The princes who peaceably inherit the sceptre of their fathers, claim and enjoy a legal right, the more secure, as it is absolutely distinct from the merits of their personal characters. The subjects who, in a monarchy or a popular state, acquire the possession of supreme power, may have raised themselves, by the superiority either of genius or virtue, above the heads of their equals: but their virtue is seldom exempt from ambition, and the cause of the successful candidate is frequently stained by the guilt of conspiracy or civil war. Even in those governments which allow the reigning monarch to declare a colleague or a successor, his partial choice, which may be influenced by the blindest passions, is often directed to an unworthy object. But the most suspicious malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes, of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the exile would long since have been forgotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues had not left a deep impression in the imperial court. During the season of prosperity he had been neglected; but, in the public distress, his superior merit was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence must have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust that a pious son would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder of his father! What expectations must have been formed of his abilities, to encourage the hope, that a single man could save and restore the empire of the east! Theodosius was invested with the purple in the thirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with admiration on the manly beauty of his face, and the graceful majesty of his person, which they were pleased to compare with the pictures and medals of the emperor Trajan; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his heart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and greatest of the Roman princes.

It is not without the most sincere regret, that I must now take leave of an accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the history of his own times, without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary. Ammianus Marcellinus, who termiAncienne, tom. i, p. 25) has fixed the situation of Caucha, or Coca, in the old province of Gallicia, where Zosimus and Idatius have placed the

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nates his useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, recommends the more glorious subject of the ensuing reign to the youthful vigour and eloquence of the rising generation.* The rising generation was not disposed to accept his advice, or to imitate his example ;† and, in the study of the reign of Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate the partial narrative of Zosimus, by the obscure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, which will continue to involve a considerable portion of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I shall proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet I may boldly pronounce, that the battle of Hadrianople was never revenged by any signal or decisive victory of Theodosius over the barbarians; and the expressive silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by the observation of the condition and circumstances of the times. The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the plains of Hadrianople, might have been soon recruited in the populous provinces of the east, which contained so many millions of inhabitants. The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature; and sufficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe might have been speedily taught by the care of the surviving centubirth, or patrimony, of Theodosius. Let us hear Ammianus himself. Hæc, ut miles quondam et Græcus, a principatu Cæsaris Nervæ exorsus, adusque Valentis interitum, pro virium explicavi mensurâ : opus veritatem professum; nunquam, ut arbitror, sciens, silentio ausus corrumpere vel mendacio. Scribant reliqua potiores ætate, doctrinisque florentes. Quos id, si libuerit, aggressuros, procudere linguas ad majores moneo stilos (Ammian. 31, 16.) The first thirteen books, a superficial epitome of two hundred and fifty-seven years, are now lost; the last eighteen, which contain no more than twenty-five years, still preserve the copious and authentic history of his own times. + Ammianus was

the last subject of Rome who composed a profane history in the Latin language. The east, in the next century, produced some rhetorical historians, Zosimus, Olympiodorus, Malchus, Candidus, &c. See Vossius de Historicis Græcis, lib. 2, c. 18, de Historicis Latinis, lib. 2, c. 10, &c.

rions. If the barbarians were mounted on the horses, and equipped with the armour, of their vanquished enemies, the numerous studs of Cappadocia and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of cavalry; the thirty-four arsenals of the empire were plentifully stored with magazines of offensive and defensive arms; and the wealth of Asia might still have yielded an ample fund for the expenses of the war. But the effects which were produced by the battle of Hadrianople on the minds of the barbarians and of the Romans, extended the victory of the former, and the defeat of the latter, far beyond the limits of a single day. A Gothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent moderation, that, for his own part, he was fatigued with slaughter; but that he was astonished how a people who fled before him like a flock of sheep, could still presume to dispute the possession of their treasures and provinces.* The same terrors which

the name of the Huns had spread among the Gothic tribes,

* Chrysostom, tom. i, p. 344, edit. Montfaucon. I have verified, and examined, this passage: but I should never, without the aid of Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v, p. 152), have detected an historical anecdote in a strange medley of moral and mystic exhortations, addressed, by the preacher of Antioch, to a young widow. [Why were the still undiminished resources of so mighty an empire, in the hands of so able a ruler as Theodosius, insufficient for its salvation? Why did not Rome, possessing ampler means, recover from these disasters, as before from the bloodier fields of Thrasymene and Canna? Because the spirit of the people was crushed! Mind has within itself no seeds of decay, which periodically shoot up, to choke the growth of previous years. Its natural course is ever onward; and it knows no retrograde movement, but from external repulse. To go to no higher antiquity, it had, from the earliest days of Greece till the Augustan age, for eighteen centuries, a career of vigorous improvement; after which, we find it gradually retrograding; and may here note one stage of its relapse. The "fatal power of the imagination" had gained an ascendancy, which it can only gain when the higher faculty of reason is depressed; and this was the work of the hierarchy. Glimpses of their increasing arrogance and encroaching domination have occasionally broken upon us in the preceding pages; and should be attentively watched, if we would understand the history of the period. Their influence is perceived in every paling feature of society, in the lowered tone of talent, and the dying flame of genius. Literature is the expression and type of the general mind. One declines with the other, Enfeebled energy lays aside the pen, when the plough and the hammer, the trowel and the pencil, the sword and the sceptre, afford it no materials. So fared it with debilitated man, in those closing days of the western empire. The fatal blight exhaled from turbid pools of sacerdotal ambition and the miry slough of unintelligible controversy, inwrapped the age

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were inspired, by the formidable name of the Goths, among the subjects and soldiers of the Roman empire.* If Theodosius, hastily collecting his scattered forces, had led them into the field to encounter a victorious enemy, his army would have been vanquished by their own fears; and his rashness could not have been excused by the chance of success. But the great Theodosius, an epithet which he honourably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself as the firm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his head-quarters at Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian diocese;† from whence he could watch the irregular motions of the barbarians, and direct the operations of his lieutenants, from the gates of Constantinople to the shores of the Hadriatic. The fortifications and garrisons of the cities were strengthened; and the troops, among whom a sense of order and discipline was revived, were insensibly emboldened by the confidence of their own safety. From these secure stations they were encouraged to make frequent sallies on the barbarians, who infested the adjacent country: and, as they were seldom allowed to engage without some decisive superiority, either of ground or of numbers, their enterprises were, for the most part, successful; and they were soon convinced, by their own experience, of the possibility of vanquishing their invincible enemies. The detachments of these separate garrisons were gradually united into small armies; the same cautious measures were pursued, according to an extensive and well-concerted plan of operations; the events of each day added strength and spirit to the Roman arms; and the artful diligence of the emperor, who circulated the most in darkness. Exertion, mental and bodily, was paralyzed; and all comprehensive views of imminent consequences obscured. No ruling genius of earlier times, whether Greek or Roman, would have permitted such an act of national suicide, as that of bringing a whole Gothic tribe within the barrier of the Danube. The besotted infatuation of Valens and his advisers in that instance, is but an exhibition of drooping intellect. This progressive evil will come before us in its succeeding stages, and disclose the workings by which it brought on the fall of the Roman empire, and the long reign of ignorance rud barbarism that followed.-ED.]

Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legation. p. 21. +See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws. Prolegomen. p. 99–104.

Codex Theodox, tom. i,

favourable reports of the success of the war, contributed to subdue the pride of the barbarians, and to animate the hopes and courage of his subjects. If, instead of this faint and imperfect outline, we could accurately represent the counsels and actions of Theodosius, in four successive campaigns, there is reason to believe that his consummate skill would deserve the applause of every military reader. The republic had formerly been saved by the delays of Fabius; and while the splendid trophies of Scipio, in the field of Zama, attract the eyes of posterity, the camps and marches of the dictator, among the hills of Campania, may claim a juster proportion of the solid and independent fame, which the general is not compelled to share, either with fortune or with his troops. Such was likewise the merit of Theodosius; and the infirmities of his body, which most unseasonably languished under a long and dangerous disease, could not oppress the vigour of his mind, or divert his attention from the public service.*

The deliverance and peace of the Roman provincest was the work of prudence rather than of valour: the prudence of Theodosius was seconded by fortune; and the emperor never failed to seize, and to improve, every favourable circumstance. As long as the superior genius of Fritigern preserved the union, and directed the motions of the barbarians, their power was not inadequate to the conquest of a great empire. The death of that hero, the predecessor and master of the renowned Alaric, relieved an impatient multitude from the intolerable yoke of discipline and discretion. The barbarians, who had been restrained by his authority, abandoned themselves to the dictates of their passions; and their passions were seldom uniform or consistent. An army of conquerors was broken into many disorderly bands of savage robbers; and their blind and irregular fury was not less pernicious to themselves than to

* Most writers insist on the illness, and long repose, of Theodosius, at Thessalonica: Zosimus, to diminish his glory; Jornandes, to favour the Goths; and the ecclesiastical writers, to introduce his baptism.

+ Compare Themistius (Orat. 14, p. 181) with Zosimus (lib. 4, p. 232), Jornandes (c. 27, p. 649), and the prolix commentary of M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples, &c. tom. vi, p. 477-552). The Chronicles of Idatius and Marcellinus allude, in general terms, to magna certamina, magna multaque prælia. The two epithets are not easily reconciled.