206 SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS. [CH. XXVI. industry was encouraged by an exemption from tribute, during a certain term of years. The barbarians would have deserved to feel the cruel and perfidious policy of the imperial court, if they had suffered themselves to be dispersed through the provinces. They required, and they obtained, the sole possession of the villages and districts assigned for their residence: they still cherished and propagated their native manners and language; asserted, in the bosom of despotism, the freedom of their domestic government; and acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperor, without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the laws and magistrates of Rome. The hereditary chiefs of the tribes and families were still permitted to command their followers in peace and war; but the royal dignity was abolished; and the generals of the Goths were appointed and removed at the pleasure of the emperor. An army of forty thousand Goths was maintained for the perpetual service of the empire of the east; and those haughty troops, who assumed the title of Fœderati, or allies, were distinguished by their gold collars, liberal pay, and licentious privileges. Their native courage was improved by the use of arms and the knowledge of discipline; and, while the republic was guarded, or threatened, by the doubtful sword of the barbarians, the last sparks of the military flame were finally extinguished in the minds of the Romans.* Theodosius had the address to persuade his allies that the conditions of peace, which had been extorted from him by prudence and necessity, were the voluntary expressions of his sincere friendship for the Gothic nation.† A different mode of vindication or apology was opposed to the complaints of the people; who loudly censured these shameful and dangerous concessions. The calamities of the war * Compare Jornandes (c. 20. 27), who marks the condition and number of the Gothic Foderati, with Zosimus (1. 4, p. 258), who mentions their golden collars; and Pacatus, in (Panegyr. Vet. 12. 37) who applauds, with false or foolish joy, their bravery and discipline. + Amator pacis generisque Gothorum, is the praise bestowed by the Gothic historian (c. 29), who represents his nation as innocent, peaceable men, slow to anger, and patient of injuries. According to Livy, the Romans conquered the world in their own defence. Besides the partial invectives of Zosimus (always discontented with the Christian reigns), see the grave representations which Synesius adresses to the emperor Arcadius. (De Regno, p. 25, 26, edit. Petav.) were painted in the most lively colours; and the first symptoms of the return of order, of plenty, and security, were diligently exaggerated. The advocates of Theodosius could affirm, with some appearance of truth and reason, that it was impossible to extirpate so many warlike tribes, who were rendered desperate by the loss of their native country; and that the exhausted provinces would be revived by a fresh supply of soldiers and husbandmen. The barbarians still wore an angry and hostile aspect; but the experience of past times might encourage the hope, that they would acquire the habits of industry and obedience; that their manners would be polished by time, education, and the influence of Christianity; and that their posterity would insensibly blend with the great body of the Roman people.* Notwithstanding these specious arguments, and these sanguine expectations, it was apparent to every discerning eye, that the Goths would long remain the enemies, and might soon become the conquerors, of the Roman empire. Their rude and insolent behaviour expressed their contempt of the citizens and provincials, whom they insulted with impunity. To the zeal and valour of the barbarians, Theodosius was indebted for the success of his arms: but their assistance was precarious; and they were sometimes seduced, by a treacherous and inconstant disposition, to abandon his standard, at the moment when their service was the most essential. During the civil war against Maximus, a great number of Gothic deserters retired into the morasses of Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces, and obliged the intrepid monarch to expose his person, and exert his The philosophic bishop of Cyrene was near enough to judge; and he was sufficiently removed from the temptation of fear or flattery. [For Synesius, see ch. 20 (vol ii. p. 381.) The date of this oration is A.D. 399, when, as ambassador from Cyrene, he presented the usual crown of gold to the new emperor. (See ch. 30.) He was not a bishop till ten years afterwards, and then his episcopal seat was not Cyrene, but Ptolemais, a new city, eighty-two miles distant from the place of his birth.-ED.] * Themistius (Orat. 16, p. 211, 212) composes an elaborate and rational apology which is not, however, exempt from the puerilities of Greek rhetoric. Orpheus could only charm the wild beasts of Thrace; but Theodosius enchanted the men and women, whose predecessors in the same country had torn Orpheus in pieces, &c. +Constantinople was deprived, half a day, of the public allowance of bread, to expiate the murder of a Gothic soldier: KvOŨVTES TÒ KUIKOTOV was the guilt of the people. Libanius, Orat. 12, p. 394, edit, 203 DEATH OF PRIULF. [CH. XXVI. power, to suppress the rising flame of rebellion. The public apprehensions were fortified by the strong suspicion, that these tumults were not the effect of accidental passion, but the result of deep and premeditated design. It was generally believed, that the Goths had signed the treaty of peace with a hostile and insidious spirit; and that their chiefs had previously bound themselves, by a solemn and secret oath, never to keep faith with the Romans; to maintain the fairest show of loyalty and friendship, and to watch the favourable moment of rapine, of conquest, and of revenge. But, as the minds of the babarians were not insensible to the power of gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerely devoted themselves to the service of the empire, or at least, of the emperor: the whole nation was insensibly divided into two opposite factions, and much sophistry was employed in conversation and dispute, to compare the obligations of their first and second engagements. The Goths who considered themselves as the friends of peace, of justice, and of Rome, were directed by the authority of Fravitta, a valiant and honourable youth, distinguished above the rest of his countrymen, by the politeness of his manners, the liberality of his sentiments, and the mild virtues of social life. But the more numerous faction adhered to the fierce and faithless Priulf, who inflamed the passions, and asserted the independence, of his warlike followers. On one of the solemn festivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited to the imperial table, they were insensibly heated by wine, till they forgot the ususl restraints of discretion and respect; and betrayed in the presence of Theodosius, the fatal secret of their domestic disputes. The emperor, who had been the reluctant witness of this extraordinary controversy, dissembled his fears and resentment, and soon dismissed the tumultuous assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and exasperated by the insolence of his rival, whose departure from the palace might have been the signal of a civil war, boldly followed him; and, drawing his sword, laid Priulf dead at his feet. Their companions flew to arms; and the faithful champion of Rome would have been oppressed by superior numbers, if he had not been protected by the seasonable interposition Morel. * Zosimus, l. 4, p. 267-271. He tells a long and ridiculous story of the adventurous prince, who roved the country with only five horsemen ; of a spy whom they detected, whipped, and killed in an old of the imperial guards. Such were the scenes of barbaric rage, which disgraced the palace and table of the Roman emperor; and, as the impatient Goths could only be restrained by the firm and temperate character of Theodosius, the public safety seemed to depend on the life and abilities of a single man.† CHAPTER XXVII.-DEATH OF GRATIAN.-RUIN OF ARIANISM.ST. AMBROSE.-FIRST CIVIL WAR, AGAINST MAXIMUS.-CHARACTER, ADMINISTRATION, AND PENANCE, OF THEODOSIUS.-DEATH OF VALENTINIAN IL-SECOND CIVIL WAR, AGAINST EUGENIUS.-DEATH OF THEODOSIUS. THE fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was equal to that of the most celebrated princes. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his private friends, the graceful affability of his manners engaged the affection of the people: the men of letters, who enjoyed the liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence of their sovereign; his valour and dexterity in arms were equally applauded by the soldiers; and the clergy considered the humble piety of Gratian as the first and most useful of his virtues. The victory of woman's cottage, &c. Ex quo jam patrios gens hæc oblita Triones, The error is inexcusable; since it disguises the principal and immediate cause of the fall of the western empire of Rome. The altar, dedicated to Victory, on which the senators were accustomed to offer VOL. III. P 210 HIS CHARACTER [CH. XXVII. Colmar had delivered the west from a formidable invasion; and the grateful provinces of the east ascribed the merits of Theodosius to the author of his greatness and of the public safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or five years; but he survived his reputation; and before he fell a victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect and confidence of the Roman world. The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not be imputed to the arts of flattery which had besieged the son of Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions, which that gentle youth appears to have escaped. A more attentive view of the life of Gratian may perhaps suggest the true cause of the disappointment of the public hopes. His apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of experience and adversity, were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal education. The anxious tenderness of his father was continually employed to bestow on him those advantages, which he might perhaps esteem the more highly, as he himself had been deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of every science, and of every art, had laboured to form the mind and body of the young prince.* The knowledge incense, had been restored by Julian to its place in the senate-house. Jovian and Valentinian allowed it to remain there-but it was removed by Gratian. He was also the first emperor who refused the robe of the Pontifex Maximus, which had always been received before as one of the badges of imperial dignity. (Zosimus, 1. 4, c. 36.) The title, however, seems to have been retained by him, and by his successors also; as is shown by Eckhel, who has a separate dissertation on the subject. (Num. Vet. vol. viii, p. 380-390.) After reciting the controversies to which it had given rise, he concludes that the Christian emperors took the title as heads of their own church, "quod iste titulus includeret summum in Christianorum ecclesias regimen atque imperium." The Pontifices Maximo Majores had not yet made an emperor's neck their horse-block. This part of Gratian's conduct, and other facts introduced in a succeeding note, do not escape Gibbon's observation in his next chapter. But so much of his narrative may be appropriately antici pated here, as seems necessary to illustrate character and events while they are passing before us.- -ED. * Valentinian was less attentive to the religion of his son; since he intrusted the education of Gratian to Ausonius, a professed Pagan. (Mém. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xv, p. 125-138.) The poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age. [The religious training of Gratian was at least watched by Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, who took particular care to keep him from the snares of Arianism, into which his father and younger brother fell. For this he audressed to him hi |