XXXI. 150 CHAP. his heart "5°. The unprotected Maximus, whom he had invefted with the purple, was indebted for his life to the contempt that was entertained of his power and abilities. The caprice of the Barbarians, who ravaged Spain, once more feated this Imperial phantom on the throne but they foon refigned him to the justice of Honorius; and the tyrant Maximus, after he had been fhewn to the people of Ravenna and Rome, was publicly executed. Character and victo ries of the general Conftan tius. The general, Conftantius was his name, who raised by his approach the fiege of Arles, and diffipated the troops of Gerontius, was born a Roman: and this remarkable diftinction is ftrongly expreffive of the decay of military fpirit among the fubjects of the empire. The ftrength and majefty which were confpicuous in the perfon of that general's, marked him, in the popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the throne, which he afterwards afcended. In the familiar intercourse of private life, his manners were cheerful and engaging: nor would he fometimes difdain, in the licence of convivial mirth, to vie 150 The praises which Sozomen has bestowed on this act of defpair, appear ftrange and fcandalous in the mouth of an ecclefiaftical hiftorian. He observes (p. 379.), that the wife of Gerontius was a Chriftian; and that her death was worthy of her religion, and of immortal fame. 151 Είδος αξιον τυραννίδος, is the expreffion of Olympiodorus, which he feems to have borrowed from Eolus, a tragedy of Euripides, of which fome fragments only are now extant (Euripid. Barnes, tom. ii. p. 443. ver. 38.). This allufion may prove, that the ancient tragic poets were still familar to the Greeks of the fifth century. with XXXI. with the pantomimes themfelves, in the exercifes CHAP. of their ridiculous profeffion. But when the trumpet fummoned him to arms; when he mounted his horfe, and, bending down (for fuch was his fingular practice) almost upon the neck, fiercely rolled his large animated eyes round the field, Conftantius then ftruck terror into his foes, and infpired his foldiers with the affurance of victory. He had received from the court of Ravenna the important commiffion of extirpating rebellion in the provinces of the Weft; and the pretended emperor Conftantine, after enjoying a fhort and anxious refpite, was again befieged in his capital by the arms of a more formidable enemy. Yet this interval allowed time for a fuccefsful negociation with the Franks and Alemanni; and his ambaffador, Edobic, foon returned, at the head of an army, to disturb the operations of the fiege of Arles. The Roman general, inftead of expecting the attack in his lines, boldly, and perhaps wifely, resolved to pass the Rhône, and to meet the Barbarians. His measures were conducted with fo much skill and fecrecy, that, while they engaged the infantry of Conftantius in the front, they were fuddenly attacked, furrounded, and destroyed by the cavalry of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had filently gained an advantageous poft in their rear. The remains of the army of Edobic were preserved by flight or fubmiffion, and their leader efcaped from the field of battle to the houfe of a faithlefs friend; who too clearly understood, that the head of his obnoxious XXXI. CHAP. obnoxious gueft would be an acceptable and lucrative present for the Imperial general. On this occafion, Conftantius behaved with the magnanimity of a genuine Roman. Subduing, or fuppreffing, every fentiment of jealoufy, he publicly acknowledged the merit and services of Ulphilas : but he turned with horror from the affaffin of Edobic; and fternly intimated his commands, that the camp fhould no longer be polluted by the prefence of an ungrateful wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and hofpitality, The ufurper, who beheld, from the walls of Arles, the ruin of his laft hopes, was tempted to place fome confidence in fo generous a conqueror. He required a folemn promife for his fecurity; and after receiving, by the impofition of hands, the facred character of a Chriftian Prefbyter, he ventured to open the gates of the city. But he foon experienced, that the principles of honour and integrity, which might regulate the ordinary conduct of Conftantius, were fuperfeded by the loose doctrines of political morality. The Rothe ufurper man general, indeed, refufed to fully his laurels tine, with the blood of Conftantine; but the abdicated Nov. 28. emperor, and his fon Julian, were fent under a ftrong guard into Italy; and before they reached the palace of Ravenna, they met the minifters of death. Death of Conftan A.D. 411, Fall of the ufurpers, Jovinus, At a time when it was univerfally confeffed, that almost every man in the empire was fuperior Sebaftian, in perfonal merit to the princes whom the accident of their birth had seated on the throne, a and Atta Jus, A. D. 411 -416, XXXI. rapid fucceffion of ufurpers, regardless of the fate CHAP. of their predeceffors, ftill continued to arise. This mischief was peculiarly felt in the provinces. of Spain and Gaul, where the principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war and rebellion. Before Conftantine refigned the purple, and in the fourth month of the fiege of Arles, intelligence was received in the Imperial camp, that Jovinus had affumed the diadem at Mentz, in the Upper Germany, at the inftigation of Goar, king of the Alani, and of Guntiarius, king of the Burgundians; and that the candidate, on whom they had beftowed the empire, advanced, with a formidable hoft of Barbarians, from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Rhône. Every circumftance is dark and extraordinary in the short hiftory of the reign of Jovinus. It was natural to expect, that a brave and skilful general, at the head of a victorious army, would have afferted, in a field of battle, the juftice of the cause of Honorius. The hafty retreat of Conftantius might be juftified by weighty reafons; but he refigned, without a struggle, the poffeffion of Gaul: and Dardanus, the Prætorian præfect, is recorded as the only magiftrate, who refused to yield obedience to the ufurper 12. 152 152 Sidonius Apollinaris (1. v. epift. 9. p. 139. and Not. Sirmond. p. 58.), after stigmatising the inconftancy of Conftantine, the facility of Jovinus, the perfidy of Gerontius, continues to observe, that all the vices of thefe tyrants were united in the person of Dar. danus. Yet the præfect fupported a respectable character in the world, and even in the church; held a devout correfpondence with St. Augustin and St. Jerom; and was complimented by the latter (tom. iii. p. 66.) with the epithets of Chriftianorum Nobiliffime, and Nobilium Christianissime. When XXXI. CHAP. When the Goths, two years after the fiege of Rome, established their quarters in Gaul, it was natural to fuppofe that their inclinations could be divided only between the emperor Honorius, with whom they had formed a recent alliance, and the degraded Attalus, whom they referved in their camp for the occafional purpofe of acting the part of a musician or a monarch. Yet in a moment of difguft (for which it is not easy to affign a caufe, or a date), Adolphus connected himfelf with the ufurper of Gaul; and impofed on Attalus the ignominious task of negociating the treaty, which ratified his own difgrace. We are again furprised to read, that, inftead of confidering the Gothic alliance as the firmeft fupport of his throne, Jovinus upbraided, in dark and ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attalus; that, fcorning the advice of his great ally, he invested with the purple his brother Sebastian; and that he most imprudently accepted the fervice of Sarus, when that gallant chief, the foldier of Honorius, was provoked to defert the court of a prince, who knew not how to reward, or punish. Adolphus, educated among a race of warriors, who efteemed the duty of revenge as the most precious and facred portion of their inheritance, advanced with a body of ten thousand Goths to encounter the hereditary enemy of the houfe of Balti. He attacked Sarus at an unguarded moment, when he was accompanied only by eighteen or twenty of his valiant followers. United by friendship, animated by defpair, but at |