The poet from the statue of Vesta (112); and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of Rome, had been committed to the flames (113). The pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An honourable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrymen, appears to have contributed to the success of his unworthy rival; and it is the last humiliation of the character of Honorius, that posterity has not condescended to reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his youth, and the support of his empire. Among the train of dependents, whose wealth and dignity atClaudian. tracted the notice of their own times, our curiosity is excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favour of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the Imperial court: he was indebted to the powerful intercession of Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the province of Africa (114); and the statue of Claudian, erected in the forum of Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the Roman sénate (115). After the praises of Stilicho became offensive and criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite characters of two Prætorian præfects of Italy; he contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes resigned the hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with the interested diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in the pursuit of unjust, or sacrilegious, gain. "How 66 happy," continues Claudian, "how happy might it be for the retics and idolaters; and which are still extant in the Code. He only applies to Olympius for their confirmation (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 408. No. 19.). (112). Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad taste of the age, in dressing their statues with such awkward finery. (113) See Rutilius Numatianus (Itinerar. l. ii. 41-60.), to whom religious enthusiasm has dictated some elegant and forcible lines. Stilicho likewise stripped the gold plates from the doors of the Capitol, and read a prophetic sentence which was engraven under them (Zosimus, l. v. p. 352.). These are foolish stories; yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the praise, which Zosimus reluctantly bestows, of his virtues.* (114) At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!) all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts; and the gods themselves enriched their favourite. Claudian had neither flocks, nor herds, nor vines, nor olives. His wealthy bride was heiress to them all. But he carried to Africa a recommendatory letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy (Epist. ii. ad Serenam). (115) Claudian feels the honour like a man who deserved it (in præfat. Bell. Get.). The original inscription, on marble, was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of Pomponius Lætus. The statue of a poet, far superior to Claudian, should have been erected, during his life-time, by the men of letters, his countrymen, and contemporaries. It was a noble design. Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes, Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor. Rutil. Itin. ii. 41.-M.. strongly opposed to the former' imputations of Zosimus himself, and indicative of the corrupt practices of a declining age. "He had never bartered promotion in the army for bribes, nor peculated in the supplies of provisions for the army." 1. v. c. xxxiv.-M. 66 people of Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Ha"drian would always sleep (116)!" The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by this friendly and gentle admonition ; but the cruel vigilance of Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained, from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dictates of prudence rather than of honour, he addressed, in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended præfect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly; submits to the imitation of his adversary, the generous examples of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses his hope, that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and poverty; and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the death of his dearest friends (117). Whatever might be the success of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of a few years levelled in the grave the minister and the poet: but the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in obli (116) See Epigram xxx. Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque : Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius. Hadrian was a Pharian (of Alexandria). See his public life in Godefroy, Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 364. Mallius did not always sleep. He composed some elegant dialogues on the Greek systems of natural philosophy (Claud. in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61-112. (117) See Claudian's first Epistle. Yet, in some places, an air of irony and indignation betrays his secret reluctance.* *M. Beugnot has pointed out one remarkable characteristic of Claudian's poetry and of the times- his extraordinary religious indifference. Here is a poet writing at the actual crisis of the complete triumph of the new religion, the visible extinction of the old if we may so speak, a strictly historical poet, whose works, excepting his Mythological poem on the rape of Proserpine, are confined to temporary subjects, and to the politics of his own eventful day; yet, excepting in one or two small and indifferent pieces, manifestly written by a Christian, and interpolated among his poems, there is no allusion whatever to the great religious strife. No one would know the existence of Christianity at that period of the world, by reading the works of Claudian. His panegyric and his satire preserve the same religious impartiality; award their most lavish praise or their bitterest invective on Christian or Pagan : he insults the fall of Eugenius, and glories in the victories of Theodosius. Under the child, and Honorius never became more than a child, Christianity continued to inflict wounds more and more deadly on expiring Paganism. Are the gods of Olympus agitated with apprehension at the birth of this new enemy? They are introduced as rejoicing at his appearance, and promising long years of glory. The whole pro phetic choir of Paganism, all the oracles throughout the world, are summoned to predict the felicity of his reign. His birth is compared to that of Apollo, but the narrow limits of an island must not confine the new deity ... Non littora nostro Quæ tunc documenta futuri? It vion, while Claudian is read with pleasure in every country which has retained, or acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge, that Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet of sublime or pathetic: to select a verse, that melts the heart, or enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of Claudian, the happy invention, and artificial conduct, of an interesting fable; or the just and lively representation of the characters and situations of real life. For the service of his patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives: and the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the poetical virtues of Claudian. He was endowed with the rare and precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most barren, and of diversifying the most similar, topics: his colouring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and splendid; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious fancy; an easy, and sometimes forcible, expression; and a perpetual flow of harmonious versification. To these commendations, independent of any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit which Claudian derived from the unfavourable circumstances of his birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a native of Egypt (118), who had received the education of a Greek, assumed, in a mature age, the familiar use, and absolute command, of the Latin language (119); soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome (120). (118) National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a Spaniard. But the first Epistle of Claudian proves him a native of Alexandria (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191–202. edit. Ernest.) (119) His first Latin verses were composed during the consulship of Probinus, A. D. 395. Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, Et Latiæ cessit Graia Thalia toga. Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin poet had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus, Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, &c. It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, than of authentic history. (120) Strada (Prolusion v, vi.) allows him to contend with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds, or flowers, which spring too luxuriantly in his Latian soil. CHAPTER XXXI. Invasion of Italy by Alaric.-Manners of the Roman Senate and People. - Rome is thrice besieged, and at length pillaged, by the Goths. Death of Alaric. - The Goths evacuate Italy. - Fall of Constantine. -Gaul and Spain are occupied by the Barbarians. Independence of Britain. the court of September. THE incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often Weakness of assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable Ravenna, correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been A. D. 408, introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius (1). The king of the Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to destroy the formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy as well as in Greece, he had been twice overthrown. Their active and interested hatred laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great Stilicho. The valour of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal, or hereditary, influence over the confederate Barbarians, could recommend him only to the friends of their country, who despised, or detested, the worthless characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of the new favourites, these generals, unworthy as they had shewn themselves of the name of soldiers (2), were promoted to the command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The Gothic prince would have subscribed with pleasure the edict which the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout emperor. Honorius excluded all persons, who were adverse to the Catholic church, from holding any office in the state; obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his religion; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and most skilful officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who had imbibed the opinions of Arianism (3). These measures, so advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and might perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful, whether the Barbarian would have promoted his interest at the expense of the inhuman and absurd cruelty, which was perpetrated by the direction, or at least with the connivance, of the Imperial ministers. The foreign auxiliaries, who had been attached to the person of Stilicho, lamented his death; but the desire of revenge was checked (1) The series of events, from the death of Stilicho, to the arrival of Alaric before Rome, can only be found in Zosimus, l. v. p. 347-350. (2) The expression of Zosimus is strong and lively, καταφρόνησιν ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς πολεμίοις άpxovtas, sufficient to excite the contempt of the enemy.* (3) Eos qui catholicæ secta sunt inimici, intra palatium militare prohibemus. Nullus frobis sit aliqua ratione conjunctus, qui a nobis fide et religione discordat. Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. v. leg. 42. and Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p. 164. This law was applied in the utmost latitude, and rigorously executed. Zosimus, 1. v. p. 364. Alaric marches to A. D. 408, by a natural apprehension for the safety of their wives and children; who were detained as hostages, in the strong cities of Italy, where they had likewise deposited their most valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities of Italy were polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated by such an injury, which might have awakened the tamest and most servile spirit, they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable war, the perfidious nation, that had so basely violated the laws of hospitality. By the imprudent conduct of the ministers of Honorius, the republic lost the assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest soldiers; and the weight of that formidable army, which alone might have determined the event of the war, was transferred from the scale of the Romans into that of the Goths. In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the Gothic Rome, king maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy, whose Oct. &c. seeming changes proceeded from the total want of counsel and design. From his camp, on the confines of Italy, Alaric attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appearance of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho; to whose virtues, when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute of sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the malcontents, who urged the king of the Goths to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he might speciously complain, that the Imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the payment of the four thousand pounds of gold; which had been granted by the Roman senate, either to reward his services, or to appease his fury. His decent firmness was supported by an artful moderation, which con tributed to the success of his designs. He required a fair and reasonable satisfaction; but he gave the strongest assurances, that, as soon as he had obtained it, he would immediately retire. He refused to trust the faith of the Romans, unless Etius and Jason, the sons of two great officers of state, were sent as hostages to his camp: but he offered to deliver, in exchange, several of the noblest youths of the Gothic nation. The modesty of Alaric was interpreted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of his weakness and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a treaty, or to assemble an army; and with a rash confidence, derived only from their ignorance of the extreme danger, irretrievably wasted the decisive moments of peace and war. While they expected, in sullen silence, that the Barbarians should evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid marches, passed the Alps and |
