XIX. evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The CHAP. Germans despised an enemy who appeared destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them; and the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the expected support; and left him to extricate himself from a hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety, nor retire with honour73. Stras As soon as they were delivered from the fears of Battle of invasion, the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Ro- burgh: man youth, who presumed to dispute the possession of A. D. 357, that country, which they claimed as their own by the August. right of conquest and of treaties. They employed three days, and as many nights, in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chuodomar, shaking the ponderous javelin, which he had victoriously wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and moderated by his experience the martial ardour which his example inspired. He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own strength, was increased by the intelligence which they received from a deserter, that the Cæsar, with a feeble army of thirteen thousand men, occupied a post about one-andtwenty miles from their camp of Strasburgh. With this inadequate force, Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host: and the chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties of the Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two columns, the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the enemy, that 73 On the design and failure of the co-operation between Julian and Barbatio, see Ammianus (xvi. 11.) and Libanius, Orat. x. p. 273. 74 Ammianus (xvi. 12.), describes, with his inflated eloquence, the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor prælii sperabatur immanis, equo spumante, sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidandæ vastitatis, armorumque nitore conspicuus: antea strenuus et miles, et utilis præter cæteros ductor. .. Dicentium Cæsarem superavit æquo marte congressus. XIX. CHAP. Julian was desirous of deferring the battle till the next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and food. Yielding, however, with some reluc tance, to the clamours of the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted them to justify hy their valour the eager impatience, which, in case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets of rashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to the charge. The Cæsar, who conducted in person his right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light-horse and of light-infantry, and he had the mortification of behold. ing the flight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers. The fugitives were stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every motive of shame and honour, led them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper; and as the Barbarians, who served under the standard of the empire, united the respective advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length determined the event of the day.The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle of Strasbugh, so glorious to the Cæsar, and so salutary to the 75 After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the rigour of ancient dis cipline, by exposing these fugitives in female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next campaign, these troops nobly retrieved their honour. Zosimus, I. iii. p. 142. 76 Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279.) speaks of the battle of Strasburgh with the modesty of conscious merit; εμαχεσάμην εκ ακλεως, ίσως και εις υμας αφίκετο η τοιαυτη μάχη. Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over Darius; and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct and success of a single day. XIX. afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Ale- CHAP. manni were slain in the field, without including those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts whilst they attempted to swim across the river". Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military pomp in the council of his officers; and expressing a generous pity for their fallen state, dissembled his iuward contempt for the abject humiliation of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an honourable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile78. the After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the Julian provinces of the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms subdues against the Franks, who were seated nearer to the Franks. ocean on the confines of Gaul and Germany; and who, A. D. 358. from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid valour, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the Barbarians". Although they were strongly actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of war; which they considered as the supreme honour and felicity of human nature; and their minds and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the lively expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to them as the flowers of spring. In the 77 Ammianus xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the number of the slain (Orat. x. p. 274.) But these trifling differences disappear before the 60,000 Barbarians, whom Zosimus has sacrificed to the glory of his hero (l. ii. p. 141.) We might attribute this extravagant number to the carelessness of transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not swelled the army of 5,000 Alemanni to an innumerable multitude of barbarians, πλήθος απείρον βαρβαρων. It is our own fault if this detection does not inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions. 78 Ammian. xvi. 12. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 276. 79 Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137.) draws a very lively picture of the manners of the Franks. XIX. CHAP. month of December, which followed the battle of Stras burgh, Julian attacked a body of six hundred Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the Meuse. In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days; till at length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the enemy in breaking the ice of the river, left them no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die. The Cæsar immediately sent his captives to the court of Constantius, who accepting them as a valuable present, rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic guards. The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks, apprised Julian of the difficulties of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring, against the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and astonished the active Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite or to deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success of his arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency, and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the Rhine: but the Salians were permit-1 ted to possess their new establishment of Toxandria, 80 Ammianus, xvii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men; and as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he compares them to the Lacedamonians, who were besieged and taken in the island of Sphacteria. 81 Julian. ad S. P .Q. Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor dupa avoua?, which la Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118.) as an honest confession, and Valesius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2) as a mean evasion of the truth. Dom. Bouquet (Historiens de France, tom. i. p. 733.), by substituting another word, evquire, would suppress both the difficulty and the spirit of this passage. XIX. as the subjects and auxiliaries of the Roman empire2. CHAP. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks, with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself, and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son of their king, as the only hostage in whom he could rely.-A mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented in pathetic language, that his private loss was now embittered by a sense of the public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, unexpectly appeared before their eyes; and as soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Cæsar addressed the assembly in the following terms: "Be"hold the son, the prince whom you wept. You had "lost him by your fault. God and the Romans have "restored him to you. I shall still preserve and ed❝ucate the youth, rather as a monument of my own "virtue, than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should "you presume to violate the faith which you have "sworn, the arms of the republic will avenge the per"fidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty." The Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and admiration83. It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the Makes provinces of Gaul from the Barbarians of Germany. three expeditions He aspired to emulate the glory of the first and most beyond 82 Ammian, xvii. 8. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 146-150 (his narrative is darkened by a mixture of fable); and Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280. His expression, υπεδεξαμην μεν μοιραν το Σαλίων εθνός, χαμαβος δε εξήλασα. This difference of treatment confirms the opinion, that the Salian Franks were permitted to retain the settlements in Toxandria. 83 This interesting story, which Zosimus has abridged, is related by Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legationum, p. 15. 16. 17) with all the amplifications of Grecian rhetoric; but the silence of Libanius, of Ammianus, and of Julian himself, renders the truth of it extremely suspicious. the Rhine. A. D. 357, 358, 359. |