XXXII. CHAP. I. It is enacted, in the name, and by the authority, of Arcadius, that all those who fhall confpire, either with fubjects, or with ftrangers, against the lives of any of the perfons whom the emperor confiders as the members, of his own body, fhall be punished with death and confifcation. This fpecies of fictitious and metaphorical treafon is extended to protect, not only the illuftrious officers of the ftate and army, who are admitted into the facred confiftory, but likewise the principal domeftics of the palace, the fenators of Conftantinople, the military commanders, and the civil magiftrates of the provinces: a vague and indefinite lift, which, under the fucceffors of Conftantine, included an obfcure and numerous train of fubordinate minifters. II. This extreme feverity might perhaps be juftified, had it been only directed to fecure the reprefentatives of the fovereign from any actual violence in the execution of their office. But the whole body of Imperial dependents claimed a privilege, or rather impunity, which fcreened them, in the loofest moments of their lives, from the hafty, perhaps the juftifiable, refentment of their fellow-citizens: and, by a ftrange perverfion of the laws, the fame degree of guilt and punishment was applied to a private quarrel, and to a deliberate confpiracy against the emperor and the empire. The edict of Arcadius moft pofitively and moft abfurdly declares, that in fuch cafes of treafon, thoughts and actions ought to be punished with equal feverity; that the knowledge of a mifchievous intention, unlefs it be inftantly revealed, 9 becomes XXXII. becomes equally criminal with the intention it- CHAP. felf"; and that thofe rafh men, who fhall prefume to folicit the pardon of traitors, fhall themfelves be branded with public and perpetual infamy. III." With regard to the fons of the "traitors," (continues the emperor,)" although they ought to share the punishment, fince they << will probably imitate the guilt, of their parents; yet, by the fpecial effect of our Impe"rial lenity, we grant them their lives: but, at the fame time, we declare them incapable "of inheriting, either on the father's or on the "mother's fide, or of receiving any gift or le gacy, from the teftament either of kinfmen or "of strangers. Stigmatifed with hereditary infamy, excluded from the hopes of honours or fortune, let them endure the pangs of poverty "and contempt, till they fhall confider life as a "calamity, and death as a comfort and relief." In fuch words, fo well adapted to infult the feelings of mankind, did the emperor, or rather his favourite eunuch, applaud the moderation of a law, which transferred the fame unjuft and inhuman penalties to the children of all those who had feconded, or who had not difclofed, these fictitious confpiracies. Some of the nobleft re 19 Bartolus understands a simple and naked consciousness, without any fign of approbation or concurrence. For this opinion, says Baldus, he is now roafting in hell. For my own part, continues the difcreet Heineccius (Element. Jur. Civil. I. iv. p. 411.), I must approve the theory of Bartolus; but in practice I fhould incline to the fontiment of Baldus. Yet Bartolus was gravely quoted by the lawyers of Cardinal Richelieu; and Eutropius was indirectly guilty of the murder of the virtuous de Thou. VOL. V. C c gulations CHAP. gulations of Roman jurisprudence have been XXXII. fuffered to expire; but this edict, a convenient Rebellion of Tribigild, A.D. 399. and forcible engine of ministerial tyranny, was carefully inferted in the codes of Theodofius- and Juftinian; and the fame maxims have been revived in modern ages, to protect the electors of Germany, and the cardinals of the church of Rome 20. Yet these fanguinary laws, which spread terror among a difarmed and difpirited people, were of too weak á texture to reftrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild" the Oftrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which had been planted by Theodofius in one of the moft fertile diftricts of Phrygia 22, impatiently compared the flow returns of laborious husbandry, with the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their leader refented, as a perfonal affront, his own ungracious reception in the palace of Conftantinople. A foft and wealthy province, in the heart of the empire, was astonished by the sound of war; and 20 Godefroy, tom. iii. p. 89. It is, however, suspected, that this law, fo repugnant to the maxims of Germanic freedom, has been fur. reptitiously added to the golden bull. 21 A copious and circumstantial narrative (which he might have referved for more important events) is bestowed by Zofimus (1. v. p. 304-312.) on the revolt of Tribigild and Gainas. See likewife Socrates, 1. vi. c. 6. and Sozomen, 1. viii. c. 4. The fecond book of Claudian against Eutropius, is a fine, though imperfect, piece of hif tory. 22 Claudian (in Eutrop. ii. 237-250.) very accurately obferves, that the ancient name and nation of the Phrygians extended very far on every fide, till their limits were contracted by the colonies of the Bithynians of Thrace, of the Greeks, and at last of the Gauls. His defcription (ii. 257–272.) of thejfertility of Phrygia, and of the four rivers that produce gold, is just and picturesque. the XXXII. the faithful vaffal, who had been difregarded or CHAP. oppreffed, was again refpected, as foon as he refumed the hoftile character of a Barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields, between the rapid Marfyas and the winding Mæander 23, were confumed with fire; the decayed walls of the cities crumbled into duft, at the firft ftroke of an enemy; the trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody maffacre to the fhores of the Hellefpont; and a confiderable part of Afia Minor was defolated by the rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progrefs was checked by the refiftance of the peasants of Pamphylia; and the Oftrogoths, attacked in a narrow pafs, between the city of Selgæ 24, a deep morafs, and the craggy clifts of Mount Taurus, were defeated with the lofs of their bravest troops. But the fpirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army was continually recruited by fwarms of Barbarians and outlaws, who were defirous of exercifing the profeffion of robbery, under the more honourable names of war and conqueft. The rumours of the fuccess of Tribigild might for fome time be fuppreffed by fear, or disguised by flat 23 Xenophon. Anabafis, 1. i. p. 11, 12. edit. Hutchinfon. Strabo, 1. xii. p. 865. edit. Amftel. Q. Curt. 1. iii. c. 1. Claudian compares the junction of the Marfyas and Meander to that of the Saone and the Rhône; with this difference, however, that the fmaller of the Phrygian rivers is not accelerated, but retarded, by the larger. 24 Selgæ, a colony of the Lacedæmonians, had formerly numbered twenty thousand citizens; but in the age of Zofimus it was reduced to a whixin, or small town. See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. P. 117. XXXII. CHAP. tery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital. Every misfortune was exaggerated in dark and doubtful hints; and the future defigns of the rebels became the fubject of anxious conjecture. Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country, the Romans were inclined to fuppofe that he meditated the paffage of Mount Taurus, and the invafion of Syria. If he defcended towards the fea, they imputed, and perhaps fuggefted, to the Gothic chief, the more dangerous project of arming a fleet in the harbours of Ionia, and of extending his depredations along the maritime coaft, from the mouth of the Nile to the port of Conftantinople. The approach of danger, and the obftinacy of Tribigild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled Eutropius to fummon a council of After claiming for himself the privilege of a veteran foldier, the eunuch entrusted the guard of Thrace and the Hellefpont to Gainas the Goth; and the command of the Afiatic army to his favourite Leo; two generals, who differently, but effectually, promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo, who, from the bulk of his body, war 25 25 The council of Eutropius, in Claudian, may be compared to that of Domitian in the fourth fatire of Juvenal. The principal members of the former were, juvenes protervi lafcivique fenes; one of them had been a cook, a fecond a woolcomber. The language of their original profeffion expofes their affumed dignity; and their trifling converfation about tragedies, dancers, &c. is made ftill more ridiculous by the importance of the debate. 26 Claudian (1. ii. 376-461.) has branded him with infamy; and Zofimus, in more temperate language, confirms his reproaches. L. v. P. 305. and |