THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER XXX. Revolt of the Goths. They plunder Greece. Two great Invasions of Italy by Alaric and Radagaisus. They are repulsed by Stilicho. The Germans overrun Gaul. Usurpation of Constantine in the West. Disgrace and Death of Stilicho. Goths, IF the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obligations to Revolt of the the great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced, how painfully A. D. 395. the spirit and abilities of their deceased emperor had supported the frail and mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and before the end of the winter of the same year, the Gothic nation was in arms (1). The Barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly avowed the hostile designs which they had long cherished in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned, by the conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tranquillity and labour, deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet; and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their (1) The revolt of the Goths and the blockade of Constantinople, are distinctly mentioned by Claudian (in Rufin. 1. ii. 7~100.), Zosimus (1. v. p. 292.), and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 29.). forests; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark, "that they rolled their ponderous waggons over the "broad and icy back of the indignant river (2)." The unhappy natives of the provinces to the south of the Danube submitted to the calamities, which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their imagination; and the various troops of Barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic name, were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople (3). The interruption, or at least the diminution, of the subsidy, which the Goths had received from the prudent liberality of Theodosius, was the specious pretence of their revolt: the affront was embittered by their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius; and their resentment was inflamed by the weakness, or treachery, of the minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the Barbarians, whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty correspondence: and the public enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general devastation, to spare the private estates of the unpopular præfect. The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the Balti (4); which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali: he had solicited the command of the Roman armies; and the Imperial court provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their refusal, and the importance of their loss. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court, and a discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms: but the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the strength of the city; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and random darts of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to (2) Alii per terga ferocis Danubii solidata ruunt; expertaque remis Frangunt stagna rotis. Claudian and Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchanging the metaphors and properties of liquid water, and solid ice. Much false wit has been expended in this easy exercise.* (3) Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. He endeavours to comfort his friend Heliodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian, by a curious recapitulation of all the public and private misfortunes of the times. See Tillemont, Mém. Ecclés. tom. xii. p. 200, &c. (4) Baltha, or bold: origo mirifica, says Jornandes (c. 29.). This illustrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the corrupted appellation of Baux: and a branch of that family afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist. Gothic. p. 53.). The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of seventy-nine subordinate places, were independent of the counts of Provence (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 357.). * I omitted to observe, vol. i. p. 196., that if Gibbon means that the Rhine and Danube are never frozen over in modern times, so as to be passable on the ice, he is in error; though there is probably no instance of large armies crossing either river in that way.-M. |
