XII.

CHA P. Sion of an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their punishment was immediate and terrible *. But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people, who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silesiat. In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank by their numbers and fierceness. "The "Arii (it is thus that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) study to improve, by art "and circumstances, the innate terrors of their "barbarism. Their shields are black, their

66

bodies are painted black. They chuse for the "combat the darkest hour of the night. Their "host advances, covered as it were with a fune"real shade ; nor do they often find an enemy

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capable of sustaining so strange and infernal

an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the "first vanquished in battle §." Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily discomfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were defeated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honourable capitulation, and permitted them

to

Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But the latter supposes the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kings; if so, it was partial, like the offence.

† See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, 1. iii. Ptolemy places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia. ‡ Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus: It is surely a very bold one.

§ Tacit. Germania, (c. 43.)

to return in safety to their native country. But CHA P. the losses which they suffered in the march, the XII. battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the nation: Nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history, either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thousand of the invaders; a work of labour to the Romans, and of expence to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every barbarian *. But as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect, that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted, without any very severe examination, by the liberal vanity of Probus.

ries his

Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman and cargenerals had confined their ambition to a defen- arms into sive war against the nations of Germany, who Germany. perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Neckar. He was fully convinced, that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they experienced, in their own country, the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable princes repaired to his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet.

Vopiscus in Hist. Angust. p. 238.

Such a

treaty

XII.

CHA P. treaty was humbly received by the Germans, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the provinces; and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the spoil. A considerable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of the garrisons which Probus established on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust their differences to the justice, their safety to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. Probus, therefore, judged it more expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was, indeed, rather of specious than solid utility *. Had Germany been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with immense labour and expence, would have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians of Scythia.

He builds a wall from the Rhine to the Danube.

Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country, which now forms the circle of Swabia, had

Hist. August. p. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design of reducing Germany into a province.

XII.

had been left desert in the age of Augustus by CHA P. the emigration of its ancient inhabitants *. The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper, and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tythes, the majesty of the empire t. To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong intrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone-wall of a considerable height, and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Newstadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, vallies, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles ‡. This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which VOL. II.

G

the

* Strabo, 1. vii. According to Velleius Paterculus, (ii. 108.) Maroboduus led his Macromanni into Bohemia: Cluverius (German. Antiq. iii. 8.) proves that it was from Swabia.

These settlers, from the payment of tythes, were denomi nated Decumates. Tacit. Germania, c. 29.

See Notes de l'Abbe de la Bleterie a la Germanie de Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schoepflin.

CHAP. the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, XII. could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying an extensive tract of country*. An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot,, or some unguarded moment. The strength as well as the attention of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops, that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected, may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death, it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Dæmon, now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.

Introduction and settlement

barians.

Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by Probus on the vanquished nations of Gerof the bar- many, was the obligation of supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dispersed them through all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous reinforcement in small bands of fifty or sixty each, among the national

* See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 81-102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he seems to confound the wall of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed in the neighbourhood of Frankfort against the Catti.