The emperors II. The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiasValentinian tical historian (155). The empress Severa (I relate the fable) "admitted into her familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter "of an Italian governor: her admiration of those naked charms, "which she had often seen in the bath, was expressed with such "lavish and imprudent praise, that the emperor was tempted to "introduce a second wife into his bed; and his public edict extended "to all the subjects of the empire, the same domestic privilege, "which he had assumed for himself." But we may be assured, from the evidence of reason, as well as history, that the two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were successively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission of divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by the church. Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every claim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western empire. He was the eldest son of a monarch, whose glorious reign had confirmed the free and honourable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before he had attained the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received from the hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with the title of Augustus: the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and applause of the armies of Gaul (156); and the name of Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and Valens, in all the legal transactions of the Roman government. By his marriage with the grand-daughter of Constantine, the son of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian family; which, in a series of three Imperial generations, were sanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At the death of his father, the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of his age; and his virtues already justified the favourable opinion of the army and people. But Gratian resided, without apprehension, in the palace of Treves; whilst, at the distance of many hundred miles, Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio. The passions, which had been so long suppressed by the presence of a master, immediately revived in the Imperial council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the name of an infant, was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They contrived the most honourable pretences to remove the popular leaders, and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted There is much variety of circumstances among them; and Ammianus is so eloquent, that he writes nonsense. (155) Socrates (1. iv. c. 31.) is the only original witness of this foolish story, so repugnant to the laws and manners of the Romans, that it scarcely deserved the formal and elaborate dissertation of M. Bonamy (Mém. de l'Académie, tom. xxx. p. 394-405.). Yet I would preserve the natural circumstance of the bath; instead of following Zosimus, who represents Justina as an old woman, the widow of Magnentius. (156) Ammianus (xxvii. 6.) describes the form of this military election, and august investiture. Valentinian does not appear to have consulted, or even informed, the senate of Rome. the claims of the lawful successor: they suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies, by a bold and decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left in a palace about one hundred miles from Bregetio, was respectfully invited to appear in the camp, with the son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death of Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions; and solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared, that he should always consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress, with her son Valentinian, to fix their residence at Milan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed the more arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace, the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of the West (157). CHAPTER XXVI. Manners of the Pastoral Nations. Progress of the Huns, from China to Europe. Peace and Settlement of the Goths. July 21. In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the Earthquakes. morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake.. The impression was communicated to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea; great quantities of fish were caught with the hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud; and a curious spectator (1) amused his eye, (157) Ammianus, xxx. 10. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 222, 223. Tillemont has proved (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 707-709.), that Gratian reigned in Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. I have endeavoured to express his authority over his brother's dominions, as he used it, in an ambiguous style. (1) Such is the bad taste of Ammianus (xxvi. 10.), that it is not easy to distinguish his facts from or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance of vallies and mountains, which had never, since the formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt: large boats were transported and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore; the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imagination enlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia: they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking world (2). It was the fashion of the times, to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, according to the colour of their respective prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself with an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements (3). The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable proportion to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now, moderated by the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizen has seldom reason to complain that his his metaphors. Yet he positively affirms, that he saw the rotten carcase of a ship, ad secundum lapidem, at Methone, or Modon, in Peloponnesus. (2) The earthquakes and inundations are variously described by Libanius (Orat. de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. x. in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. tom. vii. p. 158. with a learned note of Olearius), Zosimus (1. iv. p. 221.), Sozomen (1. vi. c. 2.), Cedrenus (p. 310. 314.), and Jerom (in Chron. p. 186. and tom. i. p. 250. in Vit. Hilarion.). Epidaurus must have been overwhelmed, had not the prudent citizens placed St. Hilarion, an Egyptian monk on the beach. He made the sign of the cross: the mountain-wave stopped, bowed, and returned. (3) Dicæarchus, the Peripatetic, composed a formal treatise, to prove this obvious truth; which is not the most honourable to the human species (Cicero, de Officiis, ii. 5.). Goths. life, or even his fortune, is exposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; and the arts and labours of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the provinces of The Huns and the West, the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less than forty A. D. 376. years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the success of their arms, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes, more savage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealed in the remote countries of the North; and the curious observation of the pastoral life of the Scythians (4), or Tartars (5), will illustrate the latent cause of these destructive emigra'tions. manners of or Tartars. The different characters that mark the civilised nations of the The pastoral globe, may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason; which the so variously shapes, and so artificially composes, the manners and Scythians, opinions of an European, or a Chinese. But the operation of instinct is more sure and simple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a quadruped, than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. The uniform stability of their manners is the natural consequence of the imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same: and the influence of food or climate, which, in a more improved state of society, is suspended, or subdued, by so many moral causes, most powerfully contributes to form, and to maintain the national character of Barbarians. In every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spirit disdains the confinement of a solitary life. In every age, the Scythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their invincible courage, and rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the North; and (4) The original Scythians of Herodotus (l. iv. c. 47.—57. 99-101.) were confined by the Danube and the Palus Mæotis, within a square of 4000 stadia (400 Roman miles.). See D'Anville (Mém. de l'Académie, tom, xxxv. p. 573–591.). Diodorus Siculus (tom.;i. l. ii. p. 155. edit. Wesseling) has marked the gradual progress of the name and nation. (5) The Tatars or Tartars, were a primitive tribe, the rivals, and at length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the victorious armies of Zingis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars formed the vanguard; and the name, which first reached the ears of foreigners, was applied to the whole nation (Fréret, in the Hist. de l'Académie, tom. xviii. p. 60.). In speaking of all, or any, of the northern shepherds of Europe, or Asia, I indifferently use the appellations of Scythians, or Tartars. *The Moguls (Mongols) according to M. Klaproth are a tribe of the Tatar nation. Tableaux Hist. de l'Asie. p. 154.-) -M. Diet. 4 their arms have spread terror and devastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe (6). On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision; and is compelled, with some reluctance, to confess, that the pastoral manners, which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. To illustrate this observation, I shall now proceed to consider a nation of shepherds and of warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Their diet; II. Their habitations; and, III. Their exercises. The narratives of antiquity are justified by the experience of modern times (7); and the banks of the Borysthenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga, will indifferently present the same uniform spectacle of similar and native manners (8).. I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and wholesome food of a civilised people, can be obtained only by the patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who dwell between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation of shepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the temper, of the human mind may be affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable food; and whether the common association of carnivorous and cruel, deserves to be considered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of humanity (9). Yet if it be true, that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight and practice of domestic (6) Imperium Asia ter quæsivere: ipsi perpetuo ab alieno imperio, aut intacti, aut in vieti, mansere. Since the time of Justin (ii. 2.), they have multiplied this account. Voltaire, in a few words (tom. x. p. 64. Hist. Générale, c. 156.), has abridged the Tartar conquests. Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar, Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war.*. (7) The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious, though imperfect, portrait of the Scythians. Among the moderns, who describe the uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulghazi Bahadur, expresses his native feelings; and his Genealogical History of the Tatars has been copiously illustrated by the French and English editors. Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubrúquis (in the Hist. des Voyages, tom. vii.), represent the Moguls of the fourteenth century. To these guides I have added Gerbillon, and the other jesuists (Description de la Chine, par du Halde, tom, iv.), who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tartary; and that honest and intelligent traveller, Bell, of Antermony (two volumes in 4to. Glasgow, 1763.).t (8) The Uzbecks are the most altered from their primitive manners; 1. by the profession of the Mahometan religion; and, 2. by the possession of the cities and harvests of the great Bucharia. (9) Il est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont en général cruels et féroces plus que les autres hommes. Cette observation est de tous les lieux et de tous les temps: la barbarie anglaise est connue, &c. Émile de Rousseau, tom. i. p. 274. Whatever we may think of the general observation, we shall not easily allow the truth of his example. The good-natured complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic lamentations of Ovid, seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility. *Gray. -M. Of the various works published since the time of Gibbon, which throw light on the Nomadic population of Central Asia, may be particularly remarked the Travels and Dissertations of Pallas; and above all, the very curious work of Bergman, Nomadische Streifereyen. Riga, 1805.-M. |