СНАР. XXX. tine is ac was the first whom they placed on the throne, as the lawful emperor of Britain, and of the Weft. They violated, by the hafty murder of Marcus, the oath of fidelity which they had imposed on themselves; and their difapprobation of his manners may seem to infcribe an honourable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they adorned with the diadem and the purple; and, at the end of four months, Gratian experienced the fate of his predeceffor. The memory of the great Conftantine, whom the British legions had given to the church and to the empire, suggested the fingular motive of their third choice. They Conftandiscovered in the ranks a private foldier of the knowledgname of Conftantine, and their impetuous levity ed in Brihad already feated him on the throne, before Gaul, A.D.407. they perceived his incapacity to fuftain the weight of that glorious appellation "". Yet the authority of Conftantine was lefs precarious, and his government was more fuccessful, than the tranfient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger of leaving his inactive troops in thofe camps, which had been twice polluted with blood and fedition, urged him to attempt the reduction of the Western provinces. He landed at Boulogne with an inconfiderable force; and after he had repofed himself some days, he fummoned the cities Photium, p. 180, 181.), the ecclefiaftical hiftorians, and the Chro nicles. The Latins are ignorant of Marcus 96 Cum in Constantino inconftantiam ・ ・ execrarentur (Sidonius Appollinaris, 1. v. epift. 9. p. 139. edit. fecund. Sirmond.). Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by fo fair a pun, to ftigmatise a prince, who had disgraced his grandfather. XXX. CHAP. of Gaul, which had efcaped the yoke of the Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful fovereign, They obeyed the fummons without reluctance. The neglect of the court of Ravenna had abfolved a deferted people from the duty of allegiance; their actual diftrefs encouraged them to accept any circumstances of change, without apprehenfion, and, perhaps, with fome degree of hope; and they might flatter themselves, that the troops, the authority, and even the name of a Roman emperor, who fixed his refidence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy country from the rage of the Barbarians. The first fucceffes of Conftantine against the detached parties of the Germans, were magnified by the voice of adulation into fplendid and decifive victories; which the reunion and infolence of the enemy foon reduced to their juft value. His negociations procured a short and precarious truce; and if some tribes of the Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises, to undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive and uncertain treaties, instead of reftoring the priftine vigour of the Gallic frontier, ferved only to disgrace the majefty of the prince, and to exhauft what yet remained of the treasures of the republic. Elated however with this imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the provinces of the South, to encounter a more preffing and perfonal danger. Sarus the Goth was ordered to lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperar Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy were unworthily confumed in this domeftic quar rel. rel. XXX. After the lofs of his two braveft generals, CHAP. Juftinian and Nevigaftes, the former of whom was flain in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful but treacherous interview, Conftantine fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked feven days; and the Imperial army fupported, in a precipitate retreat, the ignominy of purchasing a secure paffage from the freebooters and outlaws of the Alps 27. Those mountains now feparated the dominions of two rival monarchs: and the fortifications of the double frontier were guarded by the troops of the empire, whofe arms would have been more ufefully employed to maintain the Roman limits against the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia. On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of He reduces Spain, Conftantine might be juftified by the proximity A.D.408. of danger; but his throne was foon established by the conqueft, or rather fubmiffion, of Spain; which yielded to the influence of regular and habitual fubordination, and received the laws and magiftrates of the Gallic præfecture. The only oppofition which was made to the authority of Conftantine, proceeded not fo much from the powers of government, or the fpirit of the people, as from the private zeal and interest of the family of Theodofius. Four brothers 98 had obtained, by 97 Bagauda is the name which Zofimus applies to them; perhaps they deserved a lefs odious character (fee Dubos, Hift. Critique, tom. i. p. 203. and this Hiftory, vol. ii. p. 121.). We shall hear of them again. ་ 98 Verinianus, Didymus, Theodofius, and Lagodius, who, in modern courts, would be styled princes of the blood, were not diftinguished Q4 XXX. CHAP. by the favour of their kinfman, the deceased emperor, an honourable rank, and ample poffeffions, in their native country: and the grateful youths refolved to rifk thofe advantages in the fervice of his fon. After an unfuccefsful effort to maintain their ground at the head of the stationary troops of Lufitania, they retired to their eftates; where they armed and levied, at their own expence, a confiderable body of flaves and dependents, and boldly marched to occupy the ftrong posts of the Pyrenæan mountains. This domeftic infurreetion alarmed and perplexed the fovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negociate with fome troops of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the fervice of the Spanish war. They were diftinguished by the title of Honorians 99; a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to their lawful fovereign; and if it fhould candidly be allowed that the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni could be tempted only by the profufe liberality of the ufurper, who diftributed among the Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honours of Spain. The nine. bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the establishment of the Western empire, could not exceed the number of five thousand diftinguished by any rank or privileges above the reft of their fellowfubjects. 99 Thefe Honoriani, or Honoriaci, consisted of two bands of Scots, or Attacotti, two of Moors, two of Marcomanni, the Victores, the Afcarii, and the Gallicani (Notitia Imperii, fect. xxxviii. edit. Lab.). They were part of the fixty-five Auxilia Palatina, and are properly Styled, εν τη αυλη τάξει, by Zofimus (l. vi. p. 374.). men; XXX. men; yet this inconfiderable force was fufficient CHAP.. to terminate a war, which had threatened the power and fafety of Conftantine. The ruftic army of the Theodofian family was furrounded and deftroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers had the good fortune to efcape by fea to Italy, or the Eaft; the other two, after an interval of fufpence, were executed at Arles; and if Honorius could remain infenfible of the public difgrace, he might perhaps be affected by the perfonal misfortunes of his generous kinfmen. Such were the feeble arms which decided the poffeffion of the Western provinces of Europe, from the wall of Antoninus. to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and imperfect view of the hiftorians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the causes, and of the effects, of the most important revolutions. But the total decay of the national ftrength had annihilated even the last resource of a defpotic government; and the revenue of exhaufted provinces could no longer purchase the military fervice of a difcontented and pufillanimous people. tion of Alaric and Stilicho, A. D. The poet whofe flattery has afcribed to the NegociaRoman eagle the victories of Pollentia and Verona, pursues the hafty retreat of Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of imaginary spectres, such as might hover over an army of Barbarians, which was almoft exterminated by war, famine, and disease 4. In the course of Pallor, et atra fames; et faucia lividus ora Claudian in vi Conf. Hon. 321, &c. 404-408. |