XXXI. ed his propofels of peace: and the second embaffy CHAP. of the Roman fenate, which derived weight and dignity from the prefence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a detachment of Gothic foldiers 82. 33 and fuc Olympius might have continued to infult Change the juft refentment of a people, who loudly ac- ceflion of cufed him as the author of the public calamities; minifters. but his power was undermined by the fecret intrigues of the palace. The favourite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the empire, to Jovius, the Prætorian præfect; an unworthy fervant, who did not atone, by the merit of perfonal attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of his adminiftration. The exile, or efcape, of the guilty Olympius, referved him for more viciffitudes of fortune: he experienced the adventures of an obfcure and wandering life; he again rose to power; he fell a fecond time into difgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired under the lash; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful fpectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whofe character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from the impolitic profcription, which excluded them from the dignities of the ftate. The brave Gennerid **, a foldier 84 82 Zofimus, 1. v. p. 360, 361, 362. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, efcaped the impending calamities of the city. Orofius, 1. vii, C. 39. P. 573. 83 For the adventures of Olympius, and his fucceffors in the minif try, fee Zofimus, l. v. p. 363. 365, 366. and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. P. 180, 181. 84 Zofimus (1. v. p. 364.) relates this circumftance with wifible complacency, and celebrates the character of Gennerid as the laft glory XXXI. CHAP. a foldier of Barbarian origin, who ftill adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay afide the military belt: and though he was repeatedly affured by the emperor himself, that laws were not made for persons of his rank or merit, he refufed to accept any partial difpenfation, and perfevered in honourable difgrace, till he had extorted a general act of justice from the distress of the Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid, in the important ftation, to which he was promoted or restored, of maftergeneral of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhætia, feemed to revive the difcipline and spirit of the republic. From a life of idleness and want, his troops were foon habituated to fevere exercise, and plentiful subsistence; and his private generofity often fupplied the rewards, which were denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the court of Ravenna. The valour of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmeft bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care affifted the empire with a reinforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of Italy, attended by fuch a convoy of provifions, and fuch a numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might have been fufficient, not only for the march of an army, but for the glory of expiring paganifin. Very different were the fentiments of the council of Carthage, who deputed four bishops to the court of Ravenna, to complain of the law, which had been just enacted, that all converfions to Chriftianity fhould be free and voluntary. See Baronius, Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 409. No 12. A. D. 410. N° 47 48. fettle XXXI. fettlement of a colony. But the court and coun- CHAP. cils of Honorius ftill remained a scene of weaknefs and distraction, of corruption and anarchy. Inftigated by the præfect Jovius, the guards rofe in furious mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals, and of the two principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promife of fafety, were sent on fhip-board, and privately executed; while the favour of the eunuchs procured them a mild and fecure exile at Milan and Conftantinople. Eufebius the eunuch, and the Barbarian Allobich, fucceeded to the command of the bed-chamber and of the guards; and the mutual jealousy of thefe fubordinate minifters was the caufe of their mutual deftruction. By the infolent order of the count of the domeftics, the great chamberlain was fhamefully beaten to death with fticks, before the eyes of the astonished emperor; and the fubfequent affaffination of Allobich, in the midst of a public proceffion, is the only circumftance of his life, in which Honorius difcovered the fainteft fymptom of courage or refentment. Yet before they fell, Eufebius and Allobich had contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by oppofing the conclufion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish, and perhaps a criminal, motive, had negociated with Alaric, in a perfonal interview under the walls of Rimini. During the abfence of Jovius, the em→ peror was perfuaded to affume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, fuch as neither his fituation, nor his character, could enable him to fupport: and a letter, figned with the name of Honorius, С Н А Р. was immediately difpatched to the Prætorian præfect, granting him a free permiffion to difpose of the public money, but fternly refufing to prostitute the military honours of Rome to the proud, demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently communicated to Alaric himfelf; and the Goth, who in the whole tranfaction had behaved with temper and decency, expreffed, in the most outrageous language, his lively fenfe of the infult fo wantonly offered to his perfon, and to his nation. The conference of Rimini was haftily interrupted; and the præfect Jovius, on his return to Ravenna, was compelled to adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions. of the court. By his advice and example, the principal officers of the ftate and army were obliged to fwear, that, without liftening, in any circumstances, to any conditions of peace, they would still perfevere in perpetual and implacable war against the enemy of the republic. This rash engagement oppofed an infuperable bar to all future negociation. The minifters of Honorius were heard to declare, that, if they had only invoked the name of the Deity, they would confult the public safety, and trust their fouls to the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn, by the facred head of the emperor himfelf; they had touched, in folemn ceremony, that auguft feat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath would expofe them to the temporal penalties of facrilege and rebellion 3, While 35 Zofimus, 1. v. p. 367, 368, 369. This cuftom of fwearing by the head, or life, or fafety, or genius, of the fovereign, was of XXXI. While the emperor and his court enjoyed, CHAP. with fullen pride, the fecurity of the marshes and fortifications of Ravenna, they abandoned Rome, Second almost without defence, to the refentment of Rome by Alaric. Yet fuch was the moderation which he the Goths, A.D. 409. ftill preserved, or affected, that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian way, he fucceffively dispatched the bishops of the towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the emperor, that he would fave the city and its inhabitants from hoftile fire, and the fword of the Barbarians". These impending calamities were however averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius, but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; who employed a milder, though not less effectual, method of conqueft. Inftead of affaulting the capital, he fucceffively directed his efforts against the Port of Oftia, one of the boldest and most ftupendous works of Roman magnificence $7. The accidents to which 87 the highest antiquity, both in Egypt (Genefis xlii. 15.) and Scythia. It was foon transferred, by flattery, to the Cæfars; and Tertullian complains, that it was the only oath which the Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an elegant Differtation of the Abbé Maffieu on the Oaths of the Ancients, in the Mem. de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. i. p. 208, 209. 86 Zofimus, 1. v. p. 368, 369. I have foftened the expreffions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner, on the history of Rome. 87 See Sueton. in Claud. c. 20. Dion Caffius, 1. Ix. p. 949. edit. Reimar, and the lively description of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, &c. In the fixteenth century, when the remains of this Auguftan port were ftill visible, the antiquarians sketched the plan (fee d'Anville, Mem. de Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xxx. p. 198.), and declared, with enthusiasm, that all the monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute fo great a work (Bergier, Hift. des grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. P. 356.). the |