed that night for the passage of
the Tigris. They stood in silent and respectful astonishment;
but, when the venerable Sallust assumed the privilege of his age
and experience, the rest of the chiefs supported with freedom the
weight of his prudent remonstrances. 68 Julian contented himself
with observing, that conquest and safety depended on the attempt;
that instead of diminishing, the number of their enemies would be
increased, by successive reenforcements; and that a longer delay
would neither contract the breadth of the stream, nor level the
height of the bank. The signal was instantly given, and obeyed;
the most impatient of the legionaries leaped into five vessels
that lay nearest to the bank; and as they plied their oars with
intrepid diligence, they were lost, after a few moments, in the
darkness of the night. A flame arose on the opposite side; and
Julian, who too clearly understood that his foremost vessels, in
attempting to land, had been fired by the enemy, dexterously
converted their extreme danger into a presage of victory. “Our
fellow-soldiers,” he eagerly exclaimed, “are already masters of
the bank; see—they make the appointed signal; let us hasten to
emulate and assist their courage.” The united and rapid motion of
a great fleet broke the violence of the current, and they reached
the eastern shore of the Tigris with sufficient speed to
extinguish the flames, and rescue their adventurous companions.
The difficulties of a steep and lofty ascent were increased by
the weight of armor, and the darkness of the night. A shower of
stones, darts, and fire, was incessantly discharged on the heads
of the assailants; who, after an arduous struggle, climbed the
bank and stood victorious upon the rampart. As soon as they
possessed a more equal field, Julian, who, with his light
infantry, had led the attack, 69 darted through the ranks a
skilful and experienced eye: his bravest soldiers, according to
the precepts of Homer, 70 were distributed in the front and rear:
and all the trumpets of the Imperial army sounded to battle. The
Romans, after sending up a military shout, advanced in measured
steps to the animating notes of martial music; launched their
formidable javelins; and rushed forwards with drawn swords, to
deprive the Barbarians, by a closer onset, of the advantage of
their missile weapons. The whole engagement lasted above twelve
hours; till the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into
a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by
the principal leader, and the Surenas himself. They were pursued
to the gates of Ctesiphon; and the conquerors might have entered
the dismayed city, 71 if their general, Victor, who was
dangerously wounded with an arrow, had not conjured them to
desist from a rash attempt, which must be fatal, if it were not
successful. On their side, the Romans acknowledged the loss of
only seventy-five men; while they affirmed, that the Barbarians
had left on the field of battle two thousand five hundred, or
even six thousand, of their bravest soldiers. The spoil was such
as might be expected from the riches and luxury of an Oriental
camp; large quantities of silver and gold, splendid arms and
trappings, and beds and tables of massy silver. 7111 The
victorious emperor distributed, as the rewards of valor, some
honorable gifts, civic, and mural, and naval crowns; which he,
and perhaps he alone, esteemed more precious than the wealth of
Asia. A solemn sacrifice was offered to the god of war, but the
appearances of the victims threatened the most inauspicious
events; and Julian soon discovered, by less ambiguous signs, that
he had now reached the term of his prosperity. 72
67 (return) [ Rien n’est beau que le vrai; a maxim which should
be inscribed on the desk of every rhetorician.]
6711 (return) [ This is a mistake; each vessel (according to
Zosimus two, according to Ammianus five) had eighty men. Amm.
xxiv. 6, with Wagner’s note. Gibbon must have read octogenas for
octogenis. The five vessels selected for this service were
remarkably large and strong provision transports. The strength of
the fleet remained with Julian to carry over the army—M.]
68 (return) [ Libanius alludes to the most powerful of the
generals. I have ventured to name Sallust. Ammianus says, of all
the leaders, quod acri metu territ acrimetu territi duces
concordi precatu precaut fieri prohibere tentarent. * Note: It is
evident that Gibbon has mistaken the sense of Libanius; his words
can only apply to a commander of a detachment, not to so eminent
a person as the Praefect of the East. St. Martin, iii. 313.—-M.]
69 (return) [ Hinc Imperator.... (says Ammianus) ipse cum levis
armaturae auxiliis per prima postremaque discurrens, &c. Yet
Zosimus, his friend, does not allow him to pass the river till
two days after the battle.]
70 (return) [ Secundum Homericam dispositionem. A similar
disposition is ascribed to the wise Nestor, in the fourth book of
the Iliad; and Homer was never absent from the mind of Julian.]
71 (return) [ Persas terrore subito miscuerunt, versisque
agminibus totius gentis, apertas Ctesiphontis portas victor miles
intrasset, ni major praedarum occasio fuisset, quam cura
victoriae, (Sextus Rufus de Provinciis c. 28.) Their avarice
might dispose them to hear the advice of Victor.]
7111 (return) [ The suburbs of Ctesiphon, according to a new
fragment of Eunapius, were so full of provisions, that the
soldiers were in danger of suffering from excess. Mai, p. 260.
Eunapius in Niebuhr. Nov. Byz. Coll. 68. Julian exhibited warlike
dances and games in his camp to recreate the soldiers Ibid.—M.]
72 (return) [ The labor of the canal, the passage of the Tigris,
and the victory, are described by Ammianus, (xxiv. 5, 6,)
Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 124-128, p. 347-353,) Greg.
Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 115,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 181-183,) and
Sextus Rufus, (de Provinciis, c. 28.)]
On the second day after the battle, the domestic guards, the
Jovians and Herculians, and the remaining troops, which composed
near two thirds of the whole army, were securely wafted over the
Tigris. 73 While the Persians beheld from the walls of Ctesiphon
the desolation of the adjacent country, Julian cast many an
anxious look towards the North, in full expectation, that as he
himself had victoriously penetrated to the capital of Sapor, the
march and junction of his lieutenants, Sebastian and Procopius,
would be executed with the same courage and diligence. His
expectations were disappointed by the treachery of the Armenian
king, who permitted, and most probably directed, the desertion of
his auxiliary troops from the camp of the Romans; 74 and by the
dissensions of the two generals, who were incapable of forming or
executing any plan for the public service. When the emperor had
relinquished the hope of this important reenforcement, he
condescended to hold a council of war, and approved, after a full
debate, the sentiment of those generals, who dissuaded the siege
of Ctesiphon, as a fruitless and pernicious undertaking. It is
not easy for us to conceive, by what arts of fortification a city
thrice besieged and taken by the predecessors of Julian could be
rendered impregnable against an army of sixty thousand Romans,
commanded by a brave and experienced general, and abundantly
supplied with ships, provisions, battering engines, and military
stores. But we may rest assured, from the love of glory, and
contempt of danger, which formed the character of Julian, that he
was not discouraged by any trivial or imaginary obstacles. 75 At
the very time when he declined the siege of Ctesiphon, he
rejected, with obstinacy and disdain, the most flattering offers
of a negotiation of peace. Sapor, who had been so long accustomed
to the tardy ostentation of Constantius, was surprised by the
intrepid diligence of his successor. As far as the confines of
India and Scythia, the satraps of the distant provinces were
ordered to assemble their troops, and to march, without delay, to
the assistance of their monarch. But their preparations were
dilatory, their motions slow; and before Sapor could lead an army
into the field, he received the melancholy intelligence of the
devastation of Assyria, the ruin of his palaces, and the
slaughter of his bravest troops, who defended the passage of the
Tigris. The pride of royalty was humbled in the dust; he took his
repasts on the ground; and the disorder of his hair expressed the
grief and anxiety of his mind. Perhaps he would not have refused
to purchase, with one half of his kingdom, the safety of the
remainder; and he would have gladly subscribed himself, in a
treaty of peace, the faithful and dependent ally of the Roman
conqueror. Under the pretence of private business, a minister of
rank and confidence was secretly despatched to embrace the knees
of Hormisdas, and to request, in the language of a suppliant,
that he might be introduced into the presence of the emperor. The
Sassanian prince, whether he listened to the voice of pride or
humanity, whether he consulted the sentiments of his birth, or
the duties of his situation, was equally inclined to promote a
salutary measure, which would terminate the calamities of Persia,
and secure the triumph of Rome. He was astonished by the
inflexible firmness of a hero, who remembered, most unfortunately
for himself and for his country, that Alexander had uniformly
rejected the propositions of Darius. But as Julian was sensible,
that the hope of a safe and honorable peace might cool the ardor
of his troops, he earnestly requested that Hormisdas would
privately dismiss the minister of Sapor, and conceal this
dangerous temptation from the knowledge of the camp. 76
73 (return) [ The fleet and army were formed in three divisions,
of which the first only had passed during the night.]
74 (return) [ Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armen. l. iii. c. 15, p.
246) supplies us with a national tradition, and a spurious
letter. I have borrowed only the leading circumstance, which is
consistent with truth, probability, and Libanius, (Orat. Parent.
c. 131, p. 355.)]
75 (return) [ Civitas inexpugnabilis, facinus audax et
importunum. Ammianus, xxiv. 7. His fellow-soldier, Eutropius,
turns aside from the difficulty, Assyriamque populatus, castra
apud Ctesiphontem stativa aliquandiu habuit: remeansbue victor,
&c. x. 16. Zosimus is artful or ignorant, and Socrates
inaccurate.]
76 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 130, p. 354, c. 139, p.
361. Socrates, l. iii. c. 21. The ecclesiastical historian
imputes the refusal of peace to the advice of Maximus. Such
advice was unworthy of a philosopher; but the philosopher was
likewise a magician, who flattered the hopes and passions of his
master.]
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part IV.
The honor, as well as interest, of Julian, forbade him to consume
his time under the impregnable walls of Ctesiphon and as often as
he defied the Barbarians, who defended the city, to meet him on
the open plain, they prudently replied, that if he desired to
exercise his valor, he might seek the army of the Great King. He
felt the insult, and he accepted the advice. Instead of confining
his servile march to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, he
resolved to imitate the adventurous spirit of Alexander, and
boldly to advance into the inland provinces, till he forced his
rival to contend with him, perhaps in the plains of Arbela, for
the empire of Asia. The magnanimity of Julian was applauded and
betrayed, by the arts of a noble Persian, who, in the cause of
his country, had generously submitted to act a part full of
danger, of falsehood, and of shame. 77 With a train of faithful
followers, he deserted to the Imperial camp; exposed, in a
specious tale, the injuries which he had sustained; exaggerated
the cruelty of Sapor, the discontent of the people, and the
weakness of the monarchy; and confidently offered himself as the
hostage and guide of the Roman march. The most rational grounds
of suspicion were urged, without effect, by the wisdom and
experience of Hormisdas; and the credulous Julian, receiving the
traitor into his bosom, was persuaded to issue a hasty order,
which, in the opinion of mankind, appeared to arraign his
prudence, and to endanger his safety. He destroyed, in a single
hour, the whole navy, which had been transported above five
hundred miles, at so great an expense of toil, of treasure, and
of blood. Twelve, or, at the most, twenty-two small vessels were
saved, to accompany, on carriages, the march of the army, and to
form occasional bridges for the passage of the rivers. A supply
of twenty days’ provisions was reserved for the use of the
soldiers; and the rest of the magazines, with a fleet of eleven
hundred vessels, which rode at anchor in the Tigris, were
abandoned to the flames, by the absolute command of the emperor.
The Christian bishops, Gregory and Augustin, insult the madness
of the Apostate, who executed, with his own hands, the sentence
of divine justice. Their authority, of less weight, perhaps, in a
military question, is confirmed by the cool judgment of an
experienced soldier, who was himself spectator of the
conflagration, and who could not disapprove the reluctant murmurs
of the troops. 78 Yet there are not wanting some specious, and
perhaps solid, reasons, which might justify the resolution of
Julian. The navigation of the Euphrates never ascended above
Babylon, nor that of the Tigris above Opis. 79 The distance of
the last-mentioned city from the Roman camp was not very
considerable: and Julian must soon have renounced the vain and
impracticable attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet against
the stream of a rapid river, 80 which in several places was
embarrassed by natural or artificial cataracts. 81 The power of
sails and oars was insufficient; it became necessary to tow the
ships against the current of the river; the strength of twenty
thousand soldiers was exhausted in this tedious and servile
labor, and if the Romans continued to march along the banks of
the Tigris, they could only expect to return home without
achieving any enterprise worthy of the genius or fortune of their
leader. If, on the contrary, it was advisable to advance into the
inland country, the destruction of the fleet and magazines was
the only measure which could save that valuable prize from the
hands of the numerous and active troops which might suddenly be
poured from the gates of Ctesiphon. Had the arms of Julian been
victorious, we should now admire the conduct, as well as the
courage, of a hero, who, by depriving his soldiers of the hopes
of a retreat, left them only the alternative of death or
conquest. 82
77 (return) [ The arts of this new Zopyrus (Greg. Nazianzen,
Orat. iv. p. 115, 116) may derive some credit from the testimony
of two abbreviators, (Sextus Rufus and Victor,) and the casual
hints of Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 134, p. 357) and Ammianus,
(xxiv. 7.) The course of genuine history is interrupted by a most
unseasonable chasm in the text of Ammianus.]
78 (return) [ See Ammianus, (xxiv. 7,) Libanius, (Orat.
Parentalis, c. 132, 133, p. 356, 357,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 183,)
Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 26) Gregory, (Orat. iv. p. 116,)
and Augustin, (de Civitate Dei, l. iv. c. 29, l. v. c. 21.) Of
these Libanius alone attempts a faint apology for his hero; who,
according to Ammianus, pronounced his own condemnation by a tardy
and ineffectual attempt to extinguish the flames.]
79 (return) [ Consult Herodotus, (l. i. c. 194,) Strabo, (l. xvi.
p. 1074,) and Tavernier, (part i. l. ii. p. 152.)]
80 (return) [ A celeritate Tigris incipit vocari, ita appellant
Medi sagittam. Plin. Hist. Natur. vi. 31.]
81 (return) [ One of these dikes, which produces an artificial
cascade or cataract, is described by Tavernier (part i. l. ii. p.
226) and Thevenot, (part ii. l. i. p. 193.) The Persians, or
Assyrians, labored to interrupt the navigation of the river,
(Strabo, l. xv. p. 1075. D’Anville, l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p.
98, 99.)]
82 (return) [ Recollect the successful and applauded rashness of
Agathocles and Cortez, who burnt their ships on the coast of
Africa and Mexico.]
The cumbersome train of artillery and wagons, which retards the
operations of a modern army, were in a great measure unknown in
the camps of the Romans. 83 Yet, in every age, the subsistence of
sixty thousand men must have been one of the most important cares
of a prudent general; and that subsistence could only be drawn
from his own or from the enemy’s country. Had it been possible
for Julian to maintain a bridge of communication on the Tigris,
and to preserve the conquered places of Assyria, a desolated
province could not afford any large or regular supplies, in a
season of the year when the lands were covered by the inundation
of the Euphrates, 84 and the unwholesome air was darkened with
swarms of innumerable insects. 85 The appearance of the hostile
country was far more inviting. The extensive region that lies
between the River Tigris and the mountains of Media, was filled
with villages and towns; and the fertile soil, for the most part,
was in a very improved state of cultivation. Julian might expect,
that a conqueror, who possessed the two forcible instruments of
persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful
subsistence from the fears or avarice of the natives. But, on the
approach of the Romans, the rich and smiling prospect was
instantly blasted. Wherever they moved, the inhabitants deserted
the open villages, and took shelter in the fortified towns; the
cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe corn were consumed
with fire; and, as soon as the flames had subsided which
interrupted the march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of
a smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method
of defence can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people who
prefer their independence to their property; or by the rigor of
an arbitrary government, which consults the public safety without
submitting to their inclinations the liberty of choice. On the
present occasion the zeal and obedience of the Persians seconded
the commands of Sapor; and the emperor was soon reduced to the
scanty stock of provisions, which continually wasted in his
hands. Before they were entirely consumed, he might still have
reached the wealthy and unwarlike cities of Ecbatana or Susa, by
the effort of a rapid and well-directed march; 86 but he was
deprived of this last resource by his ignorance of the roads, and
by the perfidy of his guides. The Romans wandered several days in
the country to the eastward of Bagdad; the Persian deserter, who
had artfully led them into the snare, escaped from their
resentment; and his followers, as soon as they were put to the
torture, confessed the secret of the conspiracy. The visionary
conquests of Hyrcania and India, which had so long amused, now
tormented, the mind of Julian. Conscious that his own imprudence
was the cause of the public distress, he anxiously balanced the
hopes of safety or success, without obtaining a satisfactory
answer, either from gods or men. At length, as the only
practicable measure, he embraced the resolution of directing his
steps towards the banks of the Tigris, with the design of saving
the army by a hasty march to the confines of Corduene; a fertile
and friendly province, which acknowledged the sovereignty of
Rome. The desponding troops obeyed the signal of the retreat,
only seventy days after they had passed the Chaboras, with the
sanguine expectation of subverting the throne of Persia. 87
83 (return) [ See the judicious reflections of the author of the
Essai sur la Tactique, tom. ii. p. 287-353, and the learned
remarks of M. Guichardt Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, tom. i. p.
351-382, on the baggage and subsistence of the Roman armies.]
84 (return) [ The Tigris rises to the south, the Euphrates to the
north, of the Armenian mountains. The former overflows in March,
the latter in July. These circumstances are well explained in the
Geographical Dissertation of Foster, inserted in Spelman’s
Expedition of Cyras, vol. ii. p. 26.]
85 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiv. 8) describes, as he had felt, the
inconveniency of the flood, the heat, and the insects. The lands
of Assyria, oppressed by the Turks, and ravaged by the Curds or
Arabs, yield an increase of ten, fifteen, and twenty fold, for
the seed which is cast into the ground by the wretched and
unskillful husbandmen. Voyage de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 279, 285.]
86 (return) [ Isidore of Charax (Mansion. Parthic. p. 5, 6, in
Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. ii.) reckons 129 schaeni from
Seleucia, and Thevenot, (part i. l. i. ii. p. 209-245,) 128 hours
of march from Bagdad to Ecbatana, or Hamadan. These measures
cannot exceed an ordinary parasang, or three Roman miles.]
87 (return) [ The march of Julian from Ctesiphon is
circumstantially, but not clearly, described by Ammianus, (xxiv.
7, 8,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 134, p. 357,) and Zosimus, (l.
iii. p. 183.) The two last seem ignorant that their conqueror was
retreating; and Libanius absurdly confines him to the banks of
the Tigris.]
As long as the Romans seemed to advance into the country, their
march was observed and insulted from a distance, by several
bodies of Persian cavalry; who, showing themselves sometimes in
loose, and sometimes in close order, faintly skirmished with the
advanced guards. These detachments were, however, supported by a
much greater force; and the heads of the columns were no sooner
pointed towards the Tigris than a cloud of dust arose on the
plain. The Romans, who now aspired only to the permission of a
safe and speedy retreat, endeavored to persuade themselves, that
this formidable appearance was occasioned by a troop of wild
asses, or perhaps by the approach of some friendly Arabs. They
halted, pitched their tents, fortified their camp, passed the
whole night in continual alarms; and discovered at the dawn of
day, that they were surrounded by an army of Persians. This army,
which might be considered only as the van of the Barbarians, was
soon followed by the main body of cuirassiers, archers, and
elephants, commanded by Meranes, a general of rank and
reputation. He was accompanied by two of the king’s sons, and
many of the principal satraps; and fame and expectation
exaggerated the strength of the remaining powers, which slowly
advanced under the conduct of Sapor himself. As the Romans
continued their march, their long array, which was forced to bend
or divide, according to the varieties of the ground, afforded
frequent and favorable opportunities to their vigilant enemies.
The Persians repeatedly charged with fury; they were repeatedly
repulsed with firmness; and the action at Maronga, which almost
deserved the name of a battle, was marked by a considerable loss
of satraps and elephants, perhaps of equal value in the eyes of
their monarch. These splendid advantages were not obtained
without an adequate slaughter on the side of the Romans: several
officers of distinction were either killed or wounded; and the
emperor himself, who, on all occasions of danger, inspired and
guided the valor of his troops, was obliged to expose his person,
and exert his abilities. The weight of offensive and defensive
arms, which still constituted the strength and safety of the
Romans, disabled them from making any long or effectual pursuit;
and as the horsemen of the East were trained to dart their
javelins, and shoot their arrows, at full speed, and in every
possible direction, 88 the cavalry of Persia was never more
formidable than in the moment of a rapid and disorderly flight.
But the most certain and irreparable loss of the Romans was that
of time. The hardy veterans, accustomed to the cold climate of
Gaul and Germany, fainted under the sultry heat of an Assyrian
summer; their vigor was exhausted by the incessant repetition of
march and combat; and the progress of the army was suspended by
the precautions of a slow and dangerous retreat, in the presence
of an active enemy. Every day, every hour, as the supply
diminished, the value and price of subsistence increased in the
Roman camp. 89 Julian, who always contented himself with such
food as a hungry soldier would have disdained, distributed, for
the use of the troops, the provisions of the Imperial household,
and whatever could be spared, from the sumpter-horses, of the
tribunes and generals. But this feeble relief served only to
aggravate the sense of the public distress; and the Romans began
to entertain the most gloomy apprehensions that, before they
could reach the frontiers of the empire, they should all perish,
either by famine, or by the sword of the Barbarians. 90
88 (return) [ Chardin, the most judicious of modern travellers,
describes (tom. ii. p. 57, 58, &c., edit. in 4to.) the education
and dexterity of the Persian horsemen. Brissonius (de Regno
Persico, p. 650 651, &c.,) has collected the testimonies of
antiquity.]
89 (return) [ In Mark Antony’s retreat, an attic choenix sold for
fifty drachmae, or, in other words, a pound of flour for twelve
or fourteen shillings barley bread was sold for its weight in
silver. It is impossible to peruse the interesting narrative of
Plutarch, (tom. v. p. 102-116,) without perceiving that Mark
Antony and Julian were pursued by the same enemies, and involved
in the same distress.]
90 (return) [ Ammian. xxiv. 8, xxv. 1. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 184,
185, 186. Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 134, 135, p. 357, 358, 359.
The sophist of Antioch appears ignorant that the troops were
hungry.]
While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable difficulties
of his situation, the silent hours of the night were still
devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he closed his eyes
in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind was agitated with
painful anxiety; nor can it be thought surprising, that the
Genius of the empire should once more appear before him, covering
with a funeral veil his head, and his horn of abundance, and
slowly retiring from the Imperial tent. The monarch started from
his couch, and stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with
the coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, which
shot athwart the sky, and suddenly vanished. Julian was convinced
that he had seen the menacing countenance of the god of war; 91
the council which he summoned, of Tuscan Haruspices, 92
unanimously pronounced that he should abstain from action; but on
this occasion, necessity and reason were more prevalent than
superstition; and the trumpets sounded at the break of day. The
army marched through a hilly country; and the hills had been
secretly occupied by the Persians. Julian led the van with the
skill and attention of a consummate general; he was alarmed by
the intelligence that his rear was suddenly attacked. The heat of
the weather had tempted him to lay aside his cuirass; but he
snatched a shield from one of his attendants, and hastened, with
a sufficient reenforcement, to the relief of the rear-guard. A
similar danger recalled the intrepid prince to the defence of the
front; and, as he galloped through the columns, the centre of the
left was attacked, and almost overpowered by the furious charge
of the Persian cavalry and elephants. This huge body was soon
defeated, by the well-timed evolution of the light infantry, who
aimed their weapons, with dexterity and effect, against the backs
of the horsemen, and the legs of the elephants. The Barbarians
fled; and Julian, who was foremost in every danger, animated the
pursuit with his voice and gestures. His trembling guards,
scattered and oppressed by the disorderly throng of friends and
enemies, reminded their fearless sovereign that he was without
armor; and conjured him to decline the fall of the impending
ruin. As they exclaimed, 93 a cloud of darts and arrows was
discharged from the flying squadrons; and a javelin, after razing
the skin of his arm, transpierced the ribs, and fixed in the
inferior part of the liver. Julian attempted to draw the deadly
weapon from his side; but his fingers were cut by the sharpness
of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse. His guards
flew to his relief; and the wounded emperor was gently raised
from the ground, and conveyed out of the tumult of the battle
into an adjacent tent. The report of the melancholy event passed
from rank to rank; but the grief of the Romans inspired them with
invincible valor, and the desire of revenge. The bloody and
obstinate conflict was maintained by the two armies, till they
were separated by the total darkness of the night. The Persians
derived some honor from the advantage which they obtained against
the left wing, where Anatolius, master of the offices, was slain,
and the praefect Sallust very narrowly escaped. But the event of
the day was adverse to the Barbarians. They abandoned the field;
their two generals, Meranes and Nohordates, 94 fifty nobles or
satraps, and a multitude of their bravest soldiers; and the
success of the Romans, if Julian had survived, might have been
improved into a decisive and useful victory.
91 (return) [ Ammian. xxv. 2. Julian had sworn in a passion,
nunquam se Marti sacra facturum, (xxiv. 6.) Such whimsical
quarrels were not uncommon between the gods and their insolent
votaries; and even the prudent Augustus, after his fleet had been
twice shipwrecked, excluded Neptune from the honors of public
processions. See Hume’s Philosophical Reflections. Essays, vol.
ii. p. 418.]
92 (return) [ They still retained the monopoly of the vain but
lucrative science, which had been invented in Hetruria; and
professed to derive their knowledge of signs and omens from the
ancient books of Tarquitius, a Tuscan sage.]
93 (return) [ Clambant hinc inde candidati (see the note of
Valesius) quos terror, ut fugientium molem tanquam ruinam male
compositi culminis declinaret. Ammian. xxv 3.]
94 (return) [ Sapor himself declared to the Romans, that it was
his practice to comfort the families of his deceased satraps, by
sending them, as a present, the heads of the guards and officers
who had not fallen by their master’s side. Libanius, de nece
Julian. ulcis. c. xiii. p. 163.]
The first words that Julian uttered, after his recovery from the
fainting fit into which he had been thrown by loss of blood, were
expressive of his martial spirit. He called for his horse and
arms, and was impatient to rush into the battle. His remaining
strength was exhausted by the painful effort; and the surgeons,
who examined his wound, discovered the symptoms of approaching
death. He employed the awful moments with the firm temper of a
hero and a sage; the philosophers who had accompanied him in this
fatal expedition, compared the tent of Julian with the prison of
Socrates; and the spectators, whom duty, or friendship, or
curiosity, had assembled round his couch, listened with
respectful grief to the funeral oration of their dying emperor.
95 “Friends and fellow-soldiers, the seasonable period of my
departure is now arrived, and I discharge, with the cheerfulness
of a ready debtor, the demands of nature. I have learned from
philosophy, how much the soul is more excellent than the body;
and that the separation of the nobler substance should be the
subject of joy, rather than of affliction. I have learned from
religion, that an early death has often been the reward of piety;
96 and I accept, as a favor of the gods, the mortal stroke that
secures me from the danger of disgracing a character, which has
hitherto been supported by virtue and fortitude. I die without
remorse, as I have lived without guilt. I am pleased to reflect
on the innocence of my private life; and I can affirm with
confidence, that the supreme authority, that emanation of the
Divine Power, has been preserved in my hands pure and immaculate.
Detesting the corrupt and destructive maxims of despotism, I have
considered the happiness of the people as the end of government.
Submitting my actions to the laws of prudence, of justice, and of
moderation, I have trusted the event to the care of Providence.
Peace was the object of my counsels, as long as peace was
consistent with the public welfare; but when the imperious voice
of my country summoned me to arms, I exposed my person to the
dangers of war, with the clear foreknowledge (which I had
acquired from the art of divination) that I was destined to fall
by the sword. I now offer my tribute of gratitude to the Eternal
Being, who has not suffered me to perish by the cruelty of a
tyrant, by the secret dagger of conspiracy, or by the slow
tortures of lingering disease. He has given me, in the midst of
an honorable career, a splendid and glorious departure from this
world; and I hold it equally absurd, equally base, to solicit, or
to decline, the stroke of fate. This much I have attempted to
say; but my strength fails me, and I feel the approach of death.
I shall cautiously refrain from any word that may tend to
influence your suffrages in the election of an emperor. My choice
might be imprudent or injudicious; and if it should not be
ratified by the consent of the army, it might be fatal to the
person whom I should recommend. I shall only, as a good citizen,
express my hopes, that the Romans may be blessed with the
government of a virtuous sovereign.” After this discourse, which
Julian pronounced in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he
distributed, by a military testament, 97 the remains of his
private fortune; and making some inquiry why Anatolius was not
present, he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that
Anatolius was killed; and bewailed, with amiable inconsistency,
the loss of his friend. At the same time he reproved the
immoderate grief of the spectators; and conjured them not to
disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince, who in a few
moments would be united with heaven, and with the stars. 98 The
spectators were silent; and Julian entered into a metaphysical
argument with the philosophers Priscus and Maximus, on the nature
of the soul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well as body,
most probably hastened his death. His wound began to bleed with
fresh violence; his respiration was embarrassed by the swelling
of the veins; he called for a draught of cold water, and, as soon
as he had drank it, expired without pain, about the hour of
midnight. Such was the end of that extraordinary man, in the
thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of one year and
about eight months, from the death of Constantius. In his last
moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, the love of
virtue and of fame, which had been the ruling passions of his
life. 99
95 (return) [ The character and situation of Julian might
countenance the suspicion that he had previously composed the
elaborate oration, which Ammianus heard, and has transcribed. The
version of the Abbe de la Bleterie is faithful and elegant. I
have followed him in expressing the Platonic idea of emanations,
which is darkly insinuated in the original.]
96 (return) [ Herodotus (l. i. c. 31,) has displayed that
doctrine in an agreeable tale. Yet the Jupiter, (in the 16th book
of the Iliad,) who laments with tears of blood the death of
Sarpedon his son, had a very imperfect notion of happiness or
glory beyond the grave.]
97 (return) [ The soldiers who made their verbal or nuncupatory
testaments, upon actual service, (in procinctu,) were exempted
from the formalities of the Roman law. See Heineccius, (Antiquit.
Jur. Roman. tom. i. p. 504,) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix,
l. xxvii.)]
98 (return) [ This union of the human soul with the divine
aethereal substance of the universe, is the ancient doctrine of
Pythagoras and Plato: but it seems to exclude any personal or
conscious immortality. See Warburton’s learned and rational
observations. Divine Legation, vol ii. p. 199-216.]
99 (return) [ The whole relation of the death of Julian is given
by Ammianus, (xxv. 3,) an intelligent spectator. Libanius, who
turns with horror from the scene, has supplied some
circumstances, (Orat. Parental. c 136-140, p. 359-362.) The
calumnies of Gregory, and the legends of more recent saints, may
now be silently despised. * Note: A very remarkable fragment of
Eunapius describes, not without spirit, the struggle between the
terror of the army on account of their perilous situation, and
their grief for the death of Julian. “Even the vulgar felt that
they would soon provide a general, but such a general as Julian
they would never find, even though a god in the form of
man—Julian, who, with a mind equal to the divinity, triumphed
over the evil propensities of human nature,—* * who held commerce
with immaterial beings while yet in the material body—who
condescended to rule because a ruler was necessary to the welfare
of mankind.” Mai, Nov. Coll. ii. 261. Eunapius in Niebuhr, 69.]
The triumph of Christianity, and the calamities of the empire,
may, in some measure, be ascribed to Julian himself, who had
neglected to secure the future execution of his designs, by the
timely and judicious nomination of an associate and successor.
But the royal race of Constantius Chlorus was reduced to his own
person; and if he entertained any serious thoughts of investing
with the purple the most worthy among the Romans, he was diverted
from his resolution by the difficulty of the choice, the jealousy
of power, the fear of ingratitude, and the natural presumption of
health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unexpected death left
the empire without a master, and without an heir, in a state of
perplexity and danger, which, in the space of fourscore years,
had never been experienced, since the election of Diocletian. In
a government which had almost forgotten the distinction of pure
and noble blood, the superiority of birth was of little moment;
the claims of official rank were accidental and precarious; and
the candidates, who might aspire to ascend the vacant throne
could be supported only by the consciousness of personal merit,
or by the hopes of popular favor. But the situation of a famished
army, encompassed on all sides by a host of Barbarians, shortened
the moments of grief and deliberation. In this scene of terror
and distress, the body of the deceased prince, according to his
own directions, was decently embalmed; and, at the dawn of day,
the generals convened a military senate, at which the commanders
of the legions, and the officers both of cavalry and infantry,
were invited to assist. Three or four hours of the night had not
passed away without some secret cabals; and when the election of
an emperor was proposed, the spirit of faction began to agitate
the assembly. Victor and Arinthaeus collected the remains of the
court of Constantius; the friends of Julian attached themselves
to the Gallic chiefs, Dagalaiphus and Nevitta; and the most fatal
consequences might be apprehended from the discord of two
factions, so opposite in their character and interest, in their
maxims of government, and perhaps in their religious principles.
The superior virtues of Sallust could alone reconcile their
divisions, and unite their suffrages; and the venerable praefect
would immediately have been declared the successor of Julian, if
he himself, with sincere and modest firmness, had not alleged his
age and infirmities, so unequal to the weight of the diadem. The
generals, who were surprised and perplexed by his refusal, showed
some disposition to adopt the salutary advice of an inferior
officer, 100 that they should act as they would have acted in the
absence of the emperor; that they should exert their abilities to
extricate the army from the present distress; and, if they were
fortunate enough to reach the confines of Mesopotamia, they
should proceed with united and deliberate counsels in the
election of a lawful sovereign. While they debated, a few voices
saluted Jovian, who was no more than first 101 of the domestics,
with the names of Emperor and Augustus. The tumultuary
acclamation 10111 was instantly repeated by the guards who
surrounded the tent, and passed, in a few minutes, to the
extremities of the line. The new prince, astonished with his own
fortune was hastily invested with the Imperial ornaments, and
received an oath of fidelity from the generals, whose favor and
protection he so lately solicited. The strongest recommendation
of Jovian was the merit of his father, Count Varronian, who
enjoyed, in honorable retirement, the fruit of his long services.
In the obscure freedom of a private station, the son indulged his
taste for wine and women; yet he supported, with credit, the
character of a Christian 102 and a soldier. Without being
conspicuous for any of the ambitious qualifications which excite
the admiration and envy of mankind, the comely person of Jovian,
his cheerful temper, and familiar wit, had gained the affection
of his fellow-soldiers; and the generals of both parties
acquiesced in a popular election, which had not been conducted by
the arts of their enemies. The pride of this unexpected elevation
was moderated by the just apprehension, that the same day might
terminate the life and reign of the new emperor. The pressing
voice of necessity was obeyed without delay; and the first orders
issued by Jovian, a few hours after his predecessor had expired,
were to prosecute a march, which could alone extricate the Romans
from their actual distress. 103
100 (return) [ Honoratior aliquis miles; perhaps Ammianus
himself. The modest and judicious historian describes the scene
of the election, at which he was undoubtedly present, (xxv. 5.)]
101 (return) [ The primus or primicerius enjoyed the dignity of a
senator, and though only a tribune, he ranked with the military
dukes. Cod. Theodosian. l. vi. tit. xxiv. These privileges are
perhaps more recent than the time of Jovian.]
10111 (return) [ The soldiers supposed that the acclamations
proclaimed the name of Julian, restored, as they fondly thought,
to health, not that of Jovian. loc.—M.]
102 (return) [ The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates, (l. iii.
c. 22,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 3,) and Theodoret, (l. iv. c. 1,)
ascribe to Jovian the merit of a confessor under the preceding
reign; and piously suppose that he refused the purple, till the
whole army unanimously exclaimed that they were Christians.
Ammianus, calmly pursuing his narrative, overthrows the legend by
a single sentence. Hostiis pro Joviano extisque inspectis,
pronuntiatum est, &c., xxv. 6.]
103 (return) [ Ammianus (xxv. 10) has drawn from the life an
impartial portrait of Jovian; to which the younger Victor has
added some remarkable strokes. The Abbe de la Bleterie (Histoire
de Jovien, tom. i. p. 1-238) has composed an elaborate history of
his short reign; a work remarkably distinguished by elegance of
style, critical disquisition, and religious prejudice.]
Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part V.
The esteem of an enemy is most sincerely expressed by his fears;
and the degree of fear may be accurately measured by the joy with
which he celebrates his deliverance. The welcome news of the
death of Julian, which a deserter revealed to the camp of Sapor,
inspired the desponding monarch with a sudden confidence of
victory. He immediately detached the royal cavalry, perhaps the
ten thousand Immortals, 104 to second and support the pursuit;
and discharged the whole weight of his united forces on the
rear-guard of the Romans. The rear-guard was thrown into
disorder; the renowned legions, which derived their titles from
Diocletian, and his warlike colleague, were broke and trampled
down by the elephants; and three tribunes lost their lives in
attempting to stop the flight of their soldiers. The battle was
at length restored by the persevering valor of the Romans; the
Persians were repulsed with a great slaughter of men and
elephants; and the army, after marching and fighting a long
summer’s day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara, on the banks of
the Tigris, about one hundred miles above Ctesiphon. 105 On the
ensuing day, the Barbarians, instead of harassing the march,
attacked the camp, of Jovian; which had been seated in a deep and
sequestered valley. From the hills, the archers of Persia
insulted and annoyed the wearied legionaries; and a body of
cavalry, which had penetrated with desperate courage through the
Praetorian gate, was cut in pieces, after a doubtful conflict,
near the Imperial tent. In the succeeding night, the camp of
Carche was protected by the lofty dikes of the river; and the
Roman army, though incessantly exposed to the vexatious pursuit
of the Saracens, pitched their tents near the city of Dura, 106
four days after the death of Julian. The Tigris was still on
their left; their hopes and provisions were almost consumed; and
the impatient soldiers, who had fondly persuaded themselves that
the frontiers of the empire were not far distant, requested their
new sovereign, that they might be permitted to hazard the passage
of the river. With the assistance of his wisest officers, Jovian
endeavored to check their rashness; by representing, that if they
possessed sufficient skill and vigor to stem the torrent of a
deep and rapid stream, they would only deliver themselves naked
and defenceless to the Barbarians, who had occupied the opposite
banks, Yielding at length to their clamorous importunities, he
consented, with reluctance, that five hundred Gauls and Germans,
accustomed from their infancy to the waters of the Rhine and
Danube, should attempt the bold adventure, which might serve
either as an encouragement, or as a warning, for the rest of the
army. In the silence of the night, they swam the Tigris,
surprised an unguarded post of the enemy, and displayed at the
dawn of day the signal of their resolution and fortune. The
success of this trial disposed the emperor to listen to the
promises of his architects, who propose to construct a floating
bridge of the inflated skins of sheep, oxen, and goats, covered
with a floor of earth and fascines. 107 Two important days were
spent in the ineffectual labor; and the Romans, who already
endured the miseries of famine, cast a look of despair on the
Tigris, and upon the Barbarians; whose numbers and obstinacy
increased with the distress of the Imperial army. 108
104 (return) [ Regius equitatus. It appears, from Irocopius, that
the Immortals, so famous under Cyrus and his successors, were
revived, if we may use that improper word, by the Sassanides.
Brisson de Regno Persico, p. 268, &c.]
105 (return) [ The obscure villages of the inland country are
irrecoverably lost; nor can we name the field of battle where
Julian fell: but M. D’Anville has demonstrated the precise
situation of Sumere, Carche, and Dura, along the banks of the
Tigris, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 248 L’Euphrate et le
Tigre, p. 95, 97.) In the ninth century, Sumere, or Samara,
became, with a slight change of name, the royal residence of the
khalifs of the house of Abbas. * Note: Sormanray, called by the
Arabs Samira, where D’Anville placed Samara, is too much to the
south; and is a modern town built by Caliph Morasen.
Serra-man-rai means, in Arabic, it rejoices every one who sees
it. St. Martin, iii. 133.—M.]
106 (return) [ Dura was a fortified place in the wars of
Antiochus against the rebels of Media and Persia, (Polybius, l.
v. c. 48, 52, p. 548, 552 edit. Casaubon, in 8vo.)]
107 (return) [ A similar expedient was proposed to the leaders of
the ten thousand, and wisely rejected. Xenophon, Anabasis, l.
iii. p. 255, 256, 257. It appears, from our modern travellers,
that rafts floating on bladders perform the trade and navigation
of the Tigris.]
108 (return) [ The first military acts of the reign of Jovian are
related by Ammianus, (xxv. 6,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 146,
p. 364,) and Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 189, 190, 191.) Though we may
distrust the fairness of Libanius, the ocular testimony of
Eutropius (uno a Persis atque altero proelio victus, x. 17) must
incline us to suspect that Ammianus had been too jealous of the
honor of the Roman arms.]
In this hopeless condition, the fainting spirits of the Romans
were revived by the sound of peace. The transient presumption of
Sapor had vanished: he observed, with serious concern, that, in
the repetition of doubtful combats, he had lost his most faithful
and intrepid nobles, his bravest troops, and the greatest part of
his train of elephants: and the experienced monarch feared to
provoke the resistance of despair, the vicissitudes of fortune,
and the unexhausted powers of the Roman empire; which might soon
advance to elieve, or to revenge, the successor of Julian. The
Surenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, appeared in the
camp of Jovian; 109 and declared, that the clemency of his
sovereign was not averse to signify the conditions on which he
would consent to spare and to dismiss the Caesar with the relics
of his captive army. 10911 The hopes of safety subdued the
firmness of the Romans; the emperor was compelled, by the advice
of his council, and the cries of his soldiers, to embrace the
offer of peace; 10912 and the praefect Sallust was immediately
sent, with the general Arinthaeus, to understand the pleasure of
the Great King. The crafty Persian delayed, under various
pretenses, the conclusion of the agreement; started difficulties,
required explanations, suggested expedients, receded from his
concessions, increased his demands, and wasted four days in the
arts of negotiation, till he had consumed the stock of provisions
which yet remained in the camp of the Romans. Had Jovian been
capable of executing a bold and prudent measure, he would have
continued his march, with unremitting diligence; the progress of
the treaty would have suspended the attacks of the Barbarians;
and, before the expiration of the fourth day, he might have
safely reached the fruitful province of Corduene, at the distance
only of one hundred miles. 110 The irresolute emperor, instead of
breaking through the toils of the enemy, expected his fate with
patient resignation; and accepted the humiliating conditions of
peace, which it was no longer in his power to refuse. The five
provinces beyond the Tigris, which had been ceded by the
grandfather of Sapor, were restored to the Persian monarchy. He
acquired, by a single article, the impregnable city of Nisibis;
which had sustained, in three successive sieges, the effort of
his arms. Singara, and the castle of the Moors, one of the
strongest places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismembered from
the empire. It was considered as an indulgence, that the
inhabitants of those fortresses were permitted to retire with
their effects; but the conqueror rigorously insisted, that the
Romans should forever abandon the king and kingdom of Armenia.
11011 A peace, or rather a long truce, of thirty years, was
stipulated between the hostile nations; the faith of the treaty
was ratified by solemn oaths and religious ceremonies; and
hostages of distinguished rank were reciprocally delivered to
secure the performance of the conditions. 111
109 (return) [ Sextus Rufus (de Provinciis, c. 29) embraces a
poor subterfuge of national vanity. Tanta reverentia nominis
Romani fuit, ut a Persis primus de pace sermo haberetur. —-He is
called Junius by John Malala; the same, M. St. Martin
conjectures, with a satrap of Gordyene named Jovianus, or
Jovinianus; mentioned in Ammianus Marcellinus, xviii. 6.—M.]
10911 (return) [ The Persian historians couch the message of
Shah-pour in these Oriental terms: “I have reassembled my
numerous army. I am resolved to revenge my subjects, who have
been plundered, made captives, and slain. It is for this that I
have bared my arm, and girded my loins. If you consent to pay the
price of the blood which has been shed, to deliver up the booty
which has been plundered, and to restore the city of Nisibis,
which is in Irak, and belongs to our empire, though now in your
possession, I will sheathe the sword of war; but should you
refuse these terms, the hoofs of my horse, which are hard as
steel, shall efface the name of the Romans from the earth; and my
glorious cimeter, that destroys like fire, shall exterminate the
people of your empire.” These authorities do not mention the
death of Julian. Malcolm’s Persia, i. 87.—M.]
10912 (return) [ The Paschal chronicle, not, as M. St. Martin
says, supported by John Malala, places the mission of this
ambassador before the death of Julian. The king of Persia was
then in Persarmenia, ignorant of the death of Julian; he only
arrived at the army subsequent to that event. St. Martin adopts
this view, and finds or extorts support for it, from Libanius and
Ammianus, iii. 158.—M.]
110 (return) [ It is presumptuous to controvert the opinion of
Ammianus, a soldier and a spectator. Yet it is difficult to
understand how the mountains of Corduene could extend over the
plains of Assyria, as low as the conflux of the Tigris and the
great Zab; or how an army of sixty thousand men could march one
hundred miles in four days. Note: * Yet this appears to be the
case (in modern maps: ) the march is the difficulty.—M.]
11011 (return) [ Sapor availed himself, a few years after, of the
dissolution of the alliance between the Romans and the Armenians.
See St. M. iii. 163.—M.]
111 (return) [ The treaty of Dura is recorded with grief or
indignation by Ammianus, (xxv. 7,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c.
142, p. 364,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 190, 191,) Gregory Nazianzen,
(Orat. iv. p. 117, 118, who imputes the distress to Julian, the
deliverance to Jovian,) and Eutropius, (x. 17.) The
last-mentioned writer, who was present in military station,
styles this peace necessarium quidem sed ignoblem.]
The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation the sceptre of
his hero in the feeble hand of a Christian successor, professes
to admire the moderation of Sapor, in contenting himself with so
small a portion of the Roman empire. If he had stretched as far
as the Euphrates the claims of his ambition, he might have been
secure, says Libanius, of not meeting with a refusal. If he had
fixed, as the boundary of Persia, the Orontes, the Cydnus, the
Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus, flatterers would not
have been wanting in the court of Jovian to convince the timid
monarch, that his remaining provinces would still afford the most
ample gratifications of power and luxury. 112 Without adopting in
its full force this malicious insinuation, we must acknowledge,
that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty was facilitated by
the private ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic, exalted to
the throne by fortune, rather than by merit, was impatient to
escape from the hands of the Persians, that he might prevent the
designs of Procopius, who commanded the army of Mesopotamia, and
establish his doubtful reign over the legions and provinces which
were still ignorant of the hasty and tumultuous choice of the
camp beyond the Tigris. 113 In the neighborhood of the same
river, at no very considerable distance from the fatal station of
Dura, 114 the ten thousand Greeks, without generals, or guides,
or provisions, were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles from
their native country, to the resentment of a victorious monarch.
The difference of their conduct and success depended much more on
their character than on their situation. Instead of tamely
resigning themselves to the secret deliberations and private
views of a single person, the united councils of the Greeks were
inspired by the generous enthusiasm of a popular assembly; where
the mind of each citizen is filled with the love of glory, the
pride of freedom, and the contempt of death. Conscious of their
superiority over the Barbarians in arms and discipline, they
disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate: every obstacle
was surmounted by their patience, courage, and military skill;
and the memorable retreat of the ten thousand exposed and
insulted the weakness of the Persian monarchy. 115
112 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 143, p. 364, 365.]
113 (return) [ Conditionibus..... dispendiosis Romanae
reipublicae impositis.... quibus cupidior regni quam gloriae
Jovianus, imperio rudis, adquievit. Sextus Rufus de Provinciis,
c. 29. La Bleterie has expressed, in a long, direct oration,
these specious considerations of public and private interest,
(Hist. de Jovien, tom. i. p. 39, &c.)]
114 (return) [ The generals were murdered on the bauks of the
Zabatus, (Ana basis, l. ii. p. 156, l. iii. p. 226,) or great
Zab, a river of Assyria, 400 feet broad, which falls into the
Tigris fourteen hours below Mosul. The error of the Greeks
bestowed on the greater and lesser Zab the names of the Walf,
(Lycus,) and the Goat, (Capros.) They created these animals to
attend the Tiger of the East.]
115 (return) [ The Cyropoedia is vague and languid; the Anabasis
circumstance and animated. Such is the eternal difference between
fiction and truth.]
As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor might
perhaps have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans
should be plentifully supplied; 116 and that they should be
permitted to pass the Tigris on the bridge which was constructed
by the hands of the Persians. But, if Jovian presumed to solicit
those equitable terms, they were sternly refused by the haughty
tyrant of the East, whose clemency had pardoned the invaders of
his country. The Saracens sometimes intercepted the stragglers of
the march; but the generals and troops of Sapor respected the
cessation of arms; and Jovian was suffered to explore the most
convenient place for the passage of the river. The small vessels,
which had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet,
performed the most essential service. They first conveyed the
emperor and his favorites; and afterwards transported, in many
successive voyages, a great part of the army. But, as every man
was anxious for his personal safety, and apprehensive of being
left on the hostile shore, the soldiers, who were too impatient
to wait the slow returns of the boats, boldly ventured themselves
on light hurdles, or inflated skins; and, drawing after them
their horses, attempted, with various success, to swim across the
river. Many of these daring adventurers were swallowed by the
waves; many others, who were carried along by the violence of the
stream, fell an easy prey to the avarice or cruelty of the wild
Arabs: and the loss which the army sustained in the passage of
the Tigris, was not inferior to the carnage of a day of battle.
As soon as the Romans were landed on the western bank, they were
delivered from the hostile pursuit of the Barbarians; but, in a
laborious march of two hundred miles over the plains of
Mesopotamia, they endured the last extremities of thirst and
hunger. They were obliged to traverse the sandy desert, which, in
the extent of seventy miles, did not afford a single blade of
sweet grass, nor a single spring of fresh water; and the rest of
the inhospitable waste was untrod by the footsteps either of
friends or enemies. Whenever a small measure of flour could be
discovered in the camp, twenty pounds weight were greedily
purchased with ten pieces of gold: 117 the beasts of burden were
slaughtered and devoured; and the desert was strewed with the
arms and baggage of the Roman soldiers, whose tattered garments
and meagre countenances displayed their past sufferings and
actual misery. A small convoy of provisions advanced to meet the
army as far as the castle of Ur; and the supply was the more
grateful, since it declared the fidelity of Sebastian and
Procopius. At Thilsaphata, 118 the emperor most graciously
received the generals of Mesopotamia; and the remains of a once
flourishing army at length reposed themselves under the walls of
Nisibis. The messengers of Jovian had already proclaimed, in the
language of flattery, his election, his treaty, and his return;
and the new prince had taken the most effectual measures to
secure the allegiance of the armies and provinces of Europe, by
placing the military command in the hands of those officers, who,
from motives of interest, or inclination, would firmly support
the cause of their benefactor. 119
116 (return) [ According to Rufinus, an immediate supply of
provisions was stipulated by the treaty, and Theodoret affirms,
that the obligation was faithfully discharged by the Persians.
Such a fact is probable but undoubtedly false. See Tillemont,
Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 702.]
117 (return) [ We may recollect some lines of Lucan, (Pharsal.
iv. 95,) who describes a similar distress of Caesar’s army in
Spain:— ——Saeva fames aderat—Miles eget: toto censu non prodigus
emit Exiguam Cererem. Proh lucri pallida tabes! Non deest prolato
jejunus venditor auro. See Guichardt (Nouveaux Memoires
Militaires, tom. i. p. 370-382.) His analysis of the two
campaigns in Spain and Africa is the noblest monument that has
ever been raised to the fame of Caesar.]
118 (return) [ M. d’Anville (see his Maps, and l’Euphrate et le
Tigre, p. 92, 93) traces their march, and assigns the true
position of Hatra, Ur, and Thilsaphata, which Ammianus has
mentioned. ——He does not complain of the Samiel, the deadly hot
wind, which Thevenot (Voyages, part ii. l. i. p. 192) so much
dreaded. ——Hatra, now Kadhr. Ur, Kasr or Skervidgi. Thilsaphata
is unknown—M.]
119 (return) [ The retreat of Jovian is described by Ammianus,
(xxv. 9,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 143, p. 365,) and Zosimus,
(l. iii. p. 194.)]
The friends of Julian had confidently announced the success of
his expedition. They entertained a fond persuasion that the
temples of the gods would be enriched with the spoils of the
East; that Persia would be reduced to the humble state of a
tributary province, governed by the laws and magistrates of Rome;
that the Barbarians would adopt the dress, and manners, and
language of their conquerors; and that the youth of Ecbatana and
Susa would study the art of rhetoric under Grecian masters. 120
The progress of the arms of Julian interrupted his communication
with the empire; and, from the moment that he passed the Tigris,
his affectionate subjects were ignorant of the fate and fortunes
of their prince. Their contemplation of fancied triumphs was
disturbed by the melancholy rumor of his death; and they
persisted to doubt, after they could no longer deny, the truth of
that fatal event. 121 The messengers of Jovian promulgated the
specious tale of a prudent and necessary peace; the voice of
fame, louder and more sincere, revealed the disgrace of the
emperor, and the conditions of the ignominious treaty. The minds
of the people were filled with astonishment and grief, with
indignation and terror, when they were informed, that the
unworthy successor of Julian relinquished the five provinces
which had been acquired by the victory of Galerius; and that he
shamefully surrendered to the Barbarians the important city of
Nisibis, the firmest bulwark of the provinces of the East. 122
The deep and dangerous question, how far the public faith should
be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the public safety,
was freely agitated in popular conversation; and some hopes were
entertained that the emperor would redeem his pusillanimous
behavior by a splendid act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible
spirit of the Roman senate had always disclaimed the unequal
conditions which were extorted from the distress of their captive
armies; and, if it were necessary to satisfy the national honor,
by delivering the guilty general into the hands of the
Barbarians, the greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would
have cheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times. 123
120 (return) [ Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 145, p. 366.) Such
were the natural hopes and wishes of a rhetorician.]
121 (return) [ The people of Carrhae, a city devoted to Paganism,
buried the inauspicious messenger under a pile of stones,
(Zosimus, l. iii. p. 196.) Libanius, when he received the fatal
intelligence, cast his eye on his sword; but he recollected that
Plato had condemned suicide, and that he must live to compose the
Panegyric of Julian, (Libanius de Vita sua, tom. ii. p. 45, 46.)]
122 (return) [ Ammianus and Eutropius may be admitted as fair and
credible witnesses of the public language and opinions. The
people of Antioch reviled an ignominious peace, which exposed
them to the Persians, on a naked and defenceless frontier,
(Excerpt. Valesiana, p. 845, ex Johanne Antiocheno.)]
123 (return) [ The Abbe de la Bleterie, (Hist. de Jovien, tom. i.
p. 212-227.) though a severe casuist, has pronounced that Jovian
was not bound to execute his promise; since he could not
dismember the empire, nor alienate, without their consent, the
allegiance of his people. I have never found much delight or
instruction in such political metaphysics.]
But the emperor, whatever might be the limits of his
constitutional authority, was the absolute master of the laws and
arms of the state; and the same motives which had forced him to
subscribe, now pressed him to execute, the treaty of peace. He
was impatient to secure an empire at the expense of a few
provinces; and the respectable names of religion and honor
concealed the personal fears and ambition of Jovian.
Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of the inhabitants,
decency, as well as prudence, forbade the emperor to lodge in the
palace of Nisibis; but the next morning after his arrival,
Bineses, the ambassador of Persia, entered the place, displayed
from the citadel the standard of the Great King, and proclaimed,
in his name, the cruel alternative of exile or servitude. The
principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till that fatal moment, had
confided in the protection of their sovereign, threw themselves
at his feet. They conjured him not to abandon, or, at least, not
to deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a Barbarian tyrant,
exasperated by the three successive defeats which he had
experienced under the walls of Nisibis. They still possessed arms
and courage to repel the invaders of their country: they
requested only the permission of using them in their own defence;
and, as soon as they had asserted their independence, they should
implore the favor of being again admitted into the ranks of his
subjects. Their arguments, their eloquence, their tears, were
ineffectual. Jovian alleged, with some confusion, the sanctity of
oaths; and, as the reluctance with which he accepted the present
of a crown of gold, convinced the citizens of their hopeless
condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to exclaim, “O
emperor! may you thus be crowned by all the cities of your
dominions!” Jovian, who in a few weeks had assumed the habits of
a prince, 124 was displeased with freedom, and offended with
truth: and as he reasonably supposed, that the discontent of the
people might incline them to submit to the Persian government, he
published an edict, under pain of death, that they should leave
the city within the term of three days. Ammianus has delineated
in lively colors the scene of universal despair, which he seems
to have viewed with an eye of compassion. 125 The martial youth
deserted, with indignant grief, the walls which they had so
gloriously defended: the disconsolate mourner dropped a last tear
over the tomb of a son or husband, which must soon be profaned by
the rude hand of a Barbarian master; and the aged citizen kissed
the threshold, and clung to the doors, of the house where he had
passed the cheerful and careless hours of infancy. The highways
were crowded with a trembling multitude: the distinctions of
rank, and sex, and age, were lost in the general calamity. Every
one strove to bear away some fragment from the wreck of his
fortunes; and as they could not command the immediate service of
an adequate number of horses or wagons, they were obliged to
leave behind them the greatest part of their valuable effects.
The savage insensibility of Jovian appears to have aggravated the
hardships of these unhappy fugitives. They were seated, however,
in a new-built quarter of Amida; and that rising city, with the
reenforcement of a very considerable colony, soon recovered its
former splendor, and became the capital of Mesopotamia. 126
Similar orders were despatched by the emperor for the evacuation
of Singara and the castle of the Moors; and for the restitution
of the five provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor enjoyed the glory
and the fruits of his victory; and this ignominious peace has
justly been considered as a memorable aera in the decline and
fall of the Roman empire. The predecessors of Jovian had
sometimes relinquished the dominion of distant and unprofitable
provinces; but, since the foundation of the city, the genius of
Rome, the god Terminus, who guarded the boundaries of the
republic, had never retired before the sword of a victorious
enemy. 127
124 (return) [ At Nisibis he performed a royal act. A brave
officer, his namesake, who had been thought worthy of the purple,
was dragged from supper, thrown into a well, and stoned to death
without any form of trial or evidence of guilt. Anomian. xxv. 8.]
125 (return) [ See xxv. 9, and Zosimus, l. iii. p. 194, 195.]
126 (return) [ Chron. Paschal. p. 300. The ecclesiastical Notitie
may be consulted.]
127 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iii. p. 192, 193. Sextus Rufus de
Provinciis, c. 29. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. iv. c. 29. This
general position must be applied and interpreted with some
caution.]
After Jovian had performed those engagements which the voice of
his people might have tempted him to violate, he hastened away
from the scene of his disgrace, and proceeded with his whole
court to enjoy the luxury of Antioch. 128 Without consulting the
dictates of religious zeal, he was prompted, by humanity and
gratitude, to bestow the last honors on the remains of his
deceased sovereign: 129 and Procopius, who sincerely bewailed the
loss of his kinsman, was removed from the command of the army,
under the decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpse
of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march
of fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the
East, was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful
lamentations and clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed
their beloved hero in the rank of those gods whose worship he had
restored; while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul
of the Apostate to hell, and his body to the grave. 130 One party
lamented the approaching ruin of their altars; the other
celebrated the marvellous deliverance of their church. The
Christians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke
of divine vengeance, which had been so long suspended over the
guilty head of Julian. They acknowledge, that the death of the
tyrant, at the instant he expired beyond the Tigris, was revealed
to the saints of Egypt, Syria, and Cappadocia; 131 and instead of
suffering him to fall by the Persian darts, their indiscretion
ascribed the heroic deed to the obscure hand of some mortal or
immortal champion of the faith. 132 Such imprudent declarations
were eagerly adopted by the malice, or credulity, of their
adversaries; 133 who darkly insinuated, or confidently asserted,
that the governors of the church had instigated and directed the
fanaticism of a domestic assassin. 134 Above sixteen years after
the death of Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently
urged, in a public oration, addressed by Libanius to the emperor
Theodosius. His suspicions are unsupported by fact or argument;
and we can only esteem the generous zeal of the sophist of
Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of his friend. 135
128 (return) [ Ammianus, xxv. 9. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 196. He
might be edax, vino Venerique indulgens. But I agree with La
Bleterie (tom. i. p. 148-154) in rejecting the foolish report of
a Bacchanalian riot (ap. Suidam) celebrated at Antioch, by the
emperor, his wife, and a troop of concubines.]
129 (return) [ The Abbe de la Bleterie (tom. i. p. 156-209)
handsomely exposes the brutal bigotry of Baronius, who would have
thrown Julian to the dogs, ne cespititia quidem sepultura
dignus.]
130 (return) [ Compare the sophist and the saint, (Libanius,
Monod. tom. ii. p. 251, and Orat. Parent. c. 145, p. 367, c. 156,
p. 377, with Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 125-132.) The
Christian orator faintly mutters some exhortations to modesty and
forgiveness; but he is well satisfied, that the real sufferings
of Julian will far exceed the fabulous torments of Ixion or
Tantalus.]
131 (return) [ Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 549)
has collected these visions. Some saint or angel was observed to
be absent in the night, on a secret expedition, &c.]
132 (return) [ Sozomen (l. vi. 2) applauds the Greek doctrine of
tyrannicide; but the whole passage, which a Jesuit might have
translated, is prudently suppressed by the president Cousin.]
133 (return) [ Immediately after the death of Julian, an
uncertain rumor was scattered, telo cecidisse Romano. It was
carried, by some deserters to the Persian camp; and the Romans
were reproached as the assassins of the emperor by Sapor and his
subjects, (Ammian. xxv. 6. Libanius de ulciscenda Juliani nece,
c. xiii. p. 162, 163.) It was urged, as a decisive proof, that no
Persian had appeared to claim the promised reward, (Liban. Orat.
Parent. c. 141, p. 363.) But the flying horseman, who darted the
fatal javelin, might be ignorant of its effect; or he might be
slain in the same action. Ammianus neither feels nor inspires a
suspicion.]
134 (return) [ This dark and ambiguous expression may point to
Athanasius, the first, without a rival, of the Christian clergy,
(Libanius de ulcis. Jul. nece, c. 5, p. 149. La Bleterie, Hist.
de Jovien, tom. i. p. 179.)]
135 (return) [ The orator (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. vii.
p. 145-179) scatters suspicions, demands an inquiry, and
insinuates, that proofs might still be obtained. He ascribes the
success of the Huns to the criminal neglect of revenging Julian’s
death.]
It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the
triumphs, of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be
corrected by that of satire and ridicule; and that, in the midst
of the splendid pageants, which displayed the glory of the living
or of the dead, their imperfections should not be concealed from
the eyes of the world. 136 This custom was practised in the
funeral of Julian. The comedians, who resented his contempt and
aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with the applause of a
Christian audience, the lively and exaggerated representation of
the faults and follies of the deceased emperor. His various
character and singular manners afforded an ample scope for
pleasantry and ridicule. 137 In the exercise of his uncommon
talents, he often descended below the majesty of his rank.
Alexander was transformed into Diogenes; the philosopher was
degraded into a priest. The purity of his virtue was sullied by
excessive vanity; his superstition disturbed the peace, and
endangered the safety, of a mighty empire; and his irregular
sallies were the less entitled to indulgence, as they appeared to
be the laborious efforts of art, or even of affectation. The
remains of Julian were interred at Tarsus in Cilicia; but his
stately tomb, which arose in that city, on the banks of the cold
and limpid Cydnus, 138 was displeasing to the faithful friends,
who loved and revered the memory of that extraordinary man. The
philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish, that the disciple
of Plato might have reposed amidst the groves of the academy; 139
while the soldier exclaimed, in bolder accents, that the ashes of
Julian should have been mingled with those of Caesar, in the
field of Mars, and among the ancient monuments of Roman virtue.
140 The history of princes does not very frequently renew the
examples of a similar competition.
136 (return) [ At the funeral of Vespasian, the comedian who
personated that frugal emperor, anxiously inquired how much it
cost. Fourscore thousand pounds, (centies.) Give me the tenth
part of the sum, and throw my body into the Tiber. Sueton, in
Vespasian, c. 19, with the notes of Casaubon and Gronovius.]
137 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iv. p. 119, 120) compares this
supposed ignominy and ridicule to the funeral honors of
Constantius, whose body was chanted over Mount Taurus by a choir
of angels.]
138 (return) [ Quintus Curtius, l. iii. c. 4. The luxuriancy of
his descriptions has been often censured. Yet it was almost the
duty of the historian to describe a river, whose waters had
nearly proved fatal to Alexander.]
139 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 156, p. 377. Yet he
acknowledges with gratitude the liberality of the two royal
brothers in decorating the tomb of Julian, (de ulcis. Jul. nece,
c. 7, p. 152.)]
140 (return) [ Cujus suprema et cineres, si qui tunc juste
consuleret, non Cydnus videre deberet, quamvis gratissimus amnis
et liquidus: sed ad perpetuandam gloriam recte factorum
praeterlambere Tiberis, intersecans urbem aeternam, divorumque
veterum monumenta praestringens Ammian. xxv. 10.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part I.
The Government And Death Of Jovian.—Election Of Valentinian, Who
Associates His Brother Valens, And Makes The Final Division Of The
Eastern And Western Empires.— Revolt Of Procopius.—Civil And
Ecclesiastical Administration.—Germany. —Britain.—Africa.—The
East.— The Danube.—Death Of Valentinian.—His Two Sons, Gratian And
Valentinian II., Succeed To The Western Empire.
The death of Julian had left the public affairs of the empire in
a very doubtful and dangerous situation. The Roman army was saved
by an inglorious, perhaps a necessary treaty; 1 and the first
moments of peace were consecrated by the pious Jovian to restore
the domestic tranquility of the church and state. The
indiscretion of his predecessor, instead of reconciling, had
artfully fomented the religious war: and the balance which he
affected to preserve between the hostile factions, served only to
perpetuate the contest, by the vicissitudes of hope and fear, by
the rival claims of ancient possession and actual favor. The
Christians had forgotten the spirit of the gospel; and the Pagans
had imbibed the spirit of the church. In private families, the
sentiments of nature were extinguished by the blind fury of zeal
and revenge: the majesty of the laws was violated or abused; the
cities of the East were stained with blood; and the most
implacable enemies of the Romans were in the bosom of their
country. Jovian was educated in the profession of Christianity;
and as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the banner of the
Cross, the Labarum of Constantine, which was again displayed at
the head of the legions, announced to the people the faith of
their new emperor. As soon as he ascended the throne, he
transmitted a circular epistle to all the governors of provinces;
in which he confessed the divine truth, and secured the legal
establishment, of the Christian religion. The insidious edicts of
Julian were abolished; the ecclesiastical immunities were
restored and enlarged; and Jovian condescended to lament, that
the distress of the times obliged him to diminish the measure of
charitable distributions. 2 The Christians were unanimous in the
loud and sincere applause which they bestowed on the pious
successor of Julian. But they were still ignorant what creed, or
what synod, he would choose for the standard of orthodoxy; and
the peace of the church immediately revived those eager disputes
which had been suspended during the season of persecution. The
episcopal leaders of the contending sects, convinced, from
experience, how much their fate would depend on the earliest
impressions that were made on the mind of an untutored soldier,
hastened to the court of Edessa, or Antioch. The highways of the
East were crowded with Homoousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and
Eunomian bishops, who struggled to outstrip each other in the
holy race: the apartments of the palace resounded with their
clamors; and the ears of the prince were assaulted, and perhaps
astonished, by the singular mixture of metaphysical argument and
passionate invective. 3 The moderation of Jovian, who recommended
concord and charity, and referred the disputants to the sentence
of a future council, was interpreted as a symptom of
indifference: but his attachment to the Nicene creed was at
length discovered and declared, by the reverence which he
expressed for the celestial 4 virtues of the great Athanasius.
The intrepid veteran of the faith, at the age of seventy, had
issued from his retreat on the first intelligence of the tyrant’s
death. The acclamations of the people seated him once more on the
archiepiscopal throne; and he wisely accepted, or anticipated,
the invitation of Jovian. The venerable figure of Athanasius, his
calm courage, and insinuating eloquence, sustained the reputation
which he had already acquired in the courts of four successive
princes. 5 As soon as he had gained the confidence, and secured
the faith, of the Christian emperor, he returned in triumph to
his diocese, and continued, with mature counsels and undiminished
vigor, to direct, ten years longer, 6 the ecclesiastical
government of Alexandria, Egypt, and the Catholic church. Before
his departure from Antioch, he assured Jovian that his orthodox
devotion would be rewarded with a long and peaceful reign.
Athanasius, had reason to hope, that he should be allowed either
the merit of a successful prediction, or the excuse of a grateful
though ineffectual prayer. 7
1 (return) [ The medals of Jovian adorn him with victories,
laurel crowns, and prostrate captives. Ducange, Famil. Byzantin.
p. 52. Flattery is a foolish suicide; she destroys herself with
her own hands.]
2 (return) [ Jovian restored to the church a forcible and
comprehensive expression, (Philostorgius, l. viii. c. 5, with
Godefroy’s Dissertations, p. 329. Sozomen, l. vi. c. 3.) The new
law which condemned the rape or marriage of nuns (Cod. Theod. l.
ix. tit. xxv. leg. 2) is exaggerated by Sozomen; who supposes,
that an amorous glance, the adultery of the heart, was punished
with death by the evangelic legislator.]
3 (return) [ Compare Socrates, l. iii. c. 25, and Philostorgius,
l. viii. c. 6, with Godefroy’s Dissertations, p. 330.]
4 (return) [ The word celestial faintly expresses the impious and
extravagant flattery of the emperor to the archbishop. (See the
original epistle in Athanasius, tom. ii. p. 33.) Gregory
Nazianzen (Orat. xxi. p. 392) celebrates the friendship of Jovian
and Athanasius. The primate’s journey was advised by the Egyptian
monks, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 221.)]
5 (return) [ Athanasius, at the court of Antioch, is agreeably
represented by La Bleterie, (Hist. de Jovien, tom. i. p.
121-148;) he translates the singular and original conferences of
the emperor, the primate of Egypt, and the Arian deputies. The
Abbe is not satisfied with the coarse pleasantry of Jovian; but
his partiality for Athanasius assumes, in his eyes, the character
of justice.]
6 (return) [ The true area of his death is perplexed with some
difficulties, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 719-723.)
But the date (A. D. 373, May 2) which seems the most consistent
with history and reason, is ratified by his authentic life,
(Maffei Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. iii. p. 81.)]
7 (return) [ See the observations of Valesius and Jortin (Remarks
on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 38) on the original letter
of Athanasius; which is preserved by Theodoret, (l. iv. c. 3.) In
some Mss. this indiscreet promise is omitted; perhaps by the
Catholics, jealous of the prophetic fame of their leader.]
The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide the
natural descent of its object, operates with irresistible weight;
and Jovian had the good fortune to embrace the religious opinions
which were supported by the spirit of the times, and the zeal and
numbers of the most powerful sect. 8 Under his reign,
Christianity obtained an easy and lasting victory; and as soon as
the smile of royal patronage was withdrawn, the genius of
Paganism, which had been fondly raised and cherished by the arts
of Julian, sunk irrecoverably in the. In many cities, the temples
were shut or deserted: the philosophers who had abused their
transient favor, thought it prudent to shave their beards, and
disguise their profession; and the Christians rejoiced, that they
were now in a condition to forgive, or to revenge, the injuries
which they had suffered under the preceding reign. 9 The
consternation of the Pagan world was dispelled by a wise and
gracious edict of toleration; in which Jovian explicitly
declared, that although he should severely punish the
sacrilegious rites of magic, his subjects might exercise, with
freedom and safety, the ceremonies of the ancient worship. The
memory of this law has been preserved by the orator Themistius,
who was deputed by the senate of Constantinople to express their
royal devotion for the new emperor. Themistius expatiates on the
clemency of the Divine Nature, the facility of human error, the
rights of conscience, and the independence of the mind; and, with
some eloquence, inculcates the principles of philosophical
toleration; whose aid Superstition herself, in the hour of her
distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes, that in
the recent changes, both religions had been alternately disgraced
by the seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those
votaries of the reigning purple, who could pass, without a
reason, and without a blush, from the church to the temple, and
from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred table of the Christians.
10
8 (return) [ Athanasius (apud Theodoret, l. iv. c. 3) magnifies
the number of the orthodox, who composed the whole world. This
assertion was verified in the space of thirty and forty years.]
9 (return) [ Socrates, l. iii. c. 24. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat.
iv. p. 131) and Libanius (Orat. Parentalis, c. 148, p. 369)
expresses the living sentiments of their respective factions.]
10 (return) [ Themistius, Orat. v. p. 63-71, edit. Harduin,
Paris, 1684. The Abbe de la Bleterie judiciously remarks, (Hist.
de Jovien, tom. i. p. 199,) that Sozomen has forgot the general
toleration; and Themistius the establishment of the Catholic
religion. Each of them turned away from the object which he
disliked, and wished to suppress the part of the edict the least
honorable, in his opinion, to the emperor.]
In the space of seven months, the Roman troops, who were now
returned to Antioch, had performed a march of fifteen hundred
miles; in which they had endured all the hardships of war, of
famine, and of climate. Notwithstanding their services, their
fatigues, and the approach of winter, the timid and impatient
Jovian allowed only, to the men and horses, a respite of six
weeks. The emperor could not sustain the indiscreet and malicious
raillery of the people of Antioch. 11 He was impatient to possess
the palace of Constantinople; and to prevent the ambition of some
competitor, who might occupy the vacant allegiance of Europe. But
he soon received the grateful intelligence, that his authority
was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to the Atlantic
Ocean. By the first letters which he despatched from the camp of
Mesopotamia, he had delegated the military command of Gaul and
Illyricum to Malarich, a brave and faithful officer of the nation
of the Franks; and to his father-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had
formerly distinguished his courage and conduct in the defence of
Nisibis. Malarich had declined an office to which he thought
himself unequal; and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in an
accidental mutiny of the Batavian cohorts. 12 But the moderation
of Jovinus, master-general of the cavalry, who forgave the
intention of his disgrace, soon appeased the tumult, and
confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers. The oath of
fidelity was administered and taken, with loyal acclamations; and
the deputies of the Western armies 13 saluted their new sovereign
as he descended from Mount Taurus to the city of Tyana in
Cappadocia. From Tyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra,
capital of the province of Galatia; where Jovian assumed, with
his infant son, the name and ensigns of the consulship. 14
Dadastana, 15 an obscure town, almost at an equal distance
between Ancyra and Nice, was marked for the fatal term of his
journey and life. After indulging himself with a plentiful,
perhaps an intemperate, supper, he retired to rest; and the next
morning the emperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause
of this sudden death was variously understood. By some it was
ascribed to the consequences of an indigestion, occasioned either
by the quantity of the wine, or the quality of the mushrooms,
which he had swallowed in the evening. According to others, he
was suffocated in his sleep by the vapor of charcoal, which
extracted from the walls of the apartment the unwholesome
moisture of the fresh plaster. 16 But the want of a regular
inquiry into the death of a prince, whose reign and person were
soon forgotten, appears to have been the only circumstance which
countenanced the malicious whispers of poison and domestic guilt.
17 The body of Jovian was sent to Constantinople, to be interred
with his predecessors, and the sad procession was met on the road
by his wife Charito, the daughter of Count Lucillian; who still
wept the recent death of her father, and was hastening to dry her
tears in the embraces of an Imperial husband. Her disappointment
and grief were imbittered by the anxiety of maternal tenderness.
Six weeks before the death of Jovian, his infant son had been
placed in the curule chair, adorned with the title of
Nobilissimus, and the vain ensigns of the consulship. Unconscious
of his fortune, the royal youth, who, from his grandfather,
assumed the name of Varronian, was reminded only by the jealousy
of the government, that he was the son of an emperor. Sixteen
years afterwards he was still alive, but he had already been
deprived of an eye; and his afflicted mother expected every hour,
that the innocent victim would be torn from her arms, to appease,
with his blood, the suspicions of the reigning prince. 18
11 (return) [ Johan. Antiochen. in Excerpt. Valesian. p. 845. The
libels of Antioch may be admitted on very slight evidence.]
12 (return) [ Compare Ammianus, (xxv. 10,) who omits the name of
the Batarians, with Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 197,) who removes the
scene of action from Rheims to Sirmium.]
13 (return) [ Quos capita scholarum ordo castrensis appellat.
Ammian. xxv. 10, and Vales. ad locum.]
14 (return) [ Cugus vagitus, pertinaciter reluctantis, ne in
curuli sella veheretur ex more, id quod mox accidit protendebat.
Augustus and his successors respectfully solicited a dispensation
of age for the sons or nephews whom they raised to the
consulship. But the curule chair of the first Brutus had never
been dishonored by an infant.]
15 (return) [ The Itinerary of Antoninus fixes Dadastana 125
Roman miles from Nice; 117 from Ancyra, (Wesseling, Itinerar. p.
142.) The pilgrim of Bourdeaux, by omitting some stages, reduces
the whole space from 242 to 181 miles. Wesseling, p. 574. * Note:
Dadastana is supposed to be Castabat.—M.]
16 (return) [ See Ammianus, (xxv. 10,) Eutropius, (x. 18.) who
might likewise be present, Jerom, (tom. i. p. 26, ad Heliodorum.)
Orosius, (vii. 31,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 6,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p.
197, 198,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 28, 29.) We cannot
expect a perfect agreement, and we shall not discuss minute
differences.]
17 (return) [ Ammianus, unmindful of his usual candor and good
sense, compares the death of the harmless Jovian to that of the
second Africanus, who had excited the fears and resentment of the
popular faction.]
18 (return) [ Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 336, 344, edit. Montfaucon.
The Christian orator attempts to comfort a widow by the examples
of illustrious misfortunes; and observes, that of nine emperors
(including the Caesar Gallus) who had reigned in his time, only
two (Constantine and Constantius) died a natural death. Such
vague consolations have never wiped away a single tear.]
After the death of Jovian, the throne of the Roman world remained
ten days, 19 without a master. The ministers and generals still
continued to meet in council; to exercise their respective
functions; to maintain the public order; and peaceably to conduct
the army to the city of Nice in Bithynia, which was chosen for
the place of the election. 20 In a solemn assembly of the civil
and military powers of the empire, the diadem was again
unanimously offered to the praefect Sallust. He enjoyed the glory
of a second refusal: and when the virtues of the father were
alleged in favor of his son, the praefect, with the firmness of a
disinterested patriot, declared to the electors, that the feeble
age of the one, and the unexperienced youth of the other, were
equally incapable of the laborious duties of government. Several
candidates were proposed; and, after weighing the objections of
character or situation, they were successively rejected; but, as
soon as the name of Valentinian was pronounced, the merit of that
officer united the suffrages of the whole assembly, and obtained
the sincere approbation of Sallust himself. Valentinian 21 was
the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in Pannonia, who
from an obscure condition had raised himself, by matchless
strength and dexterity, to the military commands of Africa and
Britain; from which he retired with an ample fortune and
suspicious integrity. The rank and services of Gratian
contributed, however, to smooth the first steps of the promotion
of his son; and afforded him an early opportunity of displaying
those solid and useful qualifications, which raised his character
above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers. The person of
Valentinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly
countenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and
spirit, inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear;
and to second the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of
Gratian had inherited the advantages of a strong and healthy
constitution. By the habits of chastity and temperance, which
restrain the appetites and invigorate the faculties, Valentinian
preserved his own and the public esteem. The avocations of a
military life had diverted his youth from the elegant pursuits of
literature; 2111 he was ignorant of the Greek language, and the
arts of rhetoric; but as the mind of the orator was never
disconcerted by timid perplexity, he was able, as often as the
occasion prompted him, to deliver his decided sentiments with
bold and ready elocution. The laws of martial discipline were the
only laws that he had studied; and he was soon distinguished by
the laborious diligence, and inflexible severity, with which he
discharged and enforced the duties of the camp. In the time of
Julian he provoked the danger of disgrace, by the contempt which
he publicly expressed for the reigning religion; 22 and it should
seem, from his subsequent conduct, that the indiscreet and
unseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the effect of military
spirit, rather than of Christian zeal. He was pardoned, however,
and still employed by a prince who esteemed his merit; 23 and in
the various events of the Persian war, he improved the reputation
which he had already acquired on the banks of the Rhine. The
celerity and success with which he executed an important
commission, recommended him to the favor of Jovian; and to the
honorable command of the second school, or company, of
Targetiers, of the domestic guards. In the march from Antioch, he
had reached his quarters at Ancyra, when he was unexpectedly
summoned, without guilt and without intrigue, to assume, in the
forty-third year of his age, the absolute government of the Roman
empire.
19 (return) [ Ten days appear scarcely sufficient for the march
and election. But it may be observed, 1. That the generals might
command the expeditious use of the public posts for themselves,
their attendants, and messengers. 2. That the troops, for the
ease of the cities, marched in many divisions; and that the head
of the column might arrive at Nice, when the rear halted at
Ancyra.]
20 (return) [ Ammianus, xxvi. 1. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 198.
Philostorgius, l. viii. c. 8, and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 334.
Philostorgius, who appears to have obtained some curious and
authentic intelligence, ascribes the choice of Valentinian to the
praefect Sallust, the master-general Arintheus, Dagalaiphus count
of the domestics, and the patrician Datianus, whose pressing
recommendations from Ancyra had a weighty influence in the
election.]
21 (return) [ Ammianus (xxx. 7, 9) and the younger Victor have
furnished the portrait of Valentinian, which naturally precedes
and illustrates the history of his reign. * Note: Symmachus, in a
fragment of an oration published by M. Mai, describes Valentinian
as born among the snows of Illyria, and habituated to military
labor amid the heat and dust of Libya: genitus in frigoribus,
educatus is solibus Sym. Orat. Frag. edit. Niebuhr, p. 5.—M.]
2111 (return) [ According to Ammianus, he wrote elegantly, and
was skilled in painting and modelling. Scribens decore,
venusteque pingens et fingens. xxx. 7.—M.]
22 (return) [ At Antioch, where he was obliged to attend the
emperor to the table, he struck a priest, who had presumed to
purify him with lustral water, (Sozomen, l. vi. c. 6. Theodoret,
l. iii. c. 15.) Such public defiance might become Valentinian;
but it could leave no room for the unworthy delation of the
philosopher Maximus, which supposes some more private offence,
(Zosimus, l. iv. p. 200, 201.)]
23 (return) [ Socrates, l. iv. A previous exile to Melitene, or
Thebais (the first might be possible,) is interposed by Sozomen
(l. vi. c. 6) and Philostorgius, (l. vii. c. 7, with Godefroy’s
Dissertations, p. 293.)]
The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of
little moment, unless it were confirmed by the voice of the army.
The aged Sallust, who had long observed the irregular
fluctuations of popular assemblies, proposed, under pain of
death, that none of those persons, whose rank in the service
might excite a party in their favor, should appear in public on
the day of the inauguration. Yet such was the prevalence of
ancient superstition, that a whole day was voluntarily added to
this dangerous interval, because it happened to be the
intercalation of the Bissextile. 24 At length, when the hour was
supposed to be propitious, Valentinian showed himself from a
lofty tribunal; the judicious choice was applauded; and the new
prince was solemnly invested with the diadem and the purple,
amidst the acclamation of the troops, who were disposed in
martial order round the tribunal. But when he stretched forth his
hand to address the armed multitude, a busy whisper was
accidentally started in the ranks, and insensibly swelled into a
loud and imperious clamor, that he should name, without delay, a
colleague in the empire. The intrepid calmness of Valentinian
obtained silence, and commanded respect; and he thus addressed
the assembly: “A few minutes since it was in your power,
fellow-soldiers, to have left me in the obscurity of a private
station. Judging, from the testimony of my past life, that I
deserved to reign, you have placed me on the throne. It is now my
duty to consult the safety and interest of the republic. The
weight of the universe is undoubtedly too great for the hands of
a feeble mortal. I am conscious of the limits of my abilities,
and the uncertainty of my life; and far from declining, I am
anxious to solicit, the assistance of a worthy colleague. But,
where discord may be fatal, the choice of a faithful friend
requires mature and serious deliberation. That deliberation shall
be my care. Let your conduct be dutiful and consistent. Retire to
your quarters; refresh your minds and bodies; and expect the
accustomed donative on the accession of a new emperor.” 25 The
astonished troops, with a mixture of pride, of satisfaction, and
of terror, confessed the voice of their master.
Their angry clamors subsided into silent reverence; and
Valentinian, encompassed with the eagles of the legions, and the
various banners of the cavalry and infantry, was conducted, in
warlike pomp, to the palace of Nice. As he was sensible, however,
of the importance of preventing some rash declaration of the
soldiers, he consulted the assembly of the chiefs; and their real
sentiments were concisely expressed by the generous freedom of
Dagalaiphus. “Most excellent prince,” said that officer, “if you
consider only your family, you have a brother; if you love the
republic, look round for the most deserving of the Romans.” 26
The emperor, who suppressed his displeasure, without altering his
intention, slowly proceeded from Nice to Nicomedia and
Constantinople. In one of the suburbs of that capital, 27 thirty
days after his own elevation, he bestowed the title of Augustus
on his brother Valens; 2711 and as the boldest patriots were
convinced, that their opposition, without being serviceable to
their country, would be fatal to themselves, the declaration of
his absolute will was received with silent submission. Valens was
now in the thirty-sixth year of his age; but his abilities had
never been exercised in any employment, military or civil; and
his character had not inspired the world with any sanguine
expectations. He possessed, however, one quality, which
recommended him to Valentinian, and preserved the domestic peace
of the empire; devout and grateful attachment to his benefactor,
whose superiority of genius, as well as of authority, Valens
humbly and cheerfully acknowledged in every action of his life.
28
24 (return) [ Ammianus, in a long, because unseasonable,
digression, (xxvi. l, and Valesius, ad locum,) rashly supposes
that he understands an astronomical question, of which his
readers are ignorant. It is treated with more judgment and
propriety by Censorinus (de Die Natali, c. 20) and Macrobius,
(Saturnal. i. c. 12-16.) The appellation of Bissextile, which
marks the inauspicious year, (Augustin. ad Januarium, Epist.
119,) is derived from the repetition of the sixth day of the
calends of March.]
25 (return) [ Valentinian’s first speech is in Ammianus, (xxvi.
2;) concise and sententious in Philostorgius, (l. viii. c. 8.)]
26 (return) [ Si tuos amas, Imperator optime, habes fratrem; si
Rempublicam quaere quem vestias. Ammian. xxvi. 4. In the division
of the empire, Valentinian retained that sincere counsellor for
himself, (c.6.)]
27 (return) [ In suburbano, Ammian. xxvi. 4. The famous Hebdomon,
or field of Mars, was distant from Constantinople either seven
stadia, or seven miles. See Valesius, and his brother, ad loc.,
and Ducange, Const. l. ii. p. 140, 141, 172, 173.]
2711 (return) [ Symmachus praises the liberality of Valentinian
in raising his brother at once to the rank of Augustus, not
training him through the slow and probationary degree of Caesar.
Exigui animi vices munerum partiuntur, liberalitas desideriis
nihil reliquit. Symm. Orat. p. 7. edit. Niebuhr, 1816, reprinted
from Mai.—M.]
28 (return) [ Participem quidem legitimum potestatis; sed in
modum apparitoris morigerum, ut progrediens aperiet textus.
Ammian. xxvi. 4.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part II.
Before Valentinian divided the provinces, he reformed the
administration of the empire. All ranks of subjects, who had been
injured or oppressed under the reign of Julian, were invited to
support their public accusations. The silence of mankind attested
the spotless integrity of the praefect Sallust; 29 and his own
pressing solicitations, that he might be permitted to retire from
the business of the state, were rejected by Valentinian with the
most honorable expressions of friendship and esteem. But among
the favorites of the late emperor, there were many who had abused
his credulity or superstition; and who could no longer hope to be
protected either by favor or justice. 30 The greater part of the
ministers of the palace, and the governors of the provinces, were
removed from their respective stations; yet the eminent merit of
some officers was distinguished from the obnoxious crowd; and,
notwithstanding the opposite clamors of zeal and resentment, the
whole proceedings of this delicate inquiry appear to have been
conducted with a reasonable share of wisdom and moderation. 31
The festivity of a new reign received a short and suspicious
interruption from the sudden illness of the two princes; but as
soon as their health was restored, they left Constantinople in
the beginning of the spring. In the castle, or palace, of
Mediana, only three miles from Naissus, they executed the solemn
and final division of the Roman empire. 32 Valentinian bestowed
on his brother the rich praefecture of the East, from the Lower
Danube to the confines of Persia; whilst he reserved for his
immediate government the warlike 3211 praefectures of Illyricum,
Italy, and Gaul, from the extremity of Greece to the Caledonian
rampart, and from the rampart of Caledonia to the foot of Mount
Atlas. The provincial administration remained on its former
basis; but a double supply of generals and magistrates was
required for two councils, and two courts: the division was made
with a just regard to their peculiar merit and situation, and
seven master-generals were soon created, either of the cavalry or
infantry. When this important business had been amicably
transacted, Valentinian and Valens embraced for the last time.
The emperor of the West established his temporary residence at
Milan; and the emperor of the East returned to Constantinople, to
assume the dominion of fifty provinces, of whose language he was
totally ignorant. 33
29 (return) [ Notwithstanding the evidence of Zonaras, Suidas,
and the Paschal Chronicle, M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. v. p. 671) wishes to disbelieve those stories, si
avantageuses a un payen.]
30 (return) [ Eunapius celebrates and exaggerates the sufferings
of Maximus. (p. 82, 83;) yet he allows that the sophist or
magician, the guilty favorite of Julian, and the personal enemy
of Valentinian, was dismissed on the payment of a small fine.]
31 (return) [ The loose assertions of a general disgrace
(Zosimus, l. iv. p. 201), are detected and refuted by Tillemont,
(tom. v. p. 21.)]
32 (return) [ Ammianus, xxvi. 5.]
3211 (return) [ Ipae supra impacati Rhen semibarbaras ripas
raptim vexilla constituens * * Princeps creatus ad difficilem
militiam revertisti. Symm. Orat. 81.—M.]
33 (return) [ Ammianus says, in general terms, subagrestis
ingenii, nec bellicis nec liberalibus studiis eruditus. Ammian.
xxxi. 14. The orator Themistius, with the genuine impertinence of
a Greek, wishes for the first time to speak the Latin language,
the dialect of his sovereign. Orat. vi. p. 71.]
The tranquility of the East was soon disturbed by rebellion; and
the throne of Valens was threatened by the daring attempts of a
rival whose affinity to the emperor Julian 34 was his sole merit,
and had been his only crime. Procopius had been hastily promoted
from the obscure station of a tribune, and a notary, to the joint
command of the army of Mesopotamia; the public opinion already
named him as the successor of a prince who was destitute of
natural heirs; and a vain rumor was propagated by his friends, or
his enemies, that Julian, before the altar of the Moon at
Carrhae, had privately invested Procopius with the Imperial
purple. 35 He endeavored, by his dutiful and submissive behavior,
to disarm the jealousy of Jovian; resigned, without a contest,
his military command; and retired, with his wife and family, to
cultivate the ample patrimony which he possessed in the province
of Cappadocia. These useful and innocent occupations were
interrupted by the appearance of an officer with a band of
soldiers, who, in the name of his new sovereigns, Valentinian and
Valens, was despatched to conduct the unfortunate Procopius
either to a perpetual prison or an ignominious death. His
presence of mind procured him a longer respite, and a more
splendid fate. Without presuming to dispute the royal mandate, he
requested the indulgence of a few moments to embrace his weeping
family; and while the vigilance of his guards was relaxed by a
plentiful entertainment, he dexterously escaped to the sea-coast
of the Euxine, from whence he passed over to the country of
Bosphorus. In that sequestered region he remained many months,
exposed to the hardships of exile, of solitude, and of want; his
melancholy temper brooding over his misfortunes, and his mind
agitated by the just apprehension, that, if any accident should
discover his name, the faithless Barbarians would violate,
without much scruple, the laws of hospitality. In a moment of
impatience and despair, Procopius embarked in a merchant vessel,
which made sail for Constantinople; and boldly aspired to the
rank of a sovereign, because he was not allowed to enjoy the
security of a subject. At first he lurked in the villages of
Bithynia, continually changing his habitation and his disguise.
36 By degrees he ventured into the capital, trusted his life and
fortune to the fidelity of two friends, a senator and a eunuch,
and conceived some hopes of success, from the intelligence which
he obtained of the actual state of public affairs. The body of
the people was infected with a spirit of discontent: they
regretted the justice and the abilities of Sallust, who had been
imprudently dismissed from the praefecture of the East. They
despised the character of Valens, which was rude without vigor,
and feeble without mildness. They dreaded the influence of his
father-in-law, the patrician Petronius, a cruel and rapacious
minister, who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tribute that
might remain unpaid since the reign of the emperor Aurelian. The
circumstances were propitious to the designs of a usurper. The
hostile measures of the Persians required the presence of Valens
in Syria: from the Danube to the Euphrates the troops were in
motion; and the capital was occasionally filled with the soldiers
who passed or repassed the Thracian Bosphorus. Two cohorts of
Gaul were persuaded to listen to the secret proposals of the
conspirators; which were recommended by the promise of a liberal
donative; and, as they still revered the memory of Julian, they
easily consented to support the hereditary claim of his
proscribed kinsman. At the dawn of day they were drawn up near
the baths of Anastasia; and Procopius, clothed in a purple
garment, more suitable to a player than to a monarch, appeared,
as if he rose from the dead, in the midst of Constantinople. The
soldiers, who were prepared for his reception, saluted their
trembling prince with shouts of joy and vows of fidelity. Their
numbers were soon increased by a band of sturdy peasants,
collected from the adjacent country; and Procopius, shielded by
the arms of his adherents, was successively conducted to the
tribunal, the senate, and the palace. During the first moments of
his tumultuous reign, he was astonished and terrified by the
gloomy silence of the people; who were either ignorant of the
cause, or apprehensive of the event. But his military strength
was superior to any actual resistance: the malcontents flocked to
the standard of rebellion; the poor were excited by the hopes,
and the rich were intimidated by the fear, of a general pillage;
and the obstinate credulity of the multitude was once more
deceived by the promised advantages of a revolution. The
magistrates were seized; the prisons and arsenals broke open; the
gates, and the entrance of the harbor, were diligently occupied;
and, in a few hours, Procopius became the absolute, though
precarious, master of the Imperial city. 3611 The usurper
improved this unexpected success with some degree of courage and
dexterity. He artfully propagated the rumors and opinions the
most favorable to his interest; while he deluded the populace by
giving audience to the frequent, but imaginary, ambassadors of
distant nations. The large bodies of troops stationed in the
cities of Thrace and the fortresses of the Lower Danube, were
gradually involved in the guilt of rebellion: and the Gothic
princes consented to supply the sovereign of Constantinople with
the formidable strength of several thousand auxiliaries. His
generals passed the Bosphorus, and subdued, without an effort,
the unarmed, but wealthy provinces of Bithynia and Asia. After an
honorable defence, the city and island of Cyzicus yielded to his
power; the renowned legions of the Jovians and Herculeans
embraced the cause of the usurper, whom they were ordered to
crush; and, as the veterans were continually augmented with new
levies, he soon appeared at the head of an army, whose valor, as
well as numbers, were not unequal to the greatness of the
contest. The son of Hormisdas, 37 a youth of spirit and ability,
condescended to draw his sword against the lawful emperor of the
East; and the Persian prince was immediately invested with the
ancient and extraordinary powers of a Roman Proconsul. The
alliance of Faustina, the widow of the emperor Constantius, who
intrusted herself and her daughter to the hands of the usurper,
added dignity and reputation to his cause. The princess
Constantia, who was then about five years of age, accompanied, in
a litter, the march of the army. She was shown to the multitude
in the arms of her adopted father; and, as often as she passed
through the ranks, the tenderness of the soldiers was inflamed
into martial fury: 38 they recollected the glories of the house
of Constantine, and they declared, with loyal acclamation, that
they would shed the last drop of their blood in the defence of
the royal infant. 39
34 (return) [ The uncertain degree of alliance, or consanguinity,
is expressed by the words, cognatus, consobrinus, (see Valesius
ad Ammian. xxiii. 3.) The mother of Procopius might be a sister
of Basilina and Count Julian, the mother and uncle of the
Apostate. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 49.]
35 (return) [ Ammian. xxiii. 3, xxvi. 6. He mentions the report
with much hesitation: susurravit obscurior fama; nemo enim dicti
auctor exstitit verus. It serves, however, to remark, that
Procopius was a Pagan. Yet his religion does not appear to have
promoted, or obstructed, his pretensions.]
36 (return) [ One of his retreats was a country-house of
Eunomius, the heretic. The master was absent, innocent, ignorant;
yet he narrowly escaped a sentence of death, and was banished
into the remote parts of Mauritania, (Philostorg. l. ix. c. 5, 8,
and Godefroy’s Dissert. p. 369-378.)]
3611 (return) [ It may be suspected, from a fragment of Eunapius,
that the heathen and philosophic party espoused the cause of
Procopius. Heraclius, the Cynic, a man who had been honored by a
philosophic controversy with Julian, striking the ground with his
staff, incited him to courage with the line of Homer Eunapius.
Mai, p. 207 or in Niebuhr’s edition, p. 73.—M.]
37 (return) [ Hormisdae maturo juveni Hormisdae regalis illius
filio, potestatem Proconsulis detulit; et civilia, more veterum,
et bella, recturo. Ammian. xxvi. 8. The Persian prince escaped
with honor and safety, and was afterwards (A. D. 380) restored to
the same extraordinary office of proconsul of Bithynia,
(Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 204) I am ignorant
whether the race of Sassan was propagated. I find (A. D. 514) a
pope Hormisdas; but he was a native of Frusino, in Italy, (Pagi
Brev. Pontific. tom. i. p. 247)]
38 (return) [ The infant rebel was afterwards the wife of the
emperor Gratian but she died young, and childless. See Ducange,
Fam. Byzantin. p. 48, 59.]
39 (return) [ Sequimini culminis summi prosapiam, was the
language of Procopius, who affected to despise the obscure birth,
and fortuitous election of the upstart Pannonian. Ammian. xxvi.
7.]
In the mean while Valentinian was alarmed and perplexed by the
doubtful intelligence of the revolt of the East. 3911 The
difficulties of a German war forced him to confine his immediate
care to the safety of his own dominions; and, as every channel of
communication was stopped or corrupted, he listened, with
doubtful anxiety, to the rumors which were industriously spread,
that the defeat and death of Valens had left Procopius sole
master of the Eastern provinces. Valens was not dead: but on the
news of the rebellion, which he received at Caesarea, he basely
despaired of his life and fortune; proposed to negotiate with the
usurper, and discovered his secret inclination to abdicate the
Imperial purple. The timid monarch was saved from disgrace and
ruin by the firmness of his ministers, and their abilities soon
decided in his favor the event of the civil war. In a season of
tranquillity, Sallust had resigned without a murmur; but as soon
as the public safety was attacked, he ambitiously solicited the
preeminence of toil and danger; and the restoration of that
virtuous minister to the praefecture of the East, was the first
step which indicated the repentance of Valens, and satisfied the
minds of the people. The reign of Procopius was apparently
supported by powerful armies and obedient provinces. But many of
the principal officers, military as well as civil, had been
urged, either by motives of duty or interest, to withdraw
themselves from the guilty scene; or to watch the moment of
betraying, and deserting, the cause of the usurper. Lupicinus
advanced by hasty marches, to bring the legions of Syria to the
aid of Valens. Arintheus, who, in strength, beauty, and valor,
excelled all the heroes of the age, attacked with a small troop a
superior body of the rebels. When he beheld the faces of the
soldiers who had served under his banner, he commanded them, with
a loud voice, to seize and deliver up their pretended leader; and
such was the ascendant of his genius, that this extraordinary
order was instantly obeyed. 40 Arbetio, a respectable veteran of
the great Constantine, who had been distinguished by the honors
of the consulship, was persuaded to leave his retirement, and
once more to conduct an army into the field. In the heat of
action, calmly taking off his helmet, he showed his gray hairs
and venerable countenance: saluted the soldiers of Procopius by
the endearing names of children and companions, and exhorted them
no longer to support the desperate cause of a contemptible
tyrant; but to follow their old commander, who had so often led
them to honor and victory. In the two engagements of Thyatira 41
and Nacolia, the unfortunate Procopius was deserted by his
troops, who were seduced by the instructions and example of their
perfidious officers. After wandering some time among the woods
and mountains of Phyrgia, he was betrayed by his desponding
followers, conducted to the Imperial camp, and immediately
beheaded. He suffered the ordinary fate of an unsuccessful
usurper; but the acts of cruelty which were exercised by the
conqueror, under the forms of legal justice, excited the pity and
indignation of mankind. 42
3911 (return) [ Symmachus describes his embarrassment. “The
Germans are the common enemies of the state, Procopius the
private foe of the Emperor; his first care must be victory, his
second revenge.” Symm. Orat. p. 11.—M.]
40 (return) [ Et dedignatus hominem superare certamine
despicabilem, auctoritatis et celsi fiducia corporis ipsis
hostibus jussit, suum vincire rectorem: atque ita turmarum,
antesignanus umbratilis comprensus suorum manibus. The strength
and beauty of Arintheus, the new Hercules, are celebrated by St.
Basil, who supposed that God had created him as an inimitable
model of the human species. The painters and sculptors could not
express his figure: the historians appeared fabulous when they
related his exploits, (Ammian. xxvi. and Vales. ad loc.)]
41 (return) [ The same field of battle is placed by Ammianus in
Lycia, and by Zosimus at Thyatira, which are at the distance of
150 miles from each other. But Thyatira alluitur Lyco, (Plin.
Hist. Natur. v. 31, Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 79;)
and the transcribers might easily convert an obscure river into a
well-known province. * Note: Ammianus and Zosimus place the last
battle at Nacolia in Phrygia; Ammianus altogether omits the
former battle near Thyatira. Procopius was on his march (iter
tendebat) towards Lycia. See Wagner’s note, in c.—M.]
42 (return) [ The adventures, usurpation, and fall of Procopius,
are related, in a regular series, by Ammianus, (xxvi. 6, 7, 8, 9,
10,) and Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 203-210.) They often illustrate, and
seldom contradict, each other. Themistius (Orat. vii. p. 91, 92)
adds some base panegyric; and Euna pius (p. 83, 84) some
malicious satire. ——Symmachus joins with Themistius in praising
the clemency of Valens dic victoriae moderatus est, quasi contra
se nemo pugnavit. Symm. Orat. p. 12.—M.]
Such indeed are the common and natural fruits of despotism and
rebellion. But the inquisition into the crime of magic, 4211
which, under the reign of the two brothers, was so rigorously
prosecuted both at Rome and Antioch, was interpreted as the fatal
symptom, either of the displeasure of Heaven, or of the depravity
of mankind. 43 Let us not hesitate to indulge a liberal pride,
that, in the present age, the enlightened part of Europe has
abolished 44 a cruel and odious prejudice, which reigned in every
climate of the globe, and adhered to every system of religious
opinions. 45 The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world,
admitted with equal credulity, and similar abhorrence, the
reality of that infernal art, 46 which was able to control the
eternal order of the planets, and the voluntary operations of the
human mind. They dreaded the mysterious power of spells and
incantations, of potent herbs, and execrable rites; which could
extinguish or recall life, inflame the passions of the soul,
blast the works of creation, and extort from the reluctant
daemons the secrets of futurity. They believed, with the wildest
inconsistency, that this preternatural dominion of the air, of
earth, and of hell, was exercised, from the vilest motives of
malice or gain, by some wrinkled hags and itinerant sorcerers,
who passed their obscure lives in penury and contempt. 47 The
arts of magic were equally condemned by the public opinion, and
by the laws of Rome; but as they tended to gratify the most
imperious passions of the heart of man, they were continually
proscribed, and continually practised. 48 An imaginary cause was
capable of producing the most serious and mischievous effects.
The dark predictions of the death of an emperor, or the success
of a conspiracy, were calculated only to stimulate the hopes of
ambition, and to dissolve the ties of fidelity; and the
intentional guilt of magic was aggravated by the actual crimes of
treason and sacrilege. 49 Such vain terrors disturbed the peace
of society, and the happiness of individuals; and the harmless
flame which insensibly melted a waxen image, might derive a
powerful and pernicious energy from the affrighted fancy of the
person whom it was maliciously designed to represent. 50 From the
infusion of those herbs, which were supposed to possess a
supernatural influence, it was an easy step to the use of more
substantial poison; and the folly of mankind sometimes became the
instrument, and the mask, of the most atrocious crimes. As soon
as the zeal of informers was encouraged by the ministers of
Valens and Valentinian, they could not refuse to listen to
another charge, too frequently mingled in the scenes of domestic
guilt; a charge of a softer and less malignant nature, for which
the pious, though excessive, rigor of Constantine had recently
decreed the punishment of death. 51 This deadly and incoherent
mixture of treason and magic, of poison and adultery, afforded
infinite gradations of guilt and innocence, of excuse and
aggravation, which in these proceedings appear to have been
confounded by the angry or corrupt passions of the judges. They
easily discovered that the degree of their industry and
discernment was estimated, by the Imperial court, according to
the number of executions that were furnished from the respective
tribunals. It was not without extreme reluctance that they
pronounced a sentence of acquittal; but they eagerly admitted
such evidence as was stained with perjury, or procured by
torture, to prove the most improbable charges against the most
respectable characters. The progress of the inquiry continually
opened new subjects of criminal prosecution; the audacious
informer, whose falsehood was detected, retired with impunity;
but the wretched victim, who discovered his real or pretended
accomplices, were seldom permitted to receive the price of his
infamy. From the extremity of Italy and Asia, the young, and the
aged, were dragged in chains to the tribunals of Rome and
Antioch. Senators, matrons, and philosophers, expired in
ignominious and cruel tortures. The soldiers, who were appointed
to guard the prisons, declared, with a murmur of pity and
indignation, that their numbers were insufficient to oppose the
flight, or resistance, of the multitude of captives. The
wealthiest families were ruined by fines and confiscations; the
most innocent citizens trembled for their safety; and we may form
some notion of the magnitude of the evil, from the extravagant
assertion of an ancient writer, that, in the obnoxious provinces,
the prisoners, the exiles, and the fugitives, formed the greatest
part of the inhabitants. 52
4211 (return) [ This infamous inquisition into sorcery and
witchcraft has been of greater influence on human affairs than is
commonly supposed. The persecutions against philosophers and
their libraries was carried on with so much fury, that from this
time (A. D. 374) the names of the Gentile philosophers became
almost extinct; and the Christian philosophy and religion,
particularly in the East, established their ascendency. I am
surprised that Gibbon has not made this observation. Heyne, Note
on Zosimus, l. iv. 14, p. 637. Besides vast heaps of manuscripts
publicly destroyed throughout the East, men of letters burned
their whole libraries, lest some fatal volume should expose them
to the malice of the informers and the extreme penalty of the
law. Amm. Marc. xxix. 11.—M.]
43 (return) [ Libanius de ulciscend. Julian. nece, c. ix. p. 158,
159. The sophist deplores the public frenzy, but he does not
(after their deaths) impeach the justice of the emperors.]
44 (return) [ The French and English lawyers, of the present age,
allow the theory, and deny the practice, of witchcraft,
(Denisart, Recueil de Decisions de Jurisprudence, au mot
Sorciers, tom. iv. p. 553. Blackstone’s Commentaries, vol. iv. p.
60.) As private reason always prevents, or outstrips, public
wisdom, the president Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c. 5,
6) rejects the existence of magic.]
45 (return) [ See Oeuvres de Bayle, tom. iii. p. 567-589. The
sceptic of Rotterdam exhibits, according to his custom, a strange
medley of loose knowledge and lively wit.]
46 (return) [ The Pagans distinguished between good and bad
magic, the Theurgic and the Goetic, (Hist. de l’Academie, &c.,
tom. vii. p. 25.) But they could not have defended this obscure
distinction against the acute logic of Bayle. In the Jewish and
Christian system, all daemons are infernal spirits; and all
commerce with them is idolatry, apostasy &c., which deserves
death and damnation.]
47 (return) [ The Canidia of Horace (Carm. l. v. Od. 5, with
Dacier’s and Sanadon’s illustrations) is a vulgar witch. The
Erictho of Lucan (Pharsal. vi. 430-830) is tedious, disgusting,
but sometimes sublime. She chides the delay of the Furies, and
threatens, with tremendous obscurity, to pronounce their real
names; to reveal the true infernal countenance of Hecate; to
invoke the secret powers that lie below hell, &c.]
48 (return) [ Genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus
fallax, quod in civitate nostra et vetabitur semper et
retinebitur. Tacit. Hist. i. 22. See Augustin. de Civitate Dei,
l. viii. c. 19, and the Theodosian Code l. ix. tit. xvi., with
Godefroy’s Commentary.]
49 (return) [ The persecution of Antioch was occasioned by a
criminal consultation. The twenty-four letters of the alphabet
were arranged round a magic tripod: and a dancing ring, which had
been placed in the centre, pointed to the four first letters in
the name of the future emperor, O. E. O Triangle. Theodorus
(perhaps with many others, who owned the fatal syllables) was
executed. Theodosius succeeded. Lardner (Heathen Testimonies,
vol. iv. p. 353-372) has copiously and fairly examined this dark
transaction of the reign of Valens.]
50 (return) [
Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit
Uno eodemque igni—Virgil. Bucolic. viii. 80.
Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea figit. —Ovid. in Epist. Hypsil.
ad Jason 91.
Such vain incantations could affect the mind, and increase the
disease of Germanicus. Tacit. Annal. ii. 69.]
51 (return) [ See Heineccius, Antiquitat. Juris Roman. tom. ii.
p. 353, &c. Cod. Theodosian. l. ix. tit. 7, with Godefroy’s
Commentary.]
52 (return) [ The cruel persecution of Rome and Antioch is
described, and most probably exaggerated, by Ammianus (xxvii. 1.
xxix. 1, 2) and Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 216-218.) The philosopher
Maximus, with some justice, was involved in the charge of magic,
(Eunapius in Vit. Sophist. p. 88, 89;) and young Chrysostom, who
had accidentally found one of the proscribed books, gave himself
up for lost, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 340.)]
When Tacitus describes the deaths of the innocent and illustrious
Romans, who were sacrificed to the cruelty of the first Caesars,
the art of the historian, or the merit of the sufferers, excites
in our breast the most lively sensations of terror, of
admiration, and of pity. The coarse and undistinguishing pencil
of Ammianus has delineated his bloody figures with tedious and
disgusting accuracy. But as our attention is no longer engaged by
the contrast of freedom and servitude, of recent greatness and of
actual misery, we should turn with horror from the frequent
executions, which disgraced, both at Rome and Antioch, the reign
of the two brothers. 53 Valens was of a timid, 54 and Valentinian
of a choleric, disposition. 55 An anxious regard to his personal
safety was the ruling principle of the administration of Valens.
In the condition of a subject, he had kissed, with trembling awe,
the hand of the oppressor; and when he ascended the throne, he
reasonably expected, that the same fears, which had subdued his
own mind, would secure the patient submission of his people. The
favorites of Valens obtained, by the privilege of rapine and
confiscation, the wealth which his economy would have refused. 56
They urged, with persuasive eloquence, that, in all cases of
treason, suspicion is equivalent to proof; that the power
supposes the intention, of mischief; that the intention is not
less criminal than the act; and that a subject no longer deserves
to live, if his life may threaten the safety, or disturb the
repose, of his sovereign. The judgment of Valentinian was
sometimes deceived, and his confidence abused; but he would have
silenced the informers with a contemptuous smile, had they
presumed to alarm his fortitude by the sound of danger. They
praised his inflexible love of justice; and, in the pursuit of
justice, the emperor was easily tempted to consider clemency as a
weakness, and passion as a virtue. As long as he wrestled with
his equals, in the bold competition of an active and ambitious
life, Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with
impunity: if his prudence was arraigned, his spirit was
applauded; and the proudest and most powerful generals were
apprehensive of provoking the resentment of a fearless soldier.
After he became master of the world, he unfortunately forgot,
that where no resistance can be made, no courage can be exerted;
and instead of consulting the dictates of reason and magnanimity,
he indulged the furious emotions of his temper, at a time when
they were disgraceful to himself, and fatal to the defenceless
objects of his displeasure. In the government of his household,
or of his empire, slight, or even imaginary, offences—a hasty
word, a casual omission, an involuntary delay—were chastised by a
sentence of immediate death. The expressions which issued the
most readily from the mouth of the emperor of the West were,
“Strike off his head;” “Burn him alive;” “Let him be beaten with
clubs till he expires;” 57 and his most favored ministers soon
understood, that, by a rash attempt to dispute, or suspend, the
execution of his sanguinary commands, they might involve
themselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The
repeated gratification of this savage justice hardened the mind
of Valentinian against pity and remorse; and the sallies of
passion were confirmed by the habits of cruelty. 58 He could
behold with calm satisfaction the convulsive agonies of torture
and death; he reserved his friendship for those faithful servants
whose temper was the most congenial to his own. The merit of
Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome, was
rewarded with the royal approbation, and the praefecture of Gaul.
Two fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations
of Innocence, and Mica Aurea, could alone deserve to share the
favor of Maximin. The cages of those trusty guards were always
placed near the bed-chamber of Valentinian, who frequently amused
his eyes with the grateful spectacle of seeing them tear and
devour the bleeding limbs of the malefactors who were abandoned
to their rage. Their diet and exercises were carefully inspected
by the Roman emperor; and when Innocence had earned her
discharge, by a long course of meritorious service, the faithful
animal was again restored to the freedom of her native woods. 59
53 (return) [ Consult the six last books of Ammianus, and more
particularly the portraits of the two royal brothers, (xxx. 8, 9,
xxxi. 14.) Tillemont has collected (tom. v. p. 12-18, p. 127-133)
from all antiquity their virtues and vices.]
54 (return) [ The younger Victor asserts, that he was valde
timidus: yet he behaved, as almost every man would do, with
decent resolution at the head of an army. The same historian
attempts to prove that his anger was harmless. Ammianus observes,
with more candor and judgment, incidentia crimina ad contemptam
vel laesam principis amplitudinem trahens, in sanguinem
saeviebat.]
55 (return) [ Cum esset ad acerbitatem naturae calore propensior.
.. poenas perignes augebat et gladios. Ammian. xxx. 8. See xxvii.
7]
56 (return) [ I have transferred the reproach of avarice from
Valens to his servant. Avarice more properly belongs to ministers
than to kings; in whom that passion is commonly extinguished by
absolute possession.]
57 (return) [ He sometimes expressed a sentence of death with a
tone of pleasantry: “Abi, Comes, et muta ei caput, qui sibi
mutari provinciam cupit.” A boy, who had slipped too hastily a
Spartan bound; an armorer, who had made a polished cuirass that
wanted some grains of the legitimate weight, &c., were the
victims of his fury.]
58 (return) [ The innocents of Milan were an agent and three
apparitors, whom Valentinian condemned for signifying a legal
summons. Ammianus (xxvii. 7) strangely supposes, that all who had
been unjustly executed were worshipped as martyrs by the
Christians. His impartial silence does not allow us to believe,
that the great chamberlain Rhodanus was burnt alive for an act of
oppression, (Chron. Paschal. p. 392.) * Note: Ammianus does not
say that they were worshipped as martyrs. Onorum memoriam apud
Mediolanum colentes nunc usque Christiani loculos ubi sepulti
sunt, ad innocentes appellant. Wagner’s note in loco. Yet if the
next paragraph refers to that transaction, which is not quite
clear. Gibbon is right.—M.]
59 (return) [ Ut bene meritam in sylvas jussit abire Innoxiam.
Ammian. xxix. and Valesius ad locum.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part III.
But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of Valens
was not agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the
tyrant resumed the sentiments, or at least the conduct, of the
father of his country. The dispassionate judgment of the Western
emperor could clearly perceive, and accurately pursue, his own
and the public interest; and the sovereign of the East, who
imitated with equal docility the various examples which he
received from his elder brother, was sometimes guided by the
wisdom and virtue of the praefect Sallust. Both princes
invariably retained, in the purple, the chaste and temperate
simplicity which had adorned their private life; and, under their
reign, the pleasures of the court never cost the people a blush
or a sigh. They gradually reformed many of the abuses of the
times of Constantius; judiciously adopted and improved the
designs of Julian and his successor; and displayed a style and
spirit of legislation which might inspire posterity with the most
favorable opinion of their character and government. It is not
from the master of Innocence, that we should expect the tender
regard for the welfare of his subjects, which prompted
Valentinian to condemn the exposition of new-born infants; 60 and
to establish fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and
privileges, in the fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of
an illiterate soldier founded a useful and liberal institution
for the education of youth, and the support of declining science.
61 It was his intention, that the arts of rhetoric and grammar
should be taught in the Greek and Latin languages, in the
metropolis of every province; and as the size and dignity of the
school was usually proportioned to the importance of the city,
the academies of Rome and Constantinople claimed a just and
singular preeminence. The fragments of the literary edicts of
Valentinian imperfectly represent the school of Constantinople,
which was gradually improved by subsequent regulations. That
school consisted of thirty-one professors in different branches
of learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists, and
ten grammarians for the Greek, and three orators, and ten
grammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes, or, as
they were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens
supplied the public library with fair and correct copies of the
classic writers. The rule of conduct, which was prescribed to the
students, is the more curious, as it affords the first outlines
of the form and discipline of a modern university. It was
required, that they should bring proper certificates from the
magistrates of their native province. Their names, professions,
and places of abode, were regularly entered in a public register.
The studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their
time in feasts, or in the theatre; and the term of their
education was limited to the age of twenty. The praefect of the
city was empowered to chastise the idle and refractory by stripes
or expulsion; and he was directed to make an annual report to the
master of the offices, that the knowledge and abilities of the
scholars might be usefully applied to the public service. The
institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure the benefits of
peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by the
establishment of the Defensors; 62 freely elected as the tribunes
and advocates of the people, to support their rights, and to
expose their grievances, before the tribunals of the civil
magistrates, or even at the foot of the Imperial throne. The
finances were diligently administered by two princes, who had
been so long accustomed to the rigid economy of a private
fortune; but in the receipt and application of the revenue, a
discerning eye might observe some difference between the
government of the East and of the West. Valens was persuaded,
that royal liberality can be supplied only by public oppression,
and his ambition never aspired to secure, by their actual
distress, the future strength and prosperity of his people.
Instead of increasing the weight of taxes, which, in the space of
forty years, had been gradually doubled, he reduced, in the first
years of his reign, one fourth of the tribute of the East. 63
Valentinian appears to have been less attentive and less anxious
to relieve the burdens of his people. He might reform the abuses
of the fiscal administration; but he exacted, without scruple, a
very large share of the private property; as he was convinced,
that the revenues, which supported the luxury of individuals,
would be much more advantageously employed for the defence and
improvement of the state. The subjects of the East, who enjoyed
the present benefit, applauded the indulgence of their prince.
The solid but less splendid, merit of Valentinian was felt and
acknowledged by the subsequent generation. 64
60 (return) [ See the Code of Justinian, l. viii. tit. lii. leg.
2. Unusquisque sabolem suam nutriat. Quod si exponendam putaverit
animadversioni quae constituta est subjacebit. For the present I
shall not interfere in the dispute between Noodt and Binkershoek;
how far, or how long this unnatural practice had been condemned
or abolished by law philosophy, and the more civilized state of
society.]
61 (return) [ These salutary institutions are explained in the
Theodosian Code, l. xiii. tit. iii. De Professoribus et Medicis,
and l. xiv. tit. ix. De Studiis liberalibus Urbis Romoe. Besides
our usual guide, (Godefroy,) we may consult Giannone, (Istoria di
Napoli, tom. i. p. 105-111,) who has treated the interesting
subject with the zeal and curiosity of a man of latters who
studies his domestic history.]
62 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. i. tit. xi. with Godefroy’s
Paratitlon, which diligently gleans from the rest of the code.]
63 (return) [ Three lines of Ammianus (xxxi. 14) countenance a
whole oration of Themistius, (viii. p. 101-120,) full of
adulation, pedantry, and common-place morality. The eloquent M.
Thomas (tom. i. p. 366-396) has amused himself with celebrating
the virtues and genius of Themistius, who was not unworthy of the
age in which he lived.]
64 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 202. Ammian. xxx. 9. His
reformation of costly abuses might entitle him to the praise of,
in provinciales admodum parcus, tributorum ubique molliens
sarcinas. By some his frugality was styled avarice, (Jerom.
Chron. p. 186)]
But the most honorable circumstance of the character of
Valentinian, is the firm and temperate impartiality which he
uniformly preserved in an age of religious contention. His strong
sense, unenlightened, but uncorrupted, by study, declined, with
respectful indifference, the subtle questions of theological
debate. The government of the Earth claimed his vigilance, and
satisfied his ambition; and while he remembered that he was the
disciple of the church, he never forgot that he was the sovereign
of the clergy. Under the reign of an apostate, he had signalized
his zeal for the honor of Christianity: he allowed to his
subjects the privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they
might accept, with gratitude and confidence, the general
toleration which was granted by a prince addicted to passion, but
incapable of fear or of disguise. 65 The Pagans, the Jews, and
all the various sects which acknowledged the divine authority of
Christ, were protected by the laws from arbitrary power or
popular insult; nor was any mode of worship prohibited by
Valentinian, except those secret and criminal practices, which
abused the name of religion for the dark purposes of vice and
disorder. The art of magic, as it was more cruelly punished, was
more strictly proscribed: but the emperor admitted a formal
distinction to protect the ancient methods of divination, which
were approved by the senate, and exercised by the Tuscan
haruspices. He had condemned, with the consent of the most
rational Pagans, the license of nocturnal sacrifices; but he
immediately admitted the petition of Praetextatus, proconsul of
Achaia, who represented, that the life of the Greeks would become
dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived of the invaluable
blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can boast,
(and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy,) that
her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the
latent and deadly principle of fanaticism. But this truce of
twelve years, which was enforced by the wise and vigorous
government of Valentinian, by suspending the repetition of mutual
injuries, contributed to soften the manners, and abate the
prejudices, of the religious factions.
65 (return) [ Testes sunt leges a me in exordio Imperii mei
datae; quibus unicuique quod animo imbibisset colendi libera
facultas tributa est. Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit. xvi. leg. 9. To
this declaration of Valentinian, we may add the various
testimonies of Ammianus, (xxx. 9,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 204,) and
Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 7, 21.) Baronius would naturally blame such
rational toleration, (Annal. Eccles A. D. 370, No. 129-132, A. D.
376, No. 3, 4.) ——Comme il s’etait prescrit pour regle de ne
point se meler de disputes de religion, son histoire est presque
entierement degagee des affaires ecclesiastiques. Le Beau. iii.
214.—M.]
The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance
from the scene of the fiercest controversies. As soon as the
Christians of the West had extricated themselves from the snares
of the creed of Rimini, they happily relapsed into the slumber of
orthodoxy; and the small remains of the Arian party, that still
subsisted at Sirmium or Milan, might be considered rather as
objects of contempt than of resentment. But in the provinces of
the East, from the Euxine to the extremity of Thebais, the
strength and numbers of the hostile factions were more equally
balanced; and this equality, instead of recommending the counsels
of peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religious war.
The monks and bishops supported their arguments by invectives;
and their invectives were sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius
still reigned at Alexandria; the thrones of Constantinople and
Antioch were occupied by Arian prelates, and every episcopal
vacancy was the occasion of a popular tumult. The Homoousians
were fortified by the reconciliation of fifty-nine Macelonian, or
Semi-Arian, bishops; but their secret reluctance to embrace the
divinity of the Holy Ghost, clouded the splendor of the triumph;
and the declaration of Valens, who, in the first years of his
reign, had imitated the impartial conduct of his brother, was an
important victory on the side of Arianism. The two brothers had
passed their private life in the condition of catechumens; but
the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament of
baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic
war. He naturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, 66 6611 bishop of
the Imperial city; and if the ignorant monarch was instructed by
that Arian pastor in the principles of heterodox theology, his
misfortune, rather than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence
of his erroneous choice. Whatever had been the determination of
the emperor, he must have offended a numerous party of his
Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the Homoousians and of
the Arians believed, that, if they were not suffered to reign,
they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken
this decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to
preserve either the virtue, or the reputation of impartiality. He
never aspired, like Constantius, to the fame of a profound
theologian; but as he had received with simplicity and respect
the tenets of Euxodus, Valens resigned his conscience to the
direction of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted, by the
influence of his authority, the reunion of the Athanasian
heretics to the body of the Catholic church. At first, he pitied
their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy;
and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object
of hatred. 67 The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the
persons with whom he familiarly conversed; and the exile or
imprisonment of a private citizen are the favors the most readily
granted in a despotic court. Such punishments were frequently
inflicted on the leaders of the Homoousian party; and the
misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of Constantinople, who,
perhaps accidentally, were burned on shipboard, was imputed to
the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor, and his Arian
ministers. In every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipate
that name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults,
and of those of their adversaries. In every election, the claims
of the Arian candidate obtained the preference; and if they were
opposed by the majority of the people, he was usually supported
by the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the terrors
of a military force. The enemies of Athanasius attempted to
disturb the last years of his venerable age; and his temporary
retreat to his father’s sepulchre has been celebrated as a fifth
exile. But the zeal of a great people, who instantly flew to
arms, intimidated the praefect: and the archbishop was permitted
to end his life in peace and in glory, after a reign of
forty-seven years. The death of Athanasius was the signal of the
persecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who
forcibly seated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal
throne, purchased the favor of the reigning party, by the blood
and sufferings of their Christian brethren. The free toleration
of the heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly lamented, as a
circumstance which aggravated the misery of the Catholics, and
the guilt of the impious tyrant of the East. 68
66 (return) [ Eudoxus was of a mild and timid disposition. When
he baptized Valens, (A. D. 367,) he must have been extremely old;
since he had studied theology fifty-five years before, under
Lucian, a learned and pious martyr. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 14-16,
l. iv. c. 4, with Godefroy, p 82, 206, and Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. v. p. 471-480, &c.]
6611 (return) [ Through the influence of his wife say the
ecclesiastical writers.—M.]
67 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxv. p. 432) insults the
persecuting spirit of the Arians, as an infallible symptom of
error and heresy.]
68 (return) [ This sketch of the ecclesiastical government of
Valens is drawn from Socrates, (l. iv.,) Sozomen, (l. vi.,)
Theodoret, (l. iv.,) and the immense compilations of Tillemont,
(particularly tom. vi. viii. and ix.)]
The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of
persecution on the memory of Valens; and the character of a
prince who derived his virtues, as well as his vices, from a
feeble understanding and a pusillanimous temper, scarcely
deserves the labor of an apology. Yet candor may discover some
reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical ministers of Valens
often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions, of their
master; and that the real measure of facts has been very
liberally magnified by the vehement declamation and easy
credulity of his antagonists. 69 1. The silence of Valentinian
may suggest a probable argument that the partial severities,
which were exercised in the name and provinces of his colleague,
amounted only to some obscure and inconsiderable deviations from
the established system of religious toleration: and the judicious
historian, who has praised the equal temper of the elder brother,
has not thought himself obliged to contrast the tranquillity of
the West with the cruel persecution of the East. 70 2. Whatever
credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, the
character, or at least the behavior, of Valens, may be most
distinctly seen in his personal transactions with the eloquent
Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, who had succeeded Athanasius in
the management of the Trinitarian cause. 71 The circumstantial
narrative has been composed by the friends and admirers of Basil;
and as soon as we have stripped away a thick coat of rhetoric and
miracle, we shall be astonished by the unexpected mildness of the
Arian tyrant, who admired the firmness of his character, or was
apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a general revolt in the
province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted, with
inflexible pride, 72 the truth of his opinions, and the dignity
of his rank, was left in the free possession of his conscience
and his throne. The emperor devoutly assisted at the solemn
service of the cathedral; and, instead of a sentence of
banishment, subscribed the donation of a valuable estate for the
use of a hospital, which Basil had lately founded in the
neighborhood of Caesarea. 73 3. I am not able to discover, that
any law (such as Theodosius afterwards enacted against the
Arians) was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries;
and the edict which excited the most violent clamors, may not
appear so extremely reprehensible. The emperor had observed, that
several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy disposition under
the pretence of religion, had associated themselves with the
monks of Egypt; and he directed the count of the East to drag
them from their solitude; and to compel these deserters of
society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing their
temporal possessions, or of discharging the public duties of men
and citizens. 74 The ministers of Valens seem to have extended
the sense of this penal statute, since they claimed a right of
enlisting the young and ablebodied monks in the Imperial armies.
A detachment of cavalry and infantry, consisting of three
thousand men, marched from Alexandria into the adjacent desert of
Nitria, 75 which was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers
were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported, that a
considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries which
disobeyed the commands of their sovereign. 76
69 (return) [ Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol.
iv. p. 78) has already conceived and intimated the same
suspicion.]
70 (return) [ This reflection is so obvious and forcible, that
Orosius (l. vii. c. 32, 33,) delays the persecution till after
the death of Valentinian. Socrates, on the other hand, supposes,
(l. iii. c. 32,) that it was appeased by a philosophical oration,
which Themistius pronounced in the year 374, (Orat. xii. p. 154,
in Latin only.) Such contradictions diminish the evidence, and
reduce the term, of the persecution of Valens.]
71 (return) [ Tillemont, whom I follow and abridge, has extracted
(Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 153-167) the most authentic
circumstances from the Panegyrics of the two Gregories; the
brother, and the friend, of Basil. The letters of Basil himself
(Dupin, Bibliotheque, Ecclesiastique, tom. ii. p. 155-180) do not
present the image of a very lively persecution.]
72 (return) [ Basilius Caesariensis episcopus Cappadociae clarus
habetur... qui multa continentiae et ingenii bona uno superbiae
malo perdidit. This irreverent passage is perfectly in the style
and character of St. Jerom. It does not appear in Scaliger’s
edition of his Chronicle; but Isaac Vossius found it in some old
Mss. which had not been reformed by the monks.]
73 (return) [ This noble and charitable foundation (almost a new
city) surpassed in merit, if not in greatness, the pyramids, or
the walls of Babylon. It was principally intended for the
reception of lepers, (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. xx. p. 439.)]
74 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xii. tit. i. leg. 63. Godefroy
(tom. iv. p. 409-413) performs the duty of a commentator and
advocate. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 808) supposes a
second law to excuse his orthodox friends, who had misrepresented
the edict of Valens, and suppressed the liberty of choice.]
75 (return) [ See D’Anville, Description de l’Egypte, p. 74.
Hereafter I shall consider the monastic institutions.]
76 (return) [ Socrates, l. iv. c. 24, 25. Orosius, l. vii. c. 33.
Jerom. in Chron. p. 189, and tom. ii. p. 212. The monks of Egypt
performed many miracles, which prove the truth of their faith.
Right, says Jortin, (Remarks, vol iv. p. 79,) but what proves the
truth of those miracles.]
The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of
modern legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the
clergy, may be originally deduced from the example of the emperor
Valentinian. His edict, 77 addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome,
was publicly read in the churches of the city. He admonished the
ecclesiastics and monks not to frequent the houses of widows and
virgins; and menaced their disobedience with the animadversion of
the civil judge. The director was no longer permitted to receive
any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his
spiritual-daughter: every testament contrary to this edict was
declared null and void; and the illegal donation was confiscated
for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation, it
should seem, that the same provisions were extended to nuns and
bishops; and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were
rendered incapable of receiving any testamentary gifts, and
strictly confined to the natural and legal rights of inheritance.
As the guardian of domestic happiness and virtue, Valentinian
applied this severe remedy to the growing evil. In the capital of
the empire, the females of noble and opulent houses possessed a
very ample share of independent property: and many of those
devout females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity, not
only with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the
warmth of affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of fashion.
They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxury; and renounced,
for the praise of chastity, the soft endearments of conjugal
society. Some ecclesiastic, of real or apparent sanctity, was
chosen to direct their timorous conscience, and to amuse the
vacant tenderness of their heart: and the unbounded confidence,
which they hastily bestowed, was often abused by knaves and
enthusiasts; who hastened from the extremities of the East, to
enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the privileges of the monastic
profession. By their contempt of the world, they insensibly
acquired its most desirable advantages; the lively attachment,
perhaps of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an
opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves, the
freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The immense
fortunes of the Roman ladies were gradually consumed in lavish
alms and expensive pilgrimages; and the artful monk, who had
assigned himself the first, or possibly the sole place, in the
testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumed to declare,
with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he was only the
instrument of charity, and the steward of the poor. The
lucrative, but disgraceful, trade, 78 which was exercised by the
clergy to defraud the expectations of the natural heirs, had
provoked the indignation of a superstitious age: and two of the
most respectable of the Latin fathers very honestly confess, that
the ignominious edict of Valentinian was just and necessary; and
that the Christian priests had deserved to lose a privilege,
which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and the
ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the
legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant
dexterity of private interest; and Jerom, or Ambrose, might
patiently acquiesce in the justice of an ineffectual or salutary
law. If the ecclesiastics were checked in the pursuit of personal
emolument, they would exert a more laudable industry to increase
the wealth of the church; and dignify their covetousness with the
specious names of piety and patriotism. 79
77 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 20. Godefroy,
(tom. vi. p. 49,) after the example of Baronius, impartially
collects all that the fathers have said on the subject of this
important law; whose spirit was long afterwards revived by the
emperor Frederic II., Edward I. of England, and other Christian
princes who reigned after the twelfth century.]
78 (return) [ The expressions which I have used are temperate and
feeble, if compared with the vehement invectives of Jerom, (tom.
i. p. 13, 45, 144, &c.) In his turn he was reproached with the
guilt which he imputed to his brother monks; and the Sceleratus,
the Versipellis, was publicly accused as the lover of the widow
Paula, (tom. ii. p. 363.) He undoubtedly possessed the affection,
both of the mother and the daughter; but he declares that he
never abused his influence to any selfish or sensual purpose.]
79 (return) [ Pudet dicere, sacerdotes idolorum, mimi et aurigae,
et scorta, haereditates capiunt: solis clericis ac monachis hac
lege prohibetur. Et non prohibetur a persecutoribus, sed a
principibus Christianis. Nec de lege queror; sed doleo cur
meruerimus hanc legem. Jerom (tom. i. p. 13) discreetly
insinuates the secret policy of his patron Damasus.]
Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatize the
avarice of his clergy by the publication of the law of
Valentinian, had the good sense, or the good fortune, to engage
in his service the zeal and abilities of the learned Jerom; and
the grateful saint has celebrated the merit and purity of a very
ambiguous character. 80 But the splendid vices of the church of
Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, have been
curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his
impartial sense in these expressive words: “The praefecture of
Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty, but the
tranquillity of his government was soon disturbed by a bloody
sedition of the distracted people. The ardor of Damasus and
Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat, surpassed the ordinary
measure of human ambition. They contended with the rage of party;
the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death of their
followers; and the praefect, unable to resist or appease the
tumult, was constrained, by superior violence, to retire into the
suburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on
the side of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies
81 were found in the Basilica of Sicininus, 82 where the
Christians hold their religious assemblies; and it was long
before the angry minds of the people resumed their accustomed
tranquillity. When I consider the splendor of the capital, I am
not astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame the
desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most
obstinate contests. The successful candidate is secure, that he
will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; 83 that, as soon as
his dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may
proceed, in his chariot, through the streets of Rome; 84 and that
the sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the
profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at
the expense, of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally
(continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their
true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city
as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary
life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety,
whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommend their pure and
modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers!” 85 The
schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of
the latter; and the wisdom of the praefect Praetextatus 86
restored the tranquillity of the city. Praetextatus was a
philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness;
who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured
Damasus, that if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he
himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion. 87 This
lively picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the
fourth century becomes the more curious, as it represents the
intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic
fishermen, and the royal state of a temporal prince, whose
dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the
Po.
80 (return) [ Three words of Jerom, sanctoe memorioe Damasus
(tom. ii. p. 109,) wash away all his stains, and blind the devout
eyes of Tillemont. (Mem Eccles. tom. viii. p. 386-424.)]
81 (return) [ Jerom himself is forced to allow, crudelissimae
interfectiones diversi sexus perpetratae, (in Chron. p. 186.) But
an original libel, or petition of two presbyters of the adverse
party, has unaccountably escaped. They affirm that the doors of
the Basilica were burnt, and that the roof was untiled; that
Damasus marched at the head of his own clergy, grave-diggers,
charioteers, and hired gladiators; that none of his party were
killed, but that one hundred and sixty dead bodies were found.
This petition is published by the P. Sirmond, in the first volume
of his work.]
82 (return) [ The Basilica of Sicininus, or Liberius, is probably
the church of Sancta Maria Maggiore, on the Esquiline hill.
Baronius, A. D. 367 No. 3; and Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l.
iv. c. 3, p. 462.]
83 (return) [ The enemies of Damasus styled him Auriscalpius
Matronarum the ladies’ ear-scratcher.]
84 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxxii. p. 526) describes
the pride and luxury of the prelates who reigned in the Imperial
cities; their gilt car, fiery steeds, numerous train, &c. The
crowd gave way as to a wild beast.]
85 (return) [ Ammian. xxvii. 3. Perpetuo Numini, verisque ejus
cultoribus. The incomparable pliancy of a polytheist!]
86 (return) [ Ammianus, who makes a fair report of his
praefecture (xxvii. 9) styles him praeclarae indolis,
gravitatisque senator, (xxii. 7, and Vales. ad loc.) A curious
inscription (Grutor MCII. No. 2) records, in two columns, his
religious and civil honors. In one line he was Pontiff of the
Sun, and of Vesta, Augur, Quindecemvir, Hierophant, &c., &c. In
the other, 1. Quaestor candidatus, more probably titular. 2.
Praetor. 3. Corrector of Tuscany and Umbria. 4. Consular of
Lusitania. 5. Proconsul of Achaia. 6. Praefect of Rome. 7.
Praetorian praefect of Italy. 8. Of Illyricum. 9. Consul elect;
but he died before the beginning of the year 385. See Tillemont,
Hist. des Empereurs, tom v. p. 241, 736.]
87 (return) [ Facite me Romanae urbis episcopum; et ero protinus
Christianus (Jerom, tom. ii. p. 165.) It is more than probable
that Damasus would not have purchased his conversion at such a
price.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part IV.
When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the
sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his
reputation in arms, his military skill and experience, and his
rigid attachment to the forms, as well as spirit, of ancient
discipline, were the principal motives of their judicious choice.
The eagerness of the troops, who pressed him to nominate his
colleague, was justified by the dangerous situation of public
affairs; and Valentinian himself was conscious, that the
abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of
the distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as the
death of Julian had relieved the Barbarians from the terror of
his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited
the nations of the East, of the North, and of the South. Their
inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but,
during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his firmness
and vigilance protected his own dominions; and his powerful
genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble counsels of his
brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly express
the urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the
attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted by a
tedious and desultory narrative. A separate view of the five
great theatres of war; I. Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa; IV.
The East; and, V. The Danube; will impress a more distinct image
of the military state of the empire under the reigns of
Valentinian and Valens.
I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh
and haughty behavior of Ursacius, master of the offices; 88 who
by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as
well as the quantity, of the presents to which they were
entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession of a new
emperor. They expressed, and they communicated to their
countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The
irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion
of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard.
Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were
in flames; before his general Degalaiphus could encounter the
Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the
forests of Germany. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the
military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid columns,
broke through the barrier of the Rhine, during the severity of a
northern winter. Two Roman counts were defeated and mortally
wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into
the hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts
and menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was
recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their
disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the
opinion of Valentinian, that his soldiers must learn to fear
their commander, before they could cease to fear the enemy. The
troops were solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were
enclosed within the circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then
ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish
cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy
on the officers, whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to
be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were degraded
from their rank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold
for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence,
the troops fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the
indignation of their sovereign, and protested, that, if he would
indulge them in another trial, they would approve themselves not
unworthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers. Valentinian,
with affected reluctance, yielded to their entreaties; the
Batavians resumed their arms, and with their arms, the invincible
resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the
Alemanni. 89 The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus;
and that experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with
too much prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking,
had the mortification, before the end of the campaign, of seeing
his rival Jovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive
advantage over the scattered forces of the Barbarians. At the
head of a well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry, and light
troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to
Scarponna, 90 9011 in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a
large division of the Alemanni, before they had time to run to
their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidence of an
easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army, of
the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacent
country, reposed themselves on the shady banks of the Moselle.
Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eye of a general,
made a silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he
could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans.
Some were bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were
combing their long and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing
large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard
the sound of the Roman trumpet; they saw the enemy in their camp.
Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was followed by flight
and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravest warriors
was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries and
auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most
considerable, camp, in the Catalonian plains, near Chalons in
Champagne: the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to
their standard; and the Barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished
by the fate of their companions, prepared to encounter, in a
decisive battle, the victorious forces of the lieutenant of
Valentinian. The bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole
summer’s day, with equal valor, and with alternate success. The
Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred
men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were
wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant
of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned to
Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign, and the ensigns
of the consulship for the ensuing year. 91 The triumph of the
Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king,
whom they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their
indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might
be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the
deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair; a German
prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and
formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated and
protected by the Romans; 92 and the violation of the laws of
humanity and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the
weakness of the declining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom
adopted in public councils, as long as they retain any confidence
in the power of the sword.
88 (return) [ Ammian, xxvi. 5. Valesius adds a long and good note
on the master of the offices.]
89 (return) [ Ammian. xxvii. 1. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 208. The
disgrace of the Batavians is suppressed by the contemporary
soldier, from a regard for military honor, which could not affect
a Greek rhetorician of the succeeding age.]
90 (return) [ See D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 587.
The name of the Moselle, which is not specified by Ammianus, is
clearly understood by Mascou, (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, vii.
2)]
9011 (return) [ Charpeigne on the Moselle. Mannert—M.]
91 (return) [ The battles are described by Ammianus, (xxvii. 2,)
and by Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 209,) who supposes Valentinian to have
been present.]
92 (return) [ Studio solicitante nostrorum, occubuit. Ammian
xxvii. 10.]
While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent
calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the
unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city
of the Upper Germany. In the unsuspicious moment of a Christian
festival, 9211 Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long
meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine; entered the
defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of captives of
either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on
the whole body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of
Italy and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most
probably on the side of Rhaetia. The emperor in person,
accompanied by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a
formidable army, which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus
and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry and infantry
of the West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation of
their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty, and almost
inaccessible, mountain, in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and
resolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of
Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid
curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and
unguarded path. A troop of Barbarians suddenly rose from their
ambuscade: and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his horse down
a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his
armor-bearer, and his helmet, magnificently enriched with gold
and precious stones. At the signal of the general assault, the
Roman troops encompassed and ascended the mountain of Solicinium
on three different sides. 9212 Every step which they gained,
increased their ardor, and abated the resistance of the enemy:
and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the
hill, they impetuously urged the Barbarians down the northern
descent, where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their
retreat. After this signal victory, Valentinian returned to his
winter quarters at Treves; where he indulged the public joy by
the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games. 93 But the wise
monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany, confined
his attention to the important and laborious defence of the
Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed by a
stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the
most distant tribes of the North. 94 The banks of the Rhine 9411
from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted
with strong castles and convenient towers; new works, and new
arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled
in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and
Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of
war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by
modest representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts,
secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years
of the administration of Valentinian. 95
9211 (return) [ Probably Easter. Wagner.—M.]
9212 (return) [ Mannert is unable to fix the position of
Solicinium. Haefelin (in Comm Acad Elect. Palat. v. 14)
conjectures Schwetzingen, near Heidelberg. See Wagner’s note. St.
Martin, Sultz in Wirtemberg, near the sources of the Neckar St.
Martin, iii. 339.—M.]
93 (return) [ The expedition of Valentinian is related by
Ammianus, (xxvii. 10;) and celebrated by Ausonius, (Mosell. 421,
&c.,) who foolishly supposes, that the Romans were ignorant of
the sources of the Danube.]
94 (return) [ Immanis enim natio, jam inde ab incunabulis primis
varietate casuum imminuta; ita saepius adolescit, ut fuisse
longis saeculis aestimetur intacta. Ammianus, xxviii. 5. The
Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vi. p. 370)
ascribes the fecundity of the Alemanni to their easy adoption of
strangers. ——Note: “This explanation,” says Mr. Malthus, “only
removes the difficulty a little farther off. It makes the earth
rest upon the tortoise, but does not tell us on what the tortoise
rests. We may still ask what northern reservoir supplied this
incessant stream of daring adventurers. Montesquieu’s solution of
the problem will, I think, hardly be admitted, (Grandeur et
Decadence des Romains, c. 16, p. 187.) * * * The whole
difficulty, however, is at once removed, if we apply to the
German nations, at that time, a fact which is so generally known
to have occurred in America, and suppose that, when not checked
by wars and famine, they increased at a rate that would double
their numbers in twenty-five or thirty years. The propriety, and
even the necessity, of applying this rate of increase to the
inhabitants of ancient Germany, will strikingly appear from that
most valuable picture of their manners which has been left us by
Tacitus, (Tac. de Mor. Germ. 16 to 20.) * * * With these manners,
and a habit of enterprise and emigration, which would naturally
remove all fears about providing for a family, it is difficult to
conceive a society with a stronger principle of increase in it,
and we see at once that prolific source of armies and colonies
against which the force of the Roman empire so long struggled
with difficulty, and under which it ultimately sunk. It is not
probable that, for two periods together, or even for one, the
population within the confines of Germany ever doubled itself in
twenty-five years. Their perpetual wars, the rude state of
agriculture, and particularly the very strange custom adopted by
most of the tribes of marking their barriers by extensive
deserts, would prevent any very great actual increase of numbers.
At no one period could the country be called well peopled, though
it was often redundant in population. * * * Instead of clearing
their forests, draining their swamps, and rendering their soil
fit to support an extended population, they found it more
congenial to their martial habits and impatient dispositions to
go in quest of food, of plunder, or of glory, into other
countries.” Malthus on Population, i. p. 128.—G.]
9411 (return) [ The course of the Neckar was likewise strongly
guarded. The hyperbolical eulogy of Symmachus asserts that the
Neckar first became known to the Romans by the conquests and
fortifications of Valentinian. Nunc primum victoriis tuis
externus fluvius publicatur. Gaudeat servitute, captivus
innotuit. Symm. Orat. p. 22.—M.]
95 (return) [ Ammian. xxviii. 2. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 214. The
younger Victor mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian,
nova arma meditari fingere terra seu limo simulacra.]
That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims of
Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine
divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the
fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia,
on either side of the Elbe, were occupied by the vague dominion
of the Burgundians; a warlike and numerous people, 9511 of the
Vandal race, 96 whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a
powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing
province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners
of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their
civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of
Hendinos was given to the king or general, and the title of
Sinistus to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the
priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal
government was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of
war accuses the courage or conduct of the king, he was
immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects made him
responsible for the fertility of the earth, and the regularity of
the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the
sacerdotal department. 97 The disputed possession of some
salt-pits 98 engaged the Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent
contests: the latter were easily tempted, by the secret
solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor; and their
fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers, who had formerly been
left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus, was admitted with
mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest. 99 An
army of fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks
of the Rhine; and impatiently required the support and subsidies
which Valentinian had promised: but they were amused with excuses
and delays, till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they
were compelled to retire. The arms and fortifications of the
Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just resentment; and
their massacre of the captives served to imbitter the hereditary
feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a
wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by some alteration of
circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of
Valentinian to intimidate, rather than to destroy; as the balance
of power would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of
either of the German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni,
Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a
soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The
emperor himself, with a light and unencumbered band, condescended
to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and
would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if his
judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the
troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honor of a
personal conference with the emperor; and the favors which he
received, fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and
sincere friend of the republic. 100
9511 (return) [ According to the general opinion, the Burgundians
formed a Gothic o Vandalic tribe, who, from the banks of the
Lower Vistula, made incursions, on one side towards Transylvania,
on the other towards the centre of Germany. All that remains of
the Burgundian language is Gothic. * * * Nothing in their customs
indicates a different origin. Malte Brun, Geog. tom. i. p. 396.
(edit. 1831.)—M.]
96 (return) [ Bellicosos et pubis immensae viribus affluentes; et
ideo metuendos finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5.]
97 (return) [ I am always apt to suspect historians and
travellers of improving extraordinary facts into general laws.
Ammianus ascribes a similar custom to Egypt; and the Chinese have
imputed it to the Ta-tsin, or Roman empire, (De Guignes, Hist.
des Huns, tom. ii. part. 79.)]
98 (return) [ Salinarum finiumque causa Alemannis saepe
jurgabant. Ammian xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the
possession of the Sala, a river which produced salt, and which
had been the object of ancient contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii.
57, and Lipsius ad loc.]
99 (return) [ Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam
Burgundii sciunt: and the vague tradition gradually assumed a
more regular form, (Oros. l. vii. c. 32.) It is annihilated by
the decisive authority of Pliny, who composed the History of
Drusus, and served in Germany, (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5,)
within sixty years after the death of that hero. Germanorum
genera quinque; Vindili, quorum pars Burgundiones, &c., (Hist.
Natur. iv. 28.)]
100 (return) [ The wars and negotiations relative to the
Burgundians and Alemanni, are distinctly related by Ammianus
Marcellinus, (xxviii. 5, xxix 4, xxx. 3.) Orosius, (l. vii. c.
32,) and the Chronicles of Jerom and Cassiodorus, fix some dates,
and add some circumstances.]
The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but
the sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations
of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and
domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps
of Ptolemy, it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric
peninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbe.
101 This contracted territory, the present duchy of Sleswig, or
perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the
inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who
filled the British island with their language, their laws, and
their colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the North
against the arms of Charlemagne. 102 The solution of this
difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners, and loose
constitution, of the tribes of Germany; which were blended with
each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The
situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the
hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success
of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of
their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy
solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float
down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and
intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect
of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown
worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous
auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt
along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships,
the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the
difficulty of issuing through the northern columns of Hercules
103 (which, during several months of the year, are obstructed
with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a
spacious lake. The rumor of the successful armaments which sailed
from the mouth of the Elbe, would soon provoke them to cross the
narrow isthmus of Sleswig, and to launch their vessels on the
great sea. The various troops of pirates and adventurers, who
fought under the same standard, were insensibly united in a
permanent society, at first of rapine, and afterwards of
government. A military confederation was gradually moulded into a
national body, by the gentle operation of marriage and
consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the
alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact
were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we
should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers, by the
description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to
sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and
the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat-bottomed boats
were framed of light timber, but the sides and upper works
consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. 104 In
the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must
always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to
the misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons
were undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which
they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring
spirit of the pirates braved the perils both of the sea and of
the shore: their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise;
the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an
oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel, and the Saxons
rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their
design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. 105 After they had
acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the
West, they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most
sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security.
The Saxon boats drew so little water that they could easily
proceed fourscore or a hundred miles up the great rivers; their
weight was so inconsiderable, that they were transported on
wagons from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered
the mouth of the Seine, or of the Rhine, might descend, with the
rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the
reign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces of Gaul were
afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the
defence of the sea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer,
who found his strength, or his abilities, unequal to the task,
implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the
infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and outnumbered, were forced to
relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall
and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They stipulated
only a safe and honorable retreat; and the condition was readily
granted by the Roman general, who meditated an act of perfidy,
106 imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive,
and in arms, to revenge the fate of their countrymen. The
premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in
a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps
have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body
of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not
hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm
the undaunted valor of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were
saved from the edge of the sword, to shed their blood in the
amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus complains, that
twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves
with their own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the
public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome were
impressed with the deepest horror, when they were informed, that
the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tithe of their human
spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the
barbarous sacrifice. 107
101 (return) [ At the northern extremity of the peninsula, (the
Cimbric promontory of Pliny, iv. 27,) Ptolemy fixes the remnant
of the Cimbri. He fills the interval between the Saxons and the
Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who were united, as early as the
sixth century, under the national appellation of Danes. See
Cluver. German. Antiq. l. iii. c. 21, 22, 23.]
102 (return) [ M. D’Anville (Establissement des Etats de
l’Europe, &c., p. 19-26) has marked the extensive limits of the
Saxony of Charlemagne.]
103 (return) [ The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to
pass, or even to approach, the Sound, (styled, from an obvious
resemblance, the columns of Hercules,) and the naval enterprise
was never resumed, (Tacit. de Moribus German. c. 34.) The
knowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of the
Baltic, (c. 44, 45) was obtained by their land journeys in search
of amber.]
104 (return) [ Quin et Aremoricus piratam Saxona tractus
Sperabat; cui pelle salum sulcare Britannum Ludus; et assuto
glaucum mare findere lembo Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit. 369.
The genius of Caesar imitated, for a particular service, these
rude, but light vessels, which were likewise used by the natives
of Britain. (Comment. de Bell. Civil. i. 51, and Guichardt,
Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, tom. ii. p. 41, 42.) The British
vessels would now astonish the genius of Caesar.]
105 (return) [ The best original account of the Saxon pirates may
be found in Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. viii. epist. 6, p. 223,
edit. Sirmond,) and the best commentary in the Abbe du Bos,
(Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Francoise, &c. tom. i. l. i. c.
16, p. 148-155. See likewise p. 77, 78.)]
106 (return) [ Ammian. (xxviii. 5) justifies this breach of faith
to pirates and robbers; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 32) more clearly
expresses their real guilt; virtute atque agilitate terribeles.]
107 (return) [ Symmachus (l. ii. epist. 46) still presumes to
mention the sacred name of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius,
bishop of Clermont, might condemn, (l. viii. epist. 6,) with less
inconsistency, the human sacrifices of the Saxons.]
II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of
Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and
amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, have insensibly
vanished in the light of science and philosophy. 108 The present
age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion, that the
islands of Great Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from
the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, to the
extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin
was distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of
language, of religion, and of manners; and the peculiar
characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to
the influence of accidental and local circumstances. 109 The
Roman Province was reduced to the state of civilized and peaceful
servitude; the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the
narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern
region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine,
between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts, 110
who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power,
and almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by
their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for
ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by
an equal and voluntary union, the honors of the English name. The
hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinctions
of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills, and
the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may
be considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a
rude state of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable
quantity of corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters,
expressed the contempt or envy of the carnivorous highlander. The
cultivation of the earth might introduce a more accurate
separation of property, and the habits of a sedentary life; but
the love of arms and rapine was still the ruling passion of the
Picts; and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of
battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the
strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colors
and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly
rises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil
of the husbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture
of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of
shepherds and hunters; and, as they seldom were fixed to any
permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scots,
which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be equivalent to that of
wanderers, or vagrants. The inhabitants of a barren land were
urged to seek a fresh supply of food in the waters. The deep
lakes and bays which intersect their country, are plentifully
supplied with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their
nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so
profusely scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted
their curiosity, and improved their skill; and they acquired, by
slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing their
boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering their nocturnal
course by the light of the well-known stars. The two bold
headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious
island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the
epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slight alteration,
the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable, that in
some remote period of antiquity, the fertile plains of Ulster
received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the
North, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread
their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a
solitary island. It is certain, that, in the declining age of the
Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, were
inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were
often associated in military enterprise, were deeply affected by
the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long
cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin;
and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the
light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain
opinion, that their Irish countrymen were the natural, as well as
spiritual, fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure
tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered
some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century. On
this slight foundation, a huge superstructure of fable was
gradually reared, by the bards and the monks; two orders of men,
who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation,
with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy; and the
annals of a long line of imaginary kings have been adorned by the
fancy of Boethius, and the classic elegance of Buchanan. 111
108 (return) [ In the beginning of the last century, the learned
Camden was obliged to undermine, with respectful scepticism, the
romance of Brutus, the Trojan; who is now buried in silent
oblivion with Scota the daughter of Pharaoh, and her numerous
progeny. Yet I am informed, that some champions of the Milesian
colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland.
A people dissatisfied with their present condition, grasp at any
visions of their past or future glory.]
109 (return) [ Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law, Agricola,
might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some British
tribes. But it was their sober, deliberate opinion: “In universum
tamen aestimanti Gallos cicinum solum occupasse credibile est.
Eorum sacra deprehendas.... ermo haud multum diversus,” (in Vit.
Agricol. c. xi.) Caesar had observed their common religion,
(Comment. de Bello Gallico, vi. 13;) and in his time the
emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an
historical event, (v. 10.) Camden, the British Strabo, has
modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities, (Britannia, vol. i.
Introduction, p. ii.—xxxi.)]
110 (return) [ In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian
antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious
Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly
qualified for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the
Origin and Antiquities, &c., of the Caledonians, by Dr. John
Macpherson, London 1768, in 4to.; and Introduction to the History
of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq., London
1773, in 4to., third edit. Dr. Macpherson was a minister in the
Isle of Sky: and it is a circumstance honorable for the present
age, that a work, replete with erudition and criticism, should
have been composed in the most remote of the Hebrides.]
111 (return) [ The Irish descent of the Scots has been revived in
the last moments of its decay, and strenuously supported, by the
Rev. Mr. Whitaker, (Hist. of Manchester, vol. i. p. 430, 431; and
Genuine History of the Britons asserted, &c., p. 154-293) Yet he
acknowledges, 1. That the Scots of Ammianus Marcellinus (A.D.
340) were already settled in Caledonia; and that the Roman
authors do not afford any hints of their emigration from another
country. 2. That all the accounts of such emigrations, which have
been asserted or received, by Irish bards, Scotch historians, or
English antiquaries, (Buchanan, Camden, Usher, Stillingfleet,
&c.,) are totally fabulous. 3. That three of the Irish tribes,
which are mentioned by Ptolemy, (A.D. 150,) were of Caledonian
extraction. 4. That a younger branch of Caledonian princes, of
the house of Fingal, acquired and possessed the monarchy of
Ireland. After these concessions, the remaining difference
between Mr. Whitaker and his adversaries is minute and obscure.
The genuine history, which he produces, of a Fergus, the cousin
of Ossian, who was transplanted (A.D. 320) from Ireland to
Caledonia, is built on a conjectural supplement to the Erse
poetry, and the feeble evidence of Richard of Cirencester, a monk
of the fourteenth century. The lively spirit of the learned and
ingenious antiquarian has tempted him to forget the nature of a
question, which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely
decides. * Note: This controversy has not slumbered since the
days of Gibbon. We have strenuous advocates of the Phoenician
origin of the Irish, and each of the old theories, with several
new ones, maintains its partisans. It would require several pages
fairly to bring down the dispute to our own days, and perhaps we
should be no nearer to any satisfactory theory than Gibbon was.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part V.
Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads
of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son,
who reigned in the Western empire. Constans visited his British
dominions: but we may form some estimate of the importance of his
achievements, by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only
his triumph over the elements or, in other words, the good
fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to
the harbor of Sandwich. 112 The calamities which the afflicted
provincials continued to experience, from foreign war and
domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt
administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient
relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian, was
soon lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums
of gold and silver, which had been painfully collected, or
liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were
intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at
least, exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold;
the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of
their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent
desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the
highways were infested with robbers. 113 The oppression of the
good, and the impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to
diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and
every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a
reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted government
of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who detested the
pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their
domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the land and sea, the
Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid
and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores
of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of
convenience and luxury, which they were incapable of creating by
labor or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and
fruitful province of Britain. 114 A philosopher may deplore the
eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the
desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of
conquest. From the age of Constantine to the Plantagenets, this
rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy
Caledonians; but the same people, whose generous humanity seems
to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage
ignorance of the virtues of peace, and of the laws of war. Their
southern neighbors have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel
depredations of the Scots and Picts; 115 and a valiant tribe of
Caledonia, the Attacotti, 116 the enemies, and afterwards the
soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of
delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the
woods for prey, it is said, that they attacked the shepherd
rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most
delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they
prepared for their horrid repasts. 117 If, in the neighborhood of
the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals
has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the
Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized
life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas;
and to encourage the pleasing hope, that New Zealand may produce,
in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.
112 (return) [ Hyeme tumentes ac saevientes undas calcastis
Oceani sub remis vestris;... insperatam imperatoris faciem
Britannus expavit. Julius Fermicus Maternus de Errore Profan.
Relig. p. 464. edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. Fael. See
Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 336.)]
113 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. xxxix. p. 264. This
curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British
antiquaries.]
114 (return) [ The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the
steeds, the lights, &c., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair’s
Dissertation on Ossian, vol ii. p. 343; and Mr. Macpherson’s
Introduction, p. 242-286.]
115 (return) [ Lord Lyttelton has circumstantially related,
(History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182,) and Sir David Dalrymple
has slightly mentioned, (Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69,) a
barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A.D. 1137) when law,
religion, and society must have softened their primitive
manners.]
116 (return) [ Attacotti bellicosa hominum natio. Ammian. xxvii.
8. Camden (Introduct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in
the text of Jerom. The bands of Attacotti, which Jerom had seen
in Gaul, were afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum,
(Notitia, S. viii. xxxix. xl.)]
117 (return) [ Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim
Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus;
et cum per silvas porcorum greges, et armentorum percudumque
reperiant, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere
abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the
evidence of Jerom, (tom. ii. p. 75,) whose veracity I find no
reason to question. * Note: See Dr. Parr’s works, iii. 93, where
he questions the propriety of Gibbon’s translation of this
passage. The learned doctor approves of the version proposed by a
Mr. Gaches, who would make out that it was the delicate parts of
the swine and the cattle, which were eaten by these ancestors of
the Scotch nation. I confess that even to acquit them of this
charge. I cannot agree to the new version, which, in my opinion,
is directly contrary both to the meaning of the words, and the
general sense of the passage. But I would suggest, did Jerom, as
a boy, accompany these savages in any of their hunting
expeditions? If he did not, how could he be an eye-witness of
this practice? The Attacotti in Gaul must have been in the
service of Rome. Were they permitted to indulge these cannibal
propensities at the expense, not of the flocks, but of the
shepherds of the provinces? These sanguinary trophies of plunder
would scarce’y have been publicly exhibited in a Roman city or a
Roman camp. I must leave the hereditary pride of our northern
neighbors at issue with the veracity of St. Jerom.]
Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel, conveyed
the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of
Valentinian; and the emperor was soon informed that the two
military commanders of the province had been surprised and cut
off by the Barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, was
hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court of
Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate
the greatness of the evil; and, after a long and serious
consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was
intrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits
of that general, the father of a line of emperors, have been
celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age:
but his real merit deserved their applause; and his nomination
was received, by the army and province, as a sure presage of
approaching victory. He seized the favorable moment of
navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of
the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In his
march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated several
parties of the Barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and,
after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil,
established the fame of disinterested justice, by the restitution
of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens of
London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open
their gates; and as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the
court of Treves the important aid of a military lieutenant, and a
civil governor, he executed, with wisdom and vigor, the laborious
task of the deliverance of Britain. The vagrant soldiers were
recalled to their standard; an edict of amnesty dispelled the
public apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated the
rigor of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare
of the Barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of
the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit, and
consummate art, of the Roman general, were displayed in the
operations of two campaigns, which successively rescued every
part of the province from the hands of a cruel and rapacious
enemy. The splendor of the cities, and the security of the
fortifications, were diligently restored, by the paternal care of
Theodosius; who with a strong hand confined the trembling
Caledonians to the northern angle of the island; and perpetuated,
by the name and settlement of the new province of Valentia, the
glories of the reign of Valentinian. 118 The voice of poetry and
panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the
unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the
Picts; that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the
Hyperborean ocean; and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of
his naval victory over the Saxon pirates. 119 He left the
province with a fair, as well as splendid, reputation; and was
immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the
cavalry, by a prince who could applaud, without envy, the merit
of his servants. In the important station of the Upper Danube,
the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the armies of the
Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa.
118 (return) [ Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. l. xxvi.
4, xxvii. 8 xxviii. 3) the whole series of the British war.]
119 (return) [ Horrescit.... ratibus.... impervia Thule. Ille....
nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit. Scotumque vago mucrone secutus,
Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas. Claudian, in iii. Cons.
Honorii, ver. 53, &c—Madurunt Saxone fuso Orcades: incaluit
Pictorum sanguine Thule, Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.
In iv. Cons. Hon. ver. 31, &c. ——-See likewise Pacatus, (in
Panegyr. Vet. xii. 5.) But it is not easy to appreciate the
intrinsic value of flattery and metaphor. Compare the British
victories of Bolanus (Statius, Silv. v. 2) with his real
character, (Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 16.)]
III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs the people
to consider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The military
command of Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and
his abilities were not inadequate to his station; but, as sordid
interest was the sole motive of his conduct, he acted, on most
occasions, as if he had been the enemy of the province, and the
friend of the Barbarians of the desert. The three flourishing
cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sobrata, which, under the name of
Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union, 120 were obliged,
for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostile
invasion; several of their most honorable citizens were surprised
and massacred; the villages, and even the suburbs, were pillaged;
and the vines and fruit trees of that rich territory were
extirpated by the malicious savages of Getulia. The unhappy
provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they soon
found that their military governor was not less cruel and
rapacious than the Barbarians. As they were incapable of
furnishing the four thousand camels, and the exorbitant present,
which he required, before he would march to the assistance of
Tripoli; his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might
justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the
annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies,
to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a
gold victory; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than
of gratitude, with their humble complaint, that they were ruined
by the enemy, and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of
Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen on
the guilty head of Romanus. But the count, long exercised in the
arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty messenger
to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of the
offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by
artifice; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At
length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by
the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was
sent from the court of Treves, to examine the state of Africa,
and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius
was easily disarmed: he was tempted to reserve for himself a part
of the public treasure, which he brought with him for the payment
of the troops; and from the moment that he was conscious of his
own guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence and
merit of the count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to
be false and frivolous; and Palladius himself was sent back from
Treves to Africa, with a special commission to discover and
prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against the
representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were managed with
so much dexterity and success, that he compelled the citizens of
Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege of eight days, to
contradict the truth of their own decrees, and to censure the
behavior of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronounced,
without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of
Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity
the distress of the province, was publicly executed at Utica;
four distinguished citizens were put to death, as the accomplices
of the imaginary fraud; and the tongues of two others were cut
out, by the express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by
impunity, and irritated by resistance, was still continued in the
military command; till the Africans were provoked, by his
avarice, to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor. 121
120 (return) [ Ammianus frequently mentions their concilium
annuum, legitimum, &c. Leptis and Sabrata are long since ruined;
but the city of Oea, the native country of Apuleius, still
flourishes under the provincial denomination of Tripoli. See
Cellarius (Geograph. Antiqua, tom. ii. part ii. p. 81,)
D’Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. iii. p. 71, 72,) and
Marmol, (Arrique, tom. ii. p. 562.)]
121 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 6. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. v. p 25, 676) has discussed the chronological difficulties
of the history of Count Romanus.]
His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the
Moorish princes, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But as
he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very numerous
posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly disputed; and
Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a domestic quarrel by his
brother Firmus. The implacable zeal, with which Romanus
prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder, could be ascribed
only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred; but, on this
occasion, his claims were just; his influence was weighty; and
Firmus clearly understood, that he must either present his neck
to the executioner, or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial
consistory, to his sword, and to the people. 122 He was received
as the deliverer of his country; and, as soon as it appeared that
Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the tyrant
of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of
Caesarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious
Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the danger of
resistance; the power of Firmus was established, at least in the
provinces of Mauritania and Numidia; and it seemed to be his only
doubt whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king, or
the purple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy
Africans soon discovered, that, in this rash insurrection, they
had not sufficiently consulted their own strength, or the
abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain
intelligence, that the emperor of the West had fixed the choice
of a general, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the
mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed that the great
Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, had landed near
Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast; and the timid usurper
sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though
Firmus possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory
immediately reduced him to the use of those arts, which, in the
same country, and in a similar situation, had formerly been
practised by the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an
apparent submission, the vigilance of the Roman general; to
seduce the fidelity of his troops; and to protract the duration
of the war, by successively engaging the independent tribes of
Africa to espouse his quarrel, or to protect his flight.
Theodosius imitated the example, and obtained the success, of his
predecessor Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a
suppliant, accused his own rashness, and humbly solicited the
clemency of the emperor, the lieutenant of Valentinian received
and dismissed him with a friendly embrace: but he diligently
required the useful and substantial pledges of a sincere
repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the assurances of
peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an active
war. A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of
Theodosius; and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the public
indignation, which he had secretly excited. Several of the guilty
accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, according to ancient
custom, to the tumult of a military execution; many more, by the
amputation of both their hands, continued to exhibit an
instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred of the rebels was
accompanied with fear; and the fear of the Roman soldiers was
mingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless plains
of Getulia, and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was
impossible to prevent the escape of Firmus; and if the usurper
could have tired the patience of his antagonist, he would have
secured his person in the depth of some remote solitude, and
expected the hopes of a future revolution. He was subdued by the
perseverance of Theodosius; who had formed an inflexible
determination, that the war should end only by the death of the
tyrant; and that every nation of Africa, which presumed to
support his cause, should be involved in his ruin. At the head of
a small body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five
hundred men, the Roman general advanced, with a steady prudence,
devoid of rashness or of fear, into the heart of a country, where
he was sometimes attacked by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The
boldness of his charge dismayed the irregular Barbarians; they
were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly retreats; they
were continually baffled by the unknown resources of the military
art; and they felt and confessed the just superiority which was
assumed by the leader of a civilized nation. When Theodosius
entered the extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the
Isaflenses, the haughty savage required, in words of defiance,
his name, and the object of his expedition. “I am,” replied the
stern and disdainful count, “I am the general of Valentinian, the
lord of the world; who has sent me hither to pursue and punish a
desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be
assured, that if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible
sovereign, thou, and the people over whom thou reignest, shall be
utterly extirpated.” 12211 As soon as Igmazen was satisfied, that
his enemy had strength and resolution to execute the fatal
menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peace by the
sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed to
secure the person of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape;
and the Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the sense of
danger, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans, by
strangling himself in the night. His dead body, the only present
which Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown
upon a camel; and Theodosius, leading back his victorious troops
to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclamations of joy and
loyalty. 123
122 (return) [ The Chronology of Ammianus is loose and obscure;
and Orosius (i. vii. c. 33, p. 551, edit. Havercamp) seems to
place the revolt of Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and
Valens. Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p. 691) endeavors to
pick his way. The patient and sure-foot mule of the Alps may be
trusted in the most slippery paths.]
12211 (return) [ The war was longer protracted than this sentence
would lead us to suppose: it was not till defeated more than once
that Igmazen yielded Amm. xxix. 5.—M]
123 (return) [ Ammian xxix. 5. The text of this long chapter
(fifteen quarto pages) is broken and corrupted; and the narrative
is perplexed by the want of chronological and geographical
landmarks.]
Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by
the virtues of Theodosius; and our curiosity may be usefully
directed to the inquiry of the respective treatment which the two
generals received from the Imperial court. The authority of Count
Romanus had been suspended by the master-general of the cavalry;
and he was committed to safe and honorable custody till the end
of the war. His crimes were proved by the most authentic
evidence; and the public expected, with some impatience, the
decree of severe justice. But the partial and powerful favor of
Mellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to
obtain repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of
friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct, by
the additional guilt of fraud and forgery. About the same time,
the restorer of Britain and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his
name and services were superior to the rank of a subject, was
ignominiously beheaded at Carthage. Valentinian no longer
reigned; and the death of Theodosius, as well as the impunity of
Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the ministers, who
abused the confidence, and deceived the inexperienced youth, of
his sons. 124
124 (return) [ Ammian xxviii. 4. Orosius, l. vii. c. 33, p. 551,
552. Jerom. in Chron. p. 187.]
If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately
bestowed on the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have
traced, with eager curiosity, the distinct and domestic footsteps
of his march. But the tedious enumeration of the unknown and
uninteresting tribes of Africa may be reduced to the general
remark, that they were all of the swarthy race of the Moors; that
they inhabited the back settlements of the Mauritanian and
Numidian province, the country, as they have since been termed by
the Arabs, of dates and of locusts; 125 and that, as the Roman
power declined in Africa, the boundary of civilized manners and
cultivated land was insensibly contracted. Beyond the utmost
limits of the Moors, the vast and inhospitable desert of the
South extends above a thousand miles to the banks of the Niger.
The ancients, who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge of the
great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted to believe,
that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants;
126 and they sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant
space with headless men, or rather monsters; 127 with horned and
cloven-footed satyrs; 128 with fabulous centaurs; 129 and with
human pygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare against the
cranes. 130 Carthage would have trembled at the strange
intelligence that the countries on either side of the equator
were filled with innumerable nations, who differed only in their
color from the ordinary appearance of the human species: and the
subjects of the Roman empire might have anxiously expected, that
the swarms of Barbarians, which issued from the North, would soon
be encountered from the South by new swarms of Barbarians,
equally fierce and equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would
indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance with
the character of their African enemies. The inaction of the
negroes does not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or
of their pusillanimity. They indulge, like the rest of mankind,
their passions and appetites; and the adjacent tribes are engaged
in frequent acts of hostility. 131 But their rude ignorance has
never invented any effectual weapons of defence, or of
destruction; they appear incapable of forming any extensive plans
of government, or conquest; and the obvious inferiority of their
mental faculties has been discovered and abused by the nations of
the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked
from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native
country; but they are embarked in chains; 132 and this constant
emigration, which, in the space of two centuries, might have
furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of
Europe, and the weakness of Africa.
125 (return) [ Leo Africanus (in the Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i.
fol. 78-83) has traced a curious picture of the people and the
country; which are more minutely described in the Afrique de
Marmol, tom. iii. p. 1-54.]
126 (return) [ This uninhabitable zone was gradually reduced by
the improvements of ancient geography, from forty-five to
twenty-four, or even sixteen degrees of latitude. See a learned
and judicious note of Dr. Robertson, Hist. of America, vol. i. p.
426.]
127 (return) [ Intra, si credere libet, vix jam homines et magis
semiferi... Blemmyes, Satyri, &c. Pomponius Mela, i. 4, p. 26,
edit. Voss. in 8vo. Pliny philosophically explains (vi. 35) the
irregularities of nature, which he had credulously admitted, (v.
8.)]
128 (return) [ If the satyr was the Orang-outang, the great human
ape, (Buffon, Hist. Nat. tom. xiv. p. 43, &c.,) one of that
species might actually be shown alive at Alexandria, in the reign
of Constantine. Yet some difficulty will still remain about the
conversation which St. Anthony held with one of these pious
savages, in the desert of Thebais. (Jerom. in Vit. Paul. Eremit.
tom. i. p. 238.)]
129 (return) [ St. Anthony likewise met one of these monsters;
whose existence was seriously asserted by the emperor Claudius.
The public laughed; but his praefect of Egypt had the address to
send an artful preparation, the embalmed corpse of a
Hippocentaur, which was preserved almost a century afterwards in
the Imperial palace. See Pliny, (Hist. Natur. vii. 3,) and the
judicious observations of Freret. (Memoires de l’Acad. tom. vii.
p. 321, &c.)]
130 (return) [ The fable of the pygmies is as old as Homer,
(Iliad. iii. 6) The pygmies of India and Aethiopia were
(trispithami) twenty-seven inches high. Every spring their
cavalry (mounted on rams and goats) marched, in battle array, to
destroy the cranes’ eggs, aliter (says Pliny) futuris gregibus
non resisti. Their houses were built of mud, feathers, and
egg-shells. See Pliny, (vi. 35, vii. 2,) and Strabo, (l. ii. p.
121.)]
131 (return) [ The third and fourth volumes of the valuable
Histoire des Voyages describe the present state of the Negroes.
The nations of the sea-coast have been polished by European
commerce; and those of the inland country have been improved by
Moorish colonies. * Note: The martial tribes in chain armor,
discovered by Denham, are Mahometan; the great question of the
inferiority of the African tribes in their mental faculties will
probably be experimentally resolved before the close of the
century; but the Slave Trade still continues, and will, it is to
be feared, till the spirit of gain is subdued by the spirit of
Christian humanity.—M.]
132 (return) [ Histoire Philosophique et Politique, &c., tom. iv.
p. 192.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part VI.
IV. The ignominious treaty, which saved the army of Jovian, had
been faithfully executed on the side of the Romans; and as they
had solemnly renounced the sovereignty and alliance of Armenia
and Iberia, those tributary kingdoms were exposed, without
protection, to the arms of the Persian monarch. 133 Sapor entered
the Armenian territories at the head of a formidable host of
cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot; but it was the
invariable practice of Sapor to mix war and negotiation, and to
consider falsehood and perjury as the most powerful instruments
of regal policy. He affected to praise the prudent and moderate
conduct of the king of Armenia; and the unsuspicious Tiranus was
persuaded, by the repeated assurances of insidious friendship, to
deliver his person into the hands of a faithless and cruel enemy.
In the midst of a splendid entertainment, he was bound in chains
of silver, as an honor due to the blood of the Arsacides; and,
after a short confinement in the Tower of Oblivion at Ecbatana,
he was released from the miseries of life, either by his own
dagger, or by that of an assassin. 13311 The kingdom of Armenia
was reduced to the state of a Persian province; the
administration was shared between a distinguished satrap and a
favorite eunuch; and Sapor marched, without delay, to subdue the
martial spirit of the Iberians. Sauromaces, who reigned in that
country by the permission of the emperors, was expelled by a
superior force; and, as an insult on the majesty of Rome, the
king of kings placed a diadem on the head of his abject vassal
Aspacuras. The city of Artogerassa 134 was the only place of
Armenia 13411 which presumed to resist the efforts of his arms.
The treasure deposited in that strong fortress tempted the
avarice of Sapor; but the danger of Olympias, the wife or widow
of the Armenian king, excited the public compassion, and animated
the desperate valor of her subjects and soldiers. 13412 The
Persians were surprised and repulsed under the walls of
Artogerassa, by a bold and well-concerted sally of the besieged.
But the forces of Sapor were continually renewed and increased;
the hopeless courage of the garrison was exhausted; the strength
of the walls yielded to the assault; and the proud conqueror,
after wasting the rebellious city with fire and sword, led away
captive an unfortunate queen; who, in a more auspicious hour, had
been the destined bride of the son of Constantine. 135 Yet if
Sapor already triumphed in the easy conquest of two dependent
kingdoms, he soon felt, that a country is unsubdued as long as
the minds of the people are actuated by a hostile and
contumacious spirit. The satraps, whom he was obliged to trust,
embraced the first opportunity of regaining the affection of
their countrymen, and of signalizing their immortal hatred to the
Persian name. Since the conversion of the Armenians and Iberians,
these nations considered the Christians as the favorites, and the
Magians as the adversaries, of the Supreme Being: the influence
of the clergy, over a superstitious people was uniformly exerted
in the cause of Rome; and as long as the successors of
Constantine disputed with those of Artaxerxes the sovereignty of
the intermediate provinces, the religious connection always threw
a decisive advantage into the scale of the empire. A numerous and
active party acknowledged Para, the son of Tiranus, as the lawful
sovereign of Armenia, and his title to the throne was deeply
rooted in the hereditary succession of five hundred years. By the
unanimous consent of the Iberians, the country was equally
divided between the rival princes; and Aspacuras, who owed his
diadem to the choice of Sapor, was obliged to declare, that his
regard for his children, who were detained as hostages by the
tyrant, was the only consideration which prevented him from
openly renouncing the alliance of Persia. The emperor Valens, who
respected the obligations of the treaty, and who was apprehensive
of involving the East in a dangerous war, ventured, with slow and
cautious measures, to support the Roman party in the kingdoms of
Iberia and Armenia. 13511 Twelve legions established the
authority of Sauromaces on the banks of the Cyrus. The Euphrates
was protected by the valor of Arintheus. A powerful army, under
the command of Count Trajan, and of Vadomair, king of the
Alemanni, fixed their camp on the confines of Armenia. But they
were strictly enjoined not to commit the first hostilities, which
might be understood as a breach of the treaty: and such was the
implicit obedience of the Roman general, that they retreated,
with exemplary patience, under a shower of Persian arrows till
they had clearly acquired a just title to an honorable and
legitimate victory. Yet these appearances of war insensibly
subsided in a vain and tedious negotiation. The contending
parties supported their claims by mutual reproaches of perfidy
and ambition; and it should seem, that the original treaty was
expressed in very obscure terms, since they were reduced to the
necessity of making their inconclusive appeal to the partial
testimony of the generals of the two nations, who had assisted at
the negotiations. 136 The invasion of the Goths and Huns which
soon afterwards shook the foundations of the Roman empire,
exposed the provinces of Asia to the arms of Sapor. But the
declining age, and perhaps the infirmities, of the monarch
suggested new maxims of tranquillity and moderation. His death,
which happened in the full maturity of a reign of seventy years,
changed in a moment the court and councils of Persia; and their
attention was most probably engaged by domestic troubles, and the
distant efforts of a Carmanian war. 137 The remembrance of
ancient injuries was lost in the enjoyment of peace. The kingdoms
of Armenia and Iberia were permitted, by the mutual,though tacit
consent of both empires, to resume their doubtful neutrality. In
the first years of the reign of Theodosius, a Persian embassy
arrived at Constantinople, to excuse the unjustifiable measures
of the former reign; and to offer, as the tribute of friendship,
or even of respect, a splendid present of gems, of silk, and of
Indian elephants. 138
133 (return) [ The evidence of Ammianus is original and decisive,
(xxvii. 12.) Moses of Chorene, (l. iii. c. 17, p. 249, and c. 34,
p. 269,) and Procopius, (de Bell. Persico, l. i. c. 5, p. 17,
edit. Louvre,) have been consulted: but those historians who
confound distinct facts, repeat the same events, and introduce
strange stories, must be used with diffidence and caution. Note:
The statement of Ammianus is more brief and succinct, but
harmonizes with the more complicated history developed by M. St.
Martin from the Armenian writers, and from Procopius, who wrote,
as he states from Armenian authorities.—M.]
13311 (return) [ According to M. St. Martin, Sapor, though
supported by the two apostate Armenian princes, Meroujan the
Ardzronnian and Vahan the Mamigonian, was gallantly resisted by
Arsaces, and his brave though impious wife Pharandsem. His troops
were defeated by Vasag, the high constable of the kingdom. (See
M. St. Martin.) But after four years’ courageous defence of his
kingdom, Arsaces was abandoned by his nobles, and obliged to
accept the perfidious hospitality of Sapor. He was blinded and
imprisoned in the “Castle of Oblivion;” his brave general Vasag
was flayed alive; his skin stuffed and placed near the king in
his lonely prison. It was not till many years after (A.D. 371)
that he stabbed himself, according to the romantic story, (St. M.
iii. 387, 389,) in a paroxysm of excitement at his restoration to
royal honors. St. Martin, Additions to Le Beau, iii. 283,
296.—M.]
134 (return) [ Perhaps Artagera, or Ardis; under whose walls
Caius, the grandson of Augustus, was wounded. This fortress was
situate above Amida, near one of the sources of the Tigris. See
D’Anville, Geographie Ancienue, tom. ii. p. 106. * Note: St.
Martin agrees with Gibbon, that it was the same fortress with
Ardis Note, p. 373.—M.]
13411 (return) [ Artaxata, Vagharschabad, or Edchmiadzin,
Erovantaschad, and many other cities, in all of which there was a
considerable Jewish population were taken and destroyed.—M.]
13412 (return) [ Pharandsem, not Olympias, refusing the orders of
her captive husband to surrender herself to Sapor, threw herself
into Artogerassa St. Martin, iii. 293, 302. She defended herself
for fourteen months, till famine and disease had left few
survivors out of 11,000 soldiers and 6000 women who had taken
refuge in the fortress. She then threw open the gates with her
own hand. M. St. Martin adds, what even the horrors of Oriental
warfare will scarcely permit us to credit, that she was exposed
by Sapor on a public scaffold to the brutal lusts of his
soldiery, and afterwards empaled, iii. 373, &c.—M.]
135 (return) [ Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 701)
proves, from chronology, that Olympias must have been the mother
of Para. Note *: An error according to St. M. 273.—M.]
13511 (return) [ According to Themistius, quoted by St. Martin,
he once advanced to the Tigris, iii. 436.—M.]
136 (return) [ Ammianus (xxvii. 12, xix. 1. xxx. 1, 2) has
described the events, without the dates, of the Persian war.
Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armen. l. iii. c. 28, p. 261, c. 31, p.
266, c. 35, p. 271) affords some additional facts; but it is
extremely difficult to separate truth from fable.]
137 (return) [ Artaxerxes was the successor and brother (the
cousin-german) of the great Sapor; and the guardian of his son,
Sapor III. (Agathias, l. iv. p. 136, edit. Louvre.) See the
Universal History, vol. xi. p. 86, 161. The authors of that
unequal work have compiled the Sassanian dynasty with erudition
and diligence; but it is a preposterous arrangement to divide the
Roman and Oriental accounts into two distinct histories. * Note:
On the war of Sapor with the Bactrians, which diverted from
Armenia, see St. M. iii. 387.—M.]
138 (return) [ Pacatus in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 22, and Orosius, l.
vii. c. 34. Ictumque tum foedus est, quo universus Oriens usque
ad num (A. D. 416) tranquillissime fruitur.]
In the general picture of the affairs of the East under the reign
of Valens, the adventures of Para form one of the most striking
and singular objects. The noble youth, by the persuasion of his
mother Olympias, had escaped through the Persian host that
besieged Artogerassa, and implored the protection of the emperor
of the East. By his timid councils, Para was alternately
supported, and recalled, and restored, and betrayed. The hopes of
the Armenians were sometimes raised by the presence of their
natural sovereign, 13811 and the ministers of Valens were
satisfied, that they preserved the integrity of the public faith,
if their vassal was not suffered to assume the diadem and title
of King. But they soon repented of their own rashness. They were
confounded by the reproaches and threats of the Persian monarch.
They found reason to distrust the cruel and inconstant temper of
Para himself; who sacrificed, to the slightest suspicions, the
lives of his most faithful servants, and held a secret and
disgraceful correspondence with the assassin of his father and
the enemy of his country. Under the specious pretence of
consulting with the emperor on the subject of their common
interest, Para was persuaded to descend from the mountains of
Armenia, where his party was in arms, and to trust his
independence and safety to the discretion of a perfidious court.
The king of Armenia, for such he appeared in his own eyes and in
those of his nation, was received with due honors by the
governors of the provinces through which he passed; but when he
arrived at Tarsus in Cilicia, his progress was stopped under
various pretences; his motions were watched with respectful
vigilance, and he gradually discovered, that he was a prisoner in
the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed his indignation,
dissembled his fears, and after secretly preparing his escape,
mounted on horseback with three hundred of his faithful
followers. The officer stationed at the door of his apartment
immediately communicated his flight to the consular of Cilicia,
who overtook him in the suburbs, and endeavored without success,
to dissuade him from prosecuting his rash and dangerous design. A
legion was ordered to pursue the royal fugitive; but the pursuit
of infantry could not be very alarming to a body of light
cavalry; and upon the first cloud of arrows that was discharged
into the air, they retreated with precipitation to the gates of
Tarsus. After an incessant march of two days and two nights, Para
and his Armenians reached the banks of the Euphrates; but the
passage of the river which they were obliged to swim, 13812 was
attended with some delay and some loss. The country was alarmed;
and the two roads, which were only separated by an interval of
three miles had been occupied by a thousand archers on horseback,
under the command of a count and a tribune. Para must have
yielded to superior force, if the accidental arrival of a
friendly traveller had not revealed the danger and the means of
escape. A dark and almost impervious path securely conveyed the
Armenian troop through the thicket; and Para had left behind him
the count and the tribune, while they patiently expected his
approach along the public highways. They returned to the Imperial
court to excuse their want of diligence or success; and seriously
alleged, that the king of Armenia, who was a skilful magician,
had transformed himself and his followers, and passed before
their eyes under a borrowed shape. 13813 After his return to his
native kingdom, Para still continued to profess himself the
friend and ally of the Romans: but the Romans had injured him too
deeply ever to forgive, and the secret sentence of his death was
signed in the council of Valens. The execution of the bloody deed
was committed to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan; and he had
the merit of insinuating himself into the confidence of the
credulous prince, that he might find an opportunity of stabbing
him to the heart Para was invited to a Roman banquet, which had
been prepared with all the pomp and sensuality of the East; the
hall resounded with cheerful music, and the company was already
heated with wine; when the count retired for an instant, drew his
sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust and desperate
Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and though he
bravely defended his life with the first weapon that chance
offered to his hand, the table of the Imperial general was
stained with the royal blood of a guest, and an ally. Such were
the weak and wicked maxims of the Roman administration, that, to
attain a doubtful object of political interest the laws of
nations, and the sacred rights of hospitality were inhumanly
violated in the face of the world. 139
13811 (return) [ On the reconquest of Armenia by Para, or rather
by Mouschegh, the Mamigonian see St. M. iii. 375, 383.—M.]
13812 (return) [ On planks floated by bladders.—M.]
13813 (return) [ It is curious enough that the Armenian
historian, Faustus of Byzandum, represents Para as a magician.
His impious mother Pharandac had devoted him to the demons on his
birth. St. M. iv. 23.—M.]
139 (return) [ See in Ammianus (xxx. 1) the adventures of Para.
Moses of Chorene calls him Tiridates; and tells a long, and not
improbable story of his son Gnelus, who afterwards made himself
popular in Armenia, and provoked the jealousy of the reigning
king, (l. iii. c 21, &c., p. 253, &c.) * Note: This note is a
tissue of mistakes. Tiridates and Para are two totally different
persons. Tiridates was the father of Gnel first husband of
Pharandsem, the mother of Para. St. Martin, iv. 27—M.]
V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured
their frontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions. The
victories of the great Hermanric, 140 king of the Ostrogoths, and
the most noble of the race of the Amali, have been compared, by
the enthusiasm of his countrymen, to the exploits of Alexander;
with this singular, and almost incredible, difference, that the
martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of being supported by
the vigor of youth, was displayed with glory and success in the
extreme period of human life, between the age of fourscore and
one hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded,
or compelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the
sovereign of the Gothic nation: the chiefs of the Visigoths, or
Thervingi, renounced the royal title, and assumed the more humble
appellation of Judges; and, among those judges, Athanaric,
Fritigern, and Alavivus, were the most illustrious, by their
personal merit, as well as by their vicinity to the Roman
provinces. These domestic conquests, which increased the military
power of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He invaded
the adjacent countries of the North; and twelve considerable
nations, whose names and limits cannot be accurately defined,
successively yielded to the superiority of the Gothic arms. 141
The Heruli, who inhabited the marshy lands near the lake Maeotis,
were renowned for their strength and agility; and the assistance
of their light infantry was eagerly solicited, and highly
esteemed, in all the wars of the Barbarians. But the active
spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steady
perseverance of the Goths; and, after a bloody action, in which
the king was slain, the remains of that warlike tribe became a
useful accession to the camp of Hermanric.
He then marched against the Venedi; unskilled in the use of arms,
and formidable only by their numbers, which filled the wide
extent of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths, who
were not inferior in numbers, prevailed in the contest, by the
decisive advantages of exercise and discipline. After the
submission of the Venedi, the conqueror advanced, without
resistance, as far as the confines of the Aestii; 142 an ancient
people, whose name is still preserved in the province of
Esthonia. Those distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were
supported by the labors of agriculture, enriched by the trade of
amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of
the Gods. But the scarcity of iron obliged the Aestian warriors
to content themselves with wooden clubs; and the reduction of
that wealthy country is ascribed to the prudence, rather than to
the arms, of Hermanric. His dominions, which extended from the
Danube to the Baltic, included the native seats, and the recent
acquisitions, of the Goths; and he reigned over the greatest part
of Germany and Scythia with the authority of a conqueror, and
sometimes with the cruelty of a tyrant. But he reigned over a
part of the globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning the
glory of its heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost buried in
oblivion; his exploits are imperfectly known; and the Romans
themselves appeared unconscious of the progress of an aspiring
power which threatened the liberty of the North, and the peace of
the empire. 143
140 (return) [ The concise account of the reign and conquests of
Hermanric seems to be one of the valuable fragments which
Jornandes (c 28) borrowed from the Gothic histories of Ablavius,
or Cassiodorus.]
141 (return) [ M. d. Buat. (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom.
vi. p. 311-329) investigates, with more industry than success,
the nations subdued by the arms of Hermanric. He denies the
existence of the Vasinobroncoe, on account of the immoderate
length of their name. Yet the French envoy to Ratisbon, or
Dresden, must have traversed the country of the Mediomatrici.]
142 (return) [ The edition of Grotius (Jornandes, p. 642)
exhibits the name of Aestri. But reason and the Ambrosian MS.
have restored the Aestii, whose manners and situation are
expressed by the pencil of Tacitus, (Germania, c. 45.)]
143 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 3) observes, in general terms,
Ermenrichi.... nobilissimi Regis, et per multa variaque fortiter
facta, vicinigentibus formidati, &c.]
The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the
Imperial house of Constantine, of whose power and liberality they
had received so many signal proofs. They respected the public
peace; and if a hostile band sometimes presumed to pass the Roman
limit, their irregular conduct was candidly ascribed to the
ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian youth. Their contempt for
two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to the throne by
a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes; and,
while they agitated some design of marching their confederate
force under the national standard, 144 they were easily tempted
to embrace the party of Procopius; and to foment, by their
dangerous aid, the civil discord of the Romans. The public treaty
might stipulate no more than ten thousand auxiliaries; but the
design was so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the Visigoths,
that the army which passed the Danube amounted to the number of
thirty thousand men. 145 They marched with the proud confidence,
that their invincible valor would decide the fate of the Roman
empire; and the provinces of Thrace groaned under the weight of
the Barbarians, who displayed the insolence of masters and the
licentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified
their appetites, retarded their progress; and before the Goths
could receive any certain intelligence of the defeat and death of
Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the country,
that the civil and military powers were resumed by his successful
rival. A chain of posts and fortifications, skilfully disposed by
Valens, or the generals of Valens, resisted their march,
prevented their retreat, and intercepted their subsistence. The
fierceness of the Barbarians was tamed and suspended by hunger;
they indignantly threw down their arms at the feet of the
conqueror, who offered them food and chains: the numerous
captives were distributed in all the cities of the East; and the
provincials, who were soon familiarized with their savage
appearance, ventured, by degrees, to measure their own strength
with these formidable adversaries, whose name had so long been
the object of their terror. The king of Scythia (and Hermanric
alone could deserve so lofty a title) was grieved and exasperated
by this national calamity. His ambassadors loudly complained, at
the court of Valens, of the infraction of the ancient and solemn
alliance, which had so long subsisted between the Romans and the
Goths. They alleged, that they had fulfilled the duty of allies,
by assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor Julian;
they required the immediate restitution of the noble captives;
and they urged a very singular claim, that the Gothic generals
marching in arms, and in hostile array, were entitled to the
sacred character and privileges of ambassadors. The decent, but
peremptory, refusal of these extravagant demands, was signified
to the Barbarians by Victor, master-general of the cavalry; who
expressed, with force and dignity, the just complaints of the
emperor of the East. 146 The negotiation was interrupted; and the
manly exhortations of Valentinian encouraged his timid brother to
vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire. 147
144 (return) [ Valens. ... docetur relationibus Ducum, gentem
Gothorum, ea tempestate intactam ideoque saevissimam,
conspirantem in unum, ad pervadenda parari collimitia Thraciarum.
Ammian. xxi. 6.]
145 (return) [ M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom.
vi. p. 332) has curiously ascertained the real number of these
auxiliaries. The 3000 of Ammianus, and the 10,000 of Zosimus,
were only the first divisions of the Gothic army. * Note: M. St.
Martin (iii. 246) denies that there is any authority for these
numbers.—M.]
146 (return) [ The march, and subsequent negotiation, are
described in the Fragments of Eunapius, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 18,
edit. Louvre.) The provincials who afterwards became familiar
with the Barbarians, found that their strength was more apparent
than real. They were tall of stature; but their legs were clumsy,
and their shoulders were narrow.]
147 (return) [ Valens enim, ut consulto placuerat fratri, cujus
regebatur arbitrio, arma concussit in Gothos ratione justa
permotus. Ammianus (xxvii. 4) then proceeds to describe, not the
country of the Goths, but the peaceful and obedient province of
Thrace, which was not affected by the war.]
The splendor and magnitude of this Gothic war are celebrated by a
contemporary historian: 148 but the events scarcely deserve the
attention of posterity, except as the preliminary steps of the
approaching decline and fall of the empire. Instead of leading
the nations of Germany and Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or
even to the gates of Constantinople, the aged monarch of the
Goths resigned to the brave Athanaric the danger and glory of a
defensive war, against an enemy, who wielded with a feeble hand
the powers of a mighty state. A bridge of boats was established
upon the Danube; the presence of Valens animated his troops; and
his ignorance of the art of war was compensated by personal
bravery, and a wise deference to the advice of Victor and
Arintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry and infantry. The
operations of the campaign were conducted by their skill and
experience; but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths
from their strong posts in the mountains; and the devastation of
the plains obliged the Romans themselves to repass the Danube on
the approach of winter. The incessant rains, which swelled the
waters of the river, produced a tacit suspension of arms, and
confined the emperor Valens, during the whole course of the
ensuing summer, to his camp of Marcianopolis. The third year of
the war was more favorable to the Romans, and more pernicious to
the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the Barbarians of
the objects of luxury, which they already confounded with the
necessaries of life; and the desolation of a very extensive tract
of country threatened them with the horrors of famine. Athanaric
was provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle, which he lost, in
the plains; and the pursuit was rendered more bloody by the cruel
precaution of the victorious generals, who had promised a large
reward for the head of every Goth that was brought into the
Imperial camp. The submission of the Barbarians appeased the
resentment of Valens and his council: the emperor listened with
satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of the
senate of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first time, a
share in the public deliberations; and the same generals, Victor
and Arintheus, who had successfully directed the conduct of the
war, were empowered to regulate the conditions of peace. The
freedom of trade, which the Goths had hitherto enjoyed, was
restricted to two cities on the Danube; the rashness of their
leaders was severely punished by the suppression of their
pensions and subsidies; and the exception, which was stipulated
in favor of Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honorable
to the Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this occasion,
appears to have consulted his private interest, without expecting
the orders of his sovereign, supported his own dignity, and that
of his tribe, in the personal interview which was proposed by the
ministers of Valens. He persisted in his declaration, that it was
impossible for him, without incurring the guilt of perjury, ever
to set his foot on the territory of the empire; and it is more
than probable, that his regard for the sanctity of an oath was
confirmed by the recent and fatal examples of Roman treachery.
The Danube, which separated the dominions of the two independent
nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. The emperor
of the East, and the Judge of the Visigoths, accompanied by an
equal number of armed followers, advanced in their respective
barges to the middle of the stream. After the ratification of the
treaty, and the delivery of hostages, Valens returned in triumph
to Constantinople; and the Goths remained in a state of
tranquillity about six years; till they were violently impelled
against the Roman empire by an innumerable host of Scythians, who
appeared to issue from the frozen regions of the North. 149
148 (return) [ Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 18, 19. The Greek
sophist must have considered as one and the same war, the whole
series of Gothic history till the victories and peace of
Theodosius.]
149 (return) [ The Gothic war is described by Ammianus, (xxvii.
6,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 211-214,) and Themistius, (Orat. x. p.
129-141.) The orator Themistius was sent from the senate of
Constantinople to congratulate the victorious emperor; and his
servile eloquence compares Valens on the Danube to Achilles in
the Scamander. Jornandes forgets a war peculiar to the
Visi-Goths, and inglorious to the Gothic name, (Mascon’s Hist. of
the Germans, vii. 3.)]
The emperor of the West, who had resigned to his brother the
command of the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care the
defence of the Rhaetian and Illyrian provinces, which spread so
many hundred miles along the greatest of the European rivers. The
active policy of Valentinian was continually employed in adding
new fortifications to the security of the frontier: but the abuse
of this policy provoked the just resentment of the Barbarians.
The Quadi complained, that the ground for an intended fortress
had been marked out on their territories; and their complaints
were urged with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius,
master-general of Illyricum, consented to suspend the prosecution
of the work, till he should be more clearly informed of the will
of his sovereign. This fair occasion of injuring a rival, and of
advancing the fortune of his son, was eagerly embraced by the
inhuman Maximin, the praefect, or rather tyrant, of Gaul. The
passions of Valentinian were impatient of control; and he
credulously listened to the assurances of his favorite, that if
the government of Valeria, and the direction of the work, were
intrusted to the zeal of his son Marcellinus, the emperor should
no longer be importuned with the audacious remonstrances of the
Barbarians. The subjects of Rome, and the natives of Germany,
were insulted by the arrogance of a young and worthless minister,
who considered his rapid elevation as the proof and reward of his
superior merit. He affected, however, to receive the modest
application of Gabinius, king of the Quadi, with some attention
and regard: but this artful civility concealed a dark and bloody
design, and the credulous prince was persuaded to accept the
pressing invitation of Marcellinus. I am at a loss how to vary
the narrative of similar crimes; or how to relate, that, in the
course of the same year, but in remote parts of the empire, the
inhospitable table of two Imperial generals was stained with the
royal blood of two guests and allies, inhumanly murdered by their
order, and in their presence. The fate of Gabinius, and of Para,
was the same: but the cruel death of their sovereign was resented
in a very different manner by the servile temper of the
Armenians, and the free and daring spirit of the Germans. The
Quadi were much declined from that formidable power, which, in
the time of Marcus Antoninus, had spread terror to the gates of
Rome. But they still possessed arms and courage; their courage
was animated by despair, and they obtained the usual
reenforcement of the cavalry of their Sarmatian allies. So
improvident was the assassin Marcellinus, that he chose the
moment when the bravest veterans had been drawn away, to suppress
the revolt of Firmus; and the whole province was exposed, with a
very feeble defence, to the rage of the exasperated Barbarians.
They invaded Pannonia in the season of harvest; unmercifully
destroyed every object of plunder which they could not easily
transport; and either disregarded, or demolished, the empty
fortifications. The princess Constantia, the daughter of the
emperor Constantius, and the granddaughter of the great
Constantine, very narrowly escaped. That royal maid, who had
innocently supported the revolt of Procopius, was now the
destined wife of the heir of the Western empire. She traversed
the peaceful province with a splendid and unarmed train. Her
person was saved from danger, and the republic from disgrace, by
the active zeal of Messala, governor of the provinces. As soon as
he was informed that the village, where she stopped only to dine,
was almost encompassed by the Barbarians, he hastily placed her
in his own chariot, and drove full speed till he reached the
gates of Sirmium, which were at the distance of six-and-twenty
miles. Even Sirmium might not have been secure, if the Quadi and
Sarmatians had diligently advanced during the general
consternation of the magistrates and people. Their delay allowed
Probus, the Praetorian praefect, sufficient time to recover his
own spirits, and to revive the courage of the citizens. He
skilfully directed their strenuous efforts to repair and
strengthen the decayed fortifications; and procured the
seasonable and effectual assistance of a company of archers, to
protect the capital of the Illyrian provinces. Disappointed in
their attempts against the walls of Sirmium, the indignant
Barbarians turned their arms against the master general of the
frontier, to whom they unjustly attributed the murder of their
king. Equitius could bring into the field no more than two
legions; but they contained the veteran strength of the Maesian
and Pannonian bands. The obstinacy with which they disputed the
vain honors of rank and precedency, was the cause of their
destruction; and while they acted with separate forces and
divided councils, they were surprised and slaughtered by the
active vigor of the Sarmatian horse. The success of this invasion
provoked the emulation of the bordering tribes; and the province
of Maesia would infallibly have been lost, if young Theodosius,
the duke, or military commander, of the frontier, had not
signalized, in the defeat of the public enemy, an intrepid
genius, worthy of his illustrious father, and of his future
greatness. 150
150 (return) [ Ammianus (xxix. 6) and Zosimus (I. iv. p. 219,
220) carefully mark the origin and progress of the Quadic and
Sarmatian war.]
Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The
Empire.—Part VII.
The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply
affected by the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the
season suspended the execution of his designs till the ensuing
spring. He marched in person, with a considerable part of the
forces of Gaul, from the banks of the Moselle: and to the
suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who met him on the way,
he returned a doubtful answer, that, as soon as he reached the
scene of action, he should examine, and pronounce. When he
arrived at Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the
Illyrian provinces; who loudly congratulated their own felicity
under the auspicious government of Probus, his Praetorian
praefect. 151 Valentinian, who was flattered by these
demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked
the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity,
152 whether he was freely sent by the wishes of the province.
“With tears and groans am I sent,” replied Iphicles, “by a
reluctant people.” The emperor paused: but the impunity of his
ministers established the pernicious maxim, that they might
oppress his subjects, without injuring his service. A strict
inquiry into their conduct would have relieved the public
discontent. The severe condemnation of the murder of Gabinius,
was the only measure which could restore the confidence of the
Germans, and vindicate the honor of the Roman name. But the
haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity which dares to
acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered only
the injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an
insatiate thirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation,
and promiscuous massacre, of a savage war, were justified, in the
eyes of the emperor, and perhaps in those of the world, by the
cruel equity of retaliation: 153 and such was the discipline of
the Romans, and the consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian
repassed the Danube without the loss of a single man. As he had
resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi by a second
campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on the
Danube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations
of war were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi
made an humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror;
and, at the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors
were introduced into the Imperial council. They approached the
throne with bended bodies and dejected countenances; and without
daring to complain of the murder of their king, they affirmed,
with solemn oaths, that the late invasion was the crime of some
irregular robbers, which the public council of the nation
condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them but
little to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in
the most intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude,
their insolence. His eyes, his voice, his color, his gestures,
expressed the violence of his ungoverned fury; and while his
whole frame was agitated with convulsive passion, a large blood
vessel suddenly burst in his body; and Valentinian fell
speechless into the arms of his attendants. Their pious care
immediately concealed his situation from the crowd; but, in a few
minutes, the emperor of the West expired in an agony of pain,
retaining his senses till the last; and struggling, without
success, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers,
who surrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four
years of age; and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish
the twelve years of his reign. 154
151 (return) [ Ammianus, (xxx. 5,) who acknowledges the merit,
has censured, with becoming asperity, the oppressive
administration of Petronius Probus. When Jerom translated and
continued the Chronicle of Eusebius, (A. D. 380; see Tillemont,
Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 53, 626,) he expressed the truth, or at
least the public opinion of his country, in the following words:
“Probus P. P. Illyrici inquissimus tributorum exactionibus, ante
provincias quas regebat, quam a Barbaris vastarentur, erasit.”
(Chron. edit. Scaliger, p. 187. Animadvers p. 259.) The Saint
afterwards formed an intimate and tender friendship with the
widow of Probus; and the name of Count Equitius with less
propriety, but without much injustice, has been substituted in
the text.]
152 (return) [ Julian (Orat. vi. p. 198) represents his friend
Iphicles, as a man of virtue and merit, who had made himself
ridiculous and unhappy by adopting the extravagant dress and
manners of the Cynics.]
153 (return) [ Ammian. xxx. v. Jerom, who exaggerates the
misfortune of Valentinian, refuses him even this last consolation
of revenge. Genitali vastato solo et inultam patriam
derelinquens, (tom. i. p. 26.)]
154 (return) [ See, on the death of Valentinian, Ammianus, (xxx.
6,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Victor, (in Epitom.,) Socrates, (l.
iv. c. 31,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 187, and tom. i. p. 26, ad
Heliodor.) There is much variety of circumstances among them; and
Ammianus is so eloquent, that he writes nonsense.]
The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an
ecclesiastical historian. 155 “The empress Severa (I relate the
fable) admitted into her familiar society the lovely Justina, the
daughter of an Italian governor: her admiration of those naked
charms, which she had often seen in the bath, was expressed with
such lavish and imprudent praise, that the emperor was tempted to
introduce a second wife into his bed; and his public edict
extended to all the subjects of the empire the same domestic
privilege which he had assumed for himself.” But we may be
assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the
two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were
successively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission
of divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was
condemned by the church. Severa was the mother of Gratian, who
seemed to unite every claim which could entitle him to the
undoubted succession of the Western empire. He was the eldest son
of a monarch whose glorious reign had confirmed the free and
honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before he had attained
the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received from the
hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with
the title of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by the
consent and applause of the armies of Gaul; 156 and the name of
Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and Valens, in all
the legal transactions of the Roman government. By his marriage
with the granddaughter of Constantine, the son of Valentinian
acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian family; which,
in a series of three Imperial generations, were sanctified by
time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At the death of
his father, the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of his
age; and his virtues already justified the favorable opinion of
the army and the people. But Gratian resided, without
apprehension, in the palace of Treves; whilst, at the distance of
many hundred miles, Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of
Bregetio. The passions, which had been so long suppressed by the
presence of a master, immediately revived in the Imperial
council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the name of an
infant, was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who
commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They
contrived the most honorable pretences to remove the popular
leaders, and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted the
claims of the lawful successor; they suggested the necessity of
extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies, by a
bold and decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left
in a palace about one hundred miles from Bregetio, was
respectively invited to appear in the camp, with the son of the
deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death of
Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only
four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the
legions; and solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the
titles and ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers of a
civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate
conduct of the emperor Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice
of the army; declared that he should always consider the son of
Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress,
with her son Valentinian to fix their residence at Milan, in the
fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed the more
arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian
dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or
disgrace, the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly
behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he
gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western
empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a
sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the
united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble
emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder
brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils
of the West. 157
155 (return) [ Socrates (l. iv. c. 31) is the only original
witness of this foolish story, so repugnant to the laws and
manners of the Romans, that it scarcely deserved the formal and
elaborate dissertation of M. Bonamy, (Mem. de l’Academie, tom.
xxx. p. 394-405.) Yet I would preserve the natural circumstance
of the bath; instead of following Zosimus who represents Justina
as an old woman, the widow of Magnentius.]
156 (return) [ Ammianus (xxvii. 6) describes the form of this
military election, and august investiture. Valentinian does not
appear to have consulted, or even informed, the senate of Rome.]
157 (return) [ Ammianus, xxx. 10. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 222, 223.
Tillemont has proved (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 707-709)
that Gratian reignea in Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. I have
endeavored to express his authority over his brother’s dominions,
as he used it, in an ambiguous style.]
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part I.
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.
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 color of their respective prejudices, that the
establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that
a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin
and error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of
these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself with
an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that
man has much more to fear from the passions of his
fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements. 3
The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a hurricane,
or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable portion
to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now moderated by
the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse
their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in
the practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of
modern nations protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished
soldier; and the peaceful citizen has seldom reason to complain,
that his life, or even his fortune, is exposed to the rage of
war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman empire,
which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness
and security of each individual were personally attacked; and the
arts and labors of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians of
Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the
provinces of the West the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less
than forty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a
way, by the success of their arms, to the inroads of so many
hostile tribes, more savage than themselves. The original
principle of motion was concealed in the remote countries of the
North; and the curious observation of the pastoral life of the
Scythians, 4 or Tartars, 5 will illustrate the latent cause of
these destructive emigrations.
1 (return) [ Such is the bad taste of Ammianus, (xxvi. 10,) that
it is not easy to distinguish his facts from his metaphors. Yet
he positively affirms, that he saw the rotten carcass of a ship,
ad Modon, in Peloponnesus.]
2 (return) [ The earthquakes and inundations are variously
described by Libanius, (Orat. de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. x.,
in Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. tom. vii. p. 158, with a learned note
of Olearius,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 2,)
Cedrenus, (p. 310, 314,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 186, and tom.
i. p. 250, in Vit. Hilarion.) Epidaurus must have been
overwhelmed, had not the prudent citizens placed St. Hilarion, an
Egyptian monk, on the beach. He made the sign of the Cross; the
mountain-wave stopped, bowed, and returned.]
3 (return) [ Dicaearchus, the Peripatetic, composed a formal
treatise, to prove this obvious truth; which is not the most
honorable to the human species. (Cicero, de Officiis, ii. 5.)]
4 (return) [ The original Scythians of Herodotus (l. iv. c.
47—57, 99—101) were confined, by the Danube and the Palus
Maeotis, within a square of 4000 stadia, (400 Roman miles.) See
D’Anville (Mem. de l’Academie, tom. xxxv. p. 573—591.) Diodorus
Siculus (tom. i. l. ii. p. 155, edit. Wesseling) has marked the
gradual progress of the name and nation.]
5 (return) [ The Tatars, or Tartars, were a primitive tribe, the
rivals, and at length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the
victorious armies of Zingis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars
formed the vanguard; and the name, which first reached the ears
of foreigners, was applied to the whole nation, (Freret, in the
Hist. de l’Academie, tom. xviii. p. 60.) In speaking of all, or
any of the northern shepherds of Europe, or Asia, I indifferently
use the appellations of Scythians or Tartars. * Note: The Moguls,
(Mongols,) according to M. Klaproth, are a tribe of the Tartar
nation. Tableaux Hist. de l’Asie, p. 154.—M.]
The different characters that mark the civilized nations of the
globe, may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason;
which so variously shapes, and so artificially composes, the
manners and opinions of a European, or a Chinese. But the
operation of instinct is more sure and simple than that of
reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a
quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage
tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of
animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to
each other. The uniform stability of their manners is the natural
consequence of the imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a
similar situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments,
still continue the same: and the influence of food or climate,
which, in a more improved state of society, is suspended, or
subdued, by so many moral causes, most powerfully contributes to
form, and to maintain, the national character of Barbarians. In
every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been
inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose
indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless
spirit disdains the confinement of a sedentary life. In every
age, the Scythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their
invincible courage and rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have
been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the North; and
their arms have spread terror and devastation over the most
fertile and warlike countries of Europe. 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, I. Their diet; II. Their habitations; and, III.
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
6 (return) [ Imperium Asiae ter quaesivere: ipsi perpetuo ab
alieno imperio, aut intacti aut invicti, mansere. Since the time
of Justin, (ii. 2,) they have multiplied this account. Voltaire,
in a few words, (tom. x. p. 64, Hist. Generale, c. 156,) has
abridged the Tartar conquests. Oft o’er the trembling nations
from afar, Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war. Note *:
Gray.—M.]
7 (return) [ The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious
though imperfect, portrait of the Scythians. Among the moderns,
who describe the uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulghazi
Bahadur, expresses his native feelings; and his genealogical
history of the Tartars has been copiously illustrated by the
French and English editors. Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubruquis (in
the Hist. des Voyages, tom. vii.) represent the Moguls of the
fourteenth century. To these guides I have added Gerbillon, and
the other Jesuits, (Description de la China par du Halde, tom.
iv.,) who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tartary; and that
honest and intelligent traveller, Bell, of Antermony, (two
volumes in 4to. Glasgow, 1763.) * Note: Of the various works
published since the time of Gibbon, which throw fight on the
nomadic population of Central Asia, may be particularly remarked
the Travels and Dissertations of Pallas; and above all, the very
curious work of Bergman, Nomadische Streifereyen. Riga, 1805.—M.]
8 (return) [ The Uzbecks are the most altered from their
primitive manners; 1. By the profession of the Mahometan
religion; and 2. By the possession of the cities and harvests of
the great Bucharia.]
I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and
wholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the
patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who
dwell between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the
liberality of nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation
of shepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful
practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able
to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be
affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable, food; and whether
the common association of carniverous 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 labor of men or horses. But the
flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars,
afford a sure and increasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far
greater part of the uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the
grass is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places so
extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the North cannot find
some tolerable pasture.
The supply is multiplied and prolonged by the undistinguishing
appetite, and patient abstinence, of the Tartars. They
indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have been
killed for the table, or have died of disease. Horseflesh, which
in every age and country has been proscribed by the civilized
nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar greediness;
and this singular taste facilitates the success of their military
operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in
their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of
spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble
the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the Barbarians. Many are
the resources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a
camp of Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest
part of their cattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or
dried in the sun. On the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they
provide themselves with a sufficient quantity of little balls of
cheese, or rather of hard curd, which they occasionally dissolve
in water; and this unsubstantial diet will support, for many
days, the life, and even the spirits, of the patient warrior. But
this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoic would approve, and
the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the most
voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate
are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity,
that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their
industry seems to consist in the art of extracting from mare’s
milk a fermented liquor, which possesses a very strong power of
intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the savages, both of the
old and new world, experience the alternate vicissitudes of
famine and plenty; and their stomach is inured to sustain,
without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger and
of intemperance.
9 (return) [ Il est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande
sont en general cruels et feroces plus que les autres hommes.
Cette observation est de tous les lieux, et de tous les temps: la
barbarie Angloise est connue, &c. Emile de Rousseau, tom. i. p.
274. Whatever we may think of the general observation, we shall
not easily allow the truth of his example. The good-natured
complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic lamentations of Ovid,
seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility.]
II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of
soldiers and husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an
extensive and cultivated country; and some time must elapse
before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy could be assembled
under the same standard, either to defend their own confines, or
to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes. The progress of
manufactures and commerce insensibly collects a large multitude
within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no longer
soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil
society, corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral
manners of the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages
of simplicity and refinement. The individuals of the same tribe
are constantly assembled, but they are assembled in a camp; and
the native spirit of these dauntless shepherds is animated by
mutual support and emulation. The houses of the Tartars are no
more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and
dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The
palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that
they may be conveniently fixed on large wagons, and drawn by a
team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds,
after grazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire, on the
approach of night, within the protection of the camp. The
necessity of preventing the most mischievous confusion, in such a
perpetual concourse of men and animals, must gradually introduce,
in the distribution, the order, and the guard, of the encampment,
the rudiments of the military art. As soon as the forage of a
certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather army, of
shepherds, makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and thus
acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the
practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult
operations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by the
difference of the seasons: in the summer, the Tartars advance
towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river,
or, at least, in the neighborhood of a running stream. But in the
winter, they return to the South, and shelter their camp, behind
some convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in
their passage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These
manners are admirably adapted to diffuse, among the wandering
tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest. The connection
between the people and their territory is of so frail a texture,
that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp, and
not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within
the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his
property, are always included; and, in the most distant marches,
he is still surrounded by the objects which are dear, or
valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the
fear, or the resentment of injury, the impatience of servitude,
have, in every age, been sufficient causes to urge the tribes of
Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown countries, where they
might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence or a less
formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently
determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostile
nations, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove,
and been driven, from the confines of China to those of Germany.
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 rigor is
attributed to the height of the plains, which rise, especially
towards the East, more than half a mile above the level of the
sea; and to the quantity of saltpetre with which the soil is
deeply impregnated. 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 wagons, and their
cattle, the smooth and hard surface of an immense plain.
10 (return) [ These Tartar emigrations have been discovered by M.
de Guignes (Histoire des Huns, tom. i. ii.) a skilful and
laborious interpreter of the Chinese language; who has thus laid
open new and important scenes in the history of mankind.]
11 (return) [ A plain in the Chinese Tartary, only eighty leagues
from the great wall, was found by the missionaries to be three
thousand geometrical paces above the level of the sea.
Montesquieu, who has used, and abused, the relations of
travellers, deduces the revolutions of Asia from this important
circumstance, that heat and cold, weakness and strength, touch
each other without any temperate zone, (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii.
c. 3.)]
III. The pastoral life, compared with the labors of agriculture
and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the
most honorable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their
captives the domestic management of the cattle, their own leisure
is seldom disturbed by any servile and assiduous cares. But this
leisure, instead of being devoted to the soft enjoyments of love
and harmony, is usefully spent in the violent and sanguinary
exercise of the chase. The plains of Tartary are filled with a
strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained
for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age
have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant
practice had seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were
supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil
life, to eat, to drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting
from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the
lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the
weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and
irresistible force. These arrows are often pointed against the
harmless animals of the desert, which increase and multiply in
the absence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat,
the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the
antelope. The vigor and patience, both of the men and horses, are
continually exercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the
plentiful supply of game contributes to the subsistence, and even
luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of
Scythia are not confined to the destruction of timid or innoxious
beasts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns
against his pursuers, excite the sluggish courage of the bear,
and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbers in the thicket.
Where there is danger, there may be glory; and the mode of
hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valor,
may justly be considered as the image, and as the school, of war.
The general hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar
princes, compose an instructive exercise for their numerous
cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to
encompass the game of an extensive district; and the troops that
form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where
the captive animals, surrounded on every side, are abandoned to
the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently
continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills,
to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without
interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They
acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a
remote object; of preserving their intervals of suspending or
accelerating their pace, according to the motions of the troops
on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the
signals of their leaders. Their leaders study, in this practical
school, the most important lesson of the military art; the prompt
and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To
employ against a human enemy the same patience and valor, the
same skill and discipline, is the only alteration which is
required in real war; and the amusements of the chase serve as a
prelude to the conquest of an empire. 12
12 (return) [ Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengiscan, l. iii. c. 6)
represents the full glory and extent of the Mogul chase. The
Jesuits Gerbillon and Verbiest followed the emperor Khamhi when
he hunted in Tartary, Duhalde, (Description de la Chine, tom. iv.
p. 81, 290, &c., folio edit.) His grandson, Kienlong, who unites
the Tartar discipline with the laws and learning of China,
describes (Eloge de Moukden, p. 273—285) as a poet the pleasures
which he had often enjoyed as a sportsman.]
The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance
of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of
Scythia, distinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, assume
the form of a numerous and increasing family; which, in the
course of successive generations, has been propagated from the
same original stock. The meanest, and most ignorant, of the
Tartars, preserve, with conscious pride, the inestimable treasure
of their genealogy; and whatever distinctions of rank may have
been introduced, by the unequal distribution of pastoral wealth,
they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as the
descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The custom, which
still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful of the
captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this
extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and
fictitious. But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the
sanction of time and opinion, produces the effects of truth; the
haughty Barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience to
the head of their blood; and their chief, or mursa, as the
representative of their great father, exercises the authority of
a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the original state
of the pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we may continue to
use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a
large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar
territories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual
consent. But the constant operation of various and permanent
causes contributed to unite the vagrant Hords into national
communities, under the command of a supreme head. The weak were
desirous of support, and the strong were ambitious of dominion;
the power, which is the result of union, oppressed and collected
the divided force of the adjacent tribes; and, as the vanquished
were freely admitted to share the advantages of victory, the most
valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their followers
under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The most
successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to
which he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of
power. He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his
equals; and the title of Khan expresses, in the language of the
North of Asia, the full extent of the regal dignity. The right of
hereditary succession was long confined to the blood of the
founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the Khans, who
reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are the lineal
descendants of the renowned Zingis. 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
valor, is intrusted with the sword and sceptre of his
predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are levied on the
tribes, to support the dignity of the national monarch, and of
their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amounts to
the tithe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartar
sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and
as his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much
larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic
splendor of his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most
favored of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle
influence of corruption, the obedience which might be sometimes
refused to the stern mandates of authority. The manners of his
subjects, accustomed, like himself, to blood and rapine, might
excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of tyranny, as would
excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power of a
despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The
immediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits
of his own tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has
been moderated by the ancient institution of a national council.
The Coroulai, 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
13 (return) [ See the second volume of the Genealogical History
of the Tartars; and the list of the Khans, at the end of the life
of Geng’s, or Zingis. Under the reign of Timur, or Tamerlane, one
of his subjects, a descendant of Zingis, still bore the regal
appellation of Khan and the conqueror of Asia contented himself
with the title of Emir or Sultan. Abulghazi, part v. c. 4.
D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orien tale, p. 878.]
14 (return) [ See the Diets of the ancient Huns, (De Guignes,
tom. ii. p. 26,) and a curious description of those of Zingis,
(Vie de Gengiscan, l. i. c. 6, l. iv. c. 11.) Such assemblies are
frequently mentioned in the Persian history of Timur; though they
served only to countenance the resolutions of their master.]
15 (return) [ Montesquieu labors to explain a difference, which
has not existed, between the liberty of the Arabs, and the
perpetual slavery of the Tartars. (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii. c.
5, l. xviii. c. 19, &c.)]
The memory of past events cannot long be preserved in the
frequent and remote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians. The
modern Tartars are ignorant of the conquests of their ancestors;
16 and our knowledge of the history of the Scythians is derived
from their intercourse with the learned and civilized nations of
the South, the Greeks, the Persians, and the Chinese. The Greeks,
who navigated the Euxine, and planted their colonies along the
sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect discovery of Scythia;
from the Danube, and the confines of Thrace, as far as the frozen
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,
valor of the Persian heroes, Rustan and Asfendiar, was
signalized, 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 civilized 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 valor of the
Barbarians of the North. From the mouth of the Danube to the Sea
of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred and
ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than five
thousand miles. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be
so easily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the fortieth
degree, which touches the wall of China, we may securely advance
above a thousand miles to the northward, till our progress is
stopped by the excessive cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate,
instead of the animated picture of a Tartar camp, the smoke that
issues from the earth, or rather from the snow, betrays the
subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and the Samoides: the
want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by the use of
reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earth
insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive
savages, who tremble at the sound of arms. 26
16 (return) [ Abulghasi Khan, in the two first parts of his
Genealogical History, relates the miserable tales and traditions
of the Uzbek Tartars concerning the times which preceded the
reign of Zingis. * Note: The differences between the various
pastoral tribes and nations comprehended by the ancients under
the vague name of Scythians, and by Gibbon under inst of Tartars,
have received some, and still, perhaps, may receive more, light
from the comparisons of their dialects and languages by modern
scholars.—M]
17 (return) [ In the thirteenth book of the Iliad, Jupiter turns
away his eyes from the bloody fields of Troy, to the plains of
Thrace and Scythia. He would not, by changing the prospect,
behold a more peaceful or innocent scene.]
18 (return) [ Thucydides, l. ii. c. 97.]
19 (return) [ See the fourth book of Herodotus. When Darius
advanced into the Moldavian desert, between the Danube and the
Niester, the king of the Scythians sent him a mouse, a frog, a
bird, and five arrows; a tremendous allegory!]
20 (return) [ These wars and heroes may be found under their
respective titles, in the Bibliotheque Orientale of D’Herbelot.
They have been celebrated in an epic poem of sixty thousand
rhymed couplets, by Ferdusi, the Homer of Persia. See the history
of Nadir Shah, p. 145, 165. The public must lament that Mr. Jones
has suspended the pursuit of Oriental learning. Note: Ferdusi is
yet imperfectly known to European readers. An abstract of the
whole poem has been published by Goerres in German, under the
title “das Heldenbuch des Iran.” In English, an abstract with
poetical translations, by Mr. Atkinson, has appeared, under the
auspices of the Oriental Fund. But to translate a poet a man must
be a poet. The best account of the poem is in an article by Von
Hammer in the Vienna Jahrbucher, 1820: or perhaps in a masterly
article in Cochrane’s Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 1, 1835. A
splendid and critical edition of the whole work has been
published by a very learned English Orientalist, Captain Macan,
at the expense of the king of Oude. As to the number of 60,000
couplets, Captain Macan (Preface, p. 39) states that he never saw
a MS. containing more than 56,685, including doubtful and
spurious passages and episodes.—M. * Note: The later studies of
Sir W. Jones were more in unison with the wishes of the public,
thus expressed by Gibbon.—M.]
21 (return) [ The Caspian Sea, with its rivers and adjacent
tribes, are laboriously illustrated in the Examen Critique des
Historiens d’Alexandre, which compares the true geography, and
the errors produced by the vanity or ignorance of the Greeks.]
22 (return) [ The original seat of the nation appears to have
been in the Northwest of China, in the provinces of Chensi and
Chansi. Under the two first dynasties, the principal town was
still a movable camp; the villages were thinly scattered; more
land was employed in pasture than in tillage; the exercise of
hunting was ordained to clear the country from wild beasts;
Petcheli (where Pekin stands) was a desert, and the Southern
provinces were peopled with Indian savages. The dynasty of the
Han (before Christ 206) gave the empire its actual form and
extent.]
23 (return) [ The aera of the Chinese monarchy has been variously
fixed from 2952 to 2132 years before Christ; and the year 2637
has been chosen for the lawful epoch, by the authority of the
present emperor. The difference arises from the uncertain
duration of the two first dynasties; and the vacant space that
lies beyond them, as far as the real, or fabulous, times of Fohi,
or Hoangti. Sematsien dates his authentic chronology from the
year 841; the thirty-six eclipses of Confucius (thirty-one of
which have been verified) were observed between the years 722 and
480 before Christ. The historical period of China does not ascend
above the Greek Olympiads.]
24 (return) [ After several ages of anarchy and despotism, the
dynasty of the Han (before Christ 206) was the aera of the
revival of learning. The fragments of ancient literature were
restored; the characters were improved and fixed; and the future
preservation of books was secured by the useful inventions of
ink, paper, and the art of printing. Ninety-seven years before
Christ, Sematsien published the first history of China. His
labors were illustrated, and continued, by a series of one
hundred and eighty historians. The substance of their works is
still extant; and the most considerable of them are now deposited
in the king of France’s library.]
25 (return) [ China has been illustrated by the labors of the
French; of the missionaries at Pekin, and Messrs. Freret and De
Guignes at Paris. The substance of the three preceding notes is
extracted from the Chou-king, with the preface and notes of M. de
Guignes, Paris, 1770. The Tong-Kien-Kang-Mou, translated by P. de
Mailla, under the name of Hist. Generale de la Chine, tom. i. p.
xlix.—cc.; the Memoires sur la Chine, Paris, 1776, &c., tom. i.
p. 1—323; tom. ii. p. 5—364; the Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p.
4—131, tom. v. p. 345—362; and the Memoires de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 377—402; tom. xv. p. 495—564; tom.
xviii. p. 178—295; xxxvi. p. 164—238.]
26 (return) [ See the Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii.,
and the Genealogical History, vol. ii. p. 620—664.]
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part II.
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 Hords or Banners of the
Mongous, a pastoral nation, which consists of about two hundred
thousand families. 28 But the valor of the Huns had extended the
narrow limits of their dominions; and their rustic chiefs, who
assumed the appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the
conquerors, and the sovereigns of a formidable empire. Towards
the East, their victorious arms were stopped only by the ocean;
and the tribes, which are thinly scattered between the Amoor and
the extreme peninsula of Corea, adhered, with reluctance, to the
standard of the Huns. On the West, near the head of the Irtish,
in the valleys of Imaus, they found a more ample space, and more
numerous enemies. One of the lieutenants of the Tanjou subdued,
in a single expedition, twenty-six nations; the Igours, 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 Northren 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 Tongusha, and the Jenissea. The submission of so
many distant nations might flatter the pride of the Tanjou; but
the valor of the Huns could be rewarded only by the enjoyment of
the wealth and luxury of the empire of the South. In the third
century 3211 before the Christian aera, 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. 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 too easily convinced, that while
the blazing signals announced on every side the approach of the
Huns, the Chinese troops, who slept with the helmet on their
head, and the cuirass on their back, were destroyed by the
incessant labor of ineffectual marches. 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, introduced a remarkable disproportion between the
numbers of the two sexes. The Tartars are an ugly and even
deformed race; and while they consider their own women as the
instruments of domestic labor, their desires, or rather their
appetites, are directed to the enjoyment of more elegant beauty.
A select band of the fairest maidens of China was annually
devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns; 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
27 (return) [ M. de Guignes (tom. ii. p. 1—124) has given the
original history of the ancient Hiong-nou, or Huns. The Chinese
geography of their country (tom. i. part. p. lv.—lxiii.) seems to
comprise a part of their conquests. * Note: The theory of De
Guignes on the early history of the Huns is, in general, rejected
by modern writers. De Guignes advanced no valid proof of the
identity of the Hioung-nou of the Chinese writers with the Huns,
except the similarity of name. Schlozer, (Allgemeine Nordische
Geschichte, p. 252,) Klaproth, (Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie,
p. 246,) St. Martin, iv. 61, and A. Remusat, (Recherches sur les
Langues Tartares, D. P. xlvi, and p. 328; though in the latter
passage he considers the theory of De Guignes not absolutely
disproved,) concur in considering the Huns as belonging to the
Finnish stock, distinct from the Moguls the Mandscheus, and the
Turks. The Hiong-nou, according to Klaproth, were Turks. The
names of the Hunnish chiefs could not be pronounced by a Turk;
and, according to the same author, the Hioung-nou, which is
explained in Chinese as detestable slaves, as early as the year
91 J. C., were dispersed by the Chinese, and assumed the name of
Yue-po or Yue-pan. M. St. Martin does not consider it impossible
that the appellation of Hioung-nou may have belonged to the Huns.
But all agree in considering the Madjar or Magyar of modern
Hungary the descendants of the Huns. Their language (compare
Gibbon, c. lv. n. 22) is nearly related to the Lapponian and
Vogoul. The noble forms of the modern Hungarians, so strongly
contrasted with the hideous pictures which the fears and the
hatred of the Romans give of the Huns, M. Klaproth accounts for
by the intermingling with other races, Turkish and Slavonian. The
present state of the question is thus stated in the last edition
of Malte Brun, and a new and ingenious hypothesis suggested to
resolve all the difficulties of the question. Were the Huns
Finns? This obscure question has not been debated till very
recently, and is yet very far from being decided. We are of
opinion that it will be so hereafter in the same manner as that
with regard to the Scythians. We shall trace in the portrait of
Attila a dominant tribe or Mongols, or Kalmucks, with all the
hereditary ugliness of that race; but in the mass of the Hunnish
army and nation will be recognized the Chuni and the Ounni of the
Greek Geography. the Kuns of the Hungarians, the European Huns,
and a race in close relationship with the Flemish stock. Malte
Brun, vi. p. 94. This theory is more fully and ably developed, p.
743. Whoever has seen the emperor of Austria’s Hungarian guard,
will not readily admit their descent from the Huns described by
Sidonius Appolinaris.—M]
28 (return) [ See in Duhalde (tom. iv. p. 18—65) a circumstantial
description, with a correct map, of the country of the Mongous.]
29 (return) [ The Igours, or Vigours, were divided into three
branches; hunters, shepherds, and husbandmen; and the last class
was despised by the two former. See Abulghazi, part ii. c. 7. *
Note: On the Ouigour or Igour characters, see the work of M. A.
Remusat, Sur les Langues Tartares. He conceives the Ouigour
alphabet of sixteen letters to have been formed from the Syriac,
and introduced by the Nestorian Christians.—Ch. ii. M.]
30 (return) [ Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv.
p. 17—33. The comprehensive view of M. de Guignes has compared
these distant events.]
31 (return) [ The fame of Sovou, or So-ou, his merit, and his
singular adventurers, are still celebrated in China. See the
Eloge de Moukden, p. 20, and notes, p. 241—247; and Memoires sur
la Chine, tom. iii. p. 317—360.]
32 (return) [ See Isbrand Ives in Harris’s Collection, vol. ii.
p. 931; Bell’s Travels, vol. i. p. 247—254; and Gmelin, in the
Hist. Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii. 283—329. They all remark
the vulgar opinion that the holy sea grows angry and tempestuous
if any one presumes to call it a lake. This grammatical nicety
often excites a dispute between the absurd superstition of the
mariners and the absurd obstinacy of travellers.]
3211 (return) [ 224 years before Christ. It was built by
Chi-hoang-ti of the Dynasty Thsin. It is from twenty to
twenty-five feet high. Ce monument, aussi gigantesque
qu’impuissant, arreterait bien les incursions de quelques
Nomades; mais il n’a jamais empeche les invasions des Turcs, des
Mongols, et des Mandchous. Abe Remusat Rech. Asiat. 2d ser. vol.
i. p. 58—M.]
33 (return) [ The construction of the wall of China is mentioned
by Duhalde (tom. ii. p. 45) and De Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 59.)]
34 (return) [ See the life of Lieoupang, or Kaoti, in the Hist,
de la Chine, published at Paris, 1777, &c., tom. i. p. 442—522.
This voluminous work is the translation (by the P. de Mailla) of
the Tong- Kien-Kang-Mou, the celebrated abridgment of the great
History of Semakouang (A.D. 1084) and his continuators.]
35 (return) [ See a free and ample memorial, presented by a
Mandarin to the emperor Venti, (before Christ 180—157,) in
Duhalde, (tom. ii. p. 412—426,) from a collection of State papers
marked with the red pencil by Kamhi himself, (p. 354—612.)
Another memorial from the minister of war (Kang-Mou, tom. ii. p
555) supplies some curious circumstances of the manners of the
Huns.]
36 (return) [ A supply of women is mentioned as a customary
article of treaty and tribute, (Hist. de la Conquete de la Chine,
par les Tartares Mantcheoux, tom. i. p. 186, 187, with the note
of the editor.)]
37 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 62.]
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 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.
He was received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the
troops, the mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the
honors that could adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese
vanity. 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 favorable moments of war and
rapine; but the monarchy of the Huns gradually declined, till it
was broken, by civil dissension, into two hostile and separate
kingdoms. One of the princes of the nation was urged, by fear and
ambition, to retire towards the South with eight hords, which
composed between forty and fifty thousand families. He obtained,
with the title of Tanjou, a convenient territory on the verge of
the Chinese provinces; and his constant attachment to the service
of the empire was secured by weakness, and the desire of revenge.
From the time of this fatal schism, the Huns of the North
continued to languish about fifty years; till they were oppressed
on every side by their foreign and domestic enemies. The proud
inscription 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, after a reign
of thirteen hundred years, was utterly destroyed before the end
of the first century of the Christian aera. 43
38 (return) [ See the reign of the emperor Vouti, in the
Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 1—98. His various and inconsistent
character seems to be impartially drawn.]
39 (return) [ This expression is used in the memorial to the
emperor Venti, (Duhalde, tom. ii. p. 411.) Without adopting the
exaggerations of Marco Polo and Isaac Vossius, we may rationally
allow for Pekin two millions of inhabitants. The cities of the
South, which contain the manufactures of China, are still more
populous.]
40 (return) [ See the Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 150, and the
subsequent events under the proper years. This memorable festival
is celebrated in the Eloge de Moukden, and explained in a note by
the P. Gaubil, p. 89, 90.]
41 (return) [ This inscription was composed on the spot by
Parkou, President of the Tribunal of History (Kang-Mou, tom. iii.
p. 392.) Similar monuments have been discovered in many parts of
Tartary, (Histoire des Huns, tom. ii. p. 122.)]
42 (return) [ M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 189) has inserted a short
account of the Sienpi.]
43 (return) [ The aera of the Huns is placed, by the Chinese,
1210 years before Christ. But the series of their kings does not
commence till the year 230, (Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 21,
123.)]
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 hords, about two
hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more honorable servitude,
retired towards the South; implored the protection of the
emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard,
the extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory
of Ortous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns
maintained, in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of
their ancestors. The Western world was open to their valor; and
they resolved, under the conduct of their hereditary chieftains,
to conquer and subdue some remote country, which was still
inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi, and to the laws of China.
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 first of these colonies established
their dominion in the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana,
on the eastern side of the Caspian; where they preserved the name
of Huns, with the epithet of Euthalites, or Nepthalites. 4511
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 splendor, was the residence of the king, who exercised
a legal authority over an obedient people. Their luxury was
maintained by the labor of the Sogdians; and the only vestige of
their ancient barbarism, was the custom which obliged all the
companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who had shared the
liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same
grave. 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 valor, of the Barbarians. The second division of their
countrymen, the Huns, who gradually advanced towards the
North-west, were exercised by the hardships of a colder climate,
and a more laborious march. Necessity compelled them to exchange
the silks of China for the furs of Siberia; the imperfect
rudiments of civilized life were obliterated; and the native
fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by their intercourse with
the savage tribes, who were compared, with some propriety, to the
wild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon rejected
the hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and while each horde
was governed by its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council
directed the public measures of the whole nation. As late as the
thirteenth century, their transient residence on the eastern
banks of the Volga was attested by the name of Great Hungary. 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
44 (return) [ The various accidents, the downfall, and the flight
of the Huns, are related in the Kang-Mou, tom. iii. p. 88, 91,
95, 139, &c. The small numbers of each horde may be due to their
losses and divisions.]
45 (return) [ M. de Guignes has skilfully traced the footsteps of
the Huns through the vast deserts of Tartary, (tom. ii. p. 123,
277, &c., 325, &c.)]
4511 (return) [ The Armenian authors often mention this people
under the name of Hepthal. St. Martin considers that the name of
Nepthalites is an error of a copyist. St. Martin, iv. 254.—M.]
46 (return) [ Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, reigned in Sogdiana
when it was invaded (A.D. 1218) by Zingis and his moguls. The
Oriental historians (see D’Herbelot, Petit de la Croix, &c.,)
celebrate the populous cities which he ruined, and the fruitful
country which he desolated. In the next century, the same
provinces of Chorasmia and Nawaralnahr were described by
Abulfeda, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.) Their actual
misery may be seen in the Genealogical History of the Tartars, p.
423—469.]
47 (return) [ Justin (xli. 6) has left a short abridgment of the
Greek kings of Bactriana. To their industry I should ascribe the
new and extraordinary trade, which transported the merchandises
of India into Europe, by the Oxus, the Caspian, the Cyrus, the
Phasis, and the Euxine. The other ways, both of the land and sea,
were possessed by the Seleucides and the Ptolemies. (See l’Esprit
des Loix, l. xxi.)]
48 (return) [ Procopius de Bell. Persico, l. i. c. 3, p. 9.]
49 (return) [ In the thirteenth century, the monk Rubruquis (who
traversed the immense plain of Kipzak, in his journey to the
court of the Great Khan) observed the remarkable name of Hungary,
with the traces of a common language and origin, (Hist. des
Voyages, tom. vii. p. 269.)]
50 (return) [ Bell, (vol. i. p. 29—34,) and the editors of the
Genealogical History, (p. 539,) have described the Calmucks of
the Volga in the beginning of the present century.]
51 (return) [ This great transmigration of 300,000 Calmucks, or
Torgouts, happened in the year 1771. The original narrative of
Kien-long, the reigning emperor of China, which was intended for
the inscription of a column, has been translated by the
missionaries of Pekin, (Memoires sur la Chine, tom. i. p.
401—418.) The emperor affects the smooth and specious language of
the Son of Heaven, and the Father of his People.]
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
neighborhood; 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 reenforcement 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 Samartic and German
blood had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, 5311
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 cimeter, 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 valor, 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 honorable and advantageous union; and the Huns,
who esteemed the valor of their less fortunate enemies,
proceeded, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade
the limits of the Gothic empire.
52 (return) [ The Khan-Mou (tom. iii. p. 447) ascribes to their
conquests a space of 14,000 lis. According to the present
standard, 200 lis (or more accurately 193) are equal to one
degree of latitude; and one English mile consequently exceeds
three miles of China. But there are strong reasons to believe
that the ancient li scarcely equalled one half of the modern. See
the elaborate researches of M. D’Anville, a geographer who is not
a stranger in any age or climate of the globe. (Memoires de
l’Acad. tom. ii. p. 125-502. Itineraires, p. 154-167.)]
53 (return) [ See Histoire des Huns, tom. ii. p. 125—144. The
subsequent history (p. 145—277) of three or four Hunnic dynasties
evidently proves that their martial spirit was not impaired by a
long residence in China.]
5311 (return) [ Compare M. Klaproth’s curious speculations on the
Alani. He supposes them to have been the people, known by the
Chinese, at the time of their first expeditions to the West,
under the name of Yath-sai or A-lanna, the Alanan of Persian
tradition, as preserved in Ferdusi; the same, according to
Ammianus, with the Massagetae, and with the Albani. The remains
of the nation still exist in the Ossetae of Mount Caucasus.
Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie, p. 174.—M. Compare
Shafarik Slawische alterthumer, i. p. 350.—M. 1845.]
54 (return) [ Utque hominibus quietis et placidis otium est
voluptabile, ita illos pericula juvent et bella. Judicatur ibi
beatus qui in proelio profuderit animam: senescentes etiam et
fortuitis mortibus mundo digressos, ut degeneres et ignavos,
conviciis atrocibus insectantur. [Ammian. xxxi. 11.] We must
think highly of the conquerors of such men.]
55 (return) [ On the subject of the Alani, see Ammianus, (xxxi.
2,) Jornandes, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 24,) M. de Guignes, (Hist.
des Huns, tom. ii. p. 279,) and the Genealogical History of the
Tartars, (tom. ii. p. 617.)]
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 a 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. 5611 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 grace 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 praeternatural
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 favorable 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 valor and fiedlity, who, by cautious
marches, conducted the independent remains of the nation of the
Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or Niester; a considerable
river, which now separates the Turkish dominions from the empire
of Russia. On the banks of the Niester, 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
Niester, 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 Walachia, from
the destructive inroads of the Huns. 60 But the hopes and
measures of the Judge of the Visigoths was 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 valor, 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 6211
56 (return) [ As we are possessed of the authentic history of the
Huns, it would be impertinent to repeat, or to refute, the fables
which misrepresent their origin and progress, their passage of
the mud or water of the Maeotis, in pursuit of an ox or stag, les
Indes qu’ils avoient decouvertes, &c., (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 224.
Sozomen, l. vi. c. 37. Procopius, Hist. Miscell. c. 5. Jornandes,
c. 24. Grandeur et Decadence, &c., des Romains, c. 17.)]
5611 (return) [ Art added to their native ugliness; in fact, it
is difficult to ascribe the proper share in the features of this
hideous picture to nature, to the barbarous skill with which they
were self-disfigured, or to the terror and hatred of the Romans.
Their noses were flattened by their nurses, their cheeks were
gashed by an iron instrument, that the scars might look more
fearful, and prevent the growth of the beard. Jornandes and
Sidonius Apollinaris:—
Obtundit teneras circumdata fascia nares, Ut galeis cedant.
Yet he adds that their forms were robust and manly, their height
of a middle size, but, from the habit of riding, disproportioned.
Stant pectora vasta, Insignes humer, succincta sub ilibus alvus.
Forma quidem pediti media est, procera sed extat Si cernas
equites, sic longi saepe putantur Si sedeant.]
57 (return) [ Prodigiosae formae, et pandi; ut bipedes existimes
bestias; vel quales in commarginandis pontibus, effigiati
stipites dolantur incompte. Ammian. xxxi. i. Jornandes (c. 24)
draws a strong caricature of a Calmuck face. Species pavenda
nigredine... quaedam deformis offa, non fecies; habensque magis
puncta quam lumina. See Buffon. Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. 380.]
58 (return) [ This execrable origin, which Jornandes (c. 24)
describes with the rancor of a Goth, might be originally derived
from a more pleasing fable of the Greeks. (Herodot. l. iv. c. 9,
&c.)]
59 (return) [ The Roxolani may be the fathers of the the
Russians, (D’Anville, Empire de Russie, p. 1—10,) whose residence
(A.D. 862) about Novogrod Veliki cannot be very remote from that
which the Geographer of Ravenna (i. 12, iv. 4, 46, v. 28, 30)
assigns to the Roxolani, (A.D. 886.) * Note: See, on the origin
of the Russ, Schlozer, Nordische Geschichte, p. 78—M.]
60 (return) [ The text of Ammianus seems to be imperfect or
corrupt; but the nature of the ground explains, and almost
defines, the Gothic rampart. Memoires de l’Academie, &c., tom.
xxviii. p. 444—462.]
61 (return) [ M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. vi.
p. 407) has conceived a strange idea, that Alavivus was the same
person as Ulphilas, the Gothic bishop; and that Ulphilas, the
grandson of a Cappadocian captive, became a temporal prince of
the Goths.]
62 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 3) and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis,
c. 24) describe the subversion of the Gothic empire by the Huns.]
6211 (return) [ The most probable opinion as to the position of
this land is that of M. Malte-Brun. He thinks that Caucaland is
the territory of the Cacoenses, placed by Ptolemy (l. iii. c. 8)
towards the Carpathian Mountains, on the side of the present
Transylvania, and therefore the canton of Cacava, to the south of
Hermanstadt, the capital of the principality. Caucaland it is
evident, is the Gothic form of these different names. St. Martin,
iv 103.—M.]
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part III.
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 was 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 of 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, 6411
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, 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 favorite resources of feeble and timid minds, who
consider the use of 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
civilized 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
favorable 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 to the
civil and military governors of the Thracian diocese, to make the
necessary preparations for 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
civilized by the arts of education, and serve as hostages to
secure the fidelity of their parents.
63 (return) [ The Chronology of Ammianus is obscure and
imperfect. Tillemont has labored to clear and settle the annals
of Valens.]
64 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 223. Sozomen, l. vi. c. 38. The
Isaurians, each winter, infested the roads of Asia Minor, as far
as the neighborhood of Constantinople. Basil, Epist. cel. apud
Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 106.]
6411 (return) [ Sozomen and Philostorgius say that the bishop
Ulphilas was one of these ambassadors.—M.]
During the 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 labor 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 all 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. 6711
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 honor 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 favor 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.
65 (return) [ The passage of the Danube is exposed by Ammianus,
(xxxi. 3, 4,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 223, 224,) Eunapius in Excerpt.
Legat. (p. 19, 20,) and Jornandes, (c. 25, 26.) Ammianus declares
(c. 5) that he means only, ispas rerum digerere summitates. But
he often takes a false measure of their importance; and his
superfluous prolixity is disagreeably balanced by his
unseasonable brevity.]
66 (return) [ Chishull, a curious traveller, has remarked the
breadth of the Danube, which he passed to the south of Bucharest
near the conflux of the Argish, (p. 77.) He admires the beauty
and spontaneous plenty of Maesia, or Bulgaria.]
67 (return) [
Quem sci scire velit, Libyci velit aequoris idem Discere quam
multae Zephyro turbentur harenae.
Ammianus has inserted, in his prose, these lines of Virgil,
(Georgia l. ii. 105,) originally designed by the poet to express
the impossibility of numbering the different sorts of vines. See
Plin. Hist. Natur l. xiv.]
6711 (return) [ A very curious, but obscure, passage of Eunapius,
appears to me to have been misunderstood by M. Mai, to whom we
owe its discovery. The substance is as follows: “The Goths
transported over the river their native deities, with their
priests of both sexes; but concerning their rites they maintained
a deep and ‘adamantine silence.’ To the Romans they pretended to
be generally Christians, and placed certain persons to represent
bishops in a conspicuous manner on their wagons. There was even
among them a sort of what are called monks, persons whom it was
not difficult to mimic; it was enough to wear black raiment, to
be wicked, and held in respect.” (Eunapius hated the “black-robed
monks,” as appears in another passage, with the cordial
detestation of a heathen philosopher.) “Thus, while they
faithfully but secretly adhered to their own religion, the Romans
were weak enough to suppose them perfect Christians.” Mai, 277.
Eunapius in Niebuhr, 82.—M]
68 (return) [ Eunapius and Zosimus curiously specify these
articles of Gothic wealth and luxury. Yet it must be presumed,
that they were the manufactures of the provinces; which the
Barbarians had acquired as the spoils of war; or as the gifts, or
merchandise, of peace.]
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 behavior; 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 clamors 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 was observed, and improved, by Alatheus and
Saphrax, who anxiously watched the favorable 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 a hostile and independent camp on the
territories of the empire. 70
69 (return) [ Decem libras; the word silver must be understood.
Jornandes betrays the passions and prejudices of a Goth. The
servile Geeks, Eunapius and Zosimus, disguise the Roman
oppression, and execrate the perfidy of the Barbarians. Ammianus,
a patriot historian, slightly, and reluctantly, touches on the
odious subject. Jerom, who wrote almost on the spot, is fair,
though concise. Per avaritaim aximi ducis, ad rebellionem fame
coacti sunt, (in Chron.) * Note: A new passage from the history
of Eunapius is nearer to the truth. ‘It appeared to our
commanders a legitimate source of gain to be bribed by the
Barbarians: Edit. Niebuhr, p. 82.—M.]
70 (return) [ Ammianus, xxxi. 4, 5.]
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 tranquility, 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 valor
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. 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 neighborhood, 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 clamors, 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 armor, 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 signalized their ardor in the
siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance of the garrison informed
the Barbarians, that in the attack of regular fortifications, the
efforts of unskillful 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
reenforcement of hardy workmen, who labored in the gold mines 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
71 (return) [ Vexillis de more sublatis, auditisque trisie
sonantibus classicis. Ammian. xxxi. 5. These are the rauca cornua
of Claudian, (in Rufin. ii. 57,) the large horns of the Uri, or
wild bull; such as have been more recently used by the Swiss
Cantons of Uri and Underwald. (Simler de Republica Helvet, l. ii.
p. 201, edit. Fuselin. Tigur 1734.) Their military horn is
finely, though perhaps casually, introduced in an original
narrative of the battle of Nancy, (A.D. 1477.) “Attendant le
combat le dit cor fut corne par trois fois, tant que le vent du
souffler pouvoit durer: ce qui esbahit fort Monsieur de
Bourgoigne; car deja a Morat l’avoit ouy.” (See the Pieces
Justificatives in the 4to. edition of Philippe de Comines, tom.
iii. p. 493.)]
72 (return) [ Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 26, p. 648, edit.
Grot. These splendidi panm (they are comparatively such) are
undoubtedly transcribed from the larger histories of Priscus,
Ablavius, or Cassiodorus.]
73 (return) [ Cum populis suis longe ante suscepti. We are
ignorant of the precise date and circumstances of their
transmigration.]
74 (return) [ An Imperial manufacture of shields, &c., was
established at Hadrianople; and the populace were headed by the
Fabricenses, or workmen. (Vales. ad Ammian. xxxi. 6.)]
75 (return) [ Pacem sibi esse cum parietibus memorans. Ammian.
xxxi. 7.]
76 (return) [ These mines were in the country of the Bessi, in
the ridge of mountains, the Rhodope, that runs between Philippi
and Philippopolis; two Macedonian cities, which derived their
name and origin from the father of Alexander. From the mines of
Thrace he annually received the value, not the weight, of a
thousand talents, (200,000l.,) a revenue which paid the phalanx,
and corrupted the orators of Greece. See Diodor. Siculus, tom.
ii. l. xvi. p. 88, edit. Wesseling. Godefroy’s Commentary on the
Theodosian Code, tom. iii. p. 496. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq.
tom. i. p. 676, 857. D Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.
336.]
77 (return) [ As those unhappy workmen often ran away, Valens had
enacted severe laws to drag them from their hiding-places. Cod.
Theodosian, l. x. tit xix leg. 5, 7.]
78 (return) [ See Ammianus, xxxi. 5, 6. The historian of the
Gothic war loses time and space, by an unseasonable
recapitulation of the ancient inroads of the Barbarians.]
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 favorable 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 was resolved to seek, and to encounter,
the Barbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile
meadows, near the most southern of the six 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 valor, 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 clamors 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, valor, 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
the 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 honors, or 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
79 (return) [ The Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 226, 227, edit.
Wesseling) marks the situation of this place about sixty miles
north of Tomi, Ovid’s exile; and the name of Salices (the
willows) expresses the nature of the soil.]
80 (return) [ This circle of wagons, the Carrago, was the usual
fortification of the Barbarians. (Vegetius de Re Militari, l.
iii. c. 10. Valesius ad Ammian. xxxi. 7.) The practice and the
name were preserved by their descendants as late as the fifteenth
century. The Charroy, which surrounded the Ost, is a word
familiar to the readers of Froissard, or Comines.]
81 (return) [ Statim ut accensi malleoli. I have used the literal
sense of real torches or beacons; but I almost suspect, that it
is only one of those turgid metaphors, those false ornaments,
that perpetually disfigure to style of Ammianus.]
82 (return) [ Indicant nunc usque albentes ossibus campi. Ammian.
xxxi. 7. The historian might have viewed these plains, either as
a soldier, or as a traveller. But his modesty has suppressed the
adventures of his own life subsequent to the Persian wars of
Constantius and Julian. We are ignorant of the time when he
quitted the service, and retired to Rome, where he appears to
have composed his History of his Own Times.]
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 labors 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, 8311 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 honorable 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 hords 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
83 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 8.]
8311 (return) [ The Taifalae, who at this period inhabited the
country which now forms the principality of Wallachia, were, in
my opinion, the last remains of the great and powerful nation of
the Dacians, (Daci or Dahae.) which has given its name to these
regions, over which they had ruled so long. The Taifalae passed
with the Goths into the territory of the empire. A great number
of them entered the Roman service, and were quartered in
different provinces. They are mentioned in the Notitia Imperii.
There was a considerable body in the country of the Pictavi, now
Poithou. They long retained their manners and language, and
caused the name of the Theofalgicus pagus to be given to the
district they inhabited. Two places in the department of La
Vendee, Tiffanges and La Tiffardiere, still preserve evident
traces of this denomination. St. Martin, iv. 118.—M.]
84 (return) [ Hanc Taifalorum gentem turpem, et obscenae vitae
flagitiis ita accipimus mersam; ut apud eos nefandi concubitus
foedere copulentur mares puberes, aetatis viriditatem in eorum
pollutis usibus consumpturi. Porro, siqui jam adultus aprum
exceperit solus, vel interemit ursum immanem, colluvione
liberatur incesti. Ammian. xxxi. 9. ——Among the Greeks, likewise,
more especially among the Cretans, the holy bands of friendship
were confirmed, and sullied, by unnatural love.]
85 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 8, 9. Jerom (tom. i. p. 26)
enumerates the nations and marks a calamitous period of twenty
years. This epistle to Heliodorus was composed in the year 397,
(Tillemont, Mem. Eccles tom xii. p. 645.)]
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part IV.
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 ardor 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 valor; 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 honor 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
valor of Gratian was distinguished in the foremost ranks; and the
gilt and variegated armor 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
86 (return) [ The field of battle, Argentaria or Argentovaria, is
accurately fixed by M. D’Anville (Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p.
96—99) at twenty-three Gallic leagues, or thirty-four and a half
Roman miles to the south of Strasburg. From its ruins the
adjacent town of Colmar has arisen. Note: It is rather Horburg,
on the right bank of the River Ill, opposite to Colmar. From
Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustrata. St. Martin, iv. 121.—M.]
87 (return) [ The full and impartial narrative of Ammianus (xxxi.
10) may derive some additional light from the Epitome of Victor,
the Chronicle of Jerom, and the History of Orosius, (l. vii. c.
33, p. 552, edit. Havercamp.)]
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
clamors 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 neighborhood of Hadrianople. The march of the Taifalae had
been intercepted by the valiant Frigeric: 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
honorable 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 vigor and conduct of Sebastian,
a large body of the Goths were 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 the 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 valor 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 an easy and assured conquest. His army was
strengthened by a numerous reenforcement 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 insure 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.
88 (return) [ Moratus paucissimos dies, seditione popularium
levium pulsus Ammian. xxxi. 11. Socrates (l. iv. c. 38) supplies
the dates and some circumstances. * Note: Compare fragment of
Eunapius. Mai, 272, in Niebuhr, p. 77.—M]
89 (return) [ Vivosque omnes circa Mutinam, Regiumque, et Parmam,
Italica oppida, rura culturos exterminavit. Ammianus, xxxi. 9.
Those cities and districts, about ten years after the colony of
the Taifalae, appear in a very desolate state. See Muratori,
Dissertazioni sopra le Antichita Italiane, tom. i. Dissertat.
xxi. p. 354.]
90 (return) [ Ammian. xxxi. 11. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 228—230. The
latter expatiates on the desultory exploits of Sebastian, and
despatches, in a few lines, the important battle of Hadrianople.
According to the ecclesiastical critics, who hate Sebastian, the
praise of Zosimus is disgrace, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. v. p. 121.) His prejudice and ignorance undoubtedly render
him a very questionable judge of merit.]
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 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. 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 neighboring 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 magots, 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 favorable 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
91 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 12, 13) almost alone describes the
councils and actions which were terminated by the fatal battle of
Hadrianople. We might censure the vices of his style, the
disorder and perplexity of his narrative: but we must now take
leave of this impartial historian; and reproach is silenced by
our regret for such an irreparable loss.]
92 (return) [ The difference of the eight miles of Ammianus, and
the twelve of Idatius, can only embarrass those critics (Valesius
ad loc.,) who suppose a great army to be a mathematical point,
without space or dimensions.]
93 (return) [ Nec ulla annalibus, praeter Cannensem pugnam, ita
ad internecionem res legitur gesta. Ammian. xxxi. 13. According
to the grave Polybius, no more than 370 horse, and 3,000 foot,
escaped from the field of Cannae: 10,000 were made prisoners; and
the number of the slain amounted to 5,630 horse, and 70,000 foot,
(Polyb. l. iii. p 371, edit. Casaubon, 8vo.) Livy (xxii. 49) is
somewhat less bloody: he slaughters only 2,700 horse, and 40,000
foot. The Roman army was supposed to consist of 87,200 effective
men, (xxii. 36.)]
94 (return) [ We have gained some faint light from Jerom, (tom.
i. p. 26 and in Chron. p. 188,) Victor, (in Epitome,) Orosius,
(l. vii. c. 33, p. 554,) Jornandes, (c. 27,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p.
230,) Socrates, (l. iv. c. 38,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 40,) Idatius,
(in Chron.) But their united evidence, if weighed against
Ammianus alone, is light and unsubstantial.]
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 honorable 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 fought 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 the fear, the weakness, or the 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 honorable 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
95 (return) [ Libanius de ulciscend. Julian. nece, c. 3, in
Fabricius, Bibliot Graec. tom. vii. p. 146—148.]
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
valor; 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
96 (return) [ Valens had gained, or rather purchased, the
friendship of the Saracens, whose vexatious inroads were felt on
the borders of Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt. The Christian
faith had been lately introduced among a people, reserved, in a
future age, to propagate another religion, (Tillemont, Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 104, 106, 141. Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p.
593.)]
97 (return) [ Crinitus quidam, nudus omnia praeter pubem,
subraunum et ugubre strepens. Ammian. xxxi. 16, and Vales. ad
loc. The Arabs often fought naked; a custom which may be ascribed
to their sultry climate, and ostentatious bravery. The
description of this unknown savage is the lively portrait of
Derar, a name so dreadful to the Christians of Syria. See
Ockley’s Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 72, 84, 87.]
98 (return) [ The series of events may still be traced in the
last pages of Ammianus, (xxxi. 15, 16.) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 227,
231,) whom we are now reduced to cherish, misplaces the sally of
the Arabs before the death of Valens. Eunapius (in Excerpt.
Legat. p. 20) praises the fertility of Thrace, Macedonia, &c.]
The Romans, who so coolly, and so concisely, mention the acts of
justice which were exercised by the legions, 99 reserve 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 color 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 people 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.
99 (return) [ Observe with how much indifference Caesar relates,
in the Commentaries of the Gallic war, that he put to death the
whole senate of the Veneti, who had yielded to his mercy, (iii.
16;) that he labored to extirpate the whole nation of the
Eburones, (vi. 31;) that forty thousand persons were massacred at
Bourges by the just revenge of his soldiers, who spared neither
age nor sex, (vii. 27,) &c.]
100 (return) [ Such are the accounts of the sack of Magdeburgh,
by the ecclesiastic and the fisherman, which Mr. Harte has
transcribed, (Hist. of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 313—320,)
with some apprehension of violating the dignity of history.]
101 (return) [ Et vastatis urbibus, hominibusque interfectis,
solitudinem et raritatem bestiarum quoque fieri, et volatilium,
pisciumque: testis Illyricum est, testis Thracia, testis in quo
ortus sum solum, (Pannonia;) ubi praeter coelum et terram, et
crescentes vepres, et condensa sylvarum cuncta perierunt. Tom.
vii. p. 250, l, Cap. Sophonias and tom. i. p. 26.]
Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part V.
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 intention, 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
authorize 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.
102 (return) [ Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 20) foolishly
supposes a praeternatural growth of the young Goths, that he may
introduce Cadmus’s armed men, who sprang from the dragon’s teeth,
&c. Such was the Greek eloquence of the times.]
103 (return) [ Ammianus evidently approves this execution,
efficacia velox et salutaris, which concludes his work, (xxxi.
16.) Zosimus, who is curious and copious, (l. iv. p. 233—236,)
mistakes the date, and labors to find the reason, why Julius did
not consult the emperor Theodosius who had not yet ascended the
throne of the East.]
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 favor 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
104 (return) [ A life of Theodosius the Great was composed in the
last century, (Paris, 1679, in 4to-1680, 12mo.,) to inflame the
mind of the young Dauphin with Catholic zeal. The author,
Flechier, afterwards bishop of Nismes, was a celebrated preacher;
and his history is adorned, or tainted, with pulpit eloquence;
but he takes his learning from Baronius, and his principles from
St. Ambrose and St Augustin.]
105 (return) [ The birth, character, and elevation of Theodosius
are marked in Pacatus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 10, 11, 12,)
Themistius, (Orat. xiv. p. 182,) (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 231,)
Augustin. (de Civitat. Dei. v. 25,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 34,)
Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 2,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 2,) Theodoret, (l.
v. c. 5,) Philostorgius, (l. ix. c. 17, with Godefroy, p. 393,)
the Epitome of Victor, and the Chronicles of Prosper, Idatius,
and Marcellinus, in the Thesaurus Temporum of Scaliger. * Note:
Add a hostile fragment of Eunapius. Mai, p. 273, in Niebuhr, p
178—M.]
106 (return) [ Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 716,
&c.]
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 orignal 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 honors 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 valor 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 Misaea, 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 favor, 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 labors 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 honorable. 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.
107 (return) [ Italica, founded by Scipio Africanus for his
wounded veterans of Italy. The ruins still appear, about a league
above Seville, but on the opposite bank of the river. See the
Hispania Illustrata of Nonius, a short though valuable treatise,
c. xvii. p. 64—67.]
108 (return) [ I agree with Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
v. p. 726) in suspecting the royal pedigree, which remained a
secret till the promotion of Theodosius. Even after that event,
the silence of Pacatus outweighs the venal evidence of
Themistius, Victor, and Claudian, who connect the family of
Theodosius with the blood of Trajan and Hadrian.]
109 (return) [ Pacatas compares, and consequently prefers, the
youth of Theodosius to the military education of Alexander,
Hannibal, and the second Africanus; who, like him, had served
under their fathers, (xii. 8.)]
110 (return) [ Ammianus (xxix. 6) mentions this victory of
Theodosius Junior Dux Maesiae, prima etiam tum lanugine juvenis,
princeps postea perspectissimus. The same fact is attested by
Themistius and Zosimus but Theodoret, (l. v. c. 5,) who adds some
curious circumstances, strangely applies it to the time of the
interregnum.]
111 (return) [ Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 9) prefers the
rustic life of Theodosius to that of Cincinnatus; the one was the
effect of choice, the other of poverty.]
112 (return) [ M. D’Anville (Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 25)
has fixed the situation of Caucha, or Coca, in the old province
of Gallicia, where Zosimus and Idatius have placed the birth, or
patrimony, of Theodosius.]
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 vigor 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 labors 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
armor, 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 honorably
deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself as the
firm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his
head-quarters 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 generally 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 favorable 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 the 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 vigor of his mind, or divert his attention from the public
service. 118
113 (return) [ Let us hear Ammianus himself. Haec, ut miles
quondam et Graecus, a principatu Cassaris Nervae exorsus, adusque
Valentis inter, pro virium explicavi mensura: opus veritatem
professum nun quam, ut arbitror, sciens, silentio ausus
corrumpere vel mendacio. Scribant reliqua potiores aetate,
doctrinisque florentes. Quos id, si libuerit, aggressuros,
procudere linguas ad majores moneo stilos. Ammian. xxxi. 16. The
first thirteen books, a superficial epitome of two hundred and
fifty-seven years, are now lost: the last eighteen, which contain
no more than twenty-five years, still preserve the copious and
authentic history of his own times.]
114 (return) [ Ammianus was the last subject of Rome who composed
a profane history in the Latin language. The East, in the next
century, produced some rhetorical historians, Zosimus,
Olympiedorus, Malchus, Candidus &c. See Vossius de Historicis
Graecis, l. ii. c. 18, de Historicis Latinis l. ii. c. 10, &c.]
115 (return) [ Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 344, edit. Montfaucon. I
have verified and examined this passage: but I should never,
without the aid of Tillemont, (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 152,)
have detected an historical anecdote, in a strange medley of
moral and mystic exhortations, addressed, by the preacher of
Antioch, to a young widow.]
116 (return) [ Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legation. p. 21.]
117 (return) [ See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws. Codex
Theodos tom. l. Prolegomen. p. xcix.—civ.]
118 (return) [ Most writers insist on the illness, and long
repose, of Theodosius, at Thessalonica: Zosimus, to diminish his
glory; Jornandes, to favor the Goths; and the ecclesiastical
writers, to introduce his baptism.]
The deliverance and peace of the Roman provinces 119 was the work
of prudence, rather than of valor: the prudence of Theodosius was
seconded by fortune: and the emperor never failed to seize, and
to improve, every favorable 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 wagons,
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. 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 honorable 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 harbor, 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 honorable 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, after the
defeat and death of the emperor Valens. 123
119 (return) [ Compare Themistius (Orat, xiv. p. 181) with
Zosimus (l. iv. p. 232,) Jornandes, (c. xxvii. p. 649,) and the
prolix Commentary of M. de Buat, (Hist. de Peuples, &c., tom. vi.
p. 477—552.) The Chronicles of Idatius and Marcellinus allude, in
general terms, to magna certamina, magna multaque praelia. The
two epithets are not easily reconciled.]
120 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 232) styles him a Scythian, a
name which the more recent Greeks seem to have appropriated to
the Goths.]
121 (return) [ The reader will not be displeased to see the
original words of Jornandes, or the author whom he transcribed.
Regiam urbem ingressus est, miransque, En, inquit, cerno quod
saepe incredulus audiebam, famam videlicet tantae urbis. Et huc
illuc oculos volvens, nunc situm urbis, commeatumque navium, nunc
moenia clara pro spectans, miratur; populosque diversarum
gentium, quasi fonte in uno e diversis partibus scaturiente unda,
sic quoque militem ordinatum aspiciens; Deus, inquit, sine dubio
est terrenus Imperator, et quisquis adversus eum manum moverit,
ipse sui sanguinis reus existit Jornandes (c. xxviii. p. 650)
proceeds to mention his death and funeral.]
122 (return) [ Jornandes, c. xxviii. p. 650. Even Zosimus (l. v.
p. 246) is compelled to approve the generosity of Theodosius, so
honorable to himself, and so beneficial to the public.]
123 (return) [ The short, but authentic, hints in the Fasti of
Idatius (Chron. Scaliger. p. 52) are stained with contemporary
passion. The fourteenth oration of Themistius is a compliment to
Peace, and the consul Saturninus, (A.D. 383.)]
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 recognized 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 valor 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 valor 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.
124 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252.]
125 (return) [ I am justified, by reason and example, in applying
this Indian name to the the Barbarians, the single trees hollowed
into the shape of a boat. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 253. Ausi Danubium
quondam tranare Gruthungi In lintres fregere nemus: ter mille
ruebant Per fluvium plenae cuneis immanibus alni. Claudian, in
iv. Cols. Hon. 623.]
126 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252—255. He too frequently
betrays his poverty of judgment by disgracing the most serious
narratives with trifling and incredible circumstances.]
127 (return) [—Odothaei Regis opima Retulit—Ver. 632. The opima
were the spoils which a Roman general could only win from the
king, or general, of the enemy, whom he had slain with his own
hands: and no more than three such examples are celebrated in the
victorious ages of Rome.]
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 single 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 colors; 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
128 (return) [ See Themistius, Orat. xvi. p. 211. Claudian (in
Eutrop. l. ii. 112) mentions the Phrygian colony:——Ostrogothis
colitur mistisque Gruthungis Phyrx ager——and then proceeds to
name the rivers of Lydia, the Pactolus, and Herreus.]
129 (return) [ Compare Jornandes, (c. xx. 27,) who marks the
condition and number of the Gothic Foederati, with Zosimus, (l.
iv. p. 258,) who mentions their golden collars; and Pacatus, (in
Panegyr. Vet. xii. 37,) who applauds, with false or foolish joy,
their bravery and discipline.]
130 (return) [ Amator pacis generisque Gothorum, is the praise
bestowed by the Gothic historian, (c. xxix.,) who represents his
nation as innocent, peaceable men, slow to anger, and patient of
injuries. According to Livy, the Romans conquered the world in
their own defence.]
131 (return) [ Besides the partial invectives of Zosimus, (always
discontented with the Christian reigns,) see the grave
representations which Synesius addresses to the emperor Arcadius,
(de Regno, p. 25, 26, edit. Petav.) The philosophic bishop of
Cyrene was near enough to judge; and he was sufficiently removed
from the temptation of fear or flattery.]
132 (return) [ Themistius (Orat. xvi. p. 211, 212) composes an
elaborate and rational apology, which is not, however, exempt
from the puerilities of Greek rhetoric. Orpheus could only charm
the wild beasts of Thrace; but Theodosius enchanted the men and
women, whose predecessors in the same country had torn Orpheus in
pieces, &c.]
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 behavior
expressed their contempt of the citizens and provincials, whom
they insulted with impunity. 133 To the zeal and valor 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 a 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
favorable 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 honorable
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, 13411 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
133 (return) [ Constantinople was deprived half a day of the
public allowance of bread, to expiate the murder of a Gothic
soldier: was the guilt of the people. Libanius, Orat. xii. p.
394, edit. Morel.]
134 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 267-271. He tells a long and
ridiculous story of the adventurous prince, who roved the country
with only five horsemen, of a spy whom they detected, whipped,
and killed in an old woman’s cottage, &c.]
13411 (return) [ Eunapius.—M.]
135 (return) [ Compare Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 21, 22)
with Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 279.) The difference of circumstances
and names must undoubtedly be applied to the same story.
Fravitta, or Travitta, was afterwards consul, (A.D. 401.) and
still continued his faithful services to the eldest son of
Theodosius. (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 467.)]
136 (return) [ Les Goths ravagerent tout depuis le Danube
jusqu’au Bosphore; exterminerent Valens et son armee; et ne
repasserent le Danube, que pour abandonner l’affreuse solitude
qu’ils avoient faite, (Oeuvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 479.
Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur et de la Decadence
des Romains, c. xvii.) The president Montesquieu seems ignorant
that the Goths, after the defeat of Valens, never abandoned the
Roman territory. It is now thirty years, says Claudian, (de Bello
Getico, 166, &c., A.D. 404,) Ex quo jam patrios gens haec oblita
Triones, Atque Istrum transvecta semel, vestigia fixit Threicio
funesta solo—the error is inexcusable; since it disguises the
principal and immediate cause of the fall of the Western empire
of Rome.]
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