Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

XVII.

court of Conftantine. A gold belt was the en- CHA P. fign which diftinguifhed the office of the counts and dukes; and befides their pay, they received a liberal allowance fufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety fervants, and one hundred and fifty-eight horfes. They were strictly prohibited from interfering in any matter which related to the administration of justice or the revenue; but the command which they exercifed over the troops of their department, was independent of the authority of the magiftrates. About the fame time that Conftantine gave a légal fanction to the ecclefiaftical order, he instituted in the Roman empire the nice balance of the civil and the military powers. The emulation, and fometimes the difcord, which reigned between two profeffions of oppofite interests and incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and of pernicious confequences. It was seldom to be expected that the general and the civil governor of a province should either confpire for the difturbance, or fhould unite for the fervice of their country. While the one delayed to offer the affiftance which the other difdained to folicit, the troops very frequently remained without orders or without fupplies; the public fafety was bctrayed, and the defenceless fubjects were left expofed to the fury of the barbarians. The divided adminiftration, which had been formed by Conftantine, relaxed the vigour of the ftate, while it fecured the tranquillity of the monarch.

E

The memory of Conftantine has been deferved- Diftinc. ly cenfured for another innovation which cor- tion of the

rupted

troops.

CHAP. rupted military difcipline, and prepared the ruin XVII. of the empire.

Suneteen years which pre

ceded his final victory over Licinius, had been a period of licence and inteftine war. The rivals who contended for the poffeffion of the Roman world, had withdrawn the greatest part of their forces from the guard of the general frontier ; and the principal cities which formed the boundary of their respective dominions were filled with foldiers, who confidered their countrymen as their moft implacable enemies. After the ufe of thefe internal garrifons had ceafed with the civil war, the conqueror wanted either wifdom or firmness to revive the fevere discipline of Diocletian, and to fupprefs a fatal indulgence, which habit had endeared and almoft confirmed to the military order. From the reign of Conftantine a popular and even legal diftinction was admitted between the Palatines 128 and the Borderers; the troops of the court as they were improperly ftiled, and the troops of the frontier. The former, elevated by the fuperiority of their pay and privileges, were permitted, except in the extraordinary emergencies of war, to occupy their tranquil stations in the heart of the provinces. The most flourishing cities were oppreffed by the intolerable weight of quarters. The foldiers infenfibly forgot the virtues of their profeffion, and contracted only the

123 Zofimus, 1. ii. p. 111. The diftinction between the two claffes of Roman, troops is very darkly expreffed in the hiftorians, the laws, and the Notitia. Conful, however, the copious paratition or abtract, which Godefroy has drawn up of the feventh book, de Re Militari, of the Theodofian Code, 1. vii. tit. i. leg. 18. L. viii. tit. i. leg. 10.

vices of civil life. They were either degraded by CHA P. the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by XVII. the luxury of baths and theatres. They foon became careless of their martial exercifes, curious in their diet and apparel; and while they infpired terror to the subjects of the empire, they trembled at the hostile approach of the Barbarians 129. The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers, was no longer maintained with the fame care, or defended with the fame vigilance. The numbers which ftill remained under the name of the troops of the frontier, might be fufficient for the ordinary defence. But their spirit was degraded by the humiliating reflection, that they who were expofed to the hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare, were rewarded only with about two-thirds of the pay and emoluments which were lavifhed on the troops of the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised the nearest to the level of thofe unworthy favourites,. were in fome measure difgraced by the title of honour which they were allowed to affume. It was in vain that Conftantine repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and fword against the Borderers who fhould dare to defert their colours, to connive at the inroads of the Barbarians, or to

129 Ferox erat in fuos miles fra&tus. Ammian. 1. xxii. c. 4.

et rapax, ignavus vero in hoftes eg
He obferves that they loved downy

beds and houses of marble; and that their cups were heavier than
their swords.

participate

CHA P. participate in the fpoil 130. The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counfels are feldom removed by the application of partial feverities: and though fucceeding princes laboured to restore the ftrength and numbers of the frontier garrifons, the empire, till the last moment of its diffolution, continued to languifh under the mortal wound which had been fo rafhly or fo weakly inflicted by the hand of Conftantine.

Reduction of the legions.

The fame timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting that the moft feeble will prove the most obedient, feems to pervade the inftitutions of feveral princes, and particularly thofe of Conftantine. The martial pride of the legions, whofe victorious camps had. fo often been the fcene of rebellion, was nourifhed by the memory of their past exploits, and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long as they maintained their ancient establishment of fix thousand men, they fubfifted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of them fingly, a visible and important object in the military hiftory of the Roman empire. A few years afterwards, thefe gigantic bodies were shrunk to a very diminutive fize; and when seven legions, with fome auxiliaries, defended the city of Amida against the Perfians, the total garrifon, with the

130 Cod. Theod. 1. vii. tit. i. leg. Hift. of the World, vol. ii. p. 19. not fufficiently known, labours to of Conftantine.

1. tit. xii. leg. 1. See Howell's That learned hiftorian, who is justify the character and policy

inhabitants of both fexes, and the peasants of the CHA P. deferted country, did not exceed the number of XVII. twenty thousand perfons 3. From this fact, and from fimilar examples, there is reafon to believe, that the constitution of the legionary troops, to which they partly owed their valour and difcipline, was diffolved by Conftantine; and that the bands of Roman infantry, which still affumed the fame names and the fame honours, confifted only of one thousand or fifteen hundred men 132 The confpiracy of fo many feparate detachments, each of which was awed by the fense of its own weaknefs, could easily be checked; and the fucceffors of Conftantine might indulge their love of often-. tation, by iffuing their orders to one hundred and thirty-two legions, infcribed on the mufter-roll of their numerous armies. The remainder of their troops was diftributed into feveral hundred cohorts of infantry, and fquadrons of cavalry. Their arms, and titles, and enfigns, were calculated to infpire terror, and to difplay the variety of nations who marched under the imperial standard. And not a veftige was left of that severe fimplicity, which, in the ages of freedom and victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Roman army from the confufed hoft of an Afiatic monarch 133. A more particular enumeration, drawn

131 Ammian. 1. xix. c. 2. He obferves (c. 5.) that the defperate fallies of two Gallic legions were like an handful of water thrown on a great conflagration.

132 Pancirolus ad Notitiam, p. 96. Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xxv. p. 491.

133 Romana asies unius prope formæ erat et hominum et armorum genere. Regia acies varia magis multis gentibus diffimilitudine

armorum

« ForrigeFortsett »