moderate proportion either of genius or of truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit of a sovereign and a father; and his prophecy of a long and glorious reign was soon contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when the Imperial dignity was reduced to a pre-eminence of toil and danger, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian luxury: age had not extinguished his amorous inclinations; and he is accused of insulting, with indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated.25 But the Romans were not inclined either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the empire became every day more alienated from each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular hatred and contempt. The senate asserted their legitimate claim in the election of an emperor; and their authority, which had been originally derived from the old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed senate, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps inflamed, by Count Ricimer, one of the principal commanders of the barbarian troops who formed the military defence of Italy. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the father's side, from the nation of the Suevi :26 his pride or patriotism might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; and he obeyed with reluctance an emperor in whose elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important services against the common enemy rendered him still more formidable ;27 and, after destroying on the coast of Corsica a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the appellation of the Deliverer of Italy. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus that his reign was at an end; and the feeble emperor, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing struggle, to abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt of Ricimer,28 he was permitted to descend from the throne to the 25 Luxuriose agere volens a senatoribus projectus est, is the concise expression of Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. xi. in tom. ii. p. 168). An old Chronicle (in tom. ii. p. 649) mentions an indecent jest of Avitus, which seems more applicable to Rome than to Trèves. 26 Sidonius (Panegyr. Anthem. 302 [360], &c.) praises the royal birth of Ricimer, the lawful heir, as he chooses to insinuate, both of the Gothic and Suevic kingdoms. 27 See the Chronicle of Idatius. Jornandes (c. xliv. p. 676 [c. 45, p. 678]) styles him, with some truth, virum egregium, et pene tunc in Italiâ ad exercitum singularem. 28 Parcens innocentiæ Aviti, is the compassionate but contemptuous language of Victor Tunnunensis (in Chron. apud Scaliger Euseb.). In another place he calls him vir totius simplicitatis. This commendation is more humble, but it is more solid and sincere, than the praises of Sidonius. A.D. 457. CHARACTER OF MAJORIAN. 265 more desirable station of bishop of Placentia: but the resentment of the senate was still unsatisfied; and their inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death. He fled towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of securing his person and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. 29 Disease, or the hand of the executioner, arrested him on the road; yet his remains were decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron.30 Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the patrimony of his father-inlaw; lamenting, at the same time, the disappointment of his public and private expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least to countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and the poet had contracted some guilt, which it was incumbent on him to expiate by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding emperor. 31 tion of A.D. 457. The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a degene- Character rate age, to vindicate the honour of the human species. and eleva The emperor Majorian has deserved the praises of his Majorian, contemporaries and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in the words of a judicious and disinterested historian: "That he was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to "his enemies; and that he excelled in every virtue all his predecessors "who had reigned over the Romans." 32 Such a testimony may justify at least the panegyric of Sidonius; and we may acquiesce in 29 He suffered, as it is supposed, in the persecution of Diocletian (Tillemont, Mém. Ecclés. tom. v. p. 279, 696). Gregory of Tours, his peculiar votary, has dedicated to the glory of Julian the Martyr an entire book (de Gloriâ Martyrum, 1. ii. in Max. Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xi. p. 861-871), in which he relates about fifty foolish miracles performed by his relics. 30 Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. xi. p. 168) is concise, but correct, in the reign of his countryman. The words of Idatius, "caret imperio, caret et vitâ" [Hist. de France, i. p. 621], seem to imply that the death of Avitus was violent; but it must have been secret, since Evagrius (1. ii. c. 7) could suppose that he died of the plague. 31 After a modest appeal to the examples of his brethren, Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the debt, and promises payment: Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte cadenti See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, &c. Sidon. Apoll. Carm. iv. p. 308. 32 The words of Procopius deserve to be transcribed: οὗτος γὰρ ὁ Μαιορῖνος ξύμπαντας τοὺς πώποτε Ῥωμαίων βεβασιλευκότας ὑπεραίρων ἀρετῇ πάση ; and afterwards, ἀνὴρ τὰ μὲν εἰς τοὺς ὑπηκόους μέτριος γεγονώς, φοβερὸς δὲ τὰ ἐς τοὺς πολεμίους (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 194 [tom. i. p. 340 and 342, ed. Bonn])-a concise but comprehensive definition of royal virtue. the assurance that, although the obsequious orator would have flattered with equal zeal the most worthless of princes, the extraordinary merit of his object confined him, on this occasion, within the bounds of truth.33 Majorian derived his name from his maternal grandfather, who, in the reign of the great Theodosius, had commanded the troops of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his daughter in marriage to the father of Majorian, a respectable officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and integrity; and generously preferred the friendship of Aëtius to the tempting offers of an insidious court. His son, the future emperor, who was educated in the profession of arms, displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed the standard of Aëtius, contributed to his success, shared, and sometimes eclipsed, his glory, and at last excited the jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced him to retire from the service.34 Majorian, after the death of Aëtius, was recalled and promoted and his intimate connection with Count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne of the Western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious barbarian, whose birth excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed Italy, with the title of Patrician; resigned to his friend the conspicuous station of master-general of the cavalry and infantry; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favour Majorian had solicited by a recent victory over the Alemanni.35 He was invested with the purple at Ravenna: and the epistle which he addressed to the senate will best describe his situation and his sentiments. "Your election, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, "have made me your emperor.36 May the propitious Deity direct 66 33 The Panegyric was pronounced at Lyons before the end of the year 458, while the emperor was still consul. It has more art than genius, and more labour than art. The ornaments are false or trivial; the expression is feeble and prolix; and Sidonius wants the skill to exhibit the principal figure in a strong and distinct light. The private life of Majorian occupies about two hundred lines, 107-305. 34 She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem that Aëtius, like Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife, whose fervent piety, though it might work miracles (Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 7, p. 162), was not incompatible with base and sanguinary counsels. 35 The Alemanni had passed the Rhætian Alps, and were defeated in the Campi Canini, or Valley of Bellinzone, through which the Ticino flows, in its descent from Mount Adula, to the Lago Maggiore (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 100, 101). This boasted victory over nine hundred barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian. 373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy. 36 Imperatorem me factum, P. C. electionis vestræ arbitrio, et fortissimi exercitûs ordinatione agnoscite (Novell. Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem Cod. Theodos.). Sidonius proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire: Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat; plebs, curia, miles, [Carm. v.] 386. This A.D. 457-461. 66 66 66 "and prosper the counsels and events of my administration to your "advantage and to the public welfare! For my own part, I did "not aspire, I have submitted, to reign; nor should I have discharged "the obligations of a citizen if I had refused, with base and selfish "ingratitude, to support the weight of those labours which were "imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom you "have made; partake the duties which you have enjoined; and may "our common endeavours promote the happiness of an empire which "I have accepted from your hands. Be assured that, in our times, 'justice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall "become not only innocent but meritorious. Let none, except the "authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations,37 which, as a subject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician "Ricimer, shall regulate all military affairs and provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and "domestic enemies.38 You now understand the maxims of my government: you may confide in the faithful love and sincere "assurances of a prince who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers, who still glories in the name of senator, "and who is anxious that you should never repent of the judgment "which you have pronounced in his favour." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty, which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous sentiments from his own heart, since they were not suggested to his imitation by the customs of his age or the example of his predecessors.39 66 66 66 His salutary A.D. 457-461. The private and public actions of Majorian are very imperfectly known but his laws, remarkable for an original cast of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character laws, of a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathised in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as such reformation was This language is ancient and constitutional; and we may observe that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the state. 37 Either dilationes, or delationes, would afford a tolerable reading; but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I have therefore given the preference. 38 Ab externo hoste et a domesticâ clade liberavimus: by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus, whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this occasion Sidonius is fearful and obscure; he describes the twelve Cæsars, the nations of Africa, &c., that he may escape the dangerous name of Avitus (305-369). 89 See the whole edict or epistle of Majorian to the senate (Novell. tit. iv. p. 34). Yet the expression regnum nostrum bears some taint of the age, and does not mix kindly with the word respublica, which he frequently repeats. practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to the public disorders. 40 His regulations concerning the finances manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the weary fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and superindictions." With this view, he granted an universal amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts which, under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand from the people. This wise dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims, improved and purified the sources of the public revenue; and the subject, who could now look back without despair, might labour with hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and collection of taxes Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates, and suppressed the extraordinary commissions which had been introduced in the name of the emperor himself or of the Prætorian præfects. The favourite servants who obtained such irregular powers were insolent in their behaviour and arbitrary in their demands: they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were discontented if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their extortion would appear incredible were it not authenticated by the legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold: but they refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept only such ancient pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject who was unprovided with these curious medals had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their rapacious demands; or, if he succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled according to the weight and value of the money of former times.42 III. "The municipal corporations (says the emperor), the lesser senates (so antiquity has justly styled them), deserve to be considered as the heart of the cities and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity and 40 See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number, but very long various), at the end of the Theodosian Code, Novell. 1. iv. p. 32-37. Godefroy not given any commentary on these additional pieces. 66 66 66 66 41 Fessas provincialium variâ atque multiplici tributorum exactione fortunas, et extraordinariis fiscalium solutionum oneribus attritas, &c. Novell. Majorian. tit. iv. p. 34. 42 The learned Greaves (vol. i. p. 329, 330, 331) has found, by a diligent inquiry, that aurei of the Antonines weighed one hundred and eighteen, and those of the fifth century only sixty-eight English grains. Majorian gives currency to all gold coin excepting only the Gallic solidus, from its deficiency, not in the weight, but in th standard. |