256 FOREIGN WARS. CHAP. XXV. "the expense of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally "(continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their "true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city as "an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life "of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose "mean apparel and downcast looks, recommend their pure and "modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers!" 85 The schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the latter; and the wisdom of the præfect Prætextatuss restored the tranquillity of the city. Prætextatus was a philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus that if he could obtain tl e bishopric of Rome, he himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion.87 This lively picture of the wealth and luxury of tl e popes in the fourth century becomes the more curious as it represents the intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fisherman and the royal state of a temporal prince whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po. When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his reputation in arms, his military skill and experiA.D. 364-375. ence, and his rigid attachment to the forms as well as spirit of ancient discipline, were the principal motives of their judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, who pressed him to nominate his colleague, was justified by the dangerous situation of public affairs; and Valentinian himself was conscious that the abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of the distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as the death of Julian had relieved the barbarians from the terror of his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited the nations of the East, of the North, and of the South. Their inroads were often vexa Foreign wars, A.D. 364-375. tious, and sometimes formidable; but, during the twelve years of the reign of Valentinian, his firmness and vigilance protected 65 Ammian. xxvii. 3. Perpetuo Numini, verisque ejus cultoribus. The incomparable pliancy of a polytheist! 86 Ammianus, who makes a fair report of his præfecture (xxvii. 9), styles him præclaræ indolis, gravitatisque, senator (xxii. 7, and Vales. ad loc.). A curious inscription Gruter MCII. N°. 2) records, in two columns, his religious and civil honours. In one line he was Pontiff of the Sun and of Vesta, Augur, Quindecemvir, Hierophant, &c. &c. In the other, 1. Quæstor candidatus, more probably titular. 2. Prætor. 3. Corrector of Tuscany and Umbria. 4. Consular of Lusitania. 5. Proconsul of Achaia. 6. Præfect of Rome. 7. Prætorian præfect of Italy. 8. Of Illyricum. 9. Consul elect; but he died before the beginning of the year 385. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 241, 736. Facite nie Romanæ urbis episcopum, et ero protinus Christianus (Jerom, tom. ii. 165 [contra Joann. Ierosol. tom. ii. p. 415, ed. Vallars.]). It is more than pro bable that Damasus would not have purchased his conversion at such a price. A.D. 366 THE ALEMANNI INVADE GAUL. 257 his own dominions; and his powerful genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble counsels of his brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly express the urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted by a tedious and desultory narrative. A separate view of the five great theatres of war-I. Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa; IV. The East; and V. The Danube—will impress a more distinct image of the military state of the empire under the reigns of Valentinian and Valens. ni invade A.D. 365. I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh and haughty behaviour of Ursacius, master of the I. GERMANY. offices;88 who, by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had The Aleman diminished the value, as well as the quantity, of the presents Gaul, to which they were entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession of a new emperor. They expressed, and they communicated to their countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were in flames: before his general Dagalaiphus could encounter the Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the forests of Germany. In the beginning of the ensuing year, A.D. 366, the military force of the whole nation, in deep and solid January. columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine during the severity of a northern winter. Two Roman counts were defeated and mortally wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into the hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts and menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valentinian that his soldiers must learn to fear their commander before they could cease to fear the enemy. The troops were solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were enclosed within the circle of the Imperial army. Valentinian then ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of indelib.e ignominy on the officers whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were degraded from their rank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence the troops fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the indignation of their sovereign, and protested that if he would indulge them in another trial, they would approve themselves * Ammian. xxvi. 5. Valesius adds a long and good note on the master of the offices. 258 Their defeat. DEFEAT OF THE ALEMANNI. CHAP. XXV not unworthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers. Valen. tinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to their entreaties: the Batavians resumed their arms; and, with their arms, the invincible resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the Alemanni. The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus: and that experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with too much prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking, had the mortification, before the end of the campaign, of seeing his rival Jovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive advantage over the scattered forces of the barbarians. At the head of a well-disciplined army of cavalry, infantry, and light troops, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to Scarponna,90 in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a large division of the Alemanni before they had time to run to their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidence of an easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on the shady banks of the Moselle. Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eye of a general, made his silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were combing their long and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard the sound of the Roman trumpet; they saw the enemy in their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was followed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravest warriors was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries and auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most considerable, camp in the Catalaunian plains, near Châlons in Champagne : the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; and the barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished by the fate of their companions, prepared to encounter in a decisive battle the victorious forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole summer's day, with equal valour and with alternate success. The Romans at length prevailed, with the .oss of about twelve hundred men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant of their host as far as the banks of 69 Ammian. xxvii. 1. Zosimus, 1. iv. [c. 9] p. 208. The disgrace of the Bataviana is suppressed by the contemporary soldier, from a regard for military honour, which could not affect a Greek rhetorician of the succeeding age. 90 See D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 587. The name of the Moselle, which is not specified by Ammianus, is clearly understood by Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, vii. 2). A.D. 368. VALENTINIAN PASSES THE RHINE. July. 259 the Rhine, returned to Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign, and the ensigns of the consulship for the ensuing year.91 The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet, without the knowledge of their indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair, a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated and protected by the Romans;92 and the violation of the laws of humanity and justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the weakness of the declining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom adopted in public councils, as long as they retain any confidence in the power of the sword. fortifies the A.D. 368. While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the Valentinian unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the prin- passes and cipal city of the Upper Germany. In the unsuspicious Rhine, moment of a Christian festival, Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine, entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of captives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on the whole body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most probably on the side of Rhætia. The emperor in person, accompanied by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a formidable army, which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry and infantry of the West. The Alemanni, unable to prevent the devastation of their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty and almost inaccessible mountain in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and resolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and unguarded path. A troop of barbarians suddenly rose from their ambuscade; and the emperor, who vigorously spurred his horse down a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his armour-bearer, and his helmet magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At the signal of the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed and ascended 9. The battles are described by Ammianus (xxvii. 2) and by Zosimus (1. iv. [c. 911 p. 209), who supposes Valentinian to have been present. "Studio solicitante nostrorum, occubuit. Ammian. xxvii. 10. 26C DEFENCE OF THE GALLIC FRONTIER. CHAP. XXV the mountain of Solicinium on three different sides. Every step which they gained increased their ardour, and abated the resistance of the enemy and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the hill, they impetuously urged the barbarians down the northern descent, where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their retreat. After this signal victory Valentinian returned to his winter quarters at Trèves, where he indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games."3 But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany, confined his attention to the important and laborious defence of the Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes of the North.94 The banks of the Rhine, from its source to the straits of the ocean, 93 The expedition of Valentinian is related by Ammianus (xxvii. 10); and celebrated by Ausonius (Mosell. 421, &c.), who foolishly supposes that the Romans were ignorant of the sources of the Danube." 94 Immanis enim natio, jam inde ab incunabulis primis varietate casuum imminuta; ita sæpius adolescit, ut fuisse longis sæculis æstimetur intacta. Ammian. xxviii. 5. The Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vi. p. 370) ascribes the fecundity of the Alemanni to their easy adoption of strangers.b • Ausonius merely says that they are not recorded in Roman history: "Et fontem Latiis ignotum annalibus Istri." -S. "This explanation," says Mr. Malthus, "only removes the difficulty a little "further off. It makes the earth rest "upon the tortoise, but does not tell us "on what the tortoise rests. We may "still ask what northern reservoir sup"plied this incessant stream of daring "adventurers? Montesquieu's solution "of the problem will, I think, hardly "be admitted (Grandeur et Décadence "des Romains, c. 16, p. 187).* ** * The "whole difficulty, however, is at once "removed if we apply to the German "nations, at that time, a fact which is so generally known to have occurred "in America, and suppose that, when "not checked by wars and famine, they "increased at a rate that would double "their numbers in twenty-five or thirty years. The propriety and even the "necessity of applying this rate of increase to the inhabitants of ancient "Germany will strikingly appear from "that most valuable picture of their " manners which has been left us by "Tacitus (Tac. de Mor. Germ. 16 to 20) "*** With these manners, and a habit "of enterprise and emigration, which would naturally remove all fears about "providing for a family, it is difficult to "Conceive a society with a stronger prin"ciple of increase in it, and we see t "once that prolific source of armies and "colonies against which the force of the "Roman empire so long struggled with "difficulty, and under which it ulti"mately sunk. It is not probable that, "for two periods together, or even for 66 one, the population within the con"fines of Germany ever doubled itself "in twenty-five years. Their perpetual 66 wars, the rude state of agriculture, and particularly the very strange custom "adopted by most of the tribes of mark'ing their barriers by extensive deserts, "would prevent any very great actual "increase of numbers. At no one period "could the country be called well peo pled, though it was often redundant "in population. *** Instead of clearing "their forests, draining their swamps, and "rendering their soil fit to support an "extended population, they found it more congenial to their martial habits and impatient dispositions to go in quest of "food, of plunder, or of glory, into "other countries." Malthus on Population, i. p. 128.-G. The course of the Neckar was likewise strongly guarded. The hyperbolical eulogy of Symmachus asserts that the Neckar first became known to the Romans by the conquests and fortifications of Valentinian. Nunc primum victoriis tuis externus fluvius publicat ar. Gaudeat servitute, captivus innotuit. Symm. Orat p 22.-M. |